Last Labyrinth, an escape room-style adventure game from Japan-based studio Amata K.K., is making its debut across a variety of VR platforms soon, arriving on PC VR headsets, PSVR, and Quest next week.
Last Labyrinth is slated to release on November 13th, coming to Steam (Vive, Rift, Index, Windows VR), the Oculus Store (Quest, Rift), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR), priced at $40. A release is also planned for PC VR headsets via the Microsoft Store, however its launch has been delayed due to unspecified reasons.
Set in a mysterious mansion, the single-player game tasks you with solving increasingly difficult puzzles to hopefully make your way out. Sound pretty standard, right? Not quite.
Unlike other escape room-style VR games, you’ve been physically chained to a wheel chair, which only allows you to look around and move your fingers to hit a single switch resting in your hand.
Image courtesy Amata K.K.
Strangely enough, whatever malevolent force bound you to the old-timey wheel chair has also attached a laser pointer to your head. When you press the switch, the laser pointer turns on, letting you direct Katia, the young girl in the trailer, so she can do the legwork (so to speak).
What hasn’t been explained thus far is why Katia is helping you to escape, and why the masked phantom character is terrorizing you both.
As the result of a successful Kickstarter earlier this year, Last Labyrinth has been created by industry veterans whose previous works include titles such as ICO, The Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Puppeteer, and the Doko Demo Issyo series.
Resolution Games released Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019) earlier this year on every major VR platform, bringing the iconic mobile puzzler into the third dimension to pretty awesome effect. Now, the studio announced that there’s a custom level builder in the works that should arrive soon.
Resolution Games says the level builder for Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is slated to arrive soon, targeting release during Holiday Season 2019.
By the looks of the trailer (linked below), you’ll have access to a number of basic pieces as well as the full cast of baddies to knock over, and a custom lineup of bird-pals to fling out of your trusty sling shot.
The level builder is said to launch as a local-only sandbox, however the studio is slated to release online functionality in 2020 which will let you share your levels with the community and compete for most difficult, highest scoring, most creative and “any number of variations,” the studio says in a Steam news update.
We were pretty impressed with Angry Birds VR when it initially launched on PC VR headsets back in February, giving it a commendable [8.5/10] in our review for its intuitive shooting mechanic, awesome graphics, and well-crafted 3D puzzles.
It’s since come to PSVR and Quest too. You’ll find Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs onSteam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Viveport (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
Pistol Whip is described by its creators as a ‘mashup between SUPERHOT VR and Beat Saber‘. While it would be easy to take bits of each but still fail to find synergy, Pistol Whip is indeed a mashup of Superhot and Beat Saber in the best possible sense.
Yes, it seems like there’s a hundred VR rhythm games out there already, and if you’ve already found one you love, it might be hard to see why Pistol Whip would be worth a shot over a myriad of other options. What’s more, shooting and rhythm mechanics have already been mashed together by the likes of Audica and others, so what could Pistol Whip really bring to the table? Quite a bit, it turns out.
While Audica is perhaps the most obvious way of putting the two gameplay concepts together, Pistol Whip presents a more creative approach. Rather than standing in one place and shooting at stationary targets, Pistol Whip has you constantly running forward and shooting at targets that appear around the environment. What’s more, these targets shoot back.
The ‘targets’ here are actually enemies which can take one, two, or four shots to kill, depending upon their armor. And it’s the fact that they shoot back at you which really helps Pistol Whip find a unique synergy between shooting and rhythm concepts. Whereas Audica is essentially a passive experience where you’re shooting targets, in Pistol Whip you need to actively track and dodge incoming bullets while you eliminate threats at the same time.
Enemy bullets fly at you slowly enough to give you time to dodge your head out of the way. As you get used to the timing, you start to proactively move and dodge rather than simply react. As a result you start to ‘flow’ your upper body around as you dodge and shoot your way through each level. You’ll also score more points if you shoot in time with the beat, which means you’ll end up incorporating your own gun movements and trigger pulls into this overall flow. While you’ll surely hear comparisons to Neo’s bullet dodging in The Matrix, the more apt comparison (to be blatantly pedantic) is actually Agent Johnson from the same film; the movement is quite similar:
With the incoming bullets, the game forces you to be concerned with your ‘near-field’—it heightens your sense of what’s immediately within arms reach. This leads to embodiment, which is distinct from mere immersion, and often a component of the best VR games. It’s this bodily movement (the result of necessary near-field spatial awareness) combined with the ‘arms out and shooting’ gameplay which makes Pistol Whip feel unique and not just ‘another rhythm game’.
