ARKTIKA.1 User Reviews

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

Please post your rating of this game taking into consideration fun factor, value for money, overall polish and using the following criteria if you have purchased/played the game:

5 Stars - Awesome Must Buy

4 Stars - Very Good Not essential.

3 Stars - Average

2 Stars - Below Average

1 Star - Poor/ Avoid

Zenbane · October 2017

5 STARS

Loving this so far, and I'm going to do a write-up by comparing it to other VR games I've enjoyed over the last 17 months:

The opening sequence already had me at a win the moment I could roll down the power windows, open the glove box, and hand the ID card through out to the NPC Guard.
The snowy setting takes me back to Edge of Nowhere, only now I'm in First Person.
The players apartment building is a bit interactive (controlling the Windows/Lighting) and reminded me of Technolust. In fact, the entire setting has a mild Steampunk feel to it. The outer areas remind me of the Technolust Wastelands, only snowy.
Being able to put on a VR Headset in the game ala Super Hot is just badass. I often found the Super Hot in-game VR HMD to function rather oddly when placing it on my head. The Rift inside Arktika works perfectly.
The gun retrieving system has a slight upgrade from Robo Recall with the ability to hear/sense the vibrations when your hands are close to their position on your back.
The interactive map system combines the single player campaign tracking of Robo Recall with the interactive nature of the map in The Unspoken.
The node-based Teleportation system is on par with Wilson's Heart in that it does not feel like an afterthought. The positions are very strategic and combat gets rather intense.
The strategy and speed of the Porting/Shooting combat functions a lot like Damaged Core, only things happen much more quickly.
The ability to get all upgrades via a 3D Printer is a great addition to the in-game VR operability. It takes the interactive 3D printer from First Contact and add's the fun element of gun-additions.
The gun scope add-on works wonderfully, and somehow manages to add a real element of 'presence' when you bring it up towards your eye. It actually works a bit better than the scope in Dead & Buried.
Special shoutout the game's lore, specifically the use of the phrase Baba Yaga. It gets introduced early on... and if you're a John Wick fan like myself, then there's much love for the Baba Yaga.

This game is already addictive, and I can't wait to engage in at least 2 or 3 full playthroughs.

texbanc · October 2017

Love the game but am finding it very buggy. Frozen 3 times today during the cargo mission. Also during this mission at the top of line 1 I turn on the screen, teleport over to get the fuse and then have nothing to put it in. Anyone?

rVRcloset · October 2017

3 STARS

A bit early to give it a score yet, have only done three missions.

Really liking it so far though!

But is it just me, or are the bullets traveling a bit slow?

VR-OCALA · October 2017

5 STARS

texbanc said:

Love the game but am finding it very buggy. Frozen 3 times today during the cargo mission. Also during this mission at the top of line 1 I turn on the screen, teleport over to get the fuse and then have nothing to put it in. Anyone?

Remove the fuse on the left, replace it with the fuse on the right marked spare or something like.

VR-OCALA · October 2017

5 STARS

5 stars for sure, 6 stars for how hot the assistant is... don’t judge me

MowTin · October 2017

heppsan said:

A bit early to give it a score yet, have only done three missions.
Really liking it so far though!

But is it just me, or are the bullets traveling a bit slow?

Yeah, I noticed that when shooting at moving targets. Odd choice.

DerekSpeare · October 2017

5 STARS

I've encountered a situation where the torch attachment works in the Armory but then doesn't work on the Cargo Mission

Applecorp · October 2017

3 STARS

Very buggy game, picking stuff up is clumsy too. The robot boss glitched for me (and others) where it''s impossible to kill cause the vulnerable leg parts do not "glow" after getting the first battery.. Had to redo the whole level.

Fun when it works though.

cybereality · October 2017

5 STARS

5 Stars. This is the best game right now. I was a huge fan of Metro and this does not disappoint.

Siilk · October 2017

Not interested unless they put smooth locomotion or at least free teleportation in.

VR-OCALA · October 2017

5 STARS

Siilk said:

Not interested unless they put smooth locomotion or at least free teleportation in.

That would be really cool, but it’s still a pretty great VR game.

Chewbagger · October 2017

5 STARS

DerekSpeare said:

I've encountered a situation where the torch attachment works in the Armory but then doesn't work on the Cargo Mission

Chewbagger · October 2017

5 STARS

This may be obvious, or maybe not, but did you turn it on by pushing the side button on it?

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

Aetheryfre said:

5 stars for sure, 6 stars for how hot the assistant is... don’t judge me

Yeh she/it is great and it's obvious the artists/modellers @ 4A had a great time designing her. That ass wiggle movement though.

