Hands-on: Stormland

In the alien world of "Stormland" you take on the role of a peaceful robot. One day your systems are booted up and you find yourself on an abandoned android planet. Vesper, as you are called, must find out what happened in the base camp of the former robot colony. Soon you will meet fellow androids who have survived on the idyllic planet. Stormland is actually an island structure scattered across several clouds. Thanks to supernatural powers, you can also stalk the cloud formations in the stratosphere at lightning speed. It doesn't take long, however, before you encounter hostile androids. You will only gradually find out why they are besieging the Stormland and have already set up their own alien base.

Very smooth locomotion with many elements

"Stormland" can be played sitting or standing. However, we found the best experience standing up. If you haven't played many VR titles before, you might be a little overwhelmed by the almost limitless freedom of movement at first, but the locomotion mechanics feel incredibly natural and fluid. You control with the left stick of the Oculus Touch controller and can change your viewing angle in pleasant radians on the right. There is no teleportation mode. This would probably interfere too much with the confrontational action. It gets even better: grabbing, climbing, shooting and hovering are also possible. In the latter manoeuvres, it feels very good how you can pull the weapons out of the imaginary holsters and shoot away. Hovering with outstretched arms is also fun. Other moves such as fast walking and hopping in the air are only awarded gradually.

Unfortunately, the abundance of moves also has a few disadvantages. As a result of the many mechanisms, it is not uncommon for you to get tangled up in objects, for example, when you want to change an android arm but can't grasp it properly because of the many options or the lack of tracking. But on balance, the controls are a blast. The movements are explained well and you are quickly drawn into the game. With a little practice, you can catapult yourself very precisely behind enemy bases even with reduced gravity and outstretched arms. On the other hand, the graphics are a feast for the eyes: the rocky walls and deserted forests have been modelled with great attention to detail. The mirror and particle effects are also a treat for the eyes.

Little depth, but lots of action

But let's get to the actual content of the game and the story: "Stormland" was advertised in advance as a great open-world VR adventure. However, the story campaign seems a little bland. It is actually always about following a main mission in which you have to find something, collect it and then destroy a target again. The fact that it is also a matter of acquiring new skills, which you use to become stronger and stronger, is woven well into the gameplay; however, the changing landscapes and enemies hardly challenge you in terms of game mechanics.

Nice bonus content

Certainly tempting: Once the campaign is over, the three "Stormland" spheres will be procedurally recreated every week, so that you will find an endless game in the three worlds, in which enemies, weapons and tasks change. In essence, the aim is to level up and unlock stronger opponents. Whether this is the appeal of an open-world adventure, despite the later availability of a co-op mode that you unlock in the campaign, is ultimately up to each player to decide. For me, it's nothing and doesn't correspond to what I would have hoped for from open world. In this respect, however, it is a game for VR adventurers who are looking for exactly that: an action adventure in which you are quickly drawn in, find a lot of action and can simply enjoy the beautiful environments. "Stormland" is also Insomniac Games' last big game for Oculus, as the studio has since been bought by Sony.

High demands on the hardware

However, the detailed environments bring even high-end computers to their knees. Similar to "Asgard's Wrath" you need a decent machine for this game to run smoothly. We played on an eight-core i7 system paired with a GeForce GTX 2080 Ti. On this system, the game still ran smoothly even in the ultra settings with many enemy battles. By default, the performance is detected as "High" even on such a PC setting. But whether "High" is also enjoyable on PCs with lower specs is a good question. Insomniac itself recommends a processor with the power of an Intel Core i7-8700 or an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. As for the graphics card, we think it should at least be a GPU from the league of a GeForce GTX 1080. Unless the game developers tweak the performance a bit more so that a wider audience can enjoy it.