CONVRGENCE: store.steampowered.com/app/26... -- Support -- / mrvrvoice -- Tips -- streamelements.com/mrvrvoice/tip (+ option for TTS message if tipping during live streams)
I love your reviews. Very mature takes and soothing voice to boot. You really hit the nail on the head with what matters in vr. Especially pointing out audio engineering. Either way, hopefully this dev keeps it up!
This was a tremendous review . The vibe you put out was noticeably different than some of your previous videos. It was incredibly balanced and informative. At times, in previous videos , some statements could have been interpreted as a kind of distain or arrogance. I dont believe that was your intent . But we never know how certain statements will land on others . I thought this was a sensational review and I’m not so sure you couldn’t dive into the meta review world. Good work and thank you for this review .
@PaulDFreed56 I wouldn’t hold your breath. Contractors at this point has a very set gameplay style and a demographic to perpetuate it. With Showdown’s alpha/beta’s addition of aim assist on top of that, it all points with that franchise going further in a certain direction.
I am a sound designer for film and I am so glad I’m not the only one who notices how immersion breaking bad sound design can be in VR. Your suspension of disbelief can be greater through VR but it requires more stimuli due to the lack of a “frame” like conventional flat games when viewed on a screen. That’s why bad sound design is more noticeable in VR because the image is telling you one thing while the audio is saying something else.
The game clearly has a very strong core foundation. Early access games with a foundation as strong as this tend to end up pretty well in my experience, as the devs are often very experienced and intelligent people who know what they're doing and have a clear goal in mind. Let's just hope that the dev doesn't fall down the rabbit hole of scope and feature creep.
Good review, nice and balanced, pointed out the negatives without being too negative overall, whilst also appreciating the positives in the game. You've neither hyped nor disappointed me about the game, but given me a good overview of it. Would love to see this balanced opinion with an updated review on a game like Tabor, a game that does so many things so well, yet some things so badly.
I took the stream feedback to heart with this one :-) If I ever make a video on it, don't think I'll manage to the same with Tabor if I'm honest, haha. Too much about that game triggers me!
@@MrVRVoice I'm glad it helped! I think you need to give it another shot to be honest, it really does have some drawbacks, but the jank is being lessened patch by patch, and the additions are of high quality in my opinion, there is things it needs to improve for sure, but I think the overall experience is good enough that the positives for the most part outweigh the negatives, and compared to a vast majority of other titles (especially in the FPS genre), it's leagues above most of it's competition. I think I went into more detail in a comment on your original Tabor video.
@@CGEE_Music I played it two days ago. New underground map detail is great, and the things I praised in my original video still hold, but the game’s overall state and choices made has it be a fundamental failure in my eyes that reeks of laziness and disrespect at every turn toward the medium, genre, its source material inspiration, and the players (who seem to be mostly kids and dudebros with undeveloped standards or experience so of course they’re exploiting that). See! It triggers me! 😂
@@MrVRVoice I don't think it's really that bad, it has it's downfalls, but I think I'd go as far as to say you have a negative bias toward the game which you can't overlook :D It needs work sure, but they are working on it.
@@CGEE_Music Sure, willing to concede that. We are all only human after all :-) I've pretty damn good justification for my negative bias in my eyes, but of course I'd think that, haha. Perhaps when/if the moment ever aligns I can demonstrate in detail why I feel as I do about it, but I doubt that would happen without a pre-planned presentation as it would require an understanding of elements in Escape From Tarkov as reference.
Honestly, even though you pointed out the ups and downs of the game, you did it in a way that still has me wanting to keep an eye on it for it's launch to see what happens.
I love what's here so far, in the little details... but as you broached, for me the performance is the real killer. It dips down to 30 fps at times in that first stage, though I haven't had that issue down in the tunnels. Hopefully he can get it sorted, because there is a real gem buried here.
I also had performance issues. Was getting maybe 50-60fps on my rig with a Ryzen 5700x, RTX 4070 Ti, 32GB Ram. Even if I put the graphics settings on medium and set Steam SS to like %60 I still couldn't maintain 80fps. I had to stop playing after 10min.
I didn't want to get hyped considering how many of solo development games go, but there seems to be a solid base already there. I'll keep my eye on this title in the future for sure. Thank you for another detailed and thoughtful review.
Don't think so. Even with a big uplift ~30% it would not get you from 40 FPS to 120FPS. And nothing in this game looks like it would need a big CPU. Hand full of enemies, small confined spaces, single player... It could still be a 'specific CPU issue', but it would have to be a bug of that CPU type, not just a lack of performance.
The CPU spikes might be related to the AI and/or those item handling sounds if it is unoptimized and it is checked every frame on a fast loop (just based on the video reference). Tbh the game looks like it needs another year or two of development, might be a good game in the future.
@@MrVRVoice I'd be interested in seeing if that's all game, or if there are other issues going on. The advanced frame timing graph in steamvr can help with this - as it breaks down the different parts of the process. FPSVR is fantastic, and really good for getting the info in a nice, clear way, but the aft graph is more of a poweruser tool.
Already bought the game and it's supporter pack to support the Dev because of the BS with His last game. I have high hopes for it, so I want to see him working at least PT if not Full Time on it
I would like to see an update to this when/if the game improves on its flaws. Maybe a pinned comment would be great for future viewers? I was really interested but i'm not even considering it if the ai is this brain dead.
