Tea For God Review - A VR Game Played Completely By Walking

Tea For God is an indie project with a single developer, one songwriter, and one extremely good voice actor. Tea For God has been around for a while and has changed a lot over time.

It is also in active development but is currently a complete experience that you can play from beginning to end. This isn't just a half-baked tech demo, though there is some very unique tech to experience in Tea For God, and I'm not just talking about all of the laser guns and robots.

The setup for the game is simple. You're a futuristic soldier who has a problem with the god emperor of humanity. So you go to deliver her some tea, and inside the tea is a metric ton of explosives.

The plot of Tea For God is both straightforward and impossible to understand

To get to the emperor with your tea you need to traverse a number of different levels in a technologically advanced but desolate future earth. Also, there's a war going on for some reason that I never fully understood.

I like the premise a lot, but the premise isn't what drew me into this game. No, when I first read Tea For God's SideQuest page and downloaded the free demo, what really interested me was this tagline. Quote, "Tea For God is a VR adventure that uses impossible spaces with procedural generation to allow players infinite movement within their own room."

The Tea For God SideQuest page

I was instantly intrigued, and also instantly curious as to why I hadn't heard of this game before. Tea For God can, and should, be played completely by walking.

I mean physically walking. With your feet, like you're going to the grocery store or something. Seriously, real life walking. No joystick movement to slide you around, though that's an option if you haven't got the space for a roomscale boundary, and no teleporting by pointing your controller somewhere. As you progress through the sci-fi, technological hellscape of future Earth you do it completely by using your feet.

After playing for a while you actually walk quite a bit. I racked up 150 meters in 10 minutes when first trying the demo.

Most importantly walking with your own two feet in this game felt absolutely amazing and freeing. It's a hard feeling to describe, but I'm going to try anyway. It's sort of like... standing up for the first time after a long bus or plane ride. It feels good to move your legs instead of just standing or sitting in place.

The realization that slowly dawned on me when I first saw a place in the game and realized that I could actually physically walk over to the thing I was seeing in VR with my actual legs was both hard to compute and incredibly freeing.

Fighting a centipede robot in Tea For God

Even after playing the demo the first time I started the game I tried to use the joystick purely by reflex. Tea For God's freedom of using actual, real movement took a little to settle in at first, but when it did I felt so much more than usual that I was actually in the world.

It was sort of like the first time ever playing a VR game, another barrier, another abstraction, between what I was physically doing and what my eyes were seeing was removed. In this way, Tea For God is an incredibly unique VR experience and you should definitely at least try the free demo of it just to experience how a Virtual Reality game can give you such freedom.

So how does Tea For God do this? By using something called "Impossible Space." This is basically when you've got a room and some hallways... but they don't actually make sense. A new hallway can go right into the same space the hallway you just came out of came from. This is one of the things that makes Tea For God a bit of a trip.

The space you walk through doesn't entirely make sense. It loops back in on itself, and there would be no way to physically make a building in the layout of a Tea For God level, hallways and rooms would run into each other. In VR though this makes it so that when you reach the edge of your playspace, the next generated section of rooms and hallways will loop back to an empty area that you can physically walk through, so you never reach the end of your playspace.

You do end up walking in circles a lot, and the game can feel like running through a maze, but that's all necessary to keep you inside your playspace. This game is an incredible technical achievement for pulling this off so smoothly. There was the occasional bug with the generation of an area, but this was really rare.

Getting hit in Tea For God

Tea For God also makes great use of verticality not only to provide a sense of grandness and scale, but to also make the levels not feel as cramped, and give you the feeling of going somewhere. Elevators and moving machines of all kinds also cart you around the level, which makes sense, your conception of your real life body is being moved in the game, and so while technically this is a way to teleport you around from time to time, it doesn't feel like it.

No other game has pulled off what Tea For God does with its movement system alone. Try the demo, and play this game purely just to see what playing a shooter is like by walking from place to place. It's a transformative Virtual Reality experience that everyone should try at least once.

Even if what I'm about to say about the gameplay doesn't sound appealing, download the demo and give it a shot once so you can feel what I'm talking about here.

It's incredible, and I think you'll be impressed. Also, play this game on a standalone headset like a Quest if you can. The impossible space concept involves a lot of turning around in circles, and so if you've got a cord hanging from your headset it'll get twisted and tangled really fast.

Tea For God - The Gameplay

Anyway the gameplay! Well here's where Tea For God is less impressive. Since all of the rooms you're going through are procedurally generated, you'll find this a less balanced or fair experience if you try to just play it through from beginning to end like it's Half-Life Alyx or something. Tea For God can be played straight through to experience the world and story with the challenging bits in between, or as a roguelike.

You can turn off a lot of the management bits and the need to navigate through levels to make it a more action-focused experience, and there are a ton of modifiers you can use to change the game up and make it easier or harder.

