DOOM VFR (PS VR) Review - A clever piece of technology for PlayStation VR

Last year, Bethesda surprised friend and foe with a great return to form with the release of DOOM. The game was rightly received with enthusiastic cheering. DOOM was everything the fans wanted and more. After Bethesda prepared Skyrim in a very successful way for PlayStation VR last month, it is time for tough action with DOOM VFR. Whether the slaughter of demonic brood in virtual reality is worthwhile, you can read below.

Go to hell!

Let's start with the good news. DOOM is still... DOOM. The story in DOOM VFR is completely separate from the story of DOOM from 2016, but the universe around it does not feel any less good. You start as a scientist who is eaten from the depths of hell in the first minutes by a demonic monster during the initial invasion of Mars. To combat the demonic invasion, the UAC transfers your consciousness to an exoskeleton - a nice excuse to take revenge! The story then sends you in the five-hour campaign to various locations, ranging from Mars to the depths of hell itself. The story has always been subordinate to the action in DOOM, and that is certainly no different in DOOM VFR.

Audiovisually DOOM VFR is fantastic, maybe it is the best game you can get for PlayStation VR at the moment. The environments look great, the demons let your neck hair stand upright and the hard metal soundtrack thunders smoothly while you put everything in ruins. The adrenalin kick that you got in the original when you were surrounded on all sides by demons and monsters, has fortunately remained completely intact. And just as in the original there are enough secrets to discover. When you have completed the campaign, you can also play two retromaps, picked directly from the '90s. Good stuff!

Hurt me Plenty!

Skyrim gave the player the choice of different operating methods and DOOM VFR does the same. DOOM VFR supports the PlayStation VR Aim Controller in addition to the motion controllers and the DualShock 4. Playing with the latter feels somewhat unnatural, since you have to hold the aim controller with two hands, while your screen hand is still dangling. The throwing of grenades did not go very well with the Aim Controller, although that may not be a criticism for everyone. In that respect, the motion controllers give you a better experience in the sense that each controller represents a hand. The left motion controller takes care of teleporting your scientist and offers the possibility to use the keys to move forward, behind, to 'jump' left or right while aiming and shooting with the right motion controller. Fast running in real time with the motion controllers does not work fantastic and that is a shame because DOOM VFR should have that right.

The last remaining choice - playing with the DualShock 4 turned out to be my preferred choice, especially because it also supports locomotion. Teleporting is and remains, in my opinion, an inferior way of moving in VR, because it undermines that sense of presence that is so important in VR. Using a DualShock 4 controller simultaneously gives you the possibility to teleport, but if you use locomotion, you use teleportation only to finish your enemies; when an enemy has a blue glow, you can teleport to it to explode from the inside. In this way, Bethesda has found an original way to transform the much criticized teleportation into an indispensable gameplay element.

Virtual F'ing Reality

It feels unfair to be very critical when you look at what Bethesda has achieved. The number of first-person shooters in VR can be counted on one hand and DOOM belongs in that light to the top. Last month, Skyrim VR proved to be a great title that can give you hundreds of hours of fun if you can handle VR. A great title where the control is limited by the hardware. The same also applies to DOOM VFR. It seems to be a recurring theme for most VR titles, which require complex control. I would like nothing more than to say that DOOM VFR is a must-have for which you have to purchase PlayStation VR, but the reality is that - regardless of how big the game looks like - the controls are a bit of a hold.

Developers are of course limited to the possibilities of the hardware on which they offer their titles and you can see that Bethesda has exhausted all possibilities to make the best of it. The fact that their work is not entirely obvious, in this specific case lies mainly in the limitations of the hardware, namely the motion controllers and the camera. With Skyrim VR, these shortcomings were certainly visible, but with an RPG that takes things a bit slower, it is less disturbing than with a lightning fast shooter where the steering should feel like a second nature. And that is unfortunately never the case at DOOM VFR.

Conclusion

Bethesda delivers with DOOM VFR a clever piece of technology for PlayStation VR. Audiovisually it is probably the best title on the platform and that is a great achievement. Unfortunately, the control leaves something to be desired despite the many options that are offered to you and that is a pity, because without these negatives DOOM VFR would be an absolute top title. The campaign is a bit short of dust, but there is enough content given the relatively mild asking price of € 29.99, to provide the real DOOM fans and other first-person shooter enthusiasts with their shot of adrenaline.

➕ Great graphics
➕ Fantastic soundtrack
➕ Secrets and Retro Levels
➕ Many control options ...

➖ ...that do not come out of the picture
➖ Relatively short campaign

Thanks for reading.

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