Update: As of today, January 28th, the Darkest Days event is now live with a new night version of the map that’s randomly switched in and out per match, new gun skins, new 9v9 War mode with one massive zone shrink. The event runs until February 7th.
Original: Today Bigbox VR announced that the upcoming Darkest Days event for Population: One will introduce a night map into the rotation, there’s a new limited-time war game mode, and likely new cosmetics for players to look forward to.
Last week we streamed some Population: One and several months after release it’s still just as fun as ever. There was never a problem finding a match — due in part to the fact that it’s crossplay on Quest and PC VR — and the matches are just long enough to feel strategic but rarely drag on since players can travel large distances with the wingsuit and climbing.
In a follow-up tweet the game’s official Twitter account mentioned that the new limited-time War mode will be two teams of nine rather than the current format of six teams of three, totaling the same number of players. It’s unclear if this mode will have respawns enabled or if it too will be a battle royale mode without respawns.
Last month Population: One had a big Winter Event sand is now gearing up for an official “Season One” event. Darkest Days isn’t Season One, but it’s bringing some big updates like a whole new version of the map. That’s really encouraging for the game’s longevity and content development cycle.
One of the only other notable multiplayer-only VR games with a similar mind toward customization and content over time is Ready at Dawn’s Echo VR, which just announced a $10/mo premium battle pass tier full of cosmetics.
The Population: One Darkest Days event begins this Thursday on January 28th. We should have more details soon.
Correction: A previous version of this story implied Season One was Darkest Days.
BigBox VR’s battle royale Population: One has been a big success with excellent feedback from players. This week the studio has not only rolled out a new update to fix several issues but revealed Season 1 is coming soon, and its looking for testers.
Currently, other than confirming Season 1 is on its way BigBox VR hasn’t revealed what it’ll actually feature. The only real hint comes from the tweeted video where the shape of a knife can be seen in the selection wheel. As this looks like a hefty blade melee combat could well be part of Population: One soon.
It’s expected that much like other battle royale titles like Fortnite and their season updates, Population: One’s will include new weapons and cosmetic items to unlock as well as significant changes to the map. The team has confirmed that the current progression system won’t be affected, with it working alongside the season one system.
If you’re interested in seeing season one ahead of launch then you can apply to be an early access tester via the Population: One Discord. The studio has yet to specify when the season one will be made available.
Bullets: Fixed issue causing slightly offset bullets (affected shooting at a distance, especially noticeable with the AWP)
Prediction: General improvements to hit detection
Movement: Fixed issues where players could severely rubber band with a poor network connection
Reticle
4 color presets are now available from Settings -> Weapon Settings (Red, Yellow, Pink, or Green)
Changing the reticle color will update the world UI Reticle, Reflex Lens, and Tunnel Sights
General
Squads: Assorted fixes for repeat matchmaking failure while in a squad
Friend Codes: Removed 0 and 1 from friend codes to avoid confusion
Friends: Fixed edge case where removing a friend might remove the wrong friend
Loadout: Corrected icon for NYE Millie
Known Issues
Desktop VR: Climbing jitter can happen in some cases. Actively working on a fix for this.
Steam VR users playing on an Oculus headset: When Purchasing Bureau Gold, you will need to take off your headset to approve the purchase
If you see a notice that you need to “update to play” but don’t see it in the store, uninstall and reinstall POP: ONE to force the upgrade to happen. You won’t lose any progress or data.
Population: One launched last year for Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
BigBox VR teased the arrival of the first season for Population: One, with sign-ups for early access open now.
Population: One launched in November 2020 and is a competitive, squad-based VR battle royale game for Oculus Quest and PC VR.
Traditionally in other battle royale games such as Fortnite, the seasons mark the introduction of new content, both in-game and as additional optional extras, such as skins and cosmetic items. Each season usually includes a new ‘battle pass’, usually as a paid add-on, which is a progression system for the season allowing players to unlock skins and items as they level up the pass while playing. In Fortnite, each competitive season has come with bigger changes to the map and dramatic in-game events.
We don’t have a huge amount of detail on what Population: One’s seasons will involve just yet. The announcement tweet does show a GIF with a Season One spray, so expect some cosmetics and other unlockable items as part of the season’s the progression system
The selection wheel on the GIF also briefly shows the outline of a knife, which could be teasing the arrival of melee weapons, like a dagger or throwing knives, as part of season 1.
BigBox VR also confirmed on Twitter that the progression system for Season One will be different to the game’s current progression system for unlocks, so you’ll be able to work on both side-by-side and your current progression won’t be affected.
For those who are interested in trying the season out ahead of time, sign-ups for early access are available now via the Population: One Discord server, where you can find the link to a Google form.
There’s no word on the exact start date for Season One or early access, but keep an eye out for more information soon. A new game patch also dropped yesterday with some general changes and fixes, which you can read about here.
A new Winter event to celebrate the holiday season is coming to Population: One, starting on December 3.
