République: Anniversary Edition Finally Sneaks Onto PlayStation VR Next Week

PlayStation VR is now in its twilight years in comparison to other virtual reality (VR) headsets – it has been 6 years after all! – yet it’s still managing to offer owners new content. The latest comes from Camouflaj in the form of République: Anniversary Edition, a stealth experience due for release on 10th March.

Republique VR

République isn’t a new title, in fact, it’s a fairly old videogame hence the “Anniversary Edition” addition. It was originally released as République Episode 1 for mobile devices back in 2013 before its subsequent VR version arrived a few years later for Gear VR, Oculus Go and Oculus Quest – gmw3 reviewed the Go version in 2018.

République: Anniversary Edition was unveiled last summer during E3 week, with Camouflaj’s development partners Skymap Games reworking the title for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. If you’ve played any of the previous editions then there’s not much change content-wise for 2022, what has been included is commentary from the developers, talking about their design decisions and what goes into making a videogame like this.

If you’re new to the République franchise the stealth-action gameplay puts the fate of Hope, a hacker, in your hands. With a narrative that explores the perils of government surveillance in the internet age, République offers 10-hours of gameplay where you have to escape a mysterious totalitarian state.

Republique

Alongside her hacking abilities, Hope has a bunch of cool gadgets and tricks up her sleeve to evade capture. Utilising the environment to hide from guards all the action is viewed from the position of security cameras, so you have to switch between them to get the best viewpoint of the danger ahead.

You can pick up République: Anniversary Edition for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR on 10th March 2022. For further updates on Camouflaj’s latest VR titles, keep reading gmw3.

Kickstarter Backed ZED to be Released in June

Surreal adventure title ZED began life back in 2016 as a successful Kickstarter campaign for Eagre Games, with virtual reality (VR) support one of the stretch goals. Even though that particular goal wasn’t achieved ZED will be coming to HTC VIve and Oculus Rift. And this week, Cyan Ventures, the new publishing arm of Cyan, has confirmed that ZED will finally launch on Steam in less than two weeks.

ZED

ZED is very much a weird and wonderful adventure set in a world of an artist suffering from dementia – desperately trying to reconnect fragmented memories. Developed in association with Skymap Games, you explore the dreams of the artist’s crumbling mind in hopes of helping him assemble enough meaningful images to leave behind a loving memento and final legacy for his granddaughter.

The videogame will be the first published by Cyan Ventures, a new division which launched in November 2018. Cyan Inc. is best known for its puzzle adventures Myst and Riven, most recently releasing Obduction whilst completing its own Kickstarter campaign for Firmament

“It’s exciting to release ZED as the first, in what we hope is, a series of artisan indie titles,” said Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan in a statement. “Cyan Ventures was created to connect our amazingly supportive Myst fan base to inspiring artists like Chuck at Eagre Games. We hope that ZED, with its graphically mesmerizing narrative, will resonate with our fans and audiences worldwide.”

ZED

“I am thrilled to be working with Cyan Ventures,” adds Chuck Carter, founder of Eagre Games. “It is awesome to be working with a publisher as vested in the visual fidelity and compelling story as us. They believed in our vision and helped us move ZED across the finish line, from its Kickstarter inception to a deeply moving story of an unexamined life.”

The vision of Carter, ZED was co-written by Joe Fielder (Bioshock Infinite, The Flame and the Flood) and David Chen (Metal Gear Solid series, Narcosis).

ZED is due for release on 4th June 2019 and will be available on Steam, GOG, Oculus Store and VivePort. VRFocus will continue its coverage of both Eagre Games’ ZED and Cyan’s Firmament as more details are released. 

Cyan’s Upcoming Surreal Adventure ZED Receives new Trailer Ahead of Spring Release

Currently being developed by Eagre Games and Skymap Games is a new surreal adventure experience called ZED, which is being published by Oblivion creator Cyan Ventures. Supporting both standard PC monitors and virtual reality (VR) headsets,  ZED is due for release this Spring. With the launch not far away Cyan has just released an official trailer for the title.

ZED

Very much a twisted puzzle adventure, the trailer gives a good demonstration of the weirdness that the development teams have been creating. A synopsis explains that: “ZED is the story of an artist suffering from dementia — desperately trying to reconnect fragmented memories. The player explores the dreams of the artist’s crumbling mind in hopes of helping him assemble enough meaningful images to leave behind a loving memento and final legacy for his granddaughter.”

“This game is very personal to me,” said Chuck Carter, founder of Eagre Games in a statement. “I had a dear friend and mentor pass a few years back. He suffered from dementia in those final years and my visits to him became the inspiration for ZED. This is not his story, but a broader cautionary tale of not waiting till the end to examine your life.”

ZED

“ZED is just the type of game Cyan Ventures wants to publish, said Rand Miller, CEO, Cyan. “We formed Cyan Ventures because we believe that now is the time to experiment and explore the new possibilities in VR storytelling. Chuck’s very emotional exploration of an artist’s struggle to examine the meaning of his life through the fog of dementia is a provocative approach to narrative gameplay. We’re very excited to have a part in bringing ZED’s moving and inventive narrative to VR and PC.”

Eagre Games has been working on ZED for a while now, having held a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign in 2016. Managing to raise over $50,000 USD, backers will soon be able to enjoy the videogame they supported 3 years ago.

Cyan plans on releasing ZED for PC as well as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in Spring 2019. When a more concrete release date has been announced VRFocus will let you know.