Not only is excellent VR shooter, Compound, getting a full PC VR release soon – it’s coming to Quest 2, too.
Developer Bevan McKechnie confirmed as much to UploadVR following the reveal of last week’s news that the full version of the game was nearing release on Steam. Currently there’s no official timeline for when this version will be fully revealed and released, but stay tuned.
Compound Confirmed For Quest
The 1.0 release of Compound will round out the randomized, retro-influenced shooter with overhauled reloading, a new weapon and plenty of other additions.
The game is inspired by early shooter hits like Wolfenstein 3D. We’ve been keeping our eye on this one for some time thanks to the hugely enjoyable early builds that demonstrated smart VR combat and immersive design. “This is a VR shooter with a rejuvenating sense of direction and an understanding of how to keep players rooted in the action,” we said in a 2018 (!) preview. “Compound may be a nostalgia-fueled love letter, but it’s got a lot to learn from.”
We’ll make sure to have a full review when the game leaves early access later this year.
Will you be picking up Compound on Quest 2? Let us know in the comments below!
One of our favorite VR shooters, Compound, will see a full release very soon.
Developer Bevan McKechnie of notdeadgames confirmed as much in a recent post on the game’s Steam page. In the update, McKechnie noted that the game’s next release would be “by far” its biggest launch yet and would finally move the game out of early access, where it’s been since first launching in 2018. No specific date yet but the developer said the update was “very close to being ready for release”.
Compound 1.0 Approaches
So what’s new in this version of the retro shooter? For starters, players will be able to unlock an overpowered minigun should they finish the game to 100% completion. There will also be three full endings for players to obtain by beating the final boss.
Perhaps most interestingly, the developer is overhauling weapon handling. You’ll be able to let go of two-handed weapons with your primary hand to reload, for example, or grab a sidearm to quickly take care of nearby enemies. The game’s rendering system will also see an overhaul to “provide a much higher perceived resolution and crisper textures at absolutely no extra cost to performance.”
Finally, there’s Steam achievements and a new visual tutorial system making it easier to get to grips with the game.
I loved Compound when I first tried it back in 2018. “I’ve found more to appreciate here than in entire campaigns,” I said in a preview. “This is a VR shooter with a rejuvenating sense of direction and an understanding of how to keep players rooted in the action. Compound may be a nostalgia-fueled love letter, but it’s got a lot to learn from.”
We have high hopes for the full release, then, whenever that may be. No word yet on the potential of a Quest 2 or PSVR 2 release but hopefully getting the full version out the door puts those possibilities back on the table.
If you’re at all invested in the Web3 space, you’ve doubtless come across the concept of DAOs, and are perhaps even interested in starting one yourself. The good news is that establishing a DAO is a relatively quick affair, with numerous solutions already in place to make the process easier and far less technical. But it’s vital that your DAO also has a plan and a reason to exist in the first place if you want to attract a community of fellow members.
What is a DAO?
Before we delve into the specifics, let’s make sure you’re on board with exactly what a DAO is (and what it is and isn’t good for). Simply put, a DAO (or decentralized autonomous organization) is a new form of distributed group controlled by its members, with its rules and activity recorded on blockchain technology.
The autonomous part of the name refers to the fact that most of the work is carried out by smart contracts, programs stored on a blockchain that automatically execute when certain conditions are met, allowing transactions and other operations to happen without the involvement of an intermediary.
Most DAOs also make use of a governance token that confers voting power to holders based on how many tokens they hold. Combine that with smart contracts and DAOs remove a lot of the ambiguity that might be present in an organization run more conventionally, helping anonymous members to come together in an efficient and cheap manner.
Structure, Functionality, & Differences
A DAO can vary depending on a few different variables, similar to that of companies. Purpose, structure, and overall organization play a vital role in how a DAO is formed, what the DAO actually does, and how the DAO operates economically.
What the DAO utilizes as a governance or share system
How the community behind a DAO manages available funds
DAOs can have absolutely anything to serve as their overall function. Some have been created simply to bet on valuable goods or serve as investment funds. Others govern and allocate resources for decentralized apps or protocols.
The determination of how the DAO reaches consensus is what makes it truly unique to corporations. For instance, instead of shares, DAOs use governance tokens or a similar asset to give democratic voting rights to all members.
Including these main variables in some formation gives you the basis of a DAO. Within these variables are different types of DAOs due to how they are formed, operated, and managed. Some notable types of DAOs include:
AMM DAOs – Known as automated market maker DAOs, these organizations leverage smart contracts for decentralized financial services. This includes MakerDAO.
