Waltz of the Wizard has been updated to include several visual enhancements specifically for Oculus Quest 2, ahead of the headset’s launch later this month. Let’s take a look at the changes in our Waltz of the Wizard graphics comparison!
The changes are available as part of a new patch, v1.5, detailed on the game’s Discord server. Even better, the update is already available to download, which means Quest 2 users will be able to try out Waltz of the Wizard with hardware-specific enhancements from day one, right on launch. In fact, we’ve already had a quick go at the update ourselves. Check out some of that footage below.
Waltz of the Wizard Graphics Comparison
Here’s a summary of the changes from the Waltz of the Wizard discord:
Improved fidelity on Oculus Quest 2 makes the world more believable and magical with real-time lights and true post-processing for realistic glow effects, greater number of interactive objects, more particle effects, increased world detail, and more. It also offers a Super Resolution mode which increases resolution to 150% for crystal-clear visuals, truly showcasing what the Quest 2 display is capable of.
The full list of changes for Quest 2, as per the patch notes, include:
Added real bloom
Added realtime lights on various spells and objects
Added Super Resolution Mode that increases resolution to 150%
Turned anisotropic textures on
Added more objects in Main Room
Improved various particle/spell effects
Added decals scattered around the Main Room, like spider webs
Added fire particles to torches in the Labyrinth
There’s also some general improvements that apply to both the original Quest and Quest 2, including improvements to the baked lighting and shadows, as well as the textures and quality of some objects.
The Oculus Quest 2 is a more powerful headset with lots of specification bumps compared to the original Oculus Quest. It launches October 13 and available in $299 and $399 models at 64GB and 256GB sizes respectively. While all Quest content will work across both headsets (for now, at least), developers are already taking advantage of the beefier specs — check out our comparison between Saints & Sinners on both headsets.
Oculus Quest 2 comes with two different storage sizes, 64 GB and 256 GB, and if you’re purchasing one then Skydance Interactive’s The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners looks to be making a strong case for opting for extra storage.
The popular and well-reviewed walker-killing game will takes up 9 GB on a Quest at launch, but once developers update the game with a wave-based mode known as The Trial it’ll take up a whopping 12 GB on the headset, according to a Q&A posted to the developer’s Discord group. “The Trial mode will be coming to Quest shortly after release. We will announce a date sometime soon,” according to the Q&A.
Oculus Quest 2 releases October 13 with $299 and $399 variations, and Saints & Sinners should be a launch title. If you bought the Oculus store version of the game earlier this year for PC, you should find the Quest version waiting for you free to download upon release. Jamie Feltham already captured footage showing Saints & Sinners running on the original 2019 Quest as well as the new 2020 Quest 2.
Check it out:
We’d bet that storage-hungry games like The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners are going to be more likely on Quest 2 than they were with the original headset. So exchanging 1/5 of your available storage to play this one game on the $299 Quest 2 is definitely something to consider if your internet connection isn’t the fastest and you want to visit lots of places in VR.
Will you be picking up Saints & Sinners for Oculus Quest when it releases? Let us know in the comments below.
What new titles will you be able to play on October 13th? Here’s our full list of Oculus Quest 2 launch titles (that we know of) to fill you in.
Facebook’s new standalone headset is now just under two weeks away. We loved Quest 2 for its improved design and added horsepower, but what games will actually be launching alongside the headset? Let’s find out.
Below is everything we know of (so far) that is coming to Quest 2 on day one. There may be a few additions to the list in the coming days, and don’t forget that Quest 2 supports every single game that released for the original Quest. In fact, these games will also be playable on the old headset. We’ve also got a list of launch window titles a little further below, so you know what’s coming in the next few weeks and months. You can see more trailers and gameplay for this content on our Youtube channel.
Also if you’re wondering why so many of these Oculus Quest 2 launch titles are from Japanese developers, Quest 2 is pushing for that market pretty hard at launch!
Oculus Quest 2 Launch Titles
Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat
Wave glowsticks to the beat in this idol-adoring simulator. Think Beat Saber, but with more J-Pop.
Little Witch Academia VR
The hit anime gets the VR game fans (and probably Harry Potter fans too) have always wanted. Shoot through the sky on your broom and interact with the series’ colorful cast of characters.
Rez Infinite
A beloved classic gets its long-awaited Quest treatment. Rez is a relaxing on-rails shooter with pulsating visuals that utterly astound you. It’s already on practically every other headset, so this was long overdue.
Space Channel 5
Another Japanese hit comes to VR. Space Channel 5 is a dancing game in which you move to the beat to take down evil forces. It’s incredibly zany, though we didn’t think the PSVR version had anywhere near enough content.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
The big one. One of the year’s best VR games crams onto Quest, with physics-driven zombie mayhem and a sprawling set of missions to take on. This one of the biggest Oculus Quest 2 launch titles.
Beat Saber Multiplayer
Obviously, Beat Saber isn’t ‘new’, but its multiplayer support is. This free update will let five friends tackle any of the game’s tracks together. This will be coming to PSVR and PC VR headsets too, as will the upcoming BTS DLC.
Oculus Quest 2 Launch Window Titles And Beyond
The Climb 2 – Holiday Season
Crytek’s popular rock climbing game returns with new, more expansive locations and more. Plus: volcanoes. Need I say more?
