 GameCentral reviews the latest PSVR2 exclusive, that aims to make fast-paced action games a reality in VR. VR games have a problem with rapid motion and its unfortunate ability to trigger motion sickness. You get used to it after a week or two but, especially for new users, it can create unavoidable sensations of sweaty nausea, which is nobody's idea of a good time. The way developers tend to deal with that is by making your character stationary, slowing movement to a crawl, or replacing fluid motion with short distance teleportation – none of which feels like a perfect solution. It's gratifying to discover that Synapse takes another route. Its relatively speedy in-game motion comes with sufficient frame rate that, at least for seasoned VR players, you can move fairly quickly without wanting to throw up. It does offer various comfort settings, but even with those enabled, you can run around at what feels like normal speed for a video game. That's important, because Synapse is a first person shooter, or more accurately, a first person shooter with added telekinetic powers, a bit like Control – although, as with most VR games, on a far smaller scale. So, to go with your beginner's pistol and the SMG, shotgun, and grenade launcher you can also pick up objects using only the power of your mind. Initially, that means extending bridges, detonating explosive barrels, and hurling large, inert cubes about the place, but you soon unlock the ability to pick up enemies, which is when the game changes out of all recognition. After that, it's not so much a shooter, as a game of hurling bad guys into walls, ceilings, floors, and pits of molten lava. You'll be tossing them over your shoulder only to turn around and finish them off with a flourish of bullets, or lofting one high into the sky before re-catching them and dashing them into nearby rocks – or one of their colleagues. It's as if John Wick suddenly discovers he has a high Midichlori){kind=link}
GameCentral reviews the latest PSVR2 exclusive, that aims to make fast-paced action games a reality in VR.
VR games have a problem with rapid motion and its unfortunate ability to trigger motion sickness. You get used to it after a week or two but, especially for new users, it can create unavoidable sensations of sweaty nausea, which is nobody’s idea of a good time. The way developers tend to deal with that is by making your character stationary, slowing movement to a crawl, or replacing fluid motion with short distance teleportation – none of which feels like a perfect solution.
It’s gratifying to discover that Synapse takes another route. Its relatively speedy in-game motion comes with sufficient frame rate that, at least for seasoned VR players, you can move fairly quickly without wanting to throw up. It does offer various comfort settings, but even with those enabled, you can run around at what feels like normal speed for a video game.
That’s important, because Synapse is a first person shooter, or more accurately, a first person shooter with added telekinetic powers, a bit like Control – although, as with most VR games, on a far smaller scale. So, to go with your beginner’s pistol and the SMG, shotgun, and grenade launcher you can also pick up objects using only the power of your mind.
Initially, that means extending bridges, detonating explosive barrels, and hurling large, inert cubes about the place, but you soon unlock the ability to pick up enemies, which is when the game changes out of all recognition. After that, it’s not so much a shooter, as a game of hurling bad guys into walls, ceilings, floors, and pits of molten lava.