Exploding Kittens VR Announced For Fall 2024

Here’s an interesting new release announcement among a slew of recent release announcements for games coming to the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3.

Exploding Kittens VR will be a Virtual Reality spinoff of the real life social card game Exploding Kittens. As we’ve seen with other VR games like Cards and Tankards there is a lot of potential for VR card games on standalone and PCVR devices.

Not only that, but Exploding Kittens is more of a party game, and so is also part of the more casual VR games genre that is also seeing significant growth on the Meta Quest. It’s easier to sit down and play a light and fun game like Exploding Kittens for a bit then work up a sweat with a VR shooting game or VR fighting game.

This Virtual Reality social card game also seems like it will add quite a bit to the original, physical card game.

It’s good to see a game porting itself to Virtual Reality and making full use of VR to add new puzzles, avatar customization, and gameplay elements to the game that make the addition of Virtual Reality more than a gimmick or a convenience. Rather the addition of VR is a way to enhance the experience of gameplay.

Here is an excerpt of the press release provided by the developers over at Saber Interactive:

“FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – June 25, 2024 – Saber Interactive has announced Exploding Kittens VR, a new experience based on the wildly popular social-strategy card game. Developed under license from Asmodee Entertainment and published by Saber, Exploding Kittens VR is coming this fall to Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 2 and is available to pre-order now with a 10% bonus discount!

Exploding Kittens VR combines the hilarious strategy and chaos of the original card game with the full immersive feel of VR for a totally unique experience. Play with up to five players online or play on your own against bots and force your opponents to draw the dreaded Exploding Kitten. Be the last person standing to win! Customize your own in-game avatar, explore the social hub, and dive into a variety of entertaining mini-games.

Key Features:

- Experience Your Favorite Card Game Like Never Before: Socialize with friends and make new enemies in this laugh-out-loud VR strategy experience based on the hit card game.

- Master a Variety of Tools to Win: Use a slew of tools to strategically outsmart your opponents and come out on top. Look into the future, steal items from other players and deny their moves, defuse an Exploding Kitten at a crucial moment, and more!

- Three Unique Game Modes: Battle it out in either classic or blitz mode with up to five players, or against your biggest rival in duel mode.

- Engage with Immersive Social Hub: Discover an array of activities in the social hub, including mini-games, character customization and more!

- First released in 2015, the original Exploding Kittens card game was a breakout success, going on to spawn multiple adaptations across multimedia, including video game consoles, mobile devices, and even an animated television streaming series planned for this summer.”

— SABER INTERACTIVE

Exploding Kittens VR is planned for release this fall and is available for Pre-Order on the Meta Quest store for 10% off.

All Blade And Sorcery Endings And How To Reach Them (Including the Secret Ending)

So you want to know how to reach each of the Blade and Sorcery endings in the Crystal Hunt game mode.

Well I’m going to tell you how to reach both of them here, but without what happens once you reach them, in order to keep this article spoiler free.

Also keep in mind that you can reach both endings on the same character. The first ending (the one you’re more likely to reach on your own) does not lock you out of the second ending (which is much harder to achieve) also known as the secret Blade and Sorcery ending.

Oh, and if you’re having a little trouble reaching the end of the game you might want to try some Blade and Sorcery tips and tricks.

Blade And Sorcery Endings - How To Reach Them

Reaching the end of Blade & Sorcery’s Crystal Hunt is pretty straightforward. You’ll notice shortly after you start the game that there’s this old stone doorway in the caves near your house.

Beyond this stone door lies the entrance to both Blade and Sorcery endings

You also might notice that this doorway has six crystal circles inlaid in it.

You’ll also notice that after each time to defeat the golem and unlock a new crystal that one of these six circles on the doorway will light up.

When you’ve defeated six golems and unlocked six crystals then the doorway will open up and reveal a portal on the other side.

Getting six new crystals unlocks the door and the path to the Blade & Sorcery endings

Go through this portal and you’ll be in the ending location of Blade and Sorcery, that big structure that’s been glowing out in the sea, visible on the water from your home.