Pistol Whip: 2089 Update – Holiday Season
The latest update for Cloudhead Games’ big hit gives a much more cinematic edge and campaign elements. This will be coming to PSVR and PC VR headsets too.
Myst – This Year
The adventure classic is getting a full-on remake for VR headsets. It’s a full-circle moment for developer Cyan, who also made Obduction and defined the genre so many years ago.
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister – This Year
The first full VR first-person shooter set in the iconic Warhammer 40K universe. Battle Sister offers a full campaign we can’t wait to get our hands on. In fact, we already got to try it out a few weeks back.
Population: One – This Year
VR gets the Fortnite treatment with an online battle royale across a giant map. Teams of three compete to be the last ones standing. This one could be a big hit.
What do you make of the list of Oculus Quest 2 launch titles? Let us know in the comments below!
Star Wars: Squadrons is finally here and it absolutely delivers. From the incredible set piece moments, excellent new characters, and fantastic VR space combat, this is an adrenaline-fueled blast in the galaxy far, far away that you won’t want to miss. Here’s our Star Wars: Squadrons VR review with all the details!
I don’t typically play space combat games, space sims, flight sims, or any of that sort of stuff. Furthermore, I’ve never played a game with a flight stick for more than just an hour or two to test things out. All of that changed with Star Wars: Squadrons.
From the very first moment I booted it up I played the entire game with a VR headset and flight stick, specifically the Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTAS, and it was so good — so authentic even — I don’t really want to play it any other way. I’ve tried keyboard and mouse and gamepad too, both get the job done and it really feels great with a gamepad for my tastes, but I surprisingly prefer the flight stick or full HOTAS instead. For a game that’s designed for VR and non-VR across PC and consoles with cross-play on everything, this is perhaps the best compliment I can give: it feels madefor VR. And from what we’ve heard, it basically was from the very start.
Star Wars: Squadrons Story Mode
In Star Wars: Squadrons the story shows both perspectives and bounces back and forth between the Galactic Empire and New Republic. The Prologue is split into two parts, introducing both sides, immediately after Alderaan is destroyed during the events of A New Hope. Then it fast-forwards a few years and the rest of the game takes place after Return of the Jedi in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor.
Right at the start of the game you get to customize each of your pilots down to their face, voice, and name. I wasn’t expecting this considering you don’t really see them much, but these are the same avatars you’ll use in multiplayer so getting ownership of your identity across the game for both the Republic and Empire is a great touch.
The entirety of Squadrons takes place from a first-person perspective whether you’re talking to crewmates in the hangar or flying your starfighter during a mission; it’s a big reason why the VR support feels so natural. The only times the camera is not inside of your face are during the cutscenes that take place before and after missions.
For these moments, when the camera is sweeping across your squadron or zooming in on characters while they fly, you see a rectangular letterbox floating in front of you, sort of like the Cinematic Mode on PSVR. It’s absolutely immersion breaking, no doubts about that, and a bit of a bummer, but cutscenes like this are expected in non-VR games so this is a price to pay in order to get VR support out of a AAA project like this. Sacrifices needed to be made and I’d rather have a VR hanger and briefing room than 30 second cutscenes in VR.
The other sticking point about Squadrons’ VR support is that there is zero motion controller functionality here. You have no hand presence in the cockpit at all — it’s just a head tracking only game. Some die hard VR purists will likely be upset about this, but honestly, give me a great flight stick over inaccurate motion controllers that lack realistic resistance and tension any day. You’re sitting still when you play a game like this so all you need is head tracking. It works great, looks great, and most importantly, feels great.
Even if Squadrons was just its Story Mode and practice/training map and that’s it, this would feel like a complete game. My playthrough came in around the 10 hour mark, but it could probably go higher if you played on a high difficulty setting or replayed missions to get more medals. There are four difficulty modes to pick from so there is some replayability, but I imagine most people will spend the majority of their time in multiplayer..
Surprisingly, the cast of new characters is memorable and full of personality for both the Republic and Empire. Between missions there are opportunities to chat with all of them to learn more about their backstories and motivations that helps add a lot of context to how they act. One of the Republic pilots used to race previously and your squad mates poke fun at her for being a show off. Eventually, she teaches you how to drift in an X-Wing and it’s an exhilarating moment reminiscent of scenes with Poe from the new trilogy.
Most of the missions can be boiled down to taking out squadrons of enemy fighters, defending larger ships, eliminating big ships, and escaping or escorting. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this gets repetitive, but the way EA Motive mixes things up, shuffles these pieces around, and introduces one-off set pieces here and there keeps you on your toes. By the time you reach this midpoint of the story in Mission 6 things get pretty interesting with bombing runs in a Y-Wing and a big, bombastic finale that rivals the spectacle of the films themselves. Chase sequences were also some of the best moments and it made me wish for more time trials or flight trials to put my pilot skills to the test.
Star Wars: Squadrons Gameplay And Ships
In a lot of ways this feels like a dream game for Star Wars fans. We’ve gotten dozens of games focused on the Jedi vs Sith with lightsabers and force powers and there have even been a heavy share of ground combat games that require you to know your way around a blaster. But not since the 90s and early 2000s have we gotten a game that was really focused on space combat in the Star Wars universe. Until now.
