Survios’ massively popular virtual reality (VR) shooter is giving players another reason to put on their head-mounted displays (HMDs). Raw Data is getting a brand-new update, bringing the game out of early access and adding a whole host of new features.
But before the full launch, Early Access players will be able to enjoy one last update this summer. Players will enjoy a PC-exclusive Hostile Takeover expansion that’ll provide new Player VS Player (PvP) gameplay, and players across all platforms will now enjoy joystick movement support.
The new PvP mode will have new maps, revamped abilities and locomotion movesets all exclusively available in Hostile Takeover, taking players deeper into the Eden Corp narrative.
The new SyndiK8 hero is called Elder the Rogue Hunter, an archer using the latest in future technology to assassinate targets, such as homing arrows, explosive barrages, multi-shots and more.
When the full release drops in September, the game will be available across HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR.
Survios’ Chief Creative Officer and co-founder, James Iliff, shares the development team’s passion and gratitude towards players; “Our entire development team is extremely grateful for our dedicated player community, whose support and passion drive us every day. We love hearing all the feedback from our eager fans, and we’ve implemented many of those suggestions into the title with the goal of making the most exciting VR action game in the market. It’s truly a VR experience built by and for the VR community.”
Raw Data will receive a full release in September 2017, giving gamers a great reason to either plug back in, or jump in for the first time. For everything on Raw Data and VR gaming, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.
Survios has announced more of what we can expect from their virtual reality (VR) parkour-skiing hybrid, Sprint Vector. The videogame was praised by those who played it at GDC 2017, and the developers are keen to point out that there’s still more to come.
Sprint Vector is a game that takes on the task of locomotion in VR in a unique way. Instead of simply moving in the virtual world by pushing an analogue stick forward, players swing their arms in wide arcs, alternating motion and using the triggers to maximise the distances they can run and leap.
VRFocus played the game earlier this year, and said; “Whether its the motion of your arms or the design layout, Sprint Vector doesn’t induce those feelings of simulator sickness that many may expect when looking at [the game]. The subject is always a difficult one to approach due to everyone being effected differently, but it would seem that the direct approach to controlling your own speed – and subsequently making your body move more – can help mitigate those issues developers try to avoid using controls like teleportation.”
New features players can expect in Sprint Vector include built-in weapons, items and power-ups. New running techniques – drifting and wall running – just add to the variety of moves and traversal the game offers, also potentially opening the door to new kinds of levels.
Each player can now blast objects in the environment to change the path forward, and grab Nitro and Slow Mines – the former boosting your speed, and the latter can be left in wait to slow down your foes.
Sprint Vector is no longer just a tech demo for a new system of movement, as Survios Game Design Director Mike McTyre makes clear; “When we first unveiled Sprint Vector earlier this year, we were blown away by the reaction to the Fluid Locomotion system.”
McTyre continues; “It’s one thing to be able to talk about seamless motion controls in VR, but it’s quite another to be able to implement them at such high speeds without causing the player any discomfort. Now, we’re taking that core experience and adding in fun weapons and power-ups to make the game more competitive and exciting for both players and spectators.”
Sprint Vector will be at E3, along with Survios’ critically acclaimed title Raw Data.
Survios’ stunning VR action game Raw Data (2017) is officially out of its long, but healthy stint on Steam Early Access for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The high-flying shooter, slicer, and high-tech beat ’em up will also be available on PlayStation VR come October 10th.
Update (10/5/17): Corrected this story to indicate that the PSVR launch of the game will come on October 10th rather than simultaneously alongside the 1.0 launch on Rift and Vive.
Update (10/5/17): ‘Raw Data’ has exited Early Access today, launching the ‘final’ version of the game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, followed by the PSVR launch on October 10th. Through October 17th players can take advantage of a 25% launch discount on Steam and Oculus. Check out the snappy new ’90s-style trailer:
Survios has also created a cool mock website for its secretly evil corporation, Eden Corp. Go to the website below and enter in the following login credentials.
Original Article (06/17/17): Announced at E3 2017, Raw Data will launch out of Early Access simultaneously on Vive, Rift and PSVR in September, bringing a wealth of improvements to its already polished Early Access state. Raw Data’s first-person combat is some of the most impressive VR action we’ve seen to date, and recently made a comfortable transition to Oculus Touch after its debut on the Vive in July 2016; hopefully the move to PSVR will be similarly successful.
