Grimlord Review

[@MrVRVoice]

Extra points that didn't make it into the script:
* The visual effect of weapon strikes on armour is really cool. The spark and smoke that drifts into the wind and fades away looks great and is a beautiful touch.
* Early boss designs seem nice and creative, though they are way too easy due to the combat problems I mention.
If anything else comes to mind I'll update here.

[@Gramsy]

Hey Mr. VR Voice! Just wanted to take a moment to thank you for playing our game. We've been working closely with the dev team for a year and a half now and it's been a long journey to get here and while we're very proud of what the team has accomplished, we fully understand the game has plenty of problems and lots of improvement that still needs to be made. I wanted to thank you for taking the time to make such a thoughtful, in depth and heartfelt review of our game, and especially to go into the aspects we really need to improve on. I wanted to let you know, sound design is something the team understands is severely lacking currently, and it is definitely something they are planning on working on in the near future, unfortunately, we were kind of in a "release or die" scenario, so it forced us to launch before we were comfortable with the current EA build unfortunately, as is how business goes sometimes. I assure you the team is still working diligently as ever to rectify the current major problems with the game, and I hope we get the chance to impress you and change your mind in the future! Thanks!
Much love!
-Gramsy

[@MrVRVoice]

Thanks for the honest and genuine insight Gramsy. That’s great to hear, for myself and I’m sure plenty of others. Looking forward to seeing the project develop :-) Cheers!

[@Grimlordvr]

Dear Sir VR Voice
Thank you for this comprehensive review. We appreciate your expertise in VR gaming and will take your words seriously for the future development down the road.
We'd also love to learn critics from audiences here in this channel. It would be very valueble to us and future improve the game.

[@AAFroes]

Hell yeah.

[@WikiPeoples]

Super happy to know that you have seen his critiques. Personally, I agree with everything said here. Grimlord looks like a game that has so much potential, but personally I will wait for some updates. Best of luck to you and thank you for making a VR game!

[@MrVRVoice]

You’re very welcome, and glad you could get some value from this. Appreciate your humility and leaving a comment. Best of luck with your journey.

[@jamesonyekwere7054]

When is this coming to psvr 2????

[@Cashmere_Gaming]

I downloaded Vertigo 2 because of you . And you were 100% right, if every VR game put that type of attention and detail in their games it’ll attract more ppl into the realm of VR

[@TheLonelyViper]

watching this with my main AND my personal YT plus account. Top tier reviews as always. The amount of effort and attention to detail is insane!

[@SoulBC]

Great review, criticism, and feedback. I hope the DEVs listen to your points.

[@JokerChany]

damn this man's voice alone makes me want to sub even more so the good review

[@Scurrydog]

Your videos are enlightening, thank you.

[@SoulMan165195]

ye as we talked befor about "taking the hit and i want to feel the weight of the hit" awesome video as always ^^

[@CreeperSlayer365]

2:30 I belive the term you're look for is Diagetic UI. Flatscreen games tried to do that back in the day but it was a pain the ass to use with a keyboard an mouse. Now VR games have the opposite problem where they use too much non-diagetic UI when the medium isn't really suited for that.

[@steambub]

Off the top of my head, Quake 4 and the Dead Space games had diagetic UI, Dead Space more than Quake 4.

[@NevolmonGaming]

you seem to share a lot of the same opinions about the current state of the game as i did. as for the audio things, I talked to the devs and they are currently looking to hire a professional sound engineer as they don't currently have one.

[@MrVRVoice]

Well that makes sense!

[@spark3897]

one game i have played legegndary tales has the element of if you swing hard it does more and knowing difrent types of attack like slash blund and you have to put a little effort in bloking otherwise it would not block if i remember correctly although the enimies still have no real changes to your behavior really and the look of the game is pretty basic.

[@McClane4Ever.]

Been playing this a lot lately and the AI is defiantly better now. You actually have to keep distance now. If you crowd them like in the video they rock you. Another update to the enemies is coming soon as well.
I would love to see better use of physics in combat though as you noted.

[@TheLonelyViper]

LOL "Sick Kicks" ... that needs to be a new meme

[@xrenynthemusicmage6422]

Thanks for the warnings, I'm just looking for something to play after Blade and Sorcery's Crystal Hunt mode. Speaking of which, this review makes me think you'd really enjoy Blade and Sorcery's new campaign mode if you haven't played it already

[@nigelbromley8097]

Very thorough review! I played the demo and felt the same way about the combat and sound design- i was hoping this was going to be improved in the EA launch but i guess this still needs more time. I will invest in this game in the future but at the moment i feel i am supporting/investing in too many EA games.

[@Frostycrypton]

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one! Might be a good time to buy it when I eventually get a VR headset of my own.

