Oculus today announced Lone Echo 2, a sequel to the highly praised Lone Echo which was developed by Ready at Dawn and published by Oculus Studios in 2017. While the game, like the original, is expected only to launch on the Rift, the announcement comes with an immersive trailer available on the Rift, Go, and Gear VR.
Now a little more than a year after the launch of Lone Echo, Oculus today confirmed that Lone Echo 2 is finally on its way. An immersive trailer, available on the Rift, Go, and Gear VR headsets, shows that the game is likely to be a direct continuation Jack and Liv’s story, the main characters of the first game. You can download immersive trailer on those headsets, or watch the flat version below:
The Lone Echo 2 immersive trailer is seen from the perspective of Jack, and shows Liv coming to terms with a challenging situation arising apparently shortly after players last left things at the end of Lone Echo. Not much is revealed in the trailer about exactly what’s going on or how Lone Echo 2’s gameplay will or won’t evolve from the original.
Lone Echo received high marks for its immersion and narrative, and is often regarded as one of VR’s top titles to date; we gave it a 9 out of 10 in our review. The game is unique for its high production values while steering completely away from first person shooter action, instead focusing on threats and conflict introduced by the environment rather than generic baddies or humanoid aliens dispatched with hot lead or lasers.
Granted, developer Ready at Dawn has been working hard on Echo Combat, a multiplayer FPS component to Echo VR—the multiplayer spinoff that’s set in the Lone Echo universe. Given what the team has learned about mixing handheld weapons with the games’ unique zero-G locomotion may mean that armed conflict isn’t entirely out of the question for Lone Echo 2, for better or for worse.
Ready at Dawn today announced the beginning of the fourth open beta weekend for the zero-G, VR shooter expansion Echo Combat. Now on the list of improvements and updates includes a hotly awaited parties function, and a few other features and some fresh mechanic balances to boot.
The open beta will be taking place starting today, September 6th, at 10:30 AM PDT (local time here) and through Sunday, September 9th at 9:00 AM PDT (local time here).
The list of improvements include:
Parties – invite your friends and form the three-person posse you’ve been waiting for.
Arc Mine balance changes – The Arc Mine now continuously detects enemies while armed, and allows detected targets a short window of opportunity to either escape from its radius before it stuns them or destroy the mine.
Fission Map balance changes – the Cargo Bay has been altered to help the Attacking team push the Payload out of its initial room which include multiple new pieces of cover. more cover inserted on the Dense side to better break line of sight to the Cargo Bay, and a number of safer path options to exit the initial starting room and engage with Defenders has been added.
Energy barrier tweaks – to keep players from overly relying on the Energy Barrier Tac-Mod, it’s been nerfed slightly; the duration of the Energy Barrier, once generated, has been reduced to 15 seconds from its original 25 second duration. The Comet will also do slightly less damage to the Energy Barrier and will take a full clip to break it down.
There are also a host of general bug fixes listed on Ready at Dawn’s announcement page, which include known issues for both Echo Combat and Echo Arena.
Developers will be making game balance changes throughout the weekend based on community feedback, and provide these at incremental hotfixes.
In case you’re new to Echo Combat, here’s a quick primer: Echo Combat is an Oculus exclusive based around a familiar gametype that fans of Team Fortress 2 (2007) or Overwatch (2016) will instantly recognize: payload—push the cart on a track through the winding maze, or defend the advances of the cart by pushing it backwards and running down the clock. With a zero-G locomotion scheme, you can push yourself through the winding corridors and boost yourself to land those critical payload-stopping headshots.
Believe it or not but it has been one whole year since Ready at Dawn launch the well received Lone Echoand multiplayer spin-off Echo Arena for Oculus Rift. After its initial reveal during Oculus Connect 4 (OC4) the studio then held a free open beta in June for players to start testing the title. If you didn’t manage to play Echo Combat the first time then grab your Oculus Rift as you’ve got another opportunity starting today.
Echo Combat takes the Echo Arena multiplayer format and mixes it up by adding objective-based battles made up of teams of three, with the only mode playable so far based on defending/attacking a moving payload. This payload takes the form of a pink flamingo which takes a particular route through an arena. The defending team need to get it to the goal by staying in close proximity or else it won’t move. The only problem, as you can see from the screenshot there’s not a lot of cover meaning you can be easily picked off by the opposing team.
As for the attackers the job is simple, dispatch the other team to slow or stop the payload from moving. The attackers can completely stop the flamingo by staying in close proximity yet they’ll also suffer the same defensive challenges.
While the main gameplay hasn’t been altered apart from making Echo Combat a more stable gaming experience, Ready at Dawn has added one new feature, a left-handed weapon. Not only will the addition help those southpaw players it’ll also add some dual-wield fire power to the proceedings.
