Close combat dueling game Ironlights added two new classes — Dragoon and Scourge — and a sandbox mode to create your own fighters or try out any of the game’s weapons.
The sandbox mode lets you record animations to create a new bot fighter which can be exported to share with others. The bots in the new sandbox mode are made with the same in-game animation recording tool developer E McNeill used to make the bots in the single-player campaign.
“You define your bot’s behavior by recording animations for various ‘moves’, like Melee Attack, Chargeup, and Taunt,” McNeill explained in an email. “Then you can fight your bot (or the bots made by others, if you sideload them) and it’ll play the different animations based on the context of the fight. In short, they’re as fully-featured as any fighter in the game!”
The new classes are Dragoon and Scourge. Dragoon, pictured below, features a blade with three tips as well as a parrying dagger for defense. The class also throws javelins and daggers for ranged attacks.
The Scourge class, meanwhile, equips the player with two whips for fast attacks as well as defense. You can crack the whip on an opponent for extra damage, according to the release notes, and swing the whip to send a spinning disc at the enemy. You can see it in the gif below:
The update for Ironlights also includes a number of balancing updates for the existing classes as well as various bug fixes and changes.
Oculus Quest 2 launches tomorrow, bringing along with it higher resolution, higher refresh rate, and a cutting edge Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset to drive native VR games on the company’s most powerful standalone headset yet.
Although all games out of the box will benefit from Quest 2’s overall bump in hardware specs to some extent, there’s already a few Quest games out there that are getting graphical overhauls just in time for tomorrow’s launch to make good use of the upgrades.
To squeeze out everything Quest 2 has to offer, some developers have already gone into their previously released Quest games and optimized for the headset’s ‘experimental’ 90Hz support and ability to push higher quality assets and textures thanks to Snapdragon XR2. While this list may evolve as new games come to light, here’s the 10 games we’ve found that are going to benefit from developer optimization:
Apex Construct
Summary:Apex Construct is a single player VR action/adventure. Wield an upgradable bow & shield combination to battle enemy robots while exploring and solving mysteries in a shattered world.
Summary: VR meets the zombie apocalypse! Arizona Sunshine is the original zombie shooter rebuilt entirely for Oculus Quest. Powered by 360° gameplay freedom, the untethered Arizona Sunshine® experience immerses you and up to 3 fellow survivors in a world overrun by zombies more than ever.
Summary: Build Your Incredible Machine – Gravity Lab would like to introduce our new range of gravity modifying appliances! Currently awaiting regulatory approval, we invite you to visit our testing facility and give them a go! We have prepared a selection of test scenarios for you and we are certain you can solve them!
Summary: Ironlights is a VR dueling game with skillful, fluid, slow-motion melee combat. Test your skills in multiplayer battles, or fight to the top of the league in the huge single-player campaign!
Summary: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your military kayak, utilise weapons and equipment to neutralise enemies. Engage targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows across a full campaign. This is stealth action redefined.
Summary: Let’s dive in and explore the world of fishing or just sit back and relax in a mesmerizing scenery together. Real VR Fishing invites you to the incredible real-world fishing spots to feel the taste of fishing in the Multiplayer mode or to relax and enjoy the stillness in the Single-play mode.
Summary: Red Matter is a story-driven VR puzzle adventure game set during a dystopian Sci-Fi Cold War. Take on the role of Agent Epsilon, an astronaut of the Atlantic Union dispatched to an abandoned Volgravian base on Rhea, one of Saturn’s moons. Your mission: to investigate a shady top secret research project.
Summary: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move.
Summary: From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure filled with combat, platforming, puzzles, and morally questionable choices
Summary: If you have ever wanted to make things disappear with a snap of your finger, throw fireballs, or telekinesis, then this experience is for you. Now included among many other hand tracking features!
