You’d be forgiven for thinking Titan Isles was some sort of prequel to the Windlands series. While it does have a lot in common with Psytec’s combat-flavored adventure platformer Windlands 2 (2018), Titan Isles is an entirely new game that marks a clear departure from the series’ focus on exploration by amping up combat and stripping down levels to a mostly straight ‘A to B’ pathway, making for a pretty good (if not basic) bullet hell-style shooter that dispels more of the Windlands magic than I was hoping to part with.
Titan Isles Details:
Developer: Psytec Games
Available On: Quest, SteamVR, coming to PSVR 2 in 2026
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Release Date: September 25th, 2025
Price: $30
Gameplay
There’s a lot to like about Titan Isles: sweeping landscapes with impressive vertical drops, massive bosses that can really force you to rethink your plan of attack, and a variety of new locomotion schemes that just feel right. For some, this is the game.
There’s also a lot to dislike too: shooter mechanics seemingly lifted from flatscreen games, straight-shot level design with no real opportunity for exploration, and predictable enemy types that never seem to evolve beyond basic attack patterns. It all feels a little too predictable, and a little less intriguing than it ought to be. But, I’ve been tainted by the large-scale allure of Windlands.
Don’t get me wrong. Titan Isles does what many bullet hell-style games often do, i.e. striping down the “need” for immersive shooting mechanics while putting the lasers on full blast, as three of the four ‘Exo Suits’ focus on some type of infinite ammo weapon. Still, on the flipside, each suit type comes with its own unique traversal style, which feels as mature and (mostly) well balanced as its Windlands forerunner.
Here’s a quick look at the Exo Suits and abilities available, each of which is upgradeable back at base:
- Storm – Hand-mounted jet packs, pistols and a more powerful rifle
- Hunter – Grappling Hooks, bow and arrow
- Goliath – A lesser version of Storm’s jet pack, shield and hand canon
- Blink – Phase-dash ability, wall running, triple jumping, ‘Viper Bolt’ projectile
All of the weapons above come with floating reticles by default, making it feel like you’re essentially pointing and clicking at baddies ad infinitum. But hey, this is essentially an arcade bullet hell, which seems to be par for the course. Anyway, more on that in the Immersion section below.
Titan Isles isn’t solely a single-player game, although you can play start to finish on your own. Supporting up to four co-op players, the game automatically scales to add in more baddies to each arena, which also means more lasers and homing missiles to dodge. The clip below is slightly slowed down for full effect.
Still, having a good set of buds by your side doesn’t entirely distract from the fact that Titan Isles is basically just about clearing enemies across its long, successive arenas, which are periodically gated until you kill everything inside before meeting the end-level boss and eventually completing the mission.
Of course, if you are looking for more of a challenge, you can always turn up the difficulty level before you strap in, which makes enemies both better shots and more powerful. Still, there’s a notable lack of organic exploration, save the random collectibles you may (or may not) ever really care about.
That said, a definite highlight for me was the game’s level bosses, which even on normal mode can be challenging if you haven’t upgraded your kit wisely, or haven’t figured out which Exo Suit is the best for you.
Bosses are massive, and well varied, putting together all of your locomotion and shooting skills at once. They just so happen to require virtually the same tactics as the arena-based boss battles in Windlands 2, i.e. break frangible armor points and avoid successively intense attacks as a single remaining armor point becomes with most challenging to shoot. It’s a simple formula, but one that interplays with the arena design to good effect.
And please, don’t ask me about the story behind Titan Isles—something, something, something, evil robots—which the game’s end boss really takes to an extreme by tossing every minion and shooting style at you in quick succession. He took me around five hours of solo play to get to.
There are found notes throughout that follow a marooned scientist who witnessed the world tragedy to bring the Titans to power, massive robots who are (I repeat) evil, although sitting there listening to long-winded audio logs between arenas feels a bit antithetical to the entire “go go go” experience.
Once the credits role, replay value is actually fairly high. It doesn’t just throw you at the same levels you beat before, but offers up a randomly mixed level that you can choose on any difficult mode. You can also do extra bits (more fun in co-op, no doubt) including ‘Racing’, a collectible ‘Collection Sprint’ mode, and a shooting-focused ‘Target Rush’ mode.