The Echo Combat open beta is live now, running through the weekend until 9:59 am PT (5:59 pm GMT) on 22nd July.
To join in the fun all you’ll need to do is open Echo VR during the beta time frame and matchmake into Echo Combat. Plus you can explore the shared social lobby and switch to some competitive zero-g play in Echo Arena. Additionally, play an Echo Arena or Echo Combat match during this event to receive a limited edition decal and emote. For any further updates from Ready at Dawn, keep reading VRFocus.
Last month Echo Combat had its first Open Beta period allowing anyone with a Rift to hop in and play Ready at Dawn’s take on the first-person shooter totally for free all weekend long. We livestreamed the beta while it was happening twice (here and here) if you want to get a feel for what the game is like.
In our original hands-on with the game earlier this year we likened it to Overwatch in terms of objectives (pushing a payload) and being able to switch “classes” in a sense by changing weapons. Here’s a quick look at the game in action:
Echo Combat is the second multiplayer VR game from Ready at Dawn, following Echo Arena and the single player narrative story, Lone Echo. Echo Combat is expected to release later this year and this will be far from the last Open Beta period. In the blog post the company writes:
This weekend’s Open Beta is the first of many scheduled throughout the rest of the year and leading up to Echo Combat’s official release. Alongside more opportunities to play Echo Combat until release, players can also look forward to new content monthly.
If you’ve been following the VR shooter scene for a while now, you might even notice that it shares a lot in common with Ubisoft’s forthcoming shooter, Space Junkies. We did a breakdown comparing the games, deciding that Echo Combat edges out Space Junkies just barely based on time spent with each so far.
If you plan on playing the Open Beta this weekend let us know down in the comments below!
A few weeks ago when writing about Blood & Truth, an upcoming PSVR-exclusive spy action game, I pointed out the striking similarities to Defector, an upcoming Oculus-exclusive spy action game. Both games are due out this year and have seemingly been in development essentially side-by-side and were announced only a few months apart. That sort of thing doesn’t usually happen too often but it seems to be happening once again with Echo Combat and Space Junkies.
Ubisoft’s Space Junkies was announced first at last year’s E3 with Echo Combat announced at last year’s Oculus Connect. Since then we’ve gone hands-on with both games on multiple occasions and have spent our fair-share of time floating around in zero-gravity while shooting guns. There are a lot of similarities here, but a few key differences as well.
Obviously it needs to be stated explicitly that this comparison is currently based off of pre-release versions of both games. We’ve only played them briefly and sessions were of alpha and/or beta versions of the games. This means that once they do finally release each game could be quite different, so just don’t expect this comparison to hold true accurately forever.
We’ll make updates when the time comes on release for both games.
Best Locomotion System: Echo Combat
There’s really no contest here. Echo Combat’s movement system has been lauded ever since it was first deployed in Lone Echo, the single player space adventure, and Echo Arena, the disc-based multiplayer game that precedes Echo Combat. By pushing off of people and objects, as well as using wrist-mounted boosters, you can easily and nimbly move around the entire environment in 360 degrees.
Space Junkies does have a similar system, but you have far less nuanced control. It’s really just a jetpack-based movement system so you can accelerate easily upwards and forward, but it’s tough to change directions quickly and you can’t grab onto parts of the environment. Ultimately they’re very similar movement systems, but Echo Combat’s is just more fluid and natural.
Best Gun Mechanics: Space Junkies
This was a close call. Each game has a good amount of variety with weapons, but Echo Combat only has three guns (auto pistol, shotgun, and charged sniper rifle) and virtually everyone uses the standard Pulsar auto pistol most of the time anyway. In Echo Combat you also can’t switch weapons — whatever you pick back at the spawn terminal is what you’re stuck with until you respawn.
But in Space Junkies guns are scattered around the map just like in old school Unreal Tournament. There’s the basic pistol, a shotgun you have to pump with both hands to load it, a machine gun with ricochet bullets, a large mini-gun that has a ton of kickback, and even a grenade slingshot. It’s a ton of variety and feels like they’re only going to add more as time goes on.
Best Additional Abilities: Tied
Luckily neither of these games is just about flying around shooting at each other. That’d be pretty boring. In the case of Space Junkies and Echo Combat, they bother offer a lot of variation in other ways to engage with your enemies. For Echo Combat that comes in the form of ancillary abilities, such as healing teammates, sending out a radar blast to identify enemies, and dropping a shield that sticks in the environment for people to hide behind. You can also throw out explosive discs to deal big burst damage.
For Space Junkies the main two extra items are a laser sword that’s extremely powerful, but has limited range, and a shield that only covers a small portion of your body. There are other items you can take in the character customization menu such as a decoy to fool enemies, as well as different suits with varying speed and health stats. Overall both titles have a similar amount of depth here and it’s too early to really tell which setup we prefer more.