Summary: Not a game, but rather a utility to connect to your computer to watch movies, browse the web or play games on a giant virtual screen or in various theater environments. Developer Guy Godin says Virtual Desktop will allow Quest 2 streams at higher resolutions, a higher maximum bitrate (150 Mbps instead of 100) and supports 60, 72, 80 and 90Hz.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you’re overhauling your Quest game, or know of one that’s getting some graphical bumps to optimize for Quest 2, let us know in the comments below!
Oculus Quest 2 launches tomorrow, bringing along with it higher resolution, higher refresh rate, and a cutting edge Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset to drive native VR games on the company’s most powerful standalone headset yet.
Although all games out of the box will benefit from Quest 2’s overall bump in hardware specs to some extent, there’s already a few Quest games out there that are getting graphical overhauls just in time for tomorrow’s launch to make good use of the upgrades.
To squeeze out everything Quest 2 has to offer, some developers have already gone into their previously released Quest games and optimized for the headset’s ‘experimental’ 90Hz support and ability to push higher quality assets and textures thanks to Snapdragon XR2. While this list may evolve as new games come to light, here’s the 10 games we’ve found that are going to benefit from developer optimization:
Apex Construct
Summary:Apex Construct is a single player VR action/adventure. Wield an upgradable bow & shield combination to battle enemy robots while exploring and solving mysteries in a shattered world.
Summary: VR meets the zombie apocalypse! Arizona Sunshine is the original zombie shooter rebuilt entirely for Oculus Quest. Powered by 360° gameplay freedom, the untethered Arizona Sunshine® experience immerses you and up to 3 fellow survivors in a world overrun by zombies more than ever.
Summary: Build Your Incredible Machine – Gravity Lab would like to introduce our new range of gravity modifying appliances! Currently awaiting regulatory approval, we invite you to visit our testing facility and give them a go! We have prepared a selection of test scenarios for you and we are certain you can solve them!
Summary: Ironlights is a VR dueling game with skillful, fluid, slow-motion melee combat. Test your skills in multiplayer battles, or fight to the top of the league in the huge single-player campaign!
Summary: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your military kayak, utilise weapons and equipment to neutralise enemies. Engage targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows across a full campaign. This is stealth action redefined.
Summary: Let’s dive in and explore the world of fishing or just sit back and relax in a mesmerizing scenery together. Real VR Fishing invites you to the incredible real-world fishing spots to feel the taste of fishing in the Multiplayer mode or to relax and enjoy the stillness in the Single-play mode.
Summary: Red Matter is a story-driven VR puzzle adventure game set during a dystopian Sci-Fi Cold War. Take on the role of Agent Epsilon, an astronaut of the Atlantic Union dispatched to an abandoned Volgravian base on Rhea, one of Saturn’s moons. Your mission: to investigate a shady top secret research project.
Summary: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move.
Summary: From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure filled with combat, platforming, puzzles, and morally questionable choices
Summary: If you have ever wanted to make things disappear with a snap of your finger, throw fireballs, or telekinesis, then this experience is for you. Now included among many other hand tracking features!
Summary: Not a game, but rather a utility to connect to your computer to watch movies, browse the web or play games on a giant virtual screen or in various theater environments. Developer Guy Godin says Virtual Desktop will allow Quest 2 streams at higher resolutions, a higher maximum bitrate (150 Mbps instead of 100) and supports 60, 72, 80 and 90Hz.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you’re overhauling your Quest game, or know of one that’s getting some graphical bumps to optimize for Quest 2, let us know in the comments below!
Facebook shared details on five games that are now officially enhanced for Oculus Quest 2, including previously unconfirmed updates for Arizona Sunshine and Trover Saves The Universe. As soon as you get your headset, you’ll be able to try these games out with enhanced visuals and/or performance.
Here are the five games and a breakdown of how they’ve been enhanced for Quest 2:
Arizona Sunshine: Updated visuals and improved zombie physics.
Ironlights: Improved render resolution, enhanced particle system and shading.
