Are you ready to stare down skyscraper-size Behemoths, box your way through Shardfall’s terrors, and power wash a time-traveling DeLorean?
This past month that’s what I’ve been up to thanks to the help of my Meta Quest 3 (and the new Quell immersive fitness system), and I’m here to break down my experience playing them all. Slight spoiler, this month’s VR games and apps were all superb – I highly recommend you pick up at least one of these as soon as you can.
So let’s get into what I thought of Behemoth, Power Wash Simulator and its Back to the Future DLC, and the new Quell game Shardfall. But first, something a little different.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Usually, I reserve this column for games and apps I’ve played at some point in the past few weeks. But after that explosive Summer Games Fest trailer, we need to talk about Arkham Shadow – the VR Batman game coming exclusively to Meta Quest 3.
Ahead of the trailer reveal I had the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Payton – the Studio Director of Camouflaj (the team behind the game) – to find answers to my most burning questions.
Payton revealed that the main villain isn’t Ratcatcher like we expected – instead, he’s merely a follower of the actual big bad, the Rat King. He described the gameplay to me in great detail, calling Arkham Shadow a VR Translation of everything that made Arkham Asylum the smash hit it was – from the exploration to the story and characters to the dynamic combat. Payton also outlined why this game had to be a Meta Quest 3-exclusive.
You can read my full chat with Ryan Payton on Arkham Shadow for a more in-depth look at these topics, but just know that I’m even more hyped for this game than I was already. Its ‘Holiday 2024’ release date can’t come soon enough.
Behemoth
This past month I was lucky enough to try an early demo of Behemoth. The roughly 15-minute slice of the game introduced me to some of the enemies, weapons, puzzles, and monstrosities the game has in store for players.
My victory over the demo’s Behemoth was slightly lessened when I was told the boss was nerfed a little for the experience. However, the team tried to boost my spirits by explaining that’s because players would usually face it after a few hours rather than 10 minutes – so they’d be prepared for a tougher fight. I guess I’ll just have to try the full game so I can prove myself in a full-power rematch – and I can’t wait.
You can think of it as a virtual reality version of Shadow of the Colossus (to be a little reductive). You’re on a quest to hunt and kill massive behemoths that roam the lands, with the boss fights feeling more like action-based puzzles than a typical brawl.
That’s not to say you won’t get your fill of Dark Ages-style duels. As you adventure you’ll face off against many human-sized enemies looking to finish you off before you even have a chance to spy one of the beasts you’re searching for.
Yes, they’re a lot less imposing, but fighting these smaller foes is still challenging and exhilarating thanks to Behemoth’s sandbox approach to combat. You’re given access to a good variety of weapons to whirl around, as well as techniques to string together, like blocking, parrying, and grapple-hook acrobatics, to find interesting ways of decimating your foes.
Alternatively, you can rage out, dealing massively powerful hits for a limited time, and just blow your enemies away.
Speaking to Shawn Kittelsen, Vice President of Creative at Skydance Interactive for Behemoth, after the demo, he explained that after working on The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners the team wanted to basically make the complete opposite of that game.
“The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners has all these dark intimate spaces, and you never know if a Walker is waiting around the corner to grab you. We thought, what if we take our arc of motion physics that players love, our experience designing different weapons and enemy varieties, and apply that to something completely different – an epic fantasy game with wide open arenas.”
When the team considered what enemies players would find in these large spaces the answer was clear, Behemoths. From here the team crafted these antagonistic puzzles for players to best – giving them a few nasty tricks like player responsiveness. This means that rather than simply cycling through attacks these monsters will react to your actions.
This is something I noticed in my demo as my decision to run under the monster to dodge the giant ball and chain it wielded merely resulted in it choosing to kick me instead.
If you’re interested in trying Behemoth when it launches, it’ll be coming to Meta Quest 3, Oculus Quest 2, PSVR 2 and PCVR.
When discussing the power difference between these hardware systems, Kittelsen assured me that while the PS5 and PC-powered experiences will offer better visuals (and a few extra immersion features like PSVR2’s headset rumble) the Quest 2 experience will feel the same in terms of gameplay and with smooth framerate. He added, “It was important that we didn’t leave Quest 2 players behind.”
PowerWash Simulator & Back to the Future DLC
After my experience with Lawn Mowing Simulator, I was a little reluctant to try out another chore sim – my girlfriend even laughed at me when she heard I’d be spending my time doing virtual busywork for a second month in a row. But PowerWash Simulator manages to deliver everything I expected from Lawn Mowing Simulator and more. It’s a cathartic cleaning experience that I’ve been oddly addicted to since downloading it a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, the main game is very simple. With enough patience, and some help from the in-game checklist and dirt viewer, you can wave your cleaning wand over every surface and get the van/house/playground dinosaur looking as good as new with no difficulty. But there’s something meditative about meticulously scrambling over surfaces looking for the last specs of dirt you need to wipe off.
For those of you after more of a challenge, some modes task you with recleaning every level under a time restraint and water restriction, respectively. I’ve given these modes a whirl but feel my cleaning prowess is not yet up to snuff – the water trials are particularly challenging, requiring a level of cleaning precision I currently lack.
To continue my training, PowerWash Simulator offers additional bonus levels. Some are included in the base game, while some licensed locations are available via paid DLC – like the recently released Back to the Future pack.
While it’s not quite the immersive Back To The Future experience fans of the series might have hoped for, if you enjoy what PowerWash Simulator has to offer then these themed levels are a delight. I hope we’ll see more.
Despite my reaction being the reverse of how I felt about Lawn Mowing Simulator, I’ll admit that this monotonous chore sim won’t be for everyone. Trying to compare it to an action-packed hit like Behemoth it seems almost a little boring.
But at the same time, I’ve found PowerWash Simulator to be deceptively moreish. Whenever I try to put it down I want to slip my Meta Quest 3 back on and get straight back to cleaning.
Quell & Shardfall
Okay, so Quell isn’t a Meta Quest 3 game. It’s not even a VR game. But I needed to talk about it here as I feel it’s a great alternative to the VR fitness apps I’ve been talking about since I did my month-long VR workout challenge back in April.
This fitness-first gaming platform offers a lot of what I’ve fallen in love with from VR apps like Supernatural. Rather than working out just for the sake of it (something that can be a struggle for motivation), there’s a gamified element.
In Quell’s case, that’s the enemies you face off against in its first game Shardfall – a high-fantasy adventure. It’s not just an upper-body workout. You also have to jog, sprint, squat and jump your way past obstacles that occupy the space between fights. Because this adventure isn’t in VR, the team’s been able to incorporate these elements without as much risk of the player injuring themselves, or feeling nauseous.
It’s also added resistance bands – with three difficulty levels – which make punching more challenging. When I first tried Quell I was surprised how much more effort I was putting into my shadow boxing.
For a more in-depth look at this new immersive fitness experience, I’d recommend checking out my full feature about my experience with Quell. But TL;DR I’ve really enjoyed using it, even though I had the occasional frustrating issue with the tracker not syncing perfectly with my movements.
If you’ve struggled to get into VR fitness, or more traditional workouts then Quell could be what you’re after. But do think if Quell is definitely for you before you buy it as it is a little pricey at $339 / £299 (it’s, unfortunately, not available in Australia), with a subscription on top that’s $9.99 / £9.90 per month or $79.90 / £79.90 for a year. When it comes to dedicated fitness equipment this isn’t an unreasonable amount, though.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