Best Map Variety: Space Junkies
This one was a harder decision than you’d think. While it’s true that Echo Combat only has one map (and probably won’t ever get more than that one map if Echo Arena’s single map over a year later is any precedent to go off of) that single map is so perfectly designed for the game that it makes up for it. But it absolutely will get old eventually. It’s basically like Overwatch, but only a single map.
For Space Junkies it’s hard to tell what the final map count will be, but there were at least right around a half dozen or so available during the most recent beta test period. Every map features a large open area near the middle mostly with lots of debris and obstacles in the way. Some have more interior environments than others, with winding hallways, while others may just have one or two smaller stations to explore. To put it simply: there is a good deal of variety, which is more than can be said for a single map in Echo Combat.
Best Game Mode(s): Echo Combat
Once again Echo Combat only has one game mode, but in this case focusing solely on one style of play that has actual depth and nuance is a good thing. All we’ve seen from Space Junkies so far is your standard Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All game modes, which are anything but inspiring at this point. They just get old fast and don’t have enough special sauce to make me want to keep coming back.
For Echo Combat it’s way more involved than that. You’ve got the swan statue that the attacking team is required to load up on top of and guide it through the level. That’s the payload. The defending team has to stop them from advancing it to win the match. It works a lot like Overwatch and it’s extremely addictive since the map is so open and varied every round plays out differently.
Verdict: Echo Combat
It’s a close call based on our time with these games so far, but as of now Echo Combat gets the edge. The areas that Space Junkies seems to excel at the most (gun mechanics and map variety) are easy things for Echo Combat to catch up on, whereas fundamental features like locomotion and the core game modes and gameplay experience are much better in Echo Combat.
As far as we can tell both games are extremely competitive and high-quality zero-G VR shooters in their own right, but we prefer Echo Combat just slightly by comparison.
Worth noting however is that Echo Combat is an Oculus Home exclusive, whereas Space Junkies will release on both Oculus Home and Steam for Rift and Vive. Both games are due out later this year with exact dates TBD.
Let us know what you think of both games so far down in the comments below!
The Open Beta for Echo Combat is live and running until Sunday. If you have Oculus Home installed already, you may have noticed that the Echo games have undergone a bit of re-branding. Instead of Echo Combat and Echo Arena existing in the launch separately, there is now just Echo VR and when you load into the lobby you pick which game you want.
Echo Arena is the disc-based mixture of Quidditch and Soccer that we loved last year in our review, while Echo Combat is a zero-G shooter that blends Overwatch with Echo-style movement. It’s a ton of fun as well. If you missed it, we livestreamed yesterday for over an hour, but due to server issues only played a handful of games in that time.
We’ll be livestreaming Echo Combat on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 3:00PM PT) and aim to last for about an hour or so. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTubeand Twitchat the same time!
The Open Beta for Echo Combat is finally here! If you have Oculus Home installed already, you may have noticed that the Echo games have undergone a bit of re-branding. Instead of Echo Combat and Echo Arena existing in the launch separately, there is now just Echo VR and when you load into the lobby you pick which game you want.
Echo Arena is the disc-based mixture of Quidditch and Soccer that we loved last year in our review, while Echo Combat is a zero-G shooter that blends Overwatch with Echo-style movement. It’s a ton of fun as well.
We’ll be livestreaming Echo Combat on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 2:20PM PT) and aim to last for about an hour or so. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTubeand Twitchat the same time!
Zero-gravity first-person shooter Echo Arena was a team-based esport spin-off from sci-fi virtual reality (VR) adventure Lone Echo. Echo Arena became extremely popular, with several users declaring it was their entry into VR as a whole. Developers Ready at Dawn are following up with a third title in the series, Echo Combat, which is now launching its open beta.
The development team have said that Echo Combat aims to take everything tat was learned from the previous iterations of Lone Echo and Echo Arena and turn it all up to eleven to create a tight, fast-paced competitive VR FPS.
In Echo Combat, teams of three will be involved in either defending or attacking a payload. The payload in footage revealed so far has taken the form of a pink bird-like thing that players can sit on or grab on to as it floats towards its destination on a pre-defined path.
The more team members who re close to the payload, the faster it will move, similarly, the more enemy players are within range of the payload, the slower it will move, to the point of even heading backwards.
The content of the open beta will be very similar to the version of the title that was demonstrated at E3, so will be familiar to users who were lucky enough to be in attendance at E3, or who kept close eyes on word coming from the event.
Ready at Dawn is also implementing Echo VR, which will act as a shared social lobby and practice space for players to arrange matchmaking and launch into either Echo Arena or Echo Combat. This facility will be available during the open beta.
The open beta for Echo Combat will being at 10:30am PT on 21st June, 2018 and will last until 10am PT on 24th June, 2018.
For further news on Echo Combat and other upcoming VR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.
