Synapse is the shooter the PS VR 2 desperately needs right now We recently got to strap into a PS VR2 headset and jump into the new shooter Synapse. Coming from VR maestros nDreams, is this the game the headset needs to excite its user base? VR has always been a passion of mine. I was there as an early adopter of the ludicrously expensive HTC Vive (though thankfully it was nowhere near as expensive as Apple\u2019s mind-boggling Vision Pro). However, as anyone who owns VR knows, headsets can lack substantial core games. VR still feels like it\u2019s in an experimental phase. Translating the technology into a fully-fledged AAA experience has remained elusive. That\u2019s double-y true of the first-person shooter \u2013 and it\u2019s a genre that fits the form of VR so well. Still, most offerings are just a couple of shooting galleries with a minimal story attached. Well, that\u2019s if you put Half-Life: Alyx to the side, as that game remains an exception in many ways. Even with Valve\u2019s excellent effort considered, it feels about time we got another great FPS in VR. That\u2019s where Synapse comes in \u2013 or where it\u2019s attempting to come in. The PS VR2 game is being made by VR savants nDreams, who I got to visit recently to check out their upcoming VR offerings. You likely remember Synapse from PlayStation\u2019s recent showcase, and it\u2019s hard to forget due to its striking visual style. Mind yourself When you don the headset, Synapse\u2019s style will be the first thing that jumps out. Developer nDreams has found an excellent visual language, with a mostly black-and-white palette. However, it\u2019s elevated with flashes of red and multicolor magic. It\u2019s a striking hook to get you into this world. That world is one of mind-bending mental espionage too. You\u2019re tasked with entering the mind of an old Colonel and retrieving information from him. This is very much in the vein of Inception. You will be interrogating a character, who is voiced by Solid Snake voice actor, David Hayter, while being directed by an unseen voice, played by Mass Effect\u2019s Jennifer Hale. It\u2019s an impressive duo of voice actors to build this story around. They both appear to be having a lot of fun as they direct and taunt you as you go deeper into the mental defenses of the subject. However, this isn\u2019t LA Noire, by way of Christopher Nolan. Instead, you\u2019re going to have to blast your way through this mind gauntlet with firearms and nifty telekinesis. Telekeni-this! The marriage of concept and technology is not lost on Synapse. You\u2019re entering an artificial representation of the mind. This only helps contextualize the PS VR2 you\u2019ve strapped to your head. It works surprisingly well to sell the reality the game is building. That reality is a space filled with gunfire and superpowers, a pretty potent mix when paired with the Sense controllers. A level, at least from the handful we played, works like this: You enter an arena, and you\u2019re then tasked with taking out all the enemies in that space. As you progress you unlock more weaponry, as well as psychic upgrades. Guns go in one hand, whereas the other allows you to grab objects to reshape the battlefield in your favor. The rest is up to you to figure out. In my instance, I found myself taking fire from my front but was getting impatient sitting behind cover. So, I grabbed a box next to me and held it up in front of me as a makeshift shield. To my surprise, it worked. I then held it between me and one enemy, while shooting another. Once I\u2019d dispatched one, I then flicked my wrist sending the box flying at the man shooting me. It crashed into him sending him crashing to the floor. I merely stood over him and put a bullet into his head to finish him off. Being given these tools for destruction can lead to some hilarious if not brutal outcomes. The poor defenders of this man\u2019s mind are thrown around and crushed by flying objects you hoist at them. A treat for PS VR2 users That experience was indicative of the creative, physics-based puzzle-solving Synapse offers up. You\u2019re given a sandbox of destruction, the tools execute your diabolical plans and sent you on your merry way. It\u2019s a pretty freeing VR experience. That telekinesis, combined with the game\u2019s visual flair, is what sells Synapses as a VR game to have your eye on. NDreams have done a great job of selling that \u2018superpower\u2019 feeling with this form of telekinesis. This is really in the details too. For example, if you pick up an explosive barrel, and pull the trigger until you meet haptic resistance, you can carry it around. However, if you push past that resistance, it explodes. It creates the awesome tactile feeling of closing your fist to crush the barrel. If Synapse can find more of these moments throughout its playthrough, especially through the extensive unlock system, there\u2019s something unique here. It couldn\u2019t be coming at a better time either. Synapse is set to launch on July 4. The PS VR2 has felt a little lost since its release earlier this year, and it needs games like Synapse to drag it back into relevance. I\u2019m not yet convinced that it will be the killer app the console headset needs to convince more people to buy, but it\u2019s shaping up to be an action-packed treat for early adopters of the tech. If you have a PS VR2, this could end up being the best thing released on it to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Synapse is the shooter the PS VR 2 desperately needs right now We recently got to strap into a PS VR2 headset and jump into the new shooter Synapse. Coming from VR maestros nDreams, is this the game the headset needs to excite its user base? VR has always been a passion of mine. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}