The Burst would have greatly benefited from more development time to smooth over the rough edges and rethink some mechanics
Now, where do I start with The Burst? There's a lot to say, and most of it isn't good. It would be easier to just bash the game, but I don't really want to do that. Long story short, The Burst needed way more time in development. If you're wondering whether to buy it today, don't. The game simply wasn't ready for the Meta Store—heck, I'll go as far as to say it wasn't even ready for Early Access on App Lab. Unfortunately, it's that undercooked, very buggy, with weird design choices and clear omissions that honestly surprised me. That said, a year or even six months from now, this could turn into a really cool game if the devs keep releasing patches that improve the game mechanics, AI, performance, and clean up the story.
If you visit The Burst's official website and read the synopsis, it sounds really interesting. In the far future, Earth has become an interplanetary civilization, colonizing deep-space territories. One planet, Damag, where the most dangerous convicts are sent to mine valuable resources to support Earth's expansion, is experiencing turmoil, rebelling against Earth. So, to stop the rebellion, Earth sends special operatives in a Helldivers-style drop onto planet Damag. See? That's such a cool premise, right? But when you play the game, you don't really feel any of that. Sure, there's some dialogue—with some surprisingly strong voice acting, I have to say—between the character you play as and someone on the other side of the radio spewing random exposition, but that's about it. You don't really understand who these people are, what their struggle is, or even what led to their insurgency against Earth. Maybe all of that comes later in the game, but I wouldn't know since I stopped playing before reaching the credits.
I tried though. I tried to force myself to keep playing, but the gameplay is so undercooked and buggy that I just couldn't do it. The gunplay—while initially fun when you're mowing down enemies—doesn't work properly at all. Aside from the main infinite-ammo pistol, an assault rifle with a foregrip, and a sniper-like rifle, all the other guns are kind of broken in some way. The SMG is totally useless with insane bullet spread, and if you grip it with two hands, aiming feels off. The other AR has a bizarre grip mechanic that makes aiming difficult, and revolvers are useless because you can't aim them properly due to the massive spike that serves as the gun's hammer.
Reloading and racking the slide on most guns is extremely janky too. Clips or magazines often disappear from your guns when you holster them over your shoulder. Speaking of holstering, it's utterly broken—it doesn't work the first five or six times you try. Grabbing a gun from your shoulder is similarly unreliable. Magazines clip into each other on your belt, and the 3D models look bad. Grenades are also terrible—you can only throw them about 3-4 feet in front of you.
The enemy AI is extremely dumb. They don't move at all, standing still like fixed turrets waiting for you to headshot them. They don't rush you, flank you, or take cover. They show zero intelligence. Sure, it's fun to mow them down at first, but the lack of challenge quickly becomes boring. Boss fights, however, are the opposite—they're way too chaotic. Bosses run around too quickly, especially for a VR shooter, shooting, launching grenades and all sorts of objects at you with their grappling hooks. It feels unbalanced and unfair because you have to flail your arms—more on that later—while trying to shoot with janky weapons.
Movement—oh boy. The idea of climbing, jumping, and grappling around the wasteland sounds cool, but the execution is lacking. Grabbing ledges to pull yourself up is inconsistent, often resulting in you falling to your death. Another issue is that you don't know what you can actually grab. In most games, VR or not, ledges are marked with yellow or white paint to signal they're climbable. The Burst lacks this, so climbing is a guessing game. Hey, devs—why not slap some red paint on all the ledges so players know what they can grab? You could even explain in-game that it's dried blood from the hands of people who climbed before… boom, instant world-building.
Running and jumping are janky at best. You run by moving your hands like you're jogging, and while that's common in many VR games, it looks weird when you're holding a gun with two hands. Jumping is done by holding the A button and swinging your arms, but it too is imprecise and doesn't feel good. The same goes for the grappling hook. It should be exciting, but unfortunately, it's just more jank. Judging the distance and angle to reach your target is difficult, and you don't gain any momentum at the end of the swing if you oush yourself, so you often miss and fall.
Finally, there's the buggy, which controls well and is honestly the best part of the game. It's fun to roam around the massive wasteland. The problem arises when you need to engage in vehicle combat, as you can't reload one-handed, meaning you have to let go of the steering wheel, which often results in you falling down a chasm or getting stuck. When that happens, you can try to use the grappling hook to free the buggy, but that's hit or miss. After getting stuck twice, I gave up on the buggy and tried to continue on foot, thinking I could progress to the next part.
That's how I softlocked myself — I couldn't jump over a chasm without the buggy. This was the second time I softlocked. The first time, I missed upgrading my grappling gloves because the game didn't tell me to, and I reached a checkpoint where I needed them to swing like Spider-Man across the world. This happened because the game lacks a waypoint system, so it didn't tell me I needed to grab the upgrade to progress. The lack of waypoints also makes navigation a guessing game—you often have no idea where to go or what to do, which is just bad design.
After a few hours, I was ready to put The Burst down for good. So many basic problems and strange design choices kept me from enjoying the foundational ideas. It's clear the developers had ambitions for an open-world parkour shooter, but in this state, the game feels unfinished, unpolished and visually it is just ugly. The Burst would have greatly benefited from more development time to smooth over the rough edges and rethink some mechanics. As it stands, it feels more like an Alpha version than a fully baked VR game. Unfortunately, The Burst is one to avoid, at least for now. Thanks for reading!
The game was previewed on a Quest 3 via a promo copy provided by the developers. The Burst is available on Meta Quest and PCVR.
