SWARM 2 is AMAZING!!! - Swarm 2 Meta Quest 3 VR Review - Jack Jenkins
3SWARM 2 is AMAZING!!! - Swarm 2 Meta Quest 3 VR Review - Jack Jenkins
Script:
I said in my Review of Swarm all those months ago that I couldn't wait for the sequel. Now that it’s here, Swarm 2 just blew me away. The crown has been stolen, and Swarm 2 is now my favorite Virtual Reality game of all time.
[Intro]
The Idea of Swarm 2 is very simple. You are a guy who must kick some alien monster butts by swinging around like Spiderman and shooting them. A combination of Punisher and Spiderman that makes every nerd happy. Once you shoot out enough enemies you go to the next level and do it all over again. Zipping around and killing enemies feels great and is incredibly addictive. Adding to the gameplay comes a breadth of unique levels, constant upgrades, and perks that change each round you play making the game unique.
The original Swarm was more linear. Again, please watch that review I have it linked below. In the original game, you beat five levels, beat a boss, and continue until you win the game. There were standard levels and once you beat it you have the leaderboards section and that’s it. Swarm 2 changes the formula by going for rouge-lite mechanics. In this gameplay type, you must beat a series of fifteen levels that are randomly picked out of a pool of twenty or so options. If you die, then you are reset back to the beginning. However, you get to keep the shards that you've collected from killing enemies and breaking Crystals. These shards can upgrade your character, giving you brand new abilities and more life / shield. Thus, making you more powerful the next round you play until you are strong enough to beat all fifteen series of levels. All this means that the constant dying you do in the game are just chances you can upgrade your character. Once you beat all fifteen levels then, you move on to the next difficulty level and repeat that gameplay loop. With three levels: Easy, Medium and Hard, there are like sixty rounds of gameplay here for a cool twenty-five dollars. In case you are wondering, I did about twenty-three rounds beating Easy and normal difficulty. Hard is just too hard man…
This Rouge-like gameplay style may get stale for a large sixty-hour experience, but it is perfect for a twenty-five-dollar indie game like this. It allows the developers to get a much larger amount of playtime for a little bit of content in the game. It also makes it way easier for the developers to add content to the pool of randomness to be chosen. As of this review, there are only twenty-one levels, but more will be added. Here is the developer's proposed upgrade timeline; you can see new things coming if you are interested in the game. That roadmap highlights the beauty of this format. All you need is a few new levels to greatly extend the gameplay and provide us gamers hours’ worth of content. I know there are a ton of people who don't like roguelike mechanics, but I prefer them in smaller indie titles such as this or Hades.
These levels take place in three different environments. A city-like environment, a desert, and Space. Each of these environments has four levels that need to be beaten to move on to the next one. These levels are huge when compared to the original game. The developer said they can be up to ten times larger, which makes swinging around and shooting aliens much more engaging. Another change made when comparing the versions is the ability to sprint. With a move of the thumb stick, you can force your body in a different direction, allowing you to easily dodge enemy fire, grab shards, and build momentum. The developers also stated that with the sprint functionality, you can go up to twice the speed of the original game. If you got a bit motion-sick, you might want to ease yourself into this one. Within each level, there are new guns available such as a mini-gun or an explosive bow and arrow that leaves enemies in waste. It does look like there not that many new enemy types which is a bit lame.
Between each level, you get to choose a perk that will give you more health, deal more damage, or allow you to collect more shards for upgrades on your next run. I loved the perk system; it made each playthrough more interesting. Sure, it sucked if all of the three perks randomly provided were bad, but it was still fun. Kind of like how losing at a slot machine is still a bit of entertainment. You can re-roll your perks to get three new choices, but it will cost you some shards....
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