Red Matter: New textures and further LOD (level of detail) distance.
Trover Saves the Universe: New crisp visuals, increased resolution and improved framerate (more details here).
Waltz of the Wizard: Improved fidelity, real-time lights and post-processing, more interactive objects and particle effects, increased world detail and more.
These five titles will be featured on the store on launch day, as part of a ‘Newly Enhanced for Quest 2’ pack — we haven’t received any pricing details yet, but fingers crossed there’s discount applied as well.
While not listed above, we also found that The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which is coming soon to the Quest platform, is also enhanced for Quest 2 — you can read more about that here.
For those out of the loop, the Oculus Quest 2 is a more powerful headset with lots of specification bumps compared to the original Quest. This means that developers have been able to optimize their existing Quest games to boost performance and improve the visuals, thanks to the beefier specs.
Oculus Quest 2 launches October 13, and all five games listed above will be available with Quest 2 enhancements at launch. The headset available in $299 and $399 models at 64GB and 256GB sizes respectively, and all existing Quest content will work across both headsets, even if it’s not been specifically enhanced for Quest 2.
Virtual reality (VR) developer E McNeill released his latest title, PvP dueler Ironlights back in April, offering a unique blend of melee combat. Now he’s released a new update expanding the feature set as well as launching tournaments.
When it comes to new content Ironlights has a new character class to player with, the Reaper. Armed with a deadly scythe, the Reaper fits the name with a skull inspired helmet design and is the first of several new classes to come.
Another big addition is Voice Chat. It’s a feature players have been asking for with the developer explaining on Reddit: “I had a lot of concerns about trash-talking and toxic behavior, so *both* players have to opt-in to voice chat before it will connect you, and you can disable the conversation with a single button press at any time. Since it’s a one-on-one game, I’m hoping that will make for a more friendly environment.”
Not stopping there, E McNeill has confirmed that the game mechanics are now customisable so players can tailor private matches. This now includes the ability to remove the slow-motion function, allow players to have unlimited energy, expand the play area as well as enabling both players to hit each other in melee rather than in turns.
To encourage and reward the community Ironlights will soon feature tournaments. Held every couple of weeks, players can enter any Minor League tournament then finish in the top 3 to win $30 USD. This will automatically move them onto the Major League, unable to revert back to the Minor League. “The idea is to prevent the same people from winning the prizes over and over again, and we want to ensure that talented newcomers will have a realistic shot of winning!” To signup for the tournament head to the IronlightsDiscord.
VRFocusreviewed the Oculus Quest version of Ironlights, saying:“There are plenty of impressive elements to Ironlights which give the videogame a unique presence in the market. While the style of gameplay can be repetitive and a little frustrating at points, it can also be rewarding and satisfying once the kinks are worked out.”
As further updates are released for Ironlights, VRFocus will keep you updated.
A new update for the competitive VR melee game Ironlights has added a whole new class to the game, alongside voice chat functionality and official tournaments.
Ironlights is a 1v1 multiplayer melee game that released a few months ago for Quest and PC VR. We enjoyed the game, but had some gripes and said we looked forward to content updates and tweaks in the future.
Well, the new Scythe update is available now for Ironlights, and the biggest addition is a whole new class called the Reaper. The developers describe the reaper as “a swift and deadly fighter who wields a grim, heavy scythe. With great reach and a long blade, this fearsome weapon is tough to block and even harder to dodge.”
Online matches now also support voice chat between opponents. To avoid toxicity and trash-talking, both players will need to opt-in to voice chat before the match starts for it to be enabled.
The game also now has official tournaments with cash prizes. We got some preliminary details on how they will work in Reddit post:
Here’s the basic idea: you can enter any Minor League tournament, and if you finish in the top 3, you’ll win $30. Winners will graduate to the Major League and can’t compete in the Minors again. The idea is to prevent the same people from winning the prizes over and over again, and we want to ensure that talented newcomers will have a realistic shot of winning!
