Priced at only $14.99, but at the time of recording, being sold for a discounted $11.99, Iron Gate, sorry, Iron Guard is a great little sci-fi themed tower defence game that’s as easy on the eyes as it is on the wallet.

Towers Ahoy

If you’re a tower defence fan, there aren’t really that many choices on Quest. I’m sure some of you will correct me and mention one or two games on App Lab or SideQuest that I don’t know about – and please do – but I’ve only seen the far more creatively titled Captain Toonhead VS The Punks from Outer Space, which tried to mix up the third person tower defence thing with some first-person shooting by having you occupy the towers you build.

In any case, Iron Giant, sorry, Iron Guard, tells the story of a band of people whose ship crashlands on a distant planet; their terraforming robots go crazy, start replicating like mad, and continuously try to destroy their owners. Along the way, the story is told through thankfully concise exchanges that happen at the beginning of every level, and some philosophical points are scored about the dangers of trusting machines too much and implanting potentially hackable neural circuits in our brains.

Sure, There’s a Story..

So that’s all the story you need, and off you are, tower defending. You can build various turrets, use road blockers to diverge and complicate the machines’ path, and in a nod to the Command and Conquer games, you mine coloured crystals to increase your income. You can also upgrade all your buildable towers, so pretty soon, your regular turrets, your laser turrets, your rocket turrets, and your electrical turrets can turn into terraforming terminators.

Like Captain Toohhead, Metal Guard, sorry, Iron Guard – does allow for some first-person pew pew, in the sense that your right controller also pilots a small spaceship that you can use to fire away at enemies as they approach your headquarters.

Iron Gear, sorry, Iron Guard, has 30 levels and can be pretty addictive while it lasts, although the difficulty ramping is a bit inconsistent. I had more trouble with some infuriating mid-game levels than I did towards the end, but that could also be attributed to the fact that, by the end, I had unlocked all kinds of upgrades for my turrets and superweapons.

Pretty Places, Good Riffs

The graphics in Iron…okay, okay…Iron Guard are crisp and clear; most enemy units are easily distinguishable, the environments are varied and colourful, and atmospheric effects lend a visual flair to the action.

The music is nostalgic, but in a good way, absolutely sounding like it was heavily inspired by the military marchy heavy electronic guitar riffing of Red Alert 2. It’s perfect for this kind of game, and the tracks are good enough and varied enough that they continue to motivate you throughout the game’s run.

Last Legs

Iron Guard is a great game and one that’s very easy to recommend for Quest owners who enjoy Tower Defence games, and it’s being sold at a perfect price point for a game that’ll keep you engaged for a good few hours while you fend off evil terraforming robots.

And no, it’s not particularly innovative, and it may not revolutionize gaming by some unique use of VR, but…does it have to?

We figured it was about time we had a Dev Talk with Diego Martin, Sumalab co-founder and Crisis VRigade developer!

Without further ado, here we go –

INFLUENCES

6DOF: In our review of Crisis VRigade 2, Pete Austin said the Crisis VRigade series reminded him mostly of Time Crisis, can you tell us what particular games inspired the games?

Diego: We’re a small studio and we’re making games similar to the ones we enjoyed playing. As 90’s arcade players we felt Time Crisis was a perfect title for a VR adaptation.

THE OCULUS STORE

6DOF: Have Oculus ever really explained why they wouldn’t accept CV1 or 2 onto the official store? What, in particular, did they have an issue with?

Diego: No explanation, we just got a generic email with nothing about how we can improve it to get into the store.

6DOF: Did the rejection of CV1 impact the development of CV2? If so, in what ways?

Diego: Our main market is PSVR so there was no real impact, but we tried to apply for the Oculus Start program to see if they can help us figure out the reasons for the rejection.

6DOF: How do you feel about the curation policy of the Official Oculus store?

Diego: We prefer the Sony approach: they have very high technical requirements and high curation standards, but as long as you make the upgrades or fixes required, your game makes it through. They don’t get too involved or reject your game because they don’t like the concept. If a game is well polished it gets published.

6DOF: What’s your impression of App Lab as a storefront, is it a good enough substitute for being on the official store?

Diego: As an indie studio, we don’t have a big budget to spend on advertising or marketing. Since Oculus keeps App Lab in the shadows, we don’t really get the same exposure that we get when releasing a game on other platforms, so that’s a big setback.

QUEST’S IMPACT ON VR

6DOF: What do you feel the impact of the Quest has been on the VR medium as whole?

Diego: Huge, in my opinion, that’s the way VR should advance. A comfortable device that you can have lying around on the couch in the living room and just grab it to play at any time without too much effort – like worrying about cables, or having to connect to a High-End PC or whatever…

6DOF: Any idea how the player base on Quest compares in size to that on PSVR?

Diego: I think players are moving towards Quest, at least until Sony releases the next-gen PSVR that I hope will be the next step forward in VR…though the latest news that I’ve heard doesn’t point in that direction.

