Sprint Vector would’ve been right at home during the Kinect era when Microsoft invested heavily in developing games that treated your body as a controller. Survios does a good job of translating that inertia and the, relatively, accurate tracking of titles such as Kinect Sports and Kinect Adventures into virtual reality — only this time around focusing on your upper extremities.
Sprint Vector
Developer: Survios
Publisher: Survios
Price: $29.99
Consoles: PSVR (Reviewed), Oculus Rift, HTC Vive
MonsterVine was provided a PSVR code for review purposes
In the vibrant and vivid world of Sprint Vector you use the PlayStation Move controllers as extensions of your hands and arms and are tasked with moving as if you’re running in real life. You will definitely break a sweat as you try to hit just the right momentum to run, sprint, jump, fly, drift, and even “air brake” to beat the competition.
And for the most part, the gameplay works. When the race lines are straight, sprinkled with some drifting angles, and air breaking, the PSVR’s immersiveness holds up well — exhilaratingly so at times even.
The first few stages do are well-optimized for the PSVR’s strengths and weakness, but the illusion breaks down somewhat during the more convoluted later stages, adding obstacles that break the flow of the racing.
For example, there are green “streams” that automatically push your avatar up and, well…have fun jumping off that escalator. Oh? Did you just jump off a ramp careening yourself into a small crevice? Good luck turning around — with the PlayStation Move controller face buttons as a crutch — and making up 3-4 places in the race now.
Just like with any PSVR title, making an enjoyable experience is about getting around the advantages and limitations of the technology and, besides the above mentioned issues, Survios mostly succeeds at that with Sprint Vector.
The 12 racing stages included are sufficiently varied — Miami Vice-esque colors are used to compliment otherwise plain graphics — and 9 challenge stages will push your abilities, and patience, to the limit. Make sure to treat the provided tutorials as mandatory, not as the mere suggestions they might appear to be.
You’ll do fine playing through the first few stages with the basic tutorial, but if you’re gunning for first place, you’ll want the full arsenal of moves taught in more advanced tutorials.
As far as the online multiplayer is concerned, the community seems to be quite active during week of launch and with the added benefit that human players are fallible, unlike A.I. opponents in single-player races. If the community holds up as well as what I experienced during launch week, expect to be matched up in a lobby within seconds. After a match is found, you wait for the next race to start and can vote on the next stage — as is custom with many current multiplayer experiences.
Being that Sprint Vector is a physically demanding game, the added bonus of playing online is hearing other players huffing and puffing between breaths after every match.
The few gameplay annoyances, exacerbated if you’re not playing under optimal PSVR conditions, is one of the drawbacks to Sprint Vector as a package. Even considering the learning curve — not insurmountable but not something novice virtual reality users will grok immediately — you’ll see everything that there is to see in the game within a few hours. A healthy community extends the replay value, but the asking price of $30 is steep for what’s available at launch.
Hopefully future additional content extends on those levels where you really feel like you’re sprinting to your heart’s content without arbitrary and annoying obstacles halting your progress along your path.
Final Word
If you’ve been hankering for a game in the vein of Kinect’s “your body is the controller” titles, Sprint Vector will be right up your alley — warts and all. Most of the stages are colorful and straightforward with unkind, due to PSVR limitations, later stages requiring perfect virtual reality conditions and mastery of SV‘s arsenal of moves. Should the community remain as healthy as it was during launch week, that will kick up some of the replay value and make its $30 price point more palatable.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
