Become the top dog as you fight your way through the Facility.
Grab your gear and head out into an always-changing building, to figure out what’s going on.
Developers RUST LTD. are back, bringing violent wiener action to virtual reality (VR) on the Quest headset with Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades 2 – lovingly known as H3VR2.
Releasing today, Nov. 12, you are Handy; an anthropomorphic hot dog with a penchant for firearms, and the only one who can figure out what’s going on in The Facility. The building has some issues and you’re the only one who is able to survive the surprises waiting within.
The game is a mix of roguelike and extraction shooter. Each run, you’ll head through the always shifting layout, grabbing items you can use to extract back to your base. Every item you bring back or recycle – more on this later – is a step towards building your arsenal and becoming stronger.
You start off with a quick tutorial section to get your bearings as Handy. Learn how to move, shoot and be the hot dog the facility needs you to be, before making your way through a few corridors to meet the foreman.
He’ll give you a short rundown that there’s something wrong with the building and task you with heading into the depths to figure out what exactly that is.
Throughout the game, he will also give you “work orders” also known as sidequests, where you’ll complete random tasks to earn more cash and experience.
Besides successfully completing a run and extracting yourself back to the hub, these tasks are your best way to earn experience. As in true gaming fashion, the more you get, the faster you level up.
This will earn you new items which you can create at your main computer – again more on this later.
Because this is a roguelike game, everything from the layout of each level to the gear you start with is completely randomized each run.
Before you “tube” yourself into the facility, you’ll choose from a few loadouts. These include differing weapons, inventory items like a backpack and tactical belts or vests, as well as blunt or bladed objects for the more silent approach.
If you do happen to have found and extracted some gear out, you’re able to find that in your inventory computer and equip this to better your chances of survival.
But note: if you do happen to come across a great piece of gear along the way and you don’t extract it through the pneumatic tube at the “end” of each level, you’ll lose it if you choose to head through the doorway back to the hub, instead of continuing forward.
Once you’re in a run, it’s just you making your way through the winding hallways. Sometimes they lead you somewhere, many times you’ll just find yourself in a random bathroom. Depending on the difficulty you have set, you’ll encounter any number of enemies in your path – along with traps and gates that prevent you from moving forward without gaming the system.
Some enemies are better prepared than others to handle you, and you’ll need to aim true and strike fast, lest your run be over before it begins.
As noted earlier, throughout each run you’ll come across a wealth of items that you can take with you. A few of these are great to extract back to your hub for use in later runs. The rest, however, are better suited for breaking down into raw materials.
In H3VR2, you are able to create items – weapons, gear, ammo – or make upgrades to your inventory, and other aspects of the game via one or more of the available raw materials.
There’s also the cash which you can spend here – or on certain loadouts – but mostly it’s about utilizing one of the three materials.
The materials in game are: meat, mustard, and metal.
Throughout your run, you’ll come across some of the main computers that you’ll find in the hub. It’s here at these all-in-one machines that you’re able to recycle the items you find along the way.
This is a great way for clearing out the junk you’ve collected and turn them into resources. Once you have the requisite amount, use these in the “upgradr” section, where you can boost many areas to make yourself more efficient.
Or if you prefer something new for your loadout, make yourself a new gun, some grenades, or even a bucket worth of bullets.
Oh, there are also other modes to play – sandboxes and challenges to complete among other areas. Some of these were not available during the review period, but the ones that were – sandbox for instance – gives you the chance to play around and enjoy everything H3VR2 has to offer.
Mechanically the game is simple to control and gun handling here is physics based, to create an immersive experience.
Walk, run and turn as you would in any game. You’ll jump by pushing the right thumbstick up and crouch by pushing it down.
Depending on the dominant hand your reload buttons will be either ‘B’ or ‘Y’ and you turn the safety on and off, or pull the hammer by using ‘A’ or ‘X.’
Guns are meant to feel as real as you can get in VR, with the reload and handling trying as hard as they can to emulate a real weapon in your hands.
Now, there are a few weapons – both pistols and two-handed weapons – that do feel a little wonky.
For instance, there’s this little pistol that loads four bullets from the top and pops open like the scissor doors on an exotic sportscar. Whether you hit the reload button and flip the gun or pull it with your other hand, it’s a little difficult to open. What’s worse, when it finally flips up it doesn’t always stay – and getting the spent casings out is difficult – making reloading it a hassle. Basically this weapon is more of a hindrance than any real help.
Not sure if it’s just a poorly made weapon in real life, or glitchy physics, but if you happen to get stuck with this gun in your run, good luck.
Besides this, the game plays very well. It’s clear that RUST LTD. put a lot of work into getting this game to be just right and those looking for a more authentic firearms experience will be in for a treat.
Graphically, the game looks as good as you can get for a Quest 3 game featuring talking sausages.
Things are crisp and clear, and even at a distance there’s no blur or issues. Frame rates stay stable and not once during the review period was there a game breaking bug experienced.
Overall, H3VR2 is a great addition to the roguelike genre, and those who love these types of games can look forward to spending hours making their way through the Facility.
It’s not often where a game can launch with the steep price tag of $55 and be worth the cost. Here, there’s not only an endless replayability to the main game, but the amount of side content available for those who jump into the casing of Handy is quite a lot.
The work that went into creating something so polished – especially in today’s VR space – is actually something of which the user base should be proud. To see the game launch so well on the Quest 3 – the PCVR version is coming in 2027 – is a testament to how well something can turn out when the developer cares enough to pour their heart into their game.
H3VR2 might not be for everyone, especially those who think that the rogue genre has a few too many games, but for those who want something shiny and new – or even just looking for a shooter than has pretty stellar weapons handling – this one’s for you.
