For today’s livestream we’re playing Solaris: Offworld Combat, the latest VR shooter from the creators of Firewall Zero Hour! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.
Yesterday the next VR shooter from First Contact Entertainment released, Solaris: Offworld Combat. It’s a sci-fi take on the arena shooter genre with fast-paced gameplay reminiscent of classics such as Quake and Unreal Tournament.
Our Solaris livestream is planned to start at about 1:15 PM PT today and will last for around an hour or so, give or take. We’ll be hitting just our YouTubeand I’ll be streaming from an Oculus Quest with two Touch controllers using a Chromecast connection. I’m flying solo on this one and will only be able to see chat periodically when I peak through my headset nose gap.
You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist or even all livestreams here on UploadVR and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, live talk shows, interviews, and more original content!
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely. Let’s get ready to go!
Launching today, Solaris Offworld Combat is a team-based VR arena shooter from First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind the lauded Firewall: Zero Hour (2018). This time around, the studio wants to deliver a fast-paced experience that anyone can pick up and play. My preview of the game reveals strong technical merit, but a potential clash between casual and competitive ambitions.
Thematically, Solaris Offworld Combat presents itself to players as a sort of future sport where competitors jump into virtual arenas and duke it out for the top place on the leaderboards. And that’s exactly what the game hopes to accomplish: foster a level of hardcore competition which keeps players and teams coming back for more.
And while developer First Contact Entertainment attracted a hardcore player base to its prior title, Firewall: Zero Hour, in many ways Solaris is doing the opposite of what resonated with that community.
Firewall Zero Hour | Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
Firewall: Zero Hour is a team-based PSVR mil-sim shooter with a slow, tactical pace. And that comes with the sort of mechanics you’d expect: loadouts, attachments, perks, reloads, ADS aiming, recoil control, etc. The sort of mechanics which give room for a deeper level of gameplay and strategy that goes beyond the act of putting your reticle on another player and pulling the trigger.
Solaris, on the other hand, is designed first and foremost for ease of play and a run-and-gun pace. The studio says its goal is to get anyone and everyone quickly into the action and deliver a “point and shoot” experience. And that’s apparently meant removing pretty much all of Firewall’s deeper gameplay elements; Solaris has no reloading, loadouts, attachments, or recoil control, and weapons project their reticle into the world so that there’s no need to aim down sights.
Rather than the slower, more tactical pace of Firewall—which gives an advantage to players who get themselves into the right position ahead of time—Solaris seems to expect players to be constantly moving, mostly using the thumbstick to strafe and juke rather than expecting much bodily movement from players like physically crouching or peeking around corners.
This breed of quick run-and-gun gameplay is par for the course in non-VR arena shooters, and on the surface Solaris has done a commendable job of translating the main tropes into VR. Player movement is quite fast compared to most VR games, even allowing players to slide for a few feet to try to stay behind cover while moving quickly. Everyone starts with the same basic pistol with unlimited ammo and can pick up weapons by walking over pads on the ground. Weapons have limited ammo and disappear once empty. Respawns are fast and time to kill is low. Shooting is of the point-and-shoot variety with no bullet travel or drop. It’s all undeniably functional.
After playing a few matches, it felt like I was playing a very cool version of VR laser tag. But it’s not clear to me yet whether the game has the level of depth needed to foster the competitive allure that First Contact hopes will keep the game buzzing with a stable player base. After all, laser tag is fun, but it’s not something most people are going to do on a weekly basis.
That’s not to say that Solaris doesn’t have—or won’t eventually be updated with—what it takes to bring out that high-level play, but there’s a lot left to prove. The most successful multiplayer VR shooter games so far have all been of the mil-sim variety, and have leaned into nuanced weapon interactions and a slower pace which are a natural fit for VR.
First Contact has taken the goal of ease-of-use so far that it has opted to make Solaris entirely free of two-handed interactions. In fact I was surprised to find that my off-hand in the game isn’t even tracked. Even as I move my hand around, my virtual hand wouldn’t respond to the motion at all, leaving me with the very awkward sensation that one of my arms was an extra appendage that I had no control over.
Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
The studio said this was done for performance reasons and wanting to avoid the complexity of two-handed interactions. That’s well and good, but it’s a bit odd then that all of the weapons are—by their 3D models at least—designed to be held with two hands. It’s even more odd when my fake arm automatically grabs the gun’s grip all on its own.
Anyone that’s read my perspective on VR knows that I’m all-for ease-of-use in VR; overly complex interactions can often be more frustrating than they are fun. Half-Life: Alyx simplified its weapons by making them single-handed only, but it at least made use of the player’s off hand for reloading and other interactions like throwing grenades or opening doors. But it’s possible to get too simple as well.
If anyone can figure out how to make it work, First Contact Entertainment is a good bet. The studio cut their teeth on Firewall: Zero Hour, a game which after two years appears to still be going strong on PSVR. The studio says it’s continuing to deliver content updates to the game and has seen individual players top 1,000 hours in the game. The title is still lauded as one of the best shooters and best multiplayer games on the system.
That experience shines through clearly in the Solaris presentation; built on Unreal Engine 4, even on Quest the game is impressively sharp and runs very smoothly, with matches underpinned with dedicated servers.
And it’s the Quest audience—a younger demographic that your average enthusiast PC VR user—that Solaris is likely targeted toward. The game’s ease of entry and rapid-fire pace might be just the right combination for that group.
– – — – –
Solaris launches today on Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest with support for cross-buy and cross-play (it will launch on Steam and PSVR at some later date). First Contact is calling the launch a “pre-season,” and expects to listen carefully to player feedback. There’s one caveat with the pre-season which is odd for a team-based shooter—the pre-season will not allow players to form teams with their friends. All matches will be comprised of random teams, with the ability to invite friends being added at a later date.
Launching today, Solaris Offworld Combat is a team-based VR arena shooter from First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind the lauded Firewall: Zero Hour (2018). This time around, the studio wants to deliver a fast-paced experience that anyone can pick up and play. My preview of the game reveals strong technical merit, but a potential clash between casual and competitive ambitions.
Thematically, Solaris Offworld Combat presents itself to players as a sort of future sport where competitors jump into virtual arenas and duke it out for the top place on the leaderboards. And that’s exactly what the game hopes to accomplish: foster a level of hardcore competition which keeps players and teams coming back for more.
And while developer First Contact Entertainment attracted a hardcore player base to its prior title, Firewall: Zero Hour, in many ways Solaris is doing the opposite of what resonated with that community.
Firewall Zero Hour | Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
Firewall: Zero Hour is a team-based PSVR mil-sim shooter with a slow, tactical pace. And that comes with the sort of mechanics you’d expect: loadouts, attachments, perks, reloads, ADS aiming, recoil control, etc. The sort of mechanics which give room for a deeper level of gameplay and strategy that goes beyond the act of putting your reticle on another player and pulling the trigger.
Solaris, on the other hand, is designed first and foremost for ease of play and a run-and-gun pace. The studio says its goal is to get anyone and everyone quickly into the action and deliver a “point and shoot” experience. And that’s apparently meant removing pretty much all of Firewall’s deeper gameplay elements; Solaris has no reloading, loadouts, attachments, or recoil control, and weapons project their reticle into the world so that there’s no need to aim down sights.
Rather than the slower, more tactical pace of Firewall—which gives an advantage to players who get themselves into the right position ahead of time—Solaris seems to expect players to be constantly moving, mostly using the thumbstick to strafe and juke rather than expecting much bodily movement from players like physically crouching or peeking around corners.
This breed of quick run-and-gun gameplay is par for the course in non-VR arena shooters, and on the surface Solaris has done a commendable job of translating the main tropes into VR. Player movement is quite fast compared to most VR games, even allowing players to slide for a few feet to try to stay behind cover while moving quickly. Everyone starts with the same basic pistol with unlimited ammo and can pick up weapons by walking over pads on the ground. Weapons have limited ammo and disappear once empty. Respawns are fast and time to kill is low. Shooting is of the point-and-shoot variety with no bullet travel or drop. It’s all undeniably functional.
