Want a unique way to rock out in virtual reality (VR)? Then Unplugged is probably just what you need, if you have an Oculus Quest 2, of course. However, next week that headset exclusivity will end as developer Anotherway and Vertigo Games have announced a PC VR release date – with one small caveat. Plus, the Quest version is getting passthrough support and a new song is on the way.
As you may already be aware, Unplugged is about emulating air guitar by utilising Oculus Quest’s hand tracking functionality. At no point do you need controllers which makes porting to other platforms a little bit tricky. Anotherway has managed to though, supporting all Valve Index Controller compatible headsets on Steam.
And then there’s the new Oculus Quest passthrough feature. You may already use passthrough as your background (rather than an Oculus Home environment) but in Unplugged it allows you to blend the virtual stage with your physical environment.
“We always knew that blending a virtual stage with your real place would be a super interesting feature for Unplugged. Getting to see your friends or family cheering you while you play… that’s a perfect combo! Now, thanks to the Quest Passthrough, we can make this kind of experience possible,” says Anotherway in a statement. “On the list of venues, you’ll be able to select a new mixed reality one, which can be your own living room, your kitchen, or wherever space you feel like rocking!”
As for the new song, the developers once again worked with Steel Panther with the rock band creating a tailor-made song called Unplug Yourself, a teaser of which you can see below.
All of this free new content as well as the PC VR release will all land on 2nd December 2021. The Steam version will retail for $24.99 USD/€24.99 EUR. For further updates on Unplugged, keep reading VRFocus.
Unplugged brought its Rock Band-style gameplay to Quest back in October thanks to the standalone headset’s optical finger-tracking, letting you essentially play ‘air guitar’ instead of using a plastic peripheral. A SteamVR version of the game (Index controllers only) was slated to arrive today, however the studio says it still needs a few more days to prepare the game for release.
Update (December 2nd, 2021): Vertigo Games and developers Anotherway announced that Unplugged will not be releasing on December 2nd as previously planned, but will be delayed by nearly two weeks as the team still needs to “finetune the SteamVR release and MetaQuest update.”
The new release date on PC VR is set for December 14th. The original article announcing its release on PC VR follows below.
Original Article (November 23rd, 2021): Anotherway announced that Unplugged is coming to PC VR headsets on December 2nd (see update), providing support for SteamVR headsets that have the ability to use Valve Index controllers.
That essentially narrows its down to any headset using the SteamVR tracking standard, which includes Valve Index, HTC Vive, Vive Pro, Vive Pro 2, Vive Cosmos Elite, and Pimax headsets. The reasoning behind it: Index controllers provide five-finger tracking; only four are required to register the individual finger positions you need to perform specific chords.
To celebrate the PC VR release, the studio is tossing out a new Steel Panther song, which will come as a free update to both Meta Quest and PC VR. A Quest Passthrough option is also coming to the Quest version of the game which will let users blend the virtual stage with their living rooms.
We noted that Quest’s sometimes unreliable hand tracking really killed a lot of the fun of Unplugged, which is partly why we gave it a somewhat middling [6/10] in our review on Quest when it launched back in late October. It will certainly be interesting to see how it improves with the addition of Index controllers, since we know those are rock-solid.
Vertigo Games’ next big title After the Fall is only three weeks away from launch and today the studio has released further gameplay details as well as opening up pre-orders. Alongside a new trailer, it’s been confirmed that After the Fall will feature a PvP mode and that early access will be granted on select platforms.
From today, Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR and SteamVR owners can pre-order After the Fall with a 10% discount, dropping the cost down to £26.99 GBP. That’s for the “Launch Edition” which includes automatic access to the future Frontrunner season, including new a map called “Hollywood Boulevard”, the “Warehouse” PvP arena an unrevealed game mode and a new weapon type.
