Preview: Bad Day to Fly – Arcade Action in the Skies

It can always be a challenge for indie virtual reality (VR) developers to decide upon what sort of title to first take the plunge with, as some genres of video games are notoriously more difficult than others. British team Beloudest has decided to go with aerial combat for its first with Bad Day to Fly, and even in with this early alpha build the title shows promise.

Bad Day to Fly is all about taking to the skies to shoot down swarms of alien enemies in a vehicle inspired by drones and quadcopters. It’s an action oriented experience where you don’t really need dog fighting skills like EVE: Valkyrie, just a good aim and quick reactions.

bd2f Cockpit

The main issue players usually have with this style of video game is that they can be quite nauseating, having to quickly turn and track enemies, making the landscape spin and undulate rapidly. With Bad Day to Fly however Beloudest seem to have created an experience that’s entirely comfortable. Being inside a cockpit can help, but it’s the control scheme that’s most noteable.

Currently supporting HTC Vive, Bad Day to Fly utilises a flight control method very akin to that of a helicopter. The right controller does most of the work, holding it vertical you tilt it forward to move the nose up or down, tilt it side to side to strafe left and right, while twisting the controller acts as the yaw. Not too complicated, this flight control system becomes quite intuitive and easy to pick up after a few minutes.

To increase or decrease height tap the right touch pad in the corresponding direction, and for an additional forward thrust hit the left-hand touch pad. For such an early stage build – the team has only worked on it for a few months – there wasn’t really any noticeable inaccuracies or input lag to be found. All the other buttons then served to fire or switch the various armaments available depending on your play style.

bd2f Missile-Fire

Presently gameplay is a fairly simple affair, there was a single level on demonstration, with a giant enemy mother ship spawning attackers while you had to defend your ship. Three enemy types were available and each was susceptible to certain weapons you carry, the smallest which tended to come in packs could be taken out with lock-on missiles where the largest required swapping to a plasma gun. These weapons featured on the right controller with a fixed reticule located in the centre of the cockpit. While the left controller moved a minigun which had completely free movement, enabling you to fire off missiles in one direction while shredding an opponent elsewhere.

So while the flight control is good there is still much to work on, graphically there’s still a lot polishing needing to be done, but possibly more important is there’s currently no way to hover – kind of required for a vehicle that resembles a helicopter – or accurately land – part of the mission did require it at one point.

Beloudest is looking to release Bad Day to Fly in 2018 with a beta version planned for around Q3 2017. If you own a HTC Vive and love your flying video games then this should certainly be on your watch list, and Oculus Rift users to.

Sci-Fi Flight Simulator Bad Day To Fly Coming to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

Futuristic virtual reality (VR) flight simulator Bad Day to Fly got its public alpha demo at the Virtual Reality World Congress today and the developer, Beloudest have confirmed that the title will be coming to both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Bad Day To Fly is set on a planet called Poseidon, which has been suddenly invaded by hostile forces. The player takes on the role of a hotshot pilot who must engage in dogfight combat as well as stealthy intelligence raids to save the planet. The current version is single-player, but there are plans for multi-player to be implemented in future.

The player will control a vehicle called a ‘quadcopter’, which has 3D controls and movement much like a modern-day drone. The developers say that inspiration for the title comes from classic retro gaming titles such as Desert Strike and novels and films such as War of the World and Independence Day.

The title is being developed for both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Beloudest say that they hope to be able to showcase the capabilities of VR while also telling a full story as the player engages in missions to defend the planet against the enemy. The developers are hoping that Bad Day to Fly will appeal to a broad audience, including not only flight simulator fans, but also sci-fi fans, players of first-person shooters and drone enthusiasts.

The developers are aiming for the Beta version of the title to be available sometime between Q2 and Q3 of 2017. Further information is available on the official Bad Day To Fly website.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Bad Day To Fly when it becomes available.