You may recall our extensive coverage of Crytek’s followup to their VR tech demo Back to Dinosaur Island 1 and 2 – Robinson: The Journey, you may also recall it impressed us quite a bit. Well, the title has just been announced as on its way to Sony’s PlayStation VR platform and to celebrate, have released a brand new trailer showing us more of what we can expect from the game proper.
Crytek made quite an impression at E3 in June. They were there to show how serious they were taking virtual reality and to drive the point home, they brought with them a glimpse of what their (at the time) 50-strong VR team had been working on. Robinson: The Journey was the game, and it blew us away when we tried it running on the PC and Oculus Rift at the show. But, we knew very little about the game outside of the engine (CryEngine, obviously).
See Also: Hands-on: Crytek’s ‘Robinson The Journey’ Prototype is a Visual Feast, Built for Motion Controls
Now, during Paris Games Week, a new blog post from Crytek not only gives us a brand new trailer (see above) but it also at last sheds (a fraction of) light on what the game is about and the team’s direction for the game.
You assume the role of a young boy who has crash landed on a mysterious planet, and as its tech demo pedigree may suggest, that planet is overrun with dinosaurs of every kind. You’re not completely alone it seems though, as the trailer introduces a floating, robot who seems to be your guide. As you play you “must become a pioneer of sorts as you explore your surroundings, interact with the world around you, and discover amazing secrets at every turn,” the blog post states.
That track was – and still is – to create the most realistic, immersive worlds possible using our CRYENGINE technology. Crytek is in a relatively rare position as a developer of both games AND a game engine. We’ve found that to be a major asset as we work on Robinson, because our efforts to be at the forefront of gaming tech over the years have led us to develop CRYENGINE features that are proving to be really powerful for creating VR games.
The big news is of course that the title is now coming to PlayStation VR, which is an interesting move from a company who has traditionally been on the cutting edge of PC hardware requirements. The visuals in the E3 Robinson demo were impressive, so it’ll be interesting to see how those translate into the less powerful PlayStation 4 powered platform. The trailer above looks to be primarily ‘illustrative’ of what you may see when the game arrives next year, as such should not be seen as indicative of PSVR visuals.