Left-Hand Path

This game is still early in development, and as such I recommend this game with caveats. In Left Hand Path, the player navigates a dark, foreboding realm casting spells and discovering the world. In particular, the spellcasting system is a delight to use, and prompted me to buy it in the first place. By holding the trigger on your off hand, your in-game finger leaves a trail of wispy light, which you can use to draw out runes in the air. These runes will cast spells, varying from bolts of colorful energy to conjuring flame, and even complex rune rituals which require drawing different runes in different compass directions. I would play a game just for these mechanics, and they're done well here. On the whole, the mechanics of spellcasting are combined with a more challenge-oriented combat system, and shadowy, meancing world. A concise summary of Left Hand Path is basically three words: "Dark Souls VR." This is a game that does not shy away from killing the player. It is most rewarding to those who are patient, careful, and plan ahead. Many first encounters will undoubtedly prove lethal, and death will be a familiar friend to those who forge their way through the 2-3 hours of content. VR brings the punishing difficulty and survival horror tension to a whole new level. I legitimately jumped when I met my first few enemies, and jumped again when enemies I thought I had seen before turned out to be new, faster versions of themselves. In a room with four torches to light, I found myself terrified of lighting all four torches, since everyone knows lighting all four torches means something's about to happen, and in Left Hand Path, "something" is frequently "monsters." The game's teleportation mechanic has a cooldown between movements, so even though I could blink across a room at any moment, I practically felt like a character in a horror movie trying to start their car as the shambling horrors approached. I like feeling scared, and I really like how well Left Hand Path scared me. So! Should you, proud fellow Vive owner, purchase this game? Depending on who you are, my answer is "Yes" or "Yes, but later." I'll explain. Are you a Dark Souls fan? Does dying early and often please you? Do you memorize attack patterns, enemy locations, and plan out each encounter, including escape plans if things don't work quite right? Is a game too easy if it's not trying to rip your face off and ridicule your inexperience? Then Left-Hand Path is for you. Even in its early access form it's packing enough combat and enough exploration to be worth $15.00. The VR experience transforms deadly combat with enormous enemies into spine-chilling encounters with monsters your eyes are convinced are inches away. And the developer is working hard to make the game fairer, so each death feels warranted, and each kill feels earned. It's a great game now, and I expect it to be a fantastic game soon. Are you more of a Vanishing Realms fan? Do you like exploration, fantasy magic, and adventure? Does reading intricate lore and learning to cast new spells motivate your every move? If so, this game has what you're looking for, but you may need to develop some fierce VR spellcasting skills to get to them. If you're not frustrated by trial-and-error style progression, where knowing isn't half, it's pretty much all the battle, the world of Left Hand Path is a fascinating and enjoyable romp. As more content is added and death feels fairer, I think this game will go from being "fun, but hard" to "fun and hard." I can't predict the future, of course. This game will feel a little rough around the edges, particularly in the way items are picked up and the experience between play (menus, death) are handled, but the core gameplay is fun. Drawing spells in the air feels glorious. And in my opinion, the game is only going to get better.

Its sadly just super unpolished. Enemies don't react to projectiles missing them by half a meter as long as you are far enough away, the shadow mapping easily falls apart, enemies walk through solid objects, can't progress at certain parts of the levels w/o teleportation, mountains rendered in the distance are super subjective to that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ looking Unity LOD pop in, books other than the grimoire are still oriented wrongly... I really tried to love that title and surprisingly the lore, text and even the one man (?) voice overs are fine and in parts really good. It is certainly a labor of love and the developer is really nice. Ultimately though, its just way to unfinished to recommend it.

My Initial Impressions: I have to admit spell casting games in VR are not my favourite genre, I prefer a gun and plenty of ammunition any day, but this game has surprised me. It's a lot scarier than I had imagined and the spell casting was quick and fluid, more so than any other spell casting game I have played. I always found the spell casting mechanics to be clumsy but not here. The game has a nice learning curve and the sense of presence is superb. It ran smooth, looked very realistic and the spell effects we're superb. I can see why they are comparing this to a dark souls game with it's gritty look and feel. Plus over 15 hours of content is nothing to sniff at. Feel free to watch my 1st Impressions video (Link below) for my initial reactions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_TUvBPxGu4

THIS IS NOT FULL VERSION! YOU CANT RELEASE FULL VERSION IF YOU HAVE NOT OPTIMIZED FOR AT LEAST THE TWO BIGGEST VR PLATFORM ON THE MARKET, OCULUS AND VIVE. I manage to cast rituals on certain tries but if you are going to require me to cast two rituals in one go and you havent optimized ritual casting for ♥♥♥♥ on oculus when IM CLEARLY DOING THE EFFIN THING ON THAT DIRECTION, clearly you release the game to early with the confidence of an overcocky investment trader on steroids. GET YOUR ♥♥♥♥ TOGETHER, THIS IS A GOOD GAME WORTH SAVING. Returning this and buying again when you fully optimize ritual casting for oculus. OCULUS USERS STAY AWAY FROM THIS FOR NOW!