The customizability is cool, but for this review, I'm going to talk about the game in the way I played it, as a single campaign played from beginning to end with all of the features enabled, no modifiers, and every death brought me back to the latest checkpoint.

Tea For God is a VR shooter at heart.

You navigate by following signs with arrows that point in the direction you want to go on the map and fight your way through the mazes of impossible hallways and rooms until you reach the end of the level, and then you keep completing levels until there are no more. Also, some cool stuff happens in between like Turret sections, epic setpiece battles, and the occasional epic spaceship crash.

There’s a war going on. Not sure why though

You've got guns and a variety of little robots and devices to find to help you combat threats. Each of your arms has a holder for a weapon that you can activate with the trigger to bring the weapon into your hand, and you also have a couple of holsters on either leg.

Both of your arms have separate energy meters, and firing a weapon or using one of the unlockable abilities uses energy for that arm. You also have a personal shield that functions as your health. Your shields recharge once you haven't taken damage for a while, so if you take a lot of damage quickly you're destroyed.

Your shields will only recharge if you still have shield energy banked though, so you don't have infinitely recharging health, just a pool of health that can and will run out. You can recharge your energy at energy recharge stations and your shields at shield recharge stations as you progress through the game.

The recharge stations are pretty spread out, and once I did get into an infinite instant death loop because I had almost no health at both the autosave and the save at the start of the chapter. For some reason, not a single shield recharging station spawned throughout the entire second level, which is very likely unintentional and just a quirk of the procedural generation. This was not a fun time for me, though generally, you'll find enough of them spread out to avoid this frustration.

Recharging shields at a shield recharge station

As something designed as a roguelike, Tea For God also has a roguelike progression system. Every time you die you get experience points based on how far you got and how many enemies you destroyed. You can also find upgrade stations throughout the game, and some of these upgrades become unlockable in the main menu using these experience points.

You can fit two upgrades on each arm, at least in the advanced mode, in the action focused mode you can fit more. Some are passive like a damage boost, and some require clicking a button on your controller to activate like this amazing power I found that confuses all robots near you for a short period of time. I never would have gotten through my infinite dying loop in the second level of the game without it.

There are also a lot of weapons to find in the game. Sometimes just lying around, or dropped by enemies. these weapons all have different parts and stats to them. Some are slow charging and heavy hitting. Some rapid fire, and some even function as shotguns or burst firing pistols. However I found mostly powerful single shot weapons and craved more variety in my choices. That too, was probably a quirk of the generation.

The weapons in this game have a ton of stats

There are a couple of weapon types too. Mostly you'll be using plasma weapons, which are classic laser bolt shooters. Though there are also discharge weapons that function more like a futuristic taser, and corrosive weapons that shoot green at enemies and then cover them in a fart cloud.

Different enemy types will respond differently depending on what weapon you use. Some are armored and will shrug off weak attacks, some have shields you need to shoot around or punch through, and some try to avoid being destroyed by you by being small and fast. The enemy variety in Tea For God keeps you guessing, and that's a good thing.

You also fight these enemies in a variety of different environments. A lot of fighting takes place in the maze like series of corridors and rooms that you find yourself wandering through, but this is changed up pretty often with large areas and big combat arenas that get you into some longer ranged laser battles. Considering that you won't be using your joystick to slide from cover to cover, the combat feels really amazing in this game.

Gunfights feel a lot like SUPERHOT VR when you're physically peeking out from pieces of cover to get a shot off and then dashing to a new area to reposition. Not having to use clunky movement methods during a fight means that the fighting feels a lot more natural.

You're actually taking cover by moving to cover instead of joystick sliding towards it and ducking down. I damn near pulled a hamstring once or twice. The overall feel of the combat is intense and personal. However that tends to be the case mostly in large rooms and big epic fights. Most of the combat is done within the generated hallways and corridors.

The biggest fights are the best in Tea For God

The majority of the game is very cramped, even with the pretty big playspace I was using to record this footage. So most fights end up being at point blank range. This isn't as interesting as it could be, and I was really hungry for more variety in the combat.

I felt like fighting in the impossible space mazes was either a breeze or overwhelming as a few times in the game a seemingly infinite number of robots came out of nowhere. Only in the epic boss battle sections that were likely hand crafted and balanced combat experiences did the combat feel even between myself and the attacking robots.

Luckily, to even the odds you've got some devices you can find to help you out too. Like a shield that can absorb quite a bit of punishment before disappearing, or explosive traps that can be planted into a wall. Some of the little robots you find around function like this as well. Hostile robots are red while neutral ones are white or black, and some of the neutral robots are really helpful.

The little can shaped ones regenerate some energy, and you can press a switch on the spider bots to make them run towards the nearest enemy and explode. These combined with the unlockable abilities give you more options than just shooting and make the combat much more interesting if you think for a moment about how to approach each situation.

