arktika.1 – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 21, 2017

Oculus Studios’ VR Shooter ARKTIKA.1 To Get An Ebook Companion Later This Year

In our hands-on with ARKTIKA.1, it’s noted that the game seems to have a lot that wants to express about its world. The decision to tell rather than show presents a mixed bag for gameplay, but a new partnership will give the creative team an opportunity to world build in a different way. Partnering with Del Ray Books, an imprint of the well know Random House publisher, 4A Games has inked a storytelling deal that will see a companion eBook launch in Q3 this year.

The news comes by way of a press release on Gamasutra and the upcoming eBook is titled ARKTIKA.1: My Name is Viktoria. 4A Games is known for their Metro series, a series adapted from books and known for their engaging narrative. Christie Golden, an American author with a long history of penning novels based on notable fictional worlds like Star Trek and Starcraft, helped shape the story for ARKTIKA.1 and she’ll also be involved in My Name is Viktoria.

“I couldn’t ask for more from 4A Games and my publisher, Del Rey Books,” Golden says in the press release. “We’ve worked together every step of the way to bring ARKTIKA.1 to life. I brought my A-game to this project, calling on my playwriting training to create sharp dialogue and utilizing my world-building skills to help complete the immersive experience virtual reality offers. Players looking to dive into the game’s universe by cozying up with a book have much to look forward to!”

VR experiences are built upon the appeal of immersion and are constantly used to supplement other forms of media, but expanding upon these virtual worlds with other mediums like books adds a degree of credibility to the gaming aspect of the industry. It’s good to see AAA games get AAA efforts and exposure.

“Story is at the heart of any AAA game – and we have some things to say about that! With our experience making post-apocalyptic games, we’re now taking players a hundred years in the future and presenting them with a dangerous yet hopeful world,” says Yevhen Fedorets, lead game designer on ARKTIKA.1. “We’re building environments filled with detail – resulting in believable, atmospheric locations. Immersion is all about connecting everything in the world with the player, and we found that this feeling of ‘being there’ is by far the best way to tell an engrossing story about survival.”

ARKTIKA.1 is due to release on Oculus Rift exclusively sometime this year. My Name is Viktoria is currently available to preorder on Amazon for $0.99 and has a release date of October 10th.

Tagged with: 4A Games, arktika.1

July 18, 2017

Arktika.1 to get Companion eBook Penned by NYT Bestselling Author Christie Golden

Due for release later this year on Oculus Rift and Touch is Arktika.1, a first-person shooter (FPS) from Metro 2033 studio 4A Games. Today, 4A Games has announced a collaboration with Del Ray Books which will see a companion eBook, ARKTIKA.1: My Name is Viktoria accompany the virtual reality (VR) title.

Del Ray Books partnered with the studio on Arktika.1’s storyline, with many of the narrative elements behind the videogame penned by New York Times (NYT) bestselling author Christie Golden – known for several Star Trek, Star Wars, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft novels.

ARKTIKA.1: My Name is Viktoria

“I couldn’t ask for more from 4A Games and my publisher, Del Rey Books,” said Golden in a statement. “We’ve worked together every step of the way to bring Arktika.1 to life. I brought my A-game to this project, calling on my playwriting training to create sharp dialogue and utilizing my world-building skills to help complete the immersive experience virtual reality offers. Players looking to dive into the game’s universe by cozying up with a book have much to look forward to!”

The fast paced shooter is set nearly a century in the future, in which Earth has entered a new ice age. Only the equatorial regions remain habitable, yet pockets of humanity still manage to survive in small numbers all over the planet. These regions of civilization sit on resource-rich, highly desirable territories to the north and south. As a mercenary hired by Citadel Security, players must protect one of the last colonies in the wastelands of old Russia from violent raiders, marauders, and horrifying creatures.

“Story is at the heart of any AAA game – and we have some things to say about that! With our experience making post-apocalyptic games, we’re now taking players a hundred years in the future and presenting them with a dangerous yet hopeful world,” says Yevhen Fedorets, lead game designer on Arktika.1. “We’re building environments filled with detail – resulting in believable, atmospheric locations. Immersion is all about connecting everything in the world with the player, and we found that this feeling of ‘being there’ is by far the best way to tell an engrossing story about survival.”

ARKTIKA.1: My Name is Viktoria is set to release towards the end of Q3 2017, with pricing and launch date yet to be announced.

As 4A Games release further details, VRFocus will keep you updated.

