It has been a virtual reality review fest before the holiday break. We have gone head first into Meta Quest 3 and PSVR 2 material in the last few weeks, and it looks like it’s not going to stop anytime soon. That’s fine with me, as long as the motion sickness doesn’t begin anytime soon.
What we have for you today is a VR review for Doborog Games’ Clone Drone in the Hyperdome. While I missed the first outing of this series, I might have to go check it out after playing this game. Clone Drone in the Hyperdome is packed with fun sword-swinging moments, an interesting TRON/Running Man-esque storyline, and different routes to play the game. While not perfect in a little of its execution, there is still quite a bit to love about this VR title.
So, grab your sword, heck grab two, and let’s get to slicing and dicing this review.
Fun story
The story of Clone Drone in the Hyperdome is about a robot named Blink who is caught in a place called the Crashloop. Within the Crashloop, Blink and other looprunners must battle each other for robot supremacy and hope they get a chance to take down the main robot who is controlling the entire loop.
While the synopsis doesn’t seem overly involved with twists and turns, or complicated, it does more than a few things well to get you interested and connected. The side characters in the game, mainly your fellow looprunners, add a thick layer of personality to the storyline. You will find them kidding and joking around at times but their desperation to get things right and to survive comes across as sincere and meaningful. Again, the story is not deep nor complicated, but the characters help to make the journey a lot more interesting and engaging.
There were times when I would just stop and listen to characters chatting away after a go around in the Crashloop and find how they progress with their actions. For example, after beating a coach and his protégé in the Crashloop, I came back to our holding area to find the coach helping to play up the efforts of his student. It was sincere and was connected with the prior fight. It was cool to see, even though it didn’t add anything strong to the action story.
Doborog Games put some good time into making the world and the characters that live within it seem like robots you understand and know. It was more than I expected from this game and nonetheless impressive as it was handled and crafted well. The overall body of work on the story was comparable to an action film, as it was simple to follow and the stakes were well-defined, though not necessarily deep. Anyway, the story and its characters were solid. They helped keep this more than just a sword-swinging fest.
The real beef in this burrito
While the story is always going to be the main point of connection with me when it comes to gaming, how a game works and plays within a virtual reality environment has to take center stage. For Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, the real beef of this burrito comes with the easy-to-use-and-understand controls during fights and character movement.
The folks at Doborog Games kept movement and gameplay simple within Clone Drone in the Hyperdome. You pick up a weapon by pointing and choosing it, then you only swing the controllers as you see fit to use said weapon. Buttons need not apply unless you get a bow and arrow, or you’re using a secondary form of offense (we’ll talk about that later). For me, it took about 10 minutes to fully grasp (pun intended) how fighting worked in the game. Most of those 10 minutes were spent trying to remember not to press buttons and drop my weapons. After getting that out of my noggin, the game became a fun experience and it was as simple.
Now, how the game works with those easy controls is equally as easy. You go into an arena, pick up a sword, choose a reward path to go on (coins, weapons, health), and you start fighting. At the beginning of the loop, you fight weaker, repetitive enemies that are armed with swords and bows/arrows. You’ll go into a room, waves of enemies will come at you, and, once disposed of, you’ll either unlock another room of enemies or win whatever item path you took.
Once you go a few rounds and obtain items, and there is more than one occasion during a loop event where you’ll be able to pick up items, you’ll eventually run into a split path with mid-boss choices. At the beginning of the game, the mid-boss choices are your fellow looprunners who don’t offer too much of a challenge until you get into the later stages. This is an important gameplay element to point out, as the first hour of gameplay had me worried that the challengers were an afterthought because I just rolled through them over and over again. What I found was the game just needed to get me used to the environment and understand its purpose, which is why I continually looped and went through the same old paths. Once I got through the competition, and came back to the looprunner holding area, the story kicked in a bit more, and new challenges opened that brought more difficult gameplay to the table and pushed back on my efforts.