Whoa hey I just noticed you're left handed as well! Nice! I'm always worried when I buy a VR game that they won't support uslefties, lol. Good to see this game supports it!! I was a bit worried....
it should be noted he did an update today that fixed some of the issues he mentioned in terms of broken stuff. the ai is still dumb but a lot of glirchy stuff was fixed
My biggest issue with this game outside of the janky AI is honestly the map design. I get that its procedurally generated, however most of the time the maps end up being pretty linear. ITR was insane because of the scale of the world. I mean, just imagine scaling to the top of a tower to pick off guys from afar then pillaging that base. That same thing isn't possible in this game. I do like the setting more than ITR however, and I think ITR actually lost a chance to make some kind of interaction between other human scavenger groups and anomalies. Like a scenario where you're walking around, see a group of settlers preoccupied with a couple of mimics, then you just sneak behind the ruckus to rob the scavengers. Even though this game Convergence doesn't have that, human enemies are just so much better.
Its just the odds of financial succes in a VR game are too low. So no-one is going to fund a VR game. If I work solo my costs are what I spend on staying alive, when I hire someone I need to pay them to stay alive + taxes they will need to pay. Legally I can pay myself below minimum wage as long as my company is not making any money (this is not legal advise, check with your lawyer), if I hire someone I cannot. Alternatively you could setup a studio with other people who all partially own the company to skip most of this problem. But now you are open to drama. Someone gets bored of the project and does not put in the same hours as the others. Someone has a life event that makes them unavailable to the project. People will disagree on what the game is, and what is needed to make it work. I think this kind of working together can only work with people you already know and trust for a long time. The final nail to this last form is that for every 'X' people you add, your game will need to make 'X' times more money. So you will need to finish it more than 'X' times faster, or it needs to sell more than 'X' times more. If VR was in the early adopter stage like in ~2016 there were companies willing to lost money now to be in the market as it grows, but with the current retention of players in VR and nothing positive on the horizon there is no upside to loosing money in VR now. So your left with passionate solo developers that are trying to make the game they wish they could just have bought 🙂
@@patricecoffee i have developed something a bit different, but the rule stays. there is no money in VR. @golongself answered pretty spot on. My "company" did not survive. I now have a bit more time so I can take some orders but soon it will be back to 9 (7) to 5 for me at the construction site. I believe, for game devs its even worse, since everything is free lately. Hell evewn my product is posted on thingiverse and the new version will also go there. We kind of f.cked ourselfs with this approach, but there is no turning back
Saw the trailer for this on UA-cam a week or two ago and I wrote it off as nothing more than another Stalker/ITR-type game. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this in the hopes it comes to Quest once it’s finished!
Are u making a video on contractors show down? I just played contractors and u were in my game. U had your arms out and asked the guy to hold u.. he said wow u have a really cool voice!! That was me!
I don't buy into early access unless it's from a developer i know well and have confidence will deliver. Hopefully a publisher reaches out to this dev with some funding to help increase the size of the team. It's an incredible amount of work for one man.
This game has so much potential, but I met so many bugs, fell out the map so frequent, stuck between the car and the wall and eventually pushed out the house where the bot was just in front of me, and the most serious issue, you can't buy back what you sale to the trader, and when I chose to buy something, I picked it up, but I happende to release the trigger and dropped it, it's very hard to pick it up again, and I have to use up all my money until it stopped generating new items. Anyway I don't recommend to buy it right now, but if you love metro or stalker, this will be a great game.
@@MrVRVoice I don't blame you. It's pretty much a given that AAA VR title is usually at best a theme park ride experience, and at worst a near-unplayable theme park ride experience.
I don't think picking a dev studio know for actiony not serious shooters and puzzley games to make a very grounded shooter with a strong story focus and needing to be aware of your ammo and not costant spray and shoot @@GiggaGMikeE
I really like the idea of this game but that performance is rough. That would be rough on my 5800x. Also, the human AI is a rough sell. I don't mind a single developer not having half life combine level AI, but like you said, it seems like the visuals and sound are sooooo damn good that it demands something impressive from the human enemies too.
Meh, the first type of the game was better I think. It looks too mich like ITR. I'm waiting for ITR 2. Maybe I'll do it when the game is finished. Same for ITR 2 anyway
I'm still not sure about the whole procedural levels thing. I feel it could fair a lot better as an open world with transitions, but I suppose that completely goes against the idea of the game. As repetitive as procedural levels can feel, I think it's only elevated by the fact that the world feels very static for now. We cannot open car doors or trunks, and much like ITR there is no interactable doors or physics puzzles, just drawers and crates to open. The mostly static world is a huge waste of the potential VR brings with it in my opinion. Half Life Alyx has so many things to pick up and toy around with, I just never get bored. But we are talking about a solo dev, so it's obvious polishing will take a great deal of time.
That the world is randomly generated was not mentioned at all, which is very unusual considering it is not a roguelike and you only compared it to paradox of hope, which to my knowledge does not feature any random generation. While the world gen isn't horrible, I expected more from it. As it is right now it's very samey and bland, even for a randomly generated world. I only played on the first stage though, so it might get better.
Paradox of Hope’s maps were also proc gen. Admittedly I did neglect to mention this in the review and probably should have done for clarity. It just never occurred to me for some reason 🤷🏻♂️ Don’t quote me on this but aren’t roguelike/lites more defined by the random challenge that comes from unknown upgrades and enemies per run as a primary? With the environment being secondary to that? Correct me if I’m wrong. EDIT: Clarification. Paradox of Hope’s raid mode maps were proc gen, the single player was not. And Convegence is essentially that same raid mode in a different context. So…could also be classed as a roguelike/lite? I don’t know 🤷🏻♂️
Would it be worth it? A lot of features would have to be scrapped to run this on standalone. Even if the current bad performance parts are due to bugs.
great review. ultimately a disappointing game as it's yet another game that fucks up the most important feature. The AI. It was the same problem with Into The Radius. I'd rather a janky experience with great ai, than a refined experience with dogshit AI.
