For today’s livestream we’re playing the co-op dungeon crawler RPG, Karnage Chronicles! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.
Karnage Chronicles has been in Early Access for years but is now finally fully released. Today, Jamie will be joining me in VR as we embark on our quest together to slay monsters and uncover valuable loot in this co-op VR dungeon crawler RPG.
We’re also giving out four Karnage Chronicles Steam keys during the stream so you’re not gonna want to miss it!
Our Karnage Chronicles livestream is planned to start at about 9:30 AM PT and will last for around an hour or so, give or take, depending partially on how well-behaved my small toddler child will be while left alone. We’ll be hitting just our YouTubeand I’ll likely be streaming from my Oculus Rift S. Zeena will also be there on webcam and audio to help with chat.
Check out the Karnage Chronicles stream embedded right here and down below once live:
You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.
Looking for your next VR co-op shooter? Gambit might have you covered.
Announced this month with the brief teaser trailer below, Gambit is the new shooter from XREAL Games, the team behind A-Tech Cybernetic and Zero Caliber VR, developed in partnership with 2ndGig. Alongside the teaser, there’s some poster art revealing the game’s playable characters, too.
Gambit features a full campaign for anywhere between one to four players. Cast as a gang of mercenaries on the run after botching a recent job, you’ll blast your way through nine areas separated into three different levels in a ‘pre-apocalyptic’ world (as in, everything is about to turn to crap).
The poster shows each character holding different types of weapons, so perhaps we can expect some class-based systems. If Gambit manages to replicate the addictive co-op gameplay of titles like Left 4 Dead, then it could have real staying power within the VR community. The game will also feature a competitive multiplayer mode to boot. More details, including a gameplay reveal, will be arriving later this year. No word on if there could be possible Quest or PSVR versions just yet.
XREAL is behind some solid shooters, so we’ll be looking forward to seeing more from this. A-Tech Cybernetic may have aged by today’s standards, but Zero Caliber offers fun multiplayer action. Let’s hope the team builds on that with this latest project.
Gambit is due for launch on PC VR headsets sometime next year. Looking forward to the game? Let us know in the comments below!
Spaceteam VR launches its “cooperative shouting game” on Oculus Quest and PC VR on May 21.
A PlayStation VR version of the game is planned for later this year.
The multiplayer party game adapted from the popular phone and tablet title allows up to six players to work together on ” increasingly complex and baffling technobabble filled instructions to keep their ship hurtling through space.”
Spaceteam VR features three different difficulties, with the harder difficulties giving players many more controls to be responsible for while amping up just how tough the anomalies that occur are. In easier modes, you might only be responsible for a handful of duties, but tuning things to the hardest difficulty will require you to be on your ‘A’ game. According to Cooperative Innovations, some of the tougher anomalies will include player’s heads shrinking, instructions being presented backwards or with missing letters, and in-game voices on players becoming high pitched and hard to decipher.
Elsewhere in the game, controls are pretty standard for VR titles. You’ll have levers to reach out and grab, buttons to push, and items to grab on the fly as you try to complete your specific instructions. Putting out fires, taking down aliens that try to invade the ship,and having to hammer out mistakes are just some of the many other trials you’ll face while attempting to stay alive. The longer you go, the tougher the challenges you face become, until you eventually find yourself frantically yelling at a teammate to repeat orders as a fire rages on in front of you.
Developer Cooperative Innovations licensed the title from Henry Smith of Sleeping Beast Games. You can play online or locally with mobile devices mixed in with headsets.
After two rejections from Facebook and procuring nearly 80,000 downloads for Oculus Quest anyway, the developers of Time Crisis-inspired Crisis VRigade are seeking community support as they launch a co-op mode.
The new pay-as-you-want Itchio store page for the free SideQuest game coincides with the launch of a cooperative mode. You and a couple partners can take on Crisis VRigade’s three challenging levels together. The developers say it includes full co-op across all platforms, so players on PSVR or PC VR could partner up with a player on Quest.
