Fracked developer nDreams has confirmed that there are no plans to bring the game to other headsets beyond PSVR.
The studio confirmed as much in multiple posts in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit this week. “There’s currently no plans to bring Fracked to new/existing headsets as it’s a PlayStation VR exclusive,” one reply reads, “tailor-made for the platform.”
Indeed, Fracked is designed very much with PSVR in mind, and can be played as a seated experience. Still ‘currently no plans’ doesn’t mean there will never be plans, so hopefully we could see the game ported to PC and Oculus Quest headsets in the future.
Elsewhere, fans asked if the game could get a possible multiplayer mode in the future.
“The game was designed from the ground up to be a single-player experience first and foremost, and our priority was delivering that, but we could certainly see the appeal of multiplayer,” the developer said. “There are currently no plans to add this at the moment, but we’re open to all player feedback.”
We recently spoke to nDreams to chart the studio’s history in VR as it prepares for its next big VR release. Fracked, meanwhile, hits PSVR next week. We’ll have our full review of the game ready for you very soon.
After a very tough year, the location-based entertainment (LBE) is starting to bounce back with new venues and attractions opening up including some major videogame IP’s landing. One of which was Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity, a collaborative effort between Ubisoft, Zero Latency and nDreams. Today, the LBE company has revealed ticket sales have spiked thanks to the videogame as well as announcing a new investor to aid expansion plans.
Image credit: KWP
Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity arrived at Zero Latency locations in June with the company seeing a 40% rise into new customer ticket sales purely down to the new title. Bringing Ubisoft’s popular Far Cry franchise into virtual reality (VR) for the first time, the multiplayer experience takes up to eight players to the Rook Islands, the setting for Far Cry 3. Battling through henchmen with haptic-enabled guns they’ll eventually confront the main villain himself, Vaas.
As for the investment details, the Australian private equity firm Advent Partners has become a partner and majority shareholder in Zero Latency for an undisclosed sum. The company’s founders will remain key shareholders as it continues to expand in the free-roaming (FRVR) industry. Zero Latency will soon have 55 venues open in 24 countries with more planned for 2022.
“Zero Latency VR will remain the global leader in FRVR. This new funding will accelerate our strategy, allowing us to expand aggressively into new markets and increase our support to existing locations,” explained Tim Ruse, Zero Latency VR CEO in a statement. “We welcome our new strategic partner, Advent, whose professionalism, experience in technology and investment, will help us meet our goals.”
“It is the ideal time to get into the location-based VR sector, with consumers increasingly seeking new experiences, creating a large opportunity for Zero Latency VR, which is one of the fastest-growing, and the most disruptive players in this space,” said Symon Vegter from Advent Partners. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the team and to provide them with support as they seek to establish FRVR as the new medium in leisure and entertainment.”
As mentioned, the LBE VR industry is coming back in full force with plenty of exciting additions available now and in the near future. Apart from Far Cry VR, LBE specialist Hologate is due to launch Hologate World in September in Germany, offering a new hyper-reality experience called Sigvried: Escape from Valhalla. Or if you’re a fan of shooting zombies there’s always Viva Las Vengence: A VR Experience that takes place inside its very own taco truck. Set in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the multiplayer experience opened in Los Angeles and New York City in July, with the London, UK event starting next month.
For continued updates from Zero Latency, keep reading VRFocus.
nDreams, the British virtual reality (VR) behind titles including Phantom: Covert Ops, Far Cry VR and the upcoming Fracked has announced that ex Codemasters CEO, Frank Sagnier is joining immediately as its new Non-Executive Chair of the Board.
Sagnier’s videogame career spans 25+ years having previously held roles at Electronic Arts, Acclaim Entertainment and Funcom. As CEO of Codemasters, he oversaw the company’s IPO in 2018 followed by its acquisition by Electronic Arts for $1.2 billion USD in 2021. Additionally, Sagnier is an Ambassador for BAFTA Games and a Vice President of SpecialEffect, a UK-based charity.
