Looking to immerse yourself into Sword Art Online (SAO)? While there are plenty of VR games that offer the sort of massive multiplayer immersion fans of the manga and anime series have craved over the years, a game built for Quest Pro and Quest 2 has recreated probably the best/worst part of the series: its lovably bad user interface (UI).
Called Subspace Hunter, the SideQuest-only game is essentially in very early access at this point. The demo lets you spawn a certain number of swords, magic, guns, and thirteen monsters, developer XuKing Studio explains on the game’s SideQuest page.
The cheap and cheerful demo (it’s free) is unabashedly inspired by SAO through and through, even including a one-handed sword very similar to protagonist Kirito’s Dark Repulser blade. YouTuber ‘GingasVR’ shows off the demo in action:
While the low poly baddies aren’t anything to write home about, it’s the loyal adherence to Sword Art Online’s lovably obtuse UI that brings it all together, making it feel strangely more immersive than it might without it—and that’s despite the likelihood no professional XR developer in their right minds would design such a system for real-time battle.
In case you didn’t catch the video above, to select a weapon you don’t just pull out a virtual backpack, or reach over your shoulder like in many other VR games. Instead, you need to bring up the menu with a sweeping two-finger swiping gesture, select through three different 2D submenus, and then physically confirm your selection. Although that’s no more complicated than ordering through a fastfood kiosk, it’s not really the best system for immersive, real-time action games. Thankfully, you can control when monsters spawn, otherwise you probably wouldn’t have enough time to muck about.
That’s probably why we don’t see these sorts of dense 2D menus in modern VR games. But then again, it was never designed for any sort of game in the first place, since the anime aired in 2012 well before the Oculus Rift DK1 even arrived on Kickstarter backers’ doorsteps. By now though, the industry has mostly figured that 2D menus generally feel pretty bad to use in VR, making SAO’s fictional UI feel distinctly like a holdover from the gaming days of yore (think turn-based RPGs).
As it is, fiction typically does a pretty poor job across the board of predicting how UI actually evolves. Film and TV oftentimes prioritize large, overly complex movements and cluttered UI elements that just don’t really translate to real life. Tom Cruise’s cybergloves in Minority Report (2002) are a shining example.
You don’t see platform holders or individual games copying Minority Report not because it doesn’t look cool, but because it introduces unnecessary friction. It’s both tiring in the long term and unintuitive to new users in the short term—two things developers really have to pay attention to if they want players returning to their game or app. It’s basically the same thing for SAO, albeit on a smaller scale.
To be clear, this isn’t a dump on Subspace Hunter. The melee-focused MR demo offers SAO fans a very nice slice of immersion which is baked into a suitably pint-sized package. Critically, Subspace Hunter isn’t overreaching with promises of a VRMMOPRG the scale and depth of SAO either, which is probably where such a system might wear out its welcome. Whatever the case, there’s something stupidly charming about those sweeping hand motions, and the fitful hunt-and-pecking of 2D menus.
It seems like the studio has some very real ambitions to develop Subspace Hunter further, and you’re not going to have threaten me with the risk of explosive brain death to play either. I’ll just play.
Derail Valley, the train simulator for VR and PC, launched into Early Access in 2019, positioning itself as the most realistic train sim out there. While Derail Valley is still in early access, indie studio Altfuture says locomotive fans can now jump back into the game and find a ton of new features waiting for them in what it calls an “enormous” update.
The so-called ‘Simulator’ update includes a load of new content, including dynamic VR hands, new locomotives, better world simulation, sandbox mode, and more.
Here’s all of the new and updated bits available in the Simulator update:
The studio says there are still a few things left to do, including adding the S060 locomotive, DE6 slug, Steam Deck input layout, RailDriver support, and “a couple more smaller things,” the studio says in Steam news post. “Rest assured that the mentioned two vehicles will be added very soon, in a couple of weeks.”
If you’ve played Derail Valley before with mods, Altfuture also warns that most, if not all pre-Simulator mods will no longer work, and will have to be updated by the community in the coming weeks and months, to become functional again.