A prepared ambush in Tea For God

Tea For God doesn't explain this to you though, you'll have to figure out how these devices work when you first come across them, and that's an interesting thought in this game. Discovering the interactions you can do with these little robots to help you out is interesting and gave me a few aha moments that made me feel like a very smart cookie for figuring them out.

Either I just missed a lot of them, or there aren't as many as the developer likely wanted there to be. When you figure out a machine once, and they're generally not very complicated, you've figured out all of them forever.

Speaking of ideas with good intentions that didn't quite pan out in this game, there's also a sort of crafting system where you can exchange the parts of your weapons in special rooms. In fact the weapon system is really quite complicated with a lot going on under the hood.

Each weapon has an impressive set of stats to compare, match, and exchange. Personally, I never got really into this system. I exchanged some parts once or twice, but never had an "aha" moment where I really felt like I could improve something. Again, procedural generation, you have to work with what is generated for you to get.

Each weapon description reads like a book with a bunch of symbols and shorthand and well... figuring that out might be part of the game, but I felt better off understanding my weapons by blasting a bot or two with them instead of piecing together my own instruction manual for reading the description.

Protecting myself with a shield in Tea For God

So the combat, and really the whole game, is either an extremely fantastic one of a kind mind bending and unique VR experience, or just kind of okay. I really wish the excellent impossible space technology of Tea For God was combined with more interesting gameplay, and while procedural generation is necessary to make infinitely physically walking in a VR world possible, it feels like it really needs some tuning to give a more balanced feeling experience.

Tea For God Review - Visuals and Sound

Tea For God looks pretty basic. Lots of blocks, not much texturing to speak of, but cmon it's a futuristic sci fi distopia. Everything is usually pretty drab and that's a good thing here because the whole setting and world is drab. You're on a suicide mission, there's a war going on, and there's nothing natural and non robotic in sight

I really got the feel of this future where everything is huge and impressive and so advanced technologically, but also very bleak.

You don't see a single plant in the whole game, but a lot of guns, warships, and assembly lines. The world of Tea For God is awesome to visit, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

Earth is desolate in the future of Tea For God

There are still some incredible vistas and views, and after physically walking and running through the cramped interior mazes being suddenly presented with a grand vista of an impossible technological sci fi landscape is not only refreshing but absolutely amazing. A few times I found myself floored and enjoyed just looking at some of the ambitious and excellent scenery that really sells you the scale of the world you're in.

The sound is the same way. Simple, and mostly confined to a few generic sounding music tracks and the whirring and clacking of robots or the machines you are surrounded by.

There are a few moments, like when a warship passes overhead, where the boom of the insane science keeping it afloat really stopped and drew me in as it passed by. (clip here) These moments are pretty few though, and generally, the sound is serviceable, though Tea For God should really get some better weapon sound effects, they're the worst of all, have no punch, and sound cartoonish. Though I do have to say the robots did scare the hell out of me a few times, in a good way.

Overall it could use some more touch ups here and there, but generally, Tea For God looks and sounds minimalist, which I think works for the game's setting and makes complete sense considering there is a single developer and musician working on this.

There are a lot of very impressive views in this VR game

The last thing I'll talk about is the story. As I've mentioned the narrator sounds fantastic, but despite the strong premise the story just kind of... hangs. Your guy says some stuff, but most of it doesn't make sense and has no context.

There is maybe a race of bug aliens attacking. Also, tentacles are taking over some stuff. Uhhh yeah, the story is vague, full of proper nouns and names with no explanation, and really up to interpretation. The developer really went for the Dark Souls school of narrative design, but without awesome item descriptions to fill in the gaps and contemplate.

The story makes no sense, and unless you really like being generally confused about the wider world, we can leave the plot of Tea For God at "You're trying to get to the emperor to blow her up." Also shouldn't it be empress? The emperor is always called her, but then they say emperor instead of empress.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and try the Tea For God demo for the walking movement and impossible space procedural generation, it's absolutely mind melting and unique in a great way.

Despite all of the negative things I've said about Tea For God in this review I don't regret buying the full game and playing it through, and I don't regret creating this long review. It's an okay game with an insanely awesome way to move around with your real legs. It's available on the Quest store and Steam, and the demo is free.

Seriously. Try the demo, especially if you have a Quest. I highly recommend you try Tea For God for free. Okay, I'll stop now, enjoy yourself out there in VR.

All Enemies And Bosses In Battle Talent And Tips For Fighting Them

Battle Talent has quite a few enemies in it that I’ll put into a few broad categories. These are fantasy creatures, the Undead, and Humans. Here I’m going to go through all of them and give a tip or two on how to fight them.

So here’s every Battle Talent enemy and Battle Talent boss that you’ll fight in this VR game.

