VR headsets – including the new Meta Quest 3 – you’ve been warned. If your owner decides to play I Expect You to Die 3, you are in grave danger. This game is bound to induce bouts of gamer rage in VR players, so be prepared to have your guts splattered across the living room floor as you get thrown into a wall.
Jokes aside, dear reader, I Expect You to Die 3 is the third installment of one of the most underrated VR series ever – a game that lets you step into a quirky, unserious spy institution out to stop megalomaniacal schemes from vainglorious villains that may end the world as you know it. It’s up to you to play hero and save the world, so IEYTD3 drops you into precarious situations where it forces you to use your noggin to figure out how to progress to the next level.
Every IEYTD game kicks off with a moody ballad – à la Billie Eilish’s No Time to Die. This time, the Haley Reinhart-sung IEYTD3 intro throws you into an immersive opening credits scene, giving you a taste of the weaponized machinery you’ll be up against in the game – as well as the cruel villain that you’ll have to take down.
After the intro, the gameplay starts, and IEYTD3 continues the frustrating, hair-pulling, maddening mechanics that have become hallmarks of the series, but it’s addictive enough to keep you coming back for more.
What I like about I Expect You to Die 3
You may be thinking, "Ugh, this game is on its third installment. Does that mean I have to play the two previous games?" No, absolutely not. I Expect You to Die 3 is not a continuation of I Expect You to Die 2, but it does have some of the same characters: Agent Phoenix (you) and your handler (the snarky, disembodied voice you hear that guides you through each mission). Plus, Zoraxis, a dangerous, villainous corporation, continues to wreak havoc in the I Expect You to Die world.
Science fiction elements
You, as Agent Phoenix, have the ability to use telekinesis to summon objects to you. In fact, all agents in “The Agency,” yes that’s the name of the espionage firm you work for, have the ability to move objects without physically touching them, thanks to a brain implant that was invented by Dr. Roxana Prism (who is the main antagonist in IEYTD3).
You can also freeze objects in mid-air, allowing you to easily access objects as they hover in proximity to you. This superpower is super helpful when making sense of the clues and documents you find lying around each level, giving you the ability to organize all your findings in an almost paranormal manner.
Exhilarating scenes
Schell Games, the developer behind IEYTD3, has never failed to script an edge-of-your-seat storyline for the series. One of my favorite missions drops you inside a speeding car as you chase after Dr. Prism and her side-kick robot.
I mean, what’s a spy movie without a high-speed car chase, right? You’ll even be forced to slide under a moving truck to thwart Dr. Prism’s nefarious plans. Or you may be poisoned with noxious green gas, and with just minutes left to live, you must quickly whip up an antidote before you die. There’s even a gigantic squid boss that you’ll have to contend with while you’re completing an underwater mission. Did I mention that you’ll also find yourself fighting laser-shooting robots while you’re riding a gondola lift in Hokkaido, Japan?
IEYTD3, like its predecessors, has escape room-esque puzzles, but Schell Games sprinkles some action into each mission, spicing up the game with a healthy balance of brain-stimulating problems and heart-stopping adventure.
Disguises
Disguises are not prevalent mechanic in the I Expect You to Die series, but when you get a chance to use them, they're an enchanting experience. For example, in the "Operation: Not a Drill" mission, you find a clue in a hard hat, but you also need to wear the hard hat — or you will die.
What’s fascinating about this level is that you need to give off the impression that you know what you’re doing. Too many wrong moves and you’ll alert Dr. Prism's worker robots that you’re not the real drill operator who typically leads the shift – and you will die.
High interactivity
IEYTD3, like the previous two games, is a tactile game with many objects, buttons, switches, and levers to play around with.
In one mission, you’ll be using a computer like you would in real life, and in another, you’ll have the opportunity to operate a car, with options for playing around with the sunroof and a seat-ejector button. In one particular scene, you’ll have to concoct a liquid solution to reveal invisible ink written on a note inside an evil villain’s lair. From mixing different chemicals to shaking 'em up until they bubble, the entire experience fulfilled my desires for a multisensory, hands-on, engaging interaction inside a simulated environment.
Great voice acting and cheeky tone
IEYTD3, as mentioned at the outset, is an unserious game. Your handler – the voice that counsels you through each mission – is one snarky wisecracker. Even the surliest gamer would elicit a chuckle or two after hearing the handler’s flippant, cavalier remarks as the IEYTD3 world sits at the brink of calamity. As such, if I could pick a pop culture spy figure that best fits the IEYTD3 vibes, it’d be Austin Powers. Yeah, baby!
What I dislike about I Expect You to Die 3
IEYTD3 is one of the most frustrating VR games ever. You’re dropped into missions with very little explanation of what you’re doing there in the first place. As such, it’s up to you to explore the hell out of the environment to find clues that lead to other clues that hopefully help you progress to the next mission. And in some moments, you only have a very short window to quickly figure out how to wiggle your way out of a sticky situation – or else you’re dead.
There are no checkpoints
Like the game title suggests, you are expected to die because there are no checkpoints in missions – none, zilch, nada.
You have to play through them perfectly from start to finish. You could spend 15 minutes on a mission and make one wrong move right before the end of the level – and you’ll have to start all over again from the beginning. Argh!
The repetition drives you nuts
As you’re wracking your brain to figure out how to beat a mission, your handler will repeat the same statement every three minutes like a broken record.
For example, as I was trying to focus on finding the recipe for the antidote to the aforementioned poison gas, my handler kept interrupting my thought process by repeatedly saying, "Not to rush you, but an antidote would be really good right now." Uh, ya think?! I tried to go into the settings to turn off his annoying voice, but Schell Games doesn’t include an option to do so.
Objects fall out of reach
This doesn’t happen often, but once in a blue moon, objects that you need to complete a puzzle fall out of reach and become irretrievable.
Final thoughts
I Expect You to Die 3 isn’t my favorite of the three – I Expect You to Die 2 takes that throne – but the third installment continues to capture everything we love about the spy genre. From the exhilarating high-speed car chases to donning a disguise to throw antagonists off your scent, I Expect You to Die 3 has it all. Its cheeky, saucy tone, however, suggests that the series intends to make fun of the absurdity of espionage in pop culture.
For my sanity, however, it’d be nice if Schell Games could do us a solid and put checkpoints in the game. Without them, the game is on the verge of becoming more frustrating than fun, and that being the case, it's VR headsets all over the world that I expect to die.
I played I Expect You to Die 3 on the Meta Quest 2 headset. The game will set you back $24.99. It's already available for the Quest platform, but for SteamVR, it will drop on Sept. 28.
