cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Arken Age - a potential VR Game Of The Year (GOTY) 2025? Reviews and impressions

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Arken Age is out - and it's not just some random VR release, but a really big one:

 

Find the game here: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2274200/Arken_Age/

Recommended specs:

    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10/11
    • Processor: Intel i7 9700k or greater, 3.6 ghz+
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Recommended 2070/2060super/1080ti or greater
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 30 GB available space
    • VR Support: OpenXR & SteamVR Launch Options (All Headsets Supported)
    • Additional Notes: CPU Performance required for physics combat/calculations

 

download.JPG

Great view distance and action

 

It's great game with melee combat - with sword and shield - and you also have guns. You're visiting an alien world, but my first great impression really was "wow - like Alyx, I can save the game whenever I want!". I'm very tired of games with checkpoints, so really great that we got a proper save game system in Arken Age.

Graphics are awesome-ish. Can't help thinking in some locations that we're getting a game designed for the PSVR2 with sometimes slightly fewer polys and worse textures than the best PCVR games - but then the game greatly impresses in other locations.

 

download (4).JPG

The game has many low-res textures like these, but mostly textures are fine

 

It's also beautiful to see PSVR2 and PCVR go hand in hand to support each other. Compared to the many horrible low-end Quest ports. Arken Age is by far no Quest port.

download (3).JPG

Nice weapon

 

download (5).JPG

Water is nice too - not jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but fine enough 🙂

 

After much testing with the RTX 3090 and Index, I ended up using highest graphics settings and Index res 276% in 80 Hz with no motion smoothing - to get solid 80 fps (keep the res scale in-game to 1.0 and set the app specific SteamVR res instead). Basically exactly the same settings as Vertigo 2. Graphics also carry some resemblance to Vertigo 2.

 

12t.JPG

The game supports realtime lighting and dynamic shadows. The latter of limited quality, but much better than none 🙂


For now I'll probably rate the game 8.5/10 - but these are my first impressions. There is a learning curve for the weapons and controls, which can be slightly frustrating at first.

 

download (2).JPG

There's tons of stuff to find and collect - not sure what this thing does...


Index is perfectly supported - well, no finger tracking, but you also only got three fingers including a thumb 🙂 Here's the controller options:

download (6).JPG

Index controller settings


If you're in doubt about buying the game, jump in, it's great - and you have 2 hours to try it and can refund.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

6 REPLIES 6

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Btw, what are the ratings for Arken Age?

For now, Arken Age has an average rating of a massive 99% for the PSVR2 based on 97 ratings:

https://store.playstation.com/en-no/concept/10009596

On Steam, 92% of 38 reviews are positive:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2274200/Arken_Age/

 

The game is out only for PCVR and PSVR2, and "PSVR2 Without Parole" rated the game a massive 95%:

Note, the PSVR2 version is a reduced version of the PCVR version - there are much more 3D grass and foilage in the PCVR version - and many more graphics settings - still this vid give an impression of the game

 

Beardo Benjo also was impressed by the game - he uses a Quest 3 and RTX 4090:

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Arken Age is enhanced for the PlayStation Pro, and UploadVR rated the game 4/5 using the Pro:

https://www.uploadvr.com/arken-age-review/

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Took some time for me to find out - and I bet you can't dig up this info easily anywhere but in this thread 😎 But we have 3 versions of the game - PS5, PS5 Pro and PCVR. What are the differences?

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSIONS:

PS5 vs. PS5 Pro:
"For PlayStation VR2 players with a PS5 Pro, Arken Age offers two choices. Performance Mode is the developer's recommended choice that lets you play at a native 90fps and 3040 × 2240 resolution. Quality Mode uses 60fps gameplay with reprojection and a higher resolution of 4000 × 4096 [...] VitruviusVR also confirmed Arken Age on PS5 Pro has a 15% resolution boost over the base PS5 console in Performance Mode, and a 25% resolution boost in Quality Mode." Source: https://www.uploadvr.com/arken-age-review/

PS5 (Pro) vs. PCVR:
"Main differences is on PC Super-sampling, AA, shadows, and LOD bias is unlocked, but on PSVR2 there is DFR, HDR, adaptive triggers, and headset rumble. Otherwise both builds are exactly the same" - source, reply from the devs: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1i2rkpd/comment/m7ni8fa/?context=3

To sum up:
Only with PCVR you can get getting solid 80, 90, 120 or 144 fps in what must be the equivalent or better version than PS5 Pro in 60 fps Quality Mode (with reprojections). Which version will be best, PCVR or PS5 (Pro), will depend on the capabilities of your gameing PC.

And this is PCVR with all the bells and whistles:

dofewrd (5).JPG

Note that also the leaves from the tree cast dynamic shadows

 

downloafed (1).JPG

The water is transparent - there a huge and not very friendly looking fish in the water - I have not yet tried to attack it 🙂

 

downloffsad (2).JPG

Note the very detailed skin textures - this is with much super-sampling

 

1.JPG

Some big dude without any sense of humor 🤕

 

fd.JPG

Note the detailed leaves - it all adds to immersion

 

downldfgoad (4).JPG

Three friendly dudes - note their dynamic shadows

 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The first hours felt slightly boring in Arken Age, but it seems the game is gradually opening up and becoming more interesting. At first the guns are very weak, but after some upgrades they do become a lot better:

download (7).JPG

After 2 or 3 upgrades this gun starts to be useful - before the sword was much better

 

download (8).JPG

Just upgraded my sword to an axe - I guess it's clobberi *ermn, cough* it's chopping time! 🤗

 

Learning to use the environment is also paying off:

download (4).JPG

Shoot down this bird-like-thingy and collect the orange healing potions

 

The world is also opening up, and you'll meet friendly npcs too:

download (3).JPG

Some dude is fishing

 

download (2).JPG

Not sure about this dude, should I steal his green artifact? 🤔 😁

 

Btw, I just got a heads-down, not sure how it really differs from a heads-up... 🤔

download.JPG

Also note the detailed ground textures

 

- and we can zoom in a bit more on the nice ground textures:

download (6).JPG

The game has many low-res textures, but when present the high-res textures do shine

 

Also the dynamic shadows do create a great atmosphere - like seen here, all the shadows are dynamic:

download (1).JPG

Dynamic shadows all over the place - this is maxed out graphics settings also for the shadows

 

As said, the first two hours felt a bit like a chore, but the game is growing on me. The campaign is 15-20 hours, I have a long way to go 🙂

 

download (9).JPG

You can jump and cling on to certain walls - I need to try that here - later - aiming for the reddish wall 😎

 

Btw, this is me 🙂

download (5).JPG

In the game, you got a full body with arms and legs - not just hands like in Alyx

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Btw, this is your full body - I'm looking down at the ground:

download (3).JPG

Your body in the game

 

It's so much more immersive with a full body - and the polygon levels can be very high in the game. like here:

download (1).JPG

Trees with tons of leaves are usually a great challenge for VR - but Arken Age seems greatly optimized

 

Enjoying the quiet village life is great too:

download.JPG

A friendly npc comes along and will greet you, if you politely wave at him/her/it 🙂

 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

New patch with new content is out:

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"