Ranch Planet VR review

Ranch Planet arrived on the PSN Store on June 15, and according to its description it is the first WRG VR – a wrestling game – so it’s important at this point to bring the game’s description: In distant interstellar space, a galaxy called planet Ranch. Here lived a gentle old king and his lovely daughter, Princess Rilla. However, it lost its tranquility due to a sudden misfortune – The king was seriously ill and the evil strange man’s guard tried to usurp the king’s authority or he would destroy the entire planet. – Princess Rilla signaled the Guardians of the Galaxy for help. A stellar defense battle is about to begin. 1 Player.

From this description we can understand that yes, the game is something new and engaging, but that’s not quite what happens. Partly because there is no connection between this description and what is shown in the gameplay, and also because, although the description says the game is single-player, in ¾ of the game the presence of a second player is required, in the “normal” way, via TV and DualShock 4. So, if you want to play alone, you’ll only get one of the game’s stages.

The controls on the Move are extremely simple: with one trigger you fire a net weapon, and with the other you pull the rope; yes, like in a fishing game. In other stages you can use your left hand to move to other platforms, and that is basically it. The controls are so simple that they come along with the game’s description in the store.

Visuals and Audio

The game’s visuals are simple and remind us of cartoons on cable TV channels, especially for children. It’s strange to see a game with such childish lines and looks, when we know that this is not the audience for the device (the minimum age for using VR is 12). Maybe with a child playing as player 2 the title gets better, but it’s also known that children wouldn’t want “just this”.

The immersion is nice since you end up concentrating on what you have to do and even look for a way to aim better, etc.; we found no flaws on this point.

As for the audio, it is very basic… with only animal sounds and alerts for stage changes, but no narration or tutorials explaining the story, only what you must do in each challenge, which ends up completing the game’s visuals.

Game Modes

Somehow, Ranch Planet feels unfinished… the 4 stages have no connection to each other. In two of them you must choose another character to play with the DS4 in an arena. Smartwar and Confrontation are basically the same mode, in which a player in VR tries to capture the player on the DS, and must do so before the opponent collects all the animals and leaves the arena. The changes occur solely in the challenges that exist in each mode.

As we said earlier, in the Store the game is presented as 1 player, but only one mode has this functionality, Challenge. In it we play in “waves” against a vulture, having to grab as many animals as possible before it does. The aiming is awkward, and with each wave the game tells you which type of animal you should focus on. If you and the vulture grab the same animal you must compete for it, with no right to give up and move on to another. It’s not very complex, but by the second wave the game already proves tedious.

Cooperation mode works in exactly the same way, with buttons that appear for the VR player, who must then call out the buttons to the player on the DS4, who by pressing the buttons correctly supplies ammo to the one in VR… And even so the system doesn’t seem to work very well either, since the tutorial explains only partly what to do and that’s it.

Final Assessment

Ranch Planet seems an unfinished game made exclusively for a child audience – even though VR is not recommended for them. After 10 minutes of play you’ll feel tired of it… earning trophies without understanding or losing matches understanding even less. The price becomes steep (R$ 45,90), knowing you are required to have a second player to enjoy more than half of the title.

“Visually competent (if you consider a children’s title), but with poor gameplay”. We can sum up the game in this single sentence.

The game was kindly provided to us by Gamepoch

Visuals/Audio: 5.5

Gameplay: 4

Immersion: 3.5

Story: 3

Final Score: 4