Echo Arena released earlier this year and we absolutely loved it at the time. The zero-G movement system is fluid and liberating with some of the best competitive multiplayer action of any VR game. There haven’t been a whole lot of game-changing updates since it launched with just one single game mode and map, but this week a new update came out that’s made one big alteration to the flow of gameplay.
As a recap, the goal of the game is simple. You’re on a team of astronauts in a zero-G arena with wrist jets to help propel you around. You can push off of people and the environment to gain momentum as you vie for a floating disc that must be thrown into the other team’s goal. It’s a bit like Quidditch meets soccer without gravity. That’s really about it, but it’s so, so much fun.
Previously after each point the disc would respawn back at the center of the arena for each team to launch forward and try to nab it in what was known as “jousting” for the disc. But with this latest update that’s all changed. After a team scores, now the disc will spawn on the other team’s side of the arena, giving them the first possession right out of the gate. It sounds like a minor change but it has dramatic results. You can see some different launch scenarios in the video above.
When playing Echo Arena a large portion of the game is simply playing keep away from the other team. Rarely do you hold the disc for longer than a few seconds before passing it or taking a shot on the goal because of how fast and frenetic the matches can get. