What has PSVR 2 got right and wrong?

Sony’s PSVR 2 has been available for just over a year now, originally launching on February 22, 2023. Thus we’ve had plenty of time to analyze the state of the PS5 exclusive VR headset; where it’s been, and where it’s going in the future. In short, it’s not been great, and it certainly doesn’t look good.

While an excellent bit of kit in its own right with specs that compete with some of the best VR headsets out there, things haven’t looked too bright on the software side of things. Its price remains a sticking point, too, especially as the Meta Quest 3 – a much more compelling headset right now – largely outclasses it in terms of both price and versatility.

But perhaps that’s a little unfair. Sony has, after all, recently announced that it’s been working on getting PSVR 2 compatible with PC – though in what capacity remains to be seen. As a result, though, this could mean that PSVR 2 has a decent life ahead of it. But at present, there’s simply very little reason to own Sony’s headset unless you’re desperate to play a relatively modest number of exclusive games.

Where are the exclusives?

Let’s begin at launch. PSVR 2 did have a fairly impressive launch line-up, spearheaded by Horizon: Call of the Mountain which I genuinely believe to be not only the best game in the series but an excellent VR exclusive in its own right. It’s a highly polished offering, featuring varied and energetic play paired with a slew of welcome accessibility options.

Unfortunately, most other PSVR 2 games at launch weren’t exclusive to the headset, and can also be found within the Meta Quest and Steam VR game libraries. These include Kayak VR, Townsmen VR, and Puzzling Places. All wonderful titles in their own right, just not what you’d call flagships or system sellers.

The headset did pick up steam somewhat in the following months, with fully-featured VR modes for Gran Turismo 7, Resident Evil Village, and Resident Evil 4. These were all free additions, too, baked right into the base games themselves. Following these, further VR exclusives launched in the form of Humanity, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, Synapse and C-Smash VRS.

So while PSVR 2’s exclusives line-up isn’t predominantly made up of PlayStation Studios titles, I don’t think the ‘lack of exclusives’ argument holds up quite as well now as it may have done half a year ago. Even though some experiences are complementary VR modes, I believe they can still be counted as their own thing, and as such there are plenty of exclusives to enjoy for PSVR 2 in 2024.

Recently, Sony confirmed that it’s testing support for “additional games on PC.” The announcement was quietly snuck into an official PlayStation Blog post, and the wording is quite vague. Among the best-case scenarios would be full parity with Steam VR titles.

That would mean having access to superb VR games like Half-Life: Alyx and Boneworks without needing to shell out for another headset like Valve Index. However, as PSVR 2 doesn’t have mixed reality (tech that imposes virtual elements over your real-world surroundings) support, such experiences likely won’t be available to it on PC.

Sony hopes to make this PC support available sometime in 2024, so PSVR 2 could have a bright future ahead of it away from PS5. However, that’s only one side of the coin. The other is potentially much bleaker, signaling an end for PSVR 2 support on its native console.

There is some evidence that this could be happening right now. Another recent harrowing round of layoffs saw Sony cut about 8% of its workforce; roughly 900 employees. Much of these were from studios like UK-based Firesprite, developer of the aforementioned Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Furthermore, PlayStation’s London Studio has been shuttered entirely. The developer had previously made VR projects like Blood & Truth and PlayStation VR Worlds. As a result, much of Sony’s VR talent has now been, or will be, let go.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean that we shouldn’t expect more first-party PSVR 2 exclusives, it’s a sign that Sony could be scaling back in-house software development for its VR headset.

The Meta-Phant in the room

The Meta Quest 3 and its controllers on a table next to a plant pot with a green fern in and a gold lamp

Easily the greatest threat to PSVR 2’s place in the market is the Meta Quest 3. And there are plenty of reasons as to why this is the case, and why the Quest 2 successor sits atop our best VR headsets list.

In terms of specs, PSVR 2 and Quest 3 are actually quite similar on paper. While I prefer PSVR 2’s vivid OLED display, Quest 3 has it beat in the resolution department coming in at 2,064 x 2,208 pixels per eye. This offers a slightly sharper image than PSVR 2’s 2,000 x 2,040. Elsewhere, both are capable of refresh rates up to 120Hz.

While both headsets feature a passthrough camera – making it easy to view your real-world surroundings at the touch of a button – it’s much more fleshed out on Quest 3. Meta’s headset supports mixed reality experiences which also makes it a better fit for productivity and leisure apps. There’s something of a trade-off here with PSVR 2, which has integrated eye tracking features that Quest 3 lacks. This lets you use your eyes as a cursor, or for various gameplay elements such as focusing on certain objects.

“there’s not much of a reason – at least right now – to purchase a PSVR 2 over a Meta Quest 3.”

Where Quest 3 really wins out, however, is in price and versatility. PSVR 2 will run you $549.99 / £529.99, a bit more than Quest 3’s retail price of $499.99 / £479.99. That doesn’t sound like much of a difference at first inspection, but it’s worth noting that, at present, PSVR 2 requires a PS5 in order to, well, function. As a result, the combined investment reaches the $1,000 / £1,000 threshold, and that’s before you’ve purchased any additional games or PSVR 2 accessories.

There’s no such restriction with Meta Quest 3. You buy the headset, and it can be used either standalone (wirelessly at that) or hooked up to your PC. It’s also compatible with Meta’s own game and app library, as well as that of Steam VR.

In conclusion, there’s not much of a reason – at least right now – to purchase a PSVR 2 over a Meta Quest 3. It’s possible that Sony is well aware of this, and could be cutting its losses by sunsetting official support and looking into PC compatibility. In fairness, being able to use PSVR 2 on both PS5 and PC would increase its value proposition exponentially. But I don’t think this will be enough; a slight price cut – perhaps something more in line with the Quest 3 – would make it even more appealing.

But until that time, the Quest 3 is a much better option if you’re getting into VR for the first time. Unless you’re desperate for that OLED display or bespoke eye tracking, the Quest 3 remains our headset of choice in 2024. There’s been highlights for PSVR 2, certainly, but as competing headsets offer more for less, it’s got a seemingly impossible second year ahead of it.

The post PSVR 2: A Year In Review appeared first on Review Products.

India isn’t seen as a huge market for handheld gaming consoles. Nintendo doesn’t have an official presence here at all, Sony never really promoted the PS Vita, and there’s no hope of the Steam Deck coming in anytime soon. There clearly is some demand, evidenced by the easy availability of grey-market Nintendo Switch units, online listings for niche Chinese manufacturers such as Ayaneo, and even small yet vocal crowds of retro console enthusiasts in forums online. However, they’re a microscopic niche compared to smartphone gamers here, with PUBG/BGMI becoming a cultural phenomenon and even casual titles making enormous money. Over 500 million Indians are estimated to play games on their smartphones; double what the figure was just five years ago. That’s incredible in terms of sheer market potential.

But what games are these people playing, how much are they willing to spend, and how does the hardware and software fit into their lives? Is there space for a dedicated portable gaming device in the Indian market? And can the new Asus ROG Ally, which costs more than some entry-level gaming laptops, fill it? After spending some time with the device, and some conversations with Asus, here’s what I think.

Asus ROG Ally price in India

Internationally, there are two variants of the ROG Ally, and the only difference is the choice of SoC – AMD’s new Ryzen Z1 powers the lower-end one, while the more capable Ryzen Z1 Extreme can deliver better performance in games. Asus has brought only the higher-end version to India, at least for now. This makes sense, because it isn’t competing with anything on price and you might as well make a good impression with the best possible performance. It costs Rs. 69,990 which isn’t bad considering the specifications.

You don’t get very much in the box – just a fairly oversized charger and a power cable. It’s particularly disappointing that there’s no case, since this is by nature a portable device. Asus does sell a case which has compartments for microSD cards and can function as a stand, but that’s an added cost. Third-party alternatives should be available soon.

The ROG Ally’s 7-inch screen is just the right size for comfortable gaming

Asus ROG Ally: What it is and who it’s for

Appearance aside, the ROG Ally is much closer to a full-fledged computer than a handheld console. It has a standard processor with an integrated GPU, and all the components you’d expect except a keyboard and trackpad. It boots up just like a PC and runs Windows 11 Home. This is its greatest strength, because it can run pretty much any PC game including plenty of free ones – but also its greatest weakness, because you’re using software and hardware in ways they might not have originally been designed for. We’ll get into this in much more detail soon.

