Forget polite VR games — HexWind, from veteran Canadian VR studio Charm Games, just kicked down our door and left us in a bloody heap.
Good VR experiences have always been about providing a sensation that you’re doing something you can’t really do on any other gaming medium.
On this aspect, I must honestly say: I really don’t think it’s possible to experience this particular cocktail of Matrix-bullet time, Chess, Twister, and full ‘Dumbledore’s Army’-level magical duelling, on any other platform but VR.
HexWind asks the player to step into situations that, on their surface, are simply…’unsurvivable’.
Ah, well, yes, you can stop time. But that doesn’t really make it easier, it just delays the pain.
Powers? You’ve got them.
Unlike the Metroid-style approach of ‘all my powers went away and I have to get them back gradually’, HexWind starts you off fully loaded.
You are The Inquisitor, and you’ve been sent down there for a reason – you’re damned capable.
This is where you, as the player, truly get to ‘role play’. And this is precisely where VR shines. You’re asked to step into the shoes of an experienced magic wielder that is inherently so much more capable than, well, you.
You, as a human, watch Prime Video. You, as a unit of flesh and blood, usually just hit the lowest 18% button when you tip on Starbucks iPad. You kill zombies with the right trigger on your Playstation control.
These are some of your physical capabilities. You can open a microwave exactly at 00:00 yet before it beeps — this is your ‘catch a fly in the chopsticks’ muscle memory, and, in this, few could beat you.
What your muscle memory is NOT trained to do, is laterally whip an electric storm surge spell while physically dodging a dive-bombing flying skull.
For you, that’s a sprained wrist.
For the Inquisitor, that’s a Tuesday.
Prepare to die…a LOT
That’s exactly what HexWind brings to the table, an opportunity to feel one step closer physically to a real magic-slinging badass.
HexWind isn’t your everyday fantasy adventure. It’s an hyper-strategic rogue-lite experience built around the innovative HexTime mechanic, which asks you to strategically slow down combat and tactically control the battlefield.
Fans of the hit Superhot VR will recognize it well — time moves when you do.
But wealth of enemy variants and elemental spells (and weaknesses) make it so the challenge goes beyond the physical to the mental. You have to choose your spell type extremely carefully and simultaneously choose your physical response and motion, all before deciding to move again.
When you actually, finally, clear an entire room of enemies (sealing a Rift, in the game’s parlance), you, the burrito microwaving expert, have literally physically and mentally earned it.
An Early Access Period that Shaped the Game in Every Way
What launched today is the culmination of this vision of creating visceral combat that at no point could EVER be called button mashing.
Throughout the game’s extensive Early Access period, the Charm team actively incorporated player feedback, to the tune of over 25 significant updates and refinements.
Spells evolved dramatically, expanding from basic lightning bolts to an exciting variety of elemental options like Fireball, Storm Surge, and Earth Spikes.
In today’s ‘1.0’ launch version, melee combat with magical wands, a revamped mission system, supremely challenging bosses, and a daily leaderboard all come together to create a deeply polished experience we can’t stop booting up again and again.
Charm Games was already respected in the VR community for their earlier VR titles FORM and Twilight Path, both of which helped legitimize what was possible on VR in terms of both creative game vision and visual polish.
And today, well, they’ve done it again with HexWind.
The game’s development was heavily community-driven, and those who showed up early to support won’t be forgotten, even though their digital bodies will still likely be strewn about in the unforgiving combat.
Early supporters will feel a little bit better knowing at least they’ll be immortalized in the “Hall of Heroes,” a unique in-game monument.
Each update along the journey—from complete visual and UI redesigns to the introduction of entirely new progression systems—added a bit more, turning HexWind into a ‘pretty fun magical combat experience’, to something that allows us to elevate it to that echelon of unmissable VR games.
Now at its full ‘1.0’ launch, HexWind feels complete and genuinely satisfying.
With an expansive campaign, procedurally generated environments, customizable spell loadouts, and strategic gameplay, it sets a high bar for VR gaming….
…and to us, it goes a hell of a long way toward quelling the fears that our Quest is turning into little more than a vehicle for Horizon social slop.
Look, if you’re passionate about immersive VR experiences—whether you’re into casting powerful spells, melee action that makes you actually think, or simply enjoy getting your ass handed to you and knowing you could have avoided it if you’d only been better—HexWind is absolutely worth checking out.
It’s live now on SteamVR and Meta Quest, with a free demo and special launch-week discount bonuses available.