Grant DAOs – These DAOs use grants for funding from the community. It allows for a form of crowdfunding to power decentralized applications. Aave is one of the most popular to use this type.
Collector / Investment DAOs – Both of these types of DAOs are formed with the purpose of combining funds to either purchase collectables or rare items or simply to form an investment fund.
Media, Social, Entertainment DAOs – These DAOs function to manage full communities, run publications, operate games, and more. They serve as decentralized counters to typical centralized companies like Twitter.
Use Cases and Purpose
Within those broad categories, there is a huge amount of differentiation. If you can dream it, a DAO probably exists to fulfil that niche. Because of that, there’s little chance of us exhaustively going through all the use cases for a DAO, but here are some of the highlights.
Among the more popular uses for DAOs are as governance organizations, whether that’s guiding a dapp or decentralized finance projects such as crypto exchanges or investment funds. Some are envisioning DAOs as a potential new form of organization for businesses, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the largest Web3 investors. In its outline of Web3 policy, the firm suggests bringing in legislation to make DAOs a potential successor to corporations.
More esoteric purposes have also been found for DAOs, however. ConstitutionDAO hit the headlines in 2021 after crowdfunding over $45mn worth of the Ethereum cryptocurrency to try and purchase a first printing of the United States Constitution at auction. Remarkably, the project managed to gather over 15,000 contributors in just seven days – although they were ultimately outbid and refunds (minus costs) were offered.
Along similar lines to that project is Krause House, a DAO launched in 2021 with the express purpose of buying an NBA team. Should the project succeed, it has said that members will be able to “participate in decisions affecting the operating procedures of a National Basketball Association (NBA) team including but not limited to general management, ticketing, merchandising and partnerships.”
Then there are the DAOs that serve as a kind of professional association for long-established professions. Taking great pains to state that they are not a law firm or offerers of legal advice, LexDAO consists of legal professionals who are working together on blockchain technology for legal processes and services. The group duly maintains a host of decentralized tools including escrow and arbitration systems.
DAOs have also found a use as decentralized fan clubs. That was exactly how PleasrDAO came about, coming together to buy an NFT from the digital artist pplpleasr. Since then the DAO has evolved to become an investor in digital art, acquiring such pieces as the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and an NFT of the Doge meme dog.
DAOs are also making their stamp on the metaverse. Decentraland has a decentralized governing body (The Decentraland DAO) that effectively functions as a planning committee for the Decentaland metaverse, allowing virtual landowners to vote on everything from what wearable items are allowed to how land is auctioned off.
Finally, there are a whole subcategory of DAOs functioning as a kind of successor to social clubs. Just one example is Friends With Benefits, which confers numerous perks to members based on how many FWB tokens they hold – such as a newsletter or access to community events and spaces in various cities.
Things to Bear in Mind
Despite their obvious utility, one should be wary of the potential pitfalls of DAOs before jumping in. By their very decentralized nature, creating a DAO means giving up total control over a project. Then there’s the need to make sure the DAO’s rules are very strictly codified, or else risk manipulation. That’s precisely what happened to DeFi project Beanstalk Farms recently when an attacker managed to drain around $182 million worth of cryptocurrency after using a “flash loan” to borrow large amounts of cryptocurrency, buy a majority voting stake, approve the transfer of funds to their own wallet, then repay the initial loan.
In another cautionary tale, a DAO known simply as The DAO played a highly consequential role in the splintering of the Ethereum blockchain into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. After users exploited a poorly secured smart contract to drain the investment group of funds, Ethereum hard forked in order to refund The DAO’s members – spurring the creation of Ethereum Classic by those who thought the actions of the smart contract should be final. The lesson is to be extremely considerate of how potential bad actors might want to abuse your DAO, and plan ahead to limit their routes of attack.
How to Form a DAO
Depending on the protocol and DAO structure that is chosen, there are many ways to form a DAO. After the initial organization is set, the purpose is determined, and all generic variables are considered, a DAO is ready to be formed.
Most DAOs are commonly formed first by acquiring an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) address or something similar. This also includes a method for handling voting and proposals, generally through the creation and release of a governance token. There are solutions to this depending on the protocol chosen to launch the DAO.
Two popular protocols to launch DAOs through are Aragon and Snapshot.
