Virballs review

Bolder Games’ Virballs opens with one of those delightfully quaint cinematics that you would have found in a PlayStation 2-era game. Here, a scruffy scientist is confronted by a pair of space cops while rocketing through a solar system. With little warning, the authorities open fire, rupturing the suspect’s vessel, and inadvertently releasing Virball’s eponymous spheres across six different planets.

You play as ORB, an Object Removal Bot who must gather these elemental-based organisms before they can wreak havoc across the ecosystem. Largely, the blend of exploration across exotic locales with intense combat channels many of the charms of Insomniac’s first few Ratchet & Clank entries.

Like Naughty Dog, Before the Dreariness

ORB begins his roundup with a modest ranged weapon. But by using his grappler claw, the droid can pull in small adversaries, and place them in his chest, providing ammo for new kinds of weapons. Later, ORB can combine two elemental-based enemies, creating distinct types of fusions. These range from fireballs that can be charged up, barrages of dirtballs, swarms of homing bees, and one attack that causes nearby foes to uncontrollably rock out. Since they are loosely rooted in water, earth, fire, air, electricity, and slime elemental categories, some ammo types are more effective against different enemies. Agreeably, every kind of munition behaves differently, injecting some variety into combat,

The one stipulation is that you can only convert diminutive enemies into ammunition. So, larger foes will need to be attacked until they break into smaller ones. As such, confronting a small cluster of adversaries is engrossing, but battling larger groups can get chaotic. Fortunately, your grappler claw produces a tidbit of damage. So, when things get heated, a combination of circle strafing and button mashing will help you survive until you have destroyed the nearby monster generator.

Jump, Shoot, and Gather

Although ORB’s walk speed is slow and the unlockable dash is rather anemic, navigation is precise. A combination of a double jump and a third-person camera perspective makes jumping across chasms stress-free. But even if you miss the landing, an assistive droid pulls ORB out of danger and places the droid back on solid footing. When it comes to conflict, your claw has an extended range, so plucking enemies from the midst of battle becomes an essential tactic. That said, your shots intermittently become stuck on the topography when attacking from different elevations. Although ORB can roll into a ball like Samus in Metroid, there aren’t enough opportunities to truly justify the transformation.

Sadly, the end-of-stage boss battles can grow frustrating. Simultaneously stopping a barrage of subordinates while also triggering temporary stun states makes progress slow and slightly unsatisfying. There’s an attempt to balance these fights with health-restoring green crystals scattered about, but it’s evident that these showdowns need modification. Another issue is asset recycling. Not only do bosses make repeat appearances but you’ll trek through the same alien landscapes more than once when tackling missions.

The Right Orb for the Job

These issues aside, fights are forceful, compelling players to prioritize targets and be aware of dangerous congregations of adversaries. Using the proper tool against enemies is crucial as well. Most enemy AI movement behaviors are largely simple, with foes taking notice and confronting as you draw near. But occasionally, Virballs pits you against a charging space dinosaur, which helps to offset tedium.

Performance-wise, Virballs is mostly solid. You’ll likely encounter the occasional bug, like when an NPC stops following you on an escort mission. If you own at least a moderately robust GPU, the game runs like a dream. With an RTX 3070, the game delivered an unwavering 60 frames per second. But for those with portable PC like a Steam Deck or ROG Ally, expect the intermittent drop in fluidity even when your battery is set for guzzle mode.

At its best, Virballs might evoke memories of action-exploration hits like Ratchet & Clank, Skylanders, or the 2018 Spyro the Dragon remake. From a mission selection screen where spirals of wispy purple clouds hover around a desert planet to arid ground textures and skies dotted with a soaring spacecraft, pleasing visuals are plentiful. Sure, there’s the intermittent instance of pop-in and reused architectural structures. But those who lived through the sixth hardware generation might appreciate the ubiquitous sheen applied to characters and the environment.

Virballs was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.