The classic VR game celebrates it’s graduation from early access with new enemies, power-ups and improvements.
Every virtual reality enthusiast has heard of Space Pirate Trainer. For many fans of the HTC Vive, including myself, it was the first experience we had in VR, serving as the catalyst for our eventual obsession with the technology.
It’s widely considered the Space Invaders of VR, not just for its similarities in terms of taking down wave after wave of alien enemies, but because of its importance as one of the first games to truly demonstrate the potential of VR. Now the game that helped popularize the medium is finally taking off its metaphorical training wheels and entering the market as a fully released title.
Available October 12th via Steam VR, Space Pirate Trainer 1.0 is so chock full of new content, it feels like an entirely new game. In its previous iteration, SPT provided users with two guns featuring several different firing modes, a shield, laser lasso and other power-ups to help than fend off waves of killer robot drones. This latest update adds a plethora of new weapons and equipment, as well as performance tweaks that take this already-stellar experience to new heights:
- New power-ups including a high-tech drone companion, super laser, super rays and destructible shield.
- An “Easy” game mode which lets you reset your health each round at the cost of half your score.
- An entirely new boss fight round featuring the new “Mothership” mega enemy.
- The new “Hex Droid” enemy which spits bullets at you from every direction.
- Wave checkpoint return so you can begin your round at any skill level.
- More obvious notifications of enemy fire.
- Various audiovisual and performance enhancements.
However the coolest update by far has to be the brand new turret defense system implemented on the ship, located behind the player. Three different firing modes (Tesla coil, laser turret, ray canon) can be used to fend off enemies automatically. Although the ray cannon operates under manual control by twisting your wrist. That’s freakin’ awesome…
The full official release for Space Pirate Trainer will be available October 12 via Steam VR. If you own a headset and have yet to check this game out, please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. There’s no better way to blow the mind of a VR newbie than with a laser lasso and robot drones.
