Firewall Ultra Critic Reviews

Firewall Ultra sticks to what works and is very satisfying, but missed opportunities hold it back from truly being the ultra tactical VR shooter.

Is it the system-seller that PS VR2 fans were hoping for? Not exactly, but there is plenty to like about Firewall Ultra. It’s an extremely comfortable VR shooter with fun tactical gameplay that uses the headset’s features in an interesting way, though it does take some getting used to. Sluggish progression and minor bugs need to be addressed, but First Contact Entertainment has been updating the game rapidly since launch.

As arguably the biggest, full-fat PSVR 2 first-party release since Horizon: Call of the Mountain, it's clear that Firewall Ultra doesn't quite match the deservedly lofty expectations that have been set for it. This is thanks in no small part to a modest amount of content and a progression system that is currently grind-heavy to say the least. However, it's also clear that this is a gorgeously realised tactical shooter that approaches excellence when everything falls into place with your fellow human players - it's just that, as of right now, such occasions are more fleeting than I would like thanks to so much for Firewall Ultra's promise being locked behind promised future updates that have yet to arrive.

It just needs more content - which is eventually coming down the track - and, for me, a greater fluidity and speed of movement. All in, for £35, well worth a try on PSVR2. But hardcore first-person shooter gamers won’t find the next big thing here just yet.

Firewall Ultra have some noticeable issues concerning players' progression and matchmaking but, with the proper support from its developers, it has the potential to become an excellent multiplayer FPS for PSVR.

This feels – and arguably is, given First Contact’s emphasis on post-launch updates– unfinished, rendering what could have been fantastic merely ‘good’.

Firewall Ultra has a ton of potential. Its solid shooting, diverse maps and addictive gameplay make each match a thrill. While First Contact Entertainment nails these aspects, there are several issues that make this fall short of a complete experience. With the lack of in-game interactivity, inactive objectives and only a couple of modes, Firewall Ultra needs time to be the shooter we were hoping for.

At the moment, it is advisable to wait for more content in the game, along with fixes for its technical issues and effective adjustments to progression. Furthermore, it is important to introduce interactions that are more compatible with virtual reality.

It was reasonable to expect more from Firewall Ultra. The legacy of Zero Hour is only partially taken up, given that the production alternates steps forward with inexplicable steps backwards on the interactivity front. The new tactical shooter from First Contact Entertainment keeps its playful qualities intact, starting from the strong emphasis placed on team play, but has to deal with long matchmaking times and a progression system that is not stimulating enough. Then there is the problem of the lack of variety in terms of game modes, which we hope will be expanded in the future.

In spite of its creative use of the PSVR2’s eye-tracking feature, Firewall Ultra’s immersion-breaking control scheme, poor matchmaking, and questionable progression-based unlocks lead to an exercise in futility.

Despite the lack of content at launch and the long waits to join matches, I still can’t seem to put Firewall Ultra down. The game is only $40 currently for the standard version, and it improves on the original quite a bit. The eye tracking needs polish, but it can also be turned off in the options. The quality-of-life also needs improvements, but there is quite a bit here. After doing PvP to start, I found myself enjoying PvE despite the AI being sneaky yet overwhelming. Finishing missions, which really equates to hacking different laptops on a map, started to happen. Firewall Ultra requires your time and effort and while the in-game rewards are minimal, the rewards of improving and playing in the social atmosphere is the hook.

Even if Firewall Ultra has some great ideas and makes good use of the PSVR2 hardware, the simplified gameplay prevents a greater immersion.

Firewall Ultra is a simple game, with few modes at launch and a very long matchmaking. Furthermore, the gameplay barely explores the capabilities of VR. With the promised support, Firewall Ultra may be better in the future, but it's difficult to recommend it at the moment.

Firewall Ultra simultaneously feels like two steps forward and two steps backward. It somehow does just as much right – and wrong – as Firewall: Zero Hour, a VR game that is now over five years old. While its shooting and tactical teamwork feel, look, and sound better than ever, its content is limited and it’s filled with questionable uses of new tech like eye tracking. What it all adds up to is a decent competitive multiplayer shooter that just happens to be in VR, but its awkward controls are a shot in the foot rather than the shot in the arm that the PlayStation VR2 desperately needed.

Could be one of PSVR2s best shooters, but is held back by some baffling design decisions.

Ultimately, we think our impressions of Firewall Ultra boil down to just one question: will we be back for more? At this point in time, it seems unlikely. There are certainly the bones of a good game in here, but with the streamlined gameplay experience and limited content roster, frankly we just kept thinking about the better VR games we could be playing. We’ll certainly be keen to dip in once new content arrives, but it’s especially disheartening when we’ve been waiting for a big VR shooter like this on the PSVR2 for quite some time. Firewall Ultra then is an infrequently fun yet persistently disappointing first-party title that really forgets what makes VR so special in the first place.

Ultimately, it’s hard to recommend Firewall Ultra. Hardcore VR and tactical shooter enthusiasts might get some fun out of it, but for most there’ll simply be too much downtime and not enough variety. Throw in other issues such as the lack of interactivity, and you have a game that is a bit of a disappointment overall. Can things be turned around? Maybe, if developer First Contact Entertainment can act quickly. Already a patch has been released to speed up unlocks and improve matchmaking, but there needs to be more, like additional match types. Player retention is likely to prove the biggest hurdle here, though; it’s simply not fun waiting longer to get enough players to start a match than the length of a match itself.

An online team-based shooter that completely overlooks the potential of VR. Firewall Ultra provides a somewhat shallow experience, with matchmaking times often exceeding the actual gameplay, and meager rewards. Despite the relatively limited library of PS VR2, there are better titles available.

I will be transparent and say that I have only spent about 5 hours with Firewall Ultra at the time of this writing, and have not had the ability to link up with friends or colleagues yet, so all of my time has been spent with random party members online. That 5 hours has been something of a chore though, and I was ready to step away within the very first hour of time with Firewall Ultra. As I said earlier, there is definitely something here, and an adjustment to environmental interaction, reloading, and the combat engagements itself could turn this around. Unfortunately, as it stands here now, I cannot truly recommend this as a VR game worth spending your time and money on, at least not yet.

We had high hopes for Firewall Ultra, but it ended up being a deception. Playing together can still be fun and graphically it looks neat as well, but the rest of the game actually disappoints. The gameplay does not feel right, the menus are a disaster to navigate, the special VR2 features are not used, the sound is inconsistent, and so on. Alas, Firewall Ultra is not what it should have been.