Well the portal takes you straight there, and each of the two endings is located on this artificial island.

Now you can finally go to that huge structure out in the water

Blade and Sorcery Ending One

The first Blade & Sorcery Ending is the one you’re most likely to find the first time you enter the portal beyond the six crystal doorway, and it doesn’t take a ton of effort to find.

Just walk through the door into the big structure and continue down the big hallway that leads straight into a large chamber with a shining pedestal in the center.

The big chamber with the sword in the center, the location of both Blade and Sorcery endings

Just take one of the paths around the sides of the chamber, there’s one to your left and to your right, and go straight to the pedestal in the center.

Take the sword from the pedestal, and then you will witness the first Blade and Sorcery ending.

To unlock the first Blade and Sorcery ending just grab the sword from the pedestal

Blade and Sorcery Ending Two - The Blade and Sorcery Secret Ending

Now that you’ve seen Blade and Sorcery’s main ending it is time for the more complex but more satisfying secret ending for Blade and Sorcery.

You’re going to need to prepare a little for this one before you go back through the portal towards the structure. The first requirement to reach the secret ending to Blade & Sorcery is that you have at least the first level of each of the elemental crystals unlocked.

So you’re going to need to have unlocked at least one crystal for gravity, fire, and lightning. Otherwise you won’t be able to access the secret ending. Don’t worry if you don’t have one of each of these crystals.

You can always collect more map pieces and fight more golems as much as you like to get more crystals, just like before you unlocked the portal to the island structure.

It can also be very helpful to have unlocked the second crystal for gravity magic so that you can jump extremely high. The kick dash unlocked by body crystals is also helpful, as is any sort of ability that helps you traverse levels.

Oh, and make sure to bring a bunch of healing items in case you make a mistake. Once you’re ready go back through the portal to the structure in the ocean and walk back into the big chamber with the sword pedestal in the center.

Right after you enter the chamber turn to the left, and instead of walking along the path leading to the sword, go through the hole in the wall right beside it.

This hole in the wall is the first place you should go to unlock the secret Blade and Sorcery ending

Follow the cave through the hole until you see a gravity lift that you can swim up through. After you reach the top of the lift there will be a rock wall for you to climb up.

Once you’re through the hole in the wall go up this gravity lift

When you’re at the top there will be an opening on the right leading to a Balcony overlooking the big chamber with the sword in the center. Jump down onto the balcony.

There are three balconies with puzzles like this one that must be solved to unlock the Blade and Sorcery secret ending

See that thing in the center of the balcony? It’s sort of like a cylinder, and it has holes on each of its three sides.

Using your lightning magic create a ball of lighting in one of your hands and put it inside of each of the three large holes. You’ll notice the lightning stays in the hole. Mess up and put the wrong element in the wrong hole and you’ll take a lot of damage!

Do this for each of the three large holes and you’ll hear a peculiar noise indicating you’ve done… something.

Filling one of the puzzle holes with lightning. The first balcony puzzle needs lightning for all three holes.

Now it gets a little harder. Look to your left and you’ll see some lamps attached to some rocks floating in the air on a path headed straight for another balcony with another big object in the center of it.

You’re going to have to jump from hanging lamp to hanging lamp to make it across to the other balcony. If you miss a lamp and fall then remember to use your gravity magic to slow your descent and avoid taking damage.

Swinging across these lanterns will lead you to the second balcony puzzle needed to unlock the secret ending for Blade and Sorcery

Once you’ve made it to the next balcony there’s another one of those objects with those big holes in the sides of it.

However, this time keep in mind that each of the big holes has smaller holes above them. One has one smaller hole, another two, and another three.

Start with the hole that only has one smaller hole above it and light that hole up with fire magic. Then put gravity magic into the other two holes starting with the hole that has fewer circles above it. Once again you will hear a noise indicating you’ve done something.

The hole with one smaller circle above it needs fire. The other two need gravity.

