For today’s livestream we’re playing Solaris: Offworld Combat, the latest VR shooter from the creators of Firewall Zero Hour! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.
Yesterday the next VR shooter from First Contact Entertainment released, Solaris: Offworld Combat. It’s a sci-fi take on the arena shooter genre with fast-paced gameplay reminiscent of classics such as Quake and Unreal Tournament.
Our Solaris livestream is planned to start at about 1:15 PM PT today and will last for around an hour or so, give or take. We’ll be hitting just our YouTubeand I’ll be streaming from an Oculus Quest with two Touch controllers using a Chromecast connection. I’m flying solo on this one and will only be able to see chat periodically when I peak through my headset nose gap.
You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely. Let’s get ready to go!
Solaris: Offworld Combat is the next multiplayer shooter from First Contact Entertainment and we got the chance to go hands-on with it for the very first time last week. During my session I played the game on both Rift S and Quest and came away excited to see more!
From the very first moments of gameplay, it’s obvious that Solaris takes heavy inspiration from the likes of Quake, Unreal, and other classic arena shooters. And remarkably, it actually runs and looks strikingly similar on both Quest and Rift — as you can see in the video below.
Now, let’s dive into what it’s like it play it.
5 Ways Solaris Channels Quake And Unreal For Old-School Shooter Fun
Fast-Paced Gameplay
In Solaris you’re a cyber athlete from the future that battles it out against others on virtual battlegrounds. It’s a pretty meta premise that’s a bit like VR-within-VR and the presentation absolutely nails it. What this means functionally is that you spend very little time standing around waiting. Load times are incredibly quick, you move around maps at a quick pace, and can even slide across the ground for an evasive speed boost.
Just like in Quake and Unreal, it pays to stay on the move. Standing still is a great way to get shot so you’ll want to learn maps fast so you know the best cover points and hallways to sprint down while getting the drop on an enemy.
No Reloading Necessary
Solaris doesn’t have a reload button. I know, that seems weird. With the popularity of modern military shooters and the “realism” VR affords in games like Onward, it’s a bit odd to think that you won’t need to actually reload your gun at all. But in the future cyberscape of Solaris, where they’re going they don’t need reload buttons.
And if you played old-school games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal, then you’d know those don’t have reload buttons either. All reloading does is slow you down and Solaris is all about the speed of immediacy of combat.
Walk-Over Item Pick-Ups
Speaking of the immediacy of combat, in Solaris you don’t need to manage an inventory, manually pick up weapons, or switch weapons at all. You run full-speed over item spawn points and you just automatically pick them up. Everyone begins each match with their standard semi-auto pistol and within each map you can find a rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and assault rifle weapons, in addition to a deployable shield cover and proximity mine. Shield and health power-ups round out the offering.
In some older shooters you could cycle between various weapons, but you don’t do that in Solaris. Instead, whatever improved gun you find is your default weapon for a short time until you’ve used it up, then it just auto-switches back to your pistol. You need to take advantage of increased firepower when you’ve found it.
This one I expect to be a bit divisive, because in some ways it smacks of the taste of dumbing things down, but I don’t think streamlining necessarily means dumbing down. From what I’ve played Solaris is still an immensely fun, challenging, and deep shooter with a lot of nuance, but it sidesteps pain points that don’t translate smoothly to VR by simplifying things that get in the way of just having fun.
Teamwork Is Key
Since Solaris only has one game mode that’s basically like King of the Hill, called Control Point, it encourages teamwork above going rogue as a solo player. Technically you can still get XP and rank up to unlock new cosmetics even if your team doesn’t win, but being on the winning team nets you a big XP bonus so it’s worth playing cohesively.
Solaris has in-game voice chat, but unfortunately it won’t have a party system or friend invite system at launch. At launch it’s only going to be “Pre-Season” and then the standard Season of rankings will begin shortly after. It’s my understanding that as new Seasons begin, new cosmetics will roll out, and likely other changes like new weapons and maps too.
And yes — all maps and weapons that are added will be included for free.
