‘EVERSLAUGHT’ is a VR Action Game Built with Intense Locomotion for Players With Iron Stomachs

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EVERSLAUGHT is an upcoming VR action game that throws VR comfort design out the window in favor of frenetic combat for players who have no issues with motion sickness. The title is set to launch in Early Access later this month.

In development by indie studio ModX, Everslaught is the kind of game VR game that plenty of studios might be building if motion sickness weren’t a thing. VR comfort design, however, is an important consideration in the vast majority of VR games because it can be easy to give players motion sickness in a headset if you aren’t careful.

But there is a subset of VR players who seem almost immune to motion sickness, and it’s those players that are Everslaught’s target audience. In a recently released gameplay teaser we can see high-speed stick movement, leaping, and even grappling, mixed in with melee and gun combat. Even as someone who would almost certainly get motion sick with this much movement, it looks pretty damn fun.

Beyond the fast-paced combat, Everslaught is being built as a procedurally generated dungeon crawler of sorts where players will battle for loot and be able to upgrade their character with skill points, perks, and more.

The studio well knows it’s going against the grain of VR comfort design, and its pitch is directly to players who laugh in the face of comfort options. Everslaught is promising:

  • Innovative VR controls utilizing the controller’s positional tracking to rapidly switch between your Gauntlet’s weapons and tools during intense combat situations.
  • Fast-paced gameplay tailored towards a hardcore VR audience offering swift non-restrictive movement and combat.
  • Slaughter hordes of enemies using creative combinations of your Gauntlet’s tools, various melee weapons and special abilities.
  • An RPG made for VR featuring Loot, Level and Upgrade mechanics for high character customization and replayability.

It’s a bold move by German-based indie studio, MobX, which is betting that the subset of VR players who are minimally prone to motion sickness will be a large enough market for the game to succeed. Here’s to hoping!

Image courtesy MobX

Everslaught is set for a June 25th Early Access release date on Steam, price at $20 with support for all major PC VR headsets. The studio plans to expand the game throughout the Early Access period with a 1.0 launch expected in late 2022.

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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."
  • The fact the running appears to have artificial head bobbing and stuff is just wrong imo.

    The rest looks cool for what it is.

    • gcmobx

      Thanks for your feedback @iNCEPTIONAL:disqus! No actual artificial head bobbing will be included in the game, I think it was just us capturing the footage while moving around intensely that made it seem as such.

      • namekuseijin

        Tbh, I play with head bobbing on in No man’s sky in VR – one of the very few titles that allow it. It’s nice, you feel more like walking rather than sliding. Leave it as an option.

        This doesn’t look much more rad than Doom VFR or Borderlands 2. I like the dungeon crawling aspect. I’m not on pc though, just Quest 2 and psvr.

      • AndroidGuy

        Hi, I just tried your game on Steam but had to refund it, sorry.

        I’m left-handed and won’t support any VR game that excludes me to tbe point where I cannot play. Right from the start, the game won’t let me pick up a sword in my left hand, so I can’t play.

        I will reconsider by final release if you fix that. Btw, if you do support left-handed gameplay, PLEASE do not swap the analog thumbsticks. Ever. Lefties hate it. It forces us to use SteamVR bindings to override them back to the normal left = move, right = turn, but you seem to not be using SteamVR (OpenXR?) so that’s not even possible.

        Very few lefties prefer their sticks swapped because we’re all used to gamepad controls for the past 20+ years.

        Next, I couldn’t see a way to enable smooth turning, snap turning isn’t really “smooth locomotion”.

        Also, your game seems perfect for DecaMove but it doesn’t use SteamVR, so it won’t work out of the box unless you use their custom API to directly do so. They don’t support OpenXR yet either, but there seems to be no extensions for third party waist trackers yet anyway.

        Good luck, the game seems interesting and exciting otherwise, I’d just like to be able to play it and I’m sure other left-handed people would also.

  • wheeler

    Wow, first Legendary Tales and then this. The movement doesn’t look that bad to me–fast translational movement is pretty tolerable for seasoned users. The combat looks really rewarding.

    Also, there are really some good looking games on the horizon. I’m also looking forward to these:
    Low-Fi
    Into The Darkness
    Wanderer
    Undead Citadel
    Vertigo 2
    Hubris
    Desolatium
    Fractured Atmosphere
    Ancient Dungeon VR
    Steel Crew
    The Might Eighth
    Aerobots
    After The Fall
    Green Hell
    Firmament
    Sniper Elite VR
    Blunt Force
    I Expect You To Die 2

  • Ender772

    Looks very similar to the gameplay of DOOm VFR…and I loved that. motion sickness usually is not a problem for me..Actually doom vfr is my all time favorite shooting vr game…SO naturally im really looking forward to this!

    • 3872Orcs

      Doom VFR was teleport though. This seems to be more like Doom 2016 on PC. Very different types of locomotion in those two games. The latter is much more intense if you ever tried something similar in VR.

      • Bons

        Doom VFR has locomotion, it was added in a patch awhile ago.

        • 3872Orcs

          Really!? Guess I have to download and play then!

          Thanks for the correction :)

          • Bons

            Give it a try, its good :). you have to enable it in the settings :)

  • johann jensson

    throws VR comfort design out the window in favor of frenetic combat for players who have no issues with motion sickness.

    Finally. Not interested in Early Access stuff, but when it comes out, i hope it has good map design and an interesting story.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Hmmm how about a VR remake

      • johann jensson

        I have a love/hate relationship with remakes. Personally i’d be 100% happy with a working (and modding friendly) VR port, a la DrBeef. But i feel that i’m in the minority – most seem to want full native VR games.

    • Ted

      Yes! I loved the original unreal and unreal tournament I think I sunk hundreds of hours into. What a classic!

  • 3872Orcs

    Bring it on! I love when VR games push the boundaries! I only get motion sick on low refresh rates (around 70hz like DK2 and Quest 1) and bad framerates. If framerate is stable and I can play on 90hz or more I’m always fine no matter the type of locomotion :)

  • Raphael

    A game built without nausea clan restraints. Count me in.

  • Ted

    Love it, I’ve never had any motion sickness even with intense rated games.

    Also didn’t know doom had locomotion, that’s the only reason I don’t play it as I can’t stand teleport games, it ruins the immersion for me.

  • Looks like fun!

  • mrkingbob

    hAHAHAAAAAAAA YESS FINALLY!! IVE WANTED A GAME LIKE DOOM BUILT FOR VR FOR SO LONG!!

  • Interesting gameplay… and I love nausea-inducing games!