Last week during the start of the year chaos that is CES 2019, Disruptive Games launched its PlayStation VR multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title Megalith. While the feedback has been positive, the studio is looking to improve certain aspects for players, revealing work on a trial version as well as additional updates.
As a lot of developers soon discover when dealing with online multiplayer videogames for virtual reality (VR), keep ing experience populated can be a struggle. Which is why Disruptive Games is working on a trial version to encourage more players over, it’ll be completely free and allow them to play with those who have bought the full version. They’ll also be able to earn in-game currency and unlock skins that will carry over to the full videogame if they chose to purchase it.
There is, of course, one small caveat to the free trial. Players will be restricted to a hero rotation system and won’t have full access to the Titans unless they purchase the title.
And for players who’ve already purchased Megalith, the studio is working on improving expansion Titan unlocks. Currently, Titans can only be purchased through the store but in a future update, they’ll become purchasable via earned in-game currency. Meaning players will have the choice of grinding towards a free Titan unlock or spending some cash to do it instantly.
Detailing all these changes in a Reddit posting, Disruptive Games went on to say: “We believe these upcoming changes will help reward players for their time investment as well open the gates for new players to experience Megalith. The ability to earn Thorn and Shade via earned currency will be released soon after the trial is deployed. We will share more information as we approach the release of these features.”
At the moment Disruptive Games has yet to give a concrete date regarding when the trial version will be released.
In Megalith, players can choose from a selection of Titans to take into battle in teams of two, with the purpose being to destroy opponents using a range of special abilities. However, the videogame isn’t just about Titans fighting each other. Teams need to help their minions attack opponents defences, destroying walls and towers to aid their forces as much as possible. When more information has been released, VRFocus will let you know.
Last week saw the launch of Megalith on PSVR. The first-person shooter (FPS) looks like a polished stab at the VR multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). That said we’ve already seen some concerns expressed about empty lobbies and DLC. Developer Disruptive Games is looking to fix that.
Taking to Reddit, the studio announced that Megalith will soon get two new features. The first is a free trial for the game. It will allow anyone to jump into the experience and start playing with full game owners. The only difference is that demo players won’t have access to all of the game’s playable characters, named Titans. They’ll need to purchase the game to unlock everyone. Still, this could be a good way to fill up lobbies and get people into matches faster.
An exact date for the demo hasn’t been announced.
Next up is DLC. Megalith launched with one piece of DLC already. It offered a new Titan, but you had to pay for it. In the future, though, Disruptive Games will be adding an update that allows players to spend in-game currency on new characters. You’ll still be able to buy them outright to avoid the grind but more determined players can put the work in to get them at no extra cost.
“We believe these upcoming changes will help reward players for their time investment as well open the gates for new players to experience Megalith,” the developer wrote. “The ability to earn Thorn and Shade [DLC characters] via earned currency will be released soon after the trial is deployed.”
Do these changes get you excited about the future of Megalith?
Dark Eclipse, the free-to-play VR MOBA exclusive to PSVR, just got a slew of updates to ring in the holiday season. The massive 2.02 patch not only introduces three brand new heroes to choose from, but it brings along four festive winter-themed skins, additional tutorials, as well as new login bonuses.
The three new heroes in Dark Eclipse are Owen, Sosei, and Jysook. You can see them in their featured images down below, just click each image to expand it:
Owen is a powerful hero that channel his strength. He needs to charge up before engaging the enemy, but once charged, his power is “unprecedented” according to the patch notes. Then there’s Sosei, a support Dominator hero that can sustain lengthy combat encounters and revive fallen Leaders or heal soldiers to swing the flow of battle. Finally, Jysook is an assassin Dominator hero that can lay bombs as traps on the ground or self-destruct to ensure crucial kills.
Veronika, Wuntasto, and Jysook are all getting winter skins in this update as well, which you can see preview versions of up in the featured image at the top of this post.
To get a better idea of what Dark Eclipse looks like in action as a VR MOBA, check out our gameplay below:
In our review of Dark Eclipse, we scored it a 6/10 concluding: “For those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, then Dark Eclipse is worth a look.”
Let us know what you think of the game and this update down in the comments below!
Featured image and character images provided by Sunsoft.
PlayStation VR MOBA Dark Eclipse updated last month with new characters and a Ranked Mode. Today, developer Sunsoft has announced its next winter update, increasing that character roster even further as well as including some festive winter skins.
