XReal Games released a major Zero Caliber: Reloaded update last weel, adding three new maps, upgraded visuals and more on Quest.
Marking the first Zero Caliber: Reloaded update in over seven months, XReal Games announced that the Raid, Wharf, and Train PvP maps are now live, alongside a redesigned Waterbase boss fight. Each weapon and some environments received visual improvements, full-body character models can now be switched off, updated holster handling for grabbing different items “should now be much more comfortable,” while new settings include customizable controller mapping. You can watch the new update trailer below:
There’s some big changes but XReal Games says they aren’t done with Zero Caliber yet. In a press release, the developer confirms cross-platform multiplayer support for PvP is in development, alongside a “highly anticipated, top-secret game mode to be revealed soon.” Native mod support is also coming for the Quest and PC VR editions, though that’s being split between two phases. XReal states Phase I will let you create PvP and single-player/co-op missions, while Phase II introduces customizing weapons, character models and game modes.
XReal also offered a brief update on Gambit! in its press release, which was previously delayed into Q1 2023. Claiming it’s putting “the final touches” onto this upcoming VR co-operative shooter, it’s been delayed once again into “the coming months.” A new release window wasn’t announced, though XReal claims they will reveal this alongside some “exclusive sneak peeks” soon.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded is available now on the Meta Quest platform for $24.99.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded, the Quest version of the modern FPS, is getting PvP support soon.
Developer XREAL Games recently confirmed that the standalone edition of the game will get the long-promised mode on July 28. You can see some gameplay from the update in a new trailer below.
Zero: Caliber Reloaded PvP Nears Release
Right now we know that Reloaded PvP will include 4v4 matches with four game modes: Gungame, Team DeathMatch, Death Match and Capture the Flag). This will bring the game up to the same amount of features as rivals like Contractors. We’ll definitely be interested to see how Zero Caliber’s offerings stack up next to those other titles.
As for the original Zero Caliber on PC? XREAL says PvP support is still coming this year and that these modes will have cross-play with the Quest version. That’s significant given that Reloaded currently isn’t cross-play with the original game when it comes to campaign co-op given the differences in missions. From the sounds of it the PvP is being developed to make sure both versions specifically work together.
Mod support for the PvP is also due to arrive later in the year.
Elsewhere XREAL is also working on its upcoming co-op shooter, Gambit. We revealed a first look at gameplay during the Upload VR Showcase last month.
Will you be checking out Zero Caliber’s PvP options? Let us know in the comments below!
The long-awaited PSVR version of VR shooter, Zero Caliber, will now be based on the Quest version of the game, named Zero Caliber: Reloaded.
Developer XREAL confirmed the news last week, noting that the original plan to port the PC VR version of the game to the platform couldn’t be done without cutting content and features. Rather than continue with a compromised version of the game, the studio instead decided to bring the work it had already been doing creating a new version of Zero Caliber for Quest over to PSVR too.
Zero Caliber PSVR News
The shooter hit the standalone platform earlier this year as Zero Caliber: Reloaded. This experience features a lot of the core mechanics and levels, but XREAL retooled them to fit on the platform. As a result the game still has four-player co-op, but it doesn’t feature cross-play with the PC VR version. At release, we thought the experience offered a fun shooter experience, but some core design issues held it back.
The studio assured that it was already seeing “great results” bringing the Quest version to the console.
The PC version of the game, meanwhile, remains in Early Access. XREAL has stressed it will be updating the project, but work continues on refining the Quest version of the game at the moment, which in turn is benefitting the PC build. Just two weeks back the Quest version got an update that added a survival game mode and a new weapon, and there have been plenty of other Quality of Life improvements since launch.
Back in May XREAL Games brought its military shooter Zero Caliber to Oculus Quest in the form of Zero Caliber: Reloaded, rebuilding the experience for the standalone headset. Today, the studio has released its sixth update for the videogame, adding a new gameplay mode, more maps, guns and a few additional cosmetic extras.
The main focus of the update is the new Survival mode which supports both solo and four-player co-op. As you might expect, the mode is all about surviving for as long as possible, made a little bit easier if you are teamed up. Everyone starts with a basic pistol and as you clear waves gain access to better weapons and attachments via supply drops. Whilst you can slug it out for as long as possible, at a certain point between the waves you can leave by calling for extraction, although it’s not clear why you might do this.