Immersion
Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been pining for Windlands 3 here a little too hard in this review, but with something clearly imbued with Windlands’ DNA as Titan Isles, there’s really no other apt comparison. It leaves me thinking about how much more I loved Windlands 2, and its ability to weave that core bullet hell combat into a richer narrative and larger world that really felt lived in—something worth taking the time to explore with friends.
That said, my favorite part of Titan Isles is its various locomotion schemes, which actually depart from the grappling hook-swinging parkour seen in the series.
While the Hunter Exo Suit does have grappling hooks that work almost like they do in Windlands, the exception is you can actually hook onto anything in Titan Isles and not just greenery. The focus here is less on how you get around, and more on how fast you can get the hell out of Dodge: exactly why I never played as Hunter.
Hunter’s powerful arrows never seemed to outweigh the movement penalty that comes with having to accurately aim your next grappling hook hold, making me gravitate to the jetpack-equipped Storm most of the time. Effortlessly blasting around the map, expertly threading baddies and zipping around homing missiles and oncoming laser barrages is one of those “I can’t believe I’m actually good at this” sort of skills that I know comes from years of research in VR locomotion design. I invested all of my points, gained by beating levels into Storm’s jetpack and weapons.
That’s me though. You may gravitate towards Goliath for its heavy cannon and shield that efficiently blocks sustained laser fire, which also has a more limited version of Storm’s jetpack. Or Blink, which can triple jump and wall-surf around bosses with ease—a close second for me to Storm. Still, there’s nothing better than a fully upgraded jet pack to take you to the highest (and often safest) point of any given arena.
Which leads me to the shooting experience. On the spectrum of ‘built-for-VR shooting mechanics’, Titan Isles is closer to a flatscreen arcade game than many. Basic floating reticles follow you around, which felt alright when it came to grappling hooks, but less so when it comes to continuously blasting away at anything that moves. You can turn off reticles in settings, as well as change colors of both left and right reticles, although it doesn’t make shooting any more immersive.
I know. This is a conventional feature of most bullet hells, VR or otherwise, although I can’t help but feel like Titan Isles gave up VR-centric design in service of putting more enemies and lasers in the arena when it probably didn’t have to.
That said, many of the game’s finer immersive touches are genuine highlights. Voice acting is top notch, although the game’s soundtrack offers up a sweeping musical score that I would probably listen to out of VR. Spatial audio is also on point when it comes to enemies and friends too. In co-op, you’ll also be able to hear your companions naturally when they’re close to you.
Once out of range, they become voices on a radio, indicating you’ve strayed too far from you team mate. Any way you take on Titan Isles, you’ll need to keep an ear out for beeping homing missiles and turrets of all types, which often times start their barrage before you can see them.
Visually, the game looked and worked pretty great on Quest 3, as arenas can easily fill with tons of enemies, each of which blasts away with its own lasers and missiles. It’s a cartoony art style that (sigh, I’m saying the thing again) Windlands fans will easily recognize as both suitably cartoony and super performant.
Comfort
For a fast-paced game with enough parkour and jetpacking to shake a stick at, Titan Isles isn’t as intense as the opening warning label suggests. Flying, swinging and triple jumping around is done in sweeping, predictable arcs, letting you control the trajectory in basically every instance.
There’s also smooth and variable snap-turning available, as well as both head and controller relative forward movement. A variable vignette can also help you tune down some of the motion-related wear. I’m particularly sensitive to uncontrolled, forced locomotion, and only found a few brief moments in the transport ship on my way to missions as a little iffy. Otherwise, I played multiple hours at a time without issue.
‘Titan Isles’ Comfort Settings – September 25th, 2025 |
|
Turning |
|
| Artificial turning | |
| Snap-turn | ✔ |
| Quick-turn | ✖ |
| Smooth-turn | ✔ |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | |
| Teleport-move | ✖ |
| Dash-move | ✖ |
| Smooth-move | ✔ |
| Blinders | ✔ |
| Head-based | ✔ |
| Controller-based | ✔ |
| Swappable movement hand | ✔ |
Posture |
|
| Standing mode | ✔ |
| Seated mode | ✔ |
| Artificial crouch | ✖ |
| Real crouch | ✔ |
Accessibility |
|
| Subtitles | |
| Languages | English |
| Dialogue audio | |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | ✔ |
| Two hands required | ✔ |
| Real crouch required | ✖ |
| Hearing required | ✖ (via accessibility option) |
| Adjustable player height | ✔ |