Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2’s new trailer shows off co-op chaos
At the Warhammer Skulls event on Thursday, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 got a new trailer showing off its freshly revealed co-op modes.
Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister Gets A Solo Horde Mode In New Update
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister just got a brand new update that adds a wave-based survival “solo horde mode” called Last Bastion. Co-op for this mode is still in development.
Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister—Last Bastion Solo
According to the update post from developer Pixel Toys, this is part one of the horde updates to the game. Last Bastion Solo is what’s releasing now, with a co-op version that will also introduce a new map to come later on. The new mode is available directly from the main menu.
The goal of the new game mode is to reach the final wave and survive for as long as possible as a heroic last stand. Every kill you get earns coins which can be spent back at the central requisition terminal for better weapons and more ammo. There is also a ranked progression system and leaderboards for high scores.
Here’s what the update post says about the mode:
“Hold out in the Last Bastion, an encampment in the war-torn world of Warhammer 40k, you are surrounded, and cornered on all sides by the ravening hordes of Chaos who throw ever greater forces against you and your team of embattled heroes.
The aim is simple, to survive over a series of waves and rounds, attempting to reach higher levels and ranks, unlocking weapons and competing in global and friends leaderboards for high scores and achievements – Will you survive and claim glory for the Emperor?”
Other patch notes for this update include game balancing tweaks to make it overall a bit easier with players getting a 20% bump to health and decreased delay before health regeneration kicks in. It also regenerates more quickly now as well.
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister is available now on Oculus Quest for $30. For more on the game, check out our Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister review and stay tuned to UploadVR.
Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister Review – Simple, Shallow But An Enjoyable Fan-Service Spectacle
Is it time to wage warfare on Oculus Quest 2? Find out in our full Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister review!
Even for someone with only the most passing of interests in the franchise, Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister holds a lot of great moments. Feeling the sturdy thud of Bolter fire in your hands as you stamp through trenches, cowering in the hulking presence of a Space Marine or ripping through enemies with a Chainsword all deliver on the dreams of immersing yourself in Games Workshop’s deliciously miserable universe.
These isolated instances make Battle Sister a decent recommendation to fans of the series, even if they’re strung together by a fair simplistic shooter.
Battle Sister feels warmly nostalgic, not perhaps in terms of the worlds it realizes — Warhammer’s tabletop time-killing has never felt more relevant than in 2020 when we all have to stay inside — but certainly in design. This four-ish hour whirlwind tour feels like an early 2000’s PS2-era tie-in in many ways, taxiing you from set-piece to set-piece via a network of corridors with no shortage of cannon fodder to brutally eviscerate. If anything, I suspect fans would find it has more in common with 2003’s 40K: Fire Warrior than it does any of the newer games in the series. Personally, it had me fondly recalling memories of the first two Red Faction games.
That is to say it’s a cheap thrill you blast your way through. Battle Sister is never anything less than entertaining, propped up by faithful set dressing. Its shootouts against a handful of enemy types would probably slip into mundanity if it wasn’t for the authentically chunky arsenal that takes a little artistic license in VR. The stubby, sturdy roar of the Bolter delivers a pleasing kick with the Quest 2’s haptics and feels powerful to wield two-handed, though if you’re so inclined it’s perfectly possible to dual-wield too. Sacrilege for Warhammer purists, perhaps, but undeniably vicious in practice.
The Flamer, meanwhile, boasts surprising reach and there’s even an amusing inside joke when you happen upon a Lazgun at a particularly desperate moment, but the zippy, slender rifle itself still proves to be a satisfying weapon in the right hands.
Juggling between these tools keeps Battle Sister’s combat suitably morbid, especially paired that the surprising amount of blood you’ll spill for a VR game. Well-placed headshots don’t just result in instant kills, they’ll completely remove your enemy’s head from its shoulders, while you need just hold the Chainsword out with the trigger pressed down to effortlessly rip through limbs and torsos.
