The latest update for co-op FPS game After the Fall is available now, adding new weapons, maps and modes.
This update, titled Shock & Awe, is the latest in a series of content drops as part of the game’s ongoing Frontrunner Season. Available on Quest 2, PSVR and PC VR, it adds four new weapons – the Shockwave Power device, the Rage Booster, the Warhead and a tommy gun, unlockable via floppy disks.
If you want a closer look at the new weapons, Stockpile map and PvP mode, you can check out some footage in the trailer embedded above.
So far, the Frontrunner season has included a new horde mode, a new enemy type, new maps and lots of new weapons. With this drop, the season’s updates are complete. The big question now is what will be included in the game’s second season, and if Vertigo Games will provide it for free or at cost.
After the Fall (2021), the co-op zombie shooter from Vertigo Games, is getting a nice little content bump today in its ‘Shock & Awe’ update, which brings to the game a new arsenal of weapons, a free-for-all deathmatch mode, and a new map.
Launched earlier this year, the game’s Frontrunner Season has already brought a number of updates to the game, including Horde mode, two Horde mode maps, the Boulevard Harvest map, the ‘Skimmer’ enemy, the LMG and Revolver weapons, and new player outfits.
Now available for free on supported platforms, the ‘Shock and Awe’ update to the game’s Frontrunner Season brings a host of new weaponry to the game, including the Shockwave Power Device, Rage Booster consumable, Warhead, and Tommy Gun. Like all of the game’s high-level weaponry, to unlock players need to grind through levels for floppy disks.
Image courtesy Vertigo Games
The ‘Shock and Awe’ update also includes a new free-for-all PvP mode, which pits players against each other, all while hordes attack. It also contains a PvP map, called ‘Stockpile’, which is a repurposed warehouse that Vertigo Games says is “all about close-quarter combat and lightning fast respawns with items that can be found scattered throughout the map.”
Image courtesy Vertigo Games
To show off some of the action of the ongoing Frontrunner Season, the studio released a new co-op trailer, which was made using the increasingly smooth mixed reality LIV software, which is one of the best ways to blend people into virtual environments. Check that out either above or below the article.
After the Fall was Road to VR’s 2021 Game of the Year in the PC VR category for good reason. It takes plenty of cues from Valve’s Left 4 Dead (2008), offering up intense zombie-shooting action across a good handful of bespoke levels, each of them providing ample opportunities for exploration and surprise attacks.
As a four-player co-op, social play is a big part of After the Fall too. Unless you’re playing with bots—which is actually a pretty serviceable experience on its own—you need to keep communication clear so you can heal fellow players, report where baddies are, and learn the ins and outs of each map. All of this maximizes your ability to collect points and make permanent upgrades to weapons, a big reason for coming back for more.
You can find After the Fall across all major VR platforms, including Meta Quest 2, PSVR, and PC VR.
When I reviewed After The Fall late last year I said I liked the game, I just needed to see much more of it.
Vertigo’s set of zombie shooting assault courses had the fundamentals in place for some solid action, and the fantastic cross-play support meant it was easy to join the grind with friends. It just didn’t have nearly enough content, especially when you stacked it up next to the slew of other, more traditional Left 4 Dead-likes that released in the same window like Back 4 Blood or even Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
But the game’s first season of content, Frontrunner, is an important first step in rectifying that issue.
Chances are you’ve already been enjoying some of what Frontrunner has to offer. The free season started rolling out its first big updates a few weeks back with the introduction of a Vertigo staple in the cooperative Horde Mode. But the next big drops aren’t far behind, and I recently had the chance to try the new Hollywood Boulevard Harvest Run and another weapon, the Light Machine Gun, as well as encounter the game’s new enemy type.
If you’ve already fought your way through the game’s existing five Harvest Runs, then you’ll probably know what to expect from the Boulevard map. It’s not dramatically different from what’s come before, save for a few setpiece highlights like a boss fight inside a theater. It’s definitely great to have an extra run to add to the lean launch offerings but it’d be great to see future maps lean into some new objective types and gameplay opportunities.