May 22, 2017

Hands-On: Arktika.1 Has Promise But Chooses To Tell Rather Than Show

Arktika.1 is one of the many virtual reality titles taking a swing at AAA adventure, coming exclusively to the Oculus Touch from the creators of the Metro series, 4A Games. It’s an assortment of guns, waves of vile bad guys, and a post-apocalyptic plot. It aims to be vast in all of the typical action ways, collecting a textbook set of parts whose sum, unfortunately, continues to feel like just one of the many.

In its best moments, Arktika.1 manages to be a mechanically sound shooter. As a mercenary brought in to clear a facility of the Arktika.1 compound, I’m given a spread of weapons to choose from before setting off. The snappy pistol reloads with a flick of the wrist. I customize my rifle with an improved sight. I lower a laser gun to my side for a new clip, then bounce its beam off a back wall to hit a target behind cover. Each weapon is unique and fun to fire, though this alone isn’t too alluring. There are, these days, quite a few titles that have fine-tuned VR shooting to be comfortable, intuitive, and joyful. It’s an inherently engaging experience unique to virtual reality, but not as unique to the games that employ it.

The action is propelled by an almost on-rails movement system. Players are to spot hologram bodies around the facility, and teleport between them to position in combat as well as traversal. This motion prevents the sickness that often follows more free first-person travel, but it also sucks tension out of Arktika.1’s dark corridors and silent corners. I don’t have to force myself to pace into unknown spaces; instead, I take that first fearful look inside, spot a projection of where I’m going to move, and then easily teleport there. And then I pop over to the next hologram, fear-free. The mechanic, combined with a lack of scripted encounters, removes the anxious wandering that usually imbues enclosed sci-fi experiences with unease.

Now and again this trail of hologram bodies is complicated by a puzzle. A locked door may need a code found across the room, or a few buttons pushed in a particular pattern. None of these roadblocks were difficult to untangle. With a limited number of teleportation points around the room, there isn’t much guess as to where you’ll find the missing puzzle piece.

The game’s combat procedure is typical–you’ll enter rooms with enemies waiting around multiple cover points. You’ll kill them. Sometimes, more will enter after that. The experience itself isn’t too surprising, but does put these likable weapons to use, giving me free reign to duck, peak, and fire shots in various combat stages.

These battles feel empty, however, because this entire series of events–filling my holsters, teleporting through dark halls, filling evil guys with laser bullets–is preceded by minutes of dry exposition. My time with Arktika.1 began in the passenger seat of an armored car, a strange woman at the wheel. As we plow through the snow, she lays out the entire premise of the campaign through a tone so unnatural that I’m unsure whether she is a human or android.

She tells me first of mankind’s struggle. Global warming caused a world-wide freeze, leaving only colonies of civilization to dot the barely livable equator. I’m meant to feel intimidated by humanity’s dour state. She details the enemies I will soon face, mean-natured bandits and animal-like monsters. She encourages me to put the latter out of their misery. I’m meant to feel some tinge of sorrow for them. We arrive at the compound, and she says I’ll be exploring quite a bit. I’m meant to feel excitement at the opening of my adventure.

As much as I want to feel these narrative emotions, I don’t, because Arktika.1 chooses from the start to tell rather than show. I don’t witness the painful struggles of society, nor any depressing beast-men losing their last shreds of humanity. I’m just told these things exist, and given virtual reality’s ability to literally surround you with stories, it’s disappointing for one with potential to be delivered in sentences rather than experiences.

The plot begins with little profound impact, the traversal is simple and without fear, the battles are visceral and unemotional. Holding my Oculus Touch controllers in the air, I’m reminded of plastic guns tied to arcade machines, games that also drop players into quick-chaos, plot-light, on-rails scenarios for the sake of enjoyable fighting.

There is room, with the 12 planned environments and solid mechanics, for Arktika.1 to better attach players to its world, but at the onset it is something more shallow than it strives for. In my time, its shooting mechanics, though solid, weren’t enough to carry the passive atmosphere or weakly developed story. Arktika.1 doesn’t seem to take make any significant step forward in VR adventure gameplay and joins a growing list of titles that already accomplish similar experiences.

Tagged with: arktika.1

April 18, 2017

VRTV: Nina Heads into the Snow for the Arktika.1 Preview

Nina heads into the frozen wastelands of Arktika.1 in order to give her verdict on the current version of the game.

