VR Game Library Delving -- Propagation VR

Hi. I typically run a family friendly blog, but ya gotta know that I'm looking at a FREAKING ZOMBIE KILLING GAME today, so there's your warning. There's gonna be pictures of zombies and blood and stuff, so . . . um . . . sorry. (But, since I used to talk all the time about 7 Days to Die and no one complained, I doubt anyone is going to complain -- just being upfront here.)

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Continuing my look at games that I haven't played from my VR library, today I'm offering up a little horror wave shooter game known as Propagation VR. It originally released in 2020 and apparently it warranted a follow on game known as Propagation Paradise Hotel just this year!

The grabbing hands, grab all they can. All for themselves after all, it's a zombie-ish world!

In Propagation VR, you're thrown into a subway tunnel and asked to survive waves of zombies (and other things) swarming your position. You have your fists, you have a handgun, and you have a shotgun. That's it. That's the game. OH wait, there is a story to it all as well. After you finish a bit of killing, you get a bit of a respite while your "saviors" come to the rescue. You're a cute civilian with an unlimited supply of ammo, and they're in full gas-masked getup. 

I did find a quick way to end the game here by the way. All you have to do is shoot one of the friendly NPCs, and they give you one free Game Over screen. How can anyone resist not shooting these guys in the face?

How did the NPC survive a gun shot to the face? HOW?

Wave 1 is not bad. It's a mix of standard run-of-the-mill zombies . . . a couple fast ones . . . a couple that like to shoot you back . . . a bunch of slow hobblers. You know, zombies. of all kinds.

Zombie Meat Chunks EVERYWHERE!

Reloading is pretty simple, you grab a cartridge of bullets from your side and slot it in your pistol or you load your shotgun pellets one by one. OR, you go into the options and make it so when you press A it loads for you. Took me a couple times through the first part of the game to figure that out.

Pressing A is great, but I actually like the feel of loading shotgun shells, putting the shotgun behind your back, grabbing the handgun from your waist, loading a cartridge of bullets, and backhanding a zombie if they get too close while you reload. It has a nice rhythm and feel to its death march.

Shell goes into shell slot. Got it. Gotta quickly reload those shells while you can!

Wave 2 features these, featureless human meatbags that like to get down on all fours and skitter toward you once they take damage. It's . . . not pleasant looking. Pro-tip, turn up the Gamma so you can actually see these things, or keep it low if you like being spooked by sounds. At the end of wave 2 you're greeted by a couple of the army NPCs that ran ahead and got ate, now returning as military zombies.

Bloody fleshed-over-eyes buddies!

Wave 3 is all about the spiders -- giant ones and small ones that pop out of the giant ones! Lots of creepy spiders all around you. Shotgun works wonders here. At the end of the Wave, a MEGA spider comes out and claws you with two of its legs. As Dory would say, "Just keep shooting, just keep shooting, just keep shooting." (Well, Dory if she was in a zombie apocalypse that is.)

Big jumpy guys with eight tiny eyes!

Wave 4 is simply a boss wave. A big ol' creepy man jumps out of the corpse of the giant spider and we get to have a great session of pop the boils on his back, stomach and arms. The most terrifying part of course is when he attacks you from above. Eventually you shoot him in the back and he falls over on to the subway tracks, getting run over . . . and you win with a scoreboard tallying just how horrible you did on your way to victory.

He needs those boils lanced and everything will be fine. 

. . and that's it.  There's nothing more to it other than to up the difficulty and try again for a better score. I guess if it's Halloween and I have people over who want to play a spooky game, Propagation VR fits the bill, otherwise it feels a bit like a once and done experience. Not bad though.  I think it may actually be free now that they have the paradise hotel version? 

If you want to play it co-op with another player, they have a $10 DLC you can buy though.  It could be fun playing back to back with someone, although I did ram my fist into the desk once trying to swing at a zombie's head.  Co-op would be dangerous if you were actually back to back. Best not do that.

Happy Dueling!