Despite the size of the update, the studio says the game will remain in early access “potentially, for years to come” since they intend on adding more features and content going forward.
“We’ll keep at it for as long as possible, in our mission to make Derail Valley the best train simulator in the world,” Altfuture says.
You can get Derail Valley on Steam and Oculus PC, priced at $40.
Carbon Studio, the developers behind Crimen – Mercenary Tales, The Wizards, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall, released a new narrative-driven VR game that’s packed with logic puzzles and what the studio calls “a bizarre story taking place at the very core of your subconscious.”
Called Mindset, the Quest 2 exclusive makes good use of Quest 2’s hand-tracking tech, letting players tackle the game’s complex cubic puzzles either with Touch controllers or with their bare hands. Here, you’ll test your intelligence, dexterity, and deduction skills on an array of cubic puzzles.
Here’s how Carbon Studio describes the head-scratching action:
Each cube has one or more starting gears that spin around from the very beginning of each level. To complete the level, you have to set the last gear in motion. You can achieve this by grabbing other gears from a pool of available parts and slotting them into place. To make things a bit trickier, gears can only be placed on special pins—some of which are dependent on the state of other pins, often placed on the other side of the cube. If you take one out, another may hide and ruin your plan. But with the right sequence, this combination may change. You’ll also be dealing with gravity pins, pins sliding on special rails, and more to keep you on your toes.
Across the game’s three-chapter narrative, you’ll step into the shoes of a brilliant scientist named Jack who must fight to regain consciousness in the game’s otherworldly waking dream. To return to the world of the living, you must delve deep into your subconscious, navigate moral dilemmas, and uncover just what happened to you in the first place.
SPACE BALL is a sports game currently free on Quest that mashes up Gorilla Tag’s movement scheme and the fast-paced gameplay of Rocket League. Indie VR studio 31 Labs announced it’s bringing the game to PC VR headsets next month.
The competitive multiplayer game offers up a number of modes, including Basketball, Soccer and Handball modes, letting players can go 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 online, or play against bots to practice their skills.
Gorilla Tag and its knuckle-dragging locomotion scheme has definitely influenced Space Ball too, as players move about the field by pushing off the arena floor, also letting you execute boosts mid-air for quicker gameplay.
Space Ball is already available for free on Quest App Lab, but starting July 13th it will be launching for free on Steam Early Access too. It’s still early days for Space Ball, so if you’re looking for a match, you might want to join the game’s Discord (invite link) to find like-minded rocket-gorillas such as yourself.
To see Space Ball in action, check out a full introduction to the game from YouTuber ‘SpookyFairy VR’ for a quick look at gameplay:
Synapse is the latest action game from veteran VR studio nDreams, built exclusively for PSVR 2. While you’ll do plenty of shooting, players are also equipped with a telekinetic superpower that feels great as a core mechanic. But does the rest of the game live up to it? Read on to find out.
Synapse Details:
Available On: PSVR 2 (exclusive) Release Date: July 4th, 2023 Price: $35 Developer: nDreams
Gameplay
Editor’s Note: Gameplay clips may not appear with cookies disabled, click ‘View clip’ to see them in a separate window.
Synapse is a roguelite shooter where you’ll be blasting baddies with a weapon in one hand and controlling a telekinetic force power with the other. The game’s telekinesis ability is finely tuned, relying on PSVR 2’s eye-tracking to target whichever item you’re looking at. Look at a box and pull the trigger and suddenly you’re controlling its movements from afar. Look at an exploding barrel and pull the trigger and now you can toss it over to some enemies before pulling the trigger even harder to make it explode. Oh, and when you eventually get the ability to pick up enemies with your power, you’ll really enjoy launching them into the sky or send them crashing into the ground.
Over many years I’ve wondered why we haven’t seen a major VR game built around a ‘gravity gun’ like mechanic. It seems so natural to want to interact with virtual worlds using interesting physics mechanics rather than just shooting.
