Game review: Skyworld is a virtual reality tabletop war game

Once you’ve spawned a menu you can grab and move it around, leaving it to float wherever you leave it, which of course blocks a chunk of your view. It’s a feature that never gets to feel comfortable. The menus, interface, and the way the table flips over to reveal your tax adjusting throne room, card research lab, and upgrade forge look absolutely lovely, but you do wish they were easier to navigate.

While Skyworld is nowhere near as complex as, say, Starcraft, which requires strategically similar resource-mining and troop deployment, there are still plenty of plates to keep spinning. As you work your way through the campaign’s eight worlds you’ll start to lose battles and occasionally entire levels as you learn what works, what doesn’t, and what you definitely should not be doing in order to win.

As well as the campaign, there’s a battle skirmish mode and fully-fledged multiplayer, which takes place in real-time. Against another human the resource planning phase is timed, and your turns occur simultaneously, so both player’s moves play out at the same time. It helps keep things moving and prevents you having to sit and twiddle your thumbs while your opponent is figuring things out. As with most VR games though, getting a match can take time.

In spite of the shortcomings of its control scheme, Skyworld is a solid and good looking real-time strategy game. It’s also a neat use of VR and something of a dream come true for those used to playing tabletop games that demand more than a little suspension of disbelief.

Skyworld

In Short: Tabletop war-gaming brought to life in real-time, with a fine-looking VR environment and a slightly fiddly interface.

Pros: Interesting, well-balanced combat and tactical resource management. Fighters and environments are colourful and extremely easy on the eye

Cons: Awkward controls and a necessarily simplified real-time strategy model. Only eight worlds.

Score: 7/10

Formats: PlayStation VR (reviewed) and PC
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Vertigo Games
Developer: Wolfdog Interactive
Release Date: 26th March 2019
Age Rating: 12

By Nick Gillett

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