Things weren’t to be for PSVR exclusive multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, Dark Eclipse.
The game, which made its debut on the platform back in 2018, will be shutting down online servers on June 15. Even the game’s single-player mode is going offline. The official Twitter account made the announcement in its first update in nearly a year.
*IMPORTANT NOTICE*
Online servers for DARK ECLIPSE will no longer be supported from June 15, 2020. Players will be unable to play single player or matchmaking modes from this date.
Email for support:
info@darkeclipse.jp
Dark Eclipse hoped to become the DOTA2 of VR, offering a free to play experience where players command hero units on the battlefield. But support for the game dried up not long after launch, with its final content update going live in March 2019. The game’s DLC and buyable in-game currency, Dark Coins, were removed from the PlayStation Store last July.
We gave the game 6/10 at launch. It seemed like a fun take on the genre, but had a few too many issues for us to fully recommend. “But for those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, than Dark Eclipse is worth a look,” we wrote.
It’s not uncommon for multiplayer VR games to be taken offline relatively quickly. The relatively low install base of headsets makes it hard to maintain a high player base and it can be expensive to keep servers running. Starblood Arena was another decent PSVR exclusive that suffered the same fate a few years ago.
Have any fun memories of Dark Eclipse? Let us know in the comments below.
Japanese developer SUNSOFT returned to the western market last year with the launch of free-to-play MOBA Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR. To make money the developer sold in-game content, with players having to purchase Dark Coins to buy characters, outfits and other items. Recently, however, the studio has announced it’ll cease purchasable content from PlayStation Store.
Dark Coins will only be available for purchase until 26th July 2019, 23.59 BST. After that, they’ll no longer be available, although any that players have purchased will still be useable after that date. The studio made the announcement on Twitter, linking to an update page with a few more details. In addition to the Dark Coins, patch 3.0 will be the last update released for Dark Eclipse although SUNSOFT will continue to support the game with any critical functionality patches if necessary.
And what’s the reason for this shift, SUNSOFT’s reasoning isn’t exactly clear: “In order to continue giving fans the best possible play experience, we are continually reviewing our projects and made the decision to cease any purchases for DARK ECLIPSE content from the PlayStation Store.”
So for the meantime, it looks like Dark Eclipseplayers can still enjoy playing the online experience, but after July there’s going to be little in the way of encouragement for new players to join in. And who knows, if the player count does rapidly fall after that then SUNSOFT is likely to pull the plug on the servers as well.
VRFocusreviewed Dark Eclipse at launch, only giving it 3-stars, saying: “Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.”
As many a developer has found, the VR industry can be a tough one – even more than the standard videogame industry – especially for pure online multiplayers like Dark Eclipse. Some titles like Firewall Zero Hour do manage to buck the trend, and it certainly helps to be on PlayStation VR with its large user base. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dark Eclipse, should SUNSOFT have any further updates.
Die Feiertage sind vorbei und in diesem Sinne wünschen wir euch ein frohes neues Jahr 2019. Um die Ereignisse zwischen Weihnachten und Silvester zusammenzufassen, erwartet euch nun ein kurzer Überblick über die Geschehnisse der letzten Woche.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch – Interaktiver Film bei Netflix gestartet
Auf Netflix wurde am 28. Dezember der neue interaktive Film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch veröffentlicht, welcher euch ins Jahr 1984 an die Seite eines jungen Programmierers mit tragischer Vergangenheit stellt. Mit der Entwicklung des Computerspiels Bandersnatch möchte er eine dunkle Fantasy-Story in die neuen Medien umwandeln und sieht sich währenddessen zahlreichen wundersamen und problematischen Geschehnissen ausgesetzt. Der Clou: Ihr bestimmt, wie die Handlung fortgesetzt wird. So werdet ihr während des Zuschauens mit verschiedenen Optionen konfrontiert, die von der Auswahl der Morgenzerealien bis hin zur Entscheidung über Leben und Tod reichen.
Image courtesy: Netflix
Insgesamt zwölf verschiedene Enden sind möglich, wobei noch weitere Enden integriert sein sollen. Mit seinen zahlreichen Abzweigungen, verschiedenen Storysträngen und dem Rücksprung zu Ereignissen durchbricht der Film geschickt die Metaebene und lässt euch sogar zum Teil der Story werden, indem ihr mit euren Entscheidungen mit dem Protagonisten interagieren könnt.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch ist auf Netflix verfügbar.