XREAL Games has created two specific maps for the Survival mode, Critical Mass and The VIP, each with its own challenges. Critical Mass is a CQB map, players have to defend a stationary nuclear bomb while waves ofTlalokii soldiers try to sabotage the objective. The VIP changes the objective up by tasking players with keeping ‘Bob’ alive, who’ll be fighting alongside them.
In addition to all of this, Zero Caliber: Reloaded will see the M249 light machine gun make its debut, a HAMR Scope and 3 new weapon skins. Two of these skins can only be obtained by playing through the Survival mode.
Whilst it might be the sixth update XREAL Games has released for Zero Caliber: Reloaded, the team says the launch marks the first in series of bigger updates for the title without specifying what could be next. However, there was a tease regarding the PlayStation VR and SteamVR versions in the series. Zero Caliber VR is currently available as a Steam Early Access videogame whilst a PlayStation VR version has long been talked about. Hopefully, details should be dropping this week about both, most likely official launch dates for both.
When those details do arrive VRFocus will let you know.
Ever-busy VR developers, XREAL Games, will have new content for modern military VR shooter, Zero Caliber Reloaded on Oculus Quest this week. Oh, and there’s news about other editions of the game to come too.
XREAL took to Twitter to confirm that new maps, a new game mode and the M249 light machine gun will hit the Quest version of the cooperative shooter this Thursday in a free update. No word yet on exactly what the maps and mode will entail, but given that Reloaded is a retooled version of the original Zero Caliber on PC, it’s possible we see more content from that version of the game come over to the standalone headset. Or it could be something brand new.
New Zero Caliber Updates
It’s just one of a number of updates XREAL has released for the game since launch back in May. The developer has also updated the visuals and overhauled the AI.
In a follow-up Tweet, XREAL also confirmed that news for the PSVR and PC VR versions of the game would arrive on Friday. Zero Caliber is still in Early Access on PC and has been promised on PSVR for a while, so hopefully we could be getting news on the full release dates for both editions. The PC VR version itself hasn’t seen an update since Quest launch.
What are you hoping to see out of this week’s news? Let us know in the comments below!
XREAL’s Zero Caliber: Reloaded has been updated once more, now with improved visual effects and enemy AI.
As revealed on the developer’s blog, Update 4 released last week with these two major additions. Visually, the game continues to get closer to the PC version of the game; new weather effects like a thunderstorm and visual frost can be seen in relevant levels, and explosions and bullet impacts have been made to look more convincing. It even goes right down to changing the muzzle flash depending on if the player is using a suppressor or not.
As for AI, XREAL says enemies are now “much sharper and their aiming is much faster”, and they’ll be using cover from new angles and even sprint towards cover too. Elsewhere this update has some other tweaks, like changing the Inspection map to nighttime and adding in the ability to change holster positions.
There are still updates to come to the game’s AI, and the developer will be adding bHaptics support in the future too. The team also teased it’s working on new modes and challenges, but didn’t have anything specific to share just yet.
It’s good to see Zero Caliber getting updates like this as we pointed to underwhelming AI as one of a few issues the game suffered from at launch. “Zero Caliber: Reloaded is painfully close to getting all the way there,” we said, giving the game 3/5. “It’s got some of VR’s best weapon handling and incredible customization alongside an admirable effort to deliver the full shooter campaign we all crave.”
How does the Quest version of Zero Caliber stack up next to the PC VR version? Find out in our Zero Caliber graphics comparison!
Released yesterday on Quest, Zero Caliber: Reloaded is a retooled version of the PC VR experience (which is still in Early Access). It features many of the same levels and weapons as the original game, but respecs them to run on the standalone headset. That means there’s no cross-play, but you still get a full campaign with four-player co-op. We think the Quest experience is decent, though it has its flaws.
Zero Caliber Graphics Comparison
Visually, though Zero Caliber is one of the better-looking PC VR games out there, and there’s obviously a big change moving over to Quest. In the video above we focus on two levels and the game’s lobby area. You’ll notice missing environmental effects on Quest, a higher enemy count on PC and other changes to assets and geometry. It’s also interesting to note that the PC game gives you full-body representation whereas Quest simply has a pair of floating hands. Having said that, the game still plays incredibly well on standalone – weapons still look great and handle authentically and missions are fun either in solo or co-op play.
Do keep in mind that the game isn’t compatible between Quest and PC, though, so if you’re planning to play with friends make sure you have the right version!
