Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable is here, officially bringing the hit anime to VR for the first time, albeit in early access. We got an eye-full last month when developer UNIVRS released its first trailer, which admittedly looked pretty rough. While that’s still true for the game in its current state, it actually packs in some fun mechanics, leaving me holding out hope for the AoT VR game that it might become.

In its current state, Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable feels very much like a tech demo, offering up a single mission (aka ‘chapter’), a few unlockable blades, and only a few bits of story to chew on out of the gate, offering up about 30 minutes of content which you can replay as much as you want if you’re looking to move up the scoreboard and unlock more weapons.

Essentially, you’ll get a quick Power Point at the beginning recapping the anime’s premise, and then you’re launched right into the tutorial, which is segmented into discrete mini-missions: i.e. do the thing, fade to black—rinse and repeat until you make it to the first and only mission in the game at present. I’d expect a less disjointed tutorial in the future, but hey, this is early access we’re talking about.

There, you’ll learn how to fight against Titans; you can slice their limbs, although they regrow back after a period, so you’ll need to cut them down for good by slicing at the back of their necks. To do this, you’ll need to lock on and retract your omni-directional mobility gear, which works similar to the grappling hooks from the Windlands series.

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How the game differentiates itself from mission to mission is going to be a big factor in whether its most fun bit—swinging around the walled city filled with the series’ iconic red-roofed buildings—really has staying power, and doesn’t just evolve into a bunch of samey swinging and slicing. It will also need to tighten up Titan interactions, as AI pathfinding feels very blocky and artificial, and you can usually clip through Titans upon death, which ruins a bit of the first few ‘wow’ moments when bringing them down for the first time. They could also benefit from a visual overhaul—although I can see what the studio is trying to go for in terms of keeping it grounded in the anime’s visual style.

That said, swinging around using the omni-directional mobility gear and using the blades are undeniable high points, as you lock onto the neck of a Titan, and make big and flashy cuts, red indicating you’re using your full strength.

 

Despite some pretty frenetic movement, it’s also a really comfortable experience thanks to the constant visual effects that surround you as you flight through the air—the sort of speed lines you regularly see in manga.

There are a few other clear wins here too. The game incorporates diegetic UI as much as it can, giving you a pen to paper to start chapters from your mission log—certainly more interesting than using a laser pointer on a 2D monitor. To start the mission, you even need to leave your John Hancock, which feels like an immersive touch.

Image captured by Road to VR

The team has their work cut out for them. Visuals feel middling, if not downright ugly at points, as the trailer suggests, and it seems to be suffering from stability issues. The game also needs to add in two-player co-op mode, which is slated to launch with its 1.0 release later this year.

That said, it’s too early to tell whether Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable is going to be the sort of VR game you and your AoT-loving friend definitely need to play. There are still a lot of questions about level and enemy variety, and how much of the story will play a part.

The big question though is it worth the $5 entry price to get early access. AoT superfans will probably want to jump in no matter the state of the game. I’m a casual enjoyer of the series, and I’d personally wait for successive chapters to be released to see where the game is actually going first. Still, that $5 entry fee feels like an honest price for what VR veteran developer UNIVRS is planning.

If you’re curious to see for yourself, you can nab Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable in early access right for Quest 2/3/Pro.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Andrey

    Can I say? Can I? Can I say, please?! I've been waiting for this moment for so long!

    It's very hilarious to see all those 5* reviews on Meta Store for this game. I truly want to believe that all those people were paid to do so (or game was given to them for free) and not that they are/were doing it sincerely, because it will indicate a total lack of critical thinking in them. Also it's a great shame that reviews there won't allow you to write more than a couple of sentences really, so I finally will be able to relieve myself here with a usual great wall (pun intended) of text!

    First things first – everyone should not forget that this game was announced in 2022 with release date "Summer 2023" in mind. Then it was delayed for a whole year (what was a very stupid move, because in 2023 hype for AoT was at it's peak because the very last "Final Season" was airing and story finally reached it's culmination after a whole decade). And now, in July 2024, after two years (at the very least – no way they've announced game in 2022 while not having any progress in development of it, right?), we've got…

    An early access version with 2 chapters (~10 missions) for 5$.