Pistol Whip is a pretty radical departure for developer Cloudhead Games which is known for its linear, story-driven VR adventure series The Gallery. And yet our time with the game shows a level of polish and thoughtful design which makes it clear that having talent and experience in VR in general is—at this stage—more valuable than having experience in a specific genre.
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Cloudhead hasn’t announced the price of the game yet, but says it will be in line with ‘similar games’ (so we’re guessing $25 or $30). There will be 10 tracks at launch, but the studio says it has plans for more free and paid tracks to be released in the future. Pistol Whip is also slated to come to PSVR at a later date.
Check back for our full review of Pistol Whip when it launches on PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest on November 7th.
Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted (2019), the VR version of the popular horror game, is getting its first DLC pack for VR today, ‘Curse of Dreadbear’.
The Curse of Dreadbear DLC is already live on the PlayStation Store for PSVR and Steam for Vive, Rift, Index, and Windows VR headsets, costing $10/€11/£9
The new DLC is said to include a new Halloween-themed hub with new mini-games and prizes. Developers Steel Wool Studios says weekly content will be added through the month of October.
Image courtesy Steel Wool Studios
Mini-games include Trick or Treat, Mangle Repair, Corn Maze, the Plushkin-Patch, “Cap’n Foxy’s Pirate Adventure” dark ride, and more.
Initially targeting launch in September, upcoming VR game Doctor Who: The Edge of Time finally has a firm release date.
Developed by Maze Theory, a UK-based studio led by former Activision and PlayStation veterans, the fully interactive VR game is officially launching on November 12th via the PlayStation Store (PSVR), Steam (Vive, Rift), the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and Viveport (Cosmos, Rift, Vive).
Here’s how Maze Theory and publisher PlayStack describe it:
The Doctor has been hurled through time to the end of the universe. A virus that threatens to rip apart reality itself has been unleashed. Players can pilot the TARDIS on a journey across worlds both familiar and strange to recover a series of powerful time crystals that can repair spacetime and ultimately, save the universe itself.
Maze Theory reveals in a recent dev vlog that the VR game includes several sections inspired by genres such as adventure, puzzle, and horror, while putting heavy emphasis on object interaction, problem solving, and visual atmosphere.
The game also features the voice of the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks. Digital Producer for Doctor Who and author Gavin Collinson is behind the game’s story.
You can check out some gameplay in a video from the game’s public unveiling back at San Diego Comic-Con:
There’s been no shortage of great VR games in 2019, although 2020 is shaping up to be a pretty significant year in VR gaming too.
We rounded up the top titles confirmed for release in 2020, which includes everything from polished indies to big budget ‘AAA’ games coming to a VR headset near you.
We’ll be adding to this list along the way to 2020, and keeping it current as official launch dates are announced, so make sure to check back for the latest.
There’s also a number of games that should arrive before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve; you’ll find those at the bottom half of the page.
Lone Echo II (Rift)
Description: Return to the rings of Saturn on a journey that takes you deeper into the mysteries of space — past the very boundaries of time itself. Venture beyond the unknown in Lone Echo II.
Developer: Ready at Dawn
Release date: 2020
Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond (Rift)
Description: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond brings the historic battlefields of World War II back to the forefront for an epic AAA experience like no other. You’ll play as an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), tasked with infiltrating, outgunning, and outsmarting the Nazi war machine. As you complete your tour of duty across Europe, you’ll collaborate with the French Resistance, working to sabotage Nazi operations from behind enemy lines.
Developer: Respawn Entertainment, Oculus Studios
Release date: 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (PC VR)
Description: Saints & Sinners is a game unlike any other in The Walking Dead universe. Every challenge you face and decision you make is driven by YOU. Fight the undead, scavenge through the flooded ruins of New Orleans, and face gut-wrenching choices for you and the other survivors. Live The Walking Dead’s dark drama in your own skin.
Developer: Skydance Interactive
Release date: January 23rd, 2020
LOW-FI (PC VR)
Description:Welcome to the next generation of Cyberpunk virtual reality. Patrol the streets and the skies, solving mysteries, fighting crime, or giving in to corruption and your own desires. The choice is yours.
Developer: IRIS VR
Release date: 2020
Firmament (PC VR, PSVR)
Description: Firmament is a resplendent fantastic steampunk journey — a monumental voyage through diverse and curious realms with the ever-present assistance of a helpful clockwork adjunct, and the deep and moving instruction and emotional chronicles of an ethereal mentor.
Developer: Cyan Worlds
Release date: releasing to KS backers in July 2020
After the Fall (PC VR, PSVR)
Description: From the creators of Arizona Sunshine comes an epic VR action FPS with intense co-op gameplay at its core that pits up to 4 players against a vast, hostile VR world in a raging fight for survival.
