"Beat Saber" is fun, the key lies in several elements: fast pace, good music, and the gameplay is simple but addictive, its creativity and experience is difficult to replicate. There are also VR rhythm games such as "Audica" on the market, but none of them are as popular as "Beat Saber".
However, "Pistol Whip" developed by Cloudhead Games seems to change this point. This game uses the classic track shooting gameplay and inherits the simple and interesting "Beat Saber" The rhythm element and the visual style similar to "Superhot" make the player feel like a sharpshooter agent in the cool music, which is creative enough.
In addition, a good VR game needs to balance two elements to provide players with complete movement control while allowing them to play in place. "Pistol Whip" is similar to "Beat Saber" or "Astro Bot Rescue" in that it uses clever lens management and fluid scenes, which means that the scene will move around you. You don't need to move, you can move more Focus on the game's shooting, fast-paced and sound effects.
and it is the gesture tracking, physical presence, fast pace/fast reaction and other elements integrated in the game that make "Pistol Whip" fun, and it can give you A kind of satisfaction of experiencing the action movie shootout scene firsthand.
In general, the advantages and disadvantages of "Pistol Whip" can be summarized as follows:
Advantages
Disadvantages
Advantage: Clever level design
After entering the game, the player will stand on top of a virtual electric walking trail, which will take You walk in a psychedelic and distorted environment. In this environment, there are basements, cities celebrating the Day of the Dead, and random bursts of geometric shapes. And in this one, you will see a variety of gunmen constantly pouring out, the timing of their appearance coincides with the rhythm of the background music.
Your task in the game is to kill these gunmen while avoiding bullets. Since the bullets fired by the gunner move at a relatively slow speed, you can see their trajectory to predict and avoid the bullets in advance. The difference with "Beat Saber" is that you only have one gun in your hand. Although it will give you unlimited bullets, you still need to lower the pistol to load the bullets.
As mentioned earlier, "Pistol Whip" supports automatic aiming function, in order not to destroy the coherent experience of the game, and you will see it after you complete a level Own score. Its scoring system is very interesting, if you just randomly design it and don’t follow the rhythm, Then even if you kill the gunner, you can’t get a full score. It may take a few more games to get used to it.
When the gunner finds a way to stand in front of you, you can also directly use the pistol as a blunt weapon to knock them down and get more points.
A big selling point of "Pistol Whip" is its witty level design. Although the game adopts a form where the player does not move and the environment changes rapidly, you are not easy to feel dizzy in it, which also proves that Cloudhead is in VR games. Development strength.
Moreover, in a fast-moving environment, you can also see structures such as cellars that are about to appear in the distance. After getting used to it, you can even predict where the enemy may appear. Just like "Beat Saber", "Pistol Whip" also controls the player's movements through meticulous choreography. The distribution of the level environment will force you to scan quickly, not abrupt, and will not let you find the pattern. .
According to experiencers, "Pistol Whip" is more like a classic 90s arcade shooting game than any current VR game, which reminds him of the feeling of "Dead House".
Disadvantages: the rhythm matching gameplay needs to be optimized.
In some rapid shooting scenes, "Pistol Whip" does not require you to shoot completely Matching the rhythm will also give you a complete score. However, according to experiencers, when he was playing the beta version, he found that it was difficult to match the shooting rhythm with the music regardless of whether it was playing with Valve Index or Oculus Quest, and the game tutorial did not explain how to match the music rhythm. , Get the full score, without even mentioning that you need to shoot according to the rhythm.
Therefore, the experiencer said: I hope that a calibration mechanism can be added to the game in the future, and the rhythm change or visual signal will remind you whether you have matched the music rhythm. It is understood that currently you can choose the vibrating metronome mode to make your handle vibrate according to the rhythm, but when running on Index and Quest, experiencers have found some delays.
At present, "Pistol Whip" is still in the early access stage, so whether it is visually, interactively, or UI may need to be optimized. Experiencers believe that the lack of fonts and animation details of the game makes it look like a hurriedly completed work. This is not like Cloudhead's usual level. After all, they have also developed a gorgeous and detailed VR puzzle game " The Gallery. Of course, considering that Cloudhead is just an independent studio, it may not have as many human resources as a big game company.
The experiencer also said: The Quest version of "Pistol Whip" has not been optimized enough, and the game cannot run smoothly at a refresh rate of 72fps. Taking into account that "Pistol Whip" does not use too many colors and the geometric structure is relatively simple, the optimization of the Quest all-in-one machine also has certain advantages.
Summary
Although still to be optimized, the core content of "Pistol Whip" is still attractive enough, you only need to follow the music and focus on In terms of speed and rhythm, you don't need precise shooting to get an excellent experience (but the score is too low if shooting is too off).
Since "Pistol Whip" as a whole feels like the action scenes in movies such as "Quick Hunter", perhaps adding some storylines, narration, etc. Heighten the atmosphere.
In the game, if you need to swing your head to avoid bullets, you may need to swing your head quickly and repeatedly when the rhythm is relatively fast. This action may cause the user's neck in VRDiscomfort and other issues. Foreign media IGN suggested that you can learn "Superhot", so that players can shoot to block bullets, which can reduce head movement.
In addition, in order to avoid dizziness, "Pistol Whip" relies on relatively high-performance computing, so it is recommended to play in PC VR. The Quest all-in-one version may need some optimization, of course This will not be a big problem after Oculus Link is launched.
In short, "Pistol Whip" has a lot of potential, and may even be called the best VR action game of the year. For veterans of VR games, it is expected to bring you a refreshing experience.
