Archangel – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

April 23, 2018

Hellfire Is A Multiplayer Update For Mech Combat Game Archangel Coming This June

What’s the only possible thing that could ever be better than piloting a mech and blowing stuff up? Well, not being locked to an on-rails only experience is a good start, but after that it’s gotten be throwing in more mechs and making it a multiplayer affair. The upcoming Archangel: Hellfire update aims to remedy both of those issues with the introduction of both a cooperative horde-based PvE and PvP multiplayer mode.

The Hellfire update will be completely free for everyone that owns Archangel already. Given how abbreviated the campaign was in the base game — and specifically the lack of free movement — all of this content feels like it should have been included in the base game to begin with. Thankfully it’s free.

“Archangel: Hellfire will deliver the most intense and immersive multiplayer mech combat that players have ever experienced,” said Peter Akemann, President of Skydance Interactive, in a prepared statement. “The team is working hard to bring the player-versus-player off-rails combat that fans have been asking for, and really embody that fantasy of piloting a giant building-sized mech. And with the free team PvP multiplayer experience, all VR gamers will soon have a chance to hop into the cockpit and prove their mettle.”

Hellfire will add four new maps to the game as well as “six new warrior mechs and three distinct classes, each with their own powerful abilities and custom weapon systems,” according to a press release. We’re eager to see how all of this translates over along with free locomotion.

Early Access for the Team Deathmatch mode is planned to be available next month on May 25th with a full launch planned for June 28th. We should get to see some gameplay footage of the new modes as well in a couple of weeks on May 5th.

The update is planned for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below!

Tagged with: archangel, Hellfire, Skydance

April 23, 2018

Archangel: Hellfire-Update bringt Off-Rails-Multiplayer

Am 25. Mai 2018 soll die Betaphase von Archangel: Hellfire beginnen, die Veröffentlichung des gro0en Updates für die Oculus Rift und HTC Vive steht laut Entwicklern am 28. Juni an. Ob PlayStation VR ebenfalls das Update spendiert bekommt, ist derzeit allerdings unklar. Bisher besitzt das VR-Mech-Spiel nur einen Single-Player-Modus, im Multiplayer-Modus wird man die Mechs von der vorgegebene Schiene lösen können.

Runter von der Schiene – Archangel: Hellfire bringt Off-Rail-Multiplayer

Das kommende Update Archangel: Hellfire wird es in sich haben, nämlich endlich Multiplayer-Gefechte. Dafür stehen vorerst zwei Modi bereit, nämlich entweder Co-op oder in Kämpfen 2v2. Außerdem befreit man sich in den Mehrspieler-Battles sinnvollerweise von der Schiene und erlaubt eine freie Bewegung im Gelände. Vier neue Karten, sechs frische Mech-Warrior, drei neue Klassen sowie eine neue Cockpit-Ansicht stehen außerdem auf dem Update-Programm. Zur Einstimmung hat das Studio Skydance Interactive einen Trailer veröffentlicht, der Appetit auf Archangel: Hellfire machen soll.

Das Update wird kostenlos für Besitzer einer Oculus Rift oder HTC Vive ausgerollt, Besitzer des Spiels sollen schon am 25. Mai in der Betaphase loslegen können. Den offiziellen Release plant das Studiio für den 28. Juni. Kostenpflichtig könnte allerdings die Multiplayer-Option werden, da die Entwickler von einer limitierten kostenlosen Phase sprechen. Archangel kostet auf Steam regulär 28 Euro, die PSVR-Version schlägt mit 36 Euro zu Buche. Einen recht positiv gestimmten Test der PlayStation-VR-Version des Mech-Spektakels findet ihr hier.

(Quelle: Road to VR)

Der Beitrag Archangel: Hellfire-Update bringt Off-Rails-Multiplayer zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

April 13, 2018

Archangel Dev To Make World Premiere At VRLA Next Month

VRLA, one of the original VR conventions, is preparing for its return next month, and it’s packing a promising line-up.

