Downward Spiral: Horus Station

Competent fluent movement mechanics when you learn how to drift in no gravity and pretty satisfying shooter at moments. I had fun to play it, maybe a story could be a bit longer. There is some heavy aliasing, no matter how high I set SteamVR resolution.

One of the most atmospheric and polished games I've played to date. If you like science fiction, this game will not disappoint.

Do not buy for Coop experience.

Everytime a player has a disconnect, a chapter restart is required. No way to reconnect ongoing sessions or save game.
Also several bugs have not been treated in the main menu and require physical keyboard input

You wake up in an abandoned space station, what happened? how did you get there? its up to you to figure it out...

The story is told via enviromental clues, you see dead bodies, destroyed robots, part of the station broken apart out the window, and a planet close by...

While the game has an option to make it a "walking simulator", i chose the middle option to have enemies, and there are a few of them, some different from each other where you have to take different approaches to kill them, you get a bunch of weapons, but the game really is a story told by looking around and piecing it together.

The movement method is really well done, you are in 0g, so you have to pull yourself to where you want to go, later on you get a grappling hook to make traversing the station easier, then again a bit later you get an "air pistol" that lets you gain momentum and move towards where you aim it.

The environment is great, the audio excellent, and the visuals quite good, as is the story telling, while it felt a bit repetitive at times, it goes with the theme.

While the ambience is eerie, this is not a horror game, there are no jump scares or anything like that.

Took me a little more than 4hrs to finish this game solo, and what a good experience it was, i finished it all in 1 session and im glad i did.

Recommended for anyone wanting a desolate and mysterious experience.

It gets really repetitive after the 3rd level. Its like the developer wanted to have a game that was long so he just kept repeating the same puzzles, rooms, and mechanics until it took a couple hours to finish the game.

i played through this game on psvr with a friend and just played the first two acts with that same friend on steam and quest 2.
this game a gem. very cool graphics and atmosphere. little bit janky at times getting stuck in a wall but its minor.
gameplay has you mostly grapple hooking in anti gravity thru a space station, opening doors, completing small tasks and shooting or evading robots.
i have no idea whats going on with the story tbh.
its just cool playing this with a pal.
this game is a steal at the current $5 sale price.

I love this flying through space feeling. The atmosphere is great and it looks awesome.
One big issue though, I don't understand why but I simply can't set the resolution higher than 1920x1080, I got an high-end PC and an valve Index and I've tried everything but it simply won't let me do it. I've bought the demo version of the game first, there everything works fine but with this one I can't set the game to a higher resolution. Like this, I can't see what's really going on in a distant.

I'm hoping for an update or bug fix - if this is happening, I will change my rating to "recommended"

Great immersion, discovery and fun... puzzles and story a little light, but game was still fun to play and experience. The foundation is great, hoping for a more involved sequel.

Floating around in a huge eerie spacestation using the grapple (and other things) is surprisingly effective to completely avoid motion sickness! Not only that, but it’s also a lot of fun, and, creepy at the same time. The mix of exploration, suspense and a bit of shooting works really well. A wonderful exploration and a must-play if you like single player sci-fi in VR.

Experienced on the Oculus Quest 2

Very enjoyable and anticipating story, (strongly recommend to play with a friend) but the ending as seen in the prologue was left of on a dark screen. Today I finished this game and even after the part of the prologue, the dark, fading screen was still there. Though it was a fun story, would recommend to purchase.

The VR aspects of this game are pretty good, and the weightlessness is well done. Its a pity they decided to go without any inertia, so direction changes are unrealistically abrupt, but realism apart, it doesn't really detract from the game, and/but it does make it easier.

The game is a bit light on story, and there is little information provided to help you work out what has supposed to have happened before the game starts. A few readable diaries or work logs might have helped here. Combat on the easy setting was within even my capabilities, on the harder settings it would probably appeal to the more hard core. Since enemies can come from literally any direction, this could get your VR wires in a twist, so take care!

The game runs on rails, and in this regard could be described as a walking (or floating) simulator with mild puzzle elements and simple combat. Probably not that remarkable in 2D, but quite fun in VR.

I didn't notice any major bugs, but on a couple of occasions where I quit the game at the end of a chapter, I had to play the last sequence of the chapter over again when I returned to the game. This happened during the 'reboot' section, and I had to deal with the power cells and defending bots all over again.

I haven't tested the multiplayer aspects of the game, nor the flat screen version.

No smooth turn on VR !!!!

The game has it implemented for the flat mode, but they don't allow it on VR

Highly atmospheric and immersive VR adventure with a pinch of shooting and a bit of horror.

