Recent reviews by ryo_code

After having put in hundreds of hours into Deep Rock Galactic (DRG), plus TONS of other games in the same genre, I'll tell you EXACTLY why this game stands out.

Since Left4Dead 2 invented the genre we can call "Horde Shooters," games in this genre must come up with unique game mechanics to stand out. You have stuff like the zombie wall-scaling (and class-levelling) of World War Z: Aftermath, and the D&D-like fantasy vibe of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, full of ammo & magic.

So what exactly is it that makes DRG so special? Is it the charm of the dwarves? Is it the interesting weapons you can pick up? Is it the digging mechanic? The challenging difficulty? The variety? All of those help, but they are not the real hero of the game.

The hero of DRG is: The randomly-generated levels.

No other game in this genre has this level of randomization, including the masterpiece L4D2, which instead has a still-vibrant community of modders, creating new levels. But once you've played a level, the familiarity somewhat kills the novelty.

The reason randomization is so important is because you will NEVER have the same map twice, making every mission feel unique. Once you've played through other horde shooters, they tend to feel repetitive once you know exactly where to go. Clocking in at almost 300 hours at the time of this review, I can say this: I'm still not bored.

I'm sure the other reviews discuss other great aspects to it, like the random side-missions that you can optionally complete, the variety of biomes and assignments that you can choose, the different guns you can equip to fit your play-style, etc. Look, there's a lot to love in this game.

But the real reason why you can keep coming back is that once you start getting really good at the game, you can always rely on the fact that you'll find challenges in the randomized maps to fit whatever difficulty level you're willing to play on.

The bottom line: This game is a phenomenal achievement of game development, and has some of the best replay value of any game I've ever played.

As a martial artist myself, I am big into martial arts VR games, and this fantastic work is truly one-of-a-kind. In fact, Dragon Fist raises the bar for martial arts games in VR.

(Note: Originally reviewed in Dec 2022. Updated at the bottom in Feb 2024.)

The game makes you feel like you are in a kung fu movie, without the nonsense phoney "game mechanics" you'll see in titles like Creed VR (which I consider to be the worst VR game I've ever played). But before you understand why Dragon Fist so good, you must understand it in context. So I'll compare it to a masterpiece of VR combat: Thrill of the Fight.

Movement
TotF is an incredibly realistic boxing experience for VR. It restricts your AI opponent to stay inside your play-space, so you walk around your physical space without having to think about any button presses or locomotion. It's nice for people with small spaces, and those who have problems with motion sickness.

Dragon Fist: VR uses what you'd expect from a video game — flexible locomotion. Use the playspace as much as you want, and use the thumbstick to walk (and jump), swing your arms to run, etc. Depending on what type of player you are, this may be preferable, especially because Dragon Fist has unique environments, and movement can be fundamental to your play style/fighting style.

---

Combat system

This is what makes TotF shine. It is the best workout in VR, and I believe it has the best combat in VR. Even developers who tried to copy it (eg. "The Fight") have failed miserably. Its strength is the intuitiveness of its UX, and the complexity of its behind-the-scenes math. One of the unique facets about TotF's combat is how they accommodate hooks (punches from the side, not straight-on), which I haven't seen any other VR game adequately replicate (Creed VR doesn't even have the concept of a hook punch, which is pathetic for a boxing game).

Dragon Fist takes a completely different approach to combat, but I don't want to bury the lead: It's good. It's not realistic like TotF... but it absolutely works. Since you have free locomotion, the developer made knockback a key part of the game, as well as how you manipulate your hand movements when you strike, the locations of where you strike, the various meters (recovery, health, special ability, etc.). I must mention that thankfully, there is no artificial stamina meter (which is another idiotic design choice from Creed VR). If you swing your arm in real life, your character will swing it (...unless one of your foes used a special ability to paralyze it temporarily!).

