When it comes to spellcasting virtual reality (VR) experiences Polish team Carbon Studio is well versed in this magical gameplay, previously releasing The Wizards – Dark Times. Today, the studio has announced an upcoming expansion to that videogame, adding a multiplayer component to the franchise for the first time.
Planned for Q4 2021, the content update will allow players to team up and cooperate to fight monsters in an arena. They’ll be able to specialise in a type of magic to encourage them to work together.
“Ever since The Wizards appeared on the VR game scene, ‘please make it multiplayer’ was the most common request we received. Now I’m happy to say and confirm – we’re doing it!,” said Carbon Studio’s Co-Founder, Aleksander Caban in a statement. “The cooperation arena mode will let you choose your magical affinity and character class, and then pit your Wizard party against increasingly difficult challenges.”
Carbon Studio hasn’t revealed how many players the mode will support but that’s not all fans have to look forward to. The team will be introducing new enemies, enhancing the story campaign and porting the title to Oculus Quest. These features will be rolled out over the course of 2021 and into 2022.
VRFocus found The Wizards – Dark Timesto be a substantial upgrade over the original, saying: “Once all the spells are unlocked the magic system showcases why VR is a natural fit this style of videogame, wielding powerful spells with abandon. There are no RPG elements to get bogged down with, potions to collect or stats to upgrade, unencumbering players for a lighter gameplay experience which is easy to step into.”
As Carbon Studio continues to expand The Wizards – Dark Times universe its also working on a high profile project in the form of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall. Slated for launch this year, few details have been released since the initial announcement, only a devblog via Steam on its backstory.
VRFocus will continue its coverage on both titles, reporting back with further updates.
Action-adventure spellcasting VR RPG series The Wizards from Carbon Studios has sold over 200,000 copies across all platforms combined. There have been four releases so far, with The Wizards – Dark Times launching most recently in mid-2020.
The first game in the series, The Wizards, was an ambitious action-adventure that pitted spellcasting warriors against hordes of enemies across a variety of levels punctuated by brief moments of exploration and light puzzle solving. To give credit where credit is due, at the time, it was refreshing expansion of the tired “wave shooter” format that had become all-too-popular at the time.
After that it got an Enhanced Edition with more content and features, ported to PSVR, then an Oculus Go spin-off titled The Wizards: Trials of Meliora, and finally Dark Times last year. Carbon Studios is now working on a full Quest port of Dark Times, as well as a new Warhammer VR game: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall. Carbon Studios intends on continuing to support Dark Times after it hits Oculus Quest as well.
“We want to show all VR gamers that we appreciate their involvement and thank them for their support,” says Aleksander Caban, Carbon Studios Co-Founder, in a prepared statement. “The best way we can do that is by giving them even more entertainment in our title. All of the planned additional content will be available to everyone who bought the game, free of charge. The VR community supports and trusts us, and thanks to them we have the opportunity to keep working on this title by introducing new features and improving on what has already been presented.”
What makes The Wizards so enduring as a VR series is the interactivity of its gameplay. Rather than just pointing and pulling a trigger to cast spells, you have to actually draw the runes in the air to summon the magic into your hand first. Things like fireballs, ethereal bows, shields, lightning blasts, and more all require you to memorize and reenact various gestures. It does a great job of making you feel like a sorcerer.
This is a big milestone for a small indie studio with a plucky brand and well-received franchise. Let us know if you’re a fan of The Wizards down in the comments below!
With Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, this makes for the second Warhammer universe game coming to VR following the announce of first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, which Pixel Toys is planning to release sometime this year.
There’s still little known about the Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall so far. Here’s Carbon Studios’ description:
Become a mighty Lord-Arcanum, wielder of storm magic, and lead a Stormcast Eternal task force to recover your brethren’s lost souls. Walk the lands of Shyish and battle forces of Nighthaunt using a variety of melee weapons, powerful staves, and motion-based abilities and magic.
In the adventure RPG-style game, you’ll be able to battle with melee weapons and “powerful staves to combat forces of Nighthaunt,” the studio says on the game’s Steam page.
The studio says it will include a full story campaign set in the realm of Shyish following the Necroquake. There’s also a teaser trailer, linked below.
The Warhammer universe has a rich lore for Carbon Studio to take from with the synopsis detailing: “Set in the Age of Sigmar universe, Tempestfall begins following the Necroquake. From the domain of Nagash and across all the Realms, Nighthaunt forces are rising. A specially assembled retinue of Stormcast Eternals embarks on a quest to investigate a new threat to the Mortal Realms. Side by side with these elite soldiers, you must explore the dread-filled realm of Shyish and battle your way through the Nighthaunt in a quest to protect the Forces of Order from a sinister plot.”