You’ll notice there is a third balcony, but this time no convenient lanterns to swing across to reach it.

No worries, if you look down you can see another hole in the wall next to one of the paths that lead to the sword pedestal in the bottom of the chamber. This one will be on the opposite side of the one you previously took to get up here.

Go to the hole in the wall on the right side of the entrance to solve the final puzzle for the second of the Blade and Sorcery endings

Jump down and use your gravity magic to glide safely and slowly to the floor. Then head inside the wall and you will find another gravity lift.

Hop inside and swim your way to the top.

You can swim your way up this gravity lift

Once you reach the top you will be overlooking the central chamber once more, but this time look to your left and you will see the third and final balcony there.

Either climb along the wall to reach it or launch yourself towards it with magic. However you get to the balcony you will be confronted with the final puzzle once you get there, another one of those cylindrical obelisk things with holes in them. This time it will have three stacked on top of each other.

From top to bottom but gravity, then fire, and then lightning in the lowest hole.

Gravity then fire and then lightning solves the final puzzle and unlocks the Blade and Sorcery secret ending

Once you’re done with this congratulations! Jump down to the pedestal and grab the sword again. You’ll see that things will turn out a little differently in the Blade and Sorcery secret ending.

Well those are the Blade and Sorcery endings and how to reach them. I hope you get to enjoy both the normal and secret endings this way, and enjoy Blade & Sorcery in general. It’s a very fun game and a one of a kind VR RPG.

Oh, and if you’re having a little trouble reaching the end of the game you might want to try some Blade and Sorcery tips and tricks.

7 Essential Blade And Sorcery Crystal Hunt Tips And Tricks

With the full release of Blade and Sorcery we finally have the Crystal Hunt game mode! This brings real RPG mechanics and progression to Blade and Sorcery, and also a brand new sense of challenge.

You can’t just use whatever armor, weapons, and spells as you’d like in Crystal Hunt as you could in Sandbox, so naturally Blade and Sorcery’s crystal hunt game mode is going to be a bit harder. You’ll have to do more with less, and also come up against more dangerous enemies as you become more powerful.

Well don’t fear, because we’ve got 9 fantastic Blade and Sorcery Tips and Tricks for you to help you master the Crystal Hunt game mode and fight your way through this VR RPG.

With these Tips and Tricks you won’t have to be the best at fighting enemies in Blade & Sorcery and still complete every challenge that the Crystal Hunt has to offer.

1. Aim For The Head

The opponents that you’ll be fighting throughout your crystal hunt, and there will be a ton of them to fight, have the same weak spots that normal humans do. They also react to being hurt a lot like normal humans do as well.

Stabbed in the arm? Then they might very well drop what they’re holding in that arm. Stabbed in the head? Well uh… then they’re dead.

The number one Blade and Sorcery Tip is to target your enemies’ vulnerable heads and necks

The head and neck are always the most vulnerable spots on your enemies’ bodies. Even the ones wearing plate armor can be taken down quickly with a thrust to an unprotected face or neck.

So if you want to take down an enemy quickly then aim for their head or neck. Give them a slash or a stab in one of these vulnerable places and you will have one less opponent to worry about.

2. Use The Right Weapon For The Job

Precisely aiming for an enemy’s weak head and neck is easier against lower tier enemies, but gets harder once you start fighting well armored knights.

Even the cruder armor that earlier enemies wear on their bodies can block the blade of a sword, and the further you get in the Crystal Hunt then the more armored enemies you will encounter, making this Blade and Sorcery Tip important in the mid to late game.

This is where blunt weapons can come in handy. While not as great at hurting unarmored flesh as bladed weapons, blunt weapons like maces and mauls don’t care much if what they’re hitting is covered in armor or not. They’re also great for knocking down or stunning opponents.

Armor is no match for a mace in Blade & Sorcery

The effectiveness of weapons against armor also depends on the quality of the weapon, which you can view in your inventory screen while holding the weapon in question.