Aragon assists in the formation of a DAO organization on a few different blockchain networks, most notably Ethereum and Polygon. Funds are needed to purchase the ENS address, mint the DAO via a creation fee, and then link the ENS to the organization through Aragon.
This obviously has a cost to it (usually in ETH), so an appropriate amount of crypto must be raised to cover the fees of genesis.
Like Aragon, Snapshot requires an ENS address first and does require the DAO to be on Ethereum. For Snapshot, it is also required that the DAO has one thousand members and is able to verify this community outright.
Governance Examples
It’s worth exploring some examples of popular DAOs to see just how much they vary in the way they operate, despite largely sharing the same core principles of smart contracts and governance tokens.
Uniswap (UNI)
Uniswap, one of the world’s most popular decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEX), is governed by a DAO, with voting rights conferred based on ownership of the UNI token. UNI coins were originally distributed to early adopters of the platform, as well as anyone who had interacted with the platform before a certain date.
Uniswap is a direct example of an AMM DAO. AMM stands for automated market maker, an algorithmic, price-adjusting protocol that creates liquidity pools between users. Uniswap users participating in the DAO receive voting power over how the protocol’s AMM functions work. As the leading DEX in the space, Uniswap has grown to over $7 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Stablecoin cryptocurrency Dai is governed by the aforementioned MakerDAO DAO, a particularly interesting example owing to the path it took – as Rune Christensen, founder of MakerDAO, explained in 2021: “Maker has come a long way in a relatively short period of time,” said Christensen. “It’s gone from a DAO, created by myself and a few passionate developers, to a foundation tasked with bootstrapping an amazing project, and back to a DAO. While the Foundation played a specific and important role in the further development of the Maker Protocol and the growth of a global team, it was designed to exist only temporarily.”
Autonomous interest rate protocol Compound offers a governance token known as COMP, which allows holders to vote on the platform’s future direction. COMP tokens are distributed as rewards to lenders and borrowers on the platform, meaning that the more people use the platform the more influence in the DAO they can accrue. The DAO has said that only 10,000,000 COMP will ever exist.
COMP – Image credit: DeFi Llama
Aave (AAVE)
Next, there’s open-source liquidity protocol Aave (an example of a grant DAO we covered earlier), which transferred ownership rights from its core developers to AAVE token holders in 2020 – meaning all AAVE holders can propose and vote on changes to the protocol, or delegate those rights to others. As of the writing of the article, there are 108, 337 token holders leading the platform. The platform also maintains a related Aave Grants DAO which funds ideas submitted by the Aave community.
AAVE – Image credit: DeFi Llama
Aragon (ANT)
As we’ve discussed, one of the heaviest hitters in the space is Aragon, which is particularly notable for this article as it specifically focuses on enabling the creation of other DAOs. Providing an open-source infrastructure for DAO creation, Aragon offers organizational templates for DAOs focusing on areas such as virtual worlds, and DeFi protocols. As of the writing of this article, 1,900 DAOs have been built on the platform, with over 60,000 members.
DAOs are a prominent force within the cryptocurrency market. Many who use cryptocurrencies interact with DAOs virtually every single day and may not even realize it. There are DAOs to fit every niche within crypto, very similar to how companies fill out demand in the traditional economy.
We can only speculate as to how DAOs may influence or replace traditional corporations as of now. The important thing to note is that DAOs provide a highly democratized alternative that is easy to start, giving entrepreneurs a new option in which to launch a venture.
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of the many potential uses of DAOs, as well as an understanding of how relatively simple it is to create your own community. Before you embark on the journey, however, perhaps the most important thing to bear in mind is that DAOs without a purpose stand little chance of prospering. Zero in on your project goals and potential community, however, and your DAO stands a good chance of prospering.
Initially released in early access on Steam in 2018, VR roguelite COMPOUND is slated to get a Quest 2 version following its 1.0 version on PC, its developer says. And that 1.0 version is coming “soon,” developer Bevan “NotDead” McKechnie has now revealed.
Update (June 16th, 2022): McKechnie says in a Steam update that he’s nearing the release of what he calls “by far the biggest update COMPOUND has ever seen.”
Among the new additions (of which there are supposed to be many) some of the highlights include a Giant Minigun, three different story endings, a couple new weapon features such as a new weapon tutorial and handling system, as well as Steam achievements. Admittedly, McKechnie says there’s “much, much more!”
There’s no release date yet, however everything points to a launch right around the corner, as the developer says the 1.0 update is “very close to being ready for release!”
