Green Hell VR: How Open World Survival Is A Great Fit For Virtual Reality

Green Hell is a popular open world wilderness survival game that’s getting a VR port for Quest and PC VR headsets later this year. We took some time to catch up with the developers behind the port and find out what makes the game such a great fit for VR.

Scheduled to launch in Q3 2021, we first heard about it back in April, though it wasn’t until last month that we got the full details. Bearing some similarities to The Forest, this open world survival game takes place within the Amazonian rainforest and has seen continued content updates since launch, which includes plans for an upcoming expansion. As such, rather than handle a VR port directly, Creepy Jar have enlisted fellow Polish developers Incuvo to take charge.

Having previously worked with acclaimed horror developers Bloober Team to port Layers of Fear to VR, further assisting them last year with Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition, Incuvo have started making a name for themselves in this space. Though we didn’t think brilliantly of Layers of Fear, Blair Witch made the jump rather well and as such, we’re rather excited to see how Green Hill handles this transition. 

We reached out to Incuvo to learn more about Green Hell VR and spoke with their marketing manager, Cami K. Smagorowicz, who kindly gave us further details on just what we can expect.  

Green Hell VR

Henry Stockdale, UploadVR: Firstly, thank you for joining me here. For any readers unaware of your game, could you please introduce yourselves?

Smagorowicz: Incuvo possesses 10 years of experience in game development. Our company is created by a highly qualified and motivated team of experienced developers, artists, and researchers that don’t shy away from any challenge. We are truly passionate about VR! Incuvo ports and produces VR games on a work for hire basis but also takes on porting projects with no cost to the original creators; instead, we share the revenue. Our future plans include developing Incuvo’s original games based in popular universums – we can’t yet reveal the titles, but stay tuned! We are the creators of titles like Layers of Fear VR and Blair Witch VR. Currently, we are working on the VR version of “Green Hell” – survival adventure in the Amazon rainforest.

 

UploadVR: Green Hell was initially developed by a separate company, Creepy Jar, releasing as a flat game in 2019. How did this also end up as a VR project, could you tell me about the development history?

Smagorowicz: Our CEO, Andrzej Wychowaniec is a huge fan of the flat version of Green Hell, and as soon as he laid his eyes on the game, he knew we would produce it in VR. Creepy Jar, the developer behind the flat version, is amazing to work with and we strive to achieve a synergy effect by our common actions. Green Hell VR is developed based on a licensing contract, so the whole process – from the VR pitch to marketing – is led by Incuvo.

 

UploadVR: Incuvo previously ported Blair Witch and Layers of Fear to VR and you’ve gained a reputation in this space for it. Was there anything learned during the development of those games that you’ve brought into Green Hell VR?

Smagorowicz: Of course! Porting Blair Witch and Layers of Fear to VR was a blast for our team, but also a learning curve. One of the most important skills we learned and polished is game optimization for multiple platforms. Our goal is to satisfy the needs of players using different headsets, so adjusting Green Hell VR experience to each platform without losing the game’s spirit is crucial for us. Also, we learned how to achieve a true immersiveness of the player, as if they were teleported to another realm.

Green Hell VR

UploadVR: As an open world survival crafting game, we’ve seen plenty of comparisons with The Forest. How does Green Hell differentiate itself from the competition?

Smagorowicz: Green Hell VR is set to be a full survival experience. Crafting is going to be an important feature in the game, but so will be hunting, fishing, healing, and monitoring your vitals. We are currently working on making all these functions intuitively immersive which involves tests and feedback from the players. Another feature we are proud of is the player’s body! We are introducing the whole body in VR, so the players can inspect their arms and legs and experience better immersion seeing their limbs. Speaking of immersion, the player faced with certain obstacles might need to operate on their arm or leg and heal the wound. This process could require digging out worms from under the skin and crafting the bandaid, so healing won’t be “just one click”. The player needs to take care of their body to stay alive!

 

UploadVR: What sort of gameplay differences can we expect in the transition to VR, has it been a challenge to adapt those mechanics? 

Smagorowicz: You say challenge, we say fun! Yes, the Green Hell mechanics are vast and could possibly be too much to move to VR, but not for us – we are a team of 40 people fully dedicated to VR. The biggest challenge we set for ourselves is the natural movement when interacting with the game’s environment with minimal use of UI. Constant testing shows us how people move and interact with objects like bow and arrow in real life, and our mechanics are developed to reflect those movements as accurately as possible. Working on the early prototypes, we discovered that due to copious mechanics, the game became physically challenging for the player, so we are improving some mechanics to be less demanding, yet still much more demanding than in the flat version where most things are achieved with a simple click of the mouse. The gameplay itself can be different for each player entering the Amazon forest. You can choose a story mode and follow the narrative or pick the survival mode and get lost in the jungle for hours (or days).