As you’re reading this keep in mind that a lot of these enemies have elite variants that are tougher than usual. If you see one (you can tell by the glowing red eyes and heavily armored body) just assume they’ll be stronger, tougher, and faster than the usual enemy but they will generally follow the same behavior as well as use heavy attacks that must be deflected to be blocked. (Deflecting is when you hit an incoming enemy blow with your weapon, hard, like attacking their weapon with your weapon.)

Fantasy Creatures - Goblins

The first enemies you’ll come across in the dungeon or adventure modes of Battle Talent are going to be goblins.

They’re decent starting enemies. Outside of the amped up elite variants they will go down pretty easily with a few solid hits, and most don’t attack extremely often. Though when goblins do attack they have a tendency to go around and behind you to attack your back.

Goblins come in two variants, little guys and big guys. Let’s talk about the little guys first.

Lil’ Goblins

Little Goblins

Little goblins are short, fragile, and not too bright. While they might have a little club or blade to hit you with most variants prefer to fight from far away with ranged weapons.

Their ranged weapons are daggers or bombs. The daggers can be swatted out of the air and don’t deal much damage if they hit you. The bombs have a very limited blast radius and hurt your enemies just like they hurt you, but they do deal a ton of damage, so be wary of them.

Little goblins love to try and duck and dive out of your way to avoid being hit, but they’re really not much trouble as long as you don’t completely ignore them. Take them out in a strike or two quickly so that they can’t sneak up on you. Little goblins are hopeless in a straight up fight.

Big Goblins

A big goblin

Big goblins are quite a bit more dangerous than their smaller cousins. They use more crude goblin weaponry like swords and clubs, and while they will actually sometimes block incoming blows by holding their blades in front of them their defense is very poor and they aren’t hard to take down. They will also throw daggers when given the chance just like little goblins, but not bombs.

The basic big goblin with a single weapon isn’t much of a threat, but they can quickly strike you if you’re not careful, and all big goblins will try to walk close to you to attack you. Goblins with two weapons and some armor are more elite and tend to be harder to take down and also very fast.

The big goblins’ favorite move is to dash around you and attack you from the sides or rear. The more armed and armored the goblin then the more likely they are to dash and attack you. Stay mobile and don’t let them get behind you. In frontal confrontations, they’re not the most dangerous enemies, but a group of them attacking at once can confuse you and attack from all directions. They love getting behind you.

A goblin shaman

Goblins also have shamans with a wand that lets them summon rocks from the ground and fling them at you. They’re mostly harmless as long as you see their spells coming and don’t stand in the path of the rocks.

They will mostly just try to back away from you in melee range. So get close to the shamans and chop them up. Just like little goblins, they’re only a threat if you completely ignore them.

White Goblins

A white goblin boss in Battle Talent

White goblins are basically just boss versions of big goblins. They’re bigger, tougher, stronger, have glowing red eyes, and are easily recognizable for their tallness and pale skin.

They wield dual blades and will dash around quickly to attack. They will also chain attacks into big combos of sweeping strikes, often ending with a strong attack that must be deflected to be blocked.

The good thing about the white goblins’ huge and consistent attacks is that deflecting them is fairly easy because not only do they attack quickly and often, but they swing their weapons in a wide arc. So just generally swinging your own weapon towards them while they are attacking will generally net you enough deflections to stun them and then quickly deal a lot of damage while they are stunned and defenseless.

Fantasy Creatures - Orcs

An orc boss in Battle Talent VR

Orcs in Battle Talent VR aren’t common enemies that you’ll see sprinkled into most fights, rather they’re boss monsters that will have their own arena dedicated to them.

You can tell an orc by their pale skin and huge stature. Not to mention their gigantic muscles and square heads.

Both orc variants carry large two handed weapons, a sword or a hammer, and they have similar movesets. Generally, the orc will lumber towards you, and when they get close will charge up a huge swing and release a combination attack on you. These massive swings are hard to deflect and hard to dodge.

As with many enemies that have attacks that are difficult to dodge, and many boss enemies, your best options are to either play keep away and quickly get away as they try to attack, strike once or twice, and then run away again, or use a charge attack deflect during one of their swings to stun them. (A charge deflect is when you hold your weapon over your shoulder until it vibrates to charge it, and then swing your weapon into the enemy’s swinging weapon to deflect it as usual.)

If you’re standing in the path of an Orc’s attack combination you’re probably going to take massive damage, except possibly with a shield held in front of you. So either don’t be there, hide behind a shield (which isn’t always effective), or deflect the attack.

Fantasy Creatures - Dark Elves

A dark elf enemy

Dark Elves are basically big goblins that don’t throw daggers, and attack you from the front more than dashing around you. They favor big sweeping sword attacks that leave their heads exposed. So go for the head.

The Undead - Basic Skeletons

A basic skeleton Battle Talent enemy with some armor

Skeletons are the most basic undead enemy, and you’ll start to see them once you’ve gotten tired of just fighting goblins for a while.