Photo courtesy Survios
Cross-platform online co-op is currently possible, but the final summer update to the PC version will see a ‘Hostile Takeover’ PvP expansion that allows ‘Eden’ vs. ‘SyndiK8’ competitive matches with up to 10 players. The trailer heading this video shows the new mode in action.
This mode is exclusive to PC, and includes new maps, revamped abilities and locomotion movesets. You can sign up to the closed beta here.
“Our players have been clamoring for PvP ever since Raw Data’s earliest demos,” said Mike McTyre, Survios Game Design Director. “Raw Data was always meant to be played with your friends beyond traditional co-op. Now, whether it’s an intense one-on-one duel or a chaotic 10-person battle, players can actually feel the adrenaline-charged intensity of fighting for their lives—only now against each other.”
A new playable SyndiK8 hero is being introduced, Elder the Rogue Hunter, described as a “technologically-enhanced archer” armed with assassination-centric mechanics including homing arrows and holographic decoys. This adds a fourth option to the existing Bishop, Saija, and Boss characters, each offering a different play style. A “vibrant new environment set in Eden Corp’s deceptive Botanical Gardens” will also help to strengthen the launch content and increase gameplay variety.
Photo courtesy Survios
The game’s visuals are also receiving further polish, with a move to Unreal Engine’s forward renderer—used to great effect in games like Robo Recall—Survios promises a “massive graphics boost that amplifies the pixel clarity.”
“It’s been an exciting journey building Raw Data, and it’s amazing to be here adding the final features and polish that will bring everything together,” said James Iliff, Survios Chief Creative Officer and co-founder. “Our entire development team is extremely grateful for our dedicated player community, whose support and passion drive us every day. We love hearing all the feedback from our eager fans, and we’ve implemented many of those suggestions into the title with the goal of making the most exciting VR action game in the market. It’s truly a VR experience built by and for the VR community.”
The game is being shown at Survios’ E3 booth alongside their upcoming VR platformer Sprint Vector.
Los Angeles-based VR studio Survios has continued to improve its ‘adrenaline platformer’ Sprint Vector since its reveal at GDC 2017 in March, adding weapons, powerups and new movement systems. Detailed in a press release at E3 2017, the game is set to launch for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and Touch by the end of the year.
The new game from the creators of Raw Data (2016) is another showcase of their ‘Active VR’ philosophy, employing an innovative, nausea-avoiding Fluid Locomotion System to navigate at high speeds around a virtual environment. Using motion controllers to track ‘sprinting’ arm movements (along with jumping, climbing, and Superman-style flying), players propel themselves forward in an intuitive, momentum-based way, described by the developers as ‘intended motion’. While artificial locomotion techniques are often used as a substitute for physically moving around, in this case the game requires significant physical exertion in order to be competitive, and is intended for room-scale spaces.
image courtesy Survios
Our hands-on at GDC was very positive; an ‘incredibly fun’ game with breakthrough controls for VR locomotion. Since then, the developers have enhanced the movement with new drift and wall-running mechanics, as well as adding weapons, items and power-ups for more ways to influence the outcome of a race. Along with a standard blasting ability to ‘destroy environmental obstacles’, players can periodically grab two new items, ‘Nitro’ (boosting your speed) and ‘Slow Mines’ (dropped behind to slow your opponents). Additional power-ups, weapons, levels, and playable characters will be revealed in the coming months.
Much like Raw Data, the studio has taken solid gameplay mechanics and combined them with a distinctive style and personality – in this case a ‘bombastic spacepunk world’ where you’ll step into the shoes of a diverse range of playable characters, participating in a gameshow hosted by a robot called Mr. Entertainment, who provides amusing running commentary. The game also features cross-platform multiplayer support for up to eight players.
Survios is showcasing Sprint Vector alongside Raw Data at their E3 booth this week, and has opened a sign-up page for the beta test.
There’s always a catch 22 situation with new technology platforms, especially in the video game industry. For a new piece of hardware to do well it needs great content. It doesn’t matter how good the specs might be, or some amazing new feature, if there’s nothing to play then it’s not going to sell. On the flip side studio’s don’t want to spend time and resources on a project only for it to completely bomb thanks to lack of users. And the same could’ve been said for virtual reality (VR), had the industry not garnered a community spirit, with indie developers across the world creating content. There is still a residing feeling that VR is still very niche among some studios, and gaining the investment back isn’t a possibility, but is that still the case?
