Vertigo 2 (2023)

I'm 2/3 of the way in and the game is losing is luster. It's got its moments but the level design is just not very good. I've found an area with a bunch of big excavation rigs. I went up one and it had controls for steering and for turning a drill and a big wheel. But they were never used in the game; instead I had to drive it, which made me nauseous because its basically smooth turning.

Weapons also don't evolve very much. I've found a couple of secret weapons and they both suck. One is a bow with no aim reticle, so it's extremely hard to use. The other is a "finger gun" which, again, no reticle and not really fun to use at all. I've been using the same starting revolver and pistol for basically the whole game and I've got all their upgrades by about the halfway point.

Enemies are also no that interesting. While there is a rich variety, their AI is crap (the know only to walk towards the player shooting) so to level the playing field, they seemingly can see through walls. The game's idea of increasing difficulty is basically throw a lot of enemies or a single big bulletsponge, all with no health pickups.

I'm really enjoying this sequel. To be honest, I didn't need to play the original to understand the story of this one because the game retcons so many stuff that it's like it's from a different reality (which is kind of appropriate for the game, I guess?).

But overall it's a plain fun, kilometre-a-minute FPS with not enough dodgy design to ruin the experience. Shooting feels good, fast paced and even challenging. Although the double-handed shotgun feels horrible because double-handed weapons don't really work in VR. The gory effects address the original game's problem of weapons feeling more ineffectual than spitting paintballs at enemies.

Weapons are still slightly underpowered, but this time I don't mid it that much because it adds to the difficulty and frenetic nature of combat. With the limited poll of infinitely regenerating ammo, you cannot rely on your favourite weapon because it can quickly run out of ammo, but you then can switch to a different one while you wait for it to regenerate.

The characters are fun (and sometimes even funnny) albeit uneven. That Brian character whose model looks like an elderly scientists but who speaks like a rowdy 20-something is pretty bad, but I love the weird G-man stand-in made up of disparate bodyparts and a rusty speaker for a mouth. I think it strikes a good balance between ripping off homage to the Half-Life series and original spin.

This game has so much heart. I haven't played the original but I can already tell this is a passion project. So much heart and soul poured into this game and it wears it's influences on its sleeve proudly - some charming half life and portal references and just a really great feeling of 'yeah this could be the golden age of VR titles'.

I get the same feeling I used to get from older games that were breaking new ground, unafraid to experiment and be fun for the sake of fun. The story is weird, strange, slightly janky, funny, you don't really know what's going on and I love that!

I love the physicality of the world too, cups can be smashed, chairs can be swiveled, the weight of reloading the shotgun as you slam a cartridge down into the top and then your hand swishes down as the cartridge sinks into the reloading slot. Med kits attached to elastic rope can be pulled from the wall, jammed into yourself and then released making them snap back to the wall. Satisfying! If you love boneworks and half life alyx, this is their love child! And yes, you can use your gun to hold up toilet seats and flush. It's the polite thing to do.

Enemies explode in gory fashion and the variety of creatures you face is quite expansive. All whacky and bizarre too. They also all seem to have butts in some shape or form... a lot of butts on screen sometimes. Oh and the small dudes like to pick their nose and eat it. Nice!

I appreciate the addition of a wiki to track your discoveries (aliens, characters, locations etc) and the ability to change dominant hands in the settings (I'm a lefty) is nice too.

The locations so far have been great and I'm only an hour or so in. I can't wait to play more of it. Thoroughly adoring this game so far

After almost finishing Boneworks I went to Bonelabs' steam page to check it out and this was on the list of similar titles. Played the demo and was pleasantly surprised. I liked the enemy variety and the emphasis on action. Ammo regenerates over time so you're not constantly stopping to open cabinets and drawers to look for ammo or items. The reloading process is only somewhat manual and slightly different for each weapon. This adds to the immersion but without being too onerous, like Boneworks' multi step reload.

There's some humour that desperately tries to be Portal, and I'm not sure it lands. But the weird enemies are funny in their own right.