The developers plan to run the tournaments every 2 weeks, but there’s no further details on the tournament system or how winners will claim the cash prizes. Players can find out more soon on the Ironlights subreddit or Discord server.
The Scythe update is available now for Ironlights on PC VR and Oculus Quest.
Virtual reality (VR) has proven to be a technology which excels at plenty of videogame genre’s, especially when it comes to physical interaction. One of the best examples of this is melee combat, whether that’s hand to hand or using weapons. And who doesn’t love being embroiled in some fantasy adventure where survival comes down to how well you can swing a sword. So here is VRFocus’ favourite VR sword fighting examples.
This is a list all about bladed combat, going toe to toe with enemies in a battle of wits and endurance. So that means titles like Beat Saber will be excluded as while they do feature flashy swords you’re not dueling in any way.
Until You Fall
A title that’s still in Early Access for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index, Until You Fallis the latest from Schell Games.
Offering a highly stylized experience that pulls no punches, Until You Fall arms you with a selection of weapons, from short swords to knives and axes. The aim is to get as far as possible without dying, death resetting the areas, enemy locations and more, for a different experience each time.
Schell Games might have added a storyline and magical qualities to enhance various character attributes but the main draw is still the combat. Most areas split enemies up so it’s mostly 1v1, allowing you to charge in and do some serious damage. Opponents attacks are indicated to aid blocking, whilst you can break their guard and unleash powerful specialised blows. One of the most visually arresting titles here.
Swords of Gargantua
While Until You Fall was purely single-player, Yomuneco Inc’s. Swords of Gargantua provides both solo and multiplayer gameplay to keep players entertained.
A fast-paced rogue-lite action experience, Swords of Gargantua focuses on realistic swordplay for one to four players, blocking, parrying, and attacking deadly foes with a mixture of over 30 weapons. You have to fight though101 floors of enemies to reach the colossal end-boss, Gargantua.
Currently supporting PC VR headsets – with PlayStation VR and Oculus Quest in the works – the studio has added and continues to add plenty of content for when you’ve completed the main quest.
Ironlights
A pure PvP dueler, Ironlightsby indie developer E McNeill is one of the more unusual combat titles on this list but shouldn’t be overlooked.
Supporting PC VR headsets as well as Oculus Quest, Ironlights is about thoughtful use of the weapons provided, rather than all-out action and flailing wildly. You can choose from a selection of characters each with a close combat weapon as well as a ranged attack.
The trick with Ironlights is that combat takes place in slow motion and weapons instantly break when they make contact, continually needing to be replenished by swinging them behind your back.
Ironlights is another title which offers both solo and online play, with the single-player campaign providing seven levels to unlock across Bronze, Silver and Gold leagues.
Blade & Sorcery
Another Early Access title which has built a loyal following thanks to its gameplay, Blade & Sorceryis a medieval fantasy sandbox for all your bladed combat needs.
Blade & Sorcery does featureranged and magic combat but its the sheer selection of medieval weaponry, the full-body physics and the way you can be creative in combat that makes the experience so much fun.
Supporting PC headsets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index, Blade & Sorcery is continually updated by developer WarpFrog so you can be sure there’s always something to do.
Gorn
Probably the most ridiculous VR videogame on here, if you’re looking for anime levels of blood and gore then Gornis it.
The opponents might be spongy, rag-doll gladiators but they can put up a fight and in the small arena you need to as well. Weapons wobble all over the place but this ain’t no cartoon, hack arms off, smash skulls in and paint the place red with claret, in this single-player hack ‘n’ slash.
Time for an actual story-driven VR adventure, with castles, knights, ancient evil and of course a sword in Shadow Legend VR.
As the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, it’s up to you to save your kingdom of Anaria from the destruction of Lord Adaroth. Shadow Legend VR is great for those who want more context to their battles, rather than pure brutish arena battles.
