Ember Souls

Ember Souls is a VR action adventure game by VirtualAge that caught my interest because it looked like Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed. The main selling point of the game was parkour in VR and I was interested in trying that out in a different game than Assassin's Creed.

You, as the player, are the last immortal, the only person that can wield all Ember Stones that grant unthinkable powers. To gain their powers one needs to find them first as they are scattered around in a Persian looking palace. The palace being also the home of a Shadow Sultan that you are meant to beat and save the inhabitants. The palace is a maze to be explored by parkour-style movement, there are traps like you'd expect from Prince of Persia, and some enemies wander around.

In the opening scene we are on a boat arriving at the palace. Upon reaching the palace gate, we find out the gate won't open. A blue falcon enters the scene and tells us that that we need to climb over the wall and sneak into the palace. That is where our adventure begins and pretty much that is all the story we get.

Primary gameplay element is parkour. The player can climb, wall run, jump, swing between poles/chandeliers or slide down tapestries/ropes. You can view the rooms in palace as puzzles that the player needs to navigate using this parkour-style movement. Unfortunately there is one set path so there is not much freedom of movement. It starts with very easy tutorial-like areas but the deeper we get the harder is to navigate the rooms.

The controls are good but the behavior of highlighting the next grabbing point and actually grabbing it does not always behave the same. One can easily miss and die and start over again.

Ember stones that we collect give us two abilities that can be used in combat or in our platforming adventure. The first abilities we get is air push that can destroy items or hit enemies. The second ability doubles as a grappling hook. Water stone will give us the ability to freeze water, Fire stone can help us burn stuff and Earth stone will gives us the power to produce our own vines that we can scale. These powers seems underwhelming and mostly not needed. When we get too creative using these powers the game will not allow us to continue as there is a certain path we are supposed to follow or we get completely stuck in the environment.

The protagonists presence in the palace does not go unseen. Enemies guard the palace and for that there is a simple combat system. It's more of a hack and slash, nothing more to it. While Ember stone abilities can make it more interesting, there is mostly no need to use special abilities or different weapons which leaves us with bland combat. Boss battles are a different story. Since they require you to do something specific but the combat is not fully functional, it can become very frustrating or boring to beat the boss (I was also losing weapons mid-combat which made it even more frustrating).

Enemies leave behind coins that can be collected and new weapons or armor can be bought. Nonetheless the weapons don't have abilities (except one weapon) and the armor is also not worth the money that is scarce. For me, as a long time RPG player, the new items or upgraded abilities are not enticing.

Ember Souls's atmosphere is definitely a strong point. The palace is very nicely looking place even though it gets repetitive after few hours of play. One can stop and enjoy the surroundings, feel immersed for a bit.

Soundtrack and sound design are nice. The voice acting even in its current non-AI form is not good and can break the immersion for many.

The game offers a campaign mode with the main story described above, sandbox mode and raid mode. Raids are procedurally generated maps that you can try to run through as fast as you can. They also contain treasures where rare items can be found. In sandbox mode you can test the combat.

Ember Souls is visually beautiful but also technically ambitious project that wants us to experience a smooth parkour-style movement, little bit of exploration, puzzles, and combat. Unfortunately the game is not that well executed and probably needed a longer development period. Considering the game was nearly unplayable before launch and very buggy after release, the developers did managed to fix many things and listened to the players' feedback.

This game can be fun for those who want to become masters running through raids but if platforming is not your cup of tea I would not recommend this game.

And don't forget to pet the spirit bird, he purrs.

Out of Sight VR

Out of Sight is an atmospheric horror puzzle game developed by The Gang. The game is getting a VR version thanks to Flat2VR Studios and that is the version of the game I played.

In Out of the Sight VR the player finds themselves embodying a teddy bear belonging to a blind girl, Sophie. Through the teddy bear's eyes she can see again and it is up to us to guide her through a dreadful manor full of rooms filled with environmental puzzles. While Sophie tries to escape the mansion, she is being searched for by others. She needs to occasionally hide from them and there are, as expected from a horror game, chase scenes. During the whole few hours long adventure, the player and Sophie will learn about the secrets and happenings in the mansion.

When Sophie holds her teddy bear she can only walk around. The teddy bear can be placed on pink pillows from which the player can see the room from the second-person perspective. This allows the player to do more than just walk - Sophie can pull levers, drag or push items, climb furniture, grab items, open locks etc. These actions are needed to solve the puzzles.

Out of Sight is a very atmospheric horror game with great sound design and graphics. It evokes emotions, fear and relief being one of the strongest ones. The game tells a story via both dialogue and environmental aspects that can cause psychological discomfort which is often followed by disturbing emotions making us ponder what is real and what is not.

Out of Sight VR is another groundbreaking game that shows well how VR can be used. It offers us a dual perspective eerie experience that will makes us explore our own emotions.

Final Fury

Final Fury is a long awaited 1-on-1 fighting game from Kluge Interactive. The developers are known for their music game - Synth Riders - that has become a hit. This game features a Force mode where one instead of touching colored orbs with precision one needs to use force (speed) to hit them. This alone could be used in a combat focused game but Final Fury is completely different beast. It is an unique game and if developed well it could become another hit.

When I talk about a fighting game, I mean a game like Street Fighter, Tekken or Mortal Kombat. It may feel like an impossible feat to do in VR. Nonetheless after playing a bit of the early access I can see that there most likely is a way to bring some of the fighting game experience to VR.

As one would expect, the game can be played solo against AI or against another player via online matching.

After picking a character the game will put the player in an arena where they will first see each character enter with little intro, Tekken or Soul Calibur style. Then they will embody the chosen character and fight.

The player can moves along 2 axes using thumbsticks, there's no possibility to jump or duck which feels very limiting. The movement along those two axes always keeps the player directly facing their opponent.

Moves one can perform are triggered by an actual move. For a punch one needs to simply punch forward, for a throw one needs to reach forward and hug the air, for a block one needs to lift both fists and have them in front of their face. Special moves are also triggered by a different motion each. When throwing an opponent the player is moved away and up in the air to oversee the throw - this prevents motion sickness but can feel very awkward.

There are 6 playable characters (one being an unlock) and each of them has two special attacks. Each character is different and has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, one character is slow, doesn't have much reach but is very strong. One character is fairly swift, both attacks have mid to long reach but she lacks raw power. Another one can shoot homing missiles and land timed mines which are both bad for short range. These differences can create favorable and unfavorable matchup.

One notable thing is about distance, even short range attacks are done from fairly far away from the character model. The basic punches are actually ranged attacks. It also makes grabbing a bit more awkward as it happens from a distance one would not be able to grab. The notion of distance than becomes a bit distorted but this will become something each player will need to learn.

The game couldn't be called a fighting game if timing wouldn't be important. I was surprised to see that having a good timing makes a difference in winning or losing (or being hit) and that alone gives me hope that this game can become functionally a fighting game.

Visually the game looks great. Vibrant colors and stylish graphics fit well with fast paced combat. Soundtrack is full of energy and brings up the tempo.

I believe that Final Fury can introduce VR gamers to a new game genre while providing little bit of workout. Will Kluge Interactive manage to set a foundation for fighting games in VR?