Dead Effect 2 VR Review

Dead Effect 2 VR Review (HTC Vive)

For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a review code does not affect my judgement of the game.

Dead Effect 2 originally released on mobiles back in 2015, then in early 2017 it was released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Now Badfly have brought it to the world of VR Gaming. The question now is does the game hold up in this new this new medium of gaming?

In Dead Effect 2 the story starts a security protocol that wakes you up from cryostasis. A voice contact you that soon explains that you mission has gone wrong, but guides you to safety. If only that was the end of it, you are them informed that a man-made virus has been released on the ship turning everyone in to zombies – but it gets worse you are infected… and you’re dying.

You then meet up with this mysterious voice in a woman called Danette, and it must be cold in space as she seems to have permanently erect nipples. She soon send you on you first missions to find a brain-damaged character called Minikin and Dr. Bielik. Once you have located these characters they are all on the ship in what becomes your mission and upgrade hub. Each of these characters offer different types of upgrades for your character, and after each mission you get the chance to talk to these characters to find out more about what is going on – and of course upgrade your shit.

When you first start-up the game you are presented with three character classes. The first one is Gunner Davis, as the name suggests this is your typical military heavy weapon specialist class. The second is Jane Frey who specialises in up close and personal combat with shotguns. Finally you get Kay Rayner who is your specialist for melee weapons. Each of these characters are provided with their own unique abilities, so really the choice is yours.

There is a mix of mission types, but all are short in length which is a shame. You are given story missions, survival missions and also little side quests to complete. You will find that with the story missions they are always set a level or so above you level, along with a few of the survival missions – this is where the side quests come in handy. The side quests offer experience and can help you level a little further to take on those more taxing levels, where the missions and survival will offer you new skills and gear also. Meaning putting these together you will be ready for those later/harder missions.

Taking into account the character classes, upgrades, levels and missions types; I think Dead Effect 2 is offering something a bit extra to your VR shooters out there with these RPG elements. It was nice to see something that could have been your typical wave shooter taking an extra step to help the game.

Now the gun play on the game solid enough to make you enjoy slaying the enemies that are coming at you, it just seems like most of the enemies are too sluggish in their movement to make the game a massive challenge. There is some enemies in the game like the dog like creatures that have a huge jumping distance that can be a challenge when there is more that one to take one, and believe me the first time one jumps at you, you will jump yourself.

Visually for me Dead Effect 2 VR does look quite impressive, but this is something I am finding with a lot the HTC Vive titles, they are offering strong visuals. But, the visuals in the Dead Effect 2 VR really help the immersion into the game, but at times you think they could look a little better. For me the area you are playing in reminded me of the setting of Doom, but sort of tries to offer the atmosphere of Dead Space – unfortunately it does quite reach those levels.

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When it comes to the sound in the game, like the setting the sound attempts to add atmosphere to game, and in the most parts this works and will have you on edge as you navigate the levels. Now when it comes to the dialogue on offer with the characters you interact with it really does suffer. The dialogue is very cheesy, and although it can be very cringe worthy, it also adds to the game charm in some cases. Personally it’s nice they’ve added some dialogue to the game to add to the story and the immersion of the game, and it does manage to just fall as acceptable enough not to take away from the experience.

Dead Effect uses the Hive controllers well to give the game some immersion, having to use the side buttons on the grips to pick up/hold items. The controls are easy to get used to also, and I like that you just have to touch things on the inventory, mission selections and tablets when your finger points out, and not actually need to press a button for it to register. My only issue I found when it came to controls and the immersion was that the clip is on your waste and you only have to put your weapon against it to reload, I think what would have suited it more was having to reload the clips yourself. Now when it came to movement you have two options, you can use one control to move via moving you thumb around the centre pad, or the teleport system but using the other control. So, this does come down to personal preference on how you want to move, which was a nice touch.

Now after mentioning the two control methods I would like to talk about my experience with comfort while playing the game. I personally found I much preferred the teleport system when using this mode I found very little discomfort. The only issue I found was after some teleports the levels seemed to jump – like it registered me as shorter and this at times could be off-putting. The other option for movement really just feel natural to me, and the way you moved at times made me feel a little dizzy – I think due to it feeling unnatural to me. This is why I think it was is good they’ve offered both control systems, as some people may not only find one way the preferred way, but maybe to only way they could play it.

Conclusion

Dead Effect 2 VR brings to the table some excellent features like the mix of RPG elements into a VR shooter, but then falls down in other places. With a game that has some good parts, some bad parts, and some parts that are so bad they’re good. But, if you looking for a VR shooter that offers a little bit more than your run of the mill shooter give this one some consideration.

Also available on Oculus Rift
Developer: BadFly Interactive