League of War: VR Arena Brings Small-Scale Strategy to PSVR

League of War: VR Arena Brings Small-Scale Strategy to PSVR

If there’s any genre that absolutely deserves more recognition in the VR scene right now it’s real-time strategy titles. We’ve seen a handful of gamers release over the past year or so between all of the major headsets, but nowhere near as many strategy games have come to market as other genres such as wave shooters and competitive multiplayer action games. Luckily, League of War: VR Arena, a recently released strategy game for PSVR from MunkyFun, is aiming to change that.

We’ve played a bit of League of War: VR Arena since it released and it feels a little like a MOBA-lite with some macro-level strategy game elements. Each player picks a different commander that has different troops which can spawn during battles. In this way it feels a bit like Advance Wars. But instead of being a turn-based strategy game everything happens in real-time. You can see some gameplay, along with an interview, in the video below:

Each player has to spawn troops and send them off to fight the enemy on the other side of the map. Once a unit is spawned you can place where they go using the PS Move controllers. What makes League of War unique however is that you can play local multiplayer with a user watching the TV screen outside of VR. They lose the ability to pick up and place units, but they can act much more quickly, which balances things out.

The objective is to destroy your enemy’s turrets and base at the end of the lane and it results in a long-running game of rock-paper-scissors between your foot soldiers, tanks, fast ground vehicles, aerial crafts, and more. It’s exciting and a bit overwhelming at first, but eventually the rhythm of gameplay will set in.

League of War: VR Arena is now available on the PSN Store for PSVR at the price of $19.99 with both local multiplayer and a single player campaign. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Review: League of War: VR Arena

Developer MunkyFun have had previous success in the smartphone videogame market with League of War: Mercenaries and have chosen to expand upon that premise by bringing the concept into virtual reality (VR) with a with a real-time strategy title for the PlayStation VR.

League of War: VR Arena starts up its Campaign mode by giving players a choice of what general they wish to play as. As first only one is available, with others being unlocked through gameplay. The developers have chosen to forego any kind of tutorial in favour of getting right into the action. While this approach has advantages, players can find themselves missing out on some critical game mechanics due to the lack of tutorial or hint system. The campaign mode has less a story than some loose exposition that chains together the various one-on-one matches against the AI generals. While the voice acting is competent, the frequently repeated phrases, many of which drip with insult and arrogance, can get wearying after a while.

Gameplay is simple, players look down upon a terrain table where they can see the spawn points for their units. Once a unit is ready, you can use the PlayStation Move controller to pick them up and put them down on the battlefield. You can choose to set them to focus on a specific target, but for the most part they simply do as they want once you have placed them in the field. Which could be considered realistic to warfare, but can prove a source of frustration at times, and does eliminate much of the strategic element of traditional RTS.

Each unit has a rock/paper/scissors type weakness to another, such as infantry being weak against tanks but strong against helicopters. Early on, simple swarming tactics will easily win the day, though later on more careful consideration of build order is needed. You can accelerate the production of a unit by focussing resources on it, essential for the later parts of the campaign. Winning battles in Campaign mode nets the player medals which can be spent on customisation and upgrade options in Arcade mode.

Arcade Mode is the only multiplayer option in the title. It is local multiplayer, in which one player dons the PlayStation VR headset and uses the PlayStation Move controllers, while the other player uses the TV screen as a ‘social screen’ and the Dual Shock controller. This mode works well and is quite fun, but the lack of online multiplayer is both baffling and a major lack in the videogame of this type.

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League of War: VR Arena looks great. It is crisp, smoothly animated and boasts a variety of different types of terrain for players to do war upon, such as hot deserts or lush woodland. Sadly, terrain is purely cosmetic and has no effect on any of the units. Music and sound were decent, though not especially notable.

Over all, League of War: VR Arena is a decent, if somewhat flat, experience. there are no twists in game mechanics. Difficulty slowly ratchets up, but little actually changes. Aside from the possibility of challenging a visiting friend to an Arcade match, there is little to draw you back in once you have completed the Campaign. Which will not take long, since battles are over in a remarkable short period of time, This is not a bad videogame by any means, but it is a shallow one, a fun time-waster that is sadly let down by its lack of online multiplayer, which might have gone so way towards extending its lifespan.

60%

Awesome

  • Verdict

League of War: VR Arena Out Now on PlayStation VR

Popular strategic war title League of War was announced as making it way from mobile over to virtual reality (VR) back in August, with developer MunkyFun announcing that a version developed specifically for the PlayStation VR was being worked on. League of War: VR Arena has now been released and is available to download now.

