Portal Foxes TD

[h1]Experienced on the Meta Quest 3[/h1] [u]I'm giving this a neutral recommendation.[/u] This is a nice TD / puzzle strategy game. It has a Lemmings-type game feel to it, despite being a TD game. However, the game lacks overall polish. The presentation is underwhelming. The biggest disappointment is the control method. The VR interactions should be smooth & polished. Here, instead, you have these big cursors pointing out with which you can grab certain objects. You can also grab the "play area" and re-size and spin around. That's nice. Unfortunately, the main menu UI looks atrocious and gives a very bad first impression. The whole game feels like a prototype due to the basic visuals and poor UI / controls. Okay, you have cute foxes. The problem is that the level art-work and even the foxes themselves are pretty generic and forgettable. The game play loop is interesting. However, the presentation really takes away most of the desire to continue playing. The foxes with different abilities should look distinct, with more creativity linked to their abilities. Here they were just odd (a fox with a top hat, or a fox with a blue fur patch on the head). The music was also generic and repetitive. The surrounding area around the level was just blank white space (or pink?). It's not a bad game. I found there was a lot of trial and error because the enemy AI (probably scripted) responds to whatever placements you put. So it's not like a normal TD game where you know where the enemy will come from and where they will attack. Here, each placement of yours, is countered by the enemy, but not all placements. Some will work counter to the counter-attack nature of the enemy. Anyways, I think there's potential here. It could possibly be a very good game. Unfortunately, the lack of presentation really hurts this game. Others may enjoy this more than I did. I also think it needs Mixed Reality (color passthrough) so the white space / blank space isn't so dreary. [b]Rate 5.5/10.[/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]

I was one of the chosen Beta Testers for this game. I found Portal Foxes TD to be a rather humble and charming VR game. While the presentation is simple, the mechanics run deep. Along with choosing the correct unit for the map, like any other Tower Defense game, Portal Foxes TD requires the player to manipulate the environment to herd enemies into an optimal path. This adds an interesting extra layer to the challenge, as setting the pace of enemy waves tends to dramatically impact clusters. The only hurdle I find for this game, for some, is the shoestring budget. As there is only a single song, as of the time of my Beta Test. But, if you keep this context in mind, I think that you can easily get your money's worth. Fans of Tower Defense, strategy, and puzzle games alike will find themselves working with some of the most intuitive controls I have felt for a VR game in quite a while. Portal Foxes TD sports an interesting 3D cursor system that I found very nice. It certainly feels more natural than the "laser pointer" method of VR in my book.

I got lost in the immersive gameplay. Kinda addicting. Always liked the free-form maze-ing tower defense games. Enjoy!