It’s almost Christmas and as is tradition, it’s a time of giving, so VRFocus and OZWE Games have come together for a special competition. If you happen to own the rather popular Oculus Quest headset then this is the giveaway for you, with Death Lap codes to win.
The latest title from the Anshar Wars developer, Death Lap is a vehicular combat racer pitting players in a dangerous gameshow which results in death or glory. With some cheesy b-movie acting and lots of guns, success in Death Lap doesn’t simply come from great driving skills to secure first place, players need to be ruthless.
Offering both single-player and multiplayer modes, players can choose from five outlandish cars to race across five deadly tracks. Each vehicle has its own particular traits, such as speed and handling as well as various short and long-range weapons. These vary between roof-mounted miniguns and rocket launchers to bumper-mounted flame throwers and disc cutters. Additionally, items littered across the tracks allow drivers to wield SMG’s or drop barbed wire fences to slow opponents.
The tracks can equally be used to a players advantage, ramps allow them to pull tricks for extra energy, boost markers are littered around, they can even shoot barrels to drop on opponents heads. For further details head on over to VRFocus’ review of Death Lap.
So onto the competition. Today VRFocus is giving away 10 Oculus Quest codes for Death Lap. There are multiple ways to enter the giveaway with the standard prize draw entry rules applying: Follow us (or already be following us) on Twitter or alternatively, visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel to get an entry for each. Only one code is available per person, each drawn randomly. The competition will be open until the weekend, beginning today and ending at 11:59 UK time on Sunday 22nd December 2019. The draw will be made shortly thereafter. Best of luck.
Unlike its bigger brother, Oculus Rift S, the Oculus Quest really needs some dedicated quality racers on the platform. VR Karts: Sprint has been the only real offering – not particularly well-received either – but now it’s got some competition in the form of OZWE Games’ vehicular combat experience Death Lap. Putting cars and guns together has always proved to be very entertaining, so hopefully, Death Lap is just what the headset needs.
Death Lap isn’t purely for Oculus Quest as it does support Oculus Rift S and cross-platform competition between the two headsets. As mentioned, with the lack of racing titles on the standalone headset most of this review was conducted on Oculus Quest. In actuality, testing on both only highlighted an expected visual quality difference, with all the gameplay and features remaining the same.
Better known for its Anshar Wars series of VR titles harking all the way back to the original Gear VR, OZWE Games has certainly taken an alternate path with Death Lap. You’re instantly thrust into an experience which enlists all the hallmarks of a B-movie. The very thin storyline revolves around a gameshow race hosted by a villainous character called Nitro Saint Payne who can’t be taken seriously because of the cheesiest acting you’ll find in VR – hopefully this was intentional.
Discounting the actor who prominently appears everywhere – and looks like a rejected extra from Mad Max – your gameplay choices are between a single-player mode with five cars and five tracks or multiplayer with the same options. This does mean variety is a little lacking when it comes to keeping things fresh and interesting in Death Lap, as you’ll likely see all the title has to offer in under an hour.
All the cars feature a roof-mounted long-range weapon, front-mounted close range weapon, special weapon and then additional extras picked from the track. There’s certainly an overload of controls to get used to yet the basics are easily picked up after a couple of laps and prove to be enjoyable fun, shooting opponents in a 360-degree arc on massively wide tracks.
However, the feel of each individual car isn’t that greatly different, with the monster truck being the only notable exception because it’s so slow. That selection of five is soon whittled down to one favourite, mainly due to the weapons rather than handling or speed. The same really goes for the tracks themselves, offering little actual challenge on their own. Standing out among them all was the final course on the pinball table, offering lots of alternate routes, jumps and visual interest.
The single-player may provide the core of Death Lap’s gameplay but it’s the multiplayer which should keep you coming back for more, hopefully. There are no additional modes or gameplay tweaks to be had here, just the same tracks and cars to race against real opponents if they are available. It’s a shame OZWE Games hasn’t put at least a couple of gameplay slants in there to spice things up; no ranged weapons, limited health, ragdoll physics, anything really.
