If there is one theme that many of the most popular VR games have in common it is that many of them are translations of mainline gaming experiences into virtual reality and not games built entirely for VR from the beginning.
That’s about to change, of course, as the segment grows and it looks like one of the devs that led the charge in transitional experiences is now planning on bringing out two bespoke VR games.
Bethesda, the company behind the Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim VR games, announced Prey:Typhon Hunter and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot at this year’s Quakecon event to the thrill of many VR gamers.
The first game, Prey: Typhon Hunter, will be part of a free downloadable content package for 2017’s Prey. For those that may not recall the first-person survival horror game from Arkane Studios, the basic scenario puts the player in control of Morgan Yu on a space station wherein scientific research on the alien Typhon is conducted.
As is the usual course of events in survival horror titles, the Typhon escape their captivity and cause all manner of havoc on the space station as a result. The player must solve a series of puzzles and unlock new areas of the space station while avoiding death at the hands of the Typhon. If you’re thinking this sounds like the perfect premise for a virtual reality game then you’re not the only one and the Typhon Hunter DLC sounds perfect for the format.
PC Power Play quotes the game’s lead designer describing the online mode for Typhon Hunter as a “lethal game of hide and seek” that will have both a VR and standard experience iteration. The second part of the DLC is something called escape rooms which similarly can be played in either VR or standard viewing format.
Nathan Lawrence from PC Power Play describes this mode as being tailored for the VR experience specifically and claims he had quite a bit of fun playing it when he was given the chance by Bethesda.
The second game that Bethesda is bringing to the VR format is from a legendary PC gaming series and should offer a thrilling experience on par with the planned DLC for Prey. Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, slated for release next year, occurs following The New Colossus and involves hacking the Third Reich’s technological arsenal and using the weapons of the evil empire against it in what is a more indirect way of combat as compared to the first-person shooter blast fests of the mainline series.
Under development specifically for virtual reality the devs hope to recreate what it feels like to play a traditional Wolfenstein game in the virtual reality space.
The game’s emphasis on hacking machines and engaging in combat in less direct ways could mean there is a heavier emphasis on puzzle solving than perhaps one would expect in a Wolfenstein game. Offering new levels of interaction with the world of Wolfenstein combined with a new narrative that sheds light on the world of the The New Colossus and Cyberpilot looks set to become a tour-de-force in VR gaming when it hits next year.
