A larger than life adventure that can be played solo or in co-op.
Choose your exosuit and take on gigantic foes across the broken world of Toska.
Released Sept. 25, TITAN ISLES, is a new virtual reality (VR) title by Psytec Games (Windlands, Windlands 2).
You are on a mission not only to survive, but to figure out what brought the titans that destroyed the world out of their slumber – and bring them down.
To combat the unrelenting swarms of robots and titans that aim to stop you in your path, you have access to four unique weaponized exosuits, each boasting its own weapon and traversal method. Each suit offers a number of upgrade paths to make you even more lethal as you work your way around the planet.
Your mission on Toska starts with an odd and talkative robot – one with a personality that’s supposed to remind you of another that’s a tad more yellow – helping you escape from a pile of rubble. You are then treated to a brief movement tutorial as you escape from the giant spider-like monster that will be faced in your first mission.
After escaping you’re given a quick rundown of how things work in your homebase, before being able to test out the suits and jump into your mission.
As mentioned earlier, the four suits available are unique in terms of weapons available and the methods they use to move around. The agile hunter – armed with a bow and arrows – comes with grappling hooks, while the storm – boasting multiple guns – comes with a jetpack for more controlled movement.
Each suit has its benefits – along with a somewhat steep learning curve. Because the game is clearly meant to be played co-op over solo, the suits are meant to be picked and played as a unit to complement the others.
As you play through and complete mission, you’ll earn currency points which help you to upgrade each suit. Make your arrows more powerful, add more shots to your guns, and a slew of other upgrades are available on each suit.
Completing missions on higher difficulties nets you more credits, but completing these on your own should be done at your own risk as those are meant for full teams.
Now lets talk controls because they’re both highly intuitive and slightly frustrating, all at the same time.
Mostly this comes in the form of tutorials that don’t fully flesh out the control set. For the younger players, having the disembodied voice tell you to use an action button – and not explaining which button that is – may end with them avoiding certain suits because they’re more difficult to master.
Ideally, a tutorial that shows images of controllers and holds hands might help here, especially since some traversal mechanics aren’t as straightforward as point and grapple.
Now let’s talk how this game looks, because it is spectacular.
From the moment your game starts inside the broken down ruins of a building, things look excellent. Your hub, characters and those types of things will stand out compared to the rest of the world, however, this game is pretty open in terms of traversal – it also has tons of secrets to find.
Considering how big Toska is to explore, it makes sense that the scenery looks more devoid of life compared to the characters you’ll meet around your base. Framerate issues were non-existent and at no point was there even a hint of the Quest headset struggling to keep up.
VR gamers who prefer quality graphics are in for a treat playing TITAN ISLES.
Now, let’s talk gameplay before we call it a day.
Heading out on missions is started by selecting the path you wish to take. The holographic map allows you to see things like the number of secrets on your route, and plan ahead if you’re a completionist. After this you can pick your suit before heading out on your ship.
First thing to note is that you’re offered a few different path choices right away – your first mission offers three paths to hunt down the giant spider. However, once you’ve completed it and are back, you can’t immediately go back to the mission and do it over – following a different path.
A tad annoying, sure, but not the end of the world. Keep in mind this is a full campaign game – and doesn’t appear to be missions held together by a thin story – so it can be expected that you should be moving forward, before trying to go back.
Once you’re out on a mission, your path is your own. You’re given hints and a general direction is usually understood by the presence of enemies, but there’s no real waypoints or a map to bring up and show you the way.
Exploring is key, and by forging your own path as you complete objectives and take down titans you get to feel a sense of freedom that few games give you. For those who do crave structure: the missing waypoints should not be seen as a hindrance, but as a welcome addition to help you play this game your way.
Finding the titans and making your way across Toska should be seen as its own reward – especially if you’re one of the talented VR players who can complete a mission on the highest difficulty solo.
Overall, Psytec Games has done a remarkable job of bringing this new universe to life and there are many possible ways to keep this series going. Whether it’s another game down the road, or DLC content to be added – which would be the easiest way to keep this game alive – there is no reason why TITAN ISLES couldn’t keep moving forward.
Quest and PCVR gamers who are waiting for some of the bigger releases later this year, TITAN ISLES is the first big fall release to keep you busy. For the PlayStation VR2 users, this title is set to release on the platform in 2026.
TITAN ISLES, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving pre-release access.
