Indie VR Gem ‘COMPOUND’ Set to Release on Quest 2 Next Week

By
Ben Lang
-
20

First released in early access on Steam in 2018, VR roguelite COMPOUND hit its 1.0 release on PC VR earlier this year and is now set to launch on Quest 2 for the first time next week on December 8th.

Compound is a VR roguelite with a unique pixel-art style and an arsenal of fun weaponry with which to experiment. And though little-known, it’s something of a cult hit as the 6th best-rated VR game according to Steam (with an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ 97% rating) and the 9th best-rated according to Steam250 (which uses its own algorithm to determine rankings).

Created by one-man indie developer Bevan “NotDead” McKechnie, Compound was originally released in early access on Steam in 2018 and saw slow but steady development right up to its 1.0 release on PC VR earlier this year.

Now McKechnie has announced that Compound is set to launch on Quest 2 next week on December 8th for $20, the same price as the PC VR version.

McKechnie says the Quest version of Compound includes the full contents of the PC VR version, except for leaderboards and achievements. Visually he says he “didn’t need to make any compromises” and still managed to get the game to run at 80Hz. Unfortunately Compound will be available on Quest 2 but not the original Quest.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ribbitz

    Looks like the son of Blake Stone and Wasted. Both excellent games!

    • NotMikeD

      The fact that you even know of Blake Stone means you should definitely pick up Shock Troops while you’re waiting for Compound to release!

      • namekuseijin

        Shock Troops is nice, but it’s not a rogue-like. Compound is sure to provide more gameplay.

        hopefully, procedural level design is good and varied enough…

    • Jistuce

      I really would not mind seeing a new Blake Stone game. Though they’d probably get it wrong and I would regret ever asking for one.

  • ViRGiN

    As cool as this game is, I ain’t getting it for $20. That’s full price for Contractors! And has infinite replay value.

    This took ages to come out. Not sure why even leaderboards couldn’t be implemented? And what’s up with no Quest 1 support? This is Gear VR grade game…

    In other news, VAIL continues it’s shilling campaings with paying both RTVR and UVR for advertising. Show some self respect, and don’t take every money offered… Shitty scammy game, with racist developers.

    • NotMikeD

      Inclined to agree, I don’t own a Quest 1, but I have friends that do and it’s frustrating to see low-fidelity games like Compound, Among Us, etc.. that really shouldn’t have any problem running on a Q1 when it’s been proven games as graphically advanced/complex as RE4 can actually run pretty capably on that aging hardware.

      • NL_VR

        Re4 can run but do get performance issues.
        If it was like before that games must be supported on Quest 1 inthink games would been hold back.
        Compound is a one man developer hes simply doesnt have time to optimize for Quest 1, and why should he if he dont need to. Quest 1 userbase must be real low by now.
        People just look at graphics and think “hey Quest 1 should be able to run that” it’s not just easy like that

      • Compound was made by one guy though, right? Whereas Contractors and other bigger VR multiplayer games have whole teams? Don’t see why they’re getting compared, Compound is a great game with lots of replayability, it’s a roguelike after all. I’m gonna get it for sure!

    • namekuseijin

      yeah, this game has been pretty hyped up for years and I fail to understand exactly why. it’s a roguelike so I understand that longevity is there – it may well rival Ancient Dungeon and In Death Unchained, but this one is Doom-like shooter.

      but no Q1 support and no achievements sounds cheap…

      • ViRGiN

        I can understand that there is no “achievements” system on Quest like on Steam, but he could still build his own solution that would show up in-game on your profile.
        Nonetheless, this is super minor “issue” and honestly, if never mentioned, I wouldn’t really care as I don’t care about “achievement unlocked” text collectibles.

        Oh and I’m still waiting for Tea For God. Seems kinda abandoned now.

      • NL_VR

        The game has in game achievements, it’s one of the point to do all reruns to get gold trophies. it’s not having achievements like steam, playstation, xbox that pops up. No game on Quest have like that so I dont even understand why its brought up.

        • namekuseijin

          you guys are kidding? Sure there are achievements like those of steam and PlayStation on Quest. Most games have those, including TWD SS, RE4, Moss, Green Hell etc… They pop up when you get them, they’re available for inspection, along with scoreboards…

          • NL_VR

            It’s true now when you say it.
            They doesnt pop up for me and are only showed on the mobile app for me I think.
            Dont know if I can watch them in the headset. :P
            They are so “hidden” so they are pointless

          • namekuseijin

            they sure pop up in the headset, but it’s a mini pop-up down below, same kind of notification you get for “your video is ready”… they’re not hidden, they’re in leaderboards app and your main profile…

  • XRC

    It’s just damn good fun and very immersive. Congratulations to the dev

  • NotMikeD

    It’s about time! I don’t always prefer picking up games for my Quest 2 over my Index and Steam, but when I do it’s games like Compound.

  • Still not a fan of the bullets taking to much travel time to reach enemies on most weapons, except where it makes sense like on rocket launchers and such. It just adds what feels like a delay where you have to compensate by shooting ahead of enemies a little in a way that’s not quite as satisfying as a faster/immediate bullet/projectile time would have been for most weapons.

  • Oh HEKK YEAH

  • Jonathan Winters III

    It’s ranked #3 of all-time VR games on Steam (user ratings). Pretty impressive!

  • Iroguin

    “Chapter 77 the beloved kiss