Last year Skydance Interactive entered the virtual reality (VR) industry with Archangel, a videogame promising giant mechs and epic battles. What was delivered was a story-driven on-rails shooter that while visually stunning didn’t offer players the versatility or freedom they craved. Today, that’s about to be put right with the Archangel: Hellfire update, adding multiplayer mech warfare to the mix.
For the update Skydance Interactive has added new free roaming multiplayer modes, which include Team Deathmatch and PvP, plus a Cooperative Mech Assault / horde mode, featuring a full suite of maps and mechs.
Archangel: Hellfire isnowa complete single-player and multiplayer package, delivering the story campaign as well as the free-roaming multiplayer. From a war torn cityscape to a snowy mountain terrain, players can now jump into all powerful mechs to battle it out in open combat environments. There are six different massive combat mechs, each designed to suit different play styles, whether that’s nimble and swift, or slow and seriously armoured up. In addition to the mech varieties there’s a selection of 13+ powerful, weapons and special abilities to choose from.
“The dream of VR is to allow people to be wholly absorbed in amazing new virtual experiences, and nothing is quite as exciting as piloting a massive six-story high mech and waging war with your friends. Through the team’s hard work and talent, they have fully realized that awesome experience,” said Peter Akemann, President of Skydance Interactive in a statement. “Not only can gamers experience the compelling story campaign of Archangel, but they can put their piloting skills on the line in epic online competitive PvP and cooperative matches with pilots from all over the world.”
Archangel: Hellfire is a free update for those that have already bought the original Archangel on Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Or to the headsets respective stores to purchase Archangel: Hellfire.
To promote the launch Skydance Interactive and Opera Event will be hosting the Mech Ascent Championship, a Competitive PvP tournament to give pilot teams a chance to compete for $500 USD weekly prizes and a $2,000 Grand Prize, a custom bomber jacket and a Golden Mech. Starting today, players can make their mark on the game’s Leaderboard and for a chance to earn a place in competition.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Skydance Interactive and Archangel: Hellfire, reporting back with any further updates.
Piloting a giant mech has been a fantasy for sci-fi lovers around the world for decades. From popular anime like Gundam and TV shows such as Power Rangers, to modern interpretations in Pacific Rim and more, we’ve become accustomed to seeing giant robots marvelously realized in our favorite works of fiction. And while Archangel: Hellfire is just a VR game and not the real deal, it feels like the closest we’ve gotten yet.
When Archangel originally released last year, it was met with mixed results. The core ideas and gameplay were solid enough to carry it to a decent score with us, but the on-rails movement and lackluster narrative left a bit to be desired. If we’re being honest, most people want to play mech games to fight other mechs in glorious battles, but an on-rails movement system hampered that ideal.
Archangel: Hellfire sets out to fix all of that and introduce multiplayer into the equation.
The core player-vs-player mode that makes up Archangel: Hellfire’s release today is actually available (mostly for free) in the “Enlist Free” edition, but to get access to the aforementioned single player campaign and a brand new co-op arena mode, plus additional optional skins, you need to buy the full version of the game. For clarity, this review only covers the new PvP and co-op content, not the single player. Here is our review of the single player campaign.
In Hellfire there’s team deathmatch in both 1v1 or 2v2 varieties across three total maps, with one more coming soon, and three different mech classes (Light, Medium, and Heavy). There’s quite a bit of variety across all of the available maps, each of which feature large open areas, lots of obstacles for cover (some of which are destructible) and a good deal of verticality. It would have been nice to have at least one small, tightly-designed map that could shine as a good 1v1 battleground, but as it stands all of them are really best played in full 2v2 matches.
At first glance that doesn’t seem like a ton of content, but with how different each mech plays it more than makes up for it. All three mechs are controlled using the left thumbstick or trackpad for movement and you aim each arm independently using your motion controllers. Turning your head lets you look around inside the cockpit while staying stationary, whereas the right stick rotates your mech to either side. Grip buttons on each hand pull up shields, which deactivate whichever hand’s weapon you’re using for the shield.
For mobility there isn’t a sprint feature or dash of any kind, but instead you click in the stick to boost upwards into the air to do a slowly descending hover at a quickened pace. If you’re a slow-moving Heavy mech, this is a good way to cover distances, but it leaves you exposed in the air.
