March saw indie developer Other Ocean release virtual reality (VR) Giant Cop: Justice Above All for Oculus Rift and Touch. Today, the studio has announced it’ll be launching the videogame for HTC Vive tomorrow.
In Giant Cop: Justice Above All, players police Micro City as an enormous officer than can pick up criminals and throw them into a police station. There are bank heists to foil, car chases to stop and all manner of other criminal activities to fend off to keep the city in check.
”Other Ocean is excited to extend Giant Cop to the Vive community” said Deirdre Ayre, Other Ocean’s Head of Operations in a statement. “We had a great initial release on Oculus, but also received feedback that has helped with general adjustments while optimizing the game for Vive. We’re currently optimizing for PSVR as well and plan to release later in the summer,” added Ayre.
” A key feature in Giant Cop is the open world in which you can explore. Players can expect a 3-4 hour gameplay experience uncovering the crime syndicate that threatens Micro City,” said Ryan Hale, Studio Head for Other Ocean. “Our team deliberately built Micro City with sandbox gameplay in mind, if you want to just explore the world and find hidden interactive objects you can do that too – it’s limitless really.”
VRFocusreviewed Giant Cop: Justice Above Allat launch saying: “Other Ocean Interactive has created wonderfully intricate cityscapes, with a beautiful art style that encourages you to get in there and explore.”
Additionally, Other Ocean is partnered with entertainment company SKYBOUND Entertainment, which allows The Walking Dead characters and Easter Eggs to be integrated into Giant Cop: Justice Above All exclusively to SKYBOUND Insiders – a free membership program which gives Giant Cop owners updates, special offers and future merchandise features.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All will release on Steam and Humble Store bfor HTC Vive tomorrow, 30th May, 2017, at $24.99 USD.
For any further VR updates from Other Ocean, keep reading VRFocus.
Ever remember playing with toys as a kid, cars, trains, figures, basically anything that made you feel like you were master and overlord of a tiny world in your hands? Well now you get to do it all over again on Oculus Touch with Other Ocean Interactive’s Giant Cop.
Giant Cop is a light-hearted toy sandbox where you’re are cast as the newest recuit for the pint-sized Micro City, a massive 200ft police officer. It’s up to you to keep law and order, dispensing a playful form of justice that’ll see you arrest rabble rousers, cover graffiti, and hunt down cabbage dealers.
With a funky 70’s theme, Giant Cop is a solely singe-player experience that’s as much about exploring the world and seeing what’s interactive as it is about completing the campaign. And there’s certainly plenty to pick up and play with. Grab inhabitants and fling them about, cause some destruction blowing up cars or grab a baseball bat to hit a home run into the sea. There’s so much to see and do it can be almost bewildering at points.
As for the campaign, this really helps introduce Micro City and the other levels. In terms of gameplay though it does come up short. If you concentrate on the campaign you’ll get through it quite quickly – probably around a couple of hours or so – but there are some side missions to beef this up. Unfortunately a great deal of the campaign has you on one task, looking for stuff – almost like a virtual reality (VR) version of Where’s Wally (or Waldo for the US). That would be fine in short increments but for an entire campaign, it certainly could’ve done with some expansion.
There’s another glaring issue with Giant Cop that needs to be noted, and that’s movement. Other Ocean Interactive has created wonderfully intricate cityscapes, with a beautiful art style that encourages you to get in there and explore. But to get about you need to teleport, and you can only teleport to fixed locations. This is made even more frustrating due to these points facing you in a certain direction, there’s no manual camera control to rotate the world. Spotted a collectible that’s behind you, if you’re only using a two sensor setup then its going to prove difficult to collect, and if your play area is quite small they might be near to impossible.
If you can deal with the teleportation – or you have three sensors – there’s a lot to like about Giant Cop. As a way to showcase your Oculus Touch controllers to VR newbies then Giant Cop would be a good place to start, Other Ocean has really packed the city with stuff.
But for experienced VR enthusiasts it can feel more like a flesh out tech demo than a real all-round videogame, as it mainly focuses on picking objects up and having a play. While great for quick play sessions, longevity will likely be an issue as there’s only so many times you can pick up a small NPC and throw them across the city for a laugh.
It’s yet another busy week in VR gaming land with plenty of big new releases and some updates on some of our most anticipated titles. Read on for the latest news on what’s coming to the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR.
We got a look at one of our most anticipated Rift games, Wilson’s Heart, this week ahead of its launch later this month. On the PSVR side, we checked out Ancient Amuletor, which brings tower defence to the headset. Meanwhile at EGX Rezzed in the UK we saw a strange new multiplayer VR game where you swat away bees while cooking food. Because why not? Also, make sure not to miss our impressions of the excellent Frontier VR.
