Left-Hand Path has been in Steam Early Access for a year and a half and its creator Hugh Hancock has finally launched the game today.
Described as a Dark Souls inspired VR title, players will have to learn and cast spells using their hands/controllers. The game has gone through six long months of polishing to bring it to release quality and hopefully it has been worth it. We looked at the game quite a while ago and it was quite intriguing and pretty scary at points, and even back then it was well worth checking out. Now it comes with a full story and around fifteen hours of gameplay which is pretty impressive for a VR release.
The launch of the game comes with a load of updates and improvements which include:
- Massive graphical improvements including a total overhaul of all spell effects, teleport effects, a new Grimoire, and more.
- Light Level Overhaul – based on numerous comments and feedback, I’ve significantly raised the light levels throughout the game. It’s still scary (have tested, can confirm) but you can now see what you’re doing!
- Better Braziers – I’ve also raised the light levels on lightable braziers and fires.
- Low-Terror Mode – allows people who love RPGs but don’t love being scared out of their wits to play Left-Hand Path with seriously reduced terror, including much more visibility and adjusted monster placement and effects.
- Story Mode – want to experience the story and the world of Left-Hand Path without banging your head against Dark Souls-like difficulty? This mode’s for you.
- New Lobby – I’ve completely redesigned the first thing you ever see in the game. The black room is no more – now your very first introduction to the game is much clearer and contains a bunch of new features too, including an ever-expanding library of lore.
- Tutorial – lots of people said that the Early Access version was a little hard to get into. So a new introduction area now teaches you the basics of spellcasting and ritual, as well as filling out a bit more of Left-Hand Path’s story.
- Locomotion overhaul – I’ve gone through every area in Left-Hand Path and improved locomotion, as well as overhauling the locomotion system in general. If you prefer locomotion to teleporting you’ll find the 1.0.0 release a much smoother experience!
- Sound effect improvements – including foley effects for almost every object in the game.
- Book Code Overhaul – You no longer need to twist your wrist around to read books. A tiny change with a huge impact!
- Front-Facing Play Support – if you play in a front-facing configuration, that’s now supported in Left-Hand Path, with a new “turn” option on the controls.
- Return To Previous Zones – when you’ve defeated the greatest challenges in each area, you can now return there to find spells and story you missed.
- Destructive Power – your spells aren’t just dangerous to creatures any more! You can destroy most things in the game with arcane power, and sometimes that’ll be useful in your journey.
- New Ritual Of Husks – Find objects of meaning throughout the world of Left-Hand Path, and leech their treasured – or horrifying – memories dry for power.
- Many, many, many bug fixes – I wouldn’t be surprised if the bug fix list is in the thousands of bugs. It’s certainly well into the hundreds. From difficult-to-navigate areas to weird spell interactions, I’ve been on a fixing frenzy.
The game is available now on Steam for £23.79 and I would recommend VR users check this out. Impressed with what we have seen during developmet, it has made it onto our Best VR Games list.