[@photometricman]

Good criticism, well presentsed and thoughtful. VR needs a different approach to AI, and animation. After 10+ years, it still hasn't been done right or solved (imho). This isn't to say devs are stupid, it takes all of 5 minutes to make a "cool features" list, but there are 'reasons'.
Animation - VR really needs procedural animation. Procedural animation systems, and people who can build them is a niche within a niche. No procedural animations means devs rely on traditional static systems, which are brittle, dumb looking, and predictable.
AI - Similar situation. AI systems, largely behaviour trees, have been built for traditional games. To do this right, you need prediction systems and to model AI behaviours differently. Not playing an attack animation, but dynamically guarding, and moving to create openings - to then attack, in a precise spot on the player. There's isn't much expertise on this, its genuinely new ground, and we're still only in the infancy of VR and the approaches needed.
The bad news, its been over a decade and we're still not there yet. The good news is these things are possible, and VR can (and will) be so much better for it.

[@starmoon2162]

Agree with your points, the lack of sound really takes away from the experieance. And the AI and combat needs improvment... still early access so hope they can address the issues

[@TomLehockySVK]

Thanks for the video review ! I was very curious if you would make a video on this game the moment i saw it on the Steam store. Will wait to see if they will fix the AI and make the combat deeper. If they will improve then i will consider buying, until then it is a no, just waiting.

[@longtimeBrute1107]

The suggestion you made about how to implement imput reading in VR AI's at 13:02 is brilliant IMO.
I've been going through your content the last 3 days and I have to say I feel quite inspired by what I just witnessed. I am a small begining UA-camr myself, I would say my channel is in is experimental state ATM.
I originally had a plan for my channel but event I didn't foresee forced me to change them as I was launching my couple first video. Such is life it would seem. All that to say that I was contemplating starting making reviews and I liked your aproach so much that it convienced me to go for it.
I happen to share A LOT of opinions very similar to you regarding the state of VR and ways to improve it, I would be really interested in eventually having a conversation with you regarding all of it. Looking forward for your next video, I'm a fan of your work.

[@MrVRVoice]

Thanks very much, flattering I can be an inspiration. If you catch one of my live streams, I’ll be happy to chat. Will pre-warn you that I’m not as organised and coherent with my thoughts while streaming VR, but I do the best I can in the moment.

[@longtimeBrute1107]

@@MrVRVoice absolutely, I believe you and I could have really good exchange as I do share a lot of similar opinion as you but I have a diferent aproach to it. Do you have a specific schedule for your livestreams?

[@Slapunas]

Great Review, harsh but fair. Guess I'll have to go try some Grim Lord now

[@vrgamingpodcast]

Have you played Undead Citadel? I'm curious if you'd think that's better or worse than Grimlord.

[@MrVRVoice]

Played for around an hour or so. I’d say it’s worse. Has many of the same issues, but felt significantly more shallow.

[@PommeDeux]

I'm still three minutes in the video but I would definitely love to hear a 40 minute tirade on why diegetic physics based game interactions should be a staple for VR.

[@marshnryan]

I'm so glad to see you move on to something different, I love how you actually did an amazing review this time, overall I didn't see a single problem with the critism this time, If you come across this, thank you for moving on to a different game, besides me being from your.... recent videos, I think you did quite a fantastic job telling what is good and what is bad this time, but I will forget that video and continue to say on this, you say what Is wrong with parts that actually align with what Is making other things function less and compliment what you liked, I like the change In pace of showing what you liked and what you disliked, a good video 👍

[@UnrebornMortuus]

yikes

[@ElectroWolfZ7]

First!

[@dontkickmychick6076]

>trashes Battle Talent for having bad AI
>goes noticeably easier on game that very clearly has worse AI
:thunk:

[@dontkickmychick6076]

Nonetheless pretty good review, you confuse me MRvrVoice, you have opinions that actually I'd strongly agree with, like most of this video actually, but simultaneously so much that's just blatantly against them. Hmm...

[@MrVRVoice]

@@dontkickmychick6076 Ha, enjoy the ride :-) If you catch me during a live stream I’ll elaborate on why I took a different approach here.

[@skelo9033]

Battle talent is a full 20$ release while Grimlord is in early access and isn’t projected to release until 2024, two very different standards.

[@subjectdei6869]

i see now that physics based combat games are not particularly your cup of tea
that being said , i'm going to watch more of your videos to see what is , and offer you a chat to understand your viewpoint better because that's just how one should at some point with opinons despite possibly disagreeing with it.

[@MrVRVoice]

Oh my, your tone seems very ominous…
Physics fighters are absolutely my cup of tea, if done competently and behave properly.
In the case of Grimlord, where are the physics you speak of? Except for when an enemy ragdolls, it is all animations with binary switches and states.

[@subjectdei6869]

@@MrVRVoice Something seeming one way is different from what it actually is.
I suppose the physics tag doesn't really fit this one in particular, especially after some testing of my own.
I figured my point was made clear. I wanted to see your point of view of what constitutes 'good' when it comes to VR.

[@MrVRVoice]

@@subjectdei6869 Catch me during a stream sometime, and you’re welcome to, so long as you can be specific in your asking that I can answer concisely.