First-person shooting in VR has been done before. Even multiplayer PvP first-person shooters are not a new thing. But – and I say this as someone who plunked down $550 of his own money on a PSVR 2 on launch day – the PSVR 2 needs anything and everything it can get its Sense controllers on in its dry early days of existence. And so Firewall Ultra – a plussed-up version of 2018’s Firewall: Zero Hour for PSVR 1 – was something I was happy to jump into. What I found was an enjoyable, reasonably fast-paced competitive FPS that’s still pretty rough around the edges, but managed to not make me nauseous.
I played several 4v4 matches – one side of attackers, trying to hack a laptop, and the other side as defenders – across two maps: Oil Rig and Social, the former being pretty self explanatory and the latter styled after a Silicon Valley social media company’s pre-pandemic office. You can customize your weapon loadout ahead of each match (though not ahead of each round), with the usual assortment of assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, and even a combat knife that you can press R1 on the Sense controller to flip around.
Aiming is the first area in which the PSVR 2’s capabilities come into play. If you hold the left trigger – particularly while holding L1 on the Sense controller to grip your weapon with two hands – you’ll go into an ADS mode. The PSVR 2’s eye tracking allows you to look with your eyes as a sort of aim assist, as it nudges your reticle in the direction of where your eyes are looking when aiming down the sights. It still felt a bit janky in this early build, but if it polishes up it could be a really intuitive feature.
The other unique gameplay feature the PSVR 2 enables is blinding your foes with a flashlight or flashbang. Your PSVR 2 screen – and thus your entire field of vision – will go completely white for a moment if a flashbang catches you, and the same can happen if an opponent shines his weapon’s flashlight attachment in your face. What’s cool, though, is that if you close your eyes in time – or put your hand up to shield your eyes – you’ll avoid the temporary vision penalty. It’s a neat gameplay mechanic enabled by the new headset that should lead to some memorable moments.
Gadgets also come into play in order to add spice to Firewall’s familiar flavor. Only frag grenades and the signal modifier were available in my demo session; if the defenders discover the latter in the map, they can hide it somewhere near the laptop in order to block attackers from hacking the laptop. Attackers must listen for the beeping sound it makes, locate it, and destroy it in order to successfully hack the laptop and win the round – yes, even if all of the defenders are dead. The developers also promise some tools I didn’t get to try, like smoke grenades, C4, and others that the team at First Contact Entertainment isn’t ready to reveal yet.
If you close your eyes in time – or put your hand up to shield your eyes – you’ll avoid being blinded by flashbangs or flashlights.
For full transparency, it’s notable that animations were still really wonky in this admittedly early build. Every Operators’ arms flailed about wildly, many players floated a foot above the ground, and two-handed weapon holding didn’t feel quite right. But to First Contact’s credit, I didn’t feel the slightest bit nauseous despite running around with traditional twin-stick FPS controls. Granted, X-axis motion was in 45-degree chunks when you flicked the right stick in a given direction, as we’ve seen with plenty of other first-person VR games, but I still moved around perfectly freely without feeling limited or hampered.
Firewall Ultra isn’t likely to dethrone your favorite competitive multiplayer shooter anytime soon, but the novelty of being in VR – along with the gameplay mechanics it enables – could make it a welcome addition to your PSVR 2 library when it ships later this year.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
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