To add to this AI was solved in fucking 2005 with the release of F.E.A.R. it's not like you need to be a turbo rocket scientist autist to program, FEARs was actually pretty simple but very effective.
I dont wanna do the 'if its so easy then you do it' thing. But you really shouldnt speak about how easy something is if you dont do it. FEAR had good AI, Halo has good AI, both series probably had someone whos main job was to work on AI. Neither were single dev games. I agree ai is important, maybe the most important for games. But i hate the 'just do it good' attitude.
The end reality IS ‘just do it well’ though, whether you, I, or the dev likes it or not. If the standard has been provably done well and better 20 years ago, multiple times, consistently, it’s not unreasonable to expect a better minimum standard today. Single dev or not, he’s chosen to enter this global arena with nearly 50 years worth of standards and expectations set before now, and take on every task himself. No one has forced him into this arena, no one has purposefully gimped him into a disadvantage, he has chosen this way, and must bear the responsibilities of that choice to keep up with expectations and ‘do it well’, as we know it can and has been done. As for how easy it is relative to today’s conditions, I’m not sure either. But again I don’t think it’s unfair or unreasonable to look at something we were doing with frequency and ‘seemingly’ increasing ease and assume 20 years later that process may likely be easier or more streamlined or accessible to do now than it was back then, especially with how much more processing power and wealth of free knowledge and resources anyone can easily access these days. And if it’s not easier today…well, something’s gone wrong in the dev world which is a whole other rabbit hole.
Another game in which youtubers are praising exept Mr V. Why it has already 200+ reviews when better and finished titles have problems to reach such interest? it is not ready, content empty and for me waste of time in that state. I am playing Far Cry VR which has enemy AI better than lot of todays AAA games, they sometimes stuck but when everything works they can do crazy (for dumb AI) stuff like sneaking around to your back to attack.
this is the laziest developer i have ever seen , both games paradox of hope and this are obvious rips of metro and itr , as if he didnt learn from the first game he made , this new one is literally into the radius with rips of every popular vr system at the time development started . arizona 2s dog , into the radius weapon cleaning , effects and very obviously the exact same enemies just with different models . theres a difference between taking inspiration and just taking everything from other games
You’re being unreasonable and only focusing on the surface level. Staying on topic with this game only, Into the Radius takes heavy inspiration from the Stalker series/Roadside Picnic books and adds its own twist and context to them…so what? This game does the same, taking inspiration from a mixture of prior IP’s and adds its own twist and context…so what? Arizona sunshine 2 owns the concept of a dog companion all of a sudden now…? As if that in itself is in any way artistically original… 🤔 And if this dev took inspiration to add a dog here from seeing/playing AS2…so what if he did? It’s not as if it doesn’t make sense to have dog companion in this setting and hasn’t been done in other apocalyptic-vibe games and movies before. And if the dog enhances the game experience and does not detract, then great! A dog companion is not an original artistic idea anyone can stake claim to, but is rather a common lived reality throughout human history. Cleaning a weapon with a toothbrush is something ITR owns also? 🤔 I’ve never owned or cleaned a weapon personally so I cant say if this is something taken from real life, but I’m willing to bet ITR likely took inspiration for this from prior source material too. And even if it is completely original to ITR and CONVRGENCE has ripped this concept straight from it…….so what?? It makes perfect sense for this setting and if it’s a good realistic idea which lends a sense of additive immersion and depth, then great! And for me this version is superior, because ITR’s implementation is visually janky and tanks the framerate when cleaning, this is not true in CONVRGENCE. Laying claim to the concept of using a brush-like object to scrub a weapon as an original mechanic and criticising others for imitating that, is quite petty. I’m not sure what exact same enemies you’re talking about? Russian-themed bandits in this setting are generally going to conform to its inspirations that came before. I don’t know if the ‘demons’ on the second level are straight copies from Metro in behaviour. I’ve read the books and played some of the games and don’t recall these being similar in looks at least. If they are direct copies (which I doubt), then yes you’ve grounds for a raised eyebrow there. If your complaint is rooted from today’s lack of genuinely original ideas in our art forms today, then I can definitely understand that as I too feel creativity and originality is on the decline in the west. But the things you’ve decided to pick on here are not so much artistic plagiarism as they are instead logical and likely things humans would do and use in this scenario, with the dev adding his own flavour to it through choice of art, lighting, assets, implementation, audio, context, etc, which can meld together and create something similar to others, but still its own thing. If we imagine for a moment CONVRGENCE in a polished, finished state, that doesn’t choke the life out of my CPU…the sum total of the choices and details which make this game would, for me = an experience 100x more compelling and immersive than what ITR or most other VR games achieve at the moment, and thus feel very distinct for that.