Jason Rubin – Oculus-Manager in neuer Position
Jason Rubin ist ab sofort nicht mehr als alleinig für Oculus zuständig. Der ehemalige Spieleentwickler (unter anderem bekannt für Crash Bandicoot) und Leiter der Spieleentwicklung von Oculus betreut zukünftig im Mutterkonzern Facebook die Entwicklung von AR- und VR-Inhalten, Partnerschaften des Konzerns sowie die Videoplattform Portal.
Nach Palmer Luckey und Brendan Iribe verlässt somit ein weiteres Oculus-Mitglied der frühen Tage das Unternehmen, wenn auch durch einen hauseigenen Wechsel.
Star Child – Entwicklerstudio Playful arbeitet weiterhin an kommenden PSVR-Titel
Der CEO von Playful, Paul Bettner, ruf per Twitter zu Geduld auf und verkündete gleichzeitig, dass die Entwicklung des Projekts Star Child weiterhin fortgesetzt wird.
Playful is still hard at work on Star Child! Our internal projected launch date changed, triggering a cancellation of pre-orders on PSN, but rest assured the game's development is alive and well. We can't wait to share more soon!
Das Veröffentlichungsdatum wurde geändert, sodass ein möglicher Release 2019 vermutet wird. Das Team arbeitet weiterhin am exklusiven Side-Scroller für die PlayStation VR (PSVR). Entwicklerstudio Playful ist bekannt für Lucky’s Tale für Oculus Rift.
Dark Eclipse – Neues Update für PSVR-Moba veröffentlicht
Über die Weihnachtsfeiertage erhielt das kostenlose VR-MOBA Dark Eclipse ein großes Update. Mit dem Patch 2.02 wurden drei neue Helden ins Spiel integriert sowie exklusiver Winter-Content. Die neuen Helden sind der Leader Owen, Support-Dominator Sosei und Assassin-Dominatoo Jysook. Zusätzlich wurden neue Weihnachts-Skins für Veronika, Wuntasto und Jysook integriert.
Beat Saber – Neuer Song POP/STARS durch Kooperation mit Riot Games
Eine Kooperation zwischen Beat Games und Riot Games (bekannt für League of Legends) brachte den K-Pop-Hit POP/STARS von K/DA in den VR-Rhythmustitel Beat Saber.
So beschreibt Jaroslav Beck, CEO von Beat Games, die unerwartete Zusammenarbeit enthusiastisch:
“Als wir “POP/STARS” zum ersten Mal hörten, wussten wir sofort, dass das Lied ein Hit in Beat Saber sein wird. Das Lied ist pulsierend und das Video einfach episch – es passt perfekt zu unserem Spiel. Wir freuen uns, dass die Spieler mit Beat Saber die Chance bekommen, “POP/STARS” auf ganze neue Art zu erleben und dabei im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes jeden Beat spüren.
Dark Eclipse, the free-to-play VR MOBA exclusive to PSVR, just got a slew of updates to ring in the holiday season. The massive 2.02 patch not only introduces three brand new heroes to choose from, but it brings along four festive winter-themed skins, additional tutorials, as well as new login bonuses.
The three new heroes in Dark Eclipse are Owen, Sosei, and Jysook. You can see them in their featured images down below, just click each image to expand it:
Owen is a powerful hero that channel his strength. He needs to charge up before engaging the enemy, but once charged, his power is “unprecedented” according to the patch notes. Then there’s Sosei, a support Dominator hero that can sustain lengthy combat encounters and revive fallen Leaders or heal soldiers to swing the flow of battle. Finally, Jysook is an assassin Dominator hero that can lay bombs as traps on the ground or self-destruct to ensure crucial kills.
Veronika, Wuntasto, and Jysook are all getting winter skins in this update as well, which you can see preview versions of up in the featured image at the top of this post.
To get a better idea of what Dark Eclipse looks like in action as a VR MOBA, check out our gameplay below:
In our review of Dark Eclipse, we scored it a 6/10 concluding: “For those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, then Dark Eclipse is worth a look.”
Let us know what you think of the game and this update down in the comments below!
Featured image and character images provided by Sunsoft.
