Narcosis is one of those VR games that I’ve been writing about pretty much as long as I’ve been writing about VR itself (just over three years). In fact, the survival horror game made its debut at the 2014 Game Developers Conference (GDC). A few weeks on from GDC 2017 wrapping up, we finally have a release date for the game.
Developer Honor Code this week announced that Narcosis finally launches on March 28th with support for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It’s also coming to Microsoft’s Xbox One which doesn’t support VR, at least not yet. You can check out the latest trailer for the title below.
Narcosis invokes a bit of BioShock with its moody deep sea atmosphere, though it leans more on the survival horror side than 2K’s shooter masterpiece. Your character finds themselves stranded on the seafloor and must manage oxygen supplies as they trek through the rusty remains of a science facility. As the game progresses the protagonist begins to struggle with their sanity and starts to question what’s real and what’s not, struggling with horrific visions.
This isn’t just a horror game of show and tell, though, as you’ll also have to fight off threats with a knife.
Being that the game started development so long ago, this is one of the rare first-person Rift and Vive titles played with a gamepad. It also started life as a student project, quickly turning into something that’s under development in both France and California with a team that’s past credits include work on series like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Assassin’s Creed.
We have high hopes for Narcosis, then. We’ll see if it lives up to them in a few weeks’ time.