Taking elements from real-time strategy titles as well as classic tabletop wargames, League of War: VR Arena lets the player survey a terrain table where the various units are deployed, along with enemy structures, territory and other potential objectives. Players can access 12 different units, any four of which can be deployed at a time. Units available include soldiers, tanks, helicopters, artillery and flamethrowers, all have which have specific strengths and weaknesses. Each unit has an energy cost associated with it, depending on how powerful it is. Once a unit is ready for deployment, it can simply be picked up and placed in the desired position on the battlefield, ready to go into action.

The developers have been keen to emphasise the social ‘mixed reality’ elements of the title, since the title allows for one player to strap on the PlayStation VR headset and uses the PlayStation Move controllers, while another player can engage with gameplay using a Dual Shock controller from the TV screen using the ‘social screen’ function.

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Strategy titles such as League of War: VR Arena have seen a resurgence in interest with the rise of VR and augmented reality (AR), with several titles such as Korix and Brass Tactics exploring the new possibilities presented by the technology.

League of War: VR Arena has two modes currently available, the competitive Arcade Mode that allows users to play against other opponents, and single-player campaign mode, where players can defeat AI opponents to earn medals which can in turn be used to upgrade and personalise your forces to make a truly customised force to be reckoned with.

League of War: VR Arena is available now from the PlayStation Store, priced at £18.99 (GBP).

VRFocus will bring you further news on League of War: VR Arena as it becomes available.

MunkyFun Confirms Date and Price for League of War: VR Arena on PlayStation VR

Back in August developer MunkyFun announced its strategic warfare simulator League of War: VR Arena for PlayStation VR. Then during Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) Paris Games Week (PGW) press conference the title surfaced again with a new trailer and a tentative release date of 7th November. Today, the studio has confirmed that date as well as the price.

League of War: VR Arena features both a single-player Campaign mode and an Arcade co-op multiplayer mode where players face off head-to-head, with one using the PlayStation VR and the other using the Social Screen. In VR players grab a unit with a Move controller and place it on the battlefield where they want to attack the opponent while Social Screen players use a DualShock 4 controller, with the videogame launching player-selected units automatically when their charge time is complete.

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League of War: VR Arena will turn your living room into an intense virtual battlefield that combines the immersion of VR with the immediacy of head-to-head competition,” said Nick Pavis, CEO and Co-founder of MunkyFun, Inc. “With one player on the headset and the other playing via the TV screen, it’s a throwback to classic strategy combat where you can’t hide behind a screenname—win or lose, your opponent will be right next to you!”

The goal in League of War: VR Arena is to destroy the opposing army’s towers and base. Each commander can build a squad comprised of Infantry, Tanks, Recon, Choppers and Artillery, each of which occupies one of five spawn pads. Each unit requires time and energy to build, with more powerful units requiring more energy and taking longer to charge up.

League of War: VR Arena is exclusive to PlayStation VR, released on 7th November via the PlayStation Store for $19.99 USD, €19.99 EUR and £15.99 GBP.

For any further updates from MunkyFun, keep reading VRFocus.

Tabletop Warfare Sim League of War: VR Arena Dated for November

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) certainly didn’t disappoint with today’s Paris Games Week (PGW) 2017 press conference, showcasing plenty of titles that confirm its continued support for PlayStation VR. One of those making an appearance was League of War: VR Arena which has been confirmed for release next month.

Originally announced back in August, League of War: VR Arena is a real-time tabletop warfare simulator which looks like a cut down version of Command & Conquer. Today MunkyFun Games showed off a new trailer for the title with plenty of gameplay footage which mainly revolved around the two-player portion of the videogame, where one player uses the headset whilst a second person uses the social screen feature to wage war.

Players will have access to 12 different units, four of which can be deployed at one time. These include soldiers, tanks, flamethrowers, artillery and helicopters, all which need to be carefully deployed on the battlefield to win. Each unit takes a certain amount of energy to deploy, depending on how powerful it is. When a unit is ready, players simply pick it up, put it down on the battlefield, and watch it go zipping off to destroy the enemy’s base.

While units can be deployed however a player wishes, certain ones are more ideally suited to destroying particular enemies. So if an opponent has spammed out loads of infantry units players may want to wait until their anti-infantry helicopters are ready, gaining the upper hand.

League of War: VR Arena will be available on 7th November for PlayStation VR.

Today has been filled with other PlayStation VR titles such as Fast Travel Games’ first VR videogame Apex Constructor how about Blood & Truth by Sony London Studio, the spiritual successor to London Heist. Other new titles included  Triangular Pixels’ Smash Hit Plunder, Q-Games’ Dead Hungry, Survios’ obstacle course racer Sprint Vectorhigh-tech fantasy airship battler Bow to Blood and Megalith, in which players are titans who are on a quest to become a powerful god.