With interwoven RPG elements the videogame provides an entertaining medieval adventure across both PC and PlayStation VR headsets. The action isn’t quite as finessed as others on this list but there are still epic boos fights and hidden secrets to find.
We’ve seen new Beat Saber tracks, implications of inside-out tracking on PSVR 2 & the introduction of OpenXR for Quest – not to mention the many releases! It’s the VRecap.
The first story is Beat Games’ newest track addition: FitBeat! It’s free, it’s fitness-focused, and it fits in nicely with the other tracks in the game. It was developed by the studio’s CEO-turned-music producer, Jaroslav Beck, who has produced many of the iconic tracks for the rythm game.
There was plenty of hype this week surrounding Sony’s DualSense controllers for PlayStation 5, but for us it mainly raised questions for the future of PSVR. With the change in lightbar location, could it be that the PSVR 2 will have inside-out tracking? Our VR senses are tingling!
And lastly, a more robust story for developers and enthusiasts: Android game engine developers can now support Oculus Quest using OpenXR instead of Facebook’s Oculus Mobile API! Heaney gives a great explanation on it all, so make sure to read up for an in-depth report.
Ironlights is a new 1v1 multiplayer dueling game for Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets that offers a new approach to melee combat in VR, but does it land the swing or miss entirely? Read our review to find out!
The first time you stand in an Ironlights arena and grab your glowing weapon as it flies towards you, it’s an epic feeling. You’re a gladiator, performing in front of thousands of spectators, and nothing can phase you. Even many games later, the feeling never properly wears off. I still find myself gesturing to amp up a non-existent crowd or making aggressive motions towards my opponent before the round begins. However, it’s everything that comes after the initial pre-game ritual that makes Ironlights a bit harder to judge.
Ironlights was first revealed earlier this year, and it was already a significant way through its development cycle at the time. That’s why the game’s Kickstarter campaign back in January presented a playable game, not a conceptual one. With the Kickstarter only attempting to raise extra funds for non-essential elements of the game (such as additional armor models), Ironlights set itself on a quicker (and less hypothetical) path to release than most other VR games that use crowdfunding platforms.
At its core, Ironlights is a 1v1 melee multiplayer VR game that offers 5: Knight (two-handed greatsword), Duelist (rapier and buckler), Monk (staff), Ninja (duel katars), and Crusader (flail and shield). Each have their own pros and cons, and players will no doubt find themselves drawn to certain classes over others.
After a closed beta for Kickstarter backers and reviewers, Ironlights releases this week for PC VR and the Oculus Quest, with cross-platform online play and the ability to run LAN matches if two users are playing on the same network.
Players are able to host their own private matches or search for a match online. While it is a multiplayer-focused game, it’s accompanied by a skeleton, if still welcome, single player ‘campaign’. The single player content is pretty bare, offering a tournament system that allows you to play matches against AI and move up through different leagues of increasingly more difficult competition. You’re able to play single player games while searching for a multiplayer match, so it’s good that it exists, but the single player content on its own gets quite repetitive very quickly. But for what it’s worth, expanding the single player offering into a more fleshed-out campaign is on the roadmap for potential updates.
Re-Inventing The Sword And Shield
What is most interesting about Ironlights is the way it tries to rethink, and re-invent, melee combat in VR.
Melee combat has always been an interesting virtual reality puzzle for developers to solve. The lack of advanced haptics in current VR controller technology means that when steel meets steel in VR, you don’t get that satisfying clank and the force feedback that you would expect in real life. Your weapons are missing physical weight, and VR controllers have no way to simulate the effect of a swing that’s stopped short by an obstacle. This hasn’t stopped developers from making VR melee games, and there are plenty of good examples, but it’s rarely quite as satisfying as you might want it to be.