Well Synapse definitely proves out the mechanic with a strong core implementation that feels a little bit like magic thanks to the eye-tracking targeting which generally works well (just don’t forget to recalibrate your eye-tracking). It’s undeniably fun to look at an enemy, pick them up, and send them flying to a timely demise.
I also enjoyed the use of a two-stage trigger when it comes to manipulating explosive barrels—a light trigger pull lets you lift the barrel, while a full trigger pull makes it explode. It feels very intuitive while at the same time challenging you to think more carefully in the heat of battle about which object you’re controlling. It can feel effortless to see a barrel on the other side of the room, pick it up, then quickly hover it over to a group of enemies before crushing it to blow them away.
While I was hoping that there would be an increasing number of ways to interact with the environment using telekinesis, there’s little evolution on that front. You can control boxes, barrels, platforms, and (with later unlocks) enemies and grenades. But that’s about it. While the core mechanic feels great, it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t evolve into something more.
In your other hand you’ll start with a pistol which is about as standard as you’d expect, though nDreams adapted the great reloading system from Fracked to give Synapse an even quicker and easier reloading system that works great for the game’s combat pace.
When you’re out of ammo the mag will eject just a few inches out of the gun and then stay there. To reload all you have to do is push it back into the gun. It sounds a little silly, but makes sense in the context of the game’s mind-bending subject matter. And another nice detail (which I can’t recall if the game even explicitly teaches you) is that your hand doesn’t need to be the thing that pushes the mag back into your weapon to reload… you can shove your gun against a wall or a rock to slide it back in too—a clever way to allow for an improvised one-handed reload.
Reloading by pushing your mag against a wall works especially well considering the game’s hand-based cover system (also carried over from Fracked), which allows you to reach out to grab any cover and then use your hand to peek yourself in and out of said cover. It feels really natural and way more immersive than using the thumbstick to slide in and out of cover while crouched behind a wall.
As a roguelite there’s also unlocks to earn; some are temporary buffs that only last for your current run, while others are permanent and will make you better and stronger over time.
Everything I’ve said about the game so far is pretty positive, and warranted. But the game follows a strangely familiar pattern of flaws.
The thing about Synapse is that while the core mechanics (like telekinesis, reloading, and cover) work well, the rest of the game is a largely average wave shooter in the form of a roguelite. Quite unfortunately, many of the same core critiques of Synapse were equally true of nDreams’ last two big games: Fracked (2021) and Phantom: Covert Ops (2020).
It is a classic prognosis for the studio’s big action games at this point—not enough weapon, enemy, and encounter variety to really make the game sing.
For one, the game’s ‘levels’ feel completely homogenous. Combat isn’t meaningfully different from one to the next, which means every level feels essentially the same. Some destructible elements mix things up just a bit, but not enough to make levels feel dynamic and interesting.
And then there’s the mere four enemies: regular soldier dudes, kamikazes, hefty bois™, and one rather annoying flying enemy.
Some of the AI is actually pretty good. Soldier dudes will move around, use cover, flank you, and throw some suspiciously accurate grenades at your feet. Hefty bois will keep you pinned down behind cover, throw objects at you, and charge at you.
Image courtesy nDreams
On the other hand, the exploding kamikaze enemies feel consistently more unfair than anything, considering they usually explode at your feet even after you killed them, thanks to momentum carrying their corpses right into you.
And then there’s the flying enemies which are much more of a nuisance than an interesting threat… and animate so poorly (making them difficult to hit) that I’m not sure if they’re bugged or not.
Luckily my hatred for them made it that much more satisfying when I realized I could use my telekinesis to drop them into searing hot lava for an instant death.
Minimal enemy variety is backed by a lack of encounter and scenario variety. Every level is beaten by killing all enemies on the map; they all seem to spawn fairly randomly and tend to come from all sides, making it feel like a wave shooter most of the time. Not only does the level’s objective never vary, but there’s a real lack of meaningful encounter design, making most fights feel the same.
