The Assembly, the first major VR title from UK-based developer nDreams, has been a long time coming, but its release is finally nearing.
nDreams confirmed that that The Assembly will be launching on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive next month on July 19th. The title will cost $29.99 in the US and £19.99 in the team’s home country. That’s a date and price we’ve long been waiting for; the game has been in development at nDreams for years, having first been revealed at E3 2014. It’s not nDreams’ first VR title ever, though, as the team has also released two Gear VR titles in Gunner and Perfect Beach, the latter of which is also available on Google Cardboard.
The Assembly is a first-person, narrative driven game in which players explore the secret headquarters of the mysterious titular organisations. Playing as two characters, one a long-time member of The Assembly and another just starting out, you’ll look into the strange experiments the group carries out underground, away from the eyes of the governments of the world.
Despite being first-person and controlled with a gamepad, nDreams has reassured that the game’s control scheme is “player-tested” to ensure comfort. For our impressions, you can check out the preview we posted up just a few minutes ago.
Interestingly, The Assembly will also be released as a non-VR version that’s slightly cheaper ($19.99/£14.99), and users will then be able to upgrade to the VR version should they choose to do so. That opens up the game to the wider gaming audience, which will no doubt take some of the financial pressure off of the sales expected for headsets with limited install bases right now. The full version of the game will also let you switch to the non-VR setup whenever you want. The game is also due to launch on PlayStation VR following the kit’s launch on 13th October.
In-house development isn’t all that nDreams is working on right now; the studio is also trying its hand at VR publishing, having announced a deal with Paw Print Games earlier this year. You can also expect to see more games from them soon, as the studio has committed to creating content for Google’s new mobile VR ecosystem, Google Daydream.
