There is a style of game for virtual reality that is “X–but in VR!” A flight sim–but in VR. Or a first-person shooter–but in VR. Many of these games offer little except for a direct migration of genre standards and maybe inventive controls schemes.
Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR attempts to avoid this by mixing two genres: the MOBA and the RTS. You have heroes, like a MOBA, but you control 3 of them. You direct them around the map, to collect resources to build structures, like an RTS. But they fight random monsters to gain XP and power up, like a MOBA. This combination comes together well, with no obvious jagged edges or glaring issues.
And how does Sunsoft — venerable Japanese developer behind 80s classics like Blaster Master or the NES Batman games — justify this game for VR? Well, basically through the point of view and the controls. The player looks over the board with that same angle I think of as “simulated tabletop,” as if the whole thing is a magically moving miniature war game out on a huge dining-room table, albeit with a Japanese folklore-meets-gritty comic book art style. Your heroes and soldiers seem small, the battlefield stretching into the distance.
Read the full article at UploadVR.
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