When jumping into RIGS for the first time, the introduction

commences; a beautiful showcase of giant machines piloted by

short, jockey-like characters fly passed you. All whilst the

announcer shoutcasts a hypothetical game, “The crowd goes wild!”.

Even the introduction had my heart pounding… up close the RIGS

possess a beautiful glossy paint job; this shows off how well

Guerrilla Cambridge Games can use up as much power from the

console as possible, just like they did with Killzone Mercenaries on

the PlayStation Vita. After the introduction and the obligatory

health warnings, you begin the tutorial. The tutorial goes a little

too slow for my taste, but it gets the job done well. While playing

through the tutorial you might wonder, “Why is my peripheral

vision blocked?” This is a comfort setting that helps some people

more prone to motion-sickness to better withstand the fast paced,

in-your-face action of this game. After I turned off the default

Dynamic Mask Visor setting, I personally was far more happy

VR: a new Medium

RIGS does have some shortcomings and as I review this game I

understand that I will overlook all of them for the idea of what a

future RIGS game would be. The areas most criticality noted upon

in RIGS are the loading times and overused animations (when

going from match to match). Because the time spent it prematch

and postmatch seems to come close to the time spent in match.

This might look like quite a negative but actually it is a result of

developers being ham-stringed by Sony so make sure that no game

is “too much” for the mass markets first impression to the VR

space[1]. Sony has understandably put up many roadblocks for the

development teams to work around specifically to ensure that the

games don’t get people sick. while users get used to the tech this is

what us gamers are going to have to deal with so as a reviewer I

must try to see past these shortcomings and look into the future of

what the vision of PSVR games will be once the media is over

“Motion Sickness Madness”.

Motion Sickness What?

Motion sickness is not something I am familiar with, never have

been, probably never will. So when I was reading other reviews for

VR games most of the reviewers spend a lot of time on motion

sickness. This has no relevance in a review for a game that should

be marketed to people who have acquired VR Legs or members of

the Iron Stomach Club. As a new Medium we must define the

rules to help the VR market succeed and grow into what it can

ultimately be, a glorious virtual space where anything is possible. If

the games media doesn’t evolve we will keep seeing crippled games

that could be so much more.

Immersion

This is the most important part of any Virtual Reality review,

without immersion VR is not virtually emulating reality. A VR

game with a low level of immersion will not only make the game

less fun but it can also give you a headache. The sense of

immersion in RIGS is prominent, putting you inside a body of a

mech jockey (these pilots are super short) when you look down and

see your body move as you move is a sight to be seen, or rather an

experience to be had. At the end of every match you are in your

teams jet and when you look out of the plane you can see the wing

over the clouds, when you stick your head outside of the glass

window you can hear the wind brushing passed your head.

The most immersive moment of RIGS was a subtle and most

impressive aspect of the arena design, it was something I didn’t

even notice until a couple of hours in; throughout most arenas the

crowd is watching you within the arena looking through the glass

cheering your team on. These spaces remind me of super expensive

skyboxes in real life sports, I wonder how much those patrons paid

to get that close to the action.

The Arena design really makes you feel like you’re in some pretty

famous places with landmarks such as the Hoover dam in Nevada.

The design is so good you actually feel like you’re there.

Offline Leagues

Throughout my playthrough of the offline division I developed a

newfound love for sports games I didn’t know I had. When

starting offline mode you start at division 3 and work your way up

to division 1 each division consists of ten matches and a

tournament sprinkled in between your league matches. The way

Guerrilla Games has set up Offline play it quickly teaches you to

tackle each game mode with different strategies, by way of play

style and your choice of RIG.

Starting offline mode you must pick a team, this is your team that

will be with you for a whole Division. What stood out to me was

the way the different team names and emblems for the teams made

me feel like the team I picked mattered, even though it doesn’t. I

had a hard time picking between The Kings and The Dragons. The

former is represented by a pharaoh emblem and the latter is

represented be a dragon that looks like it was made to look as close

to Shenron from Dragon Ball Z as they could without getting into

legal disputes. Being a huge Dragon Ball fan I picked The Dragons

but if The Kings were called The Pharaohs it would have been a

harder choice.

After choosing your team you have to hire teammates, the

teammates that you are allowed to hire depends on how famous

you are. Fame is measured by your followers and you can acquire

more followers based upon how well you do throughout the

matches. Personally I didn’t hire better teammates until halfway

through the second division because I was good enough to win

every match almost by myself. Once I needed better teammates I

quickly realized that I wasn’t as good as I thought; this only

motivated be to learn how to do advanced maneuvers to best the

harder AI.

At the end of a Division the teammates you picked are obviously

excited whilst celebrating in your teams jet. They hold up the

trophy you all have won and slam it next to you on your table

creating a sense of immersion that makes me feel like I’ve made a

difference.

The offline mode is great fun, but really its practice for online

mode where you can put your skill up against others who have won

the same trophies as you.

Game Types

Each of the 3 game types play differently, they consist of

Powerslam, Team Takedown, and Endzone. All though the means

of victory varies the root mechanics is what you must master.

