If you wish to introduce any individual to digital actuality for the primary time, Beat Saber is a dependable possibility. It is easy to learn, the locomotion is stationary, and its rhythm-driven nature makes for a well-recognized greeting. Whether or not or not that individual has performed related video games earlier than, the premise is straightforward sufficient: swing the swords the place the arrows inform you to with the beat.
On paper, Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower is a unique beast. As a substitute of gazing at colourful mappings of songs, you are punching your means up a skyscraper, defeating dozens of enemies in fast succession. But, the upper I climbed, the extra acquainted this endeavor felt, following a construction akin to that of Beat Saber-likes. The invention shone a lightweight on a predicament that appears to permeate the VR area as an entire. The possibilities of success in VR sport improvement for novel concepts are slim, so video games are certain to construct on examined foundations as an alternative.
VR-established genres, from rhythm video games to health apps, have set a normal that’s tough to desert. Even in instances like Path of Fury, a sport about kung fu preventing, it is sensible to comply with these conventions even when it could actually often really feel constraining as effectively.
Beat by Beat
It takes Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower no time to showcase the gist of the expertise. Throughout a moody tutorial by which you employ a goon as a punching bag, you are instructed in regards to the normal motion. Left hand is blue, proper hand is pink. Markers seem on totally different components of the physique, and you’ll want to match your knuckles with them accordingly. Some haven’t got a shade, inviting punches with both fist indiscriminately.
In that vein, Path of Fury is just like combat-heavy video games like Batman: Arkham Shadow than these with extra free roam motion, like Skydance’s Behemoth, for instance. You are instructed the place and when to punch. In contrast to Arkham Shadow, which mixes this scripted framework with the collection’ current fight aptitude encouraging you to make use of devices and comply with fast reactions to keep up a combo streak, Path of Fury is extra streamlined. You solely use your fists to assault and your open palms to deflect upcoming hits.
Other than swinging your arms, there’s little motion concerned elsewhere. Evoking the spirit of sunshine gun shooters, from Time Disaster to The Home of the Useless, your smackdowns occur on-rails. Combat an enemy till you knock them down, and the sport transitions to the subsequent battle after a brief fade-to-black. Pair this with telegraphed factors of influence in your fists, and you may shortly really feel such as you’re hitting notes which might be coming your means by means of a digital fretboard.
Path of Fury’s greatest power is translating this construction to the fun and strain of back-to-back brawling. Typically, you are prompted to deal a number of hits in fast succession, however some enemies require punches with extra influence. Particularly ones which might be means greater than the protagonist in peak and measurement. The additional you progress, the extra “particular” foes you may encounter, with clear patterns that you need to memorize to deflect and counterattack correctly. The boss within the second stage, for instance, would punish me for lacking an space of influence, forcing me to endure one other chain of assaults till it was my flip once more.
Moreover, some fights resemble having to take care of double or triple notes on the similar time, with a number of enemies on display screen. Throughout such instances, you find yourself having to repeat assaults with the identical hand following, you guessed it, one other sample. Your pace is rewarded, too, with some areas of influence showing solely after efficiently blocking an assault, and just for a brief window.
Within the grand scheme of issues, Path of Fury delivers its fantasy with grace. Getting by means of ranges requires precision, pace, and endurance, comparable to in real-life fights. The abundance of sample memorization, in addition to rhythm, nonetheless, makes it really feel like a coat of paint over current VR experiences. The setting and aims could also be totally different, however the whole lot else is acquainted.
Saying that Path of Fury does not supply something novel can be a disservice. Whenever you’re within the swing of issues, its blood-pumping fantasy excels, however it’s additionally not unsuitable to see it as yet one more iteration on current concepts. It is a sport that calls for confidence in your expertise to succeed, even for those who can really feel a way of hesitation in pushing past the present norm of VR gaming within the partitions of each room of the skyscraper.
Each session of Path of Fury ends with the identical ritual. You wipe your headset lenses, push your hand throughout your sweating eyebrows, and have a look at the calorie rely in your watch. That is acquainted territory for VR – you have most likely repeated this ritual already in quite a few different video games – and you may seemingly do it once more in the course of the subsequent few years, whether or not you are in a skyscraper or following the beat of a track.
Path of Fury – Episode I: Tetsuo’s Tower is accessible now on the Meta Quest platform.