All three mechs come equipped with standard machine guns on each arm as the default weapons. These barely do any damage and I only ever really used them to weaken shields, distract enemies, or finish someone off that’s on the verge of death. The real weapons are where each mech differs dramatically. For the Light mech you’ve got “shield breaker” rockets and homing missiles, plus a huge death-from-above ultimate power and a cloaking power. Both of those ultimate abilities are activated by physically reaching out and touching the in-game HUD buttons, which is a nice touch.
Medium mechs were my favorite because they struck a decent balance between speed and survivability. Their right hand weapon is a powerful single-burst railgun that does big damage if you can land a clean shot, along with rapid-fire rockets on the left arm. Special abilities include an infinite-ammo power, which is a deadly combo with a trigger-happy rail gun blasting over and over, as well as a super-powerful face-mounted rail gun that does a ton of damage.
Finally, there’s the Heavy that trades speed for a ton of health. Their right hand is equipped with a wide-spread shotgun blasting gun that’s extremely powerful if you can get up close and some basic rockets on the left hand. Super weapons include a big EMP blast that zaps enemies of their energy charge (great for countering speedy Light mechs) and an invulnerability phase that makes them even deadlier.
For all three mechs your ultimates are powered by collecting energy found around the map. To tweak things further, at the top of your cockpit above your head, you can adjust sliders to alter how much health you have, how fast you are, how much damage you do, and how quickly you charge up energy. Being able to augment those things on the fly, plus the stat differences in each mech from a base level, lead to a lot of build variety.
For example, one super-effective strategy if you’re agile enough at evading enemies, is to hop in a Light mech and boost your energy gaining slider all the way. This leaves you extremely vulnerable, but if you boost your speed a bit as well and just keep away from the enemies, you can build up your ultimate attack in a matter of minutes. Alternatively, as a Heavy, you might want to just boost your health up even further to soak up as much damage as possible while you get in close to eviscerate enemies with your shotgun-style blast.
Hellfire’s combat system is full of nuance. While part of me wishes for a bit more customization, like equipping a different chasis, legs, weapons, paint jobs, etc. to really scratch the itch of the old-school mech combat games of yesteryear, Skydance did an excellent job of delivering a VR mech combat game that’s immediately exciting and full of strategic depth with Archangel: Hellfire.
The new co-op mode clearly has not gotten as much love as the PvP content received. There’s only one single map for this mode (which is also duplicated in the PvP mode) and it’s just 17 waves of enemies. Some of them fly around shooting at you, some of them dive bomb at you, some are tanks on the ground, and at the end you’ve got a boss fight against a giant, slow-moving ship that barely shoots back. When stacked up against the fast-paced intensity of the competitive mode, the co-op offering pales in comparison.
Final Score:8/10 – Great
Archangel: Hellfire is the most fun I’ve had inside of a VR mech to date. The multiplayer action is top-notch with a ton of build variety and extreme differences in playstyles between each type of mech and maps are just big enough to really showcase the scale of combat. While the co-op mode is a bit lackluster with only one map and simple waves of enemies, it provides a good training ground to loosen up before PvP. I hope to see ongoing support for this title because the core gameplay mechanics feel excellent.
Auf der PC Gaming Show während der E3 2018 verkündete Entwickler Skydance Interactive, dass die Mech-Action-Simulation Archangel: Hellfire am 17. Juli offiziell veröffentlicht wird. Demnach wird die neue Version des Spiels ein Off-Rail-Multiplayer-Titel mit spannenden Kämpfen gegen andere Spieler in gigantischen Kampfrobotern.
Archangel: Hellfire – Veröffentlichung am 17. Juli auf Steam für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive
Die Mech-Simulation Archangel durchwanderte bis zum heutigen Zeitpunkt einige Veränderungen. Der VR-Titel startete als Rail-Shooter mit einigen Schwierigkeiten, die dafür sorgten, dass sich die Community vom Spiel entfernte. Nach einem Update zum Off-Rail-Shooter erregte das action-reiche Archangel: Hellfire jedoch erneutes Aufsehen und konnte die Spielerschaft wieder für sich begeistern.
Nun verkündete Entwickler Skydance Interactive auf der PC Gaming Show während der E3 den Release der Multiplayer-Off-Rail-Mech-Simulation für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive. Derzeit befindet sich Archangel: Hellfire im Early Access auf Steam.
