izigame.me

TRASH GAME - Read why here.
I'm going to request a refund for this, but I'll probably not get one because I'm over the 2 hour limit. This game had me excited - then concerned - then frustrated - and now, apathy. I've gone through all the stages. Keep in mind, I went directly from Arizona Sunshine 2 to this, so there are some parallels - and some VERY big differences. I'll walk you through this below.
Excited: I've got a i9 9900ks with a 4090 Trinity OC running Steam VR with my Quest 3. This game looks beautiful, I'm hot off Arizona Sunshine 2, having a blast. I jump into this game and it's a little different right off the bat, but I'm enjoying FPS VR titles, so I think nothing of it. At this point, the game is a solid A+.
Concerned: I go to the central hub ("The Line") and get into my first mission. As I'm starting, some random joins. Knowing it's my first, I had gone with Survivor difficulty, and thought I was going with 4 AI. My first map experience was some random dude trash talking me through the whole map, getting frustrated with me that I was still learning and trying to play (on the easiest difficulty, with 2 other AI to round out our 4 person team), and I was REALLY irritated that this was a 4 player REQUIRED game. This was my first huge red flag and I should have immediately stopped there, but knowing I could play through the game with AI, I decided to just push through it. Upon mission completion, I got my harvest ("money") and unlocked a new gun, basically a desert eagle. Neat! Back at the hub, I went and noticed there were other guns available - but I didn't know how to get them. I would soon realize I only unlock guns through completing mission levels, and mods (things to make the guns better) are only unlocked by a "gacha" system. Furthermore, the tier of these mods is locked behind difficulty levels. IE, if I chose to play on survivor difficulty for the entirety of the game, I would only get low-tier mods. This reminds me of the concept, "I need a job to get the experience, but I need experience to get the job". Still, the first level was a learning curve for me (despite my FPS VR familiarity) but it wasn't terrible and I knew with time it'd be a cakewalk. Cool. Red flags observed, but let's carry on.
Frustrated: I go through a few different levels of the game with increasing number of snowies ("zombies") as I continue to carry on with AI. I have learned to QUICKLY press the "start mission" button in order to avoid randoms joining my game and ruining my experience. (Online mode appears to be REQUIRED, I cannot turn it off, this is a point of annoyance for me.) I work my way through enough levels to unlock a few guns, and eventually I end up at some kind of "midpoint" campaign level where I have to fight a boss. First time, he wrecks me - and I realize this is just one long level, with no checkpoints (at checkpoints you buy health and such) but the arena is pretty big, so just bad luck, I'll try again. The second time I do the map I actually kill the boss - three times. Yes, in what is a gigantic annoying PITA twist of events the Devs picked the "Kill boss 3 times" mechanic as a "midpoint". I was pretty disappointed, especially after my hands were cramping from such a long fight. (Your mileage may vary.) Also at this point, it feels like the AI are becoming less and less effective. They don't kill as much as they (seemed) to before and I feel like I'm doing more and more of the work. I don't mind that, but when my hands start to cramp up because I'm white knuckling the controllers, it turns from a stressful experience into a frustrating one. Anyway, that wasn't really the straw that broke the camels back - I had beaten that boss fight and moved on to the next map. I play the next map, they say "There aren't as many snowies in this area" and I think great, a breather. Well, let me tell you, they fking lied. The most snowies I've seen yet were on that map, and we get all the way to the end (a kinda cool looking movie theater) and the culmination fight begins. First off, the reload box was behind an object - you had to be at a specific point in the arena in order to hit it. Second, an eater spawned, no issue. A juggernaut spawned, took him down. Then an eater, juggernaut, gunner, AND crusher (the boss type I JUST KILLED) all spawn, as well as a million snowies, on survivor difficulty, with me and three AI. Two of the AI go down, I'm clearing the room, it's JUST the crusher left, he somehow gets me despite being half the arena away from him, and I watch as he runs over to the remaining AI and the AI just STANDS THERE and lets him kill him. Oh yeah! Did I mention that if you get hit by the boss, EVEN ONCE, you're done? On survivor difficulty, the easiest difficulty in the game? What a literal joke.
Apathy: So I've gone through all my stages of frustration. I'll put in for a refund request which will probably get denied because this kind of game commits the largest cardinal sin: It sucks you in with a few hours of easy gameplay so you CANT refund it, then it ramps up the difficulty. I don't want to play with other players. I RESENT this Dev for making me have to do that. I RESENT the Dev for half-assing the AI. I RESENT being hoodwinked. I have nothing but resentment and apathy left.
Do not buy this game. Let it freeze to death and teach the Devs a lesson. Nobody playing a game on EZMODE like this, should have this kind of experience. Could have been great, but this is just trash. Shame on predatory Devs.