Lights, Camera… Action!

Action Hero casts you as an actor/stuntman playing the lead on various movie sets, a clever premise that should breathe new life into Superhot’s time-manipulation mechanics. The game unfolds across five distinct “movies,” each broken into four acts. Each Act consists of five or six action-packed vignettes. Your director then encourages or chides you through sequences ranging from high-speed battles atop a moving train to Matrix-inspired showdowns.

The Hollywood setting proves genuinely inspired, offering a natural justification for the game’s segmented structure and repeated attempts at perfection. Each “movie” pays homage to different action genres—you’ll find yourself channeling Indiana Jones one moment and Neo the next. The aptly named “The Code” sequence, with its cyberpunk aesthetic and reality-bending set pieces stands out as a particular highlight.

While the concept and setting work well, there is definitely room for improvement. You can choose between two directors at the beginning of the game, but this choice seems to be entirely limited to the voice-over that pushes you through the game, which is a real missed opportunity.

Had the choice between the directors been integrated into the actual gameplay mechanics, the option between two distinct personalities could have been transformative rather than merely superficial. Had the stricter director imposed time limits, restricted the number of retakes before “firing” you, or demanded specific style points for a scene, the game would have been much improved. Similarly, the other director could have offered more generous conditions but lower score multipliers.

Implementing such mechanics would have perfectly aligned with the movie-making premise while adding meaningful replay value and, at the same time, offering the game at least one gameplay addition to set Action Hero apart from its inspiration. Instead, we’re left with little more than a voice pack selection.

A Time-Tested Formula

Let’s address the poignantly static elephant in the room: Action Hero‘s core gameplay is virtually identical to Superhot. Time moves only when you do, creating a strategic dance of bullet-dodging and precision shooting. This “bullet ballet” remains as engaging as ever, with each vignette playing out as a spatial puzzle where plotting your path through enemies requires both tactical thinking and physical prowess.

The game shines in its moment-to-moment gameplay. Consider a sequence atop a speeding train, where motorcycles leap through the air amid explosive chaos—time crawls to a stop as you map out your response, each movement a calculated risk. When scanning your surroundings, you learn to move with exaggerated slowness as any quick head turns accelerate the incoming threats. Players will use these temporal mechanics to master each scene, eventually blossoming from a cautious planner to an action hero who can handle real-time combat with practiced grace.

Individual scenes can be completed in seconds, but perfecting them becomes an addictive pursuit. The game includes a “normal speed” toggle that lets veteran players attempt runs without the time manipulation crutch, adding another challenge for leaderboard chasers. It’s the kind of game that can steal minutes or hours as “just one more try” becomes your evening’s mantra.

However, where Action Hero falters is in its reluctance to innovate. While Superhot’s mechanics were revolutionary, their direct reproduction here feels safe to a fault. The game could have explored new variations on the time-manipulation theme—perhaps scenes where time moves backward, where maintaining momentum is crucial, or where particular objects remain in real-time while others slow down. Instead, it settles for being an exceptionally well-produced clone of an exceptionally well-made original.

Blockbuster Flair

The most significant departure from Superhot comes in the visual design. Gone is the stark white-and-red minimalism, replaced with vibrant, colorful environments that pop in VR. The movie set themes allow for varied locations and spectacular set pieces—exploding barrels, mid-air motorcycle jumps, and Matrix-style environmental effects create memorable moments.

However, this shift comes with tradeoffs. While Superhot’s minimalist aesthetic achieved a timeless elegance, Action Hero‘s more conventional approach, though polished, feels less distinct. The blockbuster styling is well-executed but lacks the iconic visual identity of its inspiration. It’s a reminder that sometimes less truly is more. That said, this will come down to personal preference as there will doubtless be many who prefer the bombacity of the blockbuster aesthetic. I prefer the context and flair given by the action movie set motif, but I know that others (Ed.) will not agree.

Setting the Scene

The sound design effectively serves both form and function. Slow-motion explosions and gunfire sound satisfying and provide crucial spatial awareness cues. A barrel exploding in slow motion to your right naturally draws your attention. The audio mixing cleverly balances the needs of both slow-motion and real-time gameplay, ensuring important sound cues remain clear regardless of your temporal state.

The sound design also pulls double duty, simultaneously selling both the action movie experience and the “behind-the-scenes” setting of a movie set. The addition of director voice-overs adds personality, though as mentioned earlier, the two-director system feels like a missed opportunity for more profound gameplay variation. The overall soundscape successfully reinforces both the action movie premise and the core gameplay mechanics.

Cut! Reset! Let’s go again!

Action Hero presents a challenging dilemma for reviewers. Viewed in isolation, it’s an exceptionally well-crafted VR action game that delivers satisfying gameplay in digestible chunks. The movie set premise is clever, the execution is polished, and the core mechanics—borrowed as they may be—remain compelling.

Yet it’s impossible to ignore the game’s derivative nature. This isn’t merely inspired by Superhot; it’s essentially Superhot with a fresh coat of paint. While the original broke new ground, Action Hero seems content to merely redecorate it. The additions it does make—the movie set premise, colorful visuals, and director system—feel more like surface-level changes than meaningful evolution.

For players who have never experienced Superhot, Action Hero offers an excellent entry point into this style of VR action. Those craving more of Superhot’s unique gameplay will find a pseudo-sequel on offer and will likely relish it for its familiarity. However, veterans of the original may find themselves wishing for more innovation beneath the Hollywood glamour.

Concept: 4
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7.5
Longevity: 8
Overall: 7.5

Color by numbers Superhot

Now, as Fracked makes its way to the Quest, the question is: Will nDreams update their design choices to once again play to the strengths of the hardware? If not, will the design choices from 2021 hold up, or will Fracked feel like a relic of the past?

FRACK TO THE FUTURE

At its core, Fracked is a narrative-driven shooter with a straightforward premise. Players step into the boots of a lone soldier who unwittingly stumbles upon an isolated mountain fracking operation. This isn’t your typical energy extraction site, however. An alien corruption has spread throughout the camp, turning miners into grotesque enemies and threatening the very world itself. Alongside a trusty “eye in the sky” sidekick, players are tasked with investigating the mysterious outbreak and eradicating the alien menace.

The story unfolds over a 3 to 3.5-hour campaign, taking players through a series of 8 fairly linear levels. The game’s structure alternates between intense action set pieces, thrilling skiing sequences, and climbing sections that, while serviceable, don’t add much to the overall experience. The action sequences, particularly those where players ski down slopes while shooting enemies on snowmobiles, are exhilarating at first but quickly lose their novelty.

