I played some games yesterday
Yupitergrad is fun at first, but as it happen in most platform games, 2d or vr, eventually it gets hard and I have to repeat the tricky parts a dozen times and it gets old. And unlike other types of genres, there is no difficulty options usually in platform games.
I tried again Vox Machinae, I think the last time was when I was on the Quest 1, and it looks really nice on the Quest 2 screen. Graphics are very good, and the immersion is great, I love how you can physically move the radar screen, how you turn the key to cool down the mech, how tactile is everything. It’s really a pity the playerbase is so small. They should try to redirect their efforts in doing some kind of single player small campaign, a series of skirmishes where you gain credits in between to spend on new equipment, or something like that. Although the gameplay is maybe too slow, they are mechs, but damn they all feel a notch slower than the mechs from Battletech/Mechwarrior.
Cosmodread is very immersive. Very good scary atmosphere, good UI (integrated into the arm wrist), controls and VR interactions (except doors, I dislike you can’t open/close them bit a bit). Environmental sounds are very good, but strangely some weapon sounds are poor. The weak point are the graphics, the PC version textures looks like I would expect the Quest 2, and I guess they look like shit in the actual Quest version. Oh, one of the main enemies is ripped off from Dead Space, lol.
I still have to see how deep is the gameplay. At first glance, it doesn’t seem very deep. In a way it reminded me on Walking Dead, very based on scavenging materials and doing scavenger hunts to complete goals. You are constantly rummaging through items in tables and opening lockers, taking items to decompile and fabricate other items, and using oxygen bottles to recover O2. And as I say the goals are also things like ‘find 4 fuel cans for the reactor’.
The combat is sparse, and it’s more about deciding if to run away or spend ammo on an enemy. There is no stamina or sprint button. I wish there was a bit more of variety in things like maybe areas where you have to avoid radiation, and rooms where the gravity is turned off, weld some doors so enemies won’t pass, things like that. The game as it is gets repetitive. There are power nodes you can take and use to turn on the lights on other rooms, but for now I found few moments where it’s really needed. Maybe it will be different later.
There is a bit of roguelike in here, not only in the random maps, but in the metaprogression: you find blueprints for new objects, which once opened in a computer, you unlock them for all runs. That also means the first runs will be too hard, you are supposed to fail, and succeed once you have a more readily available arsenal.
