Although E3 was cancelled this year due to the ongoing pandemic, many studios went forward with their traditional mid-June game announcements just the same. That just so happens to mean that Oculus Quest owners are getting a rash of PC VR ports soon.
Coming soon to Quest:
Trover Saves the Universe
Arriving on June 18th on Quest is the beautifully weird 3D platformer from Ricky and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland—and his merry band of developers at Squanch Games, of course.
Originally launched on PSVR and later rolled out onto PC VR headsets, Trover Saves the Universe brings Roilands uniquely unhinged stream-of-thought comedy to virtual reality in a big way.
You’ll control Trover on his quest to retrieve his kidnapped dogs from the evil eye sockets of Glorkon. Why explain what that even means when you can just play it?
Gravity Lab
First launched on PC VR headsets in 2016, Gravity Lab is a Rube Goldberg-style puzzler set in a microgravity environment. You’ll have plenty of pieces and contraptions on-hand to stretch your imagination as you shuffle balls from point A to point B.
Gravity Lab is marked as “coming soon,” so no official street date yet.
Gravity Lab was created by independent developer Mark Schramm, who is also known for Nighttime Terror VR: Desert Defender and his work on Sideload VR, the now-defunct unofficial game library for the Gear VR platform.
In Death: Unchained
Launching on Quest is one of the best bow-shooters to grace the heavenly realms of virtual reality—or rather the ghoulish upper strata of Hell.
Available on PSVR and PC VR headsets, this single-player rogue-lite has you battling through an ever-changing map, and through an increasingly difficult wave of enemies that will have you questioning your ability to keep cool in the most dire of circumstances.
Created by Sólfar Studios and adapted to Quest by Superbright VR, In Death: Unchained is set to arrive on Quest sometime in July.
What Quest game are you most excited to play? Let us know in the comments below!
Having left Early Access on PC in October, developer Solfar Studios has announced that the PlayStation VR version of In Death isn’t too far away, with a release due by the end of the month.
For those players after a challenge, In Death is an unforgiving first-person shooter (FPS) set in the afterlife, where you have to battle demons and angels alike. A dungeon crawler that’s procedurally-generated, no run through is ever the same with enemies randomly generating and no save points to help you.
Solfar Studios has gone for a perma-death system alongside a finely-tuned progression system. So when you die – no matter how far you got – you’ll respawn right at the start. Luckily any progress made in terms of the number of enemies killed or bonuses achieved will be added to your character, improving stats such as health and damage. Of course, there is a flip side. Enemies will also improve just to make sure it’s not a walk in the park.
At its core In Death is a pure bow and arrow shooter, with the weapon not only being your main defence but also the movement mechanic. You can quickly switch between normal and teleportation arrows, whilst also having the option to throw teleporting shards when cornered. You’ll be able to upgrade the arrows to deal fire and freezing damage, plus there’s the ability to unlock a crossbow which is better at close range.
VRFocus gave the PC version a four-star review, saying that: “In Death is a VR videogame for those that want a challenge. The level design and weapon handling are beautiful with soaring angelic structures emanating from the clouds, pin point accuracy for satisfying headshots. The devil seems to be in the details with In Death, offering rinse and repeat gameplay that will keep you coming back for more.”
In Death will launch on 27th November priced at $29.99 USD ($39.99 CAD). PlayStation Plus members will be able to get 20 percent off during launch week. For any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
In Death is one of the year’s surprise breakout VR hits with its devilishly satisfying difficulty and addictive roguelike-inspired gameplay loop. Now, later this month, the bow and arrow-focused shooter will make its debut on PSVR, specifically on November 27th according to a new PlayStation blog post.
Similar to The Persistence, a PSVR exclusive horror roguelike shooter, In Death is a bit different every time you play. As you progress through the layers of a celestial chapel and various other locales, you face dangerous enemies that are hellbent on killing you. Armed with a bow, various unlockable arrows, and teleporting abilities, you have to fight them off and progress deeper and deeper into the afterlife.
