Last October Croatiandeveloper Croteam launched Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope on Steam Early Access for HTC Vive, bringing it to Oculus Rift a short while later. Today the studio has announced Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope has fully released on Steam, and with it several new features have been added.
This final update introduces a new playable character Serious Sammy and randomly generated missions for new gameplay opportunities. This new gameplay will be available in five existing levels alongside three new ones, all divided into three different modes – Arena, Endless Wave, and Daily Challenge.
In Arena players are have eight arenas to play through, each consisting of four waves and 20 difficulties. Completing an arena difficulty awards a weapon upgrade icon. For those after a continuous challenge Endless Wave is there to test how long players can survive. To keep players coming back for more, Daily Challenge is Endless Wave on the arena map of the day with a new set of enemies. Here players around the world face the same task so they can compete against each other.
To celebrate the launch Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope is available with a 25 percent discount, dropping the price from £29.99 GBP down to £22.49 until 27th September.
For further announcements from Croteam, keep reading VRFocus.
The wildly popular puzzler The Talos Principle (2014) from Croteam is soon to be making its way to VR in a separate version, playable on SteamVR-compatible headsets; i.e. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Getting a chance to go head-first into Talos VR at this year’s Gamescom, I walked in asking myself if I actually wanted to spend the 20ish hours it takes to beat the game, in VR; and if given the choice between the two—the monitor and the VR version—that I would prefer to play in a headset instead of on a flatscreen. While my 20 minute demo didn’t exactly answer that question in full, a few things have certainly changed about how you interface with the game, making it a necessarily slower, but much more immersive experience to boot. And you know us, we like immersion.
The demo took me through the game’s third level (Land C), a verdant, castle-filled world where trees dot a medieval age ruin. While the puzzles and backdrop are entirely the same as the 2014 flatscreen title, I was told by Croteam’s PR and Community Manager Daniel Lucic, that some serious love went into getting the VR version just right, as it “almost took as long as [the original] Talos to make,” which Lucic qualified as a little over a year. In that time, presumably, the developers took everything they learned from Serious Sam VR (2017) and applied it to Talos, a game that first saw experimental, albeit imperfect VR support in 2015 on the Rift DK2.
image courtesy Croteam
Even then, Lucic tells me there’s still some work to be done to make the game more visually appealing to VR players, like adding ivy to help break up some more obvious repeating textures—something you might miss playing on a monitor, but a clear eyesore viewing from within a headset. As for scaling, what little I played looked indistinguishable from dedicated made-for-VR games, so no weirdly large or mismatched bits to speak of, but that may have more to do with the game’s general sparseness and already massive architecture.
With the addition of motion controllers, the world also become more interactive, with plenty of puzzle pieces to slot into blocky sigils, and beam reflectors or force field jammers at your disposal to make your way forward through each successive gate. Placing these just right, especially the reflectors, feels easier in VR than on the monitor version, if only because you can get a better line-of-sight so you can connect the beam source to the receptacle.
image courtesy Croteam
Unlike the monitor version, zooming around at high speed to get back to the puzzle’s beginning to retrieve a needed object isn’t really a great idea from a comfort standpoint, so the default walking speed is a bit slow to accommodate. This may irk some, but I found the surroundings so interesting, and well-suited to VR that I couldn’t help but stop and smell the digital roses. And yes, it’s just as pretty as you’d imagine it to be in VR, albeit some anti-aliasing issues with tree shadows that looked a little too sharp to be believable.
The game will feature a number of locomotion styles including instant and blink teleportation, ‘comfort mode’ snap-turn, and smooth-turning locomotion. This ultimately allows the player to interact with the game in any way they want, be it seated or in a standing, room-scale space.
There’s sill no official word on exactly when we’ll be seeing Talos VR hit Steam, but Lucic tells me that developers in Croteam are speculating on a late 2017 release.
We’re here at Gamescom all week, so check back for more coverage and hands-on articles with all of your favorite upcoming VR titles.
Croteam have been fairly regular about updating virtual reality (VR) title Serious Sam: The Last Hope. The developers have announced that the latest update will include a Skill Tree for the first time.
The new skill tree system will allow players to earn skill points by completing planets. The higher the difficulty the area is, the great the reward when it is cleared. The skill tree provides options to unlock new weapon options along with new active and passive skills.
Some of the skills that will be made available through Skill Tree unlocks include powers such as tactical orbital lasers, the ability to slow down time, create holographic decoys or overcharge your weapons, players can also find more exotic options like the ability to release an army of spiders, or swarms of quadcopters to harass enemies, or go for the simple option and simply create massive explosions to blow things up.
The development team say the new skill tree is designed to offer a true sense of progression, as well as reward players who take the risky route by offering greater rewards for greater risks. Powerful weapon unlocks can be found by completing a ‘perfect’ run, which is limited to one per planet per difficulty level, offering an additional incentive to up the difficulty.
