I was so excited to try out virtual reality, and after reading the reviews about how good Crisis VRigade is I couldn’t wait to play it! When the package arrived on my doorstep, I ripped it open as if it were Christmas morning and immediately put on all the gear. Needless to say, at first it didn’t work because of an error that I couldn’t figure out. But I was determined to make it work!
After an hour of tinkering with the headset, cords, and controllers, it turned on! Now, onto the game itself…
The graphics are bad compared to modern games, but in context, this is before most people knew what virtual reality was so they were pretty good for their time. The storyline is very compelling – you’re one of two agents randomly selected for a mission. You can randomly choose your gender or design your own character if you want. There’s not much more about the story aside from you need to use virtual reality to convince someone to give up information regarding some terrorists.
However, the gameplay is fun and quick-paced- which makes it addicting! You get to shoot an enormous amount of weapons, from laser guns to bazookas. But you need to make sure you watch the metal count- if it goes down too low, then your arms will fall off and you lose the game. While some may think that’s annoying, I enjoyed having to manage how many lasers I was firing because it created a sense of urgency instead of just sitting on my couch watching everything happen in front of me.
However, there is a downside to the quick and intense game play: it can be easy for new players to lose track of what’s going on. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then the terrorists will kill you very quickly which makes it hard to get into the game. You also don’t realize how fast time goes by while playing this- even though I wasn’t having fun with it at first because of an error (which isn’t that big of a deal), after 10 minutes or so I didn’t want to quit. This could definitely lead to addiction if people let themselves get sucked in as I did.
I would give this 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who likes video games and virtual reality!