    You know what the main problem here? There are two actually – firstly, UNIVRS are professionals (apparently), "veterans of VR development" and so on + they ask money for their product. Secondly, there are already a bunch (at the very least three) of AoT VR games with different amounts of polishing/content. And irony is that those totally free fan-made games are either not worse or, in many cases, even better than this paid VR experience made by "professionals" (c). After at least TWO YEARS of development, with funding (I really hope they weren't working for food all this time) and all of that.

    Now it's time to play a Nostradamus and predict the future. Anyone who played their previous game – Little Witch Academia VR Broomracing – can do that. Basically, what we can see now in their AoT game is what we will get in the future, it will be just multiplied by copy-and-pasting and changing the models (or even just textures) of the titans and some stats to make enemies "stronger". The only two gameplay elements that are not there but probably will appear are fights against special titans (Armored, Colossal, Beast and so on) and COOP (only for 2 players, for god's sake!). Oh, and they may add the environment "destruction" from the trailer, though I won't be surprised that it won't work on Quest 2 and they either will add it for Q3 only or ditch it altogether.

    And now I will just release all my frustration about this game in a non-structured way, bear with it!

    The game goes against both canons and logic. Who in their own mind will fight titans (especially abnormal ones!) ALONE?! And even if we will imagine working in pair (with COOP) – if you are not Mikasa and Levi working together it's an instant death sentence. But nah, you are probably a long lost brother of Ackerman family, so you can do all of that story-wise… Not to mention that city looks so dull and empty when you are the only one who are not titan).

    Oh, about story – it's nonexistent here. It was UNIVRS main weapon against fan-made games – they can hire and use original voice actors, spend time and resources to create cutscenes and generally try to write a good original story (like they did in Little Witch Academia – it wasn't the best, but it at least was there!). Instead there are some badly made powerpoint slides that have none sense behind it at all – they literally tell you the most obvious things that you can see and understand without it ("Oh mai Goddo! The Wall was crushed by the Armored Titan!!111").

    …Can you smell it? It's a smell of the ruined balance! When I was reading some 1/2* reviews some people were mentioning that game went hard too fast at some point and I was like "pfffff, NOOBS!"… Until I finally reached the end of the second chapter…

    Multiple titans (seven in total with three abnormal amongst them) spawn in a very short time one after another. And YOU ARE WORKING ALONE. Stupid gas consuption system also makes it even more harder. In the end, after a dozen of tries, I finally made it, but this experience wasn't enjoyable at all – UNIVRS employees and their families should be grateful that they wasn't hearing what I was talking about them when I was eaten for the 5th time in a row by those three abnormal titans that rotate in-game without any delay and can easily gather around you if you are not lucky enough.

    More about stupid game-design choices – the only thing you can change are blades and with it changes your speed, amount of gas, how far you can shoot grappling hooks of your ODM and so on. So instead of doing it right (like it was done in other AoT games – official ones, from Omega Force!) with an ability to level up each and every piece of gear to make it stronger (and make yourself deadlier for titans) by gathering experience points/some resources during the missions, we are limited to some goofy – and imbalanced – blades (just go in the ranking and see which kind of blades all people on the first places use) that usually limit some other aspect of your gameplay without giving you an ability to fix it's shortcoming through replaying and leveling it up. Gamedesign at it's peak!

    I could go on and on, but that's it for now. Generally, after all those years of waiting (I will repeat that I didn't even sell my Quest 2 at the time because I was waiting for this *&^%$@ game!), we've got THIS. And THIS won't get any better. There won't be version 2.0 like it was with Cyberpunk 2077 that will not just miraculously fix all the current problems, but also add a decent story, AI companions, great variety of in-game activities (especially well made progression system with an ability to make stronger each element of your gear) and other important stuff.

