Paradox of Hope VR Could Be the Next Best VR Survival Game
Paradox of Hope VR released to Steam Early Access on September 15, 2022. It has quickly become obvious that this game has a ton of promise. It takes mechanics and lessons of other successful and very fun VR games of the Survival Genre such as The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners and Into the Radius VR, and puts them into a compelling post apocalyptic setting.
This is a setting of dark metro tunnels and hulking mutants, of humanity struggling for survival in a darkness of its own making, in tunnels of their own construction. Basically the setting of the popular Metro 2033 series of books and games. Except now in Virtual Reality.
What’s so Great About it?
Paradox of Hope VR brings the same tense feeling of survival against the unknown and unknowable as Into the Radius VR does, in that way they are similar. They also both take place in Russia, though they are also different. While Into the Radius VR or The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners has you walk through a wide and expansive world covered in buildings and places to hide, Paradox of Hope VR takes place in decaying metro tunnels under post-Soviet post-Nuclear Russia.
The corridors are generally dark, damp, and full of strange radioactive weeds. Not to mention mutants, and when those mutants find you, there is no building to run and hide in. They’re faster than you, once they have your scent, there’s nothing you can do but win the fight. The cramped metro tunnels offer no other escape.
Since everything is underground, light is a resource you will constantly need. Since everything is old, lights won’t always work. While you always have a lighter on your chest, it’s glow is limited at best. Get your hands on a headlamp, though it’s expensive. So be careful, even that fancy headlamp will turn to dust if you perish out in the tunnels.
The constant ambience of the groans of old steel and concrete, and the quiet whispering that may be in your own mind, or may be something more sinister, are your other companion in the tunnels. When you are picking through the abandoned stations for whatever scraps you can sell you will be lucky if the corpses are your only companions. Mutants dwell in the darkness as well, and those mutants will not stop once they detect you. Try to sneak by, or shoot your way through, there are no other options.
Game Modes
So how are these explorations and fights through the old tunnels structured? Into two game modes, Story and Raid. Story plays out a lot like Metro 2033 does. It is planned to be a series of mostly linear missions that follow a narrative. What is available now during the limited Early Access release is already impressive, atmospheric, and intriguing. Saying anything more about it would spoil the surprise of the experience, but if you are familiar with any of the Metro games, or linear story driver shooters in general, you will know what to expect.
Until the story is completed the bulk of the game will lie in the “Raids” game mode. Where the story is a linear and set experience meant to follow a set progression pattern and series of encounters, Raids is exactly the opposite. Instead of doing the same mission again, each is randomized. Instead of always receiving the same equipment at the same time, what you have to survive with is up to your own discretion, and your monetary success at scavenging the metro tunnels.
The progression of the Raids game mode in Paradox of Hope VR is centered on scavenging for things to sell to get Rubles, and completing missions to unlock higher reputation levels. Reputation levels allow you to purchase more powerful, versatile, and expensive equipment. While Rubles are of course needed to afford anything, like new equipment, as well as bullets, health kits, air filters for your gas mask when traversing toxic areas, and accessories and mods for your guns.
There’s a whole modification system for weapons in Paradox of Hope VR. Oh, and make sure to keep your guns clean between raids, or they might jam. Not to mention keeping your magazines full of bullets. Overall the more you can afford, the higher your chance of getting to the exit and successfully leaving a raid alive.
If you die in a Raid you do not load a save, you do not start over. You are forced back to your home base with nothing but a Makarov on your hip. All your equipment, except for permanent upgrades, is lost. Hope you had some spares stashed, or some rubles saved, because otherwise you will have a really tough time in the next raid.
Broke and bulletless you might be able to take on one mutant with a knife, otherwise you’ll have to sneak through. Raids are procedurally generated and completely randomized. If you’re a little smart and a little lucky you can get through an entire map without running into a single mutant. Just keep your ears open, the breathing of the huge beasts can be heard, and stay in the darkness. If they can’t see you, they can’t eat you.
Continuing Development
The story of Paradox of Hope VR is not yet done, and the Raids mode, as fun as it is, definitely has a ceiling of progression that you hit really quickly. Soon you’ll be able to recognize the rooms you’ve seen before, and the repetition of it will sap away the suspense. Fortunately, being an early access game, Paradox of Hope VR is still in development, and there is bound to be loads more content coming.
The entire development team currently consists of one person, and despite all the early access bugs and jankiness that are present at the time of writing, their ability to accomplish so much already only adds to the sense of anticipation at the potential of this Virtual Reality Survival Shooter. If you want to see what’s been done so far, you won’t regret it, give them some love on Steam where you can buy it for 19.99$.