As one of the bigger PS VR titles to launch in this half of 2018, Apex Construct has quite a bit to live up to. A creation of Stockholm-based Fast Travel Games, Apex Construct was built from the ground up as a single player, narrative-driven VR experience by an extremely impressive team of gaming veterans. Its world is intricately detailed, its story mysterious yet intriguing and its controls are tight and responsive (for the most part) but is it worth your money? Read on to find out in our review of Apex Construct for PS VR.
In Apex Construct, you find yourself thrust into this unknown world guided only by this onminous AI voice known as ‘FATHR’. His mysterious dialogue and drip-feediing of information is sure to keep you playing as you try to decipher what exactly has happened to the world since ‘the Shift’.
As you make your way around this disheveled world, you come across various notes, clipboards and computer terminals which, together, start to reveal the backstory but you never really find out who left these messages behind.
Graphically, the team at Fast Travel Games have made one of the cleanest and best looking games on PS VR. Playing it on a PS4 Pro, which uses the console’s extra horse-power to increase the overall level of detail, amongst other things, Apex Construct is beautifully dystopian world. The game also champions exploration as you travel around the different zones and return to some of them to do some additional exploring. Some areas help answer any questions you may have on the world but others only create more intrigue.
In terms of gameplay, as you set out on your adventure, the games asks if you’d rather play sitting or standing along with other tweak-able settings which is a nice addition from the guys at Fast Travel Games. For me, I found the smooth locomotion (with added vignette to reduce any motion sickness) with the smooth rotation to best setting but this may be too much for some players. Thankfully, there are quite a number of other movement and viewing options to choose from to get the gameplay experience that works for you.
They also included a clever inventory system that sees you press a button on your Move controller to pop up a virtual dashboard of your weapons and items above your left arm and you use your right hand to select what you want.
The bow and arrow mechanic is also well implemented and looking down your sight at an enemy whilst you fire off an explosive arrow really is a thing of beauty.
You’re also equipped with an ‘energy shield’ of sorts that you must use to fend off incoming energy blasts from your robotic counterparts. Overall, the combat is quite sporadic and sparse but this is actually a good thing as it leaves more time for you to explore and discover the mysteries of the world.
Throughout your exploration and combat sections, you can collect ‘Radiance Points’ that allows you to upgrade your various features and attributes. You will also need to solve some exploration puzzles on your journey such as finding out the correct password for an input terminal by ‘semi-hacking’ the various computers dotted around the world.
Not everyone will be happy with the somewhat open-ended nature of the ending but, for me anyways, spending time in this beautifully crafted VR world and learning about its backstory more than made up for this.
As 2018 gets into full swing and more and more VR titles launch for Playstation’s VR headset, Apex Construct is definitely one that you should pick up if you’re after a story-driven single player experience and one that’s beautiful to boot also.
Apex Construct was tested using a PS4 Pro with a review code provided by Fast Travel Games. You can pick up your own copy of the game right here.