Arktika 1 is set in a dystopian future where climate change has wrecked the world and reduced the available habitable areas down to a few strips of land by the equator. The player character is located in a colony somewhere in Russia called Arktika.1, which must be defended from enemies and wild beasts.

Movement is handled with a fixed-point teleportation system and the various different types of guns can be reloaded by twisting the controller sideways. 4A Games also worked on the Metro franchise, so much of Arktika.1 will feel familiar to players of those titles.

The title is planned for release on the Oculus Rift with Touch some time in Q3 of 2017.

You can watch Nina’s preview video below.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Arktika 1 when it becomes available.

April 7, 2017

Arktika.1: How Global Warming Destroys The World And Creates An FPS

Roving VRFocus reporter Nina speaks to Jonathan Bloch from 4a Games, Executive Producer of Arktika.1, about the upcoming virtual reality (VR) post-apocalyptic shooter.

Arktika.1 is set in a Russian post-apocalyptic future where climate change has caused a new global ice age where the only habitable zones are close to the equator. Arktika.1 is the name of a colony that is exists on the site of a where a large Russian city used to be. The player’s job is to protect the colony from bandits, raiders and violent creatures.

Arktika.1 - OC3 (2)

Weapons that can be used for the job range from standard ballistic weapons such as exist today, to electromagnetic weaponry through to plasma and laser weaponry, all of which have their own effects and function in their own way.

Movement in the game is handled with a type of fixed point teleportation controlled by a ‘look and travel’ system which the developers believe to be the most intuitive and comfortable for the majority of players. There will be twelve areas to travel to an explore with a large amount of content.

Arktika.1 was built with the help of Oculus Story Studio and designed from the ground up to be used with Oculus Rift with Touch.

The title is planned for release in Q3 of 2017, though no price point has yet been set. Further information can be found on the 4A Games official website.

You can watch the full interview below. VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest on upcoming VR titles.

March 17, 2017

What’s coming in 2017? Checkout VRTV’s Oculus Rundown

Oculus has been keen to showcase the latest virtual reality (VR) content coming to Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR over the course of 2017. VRTV’s Nina Salomon has a video rundown featuring some of the biggest titles due to be launched.

Some of these titles you may already know about, while others might have slipped through the net. Rest assured none of them should be over looked.

Brass Tactics – VR Real-time strategy with clockwork/steampunk feel
SingSpace from Harmonix Music – ‘draw’ your music into the air, watch it react and dance in time to the beat. VR twist on classic music visualisations
Blade and Soul: Table Arena – NCSoft bring their Blade and Soul MMO into a collectable card game in VR
From Other Suns – Space-based sci-fi strategic combat
The Mages Tale – action RPG, spin off of the new Bards Tale reboot. Uses gesture-control for spells.
Killing Floor: Incursion – Latest incarnation of the Killing Floor series. First-person multiplayer shooter
Arktika.1 – 4A games gives us a moody tactical shooter
Robo Recall – Robot-destroying mayhem in this first-person shooter
Lone Echo – Sci-fi narrative action-adventure
Augmented Empire – Strategic cyberpunk in the vein of XCOM
Rock Band VR – VR twist on the classic rock band formula

VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest news on all the upcoming Oculus Rift releases

March 10, 2017

Oculus Touch: ARKTIKA. 1 will neue Maßstäbe setzen

Mit Metro 2033 und Metro: Last Light brachte uns der Entwickler 4A Games bereits zwei Spiele, welche uns einen tiefen Einblick in Post-Apokalypsen werfen ließen. Nun bringen sie mit ARKTIKA. 1 eine neue Vision des Weltuntergangs exklusiv für Oculus Touch heraus. Die Welt von ARKTIKA. 1 ist in eine neue Eiszeit gehüllt und nur wenige Überlebende können sich rund um den Äquator oder in rohstoffreiche Gebieten im Norden und Süden ansiedeln. Doch die Kälte ist nicht das Einzige, womit die Reste der Menschheit einhundert Jahre in der Zukunft zu kämpfen haben: Plünderer, Räuber und sogar schaurige Kreaturen fallen in die letzten sicheren Siedlungen ein. Als Söldner sollt ihr nun für die Citadel Security eine Siedlung in Vostok (Russland) vor den biologischen wie auch technischen Feinden beschützen und so der Menschheit eine zweite Chance ermöglichen.