What makes In Death so clever is that is shuffles the layouts, enemies, and more each and every time. And the further you get into the game the harder it becomes as you unlock new enemy types and challenges for subsequent playthroughs. There’s a ton of content, it feels great to play (at least on Rift it does) and the difficulty curve is punishing (but fair) from start to finish.
“In Death features procedurally-generated levels and random enemy spawns meaning each run is unique and unpredictable,” writes Reynir Hardarson, Co-founder & Creative Director at Sólfar on the PS Blog. “This is a high stakes permadeath style combat experience, with no save points during your run of each chapter of the game, only offering a continue point if you successfully complete a discrete chapter. We’ve created an achievement-based progression system that unlocks new power ups for your bow in the form of randomly generated special arrows and health boosts that you can loot from enemies.”
For the PSVR version, it sounds like the entire game is getting ported over. It will be playable with both PS Move controllers or with DualShock 4 using the lightbar motion tracking, similar to how games like Firewall Zero Hour and Farpoint are playable with the gamepad.
I’m usually not a big fan of procedural generation in games. While I’ve obviously spent my fair amount of time exploring planets in No Man’s Sky and clearing out ships From Other Suns with friends, typically I’d prefer a hand-crafted experience that is higher quality that I can play once and remember fondly, than replaying a game over and over with a hodge-podge of similar levels. But then a game like In Death comes along.
In Death is really something special. If this game were not in VR it’d be an entirely unremarkable and boring bow and arrow shooter with light procedural elements, but since it takes place inside of VR, it’s dramatically enhanced. The premise is simple: the kingdom of Heaven is overrun and in ruins and it’s up to you, an angelic bow and arrow being, to swoop in and clear out the tainted medieval castles to restore balance.
In Death takes heavy inspiration from classic roguelike games in that every time you play you start from the beginning and work your way through the layers of the world. There are no save points and each time you die, the layout, enemy spawn points, types of enemies, and more are all shuffled around. Similar to The Persistence, it really does feel like a different experience each time.
Obviously the walls, floor, objects in the environment, and textures all mostly look about the same, but the paths you take and even the enemies you fight will change. Instead of totally randomizing things, there is a progressive element to what you unlock.
Thankfully, the core gameplay is so solid that it’s just a blast to play on a moment-to-moment basis. While exploring the castle you have your basic arrow for shooting, but then you can also shoot a teleport arrow or toss a teleport shard to move around the environment. There are artificial movement options as well in the settings if you want to turn those on. But frankly, the teleportation was such an integral part of the gameplay and fit the setting, it’s all I really used.
Once you get your bearings and get the hang of the arrow trajectory and physics, it’s the best VR bow and arrow I’ve seen to date. I was able to get headshots from way across levels and fire off a rapid volley of arrows that archers in Skyrim or QuiVR would be jealous of. There’s a cross bow too, but everyone knows a bow and arrow are way cooler.
In addition to your bow you’ll find a bunch of special arrows either scattered around the world or for purchase at one of the currency checkpoints that enable things like scatter arrows, fire arrows, and more. You can also summon a shield on your non-dominant hand to block projectile attacks like other arrows. If enemies close in on you for melee attacks (and they will, often) you can also bash them with your shield to make room or use the teleport shard to quickly move out of the way.
Using the game’s achievement system, In Death will slowly introduce new changes as you progress and get further. For example, if you kill enough of the first few enemies, you’ll start to see new ones like knights with giant kite shields to block your arrows. You’ll unlock new abilities and even new regions to explore as well. This is a great mechanic because instead of feeling defeated and frustrated when you die, you feel excited to see what’s new the next time you play. It’s a game about dying a lot without the frustration of having to start over.
However, that being said, In Death is punishingly difficult. You’re gonna get swarmed, bosses are going to wipe the floor with you, and you’ll die a ton. Death is in the game’s title, after all. But it never really feels unfair — just super tough. The difficulty spikes could be smoothed out more though, because as it stands sometimes you’ll cruise through a level and then suddenly get bombarded and die before you have a chance to realize what happened.
