Review for Pop-Up Pilgrims. PlayStation VR game, the video game was released on 13/02/2018
Sony is one of those companies that always supports its projects, even if on paper they may seem like possible failures at first. PlayStation VR it was a partially won bet that, however, the Japanese company does not seem to want to abandon, so much so that only for 2018 it has many games in store, all more or less interesting and that take the PlayStation VR line-up to a higher level, probably justifying them the purchase.
There are also many third-party companies that support the project by regularly publishing games for PlayStation VR, and among these there is Dakko dakko which recently launched the brand new Pop-Up Pilgrims on the PlayStation Store, originally born as Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims on PlayStation Vita, but now reprogrammed to take full advantage of the capabilities of the Sony home viewer.
Guide pilgrims to freedom
Pop-Up Pilgrims takes up what was the genre of Lemmings, all rendered in a much more artistic way and in a "modern" puzzle game style. Our mission, blandly described in the game's prologue, is guide pilgrims towards the end of each level, impersonating a divinity on a cloud who, through his orders, will be able to influence the movements of these nice little men.
Each stage features multiple levels of depth, each with various islands, which allow for additional diving and will also allow you to transfer pilgrims from one level of depth to another to reach the exit door. On the way you will then have to collect the coins that will help increase your final score, which will then affect the evaluation of your work through the classic bronze, gold and silver medals.
Pilgrims, if they are not conditioned, will tend to walk independently, changing direction every time they reach the end of the islet, unless there are particular objects that push them to jump independently to the next platform. Our task will therefore be to choose the best route, selecting pilgrims with the movements of our heads and then give him orders, mainly to jump or go back. The system for selecting movements and jumps can initially be complex, but after a few minutes it becomes almost automatic, allowing you to perform very quickly actions that would be much slower and cumbersome with the controller.
Varied gameplay, but not too much
The game distributes his about fifty levels on six worlds, which will always introduce new mechanics and difficulties making the gameplay quite varied and challenging. In the first levels you will notice the introduction of objects that will allow pilgrims to jump autonomously, or of rocks that if destroyed will guarantee you life points or bonus coins. As you continue you will also notice the first ones enemies who will immediately give you a hard time: they will not be faced (in a first phase of the game) but avoided, a feature that makes some levels quite complicated, forcing the player to study in advance a solution strategy suitable for that particular situation.
Continuing in the various worlds however, you will also meet some real bosses, from which you will then be able to obtain sacred parchments, which will be useful to you to continue in the divine mission. Overall Pop-Up Pilgrims is limited to this, which is a classic puzzle game that is quite fun, also given the immersion with the PlayStation VR. The latter, however, did not impress us as in other titles, but still guarantees a better experience than the classic gameplay on screen that would have had, in our opinion, a certainly different impact. The developers also introduced the ability to play local multiplayer with a friend, simply by connecting another controller to the Playstation 4, in order to help the main player to overcome the various levels.
Another aspect to consider is the difficulty that at times seemed excessive to us and badly calibrated. From the very first levels the game will give you a hard time, and the level of challenge will increase as you continue in the various worlds. Nothing impossible, but we are convinced that it would have been smarter to enter the choice of the difficulty level or to gradually increase the difficulty by explaining more clearly the various mechanisms related to the use of objects, which are often misinterpreted by the novice player. Another lack is certainly given by the absence of the challenges or in any case of something to do after completing the levels: often there is no gratification in completing a level perfectly, also given the absence of a real leaderboard.
Nice graphics compartment
Pop-up Pilgrims certainly does not have the graphic sector among the merits, which is in fact very simple, but somehow still manages to convince given the excellent characterization of the levels and characters, which are artistically well made. All this translates into aenjoyable and fun to play virtual reality experience, albeit with its limitations.
As soon as you put on the PlayStation VR you will immediately immerse yourself in it cheerful and colorful world that seems almost alive thanks to the depth levels designed by developers. An overall fun gameplay contributes to satisfying the player for a number of levels, until you begin to feel the first annoyances from the viewer, mainly due to theexcessive brightness of colors and whites, which tend to blind at each level change.
Accompanying this very artistic graphic style is a respectable audio sector: in each level you will be accompanied by very pleasant and stimulating music that perfectly respects the style of the game. Like the gameplay, however, after a certain number of levels the soundtrack also tends to become repetitive, significantly undermining the player's immersion and enjoyment.
Pop-Up Pilgrims is definitely a fun game that thanks to PlayStation VR can guarantee a better immersion and therefore a higher rate of fun. However, the repetitiveness of the gameplay and the poorly calibrated level of difficulty contribute to making a potentially enjoyable and relaxing game often frustrating and not at all stimulating. The technical purchase is very simple but thanks to the excellent characterization of the characters and levels everything is very pleasant, also thanks to the music that during the gameplay allows you to immerse yourself more in the game. Pop-Up Pilgrims is ultimately a game for those who love the puzzle-game style and want to try their hand at something immersive and with a sufficiently high level of challenge, based a lot on trial and error.
► Pop-Up Pilgrims is a Puzzle type game developed and published by Dakko Dakko for PlayStation VR, the video game was released on 13/02/2018
