Sneaky Bears Review

Sneaky Bears Review (PSVR)

For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a review code does not affect my judgement of the game.

The release of Sneaky Bears sees another static wave based shooter enter into the world of Playstation VR. The concept of teddies gone evil has been used before and the static shooter is a popular form of VR gaming, but, does Sneaky Bears give you something new and a reason to buy the game?

Sneaky Bears does come with a story. You play a faceless character as you try to take out the star of the game Frank. As mentioned Frank is a teddy gone evil and he has taken over a toy factory with an army of teddies, aiming to take over the world. You are introduced and tasked by a friendly teddy named Buddy to stop him using a set of toy guns – a simple premise, but, one that works.

Gameplay wise, you get what you would expect from a static wave based shooter. The game does try to mix it up a little by giving you a few different types of guns that are needed for set tasks on set the modes offered. You get a standard you pistol that can take out any enemy, a toy shotgun which is used to remove the wooden shields of the larger enemies and to take out enemies, a water pistol to put out fires, and lastly an ice gun. As well as the standard enemies you will get targets that show up, hit these are gain extra points for the leader board. Also some teddies will fire plastic bottles at you, these will need shooting out the sky as well. The reason you have to shoot them is were some VR shooters offer a dodge option, there is no dodging in the game, so you have to be prepared and fast on the trigger.

The game only offers a single player mode, which is broken down into three modes. The first one is Survival mode. In this mode you are given the standard pistol and the shotgun. The standard pistol comes with 10 bullets and the shotgun only holds 2 rounds. Again meaning you have to think fast and aim accurately as the swarms gets bigger and stronger. The second mode is Fire mode, this is where the water pistol comes into play. This will see your shotgun switched out for the water pistol, but this gun can not deal any damage to your enemies. Leave the fires for too long and you will choke to death, so you have to take notice of them – meaning you will have to be aware of everything around you, and causes a lot arm crossing as you put out fires and take out enemies on the opposite sides. The last mode is Bomb mode, this is where your ice gun comes into the game. In Bomb mode you have a group of friendly teddies in the middle of the screen with conveyor belts either side which the bombs will travel down. Your job is to disarm these with ice gun (again in place of the shotgun), the only difference between the ice gun and the water pistol is, your ice gun can be used to damage your enemies.

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Visually the game does not stand out as much as other games in this genre, but does enough to keep your attention while playing the game. Firstly the factory setting is a bit bland and does make for the most exciting background and setting, however, it does keep the action visible. The only time I feel the immersion is dragged out the game is when the teddies get close to you, as they seem to hit a barrier around you – where having them come right up close and get your face would have been a lot better. As with the visuals the sounds of the game are also quite bland when it comes to the effect noises and the music – but this is saved by the voice acting for Frank. He really does liven up the mood of the game with his humorous dialogue, that reminds me a little of Stewie Griffin.

The game is only playable with your duel Move controllers – but as always this is the only way a static shooter is really going to work. As you would expect each hand is represented by the corresponding Move controller, and you use the trigger on the back to fire your weapons. The other button you will use is the move button, you need to hold this in to keep hold of your weapon. Sneaky Bears differs from other games because as these are toy guns and you can not go and collect the bullets to reload it (as you would with a real life toy gun), the way you reload is by dropping/throwing the gun, and getting another one from the belt around you waist. When throwing your guns if you hit an enemy it will get stunned, and makes for a easy take out.

The game took me just over an hour to get through the whole game. As I previously mentioned the game is only single player and with this being the case it doesn’t really offer you many reasons to go back to it – meaning the £15.99 price point seems a bit steep. The main reason it does not offer much reason to go back to it is the lack of online leader boards, meaning unless you live with others in your household, you don’t really have anyone’s high score to beat other than your own.

Conclusion

Sneaky Bears comes into the static shooter genre for Playstation VR and offers some new ideas within it’s differing game modes. However, it just lacks the appeal to go back and play it, unlike others in the genre. This is down the game only being single player, and failing to offer even online leader boards. Taking the price into account, I would recommend waiting for it to be in a sale before picking it up.

Also available on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
Developer: WarDucks