OrbusVR is the first VR MMO and it’s already been live for over three years. To celebrate the occasion there’s an Anniversary Event going on right now and they’ve just launched the official Quest 2 enhancement update with Quest 2-specific features.
OrbusVR relaunched around the same time the Quest released with its OrbusVR: Reborn version. This version of the game saw a huge visual overhaul, complete rework of the overworld structure, and a total revamp of essentially every part of the VR MMO. It was basically like a relaunch. To celebrate, you can grab a three-year anniversary cake for your home and a cape from the Rewards NPC near Highsteppe.
Three years removed from its original launch, OrbusVR seems to be doing better than ever. According to last week’s blog post in just the past year, the community has killed nearly twice as many monsters as they did in the first two years combined. For an MMO that’s extremely encouraging. It shows that not only is it a “sticky” game that keeps people engaged, but it also shows growth over time in active players, which is crucial for a non-subscription based MMO to survive.
In the first two years players logged a total of 95 years, 6 months, 8 days, and 6 hours in play time. In just the last year alone that number was over 173 years worth of playtime. That’s nearly twice as many hours in half the time.
Some other stats across the same time period: players made nearly 3x as many characters, collected over 4x as much loot, and completed 4x as many dungeons.
“As VR becomes more mainstream, we look forward to seeing even more players join the community,” says the blog post.
With the anniversary the developers are also rolling out Quest 2-specific updates and enhancements. Quest 2 players will now be able to see mounts and toolbelt items on other players and they’ll also see both left and right hands appropriately. Due to the limitations of the original Quest, those things were inexplicably missing in OrbusVR.
They’ve also improved the character deletion process, created a lock button for inventories, and improved Fellowships (guilds) in the game. Other planned content for Q1 2021 includes the Spring Festival and the hard mode version of the Citadel Raid.
You can check out OrbusVR right now for $20 on PC VR or on Oculus Quest, complete with cross-play across all devices. There’s also a free trial up to level 10 available for the PC version as well and it has cross-buy between Quest and the Rift store.
Co-op and VR go together like the Oculus Quest 2 and wireless room scale. Check out our list here of the best co-op VR games available on the Quest platform.
Oculus Quest 2’s arrival means a large number of original Quest owners will be looking to give, sell, or lend their original headsets with the upgrade’s arrival.
Many used Quests will go to friends and family and that means lots of these new VR owners will be looking to play together. We’ve already got a list covering the 10 best multiplayer VR Quest games and it’s a fantastic list covering some of the most fun you can have in VR. There are some games on that, like the top pick team-based Echo VR. That game can feature some of the most rewarding cooperation you’ll find with others in VR, but at its core that’s still a competitive game. Other activities, like golf, bowling, fishing and tablet tennis, can also be competitive too, but these classic activities are also playable in a pretty laid back way if you want too.
Below is a look at our favorite co-op VR games to play on Quest and/or Quest 2. As always, we’ll plan to update this list periodically and please let everyone else know in the comments if there are any cooperative experiences native to Oculus Quest you think others should play.
Carly and the Reaperman is a third person platformer where one player controls the young girl Carly and the other plays the morbid Reaperman. The latter can manipulate the environment and move items to create a path for the former — it’s all about working together to help Carly get through the level.
The best part about this game from a co-op perspective is that there’s many options for how to play. It works as a native VR game — with both players each using their own headset — and also as an asymmetrical VR game — with one player controlling the Reaperman in VR while the other uses a free game client on PC to play as Carly.
Battle Sister initially launched as a solo game with no multiplayer component. However, a recent update adds a cooperative horde mode that lets two players team up to take on waves of enemies from the 40K franchise.
The mode takes maps from the game and fills them with enemies to defeat. As you work your way through waves you’ll earn credits to purchase bigger and better weapons.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew has struggled with an empty player base over the years and games like Spaceteam VR, which you’ll see lower on this list, do a really good job with some similar ideas. Still, we can’t quite leave this wish fulfillment off the list for any trekkies out there.
