Psychological VR Thriller ‘Blind’ to Launch on PSVR, Rift & Vive September 18th

Tiny Bull Studios and Fellow Traveller (ex-Surprise Attack Games), today announced that Blind, the long-awaited psychological thriller, is slated to launch globally on September 18th for PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and OSVR.

Blind puts you in the shoes of a young woman who has just awoken in a strange room to find she’s lost her vision—well, almost. Instead of seeing, she uses echolocation to reveal the curious world around her. Led by the disembodied narrator Warden, you navigate a sprawling mansion, solve puzzles and uncover the mystery behind it all.

Blind is said to feature around five to eight hours of gameplay.

Image courtesy Tiny Bull Studios

Initially conceived during the 2014 Global Game Jam, Blind has come a long way for the Turin, Italy-based Tiny Bull Studios. Evolving from a concept originally built for PC, dubbed Come See My House, the fledgling studio went on to rebuild the game from the ground-up for VR headsets. The concept won ‘Best Game’ of the 2014 Turin Game Jam, owing to its innovative echolocation mechanic.

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“Most VR titles use the medium to flood players’ senses, but we wanted to do something special and restrict the senses in a way,” says Matteo Lana, CEO of Tiny Bull Studios. “But even as Blind inhibits our standard perception of sight, the echolocation mechanic and fully encompassing environment engage the player and enhance the puzzle gameplay in a way that only VR can.”

Image courtesy Tiny Bull Studios

Blind will be available digitally on September 18th for $25 on PSN (PSVR), Oculus Store (Rift), and Steam (Vive, Rift, OSVR). A physical retail version, published by Perp Games will become available in Europe beginning September 28th, with a North American release date to follow.

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Hands-on: Upcoming VR Shooter ‘Telefrag’ Boasts Impossible, Escher-style Arenas

Anshar Studios, the developers behind Detached (2017), showed off a new arena shooter at Gamescom this year. Dubbed Telefrag VR, the game (still in pre-alpha) pits you against another player in a futuristic, gladiatorial-style battle taking place in impossible spaces.

Set in an alternative history where the Roman Empire never fell and eventually set out into space, Telefrag tosses you into uniquely designed arenas which were seemingly inspired by M.C. Escher’s famous lithograph of impossible staircases, ‘Relativity‘. Here, you fight in a one vs one duel to the death with an arsenal of guns and your ability to teleport inside the other player, effectively killing them instantly (hence ‘telefrag’).

Maps are littered with ramps that take you upside-down and sideways, keeping you on your toes as you have to watch out for enemy fire from all directions.

Image courtesy Anshar Studios

Strapping into an Oculus Rift, I went head-to-head with the game’s level designer Michał Sapiński for a few matches in what should have been a fundamental break in comfortable VR design. I say ‘should have been’ because in the end Anshar has pushed the envelope into uncomfortable play territory, but pulled back somewhat to leave you with your lunch safely in your stomach. Case in point: you have to walk up a ramp and twist your equilibrium into accepting a new horizontal plane, which isn’t always the most comfortable in VR—but it’s done in such a way to make it basically a snag-free experience.

When you go up a ramp and the world inevitably rotates around you, it’s basically carried out via a series of mini-blink teleportations, and not one single smooth-turning gut-wrencher. This, in effect, let me move up and down ramps at the sort of speed and carelessness you would need in a heated 1v1 battle of cat and mouse. I tend to hate those types of world-shifting ramps, which seemed to plague the early days of consumer VR, but this didn’t seem to even give me the dreaded ‘VR sweats’, a telling precursor to full on nausea. I should mention the game isn’t exclusively a teleport-only experience, but was also demoed with smooth forward locomotion.

Image courtesy Anshar Studios

Shooting was a fairly standard experience, but the notion that I could teleport and dodge shots, block them with an energy shield and get close enough to telefrag, all really emphasized the sort of balance the studio is going for. Get too close to your opponent, and you’re dead, which usually means you’re trying to use the level’s geometry to your advantage as you search for tactically useful angles to surprise your opponent. Since your teleport movements make both noise and leaves a whispy trail behind you, it’s important to keep an eye and ear out for your enemy at all costs. Check out the tutorial below to get a good idea of some of the basics:

So what’s the objective in all of this? The arena game mode, I was told, allows you to fill three slots with your choice of weaponry. In a match, your individual loadout is put up as a wager, with the winner taking the loser’s equipment. In-game currency is doled out at the end of the match based on your score. With enough cash on-hand, the loser can buy back their lost loadout; a currency multiplier is awarded to the winner, and can be increased even further depending in their win streak.