6DOF: Some developers reported boosted sales when the Quest 2 was released. How did the release of the Quest 2 impact your downloads or sales?

Diego: We reported a download increase for Crisis VRigade, the sequel hasn’t been out long enough on Quest for us to have data to compare to.

GAME DEVELOPMENT

6DOF: What game engine are you using for the CV games? How big is your team and how long did development take for each?

Diego: We’re using Unity for development, and we’ve been a 5 person team developing both titles. With Crisis VRigade we were pretty new to developing VR titles and it was very much a learning project for us. We had other non-game projects while developing the 2 titles, so the one-year and two-year development cycles for the games weren’t on a full-time basis.

Diego: Now we’re completely focused on game development and hope to speed this up, or spend the time on more complex projects.

6DOF: What was the greatest technical challenge you faced, bringing the games to Quest?

Diego: Performance! We develop for PCVR, try to get the games working on PSVR, then we go down to the abyss of performance hell for Quest 1. We had to do a LOT of performance optimizations to make both Crisis VRigade titles work on the headset.

6DOF: What’s the best tip you could give to new game developers approaching Quest as their platform of choice?

Diego: Although it’s a great piece of hardware, be ready to lower you graphical and design expectations to make titles work.

6DOF: Are you bothered by the inherent limitations of the Quest? What would you hope for in a Quest 3?

Diego: As I mentioned, with the earlier Quest, it’s an “abyss of performance hell“, but as Oculus keeps boosting their hardware with higher specs, devs will be able to make greater experiences.

6DOF: What do you consider unique to your development process?

Diego: We’re a small team and everyone has to be aware of what the rest are doing and contribute their part accordingly. Now we are in a working-from-home situation, but I love the synergy that we have when we’re working together at the office.

COVID-19

6DOF: Did Covid-19 impact the release schedule of Crisis VRigade 2?

Diego: Sure. It’s hard, working from home, especially with kids! Getting anything done is much slower, but we managed pretty well with video calls and daily chats.

PIRACY

6DOF: We noticed people offering others the Crisis VRigade 2 Quest apk on Facebook groups, perhaps they felt justified because the first game was offered as a free download. How do you feel about such activity? How does piracy impact you as a developer?

Diego: Piracy is a part of the game industry. We want people to buy our games, obviously – but we were actually excited to see them on piracy portals! It feels like we make popular titles and that is always a good thing.

FUTURE PLANS

6DOF: When should we expect multiplayer (and new levels//modes) to land? Also, do you see Sumalab developing local co-op games like TritonVR or Space Pirate Arena?

Diego: We’re almost finishing with the co-op multiplayer as well as a new “Time Attack” game mode with 3 new levels. We hope to release it soon but the whole working-from-home situation is really turning our schedules upside down.

6DOF: What are your future plans? Crisis VRigade 3 or something completely different?

Diego: We have some prototypes in the oven. Crisis VRigade 3 will happen, for sure. An online competitive Crisis VRigade is another project and, yes, something completely different, a more “traditional” game (with VR support at least), is not off the menu.

Love it or hate it, we’re going back in for more of the same with the brand new (to Quest) Time Crisis 2 … oh wait, sorry… I mean Crisis VRigade 2. Have developers SumaLab scored a headshot with their sequel and helped cement the App Lab as a legitimate storefront, or will they be found hiding behind a dumpster sobbing into their spent ammunition?

Let’s duck behind that crate and see…

It’s not Time Crisis…Honest!

Did you ever play Time Crisis when you were younger? Did you like it? I did.

I spent an exorbitant amount of money in arcades playing Time Crisis as a teenager. I was so hooked that eventually, I bought the PlayStation light gun exclusively to play it when it appeared on home consoles.

Why is that relevant here? Because despite having its own unique character on the surface, Crisis VRigade 2 is essentially the by-product of some smart people asking, “What if we just remade Time Crisis in VR and called it something else?” After the last few days of playing Crisis VRigade 2, all I can say is that if the sweaty, fuzzed-lipped, pubescent version of me mentioned above had played this game, I would probably still be living in my parents’ house playing video games today.

Crisis VRigade 2 essentially delivers the experience of being sucked into a 90’s action movie based on the premise of being sucked into a 90’s arcade game. The format is simple. The developers had the good sense not to try and complicate things by adding anything resembling a story. The player embodies a police officer. Maybe some rogue detective who plays by his own rules or a SWAT leader out to avenge his partner. I’ll let you decide because the game doesn’t bother, so you may as well just pick a trope that makes you feel actiony, and dive in.

Each level sees you tasked with taking down a notorious crime figure of ill repute, who has, of course, put an army of goons in between you and himself. You’ll face Yakuza on one level, Mafia goons on another, and <SPOILER> in the last. It’s pretty simple stuff, but at the end of the day, it serves the tone and intent of the game well. It also allows you to crack on with what you’re really there for… shooting baddies and hiding behind anything that you can, and you know what? It’s really cool!