You and your fellow crew mates must operate a starship through an assortment of missions from your seats on the the bridge of a Federation starship. It can be a real joy to complete a mission together with your friends.
Fans of Time Crisis should go through the steps to sideload the Crisis VRigade gem from Sumalab. You and your buddy cops are out with guns to stop some bad guys from doing crimes. The game is fast-paced and features cross-play with PC VR and PS VR, so you can play with your friends even if they have a different headset. On Oculus Quest, we’d recommend giving yourself the largest play area possible and getting ready to duck for cover. It is some of the most fun you could have in VR and if you’re a fan of this kind of arcade shooter definitely take the time to check it out.
Crisis VRigade for Quest is pay-as-you-like on Itch.io, so you could get it for free if you wanted. That said, the developers do have a sequel called Crisis VRigade 2 on PSVR and Steam Early Access, and they could likely use as much support as they can get to keep developing this idea.
Since Oculus Quest doesn’t have Google Earth VR, this is the next best thing. Basically, the app grabs footage from Google Maps and lets you teleport to anywhere on the planet. The neat feature though is that you can do it cooperatively. You’ll see a friend’s avatar overlaid into the world right next to you and even though you’re not really “playing” anything together, it’s a really cool thing to experience with someone during these times of lockdown and cabin fever.
A fun game to play is take turns randomly teleporting somewhere in the world and tasking each other with exploring the area to try and figure out which country you’re in. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.
I’ve been dreaming about VR MMOs long before I ever saw .hack//sign or Sword Art Online. My first MMO was EverQuest back in the late 90s and early 00s and ever since I’ve wanted to go inside one of those game worlds. OrbusVR: Reborn is made by a small team and has a modest vision, but the upside to that restraint is that it actually delivers on what it sets out to do.
This isn’t a WoW-killer and isn’t going to set the world on fire, but if you want to play the first-ever actual VR MMO, albeit with simplistic visuals, this is it right here. There’s plenty of content, fun combat, and a vast world to explore with friends.
Arizona Sunshine is Vertigo Games’ zombie shooter that’s graced almost every VR system possible since it hit the PC VR market in 2016. Its gameplay and mechanics have aged quite a bit compared with, say, 2020’s The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. But Arizona Sunshine also includes a full co-op campaign and the Quest 2 version is poised for a massive visual upgrade compared with its original port to the standalone headset.
Even if horror games in VR are generally too much for you, having backup in Arizona Sunshine’s co-op mode might be just the bit of confidence you need to have a bit of fun fighting off zombies.
Nathan Rowe is the principal developer behind this creative experience that is about as close to Minecraft in VR as you’re likely to get on Oculus Quest, at least until Microsoft and Mojang get around to official support.
SculptrVR features fully cooperative world-building and you can resize yourself to create at different scales. It’s an incredible feeling to be able to modify your world and even alter your appearance freely. It’s not as much of a “game” as other options on this list, but for the creatives out there, collaborative creation can be a lot of fun at various scales.
Imagine if you were playing a game of Star Trek: Bridge Crew and everything that could go wrong went wrong — that’s basically Spaceteam VR. Communication is key here as you and your friends need to clearly provide directions to each other, quickly, in order to survive.
At your console you’ll see instructions that only one of your crew members can complete, so it begins a yelling match where everyone tries to frantically call out instructions without actually knowing who it pertains to. Things catch fire too, which is great.
Do you like fishing? Do you like the idea of fishing, but get bored? Or maybe it’s just too much hassle for too little payoff in the end? Regardless, if any of that describes you, then this could be the perfect game for you. Real VR Fishing features some of the most breathtaking vistas you can find in VR — hands-down — with ultra-high resolution footage of real world locations.
You’ve got a quaint log cabin with an aquarium that stores all of your fish, as well as a Store to buy new bait, rods, and more. When you’re out on the water a friend can join you for some co-fishing and they’ve even got a wonderful built-in browser feature so you can listen to music or watch YouTube while fishing.
Finally, this recent release from Resolution Games takes our top spot. It plays out a lot like Overcooked, but it manages to slip into this VR skin effortlessly. You’ll have to frantically cook dishes, yell out at your partner, and try not to burn food as you struggle to meet demand.