That’s not to say that Synapse isn’t fun. I enjoyed my first full run through the game, which took about three hours to complete. But from then on out the game asks you to continue doing the same things against the same enemies with the same weapon and abilities—but now at a harder difficulty.
That’s usually how roguelites go, but there just isn’t enough variety in the gameplay or build options in Synapse to reach that engaging feeling of ‘just one more run’ after you’ve completed your first. Even the promise of unlocking more narrative through during subsequent runs isn’t enough considering the narrative is a paper-thin radio drama. nDreams says players can expect to take around 12 hours to complete three runs, each at increasing difficulty, which will reveal all of the narrative. But I have to say that I wasn’t compelled to complete all three. All-in, I probably spent about five hours with the game before feeling like I’d seen it all.
Synapse has a really unique art style that I think they executed very well. The game runs well and generally sounds good too.
There’s no doubt the telekinesis is a more interesting and immersive way to interact with the game than shooting enemies at a distance. Being able to grip enemies with an invisible force, then toss them toward you while firing a flurry of bullets at them mid-air gives a strong feeling of direct control over the game’s virtual world, which helps anchor you to it.
Similarly, using your hand to pull yourself in and out of cover, then slapping your mag against a rock to load it into your gun, feel very ‘hands-on’.
Image courtesy nDreams
Aside from these elements, most of the game is fairly run-and-gun and there’s almost no other up-close interactions (which are the kind that tend to drive high levels of immersion). While the setting is neat (battling inside of someone’s brain, à la Inception), the story had zero intrigue, and served only as a rough premise for the action that unfolds in the game.
Comfort
Synapse is a run-and-gun game that doesn’t offer teleport. Aside from that, the essential comfort options are available, though I’m irked by the game’s implementation of snap turning, which is actually just a quick turn rather than a true snap turn (which tends to be more comfortable); Fracked had the very same issue.
Without teleport and with the expected pace of combat, Fracked might be a challenge for anyone that’s very sensitive to motion in VR, but otherwise feels largely average for comfort in a VR shooter.
One miscellaneous item worth noting here is that the game’s pistol tends to consistently shoot up and to one side, seemingly due to a lack of filtering on the weapon’s movement and the particular way the PSVR 2 controller tends to move in your hand when pulling the trigger in its ‘stiff’ state. This makes the pistol much less accurate than it seems it’s supposed to be.
Meta announced the high-flying superhero game Marvel’s Iron Man VR (2020) has a new permanent price, bringing it to $30.
Once a PSVR exclusive, Iron Man VR on Quest 2 and Quest Pro lets you suit up as Tony Stark and take to the sky to fight evil. The action-adventure game is now available at a new price of $30, or 25% off the original $40 purchase price.
When it launched on PSVR in July 2020, we gave it a rating of ‘Great’ in our full review, calling it VR’s “first great superhero game.” We liked it so much at the time, we later awarded it with the PSVR Game of the Year in 2020.
What makes Iron Man VR so great? It’s packed with unique mechanics and a full course of fun and engaging content—not to mention an actually worthwhile story.
Here’s how developers Camoflaj describe it:
Tap into your inner Super Hero as you step into Iron Man’s armor and blast into the skies. Explore Tony’s garage to customize and upgrade an arsenal of gear, gadgets, and weapons. Hit the afterburners and feel the rush of flying hundreds of miles an hour. Use all of Tony Stark’s resources to find the mysterious villain Ghost and her army of hacked Stark drones. Experience this action-packed immersive Iron Man adventure now.
Resolution Games, the studio behind Demeo (2021), Blaston (2020), and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019), shared more info on how it’s engineering a new sport for its upcoming game Racket Club.
The studio released a new behind-the-scenes video that goes into detail about how Racket Club is played, where it came from, and what sets it apart from other racket sport experiences in VR.
In the video, chief creative officer Mathieu Castelli explains how Racket Club was built with realism in mind, offering up a sort of gameplay that could easily translate to real courts.
