Described as the ‘ultimate superhero experience’, Megaton Rainfall tasks the player with preventing a global alien invasion, with a full-scale Earth as the destructible backdrop. The game, which was supposed to launch today, is unfortunately delayed for 3 more weeks for PSVR and PS4, now slated to launch October 17th.
Update (09/26/17): Megaton Rainfall was supposed to launch today, but according to the developers, it’s now delayed until October 17 for PS4 and PSVR. As for the PC version, the build on Steam is still set to launch October 26th, but doesn’t advertise either HTC Vive or Oculus Rift support. There’s no telling at this point if the game will remain a PSVR exclusive or if it will eventually head to other headsets.
Original Article (08/23/17): In an unfortunate turn of events, it appears the Earth is scheduled for demolition. In Megaton Rainfall’s action-packed gameplay trailer, scenes reminiscent of various The War of the Worlds-inspired works show environmental destruction on an enormous scale, as the player flies around at supersonic speeds, battling a global attack using superpowers apparently as dangerous to humanity as the alien presence itself.
Del Cerro describes the main character as “an indestructible superbeing” in a recent entry on the PlayStation Blog, who gains abilities as the game progresses. The player can only roam the entire Earth at the beginning of the game, but your powers will increase, letting you “fly to the Moon or walk across the surface of the Sun.” As a result, you can cause just as much accidental damage as the aliens.
“Your basic shot destroys entire buildings every time you miss your target,” writes Del Cerro. “Your telekinesis can prevent enemy grenades from damaging the humans, but it can also send vehicles careening down the street. The gigaton blast can destroy an enemy mothership… or the entire city.”
This remarkable planet scale and destructibility is achieved with a custom engine designed to handle ‘seamless rendering’, with ‘semi-procedurally generated’ cities. While the game claims to feature a ‘real-scale Earth’, Del Carro has explained that players shouldn’t expect accurate landmarks. “Keep in mind it’s not like Google Earth,” he answers in the PlayStation Blog comments. “You won’t find your home or lots of recognizable places.”
Megaton Rainfall has been in development since 2012, taking a huge jump in presentation quality since its early footage. As noted on the game’s own blog, considerable effort has gone into optimising the game for VR, both in terms of holding a solid 60fps on PS4, and the development of six different control interfaces. Flying around at supersonic speeds in first person without a cockpit to ‘ground’ the player in VR—not to mention all the ‘strafing’ seen in the trailer—sounds like a strong recipe for nausea, but the variety of control options hopefully means that players will be able to find one that’s comfortable. According to another of Del Carro’s answers on the PlayStation Blog, the default controls will be “right stick to do quick turns”, which should be comfortable for those most prone to VR sickness.
While the non-VR PC version of the game is listed with an October 26th release date on Steam, support for VR on PC is not currently confirmed, but with all of the optimisations it received for Sony’s headset, it’s probably safe to assume Del Cerro is keen to bring the VR experience to PC in the future.