It’s also got a cute fairytale aesthetic rather than a modern, realistic kitchen which is a nice change of pace. You’ll even have to fight off nasty customers the deeper into the game you go as well. Generally, it’s just a lot of fun and stands as one of the best co-op VR games out there on Oculus Quest.
There’s some great fun you can have as well playing some games with only one headset. Pull up Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes’ PDF or actually print out your very own bomb defusal manual. Then team up with a friend in the same room, or over voice chat, to stop an explosion in VR.
Your first or last stops in VR, depending on your budget and time constraints, should also likely be in a place like Rec Room, Bigscreen, VRChat, or AltspaceVR. All of them are free to use and offer lots of things you can do with friends. Rec Room in particular can also bridge the gap between people without headsets and those with, as your friends can play with you in VR from flat-screen mode on iPhone, iPad, PS4 and, soon, Xbox. And you could always cast your view to a phone, tablet or TV and have friends or family watch along and try help guiding you in almost any experience.
Let us know what you think are some of the other best co-op VR or maybe even competitive multiplayer VR games on Oculus Quest down in the comments below!
No matter who you are it’s almost a given that at points you just want to shut the world out and cocoon somewhere to relax and unwind. This can take many forms, from delving into a good book, binge-watching the latest Netflix series or listening to your favourite album. Of course, videogames can also provide a superb means of escape and virtual reality (VR) titles take that one step further. So here are a few of VRFocus’ favourites.
OrbusVR: Reborn
If you want plenty of content then massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are a good place to start. Which means you should take a look at OrbusVR: Reborn by Ad Alternum.
Originally released in 2017, OrbusVR was reborn in 2019 expanding the experience with more content as well as improving the visuals among other tweaks. While you can adventure alone, the title is best experienced with others. Go on raids, explore dungeons, fight monsters and just enjoy a huge open world. Plus there’s a free demo over on Steam so you can try it first.
If single-player adventuring is more your thing then Turtle Rock Games’ latest, Journey of the Gods is another worthy of your time. An RPG with a bit of a Legend of Zelda vibe, this about saving townsfolk, upgrading weapons and generally fighting lots of big monsters.
There’s a twist in the gameplay in the fact that you get to unlock some god-like powers, transforming you into a massive deity that can crash trees, make impassible terrain passable and rain down lightning bolts onto enemies.
Some videogames just don’t need an explanation, it’s simply best to just play them and go with the flow. Paper Beastfor PlayStation VR is one of those titles.
Wonderfully esoteric with its gameplay design, Paper Beast is an amalgamation of genres with a story putting you inside a living, breathing digital world made up of random code from big data. Interact with the strange creatures which inhabit the world, solve environmental puzzles and begin a journey with no dialogue or written cues.
Rather than losing yourself on an adventure why not lose yourself in the music. There are an ever growing number of rhythm-action titles which could have made this list but Beat Saber has the right mix of energetic gameplay, infectious tunes and wide platform support.
The experience has evolved considerably since its initial release, adding more music packs, allowing gamers to create their own beat maps and throwing in some 360-degree challenges for good measure. You might start on normal difficulty but soon the desire to complete Expert+ will take hold.
If you love as much physical interaction as possible in your VR experiences then Stress Level Zero’s Boneworks is certainly one to consider.
The studio has painstakingly ensured that Boneworks physics, from using guns to swinging a sledgehammer is as closer to their real-world counterparts as possible. Offering a single-player, story-based adventure, with puzzles to solve and enemies to deal with, Boneworks is recommended for those with previous VR experience due to the nature of the mechanics.
Plenty has been said about this definitive VR title from Valve, offering some of the best immersive gameplay you’ll find anywhere.
Whether you’re a fan of the original series of videogames or coming into the franchise fresh, you can play Half-Life: Alyxlike a normal single-player FPS or experiment with all the little additions which Valve has dotted around. One thing is for sure, you’ll want to dive straight back in after the first playthrough. Plus, there are all the community mods to come.
