It’s time to get back to Budget Cuts; Neat Corp just released a significant update to its original VR stealth title.
The Performance Update, as the upgrade is called, aims to bring many of the new improvements and features introduced in 2019’s Budget Cuts 2 to the original game. To do this, Neat ended up porting the entire original game to the sequel’s codebase. The results, Neat says, should include massively improved performance and bug fixes.
That last point is important, as it was bugs and AI issues that really brought down the original Budget Cuts experience for us when we first reviewed it. Enemy AI was all over the place, but Neat says its rewritten that system too. Hopefully we’ll see some big improvements, then, as we thought Budget Cuts 2 – co-developed with Fast Travel Games – was a big improvement.
Not only that, but this update introduces one of Budget Cuts 2’s own post-launch features – Mutators. These replace the difficulty modes and allow you to customize your experience in a number of different ways, including auto-assist for throwing weapons, bullet time dodging and, importantly, smooth locomotion.
That’s still not all, though; Budget Cuts 2 has a Performance Update of its own. It’s not as significant as the patch for BC1, but still includes important updates like the AI rewrite and new Mutators. To top it all off, both games are now on sale.
Elsewhere, the original Budget Cuts is still on for a launch on PSVR on May 15. However, Neat confirmed to us that the initial console launch won’t include the Mutator features as the game is too far along in initial development to port to a new codebase. That said, the team hopes to add these improvements at a later date and does include the performance changes.
Neat Corporation’s stealth experience Budget Cuts arrived for PC-based virtual reality (VR) headsets back in 2018, with a PlayStation VR version revealed to be in the works the following year. Since that announcement Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency has been released but the console version hasn’t been forgotten. Today, in collaboration with Perp Games, Neat Corporation has revealed that Budget Cuts will finally be coming to PlayStation VR this May.
Budget Cuts is a stealthy videogame designed for physicality as well as comfort. You play an employee at mega-conglomerate TransCorp who finds out their job is in danger with everyone’s roles being replaced by robots. A mysterious package arrives with a prototype stealth device which enables you to head out and hopefully save your job.
This device is a teleportation gun which not only allows for comfortable exploration but also check for guards around corners before deciding to move. You’ll need to make full use of the expansive offices, sneak around the facilities using whatever vents, ceiling crawl spaces and more to remain hidden. These small areas do mean you’ll have to actually crouch or neal down because of the tight headroom. Should you be spotted by any of the guards then it’s time for a more direct approach, using any implements that come to hand, from knives to scissors.
“We are so excited to see Budget Cuts coming to all you awesome Playstation VR players out there! We’ve been huge fans of how creative and approachable the audience for PSVR has been throughout the years, and are really looking forward to seeing everyone meet Bob, Amber, and all the other Robots in Budget Cuts,” said Jenny Nordenborg, CEO of Neat Corporation in a statement.
While Rob Edwards, Managing Director of Perp Games, adds: “One of the most popular VR games is now coming to PlayStation VR. Budget Cuts is one of the most beloved VR games of all time and we’re so honoured to be working with NEAT Corporation and Coatsink to bring a physical edition to PlayStation VR at retail.”
Budget Cuts is scheduled for launch on 15th May 2020, simultaneously via PlayStation Store and at retail locations. For further updates on the franchise from Neat Corporation, keep reading VRFocus.
It’s been a long time coming but the Budget Cuts PSVR release date is here.
Neat Corp’s VR stealth game will be sneaking onto Sony’s headset on May 15. It will be available both on the PlayStation Store and at physical retailers thanks to a boxed release from Perp Games. Shadow Point and Esper developer Coatsink helped out with the development of the PSVR port, which we debuted footage for in our E3 VR Showcase last June.
Budget Cuts first came to PC in mid-2018 after a VR launch demo captured the industry’s attention. The game sees you escape the offices of TransCorp, an evil corporation that sends its guards after you. The game uses an immersive teleport movement option and arms you with throwing knives and other weapons. It’s a very physical experience, with much of the combat and stealth relying on you ducking and weaving and being ready to hurl knives back at enemies.
While there’s a lot to love about the game, we found the original PC release to be hampered with technical, AI-based bugs that soured the experience. Still, we’ll be looking forward to giving it another look on PSVR to see if we can spot any improvements.