Ironlights has taken a new approach in an attempt to accommodate and circumvent these problems. In Ironlights, your weapon is only good for one hit. It sounds counter-intuitive, and at first it is. After every hit, your weapon disintegrates and you have to swing it behind your back to replenish it. The reason for this is simple – disintegrating the weapon means your swing can hit an enemy or an object, disintegrate and therefore allow your physical swing to continue on its natural path. In removing the clash of objects from the equation, there’s less disconnect between your actions in real life and your actions in VR.
All combat in Ironlights also takes place in slow motion. This allows you to make measured, calculated attacks and blocks which will, once again, minimize the disconnect between real life and in-game movements. This system has good conceptual intentions, but it does require you to really play along and train yourself to move in slow motion. If you swing wildly fast and with reckless abandon, you won’t get very far.
On paper, these measures seem like a truly valiant effort to solve the ‘melee problem’ of VR, or at least circumvent it. In my hands-on back in February, I was even quite bullish on the system. However, after more time with the game, it ultimately falls short of being a practicable and enjoyable solution most of the time. I frequently found myself frustrated, especially because the game tells you that faster attacks do more damage, but the faster you move the more out-of-sync you get with the slow motion action. It seems very contradictory by design.
It’s very hard to tell when you’re playing the game correctly. If you move too fast and don’t play along with the slow motion concept, it doesn’t feel like the game is punishing you for a mistake. It just feels confusing and takes a while for you to get your bearings, as your in-game hands and weapons are on a different trajectory to your real-life movements.
A few tweaks to the system might be able to help this in future updates, but as it stands, the system feels like the perfect example of good in theory but frustrating in practice.
The Feel of the Fight
Weapon logistics aside, the matches have some other integral systems as well, each of which heavily impacts the flow and feel of fights.
Both players have two resource bars – health and power. These are displayed on a big jumbo-tron behind your opponent and, as you would guess, you lose the match if you lose all your health.
In order to attack, you need to expend power. You can charge up power, but it comes at the expense of portions of your health becoming more “vulnerable” (meaning you take more damage). You can also wait for power to naturally recharge, but that takes significantly longer.
Players can only attack one at a time – one player attacks and can inflict damage, while the other tries to block. Initiating a round of attacks expends power – the maximum length of time you’re able to attack for is determined by the amount of power you have charged up.
The problem with this system is that once you’re low on both health and power, you’ve basically lost the game. However, you’re reliant on your opponent to end it. You can’t charge enough power to attack yourself (as you’re too low health) and the natural power recharge builds incredibly slowly – it’s rarely quick enough to turn around a lost match. Because of this, you become a sitting duck until the enemy has enough power to kill you, which can really stall out the end of some games.
In a situation where both players are low on power and health, the game really slows to a crawl. Neither player can sacrifice health to charge up power, so you both have to wait for the natural regeneration. You end up standing in place, waiting for power to recharge and the whole match becomes very underwhelming.
The question of class balance is also still up in the air since you cannot see which class an opponent has picked until you’re already in the arena. Given the limited playtime and the small pre-release playerbase, it’s hard to accurately judge whether each class is balanced just yet, but there’s definitely some areas for concern. The Monk against the Crusader, for example, is a difficult match-up for the former – the Crusader can combo the flail and shield one after the other to easily blocks Monk’s attacks, leaving very few openings. However, some UploadVR staff felt that the Crusader was quite under-powered compared to the other classes when it came to actually attacking due to how slowly the flail swings.
Additionally, the Knight’s greatsword is so large that it actually counts as two hits at once since the sword is divided vertically into two parts. As a result, a swing through an enemy has a high chance of landing two hits. The Ninja is a good counter because they can block with a katar in each hand, negating both halves of the greatsword at once. The Monk, on the other hand, only has a single staff, making it nearly impossible to fully block the greatsword at all.
It’s hard to see where each class will land, but some future balance changes might be needed.
