Get Your Pew Pew on in Battlezone

Waiting to exhale/EMP.

I was transported to the inside of a tank. Looking around me, there were several panels displaying my weapon loadout and objectives. After confirming my readiness, my tank, by now an extension of myself, began sliding along a conveyor belt to its Battlezone. As it did, I glanced above me at the robots going through their preparations for my success, backing away to let me through. It was not long before I was in the middle of an unpopulated space, save for the structures jutting out of the land, my potential cover.

Soon, they appeared—other tanks. I set my sights on them and shot my laser cannon, demolishing them in one shot. They exploded into fragments I could scoop up by rolling nearby. I noticed that my tank rolls and slides along the ground with the grace of an ice skater. This is clearly the future, but time period aside, the agility is a boon to my battle prowess. I was not alone for long before more tanks appeared.

The arena continued to be invaded for about five more minutes, and with each new enemy it became more frenetic. Larger tanks understandably required more shots to be defeated. Then the turret towers appeared, wielding their remarkable aim as I slid about. Taking these enemies out just yielded more, with turrets even popping out of the structure to help their tower friends. Eventually, my tank warned me about the drones entering the space, suggesting I switch to my machine gun. Spewing unwieldy swaths of bullets in their general direction, I watched some explode as others proliferated. The arena was not devoid of other enemy types either, so I constantly switched between weapons.

I was holding my own fairly well, certainly better than I expected given my predilection towards stealth and long-range sniping. To that, I’d have to thank the smooth movement. But I felt that I could not keep it up for much longer. Soon, every angle on my short-range radar was filled with red, representing enemies of every type. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to hold the situation down, nor was I told how long I was expected to. But amidst the chaos, my counsel, the tank’s AI voice, presented me with a new development.

My EMP was charging. I didn’t know what this would mean for the battle, and with bullets flying all around me, I mistakenly thought that maybe I missed how to fire it. I was growing desperate until I both heard the voice stating the EMP was ready and saw the prompt telling me how to fire it. I was so distracted that it took me a few moments to gather what was happening. Then, I pushed the button. Every machine was wiped away in one fell swoop. I had survived.

Wresting control from my grasp, the simulation proceeded to show me other maps: frozen tundra, desert, and such. And then it was truly over. This was my first Playstation VR experience, and it was very smooth. The full experience promises procedurally generated environments, a constantly unlocking arsenal of weapons for your tank, and a sizable single-player campaign. Multiplayer apparently still hangs in the balance. There’s no word yet on the specific release date other than this year alongside the Playstation VR tech, and it’ll come to Oculus Rift sometime after presumably. Stay tuned!