Die Entwickler nahmen sich das Feedback der Community zu Herzen und brachten eine Vielzahl neuer Spielelemente in das Gameplay des VR-Titels. Demnach setzt die neue Version des Spiels auf Multiplayer-PvP-Gefechte mit absoluter Bewegungsfreiheit in den Kämpfen. So sind Feuergefechte zu Land und in der Luft auf insgesamt drei verschiedenen Maps mit zerstörbarer Umgebung möglich.
Zudem gibt es einen Team-Deathmatch-Modus, um im Koop mit Freunden gemeinsam in die Schlacht gegen andere Mech-Piloten zu ziehen. Insgesamt stehen sechs verschiedene Kampfroboter mit 13 unterschiedlichen Waffen sowie diversen Abilities zur Verfügung. Dazu zählen mächtige ultimative Fähigkeiten, wie beispielsweise der Singularity-Strahl, der alles zerschneidet, was ihm in die Quere gerät oder eine Stealth-Funktion, die es euch erlaubt euch ungesehen an die Feinde anzunähern. Um die Ultimates freizusetzen, müsst ihr jedoch zunächst während des Kampfes Energie sammeln.
Archangel: Hellfire soll am 17. Juli offiziell für Oculus Riftund HTC Viveauf Steam sowie im Oculus Store erscheinen. Eine PSVR-Version ist ebenfalls möglich, wenn sich genug positives Feedback nach der Veröffentlichung für PC findet.
Archangel: Hellfire is slated to officially launch July 17, according to an announcement during the PC Gaming Show at E3.
The promising mech combat game builds on its predecessor by taking the game off-rails and delivering multiplayer. It is in Early Access now on Steam. For a good look at its gameplay check out our recent video showing the combat in action.
With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 show almost here it is time for another entry of Something for the Weekend, where VRFocus brings you a number of deals on virtual reality (VR) titles. It is time to look at the Oculus store this weekend where there are a number of deals on titles that are ensure to be your next favourite. From intense gunfights to some puzzle solving titles, there is something for everyone this weekend. As always, be sure to check back every weekend for even more deals right here on VRFocus.
Archangel: Hellfire
Looking for some action packed mech fights this weekend? Then look no further than Archangel: Hellfire. This multiplayer deathmatch title will drop you into intense, free-roaming matches where you control one of six building-sized mechs equipped with massive weapons of death. Fighting in an apocalyptic landscape, there is even a single player campaign to experience should you need a break from the online battles.
Archangel: Hellfire is available now for £14.99 (GBP) down from the usual £22.99 for Oculus Rift.
Gunheart
“Gunheart has a lot going for it, visually well designed with decent gunplay mechanics and enough content to keep most players happy for several hours. There are bugs and some optimisation issues – just having a better than min spec PC might work – yet the overall experience is still very enjoyable.” – Read VRFocus’ Senior Staff Writer Peter Graham’s review of Gunheart.
Gunheart is available now for Oculus Rift for £19.99 (GBP) down from £22.99.
Cube Puzzle
“Cube Puzzle is a VR first person puzzler game with classic controls and intuitive shape matching gameplay.
You need to control a group of cubes and rotate it to fit through a hole in the wall and each time you fit through a hole without clashing, more blocks will be added on your cluster. As you cluster gets bigger, you will need to hide the cubes by clicking Eye-Closing button to see the hole and determine what rotation to make. Stay as long as possible and unlock more levels, it’s time to go beyond yourself!”
Cube Puzzle is available now for on Oculus Go for £0.79 (GBP) down from £1.49.
CLAZER
Experience the thrill of sport shooting in this title that transports players to authentic environments with realistic shotgun physics. Not only will you get to use a shotgun and learn the proper way to lead a target so you can accurately shoot them, but do so in an immersive experience. The title also features a competition leaderboard so player can go up against eachother to claim the top spot.
CLAZERis only £2.29 (GBP) down from £3.99 for Oculus Go.
Remnith
Experience chaotic first-person shooter (FPS) action where enemy units will feed off the energy of ever shot that isn’t lodged directly into them. The more shots you miss the stronger your enemies will get. Every battle is a boss battle in this action packed title where enemies can grow and evolve, using different tactics as the battle progresses. With five difficult levels, twenty five arenas, and a number of enemies to fight. There is plenty of action to enjoy within Remnith.
Remnith is available now for £2.29 (GBP) down from £7.99 on Oculus Rift.