Castelli says that a big step in the project was modeling the “right feeling of impact” of when the ball hits the racket, something that is fairly mathematically complex. Another was defining the space so users could play naturally at home, and not need in-game locomotion stuff like teleportation. In the end, it comes down to body positioning and swing accuracy, something that is a 1:1 translation from physical racket sports.
While the basic physicality of Racket Club could translate to a real-world court, there’s a few things that VR simply does better, Castelli explains. As players gain expertise, the glass enclosures lower, increasing the chance of knocking the ball out of the court. Impressively long rallies, or the classic back and forth shots between players, can also give you more points, which can turn around a match in one go.
Racket Club is set to release on the Quest platform and PC VR headsets sometime in 2023. In the meantime, you can wishlist the game on Steam and the Meta Quest Store.
Grand Theft Auto creators Rockstar Games could be working on an unannounced VR title, according to an actor’s résumé.
The news was first shared on the ResetEraforums, which linked the résumé of actor Michael Ursu, who is also known for his extensive work across film and TV as both an actor and voice actor.
Ursu lists a number of games on his résumé, including Silent Hill: Ascension, Wanderer VR, Adamantus, an undisclosed game from Genshin Impact studio miHoYo, an undisclosed Borderlands title, and an “Undisclosed Rockstar Game” where he would be the principal voice actor.
The résumé has since been updated to omit both the miHoYo title and Rockstar VR game.
Rockstar sits on an impressive amount of IP that could make its way to VR, although straight ports admittedly wouldn’t require fresh voice talent, like Rockstar’s VR port of L.A. Noire (2011) in 2017.
The studio announced in late 2021 that it would be bringing a port of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) to the Quest platform at some point too; there’s been no update since then, including its release date or even a proper game trailer.
Getting a new open-world Rockstar title in VR that isn’t a port is a heady prospect, although the profit potential probably isn’t there yet for big ‘AAA’ studios. Like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Nexus, we may be in for a pared down (re: not open-world) version of any Rockstar IP, which includes Red Dead Redemption, GTA, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, Midnight Club, and Bully.
Masterpiece Studio, the developers behind the titular PC VR creative suite, released a new version of its software built natively for Quest 2, something its creators hope will appeal to people looking for an easy way to make models, avatars, and other 3D assets.
Called Masterpiece X, the free creation tool is now live on the Quest platform, bringing with it the ability to remix existing models and make it your own through “a more playful and fluid workflow: 3D remixing, which is the process of creating new content by modifying old content,” explains studio founder Jonathan Gagne in a Meta blog post.
The developers say Masterpiece X hopes to target the hobbyist creator market by offering people an easy-to-use app that lowers historic barriers of entry.
“Traditionally, 3D creation has been an extremely complex and technical topic,” says Masterpiece Studio Designer Polina Berseneva. “That’s why so many traditional tools are so challenging for beginners—there’s just so much to learn.”
Here’s how the studio describes Masterpiece X:
remix any part of your model – from mesh to texturing, rigging, and animation
find free-to-use models in the community library (or import or generate your own – coming soon!)
export your model to your game, virtual world, or creative project, and
share it with our community to inspire & help others!
The studio says Masterpiece X isn’t targeted at experienced 3D modelers, animators, or creators looking for a tool to build assets from scratch instead of remixing, as the app emphasizes ease of use over complexity.
Until You Fall (2020), the critically acclaimed VR sword fighting game, is now available for PSVR 2.
The hack and slash rogue-lite has been available on SteamVR, Quest and the original PSVR since late 2020, however now its fun and lively sword fighting comes to PSVR 2.
Take note, the PSVR 2 port isn’t a free upgrade from the original PSVR version, but rather priced separately at $25 in the PlayStation Store.
Schell Games says its two-handed weapon update, which brings three two-handed weapons to the game, is also not supported on the older version of the game. Check out the guide below to see what’s changed in the new PSVR 2 version.