Despite the initial bursts of excitement, the campaign’s short length leaves much to be desired. What could have been an epic, sprawling adventure feels more like a bite-sized thrill ride—fun while it lasts but over too soon.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CLUNKY

Fracked offers an interesting mix of classic run-and-gun gameplay with elements of traditional cover shooters. The game’s cover system is one of its standout features, allowing players to physically move in and out of cover using their off-hand. This adds a level of immersion and physicality that a simple button press fails to achieve. The action is fast-paced, with set pieces that serve up waves of enemies for the player to mow down. However, these set pieces often feel like filler content, with limited objectives beyond surviving the onslaught.

Unfortunately, Fracked is hampered by some clunky design choices that feel inherited from the PSVR controllers and detract from the overall experience. Holstering weapons, for example, is far from intuitive. Rather than the accepted standard of using the grip button to grab and holster weapons from intuitive locations on the body, switching weapons is done via a button press. New weapons instantly materialise in your hand in a way that is jarring and immersion breaking. Holstering involves an awkward long press while holding the gun by your hip, a process which felt cumbersome at best.

The inability to dual-wield or two-hand weapons seems to be a deliberate way to force players to engage with the cover mechanics, but it makes the gunplay feel one-dimensional. For the cover based elements it makes sense, but the run-and-gun elements are sorely let down by the inability to rush into a situation guns akimbo.

WHO NEED’S STAIRS WHEN YOU CAN ZIPLINE?

The game’s limited weapon selection further exacerbates this issue. Players have access to only two main weapons and three special weapons, the latter of which cannot be holstered and can only be used for a single clip. This severely restricts the variety of combat encounters, especially when paired with the limited enemy types. There are only three main enemy types, and while they are mixed up by arming them with the same limited weapons available to the player, the overall combat experience can feel a little repetitive.

On the plus side, Fracked does incorporate some enjoyable environmental interactions. Zip lines and exploding barrels are scattered liberally throughout the levels, providing ample opportunities for creative kills and quick escapes. However, the sheer abundance of these elements raises questions; what does a fracking operation need with so many zip lines, and why the hell are there explosive barrels absolutely everywhere?!?!

The climbing sections, though present, are mercifully few and far between. They serve as brief interludes between the more action-packed sequences and do an ok job of delivering a few cinematic thrills. But, like so many games that incorporate a superficial climbing mechanics, these sections lack the tension and nuance delivered by more dedicated climbing games like The Climb series. As a result, these sections lack the impact that could easily have delivered.

THE FRACKED AND THE FURIOUS

If there’s one area where Fracked truly excels, it’s in its visual presentation.

The game’s art direction is nothing short of fantastic, making superb use of a stylized cel-shaded art style. Textures are bold and vibrant, with strong outlines and a thoughtfully conceived palette that make the game pop that ensures the world feels consistent and vibrant. One odd quirk, however, is the giant hands that seem to be nDreams’ calling card (Ghostbusters, I’m looking at you). While not a deal-breaker, it’s an unusual design choice that might take some getting used to.

The audio experience in Fracked is equally impressive. The soundtrack dynamically shifts with the action, adding to the intensity of firefights and the tension of quieter moments. Voice acting is top-notch, showcasing the difference that a proper budget can make when securing professional voice talent. Sound effects are crisp and impactful, and the use of spatial audio helps players subconsciously navigate the chaotic battlefield, adding another layer of immersion to the experience.

FINAL ACT

Fracked is a game that oozes style and accessibility, serving as an excellent entry point for players new to VR shooters. With outstanding art direction and some thoroughly engaging set pieces there is a lot to enjoy in the Quest port of nDreams’ 2021 PSVR hit.

That said, Fracked can’t help but feel slightly hampered by its heritage and struggles to keep up with more modern VR shooters. Despite this, Fracked is a still a fun and engaging experience, especially for those looking for a short, stylish romp through a visually stunning world.

COLD, COLD GROUND

Upon loading Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior, there’s a sense of familiarity. Menus look and sound the same, and the narrator and protagonist from the original VR release—an amiable elderly Italian partisan reminiscing about his time as a crack-shot sniper in the Second World War—remain. In the first outing, he related his tales from his sunlight-dappled garden, where his young family frolicked, enjoying the freedoms he fought for. This time, he starts in bed, with a blizzard outside snowing him in, triggering memories of snow levels he didn’t mention previously.

After a brief but effective tutorial firing range, which you can leave without completing if you’re on another save, we’re dropped into the first level proper. Well, sort of. It’s still actually a tutorial and quite narrow in scope (no pun intended, for once). The gameplay is familiar: sneak, snipe, use environmental sounds to cover your shots, kill everyone, plant a bomb, and then get to the exit. You know the drill, perhaps too well.

WINTERLUDE

Let’s start with the positives. Many of the nice things I said in my review of the original two years ago still hold true. The sniping is surprisingly intuitive and effective, the slow-motion bullet kill cam is well-realized, and the graphics are largely lovely.

The sound is good, and there’s a core to the gameplay that’s undeniably fun. If you were a big fan of the original Sniper Elite VR, you’ll know what to expect from Winter Warrior—it provides more of the same, mostly. However, I can’t help but feel let down and uninvested in this sequel.

GUNPOWDER FROM ICE

Despite being a standalone title, Winter Warrior never really feels like a sequel. To be fair, it’s half the price of the original and probably conceived as additional levels rather than a full game in its own right, and it shows. The game has a pervasive tiredness about it, like it’s just going through the motions. The Partisan starts in bed and never really gets out of it. Music cues, assets, animations, and sounds are reused from the first game. Missions should feel like playgrounds of possibility, but are actually a staid and workmanlike series of checkpoints and triggered events. There’s a surprising lack of emphasis on stealth and, believe it or not, sniping. Limited enemy numbers mean that after you’ve killed a few, the game spawns more in, sometimes alerted regardless of how stealthy you’ve been.

‘Letters From Home’ and other collectibles are scattered around levels but can’t be read—they’re just busywork, not additional context. There are challenges in each level that add some fun and replayability, but this idea, too, is regurgitated from the original. The déjà vu is strong, and it contributes to the hollow feel of the game.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED

Sniper Elite VR nailed some core experiences and basics that other titles like Medal of Honor and Onward didn’t. It felt like a lot was riding on it, and it confidently quelled many fears. That relief allowed me to overlook some jankiness because it had heart.

The sequel, however, does nothing to advance itself and suddenly feels dated. The lack of engaging VR interactions is grating and reveals a laziness and lack of ambition. Handguns can’t be held with both hands. Door handles, keys, switches, satchel charges, and the like are operated by reaching out a hand and holding down a grip button until a bar fills up—flat game mechanics that break immersion in VR. You don’t feel like an elite sniper; you feel like you’re just waving a pointing finger in the air. These interactions are crucial for VR, and we deserve better. Michel Roux famously asked potential students to crack an egg for him, saying that if they could do that well, he could teach them anything. I feel similarly about VR games handling keys in locks or opening cupboards—if this feels good and intuitive, the rest of the game might have the right attention to detail to be a winner. In this game, those aspects are lacking and definitely hurt the quality of the final product. Reloading and charging guns were nailed in the first installment—now, where’s the rest of the game? The remote pull for ammo and objects is fiddly and inconsistent, with no sense of weight. Enemy animations are basic and staccato, making reading the levels annoying at times. The enemies don’t feel enough like combatants, just paper marionettes waiting to be decommissioned.

