We’ve been wondering what would become of SUPERHOT‘s promised VR support for some time, and now we finally know.
The developers behind this year’s FPS hit have announced SUPERHOT VR via an update blog. The team is said to be working “super close” with Oculus itself to launch the title “later this year” on the Oculus Rift with support for the Oculus Touch position tracked controllers. Few details have been revealed thus far though the team has provided two rather brilliant GIFs to enjoy below, one of which appears to feature a player crouching behind cover and then throwing something, presumably at some enemies.
The original SUPERHOT launched earlier this year after raising some $250,798 via a Kickstarter campaign back in 2014. In this stylish FPS time moves only when the player does. Every time the player stops walking the world around them slows to a halt, with bullets crawling through the air. This allows you to weave a safe path through environments as you locate a weapon and take down all enemies within the area. This unique mechanic won the game some favourable reviews on PC and on Xbox One, where it launched earlier this month.
That Kickstarter campaign also pledged support for the Oculus Rift, and SUPERHOT was often seen at Oculus VR’s own show booths at events throughout 2014, helping to promote the then-new second development kit (DK2). With positional tracking on-board, players could lean out of the way of bullets. Presumably the inclusion of Oculus Touch controllers will bring this to a whole new level; will players have to remain totally still for time to slow down? And will they be playing the same levels or taking on totally new ones?
The team did note that VR added a “simply crazy” level of immersion, and stated that updates to audio would allow players to locate incoming bullets through positional sound alone.
There’s a lot more still to learn, though. Oculus Touch isn’t expected to launch until the second half of this year, though the company should be providing a closer look at it at E3 in a few weeks’ time. Perhaps SUPERHOT VR could be one of the new titles we get to see at the show?
