Originally a DOOM 2 mod, Total Chaos has just seen its release on Nintendo Switch 2 following its PC and console launch last year. The game has seen a long journey from its early mod-based foundation, but the journey isn’t over yet as Total Chaos VR is currently in the works.
In an interview with FRVR, Total Chaos creator Sam Prebble explained that the upcoming VR version of the game is more than a conversion of the original game. As the developer continues working on the port, more changes are being made to make the game feel right in virtual reality.
“Originally, it was just going to be a simple VR port of the game,” Prebble tells us. “But I kind of figured it would be suited if I took that experience and tailored it a bit more to VR so it feels like a new game”. Prebble says that even making the new version “feels like making a new game” as every system has been reworked for VR gaming.
As an action-survival horror game inspired by Stalker and Resident Evil with the gripping hand-to-hand combat of Condemmed, there’s been a lot of reworking behind-the-scenes. While Total Chaos’ main game is great on keyboard and mouse or controller, the shift to VR requires its own tweaks and systems changes to be as immersive as possible.
“’I’m like there’s no point in understanding this. I should just take it as it is.”
Total Chaos creator Sam Prebble on the VR market
One major change is the use of a physical backpack for your inventory. The flatscreen game’s grid-based system would be too cumbersome in VR, so Prebble is optimising the system for the more active medium. “You put your arm over your shoulder and you bring it out,” he says. “Stuff like that, the base game has a massive inventory, you can carry a sh*tload of stuff in your backpack.”
With this in mind, there are admittedly less items in the VR version of Total Chaos, but there’s been a huge rebalancing of everything. Food items now heal more, for example, and crafting resources go further. This creates a different flow to Total Chaos than its released counterpart, and even enemy placement has been changed to account for it.
“You won’t find as many items as you would in the base game, but when you do find an item, the feeling of finding it is a lot more significant than, like, just crack open a box and five cans come out,” he continues. “You’re gonna have to work a bit more for the cans.” He adds that even the placement of crates is different with less crates around the place for players to smash, which should also change the pace of item durability.
While Total Chaos is a product to be sold, it’s also a free addition for anyone who owns the base game on PC, at least on Steam. “We’re still figuring out how to handle that on Oculus,” Prebble adds. “It might just be a standalone package for that which, obviously, doesn’t come with the base game”.
Prebble explains that Total Chaos’ slower-paced but still often hectic gameplay loop “works in a VR space”, and it seems like an obvious fit. One of the most prominent genres of VR are action and horror, and Total Chaos combines the two quite well, but Prebble admits he doesn’t quite understand the tastes of the VR market.
“Every time I try and wrap my head around the VR market, there’s just curveballs that throw me off,” he says. “’I’m like there’s no point in understanding this. I should just take it as it is.”
There is currently no concrete release date for Total Chaos VR, although the upcoming conversion is expected to launch sometime in Q2 2026.