In its latest update, Dark Eclipse will give players access to three new playable characters. These are:
Owen – A Leader that can channel his Energy Boost ability to muster strength and passively increase his movement speed before unleashing a deadly attack;
Sosei – A support Dominator that can sustain lengthy combat and swing the tide of battle by reviving fallen Leaders and healing soldiers, knocking back nearby enemy units in the process;
Jysook – An assassin Dominator with explosive abilities who can lay bomb traps around the battlefield and self-destruct to secure crucial kills.
And because it’s the festive season Sunsoft has got into the Christmas spirit with four new skins, a Yeti hand skin for your current character plus winter skins for characters Veronika, Wuntasto and Jysook.
That’s not all. In the spirit of giving the studio has one final treat in store. From now on, all players who log in to Dark Eclipse will receive daily in-game gifts, including Eclipse Points, player icons, a Leader and hand skins.
The title got a mixed response when it first launched a couple of months ago, with VRFocus giving it an average 3-stars, saying: “Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. In addition, the lack of a large community of online players presents a problem for an online-focused title. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.” As it is free to play and seen free updates arrive, MOBA fans may now want to take a look.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dark Eclipse, reporting back with any new announcements.
There is a style of game for virtual reality that is “X–but in VR!” A flight sim–but in VR. Or a first-person shooter–but in VR. Many of these games offer little except for a direct migration of genre standards and maybe inventive controls schemes.
Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR attempts to avoid this by mixing two genres: the MOBA and the RTS. You have heroes, like a MOBA, but you control 3 of them. You direct them around the map, to collect resources to build structures, like an RTS. But they fight random monsters to gain XP and power up, like a MOBA. This combination comes together well, with no obvious jagged edges or glaring issues.
And how does Sunsoft — venerable Japanese developer behind 80s classics like Blaster Master or the NES Batman games — justify this game for VR? Well, basically through the point of view and the controls. The player looks over the board with that same angle I think of as “simulated tabletop,” as if the whole thing is a magically moving miniature war game out on a huge dining-room table, albeit with a Japanese folklore-meets-gritty comic book art style. Your heroes and soldiers seem small, the battlefield stretching into the distance.
You have a floating hand, via the DualShock 4 being tracked, or a pair of hands, via the PS Move controllers. You move them around to grab a unit’s pointer above their head and then move the pointer to a spot you want them to walk to, for an enemy to attack or a place to build a tower. If you hold down one of the face buttons when moving the hand, it moves not just around the screen, but around the battlefield, allowing you to designate a destination in the distance or to move yourself back, to get a better view of the battlefield.
To activate a Hero’s special ability, you grab the unit’s pointer and press a different button. So, you mostly use 2 buttons besides the motion control. It is a streamlined and effective control scheme for VR. You can even see opponent’s hands in the beginning of a match, to wave hello.
The more awkward choices the designers made are in some of the gameplay mechanics. Heroes walk slowly. You often have to have them stop to let their soldier’s slowly chop down trees, to get resources to build the different kind of RTS towers across the battlefields. Couple that with the slowly chipping away at the battlefield’s random monsters, makes for a slow-paced game.
And when the more lively battle between my heroes and the enemy heroes do finally happen, it seems to simply come down to who gained more levels from killing more random monsters and building towers quicker. The build-up doesn’t quite justify the relatively stale combat. But perhaps RTS fans will prefer the more deliberate gameplay. My matches took about 20 minutes in total.
There is a fog-of-war effect, where you can only see enemies near your bases or your heroes, so there is no grand view of the battlefield filled with monsters and units. This lets your units get surprised by enemies, forcing you to run away or rethink your current actions. And if the enemies then kill your heroes, those enemy units disappear and you just stare at a dim battlefield while you wait for your Heroes to respawn back at your base. It feels short-sighted to me, pun intended.
Dark Eclipse is a free-to-play online-only game. And that means limited modes and multiple currencies. There is a Casual mode, a Ranked mode, which is currently locked because the game is still in “Season 0,” and a mode to play against friends. And there are Tutorials versus AI to teach you the game. There is a blue in-game currency called EP you earn from play that lets you purchase some Heroes, which otherwise are on a rotation of only 3 of the 15 being available to play at any time. There is also a yellow currency called DC that costs actual money that unlocks all the Heroes. You can also buy Heroes skins and hand skins with this currency. Sunsoft promises there will be no “pay-to-win” items for sale.
Final Score:6/10 – Decent
I also had some of the usual online play issues during my time with Dark Eclipse: Matchmaking sometimes took more than 3 minutes, and the occasional dropped session that ends a match prematurely. Such issues will hopefully be ironed out for Season 1. But for those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, than Dark Eclipse is worth a look.
