Bravo Team PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Announced back at E3 2017 this year came the arrival of Bravo Team, the first-person PlayStation VR exclusive currently being developed by Supermassive Games — the brains behind PlayStation hits such as Until Dawn, and its soon to be released virtual reality brethren, The Inpatient.

Bravo Team’s manifesto offers heart-pumping and tactical first-person action, where you and your team mate are thrust into a hostile environment, and must survive by all means necessary. It would be safe to assume, then, that we were a little excited to take a few tangos down. Unfortunately, the demo didn't really deliver.

You start out by being pulled from the floor, presumably wounded from an injury that happened moments prior. As you're thrust back into combat, you must continue driving forward to reach your end goal — though that goal is vague, you keep moving forward nonetheless.

In essence, Bravo’s gameplay is relatively simple. You zig-zag from one end of the map to the other, using the PlayStation VR Aim Controller (or either the Move controllers or DualShock 4) to point at areas of cover your wish to travel to. The immediate problem we encountered, though, is that most of these movements would not register, forcing you to fumble between cover-to-cover until you reach a comfortable vantage point.

Bravo Team PS4 PlayStation 4 2

When you do manage to get to the suitable position, you have the ability to peer over objects you’ve currently taken cover behind. It’s in this stance where you can peel over car bumpers and land a couple of shots, before swiftly moving onto the next area. If executed correctly, this can feel fairly rewarding, but we found those instances to be few and far between.

With the aid of a second player, Bravo Team could potentially become a lot more fun, as its core gameplay relies on constant communication to successfully grapple the upper-hand in a situation. Hesitating too long will leave you exposed to open fire in most situations — and for all intents and purposes, this isn’t good when you’re also battling Bravo’s uncooperative controls in this instance.

We found it more than a little tricky to shoot someone from afar when using the PlayStation VR Aim Controller, as most of your shots don’t land unless you’re in close proximity to your targets. It wasn’t until reaching the enemies up close, where we felt like our shots were doing damage — and the pay off felt just that little bit more rewarding. 

Bravo Team PS4 PlayStation 4 3

Suffice to say that If we learned anything from Bravo Team during the short demo is that, despite its navigational difficulties encountered, it is a game that will require fast reaction times, clear communication with your team mate, and strategy in order to succeed during your time playing it.

At this moment, though, due to the continued clunky cover-to-cover combat and aiming issues, it doesn't feel like this project has come together yet. There's still time to give the title the polish that it needs, however, and we're looking forward to revisiting it when it releases on 5th December.

Will you be giving Bravo Team a miss? Do you reckon that PlayStation VR is crying out for a good military-based first-person shooter? Gun us down in the comments section below.