AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
E3 used to be a mythical event that took place every June, acting as the beacon for what to look forward to in video game releases for the rest of the year (and beyond). But now that E3 is dead and gone, Gamescom is the new E3 and I got to check out 11 new Meta Quest games that made an appearance at the show.
While the lineup featured several games from established genres — including VR favorites like shooters and rhythm games — most of them are trying something new to set themselves apart from the pack. Last week, I got a look at Vendetta Forever, and the VR Gaming Showcase debuted a ton of new games just the day after.
Now, I’m picking out my favorite games from the show, including new titles from Combat Waffle Studios, Fast Travel Games, Beyond Frames Entertainment, and Virtual Age. Many of these games are very early still and lack the polish you’ll find closer to release, but that didn’t cage my excitement to get my hands on something new and fun.
Survival games hit the big time
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Combat Waffle Studios, the makers of Ghosts of Tabor, are back with two brand-new survival games that are being shown off in early form at Gamescom 2024. While I got to try the zombie-themed Silent North, the game was a bit on the early side and I’d rather not set expectations at this point. However, I was also given access to Combat Waffle Studios’ other game, Grim.
Grim can be best described as Valheim on Mars with guns. Maybe just Total Recall: The Game, then. The test server I joined featured a cap of 40 players at once, all of whom were given a large dome to build in. Inside of these domes, the atmosphere is a lot like Earth. Green grass, tall trees, and even roaming deer are ripe for the harvest.
Crafting is similar to Valheim in that you’ll need to use tools to smash resources readily found in the environment — you start with a large rock you’ll hold with two hands that can be used to smash trees or rocks. Once you’ve accumulated enough of the required resources, you can craft using a simple menu system that looks straight out of Valheim. Each piece even takes a few seconds to craft, too.
You can also use resources to build out a base inside your dome, starting with the foundation and moving on to walls, beds, and other niceties to make it feel like home.
Grim feels like part Valheim, part Total Recall as you are tasked to survive on Mars alongside other humans who can kill you whenever they want.
But instead of a never-ending sprawling landscape of ripe resources, your dome will eventually run out of things to collect, and that’s where the real fun begins. Grim is a PvPvE game that encourages players to venture out onto the rocky Mars landscape in search of other players’ domes and their selection of resources.
Since this is a server, your dome and everything inside of it is persistent between play sessions. Day and night cycles ensure you feel like you’re on an actual planet, and there’s even a subterranean section to explore.
Given the scope of the show floor demo, my encounters with other players were very limited, but the game’s design, complete with the freshness of being on another planet, got me looking forward to how the game will feel in a more final form.
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I also got to give Bootstrap Island a try, although this demo was running on Steam on a PC, and it was streamed to Meta Quest 3. While this one will eventually see a Quest release, it’s primarily being developed for PCVR headsets and can even be purchased now in early access.
In a nutshell, Bootstrap Island is Robinson Crusoe in video game form. You’re shipwrecked on a tropical archipelago filled with picturesque vistas and a giant, looming active volcano on the main island.
What I really loved about this game is that there’s no handholding at all. As you make your way from the beach to the main island, a narrator voices thoughts out loud, making you wonder if this is a narrated adventure or if you’re just going a little bit mad.
I instinctively understood that the first thing I should do is build a fire. After putzing around for a while trying to figure out how to do this, I realized that stacking some wood, bringing over palm frond tinder, and striking two rocks next to this pile would produce a flame. It happened just in time, too, as frightening beasts appeared out of the dark and proceeded to circle my campfire the entire night. I didn’t exactly get much sleep.
Bootstrap Island is Robinson Crusoe in video game form, bringing roguelike elements to island survival in a unique way.
The visuals are truly stunning, something I don’t expect in the age of most VR games being built for mobile chipsets, and gameplay is as realistic as it can get without being mundane. I survived for four nights before calling it quits, each night haunting me more than the last. There are very real dangers on the island, and the erupting volcano isn’t the one that’ll kill you first.
Even more interestingly is that Bootstrap Island is a roguelike game, which means progress made carries through each death and directly benefits subsequent playthroughs. This is one I’ll absolutely be sinking a few more hours into.
Rhythm games with a new twist
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Two rhythm games stood out to me in a way that few have since Pistol Whip or Beat Saber, but for two very different reasons. First up is Band Space, a new take on the classic “Rock Band” game series from a decade or so ago. Like that game, each player will play a different musical instrument, hopefully playing in unison to create a beautiful song for an onlooking crowd.
But unlike Rock Band, you won’t need expensive bespoke instrument controllers — just your Meta Quest headset and its controllers. Jumping in is fast and easy, just tap quick play and a matchmaking service will pair you up with anyone currently ready to play.
From there, you’ll select from the available list of instruments to play: guitar, bass, keyboard, or drums. Keyboard was my favorite of the four as it feels very different from any other rhythm game I’ve played in the past, giving you a full piano worth of keys to play music from.