Sprint Vector
“There’s very little to dislike in Sprint Vector. Sure there will be times when that competitive edge over takes you, getting annoyed when you fudge a jump but that’s to be expected. The single-player has enough to get you started with a few hours of gameplay, yet it’s the multiplayer that’ll have you coming back for more. Here’s hoping that Sprint Vector draws in enough of a crowd to sustain it, rather than becoming another multiplayer focused experience that gets forgotten about. Which would be a shame, because from where VRFocus is standing Sprint Vector is another hit for the studio.” – Read VRFocus’ Senior Staff Writer Peter Graham’s review of Sprint Vector.
Sprint Vector is available now for Oculus Rift for £14.99 (GBP) down from £22.99.
VormHoles
“Armed with a firework rocket launcher, you must defend your temples from hordes of snake like creatures. The snakes come from another dimension with one aim in mind, to destroy temples and harness the energy of your world. But these creatures have a weakness, fireworks!”
VormHoles is currently £0.79 (GBP) down from £1.49 for Gear VR.
Adventure of Ice Cream
Welcome to the snowy ice-cream world. Can you shoot all the interactive obstacles to collect as many coins as possible including the super-power cards, which will unlock hidden power. With high scores to earn and a world wide leaderboard to climb, it is all about landing those shots in this title.
“SWAT Academy puts you to the test as you master the weapons and tactics needed to become the best of the best. Hone your skills in the intense combat training simulations, face off against waves of hostile targets, and survive the onslaught of the zombie horde.”
SWAT Academy is currently available for £3.99 (GBP) down from £5.99 for Gear VR.
A-Tech Cybernetic VR
In this story driven FPS, players can experience the action in a classic swam mode against an endless horde of enemies or in the story-driven campaign mode. Taking place in a futuristic biomedical company overrun by mutants, players will need to put their shooting and survival skills to the test. With real-life movements, players can interact with their surroundings and feel like a action hero in this immersive title.
A-Tech Cybernetic VRis available for only £12.99 (GBP) right now on sale from £18.99 for Oculus Rift.
That is all for this week but remember that VRFocus gathers all the best sales and deals every week, so check back next weekend at the same time to discover more.
One of the dream VR games that thousands, or perhaps even millions, of people desperately want is a deep, intricate mech combat simulation. After years of pop culture building up the idea in our heads through things like MechWarrior, Gundam, Power Rangers, Pacific Rim, and so much more, the idea of piloting a super-powerful mech is just too tantalizing to not yearn for. I don’t know if Archangel: Hellfire has what it takes to shoulder decades of sci-fi dreaming, but it’s a step in the right direction.
After the mixed reception Archangel’s single-player content received we weren’t holding out breath for the multiplayer iteration, but luckily it caught us by surprise. Hellfire is everything we wanted from a hectic multiplayer VR mech combat game with three different mech types, over a dozen weapons, and super intense 2v2 deathmatches.
We’ll be livestreaming Archangel: Hellfire on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 1:30PM PT) and aim to last for about an hour or so. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTubeand Twitchat the same time!
Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and if you want to see more Archangel: Hellfire or other mech games in the future. Comment with any feedback down below!
We weren’t big fans of the single-player Archangel experience when it released last year. While not terrible, it just didn’t do enough to stand out as a must-have VR mech game due to its uninspired story, on-rails movement system, and lackluster set piece gameplay moments. Skydance Interactive listened to the feedback though and are now updating the game with a deep, hardcore multiplayer mode named Hellfire that aims to push players to the limit.
Archangel: Hellfire is not for the faint of heart. Instead of nudging players along slowly through levels on rails, this is a full-locomotion, pedal to the metal, boost-jumping, laser shooting, multiplayer showdown. In short, it’s the VR mech combat game I’ve been waiting for.
If you already own Archangel then you’ll get Hellfire for free and the open beta officially starts today around 10AM PT. If you don’t have it already, then it’s included when you buy the whole package. As of today it’ll feature two maps, three mech classes (light, medium, and heavy,) and a single team deathmatch game mode for 2v2 warfare. The winning team is the first to 10 kills.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but once you dig into the intricacies of gameplay and layers of complexity involved with each of those three mechs, as well as experience how much health you each have, you’ll see how it’s anything but shallow.
