Final Approach lands for the Oculus Rift with developer Phaser Lock Interactive coming up with a novel solution to the VR platform’s current lack of motion controllers, instead of guiding planes into land, they let you fly them.
Phaser Lock Interactive‘s Final Approach was one of the best launch titles for the HTC Vive back in April, but it was heavily tied to both the room-scale and motion controller features currently unique to the SteamVR platform, meaning it was tough for Oculus Rift owners to get a look in. Now, the developer have released a new companion version packed-in alongside the original, created be played entirely without motion controllers and their solution also has the side effect of adding a cool new feature.
The core of the original game, which itself was loosely based on airport control titles made popular on mobile gaming platforms, was that you – as the person in charge of their airport – were responsible for ensuring all aircraft landing or taking off did so safely, or at least without colliding horrible with other pilots. On the HTC Vive version, you guided those planes into land by drawing a path in 3D space from the aircraft’s location to the landing strip, a great mechanic that proved to be endlessly satisfying.
The new ‘Pilot Edition’ takes a more arcade oriented gameplay approach, asking you take direct joypad control over the craft in question while de-emphasising some of the task-juggling elements from the original title. Those arcade elements include air-bound bonus missions and those ‘zoom point’ emergency activities like fire extinguishing and bird control look still to be present.
We’re not sure if what all that we loved about Final Approach will translate into this more traditional collection of gameplay mechanics, but as you get the original Final Approach packed in with the new Pilot Edition, any Oculus Rift owners wanting to invest now ahead of Oculus Touch motion controllers appearing later this year (with luck) now have something to tide them over with in the mean time.
Final Approach: Pilot Edition is currently available for 25% off if bought through Oculus Home (officially, only for Oculus Rift) for a limited period and available on Steam too for $18.74 (discounted from $24.99) on both Rift and Vive platforms.