There was a golden era in the early XNUMXs, when console music games were booming. It's not that they really went out of fashion, but in those years the genre was its own world, made up of titles with licensed songs and strange peripherals. Needless to say, the protagonist of this trend was Guitar Hero, a franchise that dominated for more than a dozen years alongside Rock Band and Sing Star.
Then, suddenly, it all ended, bursting into a soap bubble, perhaps because the market was saturated or perhaps because the public was tired of filling the closet with plastic guitars and drums. However, in recent years we have witnessed a kind of renaissance of the genre through virtual reality, with rhythm games more immersive and original than ever. An example is ragna skirt, a music game that inherits the Guitar Hero interface but instead of making us play as a rock star, puts us in the shoes of a group of Vikings. We tell you what it's like up there. PlayStation VR2, and why you should play it, in ours opinion.
Legacy of the past
ragna skirt is a musical game in which you assume the role of a Viking (or Viking, the avatar is customizable), that is, the one who set the rhythm of the ships with the sound of the blows drum for the rowers. In fact, the objective of the game is to hit a series of runes with hammers at the exact moment they line up on one of the four available reels. The mechanics are the same as in Guitar Hero, where you had to press the correct color key and choose the exact moment it aligned with the writing on the screen. From Harmonix's music game, Ragnarock also borrows the combined multiplier: By getting a certain number of correct answers in a row, we will charge an improvement that will increase the score, which can be activated by pressing one of the two gongs located on the side of the station.
However, there is a variation on the theme regarding the representation of punctuation. If in Guitar Hero (but also in other virtual reality music games such as Beat Saber) the score is displayed as a simple numerical data in the game interface, in Ragnarock this becomes a duration. Let's not forget that the stage where the drums are played is actually a boat, and from our position we will see both our group of rowers and the opposing boats. The cleaner and error-free our performance is, the further our boat will go when pushed by the rowers, thus converting our score into meters traveled.
This mechanic becomes even more addictive if you play Ragnarock on online multiplayer, challenging another player to a real speed race. During a multiplayer battle we will always see our opponent's ship, knowing instantly how the challenge evolves depending on the position of the ships. This mechanic also applies to tracks played offline, where we'll see the ghost of our best performance instead of a real player.
Tracks and customizations
Before setting sail with our ship, Ragnarock puts a girl in front of us choice of songs, which range from Viking metal to electro folk, also including punk arrangements of sailor songs. The Sidh, Alestorm, and Celkilt are just a few of the many bands included in the base game's playlist. Currently, DLC and custom songs created by the community are the prerogative of the Meta Quest 2 and Steam VR version of Ragnarock, while on PS VR2 it is possible to try up to three songs before purchasing thanks to the free demo.
In addition to the extensive song list, the game offers a long series of cosmetic articles to customize our avatar, hammers, ship and crew, many of which are paid through microtransactions. Without cosmetic items or library expansions, the game is still absolutely fun and guarantees hours of fun and many calories burned. Don't make the mistake of thinking of Ragnarock as a harmless party game: drumming is as fun as it is exhausting, and although the title can be played both standing and sitting, your shoulders and arms will have their work cut out for them. them!
Comments and scenarios
From a technical point of view we are talking about a very solid game, which comes to PlayStation VR2 after a good run on other headsets. As many porting present on the market, Ragnarock played on PS VR2 takes a clear step forward and the unique features of the Sony headset add that extra touch to the gaming experience. The headset's power-on vibration and PlayStation VR2 Sense vibration help engage the player and amplify every successful shot, while the console's hardware allows for much more detailed environments. In fact, each song is immersed in its own script presets, although it is still possible to choose which one to travel by selecting it from the main menu. Some are simple natural glimpses, while others are much more evocative, taking us on a journey through underground lava lakes or clouds, until we reach the gates of Valhalla.
Commands and feedback The battery life is exceptional, an aspect that the PS VR2 version also shares with the others already on the market. Obviously there is a latency test in addition to meticulous battery customization. When you first start the game, it will show you how to adjust the height of the drums and the position of the gongs, and then give you a detailed list of advanced settings that can be applied to the hammers. Grip angle at rest, distance between the wrists and height between them and the drums, etc. This allows for a gaming experience tailored to the player, and once you've found your settings, it's a good idea to save them to your profile, perhaps leaving one free for guests if you let your friends try Ragnarock.
Conclusions
Tested version PlayStation 5, PC con Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Official site Price 24,99 € Holygamerz.com 8.5 Readers (2) 7.6 your voteIf you're convinced that Beat Saber is the best VR music app, chances are you've never played Ragnarock. It is impossible not to get caught up in the intuitive and fun mechanics of this game, the euphoria of the music and the beauty of the settings, which are even more impressive on PlayStation VR2. The limited number of tracks and the presence of cosmetic microtransactions will not spoil the fun at all, and in fact, it is very likely that you will find yourself several times with sore arms, putting down the headphones and wondering how it was possible to have spent so much. time in!
PRO
- Attractive mechanics
- Perfect music tracks
- Graphically and technically satisfactory
AGAINST
- Too bad about the custom songs.
- Cosmetic customizations are subject to charges.
