Hands-on with Fracked on Quest 3: Better late than never?
The VR shooter Fracked finally shoots its way onto Meta Quest. Is it still worthwhile?
Fracked puts you in the shoes of a classic action hero as you take on a corrupt corporation and their henchmen in an inhospitable mountainous region.
The VR game from studio nDreams features a mix of skiing, ziplining, climbing and shooting, an innovative cover system and fluid gameplay.
Fracked was released for the first Playstation VR in 2021, followed by a PC VR version in 2022. Now nDreams is bringing Fracked to Meta Quest 3, 2 and Pro. Is the port a success?
Visual trade-offs
I have already played and reviewed Fracked on Playstation VR and PC. The Quest port does not differ in terms of gameplay, so the game's strengths and weaknesses remain the same.
In my review of Fracked, I praised the fast-paced action, the variety of movement modes, and the intuitive cover system, but criticized the shallow shooting with rather stupid enemies.
Visually, the Quest version is a bit of a downer, at least in the pre-release version nDreams gave me.
Fracked goes for a cel-shaded look, which suits the game well. On the Playstation VR the game suffered from the low resolution, on the PC it looked really good. On Quest 3, the graphics are serviceable at best. The textures look much muddier, there is hardly any lighting to speak of, and there is a lack of post-processing effects. At least the resolution on Quest 3 is appealing, but you can clearly see that Fracked was optimized for Quest 2.
The announcement trailer (see above) is misleading and definitely doesn't show the Quest version. Check out my video footage from the game for comparison.
Too little, too late?
Fracked is an entertaining, fast-paced arcade shooter that can be completed in an afternoon. On Meta Quest, the game will probably have a hard time standing out from the vast array of shooters on offer. Had it been released two years ago, it would have made more of a splash.
However, Fracked paved the way for later, bigger games from the studio such as Synapse, upcoming titles Frenzies and Vendetta Forever, and whatever else is to come. That's why Fracked has secured its place in the VR shooter pantheon.
Fracked is now available on the Horizon Store.
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