With a brief teaser trailer showcasing a couple of locales and one enemy, the studio has said Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall will mix melee combat with powerful, motion-based spellcasting, utilising the team’s experience developing The Wizards, which had gesture-based speels.
The world of Tempestfall will take players through cities, prisons, swamps and catacombs, an adventure full of Warhammer lore and secrets, reportedly over seven hours in length. Players will be faced with wraiths, revenants and other dangers in what could be Carbon Studio’s biggest project to date.
You can wishlist Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfallover on Steam where there’s also a chance to win a T-shirt and poster, with 10 winners being selected.
This isn’t the only Warhammer videogame on the way as Pixel Toys previously unveiled Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister for Oculus Quest, due before the end of the year.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall is currently slated for a 2021 launch across PC VR headsets and the Oculus Quest platform. As further details including gameplay, visuals and launch date are released, VRFocus will let you know.
Of late there seems to have been a real drought of fantasy, magic-based virtual reality (VR) experiences, a genre which was once teeming with new titles. Back when VRFocus reviewed Carbon Studio’s The Wizardsin 2018 there was also The Unspoken, Wands and The Mage’s Tale. Now there is a sequel, The Wizards – Dark Times, expanding on the original premise that conjuring spells shouldn’t be a button press away.
Originally The Wizards – Dark Times was going to be an expansion for the original title but Carbon Studio rightly did away with this idea, envisioning a grander adventure with more freedom to do what you want. And it does, sort of. The levels aren’t constrained like they used to be and the spells feel more powerful and natural to wield, yet the experience seems shorter with less to do.
Still set in Meliora, this time the magical land has been twisted and taken over by a dark force called the Umbra. This has altered the inhabitants, turning the elves into a plagued army called the Unlit while others have become more aggressive. This sets the scene for an epic adventure across a mixture of regions from poisonous swamps to lakes which don’t exactly obey any physical laws. While the story is decent enough, it’s your narrator buddy Aurelius who keeps the journey light-hearted with the odd quip in the quiet moments between fights so not to be distracting.
As a mage, all these fights require magic with 11 spells to learn over the course of the journey. These are introduced gradually so you aren’t suddenly overwhelmed trying to learn the various gestures each requires. This has been one of the big upgrades from the original, providing hand/arm gestures that aren’t overly complicated, becoming intuitive with practice. You can also be completely ambidextrous with your conjuring, casting spells in either hand – great for double fireballs.
Some of the same spells return whilst getting an upgrade. The fireball is the first you learn, activated by a flick of the wrist whilst holding the trigger. Then there’s the shield which is a horizontal arm motion and super useful now that you can have one in each hand. Then there are their powerful secondary functions, all activated by bringing both controllers together, pressing grip and then pulling apart. These include the homing Radiant Missiles for those distant enemies and electrical Storm Nova for stunning nearby opponents. There’s enough of a mix for an abundance of strategy options when engaging in battles.
Generally, the spells aren’t difficult to master as it just takes repetition. However, in the heat of battle there were a number of occasions where trying to cast the Arcane Shield would bring up a fireball, or vice versa. Testing The Wizards – Dark Times with Valve Index also caused casting problems as your hand naturally grips around the controller. This meant the system could get confused as to whether you were activating a grip function when simply pressing the trigger. A minor gripe but one that was noticeable when trying to move around the environment whilst engaging multiple enemies.
As for movement and the overall immersive qualities of The Wizards – Dark Times, Carbon Studio has players well covered. There’s smooth movement, teleportation (or both together), snap turning of various degrees, a vignette and support for lefties, which covers most base needs. There are plenty of nods to make sure the player is connected with the world, an abundance of climbing for instance, as well as light environmental puzzles which require magic to keep those hands busy.
There are some glitches to be solved as there were moments when the view went black because of walking into a rock or wall mid-fight. And the hub felt really underused. It looks awesome, with a little goblin strumming away and glowing mushrooms growing out the walls, yet apart from changing the colour of your hands or using the portal to visit a previous level, it was pretty vacant. Certainly, an area that’ll be expanded upon in future updates. Also, The Wizards – Dark Times is shorter than expected, clocking in at around 4 hours. And do turn off the subtitles if you don’t need them, as they ruin the look of the experience.
The Wizards – Dark Times needed to be a bigger, better adventure than its forebear and for the most part, it does. Once all the spells are unlocked the magic system showcases why VR is a natural fit this style of videogame, wielding powerful spells with abandon. There are no RPG elements to get bogged down with, potions to collect or stats to upgrade, unencumbering players for a lighter gameplay experience which is easy to step into. Even though there are some gripes along the way The Wizards – Dark Times still proves a satisfying magical adventure.
