PixelJunk VR Dead Hungry Review (PSVR)
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.
The team behind the PixelJunk games, which I loved and spent plenty of time with over on the Playstation 3, have now entered the VR market with Dead Hungry. The question is did this game fill my apatite or leave me wanting seconds?
So, what is Dead Hungry all about? Well the games idea is a simple one… You work on a food truck, and your job is to feed the undead a mixture of burgers, pizza, fries, fried squid (I believe it is) and drinks. Now the magic thing about doing this is that I seems to cure them, and they will return to human form. The game does not come with a story in an essence, but with an aim – the aim is cure the hunger of these zombies.
As you will most likely tell from the above description of what the gameplay is all about.. You basically make these items to feed the undead, however you can decided how big the burgers you make are and so on. The aim to make sure you always have enough food to feed them all. Each zombie will slowly make their way towards to truck, as you make the food and to turn them back human you will need to deplete the green bar about their heads.
The game gets more and more hectic the later levels go on, making your involvement and movement a lot more hectic on the way. For me all the way through the aim was always have food on the go, and make sure you have at least the three burgers on the grill all the time, this becomes a lot harder than you would think. There is not much more you can say about the gameplay other than it is fun, hectic and like a workout… however, it can become repetitive after a short while.
Visually the game sort of took me back to the Dreamcast days, which personally I loved because that was a greatly under-appreciated console. But, that being said with what some of the Playstation VR games are putting out, others may expect a little more from the game. In saying this though the games visuals do what it needs to do, and the fact the zombies are not realistic might be a valid option to make the game accessible to a younger audience also.
When it comes to sound, the game is mainly made up of some sort of heavy/death metal soundtrack. Unfortunately even as someone who can listen to and appreciates that style of music, it even started to annoy me. I understand a game like this can not really do overly much with the sound, and the music will be in place to stop just the noise of constant undead groans and frying noises – but maybe a choice or variation of music would be more appealing and mix it up.
Dead Hungry comes with two control schemes, two Playstation Move controllers or the DualShock 4. From playing with both control schemes the game was clearly made for the Playstation Move controllers and this will give you the best experience with the game. The benefits of having two hands when doing this job is huge, where you get this with the Move Controllers you don’t with the DualShock 4. With the DualShock 4 it’s still motion controlled, but with only the one hand you will find doing all the tasks quick enough becoming very difficult – as multitasking is no longer an option.
When it comes to completing the ten levels offered, it does not really take too long to get through them – once you have the multitasking down. I found by the end of level 5 I had the quick nature of the gameplay down, and felt I would have no issues getting a job in fast food restaurant with my newly learned burger making skills. Where the game struggles is, after doing the ten stages unless you want to go back and try to get max stars on them all, there doesn’t seem much reason to go back to it. Then add to this the repetitive nature of the game, it means that you will probably find yourself picking the game up in 30 minutes sessions, rather than long sessions.
Conclusion
PixelJunk VR Dead Hungry is a game that can be fun, hectic and also at the same time can give you a little workout. For me personally and some other gamers where the presentation might offer some nostalgic value, it may deter others. Also some choices and the lack of variety in the game make is soon become repetitive, and you wont find yourself playing the game for long sessions, before turning it off.
Also available on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
Developers: Q-Games Ltd
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