The show is set to take place on 4th – 5th May at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Two days of talks and workshops will be running alongside an expo floor featuring a range of VR and AR experiences.

Headlining this year’s show are talks from The Void, the company that recently brought us the Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire location-based VR experience and Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport over at HTC. Steiber will be joined by Dell’s Gary Radburn to talk ‘Empowering VR Developers, Businesses and Consumers’. Other keynote speakers include AltspaceVR’s Katie Kelly, Qualcomm’s Hugo Swart and Walt Disney Imagineering’s Jon Snoddy.

It’s not all just talking, though; there’ll be several announcements at the show. Specifically, we’ll see a world premiere from Skydance Interactive, the company that brought us Archangel. We’re not sure what the company has in store, though we do know it’s currently working on some major updates for its mech-based shooter.

Elsewhere there are set to be announcements from Intel and Ricoh.

A Saturday pass to VRLA is just $40 (or $30 if you’re a student). However you can get a two day Pro Pass including the Friday for $299, along with shorter lines and access to more sessions.

Tagged with: archangel

January 22, 2018

VR Mech Shooter Archangel Getting Off-Rails Multiplayer Mode

VR mech shooter Archangel was one of the more polished games to release for headsets last year, but its overly-simplistic gameplay held it back from greatness. It sounds like an upcoming update to that game will address that somewhat, though.

Archangel is getting a multiplayer mode. Chris Hewish, executive vice president of VR at developer Skydance Interactive, confirmed as much to VentureBeat in a recent interview. Players will be able to take their giant, Pacific Rim-style battle suits into combat against other human players for the first time. Interestingly, though, competitive play will also introduce off-rails gameplay, whereas the original campaign is all on-rails.

Hewish didn’t elaborate on exactly how that might work, but it could add an entirely new dynamic to Archangel. Having freedom of movement will change up the gameplay considerably. “You’re piloting this giant mech,” Hewish promised. “We have locomotion and torso twisting and the fun combat that goes along with that. We’re adding new classes of mechs into the mix.”

The update will apparently be arriving in the middle of the year, presumably on all the platforms the game’s already out on: Rift, Vive and PSVR. Outside of that, Hewish confirmed that the studio is still working on a new VR experience based on the ever-popular Walking Dead brand as well as a new title set for release in 2019. Hewish said that Skydance Interactive looks to establish itself as a “triple-A player in the VR space” over the next few years, so expect to see big things coming from the studio.

Tagged with: archangel

December 8, 2017

‘Archangel’ is Free this Weekend on Rift, Access Now Available

Archangel (2017), the single-player mech shooter from Skydance Interactive, is hosting a free-access weekend starting today, going until Monday at 3:00 AM ET (local time here).

Letting you step into the cockpit of a six-story mech as the main force behind the United States Free Forces’ war against the tyrannical corporation HUMNX, you command an arsenal of weapons to shoot down the enemy and protect a post-apocalyptic America.

Playing as either Gabriel or Gabby Walker, you bond with an experimental mech AI, M1KL, and are tasked with delivering it to the secret resistance facility Deep Mountain.

Gameplay is ‘on-rails’, meaning you don’t really get to locomote around the map, instead traveling through cinematic interludes filled with arcade-style shooting.

While the $30 price tag might have been too rich for your blood at launch back in summer, this presents a good opportunity to jump in and see if it’s really for you or now without. It appears the Steam version is not offering a similar free-access weekend, although Vive users can user Revive to shoe into the game over the next few days too. The PSVR version doesn’t seem to be doing it either, so it looks like only Rift and Vive will be able to take part.

You can find the Rift version here.

The post ‘Archangel’ is Free this Weekend on Rift, Access Now Available appeared first on Road to VR.