Elsewhere, Neat Corp teamed up with Fast Travel Games to last year deliver Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency. We thought that was a big improvement over the original. No word on if Budget Cuts 2 could come to PSVR, nor if Oculus Quest ports of both games might be on the table. Fingers crossed for now.
What do you think of the Budget Cuts PSVR release date? Happy with the news or wish it was coming a little sooner? Let us know in the comments below!
The Humble VR Bundle cleared $1 million in payments for its incredible packages of games.
Several days remain to buy the game bundles which unlock at three tiers. The least expensive starts at $1 and includes Smashbox Arena and Cosmic Trip. Things start to get interesting if you pay more than $14.28 to add Gorn, Budget Cuts, and Space Pirate Trainer. Exceed $15, though, and you also add Superhot VR and Moss.
The bundle represents an incredible savings on a number of great games and, as of this writing, more than 70,000 bundle purchases have been made. The bundles also cleared $1 million in total payments, according to the Humble Bundle site. Soundtracks for some of the games are also included as a bonus.
When you make a Humble VR Bundle purchase you can choose how to distribute the funds to publishers and a charity of your choice. The games are delivered as Steam keys which makes it very easy to distribute any of the ones you already own to other people. After all, some people are likely to be getting into PC VR for the first with the March 23 release of Half-Life: Alyx and they’ll be looking for more games to play afterward. The titles in this bundle represent a fantastic introduction to several genres. We know a lot of VR gamers already have some of these games so, in addition to donating to a charity and supporting development, you could also help introduce new headset owners to some games they might have missed in the first few years of consumer VR.
Did you pick up the bundle? Let us know down in the comments below!
Fear not! The PSVR version of popular VR stealth game, Budget Cuts, is still very much in the works. It’s just taking a little longer to sneak out of the shadows.
Developer Neat Corp confirmed as much this week on Twitter. We had originally anticipated the PSVR version of the game touching down in 2019. We even featured it in our E3 VR Showcase last June. Obviously, though, it didn’t make that window.
In its Twitter post, Neat reasoned that it was still working on optimizations and didn’t have a release date just yet. The included picture, though, assures us that the port is still very much in development.
What’s happening with #BudgetCuts on #PSVR you ask?? We are still working hard on it, never fear! We don’t have an exact release date yet, but once the optimizations are “done” we will make sure to let y’all know. Thank you for your patience!! pic.twitter.com/p0KQYLnfIs
Elsewhere, Neat also confirmed that Budget Cuts will be getting updates and optimizations made in last year’s Budget Cuts 2. This likely applies to the PC VR version of the game. We thought Budget Cuts 2 was a decent improvement over the original, with better enemy AI and design. With that in mind we’re hoping that the original game will get a huge AI update and bug purge. The latter, we felt, really held the original game’s vision back.
There’s no confirmation just yet, though, on if Budget Cuts 2 will arrive on PSVR. Earlier this week Neat and co-developer Fast Travel Games announced an update that adds Mutators to the game. These include new features like smooth locomotion.
Elsewhere, Neat is working on its Early Access game, Garden of the Sea. We’re also hoping that the Budget Cuts series might find its way to Oculus Quest at some point, too.
Budget Cuts 2 is the conclusion of the adventure that you started in Budget Cuts, but is also a self-contained game and easy to get into. While you were hiding and narrowly escaped certain death in your familiar office environment in the first Budget Cuts, Budget Cuts 2 is all about charging into unknown territory and taking matters into your own hands.
Read the full written review for more details: https://uploadvr.com/budget-cuts-2-mission-insolvency-review
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency brings a lot to the table in terms of variety and action, although it edits out some of what made the first an interesting exercise in exploration and intrigue. Adrenaline is still a key ingredient here, and levels a heaping dose of bow-shooting action on top of a slightly more demure exploration experience than the first, which makes it feel a little more generic of a game, but still a good example of a fun and well-realized entry into the stealth combat genre.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency Details:
Developer: Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games Available On: Steam (Index, Vive, Rift), Oculus Store (Rift) Reviewed On: Rift, Vive Release Date: December 12th, 2019 Price: $30
Note: It’s impossible to talk about the sequel without at least mentioning the first in the series—I won’t spend much time recapping, but I’ll be mentioning it throughout for continuity’s sake. If you’re new to the series and are hoping to read a spoiler free look at number one, look no further than our review of the first Budget Cuts (2018).
