In 2015, I was invited by Dell to check out the grand opening for Zero Latency, the open space VR experience, where you had to wear a PC on your back and it was good, but not all that comfy. Over the years the team have created a number of original games, but then they worked with Ubisoft on Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity. The team are back now with an all-new game in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine VR - Defenders of Avarax and it is good.

Before I dive into the game, it is important you understand what Zero Latency is. Most will know about a VR headset, there are options like the Oculus Quest 2 or PlayStation VR2 and they are what you would consider for use at home. Zero Latency is a VR system where you can walk around a big space and play with up to 7 people. While the original launch had you wearing backpacks with PC’s contained with in, now the game is streamed to the headset, so you only need to put that on your head and carry the gun, sadly that is still heavy. As you walk around the space, if you get close to the walls or other players, a beeping noise triggers and visual indicators show up, letting you know how close you are, so its very hard to walk into anything. Also as the space is quite large and you don’t actually see where you are within it, it feels like its much larger when the headset is on. Ok, so that is the system, but what about the game.

I said in my recent Space Marin 2 review that I am not a Warhammer guy and that hasn’t changed, my understanding of the lore is miniscule at best, so going into this I was a little concerned that there would be stuff that went over my head. Thankfully, apart from an introduction where they talked about the Tyranids invasion and gave us the objective of reclaiming some item, I don’t know what it was called, the rest of the game was mainly just shooting everything. While past games have often had players stay together, there were a few times when our group was split into teams and we went and did different things, which made things feel very unique. The first time this happened, my squad of four was sent down a ramp to an elevator in order to get to a generator at the bottom, while the other squad remained upstairs to ensure that the elevator was not damaged. Of course, as it was a videogame, the elevator did go slow and it was great to see the world changing, as enemies swarmed around us.

After a number of rooms where enemies swarmed us and when I saw swarmed, I mean dozens and dozens at a time, we finally came across the object we were after and breaking it lose from its containment unit resulted in the world quite literally breaking apart. All of a sudden other members of the group were upside down and then the world was going out of its way to cause even more damage, as the platforms we were standing on were disintegrating beneath out feet. This was honestly the more surreal thing I have ever experienced, watching people who were standing beside me suddenly be upside, but knowing that they are actually still standing beside me, it took a moment to get my head around it. After that was conquered, I thought that we were home free but nope because we were then ambushed by a giant boss type creature, which likely has a name. This creature was leaping around the space, causing everyone to try and follow it, but its attacks were powerful, which required us to get out of the way, people were always on the move. Thankfully we were victorious and while I was not the player with the highest score at the end, I did have a blast playing the game, which is what matters.

The only real issues I had with the game were around the ramps and spinning lifts. There were a few times when you had to walk up or down ramps and while there isn’t anything in the space you have to worry about, it is a bit of a weird feeling to be walking upwards, but not actually doing it. If you think of it like this, when you down a set of stairs, if the last step is not quite the same height as the others, be it smaller or larger, you get a weird sense of falling for a brief moment, that is what happened here. After the third ramp I just sort of ignored it, but it might be something for those more prone to vertigo or motion sickness to be aware of. Speaking of the latter, there are a few times when you enter lifts, some of them you just go up or down, but some spin you around when you do and it is quite a disorientating feeling, seeing the world spin but you are not moving.

Despite those issues, I had a great time with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine VR - Defenders of Avarax, now while it won’t make me rush out to buy the figurines any time soon, it was fun. For those who are big into Warhammer, this is honestly the only time you are actually going to be in the world of Warhammer and the team at Zero Latency have done a great job. Now there were a few times when the system took a bit to load stuff in, but those moments never broke the experience rather, they gave us a chance to make some quips or check our scores. The game does offer a hard mode, if you feel up for it and with unique weapons you can pick up as you play, no two runs could be exactly the same. Warhammer 40,000 fans will get a blast out of this VR experience and even casual gamers will enjoy it, so I highly suggest you sign up to defend Avarax, you won’t regret it.

Zero Latency supplied us with early access to the experience, you can find out more about the game and view their locations on the official site.