A superb title which arrived late in 2019 from Insomniac Games, Stormland offers a free-flowing experience that lets you just enjoy being in a VR world.
With a single-player narrative at its core, inhabiting a robot form you can run around and take down enemies, clamber over any rock face or building, and then glide between the islands which make up the areas. Better still, bring a mate in for some co-op gameplay plus once the campaign is complete, each week the Stormland will change, providing new reasons to return.
Some may feel its the same old gameplay simply rehashed with fancy new visuals and sounds – and it essentially is – but that doesn’t mean VRFocus doesn’t love playing it.
With a myriad of modes to challenge you, Tetris Effecthas an almost hypnotic effect as all those fancy visuals dance around your vision, changing as you complete each line and score more points.
The PC version might be exclusive to the Epic Games Store but that’s no reason to ignore it. If you love puzzle titles then this is a VR classic.
If you’re looking for loads of virtual reality (VR) content in one convenient package then OrbusVR: Rebornhas got you covered. The MMORPG has been around since 2017 and today developer Ad Alternum has announced its first DLC, a mini-story pack called Secrets of Mugwood which is due out this month.
Featuring all-new zones, NPCs, and questlines, Secrets of Mugwood lets players delve into the hidden microsystems of Patreayl to help a community of sentient lizards. Setting out from a quaint mushroom village, the journey will feature battles with belligerent bugs, spiders, monstrous plants and insect-infested tunnels to fight through.
Ad Alternum claims the story pack will include 10-15 hours of new gameplay across four mini zones. Players gain access to three new armour sets and two new weapons (per class), mounts, pets, Player House furniture and loads more. Suitable for solo or group missions, the mini-pack won’t offer players who purchase the DLC an advantage over those who don’t.
The pack will also add new climbing and Treasure Hunt mechanics, the former expanding the exploration possibilities while the latter has players using fragments of a map to find hidden treasure chests in the new mini zones. Secrets of Mugwood may introduce these mechanics but the studio plans on porting them into the main videogame in the future.
“We are very excited about the possibilities Story Packs will open up for us,” said Robert Dutton, Producer at Ad Alternum in a statement. “With a small team, the Packs are a great way for us to balance available resources to meet the needs of the current game while building toward the future. They give us the best of both worlds. They will allow us to add more content for players and explore new mechanics while providing additional funding to work on performance improvement, bug fixes, and other issues in the current game.”
OrbusVR: Reborn’s Mini Story Pack #1: Secrets of Mugwood is scheduled to arrive on 28th April 2020, priced at $9.99 USD through the game’s cash shop. The videogame supports Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index, with a free demo available via Steam. For further updates on OrbusVR: Reborn, keep reading VRFocus.
The team behind VR MMO OrbusVR has been extremely generous with the game’s post-launch support. Massive feature updates, content additions, expansions, and new features have all been added to free, but now they’re shifting to paid DLC content.
Honestly, I’m surprised it has taken this long. Non-subscription MMOs like The Elder Scrolls Online have been using this format for a while now with great success. The DLC will include 10-15 hours of new content, 5 new zones, 3 new armor sets, 2 new weapon sets, pets, mounts, housing furniture pieces, and achievements. However it will not include new classes, harvestable items, new potions, a higher level cap, or anything that would give DLC purchasers an edge in the game as a whole.
The first ‘Mini Story Pack’ for OrbusVR is set to be a story-focused DLC aimed at exploration and questing, separate from the rest of the game, and is due out in Q2 of this year on all platforms (PC VR and Quest) for $9.99. According to a recent email from the company:
“For the first Pack, we’re showing you a different side of Patreayl and taking you to several mini zones within the current overworld where you’ll befriend and assist a society of sentient lizards. We’ll be introducing a couple of new mechanics, as well as throwing it back to original Orbus by bringing back a few old enemies.”
This pack of missions starts in Pierre’s shop where you are tasked with locating a missing lizard aided by a newly created gadget that lets you shrink things and people. What follows is a sort of Bug’s Life-esque adventure it sounds like across the world’s many “micro-ecosystems” in search of the lizard.