What also changed with the story and new mid-bosses were the maps and the enemy’s difficulty. The game put me on more open maps. The open maps allowed for a greater number of enemies to attack me. It also had me thinking twelve different directions and I just couldn’t worry solely about 1-on-1 enemy interaction, which is how you’re introduced to the gameplay. After a certain point in the game and a new story shift, I had to worry about two or more enemies charging at me at a time. That was tough to cope with at the start but when the gameplay became complicated it forced me to strategize and I became more connected with the action. I enjoyed that connection as it took my mind off repetitive enemies and sometimes dull walkways from area to area. The weapons in the game helped keep the game fresh as well.
You will find a variety of weapons to use on baddies during every journey you take as a looprunner. The weapons could be one-handed, two-handed, or two weapons at once. The weapons could also be specialized if you choose to take a weapon item path during your loop. For example, during my playthrough, I acquired a special dagger that when held would burn fiery red. If that dagger touched enemies, it would gradually burn through said enemy. The little details of how this weapon could be used were crazy interesting. For example, if you touched an enemy’s hand with that dagger, it would slowly burn through the hand until it fell off. If they were holding a weapon in said hand, then that weapon would drop with it. The specialized weapons look normal until you hold them and then the real fun begins.
Now, there are secondary weapons you can use during the loop session that help you additionally with enemies using the R2 button on the controller. These weapons could be a simple pushback or could be as complicated and fun as maybe ejecting a throwing star from your wrist. The secondary weapon is more of a distraction or used to buy you more time rather than be a go-to option for fighting. Regardless, it’s nice having a secondary option. Or what could be considered a third option if you count hands? Anyway, weapons became more interesting as time went on in the game and the more I pushed down paths, the more I discovered. I loved the variety of weapons in this game, it kept the gameplay exciting.
Staying with weapons for a moment, I was impressed with the contact in fights. In a sword-fighting environment within virtual reality, some games just don’t get this right. The good folks at Doborog Games nailed how swords hit. You can block, pin a sword, and even push an enemy back using one. If you weld two swords, you can pin the enemy and then use the other to swipe at their body. The contact with the weapons is 1:1 and comfortable as hell. If you get hit during a fight it is solely because you didn’t use your sword correctly or miscalculated its position. How you use and interact with a weapon is very well done in Clone Drone in the Hyperdome.
Beyond weapons, the game offers choices and paths for the player to take. The paths keep it interesting and offer additional strategies for going into fights. There are special paths that are harder than others that offer additional resources if you can get through them. For example, I took a red coin path during my review playthrough and found more aggressive enemies and certainly more chances to die. It was worth it and it upped the challenge, as the reward is sometimes greater than the risk. I died once on this path but came out victorious the second go around. The coins I received helped me to buy a new weapon and more clone life in the game.
The clone life in the game should be a strong focus, especially in later stages. There is a clone item path you can take during loops, which expands how many times you can be killed. It’s represented by hearts and each heart is a life. Once all hearts are gone, then you’re down to your last clone, which means your adventure ends if that clone does. Enemies in the game, mainly mid-bosses and bosses, contain multiple clones and you have to get through them all to be successful in the game. While this isn’t anything special that is unfamiliar to most gamers, it is a portion of the game that is vital (pun intended). Going with this option above weapons and coins means you have a better chance of survival. It certainly kept me going anytime I chose and won that item path.
Anyway, the overall gameplay experience with Clone Drone in the Hyperdome was solid. I think the devs did a great job of keeping things simple, engaging, and fun. If you can move beyond some of the repetitiveness of the paths, you’ll find a lot of quick and mindless joy in this game. The sword-swinging is fun and accurate, but the mid-bosses and bosses are gradually difficult and unique. Even the maps and common enemies eventually force strategy into the gameplay equation due to their difficulty and brains. There’s a lot to love about this gameplay in Clone Drone in the Hyperdome and it’s certainly worth your time.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Clone Drone in the Hyperdome from developer Doborog Games is a fun VR experience. It brings some wonderful sword-swinging action and compelling enemies that are a blast to go up against.