His appointment to the nDreams board follows Dan Nord (Maxar, Amazon Games and EA Mobile) as Non-Executive Director and Julie Parmenter, CFO, nDreams.
“I am delighted to join nDreams’ board to help the company achieve its mission to become a world leading developer and publisher of VR games,” said Sagnier in a statement. “Over the past few years, Patrick has built a reputable studio with high quality teams delivering high quality games. The fast-improving hardware together with highly immersive and innovative players experiences mean the VR market is bound to see significant growth and exciting times ahead.”
“I’m thrilled to welcome Frank to the nDreams board. I’ve known him since he was building up EA Partners, and I am certain that his wisdom, experience, passion and drive will push us forwards as we head towards some very ambitious goals. Frank is a force of nature, and it’s exciting to have him on our side!” said Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO, nDreams.
Veteran VR studio nDreams announced today that it has appointed former Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier as the non-executive chair of its board of directors. As CEO of Codemasters—best known for its popular DiRT racing franchise—Sagnier lead the company to a $1.2 billion acquisition by EA earlier this year.
Today the company has announced that former Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier is joining its board of directors as the non-executive chair. A board of directors typically functions as a body for guiding long-term business decisions and representing shareholders. A board is often a requirement for public companies, though many private companies with investors, like nDreams, also institute boards. While nDreams hasn’t announced a new investment, the appointment of Sagnier to the board suggests he may have participated in a recent investment round.
Frank Sagnier | Image courtesy nDreams
Sagnier spent seven years as the CEO of Codemasters. Under his leadership the studio acquired Sony’s Evolution Studio and Slightly Mad Studios, growing Codemasters as a powerhouse of driving simulation game development talent. He also lead the studio through an initial public offering in 2018. EA acquired Codemasters earlier this year for $1.2 billion; Sagnier says his departure from the company was a planned part of the acquisition.
“I am delighted to join nDreams’ board to help the company achieve its mission to become a world leading developer and publisher of VR games,” said Sagnier in the announcement. “Over the past few years, [nDreams CEO] Patrick has built a reputable studio with high quality teams delivering high quality games. The fast-improving hardware together with highly immersive and innovative player experiences mean the VR market is bound to see significant growth and exciting times ahead.”
Sagnier joins other nDreams board members, Patrick O’Luanaigh (Chief Executive Officer), Julie Parmenter (Chief Financial Officer), Tasmin O’Luanaigh (Chief People Officer), Tom Gillo (Chief Development Officer), and Julian Viggars, Pip Burley, & Dan Nord (non-executive directors).
I mean that quite literally; today, the studio’s headcount sits around 100 people occupying two floors of an office in the London-neighboring town of Farnborough. The team’s developed and published something like nine VR apps to date with its next, PSVR exclusive Fracked, arriving this month. It also helped Ubisoft bring Far Cry to VR arcades earlier this year, has yet more games in development, plans to publish more VR titles from indies, operates a talent-nurturing academy initiative and, just last week, announced the launch of a new, remote VR studio dedicated to making live games.
That’s quite the evolution from a once-small outfit best known for making content on PlayStation Home, and it’s taken a lot to get here.
A New Home
nDreams has been around since 2006 but you really wouldn’t know it. Its early years saw it keep a low profile between a handful of alternate reality and promotional games as well as work on Sony’s virtual social hub, PlayStation Home. When the studio dived into VR in 2013, the team had aspirations of becoming a premier studio known for making the best content you could find inside a headset. With the launch of 2020’s excellent Phantom: Covert Ops and the response to last month’s Fracked demo, you might argue the team’s well on its way to achieving that goal. But, as with many aspiring VR studios, the path towards it has been rocky.
