Cowbots And Aliens VR Preview
Description from the Developer:
A furious PvP Multiplayer brawl in VR set in the Saloon-Universe of Cowbots and Aliens. Free movement, deadly gun-play, multiple competitive modes and a custom networked physics system that lets you use EVERYTHING as a weapon makes Cowbots and Aliens the immensely satisfying ruckus VR deserves. Includes intensely fun single player AI to play against as well.
Flip a table and take cover, break a chair over your friends head, hurl a tomahawk, jump out with six-shooters blazing or just practice shooting beer bottles out of the sky. Cowbots and Aliens is a wild west brawl scene brought to life by robots, aliens, the magic of VR and you!
Features
- Battle Online – Fight your friends in a variety of competitive multiplayer modes including Free For All, No Guns, Team Deathmatch and Gold Rush!
- Single Player Bots – Battle against or along-side clever AI bots so you’re never alone!
- Interact with Everything – Find whatever you can get your hands on and use it in battle. Pro Tip – a throwing knife deals more damage than a poker chip. 😉
- Hang Out – Hit the saloon and have a virtual drink with a fellow Cowbot, make art out of a stack of chairs or join a battle. No consequences in this social area.
- Customize your Avatar – Outfit your Cowbot or Alien with hats, shirts, vests or facial hair. – Coming Soon!
- Master Creative Weapons – The Cowbots and Aliens have retrofitted the iconic weapons of the old west for use in their ongoing feud. From guns to tomahawks to broken bottles – the Cowbots and Aliens have em all.
- Wreck the Place – Don’t hesitate to make a mess – this is the Wild West after all.
My Review:
(The game is early access, therefor I will not being giving a full review until full release)
Cowbots & Aliens VR
Sometimes with VR it can be difficult to dig out the good from the bad with so many small titles being released. My initial thoughts from the time I spent on Cowbots & Aliens are this is going to be one of the good ones if it can get the audience it needs!
The game itself is great fun even against the bots, which i will say are actually extremely challenging and you will by no means be in for an easy ride! Multiplayer is available but as with a few VR games getting enough people online can be a problem, this is more the fact that VR is yet to really take off than this game not being good enough I feel as its honestly one of the best shooters I have tried so far.
Setup:
Setup was easy, I was using the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers and two sensors. I was worried how well this would work being a room scale game but I set the sensors up one in front of me and one behind me and they covered and tracked 360 absolutely fine, no lag or judders!
You do need a fair bit of room for this but can get away with standing in the same spot and just turning on the spot if you are tight for space, looking behind you in the game is crucial, if you cant have that setup you can press both teleport buttons to spin round 180 in game so you could even play this with one sensor if you did want to.
Graphics:
For an early access title the graphics are very good and the game is optimized well with a stable 90 frames per second at all times. Visuals are crisp and clear throughout and objects are solid no ghosting or anything.
Sound:
I found sound overall good, the sound of bottles smashing and chairs being broken while I was having a brawl in the bar was immersive and gave me a good sense of where people were attacking from!
Controls:
Controls with the Oculus touch were fantastic and very responsive! Shooting guns and throwing items such as knifes and axes were really accurate. Movement is done by teleportation, point where you want to go and you will appear where you point to. Don’t think you can just fly around the map to avoid other players either because everytime you teleport you have to wait for it to charge up again so pick you have to pick your moves wisely!
Gameplay:
There are a few modes available, I personally found just mucking about with the bots in free for all was really good fun but a good challenge at the same time!
The game is laid out really well, game modes are displayed by disks on the floor and you teleport over to them to select them. This area is also like a small map where other bots will be floating around so you can fight them or shoot them depending on what you get to use. The bar area is also here and you can go in and just start a brawl, smash chairs, throw bottles all the usual old western type stuff from the old films!
This game seriously needs some backing off VR players, the online mode is great but just needs more people. I found it such a laugh when I got in a game with a few other people, I feel you can really have fun with the bots though as the AI is good and is honestly such a challenge!
The variety of weapons is impressive from shotguns and pistols to horse shoes and poker chips there is always something laying around to defend yourself with! I do have to admit I do really like the axe and the knife, the sense of achievement when you throw one and hit someone from a distance is hard to explain!
Price:
At £14.99 on Steam I do feel it’s a good price but for it to be worth it in the long run it desperately needs more players.
Just a little in-game footage:
Verdict:
Being in early access I won’t be giving my full review score yet. What i will say is that this game is going in the right direction and with the right amount of backing from VR players and getting them online this could be one of the best VR multiplayer’s out there for VR!