And the game’s biggest issue, other than recycled assets and difficulty spikes, is the lack of melee combat for your player. All you can do is shield bash enemies — but since so many enemies rush you directly and try to surround you, it feels a bit silly to stand and shoot an arrow at their face in point blank range. I’d have much rather been able to stab with a shard-like dagger or a sword that I can grab off my back in those moments.
Final Score:8/10 – Great
In Death is a fantastic bow and arrow shooter that manages to stay fresh and challenging even after a dozen hours or more of gameplay. There isn’t much of a plot to speak of, but the procedurally generated level layouts and constantly evolving gallery of enemies and arrow types means the more you play and the farther you get, the more diverse and challenging the game becomes. As long as you don’t mind a hard fight that’s going to beat you down and kill you over and over, In Death is absolutely a surreal journey worth taking.
I find roguelikes to be somewhat masochistic. You play as far as you can even when you know death will put an end to every ounce of hard work you put in—all of it with the knowledge that when you hit the restart button, that everything has changed and all of the challenges are rearranged; a true Sisyphean task that bears out just enough accomplishment to keep you going. This is In Death in a nutshell, a truly challenging VR bow-shooter set in a world where you’re given nearly zero respite, as you’re attacked by some of the most gruesome (and well-realized) goblins to creep out of the Necronomicon.
Developer: Sólfar Studios Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Oculus Store (Rift) Reviewed On: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Release Date: October 2nd, 2018
Gameplay
In Death is a bow-shooter in its purest sense. You’ll have to get the feel for the bow’s mechanics to understand where your arrows will eventually fly; you don’t have a handy reticle, and enemy hitboxes are unforgiving, as you’ll regularly see your arrows flying between the gaps in crusaders’ legs, or millimeters above the head of a possessed demon-monk. The shooting mechanic is however rock solid, so the learning curve isn’t nearly as steep as you might think, letting even the newest player get fairly far in their run by keeping a little bit of cautious optimism and tactical room-clearing in mind as they move forward through the nightmarish world.
With a shield in hand, you can protect yourself from most arrow and melee attacks, although you can be quickly overwhelmed if you’re not careful.
Image captured by Road to VR
There’s also a crossbow that you can select at the beginning of your run, but the lack of two-handed stability makes it difficult to use for long shots. I tended to stick to the bow, although the crossbow is useful for quickly knocking arrows for a rapid fire rampage against a room full of ghoulies or sticking as many explosive arrows into a boss as humanly possible. Then again, I’ve gotten pretty quick and accurate with the bow too.
With only six bars of health, and only a few opportunities to heal, you’re most assuredly going to die a miserable death whatever way you slice it. You aren’t going straight to Hell empty-handed though, because upon death you’ll be awarded a number of achievements that change the gameplay somewhat, be it for the better or worse (eg: far-away headshots do more damage, but you unlock harder class of baddie). This is, along with the ability to asynchronously challenge other online players to beat your single-player run through Purgatory, the main attractions to come back to the game after you’ve put it down.
Image captured by Road to VR
Well knowing that it’s a typical roguelike, I still wish In Death had the substance of a single-player game with a campaign and a real story. Alas, this is the genre, and In Death exemplifies it to awesome effect. The level of detail put into In Death is astounding, and can really leave you feeling creeped out at all of the cool and interesting side paths you can take. There’s always a terminus though with a level boss, but there’s also the promise of a demonic, giant version of the Archangel Gabriel should you get far enough (I didn’t. It’s too damn hard).
Image courtesy Solfar Studios
As for controls, you can teleport via either a hand-thrown teleportation ‘shard’ or a teleportation arrow that you load into your weapon. There is however also smooth forward locomotion which can be both head and hand relative. Rift users will also appreciate the variable snap-turn setting should you have the stock 180-degree sensor setup. And yes, there is both a righty and lefty option for weapons and shield.
