The Case

The Collider 2 is a 1st/3rd person game in which takes its concepts from endless runners with a touch of the shoot’em up genre like R-Type. Pilot your ship through the cavernous hull of the enemy’s ship in order to stop it from destroying your planet. Evade moving obstacles, collect coins and artifacts, and shoot down enemy defences. Speed is its own challenge as obstacles get closer together the faster you go. Precision and reflex is the key. This will be a review based almost exclusively on the VR elements of the game. My HMD for this review is the HTC Vive, but fear not, it also works on the Oculus Rift.

The Trial

I was apprehensive at first. When this game first came to my desk I was uninterested. I spent about an hour in the game before I really started to enjoy it. Starting off the game for the first time in VR, I realized right away that I could not navigate menus without a controller. A mouse can be used, but it is related to where it is on your monitor, and not where it is in the HMD which will be different. Counter-intuitively, when I tried to play with said controller, I learned that you cannot navigate your ship in VR. I spent a while tinkering with my controls. In VR, you move with your head, your position is directly related to the ship’s position. This of course is a step taken to remove as much motion sickness as possible while moving at such a high speed.

The other option for those with their sea legs is to move using the mouse, my choice. Mouse movement is much snappier as it’s a much smaller, lighter device to swing around, whereas head movement becomes exhaustive as your neck and back may become sore from jerking around. Now as I’ve said, when you move your head or your mouse tracking is spot on. To eliminate motion sickness, it has to be. But this is not the case for the Desktop version of the game, movement has a bit of a lag as your ship flies around in whatever view you have, be it first or third person. The ship not only seems to drift, but actually has a good sense of weight to it. I see this as a potential issue. Since the game revolves so heavily on reaction, having a weighty ship gives you even less of a chance to react. Thanks to VR for rectifying this.

Missions follow a nine-level format. Eight stages, then one for the boss. And after every nine levels, the game allows you to buy a new ship and upgrade their shields and boost. The game starts you off with simple time trial levels. Evade objects, pick up coins and boost to beat the required time. Soon after you’ll see Artifact collection, where you must pick up glowing blue objects by flying into them. Another level type present is the destruction on the ship’s defences, flying behind these red cubes, you will automatically fire until it’s destroyed. The bosses are comprised of a varied amount of targets in order to drop its defences to attack its core while also evading its own attacks. An entirely separate mode is Survival, this gives you the option of infinitely flying through the base without stopping. Face countless obstacles that that become harder over time, and introduce new barriers to block your path. Here, you’re racing for recognition as your highest score will be posted to the leaderboard.

The Collider 2 is a pretty game to look at. It’s not super flashy, and that’s a good thing as too much flair would be distracting. In the menu you’re offered a look at the ship you pilot, and the vessel you’re set out to destroy. But once you’re in the ship, graphics change from big lights and effects to information and situational awareness. Textures and objects inside the ship have big details to help you identify from a distance what exactly is coming your way. That’s not to say it looks bad, it’s all very well put together and you definitely get a sense of speed as you burn through each level.

The Verdict

The Collider 2 didn’t take long to win me over. It didn’t seem like a game I’d like just by looking at trailers, but once you start playing it becomes a wonderful experience. The game feels good and responsive. Full disclosure, I don’t get motion sick from anything ever, even in VR, so I can’t promise this game won’t be uncomfortable to some users. But for its current price of $10, it’s a must have for a VR enthusiast.