Story is told without a single spoken word (not even tablets of texts), visuals are clean and stylish (retro-futuristic, akin to Alien or 2001 Space Odyssey), great audio and retro-inspired music. Good attention to detail, even dying makes sense story-wise. The game puts nothing new on a table, but it copies others ideas so tastefully it all comes together in a tight knot of unique game. You'll be glad to exchange 4-6 hours of your life to one of the most memorable VR experience. Just go on and buy it.

Also it has coop and shooting is solid. Both could be avoided if it's not your cup of tea.
Has competitive multiplayer where you could shoot at your friend. As a bonus.
Locomotion is done by grabbing environment, like you do in zero-g environment. While not as refined as Lone Echo solution, it still feels absolutely great.

Could be played with gamepad on flatscreen, but VR is really where the game shines with it's immersive movement.

I'm about 60% through the game, played one act per day and have enough information to offer insight. For the price, despite everything I'm about to say, I still recommend it, but there are some glaring laziness issues that annoyed the hell out of me to the point where I don't know if I'll bother proceeding past act 4 (out of 7 I think there is). The Steam stats on achievements suggest most other players stopped playing before the end too, probably for the same reason. Namely because I'm really bored and uninspired at this point. These gripes are purely my own personal opinion, but I suspect they're shared by many.

The first few acts when it's new are quite good, you really feel like you're in the setting and it's very immersive; but going forward I quickly got the impression of laziness. Pure and utter laziness on the part of the developers of which there really isn't an excuse. I'll explain in more detail rather than just throw out a general complaint though in the interest of fairness and understanding. I truly believe my critique here should be taken constructively, rather than just moaning.

First off, the lack of diversity in the environment. It's all the same. The puzzles you encounter going forward are all the same, to the point where you feel like you're just grinding through something that exists purely for the sake of it, not because it's logical based on the setting. It's like the entire space station is made up of a half dozen architectural prefabs.

The notion of "environment-based storytelling" is a cop out. What that really means here, is the sheer lack of bothering to include any cohesive story line or writing. That's a genuine tragedy and such a missed opportunity, because all the ingredients are in place to really have leveraged that. There is really nothing to tell you what happened to the station because nothing is logical or makes sense in the context of a bigger picture, so it's near impossible to derive your own plausible conclusions from the environment alone.

For example, you'll find things like clipboards floating around. They're all blank. Apparently this space station crew was incapable of using the pens you'll find floating near the clipboards. Those blank clipboards were opportunities to really lay some icing on the cake and build drama or empathy with the crew. You'll come across audio recorders, which only play back one of two things - cliche classical music or static. That's it. To the point where you've literally zero reason to inspect them. Would it really have been difficult to add a couple more sound files to the build?

I can't help but see that as a missed opportunity too. They could have contained audio-logs left by the crew to give a sense of mood, drama or any sort of indication of the fate that befell the station. But nope. That's lazy. Sorry guys, but that is REALLY lazy game design and it annoyed me as a result. That was a blank canvas that could easily have been utilised to lay things on thick and build mood/atmosphere very easily for minimal extra effort.

Then there is the actual environmental components. For example, finding bodies of dead astronauts floating around, with zero indication of how/why they died. Since they feel like they're just randomly placed for the sake of it, they might as well not be there. You feel zero empathy for them that you would otherwise have felt if there was information in the same locale about what befell them. It also makes no sense, since you'll find dead drones next to them - who destroyed them? Not the dead astronaut, and you never feel like something else is responsible.

Then there are the drones themselves, boring, uninspiring, feeling like they exist purely for something to do and to justify having guns in the game. Most of which are pointless. The nailgun-esque gun you get early on is pretty much all you need, except perhaps for a snipery sort of leaf-blower looking thing you need at various stages to snipe soft-spots on the really big drones (which start off early on as really scary, but quickly only p*ss you off instead).

The puzzles are also boring, repetitive and since there is zero context, don't make you feel like they have any particular purpose than to slow you down. This could have been really fleshed out with some writing or purpose introduced, but nope.

That said, the game is quite beautiful. The graphics are lovely and the quality of the visuals is great, if repetitive. The level designs are also repetitive, with new layouts being few and far between. Also the lockers are always empty. For a large space station that is seemingly abandoned, the crew apparently managed to empty all their belongings first. So while you can open lockers to look inside, you learn very fast that there is zero point in doing so, because you can safely presume there will be nothing inside any of them.

There are lots of buttons, switches and interactables, but 99% do nothing. I'd have liked to have approached a terminal, spent time reading some internal messages among the crew, general status reports, problems they were having etc, to feel like I was actually gazing into a pending catastrophe that was affecting real people. Yeah that would have been cliche too, but in the context of this environment would have worked even better than many other games who angle that approach.

There are moments that are particularly good and well executed too (which I can't go into for risk of spoiling), the trouble is they're few and far between in the grand scheme of things. That said, I'm still really optimistic about the developers since this seems to be their first major release, so I can forgive a lot of the above. It's the missed opportunities that would have been easy to implement that is my main complaint, it could have been so much more with minimal additional work and a little quality writing.

