PIXEL GEAR
Has its sights set low
When the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear launched, both VR headsets were besieged with a host of ‘shooting gallery’ games where you stand in one spot and blast waves of enemies. Pixel Gear is exactly that – but to be fair it does have one or two things going for it.
Clutching a single PS Move controller, 1 you’re placed in one of three heavily-Minecraft-inspired environments and must take out six waves of enemies, preferably while keeping a combo going by shooting the blocky bandits in quick succession.
This is made possible by surprisingly accurate PS Move tracking: indeed, I’d probably say it even tracks the PS Move better than any other PlayStation VR launch game. This makes aiming your gun’s laser target at enemies hugely satisfying, letting you knock a goblin’s helmet off his head from miles away with relative ease.
Better yet, Pixel Gear performs a clever trick with an unlockable sniper rifle that you have to hold up to your face to use (amazingly, the scope only works if you close one eye) 2 and its screen-filling bosses are visually impressive too, even if beating them can be a slightly tedious affair.
Ultimately, though, Pixel Gear doesn’t shoot nearly far enough to justify the price tag. The three six-wave stages can be cleared in an hour, meaning all that’s left for you to do is try again on harder difficulty levels in an attempt to get a higher score.
At this early stage in PS VR’s life, it’s inevitable that some games feel more like tech demos than fully fleshedout titles. What Pixel Gear does is accomplished, but it isn’t satisfying enough to make you hit reload. Chris Scullion