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

@Zenbane /skeletor did you blow into the harmonica to get it to work? Nice touch. I would have thought though using the same technique they could make cold breath appear if you are heavy breathing like.

Smashed_Pumpkin · October 2017

3 STARS

Sadly a series of annoyances at various features in this game caused me to almost immediately put my headset down and request a refund. Firstly I've got to say I wasn't particularly impressed with the graphics; So many trailers made it out to be the "next gen" of VR yet I'd place it well below what Robo Recall or The Lab offer. The animation felt rigid and awkward something more akin to what I'd expect to see in an indie project. The woman driving the vehicle, although high on polygon count (that was one impressive ear hole), seemed to lack any finesse or life. I am an animator by profession and, although this is a personal taste thing, I'd rather see a stylized character full of life than a high fidelity character wallow in the depths of the uncanny valley. On a side note, I was playing on Extreme graphics settings with a GTX1080 so as far as I know I was seeing the best that was on offer. Don't get me wrong though, there were some impressive things. The little coffee cup in the glove box had a nice metal shader and the chunky feel of the players gloves, as well as the presence they provided, felt pretty good.

My next annoyance came when I left the vehicle. I had read about the game being based on "nodal movement" although I had also read it being likened to the movement system in Robo Recall. Sadly it's not the same wonderful movement system of Robo Recall, and is in fact very much Nodal as far as movement location options go. When I realized I'd only be jumping to pre-designated locations, unelegantly indicated by big glowing character models, I was genuinely disappointed.

Finally when I was taking shots with the two pistols, I threw one onto the table and it landed in such a way that I could no longer pick it up effectively getting me stuck. So with that mannequin of a woman staring at me with her awkward head movements and overly shiny eyes I thought, nah, not for me. For what is likely to be a one time play-through using sub-par motion mechanics the game, for me, would be relying entirely on it's storyline. Knowing the metro series it would probably be quite a good story but in those first 15 minutes it had hit some pretty heavy cliche and not handled them with much style, in my opinion.

Overall I'm disappointed, both with the game and myself for becoming such a grumpy old bugger. I obviously haven't given it the time it probably deserves but it frustrated me enough with it's misspent potential that I've been put off.

VR-OCALA · October 2017

5 STARS

Shadowmask72 said:

Aetheryfre said:

5 stars for sure, 6 stars for how hot the assistant is... don’t judge me

Yeh she/it is great and it's obvious the artists/modellers @ 4A had a great time designing her. That ass wiggle though.

That's not a wiggle, that's a "sway"

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

Fixed.

MowTin · October 2017

Why are there any puzzles in a game like this? They're just annoyances. And it puts a spotlight on how poorly the hand gestures are done. My giant hands struggle to grab those circuit components.

If they wanted a break from action, maybe have some story videos and audios.

Some nodes are difficult to see and sometimes I miss the node and teleport to the wrong place.

I recommend doing the practice missions to really understand what they want you to do with the nodes.

Does anyone have an issue where their glowing gun sights stop glowing?

SkScotchegg · October 2017

5 STARS

My Review:

Graphics/Performance.
I only played the first mission so far last night before bed but I thought the game was amazing, by default it was on medium settings but I changed the graphics settings to "extreme" and the game seemed to run smooth and looked fantastic with the frame rate issues whilst running on my "GTX 1060 6GB". No crashes or glitches to report so far, the game seems really well polished.

Physics and Sounds:
I also noticed a few things that other people have already mentioned such as big hands, poor physics in certain areas etc.Also in other games like Wilsons Heart and Lone Echo they have mastered doing things with your hands, like moving objects and inserting objects, and pulling levers etc. In this game the animations for doing these things with your hands isn't perfect, they need to fix a lot of the connections with your hands to objects and the animations. After that I would say I don't really like the gun sounds, I think they could improve them and make them sound less "tiny" and perhaps more base to the gun sounds.

Switching weapons to different hands:
Lastly I have my revolver in my right hand and my default pistol in my left hand but when I tried to switch them other to differant hands I found this difficult, I managed to do this a couple of times by throwing the gun slightly in the air and then catching it, but then I noticed the gun didn't throw or float the same way it does it Robo Recall or Dead & Burried so I think that could be improved on as well.