Skeletons tend to come in large packs, and they’ll march straight toward you without pausing to reposition or throw ranged attacks. They’re very mindless, and once a skeleton gets close they’ll just swing their weapon wildly at you. If you try to back away they’ll just keep walking towards you and swinging their weapon if you’re in range.

So skeletons are always predictable in a fight, and despite the array of medieval armor and weapons they use, are mostly fragile. While they can be chopped, blunt weapons like maces seem to be the most effective against them. Knocking their heads off is an easy way to take them out, and even deflecting one of their blows can turn them into a pile of bones.

Magic like the fireball spell is especially effective against skeletons and can destroy a whole pack of them in an instant. Though some skeletons are magical, which you can usually tell by them keeping their distance from you and not carrying a weapon. These skeletons will summon dark balls of energy that will track and follow you but can be neutralized by swatting them in the air with a weapon.

Some magical skeletons can even summon a stream of fire from their palm that they’ll point toward you like a flamethrower. Stay far away from the fire as it does a lot of damage quickly. Get behind the skeleton and bash them to pieces.

Just like goblin shamans the magical skeletons are very weak in melee range and will mostly just try to back away from you. So get close and knock them to pieces.

The Undead - Big Skeletons

A big skeleton

Big skeletons operate a lot like Skeletons, but a little smarter, a lot tougher, and much more dangerous.

Big Skeletons are not only taller than you but always have armor and most likely a shield. They also won’t fall apart in a single strike to the head. Big skeletons also have charged attacks that can only be deflected rather than blocked, so they function as the elite version of basic skeletons.

Instead of just taking them down quickly with a blunt weapon or magic, try deflecting their attacks to stun them or hit them quickly before running away from their attacks. Hit and run is very effective on big skeletons. Though their sweeping strikes are usually pretty easy to deflect, though their charge attacks are less so, especially when they bash you with their shield.

One of the elite Skeleton boss enemies. Recognizable because of his big cape

However, there are some fully armored Big Skeletons with capes (aka “vampires”) that are very fast and will attack you pretty quickly.

The caped skeletons also can instantly summon a ton of those dark energy balls that hone in on you. Just like when fighting most bosses it’s usually easiest to just deflect their attacks until they are stunned, and then deal massive damage to them.

The Undead - Wraiths

A Wraith

There are three varieties of wraith in Battle Talent, and I suggest you use the same tactic against all of them.

You can always tell a wraith by the fact that they’re the only enemies that float instead of walk with legs and that they’re pretty ugly and scary-looking like Halloween decorations. Their primary attack is a charge. They’ll psyche themselves up, and then fly in a straight line towards you while swinging their weapon wildly. Just run out of the way if one is coming at you and you’ll be fine. They don’t change course mid-attack and just go in a straight line.

Luckily wraiths aren’t as dangerous as they look. No matter which kind you come across they are basically hopeless at short ranges. Just strafe around them so you’re not in front of them and whack them in the head. They’ll go down easily.

A robed wraith

All wraiths also have magical attacks. The robed wraiths will summon ice to hit you, and the unrobed wraiths can call a stream of fire from their palms, which does a lot of damage.

When a wraith uses magic just get behind them and hit them until they fall or stop.

One of the white robed wraith Battle Talent bosses

The White Wraith is just a boss version of the other two sorts of wraiths. They’ll attack more often and have access to a variety of magical attacks.

Get close to them to hit them quickly, and then back away when they start attacking. Deflections are hard to pull off against this boss so hit and run attacks are more effective.

Humans

A human warrior enemy

Humans look, well, human. They’re generally very muscular and wear some light armor, though none come as heavily armored as goblins or the undead do. Human opponents come in a lot of varieties. In fact, that’s the most notable thing about them.

Out of all Battle Talent enemies, none of them have the variety of weapon types that the human opponents bring to the table, and that’s what makes it hard to give precise advice on how to combat them. Different weapon types come with different movesets. Humans with swords will slash, though not as wildly or widely as goblins do.

Humans with maces tend to do longer ranged dashing attacks, and human enemies of all kinds will slowly walk around in front of you until they see an opening, but not jump around wildly and try to get behind you as goblins do. On the other hand, they don’t just march straight for you and attack like skeletons, humans function like a mix of the stubbornness of skeletons and the tricky nature of the goblins.

Female human enemies using magic

There are some female human enemies, the most common of which are the ranged magical casters. Each carries an ice wand and will use it constantly to try to hit you with ice at range. Like other casters, they are hopeless in close combat. Just get close and take them down. The same goes for the female archer enemies. Just don’t let them hit you at range, and get close.

There are also bigger humans like there are of other enemies, and just like with those they are just generally tougher and faster, though most function a lot like their smaller counterparts. Though for humans specifically there is a Samurai sort of version wearing a canonical hat and wielding a katana that does a lot of charged attacks and will even attack you at range with magical wind strikes.

