As September draws to a close, here are a host of new virtual reality (VR) videogames being released over the course of the next week. Fans of first-person shooters will not be disappointed. Make sure to stay tuned into VRFocus for up to date coverage on the Oculus Connect event, next week on the 25th and 26th September where VRFocus will be reporting and keeping you up to date on all things VR.
Espire 1: VR Operative
Become an ‘Espire agent’ and take control of a futuristic drone armed with state of the art weapons and gadgets in this virtual reality stealth experience. Featuring full freedom of movement and varying levels of immersion, experience this full single-player story along with smaller challenges and make use of the game’s voice control to make commands and take charge.
Supported platforms: Oculus Rift/HTC Vive/Oculus Quest/Windows Mixed Reality/Valve Index
Launch date: 24th September
Blastworld
New from Finnish games studio, Hipfire Games, you can run, jump and fly across various maps in this competitive first-person PVP adventure where you swap out traditional multiplayer weapons for foam dart guns and other comedic weapons. Featuring various levels of immersion. Currently a demo, the studio is looking to release a full release in the future.
After two years in development and after gathering feedback from various sources, After-H is getting another release so users can give feedback on a much larger scale in this new early access release. Set on Mars, this FPS experience sees 2-8 players fight to take control of the solar system in this competitive experience. Currently, the game includes 3 maps, three different weapons and 3 different modes of gameplay.
In this first-person stealth horror VR experience, you view your surroundings through the eyes of a defenceless boy stuck in a house that has just been invaded by intruders. You must work to move around unnoticed to protect your family in this four-hour-long experience.
Panther VR (official website) is a brand-new stealth action game from Wolfdog Interactive, the same developers behind both VR Dungeon Knight and Skyworld. The game’s Kickstarter is now live seeking to crowdfund $16,598 by November 2nd.
In Panther VR players will take on the role of a Panther Agent within an international secret group of master thieves known as the Guild. It’s your mission to take back power from evil major Corporations, steal top-secret prototypes, plan out heists, and infiltrate heavily guarded facilities. From the description on the Kickstarter page it sounds a bit like a modernized Robin Hood meets cloak-and-dagger antics a la Assassin’s Creed I’m totally here for it.
The developers describe Panther VR as a “stealth action sandbox” that lets you “play how you want” with careful planning, or full action, and lots of weapons and loot. There will be a dedicated campaign mode, a “contracts” mode focused on shorter, replayable content, a “missions” mode that’s randomly generated with “unlimited” content, and challenges including leaderboards. Game flow seems to involve planning out missions, picking gear, and then trying to enact your plan — sort of like the heist scenes you see in movies.
This will be a VR-only game and specifically lists support for SteamVR, Valve Index, Oculus, and HTC Vive — although it’s unclear if that means just Rift or Rift and Quest. Wolfdog specifically cites Metal Gear Solid, Hitman, Dishonored, Payday, Thief, and Just Cause as their inspiration.
If you back early you can nab a copy for as low as $14, but the base pledge price to get a copy is $20. Other, highter tiers include beta access, alpha access, getting your name in the game, or even the ability to name locations. For the highest tier ($2,500) you can have direct contact to the devs whenever you want, all future games from Wolfdog, your own statue in the game, and even instant access to the game immediately pending signing an NDA. Stretch goals include a dedicated music composer, skill trees, more weapons, hideout customization, a new story mode, and more.
We don’t write about every single VR Kickstarter out there, but there have been a lot of really promising ones as of late from the cyberpunk adventure LOW-FI up to the ambitious VR MMO, Zenith. Panther VR is fresh and just launched so they haven’t raised much at all yet, but the modest $16,598 is very achievable and they have proven experience shipping VR games. VR Dungeon Knight is one of the best action RPGs in VR and is considered by many to be the gold standard for co-op RPGs.
Espire 1: VR Operative is getting ready to step out of the shadows.