I’ve played around seven hours of In Death over the course of several sessions, and I’ve yet to reach farther than an hour into the game because of its overall difficulty level. There is no difficulty slider, so you definitely need to temper your expectations when heading in as you make your way through the successively numbered Purgatories. At times, I found In Death too unforgiving. Getting to the level boss can take at very least 30 minutes of clearing out baddies leading up to the dungeon, where you then have to not only kill the boss, but a room of randomly spawning monks and ghoulies too, which is crazy hard without special arrows like poison or explosives, which you pick up eventually after a few deaths. Because there are no saves, you’re doomed to repeat yourself until you finally develop a strategy and get those pickups.
That said, I’m not a giant fan of the genre, although it’s clear In Death has nailed it pretty dead on, and there’s no faulting it for that.
Immersion
For much of the game you’re treated to a world of a perpetually shining sun that illuminates the fractured, but beautiful Gothic architecture—a tainted Escher-style mishmash of church steeples, monastic courtyards and long bridges that are suspended above the clouds. If it weren’t for all of the possessed monks, zombies, and crusaders trying to kill me, it would seem like a heavenly realm, and less like Purgatory – the Roman Catholic church’s theological supposition that a soul must first enter a hellish state of suffering before going to heaven.
Image courtesy Solfar Studios
The dramatic transitions from dark to light typically signal your impending doom, as you enter close-quarters combat and multiple baddies in a single area. The antithesis of this are the game’s ‘Pits’, which are dedicated dungeons featuring their own bosses.
The game’s positional audio is exceptionally good. While it doesn’t appear to have any type of ambient audio occlusion, each baddie has their own growl, and each thrown weapon that could so damage has a distinct noise, so even if you’re not faced directly towards the oncoming blow, you’ll hear it well in advance. This keeps you not only aware of the baddies in front of you, but gives you enough information to know when a monk has teleported behind you (nothing personal, kid).
Haptics are quite good too, as you draw your bow and feel a sort of progressive rumbling that feels like the growing tension of the bow-string.
Comfort
Teleportation is one of the most comfortable locomotion options outside of natural, room-scale locomotion. But even if you decide to use smooth forward, which simulates continuous walking, you’ll still be fairly comfortable.
While I prefer to play standing, In Death also includes a seated mode which will put your in-game height to a standing level, making it ideal for anyone with even an arm’s length of space in their play area.
Thankfully endless wave shooters for virtual reality (VR) headsets are much less common nowadays, supplanted by far more ingenious first-person shooters (FPS) that make for a much more interesting adventure. Some of these titles try to appeal to a wide audience through gentle difficulty curves, role-playing game (RPG) elements like upgrades and gameplay driven narratives. These are all fine additions, but what happens when these methods are thrown out? You get roguelike VR shooter In Death, which proves to have a very apt name.
The creation of Everest VR’s Sólfar Studios, In Death is a stripped back, no frills bow and arrow FPS, where the challenge is to survive and progress as far as possible on one solitary life. Make a wrong move and lose too much life and its back to the beginning, but just to add a further twist to proceedings all the levels are procedurally generated, so you’ll never play the same one twice.
This feature is certainly needed for In Death as the style of gameplay it provides is highly repetitious, wandering through an ethereal world full of medieval castles, filled with ghouls, deadly monks, Knights and more otherworldly creatures to kill. They all want to kill you and while some attacks do slightly vary – a knight will draw its sword while a monk will keep its distance and fire arrows – the actual combat AI isn’t particularly clever or adaptive, once spotted they come straight for the kill.
That being said, after a couple of playthroughs you not only learn how to manipulate the enemies depending on the level layout but also find In Death growing on you as it starts to reveal its subtle nuances.
Death isn’t just about completely restarting, it’s about breathing new life into the next assault. There are numerous achievements to be completed, each one offering a bonus like increased headshot damage or money collection which permanently stay with you for each level. These can then help you advance that little bit further, delving ever deeper into the In Death dungeons.
