Call of Duty was once a cornerstone of the Xbox family. Now the series is much more friendly with PlayStation. Like last year’s Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will have timed exclusive DLC and earlier releases for bonuses on the PlayStation 4. The most exciting exclusive of all has to be Call of Duty Infinite Warfare VR experience, also known as Jackal Assault. At the Call of Duty XP event, developers formally unveiled the new VR experience. So, I strapped on the high-tech goggles and was transported to the immersive VR world inside Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
More Star Wars Than Real Wars
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare VR is a bit like theme park rides like Star Tours or The Simpsons Ride. Things start off as a routine operation but quickly fall apart into spectacular action. Jackal Assault puts you in the pilot seat of one of Infinite Warfare‘s combat spacecraft where a normal test flight to remove space debris quickly devolves into interplanetary warfare.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare VR begins when you strap on the PlayStation VR headgear and open your eyes in the cockpit of a Jackal. You’ve got a full 360-degree view around the interior of the ship, but you only move at the ship’s somewhat gradual pace. The demo began simply with following your copilot around the bigger cruiser ships to take out some pesky detritus floating around the hull. Just as you’re getting used to balancing your ship’s thrust and direction, an anomaly pops up on the radar. And if you know science fiction, a space anomaly is rarely good news.
Soon, massive enemy ships surprise you by teleporting into the area and sending an all-out attack fleet at your base. Dozens of enemy craft, known as Skelters, come straight at you. Now is the time to test out the Jackal’s weapons. To pull you in even more with the VR, the missiles lock-on to targets only when you look directly at them, so your head is constantly moving trying to pinpoint each enemy in your field of view. It can get a little unwieldy flying around like, but the chaos is part of what makes something as new as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare VR feel so fresh.
An Explosive Conclusion
After taking out dozens of Skelters, Jackal Assault reaches its climax in explosive fashion when the bigger ships blast each other with their huge laser cannons. Both times I played Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare VR, I was taken out by those same major lasers, so I can’t say if that’s where the demo was meant to end or if I just suck at VR. I guess I’ll soon find out when the Jackal Assault VR experience launches on Nov 4. The game comes free with the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on PS4.
Not sure about VR? We’ve got the complete run-down of what VR is all about.