Pistol Whip feels like playing Beat Saber inside The Matrix
Sweating bullets.
Beat Saber is a fantastic game because it's easy for anyone to pick up and play and it makes you feel like a Jedi. Pistol Whip, the new game from Cloudhead Games for PC VR headsets follows a very similar formula. It's also a rhythm action game that's very easy for anyone to pick up and play but this one makes you feel like you're John Wick, kicking ass inside the Matrix.
If you want to get a taste of what it looks, sounds and feels like to play, you can watch me sweating my way through three or four of the game's ten levels in this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner. As per usual, you can find that just below these words.
Thanks to the way the Oculus store works, I bought one copy of Pistol Whip that I'm able to play on both my Quest and the Rift S that I'm currently loaning. Handset tracking on both worked perfectly and to my untrained eyes there wasn't a huge amount of difference in the visuals.
If I had to pick my favourite version though, I think I'd have to go for the Quest as the lack of wires really helps out with the swift bodily movement that the game requires.
If you have watched the video above, you'll quickly see how physically intense a game of Pistol Whip can be. Played on Easy mode, enemy waves are quite manageable and bullets are infrequently fired. Graduate to Normal or Hard modes though and things quickly get sweaty as multiple enemies attack from multiple angles in quick succession.
Your only weak point is your face so expect to be doing lots of ducking, dodging and cool, backwards leans as bullets whizz past you, all while you glide gracefully through each level to some pumping beats. A couple of bullets to the face will instantly end your run, but keep shooting and you'll earn health boosts, while kill streaks will reward you with score multipliers.
If you own a VR headset and are a fan of Beat Saber, I can't recommend this game highly enough, it's one of those games that just keeps calling out to me to play it. The physical gameplay is a perfect for for the Quest's wire free headset too, which in my opinion, makes it a must buy game for that platform.
If you enjoyed this episode of Ian's VR Corner, you can catch up with my previous adventures over on YouTube in our VR playlist, where I've covered Valheim VR's motion controls mod, Doom 3 VR Edition and everything we know about PSVR 2 so far. You can also read our list of the best VR games.
