Rogan: The Thief In The Castle released on PC VR headsets last week. Unsurprisingly, people had a few issues with the launch version of the game.
Most notably, the stealth experience obscures the player’s field of view with a hood. The idea is to keep the experience comfortable. But a recent patch added the option to remove this feature after complaints. We didn’t find the hood too distracting, but we’re not surprised to learn that others did.
Also addressed in this patch are some of the graphical issues. People playing on VR reported blurriness (we played on Rift S and didn’t notice this) whereas the graphics on the ‘High’ setting have been improved too. Finally, developer Smilegate has removed the bothersome white screen that appears if you get your head caught in a blocked area. That could be a pretty messy addition when sneaking through tight spaces.
Going forward, Smilegate also plans to better adjust Rogan’s difficulty. In our review we said the game was simply too easy, which undermined many of the game’s stealth mechanics.
Overall, though, Rogan is a largely simplistic game. “VR stealth should be about physicality and self-awareness, with weight behind every tiny move you make,” we said in our review. “Rogan doesn’t have the agency or danger to bring realize those ambitions. In the end, this VR thief is a bit of a forgery; pretty on the outside but the beauty is only skin deep.”
Hopefully Smilegate’s upcoming improvements will tip those scales somewhat. We’ll keep you updated.
