VEX MAGE

High challenge and fast frenetic action. Enough variety between the different spell combos to let you explore what feels most comfortable to your own style. If you want to be constantly in the thick of things while moving fairly rapidly through different arena layouts this may be what you're looking for!

If you enjoy Devil Daggers or Hyperdemon, this is a really natural expansion of a lot of the mechanics in those games. There's a real attention to detail in the enemy design, and level design. Loads of schmovement opportunities. I've been playing co-op with my friends, and feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of the depth provided by the left/right hand combo system. While there's only 3 weapon types, each one does something different when held vs tapped, and there's also a "combine" button which channels the two hands together for a unique attack. It's surprisingly easy to fall in love with certain combos, although some are so powerful that you may end up sacrificing your own health! The enemy design is also really interesting and deep, with different enemies being weak to different attacks. You can absolutely just focus on one favorite weapon at a time, but the real skill comes in swapping weapons in reaction to the types of enemies that spawn in. The game is only just released and the devs have already been responsive to feedback. I haven't tried in VR, but the game seems like it'll work equally well in that, even allowing you to aim your arms independently. The makers made the very popular "Swarm" VR game a few years ago and really know how to handle locomotion for the VR savvy.

I havent played this for too long but its awesome in VR! Hell ya!

Pretty cool visual design with its trippy aesthetics, featuring arena style FPS combat from the 90s. The game would have been awesome if it had some PvP multiplayer modes. Unfortunately, the arena combat doesn’t really suit VR very well. It almost feels like a port of a flat game, with nothing that truly makes it stand out in the VR space. Even the aiming mechanic, where you put your hands together and charge up a power shot, has no real input beyond firing straight forward in front of you, not unlike the aiming you’d see in 1993’s Doom. Bunny hopping, flying, and movement are essential, but they can be disorienting when playing for more than 5 to 10 minutes. It doesn’t help that enemies teleport directly on top of you, forcing you to constantly turn around 180 degrees while getting hit, trying to jump and shoot your way out of the chaos. With the massive amount of respawning enemies, I felt level design was less important. The strategy is similar to old school boomer shooters, where you switch weapons on the fly for specific enemy types, but that’s difficult with the pull up menu on the controls. You’d never see that in an old school shooter. Usually you would hotkey different weapons for quicker response. The graphics and gameplay are quite crude by 2025 standards, and the boring roguelike upgrade system is a pretty standard affair, which ultimately prevents this game from standing out in an already crowded VR shooter space. Overall 5/10

very satisfying in vr

Played this on PC and had an absolute blast! The movement feels super fluid and the combat is fast and satisfying once you get the hang of it. I can totally see this being even more fun (and chaotic) in VR. The spell merging system is awesome and the leaderboards definitely keep me coming back for more!

Jeu très fun à faire impérativement en COOP ! Tester en VR jouant avec 2 mates en non-VR, ça fonctionne super bien. Merci pour la détection automatique de la langue principale du PC pour le mapping des touches (AZERTY) (fait en stream)

I was hesitant to pick up Vex Mage originally due to the heavily Flatscreen focused marketing pre launch, but decided to give it a shot anyway since I saw it was on sale for way too cheap. First off. Wow. This is actually a FANTASTIC VR Arena Shooter. I wouldn't even call VR a "Mode" because it feels like the game was designed to be played with Headset and Motion Controllers first with Desktop as a nice extra. It's somewhat of a niche game if you're not accustomed to Leaderboard climbing. There's a big emphasis on gameplay mechanics. Certain enemy weaknesses and environmental interactions aren't explained to you so experimentation is a must. One small thing which I will give away because it almost made me drop the game is that at least one of the spell combinations (I think Volcanic and Electric?) can overload. Took me a few frustrating first runs to figure out that "Magi" was not an enemy, and I was just annihilating myself trying to spam that spell combo lol. Art style wise I absolutely love the way it looks. Not even sure how I would describe it other than an ethereal fever dream. Visuals are highly subjective, but I'll say it looks at least as good as the screenshots on the store page to me if not even better when viewed in headset. :) Audio is well done too. All of the sounds help to flesh out the atmosphere without anything being too overly punchy or crunchy and enemies are fairly comprehensible even when not in field of view. Aside from Serpents.... I don't hear them until they are literally attempting to eat me. All my homies hate serpents. o.o My one big gripe with the game is that the player body is only visible for the optional in game spectator view. Fantastic for gameplay video showcase purposes, but I really wish I myself as the player could see the full body when looking down as well instead of just floating hands. I'm aware it would negatively effect my visibility a little, but the immersion trade off would be worth it for me. Overall, Vex Mage is what I'd call a hidden gem for PCVR. I'm not sure how well it did on Meta Quest Standalone, but it's crazy seeing how few reviews it has on Steam. Might lack some of the intensity people would expect given they list Devil Daggers as one of the main inspirations, but in VR I think it strikes a great difficulty balance. Whether on deep discount or even for the full price I'd say this is an easy recommendation!

i think the spell mixing mechanic is very fun, i think the movement is fluid and feel smooth, i think the presentation has style, i think this is a pretty solid game and the fact its only 10 bucks is a steal. one piece of constructive advice id give is to have the monsters you fight make more distinguishable noises. VEX MAGE 8/10

fun and action packed . very fast game play . just a good simple shooter game . jump in blast away and jump out . very arcadey like