Telefrag VR is slated to arrive on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, OSVR and PSVR, although it’s currently in pre-alpha stage, so there’s no word on release date yet.

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‘Windlands’ Currently 75% Off on Steam, Sale Ends September 4th

Windlands (2016) is a first-person exploration game from Psytech Games, and as one of the first truly great titles to come to all major VR headsets, the temporary $5 price tag on Steam—down from its normal $20—is an absolute steal for what it offers.

After generating over $20k in a successful Indiegogo campaign in fall of 2014 and subsequently being Greenlit on Steam, Windlands is out of early access and available on every major headset including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, OSVR and PSVR.

The Steam version however is only compatible with HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and OSVR, and can be played with motion controllers or gamepad. The Oculus Store version, which only offers support for Rift, is still advertising the full $20 price tag.

You can’t help but marvel at the grandiosity of the environment Windlands creates. Offering a calming, zen-like atmosphere with increasingly difficult terrain, you’ll easily lose a few hours to trying to figure out just how to get that last Easter egg before you move on to the next level.

‘Windlands’ on Steam

The main means of locomotion: your trusty grappling hook that lets you soar through the ruins of a fallen civilization and discover the secrets of the ancient world. The game also works on traditional monitors (but we’re not sure why you’d ever want to).

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One of the First Games Ever Shown on Vive Launches This Fall on Vive, Rift, and Windows VR

Arizona Sunshine developer Vertigo Games announced today that Skyworld, a top-down strategy game built for VR is coming to the Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The game was shown way back in 2015 as one of the first demos made for the HTC Vive, and it’s now finally resurfacing this Fall.

It was back at GDC 2015 when Valve revealed their (at the time) crazy new VR headset, the Vive. It was the first consumer VR headset to introduce motion controllers and a ‘room-scale’ tracking area, a huge step forward in immersion compared to what was seen before.

Prior to the Vive’s reveal, Valve collaborated with a number of indie developers to create the first set of VR demos that would be shown at the Vive’s GDC unveiling. It was there that now classic demos (and some future titles) like Aperture Science Robot Repair, Dota 2 Secret ShoptheBluJob Simulator, Google Earth VR, and more, were first shown.

Among that early batch was a demo called Skyworld, which presented players with a fantasy diorama in polygon style atop a circular table. Players held a wand in one hand and a spell book in the other, and used the tools to direct miniature units to build buildings, collect resources, and defend territory. It was an intriguing look at how a strategy game could be developed for a VR system with motion controllers.

Despite its promising presentation, the demo slid into the shadows as developer Vertigo Games would go on to focus their energy on the now well known VR zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine (2016). Now Skyworld has finally resurfaced and is set to launch this Fall.

Vertigo Games in collaboration with Wolfdog Games announced today that Skyworld is coming to the Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The game’s Steam page describes it as a “turned-based strategy and management” game, and also lists cross-platform multiplayer functionality (it isn’t clear if that means between different VR headsets all running the Steam version of the game, or between Steam, Oculus, and Windows VR platforms; we’ve reached out to clarify. Update: Vertigo Games confirms that Skyworld multiplayer will function across all three VR store platforms.):

Step into intricately animated fantasy worlds where you are king and watch your battle maps come to life around you. Skyworld reinvents classic strategy gameplay for VR without compromising on gameplay depth by using intuitive VR controls and providing player feedback right on the VR battlefield. Built in gaming sessions optimal for VR, conquer and reunite all Skyworlds in the full-size campaign and challenge friend or foe in online cross-platform multiplayer mode.

Accessible Gameplay
Innovates traditional UIs with intuitive VR controls and in-world feedback

Highly Interactable Fantasy Worlds
Puts highly interactable, animated fantasy worlds at your command, which you influence with every decision you make

Full-feature VR game.
Offers a story-based single player campaign, skirmish mode and online cross-platform multiplayer

Reinvents Classic Strategy Gameplay for VR
Combines accessible, turn-based strategy and management gameplay with fast-paced real-time tactical battles

The studio is only teasing the game for now, with recent gameplay footage not yet revealed, however a very old (two years) teaser trailer for the game was shown back during the Vive reveal, and gives an idea of the game’s style and a bit of gameplay, though you can see from screenshots (above) that it’s evolved quite a bit since then:

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‘Detached’ Review

Straight out of Early Access on May 18th, Detached (2017) promises to deliver that free-flying experience, complete with smooth-turning that only a section of the most hard-core first-person VR junkies crave. Offering a single-player mission based on navigation puzzles and an online capture-the-flag multiplayer, space pioneers hoping for a long-term solution to their need for exciting and comfortable zero-G fun may have to look elsewhere.


