Starblazer VR is a real-time strategy (RTS) game with an aerial twist. It pits one player’s fleet against an AI opponent’s. My husband John and I worked on this review from different experience levels. I am a new RTS player and he’s an expert. To dive in, at the time of writing, its player versus player mode is locked. It’s also light on resource management. The only resources managed are time and the customization and set up of ships.
Angling the Ships
This RTS game is a VR game with ship combat that’s easy to learn to control. The player uses their controller to select ships and to point and angle where they’re to go. Please note: you can only set waypoint on objects, walls, or ceilings. This helps players to navigate the ship.
There’s no ability to choose a point in three-dimensional space in Starblazer VR. The only way to move any ship is to select it and then place a point for it to fly to. Directing the ships is a simple concept but time consuming.
Directing the Ships
John, an experienced RTS player thinks it feels simple to direct ships but says it also quickly eats up time. Before you know it you’ve got five ships that need your attention and you need to build more ships. Teleporting around the maps helps you see them in their entirety.
I, a beginner of the genre thought the angling of the ships was challenging. This took a few games to get used to. When successful, the angling helped to not give enemy ships an easy target. Select the ship and point it to oncoming ships that are highlighted red.
Ship Types
In Starblazer VR, the strategy is mainly built upon ship types. They are flagship, the victory condition. Protect yours and attack theirs to defeat the enemies. Making all ships move along their own flight path helps it them become less of a sitting duck.
The builders are wide and make all the ships. The fighters are the meat and potatoes of your army, an all around good fighter that moves mid-speed. The seekers are faster ships that are good for attack and defense.
The bruisers are big hulking ships with high health that smash through the enemy. The spectre is a unit that grants invisibility and is good for sneaking up on enemy ships. The response unit, the seeker, has no weapons but reveals enemy units.
The drill is a good attack ship that’s mid-speed and has a high attack rate. The sniper can shoot across the battlefield but moves super slow. There’s also a medic which heals. Spawn a few of these and assign them to ships to keep them shooting and to prevent having to make new ones.
The Rooms
Starblazer VR gives you a demo room to view all ships and controls without having to be in battle. There’s the fleet set up room where you can place a set number of units to start each battle with. The placement is a little wonky as you place the unit by opening a menu on your hand that then spawns the unit on its place on the menu.
You can’t just grab and place the ships in three-dimensional space like in the opening menu. This is a minor fix. After setting up your fleet, you head over to the war room and this is where you can see the locked consoles for future PvP and customization options. There you can play against AI at easy, medium, difficult, and hard difficulty levels.
There are three stages to set up your fleet on. We’re real happy with the variety of ships and lots of room for strategy. John beat the hard difficulty level easily so he’d need a human opponent or more difficult AI. With trial and error, Juanita beat the easy level.
Overall, there’s a lot of gameplay options here that would be great to play with friends once PvP gets unlocked. If you’re new to RTS games, starting off on easy and progressing to harder levels means more game time!
Where To Get Starblazer VR
If a spaceship fighting RTS is your type of VR game, Starblazer VR is available on Steam for purchase. It’s compatible with Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality.
