Convrgence Impressions – Extracting Some Fun

I expected something a bit different when I first booted up Convrgence for the first time; for a game selling itself as an extraction shooter, with vibes bringing to mind S.T.A.L.K.E.R, I expected a game with open-ended exploration and an immediate level of friction. I didn’t get that, but I did get a fun if flawed game with plenty of room to grow, even following its 1.0 release.

What Convrgence actually is in practice is a roguelike shooter with extraction elements. Pick a location, build your loadout, then embark on an excursion through your zone in question – following your wristwatch’s directional navigation to the exit, while keeping an eye out for enemies and gear along the way. Each run is randomly generated, offering a different layout; in order to take on a run in each map, you’ll need to complete a raid in the previous map either during the day or night.

Raids during the day are easier, not least of all due to not having to worry about your flashlight. Raids at night, conversely, require you to make wider use of your kit. Your weapons, flashlight and backpack all are strapped to different parts of your body. Ammo can be stored in pouches at your waist, offering easier access for reloads instead of having to constantly grab your backpack. While it’s not particularly noteworthy on its own, there are a few wrinkles such as how you’ll have to count your bullets manually – with many magazines being somewhat transparent, allowing you to verify whether it’s worth stashing from an enemy or not.

For the most part controls work well, but I would say at least while using a PlayStation VR2 on Steam, I did notice some trouble accessing my inventory, with many cases where the game would go for one of my equipped guns. During the tutorial, I also ran into a bug that necessitated me skipping a step, which certainly leads me to a few questions regarding the existence of a button to skip tutorial steps built into the menu. While the game is ostensibly released out of Early Access, this along with a lack of distinct graphical settings makes me wonder if the game was fully ready for that 1.0 version number.

At least in terms of gameplay, the game’s a bit mixed. The team nails the VR interactions for reloading and tinkering with your weapons; crafting in between missions is satisfying enough, too. But levels being mostly linear and procedural means it’s lacking a lot of what makes proper extraction shooters interesting – doubly so when you always know exactly the direction to go. Enemy AI feels pretty lacking at this point, too; as interesting and well constructed as the weapons are, I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed when it takes so long for them to feel meaningful.

Levels do get more complicated the further along you go, but they remain linear regardless, and it’s hard to care too much about alternate paths when you’ll find plenty of loot whichever way you go. The base level gameplay feels a bit too basic to start and your German Shepherd companion doesn’t get enough utility; you can whistle to give him short orders, but with enemy AI being as basic as they are, it’s trivial to pick them off one by one, even without your pup. To that end, it’s hard to say you’ll ever need to bring more than one gun in when you’ll inevitably loot another off an enemy’s corpse before long.

I suppose there’s a chance that things will click for me eventually, but for now I’m feeling thoroughly whelmed by Convrgence. It’s not a complete skip, but I can’t exactly share a glowing recommendation for it, either. Maybe I’ll feel better about the game with a few more updates under its belt, but that’s the last thing you want to say about any game right out of Early Access. We’ll see if Monkey-With-a-Bomb can win me over in the long run.