As a fan of rhythm games, dating back to the early days of Guitar Hero, I have been following the scene of music games coming out. While not all of them are amazing, the transition to virtual reality has brought us some great titles. The latest of which was Ragnarock VR by WanadevStudio. This game puts you in the boots of a Viking and has you drum along with Viking-esque rock music. While it was originally released in 2021, before I got myself an HTC Vive, it is now part of the French-Based VR bundle on Steam and so I wanted to take a moment to review it.

Gameplay

This game really just drops you in, gives you a wall of songs to choose from, and lets you learn how to play yourself. I didn’t see any tutorial or starting area, so if I was brand new to the music gaming scene, this might have been a bit confusing to get started. Luckily, I am well adapted to it and just went ahead and picked a song from the initial list.

When you are deciding what song to pick, there are three difficulties for each song. You will select the difficulty to actually begin the song. While the easiest difficulty is a 1, the hardest it goes up to is 10. I started out with a 6 personally, but this is all a preference aspect and will be something newer players can grow with as they get better at the game.

Actually playing the song is pretty straightforward. You have four drums in front of you and the notes come down in a stream-style towards the drums. You want to strike the notes when they reach the drum that they pertain to. The only other aspect here is what the tutorial would have been nice for. You’ll be ranked on how well you do in the song be it no medal, bronze, silver, or gold. To get a higher medal score, you have to do more than just a long combo of notes hit. There are two side cymbals on your left and right side, just out of sight if you don’t turn your head. If you smack these while your hammers have a lightning glow, it will speed up the Vikings rowing the boat you are on. The medals are strictly based on how far the Vikings row the boat and their rowing is based on how well you are doing.

If you want to change any settings for the game, there is a section in the menu area to do this. There you can manage your preferences and have everything set up how you like. I did see quite a few settings to utilize, so it seems they did a good attempt to make the game friendly to multiple users.

Other than that, your score for each song ends up on the leaderboard where you can compare it to the world of gamers or just your friends. It could also be a way for you to start trying to getter a new personal best score on your favorite songs.

Visuals and Audio

The aesthetic of the game is a cartoon Viking scenery where plenty of mythological elements are implemented in the levels and fantastical views are displayed around the player. The further you get in each level, the more you will be able to see. There are only a handful of different sceneries that the game will cycle through, but they do seem to be set to specific songs as well. While it is all nice to look at, most of the detail went into the notes, drums, and general gameplay elements, such as the lightning on the hammers.

Since this is a music game, the audio aspect is a very important one. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the playlist they included in this game! There is a wide range of songs from upbeat and poppy to grungy and heavy. They did a wonderful job including enough songs with enough variety that I think it would be hard for anybody to be unable to find a song or few that they enjoy playing through themselves.

Replayability

Of course, the game has replayability! From the moment you start, you are just placed in front of a list of songs and only the personal knowledge that you loaded the game up to play some drums. This aspect will always be there and the song list is sure to grow as the community around the game does as well.

What It Could Have Done Better

The lack of tutorial is a really bad call. Even if it is simplistic and skippable, it would have been nice to have the details of how the game itself works explained. I get it, you swing the mallet and the drum goes “thunk” but I didn’t know anything about the rowing, the medals, or other aspects until I tested a few things out myself.

I hate that this game, by default, does not let you fail songs. They could have simply have added a “No Fail” option in the settings for players that like this aspect, but there is an extra level of successful feeling that comes from beating a song you have failed before. Keep your music players on their toes and let them know that those Viking ships could sink if they don’t play well enough!

Verdict

Ragnarock VR is one of the more entertaining music games I have played in a long time! Finding a new music game that I can put hours into is always a great find for me and with this one focusing on drums, it is truly a game that I will be getting back into time and time again. I have been playing the drums, in real life, since I was a young teenager and so this game has been nothing but a wonderful experience since I first turned it on. A title I strongly recommend to my fellow music players that are looking for a virtual reality rhythm game.