KORIX
Tower to the people
PlayStation VR has served up some eclectic experiences in its young life. Games where you cause grievous bodily harm to pieces of fruit. Surviving a rollercoaster ride run by a homicidal clown. A retro RTS where you command adorable troops that look like pieces of Lego. Guess which one I’m about to talk about.
There’s a lovely story behind Korix. This tower defence throwback was developed by Mark Taylor, who quit his job to fulfil his dream of making games… with backing from Sony. His first game is pretty good, too. It’s a little muddled and overly complicated, 1 but there’s some endearing execution on show.
Your goal is to conquer the AI’s base before it can obliterate yours. 2 You send out workers to gather energy, which can be spent on building walls, manning your defences with turrets, or sending out soldiers to attack the enemy’s HQ. There’s a demanding tactical tightrope to tread here. Spend too much on defences, and you won’t be able to amass enough forces to take down the opposition. Go gung-ho, and you leave your base vulnerable to counterattack.
There’s an enjoyable ebb-and-flow to battles when you acclimatise to balancing assets. The start of the campaign is offputting, mind. Korix throws several metric tonnes of info at you, and getting your head around the truncated menus can be perplexing. Thanks to the panned-out view, virtual reality doesn’t add a tremendous amount to the experience, either. As PS VR games go, though, Korix is one of the more cerebrally taxing experiences you can wrap your headset around. There are tactical treats to be had if you can channel your inner Patton.