On the flip side, while gameplay options are limited, comfort isn’t. You can choose between first and third-person views, both of which can be switched from comfortable/moderate/intense, adjusting how the camera operates in the process. Which is superb. You can also choose to steer with the stick or by turning the Oculus Touch controller. Another worthy addition. This does mean plenty of switching back and forth to find your own sweet spot – moderate + stick steering was a favourite – so most players should be catered for.
Death Lap has some great elements to it, instantly offering exciting races where you can throw caution to the wind, drive like a maniac and shoot stuff. Unfortunately, there is a lack of finesse and polish to the whole experience with the content really needing a little boost. Plus there’s no way to add some personalisation or upgrades for that much-needed variety. In another six months, this may well be a great racer, for now, it’s simply average.
Death Lap is the latest VR outing for Anshar Wars developer Ozwe Games and it does its best to channel the spirit of Twisted Metal into a relatively standard lap-based racing game. Read our full review to see how it fares!
Based on the footage I’d seen, the art work, and the way the game has been marketed, you probably thought it seemed like a Twisted Metal-inspired car combat game. I think that’s a reasonable assumption to make. In reality, it’s much more like a grungy version of Mario Kart.
Let me explain.
Twisted Metal is hardly a racing game. It’s actually more of an arena combat game that just so happens to pit vehicles as the main characters set across a variety of torn up and run down cities awash with rubble and broken streets. The focus is on evading and engaging in vehicular combat, not so much racing to the finish line. On the flip side, Death Lap is entirely about racing. Your objective is to finish three laps around the chosen race track as quickly as possible to land first place and bask in the glory. The weapons and gritty setting are just backdrops.
Since the Oculus Quest is sorely lacking in the racing game department Death Lap is arriving at a good time (just ahead of Radial-G: Proteus later this month) but its execution doesn’t really match up with its marketing too well.
Just like in Mario Kart you’ll run over boost arrows, hit ramps, drift around corners, and pick up power-up boxes to supercharge your hunks of metal. The main difference is that each vehicle is also equipped with unique close-range and long-range weapons as well. For example, my favorite vehicle has a giant drill on the front that shreds cars I sneak up behind or ram into, while also packing a powerful rocket launcher mounted on top. Using my right hand to aim and my left hand to steer, I’m free to blast my opponents away while drifting across the finish line.
It’s a good concept that packs some serious thrills. One of the levels (shown below in the GIF) takes place across an enormous pinball machine, similar to the casino levels in Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s another level focused on “Sin City” and yet another featuring a flaming clown roller coaster (again, “Hi, Twisted Metal!) to drive through.
Level variety is decent then, but there are only 5 tracks and a handful of vehicles to pick from. Nothing left to unlock after about 20 minutes of playtime. No upgrades, no customization — just a few tracks and a few cars. Supposedly the draw here is the leaderboard and competitive online multiplayer, but there isn’t enough depth to really keep people coming back from what I’ve seen.
As a package Death Lap isn’t as feature-packed as I’d have liked to see, but it’s still a lot of fun to play when everything is clicking. Leading your shots to blow up cars as they drift around obstacles in the distance is super satisfying and the weapon variety is actually pretty great. Other than the rocket launcher cars are equipped with mini guns, mini missile launchers, a laser gun, and one even has a rail gun style beam.
Visually it leaves a bit to be desired, even on Rift. Environments look a little muddy and textures are extremely flat, even in the vehicle cockpits. You can tell this is clearly a Quest-first game, which is fine, but it doesn’t compare to the same quality of other Oculus Studios-published titles in terms of production values.
Comfort
Death Lap seems to be a pretty comfortable experience for the most part. Having a cockpit to sit in helps ground you to avoid motion sickness and the default comfort setting means you need to physically turn your head and body to stay facing forward, which works well on Quest. You can disable this so the car turns, but it’s noted that could cause some discomfort if you’re susceptible to that. There’s also a third-person camera mode, but that felt a bit weird to me. The camera also zooms out every time you barrels roll off of a ramp in the air.
To steer the default method is just using the left analog stick like any non-VR racing game would do, but you can toggle an alternate method in the main menu settings that has you twist your wrist to steer instead. I’d prefer a method that lets you actually reach out with your left hand in 6DOF space, like you do with your right hand to aim, and actually grab onto the wheel itself. Neither of the included methods really felt appropriate to me but I did prefer the wrist twisting.
