Astro Bot Rescue Mission is a PSVR Exclusive, set to release on October 3rd 2018 and to be published by Sony. At Gamescom 2018 I got half an hour hands-on time with the game, and given it’s a first-party title a certain level of production quality is expected.
After focusing more on horror and shooters lately, it’s good that Sony is showing platformers some love on its VR headset. While personally, I’m not the biggest fan of platformers, seeing it in VR is a whole lot more interesting than the 2D counterparts we so often see. You play as a little robot, an “Astro Bot”, and have to solve little puzzles, defeat enemies and even bosses to get through the game world.
What struck me first are the odd controls and lack of on-screen prompts. In one way, that’s really confusing and I had no idea what to do sometimes, but in the long run that is exactly the gameplay I can appreciate and prefer. Too many games takes us by the hand these days with waypoints and tutorials etc. Astro Bot is a refreshing exception, at least the demo was, and you have to figure out for yourself where to go and what to do.
Prior to Gamescom I knew nothing of this game, never even heard of it. I was waiting in line for Blood and Truth and during the wait there was an opening for Astro Bot so I tried it. I did see other people playing it prior, the TV output was visible from other players. On TV the game looked rather childish and simplistic but once the VR goggles are on it’s a whole different game, the immersion changes everything.
The demo started with a platforming section. We had to get a grappling hook and pull down a platform to make a bridge. Figuring out the controls took me a few minutes here. After that we got to kill some enemies (which all die in one hit) and the bridge let to an elevator. There are lots of high-up platforms in this game, so if you’re scared of heights this will be an interesting ride for you. At the top of the elevator there was a boss fight, it was a sort of fire-breathing dragon. It did create fiery shockwaves on the ground which can be jumped over. There’s also a hover mode by holding the jump-button, thus allowing you to hover in the air for a few seconds. The boss could be stunned with the grappling hook and we could then hit his teeth with melee attacks. The same procedure of stunning and hitting his teeth had to be repeated for a few minutes until all his teeth were knocked out. Enemies also spawned during the fight. The types and amount of enemies changed during the fight and the boss used different attack patterns after every tooth he lost.
The boss fights make this game a lot more interesting in my opinion so it’s not just jumping from one platform to the next. Yet at the same time, the bosses do incorporate the platforming you have learned. The general gameplay concept seems to be on the right track, although the combat and one-hit kills are very simplistic. The game has a rating of E for Everyone / PEGI 7 so it’s for all audiences (this also explains the choice of child-friendly enemies and Astro Bots). Particularly for children this game can be a nice present for christmas, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first VR game due to the complex controls and lack of instructions. It’s better after you played a few other VR games.
Also, I encountered no motion sickness during the demos. It’s not first-person which helps combat that. There are fixed camera angles in each area.
Overall, it was an unexpectedly pleasant trip with a genre I normally I have no interest in and if you seek a new VR game, this is a decent candidate to keep an eye on, though probably not the right one for me personally.
VERDICT: Hype Level 6/10
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is one of the more ambitious VR platformers so far and the alteration between platforming and boss fights has merit. Seeing it in VR adds a whole new perspective. If you want to make a child happy, this will be a fine present but it also provides enough of a challenge for grown-ups and experienced VR gamers.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is set to release Octrober 3rd, 2018 and will be published by Sony as a first-party title exclusively on PSVR. The Preview is based on a hands-on sessions from Gamescom.