Underdogs

Underdogs
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	One Hamsa
Publisher	One Hamsa (Quest, PC VR); Perp Games (PlayStation VR2)
Platform	Meta Quest, SteamVR, PlayStation VR2
Device	Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, PlayStation VR2, PC VR headsets
Operating System	Windows, PlayStation 5
Type	Game
Genre	Mech brawler, Roguelike, Action
Input Device	Tracked Motion Controllers
Play Area	Standing, Room-scale
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	Meta Quest and PC VR: January 25, 2024; PlayStation VR2: March 25, 2025
Price	US$29.99
App Store	Steam, Meta Quest Store, PlayStation Store
Website	https://store.steampowered.com/app/2441700/UNDERDOGS/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Underdogs is a single-player physics-based mech-brawler roguelike virtual reality game developed by the Israeli studio One Hamsa. It launched on Meta Quest and PC VR via Steam on January 25, 2024, and later came to PlayStation VR2 on March 25, 2025. Players pilot a gorilla-shaped fighting mech through underground arenas, moving by swinging their arms along the ground and dealing damage with physics-driven punches and salvaged weapons.

The game uses arm-based locomotion in place of thumbstick movement, a control scheme One Hamsa adapted from the kind of full-body motion used in titles such as Gorilla Tag. At Road to VR's end-of-year awards for 2024, Underdogs won both Excellence in Locomotion and Excellence in Indie Development.

Gameplay

Underdogs is a first-person roguelike set in a series of underground fighting pits. The player controls a five-ton bipedal mech, referred to in the story as a Rilla, and fights waves of enemy robots in enclosed arenas before facing a boss. Combat is built around physics rather than fixed attack animations: the force and direction of a real arm swing determine how hard the mech punches, and momentum carries through collisions with enemies and the environment.

Movement uses arm-based locomotion. Instead of a locomotion thumbstick, the player reaches toward the ground and pulls the mech forward, which lets it slide, fling, and glide around the arena. Road to VR described the resulting motion as feeling like ice skating once contextualized to the heavy mech. Because all movement and attacks are driven by arm motion, the game has no smooth-stick or teleport comfort option, and One Hamsa has framed the physical exertion as part of the design.

Between fights, players scavenge and equip from more than 100 items and power tools, including chainsaws and wrecking balls, to customize the mech for each run. As a roguelike, runs are made up of randomized encounters with mid-run upgrades that can combine into tactical synergies, and the player restarts from the beginning on death. A separate Skirmish mode lets players replay favored builds outside the main campaign structure.

Story

Underdogs is set in the 22nd century in New Brakka, an underground city that the developers describe as a holdout still run by humans, where outcasts, criminals, and misfits operate under an artificial-intelligence system called Big Sys. The narrative follows two brothers who travel from London to New Brakka after a cryptic piece of data lodges in one brother's brain and an AI begins overtaking his consciousness; they search for a cure while clawing up the mech-fighting hierarchy to survive. The game uses a cel-shaded art style and a gritty cyberpunk atmosphere.

Development

One Hamsa is an independent studio whose first VR title was Racket: Nx, a motion-based racquetball game that entered early access in 2017. Underdogs was the studio's attempt to make a more hardcore VR action game.

According to co-founder Dave Levy, the team prototyped a mech concept early, set it aside, and revisited it roughly two years later after a colleague rebuilt a prototype quickly enough to revive interest in the idea. A playable proof of concept with characters and a world was in place by mid-2021, and full production began in 2022 on a two-year budget with about half the team assigned to it. The studio has five founders, and Levy noted the project was larger and more complex than anything the team had previously built. One Hamsa chose motion-driven controls over button or stick input to increase the sense of embodiment, with the stated core fantasy of becoming a rampaging metal gorilla.

After launch, the studio added a multiplayer mini-game called BALLTAG to the Quest and PC VR versions, which it described as a first step toward full multiplayer. The PlayStation VR2 port did not receive multiplayer. Levy attributed this to the port reaching fewer new players than hoped, stating the studio could not afford to add large new parts of the game such as multiplayer without a larger player base.

Release

Platform	Release date	Notes
Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro	January 25, 2024	Launch on the Meta Quest Store
PC VR (SteamVR)	January 25, 2024	Released on Steam the same day
PlayStation VR2	March 25, 2025	Ported to PlayStation 5; published by Perp Games

The game launched at US$29.99 on Steam.

Reception

Underdogs was received positively across VR outlets. UploadVR rated it 4 out of 5, calling it an adrenaline-fueled experience and praising its visual and audio design, intuitive controls, and progression, while noting limited launch content (two arenas), the lack of comfort options for motion-sensitive players, and a single crash during testing.

On Steam the game holds an Overwhelmingly Positive user rating, with about 97 percent of roughly 2,000 user reviews positive. Meta reported a user score of 4.9 out of 5 on the Meta Quest Store at the time of its Quest release.

Road to VR named Underdogs a winner in two categories of its Best VR Games of 2024 awards, Excellence in Locomotion and Excellence in Indie Development, crediting its arm-based locomotion and physics combat.