Was euch in der eisigen Apokalypse von ARKTIKA. 1 erwartet

Das nun auf Malta angesiedelte Entwicklerstudio 4A Games verwendete für den Full-VR-Titel ihre eigens entwickelte 4A Engine und kann so mit einzigartigen Details und einer neuartigen Shooter-Mechanik aufwahrten. Die Entwickler erschaffen somit eine neue Dimension sowohl grafisch sowie auch technisch für die Virtual Reality. Der Creative Director und Mitbegründer von 4A Games Andriy „Prof“ Prokhorov äußerte sich wie folgt zu ARTIKA. 1:

„Dies ist für uns ein gewaltiger Schritt vorwärts. ARKTIKA. 1 ist das Ergebnis von allem, was wir über das Erschaffen von lebensechten Umgebungen gelernt haben. Wir haben ansprechende Shooter-Mechaniken implementiert und liefern herausragende Grafik.“

Zur Entwicklung des Spiels für Oculus Touch verkündete Prokhorov außerdem:

„ARKTIKA. 1 ist einer der ersten AAA-Shooter, der von Grund auf für die VR konzipiert wurde – im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichen Portierungspraktiken. Außerdem heben die Präzision und die intuitive Bedienbarkeit der Oculus-Touch-Controller realistische Schusswechsel auf eine ganz neue Ebene.“

Eine Vielzahl an Waffen und Aufsätzen

Erste coole Manöver sah man bereits im Trailer, in dem eine Waffe nach einer Drehung in der Luft wieder aufgefangen wurde und eine Kugel um die Ecke flog. Die berührende Geschichte des Spiels soll mit der immersiven Egoperspektive und der natürlichen Umsetzung von Bewegungen mit Hilfe der Oculus Touch verstärkt und abgerundet werden. Das post-apokalyptische Sci-Fi Setting bietet dem Spieler des Weiteren eine Vielzahl an Waffen und Aufsätzen, welche nach Belieben kombiniert werden können. Oder die Grundlage für völlig neue und persönliche Exemplare bilden. Das Gameplay bietet packende Herausforderungen, besitzt dabei aber stets einen ausbalancierten Schwierigkeitsgrad. Der Spieler muss in den taktischen Kämpfen vollen Körpereinsatz zeigen, sich ducken und ausweichen sowie durch Berührungen die verschiedenen Waffen nutzen, um die Feinde zu besiegen.

Um euch einen besseren Einblick in das Spiel, sein unglaublich gutes Aussehen, die Geschichte und die Spielmechaniken zu geben, veröffentlichte 4A Games ein neues Video, in dem ihr euch das Gameplay im Tutorial und in der ersten Mission ansehen könnt:

Einen festen Release-Termin besitzt ARKTIKA. 1 noch nicht, angesetzt ist aber das 3. Quartal in diesem Jahr. Auch der Verkaufspreis wird noch angekündigt. Sicher ist das Erscheinen des Spiels exklusiv für die Oculus Touch. Mehr Informationen erhaltet ihr auf den sozialen Netzwerken wie Facebook oder Twitter von 4A Games.

Der Beitrag Oculus Touch: ARKTIKA. 1 will neue Maßstäbe setzen zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

February 28, 2017

25 Minutes of New ‘ARKTIKA.1’ Oculus Touch Gameplay

Launching exclusively on the Oculus Rift in Q3 2017, ARKTIKA.1’s polish and presentation has quickly risen it up the ranks to one of the year’s most anticipated VR titles. And though it’s still months away, we’ve got a new glimpse at a chunk of the game’s opening mission.

From 4A games, the creators of Metro series, Arktika.1 is an impressive looking VR FPS that’s due to hit Oculus Touch this year. The title was first revealed at Oculus Connect 3 last year, and this week at GDC, the studio is showing off a 25 minute chunk (see video heading this article) of never before seen content taken from the game’s polished “4–5 hour” campaign.

Nearly a century in the future — in the aftermath of a silent apocalypse — the planet has entered a new ice age. Only the equatorial regions remain habitable, yet pockets of humanity still manage to survive in small numbers all over the planet. These small regions of civilization sit on resource-rich, highly desirable territories to the north and south. As a mercenary hired by Citadel Security, your job is to protect one of the last colonies in the wastelands of old Russia from violent raiders, marauders, and horrifying creatures. Be the savior. Give humanity a second chance.

Arktika.1 aims to be a AAA polished VR FPS that’s all about the guns. It was clear from our first time playing that the studio has spent as much time giving the guns their own character as some of the actual characters themselves. Not only do they look cool, but they’re a blast to shoot thanks to great audio, visual, and haptic design. Many of the weapons will be customizable and some have secondary fire functions, making them much more than a ‘point and destroy’ interface for VR.