We’ve been looking forward to this VR stealth game from Digital Lode for longer than we can remember. This week we finally got an extended look at the game, free from the constraints of industry demo booths.
The good news is that the game holds up under the added scrutiny, though there’s certainly room for improvement. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the key elements that really make the game shine, along with a few we’re hoping to see improved before the launch of the final build on September 24.
What We Love
The Freedom
Like the best stealth games, there’s no one way to play Espire 1. Right off the bat, you can choose to play the game as a ghost, passing through areas unseen, or go loud with gunfire. The former is itself open-ended, with hidden paths to find and the choice of knocking out enemies or leaving them be.
Playing it as a shooter is certainly an option, though it doesn’t come with as many end of level rewards. But Digital Lode makes some clever adjustments, keeping the enemies flowing when in high alert and implementing a health system that adds a touch of strategy (more on that in a bit). Ultimately it’s up to you how you play Espire 1.
The Health System
If Espire 1 had a simple regenerating health meter, it’d be simply far too easy. But, if there were no way to replenish health at all, it’d probably be a little too difficult. Digital Lode’s solution is wonderfully logical. When under fire, you accumulate damage over time. To stitch up, you’ll need to repair yourself.
To do this you use a rod located to the left of your UI. When you grab it, glowing orbs representing damage will appear in front of you. You need to hold the rod over each until they disappear. It takes a little time, meaning you’ll need to find a safe space to repair instead of replenishing health in the middle of battle.
The Sticky Cam
Perhaps one of Espire’s most thoughtful inventions is its take on the stealth sticky cam. Holding the trigger on either controller when your hand is free sprouts a small camera from the back of your hand. Its capture is displayed on a small screen on the side of your UI. You can use this to carefully peek around corners in tight spots without the risk of being captured.
Better yet, though, you can actually grab the camera with your other hand and toss it. It’ll stick to any surface, allowing you to hide away and wait for the perfect time to make your move. You can even emit sounds that will cause a distraction, clearing the way. It’s a strikingly organic addition to the game which can be a little tricky to fully utilize (I have a terrible VR throwing arm) but overall it’s a lot of fun.
The Hold-Up
This one is of personal affection for fans of Metal Gear Solid. Sneaking up behind an enemy, holding a gun at them and physically saying ‘Freeze’ into your headset’s microphone holds baddies up. You can then retrieve weapons from their hands or simply knock them out.
But take caution when using this option; baddies can also decide to sprint off at any moment and grab help. That’ll definitely put a quick stop to your no-kills streak.
The Little Touches
Aside from what we’ve listed here, there’s a lot of other little touches that really make Espire 1 sing in its best moments. When you make a fist, for example, you can see your robotic hand reinforce itself, ready for impact. If you drop your repair rod on the ground, it makes a waypoint towards your objective.
What Could Be Improved
Sound Detection
Noise is a key part of any stealth game. It gives consideration to your each and every movement. But this is one of the areas that Espire struggles with; while firing many weapons will sending the guards running, other actions go confoundingly unnoticed. In one level I had an automatic turret taking potshots at me while a guard walked on by in oblivious bliss.
It’s an awkward omission in a game that otherwise puts so much consideration into every tiny element. From what I could tell, my footsteps would go unnoticed too. Perhaps this would simply make the game too hard, but it’s pretty jarring all the same.
Enemy AI
There’s a lot happening at any given moment in Espire 1; multiple enemies patrolling different routes in various stages of alert. Once you’re discovered, all of these systems sort of fall in on themselves as the enemy’s singular focus becomes finding you and taking you down.
At these moments the cracks in the game’s design can start to show through. Enemies sprint in only to stare at barren patches of walls or run off to completely irrelevant areas. Worse yet, the exact same lines of dialogue are repeated ad nauseam, sometimes by the same characters. It gives your pursuers the impression of lifeless robots (ironic, given that you yourself are a drone).
Espire 1 releases on September 24th, 2019, for all major headsets including Oculus Home for Rift and Quest, Steam for all SteamVR headsets, and PSVR. We’ll have a full review later this month!