You can run almost any PC game, and most recent ones actually work surprisingly well. Asus isn’t interested in creating its own ecosystem to compete with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, so there’s no custom hardware or software and no tie to a specific game store. You can download anything from the Internet, including through the Steam, Epic, EA, etc stores. You can install any company’s launcher, use cloud or subscription services, and even hook up an external drive via USB to copy files over. That also opens up a huge world of free games (and ones obtained in less-than-ethical ways). Besides, titles usually cost far less on PC than they do on consoles, and older games are often heavily discounted.

But then there’s that Rs. 69,990 price – if you’re a mobile gamer looking to get to the next level, you probably want a gaming laptop. The ROG Ally isn’t a replacement or alternative, unless you have extreme space constraints plus a computer that you already use for non-gaming tasks.

The buttons and sticks on the ROG Ally are modelled on Microsoft’s Xbox controller layout

Asus imagines that people will use the ROG Ally not only as a handheld, but also docked with a TV. You could even pick up one of the company’s XG Mobile external GPUs, which start at around Rs. 80,000 in India and go up to Rs. 1,82,990 for a GeForce RTX 4090) to turn the ROG Ally into a full gaming setup with up to a 4K monitor or TV.

Other than price and size, two big considerations are battery life and performance while running on battery power, which we’ll test soon. Another thing to remember is that a lot of PC games require always-on or periodic Internet connectivity, so the ROG Ally might not be all that suited for those who want to play games on a long flight or while commuting.

And then there are non-gaming use cases too – you definitely won’t want to browse the Web or type office documents on the tiny 7-inch touchscreen, but it’s better than a phone for watching movies on. Plus, a cheap USB dock and some peripherals could make the ROG Ally quite versatile in many situations.

The ROG Ally seems to be something you’d have in addition to a more traditional gaming setup – a bit of an indulgence, maybe for a student who wants to keep it hidden in a dorm, a frequent traveler, or a very committed couch potato. It’s hard to imagine choosing the Ally instead of a similarly priced laptop. Hopefully in the future, prices will go down and devices like this will make up a new, more affordable tier of gaming PCs.

You get a simple stand in the box, but a carry case would have been much more appreciated

Asus ROG Ally design and capabilities

Physically, the ROG Ally is a little bigger than the Nintendo Switch and quite a lot smaller than the Steam Deck. The general layout of buttons and controls is deliberately modelled on an Xbox controller, to make gaming on Windows as seamless as using Microsoft’s own hardware. Asus says it focused a huge amount of engineering effort on keeping weight down, and the final 608g was achieved through some very creative structural work as well as paying attention to every little detail, down to the design of the fan blades and every last hardware choice.

It’s comfortable to hold, and the weight is fine. My index fingers sat naturally on the triggers and my ring fingers found the macro paddles on the back. The front-firing speakers aren’t obstructed by a user’s palms at all, and sound is surprisingly rich and clear. There are also stereo mics with noise cancelling. A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button on the top.

Of course, front and centre we have the 7-inch full-HD display. I think Asus got the size and proportions right – I never had to hold the ROG Ally too close to my face. Viewing angles aren’t the greatest and colours are fine, but don’t pop especially. That said, Windows 11 was clearly not designed for this screen size, and some text elements can be hard to read. Text input is the most painful, particularly during the Windows 11 setup process. The virtual keyboard can take up half the screen when docked, and cover what you’re trying to do when floating. I found myself using a stylus rather than trying to finger-pick letters, and it felt like typing on an old-school PDA at times. You can use the macro paddles on the rear to trigger several common Windows functions, but that requires memorising them.

There are two small buttons on either side of the screen – you might recognise the Menu and View buttons if you’re an Xbox user, and that’s exactly what they’re for in games. There’s also a button for Asus’ custom control panel on the left, and an Armoury Crate software shortcut on the right.

The power and volume buttons as well as all ports are on the top of the ROG Ally

The ABXY buttons are colour-coded but in a very muted palette. Button quality is decent; not much different from a console controller. The trigger buttons use Hall effect sensors and allow for analogue control based on how far you press them. Asus hasn’t announced plans for swappable buttons, triggers and sticks like you might find on some high-end console controllers. There’s also a 6-axis gyro sensor and vibrators in each grip, which some but not all games can take advantage of.

Asus has shown many design prototypes it experimented with before settling on this design. Overall, it’s pretty plain. It doesn’t scream “gamer” with any sharp lines or bright accents but you do get a bit of RGB flair around the analogue sticks and a reflective strip on the back. The diagonal slash matches the current ROG series aesthetic. The company says it has gone with textures that work well for grip and allowing sweat on your palms to evaporate. The Ally is only available in white, and I hope the plastic doesn’t get discoloured after long months of gaming with sweaty palms.

Build quality feels pretty good – even with vigorous button mashing and the inevitable bending and twisting that happens when caught up in the action of a game, the ROG Ally never felt delicate or cheap. The display uses Gorilla Glass Victus with an anti-reflective coating. There’s no IP rating because the active cooling requires open air vents, although Asus says they are filtered to prevent dust ingress. One negative is that the ports and slot on the top aren’t protected; a rubber flap would have been appreciated.

The paddles on the rear let you trigger macros when pressed in combination with other buttons

Asus ROG Ally specifications and software

At the heart of the ROG Ally is the new AMD Ryzen Z1 series of SoCs. These are slightly trimmed versions of the Ryzen 7040 series chips, codenamed “Phoenix” and originally designed for premium ultralight laptops. They’re based on the current Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 GPU architectures. The Ryzen Z1, which we won’t see in India yet, features six CPU cores and four GPU compute units, while the Ryzen Z1 Extreme steps up to eight CPU cores and 12 GPU units. Maximum boost clock speeds are 4.9GHz and 5.1GHz respectively, Both have 9-30W TDP ranges.

That’s a surprising amount of power and explains the need for a dual-fan cooling system. What we have here is essentially an entire laptop’s worth of hardware packed into a thick rectangle rather than a clamshell. It’s surprising that AMD is marketing both these chips as explicitly optimised for handheld gaming, since they could power various types of miniature PCs.

Back to the ROG Ally though, we also have 16GB of LPDDR5 memory which is of course soldered and not upgradeable. The SSD is a 512GB PCIe 4.0 unit and is socketed, though the smaller M.2 2230 form factor isn’t very easily available. Asus says ROG Ally owners are free to perform an upgrade, but it will void their warranty so it’s best to have trained service centre staff do it.

Asus went with a 7-inch, full-HD 120Hz “IPS level” display. It supports AMD Freesync Premium, brightness is rated at 500nits and colour reproduction is 100 percent sRGB. The battery capacity is 40Wh which is understandable for a handheld. You get a 65W USB-PD charging brick, which is surprisingly bulky and seems to be the same one that the company ships with some of its laptops. There’s no mention of quick charging.

Asus’ Armoury Crate SE software lets you tweak the controller inputs and set system-wide options

You get just one USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) Type-C port for charging and connecting peripherals such as a portable SSD. It can also be used for an external display over DisplayPort 1.4. This port is part of Asus’ proprietary XG Mobile Interface, which essentially lets you route PCIe lanes externally. The XG Mobile docks, initially designed for the ultra-compact ROG Flow laptop series, give you a huge boost in GPU power and multiple additional ports including Ethernet, USB, and multiple display outputs. There’s also Wi-Fi 6E (which isn’t technically licensed to work in India) and Bluetooth 5.2.

The ROG Ally also has a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. Asus states that you can install almost any game onto a microSD card and it will only be marginally slower than using the SSD, which in theory would be a great way to carry more games and content around with you. Unfortunately recent reports have confirmed that microSD cards are prone to failure due to the slot’s proximity to a hot air vent.

One big challenge for Asus was making the Windows 11 UI manageable on such a small screen, and so the Armoury Crate SE software acts as a launcher, with your games front and centre. It also has a bunch of options for customising everything from the analogue stick responsiveness to Aura Sync lighting and checking for firmware updates. You can use it to launch individual games as well as storefronts such as Steam and the Xbox app if you have a Game Pass subscription.

