With a mix of RTS and god simulator mechanics, Spuds Unearthed is an odd little VR game. Players will spend their time surveying the battlefield, throwing their soldiers across the map, and operating gun turrets to clear each level. Unlocking new potato soldiers and leveling them up is fun, and players will be able to waste a lot of time messing around with the game's physics. Sadly, there are quite lot of issues with the controls on PlayStation VR which makes the game difficult to play at times.
There is no storyline in Spuds Unearthed. Players are tasked with picking levels from their command center and engaging enemies on different planets. Each level plays almost exactly the same, while changing the scenery slightly or bumping up the difficulty. There is no reason given for why the player is using sentient potatoes to fight an intergalactic war against slime creatures. Spuds Unearthed just drops players right in the middle and turns them loose after a short tutorial.
Spuds Unearthed sports a cartoonish aesthetic that suits the game very well and is reminiscent of the Ratchet & Clank series. The game's soldiers are tiny and adorable creatures that make unintelligible noises when thrown or while fighting. VR typically brings the picture quality of games down considerably, but Spuds Unearthed suffers very little visually from being in VR. If anything, virtual reality helps make Spuds Unearthed's world feel even more vibrant.
The combat mechanics of Spuds Unearthed are simple, but fun to play around with. During levels, players stand on a platform on the opposite end of the stage from their enemies. In front of them will be two gun turrets and the three potato soldiers they brought with them. The object is to destroy the enemy's headquarters before they have the chance to take out the player's platform. The player can pick up their soldiers and toss them onto the stage in order for them to begin fighting. Players can also grab their gun turret and thin the herd of advancing enemies as well. These RTS mechanics make for interesting gameplay that is easy to master.
While Spuds Unearthed is fun, the controls frequently get in the way. Players have many abilities at their disposal like raising their platform, making sharp turns, throwing potatoes, extending their arms, and operating guns. The problem is that the controls aren't intuitive and it's difficult to remember which buttons do what in the heat of the moment. Another frustrating aspect is that Spuds Unearthed has a difficult time depicting depth perception. Most of the time the game is incapable of registering how far players want to throw their soldiers, so the soldiers usually just wind up plopping down ineffectively at the player's feet. Occasionally, the players hands will glitch and get stuck in parts of the map or disappear entirely which makes combat hard to survive.
Spuds Unearthed is a charming game with a lot of heart. It is a joy to toss soldiers around the map and take enemies out with the massive gun turrets, but these aspects of the game are hindered when the controls and mechanics are fighting against the player. Developer Gamedust will need to make several bug fixes before Spuds Unearthed plays the way it should.
Spuds Unearthed is available for PlayStation VR and PC. A PlayStation 4 code was provided for the purposes of this review.
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