Paradox was like Metro, because it was based off the same source material - so of course it is similar. That isn't a problem (unless you're a lawer looking to kill something that's like the game you want to put out yourself in the future)
I do understand the original commenter's point of view. I wouldn't call it lazy per se, but the intention behind this mashup is obvious. Take the most popular gameplay mechanics of recent VR hits and put them into one game, so that people who loved these bits and bites from other games will definitely be curious just for that. Yes, ITR was the first VR game implementing hands on gun cleaning. They come up with the idea to take a gun, put it into a vice and then using toothbrushes, paper and WD 40 to work them. Similar to this game here, the still in development Ab Aeterno is also copying or rather being inspired by ITR. It's not about ownership. It's not about having a copyright or any claim on such an idea or mechanic. It's simply about mashing together tested and proven mechanics from other games without bringing anything original to the table. If you were to make a game that plays out in a post-apocalyptic Paris, fighting infected monkeys, but all the surrounding gameplay is only what you find in ITR and TWD, then I'd say Paris was just a means to an end and the game itself is just trying to sell pre-existing gameplay, much like some people try to sell asset flips instead of doing their own models. And unfortunately, there are plenty of those in the market. I don't know enough about this game to call judgment. My main point is this: If this game adds any new gameplay mechanics that are not present in the copied games, then the dev is bringing something new to the table. Making a complete game by adding old and new stuff is good. If I could mash up the favorite mechanics from my favorite games into a unified new thing, I would most certainly do so. Not for making money off of it, but for enjoying it myself. But if the game only contains old stuff he's seen in other games and only tries to take over as many of them as possible to have them carry his game, then that's where the problems begin. ITR was original because it was the first and only game akin to stalker in VR. Ab Aeterno is going a similar route and adding in lots of stuff that hasn't been in other games before, trying to build on the sense of interactive immersion ITR has started with. They are implementing a more Stalker-esque Anomaly scanner and stuff, whereas ITR just used casings to throw into. I could argue for either side. But the line between originality, transformative material and plain copyright infringement is a slippery slope full of nuances. Should the game be unable to hold its own weight without relying on copyrighted material (this does not include ideas, but the way of executing an idea - in plain words: You are not forbidden from adding gun cleaning to your game, but if it works exactly the same way as it does in ITR, then that would fall under copyright violation), then it will likely die before it gets anywhere, or be hit with a copyright strike and forced to shut down. But if there is a copyright problem, then the only people allowed to judge and enforce it are the original copyright holders. Third parties, like us, have no say in it. Since it's still in early access, things are likely subject to change. Some of the mechanics may be placeholders until the dev has the right ideas and time necessary to polish them into new, better things. If not, and if the final game mechanics surrounding certain elements can be proven to be a 1:1 copy of another game that was released earlier, then the devs of those games would need to file a copyright claim. Then a committee would review both games and judge based on the amount of similarities and discrepancies they may find. That's how it will go. Those are the facts. But in neither case would I call the dev lazy. Because even if you were to copy existing mechanics one to one: the source code for those isn't readily available. You still need to create the underlying code from scratch. Unless they sell stuff like that on the unity marketplace as well. I don't know about that.
It doesn't make sense until you experience a really immersive VR game, then it all clicks. The problem is no flat-screen recording ever does VR justice
i wouldn't say its bad. you can tell in the main safehouse areas how detailed it is and once you go outside of it the quality of graphics drop but it is early access so they arnt focusing on graphics in the outside areas because its not important right now im assuming.
Im tired of no brain skinwalkers that only care about graphics. For a VR game they are not that bad. If you base your opinion of a game on the graphics, then you most certainly need psychological help. Do better
Props for honest review. That segment about soundscape was very informative.
Please become a voice actor you could be so great
Would love to!
@@MrVRVoiceDo voice overs for audio books and other media first! 🎉
I really though, some day I would love to have your voice in my game.
I cannot fucking BELIEVE that Liam Neeson got a fucking UA-cam CHANNEL.
Sounds like the same voice from the Stanley parable
I hope it ends up good. That sound detail 🤤 I'll be keeping my eye on it, but waiting for the finished game.
I love your reviews. Very mature takes and soothing voice to boot. You really hit the nail on the head with what matters in vr. Especially pointing out audio engineering. Either way, hopefully this dev keeps it up!
Lovely review! I will keep the game wishlisted for sure. To Metro VR, Into The Radius 2 and CONVRGENCE...we're eating good for VR content this year.
This was a tremendous review . The vibe you put out was noticeably different than some of your previous videos. It was incredibly balanced and informative. At times, in previous videos , some statements could have been interpreted as a kind of distain or arrogance. I dont believe that was your intent . But we never know how certain statements will land on others . I thought this was a sensational review and I’m not so sure you couldn’t dive into the meta review world. Good work and thank you for this review .
Thanks Paul. I took to heart the feedback given to me during that live stream, glad you enjoyed :-)
@@MrVRVoice I really really did. You need to branch out to other devices . Your insights are brilliant
I agree, I remember older videos feeling too critical / judgmental. This one felt pretty balanced. Nice job MrVRVoice!
I really hope contractors showdown gets worked on. I love pop 1 but crave a battle royale that’s more realistic
@PaulDFreed56 I wouldn’t hold your breath. Contractors at this point has a very set gameplay style and a demographic to perpetuate it. With Showdown’s alpha/beta’s addition of aim assist on top of that, it all points with that franchise going further in a certain direction.
I am a sound designer for film and I am so glad I’m not the only one who notices how immersion breaking bad sound design can be in VR.
Your suspension of disbelief can be greater through VR but it requires more stimuli due to the lack of a “frame” like conventional flat games when viewed on a screen.
That’s why bad sound design is more noticeable in VR because the image is telling you one thing while the audio is saying something else.
The game clearly has a very strong core foundation. Early access games with a foundation as strong as this tend to end up pretty well in my experience, as the devs are often very experienced and intelligent people who know what they're doing and have a clear goal in mind. Let's just hope that the dev doesn't fall down the rabbit hole of scope and feature creep.
