Swords of Gargantua - VR Gameplay HTC Vive
11Oh boy. That was... uncomfortable... I've calmed down some since this video. It's been a while since I recorded and there has been one update since that I haven't found the desire to go back in and check out. You likely see where this review is headed... Spoilers, sorry!
Ok, lets get the rage inducing comfort settings decision out of the way first. When you start the game, you are greeted with a calibration option screen but not comfort settings. From there you are immediately inserted into the tutorial with no way to access comfort settings. The only way to access comfort settings is to quit out of the tutorial which gives no indication that you can get back into it if you opt to exit.
So while you can just immediately quit out, the fear that you may miss out on the tutorial may keep you from doing so and thus have you puking all over your floor.
I absolutely hate the vignette. It's an anti-comfort setting for me. Any game that uses it, I expect to be able to access settings as soon as I start the game and toggle it off. The vignette gives me eyestrain, headaches and mild sim sickness. I can't stand it. I hate it.
There are many better user experience solutions. Drop the user at the main menu instead of inserting them into level 1? Force comfort selection when your already being forced to calibrate? Have the comfort settings available while you're in a level? Etc... This flow is just dumb.
/soapbox
For the rest of the game... Sadly this is effectively a fantasy hack and slash wave "shooter" as I was afraid. You're stuck in one room with several waves of baddies that you need to dispatch to move on to the next stage in a mobile game level style 'campaign'. There is very little level based story or meaning. Just you, your sword and some random things that seem to want you dead for no reason.
Speaking of you and your sword the "hyper realistic" sword combat was anything but. What part of your sword breaking and being repaired as you sheath it is a "hyper realistic" mechanic? I felt slow and clunky the whole fight. Parrying felt like prebaked animations rather than anything realistic or physics based. Over all it was just awkward and not all that enjoyable.
Speaking of awkward, the unnatural dash controls warrant a specific shout out. Holding trigger and flinging your upper half in a direction to dash was painfully inefficient. It didn't add any immersion or feeling like I was actually dodging. It just added complexity and more of an unnatural feel to the fights.
Progression felt fairly limited as well. Simple weapon skins. Not much in the way of character customization. I like that there is indeed progression and my opinion is likely soured by everything else I didn't like but this just felt shallow as far as progression goes.
I just couldn't get into the game after the initial bad taste and there was nothing I saw to salvage that first impression. This is going to be a thumbs down for me. There will likely be those that enjoy the game. YMMV
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