Although this review was conducted primarily using an Oculus Rift version of the game, we have played it on Quest too. The main differences are in the visuals, as the Quest is a bit lower quality as expected. Gameplay and content are unchanged and it supports both cross-play for multiplayer and crossbuy for Rift and Quest.
To be honest I’m hoping Ozwe returns to the Anshar franchise and either delivers a brand-new game or at least ports Anshar Online to Quest since it’s already on Gear VR, Go, and Rift.
Death Lap Review Final Verdict:
This isn’t the ultimate VR racing game by any means, but it still manages to deliver the fun of competent combat racing in spurts. With a small offering of tracks and vehicles, no real progression system, and no customization it’s a bit bare bones, but the thrill of seeing explosions and drifting around a giant pinball machine salvages a lot of the intensity.
Final Score: 3/5 Stars | Pretty Good
Death Lap is now available for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift headsets at the price of $19.99.
This review of Death Lap from Ozwe Games was conducted on an Oculus Rift S using two Touch controllers. You can read more about the new five-star scoring policy here.
Update: Radial-G: Proteus is now out on Oculus Quest.
Original: Radial-G: Proteusfrom Things3D and Tammeka is fast-approaching for Oculus Quest. This sci-fi racing game is a new adaptation of Radial-G: Racing Evolved, which was an Oculus Rift launch title way back in early 2016.
According to a recent email from the new game’s publisher Things3D, Radial-G: Proteus is slated to hit the Oculus Quest exclusively on December 17th for $24.99. You can read our preview first hands-on impressions right here.
Thankfully it sounds like it should be hitting headsets with quite a bit of content right out of the gate with even more slated to drop over the course of 2020. On launch day it will only have single-player races, but will pack eight different game modes (including combat and elimination races), as well as 9 half-pipe style racetracks, a brand new soundtrack, unlockable ships across three speed classes, and a career mode.
In Q1 of 2020 Things3D will update Radial-G with a new boss-fight game mode, more tracks, a longer campaign, and more ships to unlock. There is no date set for multiplayer, but it is confirmed to at least be in development. It’s a bit odd to leave out such major features, but at least early buyers will have new stuff coming soon to look out for.
With the recent release of Death Lap on Quest (and Rift) more racing games are finally starting to make their way to the standalone 6DOF headset. Radial-G: Proteus should fill the sci-fi racer gap nicely, so look forward to our impressions and review around launch on December 17th.
OZWE Games’ newest release, Death Lap, is out today on the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift with crossplay. The game had previously been listed under ‘Coming Soon’ on the Oculus Store without a set release date.
The new title from OZWE Games, published by Oculus Studios, is a first-person arcade racer and shooter in VR. If that sounds a bit chaotic, that’s probably intentional – take a look at the interview below and you’ll see some of the frenetic action you can expect from the game.
Death Lap will see you balance racing while you also shooting weapons and managing constant combat. David Jagneaux went hands-on with the game earlier this year and had a good time. Here’s an extract of his thoughts:
“There are some limited power-ups you’ll come across, but for the most part every vehicle is installed with their own custom weapons so each time you race in a new car it’s a different experience. For my demo I picked the one with a rocket launcher. Trying to drive well and stay in the lead while simultaneously looking around to aim rockets and shoot ahead of vehicles, leading them, to get the splash damage of the explosion just right, felt really good and fun.”
The Death Lap release date announcement also came with an awesome piece of key art for the game. While we’ve made it the header image for the post, it’s worth embedding below as well just to marvel at:
Will you be picking up Death Lap? Let us know in the comments.
OZWE Games is a virtual reality (VR) developer known for its love of sci-fi action thanks to its two previous titles Anshar Wars 2 and Anshar Online(both highly recommended). Just prior to Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) the studio announced that it was working on a far more terrestrial title but one which was no less out of this world. Evoking classic vehicular combat titles like Road Rash or Destruction Derby, OZWE Games has created Death Lap, a racer that’s as much about driving as it is about shooting everyone.
