Under Cover Review – The VR Time Crisis We’ve Been Dreaming Of?

It’s time to duck and roll as we don our VR headsets and dive headfirst into our official review of VR arcade shooter Under Cover!

I adore light gun games. They’re something of a lost art nowadays, which isn’t helped by the complexity of modern light guns such as the ones offered by Sinden. Even going back to using original hardware has a massive barrier to entry because it either requires a CRT TV or a full-on arcade cabinet. which can be expensive. What’s more, they aren’t exactly easy to store even if you have the funds at your disposal.

One of the main areas where light gun adjacent experiences are flourishing though is in the VR space, with games like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and SUPERHOT VR doing their best to scratch my itch for this particular brand of shooting experience.

Now though, a brand new VR game called Under Cover is hoping to take things to the next level, with it being touted as something of a spiritual successor to the Time Crisis series. Needless to say, I was very keen to take a look at this and thanks to Coatsink, the publishers of the game, I was able to dive in head first and see what Under Cover is all about in an official Retro Dodo review.

They even went out of their way to let us borrow a brand-spanking new Meta Quest 3 so that I could experience the game!

Gun-Play With A Side Of Nostalgia

Even simply looking at the logo for the game, it’s clear that there’s a lot of influence taken from the Time Crisis series, and that inspiration doesn’t stop at the title design either, it runs through the entire experience.

Under Cover is what would happen if Time Crisis embraced its 90’s polygonal origins and its cheesy spy thriller storyline, all while translating its cover-based arcade action into a VR environment.

Using the motion capabilities of the Meta Quest you’ll have to literally crouch to get behind cover and then jump back up, take aim, and pop some fools before crouching back down to safety which automatically reloads your trusty pistol; which by the way, looks exactly like a low-poly PS1 Gun-Con, because of course it does.

The nods to other game series don’t stop there either, with many of the cutscenes consisting of Metal Gear Solid-esque codec calls which even feature the iconic ringtone sound effect. There are lots of references sprinkled throughout which never failed to get a chuckle out of me; we’re clearly dealing with a game made by people who love ’90s retro games just as much as we do!

This ’90s gaming inspiration doesn’t stop at cheeky nods to other franchises though. The entire aesthetic of the game looks like an upscaled PS1 game, looking crisp and modern but retaining a low-poly pixelated visual style which, combined with the bright colour palette, looks fantastic and gives the game a distinct and appealing look.

Enough Action To Keep You On Your Toes

You might be worried that constantly shooting enemies and bobbing up and down would become tedious after a while, but that’s not the case. There’s just enough going on from level to level which keeps you hooked through the entire campaign.

First off, you have a selection of enemy types which all need to be dealt with slightly differently and all of them are immediately identifiable thanks to them handily wearing differently coloured outfits.

The blue guys are the standard cannon fodder who are slow to react but make up the greatest numbers on the battlefield. The red goons are much more accurate and have itchy trigger fingers, often being placed at greater distances with snipers, and the pesky orange dudes wear a helmet needing to be double-tapped in the head to defeat.

Then you have robots that throw slow-moving crowbars at you which can be shot out of the air if your timing is on point, and there are a few more surprises along the way too!

The story also keeps you invested throughout, and while it is a little bit basic, consisting of a generic spoof spy tale, there’s enough self-awareness to make it engaging and often quite humorous.

There’s also a nice little sub-plot going on between the two main characters which results in some great back and forth to break up the action sequences and gives you some much-needed space to breathe between the high-octane shoot-outs. These moments of chatter could be a little bit too frequent and long-winded for some people, but in general, I enjoyed what little story was present here.

Aiming For Variety

The variety of locations you visit keeps things visually interesting too. Players start in an office area before making their way to a casino on a speeding train and ending at a beach set inside of a TV studio.

I would have potentially liked to see things get even zanier here, maybe going underwater or into space, which could have introduced some interesting gameplay mechanics with slow-moving bullets, but what we do see in the game looks great.

Before the start of each level, you can choose one of two starting weapons which always have infinite ammo. The first is the standard single-shot pistol, and the second is an automatic pistol that feels more like a submachine gun.

