If you wish to introduce anyone to digital actuality for the primary time, Beat Saber is a dependable possibility. It is simple to learn, the locomotion is stationary, and its rhythm-driven nature makes for a well-known greeting. Whether or not or not that individual has performed comparable video games earlier than, the premise is easy sufficient: swing the swords the place the arrows let you know 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 manner 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 growth for novel concepts are slim, so video games are certain to construct on examined foundations as a substitute.
VR-established genres, from rhythm video games to health apps, have set a regular that’s troublesome to desert. Even in circumstances like Path of Fury, a sport about kung fu preventing, it is smart to comply with these conventions even when it could possibly sometimes 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 wherein you utilize a goon as a punching bag, you are instructed concerning the common motion. Left hand is blue, proper hand is pink. Markers seem on completely different components of the physique, and it’s essential match your knuckles with them accordingly. Some haven’t got a coloration, 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 advised the place and when to punch. In contrast to Arkham Shadow, which mixes this scripted framework with the collection’ present 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.
Except for 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. Battle 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 to your fists, and you will rapidly really feel such as you’re hitting notes which might be coming your manner via a digital fretboard.
Path of Fury’s largest power is translating this construction to the fun and strain of back-to-back brawling. Generally, 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 manner greater than the protagonist in top and dimension. The additional you progress, the extra “particular” foes you may encounter, with clear patterns that you must 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. Throughout such circumstances, 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 via ranges requires precision, pace, and endurance, resembling in real-life fights. The abundance of sample memorization, in addition to rhythm, nonetheless, makes it really feel like a coat of paint over present VR experiences. The setting and goals could also be completely different, however all the pieces else is acquainted.
Saying that Path of Fury does not provide something novel could be a disservice. Whenever you’re within the swing of issues, its blood-pumping fantasy excels, but it surely’s additionally not flawed to see it as one more iteration on present concepts. It is a sport that calls for confidence in your expertise to succeed, even should you 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 take a look at the calorie depend in your watch. That is acquainted territory for VR – you’ve got in all probability repeated this ritual already in quite a few different video games – and you will possible do it once more through 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 out there now on the Meta Quest platform.
