First person shooters come out damn good in VR. It is not a hypothesis, it is pure truth, if a game puts guns in our hands, in virtual reality they have a sublime yield. On the contrary, it is difficult to imagine a title where with a sword and shield we are faced with a dragon. The motivation is simple: by shooting, we can kill enemies while standing. Bravo Team, the new game from Supermassive Games, wants to exploit this dynamic and at the same time focus on a feature of VR that is little used to date: multiplayer.
All the president's men
Do not expect the new game with a pressing plot, as Bravo Team does not want to tell us a story: on the contrary, it uses the plot only as a glue to make us shoot at as many villains as possible during our journey. The game features a dynamic of coverage fused with the much-loved teleporters VR: by aiming at specific areas, we will be able to send our character behind that cover. No free movement then, which is a great shame.
In the game we will play the role of a soldier of the Bravo team: during the escort of the president to a safe zone, his kidnapping will force the protagonist and his partner to make their way in a city under guerrilla warfare, exploiting only their work of pair.
The work of the couple is in fact substantial within the game: you can choose to have your partner controlled by an AI, an online friend or any online player. In the first case, nothing striking: you will give commands to your ally, and he will follow them almost to the letter, making you have fun inside one shooter which is very reminiscent of a Time Crisis in VR. In the other two cases, however, the title shows its maximum potential, making you create a harmony with your colleague, necessary to complete the path.
An arsenal… tiny
The weapons you will have at your disposal will be a silenced pistol with infinite bullets and an assault rifle: for the latter you will find crates of ammunition around, capable of reloading the weapon (otherwise you will be forced to use the supplied gun). Nothing objects miscellaneous: you just have to shoot, shoot and shoot, exiting and entering your momentary cover. In case you are mortally wounded, you will have to resist until your partner comes to save you (you can, however, shoot with the gun, without being able to turn around).
Technically Bravo Team does something exceptional: manages to render the texture of land and superb walls, to then exploit them in locations that are always the same. Or he can give enemies excellent AI, only to see them dumbfounded. Certainly a bit of finishing work would have helped, but all in all this does not spoil the gaming experience, which instead aims only to offer a fun and frenetic gunplay.
Le variants of the guerrillas you will face will be only three: they will differ from the weapons and equipment worn, making them more or less difficult to beat. Remember, the real enemy will not be the single soldier, but the exaggerated amount of opponents that will present itself in front of you. The roofing system is interesting, which will always provide you with different and variable shelters. Covering yourself behind a wall will be different than covering yourself behind a door or a car: in the second, the glass could shatter, allowing you and your opponents to shoot you behind small cracks. The other great fun component is time: you won't have minutes to choose where to hide or what to do: in fractions of a second you will have to make decisions, both for you and for your partner, optimizing weapons, ammunition and cover scattered around the map.
Cover!
The game is ultimately one shooter on tracks: the tracks however, this time, you will choose them. Yet the idea of being able to move and have freedom of tactical choices really tickled the imagination of gamers: so instead the title demonstrates, once again, the limits that VR has at the moment. The choice could have been accepted if the title had not turned out to be a shooter with enemies in waves (the Store is full of them), which it is.
Yet the idea of being able to manage the partner (either by giving him orders or coordinating them) from that I do not know what of fun and innovative, making me feel the same feeling as when I put my hand on Binary Domain. VR is still a playground where you can do tests, and if we start from this premise, the € 40 of Bravo Team are well spent (especially for the online mode): the version including the PlayStation AIM Controller, a high quality peripheral, is also available. usable both here and in Farpoint.
