Bulletstorm VR rebuilds the 2011 original in a gallant attempt to bring something new to the virtual reality space. It’s the same game, for better or worse, with a lot of effort put in to make it work on both PC and the Meta Quest. I’ve come away unimpressed after playing through both but let’s break it all down and see if it’s something worth checking out.
Bulletstorm Hasn’t Aged Well
There’s a warning when you start the game about how, essentially, that 2011 was a “different time”. On PCVR Bulletstorm is here in its entirety, though the swearing seems cut out of the Quest version. Lots of cringey jokes, obvious plot beats, and all the same issues persist in both versions. Bulletstorm tried something different, a skills for kills type of approach like Crackdown but with a focus on frenetic first-person shooting.
The basic plot is that you were a government assassin who thought he was taking out wrongdoers, but instead was being used by an evil bastard to cover up his crimes. The writing is bad, the voice acting is worse, and graphically it doesn’t look the best. PCVR at max settings looks like a 2011 game, and on the Quest you’re getting all that mobile chipset power to give you something that would look at home on an original Xbox.
If you love Bulletstorm then this is certainly a way to play it. I’m not going to call it a good one, as I’ll get into my issues with the controls in the next section. Still, it’s impressive to see the entire experience of the game translated into VR. Cutscenes are either flat or stereoscopic 3D screens you’ll watch and my game crashed a lot on both PC and the Quest during them. Those were frustrating, but at least they weren’t as dull as the gameplay felt.
Skills, Kills, Bills
One of the toughest things about converting a game to VR is making the gameplay feel like it was made for the platform. Bulletstorm VR has done a ton of work to change up the game and at first, it felt like it paid off. Everything from the UI, to how you reload weapons and use them feels natural. Movement is great, which is key for a game where you’ll be sliding like a greased-up methhead.
The gameplay loop consists of either using your left hand to whip, slide, or kick to send enemies flying in a slow-motion, gravity-defying arc. You’ll use various guns, the environment, and your skills to rack up skill points. Spending said points at various in-game shop… pod things let you upgrade your guns and abilities and it’s still a satisfying loop. The issue is that it’s far too easy. At various points, you’ll have different abilities, like energy swords, which become laughably overpowered in VR. I stood still and let enemies run at me as I lazily swung my arms back and forth and killed dozens of enemies.
I also had a constant issue on my PC while using my Quest 3 through SteamVR. It constantly read my hands as pointing up at an angle, making it extremely uncomfortable to aim properly. Nothing I did fixed it and eventually I gave up the better-looking version of the game and played mostly on the Quest 3. Performance was solid all around, which I’d hope for as the game is not much of a looker anymore. It’s ok on PC but downright cheap looking at times on the Quest. I know this downgrade was to keep performance up and it was worth it, as I never felt sick while playing.
Wrapping Things Up
Bulletstorm was been a guilty pleasure of mine around launch. It was never the best looking, and the story was terrible. It was just good, mindless FPS fun. The translation to VR, while commendable, doesn’t translate into an enjoyable gameplay experience. Combine that with a game that hasn’t aged well, and constant crashing on both PC and Quest 3, especially at $40, is not something I can recommend.
Available on Quest VR, PlayStation VR2, and SteamVR
Bulletstorm VR
Played on
Meta Quest 3, SteamVR
PROS
- Lots of work to translate it to VR
- Runs well on PC and the Quest
CONS
- Feels more repetitive than on console
- Too easy
- Not fun
- Lots of crashes
Thanks for these reviews as a Quest 3 owner they come in very handy
Swarm 2’s devs just hit me up so that’ll be the next
Cool,