PlayStation VR MOBA Dark Eclipse updated last month with new characters and a Ranked Mode. Today, developer Sunsoft has announced its next winter update, increasing that character roster even further as well as including some festive winter skins.
In its latest update, Dark Eclipse will give players access to three new playable characters. These are:
Owen – A Leader that can channel his Energy Boost ability to muster strength and passively increase his movement speed before unleashing a deadly attack;
Sosei – A support Dominator that can sustain lengthy combat and swing the tide of battle by reviving fallen Leaders and healing soldiers, knocking back nearby enemy units in the process;
Jysook – An assassin Dominator with explosive abilities who can lay bomb traps around the battlefield and self-destruct to secure crucial kills.
And because it’s the festive season Sunsoft has got into the Christmas spirit with four new skins, a Yeti hand skin for your current character plus winter skins for characters Veronika, Wuntasto and Jysook.
That’s not all. In the spirit of giving the studio has one final treat in store. From now on, all players who log in to Dark Eclipse will receive daily in-game gifts, including Eclipse Points, player icons, a Leader and hand skins.
The title got a mixed response when it first launched a couple of months ago, with VRFocus giving it an average 3-stars, saying: “Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. In addition, the lack of a large community of online players presents a problem for an online-focused title. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.” As it is free to play and seen free updates arrive, MOBA fans may now want to take a look.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dark Eclipse, reporting back with any new announcements.
Japanese developer SUNSOFT launched its PlayStation VR exclusive MOBA, Dark Eclipse to a mixed response in September. Now the studio has released its first major update to the title, improving the gameplay whilst adding new content.
The Dark Eclipse 2.0 update introduces three new characters for players to choose from:
Destrophe – A powerful tank Dominator that passively increases its attack power and can use its ability to damage and stun enemies from afar;
Dosmelda – An assassin Dominator that can confuse and hinder enemies with its high mobility, warping instantly to an enemy to attack, and just as quickly withdrawing;
Zahina – A carry Hero with the skill to heal her allies and damage enemies with an area of effect, making her close to invincible while active.
Sunsoft has also added a Ranked Mode which identifies and pits two combatants of similar skill against one another. In addition to head-to-head matchups, players can now battle for the crowning spot on a global leaderboard showcasing the top 100 players.
The studio has also included a special bonus in the update. Any player owning at least two Heroes and four Dominators can challenge others in the new Ranked Mode and battle their ways towards unlocking a premium hand-skin exclusive to those achieving the Gold ranking or above.
“Our passionate community already knows there’s still nothing else quite like Dark Eclipse in VR right now, and we want to continue providing tools like Ranked Mode to keep our VR MOBA as fresh as possible,” said Shohei Sakakibara, Producer and Project Leader at Sunsoft in a statement. “As MOBAs are an inherently competitive genre, the focus of this major update is to further foster and enhance competition in Dark Eclipseby allowing players to see how they stack up against other dedicated fans with our global leaderboard.”
Sunsoft is ready to build on the solid foundations it laid out earlier this year with free-to-play PSVR multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), Dark Eclipse.
The developer this month announced a 2.0 update for the game that’s set to introduce some major new elements such as a Ranked Mode, a global leaderboard and more. The former will mean that players of a similar skill level will now be matched up online rather than you taking your chances with a hardened vet. Winning matches will help you climb a global leaderboard which will in turn pit you against more experienced players. Getting a Gold ranking on the boards will net you an exclusive skin.
Meanwhile there’s also going to be three more heroes added to the game. These include a tank character named Destrophe that can stun enemies, a highly mobile assassin named Dosmelda and a carry class named Zahina. The game itself is free to download and jump into so these updates will also be delivered at no extra cost.
We thought Dark Eclipse had some issues but was ultimately worth a look for players looking for something new in the genre. With some of these new additions that remains the case.
There is a style of game for virtual reality that is “X–but in VR!” A flight sim–but in VR. Or a first-person shooter–but in VR. Many of these games offer little except for a direct migration of genre standards and maybe inventive controls schemes.
Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR attempts to avoid this by mixing two genres: the MOBA and the RTS. You have heroes, like a MOBA, but you control 3 of them. You direct them around the map, to collect resources to build structures, like an RTS. But they fight random monsters to gain XP and power up, like a MOBA. This combination comes together well, with no obvious jagged edges or glaring issues.
