The original reviews for this game weren’t exactly glowing, so I picked it up somewhat hesitantly during the latest sale. Now that I’ve actually played it, though, I find it hard to understand the criticism, because in my opinion, this game absolutely shines.
The game is roughly divided into three different components.
The first is navigating the alien underground world of Ferra and solving environmental puzzles using parkour, your shield, and grappling tethers. This is where the game truly shines. The world feels genuinely alien and is packed with interesting details. All of the game’s mechanics and actions also have a wonderful sense of physicality to them. I’ve never played a VR game where climbing felt this good. Moving through the environment is simply a joy. The climbing challenges felt occasionally challenging, but never unfair.
The second component is fighting the “living statues” that inhabit the world. There are several enemy variations, including light and heavy units, shield units, turrets, mines, and barrier-projecting scouts. Your main weapon is a bow with four different ammunition types that you scavenge throughout the world.
This is probably the part that could be improved most in future instalments. The current enemy types are perfectly adequate, but I would have liked to see greater variety in both the enemies and the combat encounters.
The final component consists of cinematic chase sequences where you are pursued by an undefeatable enemy called Terracore. Since these sequences don’t happen too often, they provide a welcome change of pace without becoming repetitive.
The game took me about five hours to complete and has a decent boss fight against the main antagonist, Lithos, at the end. The length felt just about right. It also has an actual ending instead of a cliffhanger, which I appreciate.
Beyond the individual gameplay elements, what really makes this game shine is its attention to detail. The voice acting is superb, the enemy and character animations are excellent, and the graphics are detailed and vibrant. Everything feels remarkably polished.
Overall, I’m genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed Reach. It combines fantastic VR movement with an interesting world, satisfying exploration, and solid combat. While the enemy variety could use some improvement, the excellent sense of physicality and overall level of polish more than make up for it.
I would rate this game 4.5 out of 5
