Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Arkane Lyon, MachineGames
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Platform	SteamVR, PlayStation VR
Device	HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, PlayStation VR
Operating System	Windows, PlayStation 4
Type	Game
Genre	Action, Shooter
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers, PlayStation Move, DualShock 4
Play Area	Seated
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	July 26, 2019
Price	US$19.99 (launch price)
App Store	Steam, PlayStation Store
Website	https://bethesda.net/en/game/wolfenstein-cyberpilot

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot is a virtual reality first-person action game in the Wolfenstein series, developed by Arkane Lyon as a MachineGames production and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in a Nazi-occupied Paris in 1980, it casts the player as a hacker working for the French Resistance who takes remote control of Nazi war machines and turns them against their owners. Bethesda released it for PlayStation VR on 26 July 2019, the same day as the non-VR Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and for PC VR headsets through Steam, whose store listing gives a release date of 25 July 2019.

Bethesda announced the game at its E3 2018 showcase as a standalone VR title. Critics found it short, and it received "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic, with Metascores of 50 for the PlayStation 4 version and 54 for the PC version.

Reviewed 4 October 2026. Checked every claim against its cited source: Steam and PlayStation Store listings, both PlayStation Blog developer posts, Bethesda.net, Road to VR and UploadVR articles and reviews, PlayStation Universe, Metacritic and OpenCritic scores. About review dates.

Gameplay

The player is the Cyberpilot, a hacker who sits in a retro-futurist "hacking post" in a secret Resistance base and pilots robots remotely. There are three machines to control: the Panzerhund, a dog-like tank with a flamethrower; the Zitadelle, a bipedal mech armed with a machine gun and rockets that can raise a force field; and a stealth drone used to hack into terminals and slip past enemies. Each robot has its own weapons, a repair system and a special "panic button" move, according to the developers. Missions take place on the streets of Paris, and between them the player returns to a hub in the Resistance bunker to fix and hack machines. A single character guides the player over the radio, giving mission instructions and parts of the story.

The game is designed to be played seated. Movement is free-roaming rather than on rails; on PC, Road to VR reported that the default locomotion is hand-controlled smooth movement, with variable snap turning available. UploadVR noted options for customizable turning and a field-of-view dimmer. On PlayStation 4 the game requires the PlayStation VR headset and PlayStation Camera; it supports two PlayStation Move controllers, which are optional, and DualShock 4 vibration. It is single-player only.

Story

Cyberpilot is set in 1980, two decades after the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, in an alternate history in which Nazi Germany still occupies Paris. Game director Dinga Bakaba said that the story "takes place not long before the events of Youngblood" and does not focus on the Blazkowicz family, although "some characters do cross over between both games." Narrative designer Sophie Mallinson said that players of The New Colossus would hear "a familiar voice in your ear" throughout the game, and Bakaba said the team chose to tell the story without cutscenes.

Development

The Steam listing credits the game as "a MachineGames production, developed by Arkane Lyon", and states that it uses id Software's id Tech engine. The development team included Bakaba, game designer Alexander Leboucher, narrative designer Sophie Mallinson and producer Yoann Guilloud at Arkane Lyon, with Jerk Gustafsson as executive producer at MachineGames.

Bakaba said that, after talks with Gustafsson about a Wolfenstein VR title, the teams concluded that "it should be a companion game and not just a VR mode for Youngblood, as trying to emulate the gameplay of the main Wolfenstein games wouldn't be fitting for this format." The robot premise came from comfort considerations. In Bakaba's words, "Some of the most comfortable VR experiences are seated. That made us come up with the idea of the robots: you sit as the Cyberpilot in your retro-futurist 'hacking post' and take control of remote war machines." He also said the team "wanted to play with rail-free, first-person shooting with direct control", and Leboucher said that "after countless hours of tweaking and experimenting, we managed to deliver a smooth free-roaming experience".

Release

Bethesda revealed Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot at its E3 showcase on 10 June 2018, alongside Wolfenstein: Youngblood, with a release planned for 2019. Two days later, Bethesda representatives confirmed to Road to VR that the game was coming to PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive. In March 2019 Bethesda set the release date of 26 July 2019 and a price of US$19.99. PlayStation Universe reported on 11 July 2019 that the game had gone gold.

Oculus Rift support was handled unevenly. In March 2019 UploadVR reported that the Steam listing named the Rift as a supported headset, which had not been confirmed before, and attributed the earlier silence to the recently settled legal dispute between Oculus and Bethesda's owner ZeniMax Media. Shortly before launch, MachineGames executive producer Jerk Gustafsson told UploadVR that the game "works on Oculus, but we don't officially support it". As of October 2026, Steam's store data for the game lists HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets but not the Rift.

Platform	Store	Release date	Launch price	Notes
PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4)	PlayStation Store	26 July 2019	US$19.99	Requires PlayStation Camera; PlayStation Move optional
PC VR (Windows)	Steam	25 July 2019 (Steam listing)	US$19.99	Listed for HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality

Bethesda and the PlayStation Blog gave 26 July 2019 as the launch date for both versions; the Steam store page lists 25 July 2019. The game remains on sale on both stores. The PlayStation Store lists it at US$19.99 and notes that it is playable on PlayStation 5 with some PS4 features possibly absent, and Steam also sells it in the "Wolfenstein: Resistance Bundle" with Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

Reception

Aggregator or outlet	Platform	Score
Metacritic	PlayStation 4	50/100 (35 critic reviews)
Metacritic	PC	54/100 (6 critic reviews)
OpenCritic	All	49 Top Critic Average, "Weak" rating
Road to VR	PC (HTC Vive)	5.5/10

In Road to VR's review, Scott Hayden scored the game 5.5 out of 10 (4.5 for gameplay, 6 for immersion and 8 for comfort) and finished it in about 1.5 hours. He wrote that it "feels less like a complete game and more like the beginning tutorial levels for each vehicle" and that there was little replay value once the hardest mode was beaten. He also reported performance problems at the recommended specifications that needed manual settings changes.

UploadVR's David Jagneaux, who played on PlayStation VR with PlayStation Move controllers, estimated the campaign at about three hours. He praised the writing, voice acting, cockpit design and drone sections, but criticized the short length and the distance between the player and the combat, concluding that the game "has all of the right ingredients to be an exciting VR game focused on murdering tons of Nazis, but ends up feeling like it's just too safe with far too little content". Other review excerpts collected by Metacritic and OpenCritic also criticize the game's short length and limited replay value.