Stormland is a VR-based science-fiction game developed by Insomniac Games.
The player assumes the role of Vesper, one of several android gardeners, taking care of a garden on an alien planet which was inevitably destroyed when a hostile alien race, the Tempest, invades. Rebooting itself moments after destruction, Vesper awakes to find its garden and most of the planet in ruins, it's fellow android and robot colleagues wiped out, where it managed to salvage and reconstruct itself using parts and must travel across the planet, seeking revenge on the Tempest as it does so.
Gameplay-wise, players-as-Vesper can collect firearms and kick ass, First-Person Shooter style. The game can be compatible with the Oculus Rift.
Accessing Upgrading Station...
- Arm Cannon: Vesper's right arm has a laser blaster built in the back of the wrist, triggered by moving the forefinger.
- Attack Drone: Hovering Tempest robotic drones are early enemies Vesper needs to face before facing actual Tempest soldiers.
- Aura Vision: Vesper's mechanical scanner, when upgraded, allows it to locate enemies hiding behind walls and corners, where they're visible as a yellow silohoutte. Their firearms meanwhile are rendered in blue. Even hostile elements are highlighted, which comes in very handy in the forest and swamp areas where hostile plants capable of attacking will blend in with regular ones.
- Auto Doc: The robot-fixing-robots example shows up in repair stations Vesper can occasionally come across, and patch himself up, including using one such station in the first few minutes to repair it's badly-damaged right arm. There's also a robotic doctor, Sypher.
- Cyber Cyclops: Vesper and most of the robot gardeners and soldiers averts this trope by having two eyes and a mouth resembling a human's, but there are a few mono-eyed robot NPCs around Vesper can interact with, notably a hunchbacked robotic doctor called Sypher whose face consists of a gigantic eye.
- Essence Drop: The in-game currency, alloys, are robot parts meant to be built into cores for upgrades, and as the Tempest are mechanical in nature they drop them upon being killed.
- Fingore: The robotic version shows up as soon as the game starts; as the damaged Vesper regains consciousness, it looks at it's hands, and its right arm's forefinger and pinky has been ripped off in the preceding attack. There's a repair station accessible mere minutes later that gives Vesper a brand new arm.
- Fungus Humongous: Shows up in the forest, where Vesper comes across trees... and shrooms as tall as those trees. One area even has Vesper using the mushrooms as platforms.
- Giant Mook: The Tempest Goliath, war machines equipped with massive cannons towering over regular soldiers and drones. They absorb damage like no tomorrow before finally falling.
- Guns Akimbo: Several light firearms can be dual-wielded by Vesper, if it has both hands to spare, for targeting multiple enemies.
- Heroic Mime: Vesper doesn't have any dialogue in-game, despite other robot NPCs having speech abilities. It's vocal chords might have been damaged though.
- Jetpack: Vesper can collect one called a Slipstream Thruster for hovering around the planet's skies.
- Lightning Gun: An upgrade available for Vesper's left hand, which fires either a straight line of electricity or charged into a lightning ball. Besides being used for electrocuting enemies, Vesper can also use this weapon to recharge electric generators.
- Magnet Hands: Vesper's palms contains electromagnets that allows it to climb vertical surfaces. Very useful for effortlessly scaling cliffs or areas where a Wall Crawl is the only way to access higher platforms.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: The Tempest aliens, who doesn't show up until an hour in, turns out to be robot-like creatures.
- Mission Control: An AI called ECO serves this purpose, randomly communicating with Vesper via radio during gameplay to drop hints or clues.
- Monstrous Scenery: The game begins with Vesper seeing the tail of a giant, centipede-like mecha tunneling underground before getting knocked out by hostile Tempests. Later stages have Vesper seeing the same gigantic monster in outdoor levels sometimes, who only floats around beyond Vesper's reach and doesn't attack or attempt any sort of interaction.
- Power-Up Magnet: Alloys, spare parts, energy cells, and other collectibles will simply "fly" into Vesper once approached, and added into it's inventory.
- Single-Task Robot: Vesper and it's fellow androids were robot gardeners, which explains how they're easily wiped out when the Tempest attacks. After rebooting itself post-destruction, Vesper starts upgrading itself, including the ability to use firearms.
- When Trees Attack: Besides the Tempest and their drones, Vesper occasionally needs to deal with the planet's hostile plant-life deep in the jungles and swamps.