Reloaded is out now on Oculus Quest. What did you think of our Zero Caliber graphics comparison? Let us know in the comments below!
All these online, multiplayer-focused military shooters are all well and good but sometimes you just want a nice single-player campaign to delve into. XREAL Games has provided PC VR players with this outlet for several years now thanks to Zero Caliber, a realistic first-person shooter (FPS) with obsessive attention to weapon detail. Now it’s Oculus Quest’s turn with Zero Caliber: Reloaded, rebuilt from the ground up for the standalone platform.
Now we say single-player but Zero Caliber: Reloaded does in fact offer a co-op multiplayer experience for up to four people, so you can bring some mates along. You’ll still be playing the same 20+ mission campaign but at least you can have a laugh with friends, appreciating some of the videogames’ finer and rougher moments.
XREAL Games presents a fairly run-of-the-mill story-driven campaign where you’re dropped into a war-torn, dystopian America fighting a bunch of bad guys. While the narrative won’t exactly keep you gripped until the end – there didn’t seem to be much point in paying attention to it – Zero Caliber: Reloaded’s main draw is its gun handling, loadout customisation options and almost fetishistic attention to detail when it comes to the armaments.
Whether you’re playing solo or with friends completing missions quickly and with high accuracy will award you cash to spend on your kit whilst advancing your character level to unlock new goodies. And there’s an absolutely huge selection of kit to play with, maybe too much. You can head into missions with two weapons, with the usual array of rifles, SMG’s, shotguns, and pistols to play with. Then there’s are the bewildering array of attachments; stocks, extended mags, sights, and grips, you name it it’s probably there.
Such is the amount that you’ll want to come back to the main hub every couple of missions to examine what you’ve got to further improve your chances on the next level. The attention to weapon detail isn’t purely visual either – although that’s definitely where a lot of time has been spent – as every gun excels when it comes to handling. Choose to fire one-handed and you’ll notice the recoil, so the mechanics do lean towards a more measured approach rather than running and gunning. It’s helpful stepping into the firing range after unlocking a new gun, learning where the mags/shells go and how to cock the damn thing, as each one is accurately modelled on its real-life counterpart.
The same goes for the grenades. In fact, unlike some VR titles where grenade throwing feels like an element of luck is involved, in Zero Caliber: Reloaded each throw always landed fairly on point. Plus, being able to pull a pin with your teeth is always fun and immersive.
Another great feature is the ability to hot-swap attachments in the field. Levels will contain the occasional weapon cache, usually containing a gun or two or maybe the odd extra. Find a new (better) gun for the situation and you can quickly and easily take any of the attachments off your previous weapon rather than losing them. If you die then you’ll reset back to your original loadout of course.
Big plus points where the guns are concerned, so it’s a shame that that attention to detail doesn’t come across in every other aspect. Zero Caliber: Reloaded isn’t exactly the best looking VR title when it comes to environments and NPC’s even considering the hardware it’s running on. Outside suffers the most, with some dodgy-looking foliage popping up, while inside buildings or more urban locations do fair a bit better.
And then there are the enemies. Variety and brains seem to be missing here as a bunch of shirtless dudes suddenly react in baffling ways. The AI veers widely from reasonably smart to idiotic. Some will start behind or head to cover taking pot shots then suddenly charge like they’re in a Serious Sam game. Others just stand there in the middle of the road. Get up close and they’ll do a roll for no advantage whatsoever, these are the ‘shotgun morons’ as once they stand up you can have a shotty already in their face.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded also presents other issues. There are definitely still glitches to iron out, enemies get stuck or clip through cover or a padlock on a door appears 5x the size, almost comedic in its dimensions. And then there’s the weapon belt, body inventory. In these types of VR videogames, it’s always nice when there’s no HUD, everything is on you and easy to grab. Yet in Zero Caliber: Reloaded it all felt a foot too far forward, with seemingly no way of adjusting the distance. This meant that when a gun had the grip attachment on, the handle would be in among the floating grenades. Or worse, if a gun has a cocking arm at the front then the grenades were in the way again. At the same time, the ‘weapon belt’ isn’t on your hips which gave a less than realistic feel to grabbing a new mag.
