Tea For God

One of the only VR games that actually has you MOVE. Everyone I've had play it is astounded and refers to it as 'the one where you move around', which is kind of the point of VR... I'm happy with how the game has a direction now, considering it was just a fun concept in the demo (which I have a LOT of hours in)

I'm not very far into this but I can say this is good. Only using yourself as locomotion is very immersive. The style is very alien and interesting.

Tea for God is one of those games that leaves me really excited when I think about the future of VR as a medium. Which... probably doesn't bode super well for the game itself, does it? To put it simply, I think there's a TON of potential but that many of the limitations associated with how VR exists as a technology for the average person. I'm getting kind of ahead of myself, though, so, lemme take a step back and give you a basic rundown of the game itself. In short, Tea for God is a first-person roguelike set within procedurally generated rooms in a weird, borderline-liminal structure. You start on one end of the map, your goal is on the other, and in between you've got a bunch of robots trying to kill you. You can scavenge weapons and utilities, and every so often you'll find special rooms that'll give you a choice between special perks. Pretty basic stuff, though I do have to give special props to how this game spices those base mechanics up; in particular, enemies can drop weapons, but they can also drop pretty neat tools, and in particular I wanna hone in on the shield item, because not only does it let you sacrifice firepower (you've gotta hold it in your offhand which means you can't hold a gun in that hand) for extra protection, but you can actually slurp up whatever juice it's got left, so in essence it can function as a portable health charger. Actually discovering how this worked intuitively and organically was a really cool highlight of my time playing the game! Now, in and of itself, a procedually-generated roguelike isn't exactly breaking new ground, but TFG's main gimmick is that it can scale its levels to suit the playspace you have. In other words, the game is designed to be played without ever touching that joystick. You move in-game by moving in real life. It is sincerely a REALLY cool gimmick and the novelty still hasn't worn off for me, but unfortunately, that means it is effectively neutered on any HMD that doesn't give you a wireless option. That isn't to say it's impossible for you to play it while tethered (i mean, even if getting tangled up is something you can't avoid, the game actually has options for joystick movement anyway), but the benefit that roomscale environment has for increasing your immersion really is harmed by my anxiety over cable stress, and even if you don't care about that I have to imagine getting a thick cable coiled around your torso doesn't really leave you free for immersion. It also means if you're using anything that isn't directly SteamVR (particularly streamed through VD), you usually end up having to spend a good five minutes before every session just reconfiguring your playspace to align properly. It usually isn't a dealbreaker, but it does REALLY weigh in on how willing I am to go through the trouble to play it. As a result, I... genuinely kind of think it's better played natively on something like the Quest or the Pico rather than on PCVR, which isn't something I find myself saying often. That's where most of my playtime is. Anyway, my end conclusion is that it's a really cool game, and I'd love to see its mechanics used elsewhere and expanded on, but while it's kind of a pain to get set up and there are definitely some bits and pieces that end up feeling shallow, it's still worth picking up.