Check out gameplay from the first level in co-op mode below. I played on my Oculus Quest in California with our writer Harry Baker on his Quest in Australia. Taking cover together behind walls, police vehicles, desks and more, we found it to be one of the best things we’ve played from SideQuest and a true joy in co-op. We used Quest’s party chat to communicate but barely spoke because of the intense gameplay. We also moved so much we ended up drawing our Guardian walls to the absolute maximum of available space in our homes.
This week I also interviewed in our virtual studio Spain-based Sumalab developer Diego Martín about the rejections from Facebook, how it affected them, and how community support via the Itchio page for the title could affect their plans going forward. Right now, they’re planning a sequel that’ll take the work they’ve done with the first Crisis VRigade and build on it with a focus on Steam and PSVR first. That said, how much support they see from the VR community to their Itchio page for the original game on SideQuest could affect their plans for the sequel.
Check out the interview:
If you’re in social isolation due to the Coronavirus, then, Sumalab just released a pretty entertaining way to take out some bad guys with friends on all popular VR headsets, and it side-stepped approval from Facebook in the process. PC VR players can find it on Steam here.
Path of the Warrior released almost exactly one month ago on the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest from Twisted Pixel and Oculus Studios and now it’s received the promised post-launch co-op multiplayer update.
When the game first released suddenly during The Game Awards, the lack of multiplayer was glaring. Twisted Pixel modeled Path of the Warrior after the great sidescrolling beat ’em ups of the 90s like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Final Fight, and others but it missed one of the main selling points of those arcade-style games: multiplayer. Running through the levels just isn’t the same by yourself.
Now you can hop into the action with a friend, complete with cross-play support across both headsets (as well as cross-buy.)
In my review I noted that the core gameplay was fun and the setting was inventive and nostalgic, but it felt a bit shallow on the feature front. Gameplay didn’t evolve much after the first 10 minutes and it was only a little less than two hours long. Fine for what it is, but not a real revolution for the genre other than the shift to a first-person perspective in a headset.
With the addition of co-op it should be much better and more fun now. We haven’t had a chance to try out the co-op support yet, but we expect it to definitely improve the fun factor and make it a more appealing purchase for those with VR buddies.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Surprise! Oculus have announced (and released) a brand new VR game today during The Game Awards 2019 called Path of the Warrior, developed by Twisted Pixel. And guess what? We’ve already played it. Here’s the full review!
Path of the Warrior is about as close as you can get to a VR adaption of a non-VR game without actually paying the licensing fee to use the IP itself. This is, for all intents and purposes, exactly like a Streets of Rage, Final Fight, or Double Dragon game, except it’s from a first-person VR perspective. If you’re looking for a quick and dirty synopsis, that’s it. You punch bad guys, pick up stuff, and beat up bosses. That’s the game.
Now, get this: Path of the Warrior takes place in a town called Rage City. And you often fight in the streets. So…my pun in the headline is pretty genius and original, right? Yeah, I don’t think anyone else will think of that.
I grew up on the Sega Genesis. All three Streets of Rage games were in constant rotation on my system as I plowed through them each ad nauseum with friends. I couldn’t get enough of the rocking soundtrack, amazing pixel art, and edgy style. All that being said, not enough was really done here to adapt Path of the Warrior for VR beyond the minimum.
You move around each level, wait for enemies to spawn, punch them a few times until they’re staggered or have fallen down, then either keep punching them to finish them off, grab them and toss them into a part of the environment, or use a finishing move of your own. Once a wave is defeated you save a civilian that has a bomb tied to their hands. After all the waves are gone, you fight the boss then you unlock a couple mini games for each area. That’s literally the entire game for five levels.
Mechanically it’s just about flailing your arms a bit for a little under two hours then rolling credits. No difficulty options and no multiplayer support (yet) although that’s reportedly coming soon without a date attached.