Easy To Learn, Difficult To Master
Solaris is the kind of game you can quickly hop in and play with little to no fuss (assuming at least seven other people across PC and Quest have the same idea) and it’s a lot of fun. However, there is still depth here. Learning the maps, working with your team, getting the hang of shooting each gun, and developing strategies takes time and means that the entry level for playing is quite low but the skill ceiling for being really, really good is very high.
Similar to games like Quake and Unreal, virtually anyone can play those games. They’re pretty dead simple. But if you watch pro-tier players it looks almost like they’re playing a different game altogether due to how fluidly they move. Solaris has that same flexibility.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Additional Details
This article was called 5 ways Solaris is liek Unreal or Quake, but there are actually a bunch of other things I want to talk about. Thus, you get a small brain dump at the end here:
Progression
If you played Firewall Zero Hour you might remember in that game that you not only unlocked new things like guns, equipment, and skins by ranking up your level, but also by spending the in-game currency that you either earned slowly by playing or by spending real money to buy it. Solaris is rank-based progression only and all weapons are just map-based pickups.
From what I’ve seen there aren’t many cosmetics yet, but thankfully the outfit models like the shape of the helmet and style of your armor are separate from the color skin that’s applied, so you can mix and match pretty freely. It just takes a while to unlock anything, so hopefully they add a lot more.
Dedicated Servers, Fast Load Times
Another thing to mention as a key point is that Solaris is launching with dedicated servers rather than peer-to-peer and load times are really, really quick.
No Party System
I mentioned this already, but just to emphasize: you cannot join up with a friend, make a party, or invite anyone to a game — yet. That is coming as the first major update, but for pre-season it’s not in yet.
No Bots, No Solo Play
When I pressed the developers for an answer here they basically just said, “We never say never,” but at this time there are no plans for anything other than strictly 4v4. That means if only seven people are online, you can’t play. There is no training mode, no bots to fight against, and no solo options at all. Hopefully they reconsider and add something, even if it’s just an option to have bots fill empty slots and balance teams.
No Map Selection Or Lobby System
The main menu has a play button or you can put the helmet on — those are your options for joining a match. Behind the scenes the game then slots you into a match and starts the game. There is no map selection, it’s just always random, and you can’t tweak options or anything yet. I’m under the impression that private lobbies with settings to tweak and filters to set are coming, but aren’t there yet.
No Jumping
Sorry, no jump button. However — you can slide! And that’s pretty fun.
Solaris: Offworld Combat releases on September 24th for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift with crossplay and crossbuy. There are plans for a PSVR release later, but there’s no date for that yet. Keep an eye here on UploadVR and our YouTube channel for more coverage. You can also preemptively join the developer’s Discord server.
Let us know what you think of Solaris down in the comments below!
Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you think is the very best VR shooter?
There are lots of great VR shooters out there. From the ultra-realistic types such as Onward to the bow and arrow focused In Death, there are tons of different ways to shoot things in a VR headset. We’ve even got Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond still coming, presumably, this year.
And with all those different methods it’s bound to cause some division. I know that personally I prefer Onward to Pavlov despite their control schemes being mostly the same. So much in VR has to do with how something feels and you can’t really explain that in words very easily. Even if a game has the same bulleted list of features and mechanics it doesn’t mean it feels the same in the headset once you’re controlling stuff with your hands.
So that brings us to the week’s discussion topic: What do you think is the very best VR shooter out there? Is it a specific an FPS gun-based game, or do you love a shooter that features a different weapon?
First Contact Entertainment revealed new content coming to Firewall Zero Hour for its fifth season, as part of the Operation: Syndicate update. It includes a new map, a new contractor and some new weapons as well.
Season Five of Firewall Zero Hour begins from today and follows up the previous update, Operation: Black Dawn, that coincided with the start of the game’s fourth season. The game was also offered as a free PS+ title around the same time, so this new Operation: Syndicate update may be the first big content drop for many new players who joined back in February.
Perhaps one of the biggest additions is the new map, which is available for free to all existing Firewall players. Called Blacksite, this latest map is set in a heavily-militarized sector of a Middle Eastern city at sunset, and will feature some tight engagement zones spread across an open-air markets, alleyways and apartment interiors.
A new contractor is also included in the update — Lucia Gallo from Italy, better known by her ‘hacker handle’, Luna. She has a unique skill called ‘backtrace’ which allows players to see an outline of all signal jammers for 4 seconds. Luna will only be available to paid Operation: Syndicate Pass holders.
