H3VR2 is an incredible achievement as it manages to bring a level of difficulty, depth, complexity, fun, and replayability that I’ve yet to see. H3VR2 leans upon the Rogue-Lite procedurally-generated levels for endless novelty, and the most sophisticated military simulation arsenal complete with weird and nuanced embodied interactions and an almost unfathomable possibility space, the intensity and stakes of an extraction shooting, and a satisfying multi-threaded RPG leveling. Dare I say that Anton Hand is correct in his assessment that he just may have created enough interlocking systems upon systems to stake claim to being a proper Immersive Sim that allows you to satisfy your favorite gameplay style. After talking with Ian Hamilton about it all, then I think H3VR2 may indeed be the best VR game ever. Time will tell, and it’ll ultimately be up to the broader community to make these types of assessments. Needless to say, there’s something special about H3VR2.
I set a personal endurance record of playing H3VR2 for 26 straight hours with a handful of breaks. So beware of the time dilation as you may enter into a flow state, or want to do “just one more run.” H3VR2 is an incredible achievement, and the environmental design how it looks on a Quest is also a modern marvel. The sound design is also exquisite, and adds to the level of immersion. I dig into all of the various geeky game design nuances with Hand, and the biggest thing lacking in this first edition is much clarity on the underlying narrative of this mysterious Facility. We have some clues from the environmental storytelling, but Hand tells me that Biome 2 launching in 2027 will be digging more into more explicit narrative clues.
H3VR2 is hard. Relentlessly hard. This was by design. Hand said that the top 2D games on Steam are also really hard, deep, complex, and nuanced. The top-sellers for VR have not been able to compare. Hardcore 2D gamers typically haven’t found VR games to be stickty because of this, but I suspect that H3VR2 will have some players dust off their Quest 3 / 3S (it’s unfortunately not compatible with Quest 2 as it’s pusing the Quest 3/3S to it’s limits).
But as someone who is not a hardcore FPS player, I found that there were still really satisfying ways to enter into this game. You can even play non-violent stealth mode and gather resources until your hearts content. Just don’t point a gun at a Sosig, accidentally bump into them, or hit one of the tripwires. Gunfire will also attract attention, and so you get a Melee Weapon with the Hunter Buildout that I really enjoyed. By focusing on looting resources to uplevel my Recycler Efficiency and Extraction Capacity, then I also happened to learn a lot about the relative value of the objects in terms of Meat (Plastic), Mustard (Electronics), and Metal (yep, just Metal).
I haven’t felt this level of excitement for a new VR game since I demoed Beat Saber at GDC in 2018. There’s something special that the Hand and the rest of the Rust LTD team have put together. I’ve put about 40 hours into the game over the past week, and there’s still a lot of things that I’m excited to test out. There’s a huge spectrum of skill in Beat Saber from Easy to Expert+, and I feel that the same is true for H3VR2. I’m still a newb on so many levels, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t find a way to play the game and still have fun. I was excited enough about the game to go
So check out this interview with Hand that I conducted last week to dig into the game design masterclass that Hand and his teammates have pulled off with H3VR2.
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Music: Fatality
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