Demoing Death Lap at OC6 on an Oculus Quest, this early version was a single-player experience with each race made up of six participants. There’s a loose storyline involving an evil villain who has created the races as part of a deadly gameshow, with some sort of nefarious plot woven in as well.
Storylines in most racing titles were never the most engaging or compelling and that seems to be the case here, which doesn’t really matter so long as the gameplay mechanics hold up. And it’s so far so good from VRFocus’ point of view, with Death Lap proving to be an enjoyable racer at the moment.
There were several tracks to choose from, set amongst dusty desert terrain with a variety of carnival style decorations littering and warping the track. Likewise, Death Lap offered a choice of vehicles to select, from small nippy buggies to oversized monster trucks. Naturally, each had several attributes setting them apart, from handling and acceleration, to their stock weapon loadouts for taking out the competition.
Racing was a lively yet still controllable affair, with wide open tracks allowing for plenty of ruckus and little bouncing of walls. OZWE Games has employed some visual trickery to ensure a comfortable racing experience no matter whether you’re pulling a power slide or flying through the air, pummelling an opponent with your guns.
Ah the guns. As mentioned, this is as much an essential part of the experience as those four wheels. Every car has a central roof mounted weapon of some sort. Generally resembling a minigun, plasma cannon or other heavy-duty weapon this is for long range attacks, completely controlled via the right Oculus Touch controller. It has a 360-degree shooting range, so when the track is right even those lagging at the back can get a face full of bullets. Super fun to use, the only worry was running out of ammo, handily littered around the track along with other surprises.
These could be both beneficial and deadly to your own race, offering boosts to jump ramps or more offensive capabilities like mines or an SMG – a personal favourite – which had limited ammo but allows you to shoot out the window, drive by style.
No doubt an arcade style racer, Death Lap offered short bouts of intense action where you almost don’t care if you come in first, evoking the often sought after ‘one more go’ mentality. The only factor that made it a little underwhelming were the visuals which certainly didn’t compare to other Oculus Quest titles at present or OZWE’s previous videogames. Oculus Quest definitely needs its own racing experience and Death Lap could well be the one.
Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) may have been a couple of weeks ago but VRFocus has one last interview from the event. OZWE Games, the studio behind popular virtual reality (VR) mobile series Anshar Wars and Anshar Online, was in attendance to showcase its latest project, a vehicular combat title called Death Lap, and CEO Stephane Intissar was on hand to discuss the title.
Revealed prior to OC6, Death Lap takes place in a twist race created by a villainous character called Nitro Saint Payne. Much like the film Death Race, OZWE Games’ experience isn’t solely about driving as fast as possible and keeping hold of pole position. There are five other racers on the track and they all have carnage in mind.
So Death Lap is about mixing speed with a variety of weapons and powerups, utilising the various environmental hazards on each track in the most effective manner. Prior to each race starting players can select one of five vehicles, offing different handling characteristics as well as weapon options.
All the cars are supplied with a central roof mounted gun which needs to be restocked with ammo littered around the track. This has a 360-degree aiming circle, allowing skilled drivers to shot any opponent within range, front or behind. The tracks are also littered with various items to pick up, from speed boosts and mines, to pistols which provide a little drive-by shooting action.
Demoed using Oculus Quest, Death Lap mixes both comedy and carnage in both multiplayer and single-player form. Intissar discusses some of the various mechanics employed in the experience and some of the various fun elements players can expect.
Also coming to Oculus Rift with cross play support OZWE Games doesn’t currently have a launch window for Death Lap although development is expected to wrap up in the next few months.
Check out the interview below or take a look at Mozilla’s interview from OC6 talking about how WebVR will play an important role in the future of the industry or ARVORE’s Ana Ribeiro discussing Pixel Ripped 1995. For all the latest updates about Death Lap, keep reading VRFocus.
Death Lap is a new upcoming VR combat racing game from OZWE Games featuring cross-play and cross-buy that releases “soon” for Rift and Quest.
OZWE Games just announced Death Lap not long ago, less than a month ago before Oculus Connect 6 in fact, and at OC6 we got the chance to talk with Alma Moya Losada, the Head of Marketing and Communications at OZWE, about the game. She also let us try out a build of the game running on Oculus Quest.