The Command Centre overlay can be called up within games, and gives you big, touch-friendly buttons. You can control brightness and volume, but more importantly toggle between performance modes (30/25W, 15W and 10W), change game profiles, and pull up useful tools. You can fully customise its layout and add shortcuts for the Windows desktop, on-screen keyboard, and task manager. For power users, there are controls letting you cap screen resolution and refresh rate on the fly, toggle an FPS limiter and use AMD Radeon Software features such as Radeon Image Sharpening and Radeon Super Resolution upscaling.

You can pull up this panel at any time to change system performance parameters

Asus ROG Ally usage and performance

There are loads of system settings you can tweak, and so performance can be tricky to measure. I noticed that the 30W Turbo mode was only available when using the ROG Ally with its bundled 65W charger – the TDP was capped at 25W when on battery power and even when using a third-party 61W adapter. More interestingly, plugging in a USB Type-C dock and routing power through that also limited the Ally to 25W. This was a bit of a surprise, and you’ll probably encounter this too, since most docks don’t specify their passthrough power ratings.

Speaking of docks, I found mine to be indispensable when setting up the ROG Ally and performing general tasks in Windows. A fast wired Internet connection really helped when downloading 100GB+ games. In fact, I had to daisy-chain two hubs because I needed at least one USB port for an external SSD and one each for a keyboard and mouse, plus pass-through power. Wireless peripherals will take some of this load off but the Ally really needs at least one more USB port – it is after all a full Windows PC. If you’re planning to use a desktop monitor or TV, output resolution and refresh rate might also depend on the chain of docks and cables or adapters you use.

The 30W mode is what you should be using for gaming when plugged in. This unlocks the Ryzen Z1 Extreme’s full performance, and also reveals one of its biggest limitations. You can’t use the full potential of the ROG Ally unless it’s plugged in to a power source – this is normal for laptops, but a bit frustrating for a handheld.

The supplied power brick is quite large by today’s standards

Battery life is also greatly affected when the higher power modes are enabled. As you’ll see from the benchmark test and game performance scores below, you can get decent enough performance in heavy games at 30/25W but 15W is more sensible for battery-powered gaming. FPS numbers drop drastically and disproportionately at the 10W setting, so this is only really advisable when you’re doing things like watching videos or running non-game software.

You can expect 1-2 hours of gaming at reasonable settings, using the 15W mode. This of course depends on which game you choose, but that still isn’t a lot. Asus rates video playback time at 6 hours using the 10W mode. Our graphics-heavy Battery Eater Pro test ran for 2 hours, 23 minutes at 10W. This won’t get you through a long road trip but most plane seats have power outlets these days so that’s at least one possibility. Charging isn’t particularly quick – I noted a 20 percent battery level after 10 minutes of charging when completely switched off.

All games and tests were run at the 25W setting to gauge maximum performance under ordinary conditions, except where noted. Starting with general performance tests, the ROG Ally scored 6,886 points in the synthetic PCMark benchmark’s standard run, and 6,891 points in its Extended run. Geekbench 6 managed a single-core score of 2,521 and a multi-core score of 11,570. Cinebench R23 is another popular standardised test, and it completed its render workload with 1,761 points with a single active thread and 14,108 points with all threads active.

The ROG Ally should have had at least one more USB Type-C port for charging while peripherals are plugged in

The POVRay render test finished its default benchmark in just 52 seconds. The browser-based Webxprt 4, Basemark Web, and Jetstream 2 tests returned scores of 282, 1969.65, and 273.372 respectively. Compressing our standard 3.24GB folder of assorted files with 7-zip took 1 minute, 28 seconds and transcoding a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265 using Handbrake took 41 seconds.

At 25W, all these scores are roughly on par with or better than what you can expect from the recently launched 15-inch MacBook Air, although Apple’s M2 SoC only needs passive cooling. The ROG Ally also handily beats a current-gen Windows-based ultraportable, the LG Gram 14 (14Z90Q), with its low-power Intel Core i7-1260P processor. Most of that is down to AMD’s beefy integrated GPU.

For the sake of comparison, I ran some tests again in the 10W mode. Geekbench 6 scores dropped to 1,840 and 6,869 for the single- and multi-core tests respectively. 7zip took 2 minutes, 29 seconds for the exact same compression task, and video transcoding took 1 minute, 35 seconds.

Of course graphics and gaming test results are what everyone’s been waiting for. The trusty 3DMark posted scores of 1,477 in 3DMark’s Port Royal ray tracing benchmark, 3,138 in the DX12 Time Spy test, and 7,203 in the legacy Fire Strike test. That’s far better than what we’ve seen from laptops such as the Xiaomi Notebook Pro 120G with its entry-level GeForce MX550 GPU, and slots in neatly below the mainstream GeForce RTX 3050, as seen in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X.

You can set up a desktop with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but it doesn’t seem practical for gaming

The Unigine Superposition test managed a score of 5,004 with a 37.43fps average at the 25W setting, and that came down to 3,958 points with an average of 29.6fps at 10W. Both runs used the 1080p Medium preset. The difference in absolute values as well as overall consistency shows how performance scales down when trying to save power. Gears Tactics has a fairly intense built-in benchmark which managed a 53.5fps average at 25W but only an unplayable 16.5fps average at 10W, also using the same 1920×1080 resolution and High quality preset.

We have some more in-game benchmarks lined up, since these let us compare performance across devices and platforms under identical conditions. GTA V is now quite old but still popular, and a great example of what I’d like to play on a portable console. While it was fun, graphics quality was not great. Even at 1280×720 resolution, most graphics quality variables were disabled or set to Low by default. The built-in benchmark averaged 30.24fps with the minimum dropping to just 11.44fps.

Other games fared considerably better. The classic Rise of the Tomb Raider ran fairly well at 1080p using its Medium preset. The benchmark average was 41fps which is good enough. Far Cry 5 is another of our regular benchmark tests, and this title managed an average of 43fps at 1080 using its High preset. You might encounter stutters and slowdowns in intense sequences in-game, but there’s no doubt that they’re playable and enjoyable.

Doom Eternal looks great and is incredibly fast-paced, but is also known to be forgiving when it comes to hardware. Using its on-screen diagnostic counter, I was able to test the ROG Ally at three different power settings across a level that included navigating some simple passages followed by a major fight sequence. When plugged in and running at its 30W Turbo setting, I was able to play at 50-70fps and there was no issue other than fan noise. The 15W mode took performance down to about 45fps which was also fine – this is what you should expect when playing on battery power. However, the game ran at an excruciating 20fps and fight sequences were impossible, when I tried the 10W mode. The resolution was set to 1080p throughout, and the quality setting was Ultra.

Casual games run well on battery power and are fun to play on the ROG Ally

Superhot is not as graphically intense but seems well suited to the form factor of the ROG Ally. Using the game’s High preset and the console’s 30W setting, I was comfortable with the 100fps or so that Asus’ overlay showed. at Sadly, that dropped to just about 30fps at 15W.

And what about casual games? I did manage to have fun with simple titles such as Portal 2, Slime Rancher, and Rayman Legends. These ran poorly at the 10W setting but seemed to be manageable at 15W. Games such as these are designed to work with a controller, and detected the ROG Ally’s hardware as a standard input device, letting me tweak button assignments in-game. Many PC games these days are console ports anyway, so the UI and controls just worked. Civilization VI felt too constrained on the tiny screen and controls were quite painful – I can’t imagine spending much time with simulation or strategy titles on this device.

For games that don’t just work with a controller, Armoury Crate SE can be used to create per-game profiles and manually map keyboard or mouse inputs to the Ally’s buttons and sticks. This isn’t always smooth, since using an analogue stick is very different to using a mouse. I tried one fairly old game, Mirror’s Edge, in order to gauge the controller experience here because I had enjoyed it very much on an Xbox 360, but it crashed on launch and just refused to run.

Beyond that, many casual Windows games are designed either for mouse-and-keyboard input or a touchscreen, and I found that Bloons TD6, Mini Motorways, and games of that sort worked best with touch input, ignoring the controller hardware altogether. The touchscreen isn’t very responsive, and these games really don’t do justice to the ROG Ally’s hardware, but if you have a portable computer then why not!