Is it just me or are things a bit quiet on the PSVR front lately?
Sony’s headset has had a great year so far with releases like Blood & Truth. But we’ve been so hyper-focused on No Man’s Sky VR that we’re left looking at the end of the year wondering what else is on the way.
Turns out there’s quite a lot.
PSVR 2019 Games
We’re likely due a new version of Sony’s State of Play broadcast to tell us more soon, but we’ve rounded up some of the best-looking PSVR 2019 games still to come this year. There’s only a handful of titles published by Sony itself but, from what we can tell, third parties are more than picking up the slack. Here’s what we know is on the way before the year’s out.
Espire 1
Judging by the reaction online, Espire 1: VR Operative is probably what most of us are looking forward to before the year’s end. This VR stealth game is essentially Metal Gear Solid 2 in VR, presenting players with a dizzying amount of options to sneak around levels unseen. We’ve played it a few times now and it’s shaping up nicely. Though we haven’t seen it on PSVR, the Quest version is looking good, which gives us hope. The game’s out September 27.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Time
We saw a great VR animated short in the world of Doctor Who earlier this year, but now it’s time for the main event. Developer Maze Theory is working on a narrative-driven VR experience that tours the world of Who. You’ll travel to different times and meet iconic villains, solve puzzles and go on the search for the Doctor herself.
Golem
It’s hard to believe that Golem is really coming out. This debut project from the former Bungie developers at Highwire Games was announced before PSVR itself had been released. It was due for launch in early 2018 before a last-minute delay saw it sink into the shadows for well over a year. But we now know it’s coming this fall, and we remain as intrigued by its first-person sword combat and unique story as ever. Let’s hope it measures up to expectations.
Gorn
The PSVR version of Free Lives’ bloody gladiator sim is still in the works for a release this year. On PC, Gorn is one of VR’s most brilliantly over the top and lovable games, offering pure carnage as you whack, slice and stab your way through waves of meatheaded goons.
Iron Man VR
Iron Man VR feels like something of a technical miracle. Despite PSVR’s limited tracking, the game does a pretty fantastic job of letting players spin around as you zoom about skylines, blasting enemies out of the air. Still, we’ve only seen a very small portion of what we’re told is a full adventure with its own story. If Iron Man VR really is coming this year, we’re hoping to find out much more about it in the very near future.
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son
A sequel to Groundhog Day in VR is probably not what you thought you’d be getting out of your headset this year. Nevertheless, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is one of the most genuinely promising VR games on the horizon right now, looking to combine story and interaction in meaningful ways, with some entertaining minigames strewn in along the way. We’ll find out what it’s made of when the game releases on September 17.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught
If you couldn’t tell, the VR tie-ins are coming thick and fast this season. Survios has more than proven it’s capable of handling the expectations of series like Creed and Westworld, however. With that in mind, we’re looking forward to seeing what the team can bring to the medium with its first linear, narrative-driven VR shooter (and its first shooter in general since Raw Data). Set during the events of the show, this promises more zombie murder than you can shake a stick at.
Budget Cuts
Espire 1 isn’t the only stealth game sneaking onto PSVR. A port of last year’s popular VR indie hit, Budget Cuts, is also due to arrive on sony’s headset. In Budget Cuts, you sneak through office cubicles, dodging enemy robots and occasional tossing a knife or two their way. The PC version of the game had a lot of issues when it first launch but there was an enjoyable core. Hopefully, that will be able to shine through in the PSVR version too.
Final Assault
Indie developer Phaser Lock Interactive has been in VR for some time, and Final Assault is one of its most polished and best releases to date. On PC, this is a rewarding VR RTS with incredibly detailed visuals and fun multiplayer modes. We know the game’s making its way over to PS4 later this year and we’re hoping it holds up across the board.
