VAIL Review

If you are someone who loves competitive shooters and go all in, VAIL is probably the best VR multiplayer shooter out there for you

VAIL is a multiplayer VR shooter that I’ve been playing a lot during this past week and I must say that the game is quite special. It’s easy to pick up, but hard to master, just like Call Of Duty multiplayer for example.

I will try to limit how many times I compare VAIL to COD, but that will be hard as that’s exactly what VAIL feels to me. Well, not today’s COD, but more like the good ol’ 2007 Modern Warfare, when things were simple, guns did not have 8 million attachments, maps were well designed and the progression system did not require a PhD in Excel.

VAIL perfectly captures that old-school vibe. It’s fast paced, highly competitive with an extremely small TTK and one-shot headshots. Most of the 12 available maps use the old tried but true 3-lane layout. Spawn points, depending on the game mode and how douchey the enemy team is, can be a mess, you know, just like Call of Duty.

Speaking of game modes, the classic 6v6 Team Deathmatch and Free-For-All are here. Search and Destroy is also present, called Artifact, and plays virtually the same, white team try to plant a thingy while the black team defends. Hardpoint and Capture The Orb are also available. And finally there’s a mode called “ScoutzKnivez” which is a snipers and knives only with low-gravity mode that’s pure chaos and fun due to the extremely satisfying physics-based knife with immersive stabbing, slashing, and throwing.

None of these wouldn’t matter if the gunplay isn’t up to par though. So how does the gunplay feel? Well, simply put, VAIL has some of the most satisfying guns I’ve shot in a VR title so far. First, all the gun models look fantastic, very detailed with realistic sights and scopes and all feature unique and immersive interactions for reloading. Stuff like bumping the AK mag with another mag feels so satisfying to pull off. Flicking the mag away, inserting a new one and cocking the Glock 17 in a second makes you feel like you are John Wick.

Shooting feels precise… once you get the hang of it. I said it in the beginning, the game is easy to pick up, but hard to master. Since you have to physically take aim, shoot and control the recoil, it’s entirely up to you. So when I started to play the game, I was pretty bad. Yes I would get a few kills here and there, but for the most part my K/D. Was awful. However, once that muscle memory started to build and I grew more accustomed guns and the sights, I was scoring headshots left and right. Then I would unlock a new gun and start that whole learning process once again.

Speaking of unlocks, I love the progression system that Aexlab has implemented in VAIL. Kills equals level up which unlock new guns and sights and headshots equals camos for that specific gun. That’s it, no bullshit, no complicated challenges, just a very simple but highly rewarding system that kept me going back for just one more match so that I could unlock the next thing. There is no shop, no micro transactions or a battle pass and while I know that the devs will definitely add those in the future, currently you can unlock everything just by playing and enjoying the game.

The performance on the Quest 3 is smooth and the game looks, for the most part, good. Guns look fantastic, but the maps are somewhat of a hit or miss. Most look good, with great textures and some nice environment details. Some on the other hand look like they never made it out of their gray-box testing phase with very simple geometry and lack of textures. Anyway, you probably won’t pay much attention to all of this as you will be sweating a lot during the matches.

And that’s the thing with VAIL. It’s not a game that I can easily recommend everyone to pick up and try. While casual players can still enjoy the early hours, if you don’t put in the work, understand the recoil, learn the maps and kill other players, your progression will be slow, you won’t feel rewarded and probably you’ll stop playing shortly after. But if you are someone like me that love competitive shooters and go all in, VAIL is probably the best VR multiplayer shooter out there for you. I love this game and I cannot wait for more modes, maps, guns. Thanks for reading!

The game was reviewed on a Quest 3 using a review copy provided by the developer.VAIL is available now on Meta Quest and PCVR.