Firewall Ultra is yet another virtual reality FPS game coming to PSVR2, this time exclusively for Sony's virtual reality glasses. The successor to Firewall Zero Hour, this new game is a more tactical first-person shooter than we've seen in other games like PAVLOV.
But even though it's more tactical than other games, it simplifies a few things that make the game more dynamic and, in my opinion, a lot more fun. But we'll talk about that later.
What is Firewall Ultra all about?
As already mentioned, Firewall Ultra is a first-person shooter, the famous FPS, focusing solely and exclusively on multiplayer, whether in co-op or PVP mode. But although these are well-known modes in terms of shooting games, here it works a little differently.
The game is developed by First Contact Entertainment, the same studio that developed Zero Hour and Solaris, which is a more unknown game. And it's published by PlayStation itself, which already brings some benefits.
The first is that we can expect a greater investment in the game, which allows for a more interesting look and the use of some "features" that only the PSVR2 has. And the second benefit is that the game is fully localized in our native language, i.e. with subtitles and dubbing.
That said, how does the game work?
It's a shooting game, so obviously you can exchange fire with machine-controlled enemies and other players. To do this, we have an arsenal full of weapons, of all different tastes, including long, medium and short-range weapons, as well as some throwable weapons and the good old tactical knife.
Weapons can be purchased with in-game money and you can customize each one. You can also customize presets, kind of like the kit you're going to use for the mission, so you're better prepared for the different types of maps the game has.
But the weapons aren't the only things that make the game experience change, we also have the ability to choose to play with five different agents. Visually they are different, of course, but in terms of gameplay, they also have some differences that again make the game more dynamic.
What are the game modes?
The game has a total of two game modes, which, let's be honest, is very little for a multiplayer shooter. But even so, the game manages to keep you entertained for a long time, mainly because it has a more tactical factor, as well as good old-fashioned shooting.
We have a cooperative mode and a PVP mode, but in both modes we have certain objectives to fulfill. For example, in cooperative mode, you have to locate a type of router, which gives you the location of some notebooks scattered around the map. These notebooks serve as that well-known "flag" we have in many FPSs, which we have to capture and secure the area.
And after accomplishing these objectives, you have to escape the scene. In PVP mode, we have basically the same gameplay, in which four players need to capture these notebooks and escape, while the other enemy players need to prevent this from happening.
But it's not just laptops, okay? We have other types of objectives that we can complete in the game. And to do this, we can create team strategies to attack and strategies to defend, which include tools to block doors etc. And then we have the classic best of three, and with each round, we change sides.
PSVR2 features and performance
Being a PSVR2 exclusive, we have many of its features used in Firewall Ultra, and they can be customized very well. There's eye-tracking, which is used more than ever here. I've seen it used in some games like Horizon Call of The Mountain, but it was limited to the menu. In Firewall Ultra, the feature is used even in gameplay, whether to change weapons or even to highlight objectives on the map.
And we have those features that really help with immersion, such as the tactile response, which applies to the adaptive triggers, the tactile response of the headset and the controller itself, as well as the controller's touch detection. But beyond that, we have a great implementation of Tempest 3D, which is much better represented with compatible headsets.
As far as weapons are concerned, as I said at the beginning, we have a simplification. This is because, unlike some FPSs such as Pavlov and Resident Evil, where in order to reload, you have to remove the ammunition clip, take the ammunition out of your pocket, then put it back in and unlock the gun, in Firewall Ultra, with the press of a button, the whole process is done.
Simple trigger
Which is much better for me, I confess that I end up getting lost when reloading weapons. This also applies to changing weapons, throwing weapons and the knife. In this respect, everything works very well and is very dynamic.
But in terms of performance, the game is far from perfect. First of all, the characters seen on screen are almost always buggy, which is understandable as the movements are the result of the players' movements. However, despite this, I don't remember seeing it like this in other games, but I could be wrong.
And although it's a problem that doesn't make much difference in practice, I did experience a few crashes in the game, and there were quite a few. Some at times when there was more action and others when nothing was happening. And because it's an online game, this is very annoying because you lose all the XP you've acquired during the game.
Was it worth it?
At the end of the day, the game is good, entertaining to the point of making me not want to leave the game. And despite the game's performance problems and the lack of variety of modes, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game at all.
It has a very pleasant look, very immersive sound and makes very good use of the PlayStatio VR2's features. It was worth the hours spent, although the system upgrades are a bit time-consuming. I really enjoyed it!
See also:
Starfield cost more than US$ 200 million
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