[Update 3/15/21] Gorilla Tag is also now available for free in Oculus App Lab for Quest, with full cross-play to the PC VR version as well.
[Original 3/6/21] Gorilla Tag is a new VR multiplayer title available for free in Early Access on Steam and via SideQuest for Oculus Quest. And it does exactly what it says on the packet– it’s tag, but everyone is a gorilla.
The game has seen a surge in popularity in the last few weeks, with a Steam news update from the game’s sole developer pegging the player base at over 40,000 people. It’s free to play with two maps and two game modes — one is basic tag with up to 3 players, the other is infection tag with 4 or more.
Visually, the game is a bit garish and polygonal, but it doesn’t matter because it’s all about the movement system. Moving in Gorilla Tag is very simple in concept, but has a high skill ceiling — as the description on Steam reads, “no buttons, no sticks, no teleportation.” This is all about channelling your inner monkey and using your arms to grip surfaces and propel yourself forward.
It’s got hints of Echo VR’s locomotion system, but unlike Echo, you’ll be working with full gravity and very little sustainable grip. It’s all about propelling yourself forward the minute you touch a surface. If you try and hang onto a surface instead of using it to push forward, you’ll plummet to the ground. In concept it’s almost identical to how actual gorillas move around using their arms. However, in Gorilla Tag, all the gorillas are cut off from the waist down, with no legs.
There’s voice chat enabled by default, so players will often by chatting to each other mid-game or communicating with each other to find the last un-tagged gorillas. As a whole, the game is as simple as it gets but its a solid foundation to build on. The developer states on the Steam page that they intend on adding more content and fleshing the game out as they go along, while also maintaining a free-to-play model with potential for cosmetic DLC down the line.
Gorilla Tag is available for free on Steam for PC VR and via SideQuest for sideloading onto Oculus Quest, with cross-platform play supported.