Not due out until Q3 2017, the wait for Arktika.1 will be long for some, but hopefully this taste of the game will tide most over for now.

For our deep dive with Arktika.1, check out our hands-on with this latest gameplay here.

The post 25 Minutes of New ‘ARKTIKA.1’ Oculus Touch Gameplay appeared first on Road to VR.

February 28, 2017

GDC 2017: Arktika.1 Shows Off Deep Story and Amazing VR Visuals

I’m cold. I can see the flurries of snow outside and the thin coat of ice on my hummer’s windshield and I feel cold. This wouldn’t be all that notable except for the fact that a moment ago I was feeling quite warm inside the busy Oculus demo hall at GDC 2017. But I’ve been transported somewhere else since then, transported to the freezing, incredible world of Arktika.1.

I first had the chance to preview Artika.1 — an exciting new collaboration between Oculus Studios and the 4A Games (Metro: Last Light) — at Oculus Connect 3 last year. The brief demo I saw there was enough to convince me that this was a game to watch in 2017. The extended GDC experience that 4A brought to GDC, however, has convinced me that Arktika.1 is the game to look out for this year. It really is that good.

As soon as the new demo began I knew that this time around the studio was focusing on showing off the deep narrative and thoughtfully constructed world of Arktika.1 rather than the more combat heavy slice from OC3. The first 5 minutes or so of the preview I was simply sitting in a heavily armored car.

I was being driven through the frozen landscape by an NPC who’s narration provided story hints at every turn. I won’t spoil them for those looking forward to the game but generally Arktika.1 takes place in the midst of a second ice age. You are a mercenary hired by the last remaining humans in Russia to protect them from marauders, bandits…and something even worse. Here’s the official synopsis from 4A:

Nearly a century in the future — in the aftermath of a silent apocalypse — the planet has entered a new ice age. Only the equatorial regions remain habitable, yet pockets of humanity still manage to survive in small numbers all over the planet. These small regions of civilization sit on resource-rich, highly desirable territories to the north and south. As a mercenary hired by Citadel Security, your job is to protect one of the last colonies in the wastelands of old Russia from violent raiders, marauders, and horrifying creatures. Be the savior. Give humanity a second chance.

Getting past a guard with a pass card

When my car finally broke through the blizzard I saw on the horizon where exactly the name Arktika.1 comes from: a massive, heavily secured compound. The last refuge for a dying human race.

As I drove up to the survivor city’s gates I was struck by how beautiful this game is. 4A is building Arktika.1 using its proprietary engine and it is able to produce the most striking visuals I’ve ever seen in a VR game. A good portion of that too is owed to the art design. Much like the Metro series before it, Arktika.1’s story oozes out of every carefully crafted asset you’ll come across in its richly developed environments. There’s more detail in every frame of Arktika.1 than you’ll probably even take the time to notice. That commitment to world-building through design, coupled with the amazing visual fidelity, makes this a game that sticks in your mind long after the headset comes off.

A snowy battle at the airfield

In addition to amazing visuals, 4A is also doing some interesting mechanical things that are exciting to see from a bleeding-edge VR title. For example, during my car ride I could interact with certain elements inside the vehicle. I could role the window down at will by pressing a button. I did so and immediately the sound changed. I could hear the engine and the wind more clearly than before. The voice of my companion also got more difficult to hear but when I closed the window again the sound reset and the noises inside the car got much crisper. Little touches like this make a good VR experience a great one and Arktika.1 is packed to the frozen gills with them.

Apart from the world-building moments, the GDC demo also took me through a completely new combat mission as well. Things began similarly to the OC3 demo. I went to the armory and picked out my weapons. After that, however, I was taken into a simulated training room to hone my skills against digital opponents. From there, I was taken to a nearby airfield that had fallen to the icey cold and notorious bandits. My job was to eliminate them. I’m good at my job.

Arktika.1’s combat is all about cover. You need to use it well in order to survive. The levels are designed creatively enough that your cover points always feel interesting and strategic rather than frustrating or overly simplistic. The guns themselves are interesting as well, with enough variable ammo types and firing options to keep you experimenting for hours. 4A also showed us a secret gun hidden behind a hotkey in the demo.

