First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind the PSVR exclusive multiplayer shooter Firewall: Zero Hour (2018), has delayed the release of its upcoming VR arena shooter, Solaris Offworld Combat.
Update (August 14th, 2020): Solaris Offworld Combat has been delayed from its original August 27th release date to September 24th, launching on Oculus Rift and Quest.
The studio says a PSVR version is still planned for release sometime in 2020.
Original Article (June 17th, 2020): First Contact Entertainment cut its teeth in the VR multiplayer shooter space with Firewall: Zero Hour [our review], which is held as perhaps the best game in the genre on PSVR. So there’s reason to be excited for the studio’s upcoming title, Solaris Offworld Combat, which is a VR arena shooter designed for four vs. four multiplayer combat.
The game was announced a year ago this week, and today the studio has revealed the first gameplay footage and release date.
From the gameplay trailer, the thing that stands out the most is the game’s surprising pace. Most VR shooters are tactical and slow paced, partly because moving quickly in VR can be clunky and even dizzying. Solaris Offworld Combat is clearly aiming to up the ante on the speed of gameplay. Despite mechanics like sprinting and sliding, there’s indications that the studio is smartly designing for comfort.
For one, the player’s HUD appears to be designed to give players a ‘cockpit-like’ static frame of reference, which is a known technique for keeping players comfortable even while moving quickly. We can also see ‘speed lines’ in the player’s peripheral vision when moving especially fast, which has similar benefits for comfort during fast motion. Speed lines were used extensively in Sprint Vector (2018) [our review], which managed to remain quite comfortable despite its breakneck pace.
While the studio’s prior title, Firewall: Zero Hour, was a contemporary tactical shooter, Solaris is shaping up to be much more of a run-and-gun arena shooter, including weapon pickups, respawns, and territory-style objectives. The studio says the game will feature dedicated multiplayer servers.
The Solaris Offworld Combat release date is set for August 27th on Oculus Quest and Rift. Later this year the game will be released on PSVR as well. First Contact Entertainment hasn’t yet announced if Solaris will feature cross-play multiplayer or cross-buy between Oculus headsets, but we’ve reached out for more information.