Creators of Puzzle and Dragon, Gungho, released their free-to-play title, Let it Die, in early 2016 and has since received mixed reviews complimenting the game’s quality for a free-to-play title, but criticising the difficulty of the game.
Let it Die is an action RPG which plays similar to Dark Souls, but set in an modern world. The game has a modern dark gritty atmosphere, but for some reason, the game’s jump scares lacks a certain "oomf" marking certain parts of the game more of a parody, or maybe that was the point the whole time.
So why am I bringing this up now? Well, at TGS 2017, Gungho released a demo for the VR version of Let it Die. With that being said, instead of a VR version of the game, the demo feels more like playing the game with VR headsets only. What I mean is that instead of looking around to change camera angle, players play the game through a virtual screen. Players don’t get a full view of the entire screen 100% of the time, so changing weapons, checking items, and looking at your own HP bar and such will require players to look around.
Using the PlayStation VR headset to play the game does make the game slightly more immersive. Isolating certain senses from the real world makes the entire game experience easier to fall into. Although it doesn’t feel like playing a new game entirely, it does keep players on edge. From time to time during the demo, I did find myself getting shocked from the weirdest reasons, simply because I was more on edge.
But at the end of the game, the Let it Die isn’t a game that brings groundbreaking innovation to the series. If you’re looking for frustration, the Souls series easily stands above Let it Die and the game doesn’t give players that addictive satisfaction of mowing down enemies with one swipe like many other ARPG offers. One thing is for sure though, no matter whether or not you’re into the entire genre of challenging games like the Soul series, Let it Die definitely feels much better than most free-to-play games. From the graphics to the game’s system, it is still hard to believe that Gungho released the game as a free-to-play title.
Whether or not you played Let it Die without the VR, it’s safe to say that you’ll still get more than what you paid for, literally. All visitors who try Let it Die VR at TGS2017 also gets a free Let it Die fidget spinner… so, win win?