The Boys: Trigger Warning feels like a game caught between two priorities: delivering a brutal, irreverent VR adaptation of its source material, and serving as a timely piece of franchise promotion. It nails just enough of the show’s tone and spectacle to pull you in, but beneath the surface is a surprisingly shallow experience that rarely lives up to the power fantasy it promises.
Developer: ARVORE
Publisher: Sony Pictures Virtual Reality
Available On: Quest, PSVR 2 coming soon
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Release Date: March 26th, 2026
Price: $30
Gameplay
The Boys: Trigger Warning is a pretty familiar revenge story. Just like how Hughie’s girlfriend is flagrantly mowed down by A-Train in season one of the show, tragedy strikes protagonist Lucas Costa during a fateful encounter with the Armstrongs, a family of low-level ‘Supes’.
On the brink of death, The Boys juice you up with the superhero drug ‘Compound V’, both saving your life and putting you on the path of vengeance, giving you permanent telekinetic powers so you can infiltrate Vought and hunt down the Armstrongs one-by-one.
The narrative is comfortably familiar, well-worn even, although the game does serve up a somewhat toned down version of the series’ patented ‘WTF’ moments. Its cartoony (and sometimes glitchy) visuals seem to soften what would otherwise be much more shocking reveals.
Extreme violence and coarse language are on full display though, as you pop heads like bloody grapes, smash dudes to death with Homelander-brand dildos (star and stripes forever), and hear Butcher call anyone and everyone a cunt. It is The Boys we’re talking about here, after all.
As for powers, you can grab and fling objects from afar to knock out baddies, teleport to close locations, x-ray through walls to see enemies, and pop heads by sneaking up behind them. Unfortunately, all of the game’s AI enemies are as distressingly stupid as the low-level guard seen below, but more on that in the Immersion section.
It’s admittedly a very cool and appropriately-balanced set of abilities, potentially positioning The Boys: Trigger Warning as a pretty good stealth-action game. I say “potentially” because I think a cool game is under there somewhere.
As it is, it feels both rushed and curbed in service of becoming a brand engagement vehicle—because let’s face it, the VR game is dropping just days ahead of The Boys’ final season coming next month. The consequence: it does very little to stop you from just bulldozing through levels, which seems to cheapen things.
As far as I can tell, the only thing you can ‘earn’ are nominal achievements on your end-mission report card. As it is, there are no upgrades, unlockockables, or any way to select specific missions from the past to replay them.
That said, it’s not all stalking through Vought’s office buildings and popping heads, although that is a bulk of the game. You’re also able to temporarily use three specific powers collected throughout the course of the game, which become much more important during its two boss fights (yes, only two) and handful of one-off encounters with higher-level baddies that require brute force tactics.
‘Bone Blades’ let you spawn giant blades so you can easily slice through bad guys, ‘Active Camouflage’ lets you bypass security cameras and guards, and ‘Laser Eyes’ let you blast lasers, well, out of your eyes, easily killing anyone in your path. They’re all really smart and cool editions, but I can’t help but feel like they may be a little too over powered.
Realistically, this lets you play in either stealth-action mode, or as a beat ’em up with no real incentive to choose either play style. As it is, the three regular enemy types are very simple to kill, and no amount of blaring security klaxons can really stop you.
Boss fights, of which there are only two, highlight some of the flaws in the game’s combat system. Controls are fairly densely packed; you not only have to jab yourself with one of three Temp V syringes on your belt holster, but you have to activate those power by holding down both he triggers and grip buttons, which essentially restricts your ability to teleport, since it also uses the trigger to activate.
That said, I would consider level design to be very good, as it offers up plenty of hidden areas to explore, some of which contain much needed re-ups of Temp V, found notes, and audio logs. To be honest, I never bothered much with the found notes or logs though, as you have to physically pause to read or hear them.
With four hours of gameplay, I left feeling a bit confused overall. As a narrative experience, it feels right at home with The Boys. As a game though, it feels somewhat rushed, and maybe even toned down in difficulty to better serve as a brand engagement vehicle.
Immersion
A definite highlight for me is the game’s narrative, which really does the source material justice. Temp V isn’t good for your brain, and the more you take it, the more you start to see things. Big Soldier Boy isn’t real, and can’t hurt you. Maybe…
I would have otherwise said the cartoony vibe was also a great fit for the VR adaptation, although some pretty robotic rigging puts it at odds with some of the more premium and refined elements on display.
Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk), Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), and P.J. Byrne (Adam Bourke) have all reprised their roles in the game as voice actors. Although Butcher and Homelander are a big part of the game too, notably neither Karl Urban nor Anthony Star took part, which I was very surprised to learn when the credits finally rolled. Seasoned voice actors Gary Furlong (Butcher) and Jake Green (Homelander) served up excellent impressions, so much so I had to double take.
Still, characters feel robotically animated, with mouths looking more like they’re chewing on peanut butter than actually talking. It’s an odd thing to watch, especially since exposition dumps mostly happen when you’re just sitting on a stool and MM and Butcher are giving you a lecture, or prepping you for the next mission.
Enemy AI is also just so bad it’s funny. Much like pigs, enemies can’t look up. They also apparently can’t see too far down an unobstructed corridor either, making stealth hits way too easy. At one point, when I realized just how much time I was wasting creeping through air ducts, I just decided to go ham and clear out every level by continuously juicing my Bone Blade Temp V. Who cares if an alarm goes off? Or if I’m caught on CC TV? It literally doesn’t matter, because there is effectively no reward, no penalty, or much of anything that can stop me from getting to that end mission screen.
As for object interaction, most of it is done via telekenisis, so you don’t physically pick up anything. It’s probably for the best, as your virtual hand position is off by a few inches, which makes coming out of VR a very strange experience for the first few minutes. As a touch typist, I kept hitting hitting the wrong keys on my keyboard when jotting down my thoughts after missions—totally throwing my body’s proprioception out of whack.
In all, if you’re a fan of The Boys, you’ll probably really appreciate the level of care when it comes to voice acting, general art direction, and narrative. Still, characters feel too wooden and robotic to be believed, and gameplay too dumbed down to be truly engaging.
Comfort
While there’s the full range of comfort options, I found that point of view would involuntarily move when inside air ducts, and even sometimes when standing still on solid ground, which can be uncomfortable since it’s not controlled by the user. Moving your stick corrects this behavior temporarily, although I imagine it will be the subject of a future update.
Otherwise, the game is very comfortable, provided you don’t push past your personal limits for frenetic movement, like you might need for boss fights or more-packed enemy encounters.
The Boys: Trigger Warning Comfort Settings – March 26th, 2026 | |
Turning | |
| Snap-turn |  |
| Quick-turn |  |
| Smooth-turn | |
Movement | |
| Teleport-move | |
| Dash-move | |
| Smooth-move | |
| Arm Swing-move | |
| Blinders | |
| Head-based direction | |
| Controller-based direction | (body-based) |
| Swappable movement hand | |
Posture | |
| Standing mode | |
| Seated mode | |
| Artificial crouch | |
| Real crouch | |
Accessibility | |
| Subtitles | |
| Adjustable difficulty | |
| Two hands required | |
| Real crouch required | |
| Hearing required | |
| Adjustable player height | |
The post ‘The Boys: Trigger Warning’ Review – A Bloody Power Fantasy That Pulls Too Many Punches appeared first on Road to VR.
