Is this shooter Bore-der-lands?
Run into the unknown, fight monsters, scavenge loot, and try to make it back before you are swallowed by the fog. The Foglands is an atmospheric roguelike adventure where you’ll discover new paths and uncover old secrets.
Now before I continue I need to state that I was only able to play the game in standard mode and not the PSVR 2 option as I currently lack a unit.
Roguelikes have been all the rage over the recent years with the likes of Returnal, The Binding of Issac, Hades and countless others. There aren’t many FPS in the market that try their hand at it and the ones that have haven’t been all that memorable, so maybe The Foglands is the answer?
I can’t say if the PSVR 2 feels more immersive or if there is actually any feedback in the controllers or not, but the standard non-VR version lacks any form of rumble for the guns or hit detection which is bizarre for an FPS. There is variety in the rooms you tackle but these tend to quickly repeat themselves, even during my first run I thought to myself “Haven’t I just done this exact room?”
It’s a shame because the story is decent and is told through a combination of in-game voice-acting and narration from the main character as an older character telling his story throughout. I loved the vibe of the game and its art style, it’s just a shame that the RNG rooms tend to repeat themselves far too often and there isn’t a lot of distinction between the rest. Power-ups also lack the oomph you would expect and the AI is poor, mostly standing and waiting to be shot.
There are some performance woes as well such as loading framerate issues between rooms and texture pop-in, as well as janky animations for enemies. The voice-acting is great though and the soundtrack is also decent, which makes it much more of a shame.
The Verdict
The Foglands has a nice visual style and decent story, but is let down by repetitive level design, bad AI and the lack of feedback is odd. In the market of roguelikes, sadly there are much better out there.