The industry has made huge strides with technology in recent years and visually it’s hard to find any faults at all with Star Wars: Squadrons. The overall presentation quality is on par with DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Each map has a similar layout — they’re all in space after all — but the planet backdrops are gorgeous to behold and various bits of debris add enough variety here and there.
In VR there have been some performance concerns. For me personally VR mode only worked if the game was windowed, but after a patch it works from Borderless mode as well. I notice some very occasional stuttering on Ultra with an RTX 2060 Super, i5-9600K, and 32GB RAM but it’s not enough to really impact the experience. I’ve heard of others having far more issues with crashes and freeze ups in VR but haven’t experienced that personally.
The hangar is the unexpected highlight of the package due to how immersive it is to chat with crew members and just watch people working in the background. You really get a sense for what the inside of a hangar might truly feel like, almost like waiting in line at a big Disneyland Star Wars ride. And Squadrons features an excellent score that swells in combat appropriately and punctuates every moment with just the right emphasis. And yes, it’s all functional in VR — including the hangar and briefing room, complete with NPC conversations.
Squadrons is a special kind of wish fulfillment in that regard. Every cockpit is painstakingly recreated here with insane attention to detail so that instruments and indicators are all in different places depending on which ship you’re flying. From the wide, open canopy of the X-Wing and A-Wing to the closed tunnel vision of the TIE Fighter, each ship feels and plays dramatically different.
As far as I can tell equipment loadout options are the same or on par across factions, for balance, but the choices you make will change based on the ship. Since the X-Wing has shields maybe you sacrifice a bit of its hull capacity for better acceleration or speed? Perhaps you want to beef up the TIE’s maneuverability even more to go all-in on a zippy ship that’s hard to hit? You can get really creative there.
Star Wars: Squadrons VR Review – Comfort
Since Star Wars: Squadrons is an always first-person VR space combat game, it’s impossible to eliminate all artificial motion. By nature you’re flying a ship in space, banking, turning, and rotating during combat. For some people it’s going to be uncomfortable no matter what, but some ships may be better than others. For example, the TIE Fighter has a very enclosed cockpit so the field of view outside of the cockpit is more limited than the more open X-Wing and A-Wing. Playing with a flight stick also helps to ground you and aid immersion which can combat sickness.
When you’re out of the cockpit you can turn on snap turning instead of smooth turning if you’d like for hangar exploration, or you can just turn your head around instead. Compared to other space combat games I’ve played, it seems quite smooth and comfortable but I don’t typically get sick so it’s hard to say. As long as performance is good, framerate is consistent, and you’re not seeing any major issues it should be okay for most people. No one on staff has been affected by playing. it.
The first three missions of the story after the prologue have you flying X-Wings and A-Wings, so switching back to a TIE Fighter in the next mission after that is a huge shock to the system. Not only do these fast and nimble fighters not have any shields, but they’re far more agile as well. Drifting in a TIE Fighter feels like you’re doing a donut in a street racer and watching the stars swim by as you flip around is extremely exciting.
Even though Squadrons isn’t a space combat simulator game, it’s more of an arcade-style experience, there is still a lot of depth here. For starters, you’ve got to manage your system’s power flow. For Republic, that means engine, lasers, and shields. By flicking the switch on the top of my joystick I can reroute power on the fly to whatever I’m doing at that moment. On top of that, you can designate shields for the front, back, or balanced during combat, boost, drift, and more.
At first it’s a lot to take in; there is a steep learning curve when using a stick essentially for the first time and being in VR, you can’t exactly see the buttons easily, but you eventually get the hang of things. I tried playing with a gamepad a little bit and the learning curve is far less steep. It feels really, really good with a controller in your hands and you don’t lose out on any functionality playing that way. I also tried out keyboard and mouse, but for me, that felt like a huge step backwards in terms of immersion.
After I got a feel for where each button was it all started to feel like second nature. Keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepad, have the same sort of muscle memory that kicks in after a while to a lesser extent, but after trying all three formats the HOTAS is absolutely my favorite way to play, followed by gamepad.
Star Wars: Squadrons Multiplayer
There are two main multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Fleet Battles. You can do a solo Fleet Battle with everyone else filled by AI allies and enemies, or invite friends in for a co-op affair against the AI as well. As far as I’ve seen there is no way to do a solo Dogfight match against AI or to have a co-op Practice flight, but you can spawn squadrons during Practice to sharpen your dogfighting skills.
You don’t even unlock Fleet Battles until your online rank is at least 5, so Dogfight is all you can do at first. There is a ton of map variety ranging from destroyed docking yards, massive relay stations with trenches and debris, or even huge asteroid fields that resemble obstacle courses. Not crashing becomes just as difficult as avoiding enemy fire. There’s even a giant, empty map that’s just a void of space. Keeping up with speedy TIE Fighters there is extremely difficult.
In Fleet Battles though, that’s where Squadrons really comes alive. In this game mode there are two armies with massive flagships anchoring their spot in space. First, the fighters battle it out in a game of tug of war to try and earn enough “morale” to wage an assault. From there, whoever wins the tug of war, takes the fight to the enemy’s two medium-sized capital ships. Once those are down you can attack the opponent’s massive flagship to win the match — but it’s not that simple.
