VR games are always so much fun to dive into, even if some make me nauseous, but that’s something I will get used to with time. Hubris is the latest VR game I’ve checked out and was excited to jump into.

Developed by Cyborn B.V., Hubris is a large-scale VR action-adventure game set in a sci-fi world. You take the role of a recruit in training to become an agent of the almighty Order of Objectivity, or Triple-O for short. Sent in search of the mysterious agent, Cyanha, and paired up with the pilot, Lucia, your journey begins. You will have to use all your agility and strength to survive the harsh environment and wildlife on a plant that is being terraformed. You will have to fight like a real Triple-O agent.

I played Hubris on my Windows Mixed Reality headset, which lucky for me, has full VR support for all the mainstream VR headsets, so getting it set up was no hassle at all. Something I would have liked, though, is a screen in settings to show me the controller layout so I knew what buttons were where. I had to search around my controller by pressing buttons until the specific button I was looking for did its thing.

Alright, after setting up, let’s begin. It starts out with a tutorial to show you how things work, from movement and climbing, to the inventory system and using your gun. Not long after, you’ll begin your first mission and start exploring a planet using what you just learned. This is where the game shines the most. Moving around is really enjoyable, from swimming, where you actually have to breaststroke with your arms, to climbing, where you grab onto ledges and pull yourself along, with only a small issue when moving around, like trying to reach for a ledge and being warned you are too close to a wall.

Inventory and grabbing items is something that works really well in Hubris as well. One of the things that annoy me in some VR games is trying to pick something up off the floor. Not having a very large space usually makes this quite difficult, but with Hubris, you kind of do a force pull. Items will glow when you are close enough to pull them to you, which you then just put over your shoulder and let go. Items then materialize into your inventory, which is accessed by tapping your wrist which shows you everything you have, and it is really easy to grab your needed items from there.

Combat and gunplay come across as a bit mediocre with the way the enemies act. There is almost no strategy for how they approach you. They more or less just charge and swarm. This leads to unsatisfactory combat play, which is a little disappointing when there’s a small but decent variety of weapon upgrades. Exploring the world and finding components and junk to scrap allows you to upgrade your weapons, starting out from a pistol and later upgrading to a shotgun and assault rifle. I found myself using the pistol the most.

Graphically is where Hubris really shines, with such a vibrant and well-detailed world to explore with its great movement mechanics. The scenery around you is vast and beautiful, ranging from wild fauna to technologically advanced worlds, along with the infinite void when staring into space. The world isn’t the only thing that looks great, the character models, creatures and machines are well-designed, and high-definition visuals really bring Hubris to life.

In contrast, it’s unfortunately lacking when it comes to music. With so many beautiful environments to explore, it still felt like it was missing something, and I would have appreciated a few subtle tracks playing in the background and something epic during fights. Hubris does offer an array of sound effects as you journey, though, giving some life to the world, and the voice acting was decent, but nothing too special.

VR games with stories are not very common but can be appreciated. Hubris has a small story, however, it wasn’t that interesting. Where it mostly shines is its appearance. It looks great. If you’re looking for a good story, I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you are looking for something new and innovative that works well with movement in VR, it might be a good fit.

Written by: MrVibeAU