A samurai enemy

They’re also very tough, but as long as you aren’t directly in front of them when they attack you should be alright. Their blows are fast and hard to deflect, so just try to stay to their sides or rear so they don’t hit you.

Finally, there are the pale skinned boss humans. The same strategy that works on the white goblins works on them. Try to keep them in front of you and deflect their attacks to get an opening. They attack constantly and quickly.

The Final Boss

The Final Boss in Battle Talent

The final boss is, unsurprisingly, the most dangerous enemy in Battle Talent by a long shot. He wields a giant sword, is armored almost everywhere, and is only vulnerable to the same thing all bosses are vulnerable to, deflections. Except for the final boss, you’ll have to deflect more than ever to stun him.

He hits hard, he’s fast, and he summons lighting. The final boss will try to dash around to get behind you and strike with his sword. He will also charge up attacks that can only be deflected, and is generally fast and hard-hitting, though not the fastest. If you’re really on the ball his attacks are dodgeable, but they will keep coming.

The lightning that the final boss summons does a ton of damage, but you can tell when he’s summoning it because he will pause for a moment and raise his hand up slowly. Don’t be near him when he does this.

Otherwise do some great deflections, be fast on your feet, and get your hits in while you can. The final boss of Battle Talent can strike back at you even directly after completing another attack, so move quickly.

There you go, all of the Battle Talent VR enemies and Battle Talent VR bosses, hopefully this helps you out in your fights. Good luck and enjoy!

Complete Battle Talent VR Controls Guide And A Few Tips

Want to know the controls in the awesome VR Fighting Game Battle Talent VR?

Well, look no further because here they are, and a couple of tips for Battle Talent.

This guide assumes that you are using the default controls setup, and your controls can be changed in the settings menu that you can open by pressing the yellow button on your left wrist in the game, or when starting the game.

These controls also assume you are playing the game using a Meta Quest headset and therefore use the Oculus touch controller button layout. Different VR controller types will still have similar buttons that will work in the same fashion.

The Battle Talent Controls

Left Joystick - Move in the direction that you point the joystick in. Pump your arms up and down (as though you’re running) to increase your movement speed and run in the game (this can be changed in the settings menu). Pressing in on the left joystick also dodges backward if you have the dodge talent unlocked.

Right Joystick - Turn by pointing it left or right, either snap or smooth depending on your options. Pulling the right joystick backward also dodges if you have the dodge talent. Pressing the right joystick forward kicks if you have the Kick talent.

Grip buttons - Holds an item with your hand, and also distance grabs an item if you see the circle around its grip while you hover your hand over that item to get its description. Grip a holster to take the item out of it. You can also grab enemies and tear them apart with the appropriate talent, or just grab them without the talent, though this won’t work on tougher or larger opponents. There is even a special holster on your chest for potions.

Trigger - Activate the special ability of a weapon held in your hand. Opens or closes a potion bottle if the hand is holding a potion. If you have a spell gem in that hand and aren’t holding a weapon holding down the trigger will cast the spell in the gem. Pressing the trigger also selects things in in-game menus.

B - Jump, also skips dialog.

Y - Slow motion if you have the slow motion talent.

Oculus Button - Open the Oculus/Meta menu as in any Quest game.

Battle Talent Tips

As you can see in the controls above you’ll need to pump your arms to run, unless you change the arm swing options in the settings.

I recommend that you keep the arm swinging option on because it makes the movement in this game much more immersive and interesting during combat. Having to pump your arms to run keeps you from accidentally running too close to enemies before fighting them, which is a very common problem in VR Fighting Games.

However, it can be a little annoying when you’re holding a two handed weapon using both of your hands.

You might naturally think that the best option here is to let go of your two handed weapon with one of your hands so that both can move independently, but you don’t have to do this to run in Battle Talent while holding a two handed weapon.

Instead, you can move your arms up and down while still holding the weapon, which lets you run while maintaining your grip. Just keep holding on and move one hand up while moving the other downwards.

Just like you can swing your arms to run faster, if you swing your arms while jumping you will jump higher! This is especially useful for parkour challenges or jumping over gaps in dungeons.

Running by swinging your arms in Battle Talent VR

One final note, pay attention to how you’re blocking your opponents’ attacks. Some attacks will also cause the enemy’s weapon to have red particles dance along it.

Those red attacks can only be blocked by “deflecting” it. Deflecting an attack is done by swinging at your opponent’s weapon while they are swinging. This will not only block any attack but also stun most enemies. This also works on normal attacks! Deflecting attacks makes fighting bosses in Battle Talent much easier.

That’s it for the Battle Talent Controls and also a few tips about the game. If you have any more tips to share feel free to post them in the comments. Enjoy!

