Arken Age Review - Satisfying Sci-Fi Adventure With Great VR Design

Arken Age delivers a satisfying sci-fi action-adventure that shines with its clever VR gameplay design. Read on for our full review.

There aren't many VR games where I'd consider haptics to be a standout feature. It's a welcome addition that complements immersion if implemented effectively, sure, but that's rarely anything exceptional on PlayStation VR2. In that regard, Arken Age surprised me during my first enemy encounter. Parrying an enemy's sword attack leaves a lingering vibration like your blade is actually recoiling, and it's that moment where I realized this is something special.

Arken Age immediately shows proficiency in VR-first design. That’s evident from the very beginning of Arken Age through its pleasingly tactile menus, giving you effectively a tablet-like device that acts as your menu. Grabbing said tablet off your body would’ve been preferable over pressing a face button to summon it, even more so when you realize your weapons and batteries to power them are conveniently holstered across your body.

Granted, that's a minor complaint when the wider physicality feels particularly great. A small flick of the wrists lets you pull out pickaxes to climb surfaces, and this motion usually feels responsive. Elsewhere, recovering health involves physically injecting a syringe into an arm or eating fruit by moving fruit toward your mouth. Small but important details for building immersion.

A laborious tutorial leaves Arken Age's initial pacing feeling slightly slow, segmenting this with mandatory lessons chosen at a command desk. As the Untethered One, your goal is to free this beautiful terraformed world called the Bio-Chasm from the corrupting Hyperion, a robotic race intent on destroying your people. With the world's creator mysteriously missing, an often predictable narrative sees you discover what happened to the Grand Arborist.

Very minor spoilers ahead in the next paragraph.

Without revealing any particulars, Arken Age follows a trend we've recently seen with VR games like Epyka and Alien: Rogue Incursion. The finale doesn't outright state a sequel or other follow-up is coming, but an open-ended conclusion makes it clear that the overall story isn't over. Still, this doesn't feel like a game artificially split in half and where we conclude is a natural stopping point.

Clearing this linear campaign took me roughly 10 hours, and that's while also clearing some additional side content. Each area has a handful of green relics to destroy that open up rewards in the Sanctuary, while one area lets you summon waves of Hyperion to unlock new items. Some are more essential, like door keys for optional tombs, though others provide welcome bonuses like extra supplies or currency.

Arken Age splits this map into sections with different objectives for each. I wish the game wouldn't cut to black whenever you enter a new location, though. Some objectives require backtracking, like claiming an item you couldn't previously reach because you didn't have the security clearance. Thankfully, fast travel between set teleportation devices machines makes this a quick process. You can handily teleport to your last visited device at any moment from the save menu.

Most objectives require either finding specific objects or destroying all the Hyperion soldiers. Different enemy abilities like sniping me from afar, grabbing me with vines or straight up curling into a ball to self-destruct keep combat interesting throughout with strong enemy variety. Multiple units will often attack at once, so you need to keep your guard up.

Enemies could use some additional voice lines as the rank-and-file scroll through the same handful of phrases, boss fights excluded. However, combat is easily where Arken Age shines and one aspect I particularly like is how enemies adapt their strategies depending on your position. Seeing them put away the guns to summon a sword and shield shows reactivity that makes sense.

The Untethered One can access three well-designed main weapons with upgrade mods discoverable across the Bio-Chasm. For example, your 'light gun' can equip upgrades like a laser sight for better accuracy, while I basically turned my 'heavy gun' into a weird cross between a sniper gun and crossbow for stronger hits but higher battery consumption. My heavy gun was initially more like a shotgun where you actively feel the recoil push you back.

The energy sword remains my favorite weapon and noticeably registers the speed of your strike, letting me decapitate or dismember these robotic foes to pleasing effect. Cutting these malicious robots in half with a clean strike feels good, and a good parry rewards you with a clean opening. As does blocking bullet fire with your weapon while you sprint toward them, sword in hand.

Each weapon also offers manual reloading, though it's not like other VR shooters where you might slide ammo into a pistol. Instead, you must plug a battery pack into every weapon and then cock it back into position. Nothing too over the top, sure, but its a fitting approach for this sci-fi world. If you prefer automatic reloads, Arken Age allows this by briefly placing your gripped weapon over your shoulder.

My biggest complaint is that on PlayStation VR2, attacking enemies with the sword will sometimes cause it to get stuck in the air. Dropping the weapon doesn't help since it takes a couple of seconds to return to its holstered position. I've yet to test Arken Age on Steam, so I can't currently confirm if that's an issue on both platforms or just with the Sense controllers.

These aren't the only tools at your disposal, either. Using your accumulated credits, the Untethered One has convenient access to shops where you can purchase grenades, mines, axes, health syringes, shields, and more. All useful in a pinch, though these are also summoned via a face button. Thinking of grenades, it's incredibly satisfying to throw an enemy's grenade back at them.

However, I must stress this isn't a game I'd recommend to VR newcomers due to the intense motion combat can cause. Some Hyperion enemies can tether you with vines to stop your movement and pull you to them, throwing you into the air and I can see that causing considerable discomfort. Vignettes can be applied to help ease this, and I've detailed the wider comfort settings above.

Playing on PlayStation VR2 also adds some welcome features. Dynamic foveated rendering is available in both Performance and Quality Modes — more on those modes below — and eye-tracking when using weapons provides a welcome aim assist. Closing one eye enables a sniper scope on your heavy gun delivering greater immersion, while firing weapons has good resistance from the adaptive triggers.

What tops this off is the strong presentation that's evident across Arken Age. Some minor jank is noticeable at times with textures visibly changing as you get closer even on PS5 Pro, though it's rarely a concern. The vibrant environments show a surprising beauty to this often mechanical world, one that's complemented by good audio design.

Arken Age Review - Final Verdict

Arken Age delivers clever VR-first gameplay design for a great sci-fi adventure. The intense motion makes this unsuitable for VR newcomers and the narrative isn't especially compelling, yet the vibrant presentation and rewarding combat makes this easier to overlook.

Between combat's great integration of haptic feedback, strong enemy variety and satisfying kills, Arken Age is an easy recommendation.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.