UNDERDOGS VR Review On The Oculus Quest 3 - A Fantastic VR Mech Fighting Game
You might be wondering. “Is UNDERDOGS VR Worth It?” or “Is UNDERDOGS VR a fun game?” Well I’m here to tell you that yes, it is, and to find out why we’ll dive deep into what makes UNDERDOGS a fantastic futuristic mech brawler in Virtual Reality from VR game developer One Hamsa.
UNDERDOGS is a VR game where you fight robots in a huge gorilla mech suit. If that sounds like a good time to you, then you'll like this game.
UNDERDOGS VR Review - The Sights and Sounds of the Arena
The visuals of UNDERDOGS VR are crisp, even running standalone on an Oculus Quest 3. It's a very stylish game too, from the look of the gameplay to the comic strip style story panels.
The colors are splashes of vibrant and messy neon so fitting for the dystopian, cyberpunk world that the game takes place in.
The crowd just before the arena lights up
Everything is gritty, but a futuristic gritty where you might get robbed or get smashed in the arena, but at the end of the day there's always another mech, more robots, and an intense soundscape to go along with it all.
UNDERDOGS VR looks great with a unified aesthetic and vibe to it all, and that extends to the sound design. You can hear the frenetic energy all the way throughout the fight. The combination of EDM and drill rap that makes most of this VR game's soundtrack go extremely well with the crisp crash of metal on metal as your Gorilla's steel fists snap another bot in two.
The music keeps the energy high and the sound gives each action you take an additional sense of weight, contributing to the feeling that you really are inside of a massive mech suit and that you really are smashing hostile robots in an underground arena.
A frenetic fight in UNDERDOGS VR
Virtual Reality does a lot to give you this sense of immersion, but it's nothing without touches like good sound design, and UNDERDOGS VR knows this and does it extremely well. Though if you're not a fan of this sort of music then you might find it overwhelming or annoying.
The same goes for your companion "King" who will shout encouragement and share useful warnings in your ear. Like when an enemy is about to pounce from behind you. He could get a little old, and possibly annoying. Luckily you can shut off King and the Music in the Settings if you want to.
Though the warnings that your friend and business partner give you are genuinly helpful and the game just isn't the same without the frenetic pace of the music contributing to the intensity of the combat.
Oh and a quick sidenote here: If you're not comfortable with all of the swearing there are some language filtering options in the Settings menu. I guess the developers figured a game doesn't have to be crass just because it's gritty. Now back to the review.
The Settings menu where you can turn down the music, and King
The real draw of UNDERDOGS VR is the combat. UNDERDOGS is a fighting game, but with the added cool factor of you being inside a gigantic Gorilla mech suit. All of your fighting and moving is done purely with your arms, and trust me your arms will be pretty tired after playing this game for long enough.
Personally the only reason I stopped playing was because my arms hurt from constantly swinging them. Whether this is a benefit or a drawback of this game is up to you, but expect to sweat a bit after a few bouts in the arena. So for VR fitness enthusiasts, this might just be another arm workout to add to your collection.
That's because you'll be punching a lot, and swinging your arms to move as well. The punching is kind of self explanitory, but wow does it feel good to move your arms, which you can see in front of you, and also see and more importantly feel the gigantic metal arm of your mech crash into an enemy.
Punching a huge gorilla robot in the face. Very satisfying
UNDERDOGS gives great tactile feedback through the Quest's touch controllers and gives a good sense of feeling like you're actually a man in a mech suit. Even physically moving around your playspace won't move your mech, but instead shifts your position inside of it.
It's these little touches, most of which you probably won't even notice, that take the immersion of Virtual Reality to the next level in UNDERDOGS VR.
Not to mention the movement. It's no secret that VR has a bit of a movement problem, and that slide movement using a joystick is not only lacking in immersion but creates a lot of problems of its own.
Luckily UNDERDOGS doesn't rely on slide movement like so many other VR fighting games, but instead has you pulling yourself around by holding down the grip button while pulling your touch controller behind you.
It's like you're actually grabbing the ground and pulling yourself forward, which is exactly what your Mech does to move, and boy does it move quickly. I've heard this movement system compared to Gorilla Tag, but it's really more like a more responsive version of Gorn's movement system, which also has you grabbing and pulling yourself forward, albeit much more slowly than in UNDERDOGS VR.
Moving by grabbing the floor and pulling
This movement system is not only intuitive, but is also integrated into the combat. If you pull yourself forward sharply with both arms at the same time you rush forward very quickly and body slam anything that you run into. This isn't only a great way to get out of trouble, but gives you a great option in combat, especially against armored enemies.
UNDERDOGS VR Review - A Deep Combat System
You might think that combat would be simple and just come down to punching really hard and the occasional bodyslam, but you'd be wrong.
The arena isn't a simple place, and is full of all sorts of traps, like a massive hammer that slams into the ground, or a grinder that opens up on the side of the arena. Perfect for throwing bots into for crunching, but also something you should avoid yourself.
Throwing a Junk Dog into the grinder
The combat doesn't get old not only because of how satisfying it feels, but also because of how quickly enemies come at you in swarms and force you to utilize every option that you have. Smacking one robot out of the way to buy yourself some breathing room, quickly smacking another into a crusher to destroy it, and then moving out of the way of another's attack.
Combat in this game becomes a quick dance of avoidance and smashing. Trying to reduce your enemies while at the same time not being overwhelmed by their numbers.
You can play the combat methodically by keeping your distance and rushing in and out for hit and runs, or you can try to overwhelm opponents and keep them off balance. Hit one fast enough and they'll be stunned, but you might get jumped from the sides or behind while you're focusing on the enemies in front of you.
