Altair Breaker is a multiplayer sword fighting game. Gargantua’s sword Developer, Thirdverse. Once a magical workshop, he is now set on Vastus Isle, a floating island left in ruins by LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems). As a swordfighter, you are tasked with helping Stella, a humanoid AI, to wipe out deadly robots in various environments.
The entire Altair Breaker revolves around playing the same single level over and over again. In this level, you play through the same four barren areas of him, clearing each wave of enemies several times before proceeding to the next. These waves consist of only his 3 types of enemies. A sword-fighting robot, a shooting robot, and a slightly larger unit that combines the abilities of the two.
It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete the entire level and is the only content available apart from a very empty hub area to manage your loadout and meet other players. You have to grind to level 20 (about 20 unrewarded runs on one level). At this point, a special sword is unlocked which is considered the end of the game.
The hub area has a pedestal for the second level, The Depths, but it was still locked after playing for 4 hours to reach level 20. The game doesn’t show you how to unlock it, and after talking to multiple other players and researching the issue, I couldn’t find a way to access the stage. If so, it’s a pretty bad one.
Speaking of which, the entire multiplayer experience is littered with bugs and glitches. Enemies will pop backwards off the platform, but just respawn and repeat, putting them in a continuous loop and making them harder to hit. Enemy hit detection is also turned off entirely, making it relatively harmless as it misses most attacks, but frustrating to take down all of them.
Vibrant visuals, precise hand tracking, and a few redeeming features of somewhat fun traversal when using a glider aren’t enough to bring this unfinished title back to life. Altair Breaker can hardly even be classified as a serious game. Proving the VR software stereotype correct is simply a glorification of tech demos.