The new update also offers the expected bug fixes and minor improvements, along with some improvements to stability. There have been some reports of players experiencing problems with the new patch, for which Croteam propose using the ‘Previous Version’ branch as a workaround until a permanent fix is found.
Further information and updates can be found on the Steam page.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news and updates on the Serious Sam VR titles.
The Talos Principle was a huge hit back in 2014. This philosophical puzzler has a narrative that is supposed to make you question life and the universe. It also has various puzzles, and the Croteam team received various requests to make the Talos Principle a virtual reality (VR) game. Based around Talos, a giant bronze man in Greek mythology – apparently this is a must play game in VR. The feedback from the few who managed to play it has been incredible according to Damjan, no release date has been given yet and the CroTeam want to expand to support more headsets in the future.
When Croteam released The Talos Principle back in 2014 it received worldwide acclaim from the videogame press as well as players – its overall user review on Steam currently gives it Overwhelmingly Positive feedback. A year later the studio added beta SteamVR support to the title but it never went any further. Then just before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last month Croteam announced that work had continued on the virtual reality (VR) project, unveiling The Talos Principle VR. Its first public demonstration was at E3 2017, and VRFocus managed to get a short demo, revealing that the original title had lost none of its magic.
Just like the original, the VR demo was all about the puzzles, but due to the size of the videogame and time restraints there wasn’t opportunity to uncover any of the story. Three puzzles were available, denoted as easy, medium and hard for newcomers to both The TalosPrinciple and VR. Croteam has gone for the tried and tested teleportation method which makes it nice and easy to get around, but it’s a shame more options weren’t available – that might come in the full release – as experienced VR players always seem to prefer as many ways as possible to move about as teleportation tends to be less immersive when compared to full first-person shooter (FPS) controls.
The Talos Principle VR is gorgeous – possibly one of the best looking VR titles – with sun drenched ruins intertwined with lush green vegetation that just beg to be explored. The first puzzle is easy enough, challenging you to get through several force field like barriers. This is done by careful placement of some tripod mounted devices that disrupt the fields. At the end is a puzzle piece, three of which need to be collected to complete the area.
The second challenge then adds a laser element to proceedings, with an emitter and several receivers that need to be connected to open the way. Again this is done via careful placement of a tripod device that redirects the laser beam. The third and most difficult challenge then combines what you’ve learnt in the previous two puzzles, mixing and matching the tripods as needed. On the face of it the puzzles are fairly simple in nature, but that’s the beauty of their design – and why the original title was so successful – they do require some out-of-the box thinking to complete. They have one solution but how you go about it is up to you.
Once those three were completed it was then time to head to the castle, with a Tetris style puzzle locking the gates. Piece’s could be easily picked up the the HTC Vive controller then placed within the allotted area until it was completely filled. Once through and into the courtyard there’s the next puzzle to solve but that’s where the demo ended. It certainly felt like more of the videogame was available if time had allowed.
Whether you loved the original or even if you never played it The Talos Principle VR is certainly a title that most HTC Vive owners will want to play. The quality of the production is up with the best VR has to offer, now it’s just a matter of waiting for the launch.
Fans of Croteam’s action puzzle title The Talos Principle have been waiting patiently for the title to get a proper virtual reality (VR) port. Though Croteam announced SteamVR support back in 2015, there was little word on progress until the sudden reveal of a HTC Vive version at E3.
The Talos Principle was lauded by critics when it first appeared in 2014 and received a large fan following. The title puts the player in the shoes of someone awoken from a deep sleep in a world dotted with an anachronistic combination ancient ruins and advanced technology. The player must solve an increasingly complicated series of puzzles while confronting difficult psychological and philosophical questions.
The title has been tweaked to support VR, with the several locomotion methods being added, from various types of teleportation to full classic movement methods. The Talos Principle VR also supports room-scale to allow players to fully explore the mysterious world around them.
Screenshots for the forthcoming VR release of The Talos Principle can be viewed below.
VRFocus will bring you further news on The Talos Principle VR as it becomes available.
The week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is a bewildering array for videogame news from across the industry. While virtual reality (VR) is still niche in comparison to traditional console or PC videogaming E3 hasn’t disappointed with a nice selection of announcements. This week Croteam has quietly announced that The Talos Principle VR, a first-person puzzle title is still in the works.
The studio simply said in a Tweet: “The #E32017 is on, and so is The Talos Principle VR. Currently demoed behind closed doors!” No other details have been release thus far other than a gif showcasing one of the puzzles and a pair of HTC Vive controllers, so that at least confirms one head-mounted display (HMD).
