Song in the Smoke Reviews

It took me a bit less than 17 hours on a single play through. I started on hard and I was dying too quick while still learning controls and mechanics of the game play. Restarting on regular difficulty it was a breeze difficulty wise. There is only the main story to play and it is an excellent experience, but hardly any replay value. It wasn't spectacular enough to play through on the hardest difficultly, though I probably should have switched to hard after the the first stage/learning how to play. Quite an underrated game by review count. There were also a few unpleasant bugs. I have a KatWalk and had to re-calibrate often. I am not sure if the treadmill was at fault and couldn't pinpoint what exactly caused it. It often had something to do with holding something in each hand. There was also a bug that caused my bow to disappear twice. It was in hand and I was putting a new bowstring on it... and gone. Poof. Not in inventory quick spot. Not on the ground. Nothing. Just had to reload a save to get it back. The troubles were worth it and I recommend.

Hmm the game has some unique gameplay I havent seen in vr before. The graphics are good and so is the performance. However its missing some key ingredients like climbing, jumping instead of teleport feature that ruins immersion.

Really enjoying this game so far, gives off a Monster Hunter/Valheim vibe. The best VR survival I've played to date. All the systems/mechanics have some depth and feel meaningful, the creatures so far are varied and unique. The crafting feels very "VR" and less clicking buttons to make things appear, without being tedious. I find myself truly immersed, trying to plan out tomorrow's hunt/forage while I stack the night's campfire. I've only made it to the second area but can definitely recommend at this time.

The initial impressions of the game are very favorable. The crafting is satisfying and discovering new crafting recipes while exploring is great. You search for the required three items while trying to gear up and getting pumped to face your strongest foe yet. Then the game keeps repeating the same thing. Location after location you're doing the same thing. Create camp, hunt local wildlife and gather local resources to upgrade yourself to next tier. Move to next area and repeat. Creating a storage sack is often very important but each storage is it's own thing. You're always starting with stuff on your back when moving between areas and all your previous work becomes moot. Having a Resident Evil style universal storage sack would be incredibly welcome and cut back on the repetitive tedium of the game. The last areas are very disappointing. Boss of the second to last area is nothing but a walking target, offering no resistance. Last area is very arduous and frustrating. You need to feed yourself, keep warm and for some reason keep away the dark. Hunger is great and easy to handle. Staying warm doesn't seem to come into play until closer to the end of the game which feels like a missed opportunity. Cold snaps could have been a great thing. Keeping away the dark... it's not about the darkness. A magical floating goat that people usually call Wendigo will haunt you at night. It causes massive damage, clips through walls and can't be fought off without light. Game wants you to explore at night for upgrades but the Wendigo actively encourages you to hug your bonfire at night. I would recommend not building a bonfire at all but to simply have a torch in your inventory at all times. When the menace wakes you up at night, simply smack your torch against the wall to light it and it will go away. You have to do this twice a night to keep him away but you will save a lot of time fetching firewood each day. Repetitive and stretched out nature of the gameplay combined with the awful Wendigo mechanic is the reason why I'm giving this negative review.

While it isn't without its flaws, Song in the Smoke is criminally under reported and underappreciated. At the time of writing, there are only 23 other Steam reviews. Oomph. The development team deserves better. This game is a well produced, functioning full length product with plenty of features. For these reasons along, it is a positive rating and well worth trying. Everything that follows may sounds negative, but Song in the Smoke is still an enjoyable VR experience of which there are far too few. Fighting the animals is a ton of fun. Being chased by the dinosaur sized animals is a ton of fun. Taking in the large forests in the twilight light, firefiles scattering through the air, is a ton of fun. If you liked the art of S&S, you should be at home here. It runs fantastic on a 4790k and 2080 Super. It has some of the largest environments that I've encountered in a VR game. Boneworks had giant street and building interiors, but they were mostly empty rectangular spaces. Subnautica has large waterways but, when I tried it, they were plagued with assets popping in once close enough to the player. Here, there are giant forest areas with many nooks and crannies to explore. The colors are vibrant and lush. Ok, it isn't super detailed, but I assume, like S&S, the developers were balancing style with VR performance. Both S&S and Song in the Smoke are masterclasses in the ethos of doing more with less. It felt like a mix of Turok and open world Zelda. There are lite, lite story elements. Personally a weak point. Dropped immediately into a caveman doing his thing. Your mission is collecting hidden orbs per zone and then fighting progressively harder animals. After you collect orbs, you're treated to a brief cinematic. There are also hidden power ups. The biggest flaw is its clunkiness, which is likely the result of being ported from the PSVR. Inventory management is more smooth and intuitive in PCVR first games like HL:A or Walking Dead: S&S. For example, there are two quick slots for inventory, but they're seemingly bound to specifically the left or right hand versus shoulder location. While you'll access them by reaching over your shoulder, if you reach your right hand over your left shoulder, you'll pull out the right hand item. It can be confusing until you realize what is happening. There are other nagging object and inventory interactions. New instructions are floating tool tips that can be easily missed, such as if you are in active pursuit of an animal. Between tracking down the orbs, you'll have to survive. Frankly, I liked S&S's or the Forest's survival balance better. There is no stamina meter. Instead, you'll progressively become hungrier and sleepier. The survival elements were on the tip of being overbearing. For example, you basically need to eat a couple pieces of meat or fruit each day. However, most of the animals only drop one piece of meat per kill, and the act of harvesting the single meat usually takes half the day cycle (it fast forwards). Unlike S&S or the Forest, where I could stockpile plenty of food materials during the day and then prepare meals to last several days, I basically just kept my head above water each day. It ended up being faster to skip harvesting meat and grab berries or mushrooms on the fly. Physically crafting each item, like knives, arrows and campfires, is really neat. Still, like the one to one meat experience noted above, crafting is one to one also. While quick, you will be hand crafting each and every arrow you use (unless you take time to find the hidden caches). After building your 10th campfire (which has to be rebuilt at least once or twice in the night), the experience starts to drift from game to chore. Plus, items tend to wear out really fast. The starting bow broke on the second or third hunting trip. Each item has an independent quality level, but you would be forgiven for overlooking that detail while scavenging. There is simply a lot of upkeep.