Today the latest sales for the UK charts were released, and while it was predominantly full of traditional titles, there was one notable exception, Impulse Gear’s first-person shooter (FPS) for PlayStation VR, Farpoint. The video game launched last Tuesday for the headset, mainly marketed alongside the Aim controller – putting the bundle at £75 GBP – and still managed to achieve number two for a device and technology that’s seen as small scale. If Injustice 2 hadn’t also launched the same week would Farpoint actually have made it to number one? I’d like to think so.
And number two in the charts is the highest a VR title has achieved so far, which isn’t too shabby considering how new to the consumer sphere it is. But what about other experiences? Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 biohazard is an easy one to pick. While it launched in January it’s still in the charts at a respectable 15th place (dropping from 11th last week). While a VR-compatible title, figures on Capcom’s ResidentEvil.net website reveal out of 2 million players worldwide, 10 percent – that’s just over 214,000 – of players are VR users, and that’s just the ones who allowed their gameplay data to be used. Fairly decent figures I think.
But what about other head-mounted displays (HMDs) like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Well a fairly big news piece that appeared in September came from California-based developer Survios with Raw Data. The studio announced it had hit $1 million USD in sales in just over a month, and a look at current figures from Steamspy shows that 80,000 + players own the experience, not bad considering the HTC Vive is $799/£759 (and it’s now on Oculus Rift as of March).
So back to the original question, are studio expectations of VR sales still too low? Should they really see be able to see profit in VR? Well if their video game is good enough then yes, there’s no reason to believe money can’t be made from VR. Sure there aren’t as many players as on Xbox One or PlayStation 4, but you also don’t have as many other studios to contend with, giving a greater chance of media coverage and potential sales.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens at E3 next month, as VR had a decent presence last year so could there be even greater prospects for 2017?
Even though it is still in Early Access, developer Survios has had a respectable amount of success with first-person shooter (FPS) Raw Data. Survios is now hoping to attract new players with a free weekend and a 20% Steam discount.
The futuristic shooter places the player in the role of a member of the resistance seeking to bring down the corrupt and sinister Eden Corporation. There are several heroes available to choose from, including characters like Saija the cyber-ninja or Boss, the hard-hitting mercenary. A whole arsenal is available featuring handguns to katanas to turret guns that will aid in mowing down the hordes of robots that form Eden Corp’s army.
Raw Data was originally launched for the HTC Vive, but recently introduced support for the Oculus Rift with Touch in a recent update, which optimised the game for the Oculus Touch and also introduced a new high-level mission called ‘Cataclysm’ and new powers for some of the characters.
With the inclusion of Oculus Touch support, cross-platform multiplayer is now available so users of HTC Vive or Oculus Touch can team up to demolish machines together in co-op.
The videogame is currently available to play for free for the next four days. A 20% discount on buying the game is also available, which brings the price down from £29.99 (GBP) to £23.99.
Further details and updates can be found on the Steam page.
While Raw Data was the first VR title to top the Steam Sales Charts and break the $1 million (USD) barrier, the title is still facing stiff competition from Epic Games’ Robo Recall, which which it shares several similarities.
VRFocus will keep you updates on Raw Data and other special offers and discounts.
Last year Survios released Raw Data into Early Access, a game that continues to remain popular for its fast-paced action and cooperative multiplayer on both Rift and Vive. At GDC 2017 the studio announced their next game, a speed-based obstacle course action game called Sprint Vector. Survios has consistently made headlines for being one of the first studios to reach $1 million in sales with the popularity of Raw Data as well as securing $50M in funding before the end of 2016.
Following that success and growth it was time to make some changes and this week a representative from the studio confirmed to UploadVR over the phone that Survios’ Head of Studio, Chris Hewish, would be departing the company. They provided the following official statement:
“We’re a growing company and as a growing company it’s natural for changes to occur. Chris has made valuable contributions to our team and will be missed. We wish him the best on his future endeavors.
We cannot comment further due to company policy regarding personnel matters.”
Hewish had been with Survios since January of 2016 and helped contribute to the developer’s rapid growth over the past year. He brought years of experience in the game industry with 10 years at Activision and six years at Dreamworks Interactive. While at Survios he was in charge of overseeing much of the studio’s production and development, as well as spearheading high-level negotiations and partnerships.