Carbon Studio’s original sorcery title The Wizards offered engaging gameplay thanks to its gesture-based gameplay. Today, the developer has announced that followup The Wizards – Dark Times is nearing completion, ready for a launch in June.
Debuting for the first time at Gamescom 2019, The Wizards – Dark Times continues the franchises flair for gesture-based magic, where players have to learn and master 11 individually designed spells which can only be cast with their hands.
These allow players to control the elements, freezing foes where they stand or setting them on fire. While other spells will allow players to cast defensive shields and other useful additions to aid in battle.
While The Wizards – Dark Times was initially developed to be a standalone expansion Carbon Studio then decided to make it a fully-fledged sequel instead. The team also wanted to expand the adventure element for a greater RPG feel, doing away with the magical barriers from the original that forced you into defeating every enemy before moving on.
“Since Gamescom 2019, where the Dark Times’ press demo received overwhelming praise, we decided to extend the scale of the project. We made sure our spellcasting adventure will keep everyone slinging fireballs and roleplaying as the Emperor for hours, without any pesky magical barriers that slow your progress,” said Jakub Pander, Carbon Studio’s producer in a statement.
VRFocussaid in its preview at the time: “From what’s been shown so far The Wizards – Dark Times is definitely on track to offer an even more engaging experience than before. The spell casting works well, the environments look great, and the monsters put up a fight. So hopefully things are only going to get better, just so long as there’s a hefty campaign to back it all up.”
Supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index, The Wizards – Dark Times will be available on Oculus Store and Steam from 4th June, retailing for $24.99 USD.
After the launch, Carbon Studio has confirmed that it’ll release a series of content updates to expand upon the gameplay experience. As further details on The Wizards – Dark Times are released VRFocus will let you know.
Carbon Studio, the Poland-based team behind The Wizards (2018), today announced that their upcoming sequel to the spellcaster series, The Wizards – Dark Times, is slated to arrive on PC VR headsets June 4th.
Carbon initially planned for Dark Times to be a standalone expansion when we first saw it at Gamescom 2019, however now the studio says it will be a full sequel “similar in scope to its predecessor.”
When we got our first 10-minute demo of the game at Gamescom 2019, we were treated to a new spellcasting system, which focuses on taking the game’s elemental spells and making the resultant damage more in line with standard RPGs, i.e. an ice attack can freeze an enemy in its path so you can transition to a more powerful spell to deal more damage.
Carbon says there are 11 individually designed spells which you can mix and match in combat on their way through the story-driven game (read: not arcade-style arena play like the first).
Furthermore, the studio says the game will receive a series of free post-launch content updates following its release in June.
“Since Gamescom 2019, where the Dark Times’ press demo received overwhelming praise, we decided to extend the scale of the project. We made sure our spellcasting adventure will keep everyone slinging fireballs and roleplaying as the Emperor for hours, without any pesky magical barriers that slow your progress,” says Jakub Pander, Carbon Studio’s producer.
The Wizards – Dark Times is headed to SteamVR headsets via Steam and Viveport, and to Rift on the Oculus Store on June 4th, priced at $25.
It’s time for VRFocus’ Gamescom 2019 gameplay videos to come to an end and we’re finishing on a good one, Carbon Studio’s The Wizards – Dark Times. Expanding and improving on the original magic casting adventure from 2018, here are six magical minutes with the upcoming title.
Over the past week, VRFocus has gone in-depth with The Wizards – Dark Times, learning more about the project thanks to an interview with Carbon Studio’s Marketing Director Piotr Gala. Or how about a hands-on preview of the title which noted: “From what’s been shown so far The Wizards – Dark Times is definitely on track to offer an even more engaging experience than before. The spell casting works well, the environments look great, and the monsters put up a fight.”
Now it’s time to see the videogame in action, getting a taste for the action Carbon Studio is promising. This time The Wizard franchise will be aiming for a far more free-flowing adventure, dispelling with the wave-based arenas of the previous version, adding in puzzles alongside dynamic fights with enemies which can appear anywhere.
You’re not some sword-swinging adventurer however, you’re a mage with powerful spell attacks. Immersion is important for Carbon Studio so there’s no HUD or complicated menu system to assign spells. No, The Wizards – Dark Times turns you into a proper conjurer with gesture-based spells. This does mean there are eleven to learn in the final videogame but the team has ensured they’re easier to cast. In the video, you’ll only see three of these used, a fireball spell, a shield and the ice bow. Each has its own particular uses depending on the enemy or puzzle faced.