Generally bladed weapons of higher tiers are better at stabbing or slicing through armor, while maces of higher tiers generally bash better than earlier ones. Some weapons are also lighter, or heavier, and so what you prefer comes down to personal preference.

Having both blunt and bladed weapons equipped and available might be beneficial to you, or you could try to specialize in one or the other. It’s easier and more effective to deal a lot of damage if you are precise with a blade.

Though, if you just want to smash your enemy however you can without caring whether they’re armored or not, blunt weapons are always effective if you land your blows with vigor.

3. Choose Your Crystals Carefully

Speaking of your playstyle, one of the most important and more permanent choices you will make in Blade and Sorcery’s Crystal Hunt is what magical crystals you pick.

Different types of crystals give you different types of magical abilities, and those different abilities greatly affect how you play Blade and Sorcery, so let’s talk about them.

There are a lot of crystals to choose from in Blade and Sorcery. This tip will tell you something about each of them

While a complete overview of the powers that each crystal type gives you is a whole article in and of itself, here’s a few tips.

If you want your bladed weapons to be better at piercing armor then imbuing them with fire will make them pierce metal much more effectively.

At the same time the gravity crystal is great for imbuing blunt weapons to knock enemies into the air. Gravity magic also gives you a lot more options when traversing levels, like the option to blast yourself up high or slowly fall to avoid fall damage.

If you want more health then the Body crystal gives you some general combat upgrades that also increase your maximum health.

The lightning crystal is great for stunning enemies and is useful if you don’t want to be overwhelmed by a large group. So is the Mind crystal, which lets you slow down time. This can be particularly useful if you get overwhelmed in large or fast fights. The Mind crystal also greatly expands your telekenetic powers beyond just grabbing items.

There are an absolute ton of magical abilities in Blade and Sorcery

Keep in mind that you can get up to three of each type of crystal, and the more you invest in a single type of crystal the more powerful the abilities you get from each is. It is generally better to specialize in a few types than spread your investment out, but that also depends on your preferences. The most powerful abilities are locked behind higher tiers of crystal.

There are an absolute ton of abilities to unlock, and even certain abilities that you can only get with certain combinations of crystals.

If you’re the type who wants to plan out your build before committing to which sort of crystals you want to get, then you can always check all of the crystals and what abilities they will give you out in the Sandbox mode. Though beware getting too far into the Sandbox as there may be spoilers.

4. Bring Plenty Of Healing Items

Of course one of your greatest magical abilities that you start Blade and Sorcery’s Crystal Hunt with is your inventory, which can store a massive amount of items right from the beginning. Honestly, it’s more storage than you will probably ever need.

If there’s one Blade and Sorcery Tip that is both obvious and essential it’s to not lose all of your health and die. Healing items will keep that from happening.

Another great Blade & Sorcery Tip is to make sure you have the health to keep fighting by using healing items

Well, as soon as you’ve got the cash to spare you should be filling that inventory with more healing items than you’ll probably need. While this might be expensive in the early game, as you get further into the Crystal Hunt you’ll have plenty of opportunities to make money (more on that soon) and the number one thing that will increase your survivability is having as many healing items as you need.

Think about it. Potions, eggs, and apples don’t weigh much, and having a few on hand at all times can be the difference between victory and defeat. Being able to top your health off between, or even during, fights means that you’ll be able to take a lot more punishment if you got roughed up earlier in the run.

So once you’ve got some spare money it can save your life to make sure you’ve got at least a couple of potions on you at all times.

5. Weapons Can Be Found But Armor Must Be Bought

You’ll notice pretty early on that while you can pick up weapons from fallen enemies in Blade and Sorcery, you won’t be able to keep them once you finish the dungeon you are in.

The only weapons that you keep with you between runs are the ones you buy, but there are always plenty of enemies who drop a wide variety of weapons in each dungeon.

Equipping new armor in Blade and Sorcery will make you stronger and more durable

So really you only need to take down one or two enemies at the beginning of a run in order to pick up a half decent weapon from one of their bodies.