The ROG Ally’s fans are not exactly quiet when running games at the 30W setting. The sound isn’t too distracting but it is noticeable. Hot air rushes out the vents, thankfully away from your hands though.

Asus says it had to do a lot of work to achieve the final size and weight of the ROG Ally

Verdict

The Asus ROG Ally is a fascinating product. It’s genuinely new and fresh, and there’s clearly a market for it. However, I’m not quite sure it’s ready for mainstream adoption, and those who are immediately drawn to the concept should really consider a few key points about how and where they will end up using it. First of all, this isn’t a traditional handheld console – it’s a mini PC with a screen and a physically integrated controller. It doesn’t have its own ecosystem of games that just work, a game store, or a seamless UI. PC games won’t all run smoothly and working with Windows 11 can be annoying.

Moreover, the sheer number of variables you have to deal with manually can be daunting for casual gamers. You have to know what power profile is active, you can change the screen resolution and refresh rate, and I just didn’t have time to get into what’s possible with Radeon Super Resolution upscaling. During the review period, there weren’t many times that I actually saw any benefit in plugging the ROG Ally into a TV or using it at a desk with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I also don’t think an XG Mobile dock with a much more powerful GPU would be good enough value for money, for the use I got out of it.

PC games might expect always-on Internet access, so gaming on the go can be tricky. Adding a cellular data modem would have compromised battery life further, so it’s understandable that Asus didn’t implement that. The problem is there are places you can’t even tether, such as on a plane, which is exactly where you’d want a portable gaming machine to work.

You get the convenience of a fingerprint sensor and of course programmable RGB lighting effects

Battery life is very limited and you only get the best performance when plugged into a power source that can deliver 65W. For that reason I found myself using the ROG Ally most often when lounging at home. In that sense, it’s nice to have but it’s definitely an indulgence. If this is the main use case, rather than gaming while outdoors or traveling, I’d prioritise buying a gaming laptop and a capable smartphone before spending money on this device.

I’m surprised that other manufacturers haven’t yet announced their own versions of the same thing, but I can’t say whether that’s because AMD’s Ryzen Z1 series isn’t widely available to OEMs, they were caught off guard and need more R&D time, or they’re choosing to wait and watch. Asus is clearly confident enough to launch the ROG Ally worldwide – and has created quite a lot of resources including guides on its website to help you optimise game settings and get familiar with it. I’m fascinated to see whether this will end up as a one-off, like many of Asus’ most inventive products, or whether we’ve just seen the birth of a whole new market. As for the Ryzen Z1 series SoCs, I’d love to see them in a variety of compact form factors beyond handheld gaming consoles.

Unlike the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, the ROG Ally is officially available in India. Just the fact that you will get authorised support for it makes spending Rs. 70,000 seem palatable, but you have to know exactly what you’re getting into. This isn’t a simple game console that you can just pull out of your bag to kill time with wherever you are. It also isn’t a low-cost gaming PC. It’s more of a plaything for enthusiasts who already have good PCs and who will find joy in the device itself, not just the games they play on it.

Asus ROG Ally

Price: Rs. 69,990

Pros:-

• Innovative and unique
• Powerful hardware
• Reasonable weight, good build quality
• Runs a wide variety of PC games

Cons:-

• Very limited battery life
• Only one USB port
• Windows UI is hard to use
• Carry case not included

Ratings (Out of 5):-

• Design: 4
• Display: 3.5
• Software: 3.5
• Performance: 5
• Battery life: 3
• Value for Money: 4
• Overall: 3.5

The post Asus ROG Ally Review: The Start of Something New? appeared first on Review Products.

If films like Heat and Sexy Beast are anything to go by, when you’re in the professional heist business, retirement does not come easily. There’s always that one last job you get called in to tie up some loose ends, rekindling greed and the drive to plan elaborate robbery schemes within you. With the old gang rounded up, Payday 3 now takes us to the bustling streets of New York City, several years after our reign of terror in Washington DC, masked-up and prepared for new challenges in a present-day environment of mass surveillance gadgets, cryptocurrency, the deep web, and more.

Having spent a few hours in the internal playtest, followed by the ongoing closed beta, I must say that I’m truly impressed with how streamlined this sequel is shaping up to be.

The test version only came with one location, the SCB Bank, which is carrying an unusually big amount of cash in its vault, awaiting transport. In what feels like a familiar callback to the Payday 2 days, this is your standard bank heist mission, sticking to the four-player co-op shooter formula, that has you bring a personalised loadout of weapons and high-tech gadgets to ease your cashout.

Your approach can heavily vary between sneaking in and out without triggering any alarms, or you could take the loud route and blast in with guns blazing, striking fear into the hearts of the civilians. My experience with Payday 3 was a mix of both, starting by meticulously lockpicking my way through the backdoors to eventually culminating in an all-out assault, where my team was surrounded by cops from every angle.

Interestingly though, there’s a bit more freedom in stealth segments, where previously, simply being spotted in restricted areas would set the alarms off. But here, you can trespass in private staff areas or behind counters without wearing a mask and the guards would politely escort you to the nearest public area without ruining your stealth attempt. You only get one slip-up, though.

Not to mention, it’s a more realistic depiction of how security would react in a given situation. What I did find perplexing, however, was how you could freely walk up to windows in the lobby of the bank and press a button to close the shutters without raising suspicion.

While this would prevent passersby from being able to peer inside the building and watch my team take everyone hostage, its inclusion feels very off-putting — almost as if it was an oversight from developer Starbreeze Studios. Hopefully, it’s addressed in a sensible manner, closer to launch. Regardless, it’s a massive step up from Payday 2, where you mostly just avoided detection and intimidated security.

You can do more with your mask off

Well, what was I doing back there, you ask? Scouting, mostly. Keeping track of important rooms and cameras, and quietly sneaking behind guards to pickpocket keycards that would grant access to the main security control room. This allowed me to hack into and disable the security system without too much hassle — such actions are all tied to a single button press, ‘F’.

Stealth is still extremely difficult to pull off though, especially once you put on heist masks to conceal your identity, whereupon being spotted, witnesses would immediately report your presence. However, I did feel a bit pressured into wearing a mask, because there were certain basic mechanics, such as vaulting over surfaces, that Payday 3 kept locked behind the mode.

Without a mask, you cannot climb through windows nor can you brandish a pistol. That said, it’s still quite insane how far you can progress in the game with masks off — as opposed to Payday 2 — so with the remaining time, I’d just run around the block to look for any potential escape routes that wouldn’t draw attention.

Once you put on a mask, you can’t take it off anymore, immediately raising the stakes for the heist, as you’re finally allowed to partake in more nefarious activities. Now equipped with guns, your squad can walk around intimidating civilians into submission and tying them up, check corners for cameras and shoot them down, and snap security guards’ necks for no disruptions.

I’d recommend investing in a silencer for your pistol ASAP, in order to avoid creating a ruckus, but the most important toolkit in your arsenal would be to remain alert at all times. Dropping guards triggers a small alarm on their radio/ walkie-talkie, which if left unanswered, raises suspicion among the security team. Other times, an unattended civilian might escape and pull an alarm, throwing a wet blanket over your perfect plan. Things could easily go sideways once the mask is on, so it’s best to have a team you could always rely on.

Once you put on a mask, you can’t take it off anymore until the heist session ends

Such nail-biting sequences are peppered throughout Payday 3, though they can be severely eased by evenly dividing tasks among you. There’s a lot more flexibility in how you approach missions, such as sifting through documents for clues on how to open the vault, intuitively following red cables to shut down power to the gates, or grabbing an executive to scan their retina on the bank’s high-tech lock system.

Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without numerous failed attempts, where my team and I almost immediately set off alarms, causing the police to come barging in. That’s the beauty of Payday 3 — there’s always something new to learn through repeated tries, making it more rewarding for the experienced players.

Now, you might be wondering how the early games in Payday 3 would work for newer players. Well, usually super loud, because you have zero clue of what’s going on or how things work. So, you’ll end up drawing all kinds of unwanted attention, shooting every guard in sight, and grabbing civilians as body shields to help with negotiation, before getting bored soon enough that you let go of them and shoot them in the back of the head. Guilty as charged. I mean, no witnesses if everyone’s dead, right?

