Here's something I've been hoping to see crop up in 'cool things I'll be able to do in VR' news for a while: multiplayer melee brawls. The video above is just a tech demo, but it sure looks promising. It's for medieval combat game Valiant, which developers Offpeak games revealed last year.
Back then, the studio was only looking at the oculus rift. Now they've got their hands on the HTC Vive, opening up some of the possibilities you can see above — moving around with your whole body in combination with hand held motion controllers. For me, this is more evidence that motion control is going to be the best way of controlling almost every game in VR. There's something so immediately compelling about the idea of swinging your arm out to send enemies flying. As the dev puts it: 'it has the effect of making you feel really strong and powerful, like a God.'
The bit with the surprise arrow shower from above (0:59) is particularly exciting. I can't be the only one who has a fantasy of spinning round on a battlefield, instinctively bringing up my shield to block an incoming arrow before charging the pesky archer down. Sure, I can do that in Chivalry — and it's already a pretty immersive experience. I just can't wait to take it to the next level.
The Valiant demo is available on Oculus Share for anyone who's made the leap and already bought a rift development kit.
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