Kona VR

 PlayStation 4
Kona VR Image
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Experience the eerie and chilly atmosphere of Kona, now with PlayStation VR!

    Step into the shoes of detective Carl Faubert to explore the mysterious surroundings of Atamipek Lake, investigate surreal events, and battle the elements to survive - all with the enhanced immersion of PlayStation VR!

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Cubed3
    Jun 29, 2018
    70
    Kona VR falls under the rather unflattering title of Walking Simulator - a title that detracts from what each game has to offer. Kona VR tries to break out of this label by focusing on the survival elements, and it works. Mostly. The environment, atmosphere, and dread make Kona memorable and the new VR features make it even better.
  2. Everyeye.it
    Jul 3, 2018
    65
    Kona VR works, but it is clear that developers have had to sacrifice something to adapt the game for the Sony viewer.
  3. PlayStation Country
    Jul 2, 2018
    60
    Kona VR is an adventure game with survival elements integrated with some success. The story didn't grab me and the VR add-on suffers from technical issues, but exploring the hostile world will entertain fans of the genre.
  4. Multiplayer.it
    Jul 8, 2018
    60
    Although Kona VR makes the original game a bit more immersive, you should probably play it without your headset.

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1
  1. HappySpaceInvad
    Jul 19, 2018
    3
    I am not exaggerating - Kona VR has the worst graphics of any PSVR game. If you can cite a PSVR game with worse graphics, I will retract thatI am not exaggerating - Kona VR has the worst graphics of any PSVR game. If you can cite a PSVR game with worse graphics, I will retract that statement. There have been many PSVR titles criticised for "blurry" graphics, but Kona takes this to a whole new level with a resolution so low, you can count the pixels. It's difficult to know whether this is the result of ineptitude or severe efficiency problems with Kona's game engine. We all know what the PSVR is capable of; Kona VR is worse than nearly all the launch titles.

    The original Kona engine is surely quite simple? The graphics are nice, but not mind-blowing, there are relatively few visual effects and the draw distance is naturally short due to the perpetual snowy fog. And yet, this VR adaptation seems to run at a resolution around the 480p mark... possibly even lower. Compare this to the incredible-looking Skyrim VR, which has to attempt a draw distance of several miles, in a massive open world with no loading screens (except going in/out of buildings and caves) and many fancy visual effects. Kona VR does the PSVR a huge disservice, and one has to wonder why they didn't call out for help from Sony (or any other PSVR developer) instead of releasing it in this state.

    The graphics are so bad that you can't read any of the leaflets you pick up - so the game presents you with a black screen and white text that you sometimes have to scroll to read. For the "journal" instead of doing this, you're presented with the graphical version at what feels like 2 inches from your nose, which is extremely disconcerting. Presumably this is done so that you stand some chance of reading it, but it's still painful to look at.

    Forget reading road signs or posters on the walls unless you can get close enough to them. One of the best things about the original version of Kona was looking around at the detail in your environment. Forget all that in the VR version.

    But it's not even just bad in the game - the initial setup menu is so low resolution, it's hard to tell whether a setting is "Enabled" or "Disabled".

    The Move controllers are largely redundant, and are not explained at all in-game, so good luck figuring out how to run, jump or crouch. They're particularly useless in the setup menu, as you can only click on the various settings boxes to turn them from yellow to red, but there's no obvious way to change the values.

    In-game, there's no smooth turning option (with either Move or DualShock), so if like me you find that makes you dizzy/nauseated then your enjoyment is going to be impaired throughout. You can at least turn off teleport and vignette.

    Loading screens occur far too often (again, compare with the amount of graphics Skyrim chucks around) and are a completely black screen that can last anything up to 16 seconds, leaving you wondering whether or not the game has crashed.

    I really wanted to give this a 1/10, but I love the original game so much, I felt I had to give at least something for the gameplay underneath. Sony really need to raise the standard for PSVR games, as Kona VR is a poor advertisement for the platform.    … Expand