SWORDS of GARGANTUA

Bare-bones game relying on waves for difficulty. There are better games with hoard mode on the side. Can't recommend. Wish I was still in the refund window for this.

The game starts very strong, telling you an epic story with an awesome background and putting you in the shoes of a hero. Throughout the story you also get to hear great voice acting (from a single person). Then that's pretty much it. The gameplay is not great and extremely repetitive, spawn in a room, defeat enemies, go to next room. It gets boring quickly as there's only about a handful of enemies and you just fight stronger versions of them as you progress through the levels. There's no follow up to the story. I found myself very often fighting the camera and while you get some coins during gameplay they give you so little they may as well not give you any. You get to level up on each play through but there's very little progression outside of that other than very slowly padding your stats.

If that wasn't enough, while I tried to give the game a chance, after clearing a room an ad to join the game's discord took over my vision, making me lose a good weapon and miss my level up skill. That was utter bullshit.

They added an offline mode, so even if the game goes down again you can still play it. The game itself is fun, but now that there's an offline I can finally recommend it with no hesitation.

Do not buy games from this developer: They fully intended to brick this game and leave consumers without a product. They backpedaled on this decision due to outrage because it is, in fact, one of the dumbest things you can do to your consumer base (and also possibly illegal). I mean, why would anyone buy your games in the future if it's possible they just disappear? That's insane and whoever made that decision is incompetent. Just wow.

Can you imagine paying for a game, and then being informed some time later that "yeah not only is it not being updated, you straight up can't play it anymore". It's honestly shocking, very rarely does a developer do something so egregious. Do not patronize them.

Imagine expecting people to pay $25 only to delete the game 3 years later completely and revoking access to it.

Shady company, keep hands off it.

Game was fun, but it's being shut down on September 30th. Won't even be able to play single player.

The game becomes unplayable on Sep 30th cause the devs are terminating everything.

DO NOT BUY THIS.

Per the developer's own announcement: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/895200/view/3373777357206089655

They will be removing this game from the Steam store on August 30th 2022 . No, that does not mean "buy it quickly before it's gone!", because they are also going to terminate service for a primarily single player game on September 30th of 2022. That's right. They are going to let people buy this game up until a month before they completely make it unplayable. Effectively, they would be charging you full price to rent the game for a single month.

Even before this fact, the game was barely worth the money - it's a glorified gladiator-style arena slasher with extremely shallow mechanics. At its best I would find it hard to recommend, but especially now given the developer/publisher's terrible, downright deceptive, behavior.

Not a great game at all. A must not buy. Online game only, which means no offline play, which is ridiculous. And oh wait! The game's Studio just publish a termination of services for september 2022. The game is still in Early and got bricked. Just a big WOW!

I have not played this game much. The devs are really cool and I am glad its there for the people who enjoy it. However, people give this game a pass on physics that I just can't get behind. There are single dev VR Melee games that rival B&S in physics. I am not saying its easy to do. I am saying I can not play a VR Melee game where my sword feels like a feather and enemy's are damage sponges that do not react to my hits. Games like Hellsplit, and Tales of Glory, even Sairento have ruined VR combat with no weight. If you think you will enjoy playing a game where you slowly level up against MMO like enemys in single room combat with no exploration, you might like this.

if you like to kill things and grind like hell then this game is for you.

if your in it for story or free roam or anything that resembles freedom, this game is not for you.

Base of the game: climb a tower(the same tower) thousands of times....that pretty much all to the game.

everything is so janky. When I set the grip to toggle my sword would fly out of my hand whenever I swung because I tensed up slightly, whereas with continuous or whatever it's called, I had to keep a constant Thousand-Serpent-Style Dragon Death Grip on my controller to keep my weapon in hand. That alone completely killed my enjoyment, alongside the jank-ass implementation of throwing weapons which usually end up magnetizing to my back slot because I put a little too much into the backswing, and when they do actually leave my hand, well, they go wherever they damn well please. It looks so fun, but it's so janky that I can't play it for more than the 30-ish minutes I already have. I'm not refunding because I feel like the devs would be willing to fix these issues (assuming they're at all common) but I just can't recommend it based on my experiences.

The game is cool and all, but it just felt like the same thing over and over again. Like there isn't much to do, the rooms just felt the same and the height is very awkward. The most annoying part was the fact that the body setting wouldn't work and my body kept bugging out so I was almost always going blind.

I really REALLY want to leave a positive review for this game, but TOO much information is invisible to the player, and too many of the mechanics of the game are easily frustrating.