Of course there are some weapons that enemies don’t wield and must be bought, mostly big mauls and big swords, and if you want to invest your money there go ahead, they are your coins after all.

Though if you want to play as optimally as possible and increase your chances of victory as quickly as possible then it’s wise to invest in some armor before you spend your money on weapons that you can just pick up from enemies anyway. You can’t pick up armor during your runs, since armor has to be bought and equipped before you go.

Oh, and when you’re buying armor keep in mind that it has stats just like weapons do. Some armor is better for spellcasting, and some for survivability, make sure to pick what fits your playstyle.

6. You Can Always Repeat Missions For Infinite Cash

Of course you don’t have to think so stingily about your ingame money if you don’t mind a little farming. If you want to you can run as many dungeons and arena battles as you want to collect more cash.

You don’t have to go to the ruins to collect your next crystal once you have the map pieces you need to find it. You can just keep doing outposts and arena battles instead.

If you want more money and crystals then choose Blade and Sorcery mission locations that offer great rewards

So if you just want a little more cash to stock up on healing items, or get that piece of equipment you’ve had your eye on, you can do as many runs as you would like to collect more money before getting your next crystal.

Of course better equipment becomes available later on in the game once you collect more crystals, and the rewards get better for each run as well. Though of course, like in many games, these better rewards come at the price of more difficult enemies.

So you can always get some practice, upgrade crystals, and cash by doing a few extra runs or arena fights. Oh, and keep in mind that in outpost missions your goal is to get to the end and get the loot from the chest in the final room. The enemies there are obstacles, not the goal, so you can sometimes just run past them instead of spending time fighting.

Oh, and make sure to check how big of a reward you get for doing a mission by looking at the stack of coins icon above the travel button when that mission is selected. The bigger the stack of coins, the bigger the payout.

7. Experiment

You would be really surprised at just how many effective fighting tactics there are in Blade and Sorcery. Some are, of course, dependent on what crystals and equipment you decide to invest in.

There are a lot of different combinations of sorcery, weapons, and tactics that are extremely effective against your enemies.

For instance, on my first playthrough I started with the Lightning Crystal background, and quickly discovered that stunning my enemies with lightning and then quickly attacking their faces was a very effective tactic.

If you keep an open mind you might find combinations of blades and sorcery that you never might have thought of otherwise

Even if you didn’t take the lightning crystal you might discover that even your humble foot can be just as effective as a ball of magical lightning in stunning an opponent in front of you to leave them open for attack.

You might discover that jumping around the battlefield can give you a sudden boost to your mobility, and help you dodge incoming attacks.

You might find new uses for your spells, or imbue your weapons with them more often. Blade and Sorcery can just be a game of smashing your way through your opponents if you like, but if you want to be really effective it will take a little creativity.

Still, you don’t need a degree in fantasy combat to come up with new and unique methods of defeating your opponents. Just try new things. Even a chicken can be an effective weapon if you use it right. Experimenting is where a lot of the fun of Blade & Sorcery is, and also how you’ll find the most effective ways to use your items and abilities.

BONUS Blade And Sorcery Golem TIP

As a thank you for reading this far, here’s a bonus tip for fighting the Golem, the boss which guards each new crystal shard.

These crystals on the golem’s back are very hard to reach when it isn’t vulnerable

To defeat the golem you need to destroy each of the pink crystals on its body, and some of the crystals are shielded and will only be vulnerable after you break these larger blue crystals that are spread around the golem combat arena.

These pink and blue crystals can be broken by hitting them, or even from afar with ranged attacks. Though you might notice that some of the pink crystals on the golem are harder to attack than others, especially those on the golem’s shoulders and back.

However, whenever you break one of the blue crystals the golem will be stunned briefly. This gives you some time to jump on the golem and break a crystal before it recovers. So when this happens quickly run over to the golem and break one of the crystals that are harder to reach, don’t waste the opportunity on a crystal that is easy to break anyway.

Once you break all of the crystals, then the crystal shard inside the golem’s head is yours for the taking.

