Scraper: First Strike — Meet The Humans And Humechs

The sci-fi shooter Scraper: First Strike is almost out, and we thought we’d take a look at some of the characters in the game to give you an idea of some of the humans you’ll be protecting and the self-aware automatons – the Humechs — looking to destroy humankind in order to save them all.

Set in New Austin in 2075, Scraper: First Strike pits the human race against a band of highly-organized sentient robots. You’ll have to take back the city skyscraper by skyscraper (eg. “scrapers”), each one built for a specific purpose such as providing power, growing food or serving as a medical facility.

Humans

In Scraper, you play as Casey Maxwell, an elite operative in the Human Resistance Force. With the help of your armed Modified Hover Pod, your mission is to defend the human race from the AI uprising.

Humechs

The Humechs are led by Cifer, an ultra-intelligent AI created to design and build additional robotic units. After seeing countless wars and the greedy, aggressive nature of mankind, Cifer came to realize the principal reason AIs existed – to aid humans — was a grand paradox, and ultimately the only way to protect humankind was to eliminate them completely as humans were the primary danger to themselves.

Scraper: First Strike is the premiere episode in a five-part episodic series. It will be available on Rift, Vive and Windows MR on November 21, and on PSVR on December 18.

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November 5, 2018

Scraper: First Strike Has An E-Book Prequel To Read In-Game

Interested in the world of Labrodex’s Scraper: First Strike? You’ll learn all about it via a new prequel e-book that you can read from within the game itself.

Labrodex this month revealed that anyone that registers to ScraperNetwork.com by November 15th (just under a week before the game’s launch) will get a free prequel novel to the sci-fi shooter. But, instead of booting the book up on your Kindle, you’ll actually be able to read it from inside the game itself.

As you can see from the above developer diary, at any point in the game you can find a nice spot to perch on before pulling up your virtual user-interface and digging into the book. You can adjust text size, place bookmarks and even hang your virtual window up so you can read it hands-free.

In fact, the book ends exactly where the game picks up, so you might even want to make it the first thing you do when you boot it up.

Scraper: First Strike is coming to Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows VR on November 21st. A PSVR version will follow up on December 18th. It’s the first episode in a wider game set to release in 2020.

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October 28, 2018

Dex the Dog Proves to be a Pawfect Scraper

Labrodex Studios – the developer behind upcoming sci-fi shooter Scraper: First Strike – has been a long time supporter of the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s Vet Dogs, having created an augmented reality (AR) pet simulation app called Dex earlier in the year. Continuing its affiliation with the charities the studio has produced a tongue-in-cheek promotional video featuring Labrador mascot Dex.

So what happens when you head out and you leave your lovable pooch behind in an empty house? Does your four legged friend just sleep all day, dreaming of catching balls in the park, or sit at the window barking at birds? Well, when it comes to Dex the Labrador he has some more immersive on his mind.

Thanksfully when his owner heads on out she just so happens to leave her PlayStation VR out, PlayStation 4 on and a couple of PlayStation Move controllers on the coffee table with easy reach. So naturally what’s a dog to do? Play some VR of course, and what better than Labrodex Studios’ Scraper: First Strike,a yet to be released cyberpunk shooter set in a world where a rogue AI has taken over the city of New Austin and put robot soldiers called ‘Humechs’ in charge.

“We’re proud supporters of America’s Vet Dogs and the Guide Dog Foundation since 2012. We wanted to bring awareness to these great causes, so we created a fun video by combining our mascot Dex with our upcoming VR title Scraper: First Strike and put Dex in the game! Check it out and let us know what you think,” said the studio in a statement.

The video can be seen below. Scraper: First Strike Episode 1 is scheduled for release on 21st November, 2018 for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. A PlayStation VR version will follow shortly after on 18th December, 2018. For further updates from Labrodex Studios keep reading VRFocus.

October 26, 2018

Labrodex Studios Announces Launch Date for Scraper: first Strike

Earlier this week VRFocus published a preview of upcoming cyberpunk virtual reality (VR) shooter Scraper: First Strike. Now the development studio behind the title, Labrodex Studios, has revealed when Episode 1 of the series would be available.

Scraper: First Strike Episode 1 is the first part of a planned five-part series, which is a set in a dark cyberpunk world where a rogue AI has taken over the city of New Austin and put robot soldiers called ‘Humechs’ in charge.

The player takes the role of a member of the human resistance force who are seeking to save humanity from the renegade robots and restore life to the soaring skyscraper cities.

The title is heavily influenced by classic works of cyberpunk such as Blade Runner and the Deus Ex videogame series. The team at Labrodex Studios have even brought renowned science fiction author Ryder Windham in to write a prequel book titled Scraper: The Rise of Cifer. The soundtrack has also seen a great deal of care, being composed by videogame industry veteran Winifred Phillips.