At any time during a Fleet Battle the enemy can win back the morale tug of war and flip to the offensive, forcing you to go on the defensive. Once you’re attacking a flagship, like a Star Destroyer, you can take out its subsystems such as the shields, its power supplies, its turrets, and so on to slowly chip away until it’s destroyed in an epic ball of fire.
There is an in-game tutorial that takes you through all of this against AI, as well as the aforementioned AI enemies only mode you can play solo or with friends.
The biggest problem facing Star Wars: Squadrons though is a question of longevity. Once you finish the campaign all you can do is Dogfighting (Team Deathmatch) and Fleet Battle, that’s it. There are no plans for DLC, no plans for new maps, new ships, or anything like that. The developers have been very clear that Squadrons is sold as-is and will not be a live service game. It’s a great game already, but it could offer so much more had EA been willing to fund an ongoing support cycle. Instead, it’ll never grow beyond what it is right now. Hopefully there is enough interest to generate plans for a sequel that does get ongoing support.
Squadrons also contains a seasonal ranking structure, similar to most AAA online games, complete with ranks, rewards, daily missions, and so on. There are plenty of carrots to keep you moving along and coming back to earn juicy cosmetics since EA has stated there will be no microtransactions at all this time.
Star Wars: Squadrons Review Final Impressions
While I would say that Star Wars: Squadrons has exceeded my already lofty expectations overall, it’s not without its faults. It still manages to out-perform every other VR space combat game I’ve tried across the board for my tastes and offers a ton of nuance in its gameplay and immense entertainment with its full campaign. If you got a chance to try the brief, but magical, X-Wing VR Mission in the first DICE Battlefront game on PS4 with PSVR and wished it could have been made into a full game, then this is exactly that and so much more. Multiplayer is thrilling and extremely fun, but is lacking in options and variety a bit. There were some tiny performance issues and a lack of VR motion controller support, but all that is forgivable.
Minor gripes aside, for fans of Star Wars, fans of arcade-style space combat, and fans of just flat-out immersive VR, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than Star Wars: Squadrons.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines. This review was originally published on October 1st as a review-in-progress and has since been updated and finalized throughout.
Star Wars: Squadrons is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $39.99. VR support is included with PSVR on PS4 and any PC VR headset on PC through Origin, Steam, and the Epic Store. This review was conducted primarily via Link cable on PC with an Origin copy of the game using an Oculus Quest and Quest 2 via Link cable and Virtual Desktop. It was also tested on a Rift S.
After taking $650k in early investment last week, SideQuest detailed its plans for growth and its developer promotion program in a new Reddit post.
Just two people, Shane Harris and Orla Harris, have made up the entire SideQuest team so far, but that’s about to change. Shane and Orla have “hand picked some of the top talent from [the SideQuest] community” to join them, in order to meet the next phase of the platform’s expansion plans, which focuses on helping Quest developers.
SideQuest also announced a new promotion platform, now out of beta, which allows developers with content on SideQuest to promote that content within the sideloading app itself, using elements like featured banners or promoted app listings. You can find more info here.
There will also be a new developer-focused SideQuest Discord server, launching soon, so as not to interfere with the main server. You can sign up for more info via the developer mailing list. The main SideQuest server will also receive a layout update in the near future.
Plus, to celebrate all the good news and updates, SideQuest is giving away a Quest 2! The competition will run for one week on the SideQuest Discord, and the headset will be sent out after SideQuest receive their pre-order sometime after October 13. We’re also currently running a Quest 2 giveaway as well in partnership with UNIVRS, developers of Little Witch Academia VR.
All of these plans continue to push SideQuest forward as a platform that offers distinct features and services that are not available on the Oculus Store. Last week’s investment from BoostVC, The Fund, and Palmer Luckey will help SideQuest pivot towards more developer-focused features, such as offering a testing service for their experiences.
Ilysia is an extremely ambitious upcoming new VR MMO from indie studio Team 21 that’s currently live with an already-funded Kickstarter campaign. The game aims to rekindle the old-school charm MMORPGs of yesteryear possessed with its massive, fully explorable open world and emphasis on deep, meaningful interactions.
If you’re reading this right now then there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Sword Art Online or .hack//sign — or at the very least Ready Player One — and have some concept of what people mean when they dream about the idyllic future of a world with well-made VR MMO games. The idea of being able to login as your character, embody that character, and exist in a digital world with full presence while going on adventures with others in a persistent, online world feels like what the founders of modern VR must have been daydreaming about while hacking away at headset prototypes in garages.
We’re already pretty close, admittedly. Orbus VR: Reborn technically is already a VR MMO. On paper it’s got a lot of the features people are waiting for with its class-based progression, motion controller combat, and moderately interactive world. But you’d be forgiven for not really getting hooked due to the rather unimpressive visual style and overall lack of deep, engaging content.
That’s where Ilysia wants to come in. On the Kickstarter page it’s described as having a “massive world inspired by the some of the best MMORPGs ever made” with the intent of bringing back “the glory days of MMORPGs again in VR.” That’s about as ambitious as it gets. After talking to the development team on a Discord call last week, I’m pretty confident they’ve got a real chance at making this a reality.
