Airborne VR 1944

There’s certainly no shortage of video games based on the second World War, especially not when it comes to shooters. However, people probably won’t dismiss the idea right away, especially if the game in question features something new, like a great graphics engine, an ingenious gameplay idea, or VR support.

Airborne VR 1944 is a virtual reality experience for Oculus Rift, in which you get to observe a paratrooper mission and even play a soldier’s role in it. Granted, there’s no actual interaction with the environment or anything else, so you’ll just be watching while everything else goes on around you. Even so, it should be enough to get your adrenaline level up a little bit.

You play the role of a paratrooper by the name of Jackson, who’s assigned a mission a year before the end of WWII. The game starts with a few images of the soldiers before they get on the airplane, showing you how they bonded and became friends over the course of the war. On the other hand, it’s not enough to make you feel something, because the whole thing is over in a few minutes anyway.

As you may suspect, things do not go very smoothly once the paratroopers are in the air, because the plane gets attacked. Hence, only a handful of the soldiers survive, and you happen to be one of them. Besides the explosions and the small talk before the attack, you also get to see how it would be like to jump with a parachute, albeit only for a few moments, which is kind of a bummer.

The graphics are pretty impressive, on the other hand, even if the character models look a bit stiff, and the animations are not that great either. On the other hand, the atmosphere is very engaging, mainly thanks to the great level design and the well-chosen sound effects that keep you invested in the action.

In the end, Airborne VR 1944 is definitely a great experience, even if it’s way too short for you to feel any connection with the characters or the story. However, it’s exciting to think about a full game designed this way.