Sniper Rust VR Review (Oculus Rift)
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.
There is a plethora of shooters that are available on VR, some work and some don’t. Sniper Rust VR is a VR port of mobile shooter Sniper 3D Rust from iOS and Android. So, which one does this fall under?
The game is supposed to bring some story with it but unfortunately it does very little to explain it to you, or get you wanting to be involved with it. The premise of the story you are placed in the role of the sniper, as you expect from the title. Your job is take down a militia uprising across a number of countries. But, it really doesn’t seem to fill in the holes on how this militia are managing to have occupation in a number of countries, and that is only that start.
Given you are sniper the gameplay is what you would expect, aim down the sight and take your shots. There really is not much more to what you are going to do in the game, apart from reloading and cocking the rifle. Now, they mix the game up a little by letting you change your load-out before each level, with each one having it’s own stats.
For each level you are given to given objectives, but these normally consist of eliminating all enemies, taking out a set target before they escape or blowing stuff up. Give this is what you are doing all of the game, you would hope the shooting mechanic worked well, in some areas it does and in some cases it falls short. The gun-play does come across quite responsive and so does the loading system. But, then it comes with the issues, it’s sometimes tricky and feels odd with the two touch controllers meant to simulate wielding this large rifle. I also found the hit boxes on the enemies seemed a little large, making shots where the enemies are stood still are hard to miss.
On thing the team at Zatun wanted to deliver was photo realistic environments, which the game surely falls short on. For me this was a pretty bold statement to make, as I don’t think there is a game out there that offers this yet. There also seems to be a high amount of foliage around the levels, making them all see a little generic in looks. The team have done what they really could with the sound bringing sounds from the rifles – which all sound realistic. But, they then a add music overlay that does not suit the environment and also the enemies lines seem to be repeated over and over, rather than offering a decent amount of variation in what they are saying.
The game is made to be played in a standing position, and you will every now and then find yourself crouching down to offer yourself cover. Other than this you are going to use the buttons mapped around the touch to hold, zoom, reload and fire the weapons. With the grip buttons holding the weapon, the trigger to shoot, the analogues to zoom in and out, then X to bring up a clip and Y to cock the rifle. All very simple to use, which means you can reload in a decent time to avoid taking too much damage when you need to.
The game brings with it 18-levels, but you really are going to struggle find yourself playing more that one at time, because the game does soon become repetitive. It will take a number of times returning to the game in order to complete it, if you feel like you have the patience to plod through the game.
Conclusion
Sniper Rust VR, seemed to set out to be Sniper Elite 4 with its plans and promises – but turned out to be more like Sniper Ghost Warrior 3. It tries it offer something in each department, but, then it falls short in every aspect – from the broken story, the repetitive gameplay and presentational issues. In it’s current state it is hard to say it would be a title I would recommend, because there are other similar shooters that handle the genre much better already on the market.
Oculus Rift Exclusive
Developer: Zatun
