VR puzzle-platformer Yupitergrad will turn you into a sci-fi Spider-Man
Sucks to be you.
It's safe to say I wasn't very impressed with Spider-Man: Far From Home VR when it released just over a year ago for PlayStation VR. This messy movie tie-in was very short, full of game-breaking bugs and, while it did succeed in making you feel a little bit like the wonderful web-slinger himself, the whole experience only lasted around 10 minutes (when it worked).
Thankfully, there's a Dieslepunk puzzle-platformer called Yupitergrad on the horizon and it promises to fulfil all your Spider-Man needs; albeit with comical arm mounted plungers rather than Spidey's classic web-shooters.
In the video below, you can watch me play through the first hour of Yupitergrad as I get to grips with the suction-cup control-scheme, swing my way through some very dangerous situations and (of course) make a load of cheap jokes about tugging.
Yupitergrad launches this Thursday for PC VR platforms and if you're a fan of Portal-esq puzzle-platformers, it should be one to keep an eye on.
The cell-shaded art style is highly reminiscent of the visuals for Void Bastards and just like that game, this bold look compliments the silly storyline rather well. Playing as a Slavic cosmonaut, it's up to you to travel to Jupiter and repair an abandoned industrial space-station. Your only tools however, are a pair of arm-mounted suction-cup grappling hooks that allow you to swing, Tarzan style, around the base.
The speed and direction of your swings in the game are controlled by the movements of your arms in the real world and, as you fire your plungers at adhesive walls, you're able to pull yourself towards them with some enthusiastic tugs. This type of physical control-scheme really helps reduce the potential for motion sickness, which is something of a blessing considering the speeds that you can reach once you become adept at swinging.
I've only played the first part of the game so far, but the early puzzles and problems felt satisfying to solve. Most involved using the grapple to move objects around the environment in order to open new routes, but there were also a large amount of one-hit-kill hazards to avoid too.
While Yupitergrad isn't the most exciting or high-profile VR release that I've played this year, it's got a fun premise that seems to work exactly as intended. The early portion I played certainly suggests that it's worth Russian to take a look if you're after something new to play, especially during this quiet period in the VR release schedule.
If you enjoyed this episode of Ian's VR Corner, you can catch up with my previous adventures over on YouTube in our VR playlist, where I've covered Valheim VR's motion controls mod, Doom 3 VR Edition and everything we know about PSVR 2 so far. You can also read our list of the best VR games.