Reviews
Lots of games were subject to our reviewing wrath this week and overall the results were pretty good. Fated’s PSVR version proved to be well worth picking up for fans of the headset. Narcosis, meanwhile, had a decent stab at VR horror with a gamepad, but came up a little short. The same is true of Giant Cop, which is a great tech demo but still little else.
Releases
There’s plenty of big stuff on each platform this week. If you’re a PSVR user then make sure to check out Fated: The Silent Oath and Korix. Rift users, meanwhile might find some fun in Giant Cop, while Vive users can enjoy the latest game from Phaser Lock, Twisted Arrow.
As always, for all releases you can check out our full Rift, Vive and PSVR lists.
Last week Oculus Rift users got Rock Band, this week things are a bit more reserved. There is some good stuff to check out for a variety of genres though, so there’s something for pretty much everybody. Horror fans have the creepy deep sea thriller of Narcosis to look forward to, while whimsical sandbox fans can give Giant Cop a look. Amidst a handful of Gear VR titles and plenty of new Steam releases, it’s a solid week of new content.
Grab your coffee and donuts because you’ve got criminals to apprehend. But first, pick up that tiny little pedestrian and fling them into the ocean, before you pick up that car and throw it into the next intersection. At the core of it all you’re just a cop that’s supersized, but in reality you’ll spend more time goofing off than playing the otherwise rather boring game.
Recommendation: Wait for a price drop or discount. It’s not bad, but it lacks compelling reasons to keep playing after 5-10 minutes of being silly. Full review here.
Depending on how sensitive you are to VR sickness, you may want to stay far, far away from Stunt Kite Masters. It’s exactly what it sounds like in that you’ll embark on excursions while riding a kite across scenic beaches. It’s incredibly fast and silly, albeit a bit unpolished.
Recommendation: Pass for now while it’s a Gallery app, even if it’s a Rift port on Gear VR. Worth a look if it’s ever super cheap.
Dick Wilde, from PlayStack
Price: $16.99 (Rift)
For the most part Dick Wilde is just another wave shooter, but this time there are really bright and evocative colors to keep your eyes busy with unique weapons and intense action. It’s far from being taken seriously and is mostly just a silly way to shoot some bad guys and relive some stress.
Recommendation: If you like wave shooters, this is one of the most fresh takes in a while.
Narcosis, from Honor Code
Price: $19.99 (Rift)
Narcosis is a game about exploring the deep, dark depths of the ocean in a specialized diving suit. You’ll spend most of your time refilling oxygen tanks and piecing together a horrifying story amidst the loneliness of being trapped underwater.
Recommendation: It’s a bit short and rough around some edges, but it’s far from bad. Here’s our full review.
Ghost in the Shell, from Here Be Dragons
Price: Free (Rift and Gear VR)
Take an intimate look at the mind of Major Motoko Kusanagi as you explore her memories. The feature film, releasing this weekend, is about a cyber-enhanced soldier that sets out to hunt down criminals in a near-future setting.
Recommendation: It’s free and it’s quite impressive visually. Check it out.
Hidden Fortune, from Archiact
Price: $3.99 (Gear VR)
Hidden object puzzles are classics on the PC and they fit into the VR scene quite nicely. It mixes elements of object searching with adventure game design to create a unique spin on both genres.
Recommendation: Super simple but incredibly polished. Worth a look for fans of these types of games.
New Oculus Rift Releases on Steam
EXA: The Infinite Instrument, from Aesthetic Interactive, Zach Kinstner
Price: $14.99
EXA welcomes you to a new dimension of music creation with a versatile virtual instrument. The tool can take any form and produce any sound which you can playback in loops.
Recommendation: If you’re interested in making music, this is a must have program.
Moriarty: Endgame VR, from Transmedia Entertainment
Price: $7.99 (Currently Discounted)
Moriarty: End Game is a living virtual comic book where players are allowed to enter and experience the panels/scenes of the stories. The story takes you into a post-apocalyptic world where Moriarty takes on Sherlock Holmes in their final conflict.
Recommendation: Very intriguing style of storytelling. If you’re looking for a newer way to experience a narrative, grab it.
Downward Spiral: Prologue, from 3rd Eye Studios Oy LTD
Price: $8.99 (Currently Discounted)
Influenced by 70s sci-fi, Downward Spiral drops you into a zero-G journey. You can either work through the story solo or with a friend or engage in a deathmatch mode for up to 8 players. The game includes modes with or without room-scale and locomotion that promotes comfort.