Obviously to do all this you need to master In Death’s mechanics which are some of the best seen in any VR title. Movement for example is well catered for with two default teleportation options and a selectable smooth locomotion. Your bow can fire not only damage giving arrows but also teleportation arrows, allowing you to skip around the ruins and up to battlements. Yet in the heat of combat firing one of these isn’t necessarily the most efficient option, so the developer has included teleportation shards which can be quickly thrown if needed. They do actually work really well in a bind should you not have smooth locomotion on. Ideally, all players will have this option switched on as it makes strafing out the way of arrows so much easier.
Unfortunately you can’t move with an arrow drawn, which can prove to be annoying at times although a shield is provided just in case. For those that aren’t big fans of bows then there’s always the crossbow which is way more fun. This does need to be unlocked via a certain number of kills, but once you do it’s difficult to switch back. The crossbow does lack some of the precision range of the bow, but makes up for it with quick reloading, excellent close combat handling, and the ability to walk whilst loaded, great for when stepping out from a corner and a monster is right in your face.
In Death is a VR videogame for those that want a challenge. The level design and weapon handling are beautiful with soaring angelic structures emanating from the clouds, pin point accuracy for satisfying headshots. The devil seems to be in the details with In Death, offering rinse and repeat gameplay that will keep you coming back for more.
Having released educational experience Everest VR in 2016 Sólfar Studios made a surprising announcement in 2017, revealing work on a very different title, rogue-like shooter called In Death. Released via Early Access in February, the studio has now confirmed an official launch date, 2nd October 2018 for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality.
Having been inspired by classic dungeon crawlers In Death is a harsh first-person shooter (FPS). There are no checkpoints, saves or safe areas, as each procedurally generated run creates a new map with randomized enemies and loot spawn points.
At its core In Death is a pure bow and arrow shooter, with the weapon not only being your main defence but also the movement mechanic. You can quickly switch between normal and teleportation arrows, whilst also having the option to throw teleporting shards when cornered.
Last month saw Sólfar Studios announce a brand-new chapter, Paradise Lost for In Death, adding a new angelic location, enemies and weapon. You’ll encounter fresh angelic and demonic antagonists, culminating in an epic boss fight with Gabriel the Fallen. To help in the endeavour the studio has included an all new Crossbow for close quarters combat.
In Death certainly isn’t designed around the casual VR player, with VRFocusremarking in its preview that: “For a title that’s in Early Access In Death already feels like the finished article. Seeing that it looks good and plays smoothly – no bugs or glitches presented themselves – Solfar Studios has already done a commendable job, certainly attracting the interest of the more hardcore Oculus Rift player base.”
There’s only a couple of weeks to go until Solfar Studios release In Death for PC VR headsets, with the price set to increase from $19.99 USD to $29.99 at launch. Of course if you already own the videogame then you’ll receive all of the new content at no additional charge. So it might be worth grabbing the title before 2nd October. Additionally, the studio is currently developing a PlayStation VR version with further details to be announced. When that happens VRFocus will let you know.
Sólfar Studios are at Gamescom 2018 with their virtual reality (VR) title In Death showcasing a new chapter for the videogame entitled Paradise Lost. On top of that the studio have also revealed details about their work with the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series graphics processing units (GPU) and the performance they were able to gain with them.
The new Paradise Lost chapter puts players up against angelic hordes with new weapons, encountering intense enemies and even an epic boss battle with the Archangel Gabriel. By wielding powerful medieval weapons players are now able to choice between the perfectly balanced Long Bow for long-ranged attacks or the new Crossbow which is ideal for short range killing. Of course that does not mean the challenge with be easy as players will still need to make the most of their skills and reflexes in order to survive this new chapter.
Having been built in the Unreal Engine 4, the title is notable for its impressive visual quality running at a solid 90hz ensuring the performance is to a degree that makes gameplay highly enjoyable. The team at Sólfar Studios had the opportunity to gain early access to NVIDIA’s VRWorks SDK for the new GeForce RTX 20 series which saw them able to leverage the new power to see how far they could push In Death. In only two days the team had fully integrated the new SDK which saw a phenomenal performance gain.
