Real-time strategy games are undergoing a resurgence in the VR space. Can Iron Guard: Salvation capture the magic of classic RTS titles in a virtual environment?

Iron Guard: Salvation is a follow-up to the previous entry in 2021, which was simply titled ‘Iron Guard.’ It's a serviceable VR tower defense game, though developer Xlab Digital clearly had bigger plans for the sequel. It's drawn inspiration from classic RTS games such as StarCraft and Command & Conquer to create what is aimed to be a more in-depth experience.

That inspiration is apparent from the moment you start playing Salvation. Your briefing is supplied by a gruff-voiced Space Marine type, and the voice that calls out warnings during a match is strikingly similar to the computerized voice from StarCraft. The rest of the sound design and music are fine, though sadly unmemorable.

Aesthetically, Salvation packs a retro-futuristic feel. Since it is set in space on planets and moons like Pluto and Europa, the buildings and ships use a kind of 90s sci-fi style that at times reminded me of Colony Wars on the PS1. This is by no means a bad thing.

Despite the trappings of a sci-fi epic, there is little story here to speak of. What we are given is a generic plot involving robots going crazy and attacking people. The player - of course - is charged with stopping them. It's not inspiring or original, which is disappointing. Especially when compared to the sprawling space opera that is StarCraft or the bonkers alternative history antics of the Command & Conquer games.

You'll approach each map with a ‘god-view’ perspective, looking down over the battlefield. However, Iron Guard: Salvation also encourages you to get directly involved in the battle using a drone that is controlled by your right-hand controller.

This drone not only acts as your scout, but it also has weapons to directly engage the enemy. It even contains all the vital information, such as the health of the base, the number of resources you have, and the drone’s own energy level. Here we come to one of Iron Guard: Salvation’s major problems - to see any of this info, you either need to crane your head down to look or bring your arm up at an awkward angle. It isn’t comfortable.

Salvation's gameplay owes much to classic tower defense. You can access several types of turrets that enable you to slow the enemy, fire artillery for widespread damage, and use plasma turrets to take out individual foes. These are mounted on platforms that can be conveniently moved mid-battle. This provides greater flexibility while keeping to the tower defense framework.

There's welcome variety in these missions that avoids becoming repetitive survival tasks, including evacuation missions, mining challenges, and even boss encounters. Salvation's RTS influences lie in the resource management for building and upgrading units. You need to master the usage of more powerful 'Hero' units.

Each of them - Graves, Irina, and Mitchell - all have special, unique abilities that require tactical use to achieve victory against incoming waves of robot enemies. From the orbital laser of Graves to the chemical warfare options offered by Mitchell, these abilities can be upgraded and modified using a skill tree, which forms a major part of game progression.

The developer is keeping the user interface as clean as possible, so there is no real HUD to speak of, leaving the drone as your only way to track these important numbers. It also introduces the issue of perspective. Is the player a godlike figure in the sky moving turrets and vehicles around like toys, or are they directly involved in the fight at ground level? I can’t help but feel that Xlab Digital needs to pick a lane and either put the player perspective at ground level or use the ‘military sand table’ approach used by many other RTS titles.

Iron Guard: Salvation's roots are in tower defense games, despite the evident influence of RTS games. This does have something of a limiting factor. Many tower defense games are like puzzles; figure out what defenses to put where, and the level is solved.

One area where Salvation misses out compared to the RTS titles that inspired it is the lack of multiplayer. Many RTS games live far past their expected lifespan by virtue of community engagement. Without this multiplayer input, it's hard to imagine returning to it time and again. Once the levels are 'solved,' there is very little else to do. Multiplayer would provide further life to this game.

To make sure I'm not missing something, I invited a friend who is a semi-professional StarCraft II player and content creator to take a look. He likewise believed the game would benefit from more of a strategic focus, where it is easier to adapt to things going wrong and come up with unique strategies. Presently, it feels more like a puzzle game than a true RTS experience. By removing the emphasis on tower defense and leaning further into the RTS mechanics, this could be improved.

Iron Guard: Salvation offers more than a simple tower defense title in VR, but it's not quite enough to make it a fully fledged RTS. There are good foundations here and welcome mission variety, but awkward design choices from Xlab Digital and a lack of depth are holding it back. Without any multiplayer options either, this hinders the game from living up to its full potential.