This is one of the nerdiest things I've ever done and it's fantastic! I feel like I'm wearing a wizard cape and beard whenever I'm playing this and just compleatly check out of reality.

Atmosphere-wise this game is awesome and the spell system really works. I would have recommended the game if it wasn't for a couple of things which made me stop playing the game: - You have to complete a level, otherwise on the next login you will have to fight all of the monsters again - Too few save points - Monsters are FAST! They're usually on top of you within a second of you actually spotting them. You're meant to 'run away' but in reality I found I just ended up wildly teleporting, losing track of where I was and where the enemy might be. The combat *could* be so much more enjoyable if you simply had more time to prepare. I tried playing in Story mode and 'low terror' mode but neither of those options prevented from being jumped. Such a shame because I would have loved to have finished the story. Kudos though for the amazing spell casting system. It always worked for me and felt very natural.

I just realized I haven't yet reviewed the game! The shame is mine. I don't have time to finish the game just yet tonight, but one thing I will say before I give the game the review I think it deserves, is that this is a must-play VR title. It will enthrall you, scare the daylights out of you, and treat you to a wonderful and terrifying jaunt through a fantastically dark realm. I HIGHLY recommend playing this game, and if you feel the scares might be too intense, there is a lower intensity mode as well. Coolest part: you have to learn from tomes and draw symbols to perform magic, really cool magic BTW. Once I finish through this (sadly, not fully completed - rest in piece HH) game I will revisit this review and give it the proper treatment. But no doubt a great game.

About a half hour in. I really want to give this game a chance, but it's the only game that I've ever been frustrated getting past the tutorial which I never achieved. I feel like I'm holding the wrist of the left hand. One of the signs required to pass the tutorial just never registers no matter how precise I am. This game is not oculus friendly in the slightest.

I do think this game has a lot of effort put into it, but it is missing its purpose. Purpose, as in what exactly are you hoping the player to experience. I enjoy difficult games, however at hour 3 I had to put it on 'Story' (super easy, apparently) mode to give it a chance due to the default difficulty being on insane break your controllers against the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wall mode, but even with that at hour 4 I can't go on any longer. I really wanted to enjoy a game that made me feel like a powerful wizard learning the arcane arts, but at this point I just feel like a guy flailing his hand around with spells that he's not entirely sure what they are supposed to do, being killed by enemies that are stupid but relentlessly unforgiving. Sure, I can cast a 'protection' around me and cast spells north and south or whatever, but even when I'm successful I am confused at their purpose. I earned, with difficulty, a new sorcery wand with feathers on it but it seems like it was a waste of husks because I'm not sure what it does. In fact there are a bunch of spells that I'm not sure what they do. I do wish there was a clear skill tree other than text descriptions you 'eat' to upgrade your skills. I finally gave up when the story put me at the bottom of a pit of endless spiders, and I've tried every spell and can't get past a magical barrier. As others have commented, the enemy AI results in game play that forces you to seek their ineptitude due to the difficulty. It boils down to flail, die, try again, repeat. Even when you pass a section, get to the next save, and then manage to die, the previous enemies respawn. This gives the world a logical inconsistency that breaks immersion. The game does a good job of atmosphere, and I do get shivers when an enemy appears. But I don't feel connected to the world as I did in a game such as Vanishing Realms (VR). At least in VR the enemies had a logical consistency; a game mechanic that was exciting and fun to exploit again and again. In Left Hand Path, during any enemy encounter my skill does not determine if I come out alive or not. I feel as though it's entirely random, and as such I did not enjoy it, and will not continue.

非常刺激的遊戲, 怪物不是很多, 但是每一隻都很有個性與特色 每一隻都讓你如臨大敵, 因為被打到很快就死了 氣氛很棒, 會讓你從頭到尾都貼著牆走, 邊探索邊被新的怪物驚嚇 看著朋友被驚嚇, 更是人生一大樂事