Reviewing a game like Path of the Warrior is difficult and conflicting because, at it’s core it’s certainly fun.
Twisted Pixel have done a good job of channeling that 90s-era arcade style into a VR game that’s fun to play in quick 20-minute bursts per level and it’s got a great deal of visual variety since all five levels are extremely distinct with different enemies, weapons to find, and a new special power-up to gain, but it’s just not enough.
The main issue at hand other than Path of the Warrior being a generally shallow game without a ton of content is that it’s not designed well from a VR perspective either. You press a button on your controller to make a disembodied leg quickly erupt from your invisible chest to do a kick, for example. It feels downright ridiculous. You can pick up and use items in the environment as weapons, but only some of them. Chairs? Yep! They’ll even break apart! Tables? No, of course not. You can throw enemies into walls with bottles on display causing them to shatter, but don’t try picking up the pieces or broken glass.
The combat is also devoid of any physics interactions at all, instead using canned animations. You don’t even really need to put any force behind punches for them to connect either, just squeeze the trigger to make a fist and poke away like a feather if you want. Even though all the enemies look different based on each level, their strategy is always the same: slowly walk towards you and take turns punching, very slowly, and without much intent to do you harm. I think I died once the entire game and that was only because I accidentally backed myself into a corner.
Comfort
Path of the Warrior is a smooth movement only game, but you can adjust speed and acceleration. You can also turn on snap turning or adjust the speed of the smooth turning, or even disable the stick for turning to use your actual body only. You can also disable turning while moving and choose whether movement is oriented to your controller or head.
Honestly the best parts of the game for me ended up being the boss fights. Each level has thematically appropriate and wholly separate encounter with a named boss character that rumbles in with dedicated movement patterns you’ve got to memorize. One enemy has a mohawk of knives, for example, that he picks and throws at you so you need to punch them out of the air and throw the final one back. Another boss is a pair of roller-skating sci-fi women that do laps around you and throw goons your way that you need to punch back before getting trampled.
They do a great job of punctuating levels that are visually delightful to explore, but with only five 20-minute stages to get through it’s mostly too little too late.
Path of the Warrior Review Final Verdict:
Path of the Warrior is a conflicting game because it’s seeping with nostalgia and simple thrills like punching clowns in the face or shooting hoops at an arcade littered with unconscious thugs. Twisted Pixel have done a good job of replicating what it would feel like to go inside of a Streets of Rage-type video game and it mostly succeeds on that front. To be clear: Path of the Warrior isn’t a bad game, but with only five stages that take less than two hours to clear, repetitive combat, and not much depth at all, it’s nowhere near as impressive as it could be.
Path of the Warrior is now available as of December 12th for $19.99 on both Oculus Rift platform and Oculus Quest via the Oculus Home Store with cross-buy support. When multiplayer support releases next year, it will also be a cross-play title.
This review of Path of the Warrior is based on the Oculus Rift version of the game and was conducted using a Rift S with two Touch controllers.
Stormland is fast-approaching as one of the year’s hottest titles and we spoke to Insomniac Games about the VR adventure’s story, gameplay, and inspiration.
Back at E3 2019 a few months ago we conducted a series of interviews with various developers of upcoming VR games. Some of those interviews were posted quickly (such as for Sniper Elite VR and Beat Saber) and others…well, weren’t. In some cases we had other priorities to tend to first, or got busy with other things (we’re a small team!), or honestly just forgot and misplaced the files — but we’re aiming to rectify that with Oculus Connect 6 fast approaching next week!
We’ve had the chance to try out Stormland a few times in the past, including a brief tease of co-operative multiplayer, and whatever Insomniac and Oculus have in store for OC6 should be exciting. A firm release date is likely, as is another chance to try it out before release.
In the above interview we talked with Tim Salvitti, Senior Community Developer at Insomniac Games, about Stormland’s story, its inspiration, the expansive gameplay, and the ambitious scope. Its traversal mechanics encompass the gamut of possibilities we’ve seen in other games from flying, skimming across clouds, climbing, smooth movement, and more.