Your weapon choices have helpful descriptions, but no visible stats to help you readily compare what you are using. Levels have optional side goals that are afaik the same each time you go to the same floor, but not visible until after completing the level.

Enemy attack patterns are varied enough to be fun while small enough to be reasonably counterable, however collision detection for blocking these attacks seems sketchy.

There is still much work to be done for this game to be as exciting as the wrapping paper suggests.

If you need a co-op vr romp, there aren't too many right now better than this, but you'll very quickly find there are elements of the game that leave much to be desired.

Honestly this game was fun, but clearly VR hasn't reached the point where this game is for everyone. Buy it on sale, unless you have a cordless headset, massive room to swing around in and some way to tell the game you aren't trying to throw your weapon at the ground when your swinging it.

My biggest complaint wasn't getting stabbed in the back, the way the lock on messes with my balance or the inconsistency of where an enemy attack is coming from. All points which made the game a bit bothersome, but not bad. No my problem is that until developers give us a better way to hold onto gear in games we can't be playing these melee games. Plus dropped weapons vanish mid battle which left me running away from two enemies trying to grab the daggers you get on your shoulders. Which are impossible to throw accurately from my attempts, and clearly the game doesn't want you using them for melee.

TLDR, if you can keep a sword in your hand and both feet on the ground, the game is fun and I would love to play it more. The issue is dropping your weapon and it vanishing can end your battle because VR is still fickle about if you meant to let go of something or not. So I'll come back to it later, but as of the hour played before I reviewed it the frustration forced me to take a break from wild flailing around.

Love the game, It reminds me of the show Sword Art online more so when you have to floor clear to beat the game. I mainly play adventure mode so I don't have input on the other modes they offer, Overall I would advise you to buy it they have a discord where you can see what events to come, the progress they have, and the new weapons they will add.

I'm still waiting for the soundtrack to come out because the menu music as well as the gameplay music is beautiful

this game absolutely does not support valve index controllers, the grabbing mechanics are clunky, the movement is meh, the fighting is awful (half the time my hands will swap position so I'm forced to adapt to fighting left handed), I want to like this game, really, I do, but the clunky fighting was not what i signed up for. I tried, I mean I really tried, for an hour I tried to play this game and get fun from it, the fighting is also in itself scuffed, I would try to parry most the time and the enemy sword would phase through it. I still have hope for this game, as the extensive amount of content is still astonishing, but the gameplay mechanics, in general, and for valve index, need fixed.

Ok, lets get some things straight, right of the bat. VR swordfighter games are in no way like real life. there has to be a balance between fun and realism... things like weapon weight, damage, enemy AI, ect. have to be balanced that way.

This game is an arena type game with 100 levels varying from stupid simple (1-15), to Medium(15-30), to hard (30-50), and the rest (as i am discovering) are VERY VERY HARD. This really does feel like darksouls for VR.

Your health never increases and your enemies get more and more dangerous, quick, and intelligent. BUT, your damage goes up, and as your acuity increases by muscle memory and knowing the exploitable weaknesses and animations of the enemy you get better and better naturally, and the weapons you choose can be very important.

there are a few basic types of weapons to choose from with levels of progression in the early game that vary in weapon handling characteristics, length, damage, and durability.

-Swords: run of the mill all rounder. stabs, swings, parrying are all easy. but slow to fill the magic meter (for ENCHANTING, yes, ENCHANTING ANY WEAPON :D :D :D)
-Short Swords: the fastest weapons in the game with decent damage that can overwhelm an opponent, but hard to block with and not very durable
-Medium sword : like a normal sword, but slower and more damage. a little more length and the stab stinks, but the SG meter fills rapidly. basically a slashing sword.
-Rapier: A stabby sword that is fast and light but not very durable.
-Long Sword: A good length sword that also has naturally good blocking and durability, but slower and less damaging than specialty options like the rapier or medium sword.
-Mace: a slower weapon but with good length and consistently high damage , but not for stabbing. VERY DURABLE.

Then the two handers;
-Axe: great damage but poor blocking ability and speed and reach. the best damage in the game of the weapon types though. pretty durable too.
-Destroyer sword: a large two handed claymore type (berserk type) that had good damage, but is slow and is not a stabbing weapon. durable but not invincible.

There's probably more i'm missing but that goes to show you that this is an involved game...
This is not a "wand waver" or "spaz" game at all.

Common misconceptions:

"can't turn of the vignette"
Just push quit on the menu to take you out of the level and go to the main menu. The game thrusts you right into gameplay without giving you the main menu. a poor choice, but easily fixed. you can simply start the level over (short tutorials anyway except for the first one) and go from there.

