While Big Shots shines with its intuitive controls and varied enemies, it falls slightly short in long-term progression compared to typical roguelites
When it comes to VR games, there's a fine line between a fun experience and something that genuinely pulls you in, making you forget the real world exists for a while. Big Shots on Meta Quest manages to do just that; it's a game that brings the action right up to your face, quite literally. With its blend of roguelite elements, intense gunplay, and colorful presentation, Big Shots offers an experience that's as vibrant as it is challenging.
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At its core, Big Shots is all about the thrill of the shootout. You play as a mech pilot thrown into a series of procedurally generated arenas, facing off against waves of enemies that get tougher and more numerous as you progress culminating with a boss fight at the end.
The controls are intuitive, making it easy to jump right into the action. Aiming and shooting feel natural, and the smoothness of the VR mechanics means that you'll be mowing down hordes of aliens like a pro in no time. The action is fast-paced with a full free-movement locomotion even though you are piloting a big mech, but not overwhelmingly so; you have just enough time to think on your feet, strategize your next move, and unleash your inner action hero.
Your mech can be equipped with two guns, where the starting two are a flamethrower and a slow-firing flak gun. The beauty of the game being a roguelite means that after each wave you are granted a randomized upgrades for your guns. These run-specific upgrades include things like bigger bullets, faster rate of fire, more damage while airborne, faster gun cooldowns and so on. But if you are lucky and the RNG gods are on your side, you might get an epic or legendary upgade where your flamethrower might also shoot blobs of napalm that stick to the environment and burn the aliens if they walk on top or you might get an additonal barrel to your flak cannon for double the carnage. You never know what might happen next and since there are a lot of upgrades, it keeps each run feel fresh and exciting for a while.
However, when it comes to the overall progression of your mech, Big Shots kinda fails. In roguelites, during a run, you are at the mercy of the randomized upgrades you get, especially when you've just started the game. If you get amazing drops, you'll become unstoppable. But if you get shitty drops, you will see that restart screen faster than you can blink. Here's where the permanent upgrades come into play. You see, great roguelites do a fantastic job at building up all your character stats slowly to a point where you can gradually start to make more and more progress during a run, even if the random upgrades are not in your favour. So if you put in enough time and grind, you will eventually reach the final level, kill the final boss and roll the credits for the first time. Then you can immediately go back, start a new run and who knows how that might go. That's the beauty of roguelites.
Now in Big Shots, while it does have purchasable permanent upgrades, they are just that, a one-time fixed permanent upgrade. So let's say you have enough coins to buy more the best health permanent upgrade for your mech, you do that and that's it, your mech will have that fixed amount of health forever and you cannot upgrade it anymore. That goes for pretty much all of the other stats like armor and attack power. These permanent upgrades, while they still help you, are literally permanent and you can't dump more points and create an ever-stronger starting build. Why not let me, the player, grind for a while and dump points so that my starting flak cannons can one-shot the tiny creepy aliens at least in the first level? One of the best feelings in a roguelite game is when you get a get a build so good and OP, it basically breaks the game. I haven't experienced anything close to that in Big Shots and by the looks of it, I don't think I will.
Don't get me wrong though. Even though it kinda lacks that overall sense of gradual progression, Big Shots is still a lot of fun. There are quite a few enemy types and as you progress to the later levels, the difficulty ramps up. You have aliens that will rush you and try to hit you up close, others will perch up high and rain down mortar fire, others will pop out of the ground and shoot at you. Then you have the annoying little ones that will fly around and shoot at you, plus hulking ones that will shield themselves and buff other creatures... there's a lot for you to deal with and it's quite good and challenging.
Big Shots is not just about shooting things up; it's about doing so in style. The game's cell-shaded visual presentation is a treat for the eyes, with bright, vibrant colors that make every level pop. This comic-book inspired look goes even further when onomatopoeias like PEW PEW!! appear next to your guns as you shoot or SPLAT! as the enemies well, explode. These tiny details add a lot to the overall feel. The environments are varied and detailed, from grimy, rocky canyons to industrial complexes. Each area has its own unique feel, and the game does a fantastic job of immersing you in its world.
The sound design complements the visuals perfectly. Guns sound meaty and the music is the kind of high-energy soundtrack that makes you feel like you're starring in your own action movie, complete with epic mech-on-alien fights and heart-pounding moments. I also want to mention that the game is well optimized and runs extremely smooth on the Quest 3.
Big Shots also supports co-op. Taking on waves of aliens with a pal sure sounds like a lot of fun, but I wouldn't know how that feels as I didn't really find anyone via matchmaking to play with. This is usually the thing with Quest games that offer co-op, you rarely find other players playing it, so I won't really hold this against the game. Just that the co-op option is there in the first place is there is a nice thing.
Big Shots for Meta Quest delivers an exhilarating VR experience, blending fast-paced mech combat with roguelite elements in a visually striking, cell-shaded world. While the game shines with its intuitive controls and varied enemies, it falls slightly short in long-term progression compared to typical roguelites. Despite this minor setback, Big Shots remains an incredibly fun and engaging VR shooter that offers both quick, intense sessions and longer, chaotic playthroughs. I do recommend this game. Thanks for reading!
The game was previewed on a Quest 3 via a promo copy provided by the developers. Big Shots is available on Meta Quest, PSVR2, Pico and PCVR.
