I’ve never been much forVRgames, because they always seemed more ambitious than the technology could actually pull off. Or rather, I’ve always wanted them to be something they’re not. I’ve dabbled in games with spatial components in the past, which I see as early progenitors of the genre. I owned an Xbox Kinect when the technology was first released, and played alotof Dance Central as a kid.
I also own thePSVRbecause my younger brother very thoughtfully purchased it for me as a birthday present, though due to a lack of a strong game library I mostly playedBeat Saberbefore retiring it to a cupboard somewhere. It wasn’t a strong introduction to the genre, and I’ve never owned aMeta Questheadset or bothered to shell out for thePS VR2– the technology simply isn’t impressive for me to bother. As more VR games come out that catch my interest, though, it’s starting to become more appealing to me.
I think the VR games that players crave are far more advanced than technology is capable of creating right now. At the very least, I know what I want isn’t anywhere near feasible at this time. My perfect VR game is a Star Wars game, hooked up to an omni-directional VR treadmill so I can play with the limited space in my home. I imagine a story likeKnights of the Old Republic’sorStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s, and I’ll be able to carry out actual sword fighting with my lightsaber against responsive, intelligent enemies, and use force powers with gestures instead of by pressing buttons on a controller in my hand. My perfect VR game mimics reality to an extent we simply aren’t at yet, especially not at a commercial level – I’m more likely to see it in Black Mirror than in storefronts any time in the next ten years.
But there’s something about Legendary Tales that makes me feel like we’re getting closer to the game I want. That platonic ideal that combines weighty, complex swordplay with enemies that fight like real people might. Judging from the footage shown at Wednesday’sState of Playalone, Legendary Tales puts you in a setting somewhat reminiscent ofSkyrim(a big plus in my eyes) and gives you a variety of weapons to play with, which presumably all feel very different from each other.
There’s spellcasting, you can play with friends, you can lop skulls off of skeletons and use them to whack other enemies, you can throw your shield and have it bounce between enemies before returning to you a la Captain America, and you can even forge your own weapons. It has that old-school Skyrim vibe that I’ve missed, and what seems to be an impressing tactility to its mechanics. The fights look frenetic and the environments highly interactive. Iwant it.
Never in my life have I seen a VR game and thought, ‘my god, that looks like it’d actually be fun’, and it seems to have the mechanics I’ve always wanted but never got in one single game. I might actually consider getting a PS VR2 now, just so I can smash some skeletons into smithereens with their own skulls. Only time will tell if it’s really as fun as it looks, but for the first time, I’m optimistic.
