Farpoint is a first-person shooter video game that takes place in virtual reality. It was made by Impulse Gear and put out by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It came out on May 16, 2017, for the PlayStation 4, and most reviews were good.
Farpoint Game Review
Farpoint is the most original and primary first-person shooter you'll play this year. This sci-fi story is the next big thing for PlayStation VR. It takes you to an alien planet and gives you a brand-new accessory to keep the space bugs away. So, the design of Impulse Gear's first game can sometimes feel very old, but the fact that you can use a real gun in virtual reality makes up for it.
You play as a pilot who has to get a couple of smart but funny scientists back to their homes. They are tethered to the Pilgrim, a space station built to look into a radiation problem near Jupiter. Of course, it doesn't take long in Farpoint for things to go wrong. A wormhole opens and whisks our brave hero and some scientists to a faraway land where spiders the size of the Taj Mahal live.
The story is told awkwardly through decoded flashbacks, and it sometimes moves too quickly to make its point. But despite the cheesy writing, it has some surprising human moments and turns out to be more interesting than you might think. That doesn't mean it will win any awards, but the way the characters talk to each other is pretty impressive, especially since virtual reality takes place.
It's probably the best-looking PlayStation VR game, and it lives up to its name as a real AAA virtual reality game. Environments, especially later ones, have a great sense of scale, and even though the world can feel a little empty, it makes sense in the story's context. The models of weapons are very detailed, which is good since you can turn them around with the PlayStation VR Aim Controller.
Even though you don't have to use the accessory to play (the DualShock 4's gyroscopes are used instead), it's as close to a must-have as possible. The gun has all of the inputs you'd typically find on a PS4 controller, but it maps them so that they're all easy to reach while you hold the plastic gun like a real gun. It means that you can move and turn like any other first-person shooter, but you also have a weapon at your fingertips.
And even though it has the usual PlayStation Move problems, like occasional drifting and you can't shoot directly behind you, it works surprisingly well. To aim down the sights of your futuristic assault rifle, you have to look down the barrel of your virtual gun. You can also blind-fire and lean around the cover without having to learn button presses; you do what feels natural.
This new feature makes up for the game's 90s-style graphics, which can get annoying in the first few hours. The release has many of the same types of enemies, which can get boring early on. However, the campaign's second half gets much more challenging, so it's worth it in the end. We're unsure if the game starts slowly on purpose or because the creators wanted to ease players in.
The story and the action pick up a lot in the last third, which is a good thing. The enemies can be a little too soft, but the combat is so much fun, especially with the PlayStation VR Aim Controller. The deep satisfaction of getting a headshot, which you can judge perfectly by looking at the scene in stereoscopic 3D and aiming with the gun in your hands, makes the game stand out.
There is a case of novelty at play, though. Without the virtual reality, the campaign wouldn't be nearly as memorable, and the gunplay wouldn't be as good. You can also tell that more could have been done: you can move wherever you want, but the release never gives you a reason to explore, so it feels like you're being led through the environments.
Still, you'll spend a lot of time in the game's alien world, as the main story missions are remade as arcade games with timers and score multipliers. It gives you an excellent reason to play again, and with the addition of online leaderboards, you'll spend a lot of time in this mode if you like the core gunplay.
There's also co-op, but we haven't been able to thoroughly test it because the game hasn't come out yet. The game, on the other hand, feels complete. The menu system is in a 3D world that you can freely explore, and the world changes as you play, with bobbleheads and plushies, added as you go. This clever use of technology makes virtual reality games more immersive than other games.
Farpoint relies on its uniqueness to make up for its other flaws, but using the PlayStation VR Aim Controller is such a unique experience that it hides the fact that the game's design is pretty old. The story is cheesy, but there are some excellent parts, and as the campaign winds down, the action picks up. Impulse Gear's first game is a good one. It has an arcade mode and co-op, and while it could be better, it shows that blockbuster first-person shooters could work on PlayStation VR.