Depending on the platform early purchasers will gain different benefits. Oculus Quest 2 owners will receive access to the exclusive Fwd to the Past skin whilst Steam players gain access to a closed Steam Playtest. Pre-ordering After the Fall for PlayStation VR and Steam will also net players 48 hours of Early Access as an additional bonus. Plus, on the Oculus platform, there’s cross-buy support between Quest and Oculus Rift.
When it comes to the Steam Playtest players will be introduced to the first Harvest Run mission, taking place between 9 pm PT on 25th November until midnight PT on 27th November 2021.
That’s not all, Vertigo Games has a Deluxe Edition for Steam and PlayStation VR which features:
Automatic access to the Frontrunner season
Digital Artbook
Official Soundtrack
PS4 Theme and Avatars (PlayStation VR)
Exclusive Uncle Bob skin (Steam) or exclusive Ultimate Buster skin (PlayStation VR)
After the Fall is set for release on 9th December 2021 for the aforementioned headsets with an Oculus Quest version slated for 2022. It’ll feature a co-op campaign mode, the co-op Harvest mode and an eight-player (4vs4) competitive multiplayer. VRFocus went hands-on with the Harvest mode earlier this month, finding plenty of potential in this co-op horde mode.
As further details on After the Fall are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Location-based entertainment (LBE) has really begun to bounce back in 2021, with VRFocus’ regular The Virtual Arena feature highlighting all the work that’s been achieved. One specialist in the space is VRsenal, which makes unmanned virtual reality (VR) arcade units such as Lightsaber Dojo: A Star Wars VR Experience in collaboration with ILMxLAB and Nomadic. With the IAAPA Orlando Expo taking place this week, VRsenal has revealed.
Rhythmatic comes from British VR developer Blackwall Labs, who actually launched the multiplayer rhythm-action title back in 2020, allowing up to 6 players to compete against one another. The collaboration between both companies will see Rhythmatic released as a two-player experience on VRsenal’s new V2 hardware platform. Just like its predecessor, this new setup won’t require an arcade operator to function in a family entertainment centre (FEC).
However, the platform allows up to four cabinets to be linked together for 8 player sessions, really emphasising the competitive, multiplayer gameplay of Rythmatic.
“As a long-time fan of the rhythm game genre, it has been a dream of mine to bring a cutting edge, multiplayer, music-based experience to virtual reality,” said Sam Perrin, director of Blackwall Labs. “That we’ve been able to partner with a market leader like VRsenal to bring Rhythmatic to the FEC space as a fully unattended, multiplayer attraction is the icing on the cake.”
As for Space Pirate Trainer, this single-player shooter will be available in all its drone destroying glory, with two players able to enjoy the wave-based gameplay at the same time.
“Everybody remembers Galaga, but Space Pirate Trainer lets you climb inside a game like that and take personal control of the avatar,” said John Coleman, Vertigo Games’ CFO and Business Development Lead. “With approachable gameplay that also offers veteran players a wide range of options, Space Pirate Trainer is ideally suited for the arcade space.”
VRsenal will be showcasing its new V2 hardware platform during the IAAPA Orlando Expo this week using Rhythmatic – which will also be a launch title for the new hardware.
“Operators now have an option to create a high-throughput, affordable attraction with full-body AAA VR content, and never have to worry about staffing the game,” Ben Davenport, VRsenal CEO adds. “This is a very hard thing to pull off in VR.”
As LBE VR continues to gain ground, VRFocus will keep you updated.
With all that’s happened over the last couple of years, 2019 seems like an age ago. It was that year when VRFocus got its first hands-on glimpse of Vertigo Games’ Arizona Sunshine follow up After the Fall, an action-packed shooter set in the frozen wasteland of Los Angeles. After a few delays, the studio is almost ready to launch the zombie-themed FPS across multiple headsets and VRFocus got another peek at the title and game mode called Harvest.
