BattleGroupVR
- July 31, 2023
- SpaceOwl Games
- 5h median play time
BattleGroupVR is a first-person real-time space strategy game available on the Oculus Quest, allowing 1-2 players to cooperatively lead a fleet into battle from the bridge of their flagship. Unlock and command a variety of ships, each with unique abilities and weapon slots, as you equip them with the best weapons and technology to emerge victorious in PvP or single-player missions. Despite delightful visuals, the game can be quite buggy, with some grinding required.
Reviews
- The game offers an immersive experience of commanding a fleet from the bridge of your flagship, making players feel like a space admiral.
- The controls are intuitive and allow for easy manipulation of the tactical map, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.
- The game features a variety of ships and customization options, providing depth and replayability in both the campaign and skirmish modes.
- There are several bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, such as issues with ship movement commands and UI elements appearing in awkward positions.
- The difficulty scaling can be frustrating, as missions become disproportionately harder when players upgrade their fleets.
- The story and dialogue can feel lacking or repetitive, which may detract from the overall immersion for some players.
- story225 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 84 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally well-received, with players appreciating the engaging narrative and immersive crew interactions that unfold during missions. However, many reviewers express a desire for more content, noting that the campaign is relatively short and repetitive, with limited mission variety and some frustrating difficulty scaling. Overall, while the storytelling elements are enjoyable, players hope for future updates to expand the narrative and mission diversity.
“The story is fun and easy to follow and well performed, and the graphics are perfect.”
“I appreciate that I have a crew who talks to each other, and I really like that they are a primary storyteller, so I can learn about the plot while I'm moving into position.”
“You are basically a mercenary protecting a politician during some sort of civil war. The story progresses, you make money, and upgrade the weapons on your ships.”
“First of all, the progression system in the campaign is a mess, as the game wants you to grind, redo missions, etc. Secondly, there isn't that much variety in situations: most of the missions are just 'go here and destroy everything'.”
“The story is... well, I suppose I shouldn't judge until I've seen all of it. But so far, what story there is has appeared in the form of mission instructions.”
“The campaign is really fun, upgrading ships in the downtime works well and even the enemy taking back a sector while you recharge is just really cool. However, the only real way to improve here is to make the missions a bit more different, as I'm playing the same missions over and over.”
- graphics82 mentions
- 51 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are widely praised for their impressive quality and immersive holographic interface, enhancing the overall gameplay experience. Players appreciate the stunning visuals, particularly in VR, where the holographic map and ship models create a captivating atmosphere. However, some users noted occasional graphical glitches and performance issues, suggesting that while the graphics are strong for an indie title, there is still room for improvement.
“The graphics are amazing, the gameplay is great.”
“The graphics are mind-blowing.”
“The immersion is incredible, gameplay smooth as silk, sounds are excellent, graphics are stunning!”
“Graphics are pretty meh.”
“It needs a lot of work, from graphical glitches to fights being just kind of repetitive and boring (at least in the campaign).”
“Ever since I got my VR headset a few months back, I have gotten most of the good VR games available and they all seem lackluster and only shine at one point, either graphics or movement mechanics, but overall similar.”
- gameplay73 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay is widely praised for its intuitive controls, engaging mechanics, and immersive experience, particularly for fans of space-themed strategy games. While many players appreciate the depth and variety of gameplay options, some have noted minor bugs and a need for further refinement, especially in cooperative modes. Overall, the game offers a solid foundation with potential for expansion, making it a compelling choice for RTS enthusiasts.
“The gameplay is solid, the visuals are on point, the controls are easy to learn and intuitive, and best of all is the feeling that one gets from playing this game.”
“The gameplay itself is intense.”
“What I got was an amazing experience with great graphics and intuitive controls and game mechanics that make this an utter joy to play, especially if you're a fan of Star Trek/Battlestar/Star Wars.”
“The only criticism I have is that I hope the devs plan on adding more gameplay, and co-op needs a bit more work.”
“Losing fully upgraded ships and high-level captains to bugs is not fun gameplay - this is coming from someone who plays EVE Online and has lost plenty of ships.”
“Gameplay is fairly bland and simplistic, at least early on, often slow-paced.”
- stability19 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- -11 % neutral mentions
- 95 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with users reporting a range of bugs and glitches, particularly in controls and system responsiveness, which are common in early access titles. While some players have experienced minimal issues that did not significantly impact gameplay, others noted more frequent problems that can disrupt the experience. Overall, the game is considered playable and enjoyable, but it requires further polish and fixes to enhance stability.
“It's very bug-free and runs smooth as butter.”
“The game rarely crashes, providing a seamless experience.”
“I appreciate how stable the gameplay is; it never feels jittery or laggy.”