After playing a few matches, it felt like I was playing a very cool version of VR laser tag. But it’s not clear to me yet whether the game has the level of depth needed to foster the competitive allure that First Contact hopes will keep the game buzzing with a stable player base. After all, laser tag is fun, but it’s not something most people are going to do on a weekly basis.
That’s not to say that Solaris doesn’t have—or won’t eventually be updated with—what it takes to bring out that high-level play, but there’s a lot left to prove. The most successful multiplayer VR shooter games so far have all been of the mil-sim variety, and have leaned into nuanced weapon interactions and a slower pace which are a natural fit for VR.
First Contact has taken the goal of ease-of-use so far that it has opted to make Solaris entirely free of two-handed interactions. In fact I was surprised to find that my off-hand in the game isn’t even tracked. Even as I move my hand around, my virtual hand wouldn’t respond to the motion at all, leaving me with the very awkward sensation that one of my arms was an extra appendage that I had no control over.
Image courtesy First Contact Entertainment
The studio said this was done for performance reasons and wanting to avoid the complexity of two-handed interactions. That’s well and good, but it’s a bit odd then that all of the weapons are—by their 3D models at least—designed to be held with two hands. It’s even more odd when my fake arm automatically grabs the gun’s grip all on its own.
Anyone that’s read my perspective on VR knows that I’m all-for ease-of-use in VR; overly complex interactions can often be more frustrating than they are fun. Half-Life: Alyx simplified its weapons by making them single-handed only, but it at least made use of the player’s off hand for reloading and other interactions like throwing grenades or opening doors. But it’s possible to get too simple as well.
If anyone can figure out how to make it work, First Contact Entertainment is a good bet. The studio cut their teeth on Firewall: Zero Hour, a game which after two years appears to still be going strong on PSVR. The studio says it’s continuing to deliver content updates to the game and has seen individual players top 1,000 hours in the game. The title is still lauded as one of the best shooters and best multiplayer games on the system.
That experience shines through clearly in the Solaris presentation; built on Unreal Engine 4, even on Quest the game is impressively sharp and runs very smoothly, with matches underpinned with dedicated servers.
And it’s the Quest audience—a younger demographic that your average enthusiast PC VR user—that Solaris is likely targeted toward. The game’s ease of entry and rapid-fire pace might be just the right combination for that group.
– – — – –
Solaris launches today on Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest with support for cross-buy and cross-play (it will launch on Steam and PSVR at some later date). First Contact is calling the launch a “pre-season,” and expects to listen carefully to player feedback. There’s one caveat with the pre-season which is odd for a team-based shooter—the pre-season will not allow players to form teams with their friends. All matches will be comprised of random teams, with the ability to invite friends being added at a later date.
Solaris: Offworld Combat is coming out this week for Rift and Quest and we’ve already gone hands-on with the team-based sci-fi VR shooter. Check out our preview for more details and watch the graphics comparison below to see how it fares on Quest vs Rift.
Since this is a multiplayer shooter, we won’t be syncing up footage, however we’ve got two rounds side by side. On the left is the Quest, which you’ll notice has slightly longer loading times compared to the near non-existent loading for Rift. We’ve shaved it down a bit for timing sake, but not by much.
Once the games begin you can see some clear lighting and color differences, with Quest being much more basic and chunky with distinctly less glow while the Rift can afford more blended and complex aesthetics.
Overall, the Quest version compares to the Rift version very favorably all things considered and looks much more similar to the PC counterpart than a lot of ports we’ve seen. All of the gameplay and content is the same so there is actually a lot of parity between the two.
Your weapons have about the same amount of detail except for the previously mentioned elements, however when it comes to shooting animations there are far less details on the Quest version, making it look a little more basic in comparison to Rift’s firework-style display. Either way, I don’t think any of these differences should affect your gameplay on Quest, and it holds up wonderfully even in this pre-release build.
