played hitman 3 vr, and it sure isn't half life alyx
and it sure isn't boneworks, and it sure isn't blades and sorcery, and it sure isn't comparable to anything, because i had my hopes up, and
right now, i'm raging like nikocado avocado
here's my one and only in-depth review of hitman 3 vr
starting up hitman 3 is shockingly easy to do, but also complicated to do; for oculus link headsets, you could run hitman 3 directly from the link, but it doesn't work; the only way it works (in my case, where i bought it from Epic Games), is to
- start up both the oculus app and the epic games launcher on your PC, navigate to oculus link on your headset, and then go to the virtual desktop there
- start up hitman 3 on your desktop, and then select yes to "VR mode", (which pops up automatically if a VR headset connected to the PC), which you have to usually do through your VR headset,
- but after equipping your VR headset, you then have to take it off because you have to press enter on your desktop to bypass the start screen, as there's no button on the vr controllers that substitute for enter, except if you enter back to oculus link, trigger a virtual keyboard, and use that to press enter so you don't have to disequip your vr headset
the menu screen of hitman 3 vr is pleasant, it works and looks the same as the usual hitman 3 screen, but it works for vr controls, one thing i immediately missed though, was the lack of vr support for missions that aren't main-line, so my first VR mission couldn't be Landslide, a short and easy mission where my original plan was to just snipe him
instead, i started off with Berlin, where my goal was to eliminate 5 former collegues of agent 47, but when i played the mission, i experienced several problems that makes it clear that this "PCVR port" is more like "PSVR but it runs on a PC now and also it has 500 problems"
for the PCVR version, there's no "actual dual hand support"; you can't grab most things with both hands, you can actually interact with objects with only your right hand, your left hand is actually completely useless, and it only functions for movement, as the left joystick is for moving around, and the left grip button (also referred to as the "middle-finger button") is for triggering running, something which is likely a remnant of the PSVR version, where the left dualshock joystick was for movement, and one of the left trigger buttons must have triggered running, which is a shame honestly
and it's not limited to this only, as because your left hand is completely useless, it leads to several problems that you'd usually do with your left hand in a game like hitman 3, like grabbing a body to drag it (which you do automatically with your right hand with the press of a button), and reloading (which is also done by the right hand with the press of a button), and speaking of reloading, this leads us to..
bad gunplay: while reloading is done automatically, which really destroys the immersion, there's an entirely other problem that just demolishes immersion, which is the fact that your left hand automatically clings to two-handed guns if it's close enough, and while this doesn't seem like a problem (as you can't hold things with your left hand), it becomes a problem when your VR instincts come in, as when you hold things in VR, you usually hold them in VR controls, ergo, you automatically press the middle-finger button on your left handed controller, something which is a very bad choice, as for some reason, IO interactive decided to put "run" on that button, so you end up running accidentally if you hold a gun with two hands
other than that, aiming with two handed weapons is very hard, as the weapon usually doesn't go where you want it to go, something in stark contrast to the sniper rifle aiming, where it just loads up a screen with a sniper overlay, the same thing you see if you play hitman 3 normally without a vr headset, which makes it overpowered, but also not realistic as hell, so the only viable types of weapons in the game would be pistols and one handed weapons, but it's still tragic that you can't dual wield them as originally i had hoped
bad melee: usually, in hitman 3, you can knock out a guard in one hit when you have a weapon, either by just hitting him or by throwing it at him, and while those are possible in hitman 3, you can't do it in one hit; you can do it in 8 hits if you beat him down like a high school bully who got his lunch ruined by the main protagonist of the movie, the melee hits, both with a weapon and without, feel very weak and makes it more difficult in the wrong ways
throwing is so-and-so, as while it could be worse, it could be better; you aim where you want to throw with your left hand (by moving it upwards as if you're actually throwing something), and then you throw whatever with your right hand, you can choose to lock in at an enemy to throw something at them, but here's the problem; even after you lock it into an enemy and throw it, there's a chance that you either throw whatever you have backwards, or just not at them at all, rather beside them
weird controls: as said previously with the lack of controls generally on your left hand, and the fact that you run in hitman 3 vr by holding down the middle-finger button on your left controller, there's also a big amount of weird controls generally; you pick up things with your right trigger button instead of the right middle-finger button (like you'd usually do in vr games), the inventory is awkward as when you access it with a button, you can choose to drop an item with the very same button, something which would make a really awkward moment if you accidentally drop a handgun while dressed as a civilian while wishing to close the inventory with the same button you accessed it
agent 47 needs a desperate visit to Specsavers: as everything you see in the game is short sighted, yet it has graphics that are somewhat comparable to half life alyx; for a more accurate desciption, take a picture of a wet alleyway or corridor from half life alyx, make a good part of it blurry and pixelly, and then lower the resolution
- bad movement: something to a big surprise, the port decided to do the same as boneworks, and incorporate a type of "full body" view like Boneworks has, so you can see what disguise you have fully, but this is done in the worst possible way, as unlike Boneworks, where your body is connected to the VR headset, and you can move your full body by moving the VR headset, it's the exact opposite with hitman 3; your vr headset is connected to your body, so if you move in real life, agent 47 doesn't move; this makes it impossible to duck in real life, and actually move around in real life, as it'd stretch agent 47's body to inhumane positions, which then makes it harder to sneak around, as the duck is simply too low
- misc.: there's also several other points that aren't big enough for their own points: the game has bugs where you need to die or complete a level to go back to the menu, almost absolutely everything is static, when you do parkour of any kind, it just teleports you instead of showing any animations, you can't even do parkour manually like in boneworks, and various other problems
honestly, it's one of the worst pcvr experiences you can have if your mission is to murder people stealthly, but if your intention is to let your mom play so she can simply sightsee the different locations, it's alright (if she can tolerate the bad resolution and short sightedness), which is exactly what i'm planning to do, in which i will post her reaction later in this forum