‘Titan Isles’ Review – A Good Bullet Hell Shooter Missing The Magic of ‘Windlands’

You’d be forgiven for considering Titan Isles was some kind of prequel to the Windlands sequence. Whereas it does have lots in widespread with Psytec’s combat-flavored journey platformer Windlands 2 (2018), Titan Isles is a completely new sport that marks a transparent departure from the sequence’ give attention to exploration by amping up fight and stripping down ranges to a largely straight ‘A to B’ pathway, making for a reasonably good (if not fundamental) bullet hell-style shooter that dispels extra of the the Windlands magic than I hoped to half with.

Titan Isles Particulars:

Developer: Psytec Video games
Accessible On: Quest, SteamVR, coming to PSVR 2 in 2026
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Launch Date: September twenty fifth, 2025
Value: $30

Gameplay

There’s lots to love about Titan Isles: sweeping landscapes with spectacular vertical drops, large bosses that may actually drive you to rethink your plan of assault, and quite a lot of new locomotion schemes that simply really feel proper. For some, that is the sport.

There’s additionally lots to dislike too: shooter mechanics seemingly lifted from flatscreen video games, straight-shot degree design with no actual alternative for exploration, and predictable enemy varieties that by no means appear to evolve past fundamental assault patterns. All of it feels slightly too predictable, and rather less intriguing than it must be. However, I’ve been tainted by the large-scale attract of Windlands.

Don’t get me fallacious. Titan Isles does what many bullet hell-style video games usually do, i.e. striping down the “want” for immersive taking pictures mechanics whereas placing the lasers on full blast, as three of the 4 ‘Exo Fits’ give attention to some kind of infinite ammo weapon. Nonetheless, on the flipside, every go well with kind comes with its personal distinctive traversal model, which feels as mature and (largely) properly balanced as its Windlands forerunner.

Right here’s a fast have a look at the Exo Fits and skills out there, every of which is upgradeable again at base:

• Storm – Hand-mounted jet packs, pistols and a extra highly effective rifle
• Hunter – Grappling Hooks, bow and arrow
• Goliath – A lesser model of Storm’s jet pack, protect and hand canon
• Blink – Part-dash potential, wall working, triple leaping, ‘Viper Bolt’ projectile

The entire weapons above include floating reticles by default, making it really feel such as you’re primarily pointing and clicking at baddies advert infinitum. However hey, that is primarily an arcade bullet hell, which appears to be par for the course. Anyway, extra on that within the Immersion part beneath.

Titan Isles isn’t solely a single-player sport, though you may play begin to end by yourself. Supporting as much as 4 co-op gamers, the sport robotically scales so as to add in additional baddies to every area, which additionally means extra lasers and homing missiles to dodge. The clip beneath is barely slowed down for full impact.

Nonetheless, having set of buds by your facet doesn’t solely distract from the truth that Titan Isles is mainly nearly clearing enemies throughout its lengthy, successive arenas, that are periodically gated till you kill all the things inside earlier than assembly the end-level boss and ultimately finishing the mission.

After all, in case you are on the lookout for extra of a problem, you may all the time flip up the issue degree earlier than you strap in, which makes enemies each higher pictures and extra highly effective. Nonetheless, there’s a notable lack of natural exploration, save the random collectibles you could (or might not) ever actually care about.

That stated, a particular spotlight for me was the sport’s degree bosses, which even on regular mode will be difficult for those who haven’t upgraded your package correctly, or haven’t discovered which Exo Swimsuit is the most effective for you.

Bosses are large, and properly diversified, placing collectively your whole locomotion and taking pictures expertise directly. They only so occur to require just about the identical techniques because the arena-based boss battles in Windlands 2, i.e. break frangible armor factors and keep away from successively intense assaults as a single remaining armor level turns into with most difficult to shoot. It’s a easy formulation, however one which interplays with the world design to good impact.

And please, don’t ask me in regards to the story behind Titan Isles—one thing, one thing, one thing, evil robots—which the sport’s finish boss actually takes to an excessive by tossing each minion and taking pictures model at you in fast succession. He took me round 5 hours of solo play to get to.

There are discovered notes all through that comply with a marooned scientist who witnessed the world tragedy to convey the Titans to energy, large robots who’re (I repeat) evil, though sitting there listening to long-winded audio logs between arenas feels a bit antithetical to your complete “go go go” expertise.