Detached Details:

Official Site

Developer: Anshar Studios
Available On: Home (Oculus Touch), Steam (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch, OSVR)
Reviewed On: Oculus Touch, HTC Vive
Release Date: May, 18 2017


Gameplay

A deserted space station seems like a real treasure for two scavengers looking for loot. Another routine salvage. Everything is going according to plan. Suddenly, system alerts indicate a problem in the cargo area. It turns out that a group of scammers has infiltrated the station and will do anything to seize its precious cargo. The startup procedure has been initiated… There’s no time for retreat…

Primed with TV series like Firefly (2002), Cowboy Bebop (1998), and films like Event Horizon (1997) and the Aliens franchise, going on a real life space salvaging mission sounds like serious fun. Unfortunately, the text above is little more than flimsy pretext for zipping around a single level filled with a small collection of space hubs—indoor environments that ultimately deliver humdrum, navigation-based puzzle-mazes.

Interiors, while beautifully rendered, are strangely aseptic in Detached besides the odd fuel canister or oxygen tank. While both fuel and oxygen are finite, there was only a single moment when I almost ran out of air, and that was only because I began to ignore all of the tanks littered throughout the game. With no real need to survive, my interest generally fell on the puzzles ahead.

the only task here is opening a single door, image courtesy Anshar Studios

Most puzzles are simple with the most difficult tending to be time trials which come down to how well you can maneuver in the zero-G environment. In the end, I felt like 3/4 of the hubs were overly consumed with tutorializing the various systems; boost, shield and rockets, than letting you genuinely explore.

Locomotion in Detached is achieved either through hand controllers or gamepad, the latter of which felt more natural despite the environmental suit (EV suit), flight stick theme the game is running with. The game is a forward-facing experience best piloted from the safety of a chair. I talk more about the game’s locomotion and some of its drawbacks in the ‘Comfort’ section.

get everything on-line and you’re done, image captured by Road to VR

The single-player mission took me about an hour to complete, and although the open space scenery promises some awe-inspiring vistas and a modicum of that ‘space pirate feel’ I was hoping for, I couldn’t help but feel like I was on rails going from hub to hub. Boost gates are placed tactically throughout the map, which promise convenience but also detract from the ‘found wreckage’ feeling the game professes in its description.

Finishing the single-player portion, I was then urged by the game to play the online multiplayer, a capture-the-flag mode taking place on two maps. Only the original map made for Early Access was available to me though, so I can’t speak to the quality of the second. Using shields, boost and your EMP rockets, you’re tasked with out-flying and neutralizing your opponent so you can grab and return a randomly spawning flag.

If multiplayer is supposed to be the star of the show, there’s still much that studio needs to do to ensure ongoing interest for old and new players alike. Despite offering a few truly fun sessions of hide and seek as you hunt down your opponent and reclaim the flag, I have some concerns about the overall health of the multi-player mode. It’s pretty straight forward, and admittedly much more fun then a the single-player game, but with only two maps currently available and only a capture-the-flag mode, replay value doesn’t look promising. Also, with no apparent ranking system in place, you’ll also be randomly matched with another person regardless of how much time either of you’ve been playing. And if you have mastered the game’s locomotion, the danger of your sole opponent rage quitting (ending the match) is a real barrier to creating a healthy player base.

Immersion

Scenery alone can go a long way in terms of creating immersion, and lower budget, albeit competently-built productions like Detached definitely capitalize in this area with some good-looking environments. Yes, they’re too clean to be believed, and yes, they’re obviously contrived for the purpose of being a puzzle and nothing more, but they do look quite good.

Your shadow projected on a nearby wall or asteroid certainly does the trick too.

image captured by Road to VR

Wearing your trusty space helmet, you’re given a heads-up display (HUD) populated with oxygen/fuel indicators and mission objectives, all useful in their own right. These near-field elements are projected at an uncomfortably close distance though, making me less willing to pay attention to them. This is because current VR headsets don’t let you see near-field objects like you would outside of the headset. Without going into too much detail, it has to do with the fact that your eyeballs are converging correctly on a digital object, but you’re not focusing the way you normally would because the light from the display is focused at the incorrect distance. Check out this article on dynamic focus tech in AR for the full explanation.