Thanks to using NVIDIA’s Variable Rate Shading technology, the team were able to realize immediate performance measured in milliseconds of 25% better framerate when comparing the game running on Turing and with Variable Rate Shading turned on in comparison to running it without the technology, all without any noticeable loss of visual fidelity. Thanks to all this, In Death is able to utilize super sampling to run at a much higher Pixel Density within the Unreal Engine than was previously possible on current generation GPUs.
All of these performance improvements mean the development team will have further room to expand the title with more complex post processing effects and particles, leading to a much richer visual experience. All of this is planned to be made accessible in a Game Ready driver which will release for the GeForce Experience when the title leaves Early Access in tandem with consumer availability of the new GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs.
In Death is available now on Steam for £15.49 (GBP) with support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets alongside the Oculus Store for £14.99. You can see a trailer for the new Paradise Lost content below and for more on In Death in the future, keep reading VRFocus.
Solfar Studios released their virtual reality (VR) title In Death back in February of this year into Early Access and now the procedurally generated rougelite shooter is having a free weekend over on the Oculus Store.
Players will enter a surreal medieval setting that is full of monsters, mysteries and loot. Driving by an achievement-based progression system the advances between sessions, each run a player takes in the title is unique, with unpredictable outcomes. Inspired by classic roguelite dungeon crawlers the title is designed homage to the genre, offering a wide range of options, encounters and outcomes for players to discover and experience.
Following it’s release the title has been met with positive praise and the developers at Solfar Studios even confirmed a PlayStation VR release is in the works. For those looking to try out the title before making a purchase, In Death is currently having a free weekend on the Oculus Store allow players to drive into the roguelite title and play to their heart’s content from now until 8am BST on 4th June, 2018.
VRFocus’ Senior Staff Writer Peter Graham previewed In Death saying: “Not only has Solfar Studios created a videogame that’s looking visually good, In Death is one that’s easy to handle. The bow isn’t cumbersome to use, so when you do get a horde of enemies approach, firing off a few arrows in quick succession should be fairly easy. You’ll also be glad to hear that locomotion is well catered for. Rather than pulling the trigger to cock a normal arrow, pressing the ‘B’ button on Oculus Touch will bring up a teleportation arrow instead. Or there’s the teleportation shard which appears in your hand for quicker movement. Lastly, there is of course free locomotion – unlockable in the menu – for those that want it. In fact VRFocus found careful use of all three was very good in certain situations with multiple enemies.”
In Death is available now on Steam and the Oculus Store with support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. During the free weekend the title is available for only £10.99 (GBP) down from £14.99 over on he Oculus Store as well. VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on In Death in the future so make sure to stay tuned for more.
In Death, the roguelike bow-shooter in Early Access from Everest VR (2016) developers Sólfar Studios, just opened up a free access weekend on Rift.
With access already in effect, In Death is free and open to Rift users until Sunday, June 3rd at 11:59 PM PT (local time here).
In Death is one of the most polished VR games out there, featuring excellent bow-shooting mechanics which includes several different arrows to help you defeat the increasingly difficult enemies such as ghosts that can morph through walls, and seven foot-tall knights strapped with broadswords and shields. Check out our hands-on with In Death for more about what makes this incredibly fun (and curiously fatalistic) game tick.
Set in a procedurally generated medieval world, you drive forward unlocking achievements; some help may you, some may make enemies even more difficult, changing your experience of the game as you get more proficient.
This isn’t a melee brawler; you’re only given a bow and a shield, making it all about shooting, dodging, blocking, and tactically teleporting out of the way as in-coming arrows and enemies threaten to end your run.
Image courtesy Solfar Studios
In an April update, Sólfar Studios added optional dungeons, which if you choose to enter in hopes of receiving a big loot payout, you can’t escape until you reach then end, and battle an imposing demon boss. Previously featuring only leaderboards, the update also brought with it an asynchronous challenge mode that lets you post a challenge to other players, making them play through your best run with all of your unlocked achievements.
In Death is truly shaping up to be a must-play worthy of at very least a weekend of monster slaying to get a taste of what a the medieval archer’s Purgatory is all about.
