Will 2018 be the year of virtual reality? It might – but it probably won’t be.
While the sales of virtual reality headsets are continuously growing – last year, the manufacturers of “proper” VR headsets (not using phones) have reached almost 4 million units, and for this year, they are expected to exceed shipments of 5 million – their growth is still too slow for them to truly become “mainstream”.
This doesn’t mean, though, that there is a lack of games available for various VR platforms. Actually, the wide variety of titles already released and set to be released in the coming year make choosing between games of skill, chance, action, and immersive storytelling a pretty hard task. Especially when we have such fun games and interactive stories to choose from.
On one end of the spectrum, we find games like Survios’ Sprint Vector, perfect to showcase the fun side of virtual reality gaming. The game looks and feels a bit like a combination of Mario Kart and Mirror’s Edge – the players participate in a competitive running race through various futuristic racetracks filled with accelerator zones, power-ups, and weaponry where they can run, jump, climb, drift, and fly at extreme speeds.
One of the best parts of the game is its competitive multiplayer where up to eight players from all over the world – unfortunately, at this time, players can only compete against those playing on their own platform. The game has been released on all major VR platforms – Oculus, Steam/VIVE, and PSVR – this February.
On the other end of the spectrum, we find games like Transference. Well, “games” hardly begins to cover its genre – it is much more like an interactive and totally immersive ghost story told from the player’s perspective. While there is not much to be known about the actual story behind Transference, it already promises to be a disturbing, disquieting psychological thriller involving stepping into the minds and memories of people suffering from PTSD.
It will truly take immersion and interactive storytelling to a new level – let’s hope the developers keep their end of the bargain and release the game this spring, as promised. Expect to see it pop up on PSVR, Steam/VIVA, and Oculus.
And then we have everything in between. Games like Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat 7 (PSVR, this year) will put players in the cockpit of a fighter jet. Bravo Team (Supermassive Games) and Fireball: Zero Hours VR (First Contact Entertainment) will give tactical combat in the vein of the “Tom Clancy”-branded games a new level of immersion.
Golem (High Wire Games) will take players on a magical adventure, Pixel Ripped 1989 will take players on a walk down memory lane into the pixelated gaming world of the 1980s, and Moss (Polyarc) will take them on a fun and puzzle-filled adventure into a beautiful forest along with Quill, a small but brave mouse wielding a tiny sword.
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