As soon as the credit position, replay worth is definitely pretty excessive. It doesn’t simply throw you on the identical ranges you beat earlier than, however affords up a randomly combined degree you can select on any tough mode. You too can do additional bits (extra enjoyable in co-op, little doubt) together with ‘Racing’, a collectible ‘Assortment Dash’ mode, and a shooting-focused ‘Goal Rush’ mode.

Immersion

Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been pining for Windlands 3 right here slightly too onerous on this assessment, however with one thing clearly imbued with Windlands’ DNA as Titan Isles, there’s actually no different apt comparability. It leaves me eager about how way more I liked Windlands 2, and its potential to weave that core bullet hell fight right into a richer narrative and bigger world that actually felt lived in—one thing price taking the time to discover with mates.

That stated, my favourite a part of Titan Isles is its numerous locomotion schemes, which truly depart from the grappling hook-swinging parkour seen within the sequence.

Whereas the Hunter Exo Swimsuit does have grappling hooks that work virtually like they do in Windlands, the exception is you may truly hook onto something in Titan Isles and never simply greenery. The main focus right here is much less on how you get round, and extra on how briskly you will get the hell out of Dodge: precisely why I by no means performed as Hunter.

Hunter’s highly effective arrows by no means appeared to outweigh the motion penalty that comes with having to precisely goal your subsequent grappling hook maintain, making me gravitate to the jetpack-equipped Storm more often than not. Effortlessly blasting across the map, expertly threading baddies and zipping round homing missiles and oncoming laser barrages is a kind of “I can’t imagine I’m truly good at this” kind of expertise that I do know comes from years of analysis in VR locomotion design. I invested all of my factors, gained by beating ranges into Storm’s jetpack and weapons.

That’s me although. Chances are you’ll gravitate in the direction of Goliath for its heavy cannon and protect that effectively blocks sustained laser hearth, which additionally has a extra restricted model of Storm’s jetpack. Or Blink, which might triple leap and wall-surf round bosses with ease—a detailed second for me to Storm. Nonetheless, there’s nothing higher than a completely upgraded jet pack to take you to the best (and sometimes most secure) level of any given area.

Which leads me to the taking pictures expertise. On the spectrum of ‘built-for-VR taking pictures mechanics’, Titan Isles is nearer to a flatscreen arcade sport than many. Primary floating reticles comply with you round, which felt alright when it got here to grappling hooks, however much less so relating to repeatedly blasting away at something that strikes. You’ll be able to flip off reticles in settings, in addition to change colours of each left and proper reticles, though it doesn’t make taking pictures any extra immersive.

I do know. This can be a standard characteristic of most bullet hells, VR or in any other case, though I can’t assist however really feel like Titan Isles gave up VR-centric design in service of placing extra enemies and lasers within the area when it in all probability didn’t should.

That stated, most of the sport’s finer immersive touches are real highlights. Voice appearing is high notch, though the sport’s soundtrack affords up a sweeping musical rating that I might in all probability hearken to out of VR. Spatial audio can be on level relating to enemies and mates too. In co-op, you’ll additionally have the ability to hear your companions naturally once they’re near you.

As soon as out of vary, they develop into voices on a radio, indicating you’ve strayed too removed from you staff mate. Any approach you tackle Titan Isles, you’ll must maintain an ear out for beeping homing missiles and turrets of every kind, which regularly instances begin their barrage earlier than you may see them.

Visually, the sport regarded and labored fairly nice on Quest 3, as arenas can simply fill with tons of enemies, every of which blasts away with its personal lasers and missiles. It’s a cartoony artwork model that (sigh, I’m saying the factor once more) Windlands followers will simply acknowledge as each suitably cartoony and tremendous performant.

Consolation

For a quick-paced sport with sufficient parkour and jetpacking to shake a stick at, Titan Isles isn’t as intense because the opening warning label suggests. Flying, swinging and triple leaping round is completed in sweeping, predictable arcs, letting you management the trajectory in mainly each occasion.

There’s additionally easy and variable snap-turning out there, in addition to each head and controller relative ahead motion. A variable vignette may show you how to tune down among the motion-related put on. I’m significantly delicate to uncontrolled, pressured locomotion, and solely discovered just a few transient moments within the transport ship on my solution to missions as slightly iffy. In any other case, I performed a number of hours at a time with out concern.