Gameplay
The original Budget Cuts is very much about using your wits to find key cards, search for door codes, and follow clues left by your missing meat-bag colleagues, who’ve been mysteriously spirited away and replaced with a cast of quirky office drones. Here, you’re basically tasked with finding the thing, moving to the next thing, and sneaking around, all the while hoping to avoid (or kill) as many of the revolver-toting sentinels as possible—lest you catch a single bullet, effectively throwing you back to an earlier auto-save point. Tactically-placed fax machines connect you with Winda for objectives, which leaves you free to figure things out by reading and basically putting two and two together at your own pace. It was fresh, funny, and most importantly took to the medium with a spirit of innovation.
The second picks up where the first left off, however its tone and objectives are much more action-oriented, which effectively strips away much of the constant object-searching and key card-hunting from the first. All of that’s still there, albeit minimized in favor of forward-moving action, making the sequel somewhat of a different beast. At times, its can be a real thrill ride, although I found it lacking some of the first’s unique and celebrated spirit.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
Before playing, I was prepped to expect more of everything: more action, more weapons, more puzzles, and more intrigue. I didn’t get everything on my wishlist, but Budget Cuts 2 does manage to serve up enough of that in the five hours on standard difficulty to satiate. Still, I felt it could have gone a bit deeper, and offered a few more ‘wow’ moments with its new action-y outlook on life whilst retaining some of the cleverness of the first.
Whereas the first Budget Cuts focused mainly on sneaking through cramped, multilayered spaces, sometimes giving you a few different parallel routes to the same objective, the second in the series tends to be a bit more linear, as it feeds you less options as you traverse through levels.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
Like in the first, the real choice ultimately comes down to whether you want to engage in combat, or take the time to sneak around by checking if the coast is clear first via your portal gun preview window.
Mission Insolvency however has a lot more guards and a few new methods of killing them. It also has a greater variety in spaces, offering up everything from small offices filled with cubicles to large warehouses where you can let your new weapon sing. And at that point, it’s hard to care why you have a bow and arrow when you can gank a robot in the head from 30 meters away.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
All of this is well appreciated, although I would have liked to see a grander, more elaborate set of ways to accomplish each major task—different routes or different methods of solving an objective, which seems to have been sacrificed on the altar of efficient, uncomplicated action. In the end, it seems Budget Cuts 2 focuses more on providing a greater variety of tasks instead of a greater variety of how to accomplish them. You’re given new baddies, less (but more varied) door puzzles, a singular boss fight, a timed task, and a wave shooter-style interlude at the end—more variety than the first by a fair margin.
The biggest addition, which has forced the developers to offer those larger environments, is the bow and arrow—or rather the bow and ‘any sharp or explosive object you can find’. Introduction of the new weapon is admittedly a bit ham-handed; office drones apparently compete in archery competitions in their time off now? And there’s grenades now too? In a stealth combat game where being detected could get you ganked in an instant? No fear, even the loudest grenade won’t bring baddies running. AI has a very limited field of view, and almost no sense of hearing.
A quick aside: the reasoning for knives was at least plausible in the first, with Winda hacking the supply ordering system and switching out letter openers for throwing knives, however in the sequel you’ll find arrows littered everywhere for no more reason than as convenient fodder for your bow.
Flimsy reasoning aside, the bow works well enough, although it intentionally hobbles you by giving you a two-handed device in a game where your don’t actually have hands 100 percent of the time by default.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
The unique portaling locomotion scheme introduced in the first Budget Cuts works equally as well in the sequel, adding the bow into the mix does complicate things. Instead of zapping around with the portal gun in one hand whilst carrying a knife in the other, you have to be a little more pensive when you use the bow, and consequently requiring you to switch the tool head on your hands much more often. Until you get the muscle memory down, you may be struggling to quickly switch tools in the heat of battle, leading to many frustrating deaths.
Thankfully the bow eats all sorts of ammo, including arrows, throwing knives, and even scissors, so you should find a few ways to take down robots. That said, archery is still very much skill based, as the projectile is effected by gravity, making it necessary to practice so you can get a feel for how much it will drop (your sights do a good job of keeping you lined up laterally at very least).