Concrete Genie
Concrete Genie’s tale of bullying and companionship holds a lot of promise, but we’re just as interested to check out the extent of its VR offerings. The game will have two VR modes at launch, one featuring its own mini-campaign and another that lets you wield a PlayStation Move controller to paint to your heart’s content. We’ll be really interested to see how the game translates into VR when it launches on October 8.
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What other PSVR 2019 games are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!
It’s playtime; this week’s VRecap is gaming heaven.
Gamescom may have been last week but this week’s recap has even more news for fans of fun. There’s plenty of fresh content to be talking about, including a new update for Beat Saber with a bunch of new songs and features. Then we take a trip to a galaxy far, far away to catch up with the latest on Star Wars: Vader Immortal. Oh, and there’s an update to a game from Valve (no, not the one we all want to hear about).
Elsewhere, this week is chock full of new releases. We’ll give you a quick glimpse of Acron: Attack of the Squirrels (which we quite liked), Vanishing Realms (which we really liked) and Hotel R’n’R (which we think we like but haven’t played enough of yet). Of course, this would be a VRecap without some sort of mention of No Man’s Sky, and this week we have your latest comments on the game.
Finally we’re giving you the chance to win Acron on Oculus Quest. Resolution Games’ nutty party title finds a perfect home on Oculus’ standalone headset, so don’t miss out on a chance to grab it for free. All you need to do is follow the link right here (very shortly).
Okay, that about does it for this week. September awaits and it brings with it Oculus Connect and, hopefully, some other big news too. Oh, and we’ll finally get to play Espire 1. Let us know what you make of this week’s VRecap in the comments!
After going dark for about a year post-reveal, achieving our Best of Show at E3 2019 award, then a sudden delay, stealth action game Espire 1: VR Operative finally has a confirmed release date of September 24, 2019.
Today publisher Tripwire Interactive and developer Digital Lode confirmed that the VR stealth action game has a real, firm release date. That September 24th release will be for all platforms including Rift, Vive, Index, Windows VR, Quest, and PSVR at the same time.
And, to sweeten the pot even more, if you pre-order Espire 1 on Steam starting today, then you can get Killing Floor: Incursion 100% for free. It’s a very different type of shooter with a focus on narrative-driven survival gameplay against zombies with a full two-player co-op campaign. We quite liked it. And if you pre-order on the PSN Store for PSVR, you’ll get 15% off starting on August 30th.
It’s being crafted as a single-player only narrative-driven experience with several different missions, but it will also be wildly replayable with challenges, leaderboards, and unlockable cheat codes as well — similar to what was done with Defector.
Fingers crossed this one turns out as good as it has the potential to be. We’ve only got less than a month left to see how it ends up. Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!
Originally, developer Digital Lode and publisher Tripwire Interactive had planned on releasing stealth adventure Espire 1: VR Operative during August yet no date was ever confirmed. Today, that release window has shifted slightly, with the teams announcing a September launch date as well as pre-order bonuses.
To coincide with today’s announcement you’ll be able to pre-order Espire 1: VR Operative via Steam later today. PC customers who pre-order the videogame on Steam will receive a free Steam copy of Tripwire’s first VR title, Killing Floor: Incursion. From 30th August, North American PlayStation VR fans (no word on a European offer) who pre-order on the PlayStation Store will receive a 15% off discount.
Espire 1: VR Operative impressed when VRFocusdemoed the title during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 in June, finding that being a sneaky robot who could perform superhuman feats of strength and agility was just as fun as you’d imagine.
The premise behind Espire 1: VR Operative is that you play an Espire agent on a top-secret mission. In this futuristic world, you don’t need to risk your own life anymore, instead dropping into an Espire model 1 robot which can be remotely controlled. This machine allows you to scale heights, and leap massive distances to stay ultra-quiet and remain unseen. Of course, should you get spotted – or prefer the gung-ho approach – then you can take a few hits in a firefight. Should you lose then you’ll respawn in a new body.