Well, that’s it for these 7 essential Blade and Sorcery Tips and Tricks for the Crystal Hunt gamemode. Armed with this knowledge and a sense of adventure you will be more than ready to tackle all of the challenges the game has in store for you. Enjoy!

Blade And Sorcery Is FULLY Released With the 1.0 Update

Today we have extremely exciting news for fans of the physics based VR fighting game Blade And Sorcery. It has finally been fully released with the latest 1.0 Update!

So what does this mean? Well, it means that Blade And Sorcery is now a very different game from what it was before this update, and is less of a purely sandbox focused experience with the addition of the long anticipated Crystal Hunt game mode.

With the 1.0 Blade And Sorcery Update you can go on a Crystal Hunt of your own!

With the full release of Blade And Sorcery you can now embark on a dangerous quest to gather as many crystals as you can and unlock the magical power of an ancient civilization.

It won’t be easy though, you’ll have to use your fighting skills and magical abilities to defeat the many factions that also want to claim the power of these crystals for themselves.

The new Blade And Sorcery Crystal Hunt game mode brings RPG elements to Blade And Sorcery.

With the Crystal Hunt game mode Blade and Sorcery isn’t just a sandbox game now, but a full fledged VR RPG! A pretty damn good one too. Collecting crystals gives you upgrade points to increase your magical or combat skills, and you can unlock new skill trees by collecting special crystals that give you new magical powers.

The inventory system has also been expanded, and there’s even a stats page in the inventory screen as well.

Check out this inventory in Blade & Sorcery.

This inventory system means that you can collect and store loot to sell at your good buddy “The Baron’s” store.

The more loot you collect and sell then the more money you’ll have for new weapons, equipment, healing items, and armor. Like any good RPG, deciding where to invest your hard earned cash first is always a tough decision.

Buying items from The Baron in Blade And Sorcery.

Of course you can always get more by fighting your way through the various procedurally generated levels. This is the same procedural generation introduced during one of Blade & Sorcery’s last big updates in the “dungeon” mode.

There are a ton of new weapons and armors, and enemy factions and equipment are separated into tiers which increase in difficulty as you get more power and more wealth and progress through the game.

There’s even Blade And Sorcery Lore now! With notes you can find throughout the dungeons, and even a friendly NPC in your friendly shopkeeper “The Baron.”

There is a lot of Blade And Sorcery lore to uncover.

This Blade And Sorcery update has been the most exciting of them all, and the full release of Blade And Sorcery is certainly a big deal in the Virtual Reality gaming community. Blade & Sorcery has long been a beloved game for its fantastic physics based melee combat and wide variety of community made mods.

Though, unfortunately, this massive update has yet to come to the standalone Meta Quest version of the game, Blade And Sorcery: Nomad, though it is planned for the future.

For now it is a bright day for VR gaming, and experiencing this massive Blade And Sorcery update has been extremely rewarding and exciting.

If you haven’t gotten the game yet though the price has increased to 30$ to reflect the increased amount of content in the game. If you already owned Blade And Sorcery on the Steam or Oculus stores though the update is completely free.

This is a fantastic time to get into Blade And Sorcery, especially if you aren’t a huge fan of sandbox experiences (though the sandbox is still very much available) and want a fantastic Virtual Reality RPG to sink your teeth into. For more on this update check out the update notes from the developers at WarpFrog.

Half-Life 2 VR Mod Review And Setup Guide

Half-Life 2 is one of the most well known and respected video games of all time. Just like the original Half Life it is widely considered to be a classic that not only showcased some impressive technology for the time in the Source Engine, but also was another tightly designed and extremely well thought out experience that is full of memorable moments and superb gameplay.

Most players that have tried it can come to the conclusion that Half-Life 2 is a fun and good game. We already know that, so that’s not what I'm here to talk to you about. The question here is: As much as we've all loved Half-Life 2 on the flat screen, does that mean it is also fun in Virtual Reality?

