Score: 9/10
With some leftover Christmas money, I bit the virtual bullet and purchased myself a Playstation VR bundle. The bundle came with Everybody's Golf VR, which I still have yet to play, and Blood & Truth, a high-octane action FPS developed by SIE London Studio. Like most people probably felt, I too felt highly suspicious of a VR FPS game, especially one that came for free with a bundle. But I was desperate to see for myself the true power of the Playstation VR. I was not disappointed.
Blood & Truth opens up with you sitting in a makeshift interrogation room of some unknown location. Before long a mysterious dude walks in, displaying all of the edgy detective tropes that come along with your favorite action movies. The ambiguity of the scene lures you right in and you are hooked from the start! It's not long before you're thrown into a flashback scene of you, the player, now taking on the role of Ryan Marks, whose task is to kill anyone related to a rival crime boss that's been harassing his family. That was my takeaway, at least.
Blood & Truth's storyline is actually pretty solid. Gameplay does capitalize on many of the sequences you'd expect to see in any action movie such as car chases, rooftop jumping, and plenty of gunplay. Of course, no action movie is complete without an attack helicopter, and there's plenty of that too!
The Good
Gunplay
Blood & Truth's gunplay is, thankfully, the absolute best part of the whole experience. This is a huge plus, obviously, because the developers would've wanted players to feel like they have fluid control of their guns. I've fired a few different types of guns in real life, and Blood & Truth does an exceptional job making the guns feel natural and intuitive. In game, without even being told I could do it, I flicked my wrist while holding my double-barrel shotgun to snap it closed after reloading. It worked. Same with the six-shooter. From having to take the magazine from your chest and load it into the gun, to looking down the iron sights to make your shots more accurate, everything feels tight and purposeful.
Musical Score
A game is only as good as its musical score, and Blood & Truth does not disappoint. From the epic, Mission Impossible-esque opening credits, to the edge-of-your-seat moments of climbing, jumping and shooting, your ears will be accompanied by a satisfying symphony, red carpeting you straight into the action!
Little Details
I was absolutely blown away by the attention to detail in this game. Find a vaping pen, put it to your mouth, take a real-life breath, then a real-life exhale, and the in-game character will vape. Hands full of guns but you need to throw a grenade? No problem. Bring the grenade to your mouth and pull the pin out with your teeth. The game is absolutely chalk-full of nuanced details like this. I'll let you explore some on your own.
The Not So Good
Controls
At the end of the day, Blood & Truth's controls work... most of the time. Because there's no physical representation of your guns and equipment, you need to draw your gun from your virtual holster and take your ammo from your virtual ammo pouch. This does not always work out as planned. Sometimes your gun gets gummed up on the edge of the screen and you can't aim properly. Sometimes you think you put the magazine in the gun but then it just hilariously falls to the floor while gangsters continue to Swiss cheese you with assault rifles.
And while it might feel natural to do so, don't ever, EVER hold a gun with both hands, especially an assault rifle. I went through 95% of the game using every gun with just one hand and it was perfectly fine. Gripping the gun with both hands makes the task of accurately aiming a near impossible one. It's unavoidable in some cases, however. Just make the best of it if you can.
Blood & Truth's mild flaws are heavily suppressed by its greatness in gameplay and story. {MILD SPOILER COMING} Blood & Truth ends on an absolutely unfair cliffhanger, one that will have you begging for me. {MILD SPOILER END}
The SIE London team has set the bar WAY high, and I can't wait to see what they do next. The commitment to purchasing a Playstation VR is still a bit out of reach for most people these days, and with Playstation 5 just around the corner, there will be a lot of questions surrounding the future of VR for Sony. But if Blood & Truth is any indicator of what we can expect for the future of VR Action games, you are not going to want to miss out. If you get the chance to even just play the 20- minute opening sequence, treat yourself to it. You won't regret it.