Close Quarters Combat
An area in which Ironlights truly excels is the replay client. Ironlights allows you to save a replay of any match, which you can then open in the replay client and easily fast-forward through. You can also use the replay client to create GIFs, which are emailed to you. There is lots of flexibility in choosing the right angle, rotation, and position of the replay camera for GIFs, so I think this feature is going to be absolutely fantastic for content creators to take advantage of.
The replay client is also going to be expanded post-launch to include a spectator mode, so that in-progress matches can be spectated in a similar fashion, but in 2D mode on a computer. This will be a huge post-launch addition that bodes incredibly well for broadcasting and any potential Ironlights esports tournaments.
Given the fantastic replay client, it’s a shame that there’s a noticeable lack of variety in the game’s environments and the music. The visuals of the arena do change slightly, but it feels like a huge area of missed potential. Themed arenas could really spice things up a bit, as could a few more music tracks (although more menu music will be added in an update the week after launch). The armor and the character designs are fantastic and are a highlight of the game, with lots of customization on offer – it’s just a shame that the environments and music doesn’t have the same amount of depth.
Ironlights Review Final Verdict
While it might seem like I’ve had a lot of negative things to say about Ironlights, there is a lot to like about it as well. The development team should be congratulated on coming up with a system that aims to avoid some of the issues associated with VR melee combat. Even through it doesn’t always work and is not entirely successful, it remains an intelligent and valiant attempt at innovation. Few other games have come as close to the mark with mechanics that are this experimental.
However after so many matches, the gameplay started to feel repetitive and the flow of combat never really clicked for me. This repetitiveness was only compounded by the lack of variety in music and arena environments.
Maybe with a stronger player base and a developing meta, this might change. Likewise, others might not have the same qualms and really enjoy the flow of the slow motion combat – anecdotally, I’ve read posts from other beta players online who are much more enamored with the system than I am.
Being a multiplayer game, balance patches and adjustments to the system can result in quick adjustments as needed – it’s hard to say where the innovative system will land in a few months time. Developer E McNeill has been very clear – the full launch is not the end of the road for Ironlights, but the beginning. In fact, the post-launch roadmap has already been laid out. And for that reason alone, I have a lot of faith that Ironlights can develop into something that is much more than the sum of its current parts.
For now though, the game does fall just short of being something great. It’s probably worth checking out if you’re a fan of melee VR games and are looking for a 1v1 multiplayer title, but it’s also hard to gauge the longevity of the game and its mechanics at this point.
Ultimately, Ironlights has set itself up very well as an enjoyable game with lots of potential for improvement. For all its faults, it still has good bones – it just needs to make some changes here and there before it can call itself a sparkling piece of armor.
Ironlights releases April 9th for PC VR, through the Oculus Store and Steam, and for Oculus Quest. This review was conducted primarily on the Oculus Quest version of the game, along with the Oculus Home for Rift version via Oculus Link using an Oculus Quest.
When it comes to close combat fighting in virtual reality (VR) there are already some good examples out there, such as Swords of Gargantua, Shadow Legend VRor Until You Fall. These do tend to revolve around fighting NPC’s so for those after a PvP experience, indie developer E McNeill’s latest VR title Ironlights offers a suitable alternative whilst adding a little of its own flair.
Ironlights is certainly a step away from his previous videogames which all tend to be in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, titles like Astraeus and Skylight. Offering a bigger budget feeling with flashier looking visuals and a control scheme which plays into the modern VR penchant for immersive motion controls, Ironlights might look to be all action but a strategic element still runs through its veins.
This is a videogame designed for those who love melee weapons, whether that’s a massive two-handed broadsword, a nimble rapier and shield combo or the majestic staff of a monk. You select your desired class, customise them with new colours and armour combos and then step out into the arena for some duelling.
Now here’s where things get interesting. Ironlights is by no means a brawler. Flailing wildly may work against a brand new player but against anyone who has played a couple of matches that just won’t work. Because you can’t go full bore, getting a sweat on in the process. The hook is that all the fighting takes place in slow motion and that if one person is attacking all the other one can do is block. And vice-a-versa until their blue stamina bar is depleted.