It’s the new gun and enemy type that spike up some intrigue. The latter is known as the The Skimmer, and you can think of it as similar to Space Invader’s zippy flying saucers that spit out bonus points (or, in this case, extra Harvest) if you snag them. True, they don’t augment the sense of threat in any way, but spotting them through the scrambling hordes and trying to raise your gun above the masses to get in a lucky shot before they scurry away adds just a small touch of the variety I’ve been looking for in these levels.
The LMG, meanwhile, is a welcome counter-point to my previous complaint that all of the game’s weapons felt far too light to the touch. Whilst still not approaching the weight or handling of something like Boneworks, it’s a stocky, chunky hunk of scrap that packs a punch, and you can feel it cutting through the crowds before you fumble a reload.
Frontrunner is an encouraging sign of what’s to come for After The Fall, then, but there’s still some ways to go. Alongside additional content I’m hoping to see more enemy and weapon additions that continue to change up what’s already there, not to mention some objective variety to make repeated runs a more dynamic experience.
Work on Frontrunner was no doubt well underway when After The Fall launched, so I’m hopeful that future seasons are going to offer those crucial puzzle pieces. As it stands this is still an accessible and instantly enjoyable VR shooter, but with a few key additions it could be much, much more.
After The Fall’s Frontrunner season is already rolling out on PC VR, PSVR and Quest 2, with the content in this preview set to arrive in March.
This update is first of several new content drops as part of the Frontrunner Season, with updates set to land across the next two months for all players.
According to the patch notes, there’s no friendly bots in horde mode, custom loadouts are enabled and rewards are granted every 5 waves, increasing in rarity over time.
You’ll also unlock the blueprint for the new Revolver weapon after completing six waves in horde mode, which can then be purchased for 5,000 Harvest at the Armory.
The patch also includes changes to floppies, skins and items. Some balance changes have been put through as well, changing damage and ammo capacity to select weapons, as well as a handful of general small changes and bug fixes. You can read the full list of changes here.
The developers also noted that they are still investigating ongoing freezes on Quest 2 and working “non-stop” on a solution.
The Frontrunner Season will continue later this month with a new Harvest Run set in Hollywood, along with new enemy types and weapons. A new PvP map is also expected this month, alongside a free-for-all mode. The season wraps up with a new wrist-mounted power device in April. You can read more about the Frontrunner Season here.
Will you be checking out horde mode in After the Fall? Let us know what you think in the comments.
We’ve got an exclusive first look at what’s coming to After The Fall as part of the game’s first season of content.
The Frontrunner season promises to bring a host of new updates to the zombie shooter, which launched on Quest 2, PC VR and PSVR in late 2021. We already knew the season would deliver a Horde Mode, new maps and a new enemy type, but developer Vertigo Games gives us a closer look at all of these elements in the video below.
After The Fall Frontrunner Season Revealed In Full
Arguably the biggest addition to the game this season is the Horde Mode, which will let up to four players take on waves of snowbreed hordes and survive for as long as they can. You’ll be able to use your own weapons from Harvest Runs, and play on two starting maps – Junction and Highway.
Horde Mode is planned for a February launch as is a brand new weapon, the Revolver.
A new Harvest Run, meanwhile is touching down in March, taking us to Hollywood. Also due next month is a new type of Snowbreeder, the Skimmer. We’ll even see another weapon added to the game (it looks like a Light Machine Gun) and new avatar customization options that let you choose outfits for masked avatars. The final addition for March will be a new PvP map, Stockpile, which also comes with a free-for-all mode and harvest rewards for performing well.
April, meanwhile, will bring a new wrist-mounted power device, though there’s no hints as to how that will work for now.
We thought After The Fall offered fun co-op action when it launched last year, but noted the game would need a lot more content before it truly lived up to its full potential. The Frontrunner season definitely seems to be a step in the right direction, then, and we look forward to seeing what else is in store for the game.