Recommendation: Very short experience that includes PvP to add a bit more value. You may disappointed with the length, but this could be an investment in a really interesting series. Check out our impressions here.
Enigma Sphere: Enhanced Edition, from Yomuneco Inc.
Price: $14.39 (Currently Discounted)
This enhanced edition of Enigma Sphere includes new game modes and experiences as you become a superagent in this interesting world. You’ll solve puzzles, find hidden spheres, and destroy android life forms in the story mode. Then, you can play challenge, sphere attack, and other modes for a more casual experience.
Recommendation: There’s a lot of fun and value to be found in this dense package. Grab it.
Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter, from Croteam VR
Price: $39.99
The First Encounter is a full VR port of the 2009 HD remaster of the original Serious Sam game and comes with not only teleportation style movement but full locomotion for those that can handle it. Here you get the full single-player campaign, cooperative multiplayer, and competitive multiplayer in Serious Engine 2017. It was in Early Access before, but now this is the full release.
Recommendation: Absolutely must have for FPS fans. If you can handle full locomotion in VR, there’s even more value to be found. Here are our thoughts.
Planet Defender, from Fevolution Innovation Inc.
Price: $6.99
Planet Defender is a wave shooter where you have 150 seconds to take down as many creatures as possible in pursuit of a high score.
Recommendation: There are similar experiences with more to them at a similar price elsewhere. Pass on this.
Gem Hunter, from FoxLeap
Price: $7.99
Gem Hunter is an action platformer where you fly a hovercraft as you collect diamonds for the Fox King. You’ll also mine gems, fight off creatures, and customize your ship while working toward the highest score.
Recommendation: Very fun experience. The early access portion is only 4 stages, but the full game will have 12. Best to grab it now because the price will go up.
Twisted Arrow, from Phaser Lock Interactive
Price: $14.99 (Currently Discounted)
Twisted Arrow is an adrenaline packed archery shooter where you must fight through a city overrun with monsters of different types. From military enemies to monstrous ones, you’ll use a collection of different arrows and your shield to survive.
Ze VR takes the classic breakout style of gameplay and applies to it a virtual space. Shoot your balls and then deflect them with a shield or pulse to continue taking your targets out.
When I first saw Giant Cop early last year, it was one of VR’s very best tech demos. How could it not be? Towering over a city block, picking up civilians and mercilessly dangling them like a key chain, or throwing them across the map was one of the most amusing and entertaining things I’d done in a headset. It was the perfect instrument to show off the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in five minute windows.
Giant Cop is not, however, one of VR’s very best full games. Developer Other Ocean has expanded on everything that made that short glimpse of this unusual kaiju game great: there are more environments to explore and more toys to pick up and play with. But when it comes to a structured campaign it struggles to find engaging uses for its unique premise beyond the mechanics we first saw a year ago.
Our hero protects Micro City, a wonderful train set world that runs like clockwork. Traffic races around your feet and ant-sized people stop to look up and wave at you. It’s like a high resolution version of Google Earth, only put through a 70’s filter to echo classic cop shows like Starsky and Hutch.
With the help of the Commissioner and your partner, Buddy Cop, you head to different sections of the city to hunt down criminals, scanning the streets for wrong do’ers, starting with a hunt for ‘Savage Cabbage’ dealers. No, that isn’t code for drugs, you’re literally chasing down vegetarians and putting them in their place. Giant Cop does have a pretty wonderful sense of humor to complement its silly premise; I laughed a lot while arresting people with silly hats or out on the hunt for ‘Pokedogs’ with their smartphones.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that, as wonderful as an idea as Giant Cop is, turning it into an engaging, full-length campaign is a tough ask. But Other Ocean has taken the game in a strange direction, attempting satire on current events rather than fully embracing the game’s inherent silliness. Most of it’s missions involve tedious tasks that more often than not ask you to just look really, really hard for something, be it a criminal, protest poster, or specific vehicle. It’s like turning the hunt for the TV remote into a video game, and it’s about as thrilling as it sounds.
Making this more of a headache is the game’s teleportation system, which points you in specific directions and only allows limited traversal. Though it’s appearing on Rift and (later on) PSVR, the absolute best way to play Giant Cop is with roomscale support, as there are no options to let you move the camera artificially, and some items of interest will often be out of reach or in dead spots for tracking. The game does recommend you have a certain amount of space available to you, but that doesn’t excuse a lack of options for those without three sensor setups or more limited space.
