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jp's Battlezone (PS4)

[February 26, 2023 03:21:01 PM]

I played this some 5-6 hours last weekend. Most of that was across two sessions - so, a fair amount of time with the PSVR helmet if you ask me. The game was that much fun that I really didn't notice the time fly. I was tired by the end though.

The first big session I played without updating the game (it was a huge download and it was pretty slow) - so I was not able to play online. I would for the second session, but more on that later.

As expected you play a tank - and you shoot stuff, and there's different types of tanks with different weapons and armor/weight/speed, etc. Everything is low-poly stylized such a way as to be purposefully retro-looking. There's different types of missions and enemies, and an overarching progression system wherein you unlock the kinds of weapons and things you could get from enemies and at "resupply" points.

It's pretty fun. I enjoyed it!

I was surprised to learn (perhaps I once knew and forgot) that the game's a rogue-like, you choose how long and hard you want your campaign to be! A campaign is basically a large map made up of hexes. You're supposed to get to a volcano on the last one - along the way you can scan (to see what's in the hexes) and then plot your path through the map. There are a variety of location - e.g. shields that are harder fights but will result in the final boss (volcano map) being a little easier, places to resupply (chance to buy new weapons/upgrades), and so on. There are even narrative/story type events! These often ask that you make a decision (e.g. there's a busted tank, do you investigate? It might be a trap...). Some of these are even multi-stage - I did one where I first rescued some scientists, then I could escort them to safety as a separate mission.

As you move across the map an "enemy tracker" (it's not called that, I just don' remember what it's actually called) keeps on going up - making the enemy stronger. It sometimes spawns a nemesis - that is a super tough tank (it often one-shot killed me) you can presumably defeat (I never did) so you should mostly avoid if possible. It moves around on the hex-map - so you can see where it might go, but depending on the hex map you just might have to face it.

In addition to the possibility of hex-map special location upgrades (these were mostly underwhelming, but maybe that's because I hadn't unlocked enough of them)? You can upgrade your tank directly - improving shields, reloading (I think this was mostly an ever-improving active reload system where you can reload faster and get boosts to damage), healing for allies, and better range for picking up credits/loot). On a short run I don't think it's possible to max out your tank, but this might be doable on a long campaign?

I failed miserably on all the short campaigns I played solo - mostly 'cause I died to the nemesis! But also because I was figuring out a bunch of things and how they worked.

Then I installed the update (game changed to Battlezone Gold Edition) - this version no longer required a PSVR! (but I still played in VR). Now I could play online...and it looks like there was something like 3 other people playing online? I joined a game - it fell apart, then I created a game - or joined another one. Eventually we got a group of 3 strangers and we played two campaigns! Died on the first, but beat the second one! It's definitely more fun with other tanks - you can revive fallen opponents (within a time window), you can heal each other (maxxing out on the healing ability is a good idea), and you can see other tank weapons in play. It was fun - and it was nice to learn from other more experienced players (one already had the platinum trophy for the game).

I've been trying to play my PSVR games (in anticipation of PSVR2)....and I'm hesitant to call it done on this one (to move on to another) just because it was...well, fun!