If you’ve not heard of Ninja Theory then you’ve most likely come across the developers work which includes, Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry. Now the studio has released its first virtual reality (VR) title on Steam for the HTC Vive head-mounted display (HMD), a first-person shooter (FPS) called DEXED.
DEXED came to life through a game jam held earlier this year at Ninja Theory’s offices. Teams ranging from two to eight people had one month each to create a videogame using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. After the month had ended everyone got together to play the projects, with DEXED being the standout title.
Inspired by videogames such as Panzer Dragoon and Ikaruga, DEXED is an on-rails shooter in which one of the HTC Vive controllers shoots ice projectiles while the other shoots fire. Corresponding to this are the enemies which are weaker to one of the projectile types. DEXED also features a tagging mechanic so that players can select multiple enemies before releasing a volley of missiles at them, thus gaining a larger score.
As DEXED has been inspired by those earlier titles it also keeps to the classic highscore ethos where players are judged by their best score. So the videogame features both global Steam and friend leaderboards to aid in the competitive replay factor.
Ninja Theory has released two videos to compliment the launch of DEXED. The first is a gameplay trailer showcasing the action and the various levels players can expect to see. While the second video is a development diary giving a behind the scenes look who the team are and why they came up with this particular idea.
While this maybe Ninja Theory’s first VR title VRFocus has covered the studio before through its work on upcoming title Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which it has showcased in 360-degrees.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Ninja Theory, reporting back with any further VR news.