A big hit to immersion comes when you try to reach out and touch something, like batting away a canister. You’ll soon find your hands are nothing more than ghostly controllers, and fiddly ones at that.

Comfort

Admittedly the studio offers some forewarning when it calls Detached “an extreme VR experience that simulates sudden and dramatic acceleration, freefalling, twisting, and rolling,” but this advisory doesn’t excuse it entirely. While the game provides you with a helmet that offers the ‘anchored feeling’ of a cockpit, this isn’t a panacea to the zero-G locomotion scheme. Let’s talk about smacking into shit.

image courtesy Anshar Studios

In most first-person VR games, when you slam into something or otherwise encounter an immutable barrier, you’re treated with some degree of respect, which could mean a fade to black, or a reduction of physics so you’re gently slowed to a halt. But slamming into a wall or a simple fuel canister in Detached—which happens constantly because of the close quartersinvariably sends you head-over-heels on a spinning, wild ride that doesn’t stop even when you’re dead, making you scramble for the ‘reload’ button on the screen as your virtual POV is tossed about willy-nilly.

Since the game makes heavy use of the boost function and is chock-full o’ low ceilings and random pipework, you’re bound to hit something on accident eventually. The last hub, to my anguish, was exactly this—a sort of proving ground for every game mechanic you learned along the way. Disorientation due to the repeated us the same interiors and too many blunt force deaths forced me out of the headset and onto my couch for a few hours because I stupidly thought I had my “VR legs.” Reentry was a less attractive prospect.

To my surprise, there are actually two locomotion styles on offer, but neither seem to fix what was mentioned above.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a game like Detached, and although I personally think it has more in common with an Oculus Rift DK1-era PC port than a modern made-for-VR game, there is obviously still a group of people who prefer the front-facing, vestibular system-whirling wild rides it has on offer. I don’t think I’m wrong when I say most of us left those behind and never, ever want to look back.


This is a review of the full version of the game which is due on Thursday, May 18th. 

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‘Battlezone’ Launches on Steam and Oculus Store

Battlezone (2016), the low-poly, high-action reboot of the classic Atari game, launched as a timed exclusive with PlayStation VR when it hit shelves in October of last year. Today owners of HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and OSVR can now strap into the cockpit of the game’s sci-fi hovertanks.

Designed by Rebellion to work with gamepad (and Touch controllers for Oculus Store purchases), the new PC version of the game promises higher resolution textures, shadows, reflections—basically higher resolution everything to make good use of the graphical horsepower of VR-ready gaming PCs.

You can find it on Steam for all Steam VR supported headsets and Oculus Store for the Oculus Rift.

Here’s a peek into what Rebellion says is possible with Battlezone.

EPIC VR TANK WARFARE
Battlezone offers unrivalled battlefield awareness, a monumental sense of scale and breathless combat intensity.

LIMITLESS SOLO & CO-OP PLAY
Experience a thrilling campaign for 1-4 players where different environments, enemies and missions blend together across a procedurally generated campaign. No two playthroughs will be the same!

DEVASTATING ARSENAL
Unleash destructive weapons and awesome special equipment, from laser-guided missiles and rail guns to EMPs and shield boosts

CUTTING-EDGE UPGRADES
Unlock more powerful tanks, weapons and special equipment and pick from hundreds of deadly combinations!

CLASSIC MODE
Experience where it all started with Classic Mode – featuring original two-track controls and worldwide leaderboards to test yourself against!

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Beautiful PvP Space Explorer ‘Detached’ Gets Offical Steam Release May 18th

Already on Steam Early access, the very pretty online PvP space explorer / dueller Detached from developers Anshar gets a new, official release on May 18th with a sprinkle of new features and a new multiplayer map.

Described by Polish developers Anshar Studios as “probably the most hardcore VR title out there”, Detached is an online space exploration title designed for virtual reality which sports some rather striking visuals.

The setting for the game goes something like this:

Years of warfare and human greed have led to catastrophe. Once-thriving human colonies in the far reaches of the cosmos are today just useless scrap. But to some they are no mere collections of metal. Space scavengers traverse the galaxy in search of spoils. A deserted space station seems like a real treasure for two scavengers looking for loot. Another routine salvage. Everything is going according to plan. Suddenly, system alerts indicate a problem in the cargo area. It turns out that a group of scammers has infiltrated the station and will do anything to seize the its precious cargo. The startup procedure has been initiated… There’s no time for retreat…

The gameplay itself is an intriguing mix of survival adventure, one on one PvP space combat and exploration with some light puzzling thrown in for good measure. As such, Detached offers a somewhat more sandbox-like experience than another title which might draw comparisons, the largely linear, narrative driven ADR1FT from developers Threeonezero.