In actual fact, the demo contained three distinct sections of After the Fall, and as expected offering a different flavour to the proceedings since last we met. Available were the Outlands, and introductory level given players the main gist of the controls, a hub section called The Line where players can meet up and chat before heading out on co-op missions together, which leads us to the Harvest.
If you’ve played Arizona Sunshine you’ll likely have dabbled in the frantic horde mode, a later addition where you have to survive waves of enemies. Harvest is After the Fall’s horde mode of sorts but instead of running around a singular map, players have to work their way through a level, stopping off at occasional safe houses, with the main goal being to collect as much Harvest as possible from dead enemies.
This you can then use in Harvest-o-Matic’s found in safe rooms to purchase useful equipment such as health, pipe bombs and ammunition. It’s a setup most Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood players will be familiar with. You all have to work together because inventory space is very limited, choosing between a health pack or a tasty explosive could mean life or death on those frozen streets.
Before getting there The Line is worth an exploration. It’s like a massive arcade with loads of cabinets in the middle, where you can team up with three other friends before going on a Harvest (AI bots are available to make teams up to 4), head to the shooting range or talk to Luna who runs the place. *Spoiler* As an awesome nod to Vertigo Games’ previous title there are Arizona Sunshine cabinets offering a very basic twin-stick shooter for a quick time killer.
Vertigo Games has been sure to include plenty of accessibility options that are always worth a peruse before heading into the action, as you can play seated or standing, teleport or use smooth locomotion and change how reloading works. It’s the latter that VRFocus instantly had issues with which was a worry so close to launch.
Ammo is located right on your chest, with the belt height adjustable to suit each player’s requirements. You then have the choice of Quick or Advanced reloading, the former consisting of merely bringing the gun to your chest whilst the latter is a more traditional manual VR mechanic, ejecting the magazine, grabbing a clip and cocking the gun. However, when it came to fighting that first ravenous horde of Snowbreed it was an absolute fumble fest. The Quick reloading was intermittent at best, constantly jabbing the gun at the ammo belt until something happened. Advanced reloading, on the other hand, was smooth as butter, feeling natural popping clips out and jamming another in. Additionally, there’s a Harvest multiplier if you choose the Advanced option.
After the Fall also employs and omits several other familiar VR shooter mechanics. Taking a leaf out of Half-Life: Alyx’s book are the wrist pockets, these are your only inventory slots for things like health and explosives. This becomes even more of a juggle once you start locating Floppy Disks, these unlock new equipment by taking them to the Harvest-o-Matic and then completing the run. You can hold up to four weapons if you so wish, one on each hip and one in each hand for that proper gun-toting Rambo look. But you can’t put anything over your shoulder, even the bigger two-handed weapons go on your hip which seems a bit strange. There wasn’t a chance to test how two rifles on each hip and one hand-held would look although we’d imagine the visual clutter might be a bit much. Also, there wasn’t a chance to test the weapon upgrade system which was a shame, that’ll just have to wait for the full review.
Even with those grumbles, the gameplay was exactly as hoped, fast and at times unrelenting, with Snowbreed clambering through walls, across ceilings or just plain smashing through stuff like a bulldozer. It was arcade action at its best, ziplining across buildings, gunning down corridors or monsters then in those moments where you could take a breather exploring rooms to find useful loot and collectables. Aside from the base slow and fast Snowbreed there were four more specialised foes that would pop up occasionally, Juggernaut, Eater, Brute and Smasher. They’re all tanks in their own right with the Juggernaut able to pick you up, the Eater explodes, the Brute is a super speedy fella whilst the Smasher was the final huge opponent to overcome. Certainly impressive and tough in the first run, how well they work across multiple Harvest remains to be seen.
After the Fall is gearing up to be one of VR’s biggest winter 2021 launches thanks to the wall-to-wall combat. There’s also the impressive feat of co-op, cross-platform gameplay between all supported headsets, which should ensure player numbers for full Harvest runs. Considering how some VR videogames have struggled with this feature, having it available from day one could mean all the difference. After the Fall is coming to Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets on 9th December, so there’s not long to wait to see if it’s been worth those delays.
