Having taken the Oculus Rift platform by storm in 2017 with the dual release of single-player epic Lone Echo, and multiplayer experience Echo Arena, developer Ready at Dawn is back this week with the long-awaited Echo Combat.
Up until now the developer has run several beta weekends for Oculus Rift owners to test it out, and help iron out any bugs. In September alongside Oculus Connect 5 (OC5), Ready at Dawn revealed additional details about Echo Combat, including another map, Combustion, as well as an additional game mode, called Capture Point.
Now there’s more to share, with the launch adding in a whole new map in the form of Dyson. This is described as: “A massive open-space destination for Control Point mode, Dyson will treat players to new strategic opportunities including a variety of entry points to the map to help teams divide and conquer.” To thoroughly utilise the map area the default game size has been bumped up from 3v3 to 4v4.
New locations are good but new combat weapons are even better. An explosive addition to the Echo Combat arsenal is the Meteor, which acts as a classic rocket launcher. Then there’s grenade-like device Instant Repair that heals both you and targets on impact. Last on the roster is the new Phase Shift ability. This will allow players to phase out of reality for short periods, helping them sneak behind enemy lines or make a hasty retreat.
To top it all off, Ready at Dawn has included a new progression system. Players gain experience by competing in public matches, gaining character levels, bragging rights, and access to a suite of new customization options, like decals, emotes, and patterns. Plus, once they’ve been unlocked in Echo Combat, players can use them in Echo Arena.
Echo Combat will be available this Thursday, 15th November as an in-app purchase through Echo VR for $9.99 USD. The Echo Combat DLC will also be available via the Echo VR Oculus Store page for those that already own Echo VR. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.