Apex Construct is a story-driven game that took virtual reality by storm last year. This game is exploring and fighting like a game that was truly built from the ground up for virtual reality. Apex Construct is a full title that you won’t want to miss out on playing. It is not only one of the better games that have been released in the last year, but it is a game that is going to played for years after its release.
In our in-depth reviews, we strive to review the game in a way that the people want to hear about the game. From the depth of Apex’s story to the way you get from point A to point B in the game, we will have that covered in our review. Apex is one of the better VR games out there, and it is a rare ‘full’ title too, but it doesn’t mean its perfect. Let’s jump right in and see what this game is all about.
Getting Up and Running
The developers of this game, Fast Travel Games, suggest having at least 5 GB of memory available when you play this game, on top of the 8 GB this game file is going to take. Not only will this let the game download and install cleanly, but it will leave room open for the missions you may or may not unlock. Downloading this game can take five minutes if you have a fast internet connection, but a lot longer if you aren’t connected to high-speed connections. You could be looking at a download time upwards of an hour.
This game can be found on the Oculus Store, Steam Store, and even Viveport. It cannot, however, be found in any store for the PSVR. They get enough exclusives anyway, I think they will be just fine without this game. You can get this game as a part of the Viveport Infinity subscription, or you can buy it for full price of $19.99. the price will stay the same across all of the available storefronts.
Type of Game
In this story-driven game, you will be encountering many different obstacles and problems. The game is changing at all times and is making you adapt through every twist and turn. You will be wielding a bow and arrow for most of the game, and a shield is going to be attached to your bow as well. This is a game that has many categories and tags, but there are a few we would like to touch on.
This game is a story game, there is no way around it. The story is driven by your actions, in no way are you feeling like this is an interactive story. This is a true game that feels like a console experience or an in-depth PC. This is an action game that is baked into a story that is very fun to be a part of.
Player Perspective
This game is played in the first-person perspective (first-robohuman perspective maybe?) but you won’t be seeing anything other than your hands for the entire game. This doesn’t break the immersion and because most virtual reality is like this, you don’t think twice about it when you are playing the game. If anything, this view is preferred by most gamers because it doesn’t block your view while you are playing your game.
Theme and Story – Score: 9/10
The theme in this game is incredibly strong, but it doesn’t live up to the story that is going to be presented to you. Your father is going to be directing you as you try to save all of humanity. Although he won’t be there throughout your entire gameplay, you will now the goal and how the story is playing a part in all of it the entire time. Some games often get lost in the levels and action to carry the story to the very end, but this game and the developers did a fantastic job of letting the game progress only as fast as the story.
Controls – Score: 8/10
Controlling your own player and interacting with the virtual world in this game was nearly seamless. There were points throughout the game when it was hard to interact with some objects that you knew you had to interact with, but for the most part, the controls were great. The Valve bindings could use an update, but that is likely to come with time.
Music and Sound – Score: 8/10
In games that require a lot of searching, exploring, and little action, it is nice to be able to hear yourself think. The music in the game picks up right when you start fighting, but until then, the sound effects are the biggest part of the game. There are a few holes here and there, but for the majority of your time in this game, you are going to be in awe by the timing of the noises you hear.
Player Movement – Score: 7/10
Teleporting in this game is one of the best you can get inside of virtual reality. With one joystick you can choose where yo teleport to, and the other joystick on the controller you are using to twist your body. This enables the game to be a sitting experience, but it does add some motion sickness that almost feels unneeded in a game that is relatively slow.
Kinetosis – Score: 6/10
Because you are moving so much and changing your orientation so much inside of this game, its easy to feel a bad case of motion sickness very early on in the game. If you are in the heat of battle, it is easy to get lost of where you are in the real world if you are playing this game as a room-scale experience. We suggest playing this game sitting to reduce the amount of motion sickness in this game, but you are going to feel it regardless of how you play.
Environment and Immersion – Score: 8/10
The amount of scenery and the ever-changing scenes in this game add to the environment that you love from the moment you put the headset on. The sounds and music immerse you a great amount in this game, and we never really thought of taking our headset off until we had found stopping point. Some games make you wonder why you ever got into them, but Apex Construct makes you feel like you should’ve never left.
Overall – Score: 7.6/10
The kinetosis in this game caused the score to drop more than we were hoping for, but this game is still receiving a relatively high score compared to most other games we have reviewed. This game is a part of the Viveport Infinity subscription, so if you are paying for this game at full price, you’re likely doing it wrong. This game is worth the download, but not worth your money.