Good review, nice and balanced, pointed out the negatives without being too negative overall, whilst also appreciating the positives in the game. You've neither hyped nor disappointed me about the game, but given me a good overview of it.
Would love to see this balanced opinion with an updated review on a game like Tabor, a game that does so many things so well, yet some things so badly.
I took the stream feedback to heart with this one :-) If I ever make a video on it, don't think I'll manage to the same with Tabor if I'm honest, haha. Too much about that game triggers me!
@@MrVRVoice I'm glad it helped!
I think you need to give it another shot to be honest, it really does have some drawbacks, but the jank is being lessened patch by patch, and the additions are of high quality in my opinion, there is things it needs to improve for sure, but I think the overall experience is good enough that the positives for the most part outweigh the negatives, and compared to a vast majority of other titles (especially in the FPS genre), it's leagues above most of it's competition. I think I went into more detail in a comment on your original Tabor video.
@@CGEE_Music I played it two days ago. New underground map detail is great, and the things I praised in my original video still hold, but the game’s overall state and choices made has it be a fundamental failure in my eyes that reeks of laziness and disrespect at every turn toward the medium, genre, its source material inspiration, and the players (who seem to be mostly kids and dudebros with undeveloped standards or experience so of course they’re exploiting that).
See! It triggers me! 😂
@@MrVRVoice I don't think it's really that bad, it has it's downfalls, but I think I'd go as far as to say you have a negative bias toward the game which you can't overlook :D
It needs work sure, but they are working on it.
@@CGEE_Music Sure, willing to concede that. We are all only human after all :-) I've pretty damn good justification for my negative bias in my eyes, but of course I'd think that, haha.
Perhaps when/if the moment ever aligns I can demonstrate in detail why I feel as I do about it, but I doubt that would happen without a pre-planned presentation as it would require an understanding of elements in Escape From Tarkov as reference.
great review. i'm subbing :) looking forward to more reviews in the future!
Honestly, even though you pointed out the ups and downs of the game, you did it in a way that still has me wanting to keep an eye on it for it's launch to see what happens.
Thanks for the great review!
I love what's here so far, in the little details... but as you broached, for me the performance is the real killer. It dips down to 30 fps at times in that first stage, though I haven't had that issue down in the tunnels. Hopefully he can get it sorted, because there is a real gem buried here.
I also had performance issues. Was getting maybe 50-60fps on my rig with a Ryzen 5700x, RTX 4070 Ti, 32GB Ram. Even if I put the graphics settings on medium and set Steam SS to like %60 I still couldn't maintain 80fps. I had to stop playing after 10min.
Great review. Been following the dev and gonna hold off on buying now
this looks dope
Looks like a cross between Into the Radius and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners... Is it?
Great review!!
very similar vibes to into the radius, but hopefully it sets itself apart
this game looks similar to into the radius and i love that games so im pretty interested in it
itr is amazing. Cant wait for 2 to come out
@@stevec9143 yeah its gonna br awesome
I didn't want to get hyped considering how many of solo development games go, but there seems to be a solid base already there. I'll keep my eye on this title in the future for sure. Thank you for another detailed and thoughtful review.
Dude your voice is so smooth
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I could listen to you talk all day.
I wonder if the dev has a 5800X3d or a 7800X3d as the 3d cache on these CPUs can give a pretty big performance boost in certain CPU heavy games.
Don't think so. Even with a big uplift ~30% it would not get you from 40 FPS to 120FPS. And nothing in this game looks like it would need a big CPU. Hand full of enemies, small confined spaces, single player... It could still be a 'specific CPU issue', but it would have to be a bug of that CPU type, not just a lack of performance.
The CPU spikes might be related to the AI and/or those item handling sounds if it is unoptimized and it is checked every frame on a fast loop (just based on the video reference). Tbh the game looks like it needs another year or two of development, might be a good game in the future.
Appreciate the feedback. Very curious to know what’s going on there.
@@MrVRVoice I'd be interested in seeing if that's all game, or if there are other issues going on. The advanced frame timing graph in steamvr can help with this - as it breaks down the different parts of the process. FPSVR is fantastic, and really good for getting the info in a nice, clear way, but the aft graph is more of a poweruser tool.
Already bought the game and it's supporter pack to support the Dev because of the BS with His last game. I have high hopes for it, so I want to see him working at least PT if not Full Time on it
I'm getting it , I'm new to vr but this looks great
I would like to see an update to this when/if the game improves on its flaws.
Maybe a pinned comment would be great for future viewers?
I was really interested but i'm not even considering it if the ai is this brain dead.
Super glad to see somebody actualy do a review for this game and that you covered this! This game is going to go veey under the radar sadly it seems
Why do you think it’ll go under the radar?
Just finished DLing this - Jumping in right now!!
Whoa hey I just noticed you're left handed as well! Nice! I'm always worried when I buy a VR game that they won't support uslefties, lol. Good to see this game supports it!! I was a bit worried....
great review!
Have not had any of the frame time issues you have. I do have a 13900k and a 4090 though. Love this game so far!
*The game is fantastic. I am currently ranked #1 on the Raid Loot leaderboards.*
it should be noted he did an update today that fixed some of the issues he mentioned in terms of broken stuff. the ai is still dumb but a lot of glirchy stuff was fixed
What a lovely voice you have.
My biggest issue with this game outside of the janky AI is honestly the map design. I get that its procedurally generated, however most of the time the maps end up being pretty linear. ITR was insane because of the scale of the world. I mean, just imagine scaling to the top of a tower to pick off guys from afar then pillaging that base. That same thing isn't possible in this game.