One of the new items here is a radar tool, which lets you mark enemies and then see them through walls as they go on their rounds. While it was admittedly much more useful than the tool its supplanted, the looking glass that lets you reveal hidden text, it definitely could have played a bigger part in the game. I very rarely used it, and there were zero missions in which it became vital to success.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
So Budget Cuts 2 is basically a shooter now, right? Kind of, yeah. There’s a real scarcity of ammo, as it’s both doled out at few intervals and, unlike the first, now ammo self-destructs when you use it—so no more collecting your spent knives or arrows from a dead baddie. You can even knock out baddies now with hard objects, and pull the gun of their hands, giving you a precious moment to flee.
You’ll also have a new enemy type to contend with on top of revolver-clad sentinels and drones, which are now equipped with guns of their own. Curious little boxes labeled with TransCorp’s ‘TC’ logo are littered everywhere, which you soon find out is hiding a super badass inside—and enemy with a riot shield and helmet, protecting him from frontal assaults and from your muscle memory of executing clean head-shots.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
Budget Cuts 2 offers up its pros and cons in almost equal portions, however there’s still plenty of its core moments, like when you make a mad dash to safety from the red-eyed robotic monsters of the game.
In the end though, I really would have liked to see Budget Cuts 2 longer and more complex than number one, which would be more in-keeping with the spirit of innovation that brought the first to notoriety. It seems a tad shorter and, well, just different—and not in a way I’m entirely sure I personally gelled with. I really enjoyed almost every bit of the first game, save the final boss encounter. Without revealing too much, I was a little dismayed when the credits rolled after going through what was essentially ended on a ‘protect the thing’ style wave shooter—neither doing service to the stealth combat genre, nor particularly interesting from the standpoint of a modern VR game in general.
Here’s an open secret: one of my least favorite tropes in VR gaming is the ‘helpful narrator’, which invariably chimes in with hints and mission objectives at every turn. Winda has unfortunately become a constant companion in your ear, as the fax machines of old are now replaced with a wireless headphone. I really think it smacks of laziness on the part of the developers, as they undoubtedly did it to generate quicker, more pointed action instead of giving you more of those fun little post-it note hints, or napkin drawings found in an overlooked cupboard. Having a mission objectives list and a voice in your ear telling you where to go and what to do basically makes me feel more like one of the robots I’m tasked with killing, and removes some of the fun of exploration as a result.
That said, number two has a few more benefits that shouldn’t go unnoticed in the immersion department; notably the character animations when baddies die.
The first time you stick a sentinel in the leg, and they limp around helplessly like wild animals, it basically left me wondering if it would still pursue me, or pick up its gun again for another potshot. A robot’s death is much bloodier (oily-er?) than I would have expected, which really makes you want to get your first shot right, if only to spare yourself the inevitable moaning it does about how it still has time left on this planet. Jesus. Re-reading that makes me feel like a monster.
The environments were also more varied and felt more alive as a result. There’s a lot more variability in terrain, such as stairs and ramps. but there are basically no-go zones for your portal gun, which introduces a bit of frustration where it otherwise wouldn’t be in a flatter, more office-like environment. It’s a give and take that essentially tests the limits of the default locomotion scheme.
I did contend with a few bugs in the sequel, although nowhere near the extent that saw the first pulled on the literal day of its release, which some reported was entirely borked, and unplayable. The developers have mentioned that bug-squashing and more polish are coming to the launch version, but I didn’t run into anything but minor flickering of some assets in heavier scenes, and a few misplaced bits of dialogue.
Comfort
Teleportation is the only way of moving around Budget Cuts2—it’s a fundamental part of the game’s basic mechanic, and even though some hardcore anti-teleportation pundits may be automatically against it, I argue that it not only makes sense in terms of comfort, but is well explained enough to be an integral part of the world at large. You simply couldn’t play the game any other way.
Teleportation is by far one of the most comfortable ways of moving around in VR (although it infringes on immersion), and it probably won’t leave you with the flop sweats and a spinning head, making it good for newcomers and sensitive users alike.