Duck, Duck, Shoot!

The gameplay in Crisis VRigade 2 consists of a series of set pieces that see the player placed near some cover spot whilst a veritable horde of goons advance, guns blazing. Each little action vignette positions the player differently relative to the setting and the advancing enemies, requiring different movements to survive. Once you let go and immerse yourself, Crisis VRigade 2 really made me feel like an action hero in the most childishly enjoyable way that I’ve experienced in quite a while. 

The game almost begs you to role-play every outlandish scene from the action movies of your childhood. This includes classic scenes like “fire blindly over the top of the desk while pinned down by enemy fire” or “having your back to a concrete pillar while henchmen slowly advance from either side.” It’s great. I haven’t felt this much like a child playing action heroes in decades. I am genuinely surprised by the nostalgic resonance that this game evokes.

Another nice touch is that some environmental elements can be destroyed, whether by your enemies or yourself. This lends an interesting tactical component to the action. Extended cowering behind cover allows enemies to whittle it away to nothing, leaving you nowhere to hide. Similarly, when cornered, you can shoot out strategically positioned sections of whatever you’re hiding behind, allowing you to sneak a few unexpected shots into the fray. 

In many games on Quest, closely positioned items are rendered as one object, with your bullets unable to pass between them. This is gloriously not the case in Crisis VRigade 2. The game not only allows you to make these cunningly improbably shots but almost requires you to do so if you’re to have any hope of surviving.

Getting Hard in VR

With so many people having an issue with short-form gaming in VR, developers producing arcade experiences often resort to different ways to extend their games’ length. Alternate game modes are often used to extend the shelf life of a set of mechanics, and although not present yet, SumaLab are planning on doing precisely this with Crisis VRigade 2. The other oft deployed tactic is a perilously escalating difficulty curve. At launch, SumaLab have placed a good many of their eggs in this particular basket.

I’m just going to say it, this game gets hard. Really hard. Well, at least, it does if you want it to. Crisis VRigade 2 comes with 4 difficulty modes that change certain play dynamics to ratchet up the challenge. Play on the easiest setting, and you get some aim assist, helpful warning symbols, and so on. As you progress up the difficulty settings, these are stripped away, and punishing new elements such as limited ammo are introduced. I began my playthrough on the Rookie setting with automatic reload. It still took me about 90 minutes to complete all three levels. With a bit more experience under my belt, I finished the same three levels on the Cadet setting in about the same period. After that, this game gets HARD. Despite continuing for over an hour, I’ve still yet to complete the first level on Veteran, although I can’t wait to get back in and give it another go.

There are various unlockable items that you can purchase (using in-game currency), which will make the going a little easier. There are also some “consumables,” such as extra lives, that can be purchased before entering your run. It’s worth noting that to complete levels beyond the ‘Rookie’ setting, I resorted to buying several extra lives and using the odd ‘continue.’ 

On that note, the continue feature is also really cool. It costs you a decent amount of your in-game riches, and you’re forced to decide it while a timer counts down at the end of your game. Deciding whether to pony up and continue reminded me of all the hasty value-economics I had to perform as a kid in the arcades.  

Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

Crisis VRigade 2 has definitely seen a much-needed graphical upgrade since the first installment and is now quite a nice looking game environment to be in. While not exactly breath-taking, it is crisp, clear, and more than adequate for the genre. The visual style borders on cell-shaded, with heavy black outlines lending a cartoony quality to the proceedings; however, the background environments are a little more grounded in reality. All in all, the art styles fuse together well and really help sell the player on the feeling of living out a 90’s arcade adventure.

The audio is also decent, with satisfying sounds of gunfire surrounding you and positional audio cues alerting you to attackers approaching. There is relatively little voice acting work, but what there is, is decent. Credit goes to whoever “played off-brand Tony Montana” as well as the dry, wisecracking voice that follows you asking things like “have you’ve smoked something from the evidence locker?”

Blaze of Glory

Crisis VRigade 2 is the VR reimagining of the light-gun arcade games of old. In its ambition to emulate that experience, it is a total success. That said, if you didn’t grow up pumping coins into arcade machines, have never seen a Time Crisis machine and dreamed of going inside, or just don’t enjoy the genre, then I doubt that it will have much to offer. 

Anyone looking for more robust game mechanics and a longer, story-driven campaign should probably duck for cover and let this one pass by. 

With 3 playable levels at launch, 4 difficulty settings, and the promise of 3 additional levels and a time attack mode, Crisis VRigade 2 has enough meat on its bones to give a satisfying arcade experience. There are many other games in this crowded genre, but none of them is quite as engaging, intuitive, and fun as this one. If you only have room for one arcade shooter in your library, then this might just be the one for you.