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Review: Sweet Surrender
Sweet Surrender has been available on PC VR and Meta Quest since 2021, and now, after more than four years, it has finally arrived on Sony’s platform. During this period, roguelike games have emerged as the latest trend in VR shooters, with a plethora of titles being launched. The pressing question is, does Sweet Surrender offer anything unique to distinguish itself after four years?
Game Details
Release Date: October 30th 2025
Developer: Salmi Games
Publisher: Salmi Games
Price: £29.99 / US $24.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Access Provided For Review *
Rapid Combat, But Shows It’s Age
In a sense, Sweet Surrender does have a story, but it appears that the developers prioritised combat over integrating a verbal narrative into the gameplay. The tale of this robot-ridden city is conveyed through scattered log entries found throughout the game. This means that if you’re interested in the lore of this universe, you’ll have to hunt for these logs as you ascend the mega-tower.
Regarding the combat, it is quick-paced and feels like it was crafted for rapid, explosive runs. The game offers four main areas, divided into three randomised levels, and the developers have added a save and quit option after each level – again giving the feeling that this game is structured for short play sessions. Each level is generated with a variety of room templates, but I’m unsure of the exact number, as I sometimes encountered the same room across all three levels – which made the gameplay feel repetitive faster than I would prefer in a roguelike.
As previously stated, the combat is rapid, evoking an arcade-like feeling. This rapidity serves as a significant advantage in the game as you maneuver through various rooms, searching for optimal strategies to outwit the robots guarding them. You can take advantage of the grapple-gun (if you find it during your run), teleport plates, and zip-lines to gain the upper hand against your enemies. Regarding weaponry, you’ll come across a wide array of options including pistols, SMGs, rifles, explosive launchers, melee weapons, and grenades, enabling you to swiftly adapt to the configuration of each room. You have several slots available to store your weapons, grapple-gun, shield, grenades, and a variety of health and booster stims, so it’s crucial to manage these effectively to ensure you are optimally equipped for your preferred playstyle or strategy.
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One aspect where Sweet Surrender reveals its age, and which the team has not updated, is that all your upgrades are temporary. There is no genuine progression tree or the ability to return stronger, a feature that has become a hallmark of roguelike games over the years. In this game, your upgrades manifest as chips that you discover while exploring different areas. You can equip four chips into your gloves, with each chip providing a specific buff – these can be replaced if you come across a better option or one that aligns more closely with your playstyle. These chips offer tactical enhancements rather than altering the gameplay or strategies, which results in a feeling of limited long-term progression. When combined with the weapons available, which function adequately, the game ultimately lacks that gratifying sense of growth over time, diminishing the rewards and the gameplay loop that players have come to expect from roguelikes.
Sweet Surrender includes classes, but I personally didn’t feel they altered my playstyle or strategy in any significant way, so I primarily used the Rebel class, which is available from the beginning. When comparing it to other games in the genre, like The Light Brigade, where each class dramatically shifts your gameplay approach, it feels somewhat underwhelming in Sweet Surrender.
Industrial Neon
The visual style aligns with what one would anticipate from a game set in a robot-controlled metropolis, featuring an industrial look enhanced by vibrant neon lights and signage. The developers have chosen to utilise bright, bold colours alongside minimalistic textures. However, as you encounter repeated tiles during the same run, the initial visual appeal begins to diminish, as the rooms start to appear quite similar. Coupled with the recurring enemy types and the need to undertake more runs, this repetition highlights a sense of sameness, detracting from the sense of discovering new things as you get in your first few runs.
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One thing this choice in visuals allows for the combat effects to look punchy, from your weapons firing, the explosions, EMP effects and the damage sparks as you attack your robot foes. However, one major issue I have had is the amount of pop-up text boxes linked to the positioning of your arms, sometimes when trying to aim at enemies the box showing my current chips in one of my arms could pop-up just due to the position of my arms – which is not only an annoyance but breaks some immersion. Also, when holding a weapon double handed sometimes the tracking would mess-up leading to me holding the gun at weird angles.
The sound design in this game is quite straightforward, featuring the impactful noises of your weapons that align with the punchy combat effects, complemented by a high-energy synth soundtrack that matches the pace of the action. While this aligns well with the overall feel and gameplay, I would have preferred a greater variety of tracks to prevent it from contributing to a sense of repetitiveness.
Comfort
Verdict
With the current abundance of roguelike shooters in Virtual Reality, it’s essential to introduce something fresh to the genre to make your game feel distinctive. Sadly, Sweet Surrender appears outdated and fails to present anything innovative that would help it stand out. For me, its primary attraction lies in the fast-paced, arcade-style combat, which makes each run feel explosive and full of action, however, in the present gaming environment, this alone isn’t sufficient to sustain a roguelike title. The feelinmg of becoming stronger through progression trees for permanent upgrades has become a hallmark of the genre, enticing players to return for additional runs – lacking this feature significantly diminishes the sense of reward. One positive aspect of Sweet Surrender is that the game operates smoothly and the quick-paced combat designed for brief sessions works flawlessly, though it unfortunately feels somewhat outdated now. Nevertheless, if you’re in search of a more straightforward, less challenging roguelike that can be enjoyed in short intervals, this might just be the game for you.
Copyright / Virtual Grip (formally The VR Realm) / 2016 -