In many ways, nDreams’ story of survival in VR is no different to many other studios. You already know the outline; VR had a slow start, making it as an indie was tough and, even with multi-million dollar investment under its belt, nDreams wasn’t immune to those struggles. Before it could get to where it is now, the team worked on a string of VR games, covering partnerships with Google, independent releases and even publishing titles from other small studios. Some tried to cater to gamers, others were more experiential. It’s an earnest, if inconsistent portfolio, connected only by the act of throwing everything at the wall to see if something might stick. Some of it did. Others? Maybe not so much.
Chief Development Officer, Tom Gillo, who joined the studio in 2015 after working on the PSVR experiences that would eventually make up PlayStation VR Worlds at Sony London Studio, puts it in a way that will ring true for many long-time VR developers: “I guess the thing, that we tried to do quickly and early on in our journey, was unpack what we felt made good VR. So it was really understanding the tent poles around, how we would try and make the best VR games that we could. And, you’ll know this, it’s not always possible on some of the budgets, it’s a challenge.”
Some Assembly Required
Reluctantly waving goodbye to the steady stream of revenue it generated making content for PS3’s PlayStation Home (Sony didn’t carry the service into the PS4 era), nDreams searched for what’s next. In the very early days of VR, it released the SkyDIEving demo for the first Oculus Rift development kit. It was one of the first playable experiences for the device and proved popular enough that people near the offices even asked if they could come in to see it (I know this because, anecdotally, I have friends working in completely different industries that did just that).
Following up were early titles for the first edition of the Gear VR, including a space shooter called Gunner and a virtual beach destination simply known as Perfect Beach. The former was essentially EVE Gunjack, with gaze-based aiming, whereas the other dipped its toes into the still-untapped potential of virtual tourism. But these experiments were secondary to what the team hoped would be its breakout VR game, a narrative-driven launch window title for all upcoming VR platforms named The Assembly.
I’d be willing to bet that, for a lot of you, that name doesn’t ring a bell.
Not that The Assembly was bad. Far from it, in fact; The Assembly was intended to be an answer to the call for ‘real’ VR games, featuring an intriguing universe in which players explored the underbelly of a sinister scientific organization. It boasted great production values for VR at the time and had a focus on keeping players comfortable. But the game had started work in 2014, a year before the reveal of the HTC Vive, and it would eventually launch on PC in July 2016, a good few months before the arrival of PSVR and the Oculus Touch controllers. As such, nDreams had stuck to its guns and developed a gamepad-only control system for the experience.
That’s why you probably don’t recall the game among other breakthrough titles from 2016 like Job Simulator and Superhot, which placed a huge emphasis on motion controls. Comparatively, The Assembly was an ironic case of feeling dated even as it launched on futuristic hardware. It did eventually get motion controller support of its own, but the game’s 2014 foundations limited just how far interaction could go. “I think like any like any studio going through that journey and particularly at that time with the hardware being so in its infancy, clearly you’re going to learn lessons from it,” Gillo says. “And one of the lessons I guess, would be that […] we need to now figure out how to be even better, and the signature things we need in VR games.”
It also taught the team the realities of where VR was going in its first few years. Gillo says nDreams views The Assembly as a success and that it did see “very long tail sales”. But it was also self-published in the hopes that it could help fund future solo efforts from the studio. “Unfortunately, the market just wasn’t there, in terms of the numbers to make that viable.”
It’s Dangerous To Go Alone
The Assembly was a learning experience, then, not just about how to make VR games but also what nDreams was going to need to do in order to survive in these nascent years. It would need to apply the latter before it could really return to the former; the studio wouldn’t take another stab at an ambitious single-player narrative adventure until Phantom: Covert Ops four years later, but it released four titles in the meantime. There was Perfect, another VR travel and relaxation app that simply presented a handful of nice environments to stand in. Gillo says this was an exercise in “understanding how we could get something to market relatively quickly and how we could lean into some of the early adopter expansion.”
