I’ve previously declared my nostalgia when it comes to video games based off media licenses. Weirdly enough, virtual reality has started to become a little safe haven for licensed titles, such as Batman, Spider-Man, as well as Rick and Morty. The Planet of the Apes movie franchise is the newest member of this small but growing segment with the brand new Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR, set between Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The first thing you’ll notice when booting the game up is how immersive it is. Crisis on the Planet of the Apes boasts great visuals, even if limited by the PSVR’s visor’s ability to properly render realistic polygons and textures. The voice acting is also on point. It also features one of the best movement controls I’ve seen so far in a VR game. Instead of using teleporting or microdashing (the same movement present in Doom VFR), Apes uses the PS Move’s motion sensors in order to make your simian protagonist run in a somewhat believable manner. Wave your arms as if you were running and boom, you’re actually running in the game. You’ll probably look absolutely ridiculous while doing so, but that’s the case with pretty much every single VR game so far.

Given the amount of praise showered so far, you might think Crisis on the Planet of the Apes is tons of fun and a must-have for PSVR. Sadly, that’s not the case. The game might be pretty good technically-speaking, but damn it’s boring and unpleasant to play. There are three main reasons for that.

First of all, the game focuses way too much on shoving tons of climbing sections at you instead of throwing you right into actual fights with guns and soldiers. Second, the fights with guns and soldiers are so wonky, with bad aiming and cover mechanics, you’ll wish for more climbing sections. That brings us to the third issue: just like most VR titles, this game is stupidly short. The game is over before you know it, with little to no replayability.

While I do need to give Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR major credit for managing to deliver one of the most immersive movement controls in a virtual reality game so far, I can’t forgive it for being such an overall boring game. It’s a stupidly short adventure that focuses more on climbing walls and hiding in the shadows than actually providing players with actual amounts of action. I can only recommend this game to the most die-hard of Planet of the Apes fans and at a huge discount.

 

Graphics: 8.0 If anything, the game manages to faithfully recreate the visuals and atmosphere of the Planet of the Apes movies as good as the PSVR’s limitations allow it to.	Gameplay: 7.0 One of the very few VR games that actually manage to deliver a decent and believable movement system, while failing to deliver a barely passable shooting control scheme.
Sound: 7.5 If anything, Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR does feature pretty decent voice acting, but nearly no soundtrack at all.	Fun Factor: 3.0 This game might be technically above average, but it’s far from being an enjoyable adventure due to poor combat and some very questionable design choices. It’s also only a couple of hours long.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Also available on: PC