Fortunately, there’s enough sandbox fun here to save Giant Cop from absolute mediocrity. In my first five minutes of playing I’d thrown a car on top of an innocent civilian, thrown an innocent civilian into the ocean to drown, used a giant tennis racket to bat an innocent civilian into the ocean to drown, crushed an innocent civilian with a giant maraca and, finally, laid an innocent civilian flat on a road to be run over by a truck. I made a Grand Theft Auto killing spree look like a children’s cartoon.
The trouble is that all of that madness was present in the game’s original tech demo, and it doesn’t feel like anything has been gained in turning it into a full product. Sure, there are side missions to complete and hidden badges to locate, but it feels gamified for the sake of it. The first five minutes you spend with the game are going to be the best, though, and after that you’ve pretty much seen it all.
Final Score:6/10 – Decent
Giant Cop is still one of VR’s best tech demos. Left to your own devices, this is an enormously enjoyable toybox that succeeds perhaps more than any other VR game in doing one thing: making you smile. But Giant Cop is far from VR’s best game. It’s short campaign is filled with repetitive, tedious tasks that will tire and frustrate more than they ever do engage. There’s still an immense amount of fun to be had in Giant Cop, but it’s got very little to do with what’s been added in the past year.
Giant Cop is available now on Oculus Home for $24.99 and will be coming to HTC Vive and PlayStation VR at a later date. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All has been launched today on Oculus Rift and Touch, bringing tongue-in-cheek action inspired by cheesy 70’s cop shows to the platform.
Developer Other Ocean Interactive originally developed the game with standard keyboard and mouse controls in mind, but they soon discovered that bringing the title into virtual reality (VR) was what made it come alive.
The player takes control of a super-sized cop and charged with the mission of fighting organised crime in the metropolis of Micro City. That isn’t the only activity available to the player, though, there are also many hidden objects and collectables available to find, and with the sandbox-style setup, it is possible to let the imagination of the player run wild.
“We had one guy who turned over every car and piled them on top of one another,” says Newfoundland Studio Head Ryan Hale. “Another lady tried to put all the beachgoers into lawn chairs for a sun tan, and one guy was breakdancing as he played. Our QA team loved playing in VR,” Hale adds. “The new technology meant new challenges and a whole new way of exploring games and discovering the endless possibilities—and how to break them.”
Thanks to a deal with Skybound Entertainment, Giant Cop even has characters from hit TV show The Walking Dead hidden in the game as Easter Eggs, which are only available to players who have Skybound Insiders membership.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All is out now in the Oculus Store at a price of $24.99 (USD). A version for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR is expected later in the year.
VRFocus will continue to bring you updates on Giant Cop and other Oculus Rift releases.
Developer Other Ocean Interactive have released some more screenshots for upcoming virtual reality (VR) title Giant Cop: Justice Above All in which the player fights crime as a super-size cop.
Other Ocean announced earlier in the week that the title is due to be launched at the EGX Rezzed event in London, UK on 30th March. It will be launched on Oculus Rift at a price of $24.99 (USD), with versions for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR to follow later in the year.
Giant Cop has been a feature at various videogame and VR events for some time now, as a result VRFocus have gone into a fair bit of depth about the gameplay experience, which involves the player taking the role of a giant in a miniature world, using their disproportionate size to fight crime and help the citizens of Micro City.
You can view the new screenshots below.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on Giant Cop: Justice Above All and other new releases.
Other Ocean Interactive is announcing today that Giant Cop: Justice Above All will be releasing for Oculus Rift on March 30. According to a statement from Other Ocean, releases for other VR platforms will follow in the coming months. Giant Cop will cost $24.99 and will be available to download via Oculus Home.
“This is a game specifically designed for a Virtual Reality experience as opposed to a game that was pushed to fit,” said Deirdre Ayre, Other Ocean’s Head of Operations. “It’s the world’s first, and only, open world, giant-sized, VR comic crime drama.”
In Giant Cop you take on the role of, well, a giant cop. You are brought onto the force to help police the crime-ridden streets of Micro City.
We first played Giant Cop at GDC 2016 back when it was slated for release on the HTC Vive. A few months later, Other Ocean announced that Giant Cop would be an Oculus exclusive and that Oculus itself would be contributing significant funds to the game’s development.
In its original state, Giant Cop took place in a relatively small, 360 diorama of a city. You would stop crimes by physically bending down and plucking up criminals before hurling them into the police department. Now, over a year since that first demo, Other Ocean has reworked Giant Cop to focus more on exploration.