I do like the setting more than ITR however, and I think ITR actually lost a chance to make some kind of interaction between other human scavenger groups and anomalies. Like a scenario where you're walking around, see a group of settlers preoccupied with a couple of mimics, then you just sneak behind the ruckus to rob the scavengers. Even though this game Convergence doesn't have that, human enemies are just so much better.
didnt expect asmr lol
12400 3090 feeling some frame drops too
how come there is so much single person devs in VR? noone is teaming up.. I know cause I didnt..
If you didn't, then you should be able to answer your question for us here ^^ so why didn't you team up? :)
Its just the odds of financial succes in a VR game are too low. So no-one is going to fund a VR game. If I work solo my costs are what I spend on staying alive, when I hire someone I need to pay them to stay alive + taxes they will need to pay. Legally I can pay myself below minimum wage as long as my company is not making any money (this is not legal advise, check with your lawyer), if I hire someone I cannot.
Alternatively you could setup a studio with other people who all partially own the company to skip most of this problem. But now you are open to drama. Someone gets bored of the project and does not put in the same hours as the others. Someone has a life event that makes them unavailable to the project. People will disagree on what the game is, and what is needed to make it work. I think this kind of working together can only work with people you already know and trust for a long time. The final nail to this last form is that for every 'X' people you add, your game will need to make 'X' times more money. So you will need to finish it more than 'X' times faster, or it needs to sell more than 'X' times more.
If VR was in the early adopter stage like in ~2016 there were companies willing to lost money now to be in the market as it grows, but with the current retention of players in VR and nothing positive on the horizon there is no upside to loosing money in VR now. So your left with passionate solo developers that are trying to make the game they wish they could just have bought 🙂
@@patricecoffee i have developed something a bit different, but the rule stays. there is no money in VR. @golongself answered pretty spot on. My "company" did not survive. I now have a bit more time so I can take some orders but soon it will be back to 9 (7) to 5 for me at the construction site. I believe, for game devs its even worse, since everything is free lately. Hell evewn my product is posted on thingiverse and the new version will also go there. We kind of f.cked ourselfs with this approach, but there is no turning back
Saw the trailer for this on UA-cam a week or two ago and I wrote it off as nothing more than another Stalker/ITR-type game. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this in the hopes it comes to Quest once it’s finished!
I have a pretty crappy laptop (3050ti & 10500H) but my game runs pretty fine with a small bit of lag
My 2070 super still out preforms!
Are u making a video on contractors show down? I just played contractors and u were in my game. U had your arms out and asked the guy to hold u.. he said wow u have a really cool voice!! That was me!
And if I was wrong then dam!!!!!
Sounds like me :-)
@@MrVRVoice u made my day!!
@@ChrisJones-sw9il 😄
This is AI voice or you have been blessed by genetic lottery?
Haha, it’s the latter (thanks). Have a look at my Fit for VR videos and you’ll see me speaking on camera.
He sounds like Patrick Stewart
@@kakazi2170a blend of Peter Serafinowicz and Matt Berry.
He's like the David Attenborough of VR
I don't buy into early access unless it's from a developer i know well and have confidence will deliver. Hopefully a publisher reaches out to this dev with some funding to help increase the size of the team. It's an incredible amount of work for one man.
This game has so much potential, but I met so many bugs, fell out the map so frequent, stuck between the car and the wall and eventually pushed out the house where the bot was just in front of me, and the most serious issue, you can't buy back what you sale to the trader, and when I chose to buy something, I picked it up, but I happende to release the trigger and dropped it, it's very hard to pick it up again, and I have to use up all my money until it stopped generating new items. Anyway I don't recommend to buy it right now, but if you love metro or stalker, this will be a great game.
This game runs at like 35 fps most of the time. Some better graphics settings would be good
mr man r u excited for the official metro vr game
Not really.
@@MrVRVoice I don't blame you. It's pretty much a given that AAA VR title is usually at best a theme park ride experience, and at worst a near-unplayable theme park ride experience.
@@GiggaGMikeE Exactly. In fact, any triple A title these days is never anything to get exited about, VR or not.
I don't think picking a dev studio know for actiony not serious shooters and puzzley games to make a very grounded shooter with a strong story focus and needing to be aware of your ammo and not costant spray and shoot @@GiggaGMikeE
wow truly great sounddesign!
I really like the idea of this game but that performance is rough. That would be rough on my 5800x. Also, the human AI is a rough sell. I don't mind a single developer not having half life combine level AI, but like you said, it seems like the visuals and sound are sooooo damn good that it demands something impressive from the human enemies too.
No violins 🎻 😢😭
you should narrate audiobooks
I'm trying to hire him to do my wife's book, lol
Ah yes, still need to finish reading through the manuscript :-)
@@MrVRVoice No rush at all my friend!
for me i have a 2060, 32 gigs of ram, intel i7-10700F CPU, and index and i got 70-80 fps the first hour i played. great game tho, funny ai
动作真快
啥？什么意思？
I didn’t know Matt Berry had a UA-cam channel
Under appreciated comment.
Meh, the first type of the game was better I think. It looks too mich like ITR. I'm waiting for ITR 2. Maybe I'll do it when the game is finished. Same for ITR 2 anyway
I bought this game... And then I refunded it. It's not ready. I spent more time fighting with the inexact than playing the game. I'll wait for a year.