August 2, 2017

HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Owners Get Chance To Be the Archangel

Post-apocalyptic shooter Archangel was previously launched for the PlayStation VR, but now owners of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift will be able to strap themselves in to a giant mech suit for some saving-the-world action as Skydance Interactive launch the title on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Archangel puts players in the role of a survival code-named Guardian, who sets out to defend the rag-tag remains of the United States from the depredations of sinister mega-corporation HUMNX. When a surprise attack forces you into the seat of the prototype Archangel mech before it was completed, players will need to very quickly learn how to control the mech and fight back before they are cut down.

Players will need to learn how to use the weapons system on their mech, and carefully plan their attacks to take advantage of enemy vulnerabilities. Upgrades to weapons and defences can be unlocked, adding an element of strategy as players must choose what the prioritise to suit their mission profile and playstyle.

Archangel screenshot 1

Archangel has received praise from critics, and VRFocus review of the PlayStation VR version was positive, saying: “Skydance Interactive has managed to produce some remarkably detailed environments and character models for the war to wage with. Of the highest standard yet seen in VR, Archangel’s visual fidelity ranks alongside the likes of Robo Recall and Lone Echo in terms of graphical prowess, if not for pushing the boundaries of VR gameplay.”

The title is available through Steam for a price of £22.99 (GBP). Oculus Rift users will need the Oculus Touch motion controllers in order to play.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Archangel and other new VR experiences as it becomes available.

August 2, 2017

Review: Archangel

Skydance Interactive’s efforts to pursue virtual reality (VR) entertainment should be commended. Having deployed an in-house team dedicated to development of several VR works, the studio is aiming for high-end visual quality and immersive gameplay. The first title to emerge, Archangel, achieves the former with grace, but sadly feels outdated with the latter.

In Archangel, the player is cast as military personnel designated as the pilot of a skyscraper-high mech. The videogame plays as an on-rails shooter, with the player granted no control over movement or pacing at any point. However, they are afforded the opportunity to wield a large variety of weaponry in an interesting manner.

Archangel screenshot

Played with the HTC Vive motion-controllers (or Oculus Touch), each controller represents a different arm of the mech. Each arm is equipped with a time-limited shield, which the player can pull across their body to provide protection from incoming fire. The shields take time to regenerate and cannot be used whilst firing the weapon connected to that arm, resulting in quick-thinking to ensure full-body coverage whilst still being able to return fire.

The weaponry the player has available is vast in quantity and varied in execution, though finding a preferred balance of heavy-hitting and rapid fire will be easy for most. Archangel’s later challenging levels will put your dependence on favourite fire arms to the test, and may call for some changes in tactical aggression. However, the variety of enemies thrown into combat in the first half of the videogame won’t really provide much pause for thought.

On PlayStation VR Archangel feels right at home. The limited input options offered by the PlayStation Move controllers work well acting as the mech’s arms and the lack of manual navigation results in an experience that is paced perfectly for VR newcomers. On the more powerful and less restrictive VR hardware available for high-end PCs however, Archangel already feels dated.

Archangel screenshot 1

The HTC Vive (and, to a lesser extent, the Oculus Rift), allow for free-form movement, and while it’s not essential for every videogame – EVE Valkyrie and Elite Dangerous in particular – it does place Archangel in a box which the core VR audience would naturally deem ‘dated’. PC-based VR has made rapid progress in the quality and variety of content offered in the 17 months since launch, and on-rails experiences have long been considered passé.

What Archangel does manage to achieve is a remarkably high quality of visual design. Despite the demands VR places upon hardware, Skydance Interactive has managed to produce some remarkably detailed environments and character models for the war to wage with. Of the highest standard yet seen in VR, Archangel’s visual fidelity ranks alongside the likes of Robo Recall and Lone Echo in terms of graphical prowess, if not for pushing the boundaries of VR gameplay.

Archangel accomplishes much of what it sets out to do; a frequently intense on-rails shooter that looks spectacular and challenges players within its own predetermined rule set. However, it’s perhaps a case of limited ambition from the start that has kept Archangel from achieving more, as the genre chosen was one born of hardware limitation decades ago, and even now in these early days of VR those limitations are simply no longer there.