Players are jettisoned into space with the ability to boost, wield defensive shields and deploy weapons like EMP homing rockets against opponents. All of this is set to a fully orchestrated score by artist Mikołaj Stroiński (The Witcher 3, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter).

That aforementioned “hardcore” tag may stem primarily from the freedom of movement the title offers the player, with the anti-gravity environments enabling 360 rotation and 6 degrees of freedom for movement. This is likely music to the ears for VR locomotion purists, but may mean the title is tougher to stomach for those of a gentler constitution or with less hours logged in VR.

The title hits Steam VR for its official release on May 18th, and will include a new multiplayer map, German and French localisation and OSVR support. Stay tuned for a review of the title around launch time. In the mean time you can get yourself up to speed with the narrative via the recently released and fetchingly illustrated story trailer below.

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‘Starfighter Inc.’ Promises VR Space Combat Sim Built on a Hard Sci-Fi Foundation

Starfighter Inc., said to be the spiritual successor to X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (1997), is one of the most interesting space combat simulation projects currently in development. Recently relaunched on Kickstarter, developers Impeller Studios’ new crowdfunding campaign has a smaller goal but much more to show.

Impeller Studios formed in 2013, launching their initial Kickstarter campaign for Starfighter Inc. in 2015, looking to raise $250,000 to assist the development process. Unfortunately, the campaign failed to reach its goal, stopping just 10% shy of the required funds. The team had already committed to completing the project, so development continued as promised, and now the project is back on Kickstarter, with a modest $150,000 goal, and a “stronger, clearer, and more detailed vision”. This time, the campaign’s path to success looks much more likely; with a healthy 21 days remaining, the project is nearing the halfway point of its fundraising goal.

Starfighter Inc. Kickstarter

The renewed appetite for space-based cockpit games over recent years has been partly fuelled by the resurgence of virtual reality technology, demonstrated by the success of Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, and EVE: Valkyrie (2016). But Starfighter Inc. intends to tread a unique path, aiming to be the most realistic space combat simulation ever created.

Set in the year 2230, every piece of future technology has been imagined and extrapolated from a logical, engineering perspective, meaning “no stealth, no artificial gravity, no force fields, no FTL drives,” according project designer David Wessman, in an interview with The Escapist. Involved with all four iconic X-Wing games, Wessman leads a team of industry veterans at Impeller, alongside Jack Mamais, lead designer on Crysis (2007).

“Pure, unadulterated tactical simulation combat” is how Starfighter Inc. is described by the studio, with its gameplay focused around real Newtonian physics and heavy component damage simulation. The game aims to be more realistic than Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous, yet its PvP multiplayer space warfare centres around dogfighting, something that would be far more approachable with arcade-style physics, as found in EVE: Valkyrie. A brave combination, one that could be overly intimidating for the casual gamer, but Impeller’s hard science objectives are set in stone.

“All the game rules are based around hard science fiction, we’re not going to cater to a mass market, we’re going for a specific type of game”, insisted Mamais in a 2015 developer Q&A session. “When you finish our playing game, I think you’ll be able to really fly a ship in space, let’s put it that way.”

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Perhaps it will ultimately pay off, as virtual reality and simulation go hand in hand; experiencing realistic physics while using a VR headset intrinsically feels correct, so there’s no doubt that VR will be the recommended way to play the game. VR support is comprehensive, covering all the major PC hardware – the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and OSVR. Whether the unforgiving combat systems, frictionless flight model and dedication to hard science consolidate into a compelling product remains to be seen, but Impeller Studios’ boundless enthusiasm suggests they’re onto something they believe in deeply.

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‘Assetto Corsa’ Racing Sim Adds Support for Vive & OSVR via Native OpenVR

This week’s v1.13 update to Assetto Corsa includes native OpenVR support, adding official Vive and OSVR support to the title. The popular racing simulator previously only supported the Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive owners had to use the Revive hack to launch the game in VR.

Assetto Corsa has a long history with virtual reality, having supported the first Oculus Rift DK1 development kit in 2013, back when the simulator itself was in its early stages. With major physics engine and content development to focus on, VR support was always in an ‘early’, unfinished state, but its core driving experience was so convincing, it was worth the effort to jump through the hoops required to race in VR.

