If you’re anything like me, the prospect of most real-time strategy games is overwhelming. As someone that grew up playing turn-based roleplaying games and adventure titles that encourage careful planning and preparation, the idea of having to micro-manage an entire army in real time makes my palms sweat.
Enter Skylight, a hybrid game that melds elements of both real-time strategy and turn-based strategy into one seamless package.
Back in October when we first reported on Skylight, all we had were a few screenshots to show off. But now, after seeing the game for ourselves in person, we’ve also got the above trailer to give you a quick tease of what it all looks like in action.
E McNeill is also the creator of two other standout VR titles: cerebral puzzle game, Darknet, and strategy title, Tactera. However, in Skylight, things are a bit different than what you may have seen in other strategy games either inside or outside of VR.
Rather than your ships moving throughout the environment in real-time as you issue commands, everything happens on turns. Both you and your opponent issue all of your commands, including where you will move, which ship you will target, etc., and then you each watch those moves play out simultaneously. This creates an interesting tug-of-war dynamic, as you are forced to not only plan your own moves ahead far in advance, but also preempt what you think your adversary is going to do next much more so than you would in a typical RTS.
Stylistically, it’s a clear spiritual successor to Tactera and retains that iconic style, but it’s far from a direct sequel and changes much more than it keeps.
Skylight is scheduled to release for the Samsung Gear VR next year on January 12th at the expected price point of $4.99.