The update also includes 24 new cosmetic rewards available throughout the season, plus a new weapon and legendary weapon skin — the Custom ZS and Luna’s HZU. The former is a short-range submachine gun available to players who complete the Free Mission in the first week of the season. The latter is a Legendary Weapon Skin available to Op Pass holders who redeem 250,000 Crypto and complete the 24 Free, Premium and Bonus Missions available in Operation: Syndicate.
Will you be jumping into Operation: Syndicate? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
It’s been a few months since First Contact Entertainment released the last update for its popular multiplayer shooter Firewall Zero Hour. Today, the developer has detailed its fifth major expansion for the videogame, Operation: Syndicate, adding a new map, contractor and more.
First up is the new map, Blacksite. Free for all Firewall Zero Hour owners, the map is set in a Middle Eastern city with a heavy military presence just before sunset. With their teammate’s players will have to carefully navigate narrow alleyways and investigate apartments, as well as fighting through an open-air market. The Blacksite scene will also be used as the lobby environment for the season.
New Contractor Lucia Gallo is a highly trained hacker from Italy. Only available to Operation: Syndicate Op Pass holders, known as Luna, she has a skill called ‘Backtrace’ where “players can see the outline of all signal jammers in the world for 4 seconds, helping players locate and destroy the equipment in time,” describes First Contact Entertainment.
Once players complete the free mission in the season’s first week they’ll unlock a brand new weapon, the Custom ZS. A fully auto, short-range sub-machine gun, the Custom ZS is ideal for Blacksite’s short and medium-range engagement zones.
Operation: Syndicate players will be able to unlock new cosmetic free mission rewards like face paints and camo skins. As usual, Op Pass holders also gain access to Premium and Bonus Mission Rewards for a total of 24 missions. Op Pass holders can also unlock Luna’s HZU legendary weapon skin by completing all Free, Premium and Bonus Missions in Operation: Syndicate as well as spending 250,000 Crypto. The Firewall Zero Hour – Syndicate Op Pass starts from $5.99 USD.
Firewall Zero Hour launched almost two years ago and retains its exclusivity on PlayStation VR. First Contact Entertainment’s next project Solaris Offworld Combat will continue that multiplayer, team-based combat theme but give it a sci-fi edge. Plus it’ll be released for Oculus Quest and Rift S first, with a PlayStation VR version to follow. For further Firewall Zero Hour updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Firewall Zero Hour (2018), the team-based shooter from First Contact Entertainment, is getting a new DLC drop called Operation: Syndicate tomorrow, which brings a new map, gun, and contractor to the game.
First Contact today announced the upcoming DLC on the PlayStation blog, revealing that the PSVR exclusive will be getting a map called ‘Blacksite’ on June 23rd.
“Set at the golden hour of sunset, players will find themselves in the Blacksite — the sector of a Middle Eastern city with a heavy military presence,” the studio says.
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Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
A new Contractor, Lucia ‘Luna’ Gallo, is also being added. The Italian hacker’s special skill is called ‘Backtrace’, which lets her see the outline of all signal jammers in the world for four seconds. Luna and her Skill are only available to Operation: Syndicate Op Pass holders, an extra cost which ranges from $6 to $25 depending upon the package you choose.
A new full auto sub-machine gun called The Custom ZS will be available to all players upon completion of the Free Mission in the first week.
The game has seen four other major DLC drops since it first launched in 2018, with it latest launched back in February with the Operation: Black Dawn update.
The footage below is from the Oculus Rift version of the game:
In Solaris, players will engage in tense multiplayer PvP combat in virtual environments that look and feel like they’ve been ripped out of an esport from the future. In fact, that’s whole premise of the game. You take on the role of a futuristic cyber athlete that uses VR to compete in first-person shooter competitions, similar to Disc Battles from Tron, but with guns. It’s got a very meta atmosphere to it all.
This will be a very fast-paced experience with quick respawns, guns laying around arenas for quick picking up similar to old-school shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament, and should be a great option for easy and quick pick-up and play action.