I'm still not sure about the whole procedural levels thing. I feel it could fair a lot better as an open world with transitions, but I suppose that completely goes against the idea of the game. As repetitive as procedural levels can feel, I think it's only elevated by the fact that the world feels very static for now. We cannot open car doors or trunks, and much like ITR there is no interactable doors or physics puzzles, just drawers and crates to open. The mostly static world is a huge waste of the potential VR brings with it in my opinion. Half Life Alyx has so many things to pick up and toy around with, I just never get bored. But we are talking about a solo dev, so it's obvious polishing will take a great deal of time.
That the world is randomly generated was not mentioned at all, which is very unusual considering it is not a roguelike and you only compared it to paradox of hope, which to my knowledge does not feature any random generation. While the world gen isn't horrible, I expected more from it. As it is right now it's very samey and bland, even for a randomly generated world. I only played on the first stage though, so it might get better.
Paradox of Hope’s maps were also proc gen. Admittedly I did neglect to mention this in the review and probably should have done for clarity. It just never occurred to me for some reason 🤷🏻♂️
Don’t quote me on this but aren’t roguelike/lites more defined by the random challenge that comes from unknown upgrades and enemies per run as a primary? With the environment being secondary to that? Correct me if I’m wrong.
EDIT: Clarification. Paradox of Hope’s raid mode maps were proc gen, the single player was not. And Convegence is essentially that same raid mode in a different context. So…could also be classed as a roguelike/lite? I don’t know 🤷🏻♂️
Now im only waiting for standalone Meta 3 port
Would it be worth it? A lot of features would have to be scrapped to run this on standalone. Even if the current bad performance parts are due to bugs.
@@golongself yes. I really hate wasting 10 min. On simply conecting to pc
@@sc0t0a 10 mins. Being connected wireless and using steam link takes 30 seconds 😂
@@QuestNation3221 how. I always fuck 0,5 hour with steam vr
@@sc0t0 use virtual desktop. takes a click in headset and the you just launch the game
please read me bed time stories mr smooth chocolate voice
Has anyone else ever told you that you sound EXACTLY like J Michael Tatum??
great review. ultimately a disappointing game as it's yet another game that fucks up the most important feature. The AI.
It was the same problem with Into The Radius. I'd rather a janky experience with great ai, than a refined experience with dogshit AI.
To add to this AI was solved in fucking 2005 with the release of F.E.A.R. it's not like you need to be a turbo rocket scientist autist to program, FEARs was actually pretty simple but very effective.
I dont wanna do the 'if its so easy then you do it' thing. But you really shouldnt speak about how easy something is if you dont do it. FEAR had good AI, Halo has good AI, both series probably had someone whos main job was to work on AI. Neither were single dev games.
I agree ai is important, maybe the most important for games. But i hate the 'just do it good' attitude.
The end reality IS ‘just do it well’ though, whether you, I, or the dev likes it or not. If the standard has been provably done well and better 20 years ago, multiple times, consistently, it’s not unreasonable to expect a better minimum standard today.
Single dev or not, he’s chosen to enter this global arena with nearly 50 years worth of standards and expectations set before now, and take on every task himself. No one has forced him into this arena, no one has purposefully gimped him into a disadvantage, he has chosen this way, and must bear the responsibilities of that choice to keep up with expectations and ‘do it well’, as we know it can and has been done.
As for how easy it is relative to today’s conditions, I’m not sure either. But again I don’t think it’s unfair or unreasonable to look at something we were doing with frequency and ‘seemingly’ increasing ease and assume 20 years later that process may likely be easier or more streamlined or accessible to do now than it was back then, especially with how much more processing power and wealth of free knowledge and resources anyone can easily access these days. And if it’s not easier today…well, something’s gone wrong in the dev world which is a whole other rabbit hole.
hopefully they fix it this summer in itr 2 :)
Another game in which youtubers are praising exept Mr V. Why it has already 200+ reviews when better and finished titles have problems to reach such interest? it is not ready, content empty and for me waste of time in that state. I am playing Far Cry VR which has enemy AI better than lot of todays AAA games, they sometimes stuck but when everything works they can do crazy (for dumb AI) stuff like sneaking around to your back to attack.
this is the laziest developer i have ever seen , both games paradox of hope and this are obvious rips of metro and itr , as if he didnt learn from the first game he made , this new one is literally into the radius with rips of every popular vr system at the time development started . arizona 2s dog , into the radius weapon cleaning , effects and very obviously the exact same enemies just with different models . theres a difference between taking inspiration and just taking everything from other games
You’re being unreasonable and only focusing on the surface level.
Staying on topic with this game only, Into the Radius takes heavy inspiration from the Stalker series/Roadside Picnic books and adds its own twist and context to them…so what?
This game does the same, taking inspiration from a mixture of prior IP’s and adds its own twist and context…so what?
Arizona sunshine 2 owns the concept of a dog companion all of a sudden now…? As if that in itself is in any way artistically original… 🤔
And if this dev took inspiration to add a dog here from seeing/playing AS2…so what if he did?
It’s not as if it doesn’t make sense to have dog companion in this setting and hasn’t been done in other apocalyptic-vibe games and movies before. And if the dog enhances the game experience and does not detract, then great!
A dog companion is not an original artistic idea anyone can stake claim to, but is rather a common lived reality throughout human history.
Cleaning a weapon with a toothbrush is something ITR owns also? 🤔
I’ve never owned or cleaned a weapon personally so I cant say if this is something taken from real life, but I’m willing to bet ITR likely took inspiration for this from prior source material too. And even if it is completely original to ITR and CONVRGENCE has ripped this concept straight from it…….so what??
It makes perfect sense for this setting and if it’s a good realistic idea which lends a sense of additive immersion and depth, then great!