Speaking of going loud, the bank heist mission has you breaking into the vault from the floor above in an aggressive fashion, where you collect bags of thermite, pile them up, and ignite them to gradually breach through the fortified wall. Of course, there are bells and sirens going crazy all around, which just adds to the tension as more cops start storming into the place.

There is some method to this madness though, as adding too much thermite to increase the rate of breaching causes the water sprinklers to turn on, effectively reducing the flames and sending you on an errand run to turn it off.

Improved combat, more unpredictability

The combat is a strong highlight in Payday 3, throwing increasingly challenging enemies at you, which gets pretty overwhelming, even with human teammates. While it might seem too daunting and overly difficult for some, the heat level perfectly ties with the premise, where you’re trying to steal a truckload’s worth of cash — it’s a pretty serious crime you’re committing here.

You should get punished for making careless moves like not checking corners or standing out in the open and tanking bullets Tropic Thunder style. Taking the fight to the streets with bags of cash strapped to our shoulders is where I had the most fun, mimicking the chaos from the iconic LA shootout scene in Michael Mann’s Heat (1995).

Taking the fight to the streets is where I had the most fun, mimicking the chaos from Michael Mann’s Heat (1995)

As you await your getaway vehicle and run back in to grab more cash, you engage in an all-out battle with hordes of different police types, including far-away snipers who’ve got their laser sights trained on you. I’ll admit, they appear a lot more scary than they actually are — in the sense that the snipers are very slow to react to movement.

So, you’ll generally have an easy time dealing with them, as long as you keep sliding around the map. Don’t completely ignore them though, as a single shot from them will instantly deplete your armour, leaving your body exposed to direct hits.

Whatever tactics you had planned at the start of a heist session are completely thrown out of the window at this stage, leaving you to rely on any armour or medic bags you brought along. In merely 10 to 15 minutes since the alarms sounded off, the tone of the game will have changed entirely to a modern-day warzone, with special enemies like the Grenadier who will chuck highly damaging poison bombs, which not only blur our vision but prevents us from sprinting until we step out of the gas.

The near-indestructible Bulldozer also returns, armed with powerful firearms and occasionally charging headfirst into you. It’s best to have all four teammates focus on this behemoth at once since trying to take him down solo would result in guaranteed death or quick depletion of resources.

The Heavy SWAT team also consists of a brutish riot shield user, who would bash and stun you if you get too close. I found it super beneficial to just hurl a grenade behind them, causing them to turn around and expose their bodies to my onslaught. Another powerful unit relies on stun guns as well, though none of them seemed to be affected by the difficulty modifiers. All difficulty increments — at least in the Payday 3 closed beta — were based solely on security measures, such as indestructible cameras and a lead guard. This ensured that the enemies you faced in combat had the same health pool across the board, without turning them into mundane bullet sponges.

You can pick skills to create a personalised build, or synergise them with teammates for better success rates

All of this is bolstered by a robust skill tree, opening room for you to experiment with various builds, whereby performing certain stealth or assault-based actions, you’ll gain bonuses in terms of movement speed, inflicted damage, faster reload speeds, and more. For instance, investing skill points into Tank stats grants defence-oriented perks such as effective armour, while favouring Hacking lets you take remote control of security cameras.

You could also double down on stealth abilities to perform faster takedowns and lockpicks or gain ‘Rush’ buffs to escape into hiding quickly. In addition to working toward a setup specifically tailored for you, one could also synergise them with teammates to see which ones offer better success rates.

Just like Payday 2, cash earned from heists can be spent on new weapons and their respective attachments such as scopes, muzzles, and grips to help with heavy recoil. All changes to guns’ stats are neatly shown via a graph, and they can all be personalised with cosmetic mods like paint jobs, stickers, and charms.

This forms the core gameplay loop of Payday 3, though for now, I have no idea how the larger story ties into this — after all, we reunited after years to identify and crush an undisclosed ‘new threat.’

It was cool to see Robert De Niro’s mask from Heat in Payday 3

Further, you could customise your characters’ appearance with new suits, gloves, and a medley of creepy-looking masks, including the white, perforated hockey one that Robert De Niro wore in Heat! Not to mention, all armour and protective gear is worn underneath your suit, so you don’t need to worry about making a bad impression.

Final thoughts

Having only played one heist level, Payday 3 comes across as a remarkable evolution from its predecessor’s ethos, focusing on mechanical depth through a myriad of new high-tech toys to mess around with.

The emphasis on stealth opens room for creativity, giving you the incentive to scout locations more freely and tick past an array of meticulous objectives, before donning the mask and going berserk. I also think it’s an excellent choice for this threequel to be set in a contemporary timeline, given the game is designed to grow over time with a regular flow of post-launch content, so it should hopefully feel timeless.

The post Payday 3 Closed Beta Impressions: Rounding Up the Old Gang for Stealthy Business appeared first on Review Products.

Baldur’s Gate III was published to enthusiastic acclaim about two weeks before Immortals of Aveum, EA’s new first-person spell-shooter action game. With its richly rewarding quests, solid gaming mechanisms, and evocative characters and narratives, the Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG from Larian Studios became a worldwide sensation, attracting over 800,000 continuous players on Steam. The Forgotten Realms provides the setting for hundreds of hours of fascinating gameplay in Baldur’s Gate III, a game that is a strong contender for Game of the Year.

A massive space RPG from Bethesda called Starfield debuted two weeks after Immortals with the promise of a thousand planets. Starfield, the studio’s first new intellectual property in 25 years, lets you live out your space fantasies with unlimited exploration, precise gunplay, and starship construction.

According to studio director Todd Howard, it’s like Skyrim in space: fly anywhere, do anything. Like Baldur’s Gate, Starfield—possibly the biggest Xbox exclusive in a decade—requires hundreds of hours to appreciate its joys fully. It promises to take readers on an enthralling voyage through the wonders of space and time, examining ideas of existence and being and the profundity of human endeavor—the pursuit of knowledge.

Immortals of Aveum, a game with modest goals that let you discharge colored magic spells from your fingers in a pew-pew fashion, sits between these two enormous, genre-defining titles. That’s it. Immortals do not aim to completely immerse you in its world or provide complex gameplay mechanisms, but that is okay.

This is because it allows for fun, which is one thing that video games should always offer. The two games that bookend Immortals’ release are far more ambitious and expansive than Immortals. You don’t have to put in a lot of time; you don’t even have to commit.

Different from its two competitors, it definitely won’t be in the running for Game of the Year. However, the basic plot of Immortals, its sincere and downright ridiculous parody of contemporary superhero movies, and its condensed, 25-hour campaign provide precisely what the game promises – nothing more, nothing less.

Call of Duty meets Dr. Strange

Immortals of Aveum is a first-person shooter without the use of firearms. It is the debut title from Ascendant Studios and is distributed by EA Originals. You fire color-coded magic spells here, like what you might anticipate if Dr. Strange and Call of Duty met.

The action visually resembles Ghostwire Tokyo from 2022, although it unfolds differently. This year, magic has been making a comeback (with different degrees of success) thanks to Forspoken and Hogwarts Legacy, and Immortals also prominently utilizes the arcane. The game’s primarily linear single-player campaign features narrow levels with some branching paths for exploration.

The gameplay elements that pace out the spell-shooting action are of a modest but robust variety. Each level includes straightforward yet fun platforming features and riddles that slow down the movement.

There is a passable plot that unfolds much like a subpar DC film. The game’s arena-style shooting segments, where you use a variety of magic spells and rush and jump like a bunny on caffeine, are undoubtedly its best features.

Jak, a simple street thief in Seren’s shantytown, is how you will travel through the Aveuman regions. Unbeknownst to him, he possesses a potent and uncommon magic in his veins. As Jak endures a personal tragedy and enlists as a soldier in the Everwar, a 2,000-year conflict spanning Aveum’s five kingdoms, you follow his journey.

We watch his journey unfold as he establishes himself as a warrior on the front lines and rises to the rank of Immortal, a group of elite magicians who direct the war effort and guard Lucium, one of Aveum’s five kingdoms. In all honesty, it can be challenging to keep up with the information deluge at first.

To establish the world of Aveum, the blazing struggle, the parties participating, their motivations, and the ancient artifacts and secrets that threaten to change the Everwar’s course and, in turn, the fate of the lands, the game throws a basketful of half-cooked and well-known magical history at you.