There is snap turn for forward-facing setups (namely the OG Oculus Rift), and 360 support, but you’re going to be standing and using your body to play this game. Seated in not an option, and not encouraged, as you regularly have to squat and hide behind barriers, unless you want to constantly micro-correct for where you’re standing with the portal gun.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency delivers a robust and highly-polished sequel to one of VR’s original standout experiences. Read on to find out why we enjoyed it so much!
At its core, Budget Cuts 2 is a game about patience in more ways than one. It’s about waiting for the right moment to stealthily take down enemies, having the consideration to comb through levels to solve puzzles, and not getting too annoyed when a bug forces you to reset from a save point and lose some progress. See what I mean? Patience.
When we reviewed the first Budget Cuts in mid-2018 we were met with a game that struggled to meet its lofty and long-winded expectations. The original title from Neat Corporation was a key marketing inclusion of the HTC Vive itself in early 2016 with its free demo but didn’t fully release util over two years later and was still plagued by poor design choices in some key areas and a slew of troublesome bugs. Despite all of that though, it still had a lot of promise under the layers of setbacks.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency is a textbook example of how to do a safe sequel extremely well. It doesn’t dramatically rewrite the formula laid out in the previous game by any means, as it instead refines and expands what made the concepts so intriguing to begin with. And as expected, that all starts with the innovative movement system. Rather than just pointing and clicking to teleport, you have a teleporting gun. It works by firing a small orb that expands into a ring on the floor showing where you’ll appear. At the tip of your gun is a portal that you can look into to preview the location and even check out the surroundings to scope out your next move or make sure the coast is clear. You’ve gotta be careful though because enemies can see through the portal as well.
Combined with the physicality of sneaking behind objects, ducking around corners, and striking robots with projectile weapons and arrows, Budget Cuts 2 is one of the most gleefully active VR games I’ve played in quite some time. Even recent titles like Boneworks, which are founded on an intricate system of physics simulation, are fully playable standing still or seated. Budget Cuts 2 begs me to move around, dodge bullets, and hide behind boxes more than most VR games, save for maybe Espire 1: VR Operative and Unknightly. It’s a true stealth game that embraces its VR heritage.
Much of that could be said of the previous game too though, so the key question still remains: What exactly is different this time around, other than the setting and addition of a bow and arrow? The honest answer is not a whole lot, but it’s all a bit better. Environments feel larger and more open with lots of outdoor areas to explore, the world feels more realized instead of being confined to a repetitive office maze, and enemies seem smarter and less prone to suicidal tripping. The AI still isn’t perfect — I can close a door for a few seconds to apparently erase myself from their memory, for example — but it’s certainly a step up from before.
Since not a whole lot of the foundation has really changed here (it’s a full sequel crafted by two studios joining forces over the course of one year, what do you expect?) a lot feels the same — including some of the core issues. For example, one of the most common actions you take in Budget Cuts 2, just like its predecessor, is throwing an object such as a knife, dart, or other adoptive lethal device to take out robots. The problem though is that despite the small size and presumably light weight of these objects, they require significant throwing force on your part to actually toss them more than a couple of feet. Like, an unusual amount of force to the point that it’s not only immersion breaking, but it’s outright frustrating. The game seems to think I’m trying to toss a bowling bowl rather than a fork or coffee mug.
Flicking my wrist with a bit of forward momentum is all it should take, instead I’m risking shattering something in my room every time I try to take out an enemy with a thrown object. This was an issue we noted in the previous game as well and it seems odd that it’s persisted so directly here. Luckily after the first level you mostly switch to the bow as your main weapon for much of the game.
Another thing that’s persisted here is just how obtuse some of the “puzzles” seem to be. Rather than creatively applying unique puzzle scenarios that require out of the box solutions, you’ll instead be faced with obscure objectives like “Find the key code for the locked door, it’s on the train somewhere” from time to time and then forced to backtrack through the entire level trying to find what you must have missed the first time through. Carefully paying attention to the environment (and sounds!) is crucial.
Even though this is a marked improvement over the original Budget Cuts, it still has its share of bugs too. At one point I was supposed to toss a bomb off a train before it explodes, but I wasn’t able to so I died and reloaded in the room again. The timer was broke after that. Another time all of the enemy projectiles froze in the air issuing a steady stream of particle effects that completely tanked the game’s performance, slowing to a chug, forcing me to restart even though I was midway through the level. Nothing game-breaking, but still annoying. It made me a bit woozy too.
