Last week developers Rank17 and Silicon Storm announced their upcoming virtual reality (VR) title BladeShield for HTC Vive. Today the videogame has launched along with a limited time discount.
BladeShield is a wave-based melee combat title that discards guns for pure sword fighting action. Set aboard a spaceship called Titan-X, players have to stop rogue AI, E.L.L.E.N. (Engaging Linguistic Learning Electronic Network), from killing everyone on board by destroying hordes of robots. These include Sawbots, blaster drones, and mega turrets.
To protect players, they come armed with BladeShields – think Star Wars and Lightsabers – which can be swapped out for shields. But if players utilise the sword function to deflect incoming laser fire they’ll be able to charge up the weapon to unleash a devastating EMP blast.
“We want to give VR enthusiasts top-notch gameplay and visuals at a great value. VR is more than AAA tentpoles with head tracking thrown in,” said Steve Iverson Highest Ranking Officer, Rank 17. “It’s a brand new way to play — and Rank17 is well positioned to deliver more awesome ‘pickup-and-play’ VR titles to players in the years ahead. If you enjoy BladeShield, you’re going to love our 2017 releases!”
For the next five days BladeShield can be purchased with a 20 percent discount on Steam, dropping the price from £1.99 GBP/ $2.99 USD to £1.59/$2.39.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Rank17, reporting back with further announcements.