Aveum’s universe is powered by magic

I wouldn’t blame you if you felt like you were swimming in jargon. It’s a lot to take in: the Shrouded Realm, the Wound, the Pentacade, Laylines, Fonts, Binding Stones, and Shrineforges. Thankfully, you may disregard the deep end and navigate the understandable information’s shallow waters by keeping things straightforward.

You are a battlemage engaged in an unending conflict where the distinction between good and evil is frequently hazy. It follows a well-known hero’s journey in line with most successful superhero movies, where humor breaks up the action and suspense at every turn. There isn’t much novel about the story, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. You are caught off guard by a few of the road’s curves and twists.

In the Everwar, Jak is joined by a colorful assortment of Immortal companions. Jak’s mentor and the person who took him in after his life in Seren broke apart was Kirkan, the commander of the Immortals.

She is unyielding and furious, plays her cards close to her chest, and frequently gives Jak’s inquiries regarding the Everwar painfully evasive responses. Jak’s field commander, Zendara, is focused on the next task and has little time for friendly banter.

On the other hand, Devyn is chatty and outgoing, acting as a welcoming presence among the menacing Immortals. Additionally, he brings laughs, throwing jokes whenever the opportunity arises with the assurance of a clown, even if some fall flat.

In the Everwar, the Immortals command Lucium’s army against Sandrakk’s soldiers, a despot who seeks to rule over the wellspring of all magic in Aveum. The characters in the game are the usual suspects you’d expect to show up in a phase five MCU film, but they manage to have an excellent natural chemistry together. This results from consistently strong voice acting, even in weak material.

Jak’s mentor, Kirkan, is in charge of the Immortals

As I’ve already noted, Immortals frequently resembles a genre-worn superhero movie, hitting well-worn narrative beats and action set pieces. The writing in the game often employs humor as a crutch, much like the films it aims to mimic, yet it never turns the line into being overly earnest. The volume and abruptness of jokes frequently lower the stakes and reduce narrative suspense. Still, they occasionally mirror the situation’s overall silliness, never being afraid to embrace the absurd.

New characters are continually presented; you can always count on them to be ominous and terrifying. But when you meet them, they come across as quick-witted idiots a la Joss Whedon, and you can’t help but chuckle.

For instance, to find the volcanic lair of the man you’re looking for, you must first infiltrate a horrific underworld and then go via a trail that is burning with lava and ash while fending off swarms of adversaries. When you first meet him, you expect him to be fierce, but instead, he seems mildly angry that you broke into his bachelor pad, corrects you when you call his parlor a porch and then offers you coffee.

Whistles and magic

Immortals of Aveum makes a lot of effort to be a movie, but its best parts are the video game-like elements. Bret Robbins, a seasoned executive who oversaw the development of the original Dead Space and multiple Call of Duty missions, is the head of Ascendant Studios.

Immortals, who, if you exclude the magic, is essentially a first-person shooter, benefit from his experience. The ancient power of the blue, green, and red colors sustains Aveum’s universe. Each branch of magic that a Magni can use, but Jak is a Triarch Magni who possesses a rare mastery over all three colors of magic.

Sigils, which in the game serve as magical versions of guns, are used to control each branch of magic. Red magic has the short-range, heavy damage, and more minor clip characteristics of shotguns. Blue magic can be used in place of a sniper rifle or other precision weapon for long-range warfare.

Fully automatic rifles or submachine guns with large clip sizes, ideal for taking on foes at medium range, are represented by green magic. However, the rapid-firing green Sigils have more recoil and spray, which affects your accuracy. When you munch through the clip, each Sigil has a predetermined reload time that can be shortened later through skill upgrades.

In the equip menu, sigils can be changed

Most adversaries in Aveum are also color-coded, necessitating the use of the proper magic kind to reduce their health bars. Juggling the various Sigils and switching between your magic colors (with a quick press of the triangle button on PlayStation’s Dualsense controller) become necessary and, thankfully, stay enjoyable as each fight throws a motley horde of enemies at you.

Each magic color is accompanied by a Totem that casts a control spell that aids you in navigating the environment, controlling adversaries during combat, and solving puzzles in addition to these attack-focused striking spells connected to your Sigils. Your left hand is connected to Totems, and your right hand has Sigils.

The Lash spell, essentially a magical whip that draws distant adversaries closer to you in combat and enables you to grip on to anchor points in the environment during exploration, is channeled by Blue Totems, or Chains. Limpets, fluid blobs that slow down moving targets, whether an adversary or an object, are found in Green Totems or Vials. Red Totems, also known as Lenses, project fiery scarlet disrupt spell beams that interrupt opposing magic strikes and leave the enemy stunned.

Your spellbook also contains augments, such as a shield to shelter you from approaching fire and the powers to blink and hover, which help dodge opponent assaults and move about platforms.

The mix of attack, control, and augment spells in Immortals is excellent; they all work well with one another and never overwhelm the player or become cumbersome. When your Dominion meter is complete, you can also perform an ultimate attack that releases a potent beam of magic that combines all three magic colors and delivers terrible damage.

Combat between immortals can be hallucinogenic and chaotic

Immortals’ fighting is limited to arena-style fights that are split amid twisting exploratory passages. There is a good variety of threats here, but eventually, you will primarily be shooting at recognizable adversaries. In addition, each chapter has brand-new boss fights that, while essentially simple, offer a refreshing change from the game’s normal gameplay.

While spell shooting functions like firing with guns in any other shooter, the experience isn’t quite the same. It falls short of feeling as tight and sophisticated as the gunplay in Call of Duty and needs more impact and feedback on guns. Additionally, the combat never becomes particularly difficult, and each encounter area has a plentiful supply of healing and mana crystals that refill your HP and magic bars. Immortals are easy on Normal, but I’d suggest the Hard mode if you want to work for your rewards.

Immortals of Aveum, thankfully, encourages a decent amount of exploring and rewards intrepid players with equipment and currency. It functions similarly to side trips in God of War or Jedi: Fallen Order, which has branching side pathways frequently imprisoned in mostly linear hub areas. The routes widen as you learn new skills and spells, opening up new worlds to discover, items to uncover, and foes to face.

Although these hub worlds are far smaller than God of War’s, you may always return to an area you’ve already visited and discover something new. Each level also has Shroudfanes, optional tasks that involve boss fights, and separate platforming sections, both of which can be challenging but offer high-value rewards.

There is a skill tree for each of the three branches of magic and the standard equipment and upgrading system. These are straightforward and functional rather than delving deeply, as in an RPG, which works in Immortals’ favor.

Performances and Visuals

One of the first significant games created with Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite geometry and ray-traced Lumen lighting is Immortals of Aveum, and it shows. Immortals can appear gorgeous under the proper lighting. This applies to both characters and settings. Character faces are expressive, expressing subtle variations in mood and expression.

The game’s campaign transports you across various outdoor areas and shifting landscapes. The game’s golden lighting makes open plains, icy cliffs, thick foliage, and desert places attractive. However, the art of Immortals feels copied and needs a distinct, new identity.

The PS5’s performance is also negatively impacted by the glossy graphics. There isn’t a way to alter the graphic settings or switch between performance and quality modes. On the other hand, Immortals aims for a 4K output at 60 frames per second.

Although it mostly hits its framerate goals, performance suffers in regions with bustling traffic and intense combat. You can observe that texture quality and image resolution were sacrificed on the altar of framerate because the visual quality is still erratic. Future updates may address some of the problems.

At the time of this writing, a third update is available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and it promises to enhance upscaling for improved image fidelity on consoles and several other improvements.

Verdict

Nowadays, good single-player shooter campaigns take a lot of work to come by, especially with games like Call of Duty and Battlefield focusing more on their wildly successful multiplayer modes. Another disappearing species is the brief, charming single-player campaign free of battle passes, lootboxes, and microtransactions.

In addition, Immortals of Aveum comes out complete and in decent condition at a time when companies rush to release broken games. Despite its shortcomings, it has the right intentions at heart. It is simple to complete because of its unpolished but enjoyable spell-shooting action and surprisingly well-executed level design.

Although its summer blockbuster plot is nothing new, it manages to charm you with its sincere good looks. And although though it has a fair share of loose screws and dents, the machine’s various working cogs fit together logically to create it.

