Well here’s a welcome bit of news. Untethered, an incomplete episodic VR series that seemed destined to die alongside the Google Daydream platform it was exclusive to, is being reimagined for other headsets as Area Man Lives.
That Dragon, Cancer developer Numinous Games is returning to develop this new project, which is backed by Cyan Ventures, the funding arm of the developer behind Myst, Obduction and Firmament. Area Man Lives seems to use the same environment seen in episode 1 of Untethered and a similar mechanic; you embody a radio DJ in a small town in the USA.
The game requires you to physically speak out loud when recording radio shows, including interviewing callers. Check out the announcement trailer below though, admittedly, it doesn’t actually tell you much about the core game.
But Area Man Lives is a mystery game at its heart. As you listen to people dialing into your show, you begin to notice a strange pattern of events developing in your coastal community.
This is generally along the lines of what happened in Untethered, though the second episode was quite different. Numinous had been working on a third episode of the series but revealed in late 2018 that it had lost its funding, presumably from Google itself as its Daydream efforts started to decline. The episode was put on hiatus and, frankly, we didn’t expect to see it resurrected. Based on screenshots, it looks like this version will feature full hand controls (the original only incorporated Daydream’s single motion controller).
As it stands, the game will be coming to Oculus Quest, PC VR headsets and “a handful of other headsets”, which we hope means PSVR.
You can wishlist Area Man Lives on Steam now. Excited to see Untethered return? Let us know in the comments below!
