Game Review: Dick Wilde

If, like us, you’ve dropped 130 bucks on Sony’s new VR Aim Controller, you’re probably hungry to test that sucker out on other compatible games. Sadly, the pool is pretty shallow right now. Out of the handful available, Dick Wilde – a blaster that mercilessly targets rednecks for mockery — is your best shot.

You’re the titular Dick: one part gun-obsessed hick, another part MacGuyver. Your backwoods shed (and possible meth lab) is filled with modified firearms, including a nailgun with crazy recoil, an electrified bow, a launcher that spits out sawblades, and a good ol’ fashioned grenade launcher.

You also have more traditional shotguns and the like, but these come with secondary transformation modes which dramatically change their effectiveness at short and long ranges.

You’ll need to take the aforementioned boomsticks and murderise extremely hostile wildlife as they steam towards your fixed position of defence (which means the control sticks on your VR Aim are basically useless here).

No matter which themed level you’re on, be it a lagoon, swamp, or dinosaur reserve, the idea is basically the same: survive many, many waves of hungry critters trying to bite through that redneck of yours.

The action hits frenetic after only two attack waves. Gators and bullsharks snake their way towards you in groups as puffer fish and buzzards of various breed spit or poop projectiles at you. Dodging the aforementioned requires you to physically sway your torso, which means you quickly have to become adept at nailing targets when your world-view is drunkenly sideways.

Fitting, we suppose, because Dick’s drawling soundbites sound like he’s hammered. Get hit by incoming sputum and it’s more or less a death sentence, thanks to a blinding splatter effect that obscure way too much of the screen for a ridiculous amount of time. 

The only way you can claw your way back is if you finish a round with the requisite stars needed to buy a bonus for the next. Medkits patch your sorry self up, and you can also install moderately effective defensive AI weapons like a bottlerocket launcher and a bullet-spewing turret.

It’s also worth noting that those of you without a VR Aim can play a dual-wielding mode with two Move controllers. No matter which way you go, tracking on either peripheral type is basically 1:1 perfect.

And that’s really all there is to Dick Wilde. Three “island” levels (with re-skinned enemies who more or less attack in the same way). Three difficulties per island, though the easiest one will kill all but the most hyperactive and accurate among you. And a handful of cool pro/con guns that you wish you could use on the voice actor spewing out Dick’s repetitive one-liners (the banjo music can be switched off, mercifully). 

Dick Wilde is challenging and well-produced, but also short and nothing we haven’t seen before on PS VR. It’s priced right to warrant pulling the trigger on though. Just don’t expect it to deliver more than a few short bursts of fun. 

Score: 6.5/10

 

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