Medieval-themed games often provide a fun experience in the world of VR gaming. The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains is quite the mouthful for such a title, but the overall game is a lot shorter. In fact, you can pretty much complete it within 30 minutes or less. As such, it is more of an “experience” rather than a game.This offering is currently available for the HTC VIve and Oculus Rift at the rather steep price of $10.99.
The Way of Kings Is a Nice Demo
People who purchase The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains in the hopes of playing an epic medical campaign in VR will be sorely disappointed. One could go as far as saying how there are more letters in the title than minutes of gameplay as far as this offering is concerned. It is difficult to warrant the price at this point, although the experience itself is beautiful and a great narrative-driven creation.
The “game” itself is pretty interesting, as the visuals seem to be well polished and the environments look and sound genuine. It is worth mentioning The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains is based on a popular book written by Brandon Sanderson. People who have not read the book – or simply don’t care about it – this experience will not be of great interest. That is a bit of a shortcoming where this experience is concerned, but it is evident this is more of a fan service instead of anything else.
This experience has all of the story elements one would expect. You find yourself in an odd predicament, learn a bit more about the story, beat up some thugs, and so forth. There is an option to dodge incoming attacks by teleporting from side to side, which seems to work pretty well. You even get to try some magic, albeit in very limited fashion. Overall, it feels like a tech demo instead of a game people should pay more than $10 for.
In the end, there is no real reason to recommend The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains. Although we read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it, the VR experience just doesn’t bring much added value to the story. If it is the first chapter of a full game based on the series, we would be rather intrigued. Right now, there just isn’t enough to warrant buying it at full price, as there is zero replay value to it. Plus, it lasts less than 30 minutes, which is never a positive aspect.
If you liked this article make sure to follow us on twitter @thevrbase and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest VR trends and news.