All of Unplugged’s songs are now unlocked and available from the start of the game, removing the progression system that the game launched with. A new system replaces it that sees players completing challenges to unlock new venues instead of songs.
At launch, Unplugged’s fantastic tracklist was used as the main incentive for progression — you started with just one ‘record’ (the game’s name for a collection of 5 songs) and completed challenges for each record that allow you to unlock more records/songs gradually.
However, many players – including myself – encountered some difficulty with the challenges as the complexity of the songs ramped up, making the game feel quite challenging, frustrating and for some, not possible within the constraints of the hand tracking technology, especially when trying to unlock the final record.
Some players also expressed disappointment that not all songs were available from the outset.
The latest Unplugged update addresses all of this in a big way. All of the songs are now fully unlocked from the beginning of the game. Instead of progression unlocking more songs, it now is linked to venues — record challenges still exist, but have been tweaked and now work towards unlocking the different venues, from small to large.
The initial system of tying venues to songs/records was a fun way to emulate the career of a rock star, but now you’ll instead be able to play any song at any venue you’ve unlocked, using a new venue selector.
There’s also been some difficulty adjustments – the percent of notes required for a gold score is now lower, and it’s harder to fail when playing on easy difficulty.
Minor bug fixes have also been made, along with volume adjustments to make some songs slightly louder. There’s also been changes to the number of fans required to unlock new guitars.
Overall, these changes seem like a step in the right direction — not only do they address concerns around the difficulty and hand tracking, but they also make all of the songs accessible to players from the get-go. That should make it easier to demo the game to new players and let people jump in with little-to-no experience.
What do you think of these Unplugged changes? Let us know in the comments.
Arizona Sunshine and After The Fall developer Vertigo Games is set to bring some of the worlds from gaming publisher Deep Silver to VR in a new deal with Meta and the Oculus Studios label.
Announced during the Connect conference today, Vertigo will be releasing five new VR games in partnership with Oculus Studios. The first of these will be the December 9th Oculus Quest launch of zombie shooter, After The Fall, which is also coming to PC VR and PSVR on the same day with cross-play support. Vertigo has also clarified that the following four titles will not be exclusive to Quest.
But Vertigo did confirm that some of these titles will be from “fan favorite game worlds from Deep Silver and others.” Last year Vertigo was acquired by Koch Media, which also owns Deep Silver and other publishers.
Deep Silver itself has published titles in plenty of popular series of late, including Metro, Dead Island and Saints Row.
It’s also not clear if any of these titles will be from Vertigo’s own publishing line. In the past the company teamed up with Innerspace and Anotherway for A Fisherman’s Tale and Unplugged respectively. We know Innerspace is making another game with Vertigo, though it’s not known if this counts in the five-title deal. Vertigo itself also recently acquired Amsterdam-based Forcefield VR, which is working on another title.
What Deep Silver games are you hoping to see Vertigo Games bring to VR? Let us know in the comments below!
Vertigo Games teased that its long-awaited co-op VR zombie shooter After the Fall would be getting some “big news” to share at today’s Facebook Connect, but it seems the company had something bigger in mind. The VR studio and publisher announced a new partnership with Facebook which will bring five new VR games to the Oculus platform.
After the Fall is headed to all major headsets on December 9th, and on its heels comes the revelation that five more VR games will arrive from the publisher-development studio over the coming years.
It calls calls them “high-end titles”, which are said to include “fan favorite game worlds from Deep Silver and others.”
Interestingly, the deal doesn’t stipulate complete platform exclusivity, which so far has been Facebook’s modus operandi when it comes to signing big, multi-year content deals like this. Still, you shouldn’t rule out timed exclusivity.
Hi @Kaffekone, we can confirm that the games are not exclusive to Oculus. It's too early to share anything else at the moment, however. Hope that clears up your concerns!
