Thumper | REVIEW | PlayStation VR

Thumper isn’t a VR game built from the ground up, but rather a normal music-based shooter with an add-on mode to experience it in VR.  Fortunately, based on my time spent with it, it doesn’t have a simply “tacked-on” feeling.

Music-based shooters aren’t new, and in fact there may even be too many of them. For this reason, develops have to come up with something that will make their game different from the rest, help it stand out.  Thumper aims for this by adding a horror aspect along with some cool navigational challenges along the way.

You find yourself on rails again with this game, isolated to the track in front of you and you’re constantly moving forward at high speed in tunnel vision formed by a mix of colors and shades. In the distance, you can occasionally see these large creepy figures, waving tentacles, and so on. By collecting power-ups with well-timed button presses, and keeping yourself alive by not smashing into corners, you can fire shots at the enemies ahead and take them down.

Once again, what really makes or breaks the overall experience here is the culmination of the sound and visuals. When they come together, you’re presented with a truly eerie feeling game that really shouldn’t frighten you, but it does. Thumper manages to take an old concept and adds its own fresh take, along with an increasing level of challenge by adding it new moves with level progression. Its blend of horror attributes make it a really neat experience whether you’re playing it in VR mode or just the regular game, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s better in virtual reality.

 

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