Bulletstorm VR Review (Rune)
EDIT2: I'm out - for now - I just asked for a refund, the devs level of imcompetence is truly mindblowing with this game, sadly. I'm not paying $40 for a game I cannot play - and my days left to refund are limited. No communication from the devs regarding latest patches.
EDIT: BEWARE - new patch destroyed all controller bindings - until fixed with a new patch, this game is officially dead.
ORIGINAL REVIEWS:
Your experience with this game will depend a lot on the hmd you use. Be very careful trusting a review, if the reviewer has not clearly stated which hmd and rig were used.
My rig: Asus Strix OC RTX 3090, i9 10900K (10cores/20 threads, 5.3 Ghz), 32GB 3200 MHz and Win 10 Pro. Hmds tested: Valve Index and Rift CV1.
The game works flawlessly (or close) when setting OpenXR to Meta and launching the game using my old Rift CV1 from inside the Oculus Desktop App. The game also works fine using my Valve Index, but I encountered more issues there - like one crash to SteamVR Home, and suddenly my left thumbstick stopped working, but restarting the controller fixed this issue, never tried that before (and I've had the Index for 5 years soon). So be prepared - and expecting the worst, the game might not be that bad :-)
Note that after installing the game changes name form Bulletstorm to something like "Oculus OVR plugin" or something like that. The game feels extremely rushed, untested and lacking polish.
I was plagued by black loading screens with the Index - but after a saved game has loaded, just press Index controller right A button to continue. Using Rift CV1 (oled) I got an extremely faint loading image, but here I could see the "press A to continue" image - unfortunately, using lcd (=Index) the brightness is too high, so you cannot see this image. Of course devs need to fix this asap.
Using Index I had some issues when forcing SteamVR res above res 160% - seems to trigger some failing of loading images - but again, just try to press A to continue if you get a totally black background and you can hear sounds.
If the game starts with no sound, just click with your PC mouse anywhere on the desktop to put the game in focus and enable sound.
Some good stuff - graphics can be nice for the PCVR version and are enhanced compared to the low-end Quest version:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3143082926
Nice real-time animated model from the main menu
Recommended system requirements are high, devs recommend a RTX 3060 or better, but the game may indeed need that. There are some dynamic shadows, but only when close to a lamp, not when being outside in the sun:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3143083489
There's real-time lighting in the PCVR version, my hand is increasingly illuminated aproaching the light source:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3143084574
Left-handed support is also fine-ish. You can pick up a weapon using whatever hand you want. But getting the force-pull-device I placed it on my left hand, and now pressing it I'm activating an in-game menu, making it close to impossible to use. Devs need to fix this ASAP.
You got full locomotion, teleport, smooth or snap turning etc, so moving inside the game has all the usual options to accommodate different preferences.
In some early YouTube reviews, the angle when holding a gun with the Index was not correct - this has been fixed. I have no issues holding a weapon using Touch or Index controllers.
Performance is kinda great or fine with the Index - I'm forcing res 300% (27 million pixels per frame combining both eyes) and usually get solid 80 fps in 80 Hz (enabling motion smoothing can help). There are some dips in fps in bigger battles, I suspect these to be due to lack of cpu optimization, but these dips are no big deal, I really do not notice them. Lowring res to 160% I still got these dips - that's why I think these are game or cpu related, not cause by lack of gpu power. So performance with Index and RTX 3090 is fine. And remember I'm pushing res 300%.
Is the game worth $40? No. Does the game have great graphics? No. Is the game fun to play? Yes, when it works :-) My rating would be 6/10. I do not recommend the game for now, unless you set your expectations very low.
If you use the Rift CV1, I might rate the game 7/10 and recommend it, if you're a great fan of Bulletstorm.
I'll update this review if/when devs improve the game.