Blade and Sorcery, the physics-based combat sandbox, isn’t out of Early Access on PC VR just yet, however developers WarpFrog are taking a big step in the right direction today by releasing a major update that includes a new map, weapons, armor, and magical effects—finally a little more sorcery to add to its many, many blades.

Update (June 4th, 2020): After an uncertain wait today, the new U8 update is now live on Steam. The Oculus Store update is slated to follow at some point.

Community manager and YouTuber ‘The Baron’ released a full walkthrough of what’s in store, which goes much deeper than the original U8 trailer. If you have a few minutes to spare, check out The Baron’s video below:

Original Article (May 6th, 2020): The ‘U8’ update is slated to arrive near the end of May, the studio says in a recent Steam update.

WarpFrog shared some work-in-progress video from the upcoming update, first showing off the game’s new bow and arrow effects to the backdrop of a new map, ‘The Citadel’.

In U8, you’ll be able to ‘imbue’ arrows when you draw the bow, infusing it with a number of effects. This also comes alongside a new model for the bow, arrows, and quiver.

Additionally, the update will bring modular armor, which includes three tiers: cloth, leather and plate. Since different tiers of armor have different penetration resistance levels, you’ll have to mix and match techniques to slaying the game’s endless AI foes.

SEE ALSO
'Blade & Sorcery' Early Access Review – Bloody Sandbox Battles Aplenty

Arrows aren’t the only things that can be imbued with magical effects; swords can also be magically set alight, which allows it to “sear through metal like a hot knife through butter,” the teams says. You’ll also be able to imbue other melee weapons too, such as blunt weaponry “for twice the smashing fun.”

WarpFrog says that all of what is seen in the clips above has been newly created, and isn’t ported over from the original EA launch, which includes new enemies, armor, map, textures, and weapon models.

Check out Blade & Sorcery on Steam here and on the Oculus Store here, which is priced at $20. Through Steam, the game supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows VR, and Valve Index.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • PJ

    Cool sandbox, but I hope it becomes a game soon

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  • Nick Winters

    My fantasy; Mount and Blade and Sorcery. Core gameplay loops mesh, up to and including town exploration; Kill most menu options excepting inventory, keep the magic, voice commands for the armies, and voila! Also a supercomputer to get the rendering to proper speed with hundreds of soldiers, but details details.

    • david vincent

      You may want to check Tales Of Glory which just got revamped with physics-based combat ! Mount & Blade & Sorcery, as you say !
      Combat looks rough compared to B&S but it’s only the beginning…
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPtqppinJE8

  • Wow, this sounds cool!

  • david vincent

    Speaking of physics based combat :
    Tales of Glory (a Mount & Blade clone in VR) just got revamped with physics based combat ! (this feature is still in alpha tho, the public release is expected in 1-2 weeks)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPtqppinJE8&t=382s

  • Riddick

    The game also works fine via Quest with VirtualDesktop or Link cable. I prefer VD has it allows cable-less play and often looks better at no real noticeable lag.

    • fleeZyppc

      doesnt resolution suffer terribly?

      • Riddick

        No, the link actually has worse color reproduction for some reason. Also keep in mind the Link is using a COMPRESSED codec signal just like ALVR and VD. Using USB cable does probably give you a extra 10ms at most off the latency, nothing to write home about. IMO VD has less latency then ALVR but ALVR has allot of settings you can tinker with and gives real time latency data (making it easier to tune).

        • Adrian Meredith

          I find link has way better quality when increasing the resolution in the debug tools but VD is fantastic completed all of hl:alyx with it no problems

          • Riddick

            I generally run at %150 render quality with VD etc

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  • wheeler

    These physics based VR games have the feeling of the weapons down pretty well (at least as good as they’ll get without better haptic feedback), but I hope they shift focus to the physics collisions with AI (e.g. how they respond to impact) and compelling AI combat models.