The Gravity Gun is even better in Half-Life 2 VR

Half-Life 2 Is Amazing In Virtual Reality

Yes... yes it is. Seriously this game is somehow even better in Virtual Reality, and you can play it for free in SteamVR as long as you own a copy of the original Half-Life 2. This is crazy. I'd like to thank everyone who put time in to work on this. It is absolutely amazing and I've never loved a flatscreen to VR mod more in my entire life.

Though you, the reader, might want a little more detail than just my word that Half Life 2 VR is absolutely awesome and amazing and you should try it right now. So let's talk specifics. How does the addition of VR make Half-Life 2 better?

In any discussion of a flatscreen game being ported into Virtual Reality there are very obvious aspects that differ immediately between Virtual Reality and flatscreen gaming.

The most immediately apparent of these is the switch from a desktop monitor to two very little monitors shoved right in front of both of your eyes and cast slightly askew so that you have the illusion of being inside of a completely 3D space with the illusion of depth. Basically the magic that makes VR gaming so much more immersive than flatscreen gaming.

Aiming in Half-Life 2 VR feels so much less constrained when using your physical hands in Virtual Reality

Now you might think that this is where the Half Life 2 VR mod wouldn't be very impressive. Sure the mod makes it so that your head is exactly where Gordon Freeman's head is, basically putting you immediately into his shoes and making you feel like you really are present inside the whirlwind of combine gunfighting, headcrab zombie chopping, and antlion wrangling chaos around you.

Still, Half-Life 2 is about two decades old now, and concerning how far computer graphics have come, two decades is quite a long time. The source engine was impressive for its time, but does it really hold up twenty years later?

While you'd think that taking such a up close look at textures and technology that is so old would make it feel like you're living inside an eyesore, the look of the game still holds up very well. If you look really closely at the textures that make up your environment or other NPCs, then yea you can see that they are lower resolution than you're used to.

Oh, and being able to look so closely at those NPCs talk is sometimes a little uncanny, but Half Life 2 still looks better in Virtual Reality than a lot of modern games made for VR platforms.

The Half Life 2 VR Mod looks excellent as well. Even better than the original Half-Life 2 because of the more personal point of view

At the end of the day this comes down to good environmental design. While the technology is older, good design is timeless.

The various aesthetics of the maps that you explore and fight through in the Half-Life 2 VR mod still hold up as well as they did all those years ago, and taking a closer and more personal look at things just makes them even better to look at and experience. Though while I mentioned the NPCs can be uncanny to look at when they're talking, boy are they great when you're fighting.

Strapping a device to your head that displays the action directly into your eyes and tracks your head like you really are there standing exactly where your Gordan Freeman in the game is makes the combat feel so much more immersive. You really do feel like you're standing in a hallway in Nova Prospekt gunning down incoming combine prison guards almost as quickly as they can spawn in.

The Half-Life 2 VR Mod Feels As Good As It Looks

Even the scope on the crossbow functions excellently in the Half Life 2 VR Mod

Combined with the excellent hand controls that the Half Life 2 VR mod brings to the table, the full force of the VR effect comes crashing in on you in Half-Life 2 VR. You feel like you're really there, like you really can reach out and touch that soldier standing just feet away from you. Well, actually you can reach out and touch them.

That's the second half of the puzzle that makes Half Life 2 such an enjoyable Virtual Reality experience, the hand controls. They are absolutely superb. I've played plenty of recently released titles that were made for VR which had worse hand controls than those in this free Half-Life 2 VR mod.

Though while the hands generally track really well and are responsive, they're not perfect. There are instances where your hands might get caught on the walls or floor around you, mostly I noticed this when physically crouching. The system that detects what object your hand is close enough to to grab was also a little finicky sometimes, but the fact that it works at all is still amazing. You can just reach an empty hand out to an object and hold down the grip to grab it, and the physics fun only gets better when the Gravity Gun comes into play.

With the VR mod you're also much freer when playing with the physics and just in general since you can use your physical hands in any way you'd like. You're not constrained to grabbing or aiming directly in front of you like you were in the original game.

