First ‘Golem’ PlayStation VR Exclusive Gameplay Revealed

By
Paul James
-
10

IGN has gone hands on with the new PlaySyation VR exclusive project from Highwire Games, a studio started by a gaggle of Ex-Halo and Infamous developers, and here’s some footage from the session.

We first set eyes on Golem from Highwire Games when it appeared as part of a storm of new trailers for Sony’s PlayStation 4 powered PlayStation VR headset during the PlayStation Experience event in San Francisco in December.

Although the story behind Golem is a little mysterious right now, we know that you play the role of a bedridden girl, who seems able to ‘possess’ stone creatures, the titular Golems, and control their actions. For what purpose and to what ends is unknown right now, as Highwire are keeping the plot details under wraps for now.

The developers claim that the PlayStation VR exclusive title, which has apparently been in progress for over 2 years now, runs at a native 90FPS (as opposed to 60FPS re-projected to 120) – no mean feat given the visual fidelity on show here.

No launch has yet been made public for Golem, and given Sony’s tight-lipped-ness regarding PlayStation VR’s consumer release, we can understand why. Nevertheless, Highwire Games told IGN not to expect Golem to appear as a launch title for PSVR. Sony have stated previously that PlayStation VR will launch for consumers some time in Q2 2016.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.

  • The footstep sound effect drove me to the edge of insanity after about 30 seconds… other than that, surprisingly uneventful for a high profile PSVR launch title.

    • CazCore

      that top video…. 7 minutes of trudging thru very boring caves…. hopefully thats quite misrepresentative of the game. but who would put out such a video. certainly not a marketing person.

      • Very strange indeed… and I can still hear that sound effect when I close my eyes

  • PrymeFactor

    What visual fidelity? From the CGI trailer shown above, that is most likely not representative of what the actual game will look like?

    The screenshot is the only thing that shows us what the game will look like…and it’s apparent the quality veers towards PS3 quality.

    • Tristan Harvey

      Obviously you don’t remember PS3 visuals…
      Actually I am a bit upset to see such nice visuals…am I upgrading my PC for nothing?

      • yag

        Don’t forget the environments we are seeing here are very small. You won’t see open-world games looking like this on PSVR.

    • Darshan.Gayake

      Obviously the visual fidelity is of real game footage not CGI trailer… its there in this article itself, may be you did not noticed heading of this article is video of real game footage.

      where specially able girl on bed (There are walking crunches lying beside her bed) controlling her Golem to go in hidden basement under the bed she is seating on.. She takes adventure she can not by walk in real world with help of FPV Golem controlled by some cybernetics is plot i think … a specially able girl in future takes adventures with help of her cybernetics FPV golem ( Wonderful idea… bravo Sony)

      indeed its feat when this quality is available in VR at at a native 90FPS

    • When’s the last time you played a video game?

  • Lamanuwa

    The graphics look awesome.

  • …and 15+ months later, we still don’t know what this game is supposed to be, beyond what was shown last year. It’s been parked on the PS+ Store since the launch of PSVR, and keeps showing an end-of-year release date, which at this point, I figure is pure BS in regard to vaporware.

    Is this game even still in production?
    And if so, does anyone even care at this point?

    When the PSVR first launched and there was a huge deficit of games, Golem looked interesting. Now, when I look at the videos for this game, I’m not impressed at all.