It’s not, however, especially deep especially for a VR game. Developer Pixel Toys has streamlined Battle Sister’s reloading to simply swiping down on your belt, for example, and melee combat with a Power Sword falls into the trap of VR waggle. It gives the game more of a feather-touch, arcade weight than you perhaps might hope for amongst the metallic crunch of Warhammer’s otherwise hefty warfare. I’d love to see the series tackled from that angle, getting you to compensate for the ridiculous weight of its weaponry, but Battle Sister understandably aims for more accessible ground.
Other elements aren’t quite as forgivable. Playing as a member of the Adepta Sororitas or Sisterhood, you’ll have access to a handful of special powers that are used too sparingly and are far too sensitive to control. A sort of force push move, for example, is activated by thrusting your hand forward, but it took me hours to understand the precise way in which the game wanted me to do it and where to use it. In early sections, I stood in corridors blocked off by waist-height boxes, helplessly flailing my arms about in hopeless attempts to inch them forward. Abilities to slow time and provide temporary invincibility are easier to activate, though their implementation still feels last minute – there’s one instance each in which they need to be used.
Ultimately, Battle Sister is a game first and a VR-experience second. There are boss fights against giant mechs that are helpfully surrounded by otherwise useless gun emplacements and a steady progression of enemies that, rather than introduce new mechanics unique to the platform, simply shoot bigger, tougher bullets. It’s not without its VR charms, though; standing shoulder to, well waist-height with a Black Templar Space Marine is rightly intimidating, especially as he spits unending jargon about cleansing cultists in holy fire, and there’s a brilliant moment of panic when you overheat a laser pistol and realize you have to throw it as far away as possible before you blow yourself up. This is just scratching the surface of what the Warhammer franchise could do with VR, but it’s undeniably fun all the same.
And it’s a pretty impressive showcase for Quest 2 too, that is when it catches up to you. Battle Sister boasts impressive environmental variety for a Quest 2 game and often looks very sharp for the platform, even in bigger areas. Special mention has to go to the weapon design which is not only authentic but intricately detailed and sure to please even the most demanding of the fanbase. That said, I did encounter a few hard crashes over the course of the campaign and some of the levels are constantly loading in textures, whilst enemy models will inexplicably start to stutter after they’re killed. It can definitely feel wonky at times, and you get the sense Pixel Toys could have benefitted from a month or so more of development, especially with the two-player horde mode not set to arrive until early next year.
Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister Review – Final Impressions
Battle Sister offers mostly clean, mostly forgettable fun, then. It’d likely feel just as at home played on a screen with a controller in hand as it would in VR, but the chance to peer down the sights of a Bolter or exercise righteous justice with a Power Sword will please many a 40K fan. As far as ticking the boxes go for VR shooters, it does enough to warrant a look if your back catalog is empty.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines.
What did you make of our Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister review? Let us know in the comments below!
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister Dev On Campaign Length, Dual-Wielding Bolters And More
Last week we brought you a few updates on anticipated upcoming VR shooter, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister. This week we bring you plenty more.
We sat down with Creative Director James Horn to talk about the upcoming title, which hopes to land on Oculus Quest this December. We’ve already covered the game’s projected December release and plans for multiplayer support, but in the rest of this interview we talk about the meat of the experience itself. Horn touches on the weapons you’ll be wielding in the single-player campaign, how much content to expect and plenty more. Dig in!
UploadVR: So just starting out, obviously you guys are familiar with the series anyway. You’ve, you’ve been working in Warhammer for a long time. I’d love to know how the transition to VR for a new entry came about.
James Horn: Sso it partly came from a sort of shared thing really, which is that we Done Dead on Gear VR and on Quest. And obviously, the Quest version did well and is still doing well and obviously seeing a nice little pickup at the moment as well in terms of sales with Quest 2 as well.