Holding one pistol with two hands:
I actually enjoyed holding one pistol at once and shooting with one pistol only, to do this I held this pistol in-game using my right hand, and then with my left hand I let go of the left touch controller so that my left hand could support my right hand, which makes for better accuracy and less chance of getting a dead arm. - The only problem with this? - On my screen in-game there's a hand dangling in the middle of the screen slightly to the left of my gun...lol...so obviously they could fix this? All they need to do is make it so when you let go of the left touch controller the game knows your not holding a 2nd gun and therefore it should put your left hand animation in-game as supporting your wrist on your right hand. - Hope this makes sense. - Really hope a developer reads this and fixes this issue. - It's kind of immersion breaking. - Other games have this feature so this feature already exist.

Final Verdict:
It probably sounds like I've mentioned a lot of negatives but I think these are all small things which the developers could easily fix with a few patches. Other then that I think the game is brilliant, two scenes which really got me nervous was in the elevator when the goblin enemies were reaching in from above, and the giant robot boss scene where I had to shoot its legs and run round the room, that was cool.

Can't wait to get home tonight and give it a good 2 hours play!

8.5/10 - so far.

Applecorp · October 2017

3 STARS

There's one thing that really irritates me, and it's that intrusive sound every time you look at a node you can teleport to. I wish there was an audio option to turn that off.

DerekSpeare · October 2017

5 STARS

It's worth it. They have a TON of potential with this game - I hope they expand it with extensive DLC.

cybereality · October 2017

5 STARS

I don't mind teleport games, but I did notice the nodes can be hard to trigger. Not the end of the world, but sometimes in battle I found I couldn't teleport, or it would go to the wrong node. Still a great game though, and maybe I just don't understand how the mechanic works.

Zenbane · October 2017

5 STARS

cybereality said:

I don't mind teleport games, but I did notice the nodes can be hard to trigger. Not the end of the world, but sometimes in battle I found I couldn't teleport, or it would go to the wrong node. Still a great game though, and maybe I just don't understand how the mechanic works.

Agreed. It's like there is an invisible cursor bound to the center of the HMD, and you have to look perfectly at the node you wish to Teleport towards. I am hoping that the "collision area" for how this work is increased, so that the player can just look in a more general direction and teleport more seamlessly.

It doesn't bother me too much though, because I enjoy just blasting everyone while standing fully exposed lol

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

Zenbane said:

It doesn't bother me too much though, because I enjoy just blasting everyone while standing fully exposed lol

A bit like these guys eh Zen?

Image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/20/article-2510460-1987C71000000578-189_964x586.jpg

VR-OCALA · October 2017

5 STARS

Shadowmask72 said:

Zenbane said:

It doesn't bother me too much though, because I enjoy just blasting everyone while standing fully exposed lol

A bit like these guys eh Zen?

I see the humor here, and the gun placement is funny, but the dog placement is a bit disturbing.

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

Don't worry, those are just gun bitches.

Zenbane · October 2017

5 STARS

My eyes!!

MowTin · October 2017

Zenbane said:
Agreed. It's like there is an invisible cursor bound to the center of the HMD, and you have to look perfectly at the node you wish to Teleport towards. I am hoping that the "collision area" for how this work is increased, so that the player can just look in a more general direction and teleport more seamlessly.

It doesn't bother me too much though, because I enjoy just blasting everyone while standing fully exposed lol

Maybe they should allow you to point to your teleport location with the motion controller.

It's not good when you die because the mechanic is clumsy.

Shadowmask72 · October 2017

4 STARS

4A Games released its much anticipated shooter Arktika.1 exclusively for the Oculus Rift and now that we've completed the game can safely say it's a bit of an oddball. At its heart there's a shooting gallery type game here but tagging it with such a simplistic sounding premise wouldn't be doing it justice. With a mixture of intense shooting sections, puzzles and plenty of world interactions Arktika.1 makes clever use of the VR medium. However, some technical issues and unusual gameplay choices might separate the potential audience. So in light of this, is Arktika.1 worth a punt considering its full asking price?

There is a lot to love about Arktika.1's direction. After a short intro drive to base, you start off your VR adventure in a home tower where the sexy android assistant Viktoria lays it on. You can have a little play around in your room, throw a few bottles at Viktoria, then head to the armory. Here you can engage in some shooting practice, purchase new guns, upgrade weapons and even enter a VR inside VR mode for additional challenges. Once done, you head out into the wastes to tackle the next section of the story, or repeat cleared areas for a greater score or complete additional challenges. The story is reasonably gripping but you will be far too distracted with the mish-mash of actions when out in the field. One moment you are ducking for cover as enemies charge at you from all sides, performing headshots and generally being a badass dual wielding gun for hire. The next, you're all technical operating bits of machinery or searching for items to help progress forwards. The puzzle elements break up simply shooting through the entire duration but sadly are just not that interesting. One puzzle in particular during the closing moments is criminally inserted to annoy rather than serve much purpose other than to elongate the experience. In a nutshell, the shooting bits are solid (despite some not so accurate aim) and the puzzles an acquired taste. Those with twitchy fingers are likely to be annoyed at some puzzles despite the obvious way the interactive elements help solve them. On the other hand, players who want a little extra than just a continuous stream of enemies to kill can come away quite impressed with the way you have to grab, move, touch, push and pull with the touch controllers. It's a very involving experience indeed, although there are some issues with boundaries whereby certain switches or levers seem out of reach (depending on your play area size). Whilst the experience is better suited to standing, playing seated is very possible, save getting a crick neck on occasion.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6024342/uploads/editor/xn/s05l8qcobo8u.jpg