For starters, the Kickstarter page is very detailed and the stretch goals aren’t overly ambitious. Most of them are for expansions on existing features or things that were likely planned already to begin with. You can see the full list of the ones they’ve achieved already down below.
Ilysia is currently sitting at just about $100,000 at the time of this writing with about 6 days left to go on its Kickstarter. The original goal was only $60,000 so they’ve nearly doubled it. Stretch goals that have already been met include:
More starting character races
Mounts for multiple players
More starting zones
Pet breeding
Pet leveling and skills
Battle royale instance
Mount inventory with bags
What stands out to me about Ilysia is that the developers are very explicit about the type of content that will be included and it’s clear that they have grasp on what MMO players actually like to do. Making something that’s fun for the first 25 minutes isn’t that difficult, but making a game that thousands of players want to revisit and continue playing for 25, 50, and even 100s of hours is the tough part. EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online — these are all games that have reached that sort of status. The long list of MMOs that are forgotten, abandoned, failed, or dead is much, much longer.
On the page they list things like fighting monsters, completing quests, exploring dungeons, beating world bosses, and so on which sounds great. Apparently the world itself is enormous — roughly 16km x 18km which adds up to about 288 square km, or nearly eight timesthe size of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s map. Wow. Hopefully they can fill it with actually interesting things to do.
One of the big tenants for Ilysia that the developers emphasized to me on our Discord call is a focus on exploration. And not just in the sense that you can go wherever, whenever (which you totally can by the way, basically everything can be climbed or manipulated like in Breath of the Wild) but also in the sense that you’ll want to go off the beaten path and explore. It’s a game about curiosities and discoveries.
Ilysia: The Future Of VR MMOs?
There are other VR MMO on the horizon too, of course, so Ilysia isn’t alone in the slightest. Zenith is a notable example, which raised over $280,000, but it’s being designed for both VR and non-VR players which inherently limits how ambitious its VR designs can be. Archgate has promise, but it’s a top-down perspective game from the third person which will immediately be off-putting to anyone yearning for a Sword Art Online-style experience.
Nostos was in the same boat and that one was never actually a real MMO — more of an online survival game with co-op features. Sword Reverie looks like it shares more in common with Nostos than an actual MMO.
At the end of the day consumer-grade VR headsets like the Rift, Vive, and PSVR are 4+ years old and we’re nearing the dawn of the Quest 2, Reverb G2, and more — all without a de factor VR MMO to sink our teeth into. If you’re after the social angle specifically, then VR Chat has you covered. But if you dream of an immersive VR MMO the likes of which anime creators have been fantasizing about for decades, you’ll just have to keep waiting.
If Team 21 can pull this off and actually make a VR MMO worth playing for months and years on end, then Ilysia will go down as my new personal addiction and as a landmark VR game we’ll be referencing for decades to come. That’s a big “if” though.
Ilysia is targeting what looks like a late 2021 full release timeframe for PC VR and Oculus Quest — cross-play between PC and Quest is already functional. They’re planning to release on PSVR as well. No exact timing is available yet, but it looks like Alpha and Beta testing is scheduled for throughout 2021 and early supporters on the game’s Discord server (invite link here) are already able to get in on a Pre-Alpha version of the game.
Let us know what you think of Ilysia down in the comments below!
[Disclosure]: After conducting this interview and writing this article, the author of this story, David Jagneaux, pledged to the Ilysia Kickstarter at the $50 ‘Alpha Squire (Early Access – A1) tier. This has not affected his coverage of the game.
Solaris: Offworld Combat, the next VR shooter from Firewall Zero Hour developers First Contact Entertainment, is out now for PSVR, Rift and Quest. Check out our impressions in our Solaris: Offworld Combat review!
Note: This review was originally published on September 26th, 2020. It’s now been updated to include the PSVR version.
Following up on one of the most successful and well-known PSVR games, Firewall Zero Hour, is no small task. Especially when your next game, in this case Solaris, launches first on different headsets (before the recent PSVR homecoming). But for all its differences and unique challenges, I think Solaris is still mostly a worthy follow-up to the breakout PSVR hit.
The big difference here is that Solaris is not a realistic-style tactical military shooter. At all. Whereas Firewall borrows heavy inspiration from the likes of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, Solaris is more like an alternate reality sci-fi version of Quake with its focus on pick-up-and-playability and quick-paced gameplay.
Everything in Solaris is about as streamlined as it can possibly get — for better and (in some small cases) for worse. For example, there are no game modes to pick from, maps to select, playlists to queue for, or anything like that. The main menu literally just says ‘Play’ or asks you to put on the helmet to enter a game. That’s it. From there you’re spawned into a match with seven other people in a 4v4 game to capture control points that move around the map, sort of like Headquarters in Call of Duty. It’s very quick and efficient and, above all else, very fun.
In addition to the four guns (starting pistol, automatic assault rift, grenade launcher, and rocket launcher) there are two equipment items: proximity mine and deployable cover shield. It’s enough gear to add some strategy to encounters, but does feel a bit light overall.
