When comparing Time Rifters vs Audioshield, the Slant community recommends Time Rifters for most people. In the question“What are the best VR games on Steam?” Time Rifters is ranked 31st while Audioshield is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Time Rifters is:
Each level is played through multiple times with every new playthrough adding previous playthroughs alongside current one. This is done 4 times trying to complete as much of the level as possible. It essentially creates a solo co-op experience and allows for lots of strategical planning forward.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Rarely seen gameplay mechanic that combines multiple playthroughs
Each level is played through multiple times with every new playthrough adding previous playthroughs alongside current one. This is done 4 times trying to complete as much of the level as possible. It essentially creates a solo co-op experience and allows for lots of strategical planning forward.
Pro Vibrant aesthetic
The game has simple, clear, blocky levels and uses bright colors. There's an Iron Man inspired hud, but that can mostly be ignored unless you want to check out the score. Important information such as enemy count is displayed on the walls of levels and there's no need to keep track of health or ammo.
Pro Good weapon variety
The game has 6 different weapons that each has a progression system associated with 5 upgrade categories - Spread, Focus, Rapid, Punch and Acid. It adds another level of strategical depth as weapon upgrades have to be planned for.
Pro Level editor and Steam Workshop support
You can create your own levels to challenge yourself and your creativity. It feels really cool playing through levels you made, although you know what to expect.
Pro Ability to use your own music
You use your own music for the game in order to create the rhythm and difficulty of the gameplay. This means an infinite amount of stages to play on being that each is different due to the rhythm of a song.
Pro Users will work up a sweat
Especially with fast paced songs, you move a lot and quickly so you can work up a sweat quite easily. Much like boxing where you keep your hands up at all times, your hands will never dip below your waist for this game, while that may not sound too difficult, in all actuality keeping ones arms and hands up for extended periods of time can be quite exhausting, usually pretty quickly. Being that you will be constantly swinging your arms while keeping them up, this adds to the exertion you will experience. While it may not be the point of the game, it will allow for quite a workout.
Pro Works with Soundcloud
On top of being able to use your own local music there is built in support for Soundcloud, which makes for an easy built in way to select tracks online.
Pro Detailed leaderboards
Each and every song played in the game by its users will have a leaderboard listing for that song. Even if no one else ever uses that song. This makes for an insurmountable amount of tracks to play and compete in, making for an endless experience for those interested in competing on the leaderboards.
Cons
Con Abandoned support
Currently the game does not work with the retail version of the Rift, a DK2 (beta Rift model) and older drivers will be necessary to play the game. There has been no word from the developer if this will be fixed.
Con Short
While there's definitely potential for multiple playthroughs to try and get a better score, the base game has just about 2 hours of gameplay.
Con Music and orbs only have a slight connection
The game has a hard time actually detecting relevant rhythms in most songs. So you cannot hits orbs in synchrony with the base of a song, which detracts from being considered any type of rhythm based gameplay.
Con Unclear menu system
Things such as song difficulty or types of shields are not explained in the menus, leaving the player guessing as to what they do. This makes for an experience where you just need to learn as you play to eventually figure it out.