COMPOUND

     [Steam E.A.G.] COMPOUND is a Rogue FPS Shooter. What does this mean? You have a series of levels you progress through and if you die one time, you are back to your apartment and start all over! This is a welcome change from the numerous other VR FPS out there as you do not fight the game in Waves. You progress through an 8-bit wonderland, clear a Stage and move to the next.

     It is hard to give an estimate of how long a playthrough is as it is all based on user skill and difficulty level settings. The Developer is constantly adding and fixing content. When I started the review it had around 10 levels and now it is up to 13 or 14.

     IMPORTANT VR NOTE: This game can and may get you motion sick if you do not have "sea legs" or are not used to a VR experience where you are freely moving in a 3D space. As such, the Developer has put in numerous options in the game to help you with this. There is a Teleportation locomotion setting and some Video Smoothing to help. Take breaks as needed, and maybe open a window of have a fan lightly blowing on you.

     There really is not much of a story, but I will offer a bit of knowledge on what is transpiring. You play as some sort of Mercenary, or a begrudged employee. A corporation runs most of the city (perhaps country or even world) and there is a deadly virus that they have access to. Do what they want and you get the antidote for you and your family. You will start in your old apartment, enter an elevator, and start in the sewers to get to the Compound. You will traverse through the Medical Lab, Sales and Marketing, and even a Reception area. Generally, each section contains 1 or 2 maps before you move to the next environment, so you won't get bored. Well, unless you die a lot and have to repeat the Sewers again and again.

     There are weapon and ammo pickups as you progress. Most levels will have one type of weapon available on the floor, but you can move between levels with what you have; I prefer the rocket launcher so it goes with me everywhere. As you defeat the enemies on each stage, they will drop either a Hamburger (HP restore) or some ammo.

     Defeating each floor will alert you that you have cleared the stage, and you can use your minimap to teleport to the entrance to move on. The map is also helpful to find areas you have not been in or to see something like an item drop displayed.

     You do have the use of both hands in the game and can have a weapon in each. The problem with double weapons is the inability to grab the pickups laying around. Sometimes you can grab them, but really, it is easier to have one hand free to pick stuff up and teleport about the map.

     The humor in some of the art is fantastic, and watch out for those elderly... just shoot them!

     The game has a STEEP buy-in of $20 and it is not even close to being finished (something I had to consider before reviewing it). There is a DEMO of the game available to get your feet wet however, but it does not give you "enough" of what the game really is. If you have the money, go for it! I recommend it. If you do not, get the DEMO or wait and see if it winds up on a Steam sale. As of this writing, I would put it in a $10-$13 range based on content. The Developer has delivered on his promise to get it longer and has said that it will not increase in price after being a Steam Early Access Game and going Gold.