An ambitious VR game, hampered by technical limitations and a rush to market.

 

If you’ve ever wanted to go toe-to-toe with hell’s worst, step into the shoes of a “Hellsweeper.”

From the same group that made Sairento VR and published by Vertigo Games, Hellsweeper VR was released Sept. 21 for the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2), among other headsets.

What was a highly anticipated roguelike game that sees players journey into hell to cull the demonic overflow, has ended up being just another game in the genre.

Like most roguelikes, there is very little story – you are an immortal being tasked with keeping the threats of the underworld at a manageable level. While not a big deal, the entire reason players are meant to spend at minimum $40 (depending on the version you purchase) on a game like this is the quality and way it plays. This, however, can cause buyers concern very quickly as the game kicks off with some of the worst graphics on a PSVR2 title.

What can only be described as an egotistical move to get it to market, publisher Vertigo Games opted to release a version of the game that they knew would not meet the standards expected by those who spent hundreds of dollars on the headset.

“Some of you might wonder why we chose to release the game despite being aware of the graphical discrepancies for the PSVR2 version. The answer is a complex mix of obligations and strategic decisions. In truth, our QA with Sony only ended barely a week ago and while we were very optimistic at the start, we realized towards the end that a lot of compromises had to be made to fulfill the vision we had for Hellsweeper VR and to be able to support cross-play across the different devices with varying graphical fidelities. As such, we resolved to first release the combat-centric Hellsweeper experience we envisioned and follow up with graphical updates post-release,” explained Edi Torres, executive producer of Hellsweeper VR, in an online post.

Blaming the mid-development announcement of the headset and their overly ambitious goals, the game – which has been on pre-order for some months now – was known to have issues and still kept the same release date.

Visually, playing this game looks like you forgot your glasses before heading off to work.

The sad thing is that it’s simply not up to par with some other basic games released for the PSVR2 – Toss! for instance, a platformer where you swing and climb as a monkey trying to fix its ship, is leaps and bounds better looking.

Moving past the graphics, the game as a whole offers some of the wildest movement mechanics seen in a VR game released for this generation of headsets. It really is too bad that being able to wall run, backflip and even summoning weapons with the flick of a wrist, can be tedious for even the most experienced gamer.

Let’s start with the weapons and perks. When you start each proverbial “sweep” you’re given the ability to pick a “blessing” these are the standard perks that come with roguelikes and change from run to run.

Also chosen are the magic attacks, weapons and passive abilities that you take with you.

Each of these – minus the passive abilities (levitation, among others) – are assigned to one of four gestures (up, down, left right) which you’ll make in order to summon that weapon. What’s fun in theory, and less embattled moments during each stage, becomes tedious even when you’re being extremely careful. More often than not you’ll try summoning one thing and get another.

They’re all weapons so often you can make it work, but on harder difficulties getting a measly pistol when you wanted a fireball, can be the difference between life and death.

You get two weapons to take with you, with the ability to add or purchase more through each sweep.

As you progress and gain experience, your level will increase, and (sometimes) so too will your armory. It seems like the addition of weapons and magic is very slow – even playing on higher difficulties nets you one new item every few levels.

As the tagline of the game says, “dare to descend into hell,” and it seems like that’s exactly what players will do as they spend hours and hours grinding against bad graphics just to unlock something other than the basic starters of sword, pistol, levitation and fire.

There’s also a hellhound companion that unlocks at some point, but who knows when that is.

As an immortal being working in hell, you’re not limited in what you can do movement-wise. Do you want to run on walls while dual wielding, slide across the battlefield slicing through enemies, or backflip in slow motion? Through a combination of locomotion and “dashing” (this games name for teleportation) you can! It’s just too bad that the mechanics for these are not that well thought out.

Wall running is done by teleporting at a wall, jumping comes from teleporting with more of an angle to the arc that appears on your screen, sliding comes from physically crouching after jumping, and backflips from from swinging your arms in the midst of a jump. Sure, it all sounds like it’s fairly fluid, but the teleport button is pushing up on the turn stick (your right sense controller). Once again, in the heat of battle you may end up trying to turn to see the demon at your back, only to teleport into one that will end your run.

While better VR tech would certainly make this game’s movement more fun – looking at you company that will one day make a station with a floor that moves and harness that allows dynamic things like climbing to feel real – it’s a long way off (if ever coming to existence).

Let’s talk about each run.

A sweep is made of multiple acts, each consisting of four or more stages and a boss. Here’s where the kicker comes in: you’re not just killing demons, oh no no, that would be too easy. Each stage has a different mission you must complete before you can move onto the next.

Sometimes these are easy: destroy totems within the allotted time, and get all the puzzle pieces onto their altars.

Sometimes they’re ridiculously hard: kill all the demons but only in one specific area or it doesn’t count.

The mix of missions is what makes each sweep unique, it’s really just too bad that it can become overly repetitive – adding again to the hell that is grinding – and make the game more tedious than it is.

Combat can sometimes be fun, but often it’s just a bunch of demons coming at you from everywhere. Your first few deaths will surely come with the utterance to the effect of “where in the hell did that come from?” This is because there’s no indicator telling you from where the damage is coming. What’s worse, 3D audio seems non existent – with audio randomly dropping out at points in a level – making this a very expensive hack and slash (at best).

Sure the dynamic movements of backflips and wall running can get you away from enemies, but it doesn’t help that the weapons power, even a jacked up pistol, can end up taking an entire clip just to kill one lesser demon.

Overall, there are many things this game needs to fix before it’s worth the money.

Torres revealed in a post that there will be an update coming before the end of the year which will include graphical improvements, among other in game items. But the game is out now, yet those who paid have to wait three or more months before it’s potentially a little better.

There are honestly not many reasons to play this game – unless you want to improve your understanding of the mechanics, unlock more items, or really feel bad over having wasted $40.

Wait until it goes on sale, or at the very least, one of those major overhauls gets released.

How is one supposed to fight through this level of hell, you may ask yourself.

It’s recommended you wait for a better game.

Hellsweeper VR was reviewed after purchasing from the PlayStation store at full price.