Oculus Quest is a virtual reality headset aimed at the mainstream market. It’s designed to be an all-in-one package with no additional base stations or additional hardware required, unlike previous iterations of Oculus HMDs, such as the Rift S and the Oculus Go.
The B-Team is a co-op twin-stick shooter that was exclusively designed for the Oculus Quest. Despite a lack of extra hardware, it manages to have some really nice visuals that will remind you of other popular games from this genre such as Alienation or Geometry Wars 3. On paper, this would seem to be a great launch title for the Quest and an amazing way to show off why virtual reality can bea compelling thing. In practise, however, there are several issues that hold the game back from being a truly great experience which I will cover in this review.
Despite my issues with the game, it is still fun to play and does provide some good entertainment for you and your friends. As stated previously, this is a twin-stick shooter where you try to survive as long as possible against waves of enemies. The first few stages are a solid tutorial that should help new players get used to the way that this game plays. The controls are very responsive which helps to keep the experience free from frustration and gives you a real sense of being there in combat.
Most actions are performed using the two controller sticks. One stick moves your character and the other aims where you want them to shoot. Each hand also has a trigger that is used for firing your weapons, as well as grenades and super attacks later on in the game. There are buttons for switching between weapons and activating a force field that protects you from damage. The controller sticks are very easy to use and I never had any issues with them during my playthrough.
So far as games go, B-Team does offer a good amount of variety for those looking to play alone or with friends. As stated previously, this is a co-op game that can be played with up to four players in the same room with each person using their own Quest headset. It’s designed to allow players of any level to jump in and have fun together which I think is really important when you are not playing online against strangers that may be less willing to help out a new player.
The levels are also designed to encourage teamwork between players as they gradually increase the number of enemies and hazards during each stage. Different weapons deal different types of damage, such as lasers that go through any object or rockets that do direct area-of-effect damage. I think this is especially important for a game like this to have as it ends up being more of a team effort than an individual experience.
Despite the variety in levels, enemies and weapons that you can use, there is not much else to do within B-Team. There are no upgrades for your character or even secondary abilities which were disappointing. While this does help keep things simple for players of all skill levels, I was hoping for a bit more in the way of customisation to give us an additional sense of progression and feeling that we were getting somewhere.
Another major issue with B-Team is that it doesn’t offer much in the way of replayability. There are four different modes to choose from: Adventure, Rush, Endless and deathmatch. In Adventure mode, you progress through the story as a team until you reach the final boss and beat it. In Rush mode, you play stages that are consecutive instead of getting to choose which ones to play. Endless mode is exactly what it sounds like: non-stop waves of enemies that aim to wear down your ability to stay alive. Deathmatch is self-explanatory too, where you fight against each other to be the last person still alive. Each mode only lasts an hour or so per playthrough so they don’t take very long and there’s not enough content to keep coming back for more once it’s finished.
In conclusion, B-Team does a good job of showing what the Oculus Quest can do. It’s an entertaining game with responsive controls and lots of different ways to play it. If you are looking for a twin-stick shooter on your VR headset, this is definitely worth checking out.
However, there are some issues that I think need to be addressed if they want people to keep coming back to B-Team after beating it. Competition is important in games like this and there’s currently not much to do except for the main Adventure mode. The lack of customisation also needs to be considered as it gives off the feeling that you are playing a game that has started out with nothing and acquired new content instead of having fun with what was already there.
I give B-Team a 7 out of 10, and I hope that we can see more content in the future to back it up.