A thrilling VR action game

Following the success of the original Zero Caliber and its subsequent Quest revamp, Zero Caliber: Reloaded, developers XREAL Games have set out to improve their action-packed military shooter in the latest installment. Read our full review.

Zero Caliber 2 is a linear, narrative-driven action game that follows the events of the first game. While there is a story, the focus is more on action, which is a good thing because action is at the heart of this game.

Once again in the breach

Zero Caliber 2’s story is somewhat shallow, so don’t worry if you’ve never played the original game; you’ll get the hang of it quickly. It’s a not-so-distant future, and clean water has become the only real resource. Society has nearly collapsed as people struggle to survive. This mostly translates into bad guys with thick accents attacking good guys with American accents while trying to steal precious water supplies.

Luckily, you and your friends are paragons of military might, and it’s up to you to save the day. Wow!

There are a few twists and turns along the way, but for the most part, the story exists as a receptacle for cinematic action sequences, which Zero Caliber 2 delivers in spades. From house-to-house fighting through an overgrown suburban setting to calling in airstrikes while clearing enemy trenches, Zero Caliber 2 delivers an action-hero fantasy straight out of a mid-’90s action movie.

The campaign consists of 12 missions, each lasting approximately 20-30 minutes, depending on skill and game difficulty. It offers approximately 6 hours of high-quality, adrenaline-pumping escape.

Shooty’s Call

Zero Caliber 2 is first and foremost an action shooter, with its extremely well-rendered gameplay at its heart. All the primary weapons you’d expect to see are present, from handguns to rocket launchers and everything in between. These weapons are all fully customizable, with stocks, barrels, magazines, and sights scattered around the battlefield that you can switch on and off at will.

Weapon caches are plentiful, and enemies drop a plethora of weapons on the ground once they are eliminated. Once collected, they can be used or dismantled for parts. This allows players to change playstyles multiple times during a single mission, keeping the approach to combat fresh.

The weapons have distinct characteristics that handle well. Aiming and recoil feel balanced and responsive, hitboxes feel accurate, and the action is frantic as you advance through these hostile locales. The enemy AI isn’t exactly genius-level, but it’s enough to create some real tension in the heat of battle. Enemies will advance toward you using cover, try to flank you, or even hide behind cover, waiting to shoot you in the back.

Whether you’re traversing houses using smoke bombs and grenades to clear rooms or ducking behind debris as you make your way through a war-torn street, everything feels engaging and cohesive. Depending on the difficulty setting you choose, you can greatly customize your experience. Playing on Normal gives you plentiful ammo, powerful weapons, and a robust health bar that regenerates quickly. It offers an accessible take on arcade-style gameplay that’s all about the fun of playing big.

Crank the difficulty up a notch or two and you’ll have a whole different game on your hands. Enemies can quickly take you down with a few well-placed shots, and suddenly the action becomes much more tactical and relies more on skillful headshots.

Go to the helicopter!

Zero Caliber 2’s level design is largely linear. While it feels vast and sometimes offers the illusion of choice, there’s no real exploration here. The game guides you through the process with ease, meaning you’re never out of the action for more than a minute or two.

My only real criticism of the gameplay is that all the missions are variations on the “go over there and shoot those bad guys, then move on to the next area” principle. Aside from a small attempt to introduce a stealth element into one mission, there’s little variation in the mission structures to vary the gameplay. This can make the game a little repetitive over longer sessions.

Despite its many positives, Zero Caliber 2 isn’t without its flaws. I encountered enemies that would disappear/respawn, occasional framerate drops, and an issue that forced me to restart a level, but nothing that really took me out of the game. There is, however, a certain awkwardness in the way weapons interact with walls and cover that impacts gameplay, and it took me some time to get used to it.

I like the realism of not allowing weapons to pass through solid objects, but the implementation feels a bit off, like the wall hitboxes being slightly too large. Doing my best action hero “go around the corner and shoot the bad guy” only to find my gun barrel has caught on the wall as I start eating bullets isn’t ideal.

More the merrier, the merrier

To my delight, Zero Caliber 2’s entire campaign is playable in cooperative multiplayer with up to three other people. As with many games, playing with friends adds considerable replay value. Completing the campaign alone is great fun, but playing it again with a squad adds a whole new dimension. Coordinating attacks with your friends, especially when playing on the higher difficulty levels, enhances the tactical elements of combat in a very engaging way.

There’s also a PvP mode available at launch, but we haven’t spent enough time with it to comment on it in detail. This review will be updated soon to include our thoughts on how Zero Caliber 2 stacks up against the pantheon of online multiplayer shooters, though we’re confident in our ability to rate the game right now.

Additionally, Zero Caliber 2’s campaign and PvP modes also include native mod support. This allows for a nice level of customization that will continue to provide players with options for community-created content, which should provide even more reasons to keep coming back.

Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

Graphically, Zero Caliber reaches a fairly high level.

The world feels vast and detailed, and you feel really immersed. Some great cinematic sequences feature stunning fire and explosion effects that sell the illusion of living in a classic action movie. The shooting distance is also quite impressive; spotting (and hitting) enemies at improbable distances is surprisingly easy and entirely satisfying.

The character models and animations are also of good quality. Watching enemies fall to the ground convincingly after a headshot goes a long way in immersing the player in the fight.

Things that make you explode

Zero Caliber 2 also sets the bar high with its audio design. Gunfire is clear, crisp, and essential to the success of the shooter. XREAL Games has done a great job of creating a cacophonous soundscape that sells the chaos of an active warzone. Ambient audio is more than tumultuous in large combat sections, though spatial audio never loses focus. You can clearly pick out gunshots and character voices during a battle, and following those audio cues is a vital part of navigating the action.

Zero Caliber 2 review – Final verdict

Zero Caliber 2 is an excellent follow-up to an already decent game. Offering a six-plus hour campaign with four-player co-op, PvP, and native mod support, XREAL Games has delivered an experience that will no doubt delight fans of the genre and keep them coming back for more. If you enjoy linear campaign shooters, this is an easy recommendation.

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