Games these days demand time and focus, almost like homework, which is why Immortals of Aveum is released at such a time. They require that you virtually put your life on hold to live a different, more fulfilling life in the enormous virtual playgrounds they provide.

This is not a complaint since I fondly recall the period when Red Dead Redemption 2 was released, and I gave up everything to live as an outlaw on the American frontier for roughly three months. In all honesty, no other medium can match video games’ transforming and teleporting potential.

However, only some games have to be a multi-course meal. They are delicious when eaten as a snack. Immortals are the bite-sized biscuit you need now, even though it won’t leave a particularly distinctive taste on your tongue. Immortals of Aveum captures the medium’s bygone simplicity and shallowness, which may be just as significant at a time when ambitious video games display the enormous depth they can give.

Pros

• fun spell-shooting battles
• A challenging single-player campaign
• Exploration and platforming done well
• likable individuals
• No bugs, no microtransactions
• striking images

Cons

• generic lousy guy and plot
• overpowering and excessive lore
• style of derivative art
• performing poorly

The post Immortals of Aveum Review: Warlock Warfare appeared first on Review Products.

It’s no secret that Starfield, which is currently available on PC and Xbox Series S/X, is one of the most significant gaming releases of the year. As Bethesda embarks on creating their first new world in 25 years, set across the stars in a futuristic civilized corner of the Milky Way galaxy, they are taking a risk in unexplored terrain. Xbox’s publisher has the chance to recover from a lackluster 2022 slate and take control of the gaming conversation for years, given the renowned longevity of director Todd Howard’s RPGs. Starfield strives to be our generation’s most sophisticated spacefaring experience, with over a thousand planets to explore, brash factions to side with, and cosmic mysteries simmering with political intrigue. It glides gently as a result, though not without considerable turbulence.

Review of Starfield: The flaws in the main narrative

It is the year 2330. Humanity left Earth, the so-called “Blue Planet,” and settled in other star systems after it lost its atmosphere and turned into a barren, desolate wasteland. So, our journey begins in space from the humble beginnings of a nameless space miner who discovered a curious piece of glittery debris in a tunnel. After touching the shard, we enter a strange trance in which we hear and see celestial noises that speak to us spiritually before passing out. As soon as you open your eyes, Starfield introduces the well-known RPG amnesia cliché, in which players must thoroughly create characters to recall their identities. It has all the identifying characteristics of a typical Bethesda game, adhering closely to its role-playing model of adventuring, looting, and killing, albeit on a considerably larger scale that frequently feels overwhelming.

Fair warning, though:

Starfield is incredibly slow to get going, keeping you confined to a dull exposition search for the first few hours before letting you freely explore any planet you choose. I’ll grant that the game quickly becomes impossible to put down, but for many players, that first part of the game—during which you mechanically move from point A to point B or attempt to acquire accustomed to its peculiar menus—could easily make or break the experience. For me, it took the game more than 10 hours to begin, which made me wonder if I would ever end up enjoying it. And it’s not like I wouldn’t say I like passive starts either; most of my favorite movies are slow-burn dramas that devote a significant portion of their running times to setting the scene and developing the characters. Sadly, video games are completely another animal. They demand complete focus because they might easily last longer than 60 hours of gaming.

Starfield character creation Starfield character creation

Starfield offers very thorough character creation, with swappable qualities that give you the impression of being a blank slate.

Starfield’s main campaign, which has you join a motley crew of galactic explorers named the Constellation in search of unidentified artifacts like the metallic one we previously encountered, could be more exciting, which doesn’t help. We are tasked with tracking down the mystery artifacts by exploring other worlds, which sends us on all kinds of amazing adventures via dark tunnels swarming with space raiders to desolate landscapes acting as a graveyard for mechs. As you might imagine, the story follows a similar pattern. The repetitive missions that involve basic puzzle-solving, killing enemies, and floating around in potentially alien temples are wrapped around these brilliant scenes. Still, they quickly become boring and switch to fetch quests you feel pressured to complete to advance the plot.

While the plot is undoubtedly clichéd and packed with sci-fi clichés, its intriguing characters, specifically our friends, provide some enjoyment. At first, none of them are particularly likable, but taking them on trips encourages them to share their emotions and backstories. Sam Coe, the lone space cowboy, quickly won my favor because he was trying to escape his famous father’s spotlight and frequently thought back to his early years of smuggling goods across the huge void.

When he invites his daughter along for the ride, he emphasizes his overprotective side while gushing over how smart she is, showing that he is more complex than a bold peacekeeper. But you also discover a sense of entitlement and inner conflict in his parenting, where he wonders if it’s the best thing to do to raise her while subjecting himself to perilous, frequently life-threatening situations. It is kind, but I hate how his past is revealed; it’s just a constant trauma dump at random intervals with no thought to your goals.

Starfield review partners Starfield review partners.

At times, the predicament of the companions seemed unnecessarily simplistic.

The same could be said with the other travelers, albeit I couldn’t bond with them as deeply. Constellation chair Sarah Morgan’s desire to explore the stars, the easygoing explorer Barrett, and the intriguing stealth specialist Andreja all had unique charms. Still, I needed to care more about their struggle since it seemed too shallow and occasionally poorly presented. Because talks in Starfield offer a full frontal view of the other person, you can observe the shortcomings in Bethesda’s character modeling that restrict some facial expressions. Basic emotions like sadness or happiness have an uncanny valley-like quality, almost as if the NPCs are all covert androids being taught to fake grins. They all appear lifeless on the inside, which is made worse by the voice acting, which frequently sounds stiff and tempts viewers to scan the subtitles rapidly and spam-skip to the next line of speech.

Review of Starfield: engaging side missions and world-building

Following Bethesda’s history, Starfield’s genuine magic may be found in the game’s expansive side quests that appear along the way, the majority of which are inspired by news stories and current events. Although I wouldn’t say they were all equally fascinating, they all resulted in some unexpected interactions that frequently had a tragic undertone. Once you’re on foot, it’s simple to lose sight of your original objective and spend hours exploring the more populated, lovely areas of the galaxy, which are filled with strange inhabitants with a big or tiny request for you.

One such place was the appropriately named Neon, a rain-soaked cyberpunk city, a la Blade Runner, where I went around threatening vandals, snatching hallucinogenic substances based on exotic fish, and vibing at the neighborhood dance club. However, it was mostly a location to make a lot of money, which I did by moving up the corporate ladder at Ryujin Industries. This huge tech company trades in drones, spaceships, and weaponry. I quickly transitioned from getting coffee for my superiors to going on espionage operations to hack into the systems of competitor firms to sabotage them.

Starfield’s evaluation of the tasks in Neon

I had a great time exploring the valleys of Neon and collecting a ton of quests.

It’s safe to infer that by accessing the secret information and being able to negotiate my way into confined spaces, I would grow to be a crucial asset for the faction. I decided to use this persuasive strategy while creating my character. I included a special quality that causes the Adoring Fan from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to follow and compliment me whenever possible. His praise provided much-needed self-confidence for completing chores with little to no violence.

Because some people might find these stealth-based tales tedious, Starfield has a variety of factions to choose from, each of which has its own set of quests to complete and incentives to earn. You can pretty much take whatever option the game offers because you’re never forced to join a particular faction, whether it’s living out your space pirate fantasies, joining the militia, or bringing criminals to justice as a planet-hopping cowboy. The last of them, joining the Freestar Collective, was a memorable experience that thrust me into a massive conspiracy that tested my morality at every turn and solidified the notion that justice is never black or white in peacekeeping.

Certain quests are organically communicated through setting storytelling. I found a datapad from a dead foe early on in Starfield, and it took me to a mythical space vigilante’s hidden hideaway, where he kept a tough spaceship and famous armor. Later on, stealing and equipping them resulted in some amusing space encounters, with thieves mistaking me for the actual Mantis, pleading for mercy, and even giving me some credits in exchange for my silence.

Another day, I came across Juno, the NASA Jupiter space probe that had become an AI and deviated from its intended route. I discovered that it had grown sentient and had feelings of wanting to be treated like a genuine person when I was given the responsibility of updating its control board. The next thing I knew, I was emotionally debating what it meant to be a person and what made a machine. Starfield has so many fascinating side quests, many of which are treated in greater detail than the game’s unremarkable main plot. So, if you are getting diverted on your quest, I’d strongly advise embracing and pursuing them. They are time well spent!

