Onward Review Summary

Exceptional VR gunplay realism: The game is praised for its highly realistic weapon handling, mechanical operations, and immersive gunplay, setting it apart from other VR shooters. Players highlight detailed reloading, sound design, and tactical depth.

Fun and engaging solo or with friends: The game is enjoyable both solo and in groups, with mechanics that are easy to pick up but offer depth for long-term engagement. Cooperative PvE modes are a highlight.

Extensive weapon variety and customization: Players appreciate the wide range of weapons, faction-specific loadouts, and deep customization options. The class system and attachment mechanics add strategic depth to gameplay.

Highly immersive and intense: The game delivers a deeply immersive atmosphere, with realistic interactions, adrenaline-inducing moments, and a strong focus on teamwork and tactical gameplay. This enhances the overall VR experience.

Motion sickness solutions: The game offers innovative movement systems and strategies to mitigate motion sickness, making it more accessible to players sensitive to VR discomfort.

Severe graphics downgrade: Players report a significant reduction in graphical fidelity, comparing the current state to Quest 1 or N64-era quality. The downgrade affects models, textures, lighting, and overall visual clarity, often requiring full resets to resolve issues.

Deteriorated sound design: Sound quality, spatialization, and weapon audio have been heavily downgraded, described as flat, muffled, or resembling airsoft guns. This degrades immersion and realism.

Performance and stability issues: Frequent crashes, lag, low FPS (10-30), and optimization problems plague the game post-update. Players cite unstable frame rates, bugs, and poor performance even on high-end PC VR systems.

Quest compatibility downgrades: The game was downgraded to accommodate Quest compatibility, affecting graphics, sound, and performance for all players. This forced downgrade is widely criticized for prioritizing accessibility over quality.

Declining player base: The game has lost a significant portion of its player base, with reports of only 16 players at peak times. Toxicity, younger audiences, and degraded gameplay are cited as contributing factors.

Realistic gunplay mechanics: Players consistently highlight the detailed and realistic weapon handling, including reloading, chambering, and magazine management. Features like manual bolt actions and fire mode switching enhance immersion.

Military simulation focus: The game is praised as a realistic military simulator, with comparisons to *Arma* and *Tactical Assault VR*. Features like realistic AI, movement, and weapon physics reinforce this identity.

Tactical team-based objectives: Objective-driven gameplay emphasizes teamwork, communication, and strategy. Modes require coordination, with mechanics like reviving teammates and no respawns adding depth.

AI behavior and difficulty: Enemy AI exhibits realistic tactics (e.g., suppressing fire, armor use) but faces criticism for AFK bots and inconsistent difficulty. Wave spawn mechanics in co-op are also mentioned.

Realistic movement mechanics: Physical movement (crouching, proning) and manual actions (e.g., kneeling) are required, enhancing immersion. Players appreciate the attention to detail in movement systems.

Severe performance and stability issues: The game frequently crashes, fails to launch, and suffers from significant lag, low FPS, and visual glitches, making it unplayable for many users. These issues persist across updates and hardware configurations.

Hardware and optimization inconsistencies: Performance varies widely across hardware, with some high-end PCs struggling while low-end systems run smoothly. RAM usage is unusually high, and updates have both improved and degraded performance.

Performance improves with lower settings: Adjusting graphics settings, such as reducing quality or disabling certain features, mitigates stuttering, frame rate issues, and overall performance problems for some players.

VR-specific rendering and performance issues: VR gameplay suffers from frame duplication (left/right eye), image tearing, and performance disparities between Steam VR and native headset play, particularly on PC VR setups.

Network and connectivity issues: Occasional network-based stuttering, ping-related disadvantages, and connectivity problems (e.g., Airlink) affect gameplay, particularly in multiplayer or VR environments.

Highly recommended for tactical VR fans: The game is frequently recommended for fans of tactical shooters, military simulations, and VR enthusiasts, particularly those who enjoy immersive solo or team-based experiences. Its affordability and accessibility further boost its appeal.

Alternatives recommended: Several reviews suggest other VR tactical shooters (e.g., Pavlov, Tactical Assault VR, Contractors) as better alternatives, either due to superior multiplayer, accessibility, or overall quality.

Best played with friends: Players consistently highlight that the game is more enjoyable when played with friends, despite the lack of local multiplayer. Team-based modes are particularly praised for enhancing the experience.

Good value at discounted price: While some players feel the game is overpriced in its current state, others argue it’s worth the cost during sales or at lower price points (e.g., $10–$25, 450 rubles).

Mixed mil-sim authenticity: The game is praised for its military feel and realism by some (e.g., veterans, airsoft players), but others argue it falls short of a true military simulation, recommending it only for casual mil-sim elements.

Crossplay quality comparisons: The game is frequently compared to other VR shooters like Vail, Pavlov, and Contractors in terms of crossplay functionality and overall experience. Players highlight its cross-platform capabilities between ecosystems as a key feature.

Oculus-favoring business decisions: Criticism is directed at business decisions that prioritize Oculus compatibility, including downgrades for Quest support, which some players see as compromising quality.

Mature competitive community: The game is praised for fostering a mature and competitive player base, with historical livestreamed competitions adding to its esports appeal.

Version 1.7 as peak quality: Players reference version 1.7 as the last 'good' update, implying a decline in quality or satisfaction with subsequent changes.

Meta ownership concerns: Players express dissatisfaction with Meta's acquisition of the game, fearing changes in direction or business priorities. This reflects broader concerns about corporate influence on indie titles.