All that being said, it doesn’t take away from just how much fun Budget Cuts 2 is to play. Once you come to grips with the unique teleportation system and learn to use your real world body movements to pyhsically navigate levels, it’s a joyous experience. Robot AI is just good enough that if you’re in their line of sight (even above or below) at a surprising distance, they’ll probably start to recognize you requiring you to literally duck down behind a waist-high object or behind an air vent.
During one purely unique VR moment I was reminded of why I love playing VR games in the first place. I was faced with a robot packing a rocket launcher and riot shield so i didn’t stand a chance facing him head on with just a bow, a few arrows, and some knives. So I went above the ceiling tiles, dropped down, went down into an air vent, had to get down on my knees in real life, physically barrel roll across my floor on the ground when he almost spotted me through the air vent, slot my arrow while laying on my back, and then roll back into view just in time to shoot the robot in the calf. Then I just patiently waited for it to slowly bleed out (note: oil, not actual blood) until it died.
It doesn’t get much more satisfying than that in a VR game. Too bad my Rift S cord got tangled and I had to take off the headset to fix it before pressing on.
Comfort
Comfort options in Budget Cuts 2 are pretty limited, but that’s mostly because it’s designed to be comfortable from the get-go. There is no smooth locomotion at all and no stick turning that I noticed. You physically turn your body around and when you launch the game it asks if you’re playing 360 or 180. And when you teleport you can see a dot within your tracked space outline on the ground to denote where you’ll be standing. That’s it. Everything else is actual body movement.
Visually, it looks nearly indistinguishable from its predecessor save for the large outdoor areas. You can’t see the street usually, it’s just a foggy haze down below, but it still lends a grandiose atmosphere that was missing from the first game. The whole game is built as layers on top of layers so you’ll explore a skyscraper, then head out on the balcony to bounce across patios and roof tops, then go back inside to begin a new ascent. It provides just enough change of pace to keep things from getting stale.
Narratively it’s more implied than explicit, but the subtle environmental bits often earned a chuckle and smile in key areas. Taking the time to listen to the robot banter is enjoyable as well, as-is reading all of the signs and billboards. Just like everything else here, it feels more fully realized this time around.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency Review Final Verdict:
For all intents and purposes Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency is a bigger and better version of its predecessor in virtually every way. The scope is larger, the bow and arrow adds significantly more depth and strategy to combat, levels are designed more thoughtfully, there are fewer bugs and AI issues, and it all around feels like a more complete game. Budget Cuts 2 feels like the game that the original Budget Cuts wanted to be, but never quite lived up to. It’s not without its bugs and minor gameplay annoyances, but what we’ve got here is a clear example that there’s life in this IP as a franchise and we hope to see Neat Corporation and Fast Travel Games work together again soon.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency releases December 12th, 2019 for $29.99 on both Oculus Home for the Rift platform and Steam for Rift, Vive, and Index headsets. There is also a bundle on Steam for Budget Cuts 1 and 2 together for $54, which is a 10% discount versus buying them each separately.
This review of Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency from Fast Travel Games and Neat Corporation was conducted on an Oculus Rift S using two Touch controllers via the Steam version.
Even if you take its fancy headsets out of the equation, Valve’s impact on VR can already be felt throughout the industry and you’ll be able to see the influence of the existing VR market on Valve themselves when Half-Life: Alyx drops next year.
Traces of Valve’s design philosophies can be found in a bunch of VR games. But there’s a handful of studios that have gone a step further. It might be that they’ve collaborated with Valve to put fun Easter eggs into their game, or contributed some important feature, the traces of which you can see in Alyx. In some cases, some of these developers even spent time working at Valve either on the games listed or some of the studio’s own projects. So as much as we’re highlighting the games here, also take note of the developers.
So these aren’t necessarily the absolute all-time greatest VR games. Don’t get me wrong; in most cases, they’re very good. But they’re also closely aligned with the thinking that makes Valve who it is today. If you need some VR games to play before Half-Life: Alyx, these are the ones you should look for.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes And Hand Grenades – Rust
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades currently offers enough guns to arm most of the world’s countries to the teeth. Rust’s ever-evolving sandbox includes some of the most attentive weapon handling you’ll find in VR. You can see much of that attention to detail paid forward in the Alyx trailer when reloading guns.