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT

One unexpected disappointment in Winter Warrior was the character of The Partisan himself. While there’s nothing wrong with the acting per se, the structure of having him narrate the action as a series of memories means the affable old man persona never lets up. Everything he says has the tone of an advert for authentic pasta sauce, without really conveying the urgency of the player’s situation. Remember the bit in Lord of the Rings where Gandalf suddenly drops the genial grandpa act and reveals he’s a powerful, ancient soul with the weight of the world on his shoulders? That never happens with the Partisan, and a potentially interesting narrative about a lovable old chap who was a super-assassin evaporates in a cloud of whimsy. It would be great if, while peering down the scope of a sniper rifle, the voiceover matched the mood, rather than making me think I should be tucked under a tartan blanket falling asleep in front of Countdown.

A FROZEN, ROTTED ROAD

The snowy theme of Winter Warrior is apt, as the game feels like the first one but frozen in time. It never really thaws, losing a lot of charm and goodwill to frostbite. It will be overshadowed by other releases around it, perhaps deservedly so. With a bit more care, I’d be more positive. As it is, Winter Warrior feels like a dead end. I hope there’s another VR installment of the Sniper Elite games, one that pays more attention to its competitors and respects its audience.

Stick with the original or wait for it to go on sale. It’s got more charm and imagination than this ersatz sequel, which will leave you cold.

If you’re a big fan of the original, you might add a point or two to my score. But if you’re like me and love the original but want more this time, this game feels like less.

But wait! JoyWay said, what about we have an actual narrative-driven campaign using Stride mechanics? Wouldn’t that be cool?

Yes, that would be fantastic, said the fan base!

And lo, Stride: Fates was announced, and things quickly got messy. I won’t get into the complex timeline, but JoyWay are better at making games than they are at communicating, and a mixup ensued. Would it be a free update to Stride? A DLC? Would it be a separate game? Confusion! After a poorly received one-hour campaign, JoyWay decided to go back to the drawing board, and flesh out Fates into a separate single-player campaign game. 

So, finally, Stride: Fates is here. How is it? Was it worth the wait? Is the new and improved game engine kicking butt? Let’s find out!

Taking it in Stride

Fates casts you as a slum dog in the dystopian Airon City. You’ve been recruited as a chaser by the elite forces of SkyChase, the blurb claims that your ‘fate’ is bound to various other characters, but that’s not really true. The only character you have any kind of actual connection to is your handler, who shows up a few times as a hologram to guide you, but mainly screams quite painfully whenever you die. 

The narrative, well, the narrative..exists, but it’s not about to win any prizes. It’s mostly there to act as glue between the levels, giving them some sort of context, but it’s not something you’ll get emotional about one way or the other.

But that doesn’t really matter, right? I mean, we’re all here for the parkour and the Shooty Shooty, right?

So let’s talk about the gameplay.

The action in Stride: Fates takes place across 12 levels, and it’ll take you about 7-9 hours to complete. You start off with a pistol, and you’ll soon acquire a shotgun, and finally, a machine gun. All your weapons are upgradable. 

The levels, commendably, offer a good variety of gameplay styles, some are straight-up action shooters, some lean more towards the parkour origins of Stride, and a couple lean more towards stealth gameplay.

The shooter levels are a mixed bag, the early ones are annoying because the starting pistol without upgrades lacks a satisfying punch and the levels aren’t designed in a way that only intermittently encourages parkour, so you end up feeling like you got a middling shooter at the expense of what made Stride so much fun in the first place.

To be fair, though, the action shooter levels towards the later half of the game play, and feel much better. Partly because, by then, you’ve got much better weapons, partly because their design is better at providing flowing traversal, and partly because, by then, you’ve learned how to get around some of the annoyances Stride: Fates comes with, but more on those issues later. 

The stealth levels feel undercooked and out of place, I don’t put on Stride, Fates, or otherwise, to crawl through air vents, dodge security cameras, and sneak up on baddies, especially when I seem to be a disembodied head inside the vents, with my eyes almost level to the bottom of the vents. Remember hand in the Adams Family? Hand, meet Head. Head, meet Hand. Splinter Cell VR, this ain’t.

Then there are the parkour levels, and unsurprisingly, these are the levels that shine, this is what Stride does best, and it shows. You have the parkour flow, shooting people while you jump, duck and weave, wall running, grabbing ledges, and climbing non-stop. These levels can be exhilarating. 

In terms of enemies, there’s a decent, if not impressive variety; regular dudes. Dudes with shields. Long-range sniper-ish dudes, dudes with chain guns, drones, and one final boss. As I write this, I just realized, all the baddies are dudes. Is this sexism or misandry? Who knows, better yet, who cares? Save the city, and ask questions later. 

Airon Aesthetics 

For a dystopian city, Airon looks pretty good and oddly clean. It lacks a distinct style, so it would fare very poorly if compared to Mirror’s Edge, which had a visual signature so distinctive that anybody who’s played it is seeing it in their mind’s eye right now just because I mentioned it, but that’s not to say the reworked Stride doesn’t look good, it does. You have puddles on the floor, reflections on some surfaces, and a decent amount of detail, and the game can throw quite a few enemies on screen for you to face off against when it wants to overwhelm you. 

Airon-Phonics

The audio in Stride: Fates is a mixed bag. The voice acting of your handler is generally alright, but the scream she makes on the radio when you die is so overacted as to be painful, making me wish she just said a tragic, “Oh, No..” If you’re anything like me, the first time you hear it, you’ll laugh, but by the third, you’ll hate it. Hey, if that motivates you to stay alive, that’s a good thing, right?

The sound design is somewhat lacking. The weapons don’t pack much of a sonic punch, not with the shooting, and certainly not with the reloading. The game could use a fuller soundscape, I want the guns to sound powerful I want the reloading to be satisfying, I want to hear my steps a little more, I want to feel my heart pounding along to the action. It’s not quite there. The music, along the same lines, is action-packed, keeping you going and setting the right mood, but it’s repetitive and cliche-ridden. This should be better by release since JoyWay said the next patch would add more music variety.

But the patches have a few more problems to fix. Let’s talk about those.

Chasing Chasers

In some respects, especially during the first half of the campaign, it almost feels like JoyWay have bitten off a little more than they can comfortably chew. The earlier levels, as mentioned feel like they’ve sacrificed what Stride is good at for a second-rate shooter. For a game with parkour in its DNA, you start and stop too much, you pause, you turn around, you spend time looking at nooks and crannies to find upgrade packs for your weapons, the remote grab, and the grab controls often get mixed up, so you find yourself grabbing a table instead of quickly picking up the health syringe that’s on it, all these things nibble away at the flow of the game, making it feel like the Parkour-Shooter is, if you’ll pardon the inevitable pun, shooting itself in the foot. 