The event is called 12 Days of Chaos and will add new bonuses in-game and change the map to a Winter-themed setting.
Developers BigBox VR shared some early details of the event with us, which it says will be Population: One’s biggest event yet with double the rewards. Players will be able to collect 100 snowflakes spread around the map and also boost points and gain rewards faster when playing with friends.
The event begins on December 3 and will run until December 14.
We also received a new screenshot showcasing some holiday season skins, pictured below, which will presumably be available to purchase through microtransactions in the game’s store.
Population: One released early last month and we labeled it the new king of VR battle royale games. It’s available on PC VR and the Quest platform with cross-play support, along with cross-buy support between Rift and Quest on the Oculus Store.
You play in teams of three players (there’s no solo mode, only squads) in a stock-standard battle royale format that follows almost all conventions of the genre. However, Population: One’s key distinctive feature is the ability to climb any structure in a Breath of the Wild-esque manner, which leads to some interesting encounters and interactions.
BigBox VR says more content is coming in December, including “continuous map updates, and additional character and gun skins.”
A new Winter event to celebrate the holiday season is coming to Population: One, starting on December 3.
The event is called 12 Days of Chaos and will add new bonuses in-game and change the map to a Winter-themed setting.
Developers BigBox VR shared some early details of the event with us, which it says will be Population: One’s biggest event yet with double the rewards. Players will be able to collect 100 snowflakes spread around the map and also boost points and gain rewards faster when playing with friends.
The event begins on December 3 and will run until December 14.
We also received a new screenshot showcasing some holiday season skins, pictured below, which will presumably be available to purchase through microtransactions in the game’s store.
Population: One released early last month and we labeled it the new king of VR battle royale games. It’s available on PC VR and the Quest platform with cross-play support, along with cross-buy support between Rift and Quest on the Oculus Store.
You play in teams of three players (there’s no solo mode, only squads) in a stock-standard battle royale format that follows almost all conventions of the genre. However, Population: One’s key distinctive feature is the ability to climb any structure in a Breath of the Wild-esque manner, which leads to some interesting encounters and interactions.
BigBox VR says more content is coming in December, including “continuous map updates, and additional character and gun skins.”
After spending plenty of time with the multiplayer-only VR battle royale shooter, here is our full Population: One review. We played on Oculus Quest 2, but it’s crossplay between Quest 1, Quest 2, and PC VR headsets with cross-buy on Rift and Quest.
Out of every game that released in the 2010s, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds probably ranks in the top 5 for me in terms of hours spent. I played a lot of that game when it first debuted in Early Access on PC with a single map and plenty of jankiness to go around. It’s grown a lot in the years since, expanded to consoles, Stadia streaming, and even mobile and is a very different game now. Those first couple of years it was a huge part of my gaming rotation.
In Population: One the setups is extremely familiar. You and your team of two others are dropped down into a map tasked with battling it out until there is only one person (or one team) left standing. Despite what the name would imply, there is no solos game mode — it’s trios only here with just six teams total.
The scope is a far cry from the 150-player lobbies of Call of Duty Warzone, but given the scale of the map and how differently things are perceived in VR, it’s okay. There is a damaging field that closes in, slowly shrinking the map, and you need to quickly search for guns and loot while trying your best to stay alive.
Matches are pretty quick and since you’re able to move so quickly and cover great distances in a matter of seconds with the wingsuit the play area feels smaller than it is without sacrificing map diversity.
More so than any other VR battle royale I’ve played, they’ve done a good job here of making each region of the map feel particularly unique. The graveyard, for example, is littered with tombstones and has plenty of cover points. It’s also the most reliable place to get good loot, in my opinion. The giant tower in the middle of the map can be seen from anywhere and the outcroppings of cities an other regions all have a personality of their own.
I just wish things were a bit more dynamic. There is only the one map and after enough matches you’ve really seen it all. Each game is always different thanks to the variability of where you land and where everyone else lands, but the map is very static. Some events that could pop up and change the layout or create hot zones to draw people in would be great, if not full-on map alterations of some kind. We’ve been told those sorts of things are planned but there are no details right now.
As expected, there are microtransactions in Population: One, just like basically every other battle royale game, but it’s all optional and you can earn everything by just playing the game too. This is all in the form of cosmetics like costumes and skins. They will keep adding more stuff over time and are planning seasonal-style events.
I don’t think I’ll ever spend near as many hours in Population: One as I did PUBG, but it’s got a similar appeal. Just like PUBG, it wasn’t the first battle royale game for its platform — H1Z1 and others preceded PUBG some people forget — but it definitely put the format on the map for the general public. I think Population: One has that kind of staying power for VR.
The main reason is how polished and smooth gameplay feels and just how effective its new twists on the format are at delivering fresh, exciting moments consistently. It’s able to maintain a breezy pace thanks to three key features: you can climb anything, you can glide through the air, and you can build walls and cover on the fly.