In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that personally I prefer the Quest version due almost entirely to the wireless nature. With how fast-paced of a game Solaris is, being able to spin around quickly is a godsend that really improves how effective I can be in a fight.
Solaris Offworld Combat is coming out on September 24th for Rift and Quest as well as PSVR eventually after its initial launch but there’s no date on that version yet. You can definitely expect a new graphics comparison when that version comes out.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Solaris: Offworld Combat is the next multiplayer shooter from First Contact Entertainment and we got the chance to go hands-on with it for the very first time last week. During my session I played the game on both Rift S and Quest and came away excited to see more!
From the very first moments of gameplay, it’s obvious that Solaris takes heavy inspiration from the likes of Quake, Unreal, and other classic arena shooters. And remarkably, it actually runs and looks strikingly similar on both Quest and Rift — as you can see in the video below.
Now, let’s dive into what it’s like it play it.
5 Ways Solaris Channels Quake And Unreal For Old-School Shooter Fun
Fast-Paced Gameplay
In Solaris you’re a cyber athlete from the future that battles it out against others on virtual battlegrounds. It’s a pretty meta premise that’s a bit like VR-within-VR and the presentation absolutely nails it. What this means functionally is that you spend very little time standing around waiting. Load times are incredibly quick, you move around maps at a quick pace, and can even slide across the ground for an evasive speed boost.
Just like in Quake and Unreal, it pays to stay on the move. Standing still is a great way to get shot so you’ll want to learn maps fast so you know the best cover points and hallways to sprint down while getting the drop on an enemy.
No Reloading Necessary
Solaris doesn’t have a reload button. I know, that seems weird. With the popularity of modern military shooters and the “realism” VR affords in games like Onward, it’s a bit odd to think that you won’t need to actually reload your gun at all. But in the future cyberscape of Solaris, where they’re going they don’t need reload buttons.
And if you played old-school games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal, then you’d know those don’t have reload buttons either. All reloading does is slow you down and Solaris is all about the speed of immediacy of combat.
Walk-Over Item Pick-Ups
Speaking of the immediacy of combat, in Solaris you don’t need to manage an inventory, manually pick up weapons, or switch weapons at all. You run full-speed over item spawn points and you just automatically pick them up. Everyone begins each match with their standard semi-auto pistol and within each map you can find a rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and assault rifle weapons, in addition to a deployable shield cover and proximity mine. Shield and health power-ups round out the offering.
In some older shooters you could cycle between various weapons, but you don’t do that in Solaris. Instead, whatever improved gun you find is your default weapon for a short time until you’ve used it up, then it just auto-switches back to your pistol. You need to take advantage of increased firepower when you’ve found it.
This one I expect to be a bit divisive, because in some ways it smacks of the taste of dumbing things down, but I don’t think streamlining necessarily means dumbing down. From what I’ve played Solaris is still an immensely fun, challenging, and deep shooter with a lot of nuance, but it sidesteps pain points that don’t translate smoothly to VR by simplifying things that get in the way of just having fun.
Teamwork Is Key
Since Solaris only has one game mode that’s basically like King of the Hill, called Control Point, it encourages teamwork above going rogue as a solo player. Technically you can still get XP and rank up to unlock new cosmetics even if your team doesn’t win, but being on the winning team nets you a big XP bonus so it’s worth playing cohesively.
Solaris has in-game voice chat, but unfortunately it won’t have a party system or friend invite system at launch. At launch it’s only going to be “Pre-Season” and then the standard Season of rankings will begin shortly after. It’s my understanding that as new Seasons begin, new cosmetics will roll out, and likely other changes like new weapons and maps too.
And yes — all maps and weapons that are added will be included for free.
Easy To Learn, Difficult To Master
Solaris is the kind of game you can quickly hop in and play with little to no fuss (assuming at least seven other people across PC and Quest have the same idea) and it’s a lot of fun. However, there is still depth here. Learning the maps, working with your team, getting the hang of shooting each gun, and developing strategies takes time and means that the entry level for playing is quite low but the skill ceiling for being really, really good is very high.