Controlling your mech feels like it could have been ripped right out of Pacific Rim or the most recent Power Rangers movie reboot. Each controller (Oculus Touch or Vive) represents an arm of your mech. As you sit in your chair you move your arms around to aim your weapons, mimicking your robot’s movement. Since you’re inside of a cockpit the right stick or touchpad steers the position of the mech’s actual head, but you turn your own IRL head to aim your targeting system for some weapons and to look around the battlefield.
You’ll use the left stick or touchpad to move around the battlefield with full, smooth locomotion and you can click it in to perform a hover boost that rockets you upwards above the battlefield. If that sounds complex that’s because it all kind of is when you put it together — but that’s only covering the movement mechanics.
In terms of actual abilities each mech feels completely different from the others. As you probably guessed the ratio between speed and health scales based on size so the light mech is faster with less health while the heavy is slower with more health. During my demo we did two full rounds so I got to switch between each class liberally during each match. All three mechs have the same movement controls, activate shields with each controller’s grip buttons, and use machine guns as their default weapon for each hand, but vary dramatically beyond that.
I tried the light mech first, which let me run around the battlefield quickly and get in and out of engagements. My left arm can switch over to “shield breaker” rockets that don’t lock-on at all, but can be fired rapidly and do a great job of tearing down shields. The right hand has homing missiles you press the trigger and hold to target, then release to shoot. The in-VR cockpit in front of me also had two special buttons I could press once enough energy was collected to activate my two “ultimate” type abilities.
The main super ultimate was a “death from above” attack that zoomed me up into the air and let me hover there as I rained missiles down, similar to Pharah’s ultimate in Overwatch. Light mech’s also have a cloaking ability as a secondary ultimate which is great to use when sneaking up on an enemy from behind since shields only cover the front of a mech.
Pretty robust, right? That’s just the light mech.
For the medium, which became my favorite during my play session, I found myself mostly hanging back to fulfill a more range-focused role. The secondary weapon for my left arm contained semi-homing missiles that travel towards their target a bit without a true lock-on, but the real shining star of the arsenal is the secondary on the right arm: a super-powered laser canon. Pulling the trigger shoots out an enormous laser blast that can be used to snipe enemies from across the map or do huge burst damage up close.
The medium’s ultimates are a massive, ultra-powered singularity beam that radiates from the head of your mech — like enormous eye lasers, and an infinite ammo state. The infinite ammo state seems less cool at first, until you realize that means you can basically spam the smaller laser canon and really wreak havoc.
Finally is the heavy mech. This bad boy has over 3x as much health as the light mech and packs a heavy punch. The left arm secondary contains heavy rockets that do some big damage and the right arm secondary is a brimstone canon, basically a shotgun, that can absolutely eviscerate someone if you catch their backside or land an unshielded shot to the head.
For ultimates the heavy has an enormous EMP blast that pulses out into a huge radius around them hurting shields, damaging energy reserves, and hurting the hull of anyone caught in the blast. As an alternate ultimate, heavy mechs can also go invulnerable for a brief period of time, making them even more deadly than before.
The one major feature I feel like is missing is an element of customization. You’ll be able to earn cosmetic alterations and upgrades in the game, but a hallmark of most great mech games is being able to really tweak and modify your weapons, chassis, and other parts. Perhaps those are plans for a future sequel if this does well enough.
And did I mention the environments, buildings, and most structures are all destructible? That helps make battles extra interesting.
Just like any good class-based shooter, winning a match in Archangel: Hellfire is just as much about teamwork as it is individual player skill. Since teams are only 2v2 it means tactics and communication are incredibly important.
Currently there are only two maps and one game mode, so it’s not as varied as I’d like, but as a free update to a previously single player only game it’s substantially better than I’d expected. Compared to the single player Archangel experience it’s almost like a brand new and much better game as a whole.
From here Skydance really has a blank slate in front of them. They appear to be doubling down on the esports angle for the game (watching people pilot mechs in VR is extremely entertaining for viewers) which is a great angle, but hopefully they keep delivering content as well. A third map is planned for after the beta period.
Archangel: Hellfire hits open beta starting today around 10AM PT on Rift and Vive as a free update as long as you own the full Archangel game. When it exits open beta there will be a horde mode for co-op or single player as well, but the beta period is only for team deathmatch matchmaking online.
You can grab Archangel on Oculus Home or Steamto get into the Hellfire beta today. The PSVR version does not have multiplayer support planned at this time due to the lack of touchpads and/or analog sticks on the PS Move controllers.
Let us know what you think of Archangel: Hellfire down in the comments below!