Another example of this streamlined approach is the lack of an inventory, weapon switching, or reloading. You walk over weapons to pick them up and then it auto-switches to that new weapon. You shoot the special weapons until they’re out of ammo and it switches back to your starting pistol. No reloading ever required. In this way the “weapons” actually function a bit more like upgrades since they’re temporary. It adds intensity because you can visibly see when others pick up the weapons and creates competition to see who can get them first.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Review – Quest vs Rift
Solaris: Offworld Combat is out on both Quest and Rift with cross-buy and cross-play support. So even if you only have one headset, you’re playing against and with people on both platforms at all times. Visually it’s extremely similar. So similar in fact, that other than a few particle effects and lighting enhancements you can barely tell the difference. Gameplay is functionally identical. The only difference I’ve ever really spotted from a performance level is at the start of a match on Quest, before you’re ever in combat, there is a little bit of jitter and stutter as things are initializing, but once you’re in the game and actively playing, that all goes away. Refer to the video below for a side-by-side comparison.
However, not all of the streamlining they’ve done is for the better. One great example of this is weapon handling. In Solaris, you literally cannot control your left hand at all. Every weapon in the game is essentially one-handed just like the pistol, which is fine in and of itself, Half-Life: Alyx did this as well, but in Solaris your left hand isn’t tracked at all. If you reach out with your left controller it doesn’t do anything, you’re only using it as a thumbstick to move around.
The issue with this is twofold: a lack of presence and immersion, but also a lack of gameplay opportunity. In games like Onward your left hand is equal to the right hand, you could pull your pistol with the left hand, cradle the gun on your left shoulder and even pull the trigger left-handed if you wanted to. But in Solaris your left hand is basically the left half of an Xbox controller in your hand without tracking.
All that being said — you will forget about it. While playing I tended to rest my right controller on top of my left controller to steady the aim regardless of weapon so it generally felt like I was using both hands in-game even though I wasn’t. I genuinely stopped noticing or caring about it during the heat of battle.
Solaris: Offworld CombatReview – Comfort Settings
Solaris: Offworld Combat should be avoided if you require teleportation movement to enjoy VR because smooth, direct locomotion is the only option. That being said, there are some settings you can tweak to make it more comfortable if you’re not extra sensitive. In the main menu options you can switch between smooth and snap turning or turn on/off the FOV vignette for turning and sprinting.
Another odd limitation is the restricted physical crouching. I know the Quest and Rift S are capable of accurately tracking me as I lay down on the ground, or even roll around, because I’ve done it in games like Rec Room and Onward, but there are invisible barriers in Solaris that only let you go down as low as the crouch button animates.
Probably more than any other shooter I’ve played in VR, Solaris is the most seamless to play. It’s pure entertainment that just works. You never have to fuss around with anything feeling wonky or off because all the things that usually cause those issues in VR just aren’t here. On the surface things can see simplistic, but in the moment they absolutely are there to ensure the game is as fluid and playable as possible from top to bottom.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Review Final Impressions
Solaris: Offworld Combat is more than just the sum of its parts. While it’s easy to nitpick some of the decisions made, like your left hand not really being tracked in the game or the lack of a party/friend system at all for launch, the fact of the matter is that it’s still just incredibly fun to play. Visually it looks great on both Rift and Quest and the gameplay has that quick and seamless feel of Quake mixed with a slick Tron-style aesthetic. Despite the issues, Solaris is easily the most accessible and streamlined VR shooter I’ve played in recent memory and scratches the arena shooter itch I’d forgotten I had.
Solaris: Offworld Combat is out now on Rift and for Quest with cross-buy and cross-play functionality across both platforms. This review was conducted using both versions of the game, but most time was spent in the Quest version. A PSVR version also release today, May 18th. For more on how we arrived at this score, check out our review guidelines.
Void Racer: Extreme is a sci-fi racing game that marries the hover bikes and neon lights from Tron with the blazing fast speeds found in F-Zero and WipEout to deliver an exhilarating racing game for Oculus Quest that’s only a little rough around the edges.
You might not know this, but Void Racer: Extreme is actually a sequel to the Oculus Go game, Void Racer. The biggest limitation of the original game was the lack of 6DOF movement, which is really noticeable and frustrating when driving something like a Tron-style light cycle. Not being able to lean and move your head is pretty annoying. Now Void Racer: Extreme is a bigger, better, and more fully-formed iteration of the same concept.
In Void Racer: Extreme, you steer the bike with only one hand by rotating the controller while pulling the trigger to accelerate. You can do this while resting your arm on your lap or a table if you want, but I found it far more fun and immersive to reach out into the air with both arms and lean my body from side-to-side as I played. For me, that made a big difference.
On paper it sounds a little lazy that the developer didn’t actually force you to lean your body or steer with your hands realistically, but in my experience those games never actually turn out very well (looking at you VR Karts) so doing something that’s more of an approximation, while still allowing for movement in order to aid immersion, seems like a happy medium.
The closest competitor I’d identify for Void Racer: Extreme is probably Death Lap, but that’s more Mad Max than Tron, although it does have similar mechanics and ideas with its combat-style racing premise. However in Death Lap you spend far more time aiming and shooting weapons, whereas in Void Racer: Extreme all items are just controlled by looking around and pressing a button.