So combat becomes a constant whirling, frantic paranoia of making sure you're dishing out destruction and not about to be attacked.
Some overcharged enemies which are stronger and tougher
Speaking of being attacked, UNDERDOGS has an interesting health system. Each arm of your mech and your cockpit all have separate health pools.
If an arm's health goes to zero it breaks right off, which is a major disadvantage. You can't move or attack or block with that arm anymore.
If your cockpit health goes to zero it breaks and your human body is exposed. Take one hit to your fragile fleshy shell and it's game over.
It's an interesting system that forces you to make a lot of small decisions, and also be very careful with your arms during combat
More than once I had to make a snap judgement to block my cockpit with an arm and further risk it breaking off, or trust that my cockpit could take the damage. Your moment to moment decision making in each fight is also complicated by a myriad of status effects, damage types, and modifiers.
The health bars of the left arm and cockpit in UNDERDOGS VR
Some enemies will be armored on parts of their bodies, or go into overdrive where they deal and take far less damage. You can also get allies in the arena or decoys to help you out. There are so many different strategies and ways to fight to discover in UNDERDOGS VR, and this UNDERDOGS Review would be as big as a book if I tried to list them all for you.
There's a surprising amount of depth to UNDERDOGS VR's combat system that becomes more obvious the more you play the game, and there's also even more offensive options than just smashing. UNDERDOGS VR has an equipment system as well.
Your arms can be more than just wrecking balls, but also grabbers that can grab enemies to more easily throw them wherever you like, or even a nail gun that temporarily stuns them.
UNDERDOGS Review - It’s A Roguelike Too
You'll have to work for these options though, because UNDERDOGS is also a roguelike. Now before I say anything else I'd like to address that this might be a disheartening thing to hear for those very familiar with the VR gaming scene, which has a lot of roguelikes, and a lot of those seem like they are roguelikes more for the purpose of padding out game time than anything else.
For those unfamiliar with the concept a roguelike is a game where you progress through a series of challenges, but failing and being destroyed means that you have to start all over again from scratch like you just started the game.
Playing a lot of VR roguelikes can be tiring, but VR games like The Light Brigade and also UNDERDOGS have shown that a game that uses roguelike elements well to tie into the gameplay can enhance the game's experience.
UNDERDOGS VR uses its roguelike elements well. Between matches in the arena you have opportunities to get into various shenanigans to acquire mech parts or spend your money on equipment, enhancements, and repairs. This is all conveyed through comic strip panels and text prompts.
Repairing the ‘Rilla between matches
Getting a great new part is very satisfying, and some have benefits and drawbacks that make you really choose how to use them. After you choose a few options you're presented with another arena battle, and a choice of merchant with a special modifier and pool of equipment to win as a reward to sponsor you in the match.
These roguelike elements work pretty well in UNDERDOGS VR, but this system does still have some drawbacks. While the progression of equipment through each run is satisfying and gives you some interesting choices that affect your playstyle through each run the heavy consequences of losing mean you won’t feel as encouraged to experiment.
Though there is a Skirmish mode that lets you try out different combinations of parts without risking your run. Skirmish is a great way to test out any new equipment you might have gotten without any risks, or to warm up before your next arena bout.
As far as equipment goes you generally just choose what you think is best and sell the rest. That leans into another common problem in roguelikes. Starting over from the beginning feels a bit more boring than it should because you're going up against the same enemies yet again, just with worse gear.
You're playing the game on easy for at least the first of the three arenas just so that you can get to the harder arenas that are going to be more of a filter and a challenge.
Nailing a Roach to the floor with the Nail Gun arm
So those early fights can feel like a chore when you've already gotten some experience with the game. Luckily they're at least short, but they still feel too easy when you've got a few runs under your belt.
Part of this is because there isn't enough enemy variety in UNDERDOGS, though this will only be a problem after you've already got quite a few hours in the game. Still, you'll find yourself fighting the Roaches and Junk Dogs a lot, they form the overwhelming majority of the enemies you will be fighting early on in the game.
Later on there are more advanced versions of these enemies, but they really amount to being a little faster, hitting a little harder, and having more health. There are some interesting opponents, but way more Roaches and Junk Dogs in every wave.
Though fighting the arena champion at the end of each set of arena battles may very well make up for this. The boss fights are also incredible. Difficult, but a lot of fun.
As far as the roguelike city exploration it is still nice to get a little downtime to cool off between matches with the time you spend hustling, repairing, and upgrading.
Each fight gets you some cash and a choice of reward
UNDERDOGS VR Review - The Story
There's a story to, a story of brotherhood and beating the odds when you've got almost nothing going for you but your skill and perseverance. The story isn’t the main draw in a game like this, but seeing the camaraderie and the odds you’re against written in each of the game’s story panels makes you want to win even more for the sake of the characters.
The possibility of failure that a roguelike brings enhances these story elements by giving each fight genuine stakes.
Even a fight that you win can be a drawback if your mech takes a lot of damage, which persists, and you have to spend a lot of resources to try and get it back into shape before lumbering into the arena again.
There are a lot of these very stylistic and well made comic book style panels to convey the story and events of UNDERDOGS VR
As I said at the beginning of this UNDERDOGS VR Review though, if you want to pilot a giant mech suit and smash robots, then this game won't get old and it is the best VR Mech fighting game on the Oculus Quest 3 and even all of PCVR. At the end of the day that is the core of the game, and that core is an absolute gem of responsive touch controls and solid VR game design.
If you love VR fighting games or just the fantasy of this concept then you'll get more than your money's worth from UNDERDOGS. It’s available on the Oculus store and on Steam for PCVR.
Good luck in the arena and enjoy yourselves VR gamers.