One of these is just an example of poor game design. Upgrade packs should be along your path or along alternate paths, not hidden away from your path. Or, more fluidly, should be rewarded for parkour skills and achievements or run completion times.

There are also some mechanical inconsistencies, especially with the Yakuza level clearly inspired by JoyWay’s own Red Flowers, where sometimes you can’t simply run up steps, you have to jump over them, only to sometimes find yourself sliding back down and then have to hop hop to get to their end. This shouldn’t happen, at all. Maybe the assets were ported over from Red Flowers into Fates and not quite adapted properly? I don’t know. 

I also run into some bugs, but I’ll avoid harping on those since one patch has already been released and another should be out by the time you watch this, so hopefully those should have been resolved. One particularly annoying bug made it impossible to continue a level on dying, which meant I had to finish that level in one uninterrupted run. Git Gud, as they say.

Violent Endings

Stride: Fates is the closest you’ll get to Mirror’s Edge on standalone VR, but it’s nowhere near as polished and perhaps should have stayed in the oven just a little bit longer. It needs to be tweaked to make sure that the shooter elements are either much improved, especially in the early levels, or that they don’t impede the parkour elements. Nobody will convince me that the stealth levels belong, and although the narrative promise is fulfilled, the story fails to engage players and does little more than justify the level progression.

Having said that, some levels truly work; the shooting and the traversal and the design all mesh together and it feels like you’re a parkour-gifted demon who’s wall running, grappling, and sprinting as you mow down enemies. In those moments, it rises above its issues and makes you forget all the issues you have with it, and when THAT happens it’s beautiful. 

So, let’s conclude by saying this; Stride: Fates is a parkour shooter that sometimes stumbles into mediocrity while trying to serve two masters, however, it is also occasionally capable of joining them together into the flow-shooter we all imagined it could be, I just wish that it succeeded at doing so much more often.

TALENT BORROWS, GENES STEAL

It’s very clear from the outset that Genotype has purloined a considerable amount of DNA from Nintendo’s eternally wonderful Metroid Prime. Apart from being reminiscent graphically, the explore-upgrade-shoot-explore-more format is clearly more than inspired by the first-person adventures of Samus Aran. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that; when you’re attempting to clone something, you should start with very strong genes. And in the opening sections of Genotype, it’s really quite a promising love letter; the graphics are solid and smooth, the premise is intriguing, and the base promises to be a treasure trove of mystery, adventure and discovery; a futuristic setting slowly being reclaimed by organic matter in the shadow of twisted experiments gone wrong. 

WAKE UP, SLEEPY GENES

The player’s interface for everything that happens is Evely’s ‘GRAID’ gloves. Inspired, perhaps, by Half-Life: Alyx’s glove system, these handy hands act as an inventory, weapon and tools system. A ripcord acts as the selection menu; pull the cord from the right glove and let go when you’ve selected the creature you want to use.

You start off with a lowly worm Spitter gun, but soon acquire more blueprints for weapon-creatures, and all of them can be gradually upgraded by acquiring genetic matter and upgrade tokens. It’s a good, well-wrought system that feels good to use and you can get to become quite slick with it; as a way of interacting with the world, it’s definitely one of the less janky affairs on the Quest. Whilst it doesn’t really compete with Half-Life: Alyx, it’s mostly fun and rewarding to use. 

GENE MILDER

When I started Genotype, with no prior knowledge or expectation, I was very impressed indeed. It’s always puzzled me that Metroid Prime hasn’t been more widely aped directly like this, and it’s excellent to see it happen. The presentation is excellent, the graphics are lovely, and the performances are solid.

The combat seemed a little slight and inconsequential at first but not exactly bad – I expected this would be something to scale with Evely’s abilities. However, what happens over the next couple of hours is that everything becomes more and more annoying, and less and less interesting. Cracks open in the structure and direction of Genotype, and then everything that you like about it starts to fall through them.

HALF-BAKED GENES 

First off, there’s no pacing at all. You have a laundry list of stuff to do in each area, and it’s never anything more than mundane. Find security keys, find a gizmo, use the gizmo, and upgrade the gloves. Nothing feels like it’s ramping up or raising the stakes, it just feels like doing actual maintenance on an empty base. The combat is all over the place. Genotype randomly spams waves of enemies at you to pad things out, and despite some interesting creature designs you beat them all honoured way. Strafe, shoot. Hitboxes for damage are ridiculous as if to compensate for an intrinsically easy system. Dodging incoming projectiles and attacks in VR should feel intuitive – in this, the player has a field that extends beyond the physical space the character should inhabit, making it easy for creatures to get cheap hits in, and it feels infuriating. Bosses are ridiculously easy compared to the occasional waves of grunts, and there’s just no smooth difficulty curve of any kind. Your inventory will easily become filled with disposable injectors that might sound interesting – haste, invisibility and such – but you’ll never find the need or desire to use them in combat – it’s unnecessary, fiddly and pointless. 

So combat quickly becomes an uninteresting chore, but this isn’t leavened by clever puzzles or an interesting narrative. There’s literally a beige list of dull tasks to do in each area, a checklist that needs ticking. I honestly don’t find that any of it is ultimately interesting. Exploration is hampered by the fact that the environments are repetitious and massively dull. After the initial spectacle and promise falls away, it’s just a collection of corridors, crates and doors that are all so unmemorable that the map becomes essential in a way that it shouldn’t. Often, the rewards for exploration and progression are so minimal, or even non-existent, that it is completely demotivating. Why fill three identical rooms with cupboards to open, which are all empty?

TELLTALE SIGNS

Everything about Genotype is uneven, and this extends – or perhaps begins – with the writing and performances. Evely and William are played by competent and engaging voice actors, but the script and direction are erratic and poor. Evely is in a desperate situation; she is lost, her colleague is killed quite gruesomely at the start, and she is struggling to survive in a mutant-infested facility while a fatal genetic aberration is killing her from the inside out. Rather than this giving her an air of urgency or determination, most of the time she sounds like she’s having a mildly interesting day at the office.

Look at the cover art; Evely even looks like someone has interrupted her using the photocopier to ask where the stapler is. The stakes of the plot couldn’t be higher – the entire world could be destroyed by the infection escaping from the base, and Evely is dying. But that urgency is lost in what’s actually presented to the player. There are some silly attempts at wit and irreverence which don’t land at all, and I think are meant to be gallows humour from a desperate character, but don’t work on paper and the direction isn’t there. It’s a shame because I think with better guidance and a stronger script the actors would certainly have been able to hit on something special here; the moments of genuine connection that work really work, and this is to the performer’s credit. I just wish they’d have had more to work with. If the living genetic mutations that function as the weapons were part of Evely’s infection – like she was mutating herself to progress, but it was slowly consuming her, then that puts us back into high stakes, Metroid Prime territory.

