A swashbuckling adventure that doesn’t quite satisfy.

Become a pirate in search of Davy Jones’ treasure in Pirates VR: Jolly Roger.

Developed by Split Light Studio (Afterlife VR) and published by VRKiwi for the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) May. 15, this adventure game takes you to a small island where you must explore, fight and solve your way to the end.

Pirate games are few in numbers in virtual reality (VR). You can find an unholy number of games involving gorillas, and quite a few still that let you step into the shoes of some undying military commando. So, when something like this comes out, it feels as fresh as the breeze on the Caribbean islands pirates use to frequent.

Sadly, however, this game is not quite the adventure it could have been.

Your story starts in a pub, as a character with a lot of face tattoos for the 1700s tells you of a lost buried treasure; treasure he’s apparently willing to just give up just so long as you come back and tell him about it later. From here, you find yourself landed on what looks to be an uninhabited island, where your tutorial kicks off how to interact with the world.

You’ll also come across your parrot companion the second you step out into the daylight – more on this later; but be warned this bird is annoying.

You are able to wander and explore in this game, but to a limited degree as the experience overall is very linear in nature. There is treasure scattered around to find and small challenges to undergo, but there’s no side missions or really anything else to take on besides completing the short story.

As you make your way around the island, you’ll find yourself climbing, swimming, and ziplining, with basic controls implemented to get you there. The usual movement types are available, you can crouch by clicking the thumbstick or physically performing the action, and grabbing is done with the ‘L1’ or ‘R1’ buttons. Triggers are used to interact with things like your magical lantern and guns, and you can access your inventory by holding the ‘X’ or square buttons.

As you make your way to the treasure, you’ll find some obstacles in your path. These come in the form of puzzles – and traps, but more on this later.

Many of the puzzles fall within varying degrees of sameness; mostly it involves matching things after finding clues or items laying around. The puzzles are not difficult and don’t really require any brainpower to complete, rather, it’s here where the exploration elements come in as you need to search your surroundings for the clues to help you progress.

The parrot does technically also provide clues when you face challenging situations, however, some may not consider the bird to be useful in any way. In fact, one may consider the bird to be an extremely annoying addition to the game that you don’t need and choose to do away with it at the first possible instance… if you catch the drift.

But in all seriousness, you can and should get rid of the bird.

There are also trap areas with which to contend, so let’s jump back there first. You’ve probably seen movies or TV shows where giant axes swing, poison darts fly, and walls attempt to crush you, right? Well, here you get to go up against these traps, as you make your way to the treasure. As sad as it sounds, completing parts of the game with this are actually sorta underwhelming. Maybe because the movement just feels too unnatural and there isn’t really an option to change your speed, but beating this really just requires good timing instead of precise movements and smart planning.

A quick jump over to the biggest portion of survival, the fighting. Early on you find a lamp that was owned by a witch, it not only provides you with the smallest amount of light possible but also reveals hidden things and can even be charged up to shoot at enemies. As mentioned earlier, you shoot with the trigger.

This is a severely underpowered method of defense and chances are good you’ll run out of oil for the lantern long before you’ve dispatched your enemies.

As you progress you’ll also find yourself a gun, and you’ll need this a lot in later portions of the game since your lantern’s ability to take down an enemy in one shot is pretty much non-existent. You’ll feel overwhelmed quite a bit in these situations, so it’s up to quick thinking and fast reloads in order to not die – and unlocking some achievements means staving off death.

Finally, let’s talk graphics, because for the most part the world looks pretty beautiful. The detail in Pirate VR: Jolly Roger is quite well done, with the island, enemies and even the bird looking great. Things may not look as nice if they’re at a distance, and there are some elements in the wild that will make you think your vision is wonky, but for the most part the game looks pretty great.

Overall, Pirates VR: Jolly Roger is a middle of the road experience that blends a lot of elements together into one short adventure – clocking in at about three hours. This short game gives VR enthusiasts a chance to become a pirate, though some of the elements that are synonymous with pirates – sword fighting and sailing the high seas – are absent.

Some elements like puzzles feel as if they’re lacking, the game as a whole gives you an experience that can challenge you over the course of an afternoon.

Pirates VR: Jolly Roger was reviewed on the PSVR2 after receiving a pre-release key.