Gaming-wise, nDream’s output was mixed. There was Danger Goat, a Google Daydream exclusive puzzle title that, while fun, really didn’t have much to offer the medium. Gillo fondly recalls getting to be one of the first to work on Daydream and laments its downfall but isometric puzzle games about secret agent goats weren’t exactly what the VR audience was clamoring for in 2017. nDreams also got into VR publishing with Bloody Zombies, a 2D beat ’em up which, while certainly competent, didn’t really seem well suited for the platform either.
This, I’d argue, wasn’t the sort of output you might expect from a team that wanted to be making VR’s biggest games. But, can you blame them? If Google is dangling money to make a game at a time when self-publishing your own is financial suicide, Danger Goat probably seems like a safe bet. “I think we’ve always aspired as a studio to do longer-form games,” Gillo responds when asked if the studio was where he thought it would be in that era. “But there is obviously the reality of the market and the reality of the budgets available and so on. And so you work with what you have to continue to elevate your capability and your understanding of that market.”
A Fruity Twist
At this point, we’re reaching 2018, a time in which the VR market seemed pretty bleak. Sony’s PSVR seemed to be selling somewhat respectably, but the barriers to entry for PC VR — cost, hardware and accessibility — were proving too big to significantly grow the install base. Once-bright-eyed and hopeful developers were beginning to throw in the towel. Without a major hit to its name, you might’ve suspected nDreams to follow suit. And maybe something would have been different were it not for Shooty Fruity.
Released in mid-2018, this was a wave shooter that, again, might not have resembled the industry-defining experience nDreams had envisioned itself making but would help it get there thanks to, in Gillo’s words, being “phenomenally successful” from a sales perspective. This was before we had the Oculus Quest (the game didn’t hit that platform until 2020); Shooty Fruity managed to resonate with VR’s existing userbase.
It was a simple if strange idea; you shot sentient fruit as you pushed supermarket items through a checkout. Truthfully I remember being a little vexed when I first saw it that year, and we only ended up giving the game a 6/10. But I distinctly recall the buzz online around launch being quite positive, particularly on PSVR where shooter fanatics were hungry for something new. Though full sales stats for Shooty Fruity haven’t been revealed, Gillo’s tone suggests the game’s reception helped open a few doors.
And that’s a key point. From Gunner through to Danger Goat, nDreams hadn’t yet really had a standout VR hit. While developers like Sanzaru Games were scoring exclusivity contracts with Facebook and the like, nDreams seemed to keep being passed up on to make its own Asgard’s Wrath or Lone Echo. “I think one of the things that I realized really early on, and this is slightly hubris and naivety on my part, is that you come from somewhere like London Studio and then you come to nDreams, then you just assume that the world’s going to take note,” Gillo says. “And that was tough because, we were hiring some really brilliant people, seasoned veterans from elsewhere around the industry. But if you’re Mr. Oculus or Mr. Sony, you’re just going to judge us on the last title.”
Out Of The Shadows
With Shooty Fruity’s success and a proven record of putting out multiple games, nDreams hoped it had reached that point of notoriety. It was now time to “bet the farm”, in Gillo’s words, on the kind of ambitious, long-form VR experience the team had always wanted to make. Internally, the studio had been working on a prototype for a different kind of stealth game. You wouldn’t be performing close-range takeouts like Solid Snake or donning Splinter Cell’s green goggles; you’d be sneaking through an enemy base through water, set entirely within a kayak. All your weapons would be attached to you and handle realistically, while movement with the paddles would feel immersive and authentic. This was to be a VR game that wouldn’t make any compromises in its quest for presence. Gillo says it was crucial to show that demo to the right people.
“And it was great because we got the reaction that we hoped we would, which is, ‘Wow, this is, this is really unique and it’s thinking about VR, in a really innovative way’,” he says. “And so that was the sort of pivotal moment really where we knew we were onto something and we could yet springboard from there.”
