If the opportunity to fly in space came about, would you take it? But what if the war you thought you left on your planet was taken to a new playing field in space, would you fight for the glory of what was right? How far would you be willing to go for a cause when your life and the others that you love are all on the line? When you think about it, it really can put a different spin on things almost to the point of choosing to fight with your feet firmly on the ground or spreading your wings per se, to see what could be possible. But does developer OZWE Games show us the fight in space? Let’s find out with Anshar 2: Hyperdrive for the Quest 2.
Anshar 2: Hyperdrive is an arcade space shooter where you take on the role of a newly enlisted pilot in the deadliest squad in the Ansharian arsenal as you fly a variety of ships to take the fight to the Nergal or fight and engage with other players to rule them all. So before jumping in the seat of your ship and going full-blown mercenary out in space, there are a few things that you will want to know about. First, find your favorite place to sit. It’s a battle-up in space, so might as well be comfortable. Second, make sure you have some arm room. You won’t need a lot, but you don’t want to be hitting a wall or a family member. Third, make sure your controllers have enough battery juice as you don’t want it to be game over before you had a chance to show what you can really do. And finally, just have fun up there in space. With all that said, let’s continue…
I will say, that before you begin the campaign, go into settings. You have quite a few options to select from and finding the best option for you may take a few tries. First, you will want to decide on your camera view. Do you want first-person and be inside the ship or third-person and have your ship out in front of you. You will also want to decide about your Flight direction and first weapon aim and trigger as well as your Second weapon aim and trigger. And then finally, how you would like to turn. I will say what helped me is thinking about how you normally would play a game and how you would have that setup with the primary and secondary weapons.
Then once you have everything the way you want it, it’s time to finally jump into the campaign. Each mission has a character giving you a brief of what is going on along with the different objectives such as with Mission 1, protecting the mothership at all costs, and destroying the Nergal bombers. So right off the bat, it’s dog fighting in space while protecting the mothership. Sounds simple enough. But it’s when you start each of the missions that you do the controls really come easy to grasp and in no time, you are fighting with the best of them.
Along with different objectives for each mission, there are different weapon layouts that are switched between the missions. The different weapons will be from lasers, bombs, to even missiles, and much more. Some of these weapons will require you to replenish them while you are in a middle of a fight which will become more challenging as progress in the campaign of trying to complete the objectives as well as trying to avoid enemy fire. There were quite a few times that I was right there ready to replenish my weapon only to have an enemy shoot me and I had to start the mission over again. No, I was not bitter that I was almost completing the mission, but turned that to the determination of making sure the Nargal got what they deserved. Ok…maybe there was a little bitterness, but still, a victory is a victory.
I did want to talk a little bit about the different views. If you want the full-blown immersion, that is where the first-person view comes into play. And what I mean by full-blown immersion is you are in the ship with the action happening all around you. I did try it and it did make me feel like I was inside the ship. But there was something about playing in third-person, that at least for me, felt a little more right with Anshar 2: Hyperdrive almost like I was a giant having a space battle with toys from when I was younger. It’s one of those situations where you may want to play a certain mission in first-person and then switch to third-person for a different mission or vice versa. But that’s what is great about options as everyone may have a different preference in how they want to play.
But when you have finished or may just need a break from the campaign, Anshar 2: Hyperdrive does have some multiplayer fun for you with two different modes of Deathmatch and Battle Royale that even includes Weekly and All-Time leaderboards. And I will say that I had no problem joining a game with other players. I will say that Deathmatch was probably my favorite and to hear even some of them be enthusiastic just made me want to keep playing.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. One thing I enjoyed with the graphics and being in space was the colors that were used. The first level having the red planet and having the astroids fly around just had the right amount of light showing. Then when you move on to the second level, for example, where space had this faint of light black with the presence of purple really allowed for the immersion of the atmosphere to shine. With the sound, hearing the engines of the ship, the gunfire, and weapons blasting by as I was speeding up and slowing down really brought out that sci-fi feeling that helped bring everything full circle.
There are some things that I hope to get updated and assessed. For one, I did notice that even how much I enjoyed the sound, sometimes the firepower would outsound any dialog that was being said or there were a few times where the dialog would start and there would be no other sound. I did try and mess with the volume, but it still occurred at certain times when playing. It’s not too bad, just a little distracting every now and then. I do like the fact that you can have someone else helping you during the campaign and this is where my second wish comes in and that’s the Multiplayer. I hope that more arenas and modes for multiplayer get added. Yes, there are the Deathmatch and Battle Royal modes, but I can see a CTF or even a space fight Freeze Tag being implemented here. It would also be great to have more arenas to play and enjoy these modes in.
Anshar 2: Hyperdrive allows us to escape into space while having some fun in multiplayer with new and old friends. It shows us that not everything has to be a blood bath to be enjoyable and sometimes the most simple of concepts can be the ones that are best implemented. Sometimes we can elect to have the negativity in life form us into something we are not, but it’s when we are given a chance to pilot that negativity around into something positive that can show everyone the person that we truly are meant to be.
Anshar 2: Hyperdrive is out now for Quest 2 on the Oculus Store. A review code was provided.
To learn more about OZWE Games, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, follow them on Instagram, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
Also, check out the Anshar 2: Hypderdrive interview.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have to get back to some multiplayer and climb some leaderboards.
