I played it for 90 minutes or so tonight and the F in VFR definitely stands for frustrating.

First of all it looks great (played on pro). The action is fast paced and feels authentic. The atmosphere feels a little less authentic as I'm used to dark and gritty Doom. So far in this version everything is pretty bright and well lit. Not the Doom I remember. (Doom 3 is the last I played) Luckily the action is well paced and a lot of fun.


Where the frustration comes in are the controls. None of the options feel right.

You can use dual move which restricts you to teleport and dash only, you can't even rotate only turn 180 degrees. Since your body is blocking one of the move controllers when you stand sideways to the camera this mode has a lot of tracking issues. This is also the only way to play the game on Vive. There are no tracking issues there yet the movement restrictions stand.

The AIM controller lets you move and turn freely. (I settled on 80 for turn rate and 80 for smooth turning/acceleration). Moving around is luckily not restricted in any way, it's fast, no need to dash as you can run in any direction at the same speed.

Smooth turning has one big issue though. You also move in the direction you're looking in when you turn your head. This creates a conflict between using the analog stick for turning your body and your head doing the same. Normally I look where I want to go and turn my body to align with my view bringing my head back to a forward position, just like walking outside. Now the game already veers me off in that direction, even if I didn't want to turn at all, only check in that direction. I searched for an option to turn it off, couldn't find it. First time in a year since I've felt the onset of motion sickness thanks to these 2 ways of turning your body interfering with each other. Head movement should always be independent. (Skyrim does it too when sprinting, very annoying)

Where the AIM controller really falls flat is how the gun is handled. Tracking is perfect, as long as you stand still. While moving the game seems to apply inertia to the gun making it lag behind you in the opposite direction. This obviously creates a conflict with you holding the gun in your hand and in game it translates to a very jittery gun lagging behind, making it quite difficult to aim while strafing.
Also the bigger guns all clip through your fov while the grenade launcher in your left hand just sticks out awkwardly with the two guns intersecting when you strafe as the launcher is not subject to inertia. It's a mess and during wave phases of combat I rather use the ds4.

Ok shouldn't be able to screw up DS4 controls right... Although the 2 guns now both stick out awkwardly from your non existent body (and a bit too high in your view), at least they are both stable and aiming with you head works quite well when moving around at a frantic pace. However when I have my head in a neutral forward position the aim is 15 degrees too high. To hit enemies I have to aim my head down while looking up with my eyes which is kinda uncomfortable. RE7 had none of these issues. Also why can't I jump!


Oh well, I settled on using the AIM for the exploration parts, switching to DS4 when it's 'clear the room from incoming waves' time. At least you can simply pick up the other controller any time you want. Telefragging is a great game mechanic and the movement is fast and fluid. Yet it feels the AIM and DS4 controls were kinda tagged on last moment. Far point, AZ Sunshine, Skyrim and RE7 control much better.

One other issue. On the top of the screen is the compass with a marker to the next objective. It's always stuck at the very top of the screen, you can't get it in view by looking up. I have to point my eyes up to the ceiling and look out over the the top edge of my glasses to spot the blurry compass bar.


I guess it's a good learning experience for developers. Get this movement stuff sorted out!

Not Virtual Fucking Reality?

disappointing to hear that although they made a whole new campaign for VR they didn't get the controls right especially as games that released months ago already showed close to ideal solutions

It looks like a high end port, the visuals are up there with the best. It's only a 2 to 4 hour campaign though, not a full port, also not full price. The frustrating thing is that had they left the controls alone and simply ported the whole game it would have been better.

Hopefully they patch the weapon inertia with AIM and adjust the aim height with DS4, plus a toggle to not move where you are looking. Maybe also to simply get rid of the left hand holding the grenade launcher, it doesn't have to be in view all the time, it breaks immersion the way it sticks out. Those 4 things should be pretty easy to implement and will fix all the control issues.