“We are tremendously excited about Episode I, Scraper: First Strike and glad to have established launch dates,” said Jim Ivon, CEO and Founder of Labrodex. “With this being our first VR release, we have some butterflies as we send our creation ‘out into the wild’ but we are hopeful VR gamers will appreciate the uniqueness of the title. Scraper: First Strike is an original RPG Sci-Fi Shooter with 360-degree full locomotion, large levels to explore freely, engineering, scavenging, modifications and numerous other RPG elements all wrapped in a really fun shooter.”

Scraper: First Strike Episode 1 is planned for release on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality on 21st November, 2018, priced at $29.99. A PlayStation VR version is set to follow on 18th December, 2018.

For future coverage of Scraper: First Strike and other upcoming VR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.

October 26, 2018

‘Scraper: First Strike’ to Arrive on Rift, Vive & Windows VR Next Month, PSVR in December

Labrodex Studios, a Long Island-based VR/AR studio, today announced the first episode of their upcoming VR shooter, Scraper: First Strike, now has official launch dates for all major VR headsets.

The game will be available for purchase on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows VR headsets on November 21st, priced at $30. A PSVR version is slated to release on December 18th.

Scraper: First Strike is the first of five episodes, all of which are planned to release in a final version targeting next-gen consoles in 2020. Based on the world created in Ryder Windham’s sci-fi novel Scraper: The Rise of Cifer, the sci-fi shooter takes place in 2076 in the futuristic megacity of New Austin, where you battle renegade robots in high-rise skyscraper complexes to save humanity.

Climbing aboard a hover chair-like mech, called a POD, you blast through different classes of baddies with plenty of weapons upgrades to craft along the way with dropped enemy loot.

Labrodex is also announcing a free DLC soundtrack of original music created by award-winning composer Winifred Phillips, produced by Winnie Waldron. Phillips has composed music for several games, including Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, God of War, and several of the LittleBigPlanet series games. You can register for the 13-track album online at the Scraper Network. Access to the soundtrack will release when the game launches next month.

The post ‘Scraper: First Strike’ to Arrive on Rift, Vive & Windows VR Next Month, PSVR in December appeared first on Road to VR.

October 26, 2018

‘Scraper: First Strike’ to Arrive on Rift, Vive & Windows VR Next Month, PSVR in December

Labrodex Studios, a Long Island-based VR/AR studio, today announced the first episode of their upcoming VR shooter, Scraper: First Strike, now has official launch dates for all major VR headsets.

The game will be available for purchase on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows VR headsets on November 21st, priced at $30. A PSVR version is slated to release on December 18th.

Climbing aboard a hover chair-like mech, called a POD, you blast through different classes of baddies with plenty of weapons upgrades to craft along the way with dropped enemy loot.

The post ‘Scraper: First Strike’ to Arrive on Rift, Vive & Windows VR Next Month, PSVR in December appeared first on Road to VR.

October 25, 2018

Preview: Scraper: First Strike

Something about Cyberpunk lends itself extremely well to virtual reality (VR). Perhaps because the technology is still no new, and its limits are still being explored. Perhaps it is something about that fusion of fantasy and technology, but either way, cyberpunk dystopia is what Labrodex Studio have chosen for the setting of its first VR project, futuristic shooter Scraper: First Strike.

Scraper: First Strike puts the player in the role of Casey Maxwell, a pilot of a ‘modified hover pod’ or MHP, and also a member of the Human Resistance force. In a world ravaged by war and disease robots called Humechs have taken over, and your job is to help get humans back into power again.

The action is set in a Texas of the far future, where the city of Austin has become ‘New Austin’, a mega-city which housed a vast population, food production towers, and robots that took care of everything. However, something went wrong when an AI saw a dangerous act of human aggression and decided to do something about it.

Though Scraper: First Strike is primarily a shooter, and this does involve blowing vast numbers of robots to bits, it does still raise the typical cyberpunk questions about the nature of humanity, and where the line between human and machine is drawn, or if it can be drawn at all. In this respect, it wears its inspiration on its sleeve, reflecting videogames like Deus Ex, and films like Blade Runner as well as the work of William Gibson and Phillip K. Dick.

Graphically, it looks amazing; sharp, crisp and beautifully designed with some very impressive visuals. There was some pop-in and framerate stutter on a GeForce 1060, but that might be fixed by the time it gets to full release with some optimisation.

One of the key factors for visual cyberpunk is contrast, showing a vast gulf between the elite and those who live on lower rungs of society. Scraper: first Strike has that down pat, with the chrome, bright colours and neon lights contrasting sharply with the darker corners of the city below as well as with the more muted spectrum used for the human resistance.

Some of the symbolism is a bit on-the-nose, such as naming the rogue AI in charge of the humechs ‘LCF-R’ (Lucifer, if it wasn’t obvious) but sometimes the anvil does need to be dropped.

Pleasingly, it is mostly a sitting experience, with a range of locomotion options that make it quite comfortable for a fairly long play session. There are tantalising hints of a broader world and richer history waiting to be explored, though some of that may well be confined to the planned companion novel.

Overall, Scraper: First Strike shows some definite promise, and if it can deliver on its hints of world-building and themes, it stands to be a great VR experience.