PlayStation VR Worlds is essentially a package of five wildly different experiences. The game stemmed from two early PlayStation VR experiences in the form of The Heist and Ocean’s Descent. It eventuated into a package that included: Danger Ball, Scavenger’s Oddysey and Luge all of which feel like an afterthought.

Each game has a number of different modes with one being a primary story and the rest acting as side missions to prolong the experience. Further to this, there are around 40 challenges in each mode, most of which you’ll complete whilst finishing the main experience. They provide a mild reason to go back, but it’s clear that they’re only there to hide the fact that most experiences whilst immersive, are quite short.The presentation in each of the games is top notch. Whilst you’re waiting for each experience to load, you’re put in a lobby in which you’re able to interact with almost every little thing. For instance, in the London Heist, there are bullets falling which you’re able to headbutt with surprisingly great accuracy.

The London Heist was the first experience I booted up and probably the best experience of the lot. It has you playing through a Heist scenario fit with cutscenes that are in-your-face awesome. The better experience is playing with two move controllers in which you’ll use one to hold a gun and aim and the other to constantly pick up ammo in order to reload. It was the most convincing game in the package in terms of using VR to provide an immersive, yet similar gaming experience. Aiming felt incredibly natural to a point that it was almost scary.

Unfortunately, the main experience is over just as it starts getting good, clocking in at about 30-45 minutes to complete. You’ll be able to take part in a good handful of shooting ranges, which are definitely fun and worth playing through, but there isn’t a tonne of reasons to keep going back to them.

Ocean’s Descent houses three deepsea journeys that are different yet incredibly similar. The Shark Encounter is definitely one of the most immersive encounters available on PlayStation VR and is without doubt, the game that you should put on when you’ve got non-gamer over who wants to try out VR. It’s something you can only really play through once and does a great job of building up to the terrifying encounter, but after that, there really isn’t a lot to it.

Danger Ball was a game that I didn’t know too much about, but boy is it addictive. It’s essentially a modern day pong in which you use your head to steer a virtual paddle. You’re able to push your head forward to smash the ball or spin your head to curve the ball which works well and fun to play. The main mode has you going through a series of different opponents who all have different abilities and you’ll need to come up with a new tactic for each of them. When you finally get through all of your competitors in tournament mode, you’ll be able to try your luck in score attack. You’ve got three lives and your mission is to score as many points as possible. I felt that there was a real opportunity to include an online multiplayer mode here as this is definitely a game that would be better played with friends.

VR Luge is probably the weakest experience of the bunch. You’re essentially rolling down a hill at great speed, through a multitude of environments trying to swerve in and out of a number of obstacles. It’s fun initially, but it quickly becomes a chore.

Scavenger’s Odyssey is easily the most visually appealing. You’re put into a spider-like spacecraft, which is tasked with jumping from rock to rock through space. Unfortunately, whilst being the coolest experience, it was the most nauseating and sickening of the entire PlayStation VR launch lineup. There’s something about jumping through space alongside Virtual Reality that my brain didn’t respond well to. It progressively became worse as I progressed through the experience, to the point that I could only handle a few minutes before taking the headset off.

CONCLUSION

PlayStation VR World’s biggest problem is that it is essentially five experiences that vary from must-play to not being worth your time. The London Heist and Danger Ball are great examples of how VR works but don’t  last all that long. Oceans Descent is a really good way of showing off the device, while Luge and Scavenger’s Oddysey are almost not worth your time. I’d recommend picking up the package just for the fact that each experience offers up something different and it’s a really cool way of putting somebody in VR for the first time.

The PS4 version of this game was primarily tested for the purpose of this review.