Lethal VR is Team17’s virtual reality Lethal Weapon. We’re getting too old for this shit.
In the UK you can’t just pop down to a firing range, pick up a Glock, and pop a dozen caps into the ass of an unsuspecting paper silhouette. Nor can you saw said silhouette in half with an automatic rifle; gun control is a different world here. Instead of actual firearms we’ve got water pistols, laser tag, paintball. If you’re feeling particularly aggressive you can hit clay pigeons with a real shotgun, but that’s usually reserved for stag (bachelor) parties.
But if you want to get your hands on some deadly weaponry without any of the unsightly consequences of unfettered access to firearms, Team17’s latest virtual reality experience, Lethal VR, is here to pick up the slack.
Like the best shooting ranges, Lethal VR sees you taking out your virtual aggression on humanoid cardboard cutouts, scoring points for accurate shooting, with highlighted red bits to determine the highest points. Pay no attention to the fact those red target zones line up with the squishiest, most killable bits on a human person.
And like the best of the best shooting ranges, there’s an enormous range of armaments for you to have a crack at in Lethal VR. They’re not all guns – there’s throwing stars, knives, and other hand-delivered projectiles – but mostly they’re weapons of the bangy, shooty variety.
To mix up the challenges, you’ll also get to have a crack at what appear to be approximations of various law enforcement training scenarios. If you’ve seen the classic shooting gallery trope in TV or movies – the Hollywood approximation of the FBI’s famous Hogan’s Alley, complete with innocent civilians for shoot/don’t shoot chaos – then you get the idea.
It all looks rather fun, and is an unusually pleasant way of wielding firearms in virtual reality. Lethal VR is out now, exclusively on PlayStation VR.