— Vertigo Games | rocking out in Unplugged! (@vertigogames) October 28, 2021
Vertigo Games is a prolific force in the VR industry. It’s brought a number of VR titles to market including Arizona Sunshine, Skyworld, Unplugged, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and more. It also announced it had acquired Amsterdam-based VR development studio Force Field in August, which has worked on VR experiences like Anne Frank House VR, Coaster Combat, and Landfall.
At the time, the studio said it was currently in development of “an unannounced AAA game based on a well-known IP.”
The German-Austrian developer and publisher Deep Silver has produced a mind-boggling number of titles across popular game series such as Saints Row, Chivalry, Metro Exodus, and more. Like Vertigo Games, Deep Silver is a division of Koch Media.
Unplugged is working on a fix for the difficulties some players are experiencing in unlocking all of its songs, particularly with some objective conditions on Hard difficulty.
We have got that feedback from several players. We will fix it soon
The news was prompted by Twitter user YoJayWatsUrName, who expressed frustration at difficulty unlocking all the game’s songs:
I REALLY love this game. With that being said I’m going to be honest. I don’t think hand tracking is quite there for the precision this game wants on hard difficulty. I think objectives need to be removed in exchange for experience to unlock songs. – @YoJayWatsUrName on Twitter
The Unplugged account responded to that tweet, noting:
We have got that feedback from several players. We will fix it soon – @UnpluggedVR on Twitter
It’s unclear exactly what the fix might entail, but it’s likely either changing the requirements of certain objectives to unlock records or removing certain objectives altogether. In our review, we noted that the difficulty curve felt fair but that the hand tracking took some consideration to get working at an ideal level, particularly in the opening few hours of the game.
At first, I personally struggled with similar problems in unlocking records but once I started to understand the conditions under which Unplugged’s hand tracking worked best, I had less problems overall and was able to unlock records and new songs much faster. At the time of writing my review, I had yet to unlock the final record and needed just one last objective completed in order to do so — get a Diamond score on a song on Hard difficulty. While I hadn’t reached a Diamond score, I got very close and it certainly didn’t feel impossible or the fault of the game/hand tracking — if anything, it was just time limitations. It will be interesting to see what changes are implemented to adjust for feedback — hopefully, people will be able to more reliably and easily unlock the songs soon.
Have you tried Unplugged? What do you think? Let us know in the comments. You can read our review here.
Unplugged is like Guitar Hero, although instead of picking up a dedicated peripheral and jamming away, it relies on Quest’s native hand-tracking to let you shred on an air guitar without controllers. It’s a fun idea that can work really well at moments, however the headset’s optical hand-tracking still isn’t super reliable, which adds a layer of frustration on top of what could truly be a great game.
Unplugged Details:
Available On: Oculus Quest (coming soon to PC VR) Release Date: October 21st, 2021 Price: $25 Developer: Anotherway Publisher: Vertigo Games Reviewed On: Quest 2
Gameplay
Unplugged plops you down, tells you to physically roll up your sleeves, clean the grease from the four camera lenses on your Quest, and start jamming away on an air guitar to an unlockable catalogue spanning 50 years of rock—no dedicated peripherals or Touch controllers required, just hands.
The rhythm game’s launch setlist tosses 23 rock hits your way, and includes an awesome selection of music from bands like The Offspring, Tenacious D, Ozzy Osbourne, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more. As a rock fan, I really love the selection here:
Image courtesy Vertigo Games
Each song is playable in easy, normal and hard difficulty modes, which is determined by the number of different finger positions thrown at you. Each of the game’s five venues contain around five unlockable songs you can play through until you make it to the final gig, an arena packed with an adoring crowd.
Unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which feature dedicated controllers with five buttons placed in specific spots on the guitar’s neck, Unplugged turns the formula on its head by making you perform different fingering positions on a literal air guitar while matching them to four zones on its neck. Like all of those guitar-based rhythm games, you’ll have to strum on the beat to hit each note correctly.