There’s a fully functional hand grabbing system as well. It works amazingly well in Half-Life 2 VR

So now you can shoot from different angles, shoot from cover, or even blind fire around corners or above obstacles if you want to. While you don't have to play the mod like a more cover based shooter than Half Life 2 was intended to be, you certainly can if you like. Your weapons point where your hands point, and that not only feels amazing, but even expands the game and gives you as a player more options in how you want to play it.

Speaking of those weapons, they all feel fantastic. The entire arsenal of Half-Life 2 looks and feels amazing in this game. From the humble pistol to the combine assault rifle, each weapon has unique reloading actions that you can do with your actual, real hands. This isn't one of those flatscreen to VR ports where you just hit a button to reload your primary weapon. Nope, in the Half Life 2 VR mod you have to eject the old mag, grab another one from behind your back, and slam it home.

Weapons like the SMG or Pistol even have to chamber another round if you fire it completely dry before reloading. All of the weapons really come to life in the Half-Life 2 VR mod.

Even throwable weapons like the grenade feel great, and throwing that feels natural has been hard for many VR games to pull off. Basically you start your throw, and just pull the trigger when you would release, and a grenade is spawned from your hand going on the trajectory of the throwing motion you were just making. It feels so natural once you get the hang of it.

Tossing a grenade is easy in Half Life 2 VR

You even reload the RPG by putting another rocket in the tube. The shotgun is actually even a little overpowered because now you can pump it as quickly as your hand can move, meaning you can fire it a lot faster than you ever could as flatscreen Gordon. Now your reloading speed is dependent on how fast you, the player, can reload.

Oh, and since there aren't a bunch of number keys to use anymore, you now select weapons by just pushing in the stick on your dominant hand and then moving your hand over the weapon you want on the selection menu. It did take a little getting used to, but with some practice I could pull out a new weapon extremely quickly.

Eventually knowing where the weapon I wanted was on the selection wheel was just muscle memory. There are a ton of weapons, and so accidentally equipping one that you didn't want to occasionally does happen (mostly when panicking and getting shot a lot), but this beats hitting a button to cycle through every weapon in your arsenal any day.

Selecting weapons is fast and straightforward with this weapon selection wheel. Just move your hand over the weapon you want and let go

As for negative things, there are a few bugs, mostly I noticed some objects popping in and out of existence when you look at them from certain angles. The only bugs that were really annoying were the few times my hands were caught behind walls or objects, and for the record that was very rare and only happened once or twice.

The only part of the gameplay itself that is annoying is that when you dump a magazine you don't get the leftover ammunition in it back automatically, you have to pick it up manually instead. Now this isn't the worst thing ever, and is realistic if nothing else. I just would have liked an option to make it so that dumped magazine ammunition is automatically collected from the ground.

That's really about it. There are a ton of comfort and other settings that you can change in the game as you like, like adding a laser pointer to your guns if you aren't the best at aiming, or making it so that you actually have to physically grab and climb up ladders to use them. There are really a ton of comfort and utility options you can set in the game.

The Half Life 2 VR Mod Is Free And Runs Directly Through SteamVR

This mod is fantastic, and if all of this hasn't convinced you to try it, maybe the fact that it is free will.

The Half-Life 2 VR Mod is totally free! You just have to own Half-Life 2

If you own a copy of Half Life 2 just download the mod for free on Steam and run it, you don't even need to have the original Half Life 2 installed. There's no setup process, just play it like any other Steam VR game. If you are on a standalone device like a Meta Quest 3 or 2 then you can still play the Half Life 2 VR mod if you stream it from your PC to your headset.

So thanks to Valve for making a fantastic game two decades ago, and most of all thanks to the dedicated modders who created this absolutely fantastic VR mod. I have absolutely no idea how they pulled it off but if I didn't know better I would have thought that Half-Life 2 was actually made as a Virtual Reality game first and not the other way around.

So yea, give this mod a try and thank me later.