Recent reviews by HD Shock

Yeah, no thanks Sony.

I have been casually watching this game since the alphas were announced. I figured with early access, i'd give it a shot. As of right now it needs a lot of polish, but I see potential there. I can't in good faith recommend it as it is though. Review below:

All in all it is what you would expect with an early development VR mmo.. The controls are a bit janky and the sword combat is pretty terrible. (Especially with your thin little arms/hands) The magic casting seems borrowed from other VR MMOS in that you need to draw a design to cast spells. Healing seems a bit OP (at least in the early stages), in that I can wield a healing wand and cast in my left hand, and a sword in my right. You unlock skills and spells via a tree with skill points that you get as you level. You then need to find a trainer to learn new spells or moves. Speaking of trainers and NPCs, they were all standing awkwardly, which was a little unsettling for some reason.

Quest tracking was a bit awkward. You can see your current non-completed quests in your left hand, but when you try to survey around, unless the NPCs and quest objects are nearby, they seem to disappear. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see the ability to use a map to remedy this.

I didn't have much luck with climbing. It was pretty painful compared to games like Zenith. (It was hard to grab onto things) Fishing was there, but seemed a bit lack luster.. ..You couldn't just fish anywhere in water, you needed to find little pulsing bubble circles to get the chance at any fish which seems kind of silly. I could literally just stand next to one and cast straight down onto one. (no real skill required)

There was one point where you can ride a zeppelin to another town. ..That may sound cool, but the craft (and only the craft) furiously vibrated as it moved through the air for what felt like at least 3 minutes.. (which made me very nautilus for some reason)

I'm sure down the road things will improve, but right now it was admittedly painful.

As someone who lived in the days before cell phones and PC gaming, I was concerned I wouldn't get to experience something like this is my lifetime. I was a little hesitant at first, but i'm incredibly glad i gave this game a shot.

IMHO, this game captures the essence of what it would be like to play an MMO in VR. You can glide, jump, shoot, swing a sword, block, port, and dodge your way around nicely. If they keep the crafting along the lines of how cooking is set up, you essentially mini-game craft, doing things like flipping pancakes and dicing food at your little station, making sure nothing burns. You can also climb trees and pull plants from the ground in the open world for ingredients along with just buying them.

The game itself has some good bones, and seems fairly fleshed out given that the team is somewhat small and this is still very much early access. If you are like me and a healer/mage, the mechanics for healing are super fun and intuitive. I like being able to lob heals like I'm throwing accurate water balloons at people, or summoning up AOE spells/heals with some hand gestures and trigger pulls. All the while, grabbing my holstered guns and shooting things in between at no mana cost. (If you are a mage/healer, your bullets heal people too. Kinda fun)

I would personally recommend this to anyone that has the MMO VR itch. My only real gripes, outside of the bugs here and there, are that I don't have more time to play and there isn't more crafting/farming yet. I would love to be able to mine ore, or skin things to make weapons and armor down the road.. OH, AND ADDING FISHING WOULD MAKE THIS GAME AMAZING! Just sayin'. :) /soapbox

I can honestly say I am a little taken back on how aweful this game has been so far for me. I am one of those people who have played the crap out of UW1 and 2 when they were new. (I even have a UW1 map + the large black floppy disks framed and near my gaming computer)

While I was elated when I saw this on Kickstarter, I tried to approach this with low expectations and a level head. I hate being negative, but I just can't believe THIS was the game that was supposed to be the spiritual successor after all these years.. I am completely shocked that the people who made UW1 and 2 would release this... There doesn't seem to be a soul to this game, it's just repetative missions and glitchy. ..Not to mention it runs like crap.

As much as it pains me to say this, please stay away.

A litte about me: I've been playing this game on and off since closed beta.. Most of my time here is pre-steam and I've dumped a ton of money into this game (commander founder pack, vehicle packs, Beans, etc) - I'm a long time gamer and usually pretty understanding when it comes to wipes, redesigns, and rebalances. I've seen this game though its many changes/stages and been pretty understanding and optimistic through all of its versions.

I could drone on and on at this point about the faults I find in this game, how I've lost faith in the developers I once respected, and how the game just isn't fufilling for me as a vet to play anymore... I'll spare you from that.

--What it boils down to--
As it stands now I feel the game has lost its soul and at its very core is just not fun to play regularly anymore. They've disabled a lot of features (like crafting), killed "thumping", and just plain sucked the life out of end game. They've done a lot of rebalancing and redesiging up until this point (which was fine) but this just feels different and as a whole un-nessessary.

-- In my opinion --
You'll do best to save your dedication, time, and well earned money for a game more deserving of your attention. This game is a sinking ship.... ...The violins are playing, and it's time to head for the life boats.

If you have the time for this game it's surpringly fun and replayable. Matches can take a while but it's definately worth picking up.