That’s not to say there weren’t enjoyable moments in Zero Caliber: Reloaded. Once you got a nicely tailored setup then dropping into a mission, kneeling behind over and taking some well-aimed headshots was very satisfying. Solo, the missions can get a bit simple and repetitive, clearing your way through an area or defending it, so having a few teammates can liven things up. Missions can last anywhere between 5-15 minutes and there are a few which have you backtracking to extend their duration.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded for Oculus Quest is a very mixed experience. On the one hand, the weapons are great and you could easily spend hours in the shooting range mixing and matching components. The 4-5 hour campaign is ok until you get further in and notice some of the glaring issues and glitches like the AI or the rather bland design choices. Best played on the hardest difficulty setting for any real challenge, Zero Caliber: Reloaded gets enough right to be worth a look, but only just.
Is this latest Oculus Quest FPS worth a look? Find out in our Zero Caliber: Reloaded review!
It might not exactly be the most wholesome game, but Zero Caliber: Reloaded still has its heart in the right place. You can sense, amongst the noisy shootouts and explosions, a genuine desire to meet the many, lofty demands of the VR shooter fanbase. And developer XREAL gets a lot right in its mission to satisfy — in some ways more than most other shooters on Quest — but Reloaded is somewhat constrained by technical hiccups and core design issues.
For some, the elevator pitch might be enough to sell on its own; Reloaded is a retooled version of the PC VR version of Zero Caliber that (wisely) keeps a wide berth from the saturated competitive multiplayer scene. Instead of an ill-fated attempt to take on Onward and Pavlov, XREAL offers up a full campaign for either single-player or co-op with up to four friends. Tutorials included there are 23 individual levels, with earlier missions taking around five to ten minutes and later stages stretching out to 15 minutes or more. Some quick napkin math will tell you that’s a modest amount of game – not the longest campaign by any standards but a decent four to five hours that can go even longer when tackling higher difficulty modes and replaying levels with friends.
For much of that time, Reloaded delivers core VR shooter thrills. This is a game that leans into the platform’s strengths, often literally. Though it’s less concerned with realism than some of its rivals it’s far from a run and gun shooter – firefights require you to hunker down behind the best possible cover and lean out with an eye trained to your weapon sights. Compared to the head-spinning speed of recent games like Alvo and Doom 3 VR, it’s incredibly refreshing to get back to basics and rediscover some of the mechanics that feel really unique to VR, like blind-firing around corners when your health is low or crouching down to the ground to find a new angle on the enemy.
Fans of the original Zero Caliber will know that its real claim to fame, though, is its exhaustive and authentic weapon customization and handling. Crucially, it’s survived the transition to Quest fully intact. There are a lot of guns in Reloaded, from rifles and pistols to SMGs and shotguns, and you can really feel the individual craftsmanship XREAL has put into each. The P90, for example, needs clips inserted from the top, and every firearm has some kind of pin, handle or lever to adjust for a satisfying ‘click’ before you can return fire. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses – the AK-47 feels convincingly vicious as it rattles about in close quarters, while my personal choice, the ??? LMG rips through enemies but springs out of your arms if fired with one hand and is tricky to use in tight spaces, especially when contending with the game’s light-but-appreciated physics systems.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded Review – The Facts
What is it?: A modern military VR FPS with a full campaign to play in single-player or with up to three friends. Platforms: Quest Release Date: May 13th Price: $24.99
Not everything’s perfect; climbing surfaces is cumbersome compared to the breezy scaling in Population: One, and reviving teammates is overly streamlined to the point of just standing on top of them for a second. But overall it’s impressively realized – even throwing grenades feels easier and more accurate than it does in most other games.
Hefty combat is paired with a staggered progression system that unlocks new weapons as you rise through the ranks, though they still need to be bought with cash earned during play. This is where the game gets really technical; there’s an unending supply of laser sights, grips and scopes to peruse, more than was probably necessary, but the chance to head back to the lobby and completely reevaluate my loadout after every few levels helped keep my intrigue in the campaign. Each of these is detachable, too, so if you find another weapon you want to try mid-level, you can swap out your attachments in seconds. You can even do this between friends during co-op sessions; there’s an incredible amount of versatility in it.
What lets Reloaded down, then, is an assortment of the same old factors: a variety of technical hiccups, underwhelming AI and simplistic, problematic and repetitive mission design.