Thankfully you don’t have to constantly stare at the front of the neck itself, as the side also features small indicator lights showing both your current finger position and hand position relative to the four target zones. I’m not entirely sure I’ll ever be able to build the sort of muscle memory that you gain with controller-based rhythm games simply because of how transitory the whole air guitar experience is—and that’s irrespective of Quest’s less than perfect hand-tracking.
And the lack of 100 percent precise hand-tracking is a shame, because everything else about Unplugged is legitimately awesome. The tutorial, which is led by the infectious and suitably glam Steel Panther guitarist ‘Satchel’, teaches you all of the skills you need to get jamming away at your own pace. The music available is all really well known stuff too that is a real joy to jam out to. Ok, I kind of hate Satchel because he’s mean and called me a nerd, but the ’80s douchebag vibe totally fits.
Image captured by Road to VR
Scoring is pretty typical for rhythm games, and it measures hits in ‘awesome’ and ‘perfect’, with perfect combos netting you more points. It also has what I’d consider a pretty generous buffer before the fail state so I could get through most songs on normal without seeing the dreaded ‘GAME OVER’ screen. One really cool touch: at the end of a particularly good set the audience will toss stuff on stage that you can grab mid-air for extra points.
I still haven’t gotten good enough to do most on hard difficulty though, but that may also come down to hand-tracking throwing me for a loop, which I talk more about below.
Immersion
At first I thought the inherent lack of haptic feedback would stymie the game and make it less fun than a similar controller-based game like Rock Band VR on Rift. Conceptually at least, that’s not true for me. If hand-tracking were more solid I would put it nearly equal to a controller-based rhythm game in the amount of fun and skill you can build. Simply put: when it works, Unplugged is awesome.
And although haptics would undeniably help the game, Unplugged does a good job filling in the gaps with its array of expressive visuals. The game’s beat map follows the neck of your guitar, which means you’ll always have the neck front and center, making it easy to not only tell what finger position you need and where it has to go. Strumming on the other hand (no pun intended) is a binary action that has to be done with a enough force to register.
Image courtesy Vertigo Games
But even in optimal lighting conditions with a high contrast background, you’re bound to see some jitter and experience some latency too when it comes to hand and individual finger position, which can be super annoying to deal with when you’re trying to build the physical skillset required to hit notes just right.
It feels a bit like having a button on your controller that works 90 percent of the time. That’s more than enough to get you through the experience, and probably even enjoy it, but not enough to inspire confidence in your actions. Here I go through finger counting on both hands just to show how off Quest can be at times. Notice how it hangs on three.
Here’s a few tips to get best case scenario hand-tracking input—if you don’t mind babying Unplugged into having a good time, that is. You have to be very deliberate in your finger positions to make sure they not only register correctly, but also register in enough time for whatever latency there is to resolve itself before you strum to the beat. Definitely take the time to setup your environment so you have a high contrast background and adequate lighting, and you’ll be able to hit that 90ish percent accuracy you’ll need to play and have fun.
Granted, a PC VR version is coming at some point this year, although it will only support controllers with full-fingered tracking like Valve Index. I would much rather play it that way than dealing with the jumpy inaccuracies of Quest’s hand tracking.
Comfort
There’s no artificial locomotion at all, so it can be a really comfortable experience provided you aren’t prone to neck strain.
At first I played Unplugged sort of curled up to get a good view of the guitar’s neck, sort of like a weak impression of Kurt Cobain at MTV Unplugged in New York, circa 1993. You should resist the urge to look down a bunch though and instead position the air guitar more upright so you don’t need to crane your neck so much. Neck muscles aren’t made to deal with off-center weight for long periods of time, so just make sure not to push yourself.
We've heard your feedback and just released a brand-new patch for 
Vertigo Games | rocking out in Unplugged! 
(@vertigogames) 