And for me this version is superior, because ITR’s implementation is visually janky and tanks the framerate when cleaning, this is not true in CONVRGENCE.
Laying claim to the concept of using a brush-like object to scrub a weapon as an original mechanic and criticising others for imitating that, is quite petty.
I’m not sure what exact same enemies you’re talking about? Russian-themed bandits in this setting are generally going to conform to its inspirations that came before.
I don’t know if the ‘demons’ on the second level are straight copies from Metro in behaviour. I’ve read the books and played some of the games and don’t recall these being similar in looks at least. If they are direct copies (which I doubt), then yes you’ve grounds for a raised eyebrow there.
If your complaint is rooted from today’s lack of genuinely original ideas in our art forms today, then I can definitely understand that as I too feel creativity and originality is on the decline in the west. But the things you’ve decided to pick on here are not so much artistic plagiarism as they are instead logical and likely things humans would do and use in this scenario, with the dev adding his own flavour to it through choice of art, lighting, assets, implementation, audio, context, etc, which can meld together and create something similar to others, but still its own thing.
If we imagine for a moment CONVRGENCE in a polished, finished state, that doesn’t choke the life out of my CPU…the sum total of the choices and details which make this game would, for me = an experience 100x more compelling and immersive than what ITR or most other VR games achieve at the moment, and thus feel very distinct for that.
Paradox was like Metro, because it was based off the same source material - so of course it is similar.
That isn't a problem (unless you're a lawer looking to kill something that's like the game you want to put out yourself in the future)
He is not lazy not at all, i have had a few experiences with game dev and making this kind of games specially in VR is incredibly difficult
I do understand the original commenter's point of view. I wouldn't call it lazy per se, but the intention behind this mashup is obvious. Take the most popular gameplay mechanics of recent VR hits and put them into one game, so that people who loved these bits and bites from other games will definitely be curious just for that.
Yes, ITR was the first VR game implementing hands on gun cleaning. They come up with the idea to take a gun, put it into a vice and then using toothbrushes, paper and WD 40 to work them. Similar to this game here, the still in development Ab Aeterno is also copying or rather being inspired by ITR. It's not about ownership. It's not about having a copyright or any claim on such an idea or mechanic. It's simply about mashing together tested and proven mechanics from other games without bringing anything original to the table.
If you were to make a game that plays out in a post-apocalyptic Paris, fighting infected monkeys, but all the surrounding gameplay is only what you find in ITR and TWD, then I'd say Paris was just a means to an end and the game itself is just trying to sell pre-existing gameplay, much like some people try to sell asset flips instead of doing their own models. And unfortunately, there are plenty of those in the market.
I don't know enough about this game to call judgment. My main point is this: If this game adds any new gameplay mechanics that are not present in the copied games, then the dev is bringing something new to the table. Making a complete game by adding old and new stuff is good. If I could mash up the favorite mechanics from my favorite games into a unified new thing, I would most certainly do so. Not for making money off of it, but for enjoying it myself.
But if the game only contains old stuff he's seen in other games and only tries to take over as many of them as possible to have them carry his game, then that's where the problems begin.
ITR was original because it was the first and only game akin to stalker in VR. Ab Aeterno is going a similar route and adding in lots of stuff that hasn't been in other games before, trying to build on the sense of interactive immersion ITR has started with. They are implementing a more Stalker-esque Anomaly scanner and stuff, whereas ITR just used casings to throw into.
I could argue for either side. But the line between originality, transformative material and plain copyright infringement is a slippery slope full of nuances. Should the game be unable to hold its own weight without relying on copyrighted material (this does not include ideas, but the way of executing an idea - in plain words: You are not forbidden from adding gun cleaning to your game, but if it works exactly the same way as it does in ITR, then that would fall under copyright violation), then it will likely die before it gets anywhere, or be hit with a copyright strike and forced to shut down.
But if there is a copyright problem, then the only people allowed to judge and enforce it are the original copyright holders. Third parties, like us, have no say in it.
Since it's still in early access, things are likely subject to change. Some of the mechanics may be placeholders until the dev has the right ideas and time necessary to polish them into new, better things. If not, and if the final game mechanics surrounding certain elements can be proven to be a 1:1 copy of another game that was released earlier, then the devs of those games would need to file a copyright claim. Then a committee would review both games and judge based on the amount of similarities and discrepancies they may find.
That's how it will go. Those are the facts. But in neither case would I call the dev lazy. Because even if you were to copy existing mechanics one to one: the source code for those isn't readily available. You still need to create the underlying code from scratch. Unless they sell stuff like that on the unity marketplace as well. I don't know about that.
I really dont see why I would play this over any flatscreen game?
Immersion?
For all the reasons stated in the video. VR is inherently just more immersive and engaging.
And I don't see why I'd play any flatscreen game like this over this. What's your point?
It doesn't make sense until you experience a really immersive VR game, then it all clicks. The problem is no flat-screen recording ever does VR justice
Actually playing in vr is much different. I find it hard to play flatscreen games now after experiencing good pcvr
Again a crap graphics pcVR game...
i wouldn't say its bad. you can tell in the main safehouse areas how detailed it is and once you go outside of it the quality of graphics drop but it is early access so they arnt focusing on graphics in the outside areas because its not important right now im assuming.
@@ICE0124 I don't think they will replace textures. More the developpement is near the end, more it will be difficult to replace textures...
@@ICE0124 its an absolut unsavable turd graphics wise---
Im tired of no brain skinwalkers that only care about graphics. For a VR game they are not that bad. If you base your opinion of a game on the graphics, then you most certainly need psychological help. Do better
The graphics are good!