Virtual reality (VR) studio Wolf & Wood is best known for its rather creepy titles, from escape room experience A Chair in a Room: Greenwater to the excellent horror series The Exorcist: Legion VR. It seems as though all those scares have had an effect on the team, announcing a far more visceral and destructive videogame, Hotel R’n’R.
Hotel R’n’R looks to be a homage to the classic days of rock and metal when hotels feared booking rooms to bands, knowing that they’d likely be completely trashed, sinks smashed, furniture in pieces and of course, TV’s thrown out of windows.
There’s a bit more to Hotel R’n’R, but essentially it’s all about smashing stuff up. In terms of plot there a thin veil of a story about you playing a failed musician who happens to make a deal with the devil. This deal sees you bestowed with musical talent, infamy and hard cash, and all you have to do is completely annihilate several hotel rooms around the world.
Due for release in June via Steam Early Access for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Hotel R’n’R will offer you five unique hotels to explore in New Mexico, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Los Angeles and London. It doesn’t need to be some insane rampage either, as you’ll have time to plan your attack before raising suspicion. However, once things get rolling and the room trashing commences ensure the maid or hotel manager don’t manage to enter or it’s all over.
Once the fun commences you’ll be able to build up infamy and cash, in turn unlocking all sorts of interesting weapons, modifiers and performance enhancers to play with.
Alongside causing plenty of carnage rock’n’roll style, the devil has plenty of extra challenges to keep things interesting. And should you make it to Purgatory then there’s a selection of mini-games available based on the seven deadly sins. To top this all off, rockstars tend to be individual in their own right, so you can customise your character with items like tattoos. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for secrets, with safe codes and secret passageways to find.
There are still several months of development to go until Hotel R’n’R arrives, so keep reading VRFocus for further updates.
Entwicklerstudio Wolf & Wood (unter anderem bekannt für The Exorcist: Legion VR) veröffentlicht einen neuen VR-Titel für PC-Brillen. In Hotel R’n’R zerstört ihr mit allerlei Alltagsgegenständen Hotelzimmer, um euren Pakt mit Satan zu erfüllen. Das ungewöhnliche VR-Spiel soll im Juni 2019 für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive erscheinen.
Hotel R’n’R – Rockstarleben trifft Virtual Reality: Satan und die Zerstörungswut gegenüber Hoteleinrichtung
In Hotel R’n’R schlüpft ihr in die Rolle eines gescheiterten Musikers, der sich nichts sehnlicher wünscht, als ein großer Rockstar zu werden. So ist es euer Traum auf der Bühne vor Abertausenden von Fans spielen und ganz nach dem Motto Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll zu leben.
Dafür würdet ihr einfach alles tun, sogar eure Seele verkaufen. Ein Deal, den der Herr der Hölle leidenschaftlich gerne mit euch eingeht und euch prompt ein Geschäft vorschlägt: Wenn ihr ein paar Hotelzimmer für ihn zerstört, erhaltet ihr alles, was euer Herz begehrt. Da dies sowieso dem Rockstar-Lifestyle entspricht, macht ihr euch direkt ans Werk und vernichtet eure Umgebung.
Doch eine effektive Zerstörungstour muss gut geplant sein. So erhaltet ihr vor jedem neuen Level genug Vorbereitungszeit, um einen richtigen Plan zu entwickeln. Denn wenn ihr von den zuständigen Mitarbeitern des Hotels erwischt werdet, heißt es Game Over. So patrouillieren stetig Manager und Reinigungskräfte durch die Gänge, die bei zu viel Krach hellhörig werden. Außerdem müsst ihr auf euren Körper aufpassen, denn dieser nimmt durch die rohe Gewalt stetig Schaden.
Die unterschiedlichen Räume unterscheiden sich in der Aufmachung komplett und bieten jede Menge neue Möglichkeiten zum Interagieren und Vernichten. Insgesamt fünf verschiedene Hotels stehen zur Verfügung.
Für einen erfolgreichen Abschluss winken Punkte auf eurem Niedertrachtskonto sowie neue Scheine in eurem Geldbeutel. Diese könnt ihr für neue obskure Waffen eintauschen und dadurch noch mehr Verheerung anrichten. Für zwischendurch warten zudem Minispiele im Fegefeuer auf euch sowie diverse Individualisierungsoptionen zum Anpassen eures Charakters. Auch Entdecker kommen auf ihre Kosten, denn es sollen zahlreiche Geheimnisse und versteckte Inhalte zum Explorieren auf die Spieler warten.