Phantom ended up being published by Facebook itself, launching on Oculus Quest and Rift in mid-2020. It achieved the highest score Upload had given an nDreams game to date thanks to its compelling, immersive mechanics, and still ranks on our best stealth games list. It wasn’t perfect but, by a lot of VR design standards, it set an incredibly high bar. Earlier this year, nDreams confirmed that the game had generated more than $1 million in revenue. Again, perhaps not quite the blockbuster numbers a team of nDreams’ size (which by this point was approaching 100 people) would need if it self-published the game, but a sign of significant progress. Finally, nDreams was making the games it had envisioned when it started its VR journey nearly a decade ago.
“When I have a down day, I will go and I will read comments on the Oculus store about Phantom and occasionally you’re going to get somebody for whom it didn’t quite resonate,” Gillo says. “90% of the time it’s people just going ‘I absolutely love this’ and it warms the heart because you go, ‘Okay, great. It did resonate. And it did land and people did get what we’re trying to do.’ ”
Frack To The Future
Given that Phantom was such a considered effort on the immersion front, it’s somewhat surprising to see the studio throw so much of its design out the window for its next game.
Earlier this month, Creative Director Steve Watt told me that immersive design wasn’t a big focus for Fracked. The game instead wants to cater to explosive AAA action more akin to a Call of Duty or Uncharted title. It’s a bombastic shooter in which players shoot down ski slopes and charge through combat arenas, with more in common with Doom than the studio’s last effort. “So there’s lots of things where the medium has moved forward and where we’re actively pushing against [boundaries], sensible or not,” Gillo says of the change in tone. “You know like deliberately pushing to find out what is acceptable. And I think that’s always really important in any medium and art form is that you continue to push, continue to explore and you consider what works well.”
Something like eight years on from when it first jumped into VR then, nDreams has a sense of getting there. There’s a busyness to the studio’s office, the sensation of many different parts moving a mile a minute, and the team’s new Orbital studio will see it cater to a different branch of the VR market with a focus on live games (titles that evolve post-launch with new in-game content, like it Fortnite or mobile apps). “I’m thinking about, the kinds of audience expectation in five years’ time,” Gillo says of the expansion. “And yeah, I think that does mean much much longer engagement. That means different ways of delivering content. And that’s not something that we’ve invested in enough. We’ve done things here, obviously we supported our titles, but service games is a different skill set. And so by building that out and putting a slightly different lens on things, it gives us learnings again.”
nDreams survived VR’s shaky start and now more closely resembles the studio its leaders had dreamed of it becoming. Like any long-running VR developer, it hasn’t been easy, but it also helped the team rack up lessons applicable to the next phase of VR.
Gillo ends on this note: “I can’t really talk about what’s coming next, but the things that we’re working on internally now are the things that, if I could have gone back five years and said, ‘Hey, you’ll be doing this’, then it would have made the journey all worthwhile? The answer is, wholeheartedly: Yes.”
British developer nDreams is doing very well at the moment, seeing success with Phantom: Covert Ops(2020), Far Cry VR, and soon its latest Frackedwill arrive. Today, the studio has unveiled its latest initiative, opening a second virtual reality (VR) development studio focused on live service games, nDreams Studio Orbital.
The new studio will be helmed by Chris White who previously worked for FitXR – the VR fitness app which moved to a subscription model this year – bringing his live service experience to the team. White has also worked at Electronic Arts (The Sims Social), Glu Mobile (Project Gotham) and Space Ape Games (Transformers: Earth Wars and Samurai Siege).
“VR continues to grow at pace so it’s an incredibly exciting time to join,” said White in a statement. “There are so many awesome games out there already, but there’s still so much to discover, especially around experiences that engage players for years. I can’t wait to start building out the team and deliver something truly amazing for all the VR players out there!”
nDreams Studio Orbital hasn’t revealed any projects at this time or which direction the team plans to take down the live service route. Whatever the team decide it’ll be very different to nDreams’ usual titles which all tend to be single-player experiences.
