I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine Review

September 6, 2023

I was so pleased when Schell Games announced I Expect You Die 3, after loving the first and second entry in the series. In the previous installments, the team showed why they are up their with the best creating escape room games in Virtual Reality.

STORY

Once again the story picks up from the previous games, so I will try and keep this as brief as possible in case you have not played the previous games yet. Zoraxis the criminal organisation are back to their usual villainous ways. However, Dr. Zor is now working with a former Agency scientist, with the plans to create a robot agent that is an even better agent than you. But, can you stop them?

GAMEPLAY

Schell Games have returned with the same formula that has made the other games so successful in the VR space, with you being faced with solving puzzles in each of the six locations to work towards foiling Zoraxis’s plan.

All six levels come with their own location, inline with the other installments, with all of the puzzles switching up to use the locations setting perfectly. If you have played the previous games, you will know the best loop to follow… look around, see what items are intractable, decided if they could be important and as the title says, expect to die. It’s all about trial and error, with the result normally being death. You will start the level from the beginning each death, but you will know your past solutions, so you can get back to where you were very quickly.

Following the trend of the second, the puzzles once again have been made more complex and have more steps. This did leave me scratching my head at times, and facing more deaths then ever – but, this is not in an unfair way and more about the solutions just being more complex. As with the previous games, I cannot really go into the elements of the puzzles without spoiling them, but just understand they are a lot of fun to solve.

PRESENTATION

With this being an escape room and you being stuck in one spot in each puzzle, this has allowed Schell Games to bring really impressive locations and visuals on the standalone device. You will visit a number of different locations across the levels from a simple foyer to a moving car. They have kept the slight cartoon-ish style to the visuals used in the previous releases, which again has allowed them to make it look great inside of the HMD.

Again, the audio design is one of the strongest parts of the game. With the main conversational dialogue being between you and your handler, as he lays out the mission plan, and talks in your ear throughout the mission – unfortunately some lines keep getting repeated as you try to figure out some puzzles, which at times can become annoying in those head scratching moments. But, the 1960’s style dialogue and voice acting, the James Bond-esc opening credits, and the games fantastic humor returning, we get exactly what the game needs from the audio.

COMFORT/CONTROLS

With you being stationary the full game, it is designed around being a seated experience. Meaning, with no artificial movement being needed, it has kept the series perfect for anyone never mind their experience in virtual reality.

TRACKED CONTROLLERS

HAND TRACKING

LONGEVITY

Taking into account the aforementioned increased complexity in the puzzles, this has extended the time it took me to complete the game. With the first two taking me around two to three-hours each, and this one taking me around five-hours. Again they have included bonus objectives, hidden collectibles and speed-run challenges, but this is something not everyone will want to do – but if you do it means some added longevity to the title.

REVIEWED USING META QUEST 2

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

REVIEW OVERVIEW

I Expect You Die 3 continues the story of the series perfectly, and again steps up the puzzle design with more complex solutions than the previous entries. Now, where this has been my favourite in the series so far and the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?’ can come into play, the game is starting to show some of that game series fatigue. However, the team at Schell Games have shown why the series works so well, and if you have enjoyed the previous games this one certainly won’t disappoint.