As it is, all of the DNA, gene splicing stuff is just scripting novelty flim-flam. It might as well be alien or advanced tech; there are no overriding themes explored or written into the genetic code of the narrative, as you might reasonably expect from its title. 

REGRESSION

Everything in Genotype conspires steadily to remove the player’s connection to it, from the uncertain and uneven tone to the pointless combat. Either give me a narrative strong enough to forgive any deficiencies in gameplay or a game that’s so good to play that off-scripting or performance can take a back seat and be ignored. Best of all, give me a little bit of both – it’s not an insane ask. I know that somewhere in the empty corridors of Snowdrop base, there’s a far better game waiting to be hatched. It’s a crying shame because a bit more time incubating could have begat something memorable and special. 

Are you still there? Or was “Rogue-like” all you needed to hear to make up your mind? “Judge not,” the book says, “lest ye be judged!” But who are we kidding? This is a review, and if anything, we’re here to judge.

[Quick Note: We’re holding a giveaway competition and have 5 Hellsweeper VR keys to give away, to enter, visit our video review on YouTube and read the instructions in the description!]

We know a lot of VR gamers are sick of Rogue-likes, even though some of the best games in VR fall under that genre: In Death: Unchained, Synapse, and The Light Brigade, just to mention a few. The main gripe seems to be that some gamers feel Rogue-likes are an excuse to recycle environments and assets, artificially elongating the longevity of a game without actually providing much in return, that they are, in a sense, lazy.

Well, let me reassure you, Hellsweeper VR, coming to you from Mixed Realms, who previously gave us the action-packed Sairento VR: Untethered, is anything but lazy. There are some things Mixed Realms does really well: giving you lots of ways to murder, maim, and destroy your enemies, offering gut-wrenching VR traversal that’s not for the faint of heart, and putting VR in their game titles even when there are no pancake versions of those games.

“Enough already,” I can hear you say, “tell us about the damn game!”

Ultra Violence

Dispensing with needless narrative, your guide is a flying insect, happy to plunge into your ears if you refuse to place it there yourself. Hellsweeper, well-suited for an impatient crowd, doesn’t oblige you to learn all its mechanics straight away. It gives you a rudimentary tutorial and then lets you get down and dirty, plunging you into the hellscapes that form the backdrop of its action.

The is a game that likes to mix it up. You have a pistol, a sword, fire magic, force powers, frost magic, and laser magic. You can double jump and float in the air like Neo while twisting around, reloading your guns, and unleashing your might on the wide range of monsters and demons bent on your destruction. Hell, you even have a hellhound; we’ll call him Dexter, because… why not?

Good puppy.

The game gives you 18 levels, divided into three acts, with a boss at the end of each act. There’s some variety in the level missions, but they are mostly predictable for the genre: survive the clock, defeat a certain number of baddies, destroy the baddie-generating totems, find the McGuffins before the timer runs out, etc. You’ll find chests that you can unlock for extra perks, blessings, or gold, and you’re awarded powers or enhancements to choose between at the end of every level.

System Shock

Where Hellsweeper VR really excels, and I cannot stress this enough, is in the systems-based approach to game mechanics. Like something out of a Nintendo flagship, you can come up with all kinds of crazy combinations and things to try out. Got a pistol and a fireball power? Slam the fireball into the pistol to get scorching fire-boosted bullets. Hell, summon fireballs in each hand, slam them together, and create a fire vortex around you. Dropped your gun? Pick it up with your telekinesis and shoot it while you hold it meters away from you. Basically, if you can think of something that might be cool to try, chances are, it’ll work. Hell, you can even fire-charge your hellhound, making his attacks even more devastating while the flames last.

Hellsweeper VR provides unparalleled freedom when it comes to the different ways you can go about your killing spree. You can somersault, and you can do wall runs. I have no idea what else you can do, because it takes a long, long time to unlock absolutely everything, and I’m not quite there yet, but I’m glad the game got delayed because clearly, the extra development time has been well spent.

50 Shades of Red

Graphically, the PCVR version is clearly superior to the Quest 2 release, but that’s hardly a surprise. The fact is, the game looks good on PCVR and decent by standalone standards on Quest. The environments are rich, although some of the textures can be a bit muddy on Quest. The weapon designs are good, and the magic effects are much fancier on PC than on Quest, but overall, it showcases good level design, great enemy design, decent bosses, and excellent art direction. The only real complaint is that the hell theme kind of corners the color palette, making me wish for some interludes or even flashback levels in other, less hellish, less RED environments.

Snikt

The game does a good job with sound. Like underappreciated bass in rock music, you tend not to notice the sound in games as long as it’s good, and there’s nothing here that feels off or weak. Spatial audio helps you locate enemies, the sounds of your weapons are satisfying without being overbearing, and different enemies have different sound signatures. All good.

Mumble Mumble

So what’s not to like?

Well, as mentioned before, some people just don’t like Rogue-likes, and for them, this game never really stood a chance. Although the sheer joy of its mechanics and the freedom of its movement and combat should appeal to all but the most cynical of VR gamers. That said, the sheer intensity of its movement and combat might render it unplayable for those new to VR movement. It does have a teleport option, but using it would be like clipping its wings. The only other caveat, albeit one some might consider a bonus, is that it’ll take you a long, long time to unlock all that it has to offer. If you want to unlock everything, be prepared to grind your way through runs.

I also don’t like the fact that I can’t blow up explosive barrels by shooting at them, not even with glowing hot, fire-infused bullets. Nothing seems to work, except grabbing them with telekinesis and slamming them at something. Mixed Realms, if you’re watching this, let me shoot the damn barrels!

Another gripe, as the game currently stands at launch, is that the co-op multiplayer only allows for one act, through four or five levels, followed by one boss battle. Sure, it’s randomized, so you’re not always playing the same act every time, but you cannot team up with a friend and complete a whole run through the 18 levels and three bosses. Pete and I found this out the hard way. Sad faces ensued.

Hellbound

Hellsweeper VR is a no-holds bar VR action game, made by developers who relish quick traversal, mad weapon combos, ambidextrous warriors, and relentless combat. It’s easy to recommend for gamers with solid VR legs, and a thirst for adrenaline, and if you’ve been anticipating it since it was first announced, are familiar with Sairento, and who knew what kind of game to expect, I can assure you that, yes – this is indeed the droid you’re looking for.

A few weeks ago, nDreams gave us and other press outlets and YouTube channels a chance to play a demo of it, and we covered that, but it was short and did little but make us all collectively froth at the mouth and wait patiently for the final launch build. Now that it’s here, I can set your mind at ease; it’s a joy to play. 

