Battlezone VR is not quite what I expected, and that's not because I didn't trust Rebellion to make a game that's simple, direct, scrappy and endlessly endearing. Battlezone VR is not quite what I expected because, as well as being a fast-paced blaster in which you knock about in tanks and pretend you're still basking in the vector glow of an arcade great, it's now also a roguelike.
Battlezone now takes place on a procedurally-generated map made of a number of hexes. Far off from your starting point is your final objective, and to get there you move from tile to tile, triggering little battle arenas and steadily growing more powerful - while your opponent grows in power too. There are Supply tiles where you can change your loadout and buy new gadgets. There are probes that you can drop to get a sense of what awaits you in the no-man's land that lies ahead. There are hearts you can lose for being defeated in combat, and when they're all gone, so is the board you've been playing on. Wipe! Game over.
This structure works, I think, because, like so much else in Battlezone VR, it's simple, direct, scrappy and endearing. It's not about discovery or exploration or even making choices: it's basically a way of shuffling and dealing a range of straightforward objectives that define the chunky, surprisingly spacious maps you're dropped into where the real action happens. Win over a few control towers and stop an enemy signal. Invade a base and then blow it to pieces. Destroy a convoy. This is nothing you won't have seen before, and that's the point. This is about feeling the cheery comfort of familiarity as you unleash hell - or at least heck - on your AI opponents.
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