The downside of the system is that you'll need to take time to learn how things work. But there are two major upsides to this system. Firstly, it increases how strategic your fights are (eg. need more room? Try open-palm to their rib-cage. Do they have a weak-spot you can exploit? Poke it with your fingers). Secondly, somehow the developer has managed to include the badass special moves that video games are known for, without sacrificing the fundamental game mechanics that make the fighting feel realistic.

This is in fact so rare that I must say: Thrill of the Fight and Dragon Fist: VR are in a league of their own. No other martial arts VR games match them in terms of the combat systems (note: I'm not talking about games with weapons). It's not even close! And yet, if you want to play in a more realistic fashion, you can absolutely do that in Dragon Fist. You can turn off things like knockback (or just reduce it), or play without any special abilities, etc. The variety here is exceptional.

---

Enemies/AI

This is what loses people with TotF. The enemy AI is good, but everyone's essentially doing the exact same behaviour. There's nothing unique about any character. The biggest difference is that Thai boxer ("the Spider") is taller than everyone else, and his reach makes things interesting; and one character is Southpaw (left-handed), which adds an interesting dimension. Otherwise, the last two characters have an annoying dodge mechanic that the others don't. That's it. I just mentioned all differences.

In Dragon Fist, not only do you have a HUGE variety of characters, but each one looks and plays differently. Each has different perks/weaknesses, and the most impressive thing: They have completely unique fighting styles! Each character's fighting stance is wildly varied, making things really exciting. Hercules (the largest character) takes up a tiny bit of space until he springs into action, the Snake-style fighter makes that hissing sound which means "Oh no! I need to protect my eyes!" or else you're going to be sorry. These visual/audio cues keep you on your toes.

In fact, you are even able to play special modes where you can fight MULTIPLE enemies at once. This is a welcome and unexpected addition that for some reason, many games simply don't include. My favourite mode is actually "Arcade," where you never get a chance to rest — you just fight for as long as you can.

---

Variety
If it wasn't clear already, this is one of the many places where Dragon Fist shines. Are you tired of seeing the the same ugly stadium with the same referee and no music, fighting the same few people with the exact same moves? After putting in probably hundreds of hours into TotF, I can say that I am. (Note: the developers of TotF are working on a sequel, so let's not blame them for the lack of updates on the current game).

So even though TotF has a better combat system (for my taste), they haven't been able to retain me the same way Dragon Fist has.

Just a taste of what you get with Dragon Fist:

• Various DIVERSE game modes (including one where you can custom to your needs... amazing!!)
  
• Crazy amount of enemies... all of whom are different in look, style, and stats
  
• Tons of environments (which have unofficial little mini-games in them)
  
• Special abilities (which you can turn off if you don't want them... but they're fun)
  
• Support for haptic vests & full-body tracking
  
• A soundtrack that really puts you into the fighting mood!
  
• Ability to fight against multiple enemies (not sure what the max is... I think 6)
  
• Extremely intricate (not lazy) combat system, which enables there to be actual strategy beyond "punch face hard"
  
• One of the best VR workouts (not as physically demanding as TotF, but still excellent)

Also, the solo developer is incredibly responsive to the community, and he is trying to work on exciting additions (eg. pvp & co-op... our fingers are crossed!... but he can't promise these yet) which we're all rooting for.

---

I look at Thrill of the Fight as the benchmark for all martial arts VR titles. Overall, I would say these titles are basically equal in terms of quality for a game, but their fighting styles are radically different (which is a great thing for the industry). In fact, there's no reason why they can't coexist in the VR martial arts enthusiast's library of games. But I'll end on this note:

TotF remains the champion of VR workouts, and it will be TOUGH to beat that. But the fact of the matter is... I have played TotF only a few times since I started really getting really into Dragon Fist: VR. The immense variety and constant surprises that I still discover in Dragon Fist keep me coming back for more, and it's likely that TotF's sequel is the only thing that would be able to pry me away from this phenomenal kung fu game.
But hey, if we can get co-op... then I'm definitely going to keep coming back to the dojo ;)

Unlike TotF, with ZERO progress in 4 years...

