When Insomniac Made a VR Game | Stormland Review
A Fantastic Multiplayer VR Experience, with a Catch (or two)…
A Fantastic Multiplayer VR Experience, with a Catch (or two)…
Before purchasing the game, I did my usual thing, and scoped out how players felt about Stormland through user reviews across various sites. But even after my cursory reading, on playing the game it was clear that I didn’t quite understand what I was getting into, so I’m glad to write it out in a way that I hope can influence your potential purchase decision.
I’ll lay it out as simply as I can. Insomniac’s Stormland presents you with a gameplay loop that consists of: Exploring, collecting materials, getting into firefights, completing objectives, upgrading your guns, and improving your character. You can feel the heavy influence from traditional RPG’s in this DNA. You’ll follow a loose narrative up through the end of the story… except, it isn’t the end of the game. What you’ve just played has acted as more of a tutorialization of how the rest of the game will be. From here on out, you’ll have 7 REAL LIFE calendar days to do it all over again, with scaling difficulty in an attempt to upgrade your character and guns more, and learn a little more of the game's mystery, before the clock runs out, removing your equipment, scrambling the map, and resetting the timeline. In this way, It’s almost as if this game is a roguelite, but with death and renewal on a fixed, real-life timer.
Which is a cool concept, right? It takes about 5 hours to go through a run of the game, which I argue most VR gamers can work in to your usual schedule in a 7-day period. The short time to complete, and the scrambling of the map, helps shake it up and not seem like such a grind. This, even less so if you’re doing a play through or two with a friend. But still, it is aggravating that you lose all of your upgrades and abilities from the previous run. You do get some minimal kickback as your things are converted to currency, which bankrolls your next run, which is why Stormland is a “roguelite” and not a “roguelike”, but still… I personally do not resonate with how this system is implemented.
Overall, the gameplay loop I found really enjoyable. I enjoyed exploring across the vast open areas, and shooting and looting feels great for a VR game. I’d like to point out that the movement mechanics in particular have been dialed in and feel very responsive, which makes traversing the different worlds immensely satisfying. If you’re not into any of these core gameplay components, it might not be the game for you! Because of the mandatory 7-day “roguelite” reset, where you do lose a real sense of progression, you really need to love the core game to make it feel worth every penny you spent on it. To put it simply, true satisfaction in Stormland comes from all the micro-sized gameplay loops. They’re fun micro-loops, sure, but your enjoyment is almost completely dependent on them, which I know may not be a hit for a lot of players.
Unfortunately, Stormland has not been optimized very well. It’s by far the worse running game for a VR headset that I’ve managed to play, and my computer, while not top-notch, can run Half Life Alyx on mid-graphics settings. The way Stormland runs, makes me feel like I have my headset plugged into a toaster. It’s very disappointing. Beyond that, I have been soft locked a few times, though, the “reload” option in settings fixes the majority of these, so I never had to force quit the game which was nice. Beyond the technical issues, it feels as though the scopes on some of the weapons weren’t completely thought out, with the worst of them feeling awkward to hold in order to aim down sights. Occasionally, the reticle would completely disappear. I’ll chalk it up to optimizations.
Despite how much I love the atmosphere and my first run through the game, I won’t be getting the replayability out of this game that I thought I would. The hard reset in the roguelite nature became too demanding when I have other games I’m interested in getting into. However, I would be more than happy to revisit Stormland to play through a run with a friend, and I plan to return when I upgrade my computer hardware so I can further appreciate the graphics, but as of now, I can’t see myself being pulled back in to complete another loop on my own.
That said, and my gripes aside, I really appreciated Stormland and the experience I had with it. It does many interesting and unique things with the VR gaming medium that made it an experience I won’t forget. While I don’t agree with everything it does, and have perhaps written a little too much on that front, I ultimately recommend it. I had a great time looting, shooting, and maneuvering across the landscapes for the time I gave it. My suggestion is, if you don’t have any replayable VR games in your library, and are looking for a game that will give back as much as you’re willing to invest, I strongly believe that Stormland might just be the perfect game for you to pick up and play next.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.