Astro Bot Rescue Mission PSVR Review

Astro Bot Rescue Mission PSVR Review

Platform: PS4

Developed by Japan Studio

The Astro bots have until now, been an annoyance.

A clutch of chirruping characters that were part of the Playroom game launched with the PS4, these critters "live" inside your controller and exist only to showcase the use of the PlayStation's touchpad, and its cutesy edges.

But, now with the Astro Bot Rescue Mission, they come out of the domain of being inessential into something quite impressive in the VR stakes.

Fleshed out from the Robot Rescue mission in The Playroom, Astro Bot Rescue Mission sees you taking control of Captain Astro and simply put, heading into various worlds after your buddies have been kidnapped by an alien bad guy.

Plot-wise, it ain't all that and a bag of chips.

But if you were to be told this is perhaps the most inventive platformers of the year, that capitalises on what VR has to offer, you'd begin to suspect madness has set in. However, it truly is a clever use of the depth and scope the tool offers, recapturing the essentialness last seen in the release title Batman Arkham VR.

In that, the depth added to Batman's world; in this, there's no such sense of landscapes et al, but a desire to create a platformer which uses depth and scale to take you on an adventure that's as impressive as it is fun.

Astro has to rescue his buddies, negotiating landscapes and baddies in the same kind of way that was last seen in Banjo Kazooie and Pokemon Go. Booting the robots as you find them sends them flying back to your controller till the end of the level.

However, it's not as simple as going along a level, bashing some baddies and collecting the robots as well as coin tokens. The VR adds the depth to the levels, and the studio's really take on board the whole concept of it being a wrap around world. This is no flat platformer, this is a fully formed world, where up and down, and behind count.

Fellow robots may be behind you or off to the side, it's a game that really does encourage you to look around, and as well as offering you a token reward, it gives it a visual prowess that's engaging too.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is a game which makes use of the best of VR, and the controller, long left redundant in your hands. It's a game which aims to delight with cute, and delivers with some sweet touches. If that sounds like praise to damn it, it's not.

VR's been here nigh on two years now, and while some game studios have embraced it, there's yet to be the ultimate experience. VR's never really been about the gaming per se, but Astro Bot Rescue Mission delivers both on the gaming front, and delivers an immersive experience which is beyond belief.