The second title from Carbon Studio, The Wizards launched in 2018 and proved to be a decent magical combat experience using gesture-based spells. A couple of months ago during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 the studio revealed an expansion of that universe, The Wizards – Dark Times, an add-on to the original but produced and to be sold as a standalone expansion. During the hecticness of Gamescom 2019 last week VRFocus had a chance to chat with Carbon Studio about the title and what to expect.
The Wizards – Dark Times takes everything the developer learnt from the previous videogame and looks to improve the gameplay whilst polishing every aspect of the experience. While set in the same universe players will travel in time to a new era, offering new enemies to face as well as new spells to master.
One of the main gripes players had about the first title was the restrictive arena-based fights, locking them into a location until every monster was dead. This time around Carbon Studio wants the gameplay experience to be more of an adventure, so players will encounter enemies as they wander through forests and other environments using both teleportation and smooth locomotion mechanics.
Another important part of The Wizardswere the gesture-based spells. Performing certain hand actions would produce fireballs, shields and bows. Those actions have been refined to make them easier to cast whilst the elemental effects have been enhanced. For example, hit an enemy with an ice blast and it slows them, a second time and their frozen. Follow that up with a fireball to melt the ice and now that they’re covered in water a quick blast with some lightning has an even greater effect.
VRFocus spoke with Carbon Studio’s Marketing Director Piotr Gala about the title, learning that players who haven’t played the original needn’t worry as The Wizards – Dark Times is a standalone experience. While those that have should feel right at home.
The Wizards – Dark Timesis scheduled to launch in Q1 2020 for PC VR headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, while a separate version is being developed for Oculus Quest. Check out the trailer below and for further updates on The Wizards – Dark Times keep reading VRFocus.
Carbon Studio, the Poland-based team behind The Wizards (2018), is bringing a standalone expansion to the series to PC VR headsets early next year called The Wizards – Dark Times. We got a chance to go hands-on with a 10-minute slice of Dark Times here at Gamescom 2019.
I had an opportunity to pop into the original Wizards back when it arrived on Early Access in 2017, and although the team has since released the full version into the wild, now dubbed The Wizards – Enhanced Edition (2018), I haven’t really had the chance to jump back into the magical realm of Maloira to experience for myself just how enhanced it has become during its year in Early Access. So while I’m not a professed disciple of the series, I can say that on its own merit that the Dark Times demo I played checks some significant boxes in a few departments, the most noticeable of which is its more intuitive spellcasting system and its cohesive and striking visuals.
Moreover, the game is said to be more of a linear adventure and less arena-based, offering what Carbon calls a “short but lore-rich story from Meliora’s chronicles,” making it less of a points-driven wave shooter and more of a proper dungeoning experience, replete with its own story line.
The demo (played on Rift S) plopped me into a post-tutorial level, giving me a few spells at my disposal, including gesture-based spells such as fireballs, frostbow, throwable ethereal shields, and a force push that can knock down enemies.
Although this sounds pretty similar to the old system, Dark Times is also bringing secondary functions to many of its spells. For example, the frostbow can be transformed into two powerful frost-spears by simply bringing your hands apart.
What is radically different about Dark Times though is these spells do elemental damage more in line with standard RPGs, i.e. an ice attack can freeze an enemy in its path so you can transition to a more powerful spell to deal more damage. Mixing the elemental spells is also more intuitive too: freezing an enemy with a few frost-arrows or well placed frost-spear will freeze them, and a fire spell will again release them.
It gets a little more complicated than that though, as it also depends on which environment you’re in at any given time. If you’re sloshing around in a wet spot along the path, enemies standing in water will automatically become resistant to fire magic, but also be more vulnerable to lightning spells too. You can replicate this vulnerability at any time by freezing an enemy, lighting them on fire (which makes them wet) and then shocking them with a lightning spell—something that provides a little more realism and solidity to the world.
The studio maintains that all of the game’s spells have been reworked to play different roles in typical combat situations, which in end effect aims to get players to think more tactically about the spells they should use, and not continuously mashing the same ones over and over.
Besides the spells themselves, which did feel simple and reliable to use, I was also pretty impressed by the visual side of things too. In comparison to the studio’s previous titles Alice VR (2016) and the Early Access version of The Wizards, Carbon seems to really be hitting their stride with Dark Times, as lighting, textures, art direction, voice actors, and overall performance are all pretty much on point. Of course, a 10-minute demo can only reveal so much, although it looks like the standalone continuation of the series has really puts its best foot forward here.
The Wizards – Dark Times is slated to launch in Q1 2020 on the standard slew of modern SteamVR-compatible VR headsets. Carbon Studio is also planning an Oculus Quest version, and says that a PSVR version is also a future possibility.