Entwicklerstudio Sunsoft veröffentlicht das Update 2.0 für das VR-MOBA Dark Eclipse für PlayStation VR (PSVR). Damit führen die verantwortlichen Devs den gewünschten Ranked-Modus ein, integrieren ein globales Leaderboard und mehr. Zusätzlich werden drei neue Helden eingeführt. Dazu zählen der Tank Destrophe mit speziellen Stun-Fähigkeiten, die mobile Assassine Dosmelda und Zahina, eine neue Carry-Klasse.
Dark Eclipse ist kostenlos für PlayStation VR (PSVR) im PlayStation Store erhältlich.
[Originalartikel vom 20. September 2018]:
Auf der Tokyo Game Show 2017 präsentierte Entwicklerstudio SUNSOFT erstmals das erste VR-MOBA seiner Art für PlayStation VR (PSVR). Nun steht der Release kurz bevor, denn der VR-Titel erscheint offiziell nächste Woche am 25. September im PlayStation Store.
Dark Eclipse – VR-Moba für PlayStation VR (PSVR)
In Dark Eclipse tauchen die Spieler/innen in die düstere Fantasiewelt von Oldus ein. Dafür wählt ihr drei verschiedene Helden, die unterschiedliche Rollen erfüllen können, um die gegnerische Basis zu zerstören. Auf eurem Weg zum Sieg müsst ihr jedoch zunächst die dazwischenliegenden Türme vernichten sowie die Anführer der feindlichen Fraktion aus dem Weg räumen.
Dadurch erhaltet ihr zunehmend an Stärke, könnt eure Fähigkeiten verbessern und Boden auf dem Schlachtfeld gewinnen. Der MOBA-Titel ist komplett auf Multiplayer-Matches gegen andere Spieler/innen ausgelegt. Über PSN könnt ihr so weltweit eure Fähigkeiten innerhalb der immersiven Schlachtfelder beweisen. In zwei geschlossenen Betaphasen wurde genug Feedback gesammelt, um ein ausgewogenes und ausbalanciertes Gameplay zwischen den verschiedenen Champions zu gewährleisten. Zur Steuerung hat man die Wahl zwischen Motion- oder DualShock-4-Controllern.
Zum Release sollen mehr als 20 verschiedene Charaktere auswählbar sein. Zudem kündigten die Verantwortlichen diverse Ligen und Seasons an, um kompetitive Anreize zu schaffen. Eine Runde soll zwischen 10 bis 30 Minuten laufen. Als Belohnung winken Erfahrungspunkte, welche für neue Helden eintauschbar sind.
Zukünftig möchten die Devs kontinuierlich neue Updates und Add-ons veröffentlichen, um die Auswahl an Helden, Spielmodi und weiteren Features stetig zu erweitern. Während zum Release noch Eins-gegen-Eins-Runden Standard sind, sollen auch Zwei-gegen-Zwei- und Drei-gegen-Drei-Matches folgen. Auch ein Zuschauer-Modus für eSports-Zwecke ist in Planung. Neben den spielbaren Features werden zudem zahlreiche kosmetische Skins zu erwerben sein.
Dark Eclipse ist ab 25. September für PlayStation VR (PSVR) im PlayStation Store erhältlich.
Der Arena-Brawler mit MOBA-Elementen Megalith soll am 8. Januar 2019 für PlayStation VR (PSVR) erscheinen. Die Vorbestellungen sollen ab dem 13. November im PlayStation Store eröffnet werden. Zudem soll zeitgleich zur Eröffnung der Vorbestellungen eine kostenlose Trial-Phase zur Verfügung stehen, um erste Einblicke in den kommenden PSVR-Titel zu erhalten.
Entwicklerstudio Disruptive Games präsentierte auf der E3 2018 eine spielbare Demo des First-Person-Arena-Brawlers Megalith für PlayStation VR (PSVR). Der VR-Titel umfasst zahlreiche MOBA-Spielelemente und lässt euch im Stil von DOTA 2 oder League of Legends mit einem ausgewählten Helden die gegnerische Basis vernichten.
Megalith – MOBA-Arena-Brawler für PlayStation VR (PSVR)
Mit Megalith stellte Entwicklerstudio Disruptive Games bereits letztes Jahr seinen eigenen First-Person-Arena-Brawler vor, der das MOBA-Genre als Hero Shooter in die Virtual Reality bringen soll. Eine spielbare Demo des VR-Titels wurde auf der E3 2018 vorgestellt und von den Journalisten von Road to VR angespielt, die über ihre Eindrücke berichteten.
