Out now as part of Steam Next Fest, the demo of Bramblefort features gruesome survival horror elements with intricate soulslike level design. It’s an encouraging glimpse into the full experience.
Adapting mainstay video game genres to VR is not a new concept. Horror is practically ubiquitous in virtual reality. After all, having ghosts, zombies, and monsters in your face enhances the experience to great effect. Soulslikes, on the other hand, are a tricky beast. Nailing impactful combat in VR is incredibly difficult, and those who have taken a stab at it have delivered with varying results. Now, blending these two genres sounds equally ambitious and complex. Bramblefort’s demo, now available as part of Steam Next Fest, seems to have successfully attained the formula.
What is it?: A demo of a VR survival horror with soulslike level design.
Platforms: Steam
Release Date: Available now during the Steam Next Fest
Developer/Publisher: False Member
Price: Free
Bramblefort is as gruesome as it is tense.
Bramblefort does not shy away from its survival horror roots from the very start. The main menu is set inside a dilapidated cabin with three decomposing zombies looking straight at the player. The macabre tale begins inside a 1920s movie theater. A short film debrief from an undisclosed intelligence agency details the operation to infiltrate Bramblefort, an island in the northern Atlantic.
They suspect strange occurrences are happening and suspect low resistance. As a field operative, it is your mission to investigate what is behind it. A lean tutorial explains how to grab items and keys to put them over your shoulder for safekeeping and how to load your revolver before leaving.
Things go wrong almost instantly. I should say upfront, Bramblefort is quite gory. As soon as you arrive on a canoe to the isle, your paddler’s head is blown off. The graphics themselves are not too realistic, so it is not exactly traumatic to witness. Kidnapped and locked up in a jail cell, the soulslike elements take shape.
The game’s vertical level design asks you to jump off a ledge, climb, and drop off before fighting your first shambling corpse. Two conveniently placed knives on a table signal that to progress, you must cut your way through. The combat feels a bit flimsy, but in the context of its hectic action, it works well.
My gaming laptop uses an AMD Ryzen 7 250 w/ Radeon 780M Graphics Processor, 24 GB DDR5-5600MT/s SODIMM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB GDDR7. This impressions piece was conducted using a Meta Quest 3 via the Steam Link app.
No performance issues were encountered during this playthrough. You can find the minimum and recommended specs on the Steam page to learn more.
Much like Grimlord was able to capture the spirit of Dark Souls, so does Bramblefort seem on its way to being compared to Bloodborne in VR. In action, though, it would be rather comparable to Resident Evil 4. The place is teeming with infected humans craving blood. Knives, hammers, and cleavers are the only weapons available in this area.
The Bloodborne vibes are undeniable in places.
After lowering a bridge to escape this hellish medieval prison, a revolver, explosives, and a shotgun also make their way to your arsenal. Many games tout themselves as “made for VR,” but Bramblefort’s pause menu with a giant rusty wheel to pull your weapons off feels particularly appropriate. Shooting the shotgun itself feels powerful but unwieldy. At least loading the shells and gesturing to pull the chamber up is satisfying.
There is no Settings menu to speak of. Players can only look at their surroundings via snap rotation and continuous movement.
In the tutorial, a door says there are four ways to enter it, and that design philosophy is applied to the game at large. Each level is not what it seems. As you make your way through a Victorian castle, moist marshlands, and an elaborate bathhouse—this is a hefty 2+ hour demo—there are several ways to progress. You can climb through pipes, jump across old buildings, find a key, or shoot your way across: the world is your oyster. This is the first time in a long while I have seen FromSoftware’s level design so well-implemented in a VR game.
Conclusion
To meld two of the biggest genres in gaming successfully is no small feat. Of course, there are small quirks to be ironed out, like tighter combat, but what is on offer here gives much hope. Bramblefort stands out not only because of its intricate level design but also how well it feels like a true soulslike in its approach. The haunting survival horror elements merely add to the tense atmosphere throughout. I will look at its full launch with great interest.
Bramblefort’s demo is available now as part of Steam Next Fest until Monday, June 22nd at 10AM PT. A release date has not been confirmed.
