Hi everyone! This is the day many of you all have been waiting for! The most requested feature in the game’s history is finally here: full bHaptics support! We’ve implemented 100 unique haptics that will make you feel even more immersed every moment of the game, pushing immersion to an entirely…

Hi everyone, This is a very important moment for our small company. Our second game, Of Lies and Rain, is now out of early access and ready for the public. A Little Backstory: Castello Inc was founded in March 2021. None of us came from the video game industry. I was creating 3D renderings for…

A great VR game for gamers

Disclaimer: I received the game for free for playtesting it, but I still bought and gifted a couple copies to support the devs. This is an Alyx-inspired VR game with its own personality and mechanics. It’s built from the ground up for VR, with physics puzzles and interactions that only make sense in VR – this is not something you could play on flatscreen. The game mixes a lot of elements: there’s platforming, shooting, puzzles, narrative, and even nostalgic callbacks. The target audience for this are the true gamers. While it's clearly inspired by Alyx, you can’t fairly compare it one-to-one because this is made by a small indie team of just 5 people and they did an amazing job. What you get is a full game with about 10 hours on a first playthrough, with exploration rewarded by hidden lore and worldbuilding. I absolutely recommend exploring the world and watching the story it tells you with the environment. Some dealbreakers to note: you should already be somewhat used to VR since this isn’t baby’s first VR game, it’s not ideal for people with motion sickness, and there’s very little hand-holding. Especially platforming sections some people found too difficult. There are no human NPCs or enemies, just the main character and a voice in your ear, and while most platforming can be skipped, some sections are mandatory. Right now on Meta you are getting only standalone version without the more superior PCVR which is available only on steam. Lastly, quick tip: the pistol, shotgun, and default data-world gun are all you really need if you use them smartly, and for upgrades I’d go triple jump for data worlds first and then laser for the pistol. I want this game to succeed, because I want more of this kind of VR in the future and I hope you can buy it and support the devs.

76 found this helpful

Great Game

The game is atmospheric, clearly inspired by titles like Half-Life and Tron. The game is in Early Access, but it has everything it needs: a full story, upgrades, weapons, enemies, locations... The developers did a great job, and the hard work and heart they put into it is evident in this game.

55 found this helpful

Awesome story game!

This game is a lot of fun! I got a copy for free to help with play testing. Even in early stages, this game was captivating. After they developed more features, it just kept getting better and better. If you like story action like in Alien, Metro, and Behemoth, you're going to like this one! Devs were very receptive to feedback, making a polished experience. They will continue to listen if you share feedback with them.

39 found this helpful

What a fun Ride!

This game has that chunky tactile feel i love when playing vr. All the equipment, actions and gameplay mechanics feel great inside the headset. The demo did s great job conveying this destroyed world, but man, there is so much more cool stuff to see in the full version. If your unsure of picking this one up, just go try the demo first. You'll be hooked! Disclaimer: I have been playtesting this game from the early stages. I'll recieve the game for free but I'm also purchasing 4 copies to give away.

29 found this helpful

Do You Want Fun, or a Challenge?

First of all, let me say this. The title of this review is basically the whole point of the game: do you want fun, or do you want a challenge? Because that sums this game up perfectly. Do you want to play something fun, or do you want to play something challenging? I’ve been playing VR since way back with the Oculus Go, so I was there from the beginning. I’ve played almost every big-name VR game, especially the popular ones, and this is only the second time I’ve ever made a comment or review. So I’m not someone who comments on everything. And I can honestly say this: of every VR game I’ve ever played, Lies and Rain is hands down the best-looking VR game ever. When people think about VR, they imagine something like this. Some VR games look realistic, some look like Atari from the 1980s, but this game looks real. The graphics are no lie. This is what people fantasize VR is supposed to look like. Of all the games I’ve played that are supposed to be futuristic, this is the one that actually feels like it came from the future. It feels like it is from a different time zone. The world, the art, the design, the atmosphere, the puzzles, the enemies, all of it is unique. You can tell a lot of creativity went into this game. So with all that going for it, what’s the problem? The problem is simple: it is not fun. Or at least, it was not fun for me. The biggest issue is the data worlds. Before I bought the game, I read a lot of comments, and one thing kept coming up: people hate the data worlds. I thought, “It can’t be as bad as people say.” No. It’s worse. The data worlds look great. The world itself looks great. But they are annoying, and you have to complete them. You cannot skip them. They are mandatory. And they are one of the biggest reasons this game feels more like a task than something I actually want to play. It is one of those things where, let’s say there are seven steps to finish it. You get to step six, then die before step seven, and now you have to start all over from the beginning. That is unbelievably annoying. You may have to do it dozens of times, and every time you have to repeat the same steps again. The game gives you no real leeway with that. And what is the reward? You just move forward. That’s it. No power-up, no bonus, no nothing, no women, no nothing. You are getting nothing except permission to keep going. That is what I mean when I say this game is challenging, but not fun. The game is also very slow. I do not mean slow like nothing happens. There are enemies, and there is action. But it feels like you feel every inch you are taking just to get to the next plot point or the next area. It feels like an endless campaign of, sheesh, just trying to get somewhere. The enemies are designed well. I like that they are unique and not just the same thing you see in every other game. But the action does not feel action-paced. It is more like an enemy comes along, you kill it, and then you keep going. Again, it feels more like duty than fun. The puzzles are probably some of the most futuristic puzzles I’ve ever seen in VR. You really do feel like you are in a futuristic world. I’ve played a lot of puzzle games, and I’ve never seen puzzles quite like this. That is a good thing. But they are also needlessly complicated. Because they are so new and different, you do not really have any basis for understanding how they work. With most puzzles, you can compare them to something you have seen before and say, “Okay, I think I know how to figure this out.” Not with these puzzles. With these puzzles, you are pretty much on your own trying to figure out what you are even supposed to do. So not only do you have to solve the puzzle, first you have to figure out how the puzzle works. Maybe some people enjoy that. Maybe some people like that kind of trial and error. But to me, that was not fun. It was just another task. And that is the strange thing about this game. Almost everything in it is unique. The graphics, the enemies, the puzzles, the world, all of it is unique. Normally that would be great. And in some ways, it is great. But in this case, everything is so challenging and unfamiliar that you cannot even focus on enjoying it. There are other VR games that are slow or long-winded, but they are still fun. Metro VR, for example, has a lot of talking. I mean a lot of talking. But you honestly do not notice it as much because the action, the enemies, and the world are fun. Into the Radius can also be slow-paced, with you walking through a lot of emptiness, but it still feels fun and interesting. With Lies and Rain, I kept feeling like I was trying to get through it instead of wanting to play it. That is the frustration. This game is beautiful. It is creative. It is futuristic. There is nothing else currently out like it in VR. But just because something is unique and great-looking does not mean it is fun. If you love a challenge, this game might be perfect for you. If you love figuring things out with very little help, dying over and over, repeating steps, dealing with complicated puzzles, and pushing through mandatory data worlds, then you may love this game. But if you just want to have fun, zone out, and enjoy a VR game without feeling like you are doing homework from the future, this may not be the game for you. For me, if they got rid of the data worlds, or at least made them skippable or less punishing, the game would be a lot more tolerable. Maybe even a lot more fun. But as it is, the game feels like a beautiful futuristic world trapped behind frustration. So my honest review is this: Lies and Rain is one of the best-looking VR games ever made, maybe the best-looking one I’ve played. But it is also slow, monotonous, overly challenging, and often not fun. Do you want fun, or do you want a challenge? Because this game gives you the challenge. And I wanted fun.

26 found this helpful