To get additional information about the move, UploadVR reached out to Hewish directly for a phone interview and he had nothing but kind things to say about the company, its people, and their trajectory moving forward.
“With Survios the truth is it was a great experience,” Hewish explained. “I’ve been in the industry for quite a while and going there really reinvigorated me a bit being around such smart and driven people. The truth is that we are definitely still on friendly terms and it was just time for us as we grew, certainly for me, it was a good time to start looking at other areas I can add value. Nothing negative or anything like that at all.”
Where that next spot will be specifically is still under wraps for now, but we should find out more soon. “Can’t share yet where I am going next, but hopefully in the next week or so,” Hewish elaborated. “There is no lack of faith in VR, I’m still a big believer. We’re in the early days, need lower price points, new hardware cycles, etc. After being with Survios I’ve got new energy for the industry again.”
As it stands Survios is poised to remain one of the top VR development studios to watch in 2017 and wherever Hewish ends up next will surely be worth keeping an eye on as well. We should know more next week about his post-Survios plans.
Oculus Rift is playing a bit of catch up this week, as one of the most celebrated titles on the HTC Vive finally officially arrives on the rival headset. Overall, though, it’s a pretty quiet week on both Rift and Gear VR but we wouldn’t worry; Rock Band VR is set to literally make some noise next week.
Finally making its way from Vive to Rift with full Touch support, Raw Data is a highly polished co-op wave shooter set in a sci-fi universe. Use guns, swords and special powers to tear androids to pieces, zipping around the room with teleportation that makes you feel like a ninja. There’s also cross-platform play with Vive owners.
Recommendation: Don’t miss this one. A must-buy for fans of action games and co-op multiplayer.
Disney Movies VR, from Disney
Price: Free (Gear and Rift)
Disney’s 360 degree content hub, featuring videos from franchises like Star Wars, makes its way over from PC-based VR to mobile. While immersive videos might not be your thing, the virtually recreated Disneyland parks are a sight to behold and something anyone could check out. There’s also a new Beauty and the Beast experience to celebrate the live-action film’s release!
Recommendation: Should be installed by all Disney fans.
Cursed Sanctum, from Arabian Art Studios
Price: $2.99 (Gear)
An interesting first-person interactive adventure that looks well-polished for a simple Gear VR piece. Taking on the role of the brilliantly-named Grom, you search for an evil demon. This is definitely something Gear VR owners should look into.
Recommendation: This one came out of nowhere but has a great price point and is worth checking out if you want to dust off the mobile headset.
Power Rangers Zords Rising VR, from Lionsgate
Price: Free (Gear)
Go, go! The Power Rangers movie is launching soon and you’re not a blockbuster production these days if you don’t have a VR experience to boot. These one lets you ride in the Ranger’s gigantic mechs. Dragon Zord unconfirmed.
Recommendation: It’s free, so it just depends if you want to be advertised to or not.
New Steam Releases for Oculus Rift
Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul, from VRWERX
Price: $39.99 (Rift, Currently Discounted)
Make no mistake: the horror genre and VR feel like the perfect match, that is, as long as you enjoy having your skin crawl and hair stand on end. While licensed games don’t exactly have the greatest track record, the immersive power of VR has the potential to side step many of the issues.
Recommendation: It’s still in Early Access, so some improvements are in store, but it’s a solid starting point. Not quite as long as some hoped, but still a solid horror game.
The Ancient Remains, from Outhouse Games
Price: $9.99 (Rift)
Roguelikes are gaining a lot of traction in VR as of late, with The Ancient Remains as the latest example. It’s only about 10 minutes long right now in Early Access, but has promise with this strong foundation of mechanics. The catacombs are procedurally generated as you search for lost relics and treasure.
Recommendation: If you love roguelikes, this could blossom into something solid. As of now, hard to recommend based on existing content alone.
Super VR Trainer, from Jorge Moreno Aguilera and David Erosa
Price: $19.99 (Rift)
With Super VR Trainer we’ve got another small collection of mini-games — but this time they’re not all sport themed. There’s a hospital-based zombie shooter, a light blade game, an archery game against skeletons, basketball, hover board gliding, and a puzzle game.
Recommendation: Feels unfinished, which wouldn’t be as big of a deal if it was still in Early Access, but it’s launched now. Hard to recommend paying for this in the face of better free options.
