Unfortunately, as many thought, the mass amount of PSVR games at launch has not been added to as stock shortage and the lack of profit for developers on the system bite. One advantage is lesser games can now get a chance to shine in this very unique platform. Pixel Gear is one such game.
A simple wave-based shooter, Pixel gear has one of the best shooting engines in a game. It feels almost pixel perfect already and you can really line up accurate headshots and more at the colourful range of characters coming towards you. There are skeleton soldiers, bats with pumpkin bombs, trolls and what looks like Shrek with a huge shield all stumbling towards your very realistic arsenal of four weapons.
You have a heavy calibre pistol, a submachine gun, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher. All of these are realised superbly in a strange cartoon world. Playing the game made me feel like I was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Here with all these small cartoon or pixel generated enemies coming towards me, I pull out a gun that wouldn’t look out of place in Blade Runner and let rip at them. Things get even more surreal when you use the machine gun or sniper rifle. The Machine gun lets you blast hundreds of rounds at these cute characters until they drop. The sniper rifle is even better, it floats in front of you as you wave your move controller, but the scope is visible. At first, I thought there was some button that might snap me into the zoomed in view, but then like a lot of VR games, practicality and common sense kick in and I moved my eye closer to the scope. Moments like this really make you feel like the future is here. Unfortunately, the sniper rifle plays like a shaky version of the old Silent Scope arcade game so it is best to stick with the other three weapons where possible.
Waves continue and there are bonus shooting galleries at the end where you either shoot ghosts or angels. If you shoot the floating angels you lose points. Points then equate to coins that can first purchase new weapons and secondly upgrade them. Upgrading comes in handy as before long bosses come into play. The first can only be described as a massive faceless witch, that looks like the black spy from Spy vs Spy.
In all this is a fun VR experience lifted above average by excellent pixel perfect shooting mechanics. Definitely, one for your partners and guests to the house to play. At the sub £5 I picked it up for it is a nice alternative to the London Heist and other more serious VR shooters.
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