LOW-FI is an upcoming VR game from the veteran indie VR developer behind TECHNOLUST (2016). The game presents a dark but plausible future where most of the population lives in a VR simulation, while at the same time the city’s poor inhabitants live unseen on the streets of the real-world. They are the ‘low-fi’.

It’s not entirely clear what’s so strangely alluring about the gritty cyberpunk aesthetic, but Blair Renaud, the developer behind the early VR title Technolust, certainly knows how to wield it to form an instant emotional setting.

Described as a spiritual successor to TechnolustLow-Fi taps into that moody cyberpunk feel even on a flat screen, as seen in the game’s new teaser:

Set in a far-future Toronto, Low-Fi presents a dark but plausible future where most of the population lives in a VR simulation after the AI singularity. But there’s still a society a society living in the real world, comprised of the destitute and unfortunate. They are the ‘low-fi’. As a setting, it’s an interesting exploration of wealth and class—the low-fi could be thought of as the homeless of today, except in this dystopian future, the dark reality of their world is completely invisible from most of the population—out of sight, out of mind.

In the game, you’re a police officer assigned to city-block 303, and while teaser footage released so far doesn’t explore the gameplay in much depth, the developer says that players will “patrol the streets (and the skies above them) solving mysteries, fighting crime, or giving in to corruption.”

It’s not clear at this point to what extent Low-Fi will really explore its intriguing cyberpunk setting—or simply use it as a ‘this is just the way things are’ sort of backdrop to contextualize a more discrete story and associated gameplay—though we certainly hope to find out as we move toward the game’s expect 2020 release date.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Immersive_Computing

    Caught the trailer for this a while ago it looks very interesting.

  • 3872Orcs

    That teaser is very nice! And I like the premise of the game. It reminds me a lot about that excellent Aircar experience on the Oculus Store, super fun flying around in that aircar with the touch controllers. Tehcnolust I think was best as a tech demo for the Oculus DK2, the full game felt too much B Quality and kind of dated when I tried playing it later on. But considering it is mostly one person making it all impressive nonetheless. I’ll keep a close look on this game. I heard there was going to be a kickstarter? If I can play it on the Valve Index I’ll be all in.

  • Gonzax

    Technolust is a little masterpiece so I am expecting amazing things from this.

  • Spam Box

    And BOOM! Way to go Blair!

  • johann jensson

    I see all those announcements for new VR games, and i’m confused. It would be very helpful if the article talks about if said games are planned to be a full length experiences (at least 10-12 hours story) or the usual short boom-boom or walking sim stuff we’ve seen in the last 3 years.

  • ra51

    80s synth pop music, retro futuristic blade runner aesthetics, gritty cyber punk atmosphere??? LOVE IT.

    I’ll be watching this one. Hope it gets on the Quest.

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  • Roger Bentley

    cant wait for this

  • david vincent

    A shame there are very few cyberpunk games in VR. ‘The Observer’ is by far the best among them.

  • KUKWES

    Glad to see Blair Renaud getting some coverage on this.

  • y_m_o

    Love the look. Certainly got some Blade Runner influence there.

  • Raphael

    First time I’ve been really impressed with the Blair creation. No longer restricted to octopus walled-garden either. Looks very good.

  • Very interesting and innovative idea… I like it!