The narrative conceit behind Synapse is, as I’ve said before in my preview video, lifted straight out of Christopher Nolan’s Inception. You are a recruit tasked with saving lives by infiltrating a rogue colonel’s mind and fighting past his mental defenses to find out where he’s planted a bomb so you can thwart his plans. Consider this the Inception VR game that could’ve happened in some alternative reality where video game adaptations of movies were actually cool. 

Neural Networks

With this narrative firmly in place, the player goes through the mostly monochromatic levels of the game, fighting off tougher and tougher enemies as they drill down into the colonel’s preconscious, his conscious, and finally, his subconscious mind.

You’re equipped with a starting pistol, and some very basic telekinesis at the start, you can throw inanimate objects around the map, crush enemies with big cubes, or grab exploding barrels gently to move them around and then crush them for a very satisfying explosion.

The game also allows you to level up, both across runs and within runs. Completing certain achievements, called Revelations, awards you with Insight points that you can use to unlock permanent upgrades on a skill tree, divided into three branches; Tactician, Assassin, and Survivor. 

Within each run, you get access to temporary mods called Mind Hacks, these are quite inventive; one gives your bullets a bounce, another turns your last one or two shots in a cartridge into grenades, etc.

Synapse is built around making you feel like a badass and providing you with enemies that challenge that badassery so you don’t get complacent no matter how powerful you’ve become.

Retinal Resplendence

There are no two ways about it; Synapse is a looker. The monochromatic art style looks fantastic on PSVR2 and is excellently infused with orange, red, pink, and purple highlights that flawlessly draw your attention to the gunplay and telekinesis. The levels themselves are well-designed, providing ample opportunities for mobility without ever feeling lost. You also have a scanner inside your left palm, that you can glance at anytime. It’ll show you where the enemies are and, once upgraded, where the health fonts are as well. 

Everything about Synapse is polished, stylish, and elegant; the user interface, the levels, the icons, right down to the font choices. Everything about the game screams polish, and the art team at nDreams deserves massive kudos for what they’ve done here.

Echoes of the Mind

Not to be outshined, the audio in Synapse is superb. The audio design is excellent, from the general soundscapes and UX interactions down to the sound design of the weapons, gunfire, and explosions. Everything feels meaty and full, and if that weren’t enough, the game has landed two of the best voice talents available, with Jennifer Hale voicing your handler and David Hayter voicing the Colonel. As the game progresses, you hear memories of conversations between the two, revealing more of the narrative context, seeing what drives the Colonel, and revealing some uncomfortable history regarding your handler. 

Feel the Feedback

Synapse also does a magnificent job justifying its existence as a PSVR2 exclusive, making substantial use of the PSVR’s adaptive triggers and headset haptic. Pushing the triggers gently to move an exploding barrel and then tightening your grip to blow it up is a pleasure every single time you do it. When enemies shoot at you the rumble in your headset not only alerts you to being shot but helps provide directionality, helping you pinpoint the direction of your assailant. Pulling armor off the larger enemies to make them vulnerable to your bullets is a truly immersive, satisfying experience, both empowering you and making you really feel like you’re pulling hard to take that damn armor off.

Even the PSVR’s eye tracking is put to use, making the UI interactions incredibly fluid and intuitive, as well as enhancing the accuracy of your telekinesis. Synapse is designed to take advantage of the PSVR’s unique features, and it shows. 

Perpetual Pathways

The only real criticism of Synapse, and this can almost be considered praise, is that, as with most VR roguelikes, its longevity is questionable, and I want MORE of it..much more. 

Your run through the Colonel’s mind takes place across 9 levels To their credit, nDreams have used a clever narrative device, which I won’t spoil, to provide you with enough impetus to want to finish at least three runs, since it’s only really then that the full story is revealed to you.

So, although the gameplay in Synapse loops back with greater difficulty, as most roguelikes do, the narrative itself carries forward across those three runs, making each run narratively, if not mechanically unique, and giving you a compelling reason to play through at least two more runs after you’ve finished your first. Overall, and taking that into consideration, the game should take you around 10-12 hours to complete, given that you’ll more likely than not die a few times. 

We tried to ask about any plans for upcoming add-ons or DLCs, but if nDreams have any post-launch plans, they’re keeping them close to their chest, so we’ll have to wait, hope, and see. 

Neural Nirvana

In case the review hasn’t made it abundantly clear by now, Synapse is an incredibly well-built VR action game for PSVR2, and a ridiculously easy game to recommend to any action or shooter fans who have a PSVR2. With incredible visuals, delicious use of the PSVR2’s special features, and gameplay that makes you feel like a badass mercenary with Jedi powers, the perfect polish of the UI is just the icing on the cake.

Despite this, let’s focus on the game itself.

Gambit! is a four-player looter shooter. Players go through levels with basic weapons, earn cash, unlock more stuff, and play repeatedly. It’s a gameplay style that works well when done right, like in After the Fall. Unfortunately, Gambit!’s execution falls short, with monotonous, repetitive gameplay. Each mission is a wave shooter with slight variations in environment and enemies.

That’s the whole game—disappointingly shallow and lacking in enjoyment. It’s as if someone unfamiliar with games created a checklist of what gamers like, but no one actually tested the game for fun.

The campaign features three levels, each with a series of checkpoints. With three lives and the ability to buy extra lives, there are no stakes or consequences. Dying simply means restarting from the last checkpoint, removing tension and joy from the game.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

There are four distinct characters with unique special weapons, which initially seemed promising. However, these weapons don’t significantly impact gameplay. Once players unlock decent guns like a shotgun or assault rifle, the special weapons lose their appeal.

This realization further emphasizes the game’s repetitive wave shooter nature. While there’s plenty of content and activities, such as graffiti spraying (which was the most enjoyable part of the game), it doesn’t save Gambit! from being monotonous.

Memetic Confusion

Graphically, the game is muddy and lacks a cohesive art direction. Some aspects appear cartoony, while others strive for realism, resulting in a disjointed visual experience. The game’s visuals are inconsistent, ranging from PS2 quality to decent Quest graphics. It lacks a clear visual identity. Adopting a cel-shaded, comic book style for both gameplay and cutscenes could have improved the game’s tone and made it more cohesive.

From an audio perspective, Gambit! is satisfactory. While the spatial audio is decent, it pales in comparison to other games like Breachers, where outstanding spatial audio is essential for survival. Unfortunately, not every game can be a masterpiece.

At times, there’s no music, which is an odd choice, especially in multiplayer. This silence takes away from the action, energy, and excitement, making the game feel stale and disheartening.

Gun effects in the game are a mixed bag. The shotgun and assault rifle sound great, providing satisfying feedback. However, some weapons, like the magnum-style handgun, have hollow and empty sound effects. The inconsistency in sound effects detracts from the overall experience.