Are you going to be checking out After The Fall’s Frontrunner season? Let us know in the comments below!
Vertigo Games released its latest virtual reality (VR) shooter After the Fall for most major headsets in 2021, managing $1.4 million in sales during the first 24 hours. If you’re a PlayStation VR owner hoping for a physical edition then you’re in luck, there’s one on the way in the form of the Frontrunner Edition.
Part of Vertigo Games’ Frontrunner Season for After the Fall, PlayStation VR’s After the Fall – Frontrunner Edition will be an exclusive physical version due to arrive on 25th March retailing for £39.99 GBP/$49.99 USD. It’ll feature:
Full access to the Frontrunner Season
PSVR exclusive “Ultimate Buster” Skin
After the Fall PS4 Theme & Avatars
After the Fall Official Digital Soundtrack
After the Fall Digital Artbook
The After the Fall – Frontrunner Season kicks off this month for all supported headsets (Meta Quest 2, PC VR and PSVR). It’s free for all current players who purchased the Launch -and Deluxe Editions of After the Fall, adding new gameplay modes, more locations and additional weapons. These will all be gradually rolled out during the upcoming months.
After the Fall is primarily a 4-player co-op where you and your teammates go on Harvest Runs to collect valuable resources, all the while fighting off the deadly Snowbreed. Once human, these are now monstrous mutations living in the frozen wasteland that is an alternate future, Los Angeles.
The videogame features 32-player hubs so if you don’t have enough party members another can easily join. Or bots are available to make up the numbers when required. Harvest Runs offer the chance to gain valuable loot to upgrade your weapons, making your next run even more devastating. Inbetween runs you can also try out the other mode, a 4v4 competitive multiplayer.
As further details regarding After the Fall’s – Frontrunner Season are released, gmw3 will let you know.
After the Fall is getting a bunch of new content as part of the upcoming Frontrunner season, including four new maps, a horde mode, new weapons and a new enemy.
The Frontrunner season, available to all players and platforms as part of the standard Launch Edition of the game, will include four new maps: Boulevard Harvest Run, Stockpile, Junction and Highway.
The first map, Boulevard Harvest Run, is set on the streets of Hollywood and will be available in all existing difficult modes. The second, Stockpile, is a PvP map that will join the existing Team Deathmatch rotation, alongside a new free-for-all PvP mode that arrives this season as well.
The third and fourth maps, Junction and Highway, are designed to go with the brand new Horde mode launching during the Frontrunner season. Here’s a brief description of what to expect:
In this mode, up to four Harvest Runners will deploy to a contained area with multiple lanes where Snowbreed come running down from all sides, all the while you survive for as long as you can! We will introduce game mode as an endless horde mode, and with new variations coming in the future. Unlike the Tundradome PvP arenas, you will be able to bring your best weapons to survive the incoming Snowbreed hordes and reap the rewards.
This season will also see the addition of a new enemy type – the Skimmer. This enemy works a bit differently – they won’t come after you, but you’ll have to go and hunt them down yourself. If you do so, you’ll be rewarded generously with a large bounty.
There are also two new weapons being introduced this season – the first is a new revolver (which “hits hard” but comes with a magazine count trade-off) and the second has yet to be revealed.
We’ll certainly welcome more content for the game, which we gave a ‘Good’ label last year. “After The Fall is painfully close to being VR’s staple co-op shooter, but Vertigo will need to prove out the next few months with a solid roadmap if it’s to reach that bar,” we said. “Its mindless brand of action isn’t half as intricate as other recent VR games and anyone that doesn’t enjoy the grind of a looter shooter should steer clear, but it’s undeniably fun to play with friends and the lure of new weapon attachments kept me coming back for Harvest Runs.”
If you’ve got an awesome PC and want to take your gaming to the next level then you’ll want to explore the world of virtual reality (VR). There are several headsets on the market, of which the HTC Vive Pro 2 is one of the very latest, having launched last year. Today, HTC Vive has announced a brand new promotion gifting you a free copy of After the Fall, one of the hottest co-op shooters to arrive in 2021.