The single-shot pistol was my favourite though, with it being easier to get headshots to increase your score multiplier more efficiently. There are also different firearms scattered through the levels which, when activated, will have a very limited amount of ammo to use up before switching back to your trusty pistol when depleted.

Trust me, nothing feels quite as fun as mowing down hordes of enemies with a mini-gun as you laugh maniacally! Or is it just me who enjoys that?

A Few Problems That Make Under Cover Slightly Off Target

Despite the core of the game being thoroughly enjoyable, I do think that there are a few problems that stop Under Cover from being quite as good as it could have potentially been.

The major problem for me is that it lacks a meaningful sense of progression. There are no unlockable guns, skins, difficulty options, gameplay modifiers, or even additional modes, and I feel like this could result in feeling a little bit underwhelmed upon finishing the relatively short story mode which only lasts for approximately 2 to 3 hours.

There is a scoring system that incentivises repeat playthroughs to a certain degree, but there are only so many times you can play through the same missions without it losing its initial impact.

I feel like a wave defence mode or an endless survival mode would have really added something to the experience here and could have also acted as a great mode to play if you just wanted to dive into the action without any of the story elements interfering.

The boss battles which end each of the four story chapters also leave a lot to be desired. They always consist of fighting someone in a big robot suit, but each encounter is mechanically identical albeit with slightly more goons and projectiles being thrown about the place. I feel like this ends up making each of the big climatic confrontations with the baddies feel like a bit of a letdown.

Pulling The Trigger On Accessibility

You could make an argument that despite being a VR game, Under Cover doesn’t actually make the most out of its chosen platform. There are very rare moments where you dual-wield machine guns or pistols, but outside of these small sections, you never use more than one hand at a time.

I feel like having a grenade that you can throw with your non-dominant hand or pressing a switch to your side to activate some kind of environmental trap would have made things feel a bit more dynamic, but a side effect of this simplicity means that this would make for a great introduction to the world of VR.

If you’re concerned about the level of physical work it would take to constantly duck behind cover, then rest assured there’s no reason to worry. The amount you need to lower yourself for the game to register you want to hide from enemy fire is very small; this isn’t the equivalent of doing squats at the gym, that’s for sure!

There’s also a seated mode which is greatly appreciated and means that the game can be fully experienced from the comfort of your favourite gaming chair, with the cover mechanic being activated with the press of any of the four face buttons on the controllers.

You also have a vignette effect to negate the feeling of motion sickness and the ability to turn off flashing elements of the interface. And because there’s no fluid movement or animations, with the game then relying on an automatic teleportation system to guide you through the environment instead, there’s practically no risk of giving yourself a headache while playing.

Two Guns Are Better Than One… Kind Of.

One of the stand-out features of Under Cover is the two-player co-op that the entire game is built around.

Basically, there are two paths through each level which offer slightly different angles to shoot enemies from, and these paths will sometimes connect in interesting ways where one player can flank enemies who are hiding while another provides covering fire.

If you’re playing in single-player mode, your teammate will be CPU-controlled which works fine. Still, I always felt like half of the experience was missing because there wasn’t a real person watching my back, and there was no risk of my teammate getting hurt and needing to be revived, so I never really felt the urge to look in their direction.

The hugely disappointing element of the multiplayer is that, while it does feature online matchmaking, you need to have a code to join a session being hosted and you can’t just join a random game, which for myself (and I’m assuming a lot of other people) basically means that this is a single player only affair.

Final Thoughts

Despite some room for improvement in several key areas, I had a lot of fun with my time immersed in the world of Under Cover. The fact that it feels so much like Time Crisis and similar retro light gun games adds an element of familiarity and it’s very easy to pick up and play, not overwhelming new players with complicated controls or movement options. You just pick it up and get shooting!

I loved all of the little references to Time Crisis and other retro games I found during this review; Under Cover wears its influences on its sleeve while also offering something distinct with its story, visual style, and the fact that it’s in VR!

While it lacks a degree of complexity, never really requiring you to do anything other than shoot and take cover, this simplicity would work in its favour if you aren’t too familiar with VR games and I would highly recommend this as a fantastic introduction to the format.

I would be very excited to see updates with additional content or potentially a full-blown sequel that improves on some of the weaker areas of the game like the online multiplayer and the boss battles, but for now, I’m very happy with what we’ve got!