    I personally liked UNIVRS before, but now I don't anymore.

    • LP

      >It's very hilarious to see all those 5* reviews on Meta Store for this game. I truly want to believe that all those people were paid to do so (or game was given to them for free) and not that they are/were doing it sincerely, because it will indicate a total lack of critical thinking in them.

      It's hilarious how in comments on last AOT news people hated the game based on the youtube trailer and in reality it turned out to be pretty good.
      Is it a lack of critical thinking of real players or toxic trash talkers in comments?
      Btw. There is too much "I" in your texts, try to look from different perspectives sometimes.

      • Andrey

        I am not a article writer or VR game reviewer from Youtube, so I just express my own opinions. And because of that I do not feel oblidged to look from “other perspectives”, especially to see that the game in the current state is trash that does not worth 5$ even from diehard AoT fan perspective like myself.
        Oh, and it’s very nice how you’ve mentioned all those people who hated this “game” (let’s be honest – it’s nothing more than a typical “VR experience”, at least at this point, but not a game) and most certainly never even thought about buying it. How many loyal supporters like yourself UNIVRS have? Around a couple of thousands, based on ranking board and amount of reviews on their game’s page. That’s a VERY great result for a VR early access game! Who cares that only most fanatical creatures that can’t see obvious shortcomings of “this” bought it while all people who, like myself would rate this game 3/2 or even 1* on Meta Quest Store, just skipped it altogether (and most probably made a right buying decision)?
        Whatever. You want to support things like this? Be my very guest and you will get even more EA VR “games” in the future with no content, story and with a very questionable and repeatable gameplay loop!

        • ViRGiN

          I don't know anything about the franchise, the game looked like shit to me, and gameplay was uninteresting. But it's hard to really crap on it considering it's pricing.
          Would it be worth $2.50? $1?

          At least it's not Into The Radius 2, sold as early access immediatly at full launch retail price of $40, despite having much less content than the first game, and it carries tons of bugs and jank from previous title. ITR2 already lost 75% of players since launch day, and 25% of reviews on steam are negative.

          • Andrey

            Well, everything is relative, as always. If it was first AoT game (at least in VR) ever created or if it delivered some main elements (flying combat, epicness of the original, well written/presented story etc.) exceptionally good, I woudn’t crap on it. But there are totally free analogues – especially Attack on Quest – which existed for years and were created by fans, without any financing, etc.. And those games are not really worse than this “official” version, and right now tou can play it in 4 player COOP and fight some unique titans on different iconic locations. For free and not for 5$. Right now and not in “later half of 2024” (which can – and probably will – be delayed just as they delayed the release of the game itself).
            I also read some comments of reddit that UNIVRS “asked” those developers of fan-made game to cease the development of their projects too. Imagine being afraid of other games that probably were created by a couple of dudes who were bored and though “Hey, don’t you think AoT will work great in VR? Let’s create a prototype to check it out!”. Not sure if it’s true, but if it is, in my eyes UNIVRS will fall even lower than they are right now.

      • ViRGiN

        The truth is the game is $5 without any discounts. That, and licensed franchise.

        Gorilla Tag is 1 star game for me, but that does not mean hundreds of thousands share my opinion.

        It's okay to be disappointed with what they released, but considering the price – there isn't really much to hate here.

  • VR5

    Agree with the article. The UI is great and how they adapted the workings of the 3d maneuver gear to VR shows a lot of promise but there is little content and as it is now in severe need of much more polish. I guess they must have run out of money and this $5 early access release is an attempt to raise more funds.

    Their previous title Little Witch Academia was crowd funded and a convincing full package. Attack on Titan is a more demanding IP though in terms of gameplay mechanics and content so it does require more money to successfully pull off. Might be too much for a small dev in a niche market.

    On the other hand, they're already in reach of matching the 3DS game by Spike Chunsoft from 2013. AoT suffers from being adapted on low budgets, something all too common for anime games in general.