And how does Sunsoft — venerable Japanese developer behind 80s classics like Blaster Master or the NES Batman games — justify this game for VR? Well, basically through the point of view and the controls. The player looks over the board with that same angle I think of as “simulated tabletop,” as if the whole thing is a magically moving miniature war game out on a huge dining-room table, albeit with a Japanese folklore-meets-gritty comic book art style. Your heroes and soldiers seem small, the battlefield stretching into the distance.
You have a floating hand, via the DualShock 4 being tracked, or a pair of hands, via the PS Move controllers. You move them around to grab a unit’s pointer above their head and then move the pointer to a spot you want them to walk to, for an enemy to attack or a place to build a tower. If you hold down one of the face buttons when moving the hand, it moves not just around the screen, but around the battlefield, allowing you to designate a destination in the distance or to move yourself back, to get a better view of the battlefield.
To activate a Hero’s special ability, you grab the unit’s pointer and press a different button. So, you mostly use 2 buttons besides the motion control. It is a streamlined and effective control scheme for VR. You can even see opponent’s hands in the beginning of a match, to wave hello.
The more awkward choices the designers made are in some of the gameplay mechanics. Heroes walk slowly. You often have to have them stop to let their soldier’s slowly chop down trees, to get resources to build the different kind of RTS towers across the battlefields. Couple that with the slowly chipping away at the battlefield’s random monsters, makes for a slow-paced game.
And when the more lively battle between my heroes and the enemy heroes do finally happen, it seems to simply come down to who gained more levels from killing more random monsters and building towers quicker. The build-up doesn’t quite justify the relatively stale combat. But perhaps RTS fans will prefer the more deliberate gameplay. My matches took about 20 minutes in total.
There is a fog-of-war effect, where you can only see enemies near your bases or your heroes, so there is no grand view of the battlefield filled with monsters and units. This lets your units get surprised by enemies, forcing you to run away or rethink your current actions. And if the enemies then kill your heroes, those enemy units disappear and you just stare at a dim battlefield while you wait for your Heroes to respawn back at your base. It feels short-sighted to me, pun intended.
Dark Eclipse is a free-to-play online-only game. And that means limited modes and multiple currencies. There is a Casual mode, a Ranked mode, which is currently locked because the game is still in “Season 0,” and a mode to play against friends. And there are Tutorials versus AI to teach you the game. There is a blue in-game currency called EP you earn from play that lets you purchase some Heroes, which otherwise are on a rotation of only 3 of the 15 being available to play at any time. There is also a yellow currency called DC that costs actual money that unlocks all the Heroes. You can also buy Heroes skins and hand skins with this currency. Sunsoft promises there will be no “pay-to-win” items for sale.
Final Score:6/10 – Decent
I also had some of the usual online play issues during my time with Dark Eclipse: Matchmaking sometimes took more than 3 minutes, and the occasional dropped session that ends a match prematurely. Such issues will hopefully be ironed out for Season 1. But for those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, than Dark Eclipse is worth a look.
With the sales of the PlayStation VR now surpassing three million units sold, Japanese developer SUNSOFT seems to think there is now a big enough user base to support a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA. In this case, choosing to meld MOBA elements with real-time strategy in order to create Dark Eclipse.
Dark Eclipse, unlike most MOBA titles, doesn’t give you one hero character to control, instead you have to juggle three of them. This sounds like a tall order, but in reality the RTS style means that for the most part you are delivering instructions and watching your little minions toddle off to fulfil your instructions.
Though Virtual reality (VR) gives you a universal perspective when needed, most of the time you will be playing in a third-person, vaguely isometric perspective, which gives it an old-school RTS feel. The RTS elements really do dominate compared to the MOBA, as you collect resources, select a strategy and choose what towers to build and where and when to attack. A key component here is learning the strengths of your hero characters, and picking a group that mesh well together.
There is a tutorial to guide players regarding the controls, but it is somewhat bare bones, and neglects many of the mechanics and tactics that are vital. For example, the various towers that you can build which offer various bonuses are not explained at all, which feels like an oversight considering how necessary they are.
While the controls within a match work well if you are using PlayStation Move, with the ‘hand pointer’ being decently intuitive, you do have to keep a Dual Shock 4 controller close at hand, since it is impossible navigate menus using the PlayStation Move, a minor but irritating restriction.
