Phantom: Covert Ops, the unique kayak-based VR shooter from nDreams, is officially headed to Rift and Quest in June. If you were wondering what the game looked like on Rift, check out the new release date trailer nDreams just dropped.
Update (March 18th, 2020): nDreams and Oculus today announced that Phantom: Covert Ops is officially heading to the Quest and Rift platforms on June 25th.
The studios also released a brand new trailer, which we linked below:
Original Article (November 28th, 2019): Although gameplay on both Quest and Rift is identical, game director Lewis Brundish says in an Oculus blog post, “[when it comes to visuals, however, we wanted to make the most out of each of the headsets’ unique strengths.”
nDreams say the trailer was captured using Rift. If the footage is representative of what people with greater than minimum spec will see, the studio has clearly had their work cut out for them. In short: it looks awesome.
Just in case you’re wondering, here’s a look at the previously released Oculus Quest gameplay teaser for comparison’s sake.
Among a difference in texture, lighting, and water quality, you’ll notice the Quest gameplay teaser quotes it as coming in 2019. This has been updated in the new Rift gameplay trailer, which advertises a 2020 release date.
If you’re skeptical about whether a boat-based stealth game is going to be cool or not, you may want to check out our hands-on, where Road to VR’s Ben Lang got to strap into a Quest demo of the game.
While Lang thinks the kayak part sounded a bit ridiculous at the time, his demo left him pretty impressed, as the boat mechanic is, according to him, “actually a genius bit of VR design which affords the game an immersive locomotion and interaction system that has huge potential.”
We’re hoping Phantom’s launch date pushback isn’t too deep into 2020, although Brundish admits they’ll be sharing more in the months ahead.