SOUL COVENANT Review
Augmented Empire was the game that introduced to me to team at Coaksink back at a EGX Rezzed event, when they had the Gear VR at their booth. I was excited later down the line when it hit the Oculus Go and I got to playthtrough the game in full for the first time. So, when they announced it was coming to the Quest 3 and supporting MR, I was looking forward to playing it again. But, is it as good as it used to be with how VR has moved forward since then?
Release Date: November 21st 2024
Developer: Coatsink
Publisher: Coatsink
Price: Price: USD $9.99 / €11,99 / £7.99
Reviewed On: Meta Quest 3
* Access Provided For Review *
A Divided City
From your armchair in your secluded hideout, you control your team in augmented reality to overthrow the corrupt elite. To do this you need to step into the divided city of New Savannah in the year 2058. Where you must lead your team of misfits and criminals to survive, the question is… can you take on down elite?
Addictive Turn-based Combat
Augmented Empire is a tactical turn-based strategy game, meaning the gameplay will not bring any big surprises if you have played these sort of games before. It follows the solid base this genre of game is created around to a tea but, builds a great story around New Savannah.
Each of the environments you visit are built up of tiles, which means moving your units from square-to-square in order to get behind cover and get clear shots on the enemy. With you character having so many moves before their move is over and it moves on to the next squad member or to the enemies turn. However, one element you wont find in the game is any throw-away characters, as everyone you get to control is a named character and has a part play throughout the story.
When moving throughout the environments when not in battle, this still uses the grid based placement on the floor, with you selecting which square you want them to move to. This can be to collect items, speak to someone or get more lore about the world of New Savannah through posters, statues and information boards. This means the game will not cause any discomfort issues, as you will only be using point-and-click movement around the dioramas of New Savannah placed in front of you.
The combat in Augmented Empire is certainly the most addictive part of the game, as your attacks and defense is based around your reactions – meaning you only have yourself to blame if a battle goes wrong. Each attack you do will load up a timed bar, stopping the pointer inside of the main bar will record a hit, stop it in the smaller part of the bar and you will get a critical hit but, miss the bar and your attack will miss – think active reload in Gears of War and you will get the idea. This works the same for defense, however the bars are a lot smaller. With the main bar causing you to get grazed and lose a smaller amount of your health, stopping in the smaller area of the bar resulting in you evading the attack completely but, miss the bar and you will take a full hit and lose more health.
Outside of your standard attacks each character will also have their own skills, which have a cool down period. This means using them strategically to make sure you keep control of a battle. Falling inline with this each of the characters will get upgrades over time to give them better abilities and powers that are unique to each of them.
Beautifully Enhanced
In the game you make your way through sixty environments, which all look great in the hand-drawn feeling given from the aesthetic choices. This has allowed the cyberpunk look of the game work really well. Including the enhanced textures mixed with the new hardware and it really looks beautiful. With each environment/location setting you visit having its own look and suiting the parts of the New Savannah you are currently visiting.
You have the choice on how you want to play the game between Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, which is fantastic to see more games getting a full on MR experiences – with you being able to play the full ten-hours campaign in MR mode. If playing in VR, you will just get a plain colored background with the 3D diorama of the levels in front of you, and in MR you will have this diorama in your own room. With it being a plain background in VR, I chose to play in mostly in Mixed Reality, as it looked great in this mode.
The story of the game is really engaging and is brought to life by the fantastic story-telling via the great voice acting, from your robot companion Hartman to every character you come across. Which includes fantastic performances from the likes of Kate Mulgrew (Dragon Age), Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) and Garrick Hagon (Horizon Zero Dawn). This really allows the story to come across how the team intended but, be aware there is a lot of story in this game. This is mixed with the different sounds for the all the environments you visit, if its raining you will hear rain or if there is fire you will hear fire sounds which the game needs. Then you will get more laid back music when exploring and walking around, and more action type music when in battles.
Comfort
The Verdict
Augmented Empire was my favorite game that released on Oculus Go, my main concern was would it still live up to this today with how VR has progressed since then – I am happy to say it still feels as great now as it did then. The game comes with a fantastic story that is brought to life brilliantly by the strong cast of voice actors but, this comes with the caveat of, if you don’t like a lot story and dialogue in your games this might not be for you. Add to this story an addictive tactical turn-based strategy gameplay loop, where the battles can change in the instance if you make a few mistakes or mismanage when you use your characters abilities. With the new enhanced textures and the dioramas coming into your own living room in the MR mode, this all comes together really well with the developments of hardware since it original release back on the Gear VR.