A Fantastic VR Hunting Game - Virtual Hunter Review

Doing actual, real life hunting, sounds pretty hard.

I mean think about it, you have to get all the gear, which must be expensive, and get a license.

Then you have to wait for the right time of year, drive out to your nearest hunting ground, and then avoid being shot by somebody else while you wait for hours, maybe all day, for an animal to appear.

Then you have to shoot another living creature, which doesn't sound easy either, and even in the best case scenario, you have a whole carcass you have to haul off and eat or whatever.

I've never actually been hunting, so any real hunters out there feel free to correct me in the comments, but all of that sounds pretty hard and time consuming.

Hunting gear varies a lot, and there is a lot of different equipment you can use in Virtual Hunter

So as a VR gamer, and if you're seeing this you can probably relate, I'd much rather get all of the highs and lows of the hunting experience by strapping my Meta Quest 3 to my face and doing a little virtual hunting in VR. At least that was my thought process when trying out Virtual Hunter for the first time.

There are hunting flatscreen games out there, plenty over the years, but a VR hunting game was something I hadn't experienced before running across Virtual Hunter, so I was intrigued. Needless to say, since I've written this article about it, Virtual Hunter kept being intriguing and is a really unique VR experience.

Sure, there are other VR games where you do some hunting, but that's not the core of those games and the hunting mechanics are pretty straightforward. In this VR Hunting Game, hunting is all of the game, and that focus made it very fun. So to explain the feeling of playing Virtual Hunter it would be easiest to just tell you the story of my first successful hunt.

Tracking your prey is a huge part of Virtual Hunter

Virtual Reality Hunting In Virtual Hunter

For the record, this wasn't my first Virtual Reality hunt in this game, just my first successful hunt. At this point, I'd spent an hour at least just running through the woods chasing animal calls and not even spotting a single critter or firing a shot.

My successful hunt started off with a little luck, and after finding some fox tracks and hearing a fox noise in the distance, I was on the trail. Sure this wasn't big game or anything, but we all have to start somewhere. I was very cautious trailing this fox. I didn't want to go too quickly and possibly scare it off. So I took my time, and followed.

Though when tracking this fox in Virtual Hunter I never felt bored, despite doing mostly nothing but walking in a straight line and looking through my scope from time to time. I actually felt pretty excited. There was a constant sense of anticipation. I felt that at any moment I might actually spot my elusive pray. I followed the tracks, found some droppings, and the fox calls kept coming from closer and closer.

Following the fox’s trail

After following it for a while, I didn't even know how long, I spotted it. The excitement at not shooting, but just seeing the animal I was following was incredible. I'd actually done it, tracked an animal successfully, and it was in plain sight in a large field. A more experienced hunter might have gone prone, crawled a little closer, and really lined up their shot to hit something vital.

I, being a very inexperienced hunter, immediately lined up and fired. Something in the back of my brain panicked and thought that just by the act of my seeing it the fox would realize I was behind it and run away. I thought that I should just take the shot and risk it, which was a bad idea. I did hit the fox at least, but not in any vital organs. So it ran away. I saw it run and immediately chased after it.

The chase after a shot is another exhilarating part of VR hunting. My prey left a trail of blood and poop, they always seem to poop a lot after you shoot them in this game.

I was right on the fox’s tail and sprinted across the field. The blood trail was even easier to follow. I tracked with more urgency, maybe too quickly, but after a short chase, I spotted it once again across a field, about to enter some trees. It was a long shot for me, but I lined it up and took it anyway.

Just spotting an animal was incredibly hard in Virtual Hunter, but also incredibly rewarding

I looked through my scope after rechambering another round and saw the fox just lying there. I ran over, not really believing that I'd done it. Succeeding just once had taken me a couple of hours, but the feeling of success after having to try so hard to get it was so worth the effort.

Virtual Hunter shows you where and what you hit with your shots, and it wasn't surprising that I'd missed all vital organs with both hits, but on a fox two bullets alone were enough.

Since a fox is a small animal it wasn't worth much in ingame currency, but that didn't really matter to me. What mattered were the highs and lows of the tracking and the chase. Since then I've repeated this process quite a few times on quite a few animals.

Two hits, but that was enough

Not all animals are the same, and there are enough differences in them and the terrain you hunt them in that it keeps things interesting, but even though most of the game is just walking through the woods, it's not boring. The sense of anticipation is constant when you're on an animal's trail.

The feeling that at any moment you might spot one and take your shot, and then the aftermath of that shot, is what keeps this game from being more than a walking simulator. It doesn’t get old, it honestly just gets better as you find more types of animals and unlock more options in the store.

That's why Virtual Hunter is the Best VR Hunting Game around. It's also really the only VR hunting game around, and it's still in development with regular updates.

The only part of Virtual Hunter that I’d say is boring in this review could be when you wander around and aren’t actively tracking an animal. This period of the game is usually short, but you’re really waiting for something to happen, which isn’t terribly interesting. Though the waiting does make hearing an animal call or finding some tracks feel all the more exciting.