Developed as a single-player VR experience with individual story missions and scenario missions that use the story mission environments for short challenges, one of the main features employed in Espire 1: VR Operative is the “Control Theatre.” This has been designed to eliminate VR motion sickness in first-person videogames, shrinking the world to the size of a floating tablet, with the Control Theatre visible in the player’s peripheral vision.
Espire 1: VR Operative is scheduled to launch on 24th September 2019, on headsets including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, and PlayStation VR. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Espire 1: VR Operative, reporting back with any further updates.
We’ve all thought it; VR must be great for horror games, right?
And it’s true; Resident Evil 7 and The Exorcist VR are some of the most compelling, immersive experiences you can have in a headset. But I’d argue that, recently, another genre has sneaked out of the shadows to threaten the VR gaming crown. Stealth could soon be the new king of immersive play.
Two Gamescom demos really hammered home that point. The first was, of course, Espire 1: VR Operative, Digital Lode’s hugely promising ode to Metal Gear Solid. The other is Phantom: Covert Ops, nDreams’ lovably ridiculous mix of sneaking and water sports.
Espire is a giddy experience and deeply nostalgic for any fans of Metal Gear Solid 2. In fact, everything from reloading your non-lethal sidearm to shouting ‘Freeze’ when holding up unsuspecting enemies is directly lifted out of Hideo Kojima’s stealth sandbox. If it were any less of a game you might consider that a slight, but rediscovering these ideas in VR is something of a revelation.
Digital Lode’s ambitious foundation is that, if a player can think it, they should be able to do it too. Knocking a guard’s head with the butt of a pistol sends them straight to sleep, walls can be scaled and any dropped weapon can be picked up and fired. It’s the closest I’ve seen a VR stealth game get to the idea of dropping the player’s physical body in the world and having it drive every element of the game’s mechanics.
Phantom is essentially the same game just…on water. Sneaking into enemy bases and sabotaging machinery all from the comfort of a kayak requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. That’s ironic given the consideration put into making the game’s movement as believable as possible. Paddling through streams feels entirely natural, from alternating strokes to pushing yourself away from walls with one end of an oar. It’s perhaps more streamlined than Espire, with stripped back options and encounters, but what it loses in player freedom, it more than makes up for in immersion.
There’s two sides to the coin, though. When you’re in control, VR stealth makes you feel like a kid sneaking into a backyard to steal your ball back. It’s alive and electric in a way most other games can only hope to capture. But when you’re caught, things can crumble away a bit.
I noticed the AI in both of my demos felt a little rusty. In Espire, when a guard caught me peaking out from behind a corner, a crew of goons sprinted to the same spot only to stand around aimlessly before running off with little coordination. For a game that otherwise emulates Metal Gear with uncanny precision, it was disappointing to see the veil lift in that moment. Phantom’s baddies, meanwhile, acted like headless chickens once I hid under a walkway.
This is a complex problem, one that both nDreams and Digital Lode told me they were working on. Realistically, I’m not expecting huge improvements between now and launch; there’s only so much you can ask of modestly-sized teams like these, especially Digital Lode (which, in many respects, they’re exceeding those expectations). The truth of it might be that we don’t see that final puzzle piece fall into place until Ubisoft lends its slick production skills to the rumored Splinter Cell VR. But, again, these are games that are about not being seen and, when all that’s expected of an enemy is to stick to their patrol routes, everything runs like clockwork.
And for now, clockwork will do just fine. Espire 1 and Phantom are both coming later this year and I can’t wait to properly sink my teeth into them.
The aforementioned ‘pews’ are attributed to the fact we played Iron Man VR today. There’s been a lot of buzzing about how Marvel’s latest VR experience allows 360 degree tracking in VR. We wanted to put that to the test. Did it live up to it? Find out in our video recap over on YouTube!
But is that all? Nay, good reader; we’ve seen plenty more Gamescom VR goodness today. We got our latest look at Espire 1: VR Operative, a VR stealth game we’ve been looking forward to playing for some time now. Again, we snuck around, shot some guards and climbed a wall or two. You’ll have to watch on to see what we thought.
