VR Gaming

50 Days Of PS VR #2: 'Call of Duty: Jackal Assault' Brings The Gaming Titan To VR

, & Jamie Feltham

11 October 2016

50 Days Of PS VR #2: 'Call of Duty: Jackal Assault' Brings The Gaming Titan To VR

Just 2 days to go until the launch of PlayStation VR! We’re counting down to the release of Sony’s VR headset on October 13th by highlighting one game a day for its anticipated release. Today we’re taking to space with Call of Duty: Jackal Assault.

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It’s going to take forever to get Call of Duty into VR. Gaming’s biggest franchise is great for that standard screen gaming experience, but it’s a tough one to translate into headsets. Movement is too fast and would surely make many players feel sick within seconds of play, action depends on scripted sequences that take control of the camera, and the impressive graphical fidelity would take a beefy PC to uphold in VR. We may all want Call of Duty: VR, but the simple fact is it’s not going to happen any time soon.

But what if you could take a slice of that experience? What if you found the segments of those epic campaigns that actually make sense for VR right now? You could still capture just a glimpse of that high-octane thrill ride. You could still feel like an elite solider. That’s the idea behind the upcoming Call of Duty: Jackal Assault, a new short experience for PlayStation VR.

In reality, Jackal Assault has a little more in common with CCP Games’ EVE: Valkyrie than it does Activision’s fabled franchise. Based on the upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, it lets you experience a brief mission from the cockpit of the titular spacecraft (Call of Duty goes to space this year).

That doesn’t mean it isn’t any less intense; you’ll tear through space taking down targets with a suitable number of explosions on display. The idea here is to treat you to the franchise’s eye for spectacle, similar to both the Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission that’s on the way for Battlefront owners.

More than anything, Jackal Assault makes us wonder what other Call of Duty experiences we’d like to revisit in VR. Modern Warfare‘s intense sniper mission in which you attempt to assassinate a Russian weapons dealer springs to mind, as do the many, many times we’ve fired chain guns from helicopters or charged through streets in tanks and Humvees. It’s these sorts of stationary and vehicle-based missions that make most sense for the franchise in VR right now, but we’re still holding out for the day we can play a full campaign too.

Call of Duty: Jackal Assault will be free for anyone that picks up Infinite Warfare on PlayStation 4.