After three years, Straylight has finally exited Early Access and I just had the chance to check out the final version. At first glance Straylight looks a lot like many other VR games that have you grappling and swinging as the primary mode of travel, but the “Fling Engine” promises so much more and in some respects it delivers. Paragraphs of text hardly do justice to the game mechanics at work, and the video snippets on Steam will definitely excite you until you realize that whoever recorded those is some kind of god. You might get that kind of fluid gameplay after a dozen hours of practice…or more.
Straylight is simple in execution, and you can learn all the basics from the short and useful tutorial before being thrown mercilessly into the main game. Here you’ll find nearly a dozen levels that will require all your skill and patience to navigate, grappling nodes with your Straylight gadgets, two colorful pods that replace your virtual hands. Once you attach to a node you can use your arm movement to propel you forward, up, sideways, or you can furiously move your arm to execute a powerful slingshot toward the targeted nod. That’s it…that’s the game.
Seriously, it’s a lot more challenging than that. The path of nodes is laid out in virtual space like some sort of futuristic DNA model, and you’ll need to swing and slingshot around these twisty paths to reach all the various checkpoints in the level. Once you have passed through all the checkpoints you will then be able to exit that stage and move on to the next. As with any game that relies on complex physics and momentum there is a lot of trial and error as you try to perfect the perfect speed and trajectory to reach either the next node or a checkpoint ring. The game is physically demanding, and you’ll be pumping your arms more than Peter Parker on a heavy crime day. Don’t even think about playing seated, and sadly, if you are playing on a Rift or Vive, you might find the game nearly unplayable.
I know exactly what the designers were trying to do with Straylight, and at times I almost felt the groove they were trying to create for me, but I was constantly fighting the controls; controls you cannot remap. Pulling back on the analog sticks is a poor choice for braking, as it would also alter my course slightly, sometimes enough that I would fail. The ability to look somewhere quickly does not exist short of spinning my entire body around and getting wrapped up in my own cord. The right stick moves your view in 45-degree snaps, but when you are flying past your node at blinding speeds and trying to brake and tap the right stick four times to see behind you it all just falls apart. After being stuck in the very first level for nearly an hour trying to swing past these giant brown “asteroids” I quickly got frustrated and started experimenting with dangerous shortcuts, which proved more entertaining than playing the game the way the designers probably intended.
Thankfully the game also offers a dozen Zen challenges, which is where I recommend you go first when playing. I learned so much more from these relaxing, non-lethal levels. The tutorial might teach you the commands, but the Zen levels will definitely help you develop the skills in using those commands. Straylight is a solo experience, but you do have the ability to unlock Ghosts that let you race against your own best times or try to beat the bronze, silver, and gold Ghosts. There are also 11 hardcore levels for those who master everything else Straylight has to offer, so there is plenty of content to keep you swinging through space for hours.
Straylight has a minimalist design with basic shapes and polygons set against a variety of space scenery, which all helps keep the framerate high and the chance of motion sickness low. As someone who has issues with heights, I was glad these stages took place in the void of space. Physics and gravity are exaggerated, but you still get that sinking feel when you miss your grapple and fly off into space or gently fall into oblivion. The trippy visuals are complemented with a fantastic soundtrack composed by Rob “88bit” Kovacs that fits the theme and action and never gets old.
I’m a bit on the fence about this game. Even at $20 there are quite a few caveats to consider. First, I would say to only play this on a Quest or other wireless VR system. With the lack of fast and accurate camera tracking you’re forced to use body movement to spin and look around in the virtual world, which means you’ll be hogtied with your VR cable after a few minutes. You might get some fun fluid rides like you see in the videos, probably easier to achieve in the Zen levels, but I have experienced nothing like that, especially with the relaxed arm movements that looks like they are swimming through space. Everything is reactionary, frantic, and frankly a bit annoying unless you are a fan of the “die a hundred times until you figure it out” gameplay model.
If Rez and Spider-Man had a baby this might be it…maybe throw in some Yupitergrad. There are some really cool concepts at play here that are only limited by the hardware and the controls. You need better movement, mappable controls, and most of all, a cordless headset. For those who want to put in the time, things will start to come naturally after a few hours. Thankfully, the game is super-comfortable, so putting in those hours won’t make you nauseous, and levels reload in less than a second, which takes the edge off of dying a few thousand times. Straylight is strangely addicting with that one-more-try mentality, and it proves to be a physically exerting workout, at least for your arms and shoulders. It’s a cautious recommendation for a wired VR setup, but if you have a Quest 1 or 2 then go for it. Straylight is a wildly originally concept and a perfect fit for VR.
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