Gunheart, the VR co-op shooter from Drifter Entertainment, has been in Early Access for almost a year, and now the studio says the alien bug-exploding game is getting an official street date for its full release: June 4th, including support for desktop PC, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets.

Drifter, which was founded by ex-Bungie and Epic developers who had their hands in creating the Halo and Gears of War franchises, have changed Gunheart quite a bit since it first released on Steam Early Access, now including ‘free’ locomotion (aka smooth locomotion), and a number of substantial updates that have added new enemy types, weapons, maps, and missions.

Putting you in the role of a robotic bounty hunter, your goal is to exterminate the vast swarms of alien bugs and collect bounties along the way, which let you unlock new gear and upgrade your weapons with the game’s 40+ weapon mods.

Gunheart boasts 10 unique weapons, each with their own perks that are unlocked as you level up the weapons that boost the overall power. Weapons contain three modification slots, making it a balancing act for players looking for just the right load out; an ordinary rocket launcher with guided rockets, full-auto, and triple-shot makes for a highly explosive combination.

Image courtesy Drifter Entertainment

Currently the game has nine campaign missions spread out over multiple parts of the alien planet, dubbed ‘Planet Fortune’, which is teeming with the insectoid Anthromites and multiple bosses dotted along the way.

While the emphasis of Gunheart has been on both single player and co-op play, you can also drop into both free-for-all and team-based skirmishes. This includes cross-play between all supported platforms: desktop (non-VR), Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Konchu

    This is a great game I need to hop in it and see what they added has been a few months.

  • jarjarplinks

    I’ve put a bunch of hours into Gunheart. The guns and the mods are it’s best asset along with gorgeous visuals. Levels aren’t so hot, level design is linear and levels tend to look all the same borrowing textures and layout styles from each other. And broken up into effectively wave shooter sections you need to clear before proceeding to the next section that prevent total freedom of movement. Combat can also be iffy, the AI behaviour is pretty terrible.

    It’s a good title but far from a great title. I wonder what they have planned for the v1.0? Patches this year have consisted of tweaks and fixes but no substantial content additions. I sort of feel they are just trying to get this out of EA and move on, I wouldn’t expect too much extra on the 4th of June, and no further development after that.