In Death, the roguelike bow-shooter from Sólfar Studios, the developers behind Everest VR (2016), just received a much-awaited update that’s aiming to add a little more depth to the polished, and extremely difficult medieval-themed single player game. Starting today, In Death will include dungeons, dubbed ‘The Pits of Damnation’, and an asynchronous multiplayer challenge mode called ‘The Ladder’.
Spaced periodically throughout the game you’ll now find portals to The Pits of Damnation, where you’ll battle new and harder enemies on a one-way route through the discrete level. Dungeon mobs like giant fireball-throwing succubi and geometry-morphing ghosts can end your run pretty quickly if you don’t have what it takes. “If you survive the punishment in the Pits it will be worth the effort as you’ll be rewarded handsomely before emerging back to Purgatory,” Sólfar says in a Steam forum post announcing the update.
The Ladder is a challenge mode divided into several “terraces” patterned after Dante Alighieri’s Purgatorio. At the bottom terrace, called The Proud, you’ll find yourself placed on a list of a dozen other players; the ultimate goal is to work your way up until you finally reach the terrace called The Lustful.
Overall progress of players is assessed two times per week, called ‘the Reckoning’, which could mean moving up a terrace while others fall back down. “As you climb up to higher and higher terraces, the total number of players competing gets smaller and smaller until you reach the ultimate terrace of The Lustful, where only 12 compete globally for the heavenly throne.”
To move up in rankings you have to challenge others in your terrace and win. A challenge, Sólfar says, is basically a contest between two players where they both will need to finish a run using the same random seed and the same achievement profile—essentially putting both players on equal grounding.
In Death is still in Early Access, but it’s shaping up to be one of the most polished and engaging VR games out there. For a better idea of what to expect, see our updated hands-on with In Death, which includes the new modes.
Check out In Death on Steam (Vive and Rift) and Oculus Home (Rift).