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Galak-Z - a great VR arcade shooter

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
It does look like fun - maybe - has anyone tried the game?

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1421550817913990/

https://youtu.be/tQEuAOBPDJ0

There's a non-VR version released years ago, but it did get many nice ratings - about 80% average on the PS4 and PC. 

The new VR trailer seems based on the 2015 trailer, although the gameplay sequences aren't identical:

https://youtu.be/zedxNWKeV7M

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

9 REPLIES 9

Anonymous
Not applicable
Game is great! I love it. I played on ps4 but not that much, I am so into this VR version. I finally passed season 1 today. If you play on normal, you must pass entire season without dying to unlock next season. 5 missions per season. I did notice season 2 was stuttering really bad, really bad. I have a powerhouse, play everything, never any issues. I thought I seen someone mention stuttering issues before, but can't remember. I'm going to try again after a reboot, disable tool tray / SS, and try again. I'll let everyone know if anyone is interested, reply. Its a great game though all !!!!

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Doctori said:

Game is great! I love it. I played on ps4 but not that much, I am so into this VR version. I finally passed season 1 today. If you play on normal, you must pass entire season without dying to unlock next season. 5 missions per season. I did notice season 2 was stuttering really bad, really bad. I have a powerhouse, play everything, never any issues. I thought I seen someone mention stuttering issues before, but can't remember. I'm going to try again after a reboot, disable tool tray / SS, and try again. I'll let everyone know if anyone is interested, reply. Its a great game though all !!!!



Agreed, it looks like a great game (and ship animations are nice), but to me the stuttering was way too severe, I chose to refund. Especially when paying $20 such simple arcade games must be completely smooth (even lowering SS to 1.5 there was stuttering - had this been Lone Echo I'd get solid 90 fps using ss 1.5 in comparison). This is only v. 0.20, guess the devs have a lot of optimization to do. I'm not playing this game in super-blurry ss 1.0 (in case that removes all stuttering) - then I'd rather not play the game at all. Also there's isn't much VR to this game - if feels much like playing the old 2D version using Big Screen. 

Note that the specs for the old pancake version is really low:
    MINIMUM:
    • OS: Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6 GHz) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2.6 GHz)
    • Memory: 3 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Radeon HD 2900 XT (512 MB) / GeForce GT 430 (1024 MB)
    • DirectX: Version 9.0c
    • Storage: 3 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Gamepad, Mouse and Keyboard Support

In VR the recommended video card is a GTX 980 Ti - seems way too high for this sort of game. 

In comparison Anshar Wars 2 is solid 90 fps using super sampling 2.0 on my system - everything maxed:

https://youtu.be/m6hRYDzAqNI

More about Galak-Z here:

https://www.oculus.com/blog/suit-up-in-the-anime-inspired-shooter-galak-z-the-virtual-now-available-...

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Anonymous
Not applicable
Rune! There is 0 stuttering when just playing standard, no SS. I really think you are missing out on this incredible game because of the SS issues. You are right, its a different kind of VR. It's like playing on a 200 foot huge omnimax type screen, everything is huge and very crisp, even at default SS. Anyway, just wanted to let you know and give you my thoughts is all. Everyone, just use default SS and no stuttering at all, and this is really a cool game. For me to stick with a game says alot for sure :blush:

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

RuneSR2 said:
Agreed, it looks like a great game (and ship animations are nice), but to me the stuttering was way too severe, I chose to refund. Especially when paying $20 such simple arcade games must be completely smooth (even lowering SS to 1.5 there was stuttering - had this been Lone Echo I'd get solid 90 fps using ss 1.5 in comparison). T


I think you put way too much emphasis on SS. You tend to rate a game very low even if it is a great game, just because you don't approve of SS performance. And then you will rate a bad game highly just because it has SS support that you enjoy; as you did with Sacralith.

A game's enjoyment factor has so much more to it than just Super Sampling.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Agree Zenbane. That is why I replied, I would hate for Rune to miss out on this game for some SS values 🙂 I know alot of us have our things we look for in a game, but this game is really good and I don't even see a difference in upping the SS, looks great as is !

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Sure, there's nothing wrong with having a preference such as SS. However, that preference should only encompass a portion of an overall sentiment. SS can account for 1 Point on a 10-Point scale. Not 5 Points or All Points lol

pyroth309
Visionary
Yea, I'm a graphics snob but it's only a portion of a game experience for me. Been a lot of games I've enjoyed that I thought looked like crap lol. (I own a PSVR after all). With the screendoor nothing is sharp or crisp enough anyway. That all said, SS definitely does increase the enjoyment a bit for me and is why I'm ready for an upgrade already. 

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
I rated the game 3/5, which I do consider a fair rating. My concerns with the game are:

1. Feels like a 2D game shown on Big Screen - doesn't really feel like a VR game. Borders break immersion. 
2. Gameplay was nice but I don't consider it revolutionary within the genre. 
3. I felt the game was slightly overpriced with $20. 
4. The game felt poorly optimized. 

I have a great backlog of games I'd easily rate 5/5, so I tend not to keep games I rate 3/5 or worse, unfortunately. And of course taste differs - do support the devs, I'm sure they need it! For now I'd rather spend my time on a game like Xion:

https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/70522/xion-awesome-and-original-retro-shooter/p1

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Maybe I was too hard in my review of this game. This may be one of the finest shooters in VR - but also due to the fact that extremely few such games exist in VR.

That said, this is a simple 2D game, and devs have done no updates since the initial release. Using CV1 ss 2.0 still gets me like 30 fps (I seriously may need a RTX 3090 to get 90 fps with CV1 ss 2.0, lol) - in comparison, I get solid 90 fps in much more demanding games like Transference. So no doubt Galak-Z is poorly optimized. It does play well and looks nice using CV1 ss 1.5 though. 

I got the idea of Reviving the game, so I bought it again o:) Using the Index, the great fov does make a profound difference, and all the subpixels mean that the CV1 SDE is gone. Blacks still look great. Also lowering detail settings from high to medium (hard to see any difference) increased performance. Last night I succeeded in playing the game using Index res 150% and Knuckles in 90 Hz with medium details, and it was a great experience. Touch is better than Knuckles in this game though, because pushing the grab button activates boost - and it's very easy to activate the grab function using Knuckles, while it requires you to press button with Touch. 

I'll increase my rating in the Oculus Store from 3/5 to 4/5 later - and add some more info o:) 

Note this is an Oculus exclusive game - you cannot buy this game on Steam - well, you can, but not the VR version 😉 

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Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"