Battlezone is a launch title for the PSVR and unlike many of the other offerings, is an actual game more than a glorified tech demo. That being said, is this game worth splurging for a VR headset? Let’s find out.
Battlezone is a rebirth of the classic 1980 arcade game of the same name. Like the original, players pilot a tank and shoot down enemy tanks and other vehicles. Gameplay is fairly simplistic, with players moving around levels in first-person, destroying enemies and defending a base.
Outside of the basic tank gameplay, players also get a procedurally generated map every time they start a campaign. On this map, players move from one hex space to the next, with each one typically turning into a short level of “blow up the enemies.” Players can also buy scouts to scan the nearby hexes, in order to know what to expect moving forward. At the far end of each map is a base the player must get to and destroy.
Battlezone also happens to be a roguelike, allowing players to buy upgrades such as new weapons for the tank that last from campaign to campaign. Progress, like how many lives you have bought or how far in the map you get, is reset every time a new campaign is started.
There is also online co-op, with players able to join in campaigns and fight alongside each other. The co-op works well and finding a random match didn’t take too long at all. You can also host private games, so only you and your invited friends are playing. The PSVR’s built-in microphone makes chatting with your partner a breeze as well, even if it did surprise me the first time to hear my ally’s voice coming from seemingly out of nowhere.
While the ability to unlock bigger and better upgrades certainly can be a driving force to keep players jumping from one campaign to the next, the repetitive gameplay hinders the proceedings greatly. It’s fun to make yourself stronger and better at taking down enemies, but not so much when those upgrades are used on the same enemies in the same levels again and again.
Compared to other PSVR experiences that I’ve had so far, Battlezone still is one of the best games available right now. It’s actually a fully formed game, not some shoehorned VR experience in a different game or a boring shooting gallery like many other VR games currently on the market.
That being said, this game doesn’t make me want to go out and get a PSVR headset to play it all the time. I have yet to play a VR game that actually warrants spending the hundreds of dollars to get a setup running. If you have already spent the big bucks on a PSVR, Battlezone should definitely be a game on your radar though.
So what do you think? Are you interested in taking Battlezone for a spin? What other PSVR games have you been playing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