Similar to games like Quake and Unreal, virtually anyone can play those games. They’re pretty dead simple. But if you watch pro-tier players it looks almost like they’re playing a different game altogether due to how fluidly they move. Solaris has that same flexibility.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Additional Details
This article was called 5 ways Solaris is liek Unreal or Quake, but there are actually a bunch of other things I want to talk about. Thus, you get a small brain dump at the end here:
Progression
If you played Firewall Zero Hour you might remember in that game that you not only unlocked new things like guns, equipment, and skins by ranking up your level, but also by spending the in-game currency that you either earned slowly by playing or by spending real money to buy it. Solaris is rank-based progression only and all weapons are just map-based pickups.
From what I’ve seen there aren’t many cosmetics yet, but thankfully the outfit models like the shape of the helmet and style of your armor are separate from the color skin that’s applied, so you can mix and match pretty freely. It just takes a while to unlock anything, so hopefully they add a lot more.
Dedicated Servers, Fast Load Times
Another thing to mention as a key point is that Solaris is launching with dedicated servers rather than peer-to-peer and load times are really, really quick.
No Party System
I mentioned this already, but just to emphasize: you cannot join up with a friend, make a party, or invite anyone to a game — yet. That is coming as the first major update, but for pre-season it’s not in yet.
No Bots, No Solo Play
When I pressed the developers for an answer here they basically just said, “We never say never,” but at this time there are no plans for anything other than strictly 4v4. That means if only seven people are online, you can’t play. There is no training mode, no bots to fight against, and no solo options at all. Hopefully they reconsider and add something, even if it’s just an option to have bots fill empty slots and balance teams.
No Map Selection Or Lobby System
The main menu has a play button or you can put the helmet on — those are your options for joining a match. Behind the scenes the game then slots you into a match and starts the game. There is no map selection, it’s just always random, and you can’t tweak options or anything yet. I’m under the impression that private lobbies with settings to tweak and filters to set are coming, but aren’t there yet.
No Jumping
Sorry, no jump button. However — you can slide! And that’s pretty fun.
Solaris: Offworld Combat releases on September 24th for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift with crossplay and crossbuy. There are plans for a PSVR release later, but there’s no date for that yet. Keep an eye here on UploadVR and our YouTube channel for more coverage. You can also preemptively join the developer’s Discord server.
Let us know what you think of Solaris down in the comments below!
What are the biggest new VR games for September 2020? Find out in this month’s full rundown!
After a slow August, the year’s releases are picking up steam as we head into the holiday season. September should offer a little something for everyone, from hardcore zombie action in a new Walking Dead VR game to family-friendly party thrills in Cook-Out. Let’s dig in to the new VR games for September 2020.
New VR Games September 2020
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale (September 3rd)
Resolution Games – Rift, Quest
Resolution Games’ latest VR party game, Cook-Out, riffs on Overcooked, getting up to four players to work together to make sandwiches as quickly as possible. It promises a hectic good time as ingredients fly and customers, including werewolves, get peckish.
Falcon Age (September 3rd)
Outerloop Games – Quest
A heartfelt adventure telling the story of a girl and her feathered companion, Falcon Age comes to Oculus Quest for the first time. We liked it a lot on PSVR, and have high hopes for this port.
Stride (September 4th, Early Access)
Joy Way – PC VR
The Early Access release of this highly-anticipated Mirror’s Edge VR-lookalike is just around the corner. Stride will come armed with an Endless Mode to try out its brand of VR free-running. We’ve been hands-on with it already, and it shows promise.
Solaris: Offworld Combat (September 24th)
First Contact Entertainment – Rift, Quest
After a last-minute delay in August, Solaris moves its fast-paced multiplayer arena shootouts to the end of September. First Contact was behind the excellent Firewall: Zero Hour, so Solaris should be in safe hands.
Budget Cuts (September 25th)
Neat Corp – PSVR
It’s suffered multiple delays but it looks like September will finally be when we get our hands on the PSVR version of Budget Cuts. Will this seminal stealth title measure up on the platform?