Obviously the “building” mechanic is lifted straight out of Fortnite and the “climbing” mechanic has been in several other VR shooters, such as Zero Caliber and Virtual Battlegrounds. But when you combine them together, alongside gliding, it creates a frantic playground of verticality and constant movement that makes everything feel more dynamic and unpredictable.
Population: One Review – Comfort
Comfort options are about what you’d expect in a fast-paced shooter like Population: One. This is a smooth-movement only multiplayer-focused VR game. You can pick snap turning and turn on an FOV dimming vignette, but even then it can still feel intense compared to other games due to the gliding and climbing. Ian Hamilton from UploadVR got very motion sick even with all the comfort options turned on. I personally turned everything off and felt fine, but this sort of thing affects everyone differently. I’d consider this one of the least “accessible” VR games out there in terms of comfort, so if you struggle with VR sickness you might want to approach with severe caution.
You’ve got your usual assortment of weapons like SMGs, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Snipers, and so on. There isn’t a lot of variation within each gun type though, other than rarity levels denoted by color. But I didn’t notice a major difference between the tiers while playing. On top of that there’s also shield power-ups, bananas and soda cans for health, and grenades.
Combat has enough options for now, but hopefully they continue adding new gear regularly. Reloading is sort of a hybrid between something realistic like in Onward and a more arcade-style system since you only need to mime the actual gun manipulations and exact accuracy with hand placement isn’t needed.
Population: One Review Final Verdict
If you’re looking for a new, addictive VR shooter to sink your teeth into then you can’t go wrong with Population: One. The verticality and freedom of movement is unrivaled and the smooth, snappy gameplay feels fantastic even on the lower-powered Oculus Quest. My only significant gripe is that I wish there was a bit more diversity in content available, but they’ve got an amazing foundation to grow from here. Population: One is definitely the best VR battle royale shooter on the market and will hopefully find a strong audience for quite some time.
A screenshot of Population One posted yesterday to r/OculusQuest pointed out the presence of microtransactions, which angered some commenters. Many users seem to feel that microtransactions have no place in a game that costs $30 to begin with.
Population: One Microtransactions Explained
Lots of online multiplayer games, especially in the battle royale genre, are free-to-play with optional microtransaction cosmetics or a paid ‘battle pass’ system that gives you rewards across a season of play. This has the benefit of keeping the game’s online population healthy with free-to-play users, while also maintaining a stream of revenue for the developers throughout the title’s life cycle.
Instead, Population: One has opted to go for another route – a paid battle royale experience in VR, which also has microtransactions. Population: One developers Big Box put out a FAQ yesterday to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the topic and confirmed that microtransaction purchases give you no competitive advantage in-game, and are purely cosmetic. There won’t be any pay-to-win features in the game, in other words.
We’re seeing some confusion about POP1’s in-game store and microtransactions. We’ve put together some quick answers for you. 🍌🍌 pic.twitter.com/FkUKHumAbG
“The only microtransactions we have planned are character skins and gun skins. We will not be charging for guns, maps or other functionality that will separate the player-base.” The $30 price for the base game gives you access to the entire game, including progression systems that grant you free cosmetics. Big Box also noted that the ‘free-to-play with microtransactions’ model was not viable for Population: One, as they “need to be able to support the cost of on-going development, servers, coders, artists, etc.”
The microtransaction store is not finished yet, hence why it was missing from some preview builds, and will not be available at launch. Microtransactions will be available launch with the first in-game event after launch, which will also be available to players who choose not to make any in-game purchases.
BigBox VR announced that its upcoming VR battle royale shooter Population: One is heading back into invite-only playtesting soon, this time focusing on Oculus Quest.
“We’re going to start with Quest playtests in the month of June and then we’ll add in PC crossplay shortly after,” an email invite reads. “We’ve never done Quest playtests before, so we want to focus on one platform before we add multiple headsets into the mix.”
Playtesting appears to be pretty limited; the invite specifies that closed matches may take place on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays, likely to make better use of a smaller group of testers.
Population: One may be a bit behind the wave of trendy battle royale games—even when it was initially unveiled at Gamescom 2018—but we were impressed with the scrappy little multiplayer shooter in our first hands-on for its distinctly VR-native approach to things.
You can climb, fly, build structures, and (of course) shoot and scrounge for weapons & ammo—all under the threat of a constantly closing circle of death.
It was already a comfortable and ostensibly well-polished game from the starting gate, and although we’re hoping for more past our initial impressions from nearly two years ago, being able to have just that with SteamVR-Quest cross-play will be a treat any way you slice it.
That said, there’s no launch date in sight yet, however the game’s website says it’s coming in 2020.
Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Virtual reality (VR) companies are spread across the world but most countries will have a higher concentration in certain locations. In North America this is naturally the west coast, stretching all the way from Los Angeles, past Seattle and into Canada stopping in Vancouver. And that’s were VRFocus is heading for this week’s VR Job Hub.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
