Cor blimey Guv’nor.

What if Guy Ritchie made a video game, one that had shoot-outs, cockney geezers, London gangsters and a lot of swearing. Well that is pretty much what we get with Blood & Truth, the latest VR game from Sony.

Developed by London Studios, Blood & Truth evolved from the London Heist experience that was included in the PlayStation VR Worlds disc. But where I found London Heist to be clunky, Blood & Truth shines and truly sucked me in to the seedy underbelly of the UK’s capital.

Platform: Playstation VR
Price: $39.99
Controllers: Move and Dualshock 4
Price I’d Pay: $39.99

The story is played out in a series of flashbacks. You play Ryan Marks, a Special Forces soldier who is being interrogated by some sort of investigator whose motives are unclear. Ryan has returned from overseas to attend his father’s funeral, who just so happened to be the biggest crime boss in London. It is during the Wake that Tony, a rival of Ryan’s father, makes his play to take control of London from the Marks family, leading to the murder of a close family friend. Ryan and his family comprising of a brother, sister and his mum go in to hiding and plot revenge on Tony. The story is a short affair, but full of charming characters, good writing and its fair share of twists.

But it isn’t the story that is the stand out feature of the game, it’s the way the action has been set up to place players front and centre. The game breaks everyone in gently, but it isn’t long before they are running about with shotguns, SMGs and dual pistols. You can even pick up grenades thrown by enemies and throw them right back. Most levels have players moving through some kind of building, like a casino in one level and a derelict tower block in another, with most of these levels ending up in some kind of exciting shootout. There are a few levels that just have players moving from one place to another, but these are few and far between.

The game knows what everyone wants to do and is happy to be of service. The game controls best with a move controller; ideally two as although one can use a Dual Shock, the game loses something when they do. The game isn’t an on-rails shooter, but is does lead players in specific directions and offers a comfort mode for those who get a little motion sick when wearing VR. The game points out where they can move to and with a click of the Move button players run to that location. There are some finer controls for strafing but I had little need for them. It does try to mix things up a little by adding some traversal sections to some levels, such as crawling through vents or climbing on scaffolding, but these sections let the game down a little as the actions required to navigate them often lead to frustration. I would also recommend playing this game standing up. It doesn’t state that it is required and there are some parts of the game where Ryan is sitting down, but when the set-pieces kick off players will be glad they are on their feet.

And that is where I got the most enjoyment, from the shoot-outs and the set-pieces. The guns all have an aiming line to assist with shooting, which means players can just get on with having fun instead of worrying about if the bullets will hit their target. It made me feel like a real bad ass running from cover to cover while picking off gangsters with headshots. They even slow down the action at times to make the character feel almost superhuman. Then there are the set-pieces. Certain missions built up the action to a massive scale at the end which results in my feeling like James Bond or something. The end of the tower block mission was especially exciting. After completing the mission Ryan has to run down the building before it explodes. Cue an on rails section that has Ryan trying to outrun the explosions while shooting the bad guys and then jumping off one of the floors on to a crane arm being controlled by his sister. It was incredible and I cannot understate how cool it made me feel.

There are a few issues here and there, but these are mostly VR glitches. Things like your arms not going where you want them to or clipping into the scenery, nothing too major and nothing to diminish the experience.

In my opinion, there are only a handful of games that can be categorised as a system seller for Sony’s headset; something that would make it worthwhile laying down the cost of VR. Games like Beat Saber and Astro Bot have proven themselves at making VR work in its own right, and now you can add Blood & Truth to that list. And if you already own a PSVR you would be doing yourself a disservice by not going out and picking this game up.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.