WORLDS AT WAR (Monitors & VR)

Now THIS is what I have been waiting for to play in VR! Really an entertaining arcade-style combat flight game with beautiful graphics, immersive flying experience and challenging gameplay. I made a first-look video of my early pre-release gameplay, so if you want to see it in action without reading, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX3qJDWNLWo Short Review of pre-release version (will update it soon after playing this first public version): Despite being a big VR Flight Simulator fan, and being used to advanced flight sims for years even long before VR, I can admit I really enjoy this kind of VR arcade flight genre. Worlds At War is really that VR game I have been waiting for. Just jump right into the action, pick a vehicle and enjoy flying around doing dogfight combat against an alien spaceship invasion. Fly military aircrafts, helicopters or even just jump into a military boat. It may sound simple and silly, but in VR it just feels so right! Graphics & Performance First off, the graphics are really great looking. The environment feels quite realistic, and the aircraft's and spaceships looks polished and detailed. Even the ocean feels "alive". The developer has obviously put a lot of work into the graphics and I think thats a good decision, because thats one of the main reasons this arcade game feels so good in VR. You have 2 different views while flying, a first person in-cockpit view and a 3rd person view. Both works great but I prefer cockpit view. The cockpits are VERY detailed, all gauges are working and it almost gives you a feeling of a real flight simulator. You have several graphical settings to chose from, including in-game super-sampling (resolution scale) as well as post-processing, bloom and shadow detail. For best possible sharpness and clarity, I would recommend having the resolution at at least 160-180. Performance was great in the pre-release version, and my GTX 1080 Ti could handle max settings without any problems with perfect frame-rate. Sounds Sound effects as well as the music is pleasing and fits the gameplay, and especially the radio chat in the background adds a lot to the immersion and "feeling" of being in a war-zone. Gameplay In the pre-release I only played one mission where my mission was to defend my carrier ship, and its all about getting the highest score staying alive as long as possible and taking down as many space ships as possible. You may call it simple, but I can promise you its much more entertaining than any other wave-based VR game Ive played for a long time. You start off as a soldier on a carrier, you walk freely around (free locomotion) and you can jump into 3 different vehicles (in the pre-release version at least), an A-10 airplane, Apache Helicopter or a military boat. More vehicles will probably be added later on with updates. Anyway, all these 3 vehicles are quite different, with different weapons and the aircraft is probably the most challenging of them all to maneuver. During the action, you can pick up randomly placed power ups such as new weapons (missiles etc), health, repair, extra vehicles and others. If you crash or get killed in action, you are back on the carrier and can chose a different vehicle. Controls I only played the game with an X-Box One gamepad, but you can also play with a joystick or mouse and keyboard. Controlling the vehicles feels quite solid, but I would recommend to turn off control assistant in the game options (I forgot to do that in the gameplay video above) because the assistant makes it more difficult to make turns and fast 180's with especially the airplane. You cant expect much realism from a arcade combat flight game, but still, I never felt that the physics or controls was unrealistic or poor. It just feels a bit simplified - just as expected in an arcade game like this. Aiming is a bit more difficult, especially using the guns with the airplane could be almost frustrating in the beginning, but this also gives you a learning curve and more gameplay hours to really master the weapon mechanics. Motion Sickness? None at all, but I have been playing in VR for 2 years now, so Im quite used to it by now. Value For the current low price, its really worth a try I think. If you are a fan of combat flight sims and games, and enjoy good graphics and immersion in VR, I'm sure you will have fun playing it! This short review will be updated soon!

It's about time I left a review for this... This game isn't perfect, it has some flaws. Menu and ground movement controls aren't the best, but I looked past them I found some of the most awe inspiring moments I have experienced so far in VR. This game is awesome, literally. I have a lot of VR games, but few installed at one time. This game has been part of my installed library since purchase , and will not be uninstalled any time soon. The dev, MuddyPixel, is constantly adding new features, extra levels and content, and listening to the community to correct any major bugs or add things that people actually want. Each time I come back to play this, it has been improved upon, I can't commend the dev enough. Please keep it up because I really do think this is heading to be one of the base games in VR, and one I will return to time and time again.

**NOTE - The Jan 2020 update destroyed this game and I will have to retract my review - the planes dont fly the same - and suffer from a terminal G force that cant be pulled out of, sadly the helicopter also suffers the same fate. This WAS a game I really enjoyed and championed, unique in VR, but since the update, its been basically unplayble. This game is absolutely what VR is made for. Jaw Dropping. You cannot get this experience anywhere else, and I'm shocked this game isnt more widely known about. 3 modern vehicles of war, Massive scale to the combat arena, Massive scale to the enemies, rendering VFX that suit the situations and are movie quality, on going day and night cycle during battles which adds so much with the lighting changes and the over all vibe. Its beyond my wildest dreams, and I had no idea this game was out here waiting to be found, a total gem. Not only is it a cool and detailed flight sim, its rendering and effects blow away 99% of the other games I've played, the clouds alone should win an award, and no other VR flight game has delivered the shear awe inspired moments of VR bliss as this one has, not even close, and for the money, its a total steal and for sure my Go To game when I need a rush. IF you own a VR HMD, you need to have this game in your collection, just outstanding, I plugged in an XboxOne controller and I was instantly good to go. Worlds at War is in my VR top 5 games of all time thus far. Mr Nobodys stamp of approval. 9/10

Abandon-ware

Tons of potential. The scale of the battlefronts is pretty epic. Really rough, needs a massive amount of work. I am happy to support that process with my early access purchase. The funniest thing at the moment, is getting my HOTAS rigged for flight, and then having to use the same bindings for a jet, a chopper, a boat and even WALKING around the carrier. If they can polish what they are attempting to do, it will be amazing. Flight physics still feels a bit floaty. Oddly I think well refined controller support would be a perfect for this. Keep up the good work dev.

meh gameplay, crappy controller bindings, couldn't use controller as it made me roll left no matter what I was doing. HOTAS doesn't work, all round bad game

Unplayable in VR at the current stage (June 2020). The graphics surely look nice in VR. But setting the game up is neigh-on impossible. You need to squint to read a tiny config screen, and then drag a slider while holding the mouse button to select the appropriate HID device attribute (e.g. Generic USB Axis 1" - and you better know which is which because it lists all possible axes as defined by Windows, i.e. 0-6 even if your joystick only has 2). So, move your head right to move the slider, but keep eyes on the tiny left text, and remember which axis corresponds to what on your Joystick. Fun. Then enter cockpit (training: take off), try to fly and see if you got the correct device / axis combo. I tried to set up my throttle, and 20 minutes later gave up - I had finally hit the right axis/device combo (it was axis 5 on my usb generic throttle), but it needed to be reversed. There is no such option - and the A-10 reverse-thrusted off the runway. Yeah. The game may be great, but I'm not prepared to to subject myself to this user-hostile interface. I'll attempt to refund and perhaps try again in a year or two.

Buggy, problematic controls & configuration, unbalanced, nonsensical, lacking, abandonware. It seems the dev took the money and ran. The price, even on sale, is too much. Buy ACE Combat 7 instead.

Development discontinued, no support, not a whole lot to do.

Really promising graphics, pleased and excited when I first saw the aircraft and its surroundings; then I attempted to fly the plane. Well, attempted to do anything really, you just cannot! Hopeless controls that don't begin to be remotely intuitive - at least on the Valve Index, though to be fair that's hardly an uncommon story. Thankfully it didn't cost much, and now I can see why. If you use a Valve, avoid this.