On Thursday during the Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, developer 4A Games revealed Arktika 1, a new take on the post-apocalyptic future designed specifically for the Oculus Rift headset and the Oculus Touch controllers. It’s a first-person shooter that relies on the latest version of the 4A Engine, and is slated to arrive sometime during the second quarter of 2017.
According to the game’s description, the world has fallen into a new ice age as the result of a “silent apocalypse.” The only places humans can really thrive are in regions near the equator. However, there are pockets of humans scattered across each continent that survive on “resource-rich” territories other groups want to control. It’s the typical post-apocalyptic setting pitting groups of humans against others to take control of a town, power plant, and so on, and you’re in the middle of it all.
With that setting in place, the player must defend a colony located in the wastelands of old Russia. There are all kinds of nasties out in the cold barren lands, such marauders and raiders trying to steal all of the colony’s resources (including women most likely). Players will also have to fight off “strange creatures” created by the apocalypse.
As seen in the trailer, humans have endured the “endless winter” for a generation, with no end in sight. The game takes place nearly an entire century into the future, but despite humanity’s technical progress, they weren’t prepared for whatever caused the silent apocalypse. “Vostok was the first to feel it,” states an unseen woman, “and first to fall.”
The trailer is interesting in that only the player’s gloved hand holding the weapon is rendered, not the entire arm. Thus, you’ll see what looks like two floating gloves shooting at monsters in an icy fortress. Naturally, each glove is connected to an Oculus Touch controller, providing a more natural first-person shooter experience than using a gamepad or the standard mouse/keyboard setup.
4A Games is widely known for the Metro series consisting of Metro 2033 (2010), Metro: Last Light (2013), and the Metro: Redux bundle (2014) consisting of revamped versions of both shooters. The series is based on a novel written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, and takes place in what’s left of Moscow after a nuclear war. Due to the climate outside, humans must resort to living in the Moscow Metro (subway) tunnels, and fight off mutants and evil humans alike to stay alive.
Hopefully, PC gamers and console owners alike will see a version of Arktika 1 land on their platform as well sometime after the Oculus release. The game looks really awesome, and it would be a shame to see it locked specifically to the Oculus Rift. Then again, the game seemingly relies on a two-handed shooting mechanic, so that may not translate well over to console and PC gaming setups.
In the meantime, here are three screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Click on the pretty image to see the full resolution.
