Recent reviews by Tequila Sunset

If I haven't spoiled myself with Half-Life: Alyx first I would say this is the best VR game out there.

However, even then Boneworks takes a different approach in design than Alyx. First of all the entire character you play as is modelled and as much affected by the world physically as anything else. The physics are made to mimic reality as close as possible, so you bounce off walls, walking on light objects actually pushes them around depending on which way your feet are moving, like you can run backwards on a ball and in turn balance yourself on top of it as it rolls forward. It all makes sense in theory, but it translates very hard into VR. It takes a lot of getting used to.
Once you get used to that items are a bit weighty and floppy, unless you artificially match the weightiness yourself in reality and realise that what you can do normally is possible in game too, it opens it up to a lot of possibilities and emergent gameplay. I had many times surprised myself when in the heat of battle I did something, like while reloading a pistol and a headset (headcrab) jumped at me I just used the empty pistol to knock them away. I could grab them in mid air while jumping, execute with a gun or literally smash against a wall or another enemy. Bladed weapons get pushed through objects and stuck until pulled out just like in Blade & Sorcery. You also have a similar system of climbing. Some materials in the world can be grabbed on to and you can climb up on them. Anything that weights heavier than you, you can use to climb on it until your weight causes it to fall back on you.

The game is also a massive sandbox. Besides the "story" that takes up to 10 or so hours to complete full of puzzles and unlockable stuff, there's a lot of extra content that they're still adding today with more areas to explore, secrets and collectibles. The whole point of collecting stuff into "reclamation bins" that are placed around maps scarcely is that they get unlocked in other sandbox modes for you to play with. One big critique though is in order to unlock items which are usually contained in a small plastic gacha-looking ball you have to take them through the rest of the levels until you find a bin to chuck them into and then finish the level to unlock it. Wouldn't be a big problem normally but they take up a slot on your suit as well where weapons can be held too, and you also have to unlock weapons if you want to use them in sandbox. There are also super expensive dev weapons that are really fun toys to unlock, but unless you use an external program to cheat, you'd need to do at most 6 playthroughs to unlock them all.

Finally, the game advertises itself that you should have some VR experience to play it. While I do agree it's not the best game to thrust yourself into first time if you never played any VR title before, the main reason and warning should be that the game causes heavy motion sickness due to the physics affecting the character. I have a very high tolerance to it and no other VR title gave me any issues, but there were a few instances playing Boneworks where I suddenly felt sick for a moment. Pushing your hands against a wall causes you to get pushed back, there is a dedicated jump button, unbalanced objects wobble and sway under you and continue to move around with every step you take, there are a lot of moving parts and you are not spared.

I still recommend the game because its an experience that has been created in previous titles such as the mentioned Blade & Sorcery, however, this is much, MUCH bigger with more content.

The single best full VR title you can play through today. It's a complete game with great graphics, the expected excellent Source physics, and Valve's clear attention to detail with writing and story. The world reacts to you in such a way that it makes you feel completely immersed into the experience.

I recommend getting at least the index controllers for it because the game was made for them and feel incredible. The feedback is excellent, everything works the way you'd expect them to.

Currently the best city builder out there. The expansions are a bit pricey, but there are thousands of workshop submissions to enhance the already great experience.

To save our mother Earth from any alien attack
From vicious giant insects who have once again come back
We'll unleash all our forces, we won't cut them any slack
The EDF deploys!

Our soldiers are prepared for any alien threats
The navy launches ships, the air force send their jets
And nothing can withstand our fixed bayonets
The EDF deploys!

Our forces have now dwindled and we pull back to regroup
The enemy has multiplied and formed a massive group
We better beat these bugs before we're all turned to soup
The EDF deploys!

After my disappointment with the first Rage, I've lost hope in ID. However, they turned it around with Doom (2016). This game goes further in the right direction, from their development side at least.

ID's modern FPS genius shines again. The combat feels incredibly raw and powerful, the way the AI reacts to your actions, the physics accompanied with the powers, the visual effects and sound design, it's all perfect. If you liked their other modern FPS games, and you're happy to just "rip and tear" then this game will be fun for you. It's a real power fantasy. There are also some special units, like a mini-mech, giants to fight with various mechanics to them, 2 unique boss fights during the story which keeps it all varied for a good amount of time.

Then there's the Avalanche side of things, the open world busywork and collectathon. In between all the high-speed combat and murder-sprees, you'll have a lot of down time driving around the world or looking around the now bloody messes of bases for data pads, Ark chests and storage containers. That is, if you want to 100% a location. Avalanche's vehicle combat is pretty good too, visually it looks great and has variety, but somehow the driving wasn't as well optimised as Mad Max and feels really stiff. Once you get used to it though it's not that bad, except for the bikes. Bikes are complete trash.

All in all the whole package comes with various locations to clear, some are simply bases to exterminate, some are mini-bosses, some have you defending a point while waves upon waves of enemies come, there is a repeatable minigame which is going through rooms just murdering mutant waves (which is something I was hoping, an FPS like this NEEDS some wave-based carnage like that), and finally there are races that have their own kick-ass soundtracks that feels like playing Tony Hawk's again, though the driving is still just as stiff and difficult to control. There is a lot to do, and it's all open-world busywork in a sense, however, if you enjoy the combat, you'll be loving going through location after location with various objectives simply killing enemies. That's what ties it all together.

Oh yeah, there is also a story. Which is alright. It's nothing ground breaking, and most of it relies on you doing the open world location hunting to progress, but if you rush it you can finish the game really fast story-wise, even before you unlock ANY of the powers, it will just make it more difficult. You meet 3 main characters, do their respective objective, then there's a final objective that ends the plot and that's about it. There are 2 unique boss fights, one being the final one in the story as I mentioned earlier, which have their own mechanics to it and are pretty fun.

The game has bugs to it, possibly due to Avalanche using the same engine Just Cause 4 had, which was also a bit of a mess. Nothing game-breaking just visual glitches, audio lines sometimes cut out during dialogues leaving you with a voiceless subtitle, the perk upgrades in the menus have no sounds at all, a few progress bars mess up from time to time visually, but not mechanically, just a lot of little things.

Overall I've had a blast with this game so far 20 hours in, and will continued playing. I would highly recommend it IF you are a fan of ID's modern FPS combat feel. You can skip all the cutscenes and ignore the story just to jump back into the meatgrinder. If you like open world collectathons that have you upgrade yourself into more and more of a badass, then you'll most likely get a kick out of it too. I would highly recommend setting the difficult to AT LEAST hard, below that I don't think the combat shines.

It is well worth the 10 minutes of your time.

Just play it without reading any details.