Master of Light tries gesture-based fitness

Masters of Light是一个新的基于手势的波动射击游戏，由ALBYON和COVEN这对开发者/发行者组合在QuestLaunched on the platform.

Offering gameplay that utilizes VR physicality, Masters of Light puts hand-tracked pseudo-fitness at the heart of the experience. Over the course of the roughly two-hour adventure, you'll take on the role of an elite cosmic warrior tasked with defeating relentless enemies while saving a group of celestial entities.

The game starts by equipping the player with some simple gestures that allow the player to unleash energy blasts through boxing maneuvers. As the game progresses, new abilities are unlocked and existing ones are upgraded. Defensive abilities and ranged attacks are also added to the mix, quickly developing into an arsenal that is very satisfying at first.

The gesture-based system performs well in the early game when enemies are moderately volatile. The gestures are intuitive and responsive enough to make using them to defeat enemies enjoyable enough; but there's no question that it's a workout. With the primary weapon activated through quick, repetitive punches, players will quickly break a sweat as they make their way through the 36 cosmic levels that make up the game's campaign.

Unfortunately, as the difficulty increases and the screen fills up with enemies, the gestures start to become fussy. This is especially true for the "sniping" ability in the later stages. Activating the ability becomes sporadic, and targeting specific enemies in a crowd becomes pointlessly challenging. This is partially due to the overactive aim assist system and the lack of accurate hits.

Despite offering innovative combat mechanics focused on hand tracking, Masters of Light is at heart an unambiguously simple fluctuating shooter. You stand on a floating platform, and the action takes place 180° in front of you. Allowing a fully interactive 360° game space to be utilized inefficiently makes the game feel like an experience more suited to the earliest stages of VR gaming evolution.

This action is aided by the driving force, the 80's style sci-fi synthwave music that keeps you energized as you travel through the void. However, this prominent soundtrack results in spatial audio cues that are often blurred amidst the tumult of beats and explosions. As a result, attempting to utilize these cues to navigate battles is clunky, especially when faced with enemies that force you to engage the game in the dark.

Graphically, Masters of Light stays solid. The cosmic backgrounds are polished, but lack the momentum or context to really immerse you in the world. Players simply stand on star-shaped platforms that randomly hover in deep space while blasting golden energy into the abyss. The simple enemy design makes it easy to tell what type of attacker you're facing, but they don't connect enough to make defeating them feel any more rewarding.

Overall, Masters of Light offers some physical training light gameplay that showcases an innovative approach to hand-tracking controls. However, the fact that the core gameplay loop is from 2016 and some frustrating inconsistencies in the controls make it slightly less likely to potentially offer gesture-based combat in VR.

Masters of Light is now available for $19.99 on the Meta Quest platform.SteamVersion "coming soon".