Scriptural Grievances

The voice acting is impressive, despite the poor scripting. The dialogue is juvenile, filled with gratuitous swearing and edginess that might appeal to younger players. Nonetheless, the actors did a commendable job with the material they were given.

Municipal Mishaps

Multiplayer modes are an important aspect to consider if deciding to play this game. There are various modes, but they all involve playing the same levels from the single-player campaign. Options include deathmatch and municipal mayhem, which may offer some fun. However, it’s worth noting that finding a multiplayer game during peak times proved difficult on four separate attempts.

The lack of player engagement within days of the game’s release is concerning. If you’re considering buying Gambit! for its looter shooter genre and replayability, be cautious, as the core gameplay isn’t very enjoyable. If you want it for the multiplayer experience, be aware that there may not be many players to join you. This low player count in multiplayer modes is a significant drawback, especially for those who value online gameplay.

Grunt

Gambit! was not an enjoyable experience. The game’s shortcomings, such as its repetitive gameplay, lack of cohesive art direction, and inconsistent sound effects, contribute to an overall disappointing experience. While there may be worse games, if you’re looking for a looter shooter, get the aforementioned After the Fall instead. For multiplayer shooters, you’re better off with Breachers or Larcenauts, both of which offer a different but amazing experience.

The Light Brigade has balls. It has great big balls. Its balls are so big that developers Funktronic have set the review embargo to one week before launch! It’s a gutsy move, for sure, and definitely shows their confidence in the game. Well, they were right to feel confident, because The Light Brigade is fantastic.

Okay. So now, let’s see how much I can tell you about it without spoiling any of it for you.

Into the Valley of Death

Like its now only rival on Quest, In Death: Unchained, The Light Brigade is a roguelike game offering a great atmosphere, solid graphics, and great sound design. Unlike In Death: Unchained – you don’t have a bow and arrow, you have guns. Several kinds of guns. Fun guns. Great sounding guns. Guns that go bam, guns that go kabam, and guns that go thwoop! Did I mention that the guns are fun? They are. The guns are fun, they handle really well, and they sound great. 

So here’s the thing, humanity has been brought down into the darkness by the forces of evil! You are humanity’s only hope, Connor, and you have to travel through the battlegrounds, killing the bad guys, defeating their bosses, freeing other Light Brigadiers, and unlocking upgrades and perks as you play, because upgrades and perks are COOL.

You’re not named Connor, by the way, that was just a joke, Sarah. 

Flashed all their Sabres Bare

The Light Brigade does a lot of things right. A whole bunch of things. There’s rightness galore here, and I’ll tell you about it right now. It’s not without a couple of small faults, but more on those later. None of them are showstoppers. Anyway, on to the good stuff: 

The gameplay in The Light Brigade is superb. The weapon handling is excellent, and the reloading is streamlined and satisfying. The game provides both smooth locomotion and teleport locomotion for quicker traversal, and, unlike in In Death Unchained, you have six different character classes to play. Each character class is equipped with its own main weapon, dramatically changing how you go about taking them down, what kind of range you’re shooting from, and how much you need to resort to using cover. 

Along the way, you’ll find containers to open and jars to break, usually rewarding you with souls, coins, ammo, grenades, or weapon attachments. You’ll also find glowing chests that give you a choice of tarot cards, each unlocking certain stackable perks. These tarot perks can be remarkably effective. 

With some good weapons attachments and some clever tarot perks, you can become a nigh-unstoppable killing machine.  

All the World Wondered

There’s a good variety of environments on display here, and the levels themselves and the enemy variety and their starting locations are procedurally generated, so you always get a somewhat different playthrough every time you play. So far, so roguelike. 

I must commend the game on the atmospheric art design. Sure, some of it, the fogginess, for example, is there to help ye poor Quest handle the draw distances without too much popup, etc. – but it works well with the mood of the game, enhancing the ominous tone that the game sets in place from the very start when you approach the mysterious Last Temple and are beckoned by the figure known only as ‘Mother’ to pray with her before setting off to save the world from the baddies. 

The art direction is generally top-notch. It plays to the Quest’s strengths, looks good, and creates excellent immersion. 

One of the first things that impressed me about The Light Brigade was the sound design. Everything you do makes a satisfying sound that makes everything in the game feel palpable.

The game is also rich in little graphical flourishes that show off the care and attention put into it, from the tarot cards with their 2.5D holographic presentation to the particle effects that explode when you shatter a soul container to heal yourself and increase your maximum health. 

The Jaws of Death

In case you haven’t realized by now, I was blown away by The Light Brigade, right from the get-go, and have only been stepping away from it lately to play co-op sessions of Drop Dead: The Cabin with Pete while he prepares his review of that game.

Overall, I’ve played around 12 hours of the game so far, during that time, I’ve managed to unlock all the classes, complete two full runs, and unlocked quite a few upgrades. You’ll be glad to know that throughout that time, the game still managed to surprise me on occasion, throwing a few new enemy types and variants into the mix, and a couple of GASP! moments just to keep me on my toes.

I was also pleased that the bosses all required different strategies to beat. One of the few disappointments in In Death: Unchained was that all the bosses could be defeated with spam attacks. This is not the case in The Light Brigade.

One extra nice feature and sometimes absent in roguelike games is that you can continue a run across different gaming sessions. It’ll autosave between levels, and you can quit the game at any time and come back to start whichever level you were on, mid-run.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, and to add some value to the mix, there is an endless run mode, but I won’t tell you where to find it.

Horse and Hero Fell

There’s not much to complain about with The Light Brigade, but there are a couple of niggles. The load times between levels could be improved, they usually load up in 7–11 seconds, but a confirmed glitch sometimes caused this time to double, leading to potentially frustrating pauses between levels. Having said that, I’ve experienced this far less often lately, so for all I know, it’s already been fixed. 

Another minor complaint is that sometimes you need your controllers to be so physically close to reload your pistols that they end up bumping against each other. There’s also a minor graphical glitch in one of the later levels where the floor isn’t quite set perfectly and, if you’re in the wrong spot, ends up aligned with your chest.

But these are minor issues and did not at all detract from my enjoyment of the game. I’m just noting them so that you’re aware of them, and to inform Funktronic about them so that they can patch them up as soon as possible.

I almost forgot my biggest complaint, although the game isn’t small, I wanted more of it!

Back from the Mouth of Hell

The Light Brigade is easily one of the best games I’ve played on Quest, and an easy game to recommend to fans of roguelike games and shooters alike. With atmospheric visuals and excellent sound design, a good variety of levels, and boss battles that are engaging, it quickly raises itself to the higher echelons of Quest games. Color me impressed. 

Will Into the Radius live up to it?

