I have to admit, I did not go into this game with high expectations. I have seen the glitzy pseudo-hollywood big action marketing before and been let down almost every time. I am not going to say that this game is "the" game to redeme all others, but it is a solid offering. I find with VR that my priorities shift in how I receive a game, or, what is most important to me in a game. Near the top of that list is atmosphere, when you slap it into a VR experience if it's supposed to feel dirty, cold, and scary, it had best deliver. There is not much worse than a VR game trying to go for a particular feel and ending up creating an immersion breaking hell of it's own. Revelation, they did a great job. From sounds to textures and processing efx they have that "I think i'm going to P myself" home game advantage going for them already. The MOBiles compliment the atmosphere, a layer of the frantic chaos; If you have a nervous bladder, you can then upgrade your self from "think" to "do" regarding the P factor.
What goes up, however must come down as well; While the game overall is rather solid some of the user experience aspects seemt to be not well thought out. The "backpack" and supporting elements are offdender #1 of this. To start, there are no holsters... to put your gun away you drop it into your backpack , though they did thankfully give a shortcut to pull your gun with a click of the game pad after it has been stowed. And be thankful that they DID do this because the pack itself is rather finicky. So finicky in fact, that I think this is the very first game I have ever played where I actually LOST track of my tethered backpack for a disturbing ammount of time. You also can't pull off your backpack with both hands full, this leads to an awkward shuffling of items or setting something on the ground to shuffle things around, WHILE you know there are things waiting in the dark to eat you... Some of the puzzle elements also feel rather generic or even tacked on and anticlimactic... or POSSIBLY there are some cultural significances that I simply didn't *get*, but I do not think that is the case. I didn't buy this game for the puzzles, though, so no love lost there, and the infractions are not THAT bad regardless.
Bottom line, is it worth it? I say it is a mixed bag. It has a solid foundation, and to it's core purpose is is unashamedly successful in my opinion. Is it worth the $25 price tag? If you are a long time VR user like me and on the lookout for anything to escape the sea of sand bars with something that has a bit more depth (depth subjectively), I have to say I would pay it again. (it actually made me recoil/writhe a few times and it's been a while since a VR title did that to me) :) If, however, you have a long list of those MUST Have titles still on your bucket list, $25 is better spent elsewhere in my opinion, you can always wait to get it on sale. If it hits $15 or lower I would say definitely a worthy buy for any fan of the genre.
Forgot a few details which might be helpful:
* Played on WMR using the Samsung Odyssey HMD
* Played on H and K Intel series machines, NVIDIA GTX 1600 and GTX 1800, both running hitchless
* I know locomotion means a lot to some, this is teleport/slide only, so no free movement or turning, at least not for WMR. They did a nice job with the movement though and it has that free loco feel to it (though you can click too far and "drift" into an encounter you weren't expecting accidentally, read P disclaimer above...)
@Dev would LOVE to see free locomotion and turning, save my cables a beating :)