Based in Farnborough, UK, nDreams was founded in 2006 and pivoted towards VR when the first Oculus Rift development kits (DK1) became available in 2013. The studio’s first big project was The Assembly which was followed up by Perfect, Bloody Zombies and Shooty Fruity. nDreams Studio Orbital will be fully remote and currently has several roles to fill.
It’s not just live service games nDreams is expanding into. Earlier this year the VR specialist announced a new £2 million fund which would be used to co-fund and publish VR content from other developers.
As and when nDreams Studio Orbital reveals what the team is working on, VRFocus will keep you updated.
nDreams, the studio behind Phantom: Covert Ops (2020) and the upcoming PSVR exclusive Fracked, announced today it’s opening a second VR development studio called nDreams Studio Orbital, which will focus on creating games as a service for VR.
nDreams Studio Orbital will be headed by Chris White, who previously worked as a senior product manager at FitXR, the team behind the eponymous subscription-based VR fitness app. White has also worked in senior positions at Space Ape Games, Glu Mobile, and Electronic Arts.
The Farnborough, UK-based nDreams says its new studio will be fully remote, and will allow the company to develop “a more diverse portfolio of games across a range of ways to play.”
nDreams hasn’t tipped its hand yet, however one of the most successful genres in VR right now is fitness titles featuring either annual or monthly subscriptions, which typically target the Oculus Quest platform.
Founded in 2006, nDreams first transitioned to its role as VR developer with the release of a demo called SkyDIEving for the Oculus Rift development kits back in 2013. The studio has since released a host of VR titles targeting all major platforms including Bloody Zombies, Shooty Fruity, The Assembly, and meditation app Perfect.
Earlier this year, nDreams also became a third-party publisher with the release of a $2 million fund earmarked for VR developers looking for funding and industry guidance. The studio has also worked with Ubisoft and out-of-home entertainment company Zero Latency VR to create a free-roam virtual reality experience based on the Far Cry franchise.
nDreams says it’s actively recruiting for several key roles for the new studio, which can be found on the nDreams website.
British virtual reality (VR) developer nDreams has been on top form of late thanks to titles including Phantom: Covert Ops (2020)and location-based entertainment (LBE) experience Far Cry VR. Its latest project Fracked looks to continue that success, providing players with an action-packed thrill ride where you can run and gun through elaborate levels designed for verticality, exclusive to PlayStation VR.
Fracked has the usual action-hero dynamic where you’re trying to save the world from some interdimensional aliens. So cue plenty of dramatic set pieces like skiing down a mountainside trying to outrun an avalanche or ziplining across a building whilst peppering enemies with gunfire. All fairly standard stuff but nDreams has made some interesting design choices, especially where the PlayStation Move controller is concerned.
Firstly, Fracked can only be played using Move as the gameplay style just wouldn’t suit a DualShock 4 or PlayStation Aim controller. Move is necessary when VR videogames require physical actions like climbing ladders or reloading a weapon and there’s plenty of that in Fracked. In fact, mechanics like the reloading work provide a nice balance between realism and automation. There’s no ammo belt to worry about, simply eject the magazine, push in the next and cock the weapon. The process is smooth enough so that even in the heat of battle it doesn’t feel bloated and awkward.
Locomotion and PlayStation Move haven’t always been a match made in heaven, and that’s certainly so when a fast-paced shooter requires you to be seated. However, Fracked isn’t slow and lumbering like others in this field, being able to easily move around environments (without teleportation), taking cover and planning your next move. This is aided in a couple of ways. As you are seated and there’s no crouch button all you do is grab whatever cover you’re behind to pop up, take a few shots then duck back down. A very simple yet intuitive mechanic. The other are those ziplines mentioned. Fracked has plenty of places to climb yet it’s the ziplines that provide extra dynamic flavour to the experience, quickly traversing areas to get the drop on enemies.
There first few areas also showcase a nice level of pacing, offering an instant challenge in normal mode without being too overwhelming. Fracked also has a nice visual flavour to it, kinda reminiscent of Borderlands 2 VR and that cel-shaded art style. nDreams has achieved a fitting balance between realism and comic book aesthetics, vivid with its colour palette use yet you still feel like you’re in an abandoned mining town.
