Finally played it, and I like it...
Posted: Sun, 24. Nov 19, 23:19
I bought the regular version back when it came out but never played it because I lost my HOTAS.
I just got an Oculus CV1 last month and decided to give it a try, but found out that the VR edition is a separate purchase, when I thought it would be an update. I eventually bit the bullet and purchased this game. It was a toss up between it and ED. I did a lot of research and had known that the game's taken a lot of flak for not letting you fly more than one craft.
I chose XR because my search shows that the story is more easily accessed and is basically handed to you. After several days of nothing but Xenon incursions, I wondered where narrative is. I went looking and found that it was disabled and can be reenabled with a few kilobytes of extensions. So installed those.
I can see why the campaign was disabled, but I can't see why it was LEFT disabled. If you can play the game AT ALL, then the few minor cutscenes that lock the camera orientation won't make much of a difference, especially if the camera's orientation isn't locked.
That said, I enjoy the campaign on VR a lot more than the minor annoyance of the cutscenes being locked into a specific orientation.
The thing about not being able to fly more than one craft doesn't really bother me. Yes, getting new ships was a huge part of why I liked the original X games, but the Skunk is such a versatile ship, especially once I got access to Mk3 plasma and Mk2 meson that I'm left wondering why I'd want any other craft. I actually did a TON of exploring to gain access to the bigger stuff in campaign mode early on. I explored all of Albion, DeVries, Maelstrom, Home of Light, Cold Star, as much of Torride as I could, and some of Fields of Opportunity pretty much as soon as DeVries became unlocked. With Mk.IV Behemoth Shields, Equalized Engines, and the aforementioned weapons, I find that it's next to impossible for me to not come out of a fire fight without taking any physical damage unless I'm going up against something with what I call "cheater weapons" like Xenon, who can damage you even through your shields.
I'm faster than almost anything, tougher than almost anything, and I take on Very Hard "kill the criminal" missions like it was nothing. I don't even bother killing the escort. I just circle strafe the big ship and wail on it with a Mk III plasma cannon, then boost out of there and collect my 2-3 million.
I get the whole not liking being able to fly every ship thing. I really do, but... this isn't that kind of game. It's balanced in such a way that you don't need to. I would say that if you view it as not an actual X game, but rather a game set in the X universe, then it's not so bad.
My main complaint is being forced to hear a male voice representing myself in VR. It's very... well, I'm female, and let's just say it makes me feel weird, and not in a good way. But that's basically the case for nearly any VR game. It was a minor annoyance in pancake games, and it's a whole order of magnitude worse in VR.
I just got an Oculus CV1 last month and decided to give it a try, but found out that the VR edition is a separate purchase, when I thought it would be an update. I eventually bit the bullet and purchased this game. It was a toss up between it and ED. I did a lot of research and had known that the game's taken a lot of flak for not letting you fly more than one craft.
I chose XR because my search shows that the story is more easily accessed and is basically handed to you. After several days of nothing but Xenon incursions, I wondered where narrative is. I went looking and found that it was disabled and can be reenabled with a few kilobytes of extensions. So installed those.
I can see why the campaign was disabled, but I can't see why it was LEFT disabled. If you can play the game AT ALL, then the few minor cutscenes that lock the camera orientation won't make much of a difference, especially if the camera's orientation isn't locked.
That said, I enjoy the campaign on VR a lot more than the minor annoyance of the cutscenes being locked into a specific orientation.
The thing about not being able to fly more than one craft doesn't really bother me. Yes, getting new ships was a huge part of why I liked the original X games, but the Skunk is such a versatile ship, especially once I got access to Mk3 plasma and Mk2 meson that I'm left wondering why I'd want any other craft. I actually did a TON of exploring to gain access to the bigger stuff in campaign mode early on. I explored all of Albion, DeVries, Maelstrom, Home of Light, Cold Star, as much of Torride as I could, and some of Fields of Opportunity pretty much as soon as DeVries became unlocked. With Mk.IV Behemoth Shields, Equalized Engines, and the aforementioned weapons, I find that it's next to impossible for me to not come out of a fire fight without taking any physical damage unless I'm going up against something with what I call "cheater weapons" like Xenon, who can damage you even through your shields.
I'm faster than almost anything, tougher than almost anything, and I take on Very Hard "kill the criminal" missions like it was nothing. I don't even bother killing the escort. I just circle strafe the big ship and wail on it with a Mk III plasma cannon, then boost out of there and collect my 2-3 million.
I get the whole not liking being able to fly every ship thing. I really do, but... this isn't that kind of game. It's balanced in such a way that you don't need to. I would say that if you view it as not an actual X game, but rather a game set in the X universe, then it's not so bad.
My main complaint is being forced to hear a male voice representing myself in VR. It's very... well, I'm female, and let's just say it makes me feel weird, and not in a good way. But that's basically the case for nearly any VR game. It was a minor annoyance in pancake games, and it's a whole order of magnitude worse in VR.