So we’ve done that. The company obviously had done Warhammer: Freeblade back in the day. And then we did Age of Sigma: Realm War, which I was involved with as well, which was a mobile game. They still sell out at the moment. And those two things came together.
We started talking to Oculus about how we’d like to do another game. We looked at the various options and obviously we were chatting with Games Workshop as well. And Games Workshop mentioned they were doing a revamp of the Battle Sisters. They did a new plastic set last Christmas. And at that point we’re like that, that really fits.
The thing with the Battle Sisters, they’re actually really quite interesting in terms of within the lore, because they’re a bit more human than the Space Marines. So whereas Space Marines are — y’know, a Space Marine is as a Space Marine. They’re quite binary in terms of how they work.
Whereas the Battle Sisters, because they’re more human with human scale as well, they have doubts and things like that as well. If you have too many doubts you get burnt or stuck in a Penitent Engine or things like that. But one thing we thought was that they would make a really interesting game because we wanted to make a narrative shooter.
So when I joined Pixel Toys a few years ago to work on Drop Dead I actually wasn’t that interested in zombie games. But what got me interested in it was doing, motion captured story and putting narrative within that. And I was like, wow, you can tell this amazing story, in this really intimate way where, in VR, you have this sort of connection with other characters, if you’re telling a story that way.
And so we wanted to do that. So we wanted to tell a story. We wanted to make an amazing VR shooter as well. And that’s the main thing. It was about how can we do justice to Warhammer 40,000? How can we get that sort of feel of firing a Bolter and seeing the size of a Space Marine next to you and things like that.
So that’s, that’s kind of where it came from.
UploadVR: I’m glad you touched upon the feeling because that’s something that’s very unique to Warhammer, like you say. I’ve always described it as this big kind of chunky shooter. And that’s not what you get in a lot of VR games at the moment, because cause it’s hard, right? Because the controller doesn’t weigh the same as an actual gun and then you put Warhammer in it and the guns aren’t actual guns, they’re these giant things. So that must’ve been a really, really difficult balance for you guys.
James Horn: Yeah, and it’s an ongoing challenge as well. I mean, I think it’s, as I’m sure you’ve probably seen from many of the comments online, actually everybody’s got a different view on what a Bolter should sound like, what a Melter looks like, how it should feel.
And we’ve had that internally as well when we’ve been making the game. Obviously we’ve got a lot of Warhammer fans in the studio and we did find that everyone’s like, “Oh yeah, I think Bolters should sound like this and should look like that and should sound like that”.
And one problem with the Bolter were actually is that if you take the lore really strictly, it’s just so unbelievably overpowered as a weapon, but actually it’s very hard to do that balance. And likewise, the same with the game as well.
You’ve got the Battle Sisters now. Actually a single Battle Sister up against a Chaos Space Marine? There shouldn’t really be a contest, actually. The Chaos Space Marine, according to the lore should absolutely hammer the Battle Sister. So we have to take a little bit of artistic license there.
But also we’ve got the NPCs who were with you alongside. So there’s sister Rosalina, who’s got a massive, great heavy Bolter. So that helps. And you also got brother Julius as well. He’s a Primaris Space Marine. The idea behind that was a little bit to balance that out so that people could suspend their disbelief of the fact that you as a Battle Sister — I mean, obviously you are a superhero Battle Sister because that’s the player, we want to, we want to give that feeling to the player. But ultimately it’s trying to give them that feeling that I can take on a Space Marine with my Bolter.
But from a gameplay point of view obviously that’s a challenge because we’re trying to balance this Bolter where we want it to absolutely rip apart Chaos cultists. So it’s always trying to get that balance. And so obviously that’s been going up and down. I mean, I think you’ve played the demo version. We’ve obviously rebalanced it a lot from that point.
So the Bolter is a lot more powerful. We went away did a complete pass on the audio of the Bolter because I think none of us were particularly happy with how that, where we got to with that for that, for that demo in the summer.