 

UploadVR: We know that Creepy Jar are currently planning to release “The Spirits of Amazonia” expansion this year for Green Hell in several parts. Can we expect content parity for Green Hell VR, or will there be any significant differences?

Smagorowicz: At the moment, we are focused on delivering Green Hell VR to the players, who already can’t wait for the VR experience we promise to provide. Extensions and updates are something we plan for the future.

 

UploadVR: Will the VR edition retain the original’s online co-op multiplayer?

Smagorowicz: We know there are many inquiries about the co-op version, so we are considering adding the co-op mode later on, but we can’t say with full certainty that it will be developed just yet.

Green Hell VR Bow and Arrow

UploadVR: Creepy Jar have previously confirmed plans to release console editions of Green Hill, including a PlayStation version. Has there been any considerations to a PSVR release, or are you sticking to PC and Oculus Quest releases?

Smagorowicz: Original Green Hell is coming to multiple consoles soon and this is very exciting for both of our studios! For now, we are developing simultaneously the PC and Oculus Quest editions, but we are open to translating the game to PSVR in the future.

 

UploadVR: On PC, will Green Hell VR be released as a separate game like Layers of Fear VR was, or will support be patched into the existing title?

Smagorowicz: Green Hell VR will be released as a separate game.

 

UploadVR: Are there any plans right now for future VR Projects after Green Hell VR is complete?

Smagorowicz: Absolutely! We are currently in talks with multiple creators of IPs that are internationally recognized in order to create our own game, but we plan to still port hit games in the meantime, so a few projects are already scheduled, but they will stay our secret for now.

 

UploadVR: Would you ever consider creating original VR games or is there a particular reason why Incuvo sticks with ports?

Smagorowicz: Incuvo is known for our ports, but our main goal, after Green Hell VR, is creation of an original title based on a known, international IP. We believe that the VR gaming market’s growth projections are in our favor as the market isn’t saturated. You can expect both ports and original games from our team, but we see our focus shifting to the latter in the upcoming years.

Green Hell VR

UploadVR: Lastly, is there any message you’d like to share with the players?

Smagorowicz: We consider releasing certain mechanics of the game as demo teasers in order to test them, and for players to get a taste of how immersive Green Hell VR is going to be. Our team would like to encourage readers to send us feedback whether they’d be interested in such demo experiences ahead of the premiere! Please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@incuvo.com – let us know if this idea sounds interesting to you and what would you like to see in the demos. You can also send us your feedback via social media @GreenHellVR and @IncuvoGames.


Let us know what you think of how that sounds down in the comments below!

Frostpoint Is A New Multiplayer AAA VR Shooter From inXile, Creators Of Wasteland And Mage’s Tale

The renowned developers of classic game franchises like Wasteland and The Bard’s Tale, as well as VR dungeon crawler The Mage’s Tale, are unveiling their next VR-exclusive project: Frostpoint. This is a change of pace for inXile Entertainment, being a first-person multiplayer shooter instead of an RPG, but it’s shaping up to be something worth keeping an eye on.

Frostpoint (not to be confused with PSVR-exclusive VR shooter, Farpoint) is an upcoming multiplayer VR shooter from inXile that aims to deliver an innovative PvPvE experience. This means that while fighting against other players to control points and win competitive matches, there are monsters in the environment wreaking havoc and causing chaos at the exact same time to really flip the genre on its head.

Earlier this month I got the chance to speak with Brian Fargo, Studio Head at inXile, and Pete Mayberry, Lead Designer on Frostpoint, to chat about the game, its development, and what players can expect. It’s a detailed interview loaded with juicy details. You can watch the whole thing in a video embedded farther down this feature, or continue reading for the highlights.


 

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What Is Frostpoint?

Frostpoint is a AAA-caliber multiplayer VR shooter focused on competitive team versus team combat. Comparisons to Battlefield were made in the interview and I can see the likeness and inspiration in the trailer and screenshots, albeit with a sci-fi post-apocalyptic spin.

