Dread Meridian, developed and published by KUKRGAME, launched on January 22, 2026, as a VR survival horror experience available on Meta Quest (2/3 standalone) and Steam VR (PCVR). Priced around $20 (with occasional launch discounts of 10-15%), the game heavily draws from H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, blending it with classic Resident Evil-inspired mechanics. Players take on the role of Daniela (or Daniella), a 1930s researcher shipwrecked on the remote, frozen Arctic island of Oglanbyen. The story follows her frantic search for her missing twin sister amid eldritch horrors, mutated creatures, abandoned research facilities, mines, resource scarcity, intricate puzzles, and combat using knives, pistols, SMGs, and upgradable weapons powered by a fictional element called “Weiranium.”
The game’s atmospheric ambitions shine in its detailed 1920s-1930s environments, immersive snowy landscapes featuring howling wolves and swaying pines, a reactive soundtrack, and effective use of lighting and shadows to build dread. When everything aligns, it delivers moments of genuine Lovecraftian body horror, satisfying audio cues, weapon feedback, and straightforward yet engaging puzzles.
However, the launch version has been widely criticized for significant technical shortcomings that undermine the experience. Reviews highlight glitchy audio (overlapping sounds, cutouts), janky and imprecise controls (described as feeling like “moving underwater”), poor hit detection in combat, frustrating inventory and UI systems (awkward hitboxes, cumbersome backpack cycling), vague diary-based objectives, buggy puzzles that often require restarts, unsynced lip movements, texture loading issues, and other immersion-breaking problems like flying enemy corpses or invisible walls. Some reviewers encountered game-breaking bugs that prevented completion, such as issues with boss encounters or unfinishable objectives. Voice acting often comes across as flat or wooden, with subtitle errors (including character name swaps), and the overall presentation feels rushed.
Professional critiques reflect this mixed-to-negative sentiment. COGconnected awarded it a 55/100 in their review titled “Lackadaisical Lovecraft,” praising the environments, occasional VR immersion, and soundtrack but condemning the technical issues, glitchy audio, and janky controls as major detractors in a crowded VR horror market. They noted six rapid post-launch patches but suggested the damaged first impression might be hard to recover from, advising fans to monitor updates via the game’s Discord rather than buy immediately. Noisy Pixel gave it a 4/10 (Mediocre), calling it “rushed” with physics glitches, awful UI/weapon interactions, severe ammo scarcity, uninspired storytelling, and unmemorable characters—though it acknowledged acceptable gameplay in bug-free segments. The VR Realm highlighted visual ambition, solid puzzles, sound design, and knife combat but criticized combat imbalance (overpowered knife reducing gun use), jank in inventory scrolling, bugs, flat performances, and heavy Resident Evil mimicry without true tension; the reviewer couldn’t finish due to a late-game bug.
On aggregate platforms like Metacritic, coverage remains limited, with only a handful of scored reviews so far. User reception shows more variance: Steam holds an 81% Positive rating from a small sample of 43 reviews, while the Meta Quest Store averages around 3.5/5 across 50-70 ratings. Community discussions on Reddit and YouTube describe it as having “tons of potential” with cool gore effects and intriguing puzzles, yet many urge holding off due to launch jank—some players quit after just an hour, citing broken combat and performance issues.
Pros (when functioning smoothly): Evocative frozen dread atmosphere, detailed Lovecraftian horror elements, strong audio and weapon feedback, and clever puzzles.
Cons: Pervasive bugs, clunky VR interactions, unbalanced and imprecise combat, frequent immersion breakers, and a sense of under-polish.
Verdict: Dread Meridian is an ambitious attempt at Lovecraftian VR horror that shows flashes of brilliance but launches in an unrefined state. The developers have been responsive with multiple patches in the first week, so dedicated VR horror enthusiasts might consider wishlisting it and waiting for updates (ideally 1.1 or later) to address the core issues. For now, in a market with more polished alternatives like Resident Evil 4 VR, it’s best to approach with caution or skip until further improvements are confirmed. For the full COGconnected review, check their site directly.
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