Reach VR Hands-On Preview — VR at its very best

Reach. It’s the name of the game, but it’s also the thing you’ll be doing plenty of in the upcoming nDreams Elevation game. I sat down with (and you’ll have to excuse me here while I try to relay just how cool this was) former Sony Studios CEO Shuhei Yoshida to talk about the upcoming VR action-adventure/parkour/shooter. Ambitious, the game looks to create impressive set pieces, realistic and natural VR motion, and a physicality that few VR games ever achieve. I went hands-on with the game and then tried to scoop out my thoughts after the fact. If I’m being honest, I was having so much fun that I kinda forgot to mentally take notes – a good sign for the game, but kinda bad for coverage. Let’s see if VR explosions for 45 minutes removed any coherent thoughts.

Good VR doesn’t require a great deal of instruction, and that is a central pillar of Reach. After a quick calibration session (and an explanation to our younger viewers of what a floppy disk is), we climbed into a windowless van that surprisingly doesn’t say “Free Candy!” on the side and headed out on our secret mission.

The demo started in what amounts to a training warehouse. Heading inside started the interactivity of the game as I pulled open the sliding door. After that, it was using my hands in a natural pulling motion to climb a box, hand-over-hand pipe work, interacting with books and other materials in the environment, running, sliding, and leaping between boxes. I even managed to combine running, leaping, and then catching onto the distant edge with my fingertips. Best of all, none of this caused a single bit of nausea – something that nDreams has managed to nail in every game I’ve played from them.

At its core, Reach is built around a philosophy of full-body presence. Gone are the days of floating hands or restricted movement, replaced by gesture-driven traversal. If it looks like you can jump, climb, zip-line, or shimmy across it, you probably can. That physicality isn’t window dressing, either – it’s baked into every system.

Once I’d done enough movement “training”, I walked into a room with a bow – practically a requirement in VR, right? Sliding a crate, I had a clean shot to put the guy down, and that’s what I did. It again combined interactivity with natural motion – just do whatever you’re doing the way you’d do it in the real world. A little further, the training wheels came off completely and I faced a whole group of guards in an office portion of the warehouse. Sneaking up behind one guard, I quietly dispatched a few before they caught on. With enemies now on our tail, we leapt between buildings, making a break for our escape.

Using a new leaping mechanic, I grabbed onto a ledge, then sprang up to a higher one, scaling a building before ending up in a shootout with a number of guards who burst through the wall to take their best shot. Dispatching them with my bow, I stood smug and safe in the courtyard. Well, I did until the helicopter gunship entered the courtyard and sent me running once again.

As the demo rolled to a close, a few things were clear – the team was onto something special. Yes, it combined a bunch of the best parts of VR into one package, but wrapped it in a fun storyline that should serve as a great backdrop for the adventure. The team told me that there are a number of elemental arrows for the bow, a throwable Captain America-style shield, and more to look forward to, but didn’t want to spoil the surprise. Earlier in the demo when I first got the bow, I got to see a mechanic where I could shoot arrows into the wall and then use them as a foothold, hinting at other traversal mechanics. Another hinted at enemies that are far larger, requiring Shadow of the Colossus style combat to take down. Yoshida-san pointed out just how smooth the animation was, and how the game didn’t have any nausea issues regardless of how long you’ve played – something mirrored by my own experience.

The nDreams crew said the storyline will last about a dozen or so hours, which feels like a sweet spot for these types of games, and enough to push past tech demo territory. The player-focused movement and slick combat felt immediately accessible and tangible. With solid production values, it also looks like it’ll be a bit of a looker.

We won’t have to wait too long to experience it for yourself – Reach is set to ship this year on Meta Quest 3, PSVR 2, and SteamVR.