Attack on Titan is a manga and anime series beloved the world over. My wife and I are huge fans of the show, which is why video game adaptations these past few years tend to pique our interest. That brings us to Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable, a new offering from developer UNIVRS for Meta Quest headsets.
Attack on Titan is set in a world where humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by gargantuan creatures, the titular Titans. The appetites of these behemoths for wanton destruction and human flesh could only be stopped, albeit temporarily, by erecting fortified walls around civilization’s last bastion. Arrayed against these creatures are the members of the Scout Regiment, trained soldiers who use Omni-Directional Mobility Gear (ODM Gear) to traverse the city by way of gas-powered propulsion, grappling hooks, and aerial maneuvers.
Those familiar with the source material would know how characters zip and glide through the air with ease, and it’s almost as though the action and the setting are truly made for VR gaming. Unfortunately, Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable isn’t a title that fully showcases these facets, at least in its current stage, due to core gameplay issues.
Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable puts players in the shoes of a new member of the Scout Regiment. The campaign itself consists of short missions where you protect the city from rampaging Titans. Each mission has a select few objectives, such as going from Point A to Point B (marked by green or red smoke), killing a certain number of Titans in an area, collecting supplies while avoiding Titans, or defending a fort from waves of Titans. I should also note that mission objectives have a time limit, which is why players have to race against the clock when completing tasks.
“I was also disappointed, given how Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable mission objectives became repetitive over time.”
Originally, I thought the game had a broader overarching campaign or some semblance of a semi-open-world structure, so its current presentation did surprise me a bit. I was also disappointed, given how Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable mission objectives became repetitive over time. Similarly, other objective types like fort/depot defence relied more on near-perfect crowd control to prevent hostiles from advancing to the target.
The core gameplay in Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable, meanwhile, shows just how highly mobile Scout Regiment fighters are, thanks to their ODM Gear. Shooting out your grappling hooks is as easy as panning the reticle over a surface, structure, or creature before pressing the grab button and making a pulling motion. There are even other modes of ground locomotion, including a Naruto-esque “ninja run” where you move the controllers behind your back to sprint.
From there, I gained bursts of momentum to leap well above rooftops, and I glided sideways in mid-air, all while aiming for monstrous enemies below me. I then slashed them repeatedly with various unlockable weapons that have different stats. (As an aside, I have to mention that the Thunder Spear and Prototype Hand Cannon are currently unavailable, and they might be added in a future update.)
“The action in Attack of Titan VR: Unbreakable is intense and, at certain moments, even exhilarating.”
Likewise, it’s worth noting that Titans’ weak spots are their napes (i.e. the back of the neck), and a few swipes are enough to kill them. However, it’s also possible to strike at their legs, crippling them temporarily as their bodies regrow lost limbs. Moreover, if they managed to grab me, I could make hacking motions to chop off their hands, allowing me to grapple onto a distant building to escape before I got gobbled up.
If you haven’t checked out the manga or Attack on Titan anime and you’re more into comic books, then think of it as Spider-Man’s extreme vertical and lateral mobility meets Deadpool’s or Wolverine’s vicious melee prowess. Oh, and your enemies are giant, slow-moving, and nude Sentinels. Close enough, right?
The action in Attack of Titan VR: Unbreakable is intense and, at certain moments, even exhilarating. Unfortunately, the main drawback is that its piecemeal presentation of mission objectives gets in the way, like an unnecessary straightforward and simple tally as opposed to the grim and epic saga seen in the anime. Worse, the game’s visuals are rather drab and poor, with textures and designs that are too blocky, too jagged, or too rough around the edges; the graphics certainly didn’t make the most of the Meta Quest 3’s capabilities.
Apart from the above, I initially thought that Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable would allow me to partake in operations alongside other fan-favourite characters, such as Eren, Mikasa, Levi, and Armin. While these characters did appear in the hub in between levels, they mostly just provided barebones guidance during actual missions; they’d tell me where I had to go, but they hardly assisted me in combat. It’s as if the whole arc is just a solo endeavour instead of one that conveys the bonds among the members of the team.
Granted, Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable is still in its early access stage, with only the first two chapters available as of the time of this writing. A roadmap also cites that we’ll see later chapters, as well as co-op mode, in the future.
Since the problems I’ve noticed were related to core gameplay mechanics and overall presentation, only time will tell if Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable can manage to become an adaptation worthy of the critically acclaimed manga and anime series. If you want to give it a try, you can pick it up for the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro.