There’s also no word on when a Quest version is due, although you can keep an eye on the game’s public roadmap to follow along. The original article follows below:
Created by one-man indie developer Bevan “NotDead” McKechnie, Compound was originally released in early access on Steam in 2018 and has seen slow but steady development ever since. The game is a roguelite with a unique pixel-art style and an arsenal of fun weaponry with which to experiment.
Now that the developer is homing in on the 1.0 release of the game on PC, McKechnie tells Road to VR that he’s planning to build a Quest 2 port of the game once the PC version is complete. Both the 1.0 version of the game and the Quest 2 version are expected to launch in 2022.
Graphically, McKechnie expects the Quest 2 port to be quite similar to the PC version of Compound, thanks to its low-fi art direction.
The game’s public roadmap shows that Compound may also see some updates beyond the 1.0 release, including the possibility of custom level support, more weapons & mutators, and a non-VR version of the game on PC.
A new update for VR FPS Compound has dropped on Steam, overhauling the tutorial and adding a new player onboarding experience.
The game is inspired by classic shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein, modernizing that retro feel with randomized floors of enemies. It’s still in Early Access for PC VR, but it looks like a full release is near.
The latest patch, V0.5.29, is all about improving the experience for those who come to the game fresh, making it a great time for new players to jump on board. According to the patch notes on Steam, the update “significantly improves the game for first time players, including an overhauled HQ, shooting range, and tutorial.”
This includes new tutorial images and diagrams, clear indicators for gun grad positions, new interactable items in the HQ area and much more.
The game remains in Early Access on Steam, but a full 1.0 release is being worked on. The current update overhauling HQ and the tutorial was mainly added to get some content out before the final release, so as not to leave too much of a dry period with no new updates.
A new update for VR FPS Compound has dropped on Steam, overhauling the tutorial and adding a new player onboarding experience.
The game is inspired by classic shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein, modernizing that retro feel with randomized floors of enemies. It’s still in Early Access for PC VR, but it looks like a full release is near.
The latest patch, V0.5.29, is all about improving the experience for those who come to the game fresh, making it a great time for new players to jump on board. According to the patch notes on Steam, the update “significantly improves the game for first time players, including an overhauled HQ, shooting range, and tutorial.”
This includes new tutorial images and diagrams, clear indicators for gun grad positions, new interactable items in the HQ area and much more.
The game remains in Early Access on Steam, but a full 1.0 release is being worked on. The current update overhauling HQ and the tutorial was mainly added to get some content out before the final release, so as not to leave too much of a dry period with no new updates.
Indie VR gem COMPOUND has taken its Early Access status to heart. Over the last year, the game has seen consistent updates every month which have added new enemies, weapons, bosses, and more to the game. Developer Bevan McKechnie says the game’s demo has been recently updated allowing new players to get a glimpse of the changes.
Compound is an impressive but lesser-known roguelite VR shooter with a deliciously authentic pixel-art aesthetic. Having launched in Early Access on Steam back in 2018, developer Bevan “NotDead” McKechnie has been busy bringing new content to the game ever since.
In the last year alone Compound has seen 17 updates which have added six new weapons, five new mini-bosses, and two major bosses to the game:
There’s also been feature updates and fixes along the way. v0.5.1 added new hand models to the game with support for Index finger-tracking. v0.5.3 added ‘Mutators’ which change the gameplay in challenging ways:
Mutators:
Gun Magnet (enemies drop weapons but you can’t reload)
Damage Amplifier (all enemies die with one shot but so do you)
People Populator (enemies have less HP, bullets move faster, and more enemies spawn)
v0.5.14 updated the game’s weapons to support ‘momentum reloading’ meaning that you can now articulate many of the hinged weapons (ie: swing shut the Revolver’s cylinder) by swinging them naturally; it also added a new enemy (‘KANi’ Reception Security bot).
v0.5.16 was a key update which added a Save & Continue feature. Compound is all about surviving as long as you can, but that meant that longer runs could become a time investment. With the Save & Continue feature, players can now store their progress between levels and resume at a later date.
Image courtesy Charmander
The game’s latest update, v0.5.17, which went live today, brought balance changes to the game which its creator says were focused on “improving the smoothness of the difficulty curve while also giving Easy and Medium players access to more of the mini-boss content.”
According to today’s update, the game’s free demo has also been updated to bring it in line with the latest version of the game; it’s available on the Compound Steam page.
