Dungeon of Doom

[h1]Experienced on the Meta Quest 3[/h1] You can view my gameplay & early impressions here: https://youtu.be/wX8ITZzzJss This is a budget action RPG / dungeon crawler that released in Early Access and it shows. Keep your expectations low and you may enjoy it. I honestly had fun. However, I also ran into several issues. First of all, the game was too dark in several areas. I could barely see enemies. Secondly, and almost as bad, the combat physics was poor. The name of the game here is distance management (so you don't get hit) and wiggle your sword as fast as possible to take enemies down quickly. Wiggle wiggle wiggle. You can also use magic which is pretty cool. Combat is tough because you can be easily swarmed. You have to be quick in the dark. There's some pretty cool upgrades too. Nice variety of different enemies as well. Just expect a lot of jank. Also several bugs. I lost my sword during my gameplay. I fell through the map. The screen turned completely black when going back to the main menu. Lovely. Game is running on the Unreal Engine 5. On my RTX 5090, I was getting mostly 90 fps. You do have full locomotion, along with snap or smooth turning (smooth turn was too slow though). You can play comfortably seated. [b]Rate 5.5/10. Budget game released in EA for a reason. You've been warned. Also fun if you are okay with all the negatives I listed.[/b] [quote]Please note: I received a free Steam key through the Steam Curator Connect program. If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator group [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Oculus_WMR]Oculus Rift Reviews.[/url][/quote]

[h1]Too dark, too unbalanced and very bad choice of controls[/h1] Sorry, I love innovative work from indie developers, and this game is pretty. I also watched gameplays from others to see it is that way too. Watch me struggling with the game in this short gameplay: https://youtu.be/8UqbJU3dCoA So, in summary: [h2]The good:[/h2] [list] [*] You have infinite lives. Your upgrades and money are reused after you die and you keep getting stronger. The enemies you kill are dead permanently while you are still playing. [*] The graphics are beautiful. [*] There is collision with some objects in the game. The sword stops on grids, doors, fences, pottery, machinery. [*] The soundtrack is passable [*] You don't lose your sword when it falls from your hands; after a short while, it is available to be used again. Many old VR games had this wrong, good to see it being good here. [*] Gameplay is... challenging, you can say. [*] The upgrades and rings are interesting. You can see it would engage the user in getting stronger after dying. [*] it works perfectly on Linux (Meta Quest 3) with the three streaming software: WiVRn, ALVR and Steam Link. [/list] [h2]The Bad:[/h2] [list] [*] The collision with objects in the game is only for SOME objects. For example, pottery have collision, but barrels don't! [*] You don't break pottery or barrels/boxes [*] It's TOO DARK! You can barely see the enemies! Why there isn't at least a gamma option? [*] It seems it doesn't save the game, or at least I wasn't skilled enough to save it. Every time I started the game there was only the option to start story (not continue) and I had to fight all enemies again. [*] That's the first game I see which [b]doesn't let you crouch[/b]. WTF?? Who thought it would be a good idea? If you PHYSICALLY CROUCH, the game adjusts your height automatically to standing. IT NEGATES VR! Why? Not implementing crouch is one thing, but ACTIVELY PREVENTING IT is uncanny! [*] The controls are VERY BAD. For example, to select one perk you have get close to it, press the B button on the joystick and [i]keep it pressed[/i] when aiming to the perk and when a text appears over it you should press the grab button to select. To EXIT this menu, you have to point to the skull which is in the ground -- and the angle is specially bad as the game doesn't allow you to crouch, look at me trying to get this right on my video! -- with the button pressed and then press grab... But when you try to press grab you usually just flick a bit and this takes your aim off the "exit" option! Also, this posture kind of forces you to press the A button too since the thumb would be straight over it. [*] You never feel when you hit an enemy, save for looking at the health bar (that's why I turned them on all the time). The stagger animations aren't consistent, there is no haptic feedback (or it's so weak that I didn't feel it) and the sounds don't correspond to the hit. [*] It's not clear if you can defend from a hit by using your sword to stop the enemy's hit or sword. [*] The game feels unbalanced, unfair. So far the only tactics that seemed to work are keeping walking backwards in circles to avoid enemy hits and quickly go forward and hit them when there is an opening. [*] The "checkpoint" orbs are also difficult to activate and don't give good tactile, auditory or graphic feedback. I don't even see a text on it like I see in the perks menu, this would let me know I am pressing the right button. [/list] So far I can say that the gameplay loop of this game is very unpleasant to play.

[h1]Holy Hell...[/h1] [h3]Ok, now this is something i was not expecting...[/h3] Want an advice? don't buy it... Just don't [b]Unoptimized, Stuttery[/b], [b]Graphic Settings don't fully work properly[/b], [b]Too difficult[/b] (continue reading to see why) [b]Unbalanced[/b], [b]Not designed for VR[/b]. Now the details... - Unoptimization and Stutters The game is created with UE5, now, i'm not here to talk about how bad UE5 is or useless discussions like that, it's just information, anyway, I noticed horrible frametime and stutters upon starting the game and specific places where it clearly struggled more than it should've. Tinkering with the few settings it provides, i noticed that the "Epic" graphics preset was the most laggy, so i turned down the settings and tried that way, the framerate fas stable... If you stood still... Every time you turn faster than you should, the game totally freezes for a second, and this happends with EVERY graphic preset level, it's just that unopmized. I discovered afterwards that my pc was handling the game just fine even at Epic detail, the fact is that the settings themselves are also bugged... There is a slider called "Pixel Density" which i guess is a funny way to say "Internal Rendering Resolution" that works fine until you set it past to 99%... At 100% the game becomes wobbly, your frametime resembles the visual representation of an earthquake, the 2 eyes of your VR get slightly out of sync between each other and you puke from motion sickness... And that's only the settings part... Want to know how the gameplay is??? - The Gameplay is not made for VR This is a simple game, and that's not the issue, simple games can be really fun... The problem is that this is a "Simple" FLAT SCREEN game, that's been adapted to VR, what i mean is that enemies, the way you move, how the combat is done, and everything else is not made with VR in mind, don't belive me? here's what i experienced: [i]Upon entering the game and walking forward, i encountered my first enemy, i obviously approached it with my sword in hand ready to block his attack and respond accordingly like every VR game lets you do... I discovered that not only the enemies are TOO strong for you to be at the beginning of the adventure (you have 100HP but you die in 5 hits) but your sword doesn't have collision with NPCs or their weapons... That translates to... I block > enemy sword passes trough mine > i take damage > i attack > enemy doesn't care > i die... cool right? I decided to go the "Dark Souls Way" and played the game like if i was on a flatscreen, by repeatingly hitting the enemy, walking back and waiting for the attack animation to finish and hit again... And what do you know? it worked... or at least, for the first enemy...[/i] That's what i meant for "too difficult", i was refering to VR standards... - Bugs I did not play much, but the time i wasted was enough to discover the ultimate bug that lets you essentially complete the game without sweating... Just put your sword into the enemy and wobble your hand like crazy, they will get stunned and will die in matter of seconds because this game is programmed very well... [b]♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, REALLY???[/b] you know what would've prevented such a devastanting flaw? [h2]PLAYTESTING THE GAME BEFORE RELEASING IT ON STEAM[/h2]