Elsewhere on the Gamescom roster we’ve tried some of the many, many indie VR games dotted about the show. Some of them we’d never heard of before, some of them we’d been looking forward to for a while.
Want more? We’ll have full impressions of everything we saw today a little later down the line. Keep your eyes peeled for those articles. Also, if you missed our first day of impressions, including games like Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son and Down The Rabbit Hole, make sure to check those out right here.
Okay, time to get out of here again (we’re really, really tired). But! We’ll have more tomorrow! Yes, we’re at Gamescom for one more day and there’s still a heck of a lot to see. Then we’ll get to go home. Yay!
Last month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) featured not one but two virtual reality (VR) stealth experiences. One was nDream’s kayak themed title Phantom: Covert Opsand the other was a far more traditional style stealth adventure called Espire 1: VR Operative. Created by Australian developer Digital Lode and being published by Killing Floor: Incursion studio Tripwire Interactive, it’s fair to say Espire 1: VR Operative could be one of the standout summer releases.
Espire 1: VR Operative is set in a futuristic world where you play an Espire agent tasked with infiltrating some facility or another type of base. What’s important (and the hook as such) is that you’re not physically there, you’re controlling and Espire model 1 robot, which means you can perform all sorts of non-human stunts and acrobatics, climbing vertical surfaces, leaping vast distances and other cool moves.
As is fairly common with stealth experiences you can choose to be ultra-sneaky and stick to the shadows or throw caution to the wind and kill everyone in sight. Espire 1: VR Operative does encourage the former as the initial loadout for the demo featured a dart gun to put enemies to sleep. They can then be moved to ensure other guards aren’t alerted to your presence. It’s hard not to compare Espire 1: VR Operative to Splinter Cell in many respects, which is no bad thing.
Secondly, you’re given plenty of options when it comes to progressing through the level in a stealth-like manner. Stay low and slick between cover, shimmy up a wall and stay high jumping across any suitable environmental object. Fall down or alert a guard in any way then be ready for a firefight, as an area can soon be flooded with armed guards. Should the Espire drone become holier than Swiss cheese there’s no need to worry, you’ll respawn in the closest new model.
However, that does need to be avoided as best possible due to other mechanics Digital Lode has employed. You might be a highly skilled government agent yet costs are always a factor and Espire drones are expensive, so at the end of each level, you’ll be given a score. Cost the government too much cash and the overall score will be low. Other abilities can also affect this cost value, such as Espire Vision, which lets you detect enemies using sonar. It’s an interesting feature for adding replayability, and ideal for VR arcades as well.
One of the main elements of Espire 1: VR Operative is the ‘Control Theatre’ mechanic. Digital Lode has been talking about this since the title’s first reveal last year, designed to ensure locomotion comfort as best as possible for most players. It works in tandem with the storyline. As you play a remote Espire drone operator you control the robot from a sort of Holodeck. So when any sort of movement occurs a vignette effect takes place, revealing the Holodeck location instead of blackness, with the videogame world shrunk into a small window. The effect looks quite helpful yet these features are quite difficult to test when VR no longer causes nausea. For those that are comfortable running around in VR, the option can be turned off.
Demoing Espire 1: VR Operative on the Oculus Rift S the visual quality of the title was definitely up there with some of the best examples VR action games. The experience will also be coming to Oculus Quest which was also available to test. As with most Oculus Rift compatible videogames on Quest, the main difference is the visuals. There’s a noticeable drop in texture and detail definition but that’s to be expected. So long as this is the biggest disparity between the two then Digital Lode will have done well.
As a single-player VR experience Espire 1: VR Operative needs two aspects to keep players engrossed, an entertaining storyline and variety of gameplay. VRFocus can’t comment on the former at present. The latter, on the other hand, looks like it has plenty of potential. Hopefully the final version of Espire 1: VR Operative won’t turn out to be a generic shooter, rather a sneaky hit.
Espire 1: VR Operative