Overload, from Revival Productions
Price: $24.99 (Rift)
6DOF (six degrees of freedom) shooters are making a bit of a comeback with the dawn of VR, with Descent: Underground, StarBlood Arena, and now Overload. It’s only single player and still in Early Access though, so don’t expect a full or complete game yet.
Recommendation: Certainly packs the production values to be worth a purchase for fans of the genre.
Quizality, from UV Games,
Price: $4.99 (Rift, Currently Discounted)
This is a trivia game played entirely in VR, which is fine, except you can’t explore the environments and it’s only single player.
Recommendation: Hard to see the value with the current list of features.
Passengers: Awakening VR Experience, from MPC VR
Price: $9.99 (Rift)
Hang out on the massive Avalon spaceship from the sci-fi movie, Passengers. Chris Pratt even recorded original dialogue for the experience and it features some truly breathtaking views and cool areas to explore. The puzzle solving is a little tedious.
Recommendation: A step above most movie tie-in VR experiences, recommended for fans of the film. More info.
Heaven Forest NIGHTS, from Fabio Ferrara
Price: $0.99 (Rift, Currently Discounted)
Once you’re done yelling the final word in this experience’s title, you can embark on a slow-paced, atmospheric journey through a beautiful forest. It explores topics such as: what is the meaning of death?
Recommendation: Cheap little experience, some nice visuals and themes. Grab it up and give it a go one night when you’re feeling philosophical.
Panzer Panic VR, from HandyGames
Price: $9.99 (Currently Discounted)
This is a relatively standard tank combat game, similar to the like of Battlezone. While it’s a bit limited in terms of content, the core gameplay is definitely entertaining.
Recommendation: If you don’t have a PSVR to play Battlezone, this is a capable replacement for the price.
VRCURATOR, from Lobaki
Price: $4.99 (Currently Discounted)
Find it tough to communicate with and give direction to people while they’re in VR? Then this is for you. It acts like a walkie-talkie of sorts that connects you to their VR experience so they can hear and communicate without removing the HMD or headphones.
Recommendation: A pretty niche product but it works great if you have the need.
Raw Data, a first-person combat game from Survios currently in Early Access, is one of the most fast-paced and exciting games out for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch right now. Far from being a simple shooting gallery, Raw Data gives you an impressive range of abilities and physical agency, making you feel like you’re in real danger. And if you can master the controls, you’ll feel like a superhuman badass too.
Raw Data Details:
Official Site
Developer: Survios Publisher: Survios Available On: HTC Vive (Steam), Oculus Touch (Home) Reviewed On: HTC Vive. Oculus Touch Release Date: July 15th, 2016 (Vive) – March 16th, 2017 (Touch)
Note 03/16/17: The article has been updated to include impressions of the game’s recent support for Oculus Touch. You’ll find those impressions in a section at the bottom. The article is otherwise untouched, save the insertion of ‘Oculus Rift/Touch’ where needed. Because of the herculean effort of updating every Early Access review to reflect changes, you’ll see that initial impressions are left intact, but you’ll also find a section below discussing updates since the game’s July 2016 launch on Steam.
Note 07/18/16: This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game only at its current Early Access state and will not receive a numerical score.
Eden Corp, your standard “we’re not evil” evil corporation, is oppressing the world, and it’s your job as a member of hacker group SyndiK8 to infiltrate them. Choosing your character—the gun-wielding ‘gun cleric’ Bishop or the katana-swinging ‘cyber ninja’ Saija—it’s your job to extract massive amounts of data and defend vulnerable data cores so you can expose Eden Corp for what they really are, a “we say we’re not evil, but in all actuality we’re super evil, and you probably should have known that already” type of company.
Oh. And they have killer robots.
Gameplay
Although Raw Data is essentially a wave-shooter, it’s anything but simple, as it presents an engaging blend of tower defense elements, special unlockable moves, and a multiplayer mode that will have you battling alongside your friends on Steam or Oculus Home. Yes, that’s cross-platform, folks.
There’s a real sense of immediate danger in Raw Data too. I don’t know if it’s the fact that the game’s robot adversaries are well over 2 meters tall, or that they creep forward with seemingly no regard for their own safety, or that they’re constantly firing lasers at my face, or that when they come up to you they start punching you in the face—but it’s safe to say that Raw Data put me in a real panic the first few times I played.