The promotion begins today (7th February) at participating retailers in Europe, the Middle East, and North America – Amazon, Scan and Overclockers in the UK – with Vive.com running the promotion starting this Wednesday, 9th February. If you’re in Australia you’ll find the After the Fall deal has already begun, with the offer also applicable on Vive Pro and Vive Cosmos headsets.
HTC Vive Pro 2 is the company’s high-end, tethered VR headset for consumers and enterprise customers. Available just as the headset – if you’re upgrading – for £719 GBP or £1,299 for the Full Kit, Vive Pro 2 boasts a 5K resolution display delivering 2448 × 2448 pixels per eye. There’s a 120-degree field of view (FoV), a 120Hz refresh rate; a manually adjusted inter-pupillary distance (IPD) from 57-70mm and built-in headphones for clear spatial sound.
With the Vive Pro 2 Full Kit, you also get the latest Vive controllers and Lighthouse Base Stations (2.0). As with any Vive Pro 2 headset purchase, you’ll get a free 2-month membership to Viveport Infinity, HTC’s hardware-agnostic store featuring a lot of the most up to date VR experiences.
Of course, if you’re going for this deal then you’ll be wanting to try After the Fallright away. The latest monster shooter from Vertigo Games, After the Fall is primarily a multiplayer experience where you go on Harvest Runs through a frozen Los Angeles, collecting vital resources to upgrade your weapons along the way.
Whilst the videogame does support single-player by way of bots, the runs allow up to four players to team up and try to survive the nightmarish Snowbreed. After the Fall features 32-player hubs to socialise in, and there’s also a 4v4 competitive multiplayer for something different.
For continued updates on all the latest VR deals, keep reading gmw3.
A big new update for Vertigo Games’ After The Fall focuses on some long-requested fixes for the VR shooter.
The update is rolling out across all platforms today and includes several key fixes. PSVR players will be happy to know that crashes on higher difficulties have been addressed, for example, and a potential exploit that let players glitch through doors has been removed.
Perhaps the most important update, though, is to do with the NPCs. Vertigo says AI players will now try and stay out of the way of the line of fire, should you be using them. That means you, Jimmy (who gets a shameless callout in the patch notes).
Elsewhere there have been some changes to things like persistence, so certain items no longer carry over to multiplayer matches, and you can even replay the game’s intro sequence at any point using a new intro floppy disc. All of this and, of course, there are other minor bug fixes and balancing tweaks.
Outside of the patch, Vertigo is also running a new event to celebrate Chinese New Year, letting you grab a new weapon skin until February 13.
We’re still yet to see the first season of content rollout for After The Fall, but Vertigo has hinted at new areas and enemies for it. We’re looking forward to more content – we thought the co-op FPS offered frantic fun when it arrived last year but needed more levels.
Are you going to check out the After The Fall update? Let us know in the comments below!
What a year it has been for the Oculus Quest 2, sorry, Meta Quest 2, with that name change being one of the more defining – and confusing – moments. Whatever you want to call it, the Quest 2 has had a stunning year when it comes to content, with some truly huge videogames making their way to the platform. So if you’ve just picked one up or were very good this year and got one as a present, then these are just some of the titles you should be adding to your library.
Apart from being awesome, one critera for VRFocus’ favourite Quest videogames meant that all of them had to be natively available on the Oculus Store. So titles like Lone Echo II that require a PC connection won’t make this selection.
The Best Meta Quest Games of 2021
Resident Evil 4
Let’s start with probably the biggest exclusive that hit the standalone headset this year, Capcom’s Resident Evil 4. Rebuilt by Armature Studio specifically for the Quest 2, this version of Resident Evil 4 – and there’s been a couple – is the definitive version by a mile. Whether you already love the Resi franchise or are completely new to it, this puts you in the heart of the survival horror, with plenty of accessibility options to cater to all players.
