Sheesh, where do I even start a review on this?

When you haven't played it, or seen someone play it (or even if you have seen it), it doesn't look like a whole lot. Fight some guys, spray some blood, maybe slice off an arm or two, get beaned in the noggin and pass the Vive to Jeff.

Ho ho ho, no no no. I don't know what it is about this game, but there is always something to do. There's always a new way to fight, a new way to approach the battle, and a new experience to be had. It's a single arena (there are now three arenas, a small one, a large one, and a night variant for the small one) and you fight an (unending, if you want) army of identical muscle-bound gladiators who constantly smile like they're strangely aroused and talk smack while a giant metal fist is hurdling at their squishy, unprotected flesh. You know what they say about judging a book by it's cover-- Well, I guess that doesn't really apply here because it's not a book and doesn't really have a cover but you get the jist. If it was a book, the words on the pages would change every time you read it, and still be equally as exciting.

At nearly 60 170 hours and climbing almost every day, GORN holds the majority of my time spent in SteamVR. Other titles just haven't held my interest-- they got stale after I've done everything or the parts I liked were patched out (looking at you, Sairento). 60 170 hours in, playing in chunks of 10 minutes to 3 hours, I'm still not bored. It's still fun. It's still exhilarating, and it's still the best workout regimen I know of when I play it like I'm really there. Added on is the fact that it supports local multiplayer, either by the new party mode (introduced with the most recent update, this review written 12/15/17), or by hot-dropping into an in-progress game by just pressing start on a controller. I tend to prefer the latter because it allows you to play multiplayer in custom mode, which is unlocked by completing a set of tasks that I forget the exact details of.

Party mode, however, allows multiple controller-players (I think? At least one.) who take control of an enemy gladiator who participates in the bloody free-for-all until the HMD player is elimitated, while racking up kills to grow stronger. I tend to work with the extra player to prolong the game as long as we can, and then switch.

Regular "old school" drop-in (pre-party mode update) is a little different in that you can plop yourself into a game at any time and take control over a previously AI controlled gladiator, and you switch between gladitors that are already fighting when you die, as opposed to spawning as a new one as you would in Party Mode. However, in regular drop-in mode, kills are not counted and you don't get yoked for getting more. There have been times where I've booted up SteamVR and set the headset on my bed just to play as one of the mortals by myself and still had a blast.

There are a plethora of weapons to use, each with its own unique abilities and drawbacks. As of the most recent update, there are a set of caestus-- special gloves that you equip in the lobby after you've unlocked them-- that extend your death-bringing abilities to a fantasy level that brings even more fun to the game with a seemingly unlimited combination of new ways to murder swaths of dim-witted meat puppets. You can have extendable claws, yank people across the arena with a chain, and even leap through the sky to descend upon your enemies in a superhuman fashion, plunging your arsenal of floppy poking tools into them and popping their limbs and bodies like sausage-filled balloons.

The game's primary developer, Ruan (apologies if primary developer is a misnomer in this case, but he seems to do the main mechanical work) hangs out in Discord on a regular basis and is open to feedback, suggestions and bug reports on a daily basis. I have personally seen bugs that I've reported fixed within a few hours while playing on the Experimental branch. The team that created this masterpiece as a whole seems very receptive to the community and supports what we want as much as they can. If you have any interest in VR melee combat, do not hesitate to pay full price for this game and support the development team as they deserve it and more.

GORN is, without a doubt, the most uniquely satisfying and most replayable VR game I own or have experienced. I haven't played a AAA VR game (as if there are many) that can even hold a candle to the intense, heart-racing and often hilarious antics that this game can provide. If there was an "Absolutely" button next to "Yes" I'd have pressed that.

If you read all that garbage and you're still not completely convinced, check out some of the ridiculous ♥♥♥♥ you can do at
https://gfycat.com/@GORNED

Update August 24th, 2018-- This is still the top pick in my SteamVR library with the most hours by far.