Developer / Publisher – Wanadev Studio
Price – US $19.99 / CA $19.99 / EU €14.99 / UK £12.99
Release Date – May 4th, 2023
Input – 2 x Motion Controllers
Play Area – Sitting, Standing, Roomscale
Store Links – Steam, Quest
Reviewed on – Oculus Quest w/ Link
VR Horror games are becoming tough for me to review for the very simple reason that for every RE Village or Cosmodread are a plethora of middling titles that carry similar story’s, dated visuals and more often than not devolve into walking simulators with little else going on. I’m not saying any of these elements make these games bad, far from it, but the best VR survival horror games put those smaller efforts to shame and while it might not be fair to compare AAA developed titles to those from smaller studios, that doesn’t make the comparison any less valid as we move into this next generation of VR. So, with that in mind, let’s see how Paradise Hotel holds up to current day VR standards.
The lighting effects on PC are beautiful!
Propagation has you in the shoes of Emily Diaz who has been stuck in the hotel for a few days now, locked in the kitchen with a security guard while supplies dwindle and both of you wait for rescue. A radio transmission is picked up alerting you that said rescue is at hand if you can get to the roof and that your twin sister is also alive somewhere in the hotel leading you to leave the safety of the kitchen. Unfortunately, the hotel has been overrun by the undead as a virus has raced through the city mutating humans into disturbing creatures that are all out to feast on your flesh. Soon enough you’ll be left on your own though you won’t be defenceless as you’ll have a pistol at your side while you use your wits to navigate through the hotel.
There are a few comfort options available including teleportation or smooth locomotion with some blinder options as well but at the time of this review, click-turning is only available though you can customize this with smooth transitions or instant ones. You can also adjust your belt which carries your inventory, pistol and health spray with a flashlight being picked up early on that can be mounted on your chest and grabbed at anytime and used by hand should you want to. Those main items will require ammo, antiseptic refills or batteries respectively to keep being used which can be found throughout the 3-hour campaign and while some may in plain sight, many others will be hidden in drawers and closets meaning you’ll have to investigate every single container you can, a process which does get a little old after awhile. The inventory system is also quite clunky as it need to be brought up by a face button which then displays all your items as icons on a menu screen being held in your hand with any items needed having to be grabbed by your off hand so you’ll need to put away anything you may have been carrying just to grab a key or something before arming up once more. Thankfully, if you are holding one of those 3 main items, your pouch at your waist will allow you to grab refills for that item by just grabbing at it, making for a system that feels like it was designed for a flat version of the game but with enough thought for VR immersion to ensure that in frantic situations it’s still easy to reload and keep firing or heal up.
It’s gore galore in Paradise Hotel
While you will be slowly exploring this hotel, I wouldn’t call this a walking sim thanks to the combat and stealth mechanics at play, plus the occasional puzzle that shows up. The gunplay is fairly basic with there being only 2 weapons in the game, the first being your pistol and the latter being a shotgun. Initially you’ll only encounter some basic zombies that can downed with 3 bullets to the head or a bunch more to the body and while ammo counts can be plentiful on the lower 2 difficulties, it’s easy to go through a lot of rounds if you’re not aiming for the head. What’s worse is that these felled zombies will rise again after some time adding a little pressure to each area as the longer you stay in an area, the more likely the dead will rise once more, using up your precious ammo. If you are slow and silent than sneaking is an option but as these corpses do wander the halls, I found it better just to take them out, so I didn’t have to worry about them bugging me as I explored nearby. The shotgun does allow for head removals which will prevent them from coming back to life and once I picked it up, I never used the pistol again. As far as the combat goes, it felt mostly fair though I did find the guns offset to be a little high forcing me to bend my wrist a little more than what was comfortable or just letting the zombies get a little closer to me for some easier headshots. Some of the faster enemies are harder to kill as they can take more damage than your pistol or shotgun can hold and reloading or healing while they are chasing you down can be a bit frenetic and feel quite awkward at times. Should they get to close you can physically push them away allowing for a quick second to reload and you can also dash in any direction by pressing the thumbstick in while moving in that direction which will be needed for mini and main boss battles as some of these foes can move quite fast.