We spoke with Bevan McKechnie about Compound’s latest updates and what he has planned for the future. In the near-term he expects to focus on adding more Mutators to the game, bringing the total count to “at least nine,” he said.
“Being a solo dev, my style of development is very organic. I like to add, remove, and change ideas all the time. This means I can never be 100% sure of how the game will turn out,” McKechnie told us as a caveat before listing some of his longer term goals for the game “in no specific order:”
More map specific ‘hazards’, like the explosive barrels in the sewers.
More variation to the early game.
An overhauled unlock system
A completely new tutorial system with audio and video instructions for clarity, with a bit of fun world building thrown in. The current one has always been a placeholder as no-one wants to sit around reading pages of instruction text.
AI improvements, overall polish, and misc. QOL features.
Many more story elements and multiple unlockable ‘endings’
Some fun secret items for completionists
We awarded Compound the ‘Excellence in Indie Development’ award in our 2018 Game of the Year Awards and are happy to see that McKechnie has continued to show that it was well-earned recognition.
Roguelikes are an almost ubiquitous style of game now, but VR roguelikes are a little harder to come by.
Thanks to the likes of The Binding of Isaac, Into the Breach, Slay the Spire, and even Dead Cells, you can’t go five minutes without finding a game that is more willing to kill you off than help you. Well, that’s the case on consoles and PC anyway. VR roguelikes aren’t as common, which is odd because pairing the two together makes perfect sense. It’s not just because roguelikes are an excellent genre though; there are a couple of solid reasons to herald them as the true killer apps of virtual reality.
For starters, you don’t always have a huge amount of time to play VR; it’s one of the things that makes games like Beat Saber and Pistol Whip so perfect. Well, the same is true of a roguelike, if you’ve only got half an hour, then you can simply jump into one to see how far you can get. If you’ve got all night, then you’ll probably “one more run” yourself into the early hours. Not only this, but they make for excellent showcase games if you’re trying to convert your friends to the good words of VR. Lord knows we all are, so chuck them into In Death and the lack of sleep will probably lead them into our cult.
In the spirit of celebrating VR roguelikes, here is an alphabetical list of the 10 best we’ve seen so far!
A game set firmly within mythology, you play Luca and have been awakened by the goddess Diana. Your aim is to escape a procedurally generated dungeon and try to destroy the god you face at the end of each run. It’s got loads of upgrades to find, different classes, and a fair few weapons to try out too. Not only that, but it makes good use of 360 tracking and will have you killing demons by the dozen.
Not a VR Brooklyn Nine-Nine experience, but a retro-looking cyberspace FPS that allows you to journey through bright neon-lit rooms and fight off wireframe enemies. It’s fast-paced, visually stunning and I don’t mean in the usual term, it’s unlike anything else in VR. It’s also good fun and incredibly hard. Oh, and there are giant cat heads that try and kill you, good if you’re that way inclined.
Another oddly retro-looking game, but this one harks back to classic Doom, at least when it comes to the environments you’ll be running through. The world is randomized, but the fact that you’ll be getting shot at definitely isn’t. You have to keep on your toes if you want to survive this rather tough FPS game, but you’ll feel great if you manage it. Plus, once again, it’s incredibly walking through a visual style like this.
I promise I’ll stop waxing on about how cool graphics in VR are, but not yet. Dungeons & Treasure is a voxel-art game that has you smashing your way through enemies, bosses, and everything else the world can throw at you. Plus, it’s multiplayer, which means you can team up with friends or randoms to take on the trials and earn the treasures.
A very different entry to the ones that have come before, Everspace has you flying through space trying to survive in a universe that is full of surprises, surprises that want to kill you. It’s perhaps the best-looking game on this list, and it’s an incredible game. There’s also a solid story to follow through in your runs, which makes it great for those looking for more than just gameplay.
Another space-based VR roguelike, but this one has you controlling someone on a ship, not the ship itself. That means shooting people with dual space pistols and stuff, and that never really gets old. It’s got multiplayer so you can fight off the unknown with friends, and it’s got more space enemies than you can shake a space stick at. Just keep in mind that you’re probably going to die.
In Death has you fighting through purgatory having been forsaken by all in a horrific afterlife. You only have your trusty bow to rely on, and you’ll have to fight through hordes of teleporting archers, demonic babies, and horrific ghosts to make it all the way through the game. It’s one of the best archery experiences in VR, and it’s endlessly replayable thanks to its brutal difficulty and moreish gameplay.
