South East Games, the developers, and publishers behind Paint the Town Red on Steam back in 2015 have brought their amazing game that sold over 1 million copies to virtual reality gamers across the world for a whole new experience where fighting and brawling can be done in the way you always wanted too… IN VIRTUAL REALITY!
Yes, the chaotic first-person melee and combat has been brought to PSVR2, Steam VR, and even Meta Quest devices. So now you can feel the rush as you participate in bar fights and see how many chairs can be broken over your foe’s skulls!
You can punch, slice, explode, or even shoot your way through hordes of people who want to beat you to a pulp, pick up any item, and use it to your advantage. The best part is Paint the Town Red adds all new features designed especially for the full VR advantages.
Now let’s see what Paint the Town Red offers in my full dive-in review where I took a few bottles to the head and survived!
Yes, only in this game can that be possible so grab your bar stool, pour yourself a drink, and watch as we explore a world of chaos and violence in Paint the Town Red VR!
If He Dies, He Dies
Game Modes
Usually in my reviews, I like to explore the story first and then proceed to explore the other parts, but in the game Paint the Town Red you’re given more than just a story which I will explain, so let me just “Paint” a picture for you amazing people are you ready? Let us begin.
To start I would recommend first going through the tutorial as this will help teach you the basics of what you will need to do in Paint the Town Red, the best part about this is that after learning everything you need to proceed you can spawn multiple enemies and use the weapons or skills to just play about and test the combat out, this can get messy especially if you leave a few hundred blood stains from your enemies.
Scenarios are your standalone levels; do you fancy having a drink in a bar full of bikers who all want to remove your head from your body?
Weapons vary in these levels depending on the location, but if you explore the biker bar, jump up onto it, and climb onto its roof, you’ll see a machete, knife-type weapon…
This is what you need and the damage you do is UNBELIEVABLE!
Even throwing things like bottles, glass cups, etc even a chair leaves a few holes or even a limb missing or two… behind the bar grab the baseball bat and remember the enemies especially the chefs in the kitchen will go at you with knives and cleavers so be careful.
You can be injured or killed and remember your mission is to be the last one standing!
You can explore different scenarios including a disco and even a prison. The variety in these levels is huge and you can even have some fun by adding modifiers which lets you change so much and add GUNS! Yes, if you want to sit on top of the bar and fire 2 automatic assault rifles you can! There are so many modifiers to add so I will let you all experiment and like NO SPOILERS!
Scenarios also include a challenge mode where you can try to get a high score and be added for all the world to see!
Arena is pretty much what it says on the tin. This is where you will want to go to test your combat skills and go up against enemies as you complete waves the difficulty will increase, and you can use a different number of weapons.
If you want to see how long you can survive then you can enter endless mode. Hordes of enemies and the only way to be released is to DIE. Master the weapons and skills and become the arena master!
Beneath is the last game mode to explore, now with Beneath this is slightly different from everything else, and this is pretty much our story as well.
In a massive roguelike mode that features 6 unique biomes to explore, the enemies are dead soldiers or people who came from the same organisation as you plus dozens of other enemies that want to kill you, nice right?
They will attack you with weapons that look like black sharp diamond objects or shiny spears, finding weapons you must survive, in the shop you can buy upgrades and weapons using the coins and purple gems you collect!
You can find several different varieties of weapons scattered around in the biomes. Oh, by the way, DO NOT RELEASE THE PURSUER this enemy is not to be played with. Of course, when you die, you will have to restart.
You will have to take out 4 Elder God bosses to complete the missions. Beneath also lets you choose between 5 different classes with their own unique abilities and powers, but these can only be upgraded further into the facility.
You will find hidden lore as you explore, NO SPOILERS but this will explain EVERYTHING.
If He Bleeds, We Can Kill It!
Gameplay
So, we have sort of touched on different gameplay mechanics and features, but we are going to mention some bits and pieces that make Paint the Town Red VR so good!
When playing in any of the game modes, you want to remember to always have a weapon, you can find and use pretty much anything and sometimes these weapons can be hidden under tables, behind objects, or even just lying on the tables.
Remember to search everywhere for the best weapons! If you have no weapon and you have about 10 enemies attacking remember you can kick and punch that can stagger them or just beat them to death! There are no health pick-ups for scenarios so if you lose health, you are not able to get more. If you die you will need to restart.
Dodging is also a way to get away fast or just to make sure the enemies are unable to hit you. You can use 3 different special moves that will build up due to fighting.
The first power is a shockwave that will send any enemies near you flying backwards or into the air, being splattered on the wall or ceiling. Very helpful!
The second power makes every attack you do an instant kill and I mean the brutality would shock even those on Mortal Kombat, punch them right through the head, and leave a nice gaping hole.
The last power gives you the power of the gods which lets you smite anyone with a powerful strike from above and my god it annihilates anyone it touches.
Is That Blood?
Graphics and Audio
Paint the Town Red VR uses pixelated graphics, kind of like Minecraft but with more blood and gore! The damage you can do is amazing, and I mean if this was a more realistic game then this would be an 18-plus game – easy!
The environments used all vary and have a good amount of detail, giving each location a unique look and feel.
Character models are of different varieties, and I must admit I think I found an easter egg of Rocky IV’s Ivan Drago punching a punching bag in the basement, could be wrong but if this was an easter egg amazing job Matthew and Shane!
Music in Paint the Town Red was done by BAFTA award-winning Jeff Van Dyck, which was very nicely done, and the sound effects were done by Matt McCamely so a lot of work was put into this game.
Say Hello To My Little Friend!
Controls, VR, and Accessibility
Controls in Paint the Town Red VR are extremely simple, other than having a sore arm from swinging it around for hours the controls are easy to pick up and make this game easy for anyone to try. Paint the Town Red has several different VR features that were added which I will list for people to see plus for accessibility.
Full 1-1 hand control with virtual arm extension options
Movement Options: Smooth, Teleport, and Hybrid. (Smooth with limited teleport)
Turning Options: Smooth and Snap
Vignette Options: Velocity and Angular Velocity-based
Hand Speed requirement sliders for attacks to land
Toggle for requiring grips to be held to grab weapons and objects or not
Configurable blending of look direction with arm movement for throw direction
Throw velocity slider to allow less movement for throwing weapons
Configurable laser sight option for ranged weapons
Configurable block indicators.
Of course, there are other options to explore to make the game more comfortable for you to play, just explore and make it your own.
Final Thoughts
Paint the Town Red VR was a truly fun experience, and I must admit it helped me blow off some steam from a hard day at work where I could let go of my frustrations plus enjoy a bit of fist-fighting, and face no consequences whatsoever.
Paint the Town Red VR was made entirely by two people with some help with audio, so amazing work to both Matthew Carr and Shane Carr, I had an amazing time looking at the different mechanics, features, and modes and will return to finish Beneath!
If you guys want to explore a game that lets you have fun, and lets you let off take your frustrations on people who want to fight then definitely check out Paint the Town Red VR! Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my review!
You can also check out the non-VR version on all store front with the links below!
Paint the Town Red VR is AVAILABLE NOW! on PSVR2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest
Paint the Town Red is also AVALABLE NOW! on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam
GAMERHUB RATING: FOUR (Out of FIVE) JOYSTICKS
(Thank you to Caroline at Stride PR and Matthew Carr amd Shane Carr at South East Games for providing the code for this review)