OrbusVR is expected to get 2-3 story DLC packs this year, including this first one with plans for a larger expansion at some point potentially after those are out.
You can read more about the story DLC on the official OrbusVR blog. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
OrbusVR: Reborn, the MMORPG built for VR, now has a free-to-play demo that will let you dive into the open world game and play all the way up to level 10.
As far as we can tell, there’s really no negative side to the offer—outside of the fact that it currently isn’t available for Oculus Quest.
Although couched as a free ‘demo’ offered through Steam (Vive, Rift, Index), you’re still playing in the same world as other paying users, who have the ability to level their characters up to the max—level 30.
You can level up all eight of the game’s classes too, so technically you could possess eight different characters, all leveled individually up to level 10 without paying at all. Once you’ve reached level 10 on all eight classes, Orbus says their characters won’t gain any additional XP, halting in-game progress and keeping higher-level zones and activities realistically off-limits.
Besides that, the only other real caveat is the inability to use the Auction House and trade with other players, a measure put in place to avoid abuse of the system.
What’s more, if you decide to buy the game on either Steam or the Oculus Store, you can pick up progress right where you left off.
OrbusVR recently launched out of Early Access with its ‘Reborn’ update, and while the game has come a long way since it first came to Steam in late 2017, this may help players decide if the game has enough meat on the bone to justify the $40 MSRP. At the time of this writing, the game is admittedly on sale for a 30% discount, putting it at $28.
When gamers want proper value for money one of the best genres to look at is MMORPG’s. In the field of virtual reality (VR) that slice of gaming pie is dominated by OrbusVR: Reborn which left early access a few months ago. Now, in a bid to attract more players into its universe developer AdAlternum has released a free demo.
This isn’t just any normal demo either, which usually show a singular level or small portion of the core experience. For OrbusVR: Reborn’s demo you actually get the entire title, putting players in the same world as everyone else. Naturally, there is a catch. The Demo allows users to play up to level 10 on all eight of the game’s classes for free, giving hours and hours worth of gameplay.
They can continue playing once level 10 has been achieved but their characters won’t gain any additional XP, halting progress and restricting access to higher-level areas and activities. The demo also stops players from using the Auction House and trading with other gamers.
The release of OrbusVR: Reborn’s demo was in part due to Steam’s policy allowing users to request a refund if a title has been played for less than two hours. AdAlternum didn’t feel gamers would get a true sense of OrbusVR: Reborn explains Riley Dutton, Director, in a statement: “OrbusVR offers so much content that two hours isn’t really enough time to fully immerse yourself in the world and decide if you like the game or not. We wanted a way for interested players to be able to really check out the game and explore all it has to offer, and the Demo provides for that.”
If you sink loads of hours into the demo and want to continue expanding your character all you need to do is purchase the title, unlocking OrbusVR: Reborn’s full features without having to start over.
AdAlternum Game Studios claims that OrbusVR: Reborn features more than 100+ hours of content, with dungeons to explore, raids and side quests to complete, as well as new in-game activities including dragon racing, critter capture, PVP battlegrounds, and public events.
The demo is only available through Steam, compatible with Oculus Rift/Rift S, HTC Vive and Valve Index. At the moment OrbusVR: Reborn is on sale via Steam with a 30% discount. It’s worth noting for Oculus Rift users that if you play the demo on Steam then decide to purchase the videogame on Oculus Store you can still continue from where you left off. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
In a surprise announcement yesterday, Orbus Online, the development team behind OrbusVR: Reborn, revealed that the game is getting a free trial demo version. This move isn’t unusual in the MMO scene as the price and time commitment is often daunting, so being able to dip your toe into the world and see if you like it first makes a lot of sense. However, it’s a bit shocking how generous the free trial actually is.
Instead of just letting you test out the mechanics or level up a tiny bit before asking you to pay, the free trial lets you get all the way to level 10 on all eight classes. That’s halfway to the level cap and covers several hours of content. Demo users also cannot trade or use the Auction House, but those seem to be the only real limitations.
