CONVRGENCE is one of several VR shooters taking heavy influence from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and METRO series, sharing space with other games like Into The Radius (ITR) and ZONA Origins. I will state that right out of the gate, I have played both ITR and ZONA, having sunk a considerable amount more into ZONA which I consider to be the better of the two franchises.

Onto CONVRGENCE. The game takes a much more Tarkov-esque approach to the world, with the player spending most of their time in a small hub area with their own space and shop, then setting out onto one of (currently) 6 maps on a raid (noting that 2 of these are variants of existing maps). Each of these raids is randomly generated with the main layout being the same, but with your spawn area, points of interest, loot, and exfil locations shuffled around. You collect loot, complete quests, then return to the hubworld. The twist here is that you have a dog companion to join you, much in the same way as Arizona Sunshine 2.

The core gunplay is pretty solid especially for a game produced by a solo dev. Guns feel powerful and have a weight to them when you move them around - not enough to tangibly impact gameplay but enough that you have the constant feeling in a fight that you gun is a real object. Most guns have a few attachments which you can either purchase directly from the merchant (once you have built up enough reputation through questing) or find them out in the world during raids.

One of the big decisions that CONVRGENCE makes that diverges (heh) from the other games is its bag and holster systems. ZONA lets you carry up to 4 primary weapons (with 3 being inaccessible without bringing your bag out) and one sidearm. CONVRGENCE forces you to only take 1 primary and 1 secondary. This is a design decision which is fine if the rest of the game builds around it appropriately, however I found myself spending far more time working around it rather than embracing it. After all, you don't know how many guns are in the game or how rare they are or what their sell prices are. Why invest and bond with a single weapon (which I assume is the intended decision around the single primary limitation) when I can just... carry ammo for every single weapon I stumble across? It's cheap and plentiful and there's no real gun condition system so the difference between GUN A and GUN B is nothing. The game, in a sense, encourages you to care about sidearms since you can't find them out in the world, but you can for primaries. After all, every gun you bring back is a hefty amount of money and all you really need to do is kill a single enemy with a pistol at the start of a raid and you're set.

The second big decision is that your bag has a discrete number of items it can carry, 9 with your first bag then 18 with the first upgrade. That means that all items are equal and volume doesn't matter, you can bring home 9 items and that's it. I think the system is a lot better than I thought it would be, since I was used to the familiar feeling of breaking bag geometry to stuff as much crap in the bag as possible in other games. I think the implementation of this bag system is fine and doesn't detract from the gameplay experience, though I also don't think it enhances it at all.

AI and combat encounters are pretty solid. There's some variety in human enemies and demons (the equivalent of Stalker's mutants), and the AI is alright. Not stand out, but compared to other games where enemies will just stand in place and fire, it's fine. The dog companion is however a sore spot in the game as it will often target a random enemy you can't see, then die off-screen. In several occasions it has bolted straight into mines and tripwires because it tunnel visions on... something somewhere I can't see. I just turn a corner and there's my dead dog sometimes. Given that you have to use valuable meds to revive companions, the dog swiftly stopped being a lovable companion (like in Arizona Sunshine 2) and quickly became "babysit a toddler that will sprint towards death as fast as possible if you don't watch it like a hawk". Needless to say, it got boring fast.

I think in the broadest sense, the game has good foundations and solid fundamentals. It's an early access game made by a single developer, so this positive recommendation is in truth "If the dev continues to pour effort into this game, it can one day be really worth the purchase". As it stands, I would consider my purchase of the game a long-term investment in a game that may one day be good.

For now though? The game has a dozen hours of content to it. Pick it up if you liked ZONA or ITR, then check in with the patchnotes periodically. I'd still say that the game is probably worthwhile in its current state at full price based on that assessment.

IMO, having played some of Into the Radius first, then picking this up second.... this game is significantly better.
It's been a much more robust, atmospheric, and interactive experience overall. There's also more quality of life features present that makes Convrgence feel less tedious, and more fun to play than ItR. It's just straight up a better game. Get this over ItR if you're looking at getting one of the two.

First off, great premise, love the Stalker vibes... But I found it too janky and awkward to enjoy. For me it was incredibly difficult to grab the speedloaders off my belt to reload the revolver. I kept having to hunt around to find the exact right spot to grab them. Would have preferred a simpler option to reload. Also in seated mode, the gun and knife holsters are so low that I nearly have to reach down to the real life floor to grab them. Ended up switching to standing mode because of it. Grabbing things off my back was also annoyingly hit and miss.

In the first raid, after killing a wolf, I somehow managed to throw my revolver and spent the next 3-4 minutes searching for it, hoping those wolf howls weren't too close. Skill issue, but it's definitely something that is likely to happen to you at some point.

The actual shooting was fine and seemed fun, so it's a real pity that reloading was such a pain. The jankiness of trying to get your controllers in just the right spots to grab things is basically the dealbreaker for me on this one.

Buy it if you love Stalker and have the patience to put up with VR jank. You might like it if you enjoy singleplayer Tarkov as well. Unfortunately its a thumbs down for me.