Cradle of Sins to Host ‘Beat & Battle’ Event Featuring Steve Aoki, Headhunterz & Many More

Cradle of Sins

Virtual reality (VR) multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Cradle of Sins may have had an unsuccessful Kickstarter in 2019 but that hasn’t stopped British developer U24 Solutions from continuing the project. With a beta release incoming, the studio has announced a charity tournament to showcase the videogame with some big names onboard.

Cradle of Sins - Beat and Battle

Called ‘Beat & Battle’, the VR tournament will be a live stream event where eight teams will compete for a prize pool of $25,000 USD, with each team’s winnings going to a charity of their choice. For instance, first place will receive $15,000, second will get $5,000, third $3,000 and the rest $400 each.

Teams will be made up of three players apiece with Team Crystal made up of superstar DJ Steve Aoki, Twitch streamer xQc and pro VR player PeskyCashew. Other big names include DJ Headhunterz, Twitch stars Sodapoppin and Loserfruit, and Youtubers like ProjectJamesify and The Lonely Viper.

This isn’t just a closed-off event either. Six of the teams have an open spot for any VR player who can get through the qualifiers. These open today by joining Cradle of Sins’ Discord community. 2000 beta keys are on offer and you have to compete in at least eight tournament matches to submit your eight best scores. Further details are on the Cradle of Sins website.

Cradle of Sins

The Steam Early Access release of Cradle of Sins is expected in the next few weeks, supporting Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The gameplay is based around two teams of three having a magical alter to protect, whilst also trying to destroy their opponents.

Players will be able to select from four characters, to begin with (more will be added), each with their own particular weapons, abilities and upgrades. Weapons will be typical physics-driven designs common in VR, ranging from swords and crossbows to shields, staffs and powerful crystals. They’ll also be able to collect gold from fallen enemies to buy weapons and upgrades.

The ‘Beat & Battle’ VR tournament takes place on 11th November, live-streamed via Twitch from 6 pm GMT. For further updates on Cradle of Sins, including its beta launch keep reading VRFocus.

VR MOBA Cradle of Sins Aims for Kickstarter Success

There aren’t many MOBA virtual reality (VR) titles on the market – PlayStation VR’s Megalith and Dark Eclipse come to mind – so when a new one appears on the horizon it generally catches VRFocus eye. The latest comes from UK-based indie studio U24 Solutions in the form of Cradle of Sins, and the team has turned to Kickstarter to help make it happen. 

Cradle of Sins

From video and screenshots already released Cradle of Sins looks well into development and U24 Solutions’ biggest VR title to date. It’s your standard online battle arena affair where two teams of three go head to head, defending their Altar from the opposing team.

The Kickstarter aims to raise £20,000 GBP by the end of November, with the current campaign sat on just over £1,000. Backer tiers start from only £9 giving access to both Alpha and Beta builds as well as a digital copy of the final videogame. The studio also has several stretch goals laid out should the campaign be a success, hitting £30,000 will up the character count to eight, £40,000 will increase it to ten alongside more store items and friend matchmaking. Should the campaign hit £60,000 then PlayStation VR support will become possible.

U24 Solutions still plan on launching Cradle of Sins via Steam Early Access in early 2020 for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets. That initial version will feature four playable characters and 28 weapons to select.

Cradle of Sins

“The feedback from our closed Discord group has shown us that Cradle of Sins has the potential of being a competitive MOBA title. We have a clear understanding of what the game needs to accomplish this goal. That’s why we launched this Kickstarter to gain the support needed to help us finish the game and bring something truly remarkable to the VR gaming community,” said Steve Parker, the Co-Founder of U24 Solutions in a statement.

That closed Discord group has now been opened to an additional 500 players. For those quick enough they’ll be granted a Cradle of Sins Alpha Steam key to help test the experience. Supporting Cradle of Sins on Kickstarter will simply mean you have a guaranteed spot in the closed Discord group for Alpha testing. As development progresses, VRFocus will keep you updated.

Preview: Wild Downtown – ‘Wild’ This Certainly Isn’t

When you consider an open world videogame adventure what do you imagine? Sprawling countryside maybe? Or how about something a little more metropolitan, a bustling cityscape that’s alive with the sounds of people going about their everyday lives, cars whizzing about, possibly the odd siren or two. For most this will conjurer up images of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto (GTA) for example, with plenty to see and do. For virtual reality (VR) players there’s U24 Solutions Early Access title Wild Downtown, unfortunately this is not what you might expect.

Wild Downtown image2

While Wild Downtown might be billed as an open world city where you can run amok, driving cars and shooting up the place like some mad gangster, the truth is you’ll probably get bored or confused quite quickly.

There’s no storyline, goals or objectives to speak of in this small cityscape, you’re free to wander as you please, jumping into cars or onto bikes to explore what is essentially an oval of buildings. Littered around are several venues to pop inside, including a bank, casino, café, and the apartment in which the experience starts. Yet from the word go Wild Downtown is just bizarre, and not in a good way.

Movement is purely direct locomotion, yet it’s painfully slow. While items can be picked up, very few actually have any use. And then the experience does this weird thing where if you lean into something to take a look you’ll automatically be pushed backwards like there’s an invisible wall in front of everything, and that’s before you leave the apartment.

Wild Downtown image3

Driving a vehicle is a necessity as walking anywhere would take forever, yet the steering is so twitchy that this becomes a lesson in perseverance – the bikes are even worse. Once you get to these other locations interactive elements are somewhat thin on the ground. The casino has several slot machines to spend some coin in, whilst the café was completely devoid of life. In fact at points so was the city, stepping out of one area onto the street it felt like there should be some tumbleweed rolling along as there was literally no traffic or people to speak of. When there were, pedestrians would amble along in an orderly queue, following the same pre-set path over and over again.

There’s supposedly a gun element to Wild Downtown allowing you to shoot up the place, massacring everyone in sight. To be honest, VRFocus didn’t get this far – or actually find it – yet it couldn’t have made much of a difference as while guns can be fun in VR, the general implementation of items in the experience is poor.

Even as an Early Access title Wild Downtown still has some way to go before it should even be considered. While the internal location graphics are of a high quality, the city is not, with the actual characters looking strange, as if the proportions are askew. If U24 Solutions can increase the size and scope of the experience then there might be hope, currently a lot of polishing is still needed.