For any further updates keep reading VRFocus.

Explosive Screenshots from League of War: VR Arena

Developer MunkyFun announced earlier this week that it was intending to bring popular mobile strategy franchise League of War to the PlayStation VR as League of War: VR Arena.

League of War: VR Arena will let players control up to 12 units, four of which can be deployed at a time. Units can include the likes of soldiers, tanks, flamethrowers and helicopters, which need to be carefully placed and directed for optimum strategy. Each unit costs resources to deploy, so players will need to think carefully about what should be deployed and when.

The title will be controlled using the PlayStation Move controller, with the player having an overlooking view across the battlefield, able to use the Move controllers to pick up and set down units to the best spot – similar to how real world miniature wargames work.

A single player campaign mode and quickplay Arcade mode will be available at launch. The Arcade mode will allow players to be matched against other players using customised armies.

The title is expected to be released in Autumn of 2017, though a price point has not yet been set.

You can look through the screenshots below to get a taste of what is coming, or visit the MunkyFun website for further information.

VRFocus will bring you further information on League of War: VR Arena and other upcoming PlayStation VR titles as it becomes available.

Strategy Game ‘League of War: VR Arena’ Comes to PSVR This Fall

Independent developer MunkyFun is bringing League of War: VR Arena exclusively to Sony’s PSVR platform this Fall. Detailed in an entry on the official PlayStation Blog, the studio’s first VR game is described as being similar to ‘holographic chess’ but with plenty of tanks and explosions, based on the developer’s League of War franchise for mobile.

While no gameplay footage seems to be available yet, the press release suggests that it follows a similar approach to the studio’s existing mobile game League of War: Mercenaries—a ‘tug-of-war’-style strategy game—with an increased emphasis on action and more direct influence over units thanks to the VR perspective and use of motion controls. No trailer for PSVR has surfaced, but MunkyFun did create a teaser for the game in March, showing two players using Oculus Rift headsets; this was clearly an early concept before it became a Sony exclusive. Based on the limited screenshots available, the final version seems to have stepped up its presentation quality considerably, as we’ve come to expect from PSVR titles.

‘Image courtesy MunkyFun

Described as “simple to play, difficult to master,” players will use Move controllers to “directly place and aim their units at the opponent,” overseeing the virtual battlefield from a tabletop perspective. The game will feature a single player campaign, and an ‘arcade’ mode that supports local multiplayer via the PSVR’s Social Screen.

League of War: VR Arena is designed to be a powerful experience that puts players in charge of a high tech, aggressive army on a living, tabletop-style battlefield,” said Nick Pavis, CEO and Co-Founder of MunkyFun, Inc. “As you throw your units into battle, strategically choosing between quick strikes and slower but more powerful units, your opponent does the same, creating a pulse-pounding mix of strategy and action that is highly engaging on PlayStation VR.”

The post Strategy Game ‘League of War: VR Arena’ Comes to PSVR This Fall appeared first on Road to VR.

League of War is Coming to PlayStation VR

The strategy genre has received something of a boost from the increasing popularity of virtual reality (VR). That trend looks set to continue, as San Francisco-based developer MunkyFun have announced that its popular mobile strategy franchise League of War will be coming to PlayStation VR with League of War: VR Arena.

Probably best known for its iteration on smartphones, titled League of War: Mercenaries, the developers are bringing the strategy experience to PlayStation VR. Players will be able to fight against human or AI opponents, building, placing and directing units to the battlefield to take out the enemy.

League of War: VR Arena will allow players to control 12 units, including tanks, soldiers, flamethrowers and helicopters, of which four can be deployed at any one time. Strategy comes in selecting the best deployment and placement and careful managing of resources. Using the PlayStation Move controllers to direct the action, like a general overseeing a strategy table. A single player campaign mode and quick-play Arcade mode will both be available at launch.

League of War: VR Arena is designed to be a powerful experience that puts players in charge of a high tech, aggressive army on a living, tabletop-style battlefield,” said Nick Pavis, CEO and Co-Founder of MunkyFun, Inc. “As you throw your units into battle, strategically choosing between quick strikes and slower but more powerful units, your opponent does the same, creating a pulse-pounding mix of strategy and action that is highly engaging on PlayStation VR.”

MunkyFun are anticipating a release date some time in Autumn 2017. A price point for the title has yet to be confirmed.

VRFocus will bring you further information on League of War: VR Arena and other PlayStation VR titles as it becomes available.