Since my 2022 review, Dragon Fist VR now has CO-OP FOR THE ENTIRE GAME!!
Also, there is 8-player(!!) multiplayer, including PVP; and it's even in the Quest store.

The developer has gone above and beyond.

PLAY THIS GAME!

I don't throw the word "masterpiece" around lightly. But this game is an absolute masterpiece.

I enjoyed this game as a kid when it first came out on Xbox. I stopped playing it for over 10 years (basically forgot about it)... and then decided to boot it up again.

I can't believe how well this game has aged! The graphics are still sharp, the character models' mouths move, the voice acting is excellent, the music is iconic, and all the dynamic systems that work together to bring you to the brink of "overwhelming" (ie. sound design, randomization, punishment for camping) without making the game feel "unfair" is one of the greatest achievements in gaming.

Quick shout-out to the special enemies... phenomenal. There's something special about your entire team working together to point out potential foes, like "Careful, there's a Charger nearby..." or everyone shouting "TANK!!" and all hell breaking loose. And then there's the Witch, which uniquely brings the team together, especially when she's walking around, and you're on Survival mode, where she will one-hit-kill you (...unless you're carrying a trusty defibrillator!).

In case you can't tell: This is an absolute MASTERPIECE of co-op gaming. This game created a new genre of co-op shooters, even though there's no fancy name for it (not sure why).

Furthermore, it works even on old Macs with bootcamp (ie. 2013 Macbook Pro) without any lag and with excellent graphics. After a decade of inactivity, I can say that this is probably my favourite PC game ever, and I was shocked to see how many thousands of people are still playing it daily. I would have loved to see procedural generation in this game (randomized maps), but custom maps from the community are still being made all the time, and the randomization & unpredictability in each map (eg. where/when enemies or items appear) keeps things feeling fresh & fun all the time.

I still enjoy exploring the games Left4Dead inspired, but I think I'll always come back to this.

I wanted to love this game... but I use my Quest wirelessly, and there's a half-second latency issue.

For music, that makes this game COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE. Not an exaggeration. You cannot drum on it.

But I still believe this is *probably* a cool game... and maybe some day I'll enjoy it. I even changed my review to a thumbs up because I don't want to punish the developer for my hardware setup; so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

One day, with a better setup, maybe I'll be able to actually play it. Just maybe.

I played this while it was the "free weekend," and wow... possibly the worst racing game I've ever played. The turning is infuriating. I spent about 10-15 minutes in total, before I just couldn't take it anymore. The only enjoyable part was watching how far my body could be flung before smacking against the pavement. But even that novelty wore off after several minutes. Painful experience. Never again.

A game that differentiates itself from its Smash inspiration, to become something unique and distinguished. The interesting use of 2-weapons for each character, along with the strategic use of throwing them looks like a subtle difference, but actually completely changes the psychology of a match.

Brawlhalla not only excels at what it does, it does much of its online multiplayer significantly better than its Nintendo counterpart. With 8-player online play, ranked matches, and overall fantastic simple UX, players are eager to come back for more, and always appreciate the constant updates and improvements that the developers work hard on. Great style, great characters, great gameplay.


[Oct 16, 2021] Edit: Having played this game over the last 4 years, it's great to see that they have kept updating this, from new game modes to new characters & weapons. However, the new game modes have radically changed the online experience from what I used to enjoy (i.e., large 4v4 battles), to cater to more casual players or to try to appeal to greater varieties of gameplay. I won't argue that this decision was a poor one for their business; but it has evolved to the point where I am no longer interested in playing, because I can scarcely find enough people to join a large team battle.
Therefore, while I still think there is probably a lot to enjoy from this game, its evolution has changed who the target user is, and I am no longer in that category. I will only be sporadically returning to Brawlhalla out of curiosity, it's doubtful that I will play much more of it.