There's A LOT of VR at PAX West this year. But the one that rustled the most jimmies for us has got to be Insomniac's open world shooter Stormland. It didn't necessarily cause anyone to stand up and announce "VR IS HERE NOW!" but it did provide a consistent stream of thrills and fresh ideas that proves VR is at least headed in the right direction.
Stormland takes place in a robot-filled world high above the clouds in a place called the "cloudscape". You play as a scrappy-looking robot who is seekign revenge against an evil force called The Tempest for destroying your android body.
As an open-world game, Stormland is incredibly ambitious. Fortunately, seasoned developer Insomniac Games (Marvel's Spiderman, Ratchet and Clank) has devised a number of mobility features that make exploring the cloudscape a genuine treat.
Moving your arms against any surface allows you climb up walls and cliffs, but if you're in a hurry, flicking your arms against the ground will launch you high into the air. From here, you can stretch your arms out like a plane and gently glide through the air. Once you see an enemy though, you can point your arms at the ground and come screeching down onto their heads. There is also cloud surfing, which allows you to speed around the open cloud areas by reaching out as if holding a steering wheel. Finally, a good old fashioned double jump let's you quickly vault obstacles as you tear through the environment.
Combat is just as impressive in Stormland as the mobility. You have two guns on your sides and one on your back, as well as two grenades on your chest. Any of these weapons can be held in either hand and switched out with any weapon you find. Guns have a one-handed and 2-handed mode and are aimed completely differently in each mode. For me, the minigun which is held down on your side offered the most thrills as I mowed down camps of hostile robots like Tony-freaking-Montana.
There are still VR concessions to be made. You can't spin 360 because you'd get tangled up in the cables, meaning you need to use the right stick to turn your body (you can look around of course). So as not to disorient you, the right stick doesn't fluidly move the camera, instead in jerks 45% the right or left, presenting you with a new "scene". Right now, these limitations are necessary hardware restrictions. But if you can't get used to it, Stormlands feels like the VR Shooter we've all be waiting for.