UploadVR: What we want to do is allow people to do those sort of fantasy things that they want to do, which is hard. “Imagine if you had two Bolters!” But we need to make sure that gameplay-wise there’s, there’s a cost to that in terms of accuracy and things like that.
James Horn: So, yes we worked on synergies particularly as well with the sacred rights, which are some of the abilities, which are gesture-based abilities. So we’ve got things like, the best way to describe it is a force push type of act which you can use within gameplay, but also again as an offensive.
But also to do things like put a Chaos Marine off guard slightly to make them stumble. So then you can then come in close, fire your Bolter into their face, but also swinging with your Power Sword, to finish them off. That’s the sort of synergies we’re trying to go with. We want the dual bolt pistols to feel like a good combo as well.
UploadVR: Were all the weapons in the demo what you’ll get in the game or are there more as you go through?
James Horn: So there’s more than the demo. The game’s changed quite a lot since then. So some things we’ve got taken out those early levels and something’s come back in.
So the things like the chainsword that wasn’t in the demo. Obviously a chainsword is an iconic weapon. We’re trying to make sure that has obviously plenty of blood splatter and sufficient amounts of heads being lopped off. There’s one bit I’m particularly proud of actually when you first get the Lasgun.
The Lasgun, in the lore, is always considered to be a little bit not the best gun. It’s the one that Imperial guard use. It’s not as good as the Bolter. But we have a situation later on in the game where you find yourself with no weapons. And so you’re having to sort of find what weapons you can find.
And there’s one bit where you open a cabinet and it’s a Lasgun, oh no. And we actually have a line that goes “Hey, yeah. I’ve found… a Lasgun.” And it’s like, okay, well do the best you can. It’s actually quite good. It seems quite accurate, but it’s not the most powerful weapon in the game.
There’s a Plasma Pistol too. So that has an overcharge mechanic so obviously it heats up as you’re firing it, and then you can actually use it as a grenade, but obviously you lose the gun.
UploadVR: It sounds like your ideas for levels and design are evolving from Drop Dead.
James Horn: Yeah. So part of it comes from, from 6DOF. So Drop Dead was obviously on rails. And so when we looked at that, that obviously brings up a whole load of extra challenges from both the environment point of view, but also from, gameplay and AI point of view.
Because in Drop Dead, the enemies are pretty dumb. They, basically walk towards you, you know. Whereas in our game, we’ve had to write an AI system from scratch with cover and with enraged states and that kind of thing and panic states and stuff like that. And so, that in itself gives a different challenge.
I think there was early on in the year there was a lot of discussion, I think, within the team about how, you know, what sort of game did we want to make actually? What suits that brand best? Is it something like a Doom-type shooter where things are rushing at you or is it something more considered?
I think it is something more considered than Doom. We initially tried that and it just didn’t feel quite right in terms of that sort of rush at you. It was a little bit like Vermintide, which is obviously a good thing. So there was definitely stuff we liked about that. And so that’s why some of our enemies are quite fast.
UploadVR: What kind of scope can people expect how in terms of hours, different levels, different types of environments?
James Horn: For different types of environments that we’ve got, there’s quite a range from what you’ve seen on the demo. So you begin out in the sort of trenches of a planet. What we wanted to have with that sort of dropped into the middle of a Warhammer 40,000 moment, really. So that was why we had the Imperial Knights fighting in the background and the Rhinos trembling, overhead.
So that’s the first area, then we go on ahead to the Cathedrum which is one of the orbiting cathedrals and some stuff kicks off. Then we head down onto a sort of dead ash planet and there’s a whole sort of thing through ruins there. Then we’ve got some spaceship action a little bit later on.
So yeah, the experiences is — we talk about it being around about five to six hours. I think it’s probably a bit more than that actually, for people who are coming to it fresh, but certainly, it sits around five to six hours, I’d say.
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister comes to Quest this December.
Quest FPS Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister Aiming For December Launch, Other Platforms Being Considered
Upcoming VR first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister won’t be releasing this month, but it is aiming for December.