solid game, probably the best survival game vr has to offer at the moment, decently long and the progression is good, though there are some annoying elements and the game could use some balancing overall. works great with the valve index controllers highly recommend.

Takes a few hours to get the hang of some of the finer game dynamics (best to do a quick check on youtube), but once you have the hang it is fantastic! It is suited to people who like exploring levels and taking the time to level up their gear - you could rush just to the objectives but i imagine it would quickly become very hard to kill anything you meet if you did! I find it lots of fun hunting around for good items and exploring the world anyway - so may as well take your time and get your money's worth from the game is my view! Great game. Tips it would be good to know from the start i have found: As you are searching around always look out for items with 3 teeth (stars) - they make significantly better weapons and armour so always try to have everything 2 or 3 teeth grade Fires - you need to build big fires to last the night while you sleep (or things will get you after the first couple of levels) - the trick to building fires is watching the circle that goes around the side of the fire pit - start your fire with bark and 3-4 small sticks - you will notice the circle goes around and goes past a point labelled M - this means the fire is big enough to take medium sticks, once you throw a few of those on it gets to a level to take large logs and a few of those should max out the ring and get you a good night's sleep! Also the extra long sticks can be grabbed at each end and snapped into a small and medium stick. You can also collect arrows you shoot that miss their target so definitely easier to go looking for them than making new ones all the time Last one - you can leave liquids in your mortar and pestle so if you make a health potion and dont need to drink the whole thing then sip it and just keep the rest in the vessel for later Have fun!

Song in the smoke is an unpolished gem. There are some glitches and fallbacks - I can't deny that. That said, however, this game is a one-of-a-kind. You will not find a survival crafting game of this caliber in VR. They exist, sure; but all are unfinished with game-breaking glitches. My first playthrough was on easy difficulty. It took about 15 hours to complete. Future playthroughs on higher difficulties may introduce more mechanics that I have not yet seen, either way, I'm aching to get back in and try a harder difficulty; perhaps even unlock those pesky hidden achievements. Song in the Smoke offers something no VR game has truly given me to date -- a survival crafting experience with a story to squeeze your heart and titillating game play that chaulk up to a phenomal VR experience. There are bugs. The occasional wood flying across the screen due to some strange collision mechanics, or items on the ground disappearing after you've slept off a night. None of these bugs are game breaking though and the game play and story make up for the cons of this game 10 fold. It's worth the price tag. It's not hard to see why UploadVR nominated SitS for PCVR game of the year.

This is, without a doubt, the most fun VR survival game I have played. When I saw the trailer, I thought it was a simple survival game that looked awesome but the more I play the more intricacies I discover. I keep finding new things that change how I interact with the world. Do yourself a favor and grab this game.

Saw this game had no review so decided to just try it out. Wow, great little survival game! You have to craft your own stuff, so creating arrows, knives, spears etc. You can hunt animals, eat berries, upgrade your clothing, gear and more. Only played an hour but it seems like a fun game! It can also definitely be a bit scary, so keep that in mind I had most settings on high, with AA turned off, and the game looks great and ran pretty much smoothly (the tutorial had some very minor stutters when explaining things). During the actual gameplay, there was pretty much no stuttering at all. Ran on an index @80hz, 100%SS, RTX 2080ti, i9 9900k. edit: Okay this game is genuinely scary at times, but so good!