None of these factors are troubling enough to ruin the experience but each gets time to do some damage and, strangely, they seem to scale with the player count. Some missions are seemingly designed for a smaller number of players while others feel dependent on a group of four. Finding the right size for each mission hurts its consistency; smaller missions in Reloaded play out as intended with two players enacting careful, concise gunfights that are overcome with proper communication and teamwork. But, even on the hardest difficulty, a full team of four will likely outpace the mission’s structure. One level descended into chaos when we seemed to tear through the enemy faster than it could keep up with. Previously cleared rooms suddenly had new soldiers appearing from thin air, and we found ourselves fighting the restrictive ‘active mission’ zone, which moves along with objectives. At one point we even had enemies camping right on top of the spawn point.
On the flip side, there’s a great mission later on with an expansive warzone and front lines to defend, but the odds are really stacked against you in single-player. At the very least the game could use some sort of indicator for what player count is suited to which level.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded Review – Comfort
Zero Caliber: Reloaded is a smooth locomotion game with some options to help mitigate sickness. It’s also a very physicaly active game that requires lots of leaning and crouching, so keep that in mind.
Bugs aren’t just limited to mission design; I also found my hand getting stuck in my rifle quite often and both myself and one of my teammates encountered a frustrating issue where controller tracking seemed to bug out in-game while it was fine in the Oculus menu. Mix in some full-on crashes when transitioning between levels and enemies getting stuck on geometry and Reloaded feels like it could have used more time to iron these issues out.
Even with the four-player issues to one side, though, some problems persist. Enemy AI isn’t as dumb as you might fear but still not quite up to the standard you might hope. They’re able to take cover, find vantage points and even roll out of the way of incoming fire, but you’ll also find them obliviously standing out in wide-open battlefields and turning away from you in the middle of a firefight. They’re complete bullet sponges, too, and easily shake off anything other than a straight headshot. It robs the game of some of that lethal proficiency that comes with well-placed shots.
It’s a similar story for the overall mission design, which clearly strives for variety but, at best, only maintains the illusion of it. Objective types almost always boil down to simply clearing an area full of enemies in the same way you’ve been doing right from the start – there are defend and destroy orders but they don’t significantly change up the gameplay and some areas get too crowded with four players. That said, XREAL has gone to great lengths to provide environmental variety, from icy skirmishes to the uniquely disgusting experience of standing in human waste in sewers. Reloaded isn’t what you’d call a looker — and the pop-in on vegetation and other objects is very noticeable — but it does a decent job given the hardware it’s running on.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded Review – Final Impressions
Zero Caliber: Reloaded is painfully close to getting all the way there. It’s got some of VR’s best weapon handling and incredible customization alongside an admirable effort to deliver the full shooter campaign we all crave. And, a lot of the time, that’s enough – hunkering down into cover, reloading your weapon and then leaning out to score a headshot doesn’t tire over the course of the 4 – 5 hour campaign. But the game is also plagued with familiar issues like underwhelming enemy AI, and its missions seem to cater to different numbers of players, creating an uneven experience throughout. It’s still an easy recommendation for anyone starved for single-player or co-op campaigns on Quest, but there’s plenty of room for VR shooters to grow from here.
For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines. What did you make of our Zero Caliber: Reloaded review? Let us know in the comments below!
XREAL’s Zero Caliber: Reloaded is coming to Oculus Quest tomorrow, but we’ve got a first look at co-op gameplay right here.
Check out 19 minutes of co-op footage below. This standalone version of the game — which is an altogether different release from Zero Caliber on PC — features a full campaign with multiple levels that you can tackle either in single-player or with up to three friends in a co-op mode.
Zero Caliber: Reloaded Oculus Quest Co-Op Gameplay
In the video above we tackle two levels with two players, first fighting through the streets before clearing out the sewers below. And, yes, the sewer level does start with you standing knee-deep in, uh, sludge. It’s a new experience for VR, to say the least.
Another big feature for Zero Caliber is its weapon feel and customization – there are tons of unique rifles, SMGs and more in the game that can then be fitted with grips, sights and more. You unlock new upgrades by buying them with cash earned through playing along with a leveling system. It’s one of the most unique features of the PC game and it’s made the transition to Quest quite well.
We’ll have a full review of the game tomorrow but I will say our initial impressions (based on the first third or so of the campaign) are quite positive, even if the game has its fair share of issues like bugs you might spot in the video above. Still, if you’re a modern shooter fan that doesn’t want to play the PvP modes in Onward, Pavlov or Contractors, make sure to check back for our full verdict tomorrow.