“A key feature in Giant Cop is the open world in which you can explore Micro City,” said Ryan Hale, Studio Head for Other Ocean. “Our team deliberately built Micro City with sandbox gameplay in mind. This allows players a 3-4 hour experience of gameplay uncovering the crime syndicate that threatens Micro City. But if you want to just explore the world and find hidden interactive objects you can do that too.”
The hidden objects mentioned above will reportedly also include allusions to the popular television and comic series The Walking Dead through a partnership with SKYBOUND entertainment. This alliance will provide Walking Dead easter eggs to SKYBOUND Insiders — a free membership program that will grant bonus Giant Cop content.
We will have a full review of Giant Cop: Justice Above All at release.
Other Ocean Interactive has announced today that it will launch the highly anticipated Giant Cop: Justice Above All on Oculus Rift during EGX Rezzed in London UK, at 10:00am (GMT), March 30th, 2017. The videogame will debut on Oculus Rift, followed later by versions for the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
“Other Ocean is delighted to get Giant Cop into the hands of players. This is a game specifically designed for a Virtual Reality experience as opposed to a game that was pushed to fit,” said Deirdre Ayre, Other Ocean’s Head of Operations. “It’s the world’s first, and only, open world, giant-sized, VR comic crime drama,” added Ayre.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All is a videogame that puts the player in the role of, as the title might suggest, a giant cop. They are tasked with keeping peace within the city by interacting with the population and objects in a variety of ways; though not always how you’d expect a lawbringer to behave.
“A key feature in Giant Cop is the open world in which you can explore Micro City,” said Ryan Hale, Studio Head for Other Ocean. “Our team deliberately built Micro City with sandbox gameplay in mind. This allows players a 3-4 hour experience of gameplay uncovering the crime syndicate that threatens Micro City. But if you want to just explore the world and find hidden interactive objects you can do that too – it’s limitless really.” said Hale.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All has been a regular at VR events throughout North America, with VRFocus having been hands-on many times. In a preview of the videogame on HTC Vive it was stated: “Giant Cop is one of the more hilarious interpretations of the HTC Vive’s Room Scale tracking yet seen.”
Other Ocean is partnered with multiplatform entertainment company SKYBOUND Entertainment, founded by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and business partner David Alpert. The partnership has allowed The Walking Dead characters and Easter Eggs to be integrated into Giant Cop: Justice Above All exclusively to SKYBOUND Insiders. SKYBOUND Insiders is a free membership program which will also grant Giant Cop: Justice Above All players updates, special offers and future merchandise features.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All will first release on the Oculus Store with support for the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch, priced at $24.99 USD. Releases for other VR platforms will follow in the coming months and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
Other Ocean Interactive has announced today that it will launch the highly anticipated Giant Cop: Justice Above All on Oculus Rift during EGX Rezzed in London UK, at 10:00am (GMT), March 30th, 2017. The videogame will debut on Oculus Rift, followed later by versions for the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
“Other Ocean is delighted to get Giant Cop into the hands of players. This is a game specifically designed for a Virtual Reality experience as opposed to a game that was pushed to fit,” said Deirdre Ayre, Other Ocean’s Head of Operations. “It’s the world’s first, and only, open world, giant-sized, VR comic crime drama,” added Ayre.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All is a videogame that puts the player in the role of, as the title might suggest, a giant cop. They are tasked with keeping peace within the city by interacting with the population and objects in a variety of ways; though not always how you’d expect a lawbringer to behave.
“A key feature in Giant Cop is the open world in which you can explore Micro City,” said Ryan Hale, Studio Head for Other Ocean. “Our team deliberately built Micro City with sandbox gameplay in mind. This allows players a 3-4 hour experience of gameplay uncovering the crime syndicate that threatens Micro City. But if you want to just explore the world and find hidden interactive objects you can do that too – it’s limitless really.” said Hale.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All has been a regular at VR events throughout North America, with VRFocus having been hands-on many times. In a preview of the videogame on HTC Vive it was stated: “Giant Cop is one of the more hilarious interpretations of the HTC Vive’s Room Scale tracking yet seen.”
Other Ocean is partnered with multiplatform entertainment company SKYBOUND Entertainment, founded by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and business partner David Alpert. The partnership has allowed The Walking Dead characters and Easter Eggs to be integrated into Giant Cop: Justice Above All exclusively to SKYBOUND Insiders. SKYBOUND Insiders is a free membership program which will also grant Giant Cop: Justice Above All players updates, special offers and future merchandise features.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All will first release on the Oculus Store with support for the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch, priced at $24.99 USD. Releases for other VR platforms will follow in the coming months and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