OrbusVR: Reborn is a ground-up overhaul of the original OrbusVR that adds a ton of new content and improves everything about the base game. It’s now the only version out there and is cross-play between all platforms for a true, seamless VR MMO experience.
The demo is only available on Steam right now (sorry Quest users) but if you buy it on Oculus Home after trying the Steam demo, your account and all progress will still carry over:
After playing the demo, the full game can be purchased, and you can pick right back up where you left off to continue your journey toward max level. Note that the demo is on the Steam store but works with SteamVR (including Vive and Index) and Oculus Rift headsets. If you choose to purchase on the Oculus store after trying the demo, you can still continue from where you left off.
You can download the demo and give it a whirl already right now over on the OrbusVR: Reborn Steam page. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
We’ve spoken to Riley Dutton, the creator of OrbusVR, about the game’s success and evolution and its poised to be a big hit on Oculus Quest for gamers hungry for something ripe with multiplayer that they can really sink their teeth into.
Now finally, we’ve got a first look at footage of what OrbusVR Reborn looks like running on the Oculus Quest:
Visually, OrbusVR has never been the most impressive VR game on the market. For the most part, it was designed in such a way that porting it to the Quest would be possible when the time came. But what it lacks in production values in makes up for in sheer ambition and fun, addictive gameplay loops.
There are several classes to pick from, including the warrior, paladin, archer, and mage. You’ll embark on epic quests, fight dozens of monsters, and delve deep into dangerous dungeons with groups of friends.
OrbusVR Reborn supports not only cross-platform multiplayer between Quest, Rift, and Vive, but if you own it on Oculus Home for Rift or Quest, then you own it on both because it will be a cross-buy title.
Let us know what you think of the game itself and this new gameplay down in the comments below!
OrbusVRhas been in Early Access for a little over a year now, and with the entrance of its first expansion Reborn, the VRMMORPG is finally launching as a full game. This was my first opportunity to scratch the surface of the new world that lay before me, and I don’t think it will be my last.
I’ll be honest: I haven’t played much of the original OrbusVR. I first popped in during the beginning days of Early Access and saw a game that, well, wasn’t really finished (surprise, surprise, right?). At the time, I felt it needed more engaging tutorials, more establishing story, and more than just a few random tasks to get you started down the road of grinding, leveling, dungeon raids, etc—the sort of things you’re expected to eventually do in classic MMORPGs.
With the original, I walked in with pretty high expectations despite the low-poly graphics. I was hoping for a story that would eventually drop me into a massive world with a string of important tasks to carry out—something that would lead me to eventually start down a varied and interesting path. This was unrealistic and unreasonable, I know. I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found myself in a pretty bare bones world filled with sign post tutorials; I suppose I didn’t really see it for what it was at the time, a diamond in the rough. Also, hardly anyone was on when I took my first stab at the game, so I felt justified in writing it off until its official launch. OrbusVR has garnered quite the hardcore community of users though, and over the past year it seems the developers Orbus Online have truly dedicated their time to crafting OrbusVR into a place worth returning to.
And now the big day has come. Reborn is here.
A Fresh Start
So let’s get this out of the way: Reborn doesn’t really fix any of the basic issues I mentioned above. You’re still dropped into the world with little pretense, backstory, and upfront tutorials. It does however look and work significantly better, and in the process it seems to offer a seriously long list of things to do, see and explore. The number of players I saw on the first day was also really encouraging, not to mention the servers worked flawlessly, which was refreshing to see for once.
If you’ve played either the original OrbusVR or Reborn’s open betas, you have a leg up over new players to some extent outside of your familiarity with the game in general. Existing characters from OrbusVR have been imported, and you’ll be able to refresh your character a single time if you’re dead set on a new name or look. Quests and talent choices have been reset with the entrance of Reborn, although previous player levels have been migrated.
Dropping in for the first time, I’m taken to the avatar creator. Like you’ve seen in the trailer and screenshots, the animation style is really low-poly and cartoony, so I wasn’t hoping for anything grand in terms of avatars. That said, avatar creation was a pretty simple affair: a dozen or so noses, ears, eyes, and a natural human skin tone selection bar. You’re not going to be able to create a hulking blue orc, or spindly 1,000 year-old wizard here, only slight variations of the game’s base player character.