We had originally thought the Oculus Quest title would arrive on November 12th but, in an interview with UploadVR, James Horn, Creative Lead/Project Director at Pixel Toys explained that that date had actually been shared by accident and that the team is instead hoping to release in December.
Warhammer Battle Sister Release Date Nearing
In Battle Sister, you play as a member of the titular group and fight through a full single-player campaign pitted against iconic 40K creations. We’ve played the first level (see gameplay above) and came away impressed with the game’s scope, though did note some technical hitches. Waiting a little longer for the game gives us hope that those flaws will be ironed out in time for release.
Still, December isn’t far away now and it means Battle Sister should be arriving quite far in front of the other Warhammer VR game on the horizon, the recently-announced Tempestfall.
But what about other platforms? Horn says there are plans for that too. The company is aiming to release on the Oculus Rift next and is looking into other devices beyond that. “So Rift will be next year,” he said. “And then beyond that, we are investigating other options as well. That’s one thing which I think took us back a little bit is how much people wanted to play on other platforms.”
Horn didn’t specify exactly when and where we might see the game, but hopefully SteamVR and PSVR releases are on the table.
We’ll have more from our talk with Pixel Toys later in the week so keep your eyes peeled. Will you be checking out Battle Sister? Let us know in the comments below!
‘Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall’ Coming to PC VR & Quest Next Year
Carbon Studio, the developers behind The Wizards and Alice VR, today announced they’re working on a new made-for-VR game in the Warhammer universe.
Called Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, the VR exclusive is set to launch on PC VR and Oculus Quest sometime in 2021.
With Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, this makes for the second Warhammer universe game coming to VR following the announce of first-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, which Pixel Toys is planning to release sometime this year.
There’s still little known about the Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall so far. Here’s Carbon Studios’ description:
Become a mighty Lord-Arcanum, wielder of storm magic, and lead a Stormcast Eternal task force to recover your brethren’s lost souls. Walk the lands of Shyish and battle forces of Nighthaunt using a variety of melee weapons, powerful staves, and motion-based abilities and magic.
In the adventure RPG-style game, you’ll be able to battle with melee weapons and “powerful staves to combat forces of Nighthaunt,” the studio says on the game’s Steam page.
The studio says it will include a full story campaign set in the realm of Shyish following the Necroquake. There’s also a teaser trailer, linked below.
The post ‘Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall’ Coming to PC VR & Quest Next Year appeared first on Road to VR.
Warhammer 40,000 VR FPS Coming To Oculus Quest And Rift Platforms Later This Year
Announced at Facebook Connect, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister is an upcoming single player first-person shooter for VR. It will be available for Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2 and Oculus Rift later this year.
The game is set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000, one of the most popular miniature tabletop war games, which has since spun off into a few related video games. You’ll play a veteran Sister of Battle called Sister Orphelia in a campaign where she “searches for her lost twin sister and fights for the future of humanity itself.” Here’s a description of the weapons and gameplay mechanics you’ll have access to:
Battle Sister features a range of iconic wargear from the Warhammer 40,000 universe for players to actually wield, for the first time, in their own hands, legendary weapons including Bolters, Plasma Pistols, Flamers, Las Rifles, Power Swords and Chainswords. As well as these devastating weapons the player has access to Acts of Faith. These powerful abilities can turn the tide of battle by allowing players to slow time, create a resilient force field, and push back enemies and objects.
The game is being developed by Pixel Toys, the studio that previously developed Oculus Quest launch title Drop Dead: Dual Strike. Not only does the studio have experience developing for VR, but they’ve also worked with the Warhammer 40,000 IP before, developing mobile games like Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade.
There’s no word on pricing or a specific release date for Battle Sister just yet, except that it will launch before the end of the year for Rift and Quest platforms.