Playing live music with other people is one of the most unique aspects of Band Space.
Thankfully, for someone who isn’t well-versed in playing a real piano, normal skill levels allow you to put your hands in the general area of a key and press them to play. You’ll sometimes hold keys for a few seconds or even slide across the row to move to different notes without letting go.
Even if I wasn’t particularly great at playing the piano (or drums, as I also tried) yet, there’s a very specific level of pure joy that comes with playing music with other people. You can walk around the stage before and after — after the song finishes being the celebratory portion — and being able to chat with, give high fives, and generally vibe with the other humans on the stage wearing headsets was nothing short of brilliant. It’s also something no other VR rhythm game offers at the moment.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the songs in the game which, for me, was actually a nice change of pace. I get bored when rhythm games include only songs I already know, although I do hope that future DLC includes some more well-known bands just for the fun of it.
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The second rhythm game that caught my eye was The New Salsa Academy, a game that goes beyond typical rhythm game mechanics in an aim to actually teach you how to dance Salsa.
Once you get past the two intro levels, the game shifts focus and allows you to use a mixed-reality mode to really get the feel for the dance. As my colleague Derrek Lee previously wrote in his piece about Zumba VR, mixed reality helps you feel more confident because you can actually see your surroundings while wearing a VR headset.
I wouldn’t want to learn a new dance if I couldn’t see the walls or furniture I might potentially bump into, and The New Salsa Academy did a brilliant job of using this tech to encourage me to branch out and try something new. Best yet, it’s available right now in early access on Meta Quest.
Finding Neverland
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Among the games I didn’t necessarily expect to like was Escaping Wonderland. I never played Down the Rabbit Hole, the prequel to Escaping Wonderland, but now I’m fully convinced it’s time to give that game a shot.
Escaping Wonderland can be best described as a clever fusion of adventure games and puzzlers, all wrapped in a fascinating diorama-sized world. You control Molly, a girl who has once again found herself in the Underland sometime before the events in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland books.
As you might imagine from something that uses a classic literary backdrop, Escaping Wonderland is a fully voiced, heavily story- and character-centric tale that’s safe for everyone in the family. But don’t take that as meaning this was “made for kids.” The story and the game’s puzzles and scenarios are just as fun for adults to explore.
Escaping Wonderland can be best described as a clever fusion of adventure game and puzzler, all wrapped in a fascinating diorama-sized world.
As I said previously, the entire world is diorama-sized, which means you’ll control an action figure-sized Molly. The trick here is that the entire world is designed to fit around the edges of a giant vertical rabbit hole, so you’ll start at the bottom and slowly make your way to the top as you progress through the story.
Just as is the case on games with a similar scale — like Moss — you can move around in space freely, look anywhere, and even interact with elements to help Molly in her adventures. Some puzzles might require you to move staircases so Molly can climb, while other puzzles actually put you in Molly’s shoes and have to be solved in first person.
It’s purely delightful, and my 20-minute demo gave me enough of a tease that I can’t wait to see what’s next in the intriguing tale.
The Prince of Persialike
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While we’re waiting to see if we’ll ever get a sequel to Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, another studio is hard at work on its own vision of a VR version of the classic Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Ember Souls isn’t officially associated with the Prince of Persia series but there’s little doubt at the influence you’ll find here.
My three-section demo started with the intro to the game where you arrive by boat to a massive, elegant Persian castle. After a brief dialog with a talking hawk, I bounded up the side of the building and into the antechamber of a side room.
Parkour and climbing aren’t free-roaming as it was in Assassin’s Creed Nexus — these levels are more linear in the style of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time — but there are plenty of similarities to basic mechanics between the games. Climbing is effortless and can be done by any of the bricks jutting out of walls. You can also swing from flagpoles, each swing peppered by a dramatic slow-motion time dilation.
From the parkour to the time-stopping elements and even the combat, Ember Souls aims to be the Price of Persia VR we’ve wanted.
Combat in the demo wasn’t anything particularly special, but that’s fine by me, so long as the final game doesn’t necessarily focus on these kinds of encounters. Halfway through the demo I was introduced to the game’s stealth mechanics which give me hope that players can choose to dispatch enemies in more ways than pure swordplay.
One of the coolest mechanics is a grappling hook that allows you to reach and pull yourself to any grabbable surface. In many ways, it feels identical to Half-Life: Alyx’s gravity gloves, except in reverse since you’re pulling yourself toward an object rather than the other way around.
It was a great preview for what I’m hoping is a brilliant adventure when it’s scheduled to launch later this year.
And thankfully, most of the games I previewed are coming out this year, although I expect Grim and Silent North to be in Early Access for a few months before they’re considered “finished.” Keep an eye out for them on our upcoming Meta Quest games list!
