Attention all survivors of the ‘GORN’ arena! The blood-soaked, adrenaline-fueled chaos of the original VR brawler is back, and it’s bigger and bolder than ever. The original developer, Free Lives, has returned and teamed up with the award-winning developers at Cortopia to bring you ‘GORN 2’, published by Devolver Digital. I am excited to share everything I experienced during my early hands-on look at this incredible sequel.

GORN 2 is an outrageous sequel to the popular VR gladiator simulator from Free Lives. It is bigger, wilder, and more powerful than ever, featuring exciting new weapons, devious traps to avoid, and enhanced power-ups that grant you supernatural strength. Experience improved VR combat as you battle the five sons of the God of the Afterlife across various heavenly realms.

As I loaded into the starting area, I was greeted with the ruins of the original GORN arena, which will have many fond memories flooding back to returning players like me. This was the site of many hard-fought, adrenaline-fueled battles and I couldn’t think of a more perfect setting for our journey through the afterlife. After taking some time to gaze up at the stars above and making a wish on a shooting star, it was time to enter the arena once again.

Since this demo occurs partway through the story, I cannot share much about it yet. I can say that the small portion of the story shared was enough to give you a general gist of what you can expect. From what I could gather, the five sons of the God of the Afterlife had betrayed him, and our protagonist must seek vengeance. Instead of speculating, we’ll have to wait until launch to find out.

I was able to play through one full level in the demo, which gave me a pretty good feel for the general gameplay loop. The level is broken down into 3 stages, which are indicated by 3 floating heads in front of the world portal. Placing a floating head onto the spike will activate the portal, allowing you to enter the arena. Once in the arena, the player must do battle against various enemies and survive 3 rounds.

Surviving each round becomes increasingly difficult due to the activation of traps that can ruin your day, whether you’re a friend or a foe. Since it’s such a physical game, being able to use the traps to my advantage helped me catch my breath. One of the rounds presented me with an extra challenge, where I had to defeat a number of Rokibe using a samurai sword. Successfully completing this challenge awarded me a crate that contained a giant two-handed axe, which I used to decimate my enemies. I truly enjoyed the balance of risk versus reward that this created.

Wielding new weapons like curved daggers and the two-handed pole against the new Mother-Clucker enemy helped to bring much more variety into the already hilarious, over-the-top combat. Combat with the weapons still feels a lot like smacking a friend in the face with a pool noodle as they bend and wiggle about. I am looking very forward to seeing just how expressive I can get with the combat within the full version when it is released later this year.

Hanging about in the lobby area gazing up at the starry nebula in the sky is visually breathtaking and I feel like there is even more eye-candy just begging to be seen. Effects of dismemberment have also seen a few minor upgrades like the addition of bones that can be seen on limbs.

The Rokibe are as “poorly animated” as ever and will never cease to have you in fits of maniacal laughter. I am very pleased to see that all of the visual magic that made GORN so much fun has been retained while also being improved upon, making it better than ever.

The same could be said for the in-game audio, it is everything I loved about the original and more. This time around though I did notice that the soundtrack seemed to blend into the background a little more. I feel like this audio-balancing is by design and complimentary to the sounds of weapons clashing with armour.

GORN 2 promises to be an exhilarating journey through the afterlife, brimming with gruesome, over-the-top carnage and chaos. After spending time with the demo, I find myself squirming with excitement as we anticipate the full release.

The game retains all the elements that made its predecessor incredibly enjoyable while enhancing the visuals and variety. I eagerly look forward to experiencing everything that Free Lives and Cortopia have cooked up when the game launches later this year.

Written by: Gary Nielsen