Innerhalb des taktischen VR-MOBAs übernehmt ihr die Rolle eines Helden in First-Person-Perspektive, um auf verschiedenen Lanes gegnerische Vasallen zu vernichten. Das Ziel ist die Zerstörung der feindlichen Basis, die allerdings von Verteidigungsanlagen in Form von Türmen beschützt wird. Zusätzlich trifft man auf dem Schlachtfeld neben den NPCs auf Gegenspieler, wodurch spannende Kämpfe um taktische Schlüsselpunkte entstehen.
In der Demo standen drei verschiedene Helden/innen mit unterschiedlichen Fähigkeiten zur Auswahl. Ein riesiger Minotaurus namens Taur, der als schadenabsorbierender Tank fungiert, eine goldene Kreatur namens Cypher sowie die blitzeschleudernde Aurora, die ihre Feinde mit der Kraft der Elemente aus der Luft attackiert. Zukünftig sollen weitere Helden hinzugefügt werden.
Jeder Charakter besitzt eine Primärfähigkeit, drei Sekundärfähigkeiten und eine ultimative Attacke mit unterschiedlichen Abklingzeiten. Der Minotaurus Taur kämpft beispielsweise im Nahkampf und kann mit Charge schnell an seine Feinde heranstürmen. Zusätzlich beherrscht er die Fernkampfattacke Magmaspucke, um Flächenschaden zu verursachen und den Blutrausch zur Unterstützung seiner Teammitglieder. Als ultimative Fähigkeit errichtet er eine gigantische Steinmauer zum Einsperren eines Helden.
Die Spieler/innen kämpfen in Teams aus zwei Personen gegeneinander. Zur Steuerung kommt der PlayStation Move Controller zum Einsatz, durch den sämtliche Attacken ausgelöst werden. Diese sind auf die verschiedenen Knöpfe des Controllers verteilt. Damit die Spieler/innen den Überblick behalten, wird jederzeit eine Übersicht mit aktuellen Cooldowns an der Seite angezeigt. In der Demo-Version wurde freie Lokomotion mit der Option zur schnellen Drehung angeboten. Die Entwickler/innen arbeiten jedoch an zusätzlichen Fortbewegungsoptionen.
Megalith is an upcoming first-person arena brawler from Disruptive Games which puts you in MOBA-style combat against other heroes as you—and your pint-sized minions—sally forth to destroy the other team’s base.
Fans of MOBAs like Dota2 and League of Legends will immediately recognize many of the mechanics at play here; you spawn on your team’s base on your side of the map and tactically destroy enemy towers and face off against the opposite team’s heroes, all the while fending off enemy minions that nip at your heels. Two teams of two faced off for the demo, which played out on a battlefield intersected by a large common area rife with columns to hide behind and side areas to sneak around for that surprise attack.
Predictably, each hero has their own unique abilities. I got a chance to play two of the three heroes currently featured in the public E3 demo—a hulking tank-style minotaur called ‘Taur’ and golden creature named ‘Cypher’. A hero named ‘Aurora’ was also available, who could throw lighting and hover high in the air to get a better vantage point above enemies. More heroes are most certainly coming too, I was told, although it’s still too early to say. Promotional images hint at six heroes so far.
Image captured by Road to VR
Each hero has one primary ability, three secondary abilities, and one ultimate. For example, playing as Taur, you can melee (pressing the primary button on PS Move), ‘charge’ for quick advances, ‘magma spit’ for ranged shots that did a wide area of effect, and do a ‘bloodlust’ move, which increases speed and melee damage for a limited time. Taur’s ultimate ability, which had the longest cooldown time of all, could create a giant circular fence of stone, either keeping you safe, or trapping an unlucky victim inside with you so you could maul them to death.
Image captured by Road to VR
While Taur was fun, melee isn’t really as satisfying as it could be, as you have to press a button to swipe your giant claws at the enemy instead of naturally using the motion controllers with a physical movement. Cypher’s abilities, which were mostly ranged, were undoubtedly the coolest out of the two, and played to the strengths of the PS Move controllers in general. With Cypher’s ultimate ability, which lets you spawn knee-high spiked orbs that can track down enemies and explode, it’s easy to imagine the sort of chaos that can erupt when explosive orbs, lightning, and minions all enter the fray at the same time.
