I played By Grit Alone for an hour to see if this sci-fi VR horror game has what it takes to scare the living daylights out of you.
By Grit Alone is a horror VR title from UK-based Crooks Peak, coming soon to the Meta quest platform. A story-driven adventure broken into an anthology, exploring abandoned spaceships in a fight for survival. UploadVR was given an exclusive developer walkthrough ahead of next month’s launch, which you can check out below.
The short preview I played on Quest 3showed the creepy atmosphere on board the Agapemonan abandoned spaceship filled with burned corpses and nasty insects. From the start I knew something was wrong, as holographic images showed scenes with countless outlines of people walking around, while other information told me about “sisterhoods”, “wives” and “wives”.
Eventually I learned that a cult leader had taken these women on board, and it’s clear that something had gone wrong, as all that remained were their decapitated and charred bodies. Something sinister was going on, as revealed in the files of an agent investigating the cult. Oh, and apparently my character was trapped in an area of space known as a sort of “Bermuda Triangle,” a graveyard of spaceships where hostile aliens feed on unsuspecting victims.
By Grit Alone's premise is intriguing enough, and I'm told the development team also includes writers who worked on Resident Evil 8, Dead Space, Judge Dredd and Dr. Who. It doesn't seem like there's any hand-holding when it comes to explanations either, as I had to piece together what actually happened via holo-logs and various tablets.
The first few levels didn't scare me as much as I would have liked, although By Grit Alone is more focused on action horror. Many of the AgapemonThe corridors are dark and dank, covered in strange growths and goop. While the atmosphere does a bit of an attempt to build tension, the enemy designs in these levels are a bit uninspired.
Mostly I've seen small spider-like insects crawling on floors and ceilings so they can bite my character, and also giant flies buzzing around spitting green poisonous gobs. There are also spiky vines whose bright yellow orbs must be shot to destroy them or prevent them from exploding when my character gets near them.
Related to the above, the only weapons available were a shotgun and grenades slung into waist-high holsters. Since I play seated, I could easily pick up a weapon with my right hand, shoot enemies, and then pick up a grenade with my left. It’s worth noting that grenades stick to enemies and surfaces by default; they can also be slid into the gun to dispense ammo, which was a nice touch.
Still, I hope By Grit Alone has additional weapons that I can discover in mid-to-late-game areas. As far as I can tell, the preview build only shows 1/6 of the campaign. Playing through the entire story with just my default loadout would lead to a rather disappointing run.
I also ran into several issues with the limited settings available. The main issue is that snap turning (with angle options) would sometimes stop working. I couldn’t tell if this bug was due to the Quest 3 or the game itself, but I had to restart the game a few times. When switching to smooth turning, there is no built-in vignette feature to alleviate motion sickness. Additionally, I didn’t see any options regarding height offset and brightness/gamma. There is also no magnetic pull/grip feature.
These issues became apparent in certain sections. For example, if I dropped an item or there was a data tablet on the floor, I had to duck down to pick it up, although the degree of inconvenience varied. Incidentally, the position of my holsters meant that I could accidentally grab my weapon or grenades without intending to.
One particular encounter in the Holy Chapel area involved restoring power to a grid while strange insects and grasping vines kept spawning. New vines kept spawning to my left and right after I destroyed the previous ones, meaning I had to keep spinning quickly to shoot spherical growths while looking back toward the center to repair the grid. I felt dizzy after just a few tries.
Nevertheless, I hope that these issues will be resolved as we get closer to By Grit Alone’s expected launch in September. There will undoubtedly be some thrills and surprises as you make your way through abandoned spaceships in the Bermuda Triangle of space.