Originally, Croteam released The Talos Principle in 2014 for PC, receiving ‘overwhelmingly positive’ feedback from the Steam community. The videogame revolves around players waking in a strange world of ancient ruins and advanced technology, tasked with solving increasingly complex puzzles whilst deciding to have faith or ask the difficult question in life.
Then in 2015 the studio announced SteamVR support, unlocking a public beta. Since then all has been quiet until this week with Croteam now demoing the experience for select E3 2017 attendees.
VRFocus will endeavour to find out further details on The Talos Principle VR, so keep checking back for further updates.
A couple of weeks ago VRFocusreported on Croteam announcing its latest update for virtual reality (VR) title Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, titled Voltos. Today that update has gone live and the studio’s released further details on what content is available.
For the update players find themselves on the planet Voltos, featuring four different locations: The Swamp, Ancient Breeze, The Old Forest and Green Dream. Here they’ll find six new enemy types: Kalopsy, Siren, Swamp Monster, Air Trooper, Technopolyp and Air Sniper Trooper. as well as the new Swamp Hive boss.
But they’re not going in empty handed, three new weapons are available including a bow with piercing/explosive arrows and the deadly Devastator.
Alongside these main additions Croteam has tweaked the gameplay and made several fixes to improve the overall experience.
This month also saw the release of Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter and Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter, adding more ways for Serious Sam fans to enjoy the carnage of the series in VR.
Checkout the new trailer and the full update list below. For further announcements from Croteam, keep reading VRFocus.
Full changelog list:
– New planet, Valtos, with four different locations and five difficulty settings!
– Three new weapons!
– Six new enemies!
– New boss!
– Sword now features energy that auto regenerates with time.
– Vastly improved precision for the default sword projectile casting mode A. Removed redundant sword firing modes B and D. Kept C (original mode shaanti released with), but renamed the option to “Alternate sword shockwave firing mode”.
– Improved shield energy display.
– Ability to reset current progress.
– Made Shaanti 1 and 2 normal difficulty a bit easier.
– Added ability to “Undo buying” in the store.
– Lots of stability fixes and optimizations, as usual.
Virtual reality (VR) gamers who like all out shooting carnage don’t have far to look for suitable titles. One of the best known is Croteam’s Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. The studio has now announced the latest update to the video game called Valtos, set to arrive later this month for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
In a Steam posting Croteam has said: “We have started the internal testing phase of the big Valtos update coming to Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope.” The studio then goes on to detail what players can expect to see, with new planet, Valtos, being the main inclusion, featuring four locations to fight through.
That’s not all. There’s going to be three new weapons including a bow with explosive arrows, new enemies and a boss to round it all off. Croteam hasn’t gone into details on these latter additions, simple releasing a short GIF (below) and a screenshot showcasing some sword wielding skeletons, several small flying enemies, and a heavily armoured monster with hands for guns.
The update is due to arrive in a couple of weeks time on Wednesday 26th April. If you can’t wait that long then there’s always Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter and Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter.
These both launched last week, with the former previously featuring on Steam Early Access. They feature single-player and 16-player versus multiplayer modes, with some maps being unique whilst others are based on campaign levels. If you’ve got a mate to join in there’s also classic co-op action in a 12-level campaign mode featuring multiple difficulty settings, increased enemy strength, friendly fire/infinite ammo options.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, reporting back with all the latest updates from Croteam and Devolver Digital on the series.
If you’re a fan of the Serious Sam franchise then you’ll be glad to hear Croteam and Devolver Digital have released a bumper amount of content for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The developers have launched Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter as well as bringing Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter out of Steam Early Access.
Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter brings the same frantic gameplay as its predecessors, arming players to the teeth with an array of outrageous weaponry to take on the armies of god-like being Mental. To aid in the fight Sam has some new toys: Sniper Rifle, Flamethrower and Chainsaw, which can all be dual wielded for ultimate stopping power. Players can utilise their favourite combinations, or head into battle with the same guns if they prefer.
Alongside the single-player carnage, there’s now 16-player versus multiplayer modes, some are unique whilst others are based on campaign levels. On top of that there’s classic co-op action in a 12-level campaign mode featuring multiple difficulty settings, increased enemy strength, friendly fire/infinite ammo options.
The multiplayer modes include: Beast Hunt and Team Beast Hunt; Survival and Team Survival; Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch; My Burden; Last Man Standing and Last Team Standing; Capture the Flag and Instant Kill.
So what does it cost for all this? There’s a variety of options to choose from. Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter currently has a limited time discount available of 25 percent, dropping the cost from £29.99 GBP to £22.49. Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter retails for £29.99 including Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (Beta). Finally you haveSerious Sam VR Bundle, which includes all these previous titles and Serious Sam: The Last Hope all for £61.85 rather than £89.97, a 31 percent saving.
Checkout the new trailer below, and for all the latest Serious Sam VR updates from Croteam and Devolver Digital, keep reading VRFocus.
