VR Combat Sandbox ‘Blade & Sorcery’ Heads to Early Access Tomorrow, New Trailer Here

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Blade and Sorcery is a medieval fantasy sandbox from indie developer WarpFrog which is aiming to bring realism to VR combat. Including a physics-driven interaction and combat system, players can expect to master melee, ranged, and magic-based combat against plenty of squishy, stab-friendly NPCs.

Update (December 10th, 2018): Blade & Sorcery is set launch on Steam Early Access tomorrow, December 11th, and with it comes a new trailer showing off more of the bloody melee combat. We’ve linked the trailer above and at the bottom of the article.

Original Article (October 29th, 2018): Blade and Sorcery is slated to launch on Steam Early Access sometime in December (see update), targeting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.

At launch of Early Access, the game is said to include:

  • 3 Maps (Home, Arena and Ruins)
  • 8 Weapons (swords, dagger, shield, axes, spear, bow)
  • 3 spells (Slowing time, Telekinesis and Lightning)
  • 3 enemy archetype (fighters, rangers and mages)
  • 2 enemy styles (Gladiator and Cult)
  • Avatar customization
  • Jumping, kicking, running
  • Free locomotion
  • Modding game data (player/weapon/npc stats, AI, NPC look, waves logic, etc.)”

The studio says Blade and Sorcery pushes for a more realistic combat style by giving objects weight that follow the laws of physics, dictating collisions via “fine” hitboxes, by giving creatures full body physics, and by giving blades the ability to penetrate soft materials or deflect magic.

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WarpFrog says that through Steam Early Access, the studio hopes to eventually evolve the game from a combat sandbox “into something with more depth.” The game is said to launch with some moddable features, but they plan to add support for custom maps, new weapons and even the possibility for modders to add new game modes.

The studio maintains that Early Access could last between six months to two years depending of the success of the game, which will impact the scope.

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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.