STALKING IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

First impressions are not at all good. Menus are a bit basic and fiddly, and the tutorial is one of the most obnoxious and misleading introductions to any game. It took me two attempts to get past it, making the game look bare, unfinished, finicky and hard to play. The text seems poorly translated and is full of typos; some of the instructions obscure their intent. The tutorial’s slight taste of exploration and combat is unconvincing and dull. The review was writing itself – why is this game even bothering when the loot-combat-explore gameplay loop has been done so much better in The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners?

When I limped past the tutorial section and found myself in the starting hub of the game proper, it hardly seemed any better. The opening mission, delivered via text on a computer interface, reads as deadly uninteresting, and the first taste of the open world made me save and exit until I was in a more patient mood. Nothing had clicked with me, and technically the game seemed a bit of a bust. So I left it for a couple of hours.

NO, WAIT, STOP, COME BACK!

Before my next session in the game, I did a bit of research. Into the Radius has been out on PCVR for a while and has earned quite a following. After a bit of reading and some YouTube, I was surprised to find myself genuinely intrigued. The game had sold itself to me very badly. Thanks to the inept tutorial and janky first impressions, it blinded me to its ambition and potential. It mis-sold what it was trying to achieve. What I heard other players waxing lyrical about and watched them playing didn’t tally at all with what I’d seen of the Quest version, but the game seemed to have far more depth than it had shown me. So I went back in, started a fresh save, and met it halfway. Within twenty minutes, my opinion had changed completely.

BACKPACK IN THE U. S. S. R.

What changed my mind was the way that the game handles stuff. The scavenging, arrangement and management of stuff is what the game is all about. Whether that’s the frantic scramble for remaining bullets in the middle of a firefight or the careful selection of gear and supplies for your next run, it’s all about the minutiae, inconvenience, and joy of stuff. When you’re introduced to the backpack in the tutorial, it seems like a low-effort and clunky version of superior efforts in other games (cough Walking Dead Saints and Sinners cough). Objects you store in it don’t arrange themselves nicely in bubbles and rows, and there aren’t any physics. They just freeze in place in there wherever you leave them. 

You can not only stack objects but clip them through each other – it physically looks like a rucksack yet acts more like an object placement tool in the game engine itself. 

It’s not slick, but spend a few minutes in the world, and you’ll love its freedom. There are plenty of other VR titles with backpack inventory management, but none of them replicates the actual feel of frantically sifting through a bag of miscellaneous crap, wishing you’d been more organised. It also brings finicky joy to the act of hunter-gathering. The player’s room in the game hub acts similarly to the backpack – stuff you place anywhere in that room stays there. Organise the shelves into neat piles of ammo, fill up empty ammo boxes with individual bullets, litter your bed with cigarette stubs and Red Bull cans… It’s your domain. The joy of hauling a bag full of spoils back home to sell or put on the shelves is rewarding and the right side of fiddly. If you’re like me and love faffing with the inventory in Resident Evil 4, you will adore this. 

STOCK INVESTMENT

The tactile nature of Into the Radius extends to the weapons. Guns and even ammo clips degrade with use and can jam in a firefight if not appropriately maintained. Delightfully, maintenance is carried out manually at the workbench in your room. Pop a gun in the vice, spray it with non-copyright-infringing off-brand WD40, and use a toothbrush to clean it. Clear the barrel using a rod and pieces of toilet tissue you tear off a roll. As the game progresses, you’ll unlock weapon upgrades and accessories and get even more stuff to do stuff with. When you head out into the wilderness, you’ll do it with sparkly, well-looked-after weapons, hand-picked supplies from your stash, and a sense of ownership and investment in the entire experience, which other survival/exploration games lack.  

UNSETTLING SETTING

So what of the world you’ll be trying to survive in? It’s creepier and more surreal than some other games of this ilk. I won’t give any plot details away or ruin the exploration for you, but suffice to say that the aftermath of whatever happened has left the landscape a twisted, broken place, populated by brittle statue memories of people and unsettling shadow zombies. It’s not radiation, we’re told, and the scientific gives way to the supernatural. It all still feels grounded, though, thanks to some good scene-setting.

Whilst by this point, the post-apocalyptic Russian setting is in danger of becoming a familiar trope, the distorted reality of Into the Radius presents a slightly fresher take on it. Yes, there are Soviet trucks and warehouses, and we’ve seen most of it before, but twisted train tracks spiralling into the sky and surreal parodies of architecture litter the land. It’s not just that something bad has happened here, but something weird. And that’s refreshing. The sombre tone of the sparse, ethereal music is entirely fitting, and the air of unease and dread the game generates is exceptionally effective. It’s just you, your guns, and your cereal bars against the world. Exploration is a stressful but rewarding affair and an addictive one. There’s some lovely design here, and the curious are rewarded with stuff and plenty of action. 

GLITCH, HUH?

It’s a pity that the game isn’t all it could be on a technical level. The graphics are, by and large, dogshit. There’s lots of pop-in and uninteresting texture work, and the colour palette is all over the shop. It’s not as if this is all to do with the downgrade from PC, either – it’s not a pretty game even on Steam, so by the time it reaches the Quest, it’s downright ugly. It gets away with it, and there are enough little touches here and there to carry it. But if you want something to wow the crowd, look elsewhere. The poor English and typos in the menus are pretty aggravating, too.

The sound effects, music and atmosphere are excellent, but Into the Radius makes the same mistake as Red Matter 2… Russian setting, poor American voice acting. Set a tone and give us some accents, please. It doesn’t help that the cast sound like they’re all reading for Family Guy rather than a bleak survival experience.

More harmful to the game is there’s a lot of glitchy jank. All objects feel weightless, and opening doors, cupboards and drawers feels frustratingly like wrangling paper; it sometimes feels like being a toddler. Your hands get caught on stuff, and there’s generally too much clipping and odd physics for it to feel like a true class act. 

The more you play, the less of an issue all of this will be, though. It finds different ways to be immersive. If I had one major complaint about the gameplay, it is that, although combat is usually satisfying, the stealth seems non-existent, despite the presence of silencers and sniper rifles. Bad sods always seem to know I’m there, so everything becomes a straight fight. Your mileage may vary.

I’M GETTING A STALK ON

It turns out that Into the Radius is quite a slow burn, and that is very deliberate. Much like the S. T. A. L. K. E. R. games it so clearly adores, it doesn’t go out of its way to integrate the player into the game world, and that’s commendable if you’re the right sort of player. You’ll need to be patient and methodical and buy into the game’s systems to get the best out of it. There are all sorts of customisation options to make the game as brutal and survivalist as possible. There are hours and hours of gameplay here, even with standard difficulty. Whilst the missions often boil down to simple fetch quests, the experience is very much what you make it. It’s clear the team have a strong vision for the game, and following the game’s progress on Steam, it seems that the title is constantly being tweaked, improved and added to. I’ve no doubt that if this trend continues on the Quest, we’ll be looking at one of the best games on the system.