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Rift owners have enjoyed a more effective VR implementation since developer Kunos Simulazioni applied the v1.6.1 update in May 2016, which allowed for full interaction with the in-game UI and the various HUD ‘apps’. Since then, the state of VR in the sim has remained largely the same, with no sign of native support for the HTC Vive, or indeed any VR menus. The Revive injector quickly enabled unofficial Vive support, but it has never delivered the same performance as the Rift, and seemed to exhibit odd world scaling issues.

Today’s v1.13 update brings some important improvements to the software, including much-requested multiplayer features such as reversed grids and mandatory pit stop functions for server admins, and most significantly for VR enthusiasts, the HTC Vive is now supported natively via OpenVR as well as the OSVR HDK. Full details of the update can be found on the game’s Steam page.

assetto-corsa-vr-2
Photo courtesy Kunos Simulazioni

The VR support is in ‘beta’, and while the performance on Vive has improved, the Rift remains smoother still, and OpenVR appears to exhibit similar world scale problems seen when used with Revive. In addition, the recent v1.12.3 update that allowed audio to follow head rotation is not functioning on OpenVR. So for now, the native Rift support remains the stronger VR experience, but with OpenVR actively receiving attention from Kunos, the gap will hopefully begin to close.

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‘Warpaint’ Brings Tabletop Gaming-inspired Turn-based Strategy & Customization to VR

Recently launched on Steam, Warpaint is a turn-based strategy game that lets you customize your troops by painting them to your taste. The game supports both Mac and PC, and features VR support via SteamVR (Vive, Rift, and OSVR). Taking inspiration from board and tabletop games like hexagonal chess and Warhammer, Warpaint’s gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master.

Real-time strategy gaming seems to suit VR pretty well, but few developers have chosen the turn-based approach; Warpaint shows that the more sedate pace of turn-based strategy is a natural fit for VR too. Commanding an army of dwarves with different movement abilities, the gameplay is mostly tactical, and played with a surprisingly high degree of tension, thanks to the ever-present threat of catapults.

With red projectiles reminiscent of the balls from board game Weapons and Warriors, the catapults introduce a dextrous aspect to Warpaint’s gameplay that, like many action board games, benefits from a skilled aim and a bit of luck. Catapults have the potential to change the momentum of a game—pulling off a double kill with a lucky bounce for example—but there is always a danger of taking out your own pieces too.

Friendly fire triggers some amusing ‘sorry!’ and ‘whyyy?’ dialogue from the dwarves; the voice acting is a stand-out feature, adding a healthy slice of charm to what is otherwise a rather plain presentation. I’d like to hear a wider selection of dialogue, perhaps even a battle announcer. Certainly a narrator for the tutorial would be welcome.

Warpaint doesn’t have the graphical chops to produce the most enticing screenshots or footage, but the straightforward style at least works effectively in VR with clean edges and high performance. No doubt the game would make a better first impression with a few additional effects, combined with a more integrated visual design for the UI and in-game motion controller models.

Otherwise, the game presents itself as a solid production, with well-balanced gameplay and a great set of features, including ranked matchmaking. You can play online or locally, against friends or AI, with VR users and monitor users playing together. The VR implementation isn’t attempting to reinvent the wheel here, it’s simply an effective and compelling option. While the game allows instant teleporting around the play area from multiple scales; the most useful tactical view is from above and at a distance, meaning that monitor users shouldn’t feel at a disadvantage, although I did find it easier to gauge my catapult shots using a headset.

It would be useful to have a way of adjusting the distances between different camera scale toggles, as the lower option sometimes feels too close, and the next height up sometimes feels too far away, and perhaps an option to rotate the view during or after a teleport could help those using ‘standing’ VR mode.

Aside from the joy of firing catapults in first person, the Army Painter system is the most interesting use of VR in the game, which allows dwarf customisation in the same way one might paint Games Workshop miniatures. Rotating the piece in one hand while airbrushing the fiddly bits with the other captures the feel of the hobby in a satisfying, impressively robust way. A system allowing for full customization, including limb-posing and accessorizing with different pieces of armor and weapons would take things to a whole new level and we hope it will be considered for future versions of the game.

Warpaint’s modest asking price is perhaps representative of the fairly small amount of content available, but it is a game made with care that deserves your attention. Developer Adam Thompson has been actively responding to initial feedback, having already rolled out fixes and improvements: the full details are available on the game’s Steam page.

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