Image courtesy Schell Games
Until You Fall offers a unique approach to VR sword fighting which notably combines the physicality and satisfaction of a proper hack & slash title with the depth of RPG combat. Just make sure to clear some space because you’ll need it.
If you haven’t played before, also make sure to check out our full review on Quest to see why we gave it a strong [8/10].
Valve is back at it with Steam Next Fest, the indie showcase that features free demos for upcoming PC games. We picked out some of the most promising demos among the two dozen VR games showcased this week.
Steam has made it marginally less simple to find VR titles this year. In years prior, VR games had their own tab, however you’ll need to apply a ‘VR’ filter to the search box this time around.
Steam Next Fest is already live, taking place June 19th – 26th. Check out our top five favorite games in no particular order below to see what you might want to try first. In any case, you can find all of the participating games with free demos on the Steam Next Fest page.
Hellsweeper VR
Mixed Realms, the studio behind Sairento VR, has cooked up a seriously slick first-person action-combat game called Hellsweeper VR. It’s coming to all major headsets in late September, so this might be your first chance to wield the game’s weapons and elemental magic (or die trying). The roguelike action feels a lot like Light Brigade and DOOM had a melee and magic-wielding hellspawn. Download it here.
DAVIGO
This David vs. Goliath-inspired combat game promises some asymmetrical battle of VR vs. PC gameplay. Created by Davigo Studio, the demo offers up a limited version of the game’s latest alpha build, including two maps and the classic ‘Brawl’ game mode. As a VR player, you can smash. As a PC player, run and gun. It’s fun. ‘Nuff said. Download it here.
STACK
From the makers of STRIDE and AGAINST, Joy Way is set to release another high-flying, single-worded game written in all caps: STACK. The multiplayer VR demo includes both Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes for up to 5v5 players. Control discs in mid-flight, bounce them off corners for creative kills, and bust around the arena at high speeds. Download it here.
Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye
Retropolis is back, bringing another shot of neo-robo-noir narrative to VR, replete with extendo-arms and intrigue a plenty. If you haven’t played the original Retropolis, no fret. While number two leaves off where the first left off, the brief demo won’t spoil anything. The game is now in Early Access on Quest and Rift, which includes the first episode, Steam users can now jump into a short demo. Download it here.
Tea For God
Full disclosure: the Tea for God demo isn’t new, or running just during Steam Next Fest either, but it’s still too cool to pass up. This VR adventure uses impossible spaces with procedural generation to allow players infinite room-scale movement. It’s a lot more than that though; its entity-filled dreamlike environment also has arcade shooter and roguelite shooter-explorer elements too. Download it here.
You can check out all of the demos over at the Steam Next Fest VR page. There you’ll find Q&A sessions with devs and all of the demos on offer. Next Fest runs until June 26th, so make sure to stop on by to play all of the demos above.
Hubris (2022), the VR shooter from Cyborn, is arguably among the most visually intense VR games out there. Now the studio is slimming it down the game to fit on PSVR 2 and the Quest platform, and it’s coming this week.
First launched on PC VR headsets in late 2022, Cyborn announced that its sci-fi shooter Hubris is launching on PSVR 2 and Quest 2/Pro on June 22nd.
When the studio first announced for PSVR 2, it said the port would bring along with it “enhanced graphics and gameplay,” including foveated rendering for sharper resolution, haptics and adaptive triggers for swimming and shooting, revamped reloading and aiming, new enemy variations, refined difficulty levels, and 3D audio.
Some of those things, namely shooting mechanics and enemy behavior, weren’t super polished when we reviewed the game on PC VR, putting it squarely in the realm of visually stunning, if not somewhat flawed. Granted, the game has seen a number of updates on PC since then, although this will likely be a first time playing the game for many, and released on the two most-popular VR platforms at the moment.
The studio says a Pico 4 port is also in the works, although we’re due to learn more about that soon.
You can wishlist the game on PSVR 2 here, and on Quest here. In the meantime, check out each platform’s trailer, each of which was captured in-headset.
