STARBLOOD ARENA

Spaced-out game show shooter makes VR fun again

Complete 360 degrees of freedom in a shooter for PS VR means there’s only one question you want answering: does Starblood Arena make you want to burble a little bit of sick into your mouth? The answer is, thankfully, no. But wait! Don’t leave, there’s more to this multiplayer shooter than the (crucial) plus point of not making you dribble bile over your DualShock. For a start it’s fun. Brain-fizzing, E-numbers, Star Mix fun. There’s no soul-searching millennial angst, no grand narrative with one eye on a BAFTA. Sat inside my APEX Battle Pod I get a giddy joy out of the simplest of things, like how my oversized cartoon cannons move and track targets with the turn of my head, or how I can customise my dashboard with bobbly gonks.

Once I push and thrust into the first arena – a complex weave of narrow tunnels leading to an open cavern fittingly called Catacombs – the real joy of Starblood Arena kicks in; it just feels good to dodge and weave about in this space. Using the sticks to move, and ouand to skim up and down on the x-axis, offers complete freedom. Primary cannons are on i and missiles on p – targeting is achieved by looking at an enemy and tracking its position.

Getting used to 360-degree freedom in VR takes some adjustment. But once I accept there is no up or down, ground or sky, and a kill is a kill regardless of where I am in this space, Starblood Arena clicks. There’s a nuance to the controls that adds to the fun. Holding o and u enables me to spin the ship; adding thrusting after this move means I can effectively spin around an attacker’s shots and start a counter-strike.

Each Carnage deathmatch boils down to this tug-of-war between me and the seven other players (or bots in singleplayer) as we chase scores and XP. This structural familiarity threatens to dampen my spirits; character classes are easily identified and exotic sci-fi weapons boil down to sniper rifles, shotguns, and cannons. There’s a twitchy rhythm to the combat that starts to feel trite after prolonged play – missiles are tapped away, backed by a steady stream of cannon fire; dodge, weave, respawn.

BACK TO REALITY

What drags Starblood Arena back to reality are the limitations of the genre. It’s an FPS deathmatch with little in the way of a single-player campaign. You’ll be spending all your time battling bots in the offline 10-match Burn Circuit. It’s a good way to get some practice in, and XP rewards mean you can churn through developing each of the nine characters and their ships with new loadouts. Playing as the balanced steampunker Alice, I tweak mine to include

“EFFECTIVELY SPIN AROUND AN ATTACKER’S SHOTS AND START A COUNTER-STRIKE.”

Quicklock, so missiles lockon faster; Amplify for more powerful mines; and Tesla shields that charge faster for 10 seconds. Back in the online fray I start to pick up more wins.

This only serves to cement online deathmatch as Starblood Arena’s standout feature. If you do crave a change of pace then Grid Iron and Invaders offer some team-based fun; the former is 360-degree football, the latter a co-op horde mode.

TOO UNLIMITED

As I put more hours into online matches of Carnage and Team Carnage, the genre limitations that threatened my fun are now making more sense. In a game this fast, where your sense of spatial awareness is being tested at every turn, having some familiar gameplay tropes to hang my gun belt on is a welcome advantage. I know snipers will be found lurking in holes and hidden corners of each map. There are some surprises for me too. For example, players who choose the quirky Toy Story-like aliens Tik Tak Toh have access to a heavy weapon that, for a limited time, reflects shots off their shields and back at the attacker. I make a mental note to avoid these guys when they’re powered-up.

On first glance Starblood Arena is your run-of-themill arcade shooter. But piped through the PS VR headset these gameplay staples are transformed into a frenetic, competitive FPS. One with enough trickery to feel like every match is a step closer to mastering the game, which it does on a settled stomach.

VERDICT

Traditional FPS gameplay is given a new spin with PS VR as the frighteningly fast, wide-eyed fun of flying in 360 degrees is matched by tight controls and a welcome lack of motion sickness. Ian Dean

Motion sickness is reduced with some clever tricks, like using a central HUD to focus on.

FORMAT PS VR ETA OUT NOW PUB SONY DEV WHITEMOON DREAMS

Below Using heavy weapons, such as this laser, can turn losses into wins.

Right Are we up, down, or sideways? Who cares when it’s this much fun?

Above left It’s insanely fast, but slow weapons like grenades can be effective.