When loading into Frostpoint you’ll matchmake with other players, get sorted onto one of two teams, then hit a bunker with a wall of weapons, armor suits, and gadgets to pick from. There is no class system, it’s just based on the gear you bring with you.

“We’ve got a suite of realistic weapons with attachments like scopes and second hand grips,” says Mayberry. “We also have a suite of sci-fi weapons that are really interesting to play that change the dynamic of the game. In terms of going out and finding loot, there will be locations where these upgrades happen, they become hot points of contention between teams. So out in the world there are guns available but be very wary about going to get them.”

Since Frostpoint is not class-based that means you’ll change your style of play based on the armor suit you wear and weapons you carry.

“It’s a free-form class system,” says Mayberry. “You as a player, your class is really based on what tools you’re grabbing from the wall, paying in-game currency to upgrade, and then the suits add a certain level of class-like features. Some suits have players running faster, better protection, cut down on gun recoil, there are certain things that change. If you want to be a heavy you can be a heavy, if you want to be a scout you can be, or if you want to be pure support you can.”

There are two game modes planned right now: classic team deathmatch and domination, both will be up to 10 v 10. Domination works just like in Call of Duty or Destiny in which teams vie for control of waypoints on the map and accrue points based on how long they can maintain control. Mayberry also confirmed bots will be in at launch as well so you can play by yourself and still have fun, or just with a small group of friends as a co-op only experience.

FrostpointVR_concept03

But that’s not all. In addition to fighting the other team, every game mode on every map also has a bunch of hostile creatures that attack anyone and everyone. This creates a relatively unique PvPvE experience that is sure to keep everyone on their toes.

“Then there’s a whole second layer with the PvE element,” says Mayberry. “There’s a constant threat of these biomechanical creatures coming out from every direction. You’ll be fighting against the enemy team and turn the corner then you’re faced with these hulking creatures. It’s a great dynamic to deal with those things and then deal with the other team and try to win the day against these two forces.”

Mayberry goes on to describe these creatures as a “resource” that players will seek out, likely to loot for currency that can be used to upgrade and improve gear during matches.

“The layer of the PvPvE element is very cool, it changes the dynamic of the battlefield greatly when you’re playing,” says Mayberry. “Our artists did a fantastic job, it looks really nice for a VR game and even for a non-VR game it looks beautiful. We layer in the lite sci-fi element so we can introduce things that are less realistic. For example, energy weapons are a blast to use, sorry for the phrasing.”

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From The Mage’s Tale To Frostpoint

“Some of the most fun I’ve had in years playing games has been in VR,” says Fargo. “Whether it be Arizona Sunshine, Survios titles, and even our own Mage’s Tale, I remember one time I was playing VR, playing, playing, and playing, then I took off the headset and it was dark outside with all the lights off in the house.”

Fargo has deep roots in the early days of the video game industry, from founding Interplay in 1983 to working on classic PC RPGs and adventure games like The Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, Neuromancer, and the first Fallout. In many ways, he’s the forefather of post-apocalyptic video games.

Recently, inXile released The Bard’s Tale IV after VR RPG The Mage’s Tale and they’re currently set to release Wasteland 3 later this year. It’s also worth noting that, in November of 2018, Microsoft announced its purchase of inXile.

“I like the medium…from an immersive perspective it’s hard to beat, you’re right there,” says Fargo. “We wanted to do another title after Mage’s Tale, that’s part of the background, but the other part is that one of the tings I found fascinating at the time was watching a lot of the emergent gameplay systems pop up. Whether it be Rust or DayZ and those types of things, seeing the videos people were putting out of themselves having this incredible time that wasn’t based on scripted events.”

Read More: How The Mage’s Tale Pushes Dungeon Crawler RPGs Forward Using VR

If you’re familiar with Fargo’s body of work, you’d know that emergent gameplay based on unscripted content isn’t what his games are usually known for. Branching paths and sandbox-style interactions that can result in a wide-range of outcomes, sure, but not fully emergent gameplay. His best work is always extremely narrative-focused with mostly linear paths from start to finish. Frostpoint isn’t that at all, but there are still similarities.

“I’ve always done post-apocalyptic games and they’re about asking, ‘How would the worst of the worst behave in these situations when there are no rules?’ Well, watching a lot of those videos you got to see how they would behave. It was like emulating a post-apoc world, and a mean one at that. So I thought, “What could we do to that end and then bring VR to it?’