I was immediately reminded of Twisted Metal mixed with a more traditional racing game. The Twisted Metal games are great, but they’re more like arena fighting games that just so happen to give you vehicles as the characters. In Death Lap you’re still racing around a course, but have the addition of weapons and constant combat to deal with at the same time.
WipEout has weapons as well, but they’re more of an ancillary feature there — in Death Lap, the combat takes the center stage. Right now the game works by having you steer your car with the left analog stick of your Touch controller while you aim your weapon with your right hand in full 6DOF.
They said they’re experimenting with letting you steer using your actual left hand, but they said in testing it made people’s arms tired. However, it works well in other racing games I’ve tried like Touring Karts, but at least having the option would be nice.
There are some limited power-ups you’ll come across, but for the most part every vehicle is installed with their own custom weapons so each time you race in a new car it’s a different experience. For my demo I picked the one with a rocket launcher. Trying to drive well and stay in the lead while simultaneously looking around to aim rockets and shoot ahead of vehicles, leading them, to get the splash damage of the explosion just right, felt really good and fun.
There’s no release date yet but Death Lap is coming out soon for both Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift with full cross-play support. The focus is on competitive multiplayer racing, as expected, but you can race against the AI as well if you’d like.
Check out our interview video above with the Head of Marketing for more details.
Anshar Wars developer OZWE Games is back with its first project for Oculus Quest. Meet the wonderfully-named Death Lap, the latest game from publisher Oculus Studios.
As you might have guessed, Death Lap takes a page from the book of vicious racing movies like Death Race. It’s a mix of racer and shooter in which players battle it out on twisted courses. Players are forced to fight for their freedom using special abilities after being captured by a madman. Take a look at the very brief teaser below.
As you can see, Death Lap looks like an insane mix of steering with one hand and shooting with the other. It can be played either in first or third person and offers both solo and multiplayer modes. Five death machines offer their own unique weapons, like an enormous drill fitted to the front of one or spider-like claws on another.
The game features five tracks with up to six players on each. Levels include an abandoned theme park and a giant pinball machine.
This is OZWE’s first VR game not set in the team’s Anshar universe. The sci-fi series dates back to the early days of Gear VR and was last seen in 2018’s Anshar Online for Go, Rift and Gear.
We don’t yet have a date for Death Lap’s release. That said, we’re hoping to see more from the game at Oculus Connect 6 in a few weeks’ time. We’ll keep you posted with all of the latest updates on the title.
Known for its sci-fi franchise Anshar Wars, virtual reality (VR) developer OZWE Games is going for a more grounded approach for its next videogame Death Lap. A fast and furious racing title with plenty of combat elements, Death Lap has just been announced for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift headsets.
In Death Lap OZWE Games will be mixing up several racing genres, offering players the chance to tear up the track and their opponents using a variety of vehicles and weapon systems. With a loose story revolving around this annual race and its host, Nitro Saint Payne, there is only one concern for racers, making it past the finish line.
Going into greater detail regarding the main character, OZWE Games CEO Stéphane Intissar mentions on Oculus Blog that Nitro Saint Payne is a mixture of famous supervillains such as Arcade from Marvel Comics; the Joker, Dan Killian in The Running Man and Cruella de Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians.
There will be five cars to choose before each race, each featuring a variety of strengths, short and long-range weapons, and special abilities. Players will be able to race on five circuits: a psychedelic desert, oil on fire in the desert, Las Vegas by night, an abandoned theme park, and a giant pinball.
And just to make the races even more interesting Intissar says: “Besides weapons, players can use items to get an edge over their opponents: traps, secret paths, and pickup items spread throughout the 3D environments. To spice up the game, players can be eaten by a colossal piranha, electrified by the malicious clown, and crushed by a giant dice over the ruthless rides.”
With a multiplayer which can support up to six people, Death Lap will also feature a single-player option. In multiplayer integrated VoIP will allow players to talk (taunt) to each other plus they be able to rank on global leaderboards.
Currently, there’s no indication how far through development Death Lap is or when OZWE Games plan on releasing the title. With Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) less than two weeks away its likely further details will be made available during the event. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
