HELL IS EMPTY

Zenith: The Last City is an MMORPG for VR. I’m not going to go into the specifics of the story or gameplay here because it would be a waste of my time and yours. In fact, I’m not going to give this a proper review at all yet, because it isn’t ready for release by a long shot – if they can’t be bothered, then neither can I. So, for now, consider this a warning to save you from going through the Oculus refund process. A lot of people are very hyped up about it, and that’s understandable, as it should represent worlds of wonder hitherto unexplored on the brave new reaches of VR. But what is here is unreviewable and not really fit for purpose yet. There isn’t a single thing about Zenith as it stands that seems fleshed out or well-realised, or really anything other than a placeholder. The setting, supposedly taking its cues from Japanese RPGs, is so utterly generic that you start to forget it the minute you take the headset off. Much has been made of the size of its world, but when it’s this bland, it’s impossible to care.

It’s becoming ever more a feature of the landscape in modern gaming that we’re asked to buy a game that isn’t finished. We’re then given a roadmap of promised content that will materialise later on as the months and years roll by. I’m not going to go into the pros and cons of that for now – although it’s an issue worthy of considerable debate. I will say that to release a game on a store for $30, rather than proclaim it as early access, is to promise a certain amount of quality or completeness for people who invest. But Zenith: The Last City is not ready for commercial release.

Sadly, VR is often treated as a venue for lowered expectations, playing host to titles with technical deficiencies that would be completely unacceptable except in alpha builds for traditional flat gaming.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

From the get-go, Zenith presents itself badly.

Menus are horrible to navigate, and even signing up for an account is rendered harder than it needs to be by an unpleasant virtual keyboard. Character creation is perfunctory and surprisingly limited for an MMO. Usually, this wouldn’t matter so much for a single-player game in VR, but in a game built around social interaction with others, it’s important to dress for the occasion. On this subject, the animations for players running around and interacting with the world are laughable, with bandy-legged, exaggerated strides; I can imagine that, with highly populated servers, the effect will be quite extraordinary. Partying up doesn’t seem to work. We tried for half an hour before giving up on it. NPCs are barely there, with no conversation other than quest-givers. Even with them, the lack of animation and interaction is depressing. Character models don’t even blink, and mouths don’t move. They’re just there to provide avatars for text-box quests.

THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT

Combat is possibly the worst thing about the game. There’s no feel or feedback. Bad sods wait for you to run into them, then berserk towards you with canned attack loops. Use your special powers, or don’t. It just doesn’t really matter. Out in the overworld, sods just spawn in again after about thirty seconds, blipping into existence. The combat ‘events’ are trials not of dexterity or skill but patience with inanity. Fighting one generic enemy is dull; fighting endless waves is excruciating. The insanely, aggressively bland, awful soundtrack makes this even more stultifying.

The music is meant to channel JRPG whimsy, I suppose, but the endlessly upbeat, forgettable dirges just play on regardless of the onscreen action and actually become an oppressive, negative force in the game world, choking the atmosphere of the environment and what happens in it until it flatlines. The in-game chat is awfully degraded too, which doesn’t help.

THERE’S NOTHING FOR YOU, HERE

All in all, Zenith: The Last City has all the hallmarks of a title designed by AI, with lots of bullet points of features but without a single thing from setting to gameplay that isn’t painfully unfinished.

If you want a multiplayer RPG for the Quest, then there’s Orbus VR. It looks basic, but there’s lots to do in there, and it’s not nearly as offensively or poorly realised as Zenith. If you want a good-looking, well-polished experience in a relaxing world to play with friends, get Walkabout Mini Golf or Real VR Fishing. Or there’s questing in Rec Room, which is free and plays loads better than this. Or you could even just put on VR Chat.

We’ll check in again with Zenith in a few months and review it properly, but for now – don’t bother. Certainly don’t go spending money on the unfinished, joyless, sanity-sapping exercise in futility that it currently is.

OVERALL: N/A – NADIR

Ramen VR – a series A studio focused on VR metaverse games revealed its launch plans with a 3-minute gameplay trailer today. Zenith is touted as “a genre-defining VR game that challenges countless players to explore a gorgeous, anime-inspired, massively multiplayer online world. Its incredible potential stems from its multifaceted gameplay which artfully marries deep and satisfying RPG mechanics, expansive open-world exploration, thrilling action-adventure combat, and social systems like parties, friends, and guilds.“

The studio was also excited to highlight the massive 60,000 person Discord, believed to be the largest pre-launch VR community ever built. The company is proud of its unique community-driven design mantra, “Do Right By The Player”, with many of the game’s design decisions being influenced by their closed beta playtests. The startup recently ran a successful Beta, with thousands of players spending an average of 2 hours a day immersed in the virtual world. The company has greatly improved performance, stability, and balance, and is set to release the next closed beta tomorrow, January 13th.

What could make Zenith special is its massive scope combined with cross-platform interoperability – CTO Lauren Frazier remarked that “Players will be taken from gritty cyberpunk cities to verdant plains and barren but gorgeous deserts, and they’ll be able to play with countless other players across all major VR platforms.”

While Zenith promises to deliver over 100 hours of content at launch, CEO Andy Tsen thinks of launch as the first step. “We built Ramen VR to work exclusively on Zenith, and while it’s already a massive game, we have an incredible roadmap for 2022 and onwards. We’d like to thank the community, our partners, and our investors for believing in our vision.”

Having raised a successful $10M funding round, the company has doubled in size over the past year, with a passionate team of 18 game developers driven by the desire to build a groundbreaking online world.

About Zenith

Zenith is a Cross-Platform Open World VR MMO coming to the Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and Steam. It is a non-subscription, ever-expanding, live service MMO designed from the ground up for VR. The massive world of Zenith crawls day and night with monsters and creatures that have been empowered by a dark and mysterious god — but glory and treasures await those brave enough to unveil Zenith’s mysteries.

Zenith promises action-packed combat that fully utilizes VR’s strengths as you take on monsters that know how to dodge your blows and respond with ferocity. Forge alliances in guilds among a massive community, join together in epic raids and world events, and blaze a path to become the most powerful Agent Zenith has ever known.

• Explore an ever-expanding, massive open world through flying, climbing, ziplining, and even swimming!
• Discover a deep combat system that takes both time and practice to master — shoot, swing, and cast your way to glory.
• Synthesize powerful items using the spoils of battle and enhance them to become a legendary Agent.
• Discover the joy of cooking — learn delicious recipes, gather ingredients, and share them with your friends.
• Play together — conquer Zenith’s greatest challenges, including epic boss battles, public events and dungeons with hundreds of players on a single server.

As always, we’ll have a full review ready for you at launch! If you’re itching for an MMO to keep you going in the meantime, you can try out Orbus VR: Reborn!