You’re gonna want to look through every cabinet and drawer you can.
There is an auto save feature available on all but the hardest difficulty with the other save option being a manual one that only lets you save at a logbook found on each floor. The few puzzles I did encounter were relatively easy to figure out or had nearby notes with combinations on them and while they weren’t very challenging, they did help keep the gameplay from feeling to repetitive. For those trophy hunters out there, there are 30 little squid statues hidden through the hotel and in my first playthrough of the game, I only managed to find 20 of them and I was searching every room I could so keep your eyes peeled, if you care.
PC or Quest 2…both version look great.
The gameplay in here is serviceable but what makes it better is the presentation as, regardless of the platform you play this on, this hotel looks pretty freaking horrific. On the PC side of things, the hotel looks great with gore, ichor and blood trails permeating just about every room in here and some solid dynamic lighting really adds to all that creepiness. Zombie models look great and come in enough variety that seeing the same zombies was rarely an issue, especially considering how dark the game can be at times. They’ll stalk the halls and if alerted to your presence may stumble or lunge at you with later mutants coming in a few disgusting forms that turn this into a game that feels very much to be inspired by older Resident Evil games, and I do say that with praise. There is an undeniable quality to your surroundings with this 7-story hotel feeling very authentic to what you find in the real world, outside of some human sized vents, though as this is a hotel, the few floors you visit will look quite similar as room designs and hallways repeat quite often. Not all rooms and corridors are created equal as many are covered in gore with items strewn about that help identify specific areas. The Quest version is fairly close to the PC version, and I was surprised by just how good this looked on the Meta headset. Dynamic lighting and reflections have been removed or reduced and there is generally less of everything including less gore, debris and finer details though honestly the Quest 2 version hold up amazingly well and is one of the better-looking games on the headset. As I mentioned, the menu system is a little clunky and when your hands get near grabbable items, lines will appear to help indicate that they can be grabbed with ammo counts also being overlayed over your weapon though these can be toggled in the option menu if you find them getting in the way of immersion. Despite some minor misgivings, Paradise Hotel delivers in the visual presentation department offering an experience that feels small, but very refined and for those that enjoy guts and gore, Propagation has the most I have seen in a game in some time, along with more than a few jump scares.
This could be a little more immersive.
Sound design is for the most part on point with some excellent 3D audio and a ridiculously over the top unnerving ambience that never let me rest. When wandering the halls, you’ll hear the screams and groans of the undead, the creaks of closing doors and the floorboards being disturbed and any other number of effects that kept me feeling unsettled. Music is sporadic and only kicks in during intense scenes or any dramatic moments which I appreciated as the suspense relied heavily upon the sounds of the hotel. Outside of your own voice, the few other actors in here miss the mark thanks in large part to some delivery by actors whose 1st language probably isn’t English though given the genre, I actually kind of enjoyed the ‘B’ movie quality of the performances and they really didn’t negatively impact the game or story at all.
I don’t want to overhype Propagation though for the most part, I enjoyed this from start to its very open-ended conclusion. It doesn’t break any barriers in regard to setup, story or gameplay but delivers traditional horror tropes and in a quality fashion that was surprising. I wasn’t a fan of the ending as it heavily implies that there will be DLC or a second game coming and does feel like half of a story but given the price what’s here is still worth paying for. Where horror games in VR can be all too common and middling in quality, it’s nice to see one that delivers a higher end experience, even though it’s smaller in scale.
The shotgun is a blast!
I don’t want to overhype Propagation though for the most part, I enjoyed this from start to its very open-ended conclusion. It doesn’t break any barriers in regard to setup, story or gameplay but delivers traditional horror tropes and in a quality fashion that was surprising. I wasn’t a fan of the ending as it heavily implies that there will be DLC or a second game coming and does feel like half of a story but given the price what’s here is still worth paying for. Where horror games in VR can be all too common and middling in quality, it’s nice to see one that delivers a higher end experience, even though it’s smaller in scale.
Wanadev Studio provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!