Not to mention that the game has its own love letter to Valve in Meat Fortress 2, which brings a parody of the classic multiplayer shooter into VR.
Boneworks – Stress Level Zero
If Half-Life: Alyx weren’t right around the corner I’d say it was fairly safe to call Boneworksthe most anticipated VR game on the horizon right now. Why? Because, well, it looks quite a bit like Half-Life. Leaping enemy crabs, strange scientific test facilities, so-far silent protagonists and, oh yeah, a crowbar or two? Boneworks wears its inspirations on its sleeves.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Boneworks is a big proponent of Valves’ Index controllers. The studio is also promising to push physics-driven gameplay, which you could argue could be traced back to Half-Life 2, forwards. Every weapon is handled like a real-world object, you need to haul yourself up over ledges and you can create makeshift paths or weapons using basically anything you find. We can’t wait to dive deeper into Boneworks later this month.
Valve is supporting smooth locomotion in Half-Life: Alyx, but the studio believes in comfort first. The trouble is that many players find the teleport-based alternative to be distracting an not immersive. Neat Corp’s Budget Cuts is one of the few VR games to successfully address both of those troubles. It’s a stealth game in which you fire a teleporter gun, look at where you’ll jump to by poking your head through the destination orb and then head through the portal should you so choose.
The Gallery developer Cloudhead’s most obvious link to Valve is Aperture Hand Lab, the Portal-based demo it released alongside the Index controllers. But it’s the team’s initial insistence on exploring direct, fully native VR storytelling that seems like it would have the most impact on Alyx.
Plus The Gallery was the first VR game to pioneer a lot of ideas, like an inventory system doubling up as a backpack you stored over your shoulder. Lots of the series’ DNA can be found in subsequent releases, and it looks like Alyx is no exception.
We called the original Vertigo a decent stab at an indie Half-Life game. Based on the demo published earlier this year, though, Vertigo 2 is going to be a step up from that. This promises not just to echo Valve’s series but also parody it in often hilarious ways too. The demo alone contains more than a few tributes to Valve games.
More importantly, though, Vertigo 2 could be a genuinely fleshed out VR shooter, with a full campaign and weapons designed with the platform in mind. We don’t know when the full thing is releasing, but you should definitely check the demo out ahead of Alyx’s release. Plus developer Zach Tsiakalis-Brown spent time working with Valve on the Moondust demo and The Lab’s Hands-On update.
What other VR games should people play before Half-Life: Alyx? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency, the sequel to Neat Corporation’s 2018 stealth adventure game, is officially arriving on PC VR headsets in December.
Update (October 24th, 2019): Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency is slated to arrive on December 12th, coming to Steam (Vive, Rift, Index), and the Oculus Store (Rift) at $30.
Since the game’s June reveal, we’ve had a chance to go hands-on with Budget Cuts 2. If you’re looking for a written version, head over to our write-up. If you’re looking for gameplay, check out our nine-minute gameplay video from Gamescom this year.
The original article announcing the game follows below:
Original Article (June 10th, 2019): Called Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency, the game is said to arrive on SteamVR headsets sometime in 2019.
Here’s how Fast Travel Games describes Budget Cuts 2 on the game’s website:
TransCorp is about to optimize humanity out of existence, and you must find a way into the belly of the beast to stop their vicious budget cuts. Fight your way through a multitude of new environments and robotic enemies; find new tools and allies along the way. Put an end to the notion of ultimate efficiency before it puts an end to us.
Image courtesy Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
Fast Travel calls Budget Cuts 2 both “the conclusion” to the adventure started in Budget Cuts, but is also a self-contained game positioned to appeal to new player’s of the franchise.
In the trailer, linked above and below, it appears the franchise is making strides to leave the indoor office space which made up the totality of the first game, instead visiting larger and more open environments.
A new weapon can also be seen, a bow that lets you get in longer, more precise shots in comparison to the sharp-thing-throwing mechanic of the previous title.
The studios have also created a Steam page (link not yet live) so you can wishlist the game.