One mechanic that isn’t immediately obvious in Void Racer: Extreme unless you read the ‘How To Play’ documentation in the main menu is that all of the areas in a level that aren’t clearly laid out as the track are what’s called the Void. Driving in the Void drains your battery over time until eventually you can’t move until it recharges. This adds a layer of strategy to Void Racer, similar to the damaging zones in F-Zero games, in that you can cut across Void areas for shortcuts but only as long as your battery will last.
It’s not a bad concept, but it could be executed better with more satisfying presentation. Small things like the music being too repetitive and quiet, sound effects not really connecting with things that happen clearly, and even just the track art style generally having a slightly unfinished vibe. None of that stuff is a deal-breaker on its own, but it does leave a lot of room for improvement still.
Boasting over 100 career mode races, 12 different tracks, time trials, and online multiplayer, it’s pretty fully-featured for a Quest-exclusive VR racing game. It’s just a shame there isn’t more depth inside each of those bullet points.
While technically, yes, there are “over 100 career mode races” most of those are just variations off of the same handful of formats. Beyond straight up races there are time trials, ring collection mini games, and a few others that try and spice things up. It does a decent job of funneling you towards new content, but it’s not as robust as it could have been.
Other than unlocking a couple more bike options there isn’t any progression or customization to speak of. Since I can lean around, inspect my bike’s HUD, and appreciate the environment a lot here it would have been nice to be able to upgrade or change designs a bit more. Unlocking new skins or light trails or something to that effect would add a lot of replayability.
Finally, every time I’ve tried to find a match this week the lobby has been completely empty. This isn’t really a fault of the game itself, but it’s definitely hard to enjoy it to its fullest without people to play against.
Void Racer: Extreme Review Final Impressions
You could almost look at the original Void Racer as a prototype VR game that laid the foundation for Void Racer: Extreme. This time around it feels like a complete game and handles far better than I’d ever expect, but is still lacking enough meat on its bones to earn a blanket recommendation. Void Racer: Extreme does a lot right and if you’re seeking those very specific Tron meets F-Zero / WipEout style vibes, then this will absolutely scratch your itch. With a stronger multiplayer community, more varied Career mode goals, more bikes, and a bit more polished presentation this would be a definitive VR racing game. As it stands, it’s still a good foundation to build from though.
Camp Marshmallow on SideQuest is a dark, twisted VR experience about life, death, and s’mores created by solo developer Chris Pavia that’s available for free on Oculus Quest. You can finish the whole thing in just about 10-minutes and it’s a must-play for fans of dark humor and introspective stories.
“Four young Scouts and their Scoutmaster venture into the forest to sing campfire songs and assert their dominance over nature. A chill breeze pushes through the branches, carrying hushed whispers about the curious newcomers. The fire sizzles and pops as shadows dance across the trees. With sticks in hand and visions of gooey marshmallows in their eyes, the Scouts look to their leader to provide them with the forest’s bounty.”
NOTE:Spoilers for Camp Marshmallow follow. It’s impossible to talk about this experience without discussing the details, so if you are at all intrigued thus far I urge you to stop reading and go download it for yourself!
You can watch me play through Camp Marshmallow in the video above (it’s only about 10-minutes long after all) during the latest episode of our VR Roulette random-selection live VR game show. After spinning the wheel this was the game I landed on for the episode’s finale and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
In Camp Marshmallow you take on the role of the Scoutmaster, presumably an adult that’s taking a group of kids out on a camping trip — similar to something you might see in the Boy Scouts. Everyone is sitting around the campfire, singing songs, and blissfully enjoying the ignorance of childhood.
It’s nostalgic and sweet, but something feels off.
“The fire is roaring and our sticks are sharp, Scoutmaster,” one child says. “The only thing missing are the marshmallows. Here, consider this the Spear of Destiny. It can transform an ordinary marshmallow into a beautiful memory.”
The child then hands you a stick as you walk to a clearing between some trees where a collection of anthropomorphic marshmallows stand waiting, smiling, and dancing. Apparently they didn’t get the memo about why they’re here tonight.
What follows can only be described as graphic violence — at least, in so far as you consider impaling a screaming marshmallow to be violent. Instead of blood gooey, sugary fluffiness drips onto your hands and splatters out. Screams of pain, pleas for mercy. It’s got it all.
And yet despite it all, it’s hard not to laugh. The way the little creatures beg for their lives is tongue-in-cheek at first and quite silly, but after the second or third mutilation it starts to take a turn. The children get creepier, the song gets stranger, and the marshmallows become more lifelike. Instead of just shivering as you cower over them they’re running away and hiding.
I don’t want to spoil things too, too much here but suffice to say you should absolutely let the marshmallows speak, listen to the children, soak in the song, and pay close attention to the small details to really enjoy this brief, but insightful VR experience.
Camp Marshmallow Review Final Impressions
Camp Marshmallow feels like an early experiment from a rare talent with an eye for atmosphere. During my playthrough I couldn’t help but be reminded of the unnerving scenarios in Accounting from Squanch and Justin Roiland and I can’t wait to see what this experience’s creator, Chris Pavia, does next. If you enjoy dark and introspective stories that make you both laugh and feel uncomfortable at the exact same time, then Camp Marshmallow has you covered.