This isn’t First Contact Entertainment’s first forray into VR, though. Their first attempt was a visually striking wave shooter named ROM: Extraction for PC VR and then a squad-based tactical shooter named Firewall Zero Hour for PSVR. This makes Solaris their third VR game and first release for Oculus Quest.
Solaris: Offworld Combat is releasing this August 2020 for Oculus Rift via Home and Oculus Quest, with crossplay and dedicated servers. First Contact Entertainment is also planning to release Solaris later this year for PSVR, but there’s no date on that version yet.
For today’s livestream we’re playing the hardcore tactical first-person shooter, Firewall Zero Hour, with the developers from First Contact Entertainment and our friends over at Kinda Funny! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.
Firewall Zero Hour is one of the only VR games that has sustained a large chunk of its popularity over a year after its initial release. It’s a hardcore tactical squad-based FPS that pits two teams of four against one another in a battle to either capture or defend an important laptop. We reviewed the game highly at release and have continued to cover its ongoing updates ever since.
The stream is planned to start at about 6:00PM PT and will last for about an hour or so. We’ll be hitting just our YouTubeand we’ll actually be joined by the developers themselves as well as our friends over at Kinda Funny, such as Greg Miller. We’ll be playing in live, open lobbies so if you want to come across us meet us on the battlefield, just join up in a public match and maybe we’ll run into you:
Embedded livestream coming soon
You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, interviews, and more original content!
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.
This post has been updated since publication with new details that were revealed on February 4th, 2020 for the next season of Firewall Zero Hour content.
PSVR-exclusive shooter Firewall Zero Hour is due for its next big update with Operation: Black Dawn. The new season will introduce new free maps, weapons, contractors, and new rewards for its Op Pass.
You can read about all of the new content and features coming with Black Dawn on the PS Blog right here. The new Season is now live.
Last month the developers First Contact Entertainment showed off the upcoming new map during their weekly ‘Firewall Zero Hour Dev Stream’ segment on the company’s YouTube channel.
You can watch last week’s video here, in which you can actually catch me playing with the developers:
And this week’s latest footage is here, where a new gun is shown off as well:
The new map (Oil Rig) takes place atop a large ship in the middle of the ocean with an impressive night sky overhead. There are multiple levels, staircases, and holes in the floor to get the jump on people below. It’s well laid out and, like most all maps in Firewall, does a good job of giving players lots of options.
In the past new season’s for Firewall Zero Hour always start with a new map and then bring a second new map midway through the season. The maps, as always, are free for all players, but other rewards, cosmetics, new contractors, etc all require you to pay. Some rewards can be earned for free during the season’s Operation by completing challenges and some can only be earned after purchasing the Op Pass, sort of like the Battle Pass you can get in games like Fortnite, PUBG, and Dauntless.
Firewall Zero Hour (2018), the tactical team shooter for PSVR, is headed to PS Plus members for free starting today, February 4th.
Update (February 4th, 2020): Firewall Zero Hour is now free for PS Plus members who download the game between today and March 2nd. Like all PS Plus bonus games, if you download it before the expiration date, it’s yours to permanently keep.
In addition, developer First Contact Entertainment also launched the game’s promised ‘Operation Black Dawn’ content update which includes a new contractor (Saul), a new map (Oil Rig), new weapons (Custom XM-R and Saul’s CQB), and custom optics. Check out the reveal video below:
https://youtu.be/QRASI4gIsVw
Original Article (January 29th, 2020): The 4v4 team shooter arrives alongside Bioshock: The Collection and The Sims 4 as February’s free games. Like all free PS Plus games, the whole lot is entirely free to keep forever as long as you download them in time, which lasts from February 4th until March 2nd.
Developed by First Contact Entertainment and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Firewall Zero Hour brings some classic team-based shooting action to PSVR, which includes support for PS Aim.
If you haven’t played, here’s the simple breakdown of main game mode: one team defends while another tries to infiltrate and hunt down hidden objectives. We were so happy with it at launch in August 2018 that we gave it a pretty strong [7.9/10] in our full review.
Firewall Zero Hour is also slated to receive another big update on February 4th called ‘Operation: Black Dawn’ which features a new map called ‘Oil Rig’ in addition to other free content. If you don’t already own it, this is a great time to jump in on a game that typically costs $20.