These game types heavily force the choice upon the player what

RIG type to choose.

Power Slam

Power Slams rules are reminiscent of Rocket League, that being if

Rocket League is Soccer with cars then Power Slam is basketball

with Mechs. The rules are simple, fill up your overdrive meter and

go through the basket. There are two ways to fill up your overdrive

meter, get three takedowns (kills) or pick up orbs. Mastering this

game type is all about using RIGs that can jump high and move

fast, much like basketball.

What RIGs to use?

Tempests, these are RIGS that fly! Flying RIGS make it easy to get

in the goal! The only negative is that they can be taken down the

easiest.

Mirage! All around best suited for every game type, they can

double jump and are moderately fast.

Any engineer, engineers are perfect for making sure the team gets

to where they need to go, just look at your teammates and the

engineer class will heal them, perfect when your mates ate close to

the goal but are one missile away from death.

Team Takedown

This mode is the simplest, its just team death match so go out

there and take them down!

What RIGs to use?

Sentinels, they are the tanks and can take a beating, many of their

weapons deal massive damage.

Any Vampire, after getting a takedown all health is refilled!

Endzone

Endzone is hardest to grasp and the most difficult to master. This

is American Football with Mechs. Each match starts with a

Football in the middle and your team must bring the ball to the

opponents endzone to score a touchdown. If you have the ball you

can pass it to a teammate for extra strategy with the L3 button.

This is the mode played by the most competitive because it

highlights every RIGS advantages and disadvantages, making for

surprising opportunities for teamwork.

What RIGs to use?

Hunters are the all star here as they are the quarterback, just make

sure your team has a healthy variety of different class RIGs to help

get the hunter to the endzone.

Competitive VR Online

I can’t stress enough how fun this game is to play online with

friends, the level of teamwork you can put in to make sure your

team makes it out on top. Multiplayer is what makes RIGS a game

to have in your VR library. Simply being in this game you forget

you are in a game. Multiple times being in a RIG I forgot I was

sitting there playing a video game.

Matchmaking at launch was lackluster but after the 1.05 update

RIGs Matchmaking was streamlined with the ability to

quickmatch.

Customizations

There is so much to unlock in this game: visors, victory dances,

suits and RIGs. All of them being cosmetic except for the different

RIGs you can unlock.

Replay Value Galore

After having the PlayStation VR for over a month the only game I

keep coming back to is RIGs I have spent well over 80 hours in

RIGs the price is perfect for the amount of replay value RIGs has

to offer. Any fan of competitive shooters would love to spend their

time in this virtual reality.

TL;DR/Conclusion

All in All this game is for the people most enthusiastic about VR,

RIGs does everything right. This is my first game review because I

was sick of reading reviews that were not reviewing this game as

one of the first games in this space, other reviewers were lumping

in their flat game baggage into this new medium. If RIGS MCL is

just the beginning of greatness I cant wait for what’s next.

Immersion: 10/10

This is about how well the game tricks you into forgetting you are in a

game.

You feel like you are in a Mech, enough said.

Vision: 10/10

This is about the overall style and what the developers are trying to get

you to feel.

The vision of RIGs is prestigious, guerrilla nailed the sports star

vibes and sense of scale of a world where mechs are the pass time

of the world.

Graphics: 10/10

Is the game pretty?

Beautiful effects fully cascade you into this world and into the seat

of your very own RIG

Sound: 10/10

how is the audio quality? Is the soundtrack good?

The 3D Audio lets you know where shots are coming from and

where a RIG is coming from behind you. If you close your eyes you

could probably still play this game, unlike any other.

Gameplay: 10/10

All about gameplay mechanics, are the controls good? Is it fun?

The amount of detail put into the mechanics really blew me away. I

did not expect this much depth in a launch title of an add on to a

console.

Replay Value: 10/10

How much time can you get out of it, will you want to keep coming back

for more?

I can play this game everyday and never get enough.

Price to Worth: 10/10

VR is a new medium, some developers might try to charge more then the

title is worth.

They could have gotten away with charging $60 USD and I still

would have been happy.

Options for Comfort: 10/10

Does this game give you the ability to control the amount of motion

seen? Does it let you turn off comfort settings?

This game has many comfort options for people who are not yet

accustomed to VR and it gives you the options to turn them off,

thats all I need the options to turn them off.

Loading Times: 8/10

How much time does the game make you wait before you can start

playing?

The one thing holding it down but if you have a PS4 pro (I don’t )

it helps. Understandably this game packs a punch, the best looking

game on PSVR so far.

Need of Sequel: 10/10

Would anybody want a sequel for this game? It can go both ways

positively I will elaborate on why i give the score I give.

Give me sequel, the need of more. If this game is as good as it is I

can’t wait until more PS4 owners get their hands on a PSVR. This

is the kind of game that should get yearly releases.

Pro support?: Yes

This is a note for people who want to know, doesn’t effect the score.

Improved? That’s an understatement, when people ask me does

the PS4 Pro even matter all I have to do is get them to try RIGs

side by side and this is the only VR game that has noticeably

improved greatly.

Final score: 98/100