A delightful and cutesy game that’s easy to pickup, but overly repetitive.
Fly the dangerous skies as you clear the way for a caravan in the latest game by Trebuchet (Prison Boss, Broken Edge).
In Compass – released May. 28 – you are tasked with scouting ahead for a ship that is carrying an egg.
To do this, you’ll fly your ship around an open world setting; all while taking on small quests and solving puzzles. This is the game on repeat as you clear the way forward until the egg finally gets delivered.
It’s a game which is simple in nature, very easy to pickup and something which is made for all ages to jump in and fly.
At its core, Compass is all about exploring – whether in your ship, or in areas where you’ll jump out of the cockpit and grapple your way around. The story exists and the quests are there to provide some meat to the experience, but there’s no denying that this is meant to be an adorable virtual reality (VR) game where cozy exploration is key.
Of course, those who are hoping for a bit more adventure – whether that be fighting or a sense of real accomplishment that only comes after overcoming a massive obstacle – may feel the game is lacking due to its slow nature and narrow loop.
With that said let’s talk mechanics.
Playing in this VR world is simple. As mentioned earlier, it’s a game that’s made for everyone – especially the underaged lot who shouldn’t even be playing at all. Controlling your ship is as easy as reaching out, grabbing the yoke, and moving it like any pilot would.
You’ll move it in to go down, pull towards you to go up, and of course turning. You can make the ship strafe using the thumbsticks and accelerate and brake with the right and left triggers, respectively.
When you’re out of the ship and making your way via the grapples on your hands, you’ll reach out until you see a reticle around a point and then hold the grip buttons while pulling your arm towards you to pull yourself.
Oh, and you can turn with the thumbsticks here too.
Simple right?
Graphically the game looks good. If you’ve played any of the previous titles by developer Trebuchet, you’ll get a nostalgic sense of their art style. The world seems vast – you are flying around after all – but when you really look at it, things it’s minimal at best.
Just like when you hop on a plane and head off on vacation in the real world, you’ll see things in the distance and structures as you move on past, but there’s never really anything here beyond set dressing.
Things look good up close, but anything on the horizon is lower in quality and meant to give you a sense of direction, rather than anything more robust.
The minimalism does offer players simply looking for a peaceful experience, the ability to simply fly to their hearts content. Compass offers up a zen-like experience that VR users can enjoy as a form of meditation – if they can simply get into the right mindset.
Overall, the game is meant to be charming built around a solid core, but offering up little else for those who are use to playing games in that are action-forward.
As you make your way around, hitting buttons, collecting crystals, and activating towers as you work towards your goal, the game shows itself as vying to be scrappy. It certainly won’t contend with some of the heavy hitting experiences that the Quest headset has to offer – and it definitely won’t overthrow the doggy doo games to which the kids flock – but Compass does one thing right.
It knows what it is and what it wants to do – and it does it very well.
Trebuchet should be proud of what they have here, even if it’s a little lacking for those who want some substance. But even the grumpiest VR user can spend some time enjoying the ability to fly around before they move on to something new.
Compass, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a review key through PressEngine.