The game is nice to look at, it is very nice to behold and all the ingredients are there, it's just a shame the recipe didn't fully utilise what was otherwise clearly possible. If they make a sequel or go on to make similar, I really hope they listen to the feedback, because if they do - this developer is fully capable of some mind blowing work, I've no doubts about that, I'm quite excited to see what these guys go on to create going forward.

This is why I still recommend it. Because it IS actually a good game overall, it's just the little details (or lack thereof) that prevents it being a 'great' game. For the price it is, I'd still definately recommend it, but don't expect the depth and meat of Lone Echo.

I recorded each chapter as I progressed, and this is where love turned to frustration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCXcVtLhYk

BEST VR EXPERIENCE PERIOD! Nominated for "The VR GAME OF THE YEAR" award in The Steam Awards 2018. Totally worth it. Reviewed on Asus Windows Mixed Reality headset with controllers. It worked flawlessly and the gameplay is amazing! Looking forward to the sequel.

13 June FINAL UPDATE:
- Completed Solo Game with Enemies (through Act 8). Played with Rift/Touch.
- Story: There is a bare-bones storyline there. I felt like there were was too much left to the player to infer, without giving significant landmarks along the way to clearly recognize major plot points.
- Use of Weapons: Wonderful selection, and how you accessed them was quick and responsive. Once you got some of the bigger weapons, there was practically no need for the weapons you picked up first.
- Enemies: Adequate. Most of the time you just had to find the proper cover, and then begin the shooting gallery. To be fair, there were times where you had to face them directly (moving around in zero-g while firing was a blast).
- Level Design: Very nice, especially Acts 6-8. My main complaint about the levels was that they were lovely to look at and explore, but there wasn't much to do IN them (other than find items, press buttons, etc.).
-Zero-G Movement: This game has snap turning only, as far as I can tell. It was okay, but smooth turning would've provided an extra layer of immersion for myself. Never felt naseous. Your virtual arms in the game seemed a bit short.
- Gameplay: Look for items, press buttons, shoot enemies, defeat bosses; rinse and repeat. I would've stopped playing by Act 5, but the gradual improvement in level design kept me hooked.
Play Time Vs. Cost: $20 for 8 hours of play time. For myself, it was worth it, because I wanted to see what came next.
Overall: Am I glad I played it? Oh, Yes! Would I go back and play it again? Unless I get into getting all trophies, probably not.
12 June UPDATE: Completed Act 5. You get an EMP Gun which is useful for temporarily disabling the 'bigger guys'. Don't waste your time EMPing the small dudes. There are a couple of parts where you have to go through a type of Laser Maze; that was different.
Had to venture outside the station to get to another area, and ran into a weird bug where the Space Station was now in a 'see through' mode (I could both inside and outside the station); going back inside and outside the station solved this issue.
10 Jun UPDATE: Made it to end of Act 4. There is now a familiarity to the levels that cannot be dismissed (look around, destroy some enemies, open some doors, get to the next section). Will wait and see if Act 5 does anything different.
09 June UPDATE: Made it to the end of Act 3. Got a new 'jet gun' that lets you get around a lot faster, and a 3-shot 'shotgun' that does increased damage. Ran into a couple of bosses that requires you hit them in a certain spot. Game is still overall fun
08 June UPDATE: Made it to the end of Act 2. 06 June comments below still apply. Extra thoughts as follows:
- A good exploration game/walking simulator with some shooting elements.
- The levels have a huge scope to them, although at times wishing for something else like navigating through an obstacle course to get to a goal might sound fun.
- Got a new weapon that has a dot retcule on its viewscreen; good for sniping from a distance.
- Overall, still happy with purchase.

06 June Original Comments: Made it to the Engineering Hub Level (on Solo mode) using Oculus Rift and Touch: What I thought so far.....
First off, let's get the Lone Echo (LE) comparisons out of the way: (1) This game differs from LE in that you have Batman's Grappling Gun to help you get around (instead of LE's booster jets); (2) There is no smooth rotation; just incremental snap turning (manageable, or just turn yourself in the direction you want to go); (3) There is no pitch control that I am aware of, nor barrell roll capability; (4) When you grab objects to move yourself, your never grab the object; you just place a closed fist on top of the object (this breaks the immersive quality of the game initially, but again, you can adapt to it).

Secondly, on your right arm you have two buttons: one is for a head lamp, the other is for pausing/exiting the game. DO NOT IGNORE THE PAUSE/EXIT BUTTON. I tried exiting out of the game usinbg the Oculus Home button on the right Touch controller, and it completely jacked up Steam VR for me (most Steam games would not even boot up). Deleting all traces of this game from my hard drive (uninstalling the game was not enough) and restarting the computer ultimately solved the problem. Reinstalling the game after what I call the 'Great Horus Purge of 2018', and discovering the Pause/Exit button made it a far more pleasant experience (I was on the brink of requesting a refund the first time around).

