RIGS MCL (that’s Mechanized Combat League) is one of the more impressive games to launch and feels like a fully fledged game which warrants its high price tag. A number of gamers have made complaints about VR games having less content than their 2D counterparts but then developers/publishers charging the same price or more. It’s a chicken/egg scenario for developers due to high costs and low install base of VR users. So VR users are either getting low budget games or very few that look like they’ve been granted a decent budget to realize their goals. Well, RIGS Mechanized Combat League from Guerrilla Cambridge has been given the green light and it shows.
The game features a solid offline mode where you can go toe to toe with AI partners against other three man AI teams across the three main modes of play, Endzone, Powerslam and Team Takedown. It’s a league based system which allows you to improve your standing should you lose the odd match or two. There are quite a few leagues to plough through as well of varying difficulty and what’s really neat is being able to earn fans which allows you to hire and fire your AI team mates based on their usefulness in whatever game mode you’re playing. What’s also interesting about the single player (offline) content are various sponsors which can provide cash bonuses and the side-challenges/trials as well which has you shooting up targets and racing through hoops. There’s even a bit of see how many bots you can kill in one mode.
With the game focusing on awarding you with cash there’s a plethora of mechanized rigs to choose from where each one has its own strengths and weaknesses depending on what game mode you’re playing. Learning the quirks of each one takes a bit of experimentation in the field but once you find a preferable host you’re then able to use that for more victorious outcomes – the AI can be quite easy and extremely tough in equal measure.
Aside from beating down the opposition there’s a bit of customization as well for your male or female avatar who you get to see in the polished HQ area between matches. By winning matches and completing sponsor challenges you can unlock new uniforms, visors and helmet designs giving a lot more incentive to keep playing. Whilst this formula is nothing new in multiplayer gaming the fact it’s used here shows how well developed and full of content the game is.
Aside from the single player you can take the fight online as well with 3 vs 3 matches comprising of 3 human players or 1 vs 1 with the other two made up from AI team mates. There’s enough here for everyone aside from perhaps the same exhibition option for offline play but perhaps this will be added at a later date.
RIGS MCL is the best VR game on the Playstation VR at launch and actually shows what should be expected from VR games in general (that includes on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive too). It’s the most feature packed, has unlockables, incentive to keep playing and a distinct and well designed interface that plays to the strengths of the VR platform. The bottom line is, if you can tune yourself to play the game without churning your stomach (the game offers advice by suggesting limiting play time until you become more accustomed to it) then you’ll find a game that will hold your VR interest and keep you coming back for more once the VR novelty has worn off. RIGS certainly raises the bar for what constitutes as a well developed VR experience at the right price point. We need more games like this with the same production values.