The Walking Dead: Onslaught (September 29th)
Survios – PC VR, PSVR
Another long-delayed game, The Walking Dead: Onslaught impressed up with its return trailer in August, so we have high hopes for this one. Survios is a VR veteran, so fingers crossed it pulls it off.
Agence (TBD)
Transitional Forms – PC VR
First coming to the Venice Film Festival this week, Agence is a new type of VR experience that has players interacting with tiny AI-driven characters. This is definitely one of the more ‘out there’ experiences releasing this month.
What’s your pick of the list for new VR games September 2020? Let us know in the comments below!
Solaris: Offworld Combat, the upcoming cross-play sci-fi VR first-person shooter for Oculus Quest and Rift, is delayed until September 24th on the Oculus Home store. It was originally slated for later this month.
The delay was announced today on the official First Contact Entertainment Twitter account with the following message:
— First Contact Entertainment (@firstcontactent) August 13, 2020
There is no reason listed in the tweet other than wanting the day 1 experience to be as good as possible. In a follow-up tweet First Contact also confirmed that PSVR is still slated for later this year, including PS Aim Controller support, but didn’t clarify a date or release window. A SteamVR release is also planned eventually.
We haven’t had the chance to properly play Solaris at all yet, but we got to see what it looks like finally during the UploadVR Summer Showcase a couple of months ago running on Oculus Rift. If you can imagine something super fast-paced like Quake or Unreal Tournament mixed with the sci-fi stylings and premise of something like Tron, you’re on the right track.
We have a bunch of details about its gameplay and concept in this feature from last year or watch this interview from our Summer Showcase. Following the release of Onward, it’s a good summer for Quest owners that dig competitive first-person shooters. Solaris should be a great foil to Onward’s realism and slow pace, offering something very fast and sci-fi instead.
Let us know what you think of the news and if you plan on playing Solaris next month down in the comments below!
After a huge month of VR releases in July, the new VR games August 2020 list is looking a little dry.
Granted we learn about lots of releases just days before they come about, but there’s just only a handful of truly big games to talk about this month. Still, what’s here is promising with a throwback to Guitar Hero, the new shooter from the makers of Firewall and the third entry in a famed racing franchise. Dig in!
Bringing back the days of Guitar Hero and Rock Band (hey, remember Rock Band VR?), Rocking Hero is a nostalgic throwback in the age of the VR rhythm game. You slide your hand along the guitar next to essential air guitar to the tune. If you’re on Index you can also use finger-tracking. It’s even got support for the existing guitar controllers, if you somewhat still have one of those lying around in a forgotten corner. This is an Early Access release with 10 original songs for now.
Stacksquatch caught our attention for its fun take on VR physics. You essentially just have to stack objects to make towers, but you’ll grow as you go. You might start out in, say, a living room, but soon need to crash through the ceiling as you start grabbing bigger objects and the pile gets higher. It’s coming to Early Access next week.
The creators of Firewall: Zero Hour drop their next anticipated multiplayer VR title, and it’s a very different beast, as seen at our Upload VR Showcase in June. Solaris trades Rainbow Six for Unreal Tournament, offering fast-paced arena-based action with weapon pick ups and more. It’ll have tough competition going toe-to-toe with Onward, but we’re hoping Solaris more than holds its own, especially with a PSVR version to come.
Project Cars 3 – August 28th (PC VR)
Slightly Mad Studios’ beloved racing sim gets a third lap around the track with its traditional VR support in-tow. This edition of the exhaustively-detailed racer is aiming to get a new audience in with accessibility, but we’re hoping there’s still plenty of reasons for true petrolheads to dive in. The past two titles have delivered some of the most detailed, authentic and best-looking VR games, so fingers crossed the game applies here.
What do you think of the new VR games August list? Will you be picking anything up this month? Let us know in the comments below!
We’re past the halfway mark in 2020 and we’ve already seen some great VR games release this year. But what else is coming between now and the end of the year? Let’s take a look at upcoming VR games for the rest of 2020.