FrostpointVR_1 (1)

Over a year ago I actually went down to the inXile offices and played a very early build of Frostpoint. Back then it was a mixture of battle royale-style giant maps, survival mechanics inspired by DayZ and Rust, and a bunch of other nuances that aren’t in the game anymore. The reasoning for the shift is that, after extensive testing, they realized people genuinely enjoyed the combat elements far more than the otherwise tedious moments in between.

“We started working on a product that was, originally, going to be more of a survival game,” says Fargo. “But as we watched people play, more and more, where we always heard the shouting and fun…we leaned more into the combat side of it…it’s what people really gravitated towards.”

Ever since the Oculus Rift first released back in 2016, Fargo and the other developers at inXile have been VR fans and genuine consumers of popular content. VR games like Arizona Sunshine, Pavlov, Onward, Zero Caliber, Boneworks, Raw Data, and more were all cited specifically in the interview as inspirations and points of key research during Frostpoint’s development.

“Titles like Pavlov and Onward scratch a similar itch and even Boneworks shows how rewarding it is when you do weapons correctly, but it’s a whole different conversation when you have to see 19 different people all doing things in real time, in VR,” says Fargo. “It’s one of the most technically challenging things we’ve ever done at the company to make it work correctly and look good at the same time.”

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Open Beta and ‘Play To Own’ Campaign

Frostpoint will have a free, Open Beta period in September to get people in and trying out the game. During that period, the first 10,000 players have a chance to win a free copy of the game during what inXile is calling its “Play to Own” campaign.

“We’ll seed the beta with the first 10,000 or so players and whenever they meet a certain criteria, whether it be number of hours or number of matches or whatever we decide, we’re going to just give them a copy of the game to recognize that they’ve put all this effort in to help us make a better game,” says Fargo. “So hopefully what that will do is create a playerbase from day one [at full launch].”

Since Frostpoint is a competitive shooter without a story mode, this is new territory for inXile. However, it doesn’t mean the lore is something they haven’t given thought to.

“With most all of our other games we make them, we ship them, and then we’re done at that point really unless we do DLC,” says Fargo. “I thought it would be fun here to create a world where we are adding on things over time. So we actually have a lot of deep stuff written that will tell a story over multiple years. The idea is, assuming there is success, that we continue building upon this world. First we needed to nail the core systems because unless the game’s fun no one is going to care about the lore, so we wanted to get those parts done first and then we can layer that other stuff on later.”

FrostpointVR_concept04

Brian Hicks isn’t with inXile anymore, but he was for a few years and was a key part of this game’s early vision. Hicks was Creative Director on DayZ for multiple years and has a deep background in online shooters. His expertise is what helped inXile lay the foundation for crafting an online multiplayer FPS — so the nuts and bolts should be sound.

Since what I played is no longer existent as a game concept, I’m eager to see what the current iteration of Frostpoint is like. The survival elements were intriguing before, but the massive map sizes and empty layout would certainly have been a chore. Streamlining things and really emphasizing combat with a mixture of dynamic PvPvE elements sounds like a lot of great ingredients, so hopefully it turns out to be a recipe for success.


 

Full 30-Minute Frostpoint Interview With inXile:


Frostpoint is slated to release for PC VR headsets (Rift, Vive, and Index specifically) later this year, price to be determined. Full index support, including finger-tracking, is specifically mentioned. No plans for Quest at this time.

An exact month is not set for release, but the plan is to release it in 2020, but a free Open Beta period is coming in September. During that play period is when testers can earn a copy of the game with the “Play to Own” campaign. More details on all of that to come closer to Beta launch.

Let us know what you think of Frostpoint, inXile’s ambitious new multiplayer VR shooter game down in the comments below!

The post Frostpoint Is A New Multiplayer AAA VR Shooter From inXile, Creators Of Wasteland And Mage’s Tale appeared first on UploadVR.

Into The Radius Review: Creeping In STALKER’s Shadow

Into the Radius is a first-person tense VR survival game with horror undertones that’s set in a semi-open post-apocalyptic world overrun by strange creatures and unexplained anomalies. Read on for our full review and verdict on what we think of this STALKER-inspired VR adventure.

After spending nearly a year in Early Access, Into the Radius from CM Games has emerged from the shadows this week. In Into The Radius, you embark on a surreal journey through the Pechorsk Radius Zone which is overflowing with bizarre phenomena, a moody atmosphere, and dangerous entities. It’s part tense, atmospheric horror game, part first-person shooter, and part methodical survival simulator.