Developer: Vertigo Games
Release date: 2020
Iron Man VR (PSVR)
Description: Don the PlayStation VR headset to suit up as the Armored Avenger in an original Iron Man adventure! Using two PlayStation Move motion controllers fire up Iron Man’s Repulsor Jets and blast into the skies with an arsenal of iconic Iron Man weapons at your fingertips. Face off against Iron Man’s greatest foes in high stakes, action-packed battles. Upgrade tech in Tony Stark’s garage to customize Iron Man’s sleek suit and awesome abilities.
Developer: Camouflaj
Release date: February 28th, 2020
Paper Beast
Description: Paper Beast is a playful exploration game set in a colorful ecosystem born out of big data. Undertake a virtual journey of discovery through an immersive and poetic gameplay experience.
Developer: Pixel Reef
Release date: Q1 2020
Coming Soon
Stormland (Rift)
Description: The Tempest shattered your android body. Journey through an ever-changing cloudscape to augment yourself and save your friends. Explore an expansive world with complete freedom—bound up cliffs, glide across chasms, and fly through the slipstream with velocity. Detonate explosives, harness electricity, and wield makeshift weapons to overcome titanium sentries and monolithic guardians. Play single-player, or explore forgotten ruins together.
Developer: Insomniac Games
Release date: November 14th, 2019
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency (PC VR)
Description: Cut your way to the oil-splattered underbelly of TransCorp to put an end to their vicious budget cuts once and for all.
Developer: Neat Corporation, Fast Travel Games
Release date: 2019
Boneworks (PC VR)
Description: BONEWORKS is an Experimental Physics VR Adventure. Use found physics weapons, tools, and objects to fight across dangerous playscapes and mysterious architecture.
Developer: Stress Level Zero
Release date: Q4 2019
Sniper Elite VR (PC VR, PSVR)
Description: Experience a brand-new Sniper Elite game featuring an authentic first-person view, an explosive campaign and immersive motion controls.
Developer: Rebellion Games
Release date: “coming soon”
Valve’s Flagship Title (PC VR)
Image courtesy Valve
Description: Half Life VR confirmed???
Developer: Valve
Release date: 2019
Espire 1: VR Operative (PC VR, Quest, PSVR)
Description: The definitive VR stealth experience: Espire 1 brings the stealth genre to the exciting medium of Virtual Reality, delivering gameplay mechanics for the stealth and action genres that have yet to be explored.
Developer: Digital Lode
Release date: Fall 2019
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
Camouflaj, the studio behind PlayStation VR exclusive Marvel’s Iron Man VR, had initially intended for its high-flying super hero adventure to arrive on PSVR back in February. After a subsequent delay, which pushed the launch back to May 15th, it was later announced that the game would be delayed until further notice due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Now Sony has fixed the official launch date for July 3rd.
Update (May 13th, 2020): Iron Man VR is officially headed to PSVR on July 3rd, Sony says in a recent tweet. Furthermore, the studio says more news will be coming in the proceeding weeks to launch.
There’s no large events between now and then to let press see a fresh preview, so we’re hoping to see plenty of hype around the Marvel-branded title.
Update (April 2nd, 2020): Sony today released news that Iron Man VR and The Last of Us Part II will be delayed “until further notice,” as the publisher says the global coronavirus pandemic is preventing the company from “providing the launch experience our players deserve,”
The Last of Us II was slated to release on May 29th, 2020, while Iron Man VR was headed to PSVR users on May 15th.
Update (January 20th, 2020): Camouflaj recently tweeted that Iron Man VR will arrive on May 15th on PSVR. Here’s the studio’s full statement below:
‘In order to deliver on our vision and meet the high expectations of our amazing community, we’ve made the difficult decision to move Marvel’s Iron Man VR to a May 15, 2020 release. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding. You’ll be hearing from us again soon!”
Original Article (October 15th, 2019): The game tosses you into the boots of Tony Stark where you fend off attacks from the mysterious anti-corporate hacktivist Ghost, the game’s main nemesis who wants to dismantle Stark’s empire by using his own technology against him.
“In our game, Ghost is a great foil for Tony Stark—she not only holds a grudge against our hero, but holds a mirror up to him,” said Brendan Murphy, the game’s lead writer. “As a witness to the damage caused by Stark-made weapons years earlier, Ghost’s fight against Iron Man is both ideological and personal. Because of Ghost, our complex and fascinating hero must reconcile his troubled past, both on and off the battlefield…”
Image courtesy Sony
We’re sure to see more of Iron Man VR in the weeks leading up to its February release, although from our hands-on this summer, it’s clear there’s some serious potential for it to become an excellent VR game. Road to VR’s Ben Lang says it’s thanks to the game’s innovative flying mechanics that do a pretty remarkable job of making you feel like you’ve stepped into the iconic hero’s super suit.
