I’ve learnt the language of Sairento, and now every surface of the game’s superbly designed environments, each dynamic and rich in verticality, calls out to be run along, slid across or bounced off. In fact, my journey with Sairento feels like it has only begun, and thanks to a deep progression system, perseverance is encouraged and rewarded.
While I have far from mastered the game’s combat, I now enter each mission with a confidence. Soon I was double jumping into the centre of a room, triggering bullet time to thin the enemy’s numbers with a few precision shots and landing in a slide, hurtling towards a foe, katana in hand, ready to land a fatal blow.
Learning the basics of movement took me a while, but once I had this foundation the rest seemed to fall into place. The left Move button enables free locomotion, moving you in whichever direction you face while the right Move button projects an ark, teleporting you forward or enabling you to jump, allowing you to wallrun and spring off surfaces. Every button on the Move controller is in use here, often in rapid succession of one another, making a significant learning curve.
Chaining together kills into a stylish dance of death is when the game’s combat is at its best but attaining this level of mastery takes practice. Crucially, these few hours act as the perfect introduction to the game’s intricate combat system. Sairento’s 10 mission campaign tells a serviceable story, rife with sci-fi jargon and sinister bad guys. Infected by a sinister nano-virus, your comrades have been corrupted, rendered shadows of their former selves that now stand between you and the truth. You play as a member of the Silent Ones – an order of cyber ninjas who practice an ancient and forsaken code of martial arts. While the game’s storytelling functions largely to contextualize your actions, the sensation of slicing, shooting, wall-running and sliding your way through its vivid vision of a near-future Japan is unparalleled. A frantic, neon-drenched assault on the senses with the most complex, fluid and satisfying combat system I’ve yet to encounter in VR.
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