This review was conducted on an Oculus Quest, using v1.0.0 of the game. For more on how we arrived at this score, check out our review guidelines. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Launching today, Solaris Offworld Combat is a team-based VR arena shooter from First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind the lauded Firewall: Zero Hour (2018). This time around, the studio wants to deliver a fast-paced experience that anyone can pick up and play. My preview of the game reveals strong technical merit, but a potential clash between casual and competitive ambitions.
Thematically, Solaris Offworld Combat presents itself to players as a sort of future sport where competitors jump into virtual arenas and duke it out for the top place on the leaderboards. And that’s exactly what the game hopes to accomplish: foster a level of hardcore competition which keeps players and teams coming back for more.
And while developer First Contact Entertainment attracted a hardcore player base to its prior title, Firewall: Zero Hour, in many ways Solaris is doing the opposite of what resonated with that community.
Firewall Zero Hour | Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
Firewall: Zero Hour is a team-based PSVR mil-sim shooter with a slow, tactical pace. And that comes with the sort of mechanics you’d expect: loadouts, attachments, perks, reloads, ADS aiming, recoil control, etc. The sort of mechanics which give room for a deeper level of gameplay and strategy that goes beyond the act of putting your reticle on another player and pulling the trigger.
Solaris, on the other hand, is designed first and foremost for ease of play and a run-and-gun pace. The studio says its goal is to get anyone and everyone quickly into the action and deliver a “point and shoot” experience. And that’s apparently meant removing pretty much all of Firewall’s deeper gameplay elements; Solaris has no reloading, loadouts, attachments, or recoil control, and weapons project their reticle into the world so that there’s no need to aim down sights.
Rather than the slower, more tactical pace of Firewall—which gives an advantage to players who get themselves into the right position ahead of time—Solaris seems to expect players to be constantly moving, mostly using the thumbstick to strafe and juke rather than expecting much bodily movement from players like physically crouching or peeking around corners.
This breed of quick run-and-gun gameplay is par for the course in non-VR arena shooters, and on the surface Solaris has done a commendable job of translating the main tropes into VR. Player movement is quite fast compared to most VR games, even allowing players to slide for a few feet to try to stay behind cover while moving quickly. Everyone starts with the same basic pistol with unlimited ammo and can pick up weapons by walking over pads on the ground. Weapons have limited ammo and disappear once empty. Respawns are fast and time to kill is low. Shooting is of the point-and-shoot variety with no bullet travel or drop. It’s all undeniably functional.
After playing a few matches, it felt like I was playing a very cool version of VR laser tag. But it’s not clear to me yet whether the game has the level of depth needed to foster the competitive allure that First Contact hopes will keep the game buzzing with a stable player base. After all, laser tag is fun, but it’s not something most people are going to do on a weekly basis.
That’s not to say that Solaris doesn’t have—or won’t eventually be updated with—what it takes to bring out that high-level play, but there’s a lot left to prove. The most successful multiplayer VR shooter games so far have all been of the mil-sim variety, and have leaned into nuanced weapon interactions and a slower pace which are a natural fit for VR.
First Contact has taken the goal of ease-of-use so far that it has opted to make Solaris entirely free of two-handed interactions. In fact I was surprised to find that my off-hand in the game isn’t even tracked. Even as I move my hand around, my virtual hand wouldn’t respond to the motion at all, leaving me with the very awkward sensation that one of my arms was an extra appendage that I had no control over.
Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
The studio said this was done for performance reasons and wanting to avoid the complexity of two-handed interactions. That’s well and good, but it’s a bit odd then that all of the weapons are—by their 3D models at least—designed to be held with two hands. It’s even more odd when my fake arm automatically grabs the gun’s grip all on its own.
Anyone that’s read my perspective on VR knows that I’m all-for ease-of-use in VR; overly complex interactions can often be more frustrating than they are fun. Half-Life: Alyx simplified its weapons by making them single-handed only, but it at least made use of the player’s off hand for reloading and other interactions like throwing grenades or opening doors. But it’s possible to get too simple as well.
If anyone can figure out how to make it work, First Contact Entertainment is a good bet. The studio cut their teeth on Firewall: Zero Hour, a game which after two years appears to still be going strong on PSVR. The studio says it’s continuing to deliver content updates to the game and has seen individual players top 1,000 hours in the game. The title is still lauded as one of the best shooters and best multiplayer games on the system.
That experience shines through clearly in the Solaris presentation; built on Unreal Engine 4, even on Quest the game is impressively sharp and runs very smoothly, with matches underpinned with dedicated servers.
And it’s the Quest audience—a younger demographic that your average enthusiast PC VR user—that Solaris is likely targeted toward. The game’s ease of entry and rapid-fire pace might be just the right combination for that group.
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Solaris launches today on Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest with support for cross-buy and cross-play (it will launch on Steam and PSVR at some later date). First Contact is calling the launch a “pre-season,” and expects to listen carefully to player feedback. There’s one caveat with the pre-season which is odd for a team-based shooter—the pre-season will not allow players to form teams with their friends. All matches will be comprised of random teams, with the ability to invite friends being added at a later date.