Ein spaßiger Ansatz, welcher deutlich von bisherigen Werken des Entwicklerstudios abweicht. Die Komponente mit dem Teufel bietet aber trotzdem eine kleine Schnittstelle, wie Creative Director Ryan Bousfield spaßig anmerkt.
Hotel R’n’R soll im Juni 2019 im Early Access für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive auf Steam erscheinen.
Hotel R’n’R is a game where you smash up hotel rooms in service to the devil. You play as a failed musician that makes a desperate deal with Satan himself. If you rely on your fists too much, your hands will be pulverized into a deformed mess as bones start to break and blood starts to flow. Pretty twisted, no?
Actually, for developer Wolf & Wood, this is all remarkably light territory. “It’s a fun game,” says creative director Ryan Bousfield, “but you’re still doing it for the devil.”
Hotel R’n’R is the developer’s first VR game that isn’t a straight-up scare-fest. Wolf & Wood has become known for its tense, intelligent psychological horrors such as A Chair in a Room and The Exorcist: Legion VR. These are some of VR’s most terrifying games, but this is a chance for the developer to stretch its legs a little.
“It was a natural move,” Bousfield tells me over the phone. “Two horror titles back-to-back, by the end of the last one you feel like you’re running on the final bits.” After finishing up on The Exorcist, Wolf & Wood was looking for a way to recharge. It found its answer in an unlikely place.
“It’s all linked to watching people testing A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, back in the early days,” Bousfield says of the game’s origins. “Just watching people go into that initial room or the patient’s cell and then just start picking up balls and smashing them and throwing them about.” He recalls putting in breakable objects in the game, and how people engaged with it as they put on their Vives for the first time. Though it was supplementary to the larger horror game, it struck a chord with Bousfield.
Those observations gave birth to this frantic smash ’em up. You’ll tour hotels around the world and have to come up with inventive ways of tearing them to shreds. As you cause carnage hotel staff will try and barge in. You can stop them by barricading the door or pushing back. Eventually, when you’re time’s up, the police will come knocking.
By the looks of it, the game wants to be a physics funhouse. Bousfield is eager to talk about all the weird tools and power-ups you’ll be able to grab. A glue gun will let you stick objects together or to the environment (including, Bosfield teases, a ceiling fan). Power-ups, meanwhile, will augment the experience in trippy ways. You can attach a bouncy material to any object to make it spring off of every wall in the room. Bousfield even says that’s something similar to Far Cry 5’s ‘Oregano’ in there. The list goes on: a revolver has chaotic ricochet bullets, a spiked bat causes real damage and, yes, that is a fish you see in the images.
“I’ve been describing it as gonzo. There’s a lot of references to things like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” the developer adds. “The devil, he’s got pointy teeth, he can look scary, but he’s also got short-shorts on. It’s about having a bit of fun with the things we’ve been quiet serious about for the past four or five years.”
Bousfield is aware that this might all sound a little too light. There’s plenty of chaotic VR games out there, but many are only fun for a few rounds before they’re forgotten. Hotel R’n’R is hoping a mix of progression and variety will give it the sticking power of a game like Gorn. You’ll earn cash to buy new weapons, starting off with weaker objects (foam fingers) and building up to more destructive tools. Minigames based on the seven deadly sins will also change up the gameplay from time to time.
Hotel R’n’R is due to hit Early Access on Steam later this year with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Bousfield says much of the single-player campaign will be present in the initial release. “We’re doing the things that we feel a bit more comfortable with initially. We’ve got narrative elements in there, a single-player game, progress right through five hotels. And we’ve got minigames and other elements.”
As for the future? Wolf & Wood says it will have a clear roadmap that’s influenced by the community. “I don’t want it to stay in Early Access forever,” Bousfield reassures.
Whatever comes of Hotel R’n’R, it definitely sounds like it’s given Bousfield a chance to recharge. “Ironically I’ve written like three ideas for new horror games in the time that we’ve been working on this one,” he says. “So I’ve actually probably written more horror in that last six months than I did in the months prior to that.”
Look out for more on Hotel R’n’R later in the year.
