Marrow Marrow Hands-On: We Shoot & Scoot In This Great Roguelike Shooter

Marrow Marrow is a frantic VR movement shooter that succeeds because of its confident presentation, sharp audio design, and kinetic gameplay.

Marrow Marrow is a perfect example of how virtual reality can elevate a simple concept into something supremely intense and engaging. At its core, Marrow Marrow is a roguelike shooter about movement, momentum, speed, and accuracy, and after spending an afternoon in its lo-fi polygonal demon arenas, I’m hooked.

Developed by Monster Moon, a two-person studio based in Canada and Denmark, Marrow Marrow is a fast-paced movement shooter with roguelike mechanics and arcade sensibilities. Across more than 20 arenas set in three different worlds, players will jump, dodge, grapple and shoot their way through waves of monstrous polygonal demons while acquiring up to 50+ new power-ups, weapons, and other upgrades.

Like the now-ancient Quake and Doom of my youth, Marrow Marrow channels a demon-slayer aesthetic, sending wave after wave of grotesque, low-poly monsters charging your way. There are flying skulls, evil totems, and horned bipedal goats, spider-like mini-bosses and one final boss per run, all vying for your blood.

We dispatch these with a concise and customizable arsenal of weaponry: a primary gun with two firing modes, and a shoulder-mounted cannon. These are upgradable and interchangeable with various weaponry as we progress through the game, which allows for a surprising variety of playstyles. Likewise, you earn upgrades throughout play that provide status buffs or special effects which provide meaningful differences in how each run unfolds.

Your offensive weapons are augmented by a grappling hook. Set to your left hand, the grappling hook allows you to zip around the arena and pull yourself onto almost any platform or surface. It also allows you to execute staggered enemies by grappling them with your hook. This hookshot, coupled with the game’s dash mechanic, leads to intense moments of pure acrobatics in the game’s highly vertical play spaces.

We shoot our way through each run, with every level escalating the challenge and the stakes. If we die, it’s game over and we have to start again. If we succeed, we earn a place on the leaderboard.

On paper, none of this is all that revolutionary. In the headset, it feels immediate, exciting, and visceral. With the electronic industrial soundtrack grinding in your ears and the stark visuals bleeding against your retinas, Marrow Marrow is a never-ending assault on the senses in all the right ways. Its low-poly aesthetic not only provides a striking visual identity, but keeps everything running at an incredibly smooth clip that facilitates the game’s omnidirectional movement and frantic gunplay.

It’s challenging on easy mode, tough as nails on normal, and impossible enough on hard that I never made it to the game’s toughest difficulty level. On any difficulty, you’re always dashing, grappling and repositioning while lining up shots under intense pressure. When it all comes together, there’s a sort of rhythmic flow that feels almost perfect.

But this intensity does not come without trade-offs. Marrow Marrow is a game that assumes a certain level of comfort with the medium. In short, it’s a horrible fit for players prone to motion sickness in VR. While the game does feature several concessions to comfort, the core concept simply demands so much rapid movement that no amount of snap-turning or motion vignetting will help. If you get sick in VR, skip this one.

For those who can handle the speed, and those that are interested in tight and interesting roguelike shooters, Marrow Marrow is a no brainer.

Marrow Marrow is out now on Meta Quest and Steam VR.