ForeVR Darts [Quest 2] | REVIEW

I’m a big fan of darts, whether that’s when playing down my local or watching the professionals play on TV, so I was pretty excited for ForeVR Darts. The fact that it was coming from the team at ForeVR gave me a lot of faith that it’d be a great virtual reality replication of the sport too, especially since their work on ForeVR Bowl was so impressive and made players really feel like they were there launching balls down bowling lanes.

Still, the art of throwing darts on a board doesn’t always translate that well to video games, with the end result either being too easy or way too hard. ForeVR Darts manages to get a balance of both and there’s certainly a fun time to be had playing the game – even it does lack the content seen in ForeVR’s previous effort.

Check out a gallery of screenshots down below:

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One thing that I should get out of the way immediately is the fact that actually playing darts in ForeVR Darts feels really good. Players can either play with the Quest controllers or use hand-tracking with each offering motion controls that feel fluid, whilst there are three difficulty settings on offer that give different indicators of how your throw will line up.

Playing on easy gives you a target circle on the board with a dot in the middle, playing on medium just gives you the circle, whilst playing on hard removes the target altogether, offering the most authentic way to experience the game. However, you’ve also got to get your throw right, with wayward movements as you throw the dart or a mistimed release seeing it drift away from the target or even end up on the floor in front of you. Don’t get me wrong, throwing isn’t too difficult, but it will take some getting used to if you want to nail shots with perfect accuracy.

I’ve mainly played on the medium difficulty so far, with it offering the most enjoyable way to experience the game. The aiming circle is clear enough that you’ll always know roughly where the dart will go, but it’ll still take a bit of clever aiming and accurate throwing in order to nail those treble-twenties. I’ve put a good few hours in so far and like to think I’m pretty good at the game, but I’m not hitting 180s or nine-darters with ease every time like I would in other darts game. It offers a nice balance of difficulty that keeps each match competitive, realistic, and, most importantly, a lot of fun.

The hard difficulty on the other hand just felt a little bit unnatural. As mentioned, I like playing darts and am decent enough to hit shots with some accuracy, but when I was throwing shots in-game using the hand-tracking, it never seemed to go where I expected it to. It was something I got a bit more used to by adapting to how the game handles aiming, but it never felt authentic. With a bit of practice I’m sure I’d be fine, but medium difficulty is so enjoyable that I’ve been happy enough to stick with that.

“It offers a nice balance of difficulty that keeps each match competitive, realistic, and, most importantly, a lot of fun.”

ForeVR Darts offers multiple ways to play the game, with single player on offer to face off against AI opponents, pass-and-play multiplayer for local showdowns, and online multiplayer to take on players from all around the world. It’s in the online multiplayer where I’ve spent most of my time so far, although playing pre-release has meant my opponent selection has been a little limited. Luckily, two of the other members of our team have been playing with me and we’ve had some really enjoyable matches. Whilst you’d think that we might have tired of playing each other over and over again, it didn’t get boring – in fact, we’ve tried to make it a regular thing to keep coming back for more. I’m especially looking forward to competing against more players when the game officially releases and seeing how my skills shape up against a wider range of foes.

Much like ForeVR Bowl, online play is smooth and sociable, with multiple players able to join up in lobbies and compete in matches against each other. There are three different environments to play across (a pub, a Mars base, and Las Vegas) and each is packed with charm and character. ForeVR certainly like to make an effort when it comes to the social spaces in their games and it goes a long way in making the experience jollier for players – they also include a YouTube-powered jukebox, meaning you can listen to any assortment of music as you play (it has been Christmas songs aplenty for me). Admittedly, I would have liked it if there were a few more locales to play across, but the trio here are still cosy and nice.

As you play and win matches, you level up and earn coins to spend on new dart types. There are over fifty available in total and they all bring with them different looks, fancy visual and sound effects when throwing, and weights to make them feel different from one another. Whilst it’s nice to amass a collection, I found that some of them lacked the pizazz to make them feel especially exciting to use. ForeVR Bowl featured some absolutely amazing bowling ball designs, but it’s hard to replicate that on a small dart. It’s a shame there wasn’t a way to mix and match darts too, especially since some of the fancier looking cosmetics were used on higher weight darts, which I wasn’t a fan of using in-game.

“ForeVR certainly like to make an effort when it comes to the social spaces in their games and it goes a long way in making the experience jollier for players.”

A lot of the appeal of ForeVR Darts will come down to how much the team at ForeVR support it in the future. Whilst there’s enough on offer to give players a good time right now, it’ll need more locations to play across, more dart types, and perhaps more game modes if it wants to keep players coming back for the long-term. It only offers variations of 101, 301, and 501 game modes right now too, which feels like a shame since there’s plenty of potential for mini-games (you can pop balloons when practicing for example) or other dart games such as ‘Around the Clock’ or ‘Darts Cricket’. Thankfully, the team have shown they’re willing to keep supporting their titles post-launch in the past with ForeVR Bowl, so I’m excited to see what they do bring to the game.

Developer: ForeVR Games
Publisher: ForeVR Games
Platform(s): Quest 2 (Reviewed), Quest
Website: https://www.forevrgames.com/forevr-darts