With the Echo Combat beta opening today, and the full experience launching later this year, Oculus and Ready at Dawn are doing some reorganization to set the stage for the ongoing expansion of the Echo universe. Today, Echo Arena becomes Echo VR, which will encompass both Echo Arena and Echo Combat.
Oculus today announced that Echo Arena is becoming Echo VR, in order to make room for Echo Combat, the FPS take on Echo Arena’s zero-G competitive formula. The game, which we recently went hands-on with in its closed beta, pits teams of three against each other in a large arena, where one team attempts to move an objective from one end of the arena to the other while the opposing team tries to prevent that until the clock runs out. And while the game is in many ways different than Echo Arena’s zero-G frisbee gameplay, the underlying locomotion, controls, and aesthetics are the same; Echo Combat is very directly part of the same universe as Echo Arena.
Image courtesy Ready at Dawn
To that end, Echo Combat will actually launch later this year as a paid DLC add-on to Echo Arena (instead of its own standalone game), and both games will share the same lobby space from which players can socialize and matchmake into either experience.
To make this all a little more cohesive, and to set both Echo Arena and Echo Combat on even footing, Oculus and developer Ready at Dawn are rebranding Echo Arena to Echo VR. Echo VR will include everything that Echo Arena did previously, including the social lobby and the ability to play Echo Arena matches (and it’ll continue to be free).
The move simplifies things, but also appears to set up the Echo universe for even longer term growth beyond Echo Combat. Much like Rec Room offers up many different experiences within the confines of a single game, Echo VR will become the singular hub for both Echo Arena and Echo Combat, and could well be the focal point of more experiences in the future. Ready at Dawn CEO, Ru Weerasuriya, teased as much in an interview with Road to VR at E3 2018 last week:
VR opened a new door to the way you perceive a player inside the world that you inhabit and the game that you’re gonna play. The lobby for us was kind of an eye-opener because at the very beginning it was more of a staging area, then it went from a staging area to being kind of a focal point for people to come in and play […] so for us, expanding the ‘Echo’ universe doesn’t mean adding a game. It means expanding an experience for a person who enters, as you said, the lobby. Enter ‘Echo VR’ and decide: do you want to hang around and just play with some friends in there (there’s a few things to do already there). Do you want to go outside and play a game? Do you want to choose to do a sports game or a combat game—and who knows in the future? But our goal is definitely to kind of view this more as a single world that is going to keep on giving back to the players as the years go on.
If you didn’t get a chance to jump into last month’s Echo Combat open beta weekend, the upcoming online shooter expansion to Echo Arena, then you’ll have another chance soon, as the studio is opening up their pod bay doors to all Rift users starting today, August 16th.
Update (August 16th, 2018): Echo Combat Open Beta 3 kicks off today at 10:30 AM PT (your timezone here) and ends Sunday August 19th at 10:00 AM PT. Developer Ready at Dawn has confirmed that the so-called ‘Gear Patch’ brings three new features: Arc Mine, Stun Field, and Energy Barrier. The patch also includes a range of gameplay and balance changes, as well as bug fixes. You can find the full patch notes here.
Update (August 7th, 2018): A third Echo Combat open beta is set for the weekend of August 16th, the folks at VRespawn reported. As with the prior open beta, we expect it will open sometime around 10:30AM PT (your timezone here).
According to a video on the official Echo Games YouTube channel, the August 16th open beta weekend will also usher in the ‘Gear Patch’, which we expect will focus on tweaks to equipment like grenades and abilities, possibly even introducing some new elements.
Update (July 19th, 2018): Celebrating the one-year anniversary of Lone Echo (2017) and Echo Arena’s release, the upcoming team shooter Echo Combat is getting its second open beta period this weekend, starting July 20th at 10:30 AM PT (local time here) and going through July 22nd at 10:00 AM PT (local time here). The latest open beta is said to deliver “a more stable gaming experience,” and the ability to use your weapon in your left hand.
According to a Ready at Dawn blog post, this weekend’s open beta “is the first of many scheduled throughout the rest of the year and leading up to Echo Combat’s official release. Alongside more opportunities to play Echo Combat until release, players can also look forward to new content monthly.”
Original Article, Updated (June 20th, 2018): Echo Combat throws you into a beefier combat-ready avatar with a few guns and abilities at your disposal. Offering a payload-based objective, much like the gametype in Team Fortress 2 (2007) or Overwatch (2016), you push the cart on a track through the winding maze as an attacker, or defend the advances of the cart by pushing it backwards and running down the three-minute game clock. Check out our full hands-on from the closed beta for a better idea of what to expect.
Ready at Dawn says that players can expect continued open beta periods leading up to the game’s launch later this year. The full release is slated to cost $10, so now is a great time to find out if the zero-G shooter is right for you.
