Joy Way, the studio behind VR titles STRIDE and AGAINST, announced it has another game in the early access pipeline. Called OUTLIER, the sci-fi roguelite is headed to Steam next month, with a version for Quest planned for 2022.
Outlier is offering up procedurally-generated levels, an array of weapons and characters, and is taking inspiration from indie greats such as Risk of Rain (2013), Dead Cells (2018), and Hades (2020).
Here’s how Joy Way describes Outlier:
You are a captain of one of the last human arks. In search of a new home for humanity, your vessel was sucked into a black hole. From your position beyond space and time, you witness an unknown race devastating what looks like a habitable solar system. The unknown physics of the black hole endow you with mysterious powers and allow you to exist in parallel worlds. Live, die, and repeat in your quest to conquer at least one of these worlds in the name of mankind.
The advanced controls integrate a wide range of movements. As you tactically break your way through the enemy hordes and navigate the complex terrain, you’ll need to use your body to cast artifact powers, slam enemies with surrounding objects, cut them into pieces, dodge their attacks, hide behind objects, jump, dash, and more.
Looking at the release date trailer, it also seems to include a good measure of the jumping and shooting mechanics we’ve seen in both Stride and Against too.
Arriving first on Steam Early Access for PC VR headsets on March 17th, Outlier is also slated to launch on the official Quest Store at some point in 2022. Joy Way says it will be using Steam Early Access to “help us figure out what aspects of the game players are really responding to, and nip any design issues in the bud.”
“Though, we plan to tweak all main game systems first during the early access period,” the studio says. “After we receive enough feedback from the community on the core mechanics and future content of the game, we will start working on a Quest port.”
To date, all of Joy Way’s games for SteamVR headsets are still in early access, including Time Hacker, Stride, and its latest rhythm-combat title Against.
Stride is the first of the bunch to make it to the official Quest Store, and not in early access, garnering the game around a [4.2/5] user rating.
You can wishlist the game on Steam and keep an eye on updates over at Joy Way’s Twitter in the meantime.
