TLDR: Slightly janky, melee-only, Blade And Sorcery but for PVP. Try it. It's on a massive redemption arc.
Disclaimer: I have been a playtester for this game, for about 3 months, so add 60 hours to the playtime of this. This fact will not influence the review, and merely shows more 'experience' of the game.
[h3] DDVR, and a Redemption Arc [/h3]
Death Duel VR (DDVR) is a somewhat-buggy, yet very well done take on a player-vs-player sword fighting game.
This game is quite simplistic and player driven, but the PVP nature of it opens itself up to a theoretically-unlimited playtime. It used to be extremely buggy, barely playable, hence the mixed ratings, but it has had a massive update that improved generally everything, except the PvE "Way of Duelist" gamemode, which remains functional and barely changed anyway.
As many have said, you are better off joining the official discord to find people to play with, unless the game suddenly ramps up in player-count. One can hope, after all.
In DDVR, there are several gamemodes like Free for All, 1v1, Team Deathmatch and Warlord. There is also one PVE gamemode called "Way of Duelist".
Warlord is unique in that one player is a fully armored up 'Warlord' with access to every weapon, while every other player must use relatively low tier weapons like 'basic' swords and inferior shields to eliminate the Warlord.
Way of Duelist is a singleplayer, DLC-locked gamemode (the only paywalled gamemode.) in which players fight out enemies in numerous arenas, with a visible escalation in weapons and armor as they reach higher tiers of equipment and levels. The player may use their earnings here to transfer it to the ranked gamemode, reducing the grind against players, but introducing a very lengthy grind against AI. The gameplay here is comparable to Blade and Sorcery but with a lot more jank. It's still serviceable.
The rest of the gamemodes needs no explanation.
The game itself has had much improvements in every way, from weapon balancing being improved across the board, to the mechanics being finetuned to allow for bladebeats, structurally-sound blocks, and others.
[h3] How the game plays, pt1. [/h3]
There is a Boot Camp mode where players may try out any weapon and any armor combination they please, without the DLC. This allows them to have a fair chance of trying each and every weapon out in an arena that can support any fight format, so long as the entire lobby abides by that format. This already provides a lot of potential fun as long as you have someone to play with.
The "Ranked" multiplayer component (where all the interesting gamemodes are,) requires the players to grind points to unlock more weapons. They can also grind 'experience' that unlocks armor. Some weapons are locked behind a paywall, which are mostly fancy, non-meta picks.
The grind is much slower if the player is constantly losing their fights, and they will be at a disadvantage against players with far superior gear, but it is always possible to win against overwhelming odds once you have unlocked a decent weapon. (from experience, a polearm may be optimal, but is not necessary for this)
I will say that the starting points for a player is far too low (I started with 250), but it's workable, as it still unlocks a decent shortsword that can carry the player through the early stages of the grind.
[h3] How the game plays, pt2 [/h3]
This is the part of the review that also serves as a 'guide'.
The update as of 2026's New Year's Eve brings us..
- Vastly improved netcode, where hits are only registered if they strike the defender. This remains highly functional even if you're playing across the world at 700 ping. (This is not an exaggeration.)
The optimal way to play is to defend yourself first and foremost, attacking only when you see the enemy's weapon no longer threatening you.
- A 'structure' system in which holding the weapon closer and more securely to your body (as opposed to keeping your arm outstretched) will decrease your susceptibility to blade beats and also increase your damage output. *Previously, this didn't exist at all.
- Improved blade beating, a mechanic where hitting the top half of your opponent's weapon with the lower half of your own can displace their weapon, allowing you to punish people who rely on keeping their arms outstretched for maximum range. *Previously, it was impossible to keep track of your weapon once you got into a fight, as your weapon would be bladebeaten by the slightest of impacts and wiggle everywhere.
- Improved weapon balance. Fights with sharp, really-pointy swords can last anywhere from 5 seconds to entire minutes as fighters take a lot more damage, with the only way to 'guarantee' longevity being armor. Armor in this game reduces damage instead of negating it, with only certain weapons being able to bypass armor, such as a thrust from a longsword or greatsword, cut from a heavy axe, or the classic bludgeons like maces.
*Previously, even unarmored players can spend a full minute hacking at each other with Messers (single-edged shortswords of German origin.) and remain alive.
- Improved accessibility. While it's not perfect, there is now a left handed mode, a few options to adjust the player's settings, wrist angle, and all that. It is advised that the player picks up a one handed sword in their free hand, and adjust their 'wrist angle' until they are satisfied.
[h3] How the game plays, pt3 [/h3]
There are bugs. The devs are, however, very quick to fix them (taking less than 3 days) during the playtests, and I am sure they will be quick to fix them now. The bugs that do exist as of time of writing (and will probably not exist within a month or two.) are
- Weapon Set (loadout system) occasionally drops the weapons on the floor instead of properly equipping on the player. (8/10 likelihood)
- Two handed weapons occasionally cannot be held in two hands. (1/10 likelihood)
- Picking up a weapon sometimes causes the weapon to spasm uncontrollably, requiring the player to drop it and pick it back up. (6/10 likelihood)
- Occasionally, a weapon will fall through the floor. (7/10 likelihood)
- [FIXED] Sometimes, you will be stuck in an infinite loading screen, requiring a game restart. (1/10 likelihood, depending on game mode. This kind of bug is something the developers will be very quick to fix.)
*Note: As of time of writing, the bootcamp works flawlessly, so even if you're scared of the (not very consequential.) bugs, just grab a friend, give it a shot. It's a free game.
[h3] The Devs [/h3]
While I have playtested this game for the devs (consisting of one coder and one community manager), they have been quite welcoming. Bugs were usually fixed within less than a few days (discounting periods of inactivity that could last at most, a week.) and feedback is often heard and responded to, even if not accepted.
