Gorn 2 (MetaQuest) Preview
Gorn is one of my favorite VR games. The hilarious and violent gladiatorial brawler remains one of the best ways to flail around your living room regardless of what platform you play it on.
So when I was offered the chance to go hands-on with the forthcoming surprise sequel I strapped on my shiny new Meta Quest 3S, grabbed my wobbly battle axe, and stumbled back into the coliseum.
The good news is that, if the hour I spent with a preview build is anything to go by, Gorn 2 is going to be the kind of fantastic follow-up that raises the stakes in every conceivable way.
Gorn 2 sees you ascend to the afterlife to help reconstruct a god that’s been dismembered by his five treacherous children. Thus it’s up to you to defeat each of the gods and their armies of followers made up of the spirits of the goofy gladiators you butchered in the original.
The fairly brief demo had us sent to a main hub with access to one fiery realm overseen by a brutal deity with a penchant for cannibalism. Entering each stage is as easy as grabbing the right severed head and driving it on a nearby spike.
Once inside the arena, complete with ever-encroaching lava pits spinning blades, and giant spatulas, the deity you’re forced to impress here loves a cookout. Unfortunately, you’re the main course.
The basics are the same as the hilarious original, you’re given a weapon to start with, in this case, a massive meat clever, and then pitted against waves of increasingly well-armed meatheads armed with all kinds of goodies rife for pilfering once you’ve chopped off whichever arm is clutching it.
There was a nice selection of weapons in the demo from bendy broadswords and battle axes, to spiked shields and sides of beef.
Each feels as satisfying as they ever did and the level of immersion is unparalleled. Especially when you accidentally crack the lampshade while swinging your mace at one of the goofy gladiator’s skulls.
The selection of brutes to beat up has been expanded too as they now come in all shapes and sizes, from knee-high nightmares trying to stab you in the shins to colossal armored goons wielding huge weapons ready to slap you from one side of the arena to the other.
There are also rabid chickens armed with boxing gloves and others that’ll fire eggs at you. These feel more like an easy way to recharge your health than a real threat though. Since every opponent you hack to pieces recharges your health while bonuses are granted for killing enemies with certain weapons or finishing a round quickly.
The whole thing could feel pretty grim if it wasn’t for its charming cartoonish art style. As the late great Kenny Everett said. A little blood makes you winch but a lot of blood is hilarious. Though Gorn may be extremely gory its also charming and more slapstick than mindless slaughter all presented in the best possible taste.
There is still a little jank when the rubbery weapons bounce off something oddly and the AI boarders on suicidal at times because it has very little awareness and will often run straight into traps, but these are minor quibbles at best, and luring the idiots into an elaborate trap and watching them ragdoll around the arena is funny as.
My time with the demo ended with a fantastic final round that saw me shrunk to a pint-size pugilist and then slowly growing to be a mighty battle axe-wielding giant by the end after chucking vanquished foes onto a makeshift barbeque until medium rare then eating them to boost my mass until I was mighty enough to murder a god.
Gorn 2 is shaping up to be the kind of sequel fans of the original will adore. It takes the basics of the original and evolves the gameplay and setting to take the slapstick slaughter to celestial new heights when it launches later this year (2025), for Meta Quest, Steam, and PSVR2.
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