Dead Effect 2 VR

its.................. okay thats about it tbh

Underappreciated old VR title. This is a port of a port of a mobile game. While the implementation of its VR mechanics is pretty barebones, it stands out as one of the few totally complete original action RPGs that you can play in VR. It's a personal favorite of mine even if it isn't a superb or even really good in a lot of aspects, and if you're tired of VR games that feel short, gimmicky, or narrow in scope, then this one may be worth trying. Dead Effect 2 is, firstly, a looter-shooter RPG rather than an immersive FPS with space zombies. Weapons have gear levels and damage stats which you will need to grind and upgrade. You can also get various spells and perks which boost your performance, but these are mostly secondary. There is a good variety of guns to choose from, with different sidearms, rifles, melee weapons, and more to loot. Very mid-2000s esque fair. There's not a whole lot of difference in weapon calibers or variants of the same type, and a lot of stats like 'weapon stability' and 'switch speed' don't translate into VR controls at all, but it's still fun to blast zombies and run around looking for secrets. On top of that, your armor and cybernetics can be upgraded with various parts to improve your health, movement speed, spell power, or melee damage. Levels are mostly same-y sci-fi ship corridors and system biomes populated by either zombies or hostile soldiers with occasional bosses or mini-bosses throughout. Each mission sort of plays out like a "run" where you have to complete certain objectives. Campaign missions have specific objectives for that area needed to unlock new missions, but you can also do side missions with timed survival missions, boss hunts, or scavenger hunts. It still plays kind of the same either way, but at least it's some variety. The big thing that stands out to me here is that it is definitely a "game" with VR controls rather than an experience or demo built entirely around trying to reinvent virtual reality at the cost of game feel. It's simple, replayable, and doesn't waste my time. in the original platform this wouldn't be a recommend for that reason, but I think VR is quality added in this case. This is how VR should be implemented: make a good game that has VR rather than trying to gamify VR itself. My biggest complaint, aside from the previously mentioned busted stats, would be some other obvious RPG imbalances. There's way too many zombies in most levels, so automatic weapons tend to rule. It's got ridiculously grindy sidequests, some requiring you to kill thousands of enemies with specific weapons, just to get small percentage upgrades that don't add anything. It can get very dry, but if you are into looter shooters, than that's probably nothing new. Also, the voice acting and story is not great, but it gets a little better in the Meridian expansion. For a long while, I've kind of felt like developers sort of did VR right in 2017 and 2018 and then never again. This game is part of a weird mini-genere of "ported to VR" where the overall game may be nothing new or special, but it is, at least, a complete game. It's an enjoyable, safe, simple RPG with a good 20-30 hour length depending on your pereference. It's not hard, just a bit grindy, but if you've been burnt out on sub-par VR games that don't feel fun to play more than once, maybe this might be worth a try. Decent recommend for VR enthusiasts and newcomers.