PlayStation VR Worlds is a launch game for the PlayStation VR. It is compiled of five different experiences and is designed as a showcase for the hardware. Therefore it is more of a tech demo than a fully fledged game.
Ocean Descent is the mode that is most suitable for players prone to motion sickness. It is a passive experience where your only interaction is to look around. As hinted in the title, it’s an underwater experience and there are three dives to select from.
The first dive is the Shark Encounter. You dive down in a cage, checking out the wildlife and eventually meeting a shark. As expected, it is not all fun and games as the shark is huge and aggressive. There was a lot of potential for it to be a tense experience and while it tried, it doesn’t quite succeed. The experience is only around fifteen minutes long.
The second dive, Wildlife Tour, is quite a disappointing experience if you have already played the Shark Encounter. This is because it is exactly the same as the beginning of Shark Encounter, just without the commentary. It ends all too quickly at only around four minutes of time. The last dive is Coral Reef and once again it is also a subset of Shark Encounter. You are basically static in the cage and look around at the coral reef. It takes only around one minute before it finishes.
The second experience is Danger Ball which is like ping pong. The difference is that you use your head to move the “paddle”. You hit the neon glowing ball and try to get past your opponent to score a point. Depending on the angle that you hit the ball it, you can cause the ball to spin or have it bounce against the sides of the arena. It can get fast paced and frantic once your opponent starts hitting the ball quickly back against you. While simple, it is a lot of fun.
Danger Ball has three modes to choose from. Tournament puts you through six rounds of randomly selected opponents. You win a round when you score five points. Quick Play is a single round against various opponents. Each opponent has a unique quirk. This could be that they do fast powerful shots, or specializes in curve balls, or even hold onto shots before firing it back. It gives it some variety and you can select from three difficulties to practice on.
The final mode is Score Attack where you try and last as long as you can while aiming the ball to hit points targets. You get three lives and the goal is to get a high score. There is an online leaderboard to see how you go.
The next experience is VR Luge, which is akin to a racing game. However, you play as someone lying down on a street luge sled and you race down the street. You steer by tilting your head and it works well. Unfortunately, and this is most likely due to the distance that you have to see in front of you, but the graphics are noticeably sub-par and blurry. That being said, it feels good as you go over hills and you do feel the exhilarating feeling of slipping right between cars and trucks. It can be disorientating if you hit the sides and then get bounced around.
The experience has two modes. The first one is VR Luge Tour and you go through four tracks in succession. There is a time limit in each and you gain additional time when passing through checkpoints and completing the course. You have to avoid obstacles and vehicles; otherwise it’ll slow you down when the time limit is already tight.
The second mode is a time trial mode where you select one of the four courses and beat it in the fastest time that you can. The four tracks are similar but diverges a bit and has separate themes. One track will have construction objects falling onto the road while another might have a minor rock slide.
The London Heist experience is most definitely the highlight of the game and the best one that shows off the potential of VR. It is a first person shooter in which you are a mobster sent to steal a diamond. While you can use the DualShock 4, it is much better with two PlayStation Move controllers. Each controller controls one hand, shooting as well as reloading feels natural.
You use the trigger to grab stuff, and the controller to aim and shoot. You reload using your other hand but it can be annoying in the heat of things and your gun runs out of ammo. Most of the game has you standing or sitting still but there is a car chase scene which can invoke some motion sickness. It is heaps of fun and the biggest negative is how short it is.
There is a short puzzle section, two gunfights and then it’s the ending, it doesn’t even take up an hour. If you are not great at aiming, there are two difficulties, including one where you cannot die which is great for those who just want to have fun.
In addition to the story mode of London Heist, there are four gun ranges that you can practice your skills on, including dual wielding. Each gun range last a few minutes and you aim for high scores.
The last experience in the game is Scavenger’s Odyssey. In it, you are the pilot of an alien mech suit. It is set in space while you explore the asteroids, shooting at alien bugs and jumping from place to place. Your mech suit has various abilities including machine guns, a plasma tether, and the ability to jump great distances.
As you control the movement of the mech, this is the mode that will most likely give you motion sickness immediately. Once the jumping starts, it gets harder and harder to sit through. It has a great atmosphere and setting but it is definitely not for everyone. It takes around an hour to finish… if you can stomach it for that long.
Overall, PlayStation VR Worlds was initially priced a bit too high for around five to six hours of game-play. It is great as a demo and checking out the different VR game-play and what you can stomach with. London Heist is definitely the highlight of the game, and considering how often the game goes on a deep sale nowadays, it is worthwhile for that alone.
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