When comparing Babel: Tower to the Gods vs Hover Junkers, the Slant community recommends Hover Junkers for most people. In the question“What are the best HTC Vive games?” Hover Junkers is ranked 12th while Babel: Tower to the Gods is ranked 31st. The most important reason people chose Hover Junkers is:
This isn't the type of game where you just press a button to reload or crouch. If you want to duck behind cover you have to actually do it. To reload you have to pop open the barrel, press the touch pad in a pattern and swing the controller to pop it back in. This makes the game feel more real.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Variety of blocks and tools
There are a number of different blocks to be interacted with ranging from ones that can explode, ones made of ice that are slippery and ones that are invisible that you will not be able to manipulate. In order to interact with these blocks you are given a bunch of different tools such as spears, hammers, swords, axes etc. These different tools each have different interactions that can help the player, depending on what they need to do, but is still left up to the player in the end on how they want to accomplish that task.
Pro Good price for amount of content
The content in the game should last the player for a good while, as many current VR games tend to be more proof of concept over full fledged games. While this is an early access title, meaning it is not complete, for the price of $10 the content should last even in its current state. On top of this most VR titles are priced a lot higher than this, even when containing less content, so as far as a content for price comparison is concerned, Babel is a good choice.
Pro Fun theme
A Greek God like theme where the towers resemble greek structures, complete with little worshipers surrounding the towers. It can be fun to interact with the tiny people by moving or crushing them. This of course is the power wielded by a Greek God, which can be fun to decide to be a kind or vengeful one.
Pro Innovative and immersive experience
This isn't the type of game where you just press a button to reload or crouch. If you want to duck behind cover you have to actually do it. To reload you have to pop open the barrel, press the touch pad in a pattern and swing the controller to pop it back in. This makes the game feel more real.
Pro Huge variety of weapons
There is now a huge variety of weapons, well designed and also well balanced.
Pro Strategic loot based gameplay
The loot earned in the game can be found out in the wasteland inside of shipping containers. The player needs to use their welding gun to shoot them open to then gather the loot. Strategy comes into to play as it takes time to haul the loot in, which leaves the player vulnerable to enemies, so it is bet to wait to do this in until an opportune moment arrives. Once the loot is obtained, some can be used for cover on ones ship, making their ships stronger, the rest can be used to earn a higher score in the game.
Pro Fun multiplayer
Hover Junkers was one of the first multiplayer games on the Vive, and remains to be one of the few multiplayer games available. Being multiplayer based it is fun to mess around with friends or to play seriously with them. Up to 8 players can play at the same time and in game voice chat is built in.
Pro Strategic weapons
This game has 3 weapons so far and has more planned to come. They each have advantages and disadvantages and learning to use them at the right time can make a difference.
Cons
Con Interface feels clunky
Actually grabbing blocks feels a bit inaccurate and is difficult to perform. Not very natural feeling, which can throw the player off. While not the main meat of the game, grabbing blocks, the portions that do have this interaction could use more polish.
There is also a tutorial that plays before starting a game, every time, which can not be skipped, this can become frustrating too and shows the lack of polish when it comes to the interface and navigation.
Lastly there are not many options to quit the game other than using the Steam menu button and even that may leave the game hanging. While this is an early access game, meaning it is unfinished and all of this may very well get fixed, it is something to keep in mind as it could also stay in this state.
Con Awkward to play in small rooms
The gameplay may be more difficult to perform if being played in a confined area as the player needs to be able to walk around the outside of large towers, which will of course be centered in ones room. This leaves the player to having only the outer areas of the room to traverse while playing, which can be difficult in smaller rooms as you may hit the walls of that room quite often.
Con Poor netcode
There can be lag during multiplayer, which can easily ruin ones aim and competency to shoot accurately.
Con Longer shots can be difficult
While not an issue in the shooting range, when in the meat the gameplay, enemies tend to be the same color as their ships making them difficult to see. This means that most shots need to be made in close quarters in order to visibly see who you are shooting at, which limits the gameplay a bit.
Con Limited and unpolished experience
The game while presented as a finished title (it is not in early access but is a full release) often feels unfinished. The guns in the game are limited to only three, the menus have frame drops giving an unpolished feel. The shooting mechanics often feel a bit too loose making them not very precise, which leads to more luck based gameplay over skill. The maps do not really feel all that different, giving a "same" vibe. Overall it feels like an early access game, but is being sold as a finished title.
Con Small amount of players online
Being this is a game only playable on an 800 dollar piece of hardware that only really runs well on an expensive gaming computer, as well as the fact that this is a fairly new game, there are not all that many players online to play with. Being that right now this a multiplayer only game, having few players is a bit of a problem (but that's not the game's fault).