A massive caveat is given with regards to the way movement is handled. The story speaks of teleportation as an ability, but the reality is it replaces free walking movement or free teleportation. Instead players are offered nodal teleporting at select points in each area. A blue outline (and accompanying sound effect) highlights where you can jump to in the blink of an eye. It's not the best approach for those wanting to look at every nook and cranny, but it does work very well once you get used to it. In the heat of combat especially, using the nodal points is a valid tactic for getting the drop on enemies hiding behind cover. After an hour's play (or less even) you'll either learn to live with it, or bask in its ability to make you feel a bit superhuman. It has to be said though the combat is pretty sweet and a redeeming feature even if you're not a fan of nodal jumping around. There's a satisfying kick to the weapons and being able to dual wield and shoot up foes who are running is excellent as is getting those all important headshots. It can't be stressed enough how engaging the entire game is from start to conclusion even if some elements are going to be quite divisive amongst those just looking for a straight up shooter.

Graphics/Performance:

In terms of visual quality, there is a clever use of darkness, interior locations and fogging to avoid rendering distant objects, which means most of the action is up close making for better detail in VR. There's obviously a bit of a budget here in terms of modelling the environments but there is a lack of variety when it comes to the opposition. That said, massive props have to be given for being able to shoot up humans for a change - although some robots and demonic creatures make an appearance from time to time. There are some neat touches though such as seeing your cold breath which is activated by the Rift built in microphone, or blowing into a harmonica to make it work. Arktika.1 is a moody game and offers distinctive locales to wander but you will visit some places more than once. It's hard to say how well the game performs as each system is different, but using a GTX 1080 Ti had no major issues using the maximum "Extreme" graphics setting. That's not to say there were none, as one section later on in the story started to tank the fps for no apparent reason, but that could have just been our system playing up. It has to be noted there are some scaling issues which means the characters look a little on the large size and sometimes you might appear too tall, or too small. Hopefully this will be fixed in an update sooner rather than later.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6024342/uploads/editor/qq/o2lx73cg5zbn.jpg

Audio:

Audio is pretty good as well with decent sound effects and enemies that call you names or swear at you giving much more reason to send them to hell. Whilst the enemy quips are repeated often, for some reason being called a mother f***er or piece of s*** never gets old. Viktoria is also well voiced and with her slender looks and staring gaze makes for some pleasant eye candy between missions. Sadly you can't spend some R&R time with her between rounds!

Longevity:

The all important longevity is perhaps a mixed bag because you will beat the story in an afternoon as most missions last around 30 minutes or less. The question is, can you play for hours on end in one sitting? Once the story is bested, then you have the choice to up the difficulty or add challenges to each mission and try and beat your previous score. It's worth it at least once especially if you're playing on medium difficulty or less because the challenge increases greatly when the enemy becomes more deadly. You can really build up a sweat ducking in and out of cover.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6024342/uploads/editor/yc/eb1gvjyldvet.jpg

Conclusion:

So, is Arktika.1 worth a purchase? Well, for a polished VR game that has a AAA feel to it 4A delivers a compelling experience even if it's not going to last into double figures play time on a first play through. There's some solid shooting action, interesting locales and the interaction with the world is pretty good - including shooting the heads off mannequins . The puzzles can be intrusive, and somewhat cryptic at times but depending on your attention span will either come as welcome breaks from the action or frustrating elements that have no place in a shooter. Take your pick! If you're after a game that feels like the promise of VR gaming has hinted at for a long time then Arktika.1 actually delivers a sound VR experience all said and done. If the idea of nodal teleporting is something you'll never come to terms with then sadly, you will be missing out. Puzzles and oddities aside this is worth checking out as it's a satisfying shooter that stands out amongst a sea of many similar VR offerings.

Score 8.5/10 (4.5 stars).

ARKTIKA.1 User Reviews

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