I did find however that casting my abilities was somewhat fiddly, although that comes down more to PS Move than anything. Abilities are mapped to the small action buttons (Triangle, Square, Circle, and Cross), which made for some confusion in the heat of battle. A handy menu is omnipresent, including cooldown timers, although the control setup seems like it’ll require a bit more practice to master than my 20-minute demo provided.
Megalith demo employed ‘free’ locomotion, letting you move using controller-relative smooth forward movement with snap-turn. Speaking to the dev team, I was told they’re investigating more locomotion schemes, but haven’t publicly committed to anything yet.
Having played two full matches, it’s clear to me there’s some real potential here for fun, fast-paced co-op brawling, even though I didn’t find myself coordinating much with my teammate during the demo, as we mostly went our own ways into battle. Creating heroes with balanced abilities is also an important step for Disruptive Games as they push forward towards release, which is slated for sometime later this year on PSVR as a timed exclusive.
It’s logical to assume the game will be headed to respective PC VR headsets such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift at some point in the future, which could smooth out some of the controller woes I experienced with PS Move.
Epic Games recently announced that the multiplayer online battle arena game Paragon is no longer sustainable, in part because of the runaway success of the 100-player multiplayer free-for-all shooter Fortnite.
Es gibt Neuigkeiten zum Echtzeit-VR-MOBA Dark Eclipse für PlayStation VR (PSVR), denn der japanische Publisher Sunsoft verkündete kürzlich, dass der VR-Titel im Frühjahr 2018 in Amerika veröffentlicht wird. Leider hüllen sich die Verantwortlichen über eine Veröffentlichung im europäischen Raum weiterhin in einen Mantel des Schweigens.
Dark Eclipse – VR-Moba erscheint im Frühjahr 2018 in Amerika
Dark Eclipse für PlayStation VR (PSVR) möchte das MOBA-Genre (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) in naher Zukunft in die VR implementieren. Bereits im Frühjahr 2018 soll der japanische VR-Titel im Westen erscheinen, leider vorerst nur in den Vereinigten Staaten. Zugleich veröffentlichten die Entwickler Neuigkeiten und Einblicke zum zukünftigen Gameplay.
Im Echtzeitspiel übernehmt ihr die Kontrolle von drei Leadern, die ihr per Drag-and-drop-Befehlen mit euren Händen auf der Karte bewegt. Das Spieltempo soll dabei in einer angenehmen Geschwindigkeit verlaufen und genügend Möglichkeiten für Pausen gewähren.
Insgesamt 20 verschiedene Helden sollen zur Veröffentlichung zur Auswahl stehen, wobei durch die Vielzahl an Kombinationen eine Spielzeit von mehr als 1000 Stunden vorausgesagt wird. Zur Steuerung hat man die Wahl, ob man mit einem oder zwei Motion Controllern oder DualShock 4 Controllern spielt. Auch eine Kombination aus beidem soll möglich sein.
Um kompetitive Anreize zu schaffen, gibt es MOBA-typische Ligen und Seasons, in denen die Spieler gegeneinander antreten und dadurch aufsteigen können. Zur Veröffentlichung stehen jedoch vorerst nur der Casual-, Practice- und Tutorial-Modus zur Auswahl, um die Spieler an das Gameplay zu gewöhnen. Eine Runde kann dabei theoretisch endlos gehen, je nach Können der Gegenspieler gehen die Entwickler jedoch von 10 bis 30 Minuten pro Match aus. Für jede gewonnene Runde erhält man Erfahrungspunkte, die man für neue Helden eintauschen kann.
Während zum Start noch lediglich Eins-gegen-Eins-Runden spielbar sind, planen die Verantwortlichen bereits weitere Features für die Zukunft. So wollen die Entwickler mit zukünftigen Updates Zwei-gegen-Zwei- und Drei-gegen-Drei-Kämpfe eingeführen. Damit möchte das Studio zukünftig für dynamische Spiele mit Fokus auf Teamplay sorgen. Außerdem will man für eSports-Zwecke einen Zuschauer-Modus implementieren.
Wann und ob der VR-MOBA-Titel in Europa erhältlich ist, steht derzeit noch nicht fest. Wir werden euch über diesbezügliche Nachrichten auf dem Laufenden halten.
Detailing all these changes in a Reddit posting, Disruptive Games went on to say: “We believe these upcoming changes will help reward players for their time investment as well open the gates for new players to experience Megalith. The ability to earn Thorn and Shade via earned currency will be released soon after the trial is deployed. We will share more information as we approach the release of these features.”