This slick-looking FPS will have you making your way through randomly generated worlds to try and become the ultimate soldier. It’s an incredibly pretty game thanks to the Unreal Engine, and there’s lots to do as well. Just keep an eye out for the masses of robots that want to test your mettle; otherwise you’ll never become the best.
Horror and VR are a natural pairing; after all, jump scares are so much more effective when you can’t look away. The Persistence has you playing as a cloned staff member aboard a space station that has been corrupted by a black hole. You have to try and restart the systems to escape the black hole, but you aren’t alone. There are plenty of other cloning machines all around the ship, and they’re malfunctioning, meaning they’re constantly making horrifically botched clones for you to fight against. It’s all pretty terrifying, but hey, sometimes you just need to get that heart rate up.
Sometimes what you want from a VR game is a good melee experience. There are a few out there, but the best VR roguelike one is Until You Fall. Set in a vibrant but doomed world, you have to duel your way through corrupted beings to try and save the world. It’s got an excellent blocking system, one of the most satisfying weapon-summoning animations around, and an all-around great amount of customisation. This is, for my money, one of the best games in VR, and the fact that it’s a roguelike just makes it all the sweeter.
What are your favorite VR roguelikes so far? Let us know down in the comments below!
VR games are difficult to market, especially when they don’t fit obviously into existing genres. Here’s 12 gems you may have overlooked but are well worth your consideration.
Updated – August 21st, 2020
The Paradox of VR Game Development
There exists a paradox of sorts in the VR game development landscape: many of VR’s most interesting games just don’t look like the sort of non-VR games we’re all familiar with. By not obviously fitting into existing genres—the ‘shooter’, ‘RPG’, ‘racer’, ‘puzzler’, etc—it’s very difficult to actually market such titles, no matter how excellent they may be.
The result, as I’ve found over the years, is a surprising number of ‘indie VR gems’: VR titles which are much better than their lack of noteirty would suggest. Oftentimes these games are rated exceptionally well by those who give them a chance, but getting people to decide to try them in the first place is the real challenge.
This is a double bummer because it’s these very developers—who are thinking outside the box and discovering what native VR games actually look like—which we should supporot if we want to accelerate the maturation of VR game design. Indies are usually working with small teams and shoestring budgets; if they don’t at least break-even with each VR project, it’s unlikely that they will be able to justify a followup and continue to help push VR game design forward.
So, if you want to help VR succeed, and have some fun in the process, take a careful look at these 12 indie VR gems and consider giving them a shot. I would be blown away if everyone doesn’t find at least one title they think is worth owning in this list. And you have little to lose here if you’re using Oculus or Steam; both have very reasonable refund policies: if you find out the game isn’t for you and you’ve played it for less than two hours, you’re entitled to a full refund within 14 days of your purchase.
Indie VR Gems
Real quick: this list isn’t intended to be comprehensive, nor is it scientific. In the VR space most developers fit the definition of ‘indie’ (those which aren’t working with a publisher). For the purposes of this article, I’m loosely defining an ‘indie gem’ to mean ‘a VR game which deserves more attention than it receives’, whether or not it is from a recognizable VR studio. Without further ado, and in no specific order:
Fujii is part walking simulator, part puzzler, and part meditation. The game presents a serene world which somehow manages to offer a feeling of exploration without traversing huge distances. As you explore and solve light puzzles, you’ll discover new plants and bring their seeds back to your garden. The garden acts as a persistent ‘home’ space which you can cultivate and customize to your liking by planting and watering your plants. Fujii does so much right in design and aesthetics. Nearly everything you do feels good, thanks to intuitive interactions and expert use of sound, animation, and haptics. This is a game which delivers a sense of delight just by being in its world.
Compound is a randomly generated rogue-lite shooter with a style all its own. Something about its 8-bit artwork manages to feel totally authentic and while still somehow completely at home even in the medium of VR which is so far removed from the 8-bit era. This is a challenging game; lethal and unforgiving enemies bring a heightened sense of immersion as you’ll need to be on high alert to prioritize and eliminate threats to succeed. Luckily you’ve got an array of interesting and fun weapons, each with its own sense of character.
