Zenith: The Last City Review

And stepping into Zenith's world for the first time proved that the developers accomplished exactly waht they set out to do. In a way it's something most people have seen 100 times before - i mean the story is minimal, there's a lot of grinding and the quests are fairly simple quests - but once you walk out of the tutorial area and cross the epic bridge into the Fractured Plains and see everyone already playing, running around, killing bad guys, running quests, climbing, and flying around the world before you've even done anything at all feels like the culmination of everything we've wanted from VR since day one. It's like Rec Room but you know, with a cool art style, awesome abilities, and much deeper gameplay mechanics than anything you'll find in Against Gravity's aweome world. Starting out you're able to make your own character - there's 2 genders, along with plenty of hairstyle and skin colors to pick from. They;re all Zenethians though so when you run around and look at everyone else, well, we all kinda look related. At launch there's two different CLASSes - if you want to run in swinging swords then The Blade Master has your name written all over it. This class requires a little more physicallity untill you learn to be more conservative with the force and timing of your swings. But if you'd rather keep a bit of distance between you and the enemies, like me, you might prefer the Essence Mage who can charge up and fire shots from your hands. There are benefits and downsides to both but honestly I felt like discovering the nuances between the two classes and learning what each is capable of was half the fun so I don't want to sit here and ruin all of that for you. That said both have some very cool gesture based spells and abilities that'll use your MP, so managing those cooldown timers along with your MP and stamina meters is what'll make you more successful in battle. And as expected both the blade master and essence mage have three ROLES to pick from, DPS, Medic, and Tank - so whatever way you like to play in MMOs, you're likely to be able to play that way in Zenith too. Before you even take on your first quest you'll prbably realize just how much fun it is to explore the world. Sure there are ladders that'll allow you to climb to some platforms but you can also climb pretty much anything. This means if you see an orange in a tree that you want, you can reach out and just... climb. Exactly the way you think you would. Plus there are ziplines scattered around to bring you to some pretty high areas. But best of all is the gliding mechanic. Jumping off any platform and doing a T pose starts your characted flying in that direction. And switching over to sensiitive or advanced gliding will allow you to dive bomb, gain momentum, and in general just have way more control over your flight. Almost everything fun uses stamina though, so when you're playing the game you'll want to keep an eye out for the crystal teardrops that are hidden throughout the world. Collecting them and turning them into this giant statue ups your stamina meter permanently, so it's a side quest that'll be in the back of your mind for the entire game. Almost all the interactions are VRAF and that just makes Zenith even more fun to play For most of the game you'll run around, encounter NPCs, take on quests that can be everything from killing a certian number of enemies, searching specific areas, killing bosses, or just pulling levers and flipping switches. It's stuff that on its own might be a little mundane, but with three or 4 friends - or if you're really popular and you;re grinding it out with 10 or 20 other people, it's an absolute blast. Global voice chat is on by default so if anyone is talking near you, you can hear them but if you party up or join a guild, you can switch over to guild or party chat and you'll hear everyone as if they're standing directly next to you. This all works way beter than expected and makes the social aspect of Zenith half the reason to play. The developers thought so too and even included a tavern for you and your friends to hang out at whenever you feel like taking a break The fastest way to level up in Zenith seems to be sticking to the story, gaining XP from completing quests and sidequests, and tackling events as frequently as possible. There are crafting stations - which so far I haven't found much use for because I've been finding great loot allowing me to upgrade my armor and weapons every hour or so. Oh and even though its totally optional you can spend a TON of time cooking. Findning Brenn in the city unlocks mission after mission of finding ingredients and getting recipes that'll serve as buffs for you and your party members. What could have been a simple addition to Zenith feels remarkably fleshed out. I mentioned at the behinning of this review that the developers were inpired by Phantasy Star Online. And nothing proves that more than the cyberpunk world itself. You can look at any rock or tree and see the low resolution textures - no one item looks amazing on its own. But whn yuo take a step back and look at everything as a whole it's just beautiful, like an anime come to life in VR. All of it is complimented by an awesome soundtrack that usually takes a backseat to the in-game chat, but when you pay attention to it, is really chill. So if you've played Zenith then you know that it's not all positive. Fast traveling can frequently cause crashes, sometimes markers disappear from your mini-map, and occasionally you'll end up underneath the world or have trouble with voice chat. But somehow none of these things ever got in the way of our fun. Any time I experienced a major issue - which was few and far between - getting back into the game never took more than a minute or two. There's a sad misconcpetion out there that VR isolates gamers. That you put a box on your head and suddenly you're in this world all by yourself - away from friends, away from family, away from society. But during a time where it's harder than ever to see your friends and family in real life VR games that allow you to get up, move around and interact with literally hundreds of other people are more important than ever. That's not the only reason to get Zenith though. Launching at 30 dollars with an overwhelming about of content and polish, Zenith kicks off the MMO genre on PSVR with not only a ton of style, but truley an endless amount of potential. It's already one of my favorite games and I can't wait to see what's coming next. BUT it wasn't until playing the betas - amd now the final game for myself 0 than anything you'll find in Against Garvity's impressive social hub BUT when you pay attention to it, it'll bring back memories of some of your favoirte JRPGS.

Score: 9.8/10