Recent reviews by Baldrickk

Lots of content, and good puzzles. VR support is a great addition.

So... I played this a bit on launch, did the first two missions.
It was... meh. The Parkour should have been better. It's flawed in many ways, not least, instant acceleration and no velocity requirement needed for wall running, so you end up catapulting yourself off the side of buildings when trying to follow a ledge.
There also isn't a real focus on the parkour - mostly a few jumps between areas to get to the next fight, which is a problem, as the fighting is bland and uninteresting.
Melee sucks. You can't stab with a sword, there's no real impact to hits, and hit detection is very wonky.
Gun handling is non-existant - there's no second hand control for two handed weapons, and reloading is done by shaking the gun, which is also how you move at more than a crawl, so... yeah, you never actually have to even think about it. There's literally no gun interaction besides grabbing it and pulling the trigger.
This wouldn't matter if it were not for almost the entire game being built around it, instead of the movement.

The only other thing that can really be talked about is the collectables, which are used for the (not substantial) weapon upgrades. They're scattered everywhere like candy. It becomes more like a chore to pick them up. If it were ammo, then fine. you pick it up if you need it. But no, there's the need to seek out every single one because it's recorded as part of the level progress, and upgrades are locked behind the points they give you.
Would have been far better with fewer collectables but placed in strategic or "hidden" locations. Somewhere notable where finding them is part of the fun.

So... I played two levels my first time. Then moved on to the remaining levels. And they're all arenas. That's not a single player CAMPAIGN, it's playing quake multiplayer on the N64 with only bots. There's no story here. No progress. The game arbitrarily blocks your guns from working periodically so that you have to resort to melee. There's no running from the enemy, you're just forced to kill them until the game goes "ok, you've killed enough. you can exit the level now"
I'm guessing that they're from the multiplayer component of the base game, and stuck in here so that there's actually some content, because two actual levels isn't enough to call a proper game.

This could have been better. The story that exists isn't really coherent, it forces you into combat instead of playing to its strengths.
It's been out for a year almost, on quest, and still doesn't have basic options like hand based locomotion. We had to wait for this?

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Correction to the above:

There are more levels, you have to move a slider across.
On trying it out today, I found that on playing the first one of these, that glass can't be shot through - it breaks, but bullets just stop. This applies to both your own bullets, and those of the enemy.
Touching a wall while jumping still accelerates you to full speed, whether you want it or not, regardless of your momentum beforehand, so it still has the problem where you're trying to jump up and it throws you off to the side...
Two handed guns still ignore the second hand after being grabbed, and continue to work like giant pistols, and the AR15 you pick up off enemies still has a useless non-sight on it.

It's more I Expect You to Die...

If you liked the first two, you'll love this just as much!

Controller position is off. This makes it impossible to instinctively aim. This is really bad when having the bow drawn causes time to speed up. IF it only went faster while drawing (pulling it back) that would be _fine_ but it's really awkward.

The levels neither have a consistent orientation, nor do they follow you properly. They don't even follow the "next level block" - There is a reason SuperHot VR has the little pyramid - it gets you positioned and oriented correctly in the centre of your playspace. This game does not do that.

If these two things were sorted out, I'd come back to this game, and probably recommend it, at least from what I've seen so far, but these are a bit game-breaking for me.

I've put a decent amount of time into this game... It has a lot to like, but the more you play, the more problems you run into.
My last run ended by an enemy shooting me through what should have been a solid wall. Some walls extend beyond their visual bounds... This happens on the levels that are manually authored too - this last one happened on the first boss level.

Frustrating.

Issues like this happen throughout. Bear traps in the first couple of areas can be just under the ground. Not visible, but will still get you.

Some levels still start with no cover and many enemies right in front of you. Which brings me to the enemies...
They're dumb. Literally. They don't "act" like they're smart. They don't take cover, or move to flank you... one class of enemy runs up into your face which _kinda_ counts?
But once aware of you, they always remain aware of you.
The game calls itself a "tactical" shooter, but enemies know where you are once they are aware of you, whether you get to long range, or get behind cover. They will shoot at you when you're behind cover, so when you pop out, bullets can already be in the air waiting for you to move into their path. Magic has a maximum range, and they will shoot at you while you are outside of this range.

A lot of the cards - the rouguelike element - are pretty pointless to get. Even if they are useful in some situations, they then don't work in all the rest. So really, the only ones that are worth getting are the ones that do bonus damage - they're the only ones that work on the bosses, and in all use cases.
But half of those only work on the first shot after getting a kill, unlike the other half of the damage cards. Which makes them only a fraction as useful, and again, not worth using because, again, they don't work on the bosses. Which means that it's pointless getting any card that does anything "interesting", and just getting damage ones, half of which are also pointless. sigh.

This could be a good game, but it is being let down, and that makes it frustrating to play, rather than fun.

On first glance, this seems like a very basic title. You jump between platforms to get to the goal. But you also do that in Mario, Super Meatboy etc. What matters is everything else, how you get there, the journey and the obstacles you overcome on the way.
And ArcSine delivers.

Once you get past the introductory levels, you're presented with a vast amount of levels and mechanics, which lead to both fast flowing gameplay and some trickier puzzles to work your way through. The movement is both smooth and precise, with an added timing factor that can really boost your progress if you get it right.

There's no story, no narrative, but what that means is that the focus is on interesting levels that can sometimes really challenge you to look at them in a different way, and really learn the locomotion systems.
Each new section of the game brings new mechanics that really keep the gameplay fresh as you progress through the many levels.

Damn, this is a fun game.

More of a tactical strategy game, than feeling like you're really in control of your flagship, but if you want that, it's brilliant.

When you start to mix in voice commands too, on top of the different gesture inputs, for being on the bridge or in the map, you realise how flexible it makes you in that command role.

I still really need to explore this more, but damn is it tense! This is great.

For a long time, this has been the best Co-op shooter to play with friends.

Recently got to test out the PvP with JoinUsInVR and some other friends, including iSTOCK. While this was a preview and still needs a little work at the time of writing, it's a worthy addition to the game.

This is an early access game, with currently limited playable content. The price may be a bit high for what you get currently, but there are two additional levels coming soon, on top of the current one (which is split into multiple chapters). I would hope that there is a little more additional content to be added in the future, if the price is increased on release too.

Currently what you get is an early access title which comes with its fair share of minor issues - I encountered no critical problems, and I am sure that it will see refinement before release. However it shows promise, and while none of the puzzles on the first set of rooms will really tax your brainpower, solving them with friends is great fun, and looks to be very approachable for family gaming.

Played with people from JoinUsInVr and it was a good fun, if currently short experience.