60%

Awesome

Verdict

August 2, 2017

Archangel Gets PSVR Price Drop, Rift And Vive Versions Launch

When Skydance Interactive’s Archangel launched on PlayStation VR (PSVR) two weeks back it costs $39.99. That’s on the upper-end of what we’ve seen for VR games thus far, and it kept some from picking it up. From today, however, Archangel has a new price.

Skydance is dropping the game to $29.99 on the very day it launches for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for the same price. The drop comes surprisingly soon after launch, which suggests it may be a reaction to sales so far, but that’s just speculation on our part. Whatsmore, Archangel is also launching on PSVR in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Turkey today.

The game is an on-rails shooter in which players pilot a giant mech and fight off swarms of enemy units. On PSVR players could use either a DualShock 4 or two Move controllers to control the mech’s arms, aiming projectile weapons and punching nearby obstacles. With the PC VR versions you’ll be able to use the Touch controllers and Vive wands respectively.

Archangel boasts high-production values but is also short in length, lasting anywhere between three or five hours. That made the high price even more of an issue for some. We liked some of the game’s elements but found the story to be overly intrusive of the arcade gameplay.

“Archangel is an ambitious game, just in the wrong ways,” we said in our 6/10 review. “The on-rails gameplay provides a few hours of forgettable fun, but the emphasis on a generic story and cast is to its detriment. VR can blend narrative and interaction together in meaningful ways, but Archangel fails to capitalize on them. Still, this is one of the more polished VR shooters out there at the moment, especially on PSVR, and those of you with itchy trigger fingers will probably find a satisfying distraction here.”

Tagged with: archangel

July 20, 2017

‘Archangel’ Launches on PSVR, Vive and Rift Support Coming in August

Skydance Interactive’s first virtual reality game Archangel has launched with a short timed-exclusivity window on PlayStation VR. The first-person mech shooter is now available on the official PlayStation Store for $39.99, and is due to arrive on ‘other leading VR platforms’, including the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, on August 2nd.

The new trailer, shown above, hints at a polished, engaging narrative and highlights the intense gameplay, where the player controls a six storey-high mech equipped with guns, missiles, a shield on each arm, and the occasional ability to clench your giant fists and punch things out of the sky. The game supports the DualShock 4 gamepad, but the developers recommend using the PlayStation Move controllers.

“How better to introduce players to Skydance Interactive’s vision for the future of virtual reality gaming than to give them hands-on control of a giant mech in a way that no other medium can deliver,” said Peter Akemann, President of Skydance Interactive. “Now is the time to join the resistance, protect your friends and countrymen, and become the beacon of hope that America needs – the Archangel!”

The ‘on-rails’ mech action comes to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on August 2nd, and a ‘location-based version’ of the game will reach IMAX VR Centres in August.

The post ‘Archangel’ Launches on PSVR, Vive and Rift Support Coming in August appeared first on Road to VR.

July 18, 2017

Archangel Launches Today on PlayStation VR

PlayStation VR owners will now know what it is like to pilot a six-story-high giant war machine as the latest title from Skydance Interactive, Archangel, is launching today on the PlayStation VR.

Archangel is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where players join the United States from Forces under the codename ‘Guardian’ to lead the resistance against the sinister corporation known as HUMNX, a tyrannical conglomerate that rules what remains of America with an iron fist. Players are given access to a variety of high-powered weaponry to fight the forces of HUMNX and protect their allies, including giant mechanical war machines.

Archangel screenshot

The title has already received praise from critics after its appearance at E3, gathering several ‘Best VR Game at E3’ awards from publications such as MMOGames and Geek Citadel. Archangel is due to be released on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift later in the year, an a location-based version is also planned to be available in selected IMAX VR Centres from August, 2017.

Archangel is available now from the PlayStation Store for $39.99. A launch trailer is available to view below.

For further news about Archangel and Skydance Interactive, keep watching VRFocus.