Iron Man VR is already available for pre-order through the PlayStation Store, and is slated to arrive in two specific flavors:
Standard Edition: $40 USD / $50 CAD (physical & digital copy)
Digital Deluxe Edition: $50 USD / $60 CAD (digital only):
Marvel’s Iron Man VR Game
4 Deluxe Edition Deco Armors (Golden Avenger, Black Centurion, Sun Stinger, Stealth Armor)
12 Research Points – Research Points are gained by analyzing combat data from Iron Man’s performance in the field. This research and analysis allows Friday to develop new technology (weapons and augments) for the Impulse Suit. Use these Research Points to unlock some weapons and augments early and customize to play style.
Fireproof Games, the studio behind VR game Omega Agent (2016) and critically-acclaimed The Room series of puzzle games, recently unveiled its next VR game called The Room VR: A Dark Matter.
The game, which will only be playable in VR, is slated to launch sometime in early 2020 on PSVR, Oculus Quest, and SteamVR-compatible headsets including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Windows VR headsets.
Here’s Fireproof’s description:
Designed from the ground up for the unique capabilities of VR, players can inhabit the spine-tingling world of The Room and interact with its strange contraptions in this compelling new chapter.
The game begins deep within The British Museum in London, where the disappearance of an esteemed Egyptologist prompts a Police investigation into the unknown. Explore cryptic locations, examine fantastic gadgets and discover an otherworldly element which blurs the line between reality and illusion.
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Image courtesy Fireproof Games
Image courtesy Fireproof Games
Image courtesy Fireproof Games
Image courtesy Fireproof Games
Image courtesy Fireproof Games
Besides the reveal trailer and a few screenshots seen above, there isn’t much more to go on for now.
Fireproof Games is known for supporting mobile devices on all of its The Rooms titles, although this will be the first to elusively support VR. The studio maintains that The Room VR won’t offer support for Gear VR, Google Cardboard, or Nintendo Labo, as they are “not powerful enough to run the game.” Oh, hi Mark.
French indie developer Olivier JT is finally getting ready to release his long-awaited musical sci-fi experience for VR headsets, Synthesis Universe.
As a VR pioneer, Olivier JT has been working on Synthesis Universe as far back as 2012. Shortly after the success of the Oculus Kickstarter later that year, he decided that the only sensible development platform for the futuristic VR experience was the Oculus DK1. And so Synthesis Universe was born.
The experience has been demoed throughout a few of its earliest stages, having made its first public appearance at SVVR 2014. If you’ve been around VR long enough to remember Oculus Share, you might have run across a playable demo there too.
As a narrative-based VR experience, Synthesis Universe tells the story of a musical civilization through four key sequences. The full playtime is said to take 30 minutes, although there’s no max time limit to the experience.
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Image courtesy Olivier JT
Image courtesy Olivier JT
Image courtesy Olivier JT
Image courtesy Olivier JT
Olivier JT calls it a “VR cinematic experience [and] a hybrid between traditional movie story telling, music video and game, all happening in real-time using Unreal Engine 4.”
Beyond that, the experience is basically a mystery.
There’s no word on exactly when it’s due to arrive; according to the experience’s website, it was slated to arrive in Summer 2019. Although we’ve passed the prospective launch window, now Olivier JT says the full experience will launch on Steam sometime soon.
Synthesis Universe is said to be currently under review as a release candidate for the Oculus Store as well. Olivier JT is also eyeing PSVR support.
In the meantime, you can wishlist the experience on Steam here.
Beat Games took to the stage at Oculus Connect today to make a surprise announcement that Beat Saber’s (2018) next music DLC is set to feature music from American pop rock band Panic! at the Disco.
The 360 mode, first shown on Quest earlier this summer, is also going to be made available on all platforms this December. If you haven’t had the chance to try it yet, check out our hands-on at E3 2019 in June.
The studio is staying tightlipped for now on the titles that will make up the Panic at the Disco DLC, however it is said to land on all platforms next week, which includes PSVR, Oculus Quest, and PC VR headsets via Steam and the Oculus Store.
A tweet from Beat Games however did reveal one measly kernel of info: the music pack will likely include the track ‘The Greatest Show’.
Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for…
Most recently, Beat Games released a free update that brought along with it six new playable tracks from a variety of artists including Jaroslav Beck, the former CEO who has since transitioned to focusing entirely on securing deals for more music.
The studio hasn’t mentioned pricing yet, however if the game’s historical DLC pricing remains constant with the new Panic at the Disco pack coming next week, it may cost $13 for the entire pack, or $2 per song individually.