If you choose Bishop, it’s best to practice with your pistol back at the starting point before you jump right in, because once you’re in a mission the learning curve gets steep fairly quickly. Because robots. Are. Everywhere. And if you don’t immediately understand how to reload consistently, you’re due for a robo-beating.
Later on in the game I learned how to reload my pistols instantly by touching them to my hip/ lower back, but the early manual reloading—using one hand to pull out a magazine and slide it into my pistol—was pretty frustrating. Several times while ducking behind a barrier to hide from an onslaught of baddies, I ended up swapping my empty pistol into my non-dominant shooting hand somehow, which is super frustrating when you have a load of enemies firing laser and punching you in the face. It happened consistently enough to make me more aware of how to carefully reload, and also keep an eye on my bullet counter so I didn’t run dry of bullets in time of need.
Then again, if you do screw up somehow by reloading, you can always punch them. No, really. You can punch a robot in the face to death. This is great when it works, which isn’t all the time though, and the same goes for Saija’s swords.
Using the sword should probably be the easiest, and most gratifying of the two, and Saija’s energy katanas sound good on paper if you’re the sort of person who wants to dispatch your enemies up close and personal ninja-style. I didn’t feel like they always worked as they should though, as slashing at a target sometimes didn’t register a hit. Thankfully you can also fire range weapons like ethereal shurikens, and even toss your swords like boomerangs, which are both reliable. If only up-close combat was.
Whether you’re slicing or shooting though, detaching an evil robot’s head from its body and seeing purple fluid spurt out gives me a clear sense of accomplishment. And getting through all four, which took me well over 3 hours, was an even bigger one, requiring me to recruit the help of a friend to accomplish.
Since it’s in Early Access, there are currently only two heroes (see update section), but Survios told us that at least two more are coming out with the game’s full release. They also gave us a better look at the individual abilities and weapons in our deep dive with the Raw Data devs if you’re interested in a more detailed look at the game.
Immersion
As far as VR first-person shooters go, Raw Data is probably the most feature-rich out there. The world is cohesive and clearly approaching what I would call ‘AAA level’ of polish. That said, there are a few things that may thwart your attempts at feeling fully immersed in the space, all of which are no real fault of the game itself.
Avatars in multiplayer are kind of wonky. Because both the Vive and Oculus Rift only has three tracking points (the headset and two controllers), Raw Data is essentially making its best guess at the position of your full body. It does this by using inverse kinematics (IK)—a method of predicting how your joints bend—and then cleverly blending animations to smooth out any accompanying strangeness. That doesn’t always stop elbows and knees from bending the wrong way though in VR, making you look weird to your friends in multiplayer. This is however pretty much unavoidable when dealing with full body avatars using the Vive’s provided gear, so you certainly can’t knock Survios for putting their best effort forward.
Robots sometimes clip through you. On one of the levels (I won’t say which as to avoid spoiling the fun) you’re introduced to crawling, zombie-like robots. Their beady glowing eyes stare at you as they crab-walk in from the darkness, predictably scaring whatever bejesus you may still have retained from the previous level. That is until they jump at you and clip through your body, breaking the illusion. It’s clear that AI just isn’t good enough yet to guarantee that enemies will react to your physical movements, or anticipate where you’ll be next.
These are relatively minor gripes when talking about immersion, and aren’t unique to Raw Data.
Comfort
Teleportation is one of the best ways to get around in VR in terms of comfort, and Raw Data has a special take on it that has some interesting trade-offs. You don’t actually blink-teleport, but rather you quickly glide to your chosen spot. Because the game uses plenty of particle effects, and the transition is quick enough, danger of motion-induced VR sickness (aka ‘sim sickness’) is pretty minimal, but more than you would experience with blink-teleportation. This, I felt, keeps you more present in the game by letting you keep an eye on the action as it happens around you so you can better plan your next split-second attack.
With the exception of Saija’s jump move, which launches you in the air for high-flying downward strike, the gameis surprisingly comfortable for what is shaping up to be one of virtual reality’s greatest first-person shooters.
Oculus Touch Impressions
According to Survios, the Oculus version of Raw Data—which for now only seems accessible through Oculus Home and not Steam— has been “completely optimized and reengineered specifically for its two- and three-camera tracking and Touch controls.”