“The control menu is buggy at times (doesn't want to come up), or sometimes I cannot fire weapons (nothing damaged, on manual, and power to weapons), but these issues do not come up too often.”
“Still rough around the edges and has some glitches, like flak cannons firing opposite of where I want them to or abilities just not activating in some battles.”
“Very buggy at the moment, controls seem to just turn off now and then leaving you with no way to select anything.”
- optimization13 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while many players report smooth performance and intuitive controls, there are notable issues, particularly during complex missions and when managing multiple ships. As an early access title, it exhibits typical performance hiccups and stuttering, especially when maxing out VRAM on higher-end systems, but the developer's responsiveness offers hope for future improvements. Players generally appreciate the visuals and gameplay experience, though some still encounter bugs and missing features.
“The game runs smoothly and the controls are easy and intuitive.”
“Overall, awesome game, very good graphics, fun, and runs smoothly in VR.”
“The visuals are pretty good and I've experienced no performance issues.”
“As an early access game, it has the typical lack of polish and surely needs a little optimization.”
“Maxes out the VRAM on my 3080, which causes a little stuttering.”
“The bad: there has been some stuttering when opening certain menus during missions and the game could use some more optimization.”
- grinding11 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 91 % negative mentions
Players have mixed feelings about grinding in the game; while some find it rewarding to upgrade their fleets through grinding, others feel it becomes tedious and demotivating, especially with repetitive assist missions and lengthy setup times for skirmishes. The satisfaction of commanding ships and outmaneuvering AI is often overshadowed by the time-consuming nature of grinding, leading to frustration for some players. Overall, while grinding can enhance gameplay for some, it risks becoming a chore for others, particularly when it involves tedious tasks and lack of efficiency in battle preparations.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Looks like every system is already conquered, and there is nothing much to do other than grinding boring assist missions or trying to attack an enemy system, which is pure suicide for a new player.”
“Since this has already happened to me twice, with two separate and grindy builds, I have dramatically lost my motivation to continue playing this game, regardless of how much I love the gameplay and mechanics.”
“Skirmishes are cool but tedious to set up, manually placing all the ships, giving them captains, and arming them all for 5 minutes of battle and not even being able to save the scenario; it gets old fast.”
- replayability10 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability, with levels that scale in difficulty based on the player's fleet size, encouraging players to tackle challenges repeatedly. Users express a desire for additional modes, such as a sandbox feature, to enhance the experience further. Overall, the game is praised for its addictive nature and extensive content, making it a worthwhile investment for players seeking long-term engagement.
“It is definitely worth the asking price and the replayability is endless.”
“This game is amazing, it has more replayability and content in it than $60 VR titles out there.”
“Levels are replayable, scaling in difficulty with your fleet.”
“With offline conquest mode, the game has more replayability than the main campaign.”
“It needs some polish, but as is, it's the only game I have ever completely run down my batteries on, other than Alyx, and this has replay value.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in the game is highly praised for its immersive and visually stunning environments, particularly in VR, with detailed animations and epic scenery. While the sound and music enhance the experience, some players feel that the overall balance and gameplay mechanics could be improved to complement the impressive atmosphere.
“The immersion and atmosphere are quite good in VR.”
“The planets are all beautifully designed with detailed animations within the atmospheres.”
“The battles and scenery are beyond epic, and the music adds to the atmosphere perfectly.”
- music5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
Overall, the music in the game receives mixed feedback; while some players find it enhances the atmosphere and complements the epic battles, others feel it could use improvement and occasionally detracts from the experience. Despite these criticisms, many agree that the soundtrack is engaging enough to maintain player interest.
“The graphics, sound, and music track are all awesome.”
“The battles and scenery are beyond epic, and the music adds to the atmosphere perfectly.”
“The soundtrack kind of put me off guard at times.”
“Sound effects and music could definitely be worked on, but it's enough to keep you engaged.”
“The only downside I have experienced so far is the music.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with a mix of effective and cringe-worthy elements, particularly in the tutorial. While some players appreciate the developer's comedic touch, others find it inconsistent, noting that the humor adds to the immersive experience of the space combat VR game. Overall, it strikes a balance between functional gameplay and entertaining moments.
“The tutorial is very well explained for a novice like me, with a few touches of humor.”
“This dev has pretty good humor too; it all lands fairly well.”
“There are many ways it can improve, but as it stands right now, it's the most immersive (and surprisingly funny) space combat VR game out there.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players report a strong emotional connection to the game, with experiences that evoke feelings of nostalgia and immersion, reminiscent of beloved narratives like "Ender's Game." The setting, particularly being on the bridge, elicits a sense of satisfaction and engagement that enhances the overall emotional experience.
“Being seated in the bridge made me feel good, and I'm not sure why.”
“Honestly made me feel like I was in Ender's Game.”