"this is a wand waving slap fest/ no skill fighting game"
This cannot be farther from the truth. you must carefully dodge, block, and time your attacks. and that's just to survive. to excel you need to hit critical strike zones, use the green combo targets after a block, move tactically (if he swings right you move left to give time to block/dodge for a follow up strike), and know how to outsmart the very smart AI.

"This is a waste of money for the amount of time I will spend".

There's about 10 hours of gameplay on the single player alone and probably another 5-10 to master all 100 levels and get all the unlockable weapons... there's also a token multiplayer mode that you might fiddle with for at most another 5.
1 dollar an hour is a good payout if you ask me.

"The devs aren't committed to doing more"
That remains to be seen but they seem very active.

"They lured me in with some epic quest or campaign"
No, no they did not. this game is absolutely see what you get and all you'd have to do is watch a review video and read the description to know that.

REASONS TO NOT GET THIS GAME:

-If you don't like melee combat in VR. it's all melee.
-If you are not a completionist. This is all about improving your finesse, like superhot or something.
- If you are looking for a thriving multiplayer vr game. You can find a room but it's hard and takes awhile because this is a fringe/small game.
- If you are looking fo a casual game, pass on. this is not casual at all.
- If you are looking for a deep game, this is not even attempting to be. It's absolutely all about combat; this isn't an RPG or a story adventure campaign.
-If you are cheap. This is expensive for what it is, there are cheaper games out there for the same thing (sword master VR is a good alternative)
-If you are not patient. This game is easy to understand but difficult to master, and there are long, droning tutorials (skippable). if you are not willing to look past these things, move on.
-If you are severly overweight or out of shape. This is at least as vigorous as air boxing. lots of movement and arm swinging. this is not a seated experience. try dungeonknight VR if you want something you can play seated.

REASONS TO GET THIS GAME:
-If you want intelligent AI coupled to a melee arena game
-If you love melee swordfighting games and want a VR version of that
-if you want to get your heartrate up and sweat it out playing a game.
-if you like darksouls or hard games.
-if you want to feel like a badass gladiator.

This is absolutely worth the money. absolutely.

MY CRITIQUES:

1.) Damage, Crit, and SG scaling could be better for certain weapons.
2.) I'd like to have stats to specialize my character towards a particular weapon or playstyle. Being able to raise health, speed, dodge refill/distance, strength or agility bonuses depending on the weapon, and magic ability (intelligence scaled enchantment damage/longevity) or possibly even unlockable powers and abilities.
3.) More maps are a must.
4.) Multiplayer is pretty bland. I'd prefer versus modes, or maybe like a gandalf/zelda duel type powerball mode (ask for details)
5.) More types of enemies.
6.) Balancing on certain enemies could be better.

The game is primarily single player, considering the fact that there are 130+ single player stages and only 4 multiplayer ones. These single player stages are pretty mediocre, as they are always just defeat enemies as they spawn in the arena. Enemy variety is poor as the tougher enemies are just stronger reskins of the old ones with a new attack or two. There's multiple arena environments but it's always just one room.

For the multiplayer side, there's only one map across the 3 difficulty levels that I've seen. There's apparently a 4th one, but I've never seen it. Pretty disappointing.

Overall I'd say get this game at $10, but not at $20.

Is this a joke? Giving a promise for an epic campaign and leaving us with wave clearing on 2 maps?

I think the game has a lot of potential. A few times I felt like I was playing Dark Souls in VR. The swordplay feels nice, but could be a bit more refined. Adding different environments might change things up a bit. Only thing i found to be disappointing was that voice chat never seemed to work in multiplayer so far. Would be nice to hear my teammates.

Overall, I enjoy the game and will continue to play and recommend as well.

This game has a lot of potential. There is a solid foundation for a fun game here. But that's about it.
The game itself is really just defend a pillar from waves of enemies. The tutorial made it seem like you were about to embark on an important journey. So I did a few rounds, expecting something to happen, expecting the story to progress or maybe some dialogue.
There is nothing.

The truth is you just stand in a square-ish room and flail your arms at approaching enemies, then rinse and repeat.
Your allies don't matter, the pillar doesn't matter, the weapons on the floor don't matter.
It feels very hollow.

I played for a little more than an hour and all I did was the tutorial, then repeat the same mission 4 times. There were no unlocks, no progression, no upgrades, no customization. Just a short wait until the next carbon copy mission started.