Now this is just pure, unadulterated awesome. Hidden away in a separate hotel meeting room at PAX South was Phaser Lock Interactive's Final Approach. This virtual reality-only title, set to launch on the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, might take a little bit to describe as there are quite a few aspects to it, but the short version is that it shows off what VR can do in a family friendly, incredibly fun fashion.

When players start the game, they will find themselves feeling like a giant above some sort of aviation landing space, like an airport or an aircraft carrier. The demo started off slow, tasking me to point to a plane in the air and draw a landing path through colored squares at a small landing strip. Things quickly became more complicated, as I need to account for the turning radius of some of the planes so that they could actually follow the path I was drawing. Then one of the planes caught fire. So, while directing traffic in the air, I was needed on the ground to hose down the flames. To get there, I simply needed to tap the blue marker and was instantly warped there. (I later learned that this situation could have been handled by picking up the little firefighters and placing them there.) Things can get hectic while trying to juggle everything and keep things running efficiently, but even this early level was incredibly fun.

Final Approach 1

Jumping forward a few levels, I found myself standing in the ocean, above an aircraft carrier and two warships. Here, I had to deal with drones that had gone haywire and started attacking friendly planes. So, in addition to the tasks that I mentioned above, I also got to throw out life preservers to ocean bound personnel and direct a helicopter to pick them up. This second part was a bit difficult for me. I could get the winch to line up. Finally, I was reminded by one of the staff that it's VR. I can get closer. Dropping to my knees and peering to the side, I saw what was happening and accomplished the task. Just this level of movement and the amount of immersion this provided was really cool. I used this tactic more as the demo went on because I thought it was just neat.

Still, there were drones to handle and they weren't going to stop on their own accord. Therefore, I got the chance to control some deck guns. Using a variety of missiles and machine guns, I was finally able to knock down these unmanned planes and restore peace to the skies. While there were action and weapons here, this was a totally non-violent experience. Nobody died. When planes got shot down, everyone popped a parachute, G.I. Joe style.

Final Approach

I can really see myself spending a ton of time with this one. The level of immersion felt by acting as a giant was great. Trying to control the chaos as everything fell apart was addictive. Of the many different titles that I got to see at the convention, this one stands high on the list of the best. I really want to play more of this and hope to do so when it releases later this year.