Over the years we’ve received only a few PSVR multiplayer fps games, mainly including Firewall Zero Hour, Honor And Duty, and Farpoint. But myself and many others have been wanting more faced-paced shooters similar to games like Call Of Duty. So naturally, many PSVR fans have included Alvo as one of their most anticipated games. Alvo is a shooter that was announced several years back by Mardonpol Game Studio. And as time has passed, we’ve seen several trailers, updates, and even some beta tests of the game. But now the time has come where Alvo has released to the public, and with this release begs one question: Is Alvo any good?
Alvo is a PSVR first-person shooter that focuses on bringing an awesome multiplayer experience to virtual reality. In its current state, Alvo is focused on the multiplayer side of things, so if you’re looking for a single-player experience, don’t look here.
As soon as you launch Alvo, you’ll be brought into the main menu where you can choose between 3 different game modes, view the online leaderboards, change your load-outs, purchase new items and weapons, and view your current rank and credits earned. As you play and level up, you’ll earn more credits to use to purchase new items and weapons; though it doesn’t take long to earn enough credits to purchase a new item, so don’t worry about the game being too stingy.
The game modes include free for all, team deathmatch, and search and destroy! Though something I must mention is that this game is constantly being improved and worked on, so while there are only a set amount of maps and game modes currently, the developers are already working on more content to add to the game. Free for all has all players fighting against each other to earn the most kills within the time limit, and team deathmatch is similar, except that the players are grouped into two teams trying to get the most kills. Search and destroy on the other hand is far different than the other two game modes, as it involves either attacking or defending two points on a map. The attackers will have to breach whichever point they choose, and plant a bomb to win; while the defenders simply have to stop the enemy team from accomplishing their goal. Then whoever gets to 6 points first wins the game. This is the most strategical game mode of the three, as you can only respawn after the next round has started.
At the end of each game mode you’ll be brought into a results screen where you can see the current stats of each player, as well as vote for which map you’d like to play next. My only issue with this screen is that it cuts off the in-game voice chat, which usually interrupts whatever conversation I was having and makes it boring sitting there for a while.
On top of the game modes, there are several maps to choose from in the game. Most of them are the typical maps you’d expect to see in a shooter like this, such as a desert or house map. I generally found the maps to be well designed to fit the gameplay, with many different paths, a size neither too big nor too small, and enough pieces placed around to use to your advantage during shootouts. The maps also include both day and night versions, which is nice to see.
And speaking from the graphic side of things, the game looks good when playing on a PS5. I can’t speak for PS4 consoles, but most of the textures are very detailed and the blur wasn’t too bad. I mainly only found the blur noticeable in the more open areas of the maps.
As for the gameplay itself, it works pretty well. The gunplay feels great and accurate, I haven’t experienced any issues from what I’ve played so far. But in my opinion, the real highlight of Alvo is the freedom of movement. You can run, crouch, slide, crawl, and jump. Each of the movements are well done and really help recreate that exciting, fast-paced shooting experience that many triple-A games succeed in outside of VR. When combining the movement with the gunplay, it makes for a shooter different than anything else on PSVR and helps keep the gameplay exciting throughout each match.
The game supports the DualShock 4, Move Controllers, and Aim Controller! The DualShock and Move Controllers work fine, but the game really shines when using the Aim controller; it tracks really well, the button layout is great, and the controller felt the most natural to me while playing.
Now before getting to the verdict, there are a few issues I have to bring up with Alvo. The first is that I found the game to improperly balance players at times, there were a few rounds where it was a 3v5 or a 2v4, making for an unfair game. Another issue I’ve experienced, which mainly happened on the monastery map, is that oftentimes I would spawn right next to another player. As for an issue that was due to an intentional choice, I believe that in free for all and team deathmatch the grenades are too overpowered. You get two per life, which is a problem when the grenades can almost instantly explode upon impact. Oftentimes players including myself would come across someone, spam the grenade button, and kill them within a second or two. To fix this I believe there should either be a delay in the explosion timing or make it to where you only get one grenade per life.
Though something I must mention after those issues is that the developers have already been pushing several patches onto the game, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of my issues or issues other people experienced disappear shortly.
So overall, Alvo is a blast to play! There are a few issues like the ones I mentioned, and others I either forgot to mention or that other players are having, but the developers seem dedicated to improving Alvo and adding more content to the game in the future! Alvo has some awesome gunplay and movement, fun maps, and great aim controller support! Though my only remaining fear with the game is its player base, it’s very rare that we get a PSVR game that maintains its player base for long amounts of time; so if you end up purchasing Alvo, I would recommend either having a group of friends to play it with or join the official Alvo discord to ensure you’ll always have someone to play it with. So if you enjoy fast-paced fps games, and are looking for a good one to play in VR, I’d definitely recommend checking out Alvo!
