Soul Assembly’s latest VR outing, which we first went hands-on with last summer, throws Norse mythology straight into a graffiti-covered version of New York City, blending rogue-lite progression with comic book aesthetics and physics-driven melee combat that can make you feel like Thor in VR. Street Gods immediately leans into style over subtlety, introducing players to Val, a rebellious street artist who suddenly finds herself wielding Thor’s hammer in a city where mythological realms have violently collided with modern urban decay. It’s an undeniably strong setup for a VR action game, and Street Gods often succeeds at delivering spectacle and personality even when its underlying systems struggle to maintain momentum over longer sessions.
The biggest draw is unquestionably the hammer combat. Throwing, recalling and slamming Mjolnir-style weaponry around arenas taps into an instant power fantasy that feels tailor-made for VR, and Street Gods understands that appeal from the opening moments. The recall mechanic in particular gives combat a satisfying rhythm, especially once additional mobility skills and combo options start unlocking deeper into the progression tree. Some encounters become genuinely exhilarating once teleportation and elemental upgrades enter the mix, allowing players to chain together throws, aerial attacks and crowd control abilities in a fluid sequence of movement and destruction. The game’s best moments emerge when everything clicks together and you’re darting across arenas while thunder crashes around you and you smack enemies in the face with a giant hammer.
Unfortunately, Street Gods also runs into one of the most common problems in the rogue-lite genre: repetition arrives far too quickly. Enemy variety is limited, arena layouts begin recycling themselves after only a few runs, and the game leans heavily on wave-based encounters that rarely evolve mechanically beyond throwing larger groups at the player. Even though upgrades and temporary buffs attempt to diversify each run, the underlying combat rarely changes enough to fully disguise how familiar everything becomes after several hours. The Tafl-board inspired progression mechanic between encounters adds some strategic structure to route planning, but it also ends up feeling more cumbersome than engaging. The board puzzles and rune placement systems often interrupt pacing rather than enrich it, particularly because interacting with pieces in VR can sometimes feel awkward or imprecise.
Street Gods also struggles somewhat with physical feedback, which is surprising given how much emphasis the game places on the weight and impact of Thor’s hammer. While throwing the weapon around remains fun on a baseline level, enemy reactions often lack convincing heft. Many foes simply ragdoll backward or absorb hits with limited animation feedback, which weakens the illusion of power during longer combat stretches. Boss fights fare considerably better because their scale and spectacle naturally create more tension, but regular encounters can start to feel floaty and overly familiar. There’s still enjoyment to be found in mastering the hammer’s mechanics, yet the combat never quite reaches the tactile brutality that the best VR melee games manage to achieve.
Visually, though, Soul Assembly deserves genuine credit. Street Gods frequently looks fantastic for a standalone Quest title, embracing bold neon colors, graffiti-inspired art direction and fractured cityscapes that give the game a distinct identity. The mixture of urban environments and Norse mythology creates an unusual aesthetic that stands apart from the endless parade of generic sci-fi VR shooters out there. Some environments, especially during quieter moments between combat encounters, show an impressive amount of detail for Quest hardware, and the comic-inspired presentation style suits the tone remarkably well. The downside is that the ambitious visuals clearly push the hardware hard. Inconsistent framerates, crashes, battery drain and occasional bugs all hurt immersion in a game that depends heavily on maintaining physical flow and responsiveness, no matter how nice it is to see a developer push the Quest 3 a little harder.
The narrative sits somewhere in the middle. Street Gods deserves praise for at least attempting character-driven storytelling instead of treating its rogue-lite structure as little more than an excuse for endless combat arenas. Thor’s presence inside the hammer, Loki’s bizarre portrayal and Val’s reluctant evolution into a mythic hero all give the world personality, and some of the quieter interactions genuinely land with charm. At the same time, the dialogue often becomes overly chatty, slowing the pacing between runs and occasionally veering into awkward territory that doesn’t fully earn its emotional ambitions. The result is a story that remains interesting enough to keep following, even if it never fully capitalizes on the strength of its premise.
What ultimately keeps Street Gods afloat is that the core fantasy still works, especially in short bursts. Even when the repetition starts creeping in, there’s an undeniable thrill to hurling a thunder hammer through a crowd of enemies and calling it back into your hand seconds later. Soul Assembly clearly aimed for a long-form VR rogue-lite with style, personality and replayability, and while the execution falls short in several important areas, the foundation underneath remains promising. Players who enjoy arcade-style melee combat and are willing to tolerate repetition and technical rough edges will likely find enough here to justify sticking around for multiple runs. Those looking for deeper combat systems, stronger encounter variety or more polished performance may come away disappointed instead. Street Gods feels like a game with flashes of greatness trapped inside a package that needed more refinement before release – entertaining, visually striking and occasionally thrilling, but also difficult to recommend without reservations in its current state. But for a Thor-like power fantasy, look no further.
Score: 6.2/10