Image captured by Road to VR
With my character finished, I logged in for what I hoped would be an unforgettable adventure. Popping into the world right as the servers opened up, I was greeted by a swath of new players, all vying for the mute quest-givers posted around Highsteppe starting area. This wasn’t really the tutorial I was hoping for—a veritable gaggle of new avatars choking the starting points and cursing at each other, or talking to themselves—so basically freshmen orientation all over again.
To be honest, the crowds were a bit too much for me, so I resolved to log back on in about an hour to see if things cleared up any. Sure enough, the crowd of players had dispersed and the world returned to a much less hectic state. Walking into the castle, I was greeted to a bunch of shops and random quest-givers. Engaging with them is simple; just wave your hand and their menu comes up (a really appreciated touch).
Embrace the Grind
Like pretty much all MMOs, the grind here is real. Working my way up to level four within about two hours was a pretty basic exercise in completing NPC-driven missions where I either gathered stuff for whatever reason, or ganked low-level baddies with my level one beginner’s musket. Loot chests contain all of the stuff you might need in these beginning stages, including better weapons for your class, alchemy materials, armor, etc. And while I’m not a big fan of mindless mob farming, it’s a living.
I can’t say I moved quickly up the ranks when the first mobs you kill only either give you a sliver of the XP—the counter hidden cleverly hidden high above your head outside of peripheral view—or pretty much instant death. Even a little sapling-shaped mob could murder me if I wasn’t careful with my heals at the very beginning, underlining just what danger awaits. Thankfully, when you die you’re teleported back to the starting area, no harm, no foul. Moreover, you still have all your stuff on you, but I have a feeling that won’t jive the farther you stray from Highsteppe. No. I haven’t left Highsteppe yet. I’m still absolute garbage.
Image captured by Road to VR
But soon enough I joined a squad; I did my best as the team’s Swiss Army knife, shooting out healing circles and using my relatively weak musket to slow down mobs with ice and gravity effects. I could also snipe at long-distance targets while the heavies got in beefier hits, but my musket was so painfully weak that it was better to run as support for the group.
In total, there are eight classes to choose from—some better for beginners such as the musketeer, paladin and shaman, and some created for the ‘very advanced’ classes like the runemage, a long-distance DPS type that lets the player draw runes to cast various spells. I’m really interested to try out more classes, but I just can’t bring myself to scrap the hours invested in my musketeer, so for now that’s really all I can say.
Image captured by Road to VR
The inventory is mostly window-based, although you can carry items on your person like potions, your main weapons, and compass to tell you what direction your squad is in or where major landmarks are. What’s particularly handy: when you invert the compass it open up a copy of your player journal, which holds within it potion recipes and all sorts of helpful hints.
There are a wide variety of locomotion styles too including snap and smooth turning, and free locomotion and teleportation. OrbusVR has you covered there.
Early Days
Without getting too misty-eyed, OrbusVR: Reborn still feels like ‘the good old days’ of VR. Many players I talked to had a sense of wonder about the mindbogglingly large amount of activities, disciplines, and places to explore. Although I’ve only just started, it feels like a true VRMMO has arrived with OrbusVR Reborn.
The game also feels much less intimidating than traditional MMORPG since there aren’t any complicated controls to learn. Plenty of new players like me also seemed to have an easier time walking up to more experienced players and firing a few questions their way. That goes for almost any high-level user I met really. Everyone there seemed ready just to have a fun time in one of the biggest, most populated VRMMOs to date. The community vibe also felt different for another reason entirely: the $40 barrier to entry fee effectively weeds out many of your garden variety trolls and ankle-bitters.
In the end, I think it’s the community that will finally bring me back into the fold. Although I’m still looking for that perfectly balanced team, I’m hoping I’ll find it as OrbusVR: Reborn digs its hooks ever deeper.
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You can check out OrbusVR: Reborn on Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR) and the Oculus Store (Rift).