Resident Evil 4 takes you to a remote region of Europe as Leon S. Kennedy who’s on a mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter from a dangerous cult called the Los Illuminados. All the action from the original is there, whether that’s dealing with rabid villagers, monstrous mutations or taxing boss fights. Plus all the puzzles and Quick Time Events (QTE’s), the latter is the only real annoyance.
There’s lots of new stuff too. You can physically grab and reload guns, dual wield to mix weapon combinations up, and interact with the environment, opening doors and pushing stuff out the way. Oh, and it’s now entirely in first-person, for that fully immersive experience.
For those that love survival adventures that offer hours of entertainment and a proper bang for your buck game look no further than 17-BIT’s Song in the Smoke. The first VR title from the Japan-based team, Song in the Smoke takes place in a mystical, primordial wilderness where you’re given only basic tools and an understanding of how things work before being let loose.
While there are mysterious, magical elements at play, the gameplay is heavily survival-based, so you’ll need to forage or hunt for food so you don’t starve, make weapons to defend yourself, make cloths so you don’t freeze, and most importantly of all, gather resources to build fires and make it through the night, because when darkness comes the jungle wakes up.
Song in the Smoke is made up of eight biomes, ranging from lush forests and ancient valleys to frozen peaks. Each more inhospitable than the last, it’s easy to get lost in the experience, you can be so engrossed in surviving that unlocking the narrative almost plays second best.
Time for a far more chilled and relaxing VR experience. After a stint on Oculus’ App Lab, Puzzling Places arrived on the official store in September, offering a tranquil slice of 3D jigsaw gameplay.
With 16 puzzles to complete, you can up the difficulty from 25 pieces to 400 pieces for each puzzle. Whilst 400 may not sound a lot compared to traditional jigsaws, the three-dimensional element further helps to scale that difficulty. The charm of Puzzling Places also comes from the fact that each puzzle is a realistic, scanned location using photogrammetry with plenty of detail. And to aid immersion, they each have audio tracks make the setting even more lifelike.
So if you’re looking for a more modern take on a classic, then check out Puzzling Places.
Time for some multiplayer action with Resolution Games’ turn-based board game Demeo. This is a dungeon crawler where up to four players choose their characters and then battle monstrous foes, think D&D but in VR.
Taking on the roles of characters like the mystical sorcerer who can summon area-of-effect (AOE) spells or a knight with loads of armour, each has their own particular specialities to aid the quest. You can pick up your player piece to move the character around the dungeon whilst utilising ability cards to attack opponents.
Originally released in May 2021 with one dungeon, the studio has now expanded that to three, Roots of Evil arriving in December, taking players above ground for the first time. And don’t worry if your mates are busy, Demeo can be played solo to get some practice in before the next team meetup.
Another big blockbuster title that made its way to Quest 2 in 2021 – but not the original Quest at the moment – After the Fallis a co-op shooter in a similar vein to videogames like Left 4 Dead.
From Vertigo Games, the same team behind Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall is set in a dystopian future where a climate disaster has taken place and Los Angeles is now a winter hellscape. Just to make things worse, a large chunk of the population has turned into horrific monsters called Snowbreed, and they’re less than friendly. The core gameplay revolves around going on Harvest Runs to collect valuable supplies to upgrade weapons and such. Up to four players can team up – AI bots fill in if there’s not enough – with the main hub enabling up to 32 players to socialise before each Harvest Run.
Out in the field, it’s a non-stop action fest as you cull hordes of Snowbreed before encountering at least one of four special mutations that can do some serious damage. Or if you want a different challenge, After the Fall has a competitive PvP mode where you can fight other players instead.
Another great title if you have a few buddies into VR.
A Township Tale
Looking for an entirely different multiplayer experience from those previously mentioned? Well, take a look at A Township Tale by Alta. Taking the idea of building a fully-functioning village where everyone can specialise in a particular task, A Township Tale makes co-op gameplay an essential component to truly unlock its potential.
Up to eight friends can team up on one virtual server to build their town and head out on quests. Choose to become a blacksmith, woodcutter, miner, archer or warrior, each essential to the running of the town and to the success of quests. While you can mix and match, professions like the blacksmith require a lot of work, becoming easier if some players collect resources whilst others build tools or other items.
