What happens if you mix a tab of LSD with God-mod action movies like John Wick and rhythm oriented action of Equilibrium, Pistol Whip puts you at the front-role seat through an explosive batch of pulsing soundtracks along with trippy visual. The game features EDM tracks from Kannibalen Records, including Apashe, HVDES, and Black Tiger Sex Machine.

Yet unlike traditional music games, Pistol Whip has no limits. You are given complete freedom to shoot, and dodge targets to the rhythm however you prefer. The first person view in combination with pulse-pounding pace from dynamic flow state energy music in a cinematic cocktail of violence. Develop your rhythm and find your style of game play, and then compare your skill with friend from around the world on the leaderboards.Enter your text here...

Our Review of Pistol Whip: Best Exercise Game for VR

Pistol Whip is a VR game that requires constant body movement, where the player has to move in order dodge bullets and fight enemy to survive the game play. If you prefer to kill two birds with one stone, Pistol Whip is a VR game that you can have fun and burn calories at the same time. According VR Fitness Insider, an hour of game play burns approximately 500 calories, not bad considering you are having fun at the same time. Who says working has to be boring and tiring?

If you have some weights around the house, why not put them on to increase the difficulty levels of your workout. The increased heart rate means more calories burned. After an hour of Pistol Whip gameplay, you may find yourself completing over 200 squats. Be sure to warm up and cool down before and after your workout. 

This is One VR Game You Do Not Want to Miss

We previously reviewed the addictively Beat Saber, an intense rhythm game with lightsabers to slash flying game objects. Pistol Whip is like a psychedelic version of Superheat, filled with bright pulsing lights, and simplistic environment with enemies that are all synced to the music. You may discover similar vision as what you would see in a LSD trip. 

Pistol Whip delivers the same familiar concept yet with a refreshing combination that is pure entertaining. Pistol Whip is an awesome rhythm shooter game that blends some of the best qualities in VR gaming, where hands, body, and reactions are tracked to induce the sensational feelings of top gaming experience. 

In the game, the player stands on a what feels like an flat escalator, similar as what you typically see in airport terminals. The conveyor belts slowly takes your on a journey through trippy game settings of random exploding geometric objects, we are not quite sure how we got there in the first place. 

The game objective is to survive the motorized walk by taking out every pistol wielding man in suits, while surviving by dodging their slow-moving bullets. However, the goal is not to shoot just anyone that comes into your line of sight, rather to identify and shoot your gun at the music being piped to your ears to score the most point. 

You are given a pistol with unlimited ammunition. Your goal is to stay in rhythm of the song, while shooting every enemy in your field of vision before they attack you, especially those ones who come out of cover, or those that try to make it across random hallways. If the target enemy appears directly in front of you at any time, score more points by taking them out with your gun as a blunt weapon. 

The best part about the game is the overall design of the gaming experience. Despite the amount of fast moving objects with a sense of central horizon and a high-contrast color mixture, the game play does not induce VR motion sickness by the constant motion as you move through the game. 

The objects are designed so that the player can predict each upcoming threat objects from far away. After playing a while, it becomes second nature to read certain musical blocks from a far distance. After bit of playing you will soon discover how the enemies or threat will appear in the pattern you eventually become familiarized with. 

You will find yourself back in time to the era of arcades, such as the classic House of Dead. 

There were occasions where I was unable to match the shooting to the rhythm, perhaps a calibration function could be introduced in the future to match the time of the song being played. There may be slight delayed between each percussive beat. 

You can however, turnoff the auto aim assist function to get a more realistic feel of the game, this is when your reflexes and motion becomes more important. You will also score more points. You can also turn off death, and see the game play in its entirety until the very end. Turn off the unlimited ammunition, if you would like to practice dodging bullets and how to stay alive. Watch Neo from Matrix to learn how Keanu Reeves does it like no others. 

The leaderboard will always keep you informed how well you are doing compared to the rest of the community. How you perform on the leaderboard will largely rely on how you respond rhythmically to the song. This game will be a good music training game for those who naturally lack rhythm foundations, as the game even has a metronome function. 

Some of the environment features more jungle or desert scenes, while some are more urban like corporate offices. Many of the environment appears to be influenced by action franchises such as Spectre, a James Bond film. 

There are currently twenty different available weapons, likely more to come in the near future. 

