Darts VR2: Bullseye Impressions: Of Course There Are Zombies

Darts VR2: Bullseye, out now in Early Access, wears its early ’10s VR charm like a badge of honor. Somehow, this works in its favor.

I had a sinking feeling when I booted up Darts VR2: Bullseye because, well, this is darts. Then the electrifying zombie-grasped dartboard logo splash screen smashed into view and I snapped to attention. This is not just darts. It is darts.

After the surprisingly aggressive logo, the main menu loaded and for the first time in a while, I was greeted with a 360 degree menu in a VR game. I tried to turn with my right controller, only to find out that wasn’t allowed. I had to physically turn. Somehow, this made me smile. I felt like I was back in a VR arcade in the late ’10s, playing stationary VR experiences on an OG Vive headset and having a blast with the simplest of games.

The Party Mode is not yet available in this Early Access period, but the other modes, avatar customization, and leaderboards are all up and running. The avatars are just heads and hands, adding to the old-school VR design. You also get your choice of darts skinned with country flags.

Darts VR2: Bullseye, the sequel to the now delisted 2017 original, has four gameplay modes: 501, Around the World, Killstreak, and Zombies.

501 is the more traditional, ‘professional’ way to play darts. It starts you with a score of 501 points with a goal to get said score down to exactly zero. That is a level of precision that will require skill and mastery, neither of which I have. Throwing mechanics in VR rarely feel great, and this was one of my concerns coming into the game. Thankfully, Bullseye gets that right. I was terrible, but I felt my hand arcing down at the release point and knew I was going to miss. It felt true to form.

Killstreak quickly became addictive. The goal is to hit the same zone on the board with consecutive darts. You have five lives and lose one each time you fail at this simple task. I was one and done in my first run, never hitting the same zone twice. This was mildly triggering. So when the UI popped asking me if I wanted to restart, it was an instant yes. Next try, I only got a streak of two, but that second dart literally electrified the board, giving me a dopamine hit I instantly wanted more of. Restart. Two again. Restart. This time, on the third hit, the board increased in size, making the zone easier to hit. Later, another dart lands, turning the zone from blue to purple. Another hits, changes the board color. Then I missed and fought the urge to hit restart again. I could have played Killstreak all day. That leaderboard will be interesting to see in the future.

The same cannot be said for the Zombie mode. It is a stationary wave shooter (darter?) with points awarded for hitting different zombie body parts. A headshot, of course, is the Holy Grail one-shot kill. VR has had scores of zombie wave shooters in the years between the first game and Bullseye. Everything in this mode, the map layout, the zombie models, the sounds, all of it feels very dated. Also, the physics-based throwing mechanics that work so great when throwing at a board fall apart when trying to hit slow-approaching zombies from clear across the room. Gravity really takes over at long distance. There are explosive darts that are periodically earned, but overall, there are much better zombie wave shooters out there and the novelty of killing zombies with darts was not enough to overcome the been-there-done-that feeling.

Around the World requires hitting every zone on the board in numerical sequence from 1 to 20, followed by the bullseye. After a few embarrassing throws that missed the board entirely, I caught fire and hit three numbers in a row a couple of times. When I finished, I looked at how many darts it took me to get to the bullseye and thought “I can do better than that.”

This is ultimately the charm of Darts VR2. Unless you are really good, and I am not, rounds are over so quickly that it is very tempting to run it back one more time. This is how games become rabbit holes and one loses track of time when in VR. Darts VR2: Bullseye’s simplicity is its strength.

Darts VR2: Bullseye is available now in Early Access on Meta Quest, Steam, and PS VR2.