The Collider 2 PC review
Summary: A fast game and a head rush in VR.
3.5
Speed Kills!
VR is a new consumer technology, or more correctly VR has returned to the consumer market. But VR will only be as good and as popular as the games the support it, The Collider 2 I am very pleased to say is a game that supports it right from the get go. I mention this from the start because it’s how I played it and I think it’s a great example of a game done well in VR. If you look around you will find plenty of people stating that The Collider 2 is all about speed and is basically a variation on the Endless Runner theme (something that certainly popped into my mind). But what makes it stand out is that you get a great sense of this speed… when the obstacles are coming right at your face!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Collider 2 is unsurprisingly the sequel to The Collider… this time the battle is fought within the enemy mother ship (think Independence Day). You have a number of ships at your disposal (that you can purchase and upgrade as you progress) and you are tasked with flying within the Behemoth and attacking from the inside. Things start simply enough with you just flying ahead and making sure you position yourself in the gaps in the intermittent walls. But as you start to get comfortable the challenge increases, greater objects block your path, defenses try to take you down and the only way you are going to stand a chance is if you utilize your boost! The boost is where things get scary… imagine a street luge or similar… it’s kind of that idea crossed with that game show “Hole in the Wall”.
Graphically the game is neither stunning nor drab… it sits right where it needs to… certainly for what you are going to be doing. The last thing you want when you are hurtling down a tunnel is to see something to the side that draws your attention… the slightest lapse in concentration can see you colliding with the walls or any of the obstacles in your path. When playing in the Oculus (I was using the DK2 which worked quite well) you get a great sense of scale and being in space… you can look all around to see the seemingly endless tunnel ahead and behind you.
The other strength in The Collider 2 in VR is that the game play essentially has you moving all the time so there is no real issue with nausea due to odd movement issues… in fact the only movement is the bobbing of your head to control the ship. This bobbing is very responsive and works quite well… it’s akin to the old Wii remotes playing any of the games on that… you wave your arm around and the character in the game responds… in The Collider 2 your head movements correlate to where your ship will move, bob up your ship moves up, bob left your ship moves left. I did have a few occasions when my ship didn’t seem to be responding to my head movement so I would make an even bigger gesture only to find myself crashed into a wall. I suspect this could be due to one of two reasons… one is that the game states it is a standing experience game… but I was being lazy and playing it seated. The second possibility is that having my DK2 pretend to be the CV1 might cause a few issues in terms of responsiveness. For the most part thought the tracking of head movement is very smooth and precise.
There are two main modes to The Collider 2, Campaign or Endless challenge. The former pits you in ever increasingly difficult levels as you build towards boss battles, collecting items to improve your ship/s along the way. Endless challenge on the other hand is just that… it is the most Endless Runner like in that you indeed are tasked with simply flying through the tunnels for as long as you can attempting to improve with each play through and to hopefully place at the top of the leaderboards.
The core idea is simple… but the implementation adds variety and complexity to stand out from the pack. If you like this style of game then I would happily recommend The Collider 2… if you have a VR headset, get ready for a real rush!!!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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