If you’ve been searching for an excuse to dust off your PSVR, you’ll have a hard time finding a better one than Blood & Truth.
It’s hard to deny the excitement and blood-pumping intensity of your favourite action movie. You can cast aside an interesting narrative as long as the action is as satisfying as it can be. Despite the somewhat generic plot of Blood & Truth, you truly do get the best of both worlds: over-the-top, high-octane action and some great writing that pours more thought and maturity into the game than you might expect. Whether you’re scaling the side of a skyscraper or blasting your way through the streets of London, you’ll always be at the forefront of the action in Blood & Truth.
Many VR games, especially those that have grace the PSVR, fall into the category of shooting gallery/rail shooter. To claim that Blood & Truth is your standard shooting gallery is a total disservice to what this game accomplishes. From start to finish, through high speed car chases, good ol’ cheesy dialogue, and more bullets than you could ever need, Blood & Truth succeeds in allowing you to be the action movie star you’ve always wanted to be.
Though you won’t always be on the edge of your seat, Blood & Truth‘s downtime is pretty sparse and before you know it the exposition is over and you’re back to tackling the mysterious organisation that is attacking your family. Each area of the game is unique, and every one feels alive thanks to the wonderful level of detail packed in. From the highways of London to eccentric nightclubs and flashy casinos, the environment continuously brings a breath of life to the game. Blood & Truth doesn’t have the biggest, grandest set pieces or levels, but they feel appropriate and tangible. Even though the movement mechanics are tied to the restrictions of the PSVR, each mission area does well to make you feel like you’ve got much more freedom than the technology can actually give you. Simply adding scale into such a confined space helps to multiply your sense of immersion.
Only one issue with Blood & Truth‘s gameplay stood out and somewhat broke my immersion. Unlike other rail shooters, you can use cover throughout the game, bouncing back and forth in and out of cover easily. While it feels wonderfully engaging to dip behind a wall or duck your head behind a set of boxes while reloading, it rarely felt like it actually blocked me from taking damage. As great as the freedom to take cover was, it mostly felt pointless when it didn’t work as intended.
One of the major goals of VR is to make your actions outside the headset create a logical and fluid response within the game’s world. Blood & Truth accomplishes this task by giving you a greater degree control over your character than other VR games of a similar style. You’ll holster your pistols on either one of your hips; stow and retrieve larger weapons on your shoulders; and pull ammo from the pouch and your chest.
Blood & Truth‘s soundtrack is also fantastic. When your head is down, fighting through waves of enemies, the thumping, pulsating rhythm seeps into your headphones and follows you through it all. Many times you’ll walk up upon a group of enemies, minding their own business, blasting some great rap music. Not only does the music sound great, it offers a great gameplay tool, too, as it drowns out your noise. The closing track has a beautiful aura of closure to it, paired with timely lyrics.
It doesn’t skimp on incredibly cinematic experiences, either. There are some shining moments in Blood & Truth, but few feel as grand and spectacular as the massive cinematic scenes: running down a hallway amidst a hail of gunfire and leaping through a window; sliding down a skyscraper as a helicopter grazes the building; speeding across a runway while chasing down a plane. There are some incredibly intense moments in Blood & Truth, even when time isn’t slowed down and things are exploding all around you. I wouldn’t say the game left me breathless, but it did get my heart racing on many occasions.
Once the credits roll, you truly get a sensation of closing out the thrilling finale of an action movie. There are very few parts of Blood & Truth that left me wanting. Some mechanics feel a bit underdeveloped, and the dialogue isn’t always the best. But none of it affected my overall experience with the game. It’s a white knuckle thrill ride with over-the-top action that will keep you hooked from start to finish. If you want a compelling reason to pick up your PSVR headset again, let Blood & Truth be it.
Blood & Truth is available on PS4.