Cross-Platform Multiplayer The Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth Arrives Tomorrow
Having announced The Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth last month for PC as well as virtual reality (VR) players, Steel Wool Studios will be bringing the title to Steam Early Access tomorrow, supporting both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
The first official Warhammer 40k videogame for VR, The Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth puts you in command of Ultramarine Legionnaires, based on Games Workshop’s fan-favorite Betrayal at Calth tabletop game, set during the Horus Heresy era.
For those interested in the full story – and a lot of Warhammer 40k fans are – the experience is: “Set in the 31st Millennium on the planet of Calth, you play as Magos Ohmnal Sarc, a tech priest of the Mechanicus caught in conflict as Brother Legions of Space Marines take arms against one another. When Sarc discovers corrupted data in the data stream, he must tactically command his unit of noble Ultramarines against a faction of traitorous Word Bearers. Out-wit and thwart their devious plot to corrupt the Imperium and disrupt the future of mankind.”
With a single-player campaign and multiplayer PvP skirmish mode, for Early Access the campaign features the first act while the multiplayer has four maps and two play modes (Deathmatch and Objective Based).
“Steam Early Access lets us roll out an evolving narrative and tons of gameplay depth and strategies over the coming months,” said Joshua Qualtieri, Co-Founder and Head of Development. “And, it gives us the chance to embrace the feedback from core-Warhammer gamers. We’ve already made significant upgrades from the support of our Live Alpha program, including speeding up the gameplay, new unit commands that includes shooting while moving abilities, and visual and UX enhancements to the PC mode.”
Early Access is expected to last between 6 to 8 months, fully launching when the final single player Act is completed. Updates over the next few months will include new chapters with new maps, weapons, abilities and units.
The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth launches with a limited-time 17 percent discount, dropping the cost from the regular $29.99 USD price down to $24.99. All players will have the option to play either in VR or on gaming PCs. VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth, reporting back with the latest updates.
Warhammer 40K is Coming to VR With The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth
Indie virtual reality (VR) developer Steel Wool Studios has already made a name for itself with titles like Quar: Battle for Gate 18 and puzzle title Bounce but now it’s taking on a much bigger beast, getting the license for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe to build The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth for PC and VR players.
The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth is a tactical turn-based strategy videogame where you control units of Ultramarine Legionnaires, guiding them through the underground arcologies of Calth. From basic Legionnaires, Veterans, and Sergeants, to elite units of Terminators, and the Contemptor Dreadnought, you’ll have their full arsenal at your disposal with which to slay the heretical Word Bearers. Whether that’s using the ranged accuracy of Bolters, Plasma Guns, Flamers, and Rocket Launchers, to the close combat might of Chainswords, Power Fists, and Lightning Claws.
Featuring a single-player campaign and multiplayer PvP skirmish mode, the former has 24 combat scenarios exploring the conflict between two factions of Space Marines. In the multiplayer skirmish mode you’ll be able to choose between the Ultramarine and Word Bearer factions. Steel Wool Studios also plans on adding more character classes as the title nears its final release..
“Our team has always wanted to play a Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy game where you actually felt like you were in the midst of the battle… where your mastery had true consequence,” said Joshua Qualtieri, Co-Founder and Head of Development in a statement. “We can’t wait for fans like us to play this game and let us know how they feel and what we can improve on. That’s the great spirit of Early Access.”
The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth will feature support for Oculus Rift with Touch and HTC Vive support, as well as cross-platform gameplay in the multiplayer with standard PC users.
The Steam Early Access launch is planned for ‘early 2018’ state the studio, featuring the skirmish mode and Act 1 of the single-player. As the title is updated further, VRFocus will keep you informed of the latest announcements.
‘Dawn of War III’ to launch on April 27, pre-order bonuses now live
If you like your in-game units to stand out from the crowd, pre-ordering Dawn of War III will net you several unique skins for your units. If you want to spend more though, the special editions offer some interesting perks.
The post ‘Dawn of War III’ to launch on April 27, pre-order bonuses now live appeared first on Digital Trends.