Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.Thumper first appeared at the beginning of the film with the other grasshoppers, held on a leash. This review was conducted on the PS4 edition of the game, both inside and outside of VR. PS VR support is included on the PS4 version and the headset itself releases to the public on October 13th. Thumper is now available for PlayStation 4 and PC for $19.99. While you can play Thumper entirely outside of VR, the experience truly shines and envelops you the most once you place a VR headset on your face. It is at first immediately familiar as an entry in the now classic rhythm game genre, but enhances virtually every aspect of the experience through brightly pulsing visuals, intense music, and nothing short of violent, visceral rhythm-based gameplay. Thumper is a one-of-a-kind gaming experience. It just didn’t feel as visceral and exciting. It could be first impression bias, but after playing the VR version, I found it difficult to then go and play outside of VR. Looking ahead, you can get a better view of what’s coming and the timing feels more natural once obstacles reach you. The 3D spatial audio reverberates throughout your body and the thump of your actions creates an even more hypnotic rhythm. Rather than ending at the edges of your TV screen, the environments surround you in full 360-degrees. The intensity will surely be too much to handle for some people, but if you can stomach it, Thumper in VR leaps above and beyond its 2D counterpart. Since Thumper can be played entirely inside of or outside of VR, you’d assume it doesn’t really make a difference which you pick, but I’d argue that not to be the case. Levels feel like equal part nightmare fuel and gaming nirvana. The boss at the end of each zone emerges in horrendous detail, whirling and gyrating to the stream of music, forcing you to nail every button press in order to silence the beast. The heavy thud of the bass and surrounding music pushes you forward. The blur of the track and the smear of a cacophony of colors in your peripheral vision pumps the addictive stimuli into your eyeballs. Once you do find that sweet spot and - pardon the pun - get into a rhythm, it’s downright invigorating. You will not complete the entire game from start to finish without failure and that’s part of the madness. This ensures that failure is never too frustrating as you’ll only ever have to replay a handful of seconds before finally making progress again.ĭue to this forgiving progression system, I’d be remiss to really describe Thumper as a ‘difficult’ game since trial and error is just part of its inherent DNA. It’s an infectious process as the beat of the music mingles with the sharp tones of your crystalline beetle, banking and zipping across the track.Įvery level is split into a multitude of sublevels, each of which contains a graded checkpoint. On first glance, it can look like a bizarre, singleplayer racing game, except instead of racing against other opponents, you’re racing against the slow-moving dread of pulsating defeat. See a pulsing wall coming up next? Slam your vehicle beetle thing in the opposite direction to slide around the curve. See sharp crystals protruding from the track? Launch into the air holding up on the analog stick to flutter over them. See a bright, blue pad approaching? Press X to launch into the air. Throughout it all, you control a metallic beetle creature/vehicle/thing that morphs and adapts to the environment based on your prompts. You are progressing along a seemingly endless track and must press buttons that loosely coincide with the beat and thump of the music to surpass obstacles. It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to play Thumper, especially in VR, but watching that video first will help provide at least a baseline frame of reference. Before reading further, do yourself a favor and watch the trailer above.
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