While a handful of better known flight simulators exist with optional VR support, the vast majority are made for keyboard and mouse input or peripherals like flight sticks. VTOL VR sets itself apart by being made from the ground-up for VR and motion controllers. So set your HOTAS aside and bask in the feeling of interacting directly with the controls in your cockpit as you operate critical aircraft functions, identify targets, and engage enemies without needing to buy niche peripherals to make it all feel great.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (AKA H3VR) [Early Access]
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, also known as H3VR, is a VR sandbox for the gun aficionado. With more than 300 unique weapons in the game, you could spend hours just exploring the detailed custom sounds and interactions of each gun, right down to individually chambered rounds, folding stocks, fire modes, and adjustable iron sights. With heaps of modular accessories, you can do everything from the realistic—like adding sights, grips, and lasers to your favorite assault rifle—to the unholy—like turning a pistol into a kitbashed sniper rifle. Once you’ve got your arsenal sorted out, you can hit the shooting range, play a heap of mini-games and activities, or make up your own. Though H3VR launched in early access in 2016, its developer has been actively updating the game ever since, regularly bringing major new content additions and improvements over time, like the Team Fortress 2 weapon set.
Sprint Vector is a racing game that offers a sense of speed and mobility that’s hard to find anywhere else in the VR gaming landscape. Channeling elements of arcade racing games like Mario Kart with a Mirror’s Edge sense of flow, Sprint Vector’s unique take on ‘arm swinger’ locomotion is a revolution in its ability to maintain comfort even while you’re cruising at breakneck speeds—and it can be a good workout to boot. Alongside a competitive racing mode, the game also offers time trials which challenge you not just to be fast, but also to be creative as you look for new routes to shave precious seconds off your record. This game’s strong visual presentation is topped off by an excellent soundtrack.
Panoptic is a stellar asymmetric VR game where one player wearing a headset takes on the role of a giant and menacing ‘overseer’ while another player outside of VR plays as a tiny saboteur who attempts to blend in with roaming NPCs and destroy key objectives without being discovered. Thanks to VR, the overseer’s embodied presence and giant scale feel exceptionally imposing to the tiny non-VR player, creating tense moments where a single slip-up could lead to a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase. The overseer may be powerful, but they can’t watch everything all at once; with a blend of strategy and cunning, the saboteur can prevail. The need for only one VR headset makes Panoptic a great game for sharing some of VR’s unique fun with friends who don’t have VR headsets themselves. While the game currently only supports local multiplayer, we found that Steam’s Remote Play Together feature makes it pretty easy to play Panoptic together online.
FREEDIVER: Triton Down is a short but worthwhile narrative adventure about an oceanographer who gets caught in a capsized research vessel after discovering something unexpected in a cave in the ocean depths. The game is built entirely around a unique ‘swimming’ locomotion system which is more than just a way to get the player from A to B; not only does it allow you to seamlessly navigate in 3D space underwater, it creates a built-in tension between movement and survival as the player has to surface for air or risk drowning. This effectively puts a time limit on puzzle solving which is always in the back of your mind, especially as the oxygen indicator on your arm beeps as it gets closer to 0%. Thanks to engaging interactive elements and thoughtful VR design, this is an adventure worth taking.
Virtual Virtual Reality is a narrative-driven VR game with an intriguing concept that’s worth seeing through to the end. As the name implies, you’ll find yourself popping in and out of various levels of virtual reality to navigate the game’s light puzzle elements while experiencing its strong art direction, writing, and interaction design. The developers include “an artichoke screams at you” among the game’s ‘key features’, which ought to give you an idea of the comedic flavor within.
Electronauts is half game, half tool, and wholly unique. It’s a VR music mixing game which lets you tap into your inner musical creativity even if you don’t have any idea how to play an instrument or make music from scratch. Each song in the game is effectively a ‘kit’ which includes various backing tracks, vocals, and unique instruments. Even though the game does much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes to keep everything in the right key and on beat, you’ll be surprised at how much freedom you have to make each song your own. While there’s no ‘objectives’, there’s much satisfaction to be had at managing seamless transitions between song segments, creating instrument loops that add a new flavor, and one of my favorite challenges: bringing each song to a smooth conclusion. Electronauts is an incredible way to experience the magic of music, and with multiplayer (on the Steam and Oculus Rift versions of the game only) you can even jam with a friend.
Racket: Nx is a polished and high energy game which feels like a futuristic mashup of racquetball fused with elements of Breakout. Players stand at the center of a 360 degree arena with neon targets that pulsate to the game’s excellent soundtrack. With racket in hand, players smack the glowing orb to destroy some targets while avoiding others. There’s some depth to hitting the orb too: you can slice it to give it spin, or give it an especially firm smack to send it roll along the wall for bonus points before it finally bounces back. Powerups and portals add additional variety. Racket: Nx can be a good workout, and is great for playing with VR friends thanks to cross-platform multiplayer between all versions of the game.