There is also some jankiness due to the unfinished nature of the game, and you might have noticed that it doesn't look the best graphically, though some of that can be blamed on me streaming the game to a Meta Quest 3, which doesn't work the best with unoptimized games.

So Virtual Hunter still needs some work to be all that it can be, I won't deny that, but the jankiness that it has I've happily ignored to experience the thrill of the hunt while standing in my living room. It's a unique VR experience that I never thought I would enjoy so much.

New AI In Swordsman VR Breathes Life Back Into This VR Sword Fighting Game

So, Swordsman VR just released a new experimental update that brings big improvements to the combat AI in the game. This new experimental AI feature makes them much more responsive in combat and brings the enemies in Swordsman VR much closer to the feeling of sword fighting an actual opponent.

When I was fighting the improved AI opponents I felt that they defended themselves much better than they used to. Despite the fact that a lot of their attacks still seem to be predetermined animations, they definitely still responded with their attacks in response to what you were doing in a much better way.

An AI Samurai blocking an incoming attack in Swordsman VR.

For instance, if you would go for a risky lunge trying to stab an enemy under the armpit, they would counterattack if they weren't in a good position to defend your thrust. Otherwise, unless their sword was way out of position, they would often be able to at least attempt to block or repost your attacks. This is much different from how fighting the AI in Swordsman VR used to feel and play.

Once you got the hang of the game, the enemies felt a lot like punching bags, where the only challenge was to not get hit when they attacked, and then stab them immediately. Their defense was terrible. Now, their ability to have a back and forth with you when you're fighting makes them feel a lot more like an actual opponent. Their ability to reliably block your incoming attacks makes them both more formidable and more interesting.

With this AI update, Swordsman VR feels a lot more like actual fencing. You'll attack, and if it's not a very good attack, especially when your opponent is ready to block you, they'll often swipe your blade out of the way.

The AI have become much better at defending themselves. After they block, they'll often riposte with an attack of their own, and sometimes they'll stay defensive. Each sword fight is more situational, and not as predictable as it used to be.

There are still some problems with the AI reacting to more dishonorable tactics, however. Rushing in with a shield to block off their sword arm while wildly stabbing them up close still worked too well. It would have been better if the AI backed off if you got too close and they were clearly at a disadvantage.

Bullying an enemy with a shield in Swordsman VR

So, it's definitely not perfect yet. Still, the enemies have a much better defense, they'll see your attacks coming, and they'll also attack you when you're not ready for it a lot more. These are all great improvements. However I did run into a bug where the bosses would basically blow up the moment I engaged them, and I would win automatically. Bugs are to be expected with big changes, though this was a very bad bug. Undoubtedly it will be fixed soon.

The one big complaint I have so far is how enemies defend their legs. I still felt like the enemies did not do a great job defending their legs, which, if you've played Swordsman VR, you know is their primary weak point. The one strategy that I could always use without fail would be to duck really low, and just stab the AI in the legs constantly.

Maybe the AI would advance a little and get a swipe on the back of your head, but when they're trying to block down low, it's like they can't quite cover all of their legs and their feet. The legs are still a major weak point for the enemies. They should have weak points that you can exploit, sure, but you should only be able to exploit them under circumstances that you create to make the fight more favorable to you.

You shouldn't be able to always stab them in the legs so easily. So, they definitely need their defense beefed up there. Still, the fact that they can defend themselves much better and have a back and forth riposte, parry, attack, lunge, exchange with you, at all, is a very marked improvement for this game.

I've always enjoyed Swordsman VR, but after playing through it and defeating all of the bosses, it kind of lost a lot of its luster, because by then you've mastered the game. You could defeat the enemies easily once you figured out how stupid they were. There was nothing new to any of the fights.

Enabling the Combat AI Update makes Swordsman VR a lot more fun

If Sinn Studio continues working on this and continues improving their enemy AI, then they really achieve their goal of having the best Singleplayer sword fighting experience in Virtual Reality.

This update shows a lot of potential for the direction that Sinn Studio is bringing Swordsman VR. I really hope they can bring this game continually forward to the next level. I cannot stress enough that this update is incredible. It's really given me a lot more love for the game, and it's really made me want to play through it again.

After they finish improving the AI though, it would be really great if they took another long look at the campaign and how the levels and progression are structured.

Maybe try to make the game more of an RPG than it already is. There's some great RPG elements in there already. There's already a progression system, but it feels a little boring to go through after you've already done it once. It would be really nice to see a Single Player campaign rework in Swordsman.

This could be something similar to Grimlord or Legendary Tales. That would be really nice to see built on top of the improvements that they're making to the fighting AI. If they bring it just a little bit further, it will definitively be the best single player VR sword fighting game out there.