Publisher Archiact and developer Secret Location announced that the retro VR shooter game, Blasters of the Universe, is set to arrive on the PlayStation 4 for the PlayStation VR headset starting February 27th.
The game is surprisingly rated E10+ for everyone over the age of 10. Most shooter games end up with a ‘T’ for Teen rating even if they don’t have blood or gore.
The theme of the game is that it’s a VR bullet hell shooter where you must use your body to dodge incoming bullet patterns, and unleash your own neon-colored justice against enemies in a full featured campaign mode themed after 1990’s VHS cover art.
You’ll have to battle against a nerd who has turned into an evil genius mastermind named Grand Master Alwyn. There are plenty of retro references and throwbacks to classics from the yesteryears of media… back when movies and games were good.
You can check out the trailer below to see what the gameplay is like.
Blasters of the Universe sports unlockable items and weapon upgrades, with a possible 130,000 possible load-out combinations for players to utilize in their fight against neon-vector tyranny.
I have to admit, the whole weapon customization feature is actually really cool. It’s the sort of thing that I was hoping we would get from games like Borderlands, but alas it just didn’t happen.
Josh Manricks, the technical director and project lead at Secret Location commented about the upcoming release on PSVR, saying in the press release…
“We made Blasters of the Universe with Archiact to inject the pure intensity of classic bullet hell games with modern VR’s innate ability to immerse and impress gamers. This game also really takes advantage of VR’s accessibility, making the infamous bullet hell genre a cinch to pick-up-and-play while still honoring its challenging roots,”
The game originally came out in the middle of last year for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. It was paid for by the Canadian Media Fund and the Ontario Media Development Corporation. To be a government-made game, I have to admit that at least it seems to have more personality and a cool gun-customization feature that’s been lacking in so many other VR titles.
Of course, the actual quality of the gameplay and the replayability mileage may vary.
Speaking of replayability… there will be an Endless Mode available in the game, so if you just want to test out new weapons and fight until your last dying breath, you’ll be able to do that.
You can keep track of the upcoming bullet-hell arcade shooter for the PlayStation VR by checking out the official PlayStation page for Blasters of the Universe.