Even though the demo only lasts around 30 minutes the most important factor shined through, Fracked was enjoyable to play. You’ll easily go through the demo several times over ahead of the official launch in August, testing how much freedom you really have when tackling set pieces.
From first inspection, it certainly seems nDreams is going all out to make Fracked the action blockbuster of the summer. It is up against some stiff competition from the likes of Vertigo Games’ After the Fall but Fracked has all the ingredients for an engaging experience. Considering nDreams’ previous VR escapades Fracked is its boldest, hopefully managing to maintain this exciting gameplay throughout the campaign for a truly solid adventure.
nDreams’ PSVR exclusive, Fracked, will launch on August 20. But you can try the game today.
The developer is today releasing a free demo for the game with roughly 30 minutes of gameplay. It’s taken from some of the game’s opening levels and will give players a taste of both skiing and shooting.
In Fracked players take on an evil corporation that’s subjected to a parasitic alien invasion. The game is focused on fast-paced, explosive action that sees players charging through combat but also taking cover by grabbing onto the sides of the environment. There’s a new trailer for today’s news, which you can see below.
Fracked can only be played with the PSVR headset and PlayStation Move controllers. The standard version of the game will cost $29.99/£19.99 but there will also be a Deluxe Edition for $34.99/£24.99. This pack includes new equipment skins, a digital artbook and a digital soundtrack for the game.
That’s not all – you’ll also get 72 hours early access to the game if you pre-order the Deluxe Edition, so it effectively launches August 17 instead.
You can also play Fracked on PS5 via backward compatibility, where nDreams says you’ll experience uncapped dynamic resolution, better framerate and faster loading times.
Fracked is our Upload Access game of the month – we’ve got exclusive interviews with nDreams about the making of the game, and make sure to stay tuned for more looks at the title in the next few weeks.
When it comes to summer PlayStation VR videogames nDreams’ Fracked is probably on most gamers wanted lists. Having previously released the stealthy Phantom: Covert Ops, Fracked is a very different beast, all about action and freedom to traverse the environment. Today, the studio has confirmed a release date for the PlayStation VR exclusive as well as rolling out a demo so you can see what all the fuss is about.
The Fracked demo is a 30-minute thrill ride that will put you on skis hurtling down snowy mountain ravines, climbing through structures to outflank the enemy and, of course, eliminating any opponent who stands in your way. You’ll be able to finally see for yourself what the run and gun combat is all about and its “1:1 grabbable cover system” nDreams has been talking about.
Designed to make you feel like an action hero, Fracked sees you face off against an army of gun-wielding, interdimensional maniacs inside a mountain fracking facility. There’s no on-rails gameplay or cinematic cutscenes to stunt the immersive gameplay, allowing you to be fully involved in the experience and tackle the challenges in your own style.
Talking of style, Fracked features a very vibrant aesthetic with plenty of colour and explosions for a nice visual feast. Plus, if you’re playing on a PlayStation 5 there will be console-specific enhancements including uncapped dynamic resolution, improved framerate, and loading times.
Fracked has been solely designed for the PlayStation Move controllers so hopefully, you’ve got a pair. They can still be found online brand new but they’re not cheap with current Amazon listings putting them at £116.99 GBP.
After playing the demo, if you’re even more buzzed than before then you might want to hear about nDrams’ Deluxe Edition of Fracked. Containing the videogame, exclusive Earth Defender equipment skins, a digital artbook and digital soundtrack all for $34.99 USD/ €29.99 EUR/ £24.99, pre-orders go live today. In what seems to be a growing pre-order feature, you’ll be able to play 72hrs prior to Fracked’s general release.
Fracked isset to launch for PlayStation VR on 20th August 2021. Check out the new trailer below and for further updates on Fracked, keep reading VRFocus.
