Viveport Review: High Noon VR

Survive the Wild West in this thrilling arcade style shooter.

By Desmond Madison, Greenlit Content

You can hear the tumbleweeds blowing and feel the tensions rising as you reach for your revolver. You’re the town’s new sheriff, and it's time to issue justice from the barrel of your gun.

Arcade western shooter High Noon VR from Octobox Interactive gives you a huge arsenal of weapons to help you patrol the streets. You'll let no outlaw stand in your way as you dive into this tongue-in-cheek western full of explosive action and smart humor, which will get you shooting from the hip faster than you can say, “Draw!”

This is a stationary arcade wave shooter, so you won’t be teleporting from location to location. Instead, you’ll make use of your full floor space as you move left and right dodging arcade-like bullets flying straight for your head. Enemies and bosses get harder to take down after each level, and with every kill, you’ll earn cash to unlock upgraded weapons from rifles and shotguns, to dynamite and harpoon lassos.

Pressing the touchpad allows you to reload at any moment, but bullets will automatically refill each time you run out, so be sure to time your firing just right. The art style really helps High Noon VR feel much more like a living cartoon than a hyper-realistic gore fest that may not be appropriate for all players. The atmosphere of the game also never takes itself very seriously, as the intentionally corny voice acting helps usher you into the world with a more lighthearted tone.

It’s a feeling that helps you forget you’re in the middle of a deadly shootout and lets you focus on just having fun. Most missions start off with three waves of enemies followed by a boss that takes significantly more gunfire to properly bring to justice. As you progress you’ll unlock new challenges that have you practicing one-shot kills without a single round wasted in your pistol.

Keep upgrading your weapons and you’ll be rewarded with some serious chain gun firepower towards the end of the campaign that you’ll have trouble ever wanting to put down. With over nine levels across some gorgeously lit “Wild West” locations, you’ll want to stay on your toes to take down the gangs of criminals before your townsfolk are all scared away back East.

It’s hard not to appreciate a game like High Noon VR for accomplishing everything it sets out to do. It succeeds by putting you in the boots of a sheriff tasked with going in guns blazing and helping you feel like you’re inside of the ultimate animated version of every western movie in history. The gunplay is balanced, accurate, and forgiving enough at the same time to help you get a kick out of seeing every bullet land with a big, comic-book style, “Bam!” or “Kaboom!”

Mosey on out to the alleyway and give High Noon VR a shot before sundown. It’s one of the better wave shooters on the market that doesn’t involve any zombies, and more westerns are a welcome addition to the VR medium.

 High Noon VR is available in Viveport, and in Viveport Subscription.