In contrast to the spectacular holograms we’ve seen in previous sci-fi games like Mass Effect, Starfield’s overall visual has a retro vibe despite being set 300 years in the future. This visual language, which grounds technology with tactile buttons and commonplace trinkets like pens, notepads, and potted plants in what feels like a realistic and reasonable evolution, was given the name “NASA Punk” by Bethesda. Despite centuries of development, it’s a stylistic decision that exudes humanity’s presence and eccentricity.

Starfield’s food appears to be delicious.

Humming motor noises may be heard on the streets of Neon City, whereas Akila is a dusty, wild west area with a tavern in the center, and the people of New Atlantis are seen lugging briefcases about. According to the futuristic food company Chunks, consumers don’t care what they eat as long as it’s good and processed foods like fruits, cooked fowl, and even beverages into unappealing small cubes. However, you can also stockpile everyday foods like patty melts, kebabs, chicken tikka masala, sushi rolls, and other firmly grounded and endearing food.

Review of Starfield: Exploration

Starfield is massively ambitious, with over 1,000 explorable planets, and sounds too fantastic to be true. Realizing that one cannot freely park a spaceship on worlds and take off, as No Man’s Sky did seven years ago, quickly reduces that degree of scope. In Starfield, interplanetary transit is accomplished through a sequence of maps, menus, and an absurd number of loading screens, all shattering immersion. Here’s how it works: You open the galaxy’s map, choose a different star system to go to, choose a planet within it, and then grav-jump there. After that, you open the map again to choose a landing spot, and a cutscene showing your ship descending onto the surface will play. This fast travel system also distances you from the game’s universe by having everything so methodically organized that I could not feel a sense of connection on any of the random planets I visited.

Fast travel is required in Starfield to complete interplanetary transportation.

Each planet or moon may contain pre-determined sites of interest you can land at and explore on foot. Some of these points of interest may be quest-oriented, while others may be optional outposts and flora. But if one ventures off the established road, one may encounter procedurally produced locales, which are typically lifeless and devoid of personality. I won’t say that seeing a magnificent cluster of stars while standing on the now-destroyed Earth, a colonized Mars, or floating across our moon in zero gravity wasn’t jaw-dropping, but gradually, the novelty wears off. Aside from a few brief encounters with alien life, you’ll quickly realize that much of the on-foot travel takes place across apparently endless plains, occasionally spiced up by bandits or a distant alien ship landing to add a sense of activity.

Running about and mining for materials used for weapon modifications, starship improvements, and outpost construction is the typical loop on such worlds. The last one should be held for the late game because it needs A LOT of grinding. The fact that on-foot exploration is solely “on foot” may be the thing that annoys people the most. In other words, the year is 2330, and for some strange reason, there are no rovers to go over enormous deserts. Even the absurdly marketed “walking simulator” Death Stranding has the foresight to include automobiles for simple transportation.

The funny thing is that Starfield is aware of this design problem and allows you to pull out your scanner and warp back to your spaceship instead to avoid going backward for the next five to ten minutes tediously. Its bland surface map, which only highlights the most important spots of interest, worsens everything. It becomes even more frustrating when you memorize key stores and locations while guided around cities.

I modified my ship while jamming to “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis.”

Intense dogfights may be quite punishing early on as you try to control numerous ship systems at once, including the engine and missiles and the shields, weight balance, and more while hurtling through space. We can spend hours customizing the ship we now have, purchase new ones, or even steal one and adapt it to meet our individual needs because our beginning ship could be better. The battles become more enjoyable, and the skill improvements make your ship more powerful. Targeting Control Systems, a talent that lets you zoom in on enemy ships to target particularly vulnerable areas and gain an advantage in combat, is even eerily reminiscent of the VATS system from Fallout.

Review of Starfield: Skills and Combat

Starfield’s gunplay surpasses Bethesda’s earlier shooters like Fallout 4, but that standard was never very high. When aiming down sights, weaponry had an odd floatiness, and occasionally, even after shooting enemies in the face, my shots would fail to connect. Another thing I discovered is that third-person gunfights are almost completely unplayable due to problems like poor precision and unusual heaviness and clunkiness. Yes, I know it is a component of the ‘Bethesda experience,’ but it still seems strange for the developers to devote so much time and energy to minute animations. I recommend using the first-person perspective for battle and the third-person perspective for everything else if you’re in the same situation as me.

You must work to advance your specific skills, which might sometimes take time and effort.

It’s important to remember that Starfield’s roots are in the role-playing genre, which strongly emphasizes your character’s build rather than your own skill in combat. Yes, having good aim helps somewhat, but your character will only be as effective in battle or other activities if you level up and acquire specific skills. Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Technology comprise the five subcategories of the skill tree, each of which has numerous skills. As an illustration, investing skill points in the Ballistics talent will boost overall firearm damage, yet investing the same amount in the Gymnastics skill will enable sliding about the area. It would be best if you determined what your character excels at. But because each unlocked skill is further divided into four tiers with escalating benefits, upgrading them takes much more effort. From this point forward, you must complete tasks to advance to that ranking before you can use a talent point to unlock it.

Although the benefits are undeniably worthwhile, the process is somewhat time-consuming. Additionally, the game hides a few beginner or basic skills beneath the skill tree. Even if you have a boost pack that allows you to double-jump across the map, you can only utilize it once you gain the necessary tech skill from the Tech section. Similarly, even if you as a player can figure out the key combination using your intellect, you won’t be able to lockpick anything higher than a “Novice” security level lock without upgrades. It feels wasteful to expend skill points on such pointless requirements.

Starfield on foot exploring the obstruction Starfield on foot exploring the obstruction

Planets that are created procedurally are primarily desolate.

The vanilla inventory system is difficult to use because there aren’t enough objects on the screen, and there aren’t any ways to organize them for easy access. Even a basic search function for the latter would have been useful. Another significant problem in Starfield is encumbrance, which makes it difficult to travel quickly and depletes energy when carrying too much weight. Since almost everything in the game is pickable, your inventory is inevitably maxed out rather frequently, requiring you to move or discard goods continuously.

Review of Starfield: Bethesda jank, bugs, and poor performance

While Starfield did occasionally experience some minor bugs, nothing game-breaking that would have prevented me from finishing the game was present. Bethesda games have a reputation for being highly buggy. Among the notable bugs I ran into were characters bumping into each other or standing on high platforms, enemies fusing with walls, dead bodies shooting up and getting stuck onto ceilings, NPCs looking in the opposite direction while speaking to me, and the objective marker occasionally directing me to go below the ground. It’s a surprisingly clean entry for Bethesda’s standards, even though nothing noteworthy in the AAA gaming industry where you expect a certain level of polish. Most of these issues were resolved by just reloading the save file. When entering congested places, such as New Atlantis and Akila, the performance on the PC was plagued by occasional micro-stutters and some framerate dips.

Another strange thing I discovered was that even though my character had a bounty on their head for a long time, the guard responded to it when I chose to have a dialogue with them. The NPCs wouldn’t blink an eye if I freely roamed the area brandishing weapons as long as I didn’t harm anyone. This is probably a mistake, and it’s terrible to see it included in the finished product because it lessens the sense of immersion.

Starfield evaluation: Final

Starfield is a flawed but magnificently immersive journey through the galaxy’s vastness, filled with impeccable world-building that engrosses you for an extended period. It’s a Bethesda game in every way, with a vast selection of side quests and a top-notch role-playing system that prioritizes player agency. It underperforms in the few instances where it tries to break the mold due to its disconnected space exploration, shoddy navigation, and the dullness of its main campaign. By turning up the intensity, Bethesda Game Studios may have taken on more than it could handle in this case, leading to an experience that occasionally gets swallowed up in the icy darkness of space. It’s still a fun trip, and Todd Howard and the team should be proud of their tremendous accomplishment.

Score (7 out of 10):

• On September 6, Starfield became available on PC, Xbox Series S/X, and Xbox Game Pass.
• The starting price of the Standard Edition on Steam for PC is Rs. 4,999. The Xbox Series S/X and PC editions from the Microsoft shop cost Rs. 6,499 each.

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