1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Guides
  4. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Here is everything we know about Respawn’s Oculus Rift VR shooter

By
Respawn Entertainment Steps Into VR
Since the first wave of modern high-end virtual reality platforms — Oculus Rift,
Recommended Videos
HTC Vive, PlayStation VR — launched in 2016, VR enthusiasts and fans have wondered when the experience would be capable of emulating the most popular traditional video games forms. Sure, there have been plenty of on-rails shooters, and even a more full-bodied experience in Farpoint on PSVR, but we are still waiting on those huge AAA franchises: The Battlefields, the Call of Duties, and the Titanfalls of the world.

At Oculus Connect 4, Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment announced it is working with Oculus to deliver a “first-person combat experience” to the Oculus Rift in 2019. Here’s everything we know about the game so far. Details are scant for now, but we will update this article as more information comes to light.

War made realistic by VR

Respawn unveiled a teaser trailer for the forthcoming shooter at Oculus Connect 4 in October 2017. The vast majority of it is video montages of historical war footage. No actual gameplay footage or even cinematics are shown in the trailer. But at the beginning, when the trailer is still black, a narrator delivers the following lines:

“You go from knowing you’re dead by noon to, I’m gonna live and I’m not even wounded in a matter of a few hours. It’s like no feeling you’ve had before.”

This statement, delivered by a man who is obviously a soldier, evokes what Respawn and Oculus are going for with its war shooter: Realism.

Later on in the video, Respawn said it is striving to “depict being a soldier in combat in a more fully fleshed out and realistic way.”

Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella went also said, “the combat experience in VR really gives you the chance to experience life closer to what a soldier would experience in real combat. It gives you more of that feeling of paranoia and that tension.”

The trailer shows a user wearing an Oculus Rift headset and wielding a pair of the upcoming revamped Oculus Touch controllers. The only hint that we see as to gameplay is through motion- capture clips, which from the movement onscreen, hint that the game will be room scale VR.

This is something completely new

A blog post penned by Respawn director Peter Hirschmann ruled out the obvious: The game will not be connected to either Respawn’s other current active franchises — Titanfall or Star Wars.

It would appear that the shooter will be a new franchise altogether and by the looks of the footage shown in the trailer, it could take players back to a historical war. World War II seems likely, given that the footage includes the iconic shot of American soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

When can you enter the VR battlefield?

While the teaser trailer didn’t reveal much at all, that is because the game is still in its early development stages. Respawn said the currently untitled game will hit the Oculus store in 2019.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
Everything we know about Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link

Even though it's a tired joke, there's no denying that the Kingdom Hearts series has a lot of spinoff and side games. While the mainline numbered titles only reach Kingdom Hearts 3, though Kingdom Hearts 4 is now in the works, there are actually about 10 titles released across various platforms over the series' 20-year history. All those games were part of the original Seeker of Darkness arc, which came to a final conclusion with Kingdom Hearts 3 in 2019. But, as the DLC and secret ending made clear, that wasn't the end for the series. While we were left with some ideas, we didn't know where the series would go until the announcements made at the 20th-anniversary event in 2022.

This event took the Kingdom Hearts community by surprise in terms of the sheer amount of things shown off. The star of the show was undoubtedly the reveal of a Kingdom Hearts 4, but right before that was another title that shouldn't be overlooked. Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link is another of the spinoff games, but by now, anyone who follows the series should know that there really aren't spinoff games in terms of story and lore importance. If it's been a while since you've summoned your Keyblade and took a deep dive into the heart of this classic series, complicated plot and all, we'll guide you through everything we know so far about Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link.

Read more
Everything we know about The Witcher 4

The Witcher series may have begun as a series of novels, but there's little argument that it wasn't the games that took this niche Polish fantasy world to mainstream success. The first game was a rough but ambitious debut for developer CD Projekt Red, but it was with the sequels that they -- and the games -- became very impressive. The Witcher 3 in particular was a massive success, both in terms of sales and critical reception. The open-world game brought millions of players into the world of monsters, magic, politics, and a deep RPG story that many consider to be the top of the genre.

After the game's success, leading to multiple spinoff properties including a live-action Netflix show and the stand-alone Gwent card game, few doubted that the series would end there. While the team's first attempt at a new IP left much to be desired, CD Projekt Red looks to recapture the goodwill and success that put them on the map with another entry which, for now at least, is being considered The Witcher 4. There are just a few details to dig into at the moment, with not much more than an announcement that the project is being worked on, but here's everything we know so far about The Witcher 4.

Read more
Everything we know about The DioField Chronicle

Square Enix has long since been the master of the JRPG. Even if you only look at Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, it owns and creates the biggest RPG franchises in the industry -- but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, it could easily rely on those big names for all their future games, but it continues to surprise us with new franchises and IP.

The DioField Chronicle, for example, was a surprise announcement that could have easily fit right in as the next entry in the Final Fantasy Tactics series, but instead is carving its own path. While many people do want the big Final Fantasy Tactics name, this new tactics title looks like it checks all the right boxes for fans.

Read more