Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2 Review: Some Sense Of Humor Required

Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2 retains all the irreverent charm and quirkiness of its predecessor and, for the right player, justifies its hefty (for VR) price tag.

I mention the price tag because, frankly, it is the elephant in the room when evaluating this game. Playing the original H3VR in 2026, after it finally left Early Access with ten years and well over one hundred updates behind it, feels like a return to a bygone era of VR. An age when the tech was basically in its fetal form and developers like Rust Ltd's Anton Hand were experimenting with the medium because they had a weird idea for a game. And most importantly for this review, a time before companies like Meta and swaths of players across multiple age demographics felt entitled to tell a developer what does and does not 'work and/or sell in VR.' So going into the sequel, releasing first on a platform where so-called 'premium' games have largely struggled to find traction unless they are popular on TikTok, and at twice the price of its predecessor to boot, the biggest questions are whether H3VR2 (a) is still relevant and (b) worth your time and money.

If you play H3VR2, the feeling you will get right away is there is nothing like this elsewhere in VR. With the proliferation of free-to-play social sandboxes routinely topping the best selling titles charts on the Quest platform, H3VR2 dares to be different, standing out from the field with a highly-polished, lovingly crafted world of dad joke-level humor mixed with H3VR's signature unrivaled gunplay.

Depending on who you are, it's a toss up which one of those will grab you first. You play as a Sosig, a sentient hot dog working in The Facility, a hilarious send up of corporate life packed to the brim with satirical signs and fellow sosigs spewing lines that will make you double take early and often, thinking "I'm sorry, what was that?" I attacked so many of the harmless lab coat sosigs just to see what they would say. After adjusting your comfort settings in the in-world menu panel, you pick up your first gun, try to load a mag, and the game hits you over the head with its utter refusal to hold your hand.

I have spent the last few weeks in more casual shooters like Payday: Aces High, Stuffed: Two Foot Hero, and a host of others between Steam Next Fest and new releases, all of which are more than happy to snap your ammo into place if you are in the general vicinity of where it needs to go and blip that pesky empty magazine out of existence because you don't need it anymore. Here, you have to pull the spent mag yourself and be sure to save it to refill later at the conveniently placed refill stations in the facility. Then put the new magazine in, but line it up correctly or risk awkwardly fumbling as the gun moves because the mag hit the edge of the handle and makes the gun and the hand holding it twist. Then chamber a round and back to action. Yes, I just spent over seventy words explaining how to reload a gun in VR because Rust Ltd. cares that much about it. The gun mechanics are frankly, the only time H3VR2 takes itself remotely seriously. If you come from more casual shooters like those I mentioned earlier, this will take some time and patience to get used to.

The Facility is also the name of H3VR2's signature game mode, a procedurally generated extraction shooter with multiple difficulty settings to accommodate players of all skill levels. This is a change up from the first game's primary 'take and hold' mode. I am not ashamed to admit that after dying in a matter of minutes in my first two runs, I dropped the difficulty just to survive longer because I deeply wanted more of this world and its unabashed ridiculousness. I royally stink at extraction shooters in general, but admittedly, the game did get easier when I got used to the more precise reloading mechanics. When you're trying to dodge flying spinning blades cutting chunks out of your frankfurter body and other Sosigs trying to gun you down as well, the reloading will feel cumbersome until you master it. Then you'll acquire a new gun and get to learn all over again.

It's the juxtaposition of serious gun mechanics and unserious everything else that makes H3VR2 special. A lot of care and detail is on display everywhere you look, whether you're doing a facility run or messing around in the freeplay area, where you can meander around in shooting ranges and playgrounds. Set against other sandbox games, which are mostly a blank canvas for you and your friends to bring the chaos, H3VR2 is chaotic in a different way. The world itself is fun and consistently entertaining. That matters when weighed against less expensive (or free) alternatives. This is a game that the right player can and likely will easily sink dozens of hours into. Hand has promised a live service direction for the game with a steady stream of new content, both free and paid, to keep the audience engaged. While we don't know exactly what that looks like yet (there's a giant under construction sign in the main hub area), what's on offer is already pretty great.

I have to mention the level of polish again because, sadly, this also stands out in contemporary VR. I didn't have a single bug or performance hitch during my time in the game, a veritable unicorn among the dozens of VR titles I've played this year that usually had issues requiring a major patch shortly after release. The game looks good too and I don't just mean "good for a standalone game." The original game wasn't exactly melting high end PCs to begin with, but when H3VR2 comes to PC VR next year, I don't think it will look drastically different than this standalone version. Sure I can see where some textures aren't as high quality, but this is not a game where 8k textures, dramatic lighting and dynamic shadows are going to make a great deal of difference. You're a sentient hot dog, for crying out loud. The overall presentation is stellar with precious little to complain about unless you care to nitpick.

That all said, this is not a game with universal appeal and that is fine. The extraction mode is the primary gameplay mode aside from the sandboxes, so if that style of shooter is not your thing, H3VR2's charm and plethora of guns will only carry you so far. It is targeting a specific audience, but I'm confident said audience will love it.

Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2 - The Final Verdict

Rust Ltd. delivers a delightfully satirical shooter that refuses to play it safe and is utterly unafraid to be itself. Coupling that with a refreshingly high standard of polish and execution makes H3VR2 an easy recommendation for fans of the original and anyone looking for an unserious shooter with excellent gun handling.

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