Now what about the game?
Graphics: If you are looking for Lone Echo on Steam, you will be disappointed. The graphics are not horrible by any stretch of the imaginatiion because other areas of the game make up for it, such as.....
Atmosphere: The folks who make the '2001: A Space Odessey' comparison are pretty spot on, in my opinion. The sense of scale and feeling of isolation are nicely done.
Interaction with objects: Decently done when grabbing floating items. You can also interact with the control panels (flipping switches, turning knobs, adjusting levels), but why? It doesn't seem to do anything relative to progression on the game.
Gunplay: Yeah, you get to shoot some rogue drones. A targeting reticule would be of benefit. After firing off a couple of shots, you get the idea of how to aim (of course, if you die while figuring this out, it is annoying). PLease note there is no recoil when firing (firing a gun in zero-g does not push you back)
Infinite Lives: You die, you respawn, you pick up where you left off (enemies do not seem to respawn). Makes it easy for a sense of steady progression, but does take away a sense of consequence (NOTE: this does not mean to turn the game into 'Dark Souls' in space)..

Minus the Steam-breaking bug I ran into, I am overall pleased with the game to try the next level. If you have a zero-g itch, do not have a 'it must be at least as good as Lone Echo' mindset, and are not looking for zero-g Doom, this may be something you want to consider.

Visually it looks great. I really like the visuals and the whole artstyle.
The sound design is also cool. The first time you enter space, all the ambient music stops and you hear nothing.
About the story I cant tell much yet. It seems its a game where you have to analyze yourself what happened with all the computer screens on the station. Some like that subtle storytelling, others might want to have it straight to them.
The movement system works great. Compared to the prototype you have some sort of "rope cannon" and you can move quickly with that.
Gunplay feels good.

Lets come to the most important part to me. The atmosphere is really great. It really feels like you are alone with the robots on the station. Whenever I entered a new area, I was always wary of the surroundings and checked before I entered a new area. It feels more like a horror game and reminded me a lot of Alien Isolation in that regard.

I can only recommend it.

Update: Finished Chapter 4. The storytelling is really really subtle. People who like to have their story told directly, wont be happy. The objectives, the order you do them in, the areas you visit are all important to enjoy the subtle storytelling.

Will update again when I finish the game.

Update 2: Finished the game. Atmosphere is great over the whole game. Later areas can be stunning. The game itself is fun and imo a must-have in VR. Now my main complaint: Storytelling is too subtle. It actually fits the whole narrative, especially in VR. You are alone on the station and you have to figure out what happened and what the purpose of Horus station is. If you dont really pay attention though or wont read screens, you lose a lot clues as to what happened.
I think I kinda know what happened up to chapter 7, but after that I am not sure anymore.

HMD: Oculus Rift
Controllers: Oculus Touch


Gameplay Is King.
After playing just one hour I've concluded that I'll be following this developer closely. Why's that? Gameplay, to be frank, there are not too many games these days that ooze gameplay but DS:HS does and we should thank the developers for that. MY very first reaction was how well the game channeled Alien Isolation, they both offer the feeling of complete and utter isolation yet with a growing feeling of confidence and empowerment as the player starts to learn how to manipulate their envornment employing the tools and weapons at their disposal. The mechanics of the game are top hole, especially for an unknown dev, with excellent attention to the science. Of course one of the elements 3rd Eye Studio's had to ignore was reaction mass when it comes to weapons. Usually when you fire a weapon in space unless its a weak laser you will always fly backwards; however, the devs ignored that particular physics lesson and thank god they did because it has enabled them to design and offer up a plethora of really cool weapons as well as some interesting tools that you can use in fascinating ways to complete your mission.

Deep End:
No backstory, just you waking up after an obviously ongoing catastrophic event in space. With very little hand-holding DS: HS throws you into the deep end, the player is confronted with varied robotic guardians in an extremely hostile environment, from small, swift bots to massive sentries whose single shot can vaporize you instantly. You learn how to manipulate your surroundings even going as far as interacting with the space station to the extent of manouvering base airlocks into position!
Truly, the £14.99 was the best cash I've ever spent on a game, was it light on story? Yes; however, I hold out hope that as the developer becomes better known I am sure we can expect future games that will include all of the above plus your usual triple A fundamentals including hiring writers and voice actors to flesh out the story and universe.

I thoroughly recommend both this game (and the prequel) as they are quite obviously a labour of love and deserve all the support they can get from the VR-gaming community.

Reviewed using HTC Vive Pro