THE WALKER
Needs a zimmer frame
Having grown up watching late-night Channel 4 martial arts movies, there’s a lot in this first China-developed PS VR shooter that took me back to those evenings of Mr Vampire and Close Encounters Of The Spooky Kind. Ultimately, however, the only bump in the night was me coming back to Earth with the realisation that this wave shooter fails to impress. Playing as the latest in a long line of exorcists, and supported in your quest by a suit of possessed armour, your mission is simple: kill all the demons plaguing Shanghai.
The action works best with two PS Move controllers. The right swaps between a gun and a sword (called Evilward and Soulslayer respectively); the left accesses your magical buffs. The best mechanic in the game, you hold a mystical charm between two fingers and swipe it across your weapon to activate the power. Electrical energy stalls enemies while ice energy freezes them, the next attack shattering your foe. In the heat of combat it works brilliantly to prevent you becoming overwhelmed, and the simple act of wiping a sword with magic recalls those classic kung fu horror movies, giving The Walker a uniquely Chinese feel.
Likewise, the creatures you face-off against are straight from a Sammo Hung movie. Gremlins scurry down walls and leap from the ceiling, while larger sword-bearing knights lumber at you and archers fire flaming arrows – avoidable by ducking. There’s even a giant that resembles Dwayne Johnson with his head stuck in a barn door. Enemies are odd.
PEST OF A WAVE
While this is fun, and The Walker’s shooting is accurate enough, no matter how tense a wave of demons becomes, it’s still a wave. Unable to free yourself from the spot you’re rooted to and explore the underground platforms and side streets the game begins to feel too restrictive. When you consider there are only five stages, replayed three times over in the main story, it soon becomes repetitive.
There are new weapon sets to unlock after you complete a round of five story missions; the machine pistol livens things up. But considering the final set – a golden gun and sword – forces the bizarre design decision of removing the magical buffs, the game’s best idea, in favour of dual wielding, The Walker ultimately shoots itself in the foot. If only you could have moved it.
An endless Rampage mode is the only reward for perseverance, and even this replays the same five stages.
It’s ironic, given the game’s name, that walking is the one thing you can’t do in the demon-infested streets of China’s largest city. At a time when we have games like To The Top and The Persistence pushing the tech, this release feels archaic. And no amount of magic can fend off that feeling.
VERDICT
“ONE GIANT RESEMBLES DWAYNE JOHNSON WITH HIS HEAD STUCK IN A DOOR.”
The Walker feels like a first-gen PS VR release compared to where devs are now taking the technology. If you can look past the dated design you’ll have some fun. Ian Dean