Things can become more challenging as you implement the modifiers, which allows you to use both controllers as if you have two pistols. If you feel like you are Pistol Whip Pro, this would be something you can definitely try. But we recommend to start the game off with the standard mode. If you start off too challenging, the BPM might be too fast, and you will be overwhelmed with the amount of enemies coming at you.  

Verdict

Beat Saber is one of our favorite VR games of all-time, and Pistol is one actually on the same level. We haven’t had this much fun while immersed in VR goggle for a long time. The way the combats are design are very novel and unique. The game provides the action-format of an arcade, yet the comfort that doesn’t make you want to throw up.

There are currently only 15 levels, we hope to see more levels to come in the near future. Depending on your taste in music, techno may or may not be your cup of tea. The game is primarily comprise of drum and bass style music, while the BPM varies drastically from song to songs. 

The game works better on PC-VR headsets, yet may not work as well for standalone headset such as the the Oculus Quest.  

The game is on sell on Steam and Oculus Store for $24.99. The game comes with 15 scenes, each with their independent songs on three difficulty levels.

Does PlayStation VR have Pistol Whip?

Yes, Developer Cloudhead has finally released Pistol Whip at the PlayStation store for $25 USD since July 2020. 

If you are playing the game on PSVR, the camera placement is especially important. Sometimes you will need the extra time to turn around to shoot a missed enemy. This is a risky maneuver with the PSVR motion controller tracked by a single duel-eye camera in front of you. PSVR players will most likely have more fun by carefully placing the camera that provides more positional tracking to get better scores. 

How many levels are in Pistol Whip?

Originally released with 10 levels, there are currently total of 15 levels for the VR rhythm shooting game. 

How much does Pistol Whip cost?

$25 USD

Is Pistol Whip Free?

The Heartbreaker Trilogy is the newest free DLC for Pistol Whip, and last free DLC for this year. However, this is the largest DLC to date with new guns, three new tracks, modifiers, effects, and skins.  All the 23 achievement for the PlayStation PSVR are now featured on Oculus Quest and Steam VR. 

This is the first time Pistol Whip developer, Cloudhead Games, released multiple tracks in one DLC. For all the pro players out there, a new set of modifiers makes it easier to be on the top of leaderboard, given that you are already somewhat of a skilled player. The new modifier, Vengeance modifier will trigger the enemy to shoot right back at you upon firing a shot at them, and the Disorder modifier makes the enemies more unpredictable. These two modifier will get you the extra points when activated. 

Previously using the Dual-wield two guns mode will result in lower overall score as it was perceived two guns as being more “unfair”, however, dual-wield players scores will no longer be penalized. 

About Cloudhead Games

Cloudhead Games is nestled between idyllic mountains and the Pacific Ocean, a creative Oasis located in the Vancouver Island. The studio is a 8000 square foot historic building located in the center of town.  

Cloudhead was the first to utilize the Razer Hydra for hand-tracking, a motion control system for traditional PC gaming. They eventually became one of the first developers for the HTC Vive. Their method are now being used by major Hollywood productions.  

The studio has won numerous awards since its debut. 

• Nominee 2018 Technology Impact Awards – Startup of the Year 
• Nomination 2017 UploadVR Awards – Best Developer of the Year 
• Nomination 2016 UploadVR Awards – Breakout VR Game Studio 
• Nomination 2016 UploadVR Awards – Most Innovative VR Game 
• Winner 2016 Canadian Video Game Awards – Best Technology 
• Winner 2016 Canadian Video Game Awards – Best Game Innovation
• 
  

Cloudhead has been developing VR since 2012. The studio successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign in Spring 2013 that provided them the funding to create the first ever VR game, previously known as The Gallery: Six Elements. The studio has since grew into a diverse team of talents from various backgrounds. Since then, Cloudhead has been partnering with industry leader to produce leading VR experiences. 

During the latest Facebook Connect, Oculus introduced a new feature, Challenges, where you can compete in their featured Challenges from Pistol Whip. The Challenges are available weekly for top scores, or you can create your own custom challenges to share with your friends and communities however you prefer. 

You can locate the weekly featured Pistol Whip challenges in the game lobby after the Training Card. You can invite your friend and communities to play and compete together, and you do not all have to be in the headset all the same time.