In Death is a first-person “rogue-lite” shooter from Solfar Studios, available for Quest on Oculus Rift. At each level, you must collect keys to unlock doors in order to progress through the map.
The goal of the game is to defeat a boss at the end of each area by collecting 5 orbs that appear throughout your run. In between, you must dispatch a variety of enemies, from skeletons to bats to spiders to giant floating skulls that shoot lasers.
In Death has a lot going for it: great graphics and sound design, fun gameplay with a variety of weapons and items at your disposal, short sessions (which is good for the audience), but there are still issues that can be frustrating for some players.
There are times in the game when you must enter a room to unlock an item or open up the last area of the map, but it is impossible to tell if there are enemies waiting on the other side (they blend in too well with the background). The game isn’t particularly difficult, but this is one of the only games my partner & I have played together in VR where there is a level that neither of us can complete. We were forced to go back to a previous save, incurring a lot of lost progress and frustration.
In Death isn’t necessarily difficult if you’re skilled with controller movement. The tutorial tells you how to jump, dash, and use your radar, but I can’t say it is well-implemented. The Radar sometimes points you in the direction of an enemy that isn’t visible and you’re forced to go “somewhere” and check around, leaving yourself open for attack.
The game features a progressive skill tree which we think could have been more fleshed out. The game has an unlockable skill for every enemy type, which sounds great on paper but some of them are just unhelpful or unclear as to their usefulness (ie: one gives you “+5 HP” but there is no indication of what that means).
Aside from these gripes, In Death is a solid, fun game that is definitely worth its price. It has a ton of polish, the graphics are great for Quest, and the intuitive arcade-style gameplay with rotating weapon selection keeps things fresh.
Our Rating: 4/5