In the gaming world, secrets are both an expected feature amongst many titles and often one of the hardest things to keep. One might even say that you’d have even go so far as to travel to a Secret Location just to keep them. Well I’ve got a secret that I can finally share as I present my review of one of the coolest VR titles I’ve ever played. Slip into your coolest 80s threads, don those cool shades and chill as I reveal my adventure with Blasters of the Universe: VR Bullet Hell for the PlayStation VR.
When I first got introduced to Blasters of the Universe its name alone peaked interest as it harks back to my favorite decade. While I was born in the early 80s and didn’t really absorb it like those already living in the 80s it’s still the generation that gave birth to some of the best media on the planet and the one I familiarize the most with. Enter Blasters of the Universe, a retro style arcade shooter that literally breathes 80s culture. Enter Allen, an aging arrogant gamer that spent so much of his time crushing kids high scores in the arcades that he “acquired” a VR unit and transported himself to the virtual world.
Here he built his neon empire as self-proclaimed VR god Grandmaster Alwyn where he rules with a digital fist with hordes of minions at his command. You play as a Blaster whose mission is to take back Virtual Reality for Alwyn as you battle across 4 levels filled with enemies in this bullet hell adventure. Yeah you heard right…bullet hell in VR. While there are several first person shooter based VR titles out there right now in varying degrees nothing quite comes close to this first of its kind VR experience.
After hours of playing Blasters of the Universe, I’ve found many but ultimately one chief reason that really sets this title apart from others out there. That comes from the level of crafting that brought several already solid VR mechanics and combined them in probably the most satisfying shoot’em ups that I’ve experienced to date. It’s even surpassed my level of enjoyment that I had with the movement heavy Raw Data. There are several big things that really stuck with me about Blasters of the Universe but largely it came down to the flow of combat and the enemy diversity. Oh and the guns…so many gun options!!
So starting out players first get the excellently well written and voiced backstory before they are deposited into an armory where you actually piece together your first gun. Yeah this isn’t your run of the mill shooter. Here you get to define every aspect of your weapon from its frame to the bullet type to the magazine and beyond. Yeah the weapon customization in this game is beyond extreme. Things don’t stop there as you also get a shield to use. While options are limited at first you will unlock more options as you play. Oh and boy will you play as death will happen…a lot. As you unlock new options you can customize your “really big gun” to find that blend of parts that really fits your style or needs.
Some combinations make it virtually poetic as you dispatch enemies having to worry little about reloading while others are more high damage with the offset of being high risk. The shield is your second best friend next to your weapon and even that has varying options from shields that defect shots back towards their owner to deployable stationary ones that break once enough bullets hit them.
That of course only pertains the bullets that actually come close to hitting your head which is your only weakness. The key to success outside of blowing your enemies to bits with bullets of your very own is by physical movement. In Blasters of the Universe, you will have to duck, dodge and twist to avoid letting your head get hit. This doesn’t just apply to streams of bullet hell fire but also laser beams and melee attacks as well. If you get hit more than five or so times its game over and you have to retry the level over from the very beginning. While your shield is great for avoiding some of the more chaotic moments you will not succeed without moving and keeping an eye on your surroundings as each of the 4 levels is diverse with their own challenges.
By the time you really start to get a hang of Blasters of the Universe’s combat system you’ll start to feel kind of like that French guy in Ocean’s Twelve with the laser hall. Except you’ll have a VR god trash-talking you the whole time while listening to some cool retro tunes. Your body movements only equate to half of the challenge as the rest is up to your aim and your trusty trigger fingers. The other thing that I really enjoyed about Blasters of the Universe is that its accuracy with the wands are quite good if not damn near perfect. This game is definitely meant to be played standing up so make sure you have plenty of room to move about.
The other thing about the gunplay is that I found it remarkably easy to load a clip on configurations that warrant it thanks to the placement of the clip input on the left wand actually being set to the Move button itself. At some point I found myself being able to effortlessly load clips without really looking for the most part. The only thing that would have made that better would have been a haptic feedback in the wands when the clip is close to the virtual gun to let you know that you were actually getting close without looking.
I guess the only really question left is despite all that Blasters of the Universe does right is it worthy of making return trips to. As I mentioned before there are only 4 levels that make up the meat of the game. Each level does come to completion after you defeat a larger than life boss, each with their own mechanics to master. Where Blasters of the Universe gets much of its replay is that if offers players two selectable difficulty choices: Casual and Hell in which to complete each level in before you start them. This doesn’t even include the Endless mode options for each for the truly brave. There is even challenges that take things a step farther that perhaps redefine the meaning of challenging. These are really hard and will constantly update giving new challenges for players to test themselves with preselected loadouts.
Going into Blasters of the Universe, I only knew about as much as a description could give me, but that did not prepare me for what I experienced. Sure the other FPS virtual reality titles that lead the way to knowing what makes a VR shooter really great helped, but Secret Location’s introduction of bullet hell mechanics really knocked this shooter out of the virtual park. The gunplay combined with the movement and bullet hell mechanics is accurate yet fluid and really drives home what is possible with VR. The music, backstory, vocals and aesthetics are awesome making this one of the most memorable and addicting VR titles that I’ve ever experienced since my introduction to virtual reality.