If you have three or more sensors, you’re likely to experience the game’s room-scale glory just like the Vive, letting you turn around and slash and shoot with nary a care for your IRL direction. However, if like most people you only have two sensors, you’re in for a bit of a learning curve to get past the Touch controller’s biggest out-of-the-box limitation: occlusion.
To combat this, Survios has enabled a 90-degree snap-turn, aka ‘comfort mode’ to go along with the game’s frenetic teleportation scheme as well as an ‘arrow guardian’ to help you recognize when you’ve turned completely around and are about to lose Touch-positional tracking. The arrow guardian isn’t at all annoying thankfully—i.e. no audio cues, or big ‘TURN AROUND’ signs to block your line of sight so you can take a quick shot at an incoming robot. It simply flashes a neon arrow to get you turned back around, something that may seem garish in any other game, but works well in the high stress, 360 environment of Raw Data.
Raw Data is still in early access, meaning small things like button mapping aren’t final. That said, I had trouble with this aspect of the Touch-compatible game.
To snap right, you press the ‘A’ button on your right controller; and to snap left, the ‘X’ button on your left—logical and simple. In the thrill of the fight though, I kept instinctively wanting to use the joy stick for this like many other games. Also, because the left snap is mapped to ‘X’, I kept accidentally mashing ‘Y’ which brings up a menu screen, effectively rendering my reloading hand useless until I could figure out what I did wrong. I concede that sometimes I have what is called in the medical field as ‘dumb baby fingers’. Again, three sensor setups won’t suffer my dumb-baby-fingered plight, as you can play the game with the knowledge that your Touch controllers will be tracked in room-scale.
Despite the dumb-baby-finger learning curve and having to pay closer attention to the new arrow guardian, Raw Data on Oculus Touch can be just as fun as the Vive version.
Updates
Survios has pushed several updates for the game while still in Early Access, including a new shotgun-wielding hero (‘Boss’), greatly improved multiplayer, and a new mission called Cataclysm which the studio promises is “the most challenging level to date.” According to Survios, players on both platforms also gain access to several brand-new features, including a balancing of new and reworked abilities for heroes Saija and Boss.
Summary:Raw Data is a heavy-hitting, fast-paced game that’s more than just a simple wave shooter. While it presses all the right buttons with atmosphere and feel, the game is on the bleeding edge of virtual interaction, which sometimes doesn’t work as well as it should. Despite its technical flaws, it’s one of the best VR shooters for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch out currently.
We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.
Survios’ first-person shooter (FPS) Raw Data has been a big success for the studio on HTC Vive. It’s got a ‘very positive’ rating on Steam and just over a month after it launched in mid-2016, the developer announced the title has already brought in $1 million USD in sales. Then in February Survios revealed the videogame would be coming to Oculus Rift and Touch. That day has now arrived.
Raw Data will be available through early access on Oculus Home just as it is on Steam. To support Oculus Touch Survios has re-engineered the title, optimising it specifically for the device’s two and three-camera tracking. And as first announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017, Raw Data now has cross-platform co-op allowing Oculus Rift and HTC Vive users to play together for the first time.
“We’re thrilled to officially welcome the Oculus player community to Raw Data,” said James Iliff, Survios co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. “With VR still a young, niche industry, it’s crucial right now for the entire community to be united regardless of platform. We believe VR is ultimately going to be a platform-agnostic medium, and we’re showing our support for that shift starting with Raw Data‘s new, cross-platform compatibility. And that’s just the beginning: we’re going to do everything we can to create content for the entire VR community.”
Additionally, both platforms will also get several new features. Characters Saija and Boss have both been balanced with new and reworked abilities, and there’s a new mission ‘Cataclysm’, which aims to be the most challenging mission so far with players finding themselves on a massive moving elevator whilst fending off waves of enemies.
It might not be as easier a launch on Oculus Touch with Raw Data facing some stiff competition from Epic Games’ Robo Recall. Another robot shooter, Robo Recall also launched this month and for free, with VRFocusgiving it 5-stars in its review.
Raw Data is available in Early Access on Steam and Oculus Home for $39.99/£29.99 GBP, there will also be a 20 percent discount available for a limited time.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Raw Data and Survios, reporting back with the latest updates.
The new PvP mode will have new maps, revamped abilities and locomotion movesets all exclusively available in Hostile Takeover, taking players deeper into the Eden Corp narrative.
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