Apex Construct starts with a not too original setup: You appear in the world without knowing what is going on. A voice that claims to have the best for you helps you to get past the first enemy robots and makes sure you find your weapon (an arch).
The strange world looks like a distorted nightmare with recognizable everyday objects and buildings that are interlinked by a kind of distortion of time and space. Although expertly executed and in a very solid-looking environment, this is now a very recognizable opening for an adventure game. Soon other tropes are recognizable: terminals with information, voice logs and key cards. Yet all those familiar elements are not repulsive. Especially in virtual reality it is actually nice that the standard adventure game ideas are so recognizable. It is therefore immediately clear what the game expects from you.
Movement
The primary way of moving is the well-known teleporting. You point to where you want to go and with the press of a button you flash towards it. For those who want it there is the option to turn on 'smooth locomotion', which means that you slide through the world as if you were on a segway. However, this way of moving is only recommended for those who have an iron stomach. The vast majority is better off with the teleportation system.
Apex Construct can also be played while sitting or standing, although the sense of presence in the game world is of course much greater when you are standing. The game supports room-filling vr, so if you have enough space (and in the case of a Rift a room-scale setup) you can walk back and forth to explore the surroundings in an even more realistic way.
The game world is full of interactive elements and sometimes you have to get rid of boxes or other junk to find certain secrets or necessary clues. The latter is fortunately not the whole time, so do not worry that you suddenly have to perform the vr version of pixel hunting. Necessary objects, instructions and switches are always reasonably easy to find.
Terminal
An interactive element that you regularly encounter is the computer terminal. Here and there in the game world you will find computers with keyboards, which you manually use with old-fashioned DOS commands. It is a very nice idea, which strengthens the sense of presence on paper. In practice, typing in commands is so inconvenient with the motion controllers that it gets you out of the game. Apparently the makers know that this should work better than it does, because you can suffice with abbreviations. 'Open tr' works just as well as 'open travelers'. What can be called an error, however, is that these abbreviations also work if you have to type in passwords. Hilarious, actually, in a world where robots are chasing you and an artificial intelligence accompanies you.
Passwords and number codes are the main obstacles to opening doors, although you also need other special items regularly. There is (again) no confusion about what is for which. It is immediately clear what you have to put in and why. The puzzles are therefore not the most important challenge in the adventure.
That honor is reserved for the battles you carry with your bow. At the beginning you have one kind of arrow, but gradually you discover new types that fulfill different functions. There is also an upgrade system. If you turn off enemies, a luminous sphere appears. Touch it and you get 'radiance points', which happens to be the currency in this world for buying life potions and upgrades for your weapon and shield. Death means that you lose part of your RP.
Fights consist of disabling different types of robots, which gradually become stronger and have new tricks in store. You fire arrows as if you are using a real bow, so you pull the arrow with the string towards you and release it to shoot. It immediately feels great and very natural. You have an unlimited stock of standard arrows, but the special versions are limited via a cooldown. In addition, your bow has a shield function. If you use it you can ward off arrows but do not shoot yourself. There are also times when you have to save it without weapons. This sneaking is actually the only major downside in the game: it does not work. Especially in teleport mode you are either always seen, or you quickly flash past enemies that can never hurt you. Unfortunately.
The game is not an ongoing adventure, but is divided into missions. From a safe house you choose which mission you will do, after which you enter a new area. Missions last about three quarters of an hour to an hour, depending on how much time you take to discover secrets and read log files. Although there are not that many missions (the game can be completed in about six hours) you can choose which mission you want to do at which time. It does not matter that much for the story, but at least it gives the illusion of freedom. The missions are replayable to collect all secrets. The latter may be fun for the most fanatical players, but a completed game does not have that much to offer. It is more fun to play every mission as thoroughly as possible so you do not have to complete it several times.
The latter is already a bit of a problem due to the awkward savesystem. You can only save the game if you are in the safe house. In between not at all. That means that if you just want to pause, you lose all progress (with the exception of discovered secrets). You have to play the same mission from the beginning the next time and can not jump in halfway. It is true that puzzles and passwords are always the same. So if you know the password for that electronic door, you can type it in the terminal immediately. You do not have to go all the way to the room where the instructions are hidden. Yet this lack of a real save function is frustrating.
Beautiful
Yet these downsides are not game breakers. Apex Construct feels like a full-fledged game where you can put your teeth into it. The environments are convincing enough and the defeat of enemies feels great through the combination of physically stretching a bow and aiming exactly. It also helps good acting to lift the whole to a higher level. Because of the very solid implementation and stable and interesting implementation of virtual reality, Apex Construction is what we hoped Obduction VR would be and it is a step forward for the now somewhat decayed genre of adventure games.
Conclusion
This action adventure game makes good use of the power of vr. The bow is a wonderful weapon and you soon feel like a real bad ass while you fire your arrows furiously and bending. Although the world is full of interactive elements, there are unfortunately few real puzzles. Very nice is that you have to use the various computers with typed commands, but unfortunately his virtual keyboards are quite annoying.
Apex Construct is available on Steam and in Oculus Home and can be played on PC with Rift or Vive. A PSVR version appeared earlier.
Pros & Cons
➕ Beautiful credible game world, archery, story
➖ Sneaking does not work best, no save during a mission
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