Who hasn’t left “Pacific Rim” or “Voltron” with the desire to control a giant robot in a pitched battle for the sake of mankind? Skydance Interactive seems to think the answer is “nobody,” because it released a new trailer for Archangel, an upcoming VR game that lets you pilot a war machine.
“War machine” might be a bit of an understatement. You’re actually tasked with controlling a six-story-tall mech through what Skydance Interactive described as an “action-packed, story-driven shooter” in which “you and your squad are the last hope to stop a tyrannical corporation from controlling post-apocalyptic America.” (Mechs and the post-apocalypse? Add in a few zombies and you’ll have the “modern media” trifecta.)
Archangel impressed us when we went hands-on with it in March. Besides making you feel like a badass, putting you in control of a giant mech instead of a smaller and faster character actually helps the game avoid a few problems VR titles can sometimes encounter. The most important is locomotion–the mech walks automatically, and it takes slow, deliberate steps that you watch from your perch in the cockpit. This rate of movement, combined with the perspective of being in side a vehicle, should help make sure you don’t feel nauseated while you’re playing.
Skydance Interactive also made Archangel feel quite immersive. The mech’s arms move in tandem with your own, thanks to the game’s motion controller support, which helps drive home the “cool” factor. Good performance helps too, and we summarized our time with Archangel by saying that its “fun, engaging, and pretty gameplay and visuals; clever no-nausea locomotion; and seated experience” made it a game you’ll want to spend time with. And if that doesn’t convince you, the new trailer posted above just might. (Not that it’s hard to sell anyone on giant mechs.)
Archangel will debut on PlayStation VR in July, and after a two-week-long exclusive window, it will also head to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
