Farpoint

Farpoint places the player on an unknown planet, sent to search for a missing research expedition, and has them face swarms of alien insects as well as small puzzles in more open, though still linearly guided, environments. The game was designed alongside a special peripheral controller shaped like a rifle, which combines two Move motion sensors into a single body, so aiming and reloading the weapon feels natural, much like real shooting. The player's movement across the planet is handled through smooth walking, which was a relatively bold step at the time of release, since many VR titles of that era relied on teleportation out of concern for motion sickness. The player gradually finds upgrades and alternative weapons, so the fight against swarming insects steadily gains tactical depth, even though the core of the game remains primarily action-focused and direct.

The visual side relied on expansive outdoor vistas with desert canyons, cave systems, and stormy skies, which was a demanding task for the VR hardware of the time, and the game therefore occasionally struggled with lower texture sharpness. The soundscape and tense music focused on building an oppressive atmosphere of loneliness on an alien planet, where the player never knows from where the next wave of enemies will emerge. Occasional detours from the main storyline lead to diary entries from the missing expedition, which gradually fill in the picture of what happened on the planet before the player arrived.

At the time of release, Farpoint was viewed primarily as a showcase title for the new controller, but it was also among the first larger sci-fi shooters to offer smooth movement on PSVR without significant motion-sickness issues for most players. The game helped show that specialized hardware can markedly improve the feel of aiming in VR, and it became one of the titles frequently mentioned in connection with the early era of shooting genres on PSVR.

Why play: For smooth movement without significant motion-sickness issues and a demonstration of how a specialized controller improves aiming in VR, Farpoint ranks among the first larger sci-fi shooters on PSVR.