spatialcomputing.info

Larcenauts, the upcoming VR hero shooter from developer Impulse Gear, was revealed just last week, and today we’re getting our first look at the title’s gameplay.

Impulse Gear is the studio behind the much lauded single-player VR shooter (with a multiplayer component) Farpoint (2017), and now the studio is moving into the pure multiplayer realm with VR hero shooter Larcenauts. Impulse Gear’s experience working in VR shines through clearly in the first gameplay revealed today by our friends over at UploadVR.

The game’s art and character direction definitely borrows heavily from Overwatch (perhaps with a pinch of Valorant), and reads very cleanly throughout the gameplay footage. Unlike Overwatch, however, it appears that characters will be able to select from various weapons and modifiers for their abilities, as we can see part way through the footage.

The game’s reveal trailer from last week gives an overview of the many characters and abilities:

From the gameplay footage we can see that player movement is reasonably paced for VR, with most characters being able to sprint if needed. Characters with movement abilities appear to be based around dashing, which seems like a good way to enhance mobility without the comfort issues that could come from traditional jumping or gadgets like jetpacks.

On the other hand, it appears that weapon reloading is done with canned animations. While this could make sense for the pace of the game, it can feel disjointed compared to a more interactive approach to reloading which is commonly seen in VR. Similarly, while some gadgets (like grenades and smoke bombs) appear to be physically thrown by the player, others (like traps) look to be placed with a sort of laser pointer cursor. We’ll be curious to see how well these choices fit into the overall gameplay.

We shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out; Larcenauts is due to launch this Summer on Oculus PC, Quest, and SteamVR.