StarBlood Arena (PSVR) – it’s pretty sick, but not in that sense

Sony’s new VR game offers a very different kind of online shooter, and yet surprisingly no motion sickness…

We’re four months into the year now and this is the first major new PlayStation VR exclusive to be released by Sony. Resident Evil 7 in January was great, but it remains the only triple-A title to allow you to play the whole game in VR from start to finish. If Sony has a masterplan for PlayStation VR support then they’re keeping things awfully close to their chest. Which is all the more frustrating when a game like StarBlood Arena comes along and reminds you of just how great PlayStation VR is as a piece of hardware.



To clarify, Sony does have shooter Farpoint coming up shortly, which it looks like they’re going to put some effort into promoting, and there has always been a steady stream of indie titles for PlayStation VR. But none of it has been anywhere near as interesting, or as high profile, as the games released last year.

StarBlood Arena is a multiplayer shooter in many ways similar to launch game RIGS. Which is to say that in terms of modes and structure it’s a fairly basic online shooter, but one elevated by both the use of VR and an unusual gimmick. In RIGS it was that you were controlling giant robot suits, while in StarBlood Arena it’s that you’re flying around in little spaceships. What results are not epic dogfights of the Star Wars kind, but smaller, nastier grudge matches reminiscent of the old Descent games.


Although now largely forgotten, 1995’s Descent was a huge milestone in 3D gaming. Not only did it feature large, complex 3D worlds but it allowed you to fly around them with a full six degrees of freedom. This required not just piloting skills but the ability to orientate yourself in a world where there wasn’t really any up or down, and where 2D thinking was the easiest way to get yourself killed. Modern games almost never require that sort of effort from their players, and yet despite VR’s reputation for inducing nausea it’s done a great deal to encourage more adventurous control systems.

Since there’s no real story, StarBlood Arena is implied to be some sort of intergalactic sports show – where the masses watch dinky little spaceships blow each other up in some very basic deathmatches and an equally straightforward co-op survival mode. You can play against the computer as well, if you want, but that’s really only useful as practice. There is a pseudo-career mode, but it’s certainly not worth buying the game for; even though the artificial intelligence is fairly competent.

You will need to practise though, as not only do you have to get to grips with all the movement controls but each ship has a wide array of different weapons, missiles, mines, and counter measures. A lot of them are shooter mainstays like shotguns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers, but there are also more imaginative fare such as Horizon Zero Dawn style harpoons to keep an enemy in place.

StarBlood Arena (PSVR) – the spirit of Descent lives on

Since we’re now fairly practiced at using PlayStation VR we’re probably not the best ones to ask about whether the game is likely to cause motion sickness or not. For the record it didn’t though, which we put down to not only the sharp visuals but the fact that the ships don’t move forward by default but only when you move the analogue stick. That’s how Descent worked too, and means the maps are much more compact and complicated than you’d expect when you hear you’re meant to be flying around in a spaceship.



Our only real complaint is the bland presentation and attempts at humour. We get the feeling the game is trying to ape Overwatch when it comes to its disparate selection of characters, but the game hasn’t got anything like the endearing charm of Blizzard’s classic. Unlocking a hat for your spaceship also doesn’t have quite the same appeal when it comes to loot boxes, although at least there are no microtransactions and the buff-like mods you can also unlock are quite useful.

If there’s a real problem with StarBlood Arena it’s simply the price. At £35 it’s far closer to a full price release than is justified by the amount of content, and we can’t help feel this would’ve done a lot better aiming at a standard £15-ish to put it in line with something like Rocket League. From a purely gameplay perspective though this is another success for PlayStation VR – an experience that is not only made easier and more accessible through using the headset, but which would probably never have been made without it.

StarBlood Arena In Short: It’s a pity the pricing isn’t as accessible as the action, but this is a fun and unusual online shooter that suits PlayStation VR surprisingly well. Pros: The controls work great in conjunction with the headset, and the tightly designed maps create a shooter like no other (well, except Descent). No nausea problems at all. Cons: Too few game modes for the asking price, and none of them are very inspired. Bland presentation and characters. Score: 7/10

Formats: PlayStation VR

Price: £34.99

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: WhiteMoon Dreams

Release Date: 12th April 2017

Age Rating: 12

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