Robo Recall Review
Ok I’ll start by saying if you have an Oculus Rift and Touch controllers you have to play this game! For free this has to be the best thing in gaming for years! You kind of get where this is going so read below for the review and more details!
Epic games have finally released the game that most Oculus owners were waiting for and in my opinion it’s been worth the wait!
Just a quick note Oculus has now dropped the price of the Rift with the Touch Controllers included all for £598
Gameplay:
In Robo Recall you take the role of Agent 34, the recaller of rouge malfunctioned robots, you will need to think fast and move to stay alive while using devastating combos to take down your targets.
If you want to feel like a God among robots then look no further!
You will start the game in an apartment where you can work on taking apart robots for fun and just picking up random things to throw around. Once you go and stand on the pad in the room you will get the option to select levels, target practice, choose and setup your guns. The game won’t keep you waiting long to get straight into the action, once your in a level there isn’t much you can’t do to your tin friends. You can pull off every limb and then when your done, lob the torso at one of his mates to keep your combo up and gain more points. Don’t fancy pulling the poor bugger limb from limb, that’s ok keep him still while you pull out the shotgun and brutally blow his head off! Bullets and rockets can also be caught and thrown back to devastating effect, there is just such a variety of ways to kill them it just never gets old and always has you coming back for more.
Weapons:
There are four different guns including the Pistol, Magnum, Shotgun and a Energy rifle. You can add either the magnum or the pistols to your hip holsters and the shotgun or plasma rifle in the shoulder slots. You could then take one of each and have a different gun in each holster but I really like the standard pistols if I am honest, there is also no reloading just chuck it away and get another one out after a small cool down period on each holster. Each gun can be upgraded with things like bigger mags to targeting sights and laser sights which adds a nice few options and really does make a change to the gun.
Teleportation:
Teleportation will be your means of movement and if I’m honest it’s ok, sometimes it gets a little tricky but it works and you will get the hang of it. You can teleport to pretty much any spot on the level if you can reach it, on top of cars, lorries, balconys all giving you a good vantage point but be warned robots will jump up after you and swarm you so it’s not always the best option as you will be told to move if you stand still to long!
Difficulty:
The game itself isn’t really that hard to beat but you will constantly find yourself replaying levels to try and climb the leaderboard! There are 3 maps available and while that doesn’t sound like much it really does feel likes it’s plenty!
Graphics:
I was pretty blown away with the graphics, by far the best I’ve seen on the Oculus so far but in all honesty this probably was expected, pixel density can be adjusted to make the image even clearer if you have the GPU horsepower to handle it. I personally found with the max settings and taking the pixel density up from 1.0 to 1.5 I was getting some lag and some FPS drops so putting the Pixel density back to 1.0 got me a solid 90 FPS all the time and a completely lag free experience on my GTX 980 TI. It is recommended that you use a GTX 970 or equivalent with an i5 processor and you will need around 11GB of space available.
The immersion in Robo Recall is sooooo good and the best I have ever experienced! You will find yourself jumping out of the way to avoid bullets and flying crawlers that explode on impact with you. It really makes you feel like once that headset is on you are in a different place!
Sound:
The sound was brilliant on the Oculus Headset with the built in headphones, Robots will permanently be speaking to you and telling you how they are going to “Robot Heaven”. You will be guided through each level with commands on where to go next. The sound effects are also great, good sound from bullets and plenty of loud surrounding noise to hear clearly where your enemies are attacking you from,
Controls:
It’s clear to see the Robo Recall was designed with the Touch Controllers, they are spot on with this, accurate movements, grabbing and pulling the robots apart is so much fun, then being able to just throw them at another one and take the pair of them down is a powerful feeling. Teleportation is a slight negative and will take a long time to get used to as it will always turn where you are pointing the control stick but if you are not facing directly forwards it can be extremely confusing when you hit your destination what way you are actually facing.
You use the touch controllers to pull out your guns and will carry four in total one on each hip and one on each shoulder.
I played Robo Recall with two sensors, I first tried the setup with them both in front of me but on many occasions you will have enemies behind you and tracking can get bad, you will just end up in a mess trying to teleport the right way round. I then tried what I have done before and put one sensor behind me and one in front and it was so much better, not 100% perfect but it honestly works well as my video of gameplay shows! Another sensor can currently be had for £59 from Oculus at the moment and if you want the full room-scale experience definitely buy one if not try this setup and you might find it works fine for you and you save £59 at the same time!
Space is a must for Robo Recall if want to start moving around and bullet dodging matrix style. I set up and got optimal according to the guardian setup and still managed to punch a wall! (I was trying a little to hard to throw a torso at someone!)
If you don’t have an Oculus Rift and was on the fence about buying one, I’d say buy it now as for the price it’s worth every penny.
Mod support also available to add even more to this already great game!
Pros
- Great Graphics and Stable FPS
- Great Immersion, controls and sound
- Full game not a VR Demo like most
- FREE!!!
- Big Maps
- Custom Weapons
- Expiermental setup of sensors and two sensors work fine
- Mod Support Available
Cons
- Teleportation leave you a bit lost on arrival
- Good amount of space needed to play properly
Verdict:
Great graphics, great sound and great gameplay, my only issue is the teleportation can be a bit hit and miss and you will have to be standing forwards all the time to not get any trouble with it but you will get used to it after a while. Amazing job by Epic Games and absolutely brilliant that it’s free with the Touch Controllers!
Best Virtual Reality Game To Date!