Some recent announcements have elevated what was looking like a rather quiet H2 2020 to an exciting few months. We’ll be taking off in X-Wings and making Dreams come true.
At long last, Media Molecule’s fantastic creation tool is ready to add VR support. Dreams is essentially a development engine unto itself, letting players make their own games and share them online. The brief tease we’ve seen of VR support so far is hugely exciting. This will arrive as a free update to owners of the base game.
The much-anticipated Oculus Quest port of Onward is very nearly here. The ever-popular military simulation shooter makes its way to the standalone headset with all the same features including, multiplayer, single-player and cooperative modes as well as, crucially, cross-play with PC VR players. If this port is up to snuff, expect Onward on Quest to be one of the biggest upcoming VR games for 2020.
Solaris: Offworld Combat (Rift, Quest) – August (PSVR in 2020)
The makers of Firewall: Zero Hour return with a new multiplayer VR shooter that trades Rainbow Six for Unreal Tournament. Solaris offers 4 v 4 battles in which players sprint and slide across maps, picking up new weapons and finding the high ground. Given the developer’s past experience, we’re hoping for a top-quality VR shooter here.
Star Wars: Squadrons (PSVR, PC VR) – October 2nd
We’ve been lucky enough to have lived out several Star Wars dreams in VR already, but Star Wars: Squadrons seems to have struck a particular chord with the fanbase. The chance to jump into the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter in VR makes us a little weak at the knees. Fortunately, we’ll be seated for its online multiplayer battles and single-player campaign, though. This is probably the most anticipated of the upcoming VR games in 2020.
Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond (Rift) – 2020
Respawn Entertainment is one of the game’s industry’s best developers, which gives you more than enough reason to be excited for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Add in that this Oculus exclusive sees the developer return to a series it helped established as Infinity Ward, plus the promise of an expansive campaign and multiplayer support, and you have one of the most promising games of 2020.
Lone Echo 2 (Rift) – 2020
Lone Echo’s sequel has been a long time coming, but we’re hoping it finally enters orbit in the second half of this year. It’s high time we checked in on Liv and Jack after the first space odyssey’s dramatic cliffhanger and, now that Ready at Dawn is owned by Facebook itself, we wouldn’t expect this Oculus exclusive to hold back.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught (PSVR, PC VR) – 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners may have stolen hearts and minds on PC VR and PSVR platforms already, but we’re just as excited for VR veteran Survios’ take on the zombie franchise. Aimed at the TV show instead of the comics, Onslaught delivers a full campaign with iconic characters including none other than Darryl Dixon, voiced by Norman Reedus himself. Definitely keep this on your radar for upcoming VR games 2020.
Solaris: Offworld Combat might be launching as an Oculus exclusive on PC, but don’t expect it to say that way – a SteamVR version is planned.
First Contact Entertainment’s new multiplayer shooter launches on Oculus Quest and Rift this August, with a PSVR version planned for later this year too. But, in a recent tweet from the game’s official Twitter account, First Contact confirmed that there are plans for a SteamVR release too. Specific headsets for this release weren’t mentioned but, if it’s on SteamVR, you should be able to play with just about any PC VR headset, it just might not be properly optimized.
No release window was given for the SteamVR version, which has us suspecting we won’t see it this year. That’s pure speculation on our part, though. The Twitter account also confirmed that there will be dedicated servers available at launch next month too.
Solaris offers 4 vs 4 arena-based combat in a sci-fi setting. Whereas First Contact’s last game, the PSVR-exclusive Firewall, was similar to Rainbow Six, you can think of this as closer to fast-paced shooters like Unreal Tournament. We revealed a first look at the game, running on the Oculus Rift, at our Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition last month. Last week First Contact also confirmed that the PSVR version of the game will support Sony’s rifle-shaped Aim controller.
We don’t have an exact date for the Solaris August launch yet but we’ll let you know as soon as we do. Will you be buying it on Rift, Quest or PSVR, or will you be holding out for the SteamVR version? Let us know in the comments below!
