[Disclaimer: I received a review key for ARKERO VR through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators. The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience. Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]
ARKERO VR
Systems: Meta Quest 2 & 3, Steam VR
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Publisher: Interco Industries LLC
Developer: Interco Industries LLC
Time Spent: 37 Minutes 45 Seconds
Playlist on YouTube
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Well, I finally got ARKERO VR downloaded, and this review is coming out weeks later than I had originally planned; my experience with the Meta store in regards to download keys prior to a game being officially released did not impact my feelings at all about the game. What did slightly impact my review was seeing that there is still an "Early Access" banner on the title in the game, which seems to mean one of two things. One, ARKERO VR is currently incomplete, and there will be more planned content added throughout the year. Or two, that the game is complete but the "Early Access" banner is still on the title screen, which doesn't give me great feelings about the state of the game. The fact that the Settings button didn't seem to work or lead to anything also didn't bode well in regards to this game being "complete." But maybe I'm just overreacting after the feelings of bait-and-switch that was the main campaign in Ashen Arrows.
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Before I started, I knew that ARKERO VR was a combined MOBA and single-player game, so I knew going into it that I wasn't going to be focusing on the MOBA aspect since I was going to be playing mostly at work where access to facebook/Meta websites is blocked, but also because I'm not a particularly prolific MOBA afficianado. But I did play one round of "Conquest" with each of the available player slots filled with computer-controlled zombie knights, which did give me a bit of a feel for how a typical game is supposed to operate; although I somehow missed the cue that the ballista was ready or however you're supposed to unlock the ballista. I probably also should have played through the trials to get a feel for each of the three character types rather than jumping right in and not fully understanding the mechanics, but that's me for you. So I decided that I would be the ranger coming off of my time with Ashen Arrows.
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The ranger was fine, but then again, the Conquest mode was also just fine. The most exciting part was going up against the giant orc/troll/champion creature and figuring out how best to dance around it while it swung at me with its flail. I wish that there was a button to press that would spin your character 180 degrees or to be able to move backwards. For all I know, there was something in the settings that would allow free movement with the joystick and not just targeted movement, but again, I couldn't access the settings menu. I also don't know anything about the ents/treants that were wandering back and forth on the map. Were they actually enemies or just creatures to get in the way? They never attacked, but they did have a health bar, so it was never really clear. The match was essentially over once our team had access to the ballista, which the Red Team grunts never seemed to target, but I'm sure it would've received a lot of enemy fire if I had been going up against real people.
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The trials were a bit of a mixed bag. For the mage, I really liked the different spells and how to select them by rotating your hand. That being said, I didn't see a point for the lightning spell, which took a while to figure out, and even then, I'm not 100% how it was supposed to be beneficial. It felt like it was an area of attack spell, where you selected the area, then triggered the spell, and then watched as dark clouds formed over the area before piercing down lightning bolts on the selected area. Compared to the ice spell, which instantaneously cast out a line of ice that culminated in a burst of ice shards from the ground, which seemed to kill anything it touched, this spell seemed very overpowered. The fire spell was more like a basic attack spell that shot out a small ball of fire with very little recharge time between shots. But since you could duel-wield spells, you could essentially just cast an ice spell with one hand, wait a second, and cast another one towards any enemies that were out of range, then cast another with the other hand, and by that time, your first hand would've recharged. The level itself was a basic dungeon/cave crawl and ended upon reaching a wooden door. That was it.
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The Arbalist trial was by far the most interesting in that it culminated in a boss fight and required destroying an object to complete the level. Like the Mage, the Arbalist had three different bolts to choose from: a basic bolt, a poison bolt that does damage over time, and a fire bolt that does fire damage and explodes upon impact, possibly damaging other enemies in the vicinity. I assume that the recharge time varies depending on the bolt, but I never noticed any significant delay between the bolt types. Maybe in different trials or in Conquest, the poison bolt could be beneficial if there are enemies that have a resistance towards fire or the regular bolt, but I found that I was mostly drawn to the fire bolt since they seemed to do the most damage and even if I missed my shot, I still had the second crossbow to fire. The boss fight at the end was pretty fun, even though I found that I didn't need to move around much, and from what I could tell, the only attack the enemy had was summoning more grunts on the ground to attack me.
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The last trial for the Ranger was easily the weakest for several reasons. First, the biggest draw for the Ranger class is that your arrows have an extended range compared to the attacks from the Arbalist and the Mage. But when you're playing in a cave setting with frequent turns and cave walls that jut out, having a significant range advantage doesn't really feel like an advantage. Second, after playing two characters that each had three different types of attacks, coming to a character class that had a basic attack and a charged variation of the same attack felt like a downgrade. The stage didn't really feel like it took advantage of the Ranger class, and not coincidentally, was the fastest of the three trials.
As it stands right now, ARKERO VR feels more like a demo than a fully fledged game. Maybe it's that there's still "Early Access" on the title screen, or that the Settings button doesn't work, or that there's only one stage in each of the trials, which each last for fewer than 10 minutes; or that what looked like a 10 minute timer to beat the trial never worked. Maybe the meat of the game really is the MOBA, but it feels like asking a lot to have 11 other friends who also have the same type of VR headset as you (I couldn't tell if this is available cross-platform). And unlike the wording in the description, I did not find or see any power-ups in Conquest mode, no PVE gameplay apart from the trials, no survival mode, and no swords or melee weapons. As an early access game or even a demo, it has potential, but as a fully released game, there's just not enough here to keep me interested after playing for 45 minutes.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
They've Already Died
P.S. I I D P I D I Th?
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