The end result is essentially a VR take on the survival shooter that borrows heavy doses of influence from the GSC series, STALKER which of course stands for: Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers. Those games are founded on the concept that, following a massive nuclear disaster in the mid-80s, the world is falling apart and the floodgates are opened for all manner of individuals to uncover what lies beneath and pick up the pieces.

A lot of modern post-apocalyptic games, such as Fallout 4, or online survival games, like Rust, The Forest, State of Decay, and so on, put heavy emphasis on rebuilding society. That isn’t the case in STALKER or Into The Radius. These games are about opportunity.

Into The Radius VR

It might seem like I’m comparing Into The Radius to STALKER a lot here and that’s entirely intentional because it’s literally like a VR version of that game franchise. In fact, several times, your character is referred to as a stalker because the concept is now so ubiquitous as a term of art. The first line of the ‘About This Game’ description on Steam even says: “Players are sent stalking through…” if that tells you anything about where it got its inspiration.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many of the best VR games out there are basically, “X but in VR” but it does, by default, result in direct comparisons and raises the bar in terms of expected innovation. For the most part, what Into The Radius delivers is about what you’d expect but it doesn’t knock anything out of the park.

Read More: Dev Q&A – How Into The Radius Combines STALKER And Onward For A Hardcore Post-Apocalyptic Shooter

Into The Radius’ greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: an over-reliance on “realistic” physics interactions. On the one hand, this leads to some absolutely immersive moments. When I’d have to lift myself over a barrier to climb up something, poke my head around corners with a flashlight to see what’s up ahead, and handle my gun with both hands in a way that emulates real life a bit, I was absolutely entrenched in the world. In particular I loved the map. Instead of bringing up a floating 2D menu that just shows you everything, you have to actually look at your environment to figure out where you are and which direction you’re going. Every VR game needs maps like this.

But then the janky feeling that few VR game can avoid shows up to ruin things. While climbing bricks on a wall my arm joints would go crazy and remind me that the headset can only track my hands and not my entire arm. Inexplicably the game wouldn’t realize I’m crouched down in real life completely and suddenly an enemy spots me. I’d try to lift the lid of a weapon box and accidentally fling the box out of the guard tower because it stuck to my hand when I pressed grip. I’d fumble with a weapon because the precision of which part I want to grab when pressing the grip button isn’t precise enough.

And so on, and so on.

into the radius train railroad

These finnicky controls aren’t the sole fault of Into The Radius, many of these issues plague other VR games as well. But when your entire game is predicated off of slow-paced, atmospheric, and realistic traversal of a barren, post-apocalyptic world using realistic tools and weapons it can absolutely sour the experience. I’d find myself battling the game’s mechanics just as often as I did its obscure and mysterious enemies.

Grabbing things is difficult because of how precise you have to point at a distance, handling your inventory felt like fumbling for your keys in the dark, and movement is either way too fast when sprinting or painfully slow when just walking.

Those issues are amplified by a relatively lackluster mission structure that, while improved since Early Access launch, is still a bit repetitive to get through. Voice acting is solid enough, but sporadic and not throughout the game as much as I expected.

All of this being said, I want to stress that the atmosphere and setting are quite excellent, as derivative as they may be. There is a real, palpable sense of tension everywhere you go even if it doesn’t look near as good in the headset as it does in screenshots. Ghostly enemies emit the most terrifying noises the closer they get and the anomalies explode with angry screeching that’s extremely unsettling. Surprisingly, Into the Radius manages to feel more tense and stressful than many dedicated horror games can muster.

Into The Radius Review Final Impressions

Despite its flaws and unpolished nature, Into the Radius is still a good VR game worth playing if you’re a fan of the setting or looking for something dense to dig into. You can easily get upwards of 15 hours of content out of this game and the developers seem eager to continue working on it. Janky controls and some odd design decisions do not nullify the quality of the setting or the game’s underlying ideas. At its core, Into the Radius is an immersive and ambitious survival shooter on the fringe of humanity that pushes you to your limits.

3 STARS

into the radius review points pro/con


Into The Radius is available now on Steam with support for all major PC VR headsets including Rift, Vive, Index, and Windows MR for $29.99. This review is based off the Steam version primarily using an Oculus Rift S as well as an Oculus Quest via Virtual Desktop.

For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines. Agree or disagree with our Into The Radius review? Let us know in the comments below!

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The post Into The Radius Review: Creeping In STALKER’s Shadow appeared first on UploadVR.