Are you planning on picking up Stormland when it releases later this year exclusively on Oculus Home for Rift? Let us know down in the comments below!
At PAX West this past weekend we got the chance to try out co-op VR multiplayer in Stormland and it’s one of the best VR experiences we’ve ever had. Read on to find out why.
A lot has been said about how Stormland is pushing the boundaries of VR game design. It’s got a rich open world, an immersive narrative, and all kinds of tools that make combat and gameplay feel intuitive. It’s cooperative play is pretty standard with two players diving into the action instead of one, but the freedom of how Stormland plays makes it a multiplayer experience unlike anything else I’ve played before.
I went through a short twenty minute co-op demo at PAX West this past weekend alongside a representative from Oculus. We fought robots, soared over the clouds, and launched ourselves into the sky from the sides of cliffs. Everything I went through during the demo clicked immediately making Stormland one of, if not the absolute best VR games I’ve played this year from what I’ve seen so far.
Gameplay Features and Co-Op Trailer:
That’s solely due to how much freedom the game grants you. Everything is in a sandbox so you can approach combat with stealth or with guns blazing, from any direction (including above), and with just about any strategy you can come up with.
Stormland didn’t necessarily feel like it was designed specifically for co-op, but it’s mechanics and world are so fun and fluid that the game feels great when played solo or with a partner. That’s by design, as Insomniac’s first priority was to create a world that the player could feel powerful in. Adding a second player was a bonus.
“We’re not changing the game experience based on if you play solo or cooperatively. It’s just whether or not you want to experience it with a friend or not,” says Insomniac’s senior community developer Tim Salvitti. “There’s not going to be a separate co-op campaign or anything. It’s the same game. We just want people to be able to play with a friend because we know how fun it is to play with each other.”
Co-op in Stormland only works with two people, even though Insomniac had plans for more earlier in development. While it’s disappointing we can’t take a full squad into a gunfight, coordinating with another player still satisfied my craving for tactical first person action.
The demo was as straightforward as any—find three keys spread across a map full of islands floating in the clouds in order to open a giant hatch in the ground. The keys were locked away in beacons surrounded by enemies spread out across the map. We had to find them, clear the area, and collect the key. While that may seem somewhat standard open world fare, the tools Insomniac gave us made everything fresh.
At one point we approached a giant robot slowly stomping through the jungle, unaware of our presence. We stopped for a second at the edge of a clearing so it wouldn’t see us and agreed that my partner would go around and engage him from the front while I unloaded a clip into his back to hopefully put him out of his misery quickly. I waited a few moments while my partner made his way around and the anticipation nearly killed me. As soon as I heard gunshots I jumped out and sprayed.
It worked like a charm and the hunk of metal dropped almost immediately after we engaged him. It was a tad easy (like other Stormland demos this one was fairly uncomplicated), but I was still excited about our approach. We could have hopped over to a nearby cliff, jumped off, and attacked him from above. We could have attempted a stealth kill. The options weren’t endless, but each felt like a new way to play.
That sort of engagement comes from how fluid, fast-paced, and open the entire experience is in Stormland. It’s not just the freedom to take on combat scenarios that’s impressive, it’s the integration of the full body avatar, the dynamic weapon system that lets you pick up any gun from a fallen enemy, and the spirited climbing mechanics that also let you launch your avatar high into the air for the ultimate surprise attack.
“I think a lot of it came from not just what we learned from The Unspoken, but also what we’ve learned from our non-VR games,” says Salvitti. “Sunset Overdrive, Ratchet and Clank. We wanted the same smooth controls, shooting, and traversal. We just wanted to pull the same feeling but make it first person, make it feel like you’re actually there.”
At one point in the demo, after we had already picked up two of the three keys, my partner stepped back and let me approach the third beacon on my own. Enemies were set up on a bluff I started to climb up before launching myself high up for a vertical assault. I drew both guns before landing in between two enemies and blew them away at the same time. I felt like a robotic mix of John Wick and Rambo, nothing could stop how much I was enjoying this.