Since Dark Eclipse is free to play, this means that microtransactions are indeed present. Levelling up your hero characters earns currency that can be used to strengthen your troops, or unlock skins of the leaders. As you might expect, you can buy more of this in-game currency by spending real money in the PlayStation store. Though the boost you get is relatively minor, it still stands a good chance of affecting gameplay balance.
With any multiplayer title, one of the major hurdles to overcome is gathering a large and active community. Sadly, it seems Dark Eclipse has not managed this feat just yet. You often find you are waiting for quite some time to get a match-up. As a free to play title there’s nothing to stop this being a sleeper hit if it manages to successfully gather a community, but only time will tell on that front.
There are single-player modes versus the AI, but they are, at best, practise modes to test out potential strategies. There doesn’t really appear to be a specific story campaign as such. The focus is clearly online play. SUNSOFT have promised that there will be regular updates and balance tweaks to chance the meta-game, but that will only have a significant impact if enough players latch on to Dark Eclipse.
Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. In addition, the lack of a large community of online players presents a problem for an online-focussed title. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.
If Sunsoft was hoping to return to the western market with a bang, it’s made some odd choices. Dark Eclipse is not a nostalgic resurrection of some of the Japanese developer’s beloved early Nintendo-era titles (which include Batman on NES and The Death And Return of Superman), but instead an obscure and obtuse multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), played exclusively within a VR headset no less. I respect the boldness, if nothing else.
Still, Dark Eclipse will no doubt have its fanbase, however small, and it deserves one alone for the thought that’s gone into retooling a genre dominated by mouse and keyboard.
In this free-to-play PSVR exclusive, you fight for control of a map by ordering three leader units (including one main hero and two monsterish support units) to various points and building towers. If you’re a regular to the genre, this is hardly groundbreaking stuff; gather resources to build towers in fixed positions, upgrade units to take down enemy towers and eventually lead an assault on your opponent’s main base whilst they do the same. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at first (and the game’s tutorial doesn’t do a great deal to help), but the somewhat sluggish pace will at least help you find your feet.
Where Dark Eclipse does innovate, though, is in its distillation of the genre to accommodate PSVR. Playing with a single Move controller (you can also play with a DualShock 4 though it’s a little awkward), you can navigate the game’s relatively small maps with a surprising degree of intuition. Simply hold the Move button and tilt the controller to pan across the map, or hold down a face button and move it up or down to zoom in and out. You get the hang of it in seconds.
Moving units, meanwhile, is done by grabbing a marker above their head and then dragging it to the desired location. Simply tapping other items of interest has selected characters interact with them, too. All of this makes getting around in Dark Eclipse’s world wonderfully light, though it still can’t quite escape the frantic fluster that will have you begging for a mouse in its more demanding moments. Characters do move at a snail’s pace and you can set the view to cover as wide an area as possible, but I still sometimes felt weighed down with the Move controller.
Crucially, the game’s microtransactions are done pretty well, too. From what I can tell, they’re simply for buying new Leaders, though there’s a fair number available from the start. You can earn coins to put towards new unlocks or just buy them from the off as well. It’s likely the best shot the game has at building a community considering how little fanfare it’s launched to.
Interface aside, though, Dark Eclipse is not a game that’s going to win over people unconvinced by MOBAs, and I very much doubt it’ll attract much attention from fans of DOTA 2 and the like. Though it’s mechanically sound and easy enough to follow, I kept coming back to the question of why this needed to be in VR and coming up empty, other than for the fact that the Leaders look like action figures. While it’s nice to have head-tracking replacing scrolling across the screen, a strict fog of war keeps you from reading what opponents are up to.
It’s fortunate that the game has a pretty fun single-player mode against AI because, frankly, if many multiplayer VR games struggle to sustain healthy online user-bases, I predict big problems for Dark Eclipse the further we get from launch. I was able to find games over the first two days but as all but the most devoted players trickle away — especially as games like Astro Bot and Evasion roll out over the next few weeks — I can’t help but expect that to change.
Still, if you were looking for proof that MOBAs can at least work in VR, Dark Eclipse is it. The next step is to convince you that you actually should play one, and there’s more work to be done there.
