Play it on: Meta Quest 2/Professional/3 (or the flat model’s on nearly all the things)
Present aim: Starve myself of upgrades till I get the nice weapons
I’m stunned how not often video games function in my VR playtime. Standalone Meta Quest video games, which have sucked the lion’s share of growth {dollars} away from the (for my part) extra thrilling realm of PC-powered VR, ceaselessly strike me as small in scope and unexciting. As a substitute, my killer apps these previous few years have been VRChat and Bigscreen VR. I discover socializing in fantastical user-made worlds and screening obscure flicks with distant buddies properly definitely worth the worth of admission.
However, Claire decreed we have been doing Halloween video games this week, and I’m within the honeymoon interval with a brand new Quest Professional, so I lastly acquired round to beginning Armature Studio’s Meta Quest-only VR model of Capcom’s 2005 traditional Resident Evil 4. Verdict up to now? Fantastic. (The headset’s fairly good, too.)
Resident Evil 4 was the primary sport within the sequence I actually liked, however having not revisited it for the reason that GameCube OG, I’ve been lengthy overdue for a replay. This VR version’s digital actuality you-are-there ingredient affords a newly intimate perspective on Leon S. Kennedy’s iconic journey, heightening each the creepiness and my immersion. It does this so properly that I believe RE4 VR is now ruining me on all of the older “pancake” (2D, flatscreen) variations.
Armature did a tremendous, considerate job changing the 2D sport to VR. Leon’s palms specifically are nice. It feels so cool to seize your pistol off your hip, headshot a goon, drop the gun, pluck a grenade out of your chest, pull the pin together with your different hand, hurl it on the mob, retrieve the shotgun from over your shoulder, pantomime the reload, rack it… When you get used to the motions they change into second nature, making fight frantic and enjoyable in a really recent approach.
Yeah, Leon’s new agility (strafing!) makes the fights simpler; you possibly can flip that off, however it feels dangerous to take action in VR (positively disable the laser sight, although). Given how in a different way it performs, you possibly can principally think about this a completely separate sport. However no sweat. It’s tremendous enjoyable, and I’m discovering it onerous to think about the OG pancake variations feeling fairly as satisfying, now. (Past moddability, the one particular benefit they nonetheless maintain is that Ada Wong’s “Separate Methods” marketing campaign is regrettably lacking right here.)
Resident Evil 4, I’m reminded, is an exquisitely well-designed online game, filled with all the things I really like concerning the medium. It’s proving a pleasure to revisit in VR, and it’s additionally actually neat the way it now runs on a little bit laptop hooked up to my face. If the Quest platform (or VR generally) will get extra video games of this high quality, I would discover myself spending rather less time in VRChat. — Alexandra Corridor
Hey! Pay attention!
A nifty app known as Quest Video games Optimizer makes it straightforward to run RE4 (and a whole bunch of different Quest video games) at significantly increased decision. It’s properly definitely worth the $10 on Quest 2 or Professional, and legit important on Quest 3, being the one method to conveniently benefit from Q3’s further GPU horsepower in older video games.
If you happen to don’t have a Quest, there’s a fairly good fan-made PCVR mod for the latest RE4 remake, and the PS5 model of the remake’s getting official PS VR2 help within the close to future. (Capcom…please bear in mind your PC gamers…)
