Sony's PlayStation VR has flown mostly under the radar since its release six months ago, with a steady flow of smaller games, optional modes and ports from other systems making up the bulk of its content. So the recently released Farpoint — as a full-sized, full-priced shooter that requires the headset to work — immediately stands out from the crowd.

Initially it sounded like my own personal hell — a VR game where you get stranded on an alien planet and fight spiders that are, at a minimum, the size of jack russells — but thanks to satisfying controls, smart enemy design and a surprisingly interesting story Farpoint and I got along just fine.

After a space exploration mission goes wrong your character and two scientists are sucked through a wormhole to the mystery planet. It's not long before you're up to your knees in extremely irritable arachnids but, while I did flinch basically every time one of them lunged at my face, their creepiness does incentivise you to end them quickly in a way few other games can pull off.

In a smart concession to the fact you can't turn around and look behind you using PSVR (and to stop you swinging your head constantly and getting motion sick), the critters will always run under your feet and attack you from the front. Even when the bad guys get bigger and more complicated, you're never being hit from behind with no way to retaliate.

On the subject of comfort, Farpoint does a great job of providing a lot of different options for how you want to move the camera around. Folks like me who've long since got their VR legs can move it about manually with one of the sticks, but you can also (for example) point your head where you want "forward" to be and press a button to centre, which should help to make sure it's only the spiders freaking you out, not vertigo.

While the game feels much like any other first-person shooter when you use the standard Dualshock, it really comes into its own when played with the PSVR aim controller. Farpoint has clearly been designed specifically to show off the virtues of this new gun-shaped peripheral — in fact you can buy the game and controller together in a bundle — and it does an excellent job.

The controller is light and comfy to hold, offering all the same buttons, triggers and sticks of the standard pad in a smart layout that will feel familiar in your hands even when you can't see them. And, while its soft-looking white and grey shell is pretty non-threatening, the controller maps perfectly to the guns in Farpoint making it feel like you really are holding and using an advanced sci-fi rifle or shotgun.

For example many shooters let you hold a button to "aim down the sights" and get a more accurate shot at your enemy. But in Fairpoint you actually square your weapon with your body and lift it to your face to peer down the barrel. If you're using the standard rifle, there's even a convincing holographic reticule mounted on top of the gun. It's super intuitive to go from spraying bullets at multiple enemies to bringing the gun up to your face and closing one eye to get an accurate shot at a faraway foe. In fact I did it myself the first time I played the game without even needing to be told that's what you do. Switching weapons with the Aim is similarly cool, as you can physically move the controller over your shoulder and bring it back as though holstering one gun and grabbing another.

When you're not blasting spiders the alien world provides an interesting setting for you to poke around and explore. The low resolution of the PSVR makes it tough to pull off any graphical "wow" moments, but the glowing caves and massive smokey volcanoes had me craning my neck in wonder all the same. The narrative thread that pulls you through the game — the plight of the two lost scientists and their quest to find a way home — is well done and surprisingly heartfelt, with story-based scenes making for nice palate-cleansers after long stretches of exploding alien spiders into goo.

If Farpoint was a standard shooter it wouldn't be all that interesting. The weapon selection is pretty light, it's fairly brief compared to other shooter campaigns and there's nothing unique about the sci-fi setting. But the thoughtful VR design paired with the awesome Aim-powered gunplay makes it well worth experiencing, especially on a platform like PSVR that's somewhat starved of meaty content.

Farpoint and the PSVR Aim controller are out now for PlayStation 4.