Scandinavian rogue in need of a spark

One of two Norse mythology-inspired VR roguelites coming to Meta Quest in December, Street Gods emphasizes style and power fantasy over actual impactful combat.

Developer Soul Assembly has a long history of combat-focused VR titles, including the Drop Dead series, Last Stand, and Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister. Although we occasionally dabble in other genres, such as developing Just Dance VR, action games are our home. All of the aforementioned games, primarily shooters, received roughly the same critical response. It’s shallow but simple and fun to play with friends.

So given Soul Assembly’s history and the genre we’re working in, the first thing that struck me about this game was how advanced the story was. Most roguelites provide the setting with a simple introduction that simply sets the script for the carnage that ensues. Street Gods takes a surprisingly long time to set up, with a multi-part tutorial that’s longer than expected, and perhaps takes a little too long to set up, but in hindsight you’ll find that to be the best part of the game.

You play as Val, a street-smart graffiti artist who stumbles upon Mjolnir, the signature weapon of the Norse god of thunder, Thor. As you approach it, Mjolnir inexplicably begins to speak to you. This voice is Thor himself, trapped in his own weapon for reasons beyond his own understanding. You pick up a hammer and are immediately attacked by what can only be described as Nordic zombies. They look like they’ve been ripped straight out of the drop-dead world in different outfits.

This brings me to my main problem with Street Gods. Thor shows you how to swing and throw Mjolnir to defeat the undead, but nothing actually lands. When you play VR, you’re ostensibly swinging in the air all the time, but most melee-heavy games use a combination of controller haptics, sound effects, and visual cues (sparks, blood, enemy reactions, etc.) to get around this. There’s no real sense of urgency or impact here, no visceral immersion into the combat. The controller’s tactile sensation is very weak, and when you unleash a power attack like a lightning bolt from a hammer, the tactile sensations and sound effects are so subdued that you barely feel anything. A “clunking” sound on impact with the hammer is fine, but not enough. Frankly, we need more vibrancy.

Street Gods early battle – captured by Meta Quest 3’s UploadVR

This may be by design, as the game is imbued with divine powers, but the power fantasy here is undermined by the lack of physicality. It’s a fairly lightweight arcade-like experience, with a cartoon-inspired aesthetic (more on that later). The arcade vibe shines through as you use a variety of abilities to tear through your enemies like wet paper, but I couldn’t shake off the lifeless energy of the combat.

That said, Street Gods makes up for in all kinds of style what it lacks in overall content. Quickly unlock new abilities to fling enemies around with lightning-powered hammer uppercuts, golden lassoes that drag enemies across the map, and lightning attacks. The long intro has a part where we fall into the fusion of Earth and Asgard, and that sequence is great. This game is cool to play, but depending on your personal preferences, that level of coolness can be fleeting. Due to the combat, I found myself losing interest about 20 minutes into the run.

This also extends to power-ups. Once you eliminate all enemies in the arena, a treasure chest containing the standard assortment of power-ups and perks will appear. That is, increased health, improved defense, increased attack power when health is low, etc. New abilities are unlocked in the arena and can be practiced before proceeding. Occasionally, new abilities will appear as perks, such as dropping a bomb behind you when sprinting, but these are few and far between. All the tropes are here, but the core of it isn’t new to veteran roguelite players.

Street Gods screenshot captured with UploadVR

One of the difficult things to get right in games that play with fantasies of power is balancing that fantasy with a sense of danger. Street Gods are sorely lacking here. I never once felt in real danger while running. Enemies can spawn around you, but you’re unlikely to get hit, as there are only a few on screen at any given time, and enemies are very easily defeated, probably due to the limitations of standalone VR.

Even though the game has been enhanced with the addition of several new enemy variations with ranged attacks, simply throwing Mjolnir will remove enemies from range (eventually it will be powered up to hit multiple enemies). Even when you die, your physical strength will be greatly reduced by the enemy, so even if you take damage, it will be easily nullified. Compare this to another Soul Assembly title, Drop Dead: The Cabin. There, map movement restrictions and lack of supplies make every run difficult, but that’s sorely missing here.

Visually, Street Gods is an interesting study in contrasts. The game’s story revolves around the Norse realm colliding and merging with Earth (Midgard), so you’ll have to fight through streets overflowing with otherworldly vines and giant crystals. It looks great, but if you play the same map over and over again at different times of day and in different weather conditions, it gets old quickly. Most of the maps are very colorful, except for the snowy areas. These were blindingly white, so much so that I had to turn down the brightness in the quest.

Earn new blessings in Street Gods – Filmed with UploadVR in Meta Quest 3

Occasionally, between levels, you’ll be transported to an inter-realm hub to receive explanations from a talking hammer or a rock with paper eyes and a crown representing Loki. This hub area is the best looking part of the game so far. You can also damage vehicles and trash cans in each level, but just like enemies, damage is done. If you’re old enough to remember destroying cars in Street Fighter II, it’s the same idea here. Frame A, no problem at all. Frame B, destroyed. There is no animation or movement between the two vehicles other than the pillar of fire on the vehicle.

As I mentioned before, the common enemies look like they’ve been pulled straight out of a Drop Dead game, with gang-like movements and cartoonish words that pop up when you get attacked, but they just don’t look great when they’re in motion. If it’s far away, it moves at a noticeably lower framerate, and if you push it further away, this frame drop repeats. Once you see it, you can’t see it again. Graphically, Street Gods is a mixed bag.

The world of Street Gods doesn’t take itself too seriously, choosing to rely on (hopefully) fun combat and powers that keep players hooked. Most of the interactions in the hub area are played for laughs, with the voice actors delivering their lines like straight guys in a self-paced comedy. Some will land, but most will not. Val and Thor also joke endlessly during battles, with some of their lines awkwardly overlapping each other, and after a couple of plays I ended up hearing them all and was begging for the mute button. The music was similar, it felt very generic and short loops. There’s a story here, with hints of Val’s backstory and questions about how and why Thor is trapped in his weapon, but the dialogue and characters are so sketchy that it’s hard to get interested.

Finally, as I neared the first boss fight, I entered the portal and the game crashed after 3 minutes of music and a black screen. I reloaded and found myself falling again into a wave of a new element type (snow), this time one I hadn’t seen before. I had to die, delete my save data, and restart the game to get back to the boss fight, but thankfully it loaded on the second try. Performance was fine at first, but after a crash, I started seeing stuttering and frame drops when there were a lot of enemies on screen.

I hope this can be fixed with a patch, but having to restart took me out of the game completely. I left it for a while and then went back in.

Street Gods – Final Verdict

If you’re an action junkie who just wants to kill enemies, there are better roguelites available in VR with more engaging combat than Street Gods. Even as a power fantasy, Street Gods struggles to hold your attention for long due to its lack of weapon variety, uninspired enemies, repetitive locations, and power-ups.

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