Fear and frustration rule the day in Killing Floor: Incursion for Playstation VR
Boo! It's Ian's VR Corner!
This week wasn't the most exciting time for new releases on Playstation VR so, for today's episode of Ian's VR Corner, I decided to look back at a title from last month that had completely passed me by.
I've received quite a few glowing recommendations for Killing Floor: Incursion, so I went into it expecting great things. Unfortunately this VR spin-off of the gore-soaked shooter Killing Floor 2 only left me feeling stressed and disappointed, as the video below will attest.
Whilst Killing Floor 2 is a straight up action game with a Hellraiser-like skin, Incursion tries to slow down its frantic pace by adding some creeping horror and puzzle game elements. It's understandable really - the action in Killing Floor 2 is far too fast to be ported directly to VR - but the way it's done here is a detriment to the gameplay.
This odd mish-mash of concepts causes the pacing to bounce wildly between terrifying shootouts and dull item gathering quests. Ultra terror one minute, ultra boredom the next, basically.
However, it was the action sequences that really let the game down for me. The way the monsters burst into gibs with a satisfying squelch is joyous but while the shooting is solid, the limitations of the Move controllers play havoc with your body mounted inventory system. Swapping weapons feels incredibly awkward and at times the process is almost Kinect-like in its clumsiness.
When you're trying to holster your weapon so you can pick up more ammo in order to shoot the rapidly approaching horde of nightmare-beasts, accidentally shooting yourself in the foot a couple of times is not going to help calm the rising panic. In fact, if you watch my video above you'll find that the exact opposite to be true.
Killing Floor: Incursion looks great, it's right up there as one of the best looking titles on PSVR and I suspect it plays a lot better in co-op, a mode I didn't get time to test. It's also bloody scary, so if you're into virtual horror you'll get it by the bucketload here.
I'm guessing the control scheme works much better on PC platforms with more responsive peripherals and maybe I'll retry it in the future on one of those, but for now Killing Floor: Incursion is going on an excursion - straight off of my hard drive.
If you enjoyed this episode of Ian's VR Corner, you can catch up with my previous adventures over on YouTube in our VR playlist, where I get silly with Kona VR, Salary Man Escape and The Exorcist: Legion VR.