This is also coupled with a health bar which can be used to boost your stamina bar quickly, getting back in the fight at the expense of reduced armour. The system works well enough when both players are healthy, as they can scrap it out fairly fluidly, the problem comes when those bars are minimal. With a drained blue bar and low health, you’re left awaiting a slow death as you can’t attack or boost. If you’re both in the same predicament then the end of a match can become a long draw out affair as you wait for even the smallest amount of stamina to attack. Which can get a little frustrating.
As for the weapons, these automatically break on contact with each other, no matter the size and weight. The only way to replenish them is to move them behind your back which of course can leave you open to attack depending on your weapon class. This can create a mesmerising ballet of blades in slow-mo, like watching the epic final scene in a martial arts film against two masters. But it does take some getting used to. Swing too fast and the weapon will be out of sync causing little damage if it hits, too slow and the attack will continually get blocked. So the learning curve can be steep in some classes.
These close quarters back and forth are offset by the ability to fire a few ranged attacks. Using less stamina, these are far less damaging and destructive than the melee encounters, each weapon has its unique long-range attack. The staff, for example, doubles up like a bow, whilst the rapier can fire a volley of energy projectiles.
Naturally, this means the core mode in Ironlights is its multiplayer PvP, where you can select open random matches or create a private one for you and a mate to duel it out. Thankfully, E McNeill hasn’t gone down the pure multiplayer route even though the title will support PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest for plenty of cross-play action. There is a single-player section which is packed with matches, great for getting acquainted with the various classes as some are harder than others to master.
Packed is an understatement. There are seven levels to unlock from amateur to legend and within each of these levels are Bronze, Silver and Gold leagues. Each of these leagues is then further split down into Tournaments, Exhibition Matches and Duels which can earn you coins for customisations and XP to unlock the next level. So if you can’t find an online match there’s plenty to keep you busy elsewhere.
However, there is a lot of repetition as this is a one-on-one duelling videogame after all. The arenas all look the same and the single-player fights aren’t exactly the most diverse due to the five classes available.
One genius feature is the ability to create a GIF of your favourite part of the fight (usually the end as the losing opponent explodes) which can be exported and shared if you so wish. This will be a boon for those players wishing to showcase their Ironlights fights as they have several recording options when it comes to camera angles and panning.
There are plenty of impressive elements to Ironlights which give the videogame a unique presence in the market. While the style of gameplay can be repetitive and a little frustrating at points, it can also be rewarding and satisfying once the kinks are worked out. There’s also plenty of potential there for expansion both in the single- and multiplayer modes. Ironlights biggest draw is that it offers something a little different from all the FPS and puzzle titles, and that’s no bad thing.
Ironlights is certainly a step away from his previous videogames which all tend to be in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, titles like Astraeus and 
This is also coupled with a health bar which can be used to boost your stamina bar quickly, getting back in the fight at the expense of reduced armour. The system works well enough when both players are healthy, as they can scrap it out fairly fluidly, the problem comes when those bars are minimal. With a drained blue bar and low health, you’re left awaiting a slow death as you can’t attack or boost. If you’re both in the same predicament then the end of a match can become a long draw out affair as you wait for even the smallest amount of stamina to attack. Which can get a little frustrating.
Naturally, this means the core mode in Ironlights is its multiplayer PvP, where you can select open random matches or create a private one for you and a mate to duel it out. Thankfully, E McNeill hasn’t gone down the pure multiplayer route even though the title will support PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest for plenty of cross-play action. There is a single-player section which is packed with matches, great for getting acquainted with the various classes as some are harder than others to master.
One genius feature is the ability to create a GIF of your favourite part of the fight (usually the end as the losing opponent explodes) which can be exported and shared if you so wish. This will be a boon for those players wishing to showcase their Ironlights fights as they have several recording options when it comes to camera angles and panning.