Chess Ultra

The first hour is mostly menus. You pick a board, pick a venue, fiddle with camera angles and piece sets, and wonder when the chess part starts. Push through, because the presentation is the point: rendered marble and wood boards, VR support if you have a headset, and a slate of tutorials and puzzle challenges that make it one of the more welcoming ways to sit down with the game if you last played on a plastic set as a kid. The Grandmaster challenges and the difficulty ladder give you something to climb, and online multiplayer with cross-play means you are not stuck grinding bots forever. Where it disappoints is the engine's personality. Difficulty tiers swing hard, and the mid-range AI has a habit of playing solid for twenty moves then handing you a piece, which is not how a human loses. Serious players will bounce straight back to a free web client with better analysis tools. This is chess as an ambience, a handsome digital board for learners and casual returners, not a training suite.

Alex · Scout Team

Catch-all

Be the first to comment on Chess Ultra.