It felt as good as Spider-man on the PS4, the movement and gunplay was empowering.
PAX West 2018 Gameplay Footage:
The difficulty was still my only issue. Like the earlier scenario with the giant robot, this gunfight was incredibly easy and it only made my concern over Stormland’s difficulty stronger. I don’t know how that’ll change in the final release later this year, but Salvitti ensured me that there would be a steeper difficulty.
“The demo is tuned a little easier,” says Salvitti, before citing the changing cycle of the game world. “There’ll be new quests that pop up, new missions, new things to do. That’s all gonna be based on the cycle too. So as everything changes, it’s going to feel like there’s some whole new thing to do every time you log in and because we have the different realms that you’re working through, it’s going to get harder and harder.”
Even with the lax difficulty in the demo I played, Stormland had me hooked from the moment I launched myself in the air, submachine guns in both hands, and brought the house down on two unsuspecting robot goons. Stormland brings that trademark Insomniac game feel to VR and creates a feeling unlike anything else.
Stormland is slated for release during the Holiday season later this year and will be an exclusive for the Oculus Rift platform. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Lately it feels like there’s been a new trailer from Insomniac’s Stormland every other week.
Not that we’re complaining, of course. The Oculus Rift exclusive is one of our most anticipated titles on the horizon right now. And there is something genuinely new to talk about in the latest footage; specifically the co-op support.
Specifically, the footage covers the different gameplay options players can utilize. Stormland is essentially a first-person shooter (FPS), but you can use stealth or long-range weapons to avoid heavy confrontations. Or you can armor up and go in guns-blazing. But Stormland also supports two-player co-op, so you could mix and match these styles should you so choose.
Over on the Oculus Blog, Insomniac explained that co-op players will face more enemies to increase the challenge.
“Although players will need to share weapons and ammo, all other resources are automatically shared when playing co-op, so there’s no squabbling about who gets the stuff that contributes to progression,” Lead Designer Mike Daly said. “Everything else about the game is consistent between single-player and co-op. You get to keep your resource and story progress while playing co-op.”
The game continues to look incredibly polished. We’re just excited to stop talking about it and start playing it, though we still don’t know when we’ll be able to do that.
For now, we know the game is coming this holiday season. It’s looking very likely that this will be Insomniac’s last Oculus-exclusive. Last week we reported that Sony had purchased the developer. Outside of VR, Insomniac made Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank for PS4, so it makes sense. Hopefully we’ll still see the team working on PSVR games, then.
For now, Stormland will be on display at PAX West this weekend. If you get a chance to play it, let us know what you think!
It was only announced a few weeks ago but Fibrum and DevCube Studio’s next VR shooter, Space Ops VR, is nearly here. As such, our best look at the game yet just arrived.
The first trailer for Space Ops just landed. You’d be forgiven for mistaking this for other sci-fi VR shooters like Farpoint, Evasion, Gunheart, or even DevCube’s last game, Farhome. You visit a dusty alien planet and gun down hordes of bug-like enemies. Lots of shooty laser-type guns await you, all handled with VR’s motion controllers.
The trailer suggests this will be a visually rich experience, complete with the smooth locomotion that some VR players demand and others throw up at. It’s the game’s co-op angle that holds the most promise. You play as part of an elite space team that runs simulations on hostile encounters on different planets. You can either tackle missions by yourself or team-up with a friend. Better yet, the score-based system means you can get in a little light competition too.
That said, we’re yet to see a real spark from Space Ops, something that’ll separate it from the rest of the shooter pack. High-end graphics and plenty of content is nice, but will the game itself be entertaining enough to see all of it? The jury’s still out on that one.
As for the release date? Space Ops will be out on May 30th for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows VR. No plans for a PSVR or Quest version have yet been announced. The game’s now listed on Steam.
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