Then you can explore, heading into the forests or mines to collect new, rare resources to craft enhanced weapons to deal with the various monsters you’ll encounter on route. Or you can try and tackle A Township Tale solo, which is when you’ll realise how much there is to the experience. One to lose hours and hours in.
Schell Games’ original puzzler I Expect You to Die has become a VR classic and its 2021 sequel is no different. Continuing the narrative where you step into the shoes of a secret agent trying to save the world from an evil villain, you don’t need to have played the first to enjoy what’s on offer here.
I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar is all about foiling the evil plans of Dr. Zor and his Zoraxis empire across six deadly six missions. The title is very literal in its description that death is expected and expected frequently, as any wrong move can result in an instant, elaborate death. Poison gas, explosives, giant swinging axes, a suspicious sandwich or simply just getting shot, death is around every corner, sometimes you can take your time but there are moments where quick reflexes are essential.
Whilst each mission has a plethora of primary and secondary objectives, what makes I Expect You To Die 2 an essential VR experience is the fact that any player should find it accessible. There’s no locomotion whatsoever, so you can play it seated or standing (best seated) with everything within arms reach, ideal for those new to VR but with enough difficulty for veteran gamers.
Resident Evil 4 might be on this list but if you want to really feel chills down your spine then Cosmodread is the place to be. From the indie studio behind Dreadhalls, Cosmodread is a sci-fi horror that evokes atmospheric movies such as Aliens or Event Horizon.
You’re stuck on a dying spaceship completely alone, which you have to explore to find and fix critical systems in a bid to get home to Earth. The only problem, an alien entity is aboard the ship transforming the crew into monsters. Armed with one weapon initially, scouring the ship for resources will unlock new items, oxygen to keep you alive and crafting resources.
However, Cosmodread is a roguelite VR experience just like In Death: Unchained or Until You Fall, where death means returning back to the start. You might be a little wiser but the levels are procedurally generated, so the environment, item locations and enemy spawn points alter for each run. If you love a good scare then give Cosmodread a try if you dare.
Want a gorgeous looking VR videogame for your new Quest 2 as well as a physical workout? That’s where Crytek’s The Climb 2 comes in. Expanding upon the 2016 original with new locations and features, The Climb 2 for those who love extreme sports but maybe not the death-defying climbing so much.
With locations taking you atop beautiful snowy vistas, up towering skyscrapers, and sun-soaked mountain ranges, The Climb 2 challenges you to find small cracks and ledges to grab hold of and work your way up. You’ll need to chalk your hands to maintain grip and as the levels progress you’ll be offered multiple routes to the top, so you can choose your own route each time.
To make the climbing experience even more realistic, new features include dynamic objects like ropes, containers, ladders, and climbing equipment that react to your weight. There are also customisation options with 32 gloves, 25 watches, and 36 wristbands to unlock along the way. A visually sumptuous VR experience that’ll give your arms a nice workout.
You can’t own a VR headset without owning at least one rhythm action title. One of the best to arrive in 2021 for the Meta Quest was Ragnarock. With a Viking theme, Ragnarock puts you at the helm of a Viking longboat, hammering away at a set of four drums to inspire your crew to row. The faster they row the more likely you are to achieve a gold medal.
Another VR project that arrived by way of Oculus App Lab, Ragnarock’s gameplay is delightfully simple, hit the drums in time with the music to unlock speed boosts and speed those rowers up. Developer WanadevStudio went for a far more rock-themed rhythm action game in comparison to others, with songs from Alestorm, Gloryhammer, Saltatio Mortis, Wind Rose and more.
Offering both solo and multiplayer modes, solo you can race against your ghost once you’ve completed a song. Multiplayer pits you in a race against five other players to the finish line across various difficulty levels.
Its mix of Celtic rock and metal tracks alongside that drumming action makes Ragnarock a compelling VR experience that’s hard to put down.