Picking a weapon and the mod-gun (left)

This new weapon is modable with different options for the chamber, barrel and ammunition. Swapping these around created a completely different weapon for each configuration. Mods like this seem to be a staple of what 4A is building here and they are a very welcome addition to the world of VR shooters, where loadouts are often pre-determined and limited.

Between the deliciously ambient world, the pulse-pounding combat and the innovative VR mechanics, its safe to say — for me at least — that Arkitka.1 is the game to look forward to in 2017 on any platform. Its currently set to release in Q3. Until then, stay warm out there.

Tagged with: 4A Games, arktika.1, GDC 2017, preview

February 28, 2017

Hands-on: ‘ARKTIKA.1’ is Gun-Centric, Highly Detailed and Ready to Impress

Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 is here, and Oculus is showing off a bevy of exclusive games that are due out sometime later this year. Among them was an entirely new level of ARTIKA.1, a sci-fi shooter from 4A Games‘ Malta-based studio that aims to get gun freaks excited as you plug away at human raiders and horrific creatures alike with an arsenal of customizeable futuristic weapons.

The demo begun in the passenger seat of a military vehicle, sitting beside my companion Viktoria and driving through the icy desert wasteland. Approaching our Russian outpost, we pass several guards. They seem friendly for badass gun-totting sentries and joke with Viktoria as we move closer into the protected confines of the huge base, a place I later learned would be my new home and consequently house the entirety of the game’s action.

Snow is pouring down and the windshield wipers are sluffing off melted snow, a detail that steals my attention away from the massive downed military airplanes to my right, a relic from earlier times before the world went topsy turvy. I roll my window down with my outstretched finger to give the final guard Viktoria’s ID from the glove box. It’s windy outside and the vehicle’s engine is purring loudly. It’s a harsh place and I instinctively roll the window back up to return my attention to the quietness of the car and my guide’s explanation of the world around me. The demo hasn’t even really started and I’m already blown away at the little things, the level of care that 4A Games has taken in getting you acquainted with the world while listening to what could have been a boring monologue in a conventional flat screen game’s opening cutscene.

Once inside the base, we slip into a vehicle bay and get out, my first taste of the new level’s locomotion scheme. A ghostly outline of a man appears standing in front of a circuit breaker a few meters from me. I zap to the pre-determined spot, pull down a lever to get the bay’s electricity going and similarly zap over to the elevator for my weapon’s training. All of this interaction happens while I remain front-facing, something required by the Rift’s two-sensor setup.

Next I’m put through my paces with the guns, something we got a crack the first time we saw ARTIKA.1 at Oculus Connect 3. I toss red dot scopes onto a powerful blaster rifle, paint it a white camo color and grab another gun that charges up to release a powerful laser bolt and throw on a thermal sight. The developers say you’ll be able to scavenge these parts throughout the game and even build an entire weapon from scratch, something that promises to be ‘particularly impressive.’

Shooting is easy, pull the trigger and reload by lowering your gun to your side—but I was more interested in was how the game’s locomotion system informed level design. Moving around the starting level, an ancient military transport plane from earlier, I noticed a few ghostly outlines to choose from. A blue outline appears on a teleport node that has adequate cover and a yellow outline indicates no cover. It’s your choice really which one to search for, so you can go in guns a-blazing or stick back and line up your targets for a more efficient take down. But there aren’t infinite teleport options, only a few you’re presented during fire fights, and ones clearly created to move you forward through the level (in front of doors, code panels, displays, etc).

There are a few puzzles to solve as well, although I didn’t encounter any that were especially hard. In one instance a key code was written on the wall behind me, the number 18Ɛ. I foolishly plugged in 183 to the code panel which resulted in an error message. Realizing the 3 was actually backwards, I then typed in the correct code of 381 to open the door I needed.

I’m tempted to call it a wave shooter based on the fact that most areas have at least 2 waves of enemies, but I don’t really feel comfortable reducing it to that due to its constant forward movement. The teleportation mechanic, although limiting somewhat for immersion, creates interesting bottlenecks that you have to navigate and helps keep the game’s pacing consistent. Some may call teleportation an outright minus to the game immersion-wise, but I found it refreshing, almost creating a gameplay style similar to the Halo franchise’s campaign mode.

And while it won’t have the same reach as Halo, ARKTIKA.1 is undoubtedly playing in the same ballpark, and we can’t wait to get our hands on the full game, planned to launch exclusive to Oculus Touch in Q3 2017.

The post Hands-on: ‘ARKTIKA.1’ is Gun-Centric, Highly Detailed and Ready to Impress appeared first on Road to VR.