Until You Fall is a procedurally generated rogue-lite that’s all about melee combat. You’ll battle your way through a string of rooms populated with enemies of increasing difficulty. Eventually, inevitably, you’ll die. At the end of each round, you’ll respawn in a hub space where you can spend money you’ve earned on new weapons and upgrades, making you stronger for your next bout. The game successfully fuses VR sword combat with meta-game elements in a way that no other VR title has yet managed. Combat is underscored with a sense of deliberate strategy that can change from one encounter to the next, especially depending upon which weapons you choose to bring into battle.
As a VR mech game, Vox Machinae strikes and impressive balance between playability and immersion. It feels like a simulator, but manages to be almost as easy as an arcade game to pick up while remaining challenging to master. It’s controls and systems are intuitive enough that you can grasp the basics in a match or two, but that doesn’t stop the game from delivering a incredible sense of immersion thanks to its interactive cockpit and unique mech control model. Even now, two years after its early access launch, Vox Machinae remains arguably unmatched in immersion by any other VR mech game.
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Surely this list only covers a fraction of VR’s indie gems—let us know your own picks in the comments below!
Der 8-Bit-Shooter Compound für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive erhielt kürzlich eine Reihe von Updates, welche für eine Generalüberholung des VR-Titels sorgen. So wurden neue Spielinhalte, wie zusätzliche Waffen und Gegner sowie einige Komfortfunktionen hinzugefügt.
Compound – Updates integrieren neue Waffen, Gegner und Komfortfunktionen
Entsprechend vermehren sich die Inhalte des Spiels und damit natürlich auch die auswählbaren Waffen. Mittlerweile dürfen die Spieler über ein großes Waffenarsenal überblicken und daraus für diverse Situationen auswählen. Die verschiedenen Feuerwaffen besitzen ihr ganz eigenes Spielgefühl und unterscheiden sich maßgeblich in ihrer Handhabung. So besitzen alle ihre eigenen Nachlade- und Feuermechanismen sowie dazugehörige Soundeffekte.
Dazu zählt das neue Sturmgewehr, welches es ermöglicht, kleine Salven zielgenau abzufeuern. Auch Schnellfeuer ist bei längerem Abdrücken möglich, allerdings auf Kosten der Genauigkeit, denn dann verzieht das Gewehr. Ein holographisches Visier ist ebenfalls darauf platziert. Damit ist das Sturmgewehr auf mittlerer Distanz besser als das SMG, unterliegt diesem jedoch im puren Schaden auf kurzer Strecke.
Die Bouncer Shotgun gilt als schwer zu meistern, dafür soll sie jedoch mit dem richtigen Handling auf sämtlichen Distanzen einsetzbar sein. Etwas mehr Durchschlagskraft offenbart das Lasergewehr. Durch das Gedrückthalten des Abzugs wird damit der zerstörerische Laser aufgeladen, den man nach einiger Zeit auf seine Gegner entfesseln kann. Langsam aber effektiv.
Und was wäre ein Shooter ohne ordentlich Sprengkraft in Form eines Raketenwerfers? Dieser richtet reichlich Schaden an und ermöglicht das Abfeuern von Raketen in einer geraden Linie.
Neben dem Waffenupdate gibt es neue Umgebungen sowie neue Gegnertypen im neusten Update. Die Railgun Stalker feuern einen Laserstrahl in gerade Linie auf euch ab, welcher verheerenden Schaden anrichtet. Die Rapid Fire Attack Drone machen euch dagegen mit Maschinengewehren das Leben schwer.
Neben den Gegnern sorgt das Upgrade auf die SteamVR-2.0-API für den Support zukünftiger VR-Hardware, wie den neuen Knuckles-Controllern von Valve. Außerdem sind die Eingabeoptionen für bereits erhältliche Controller nun frei bestimmbar.
Insgesamt sorgte das letzte Update für eine Generalüberholung des Spiels. Dank des neuen Codes sollen zukünftige Features noch leichter ins Spiel integrierbar werden. Sämtliche Patch Notes findet ihr hier.
Wir haben Compound in einer früheren Fassung bereits für euch getestet. Was euch darin erwartet, erfahrt ihr in diesem Video:
Der Indie-Shooter ist im Early Access für 19,99 Euro für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive auf Steam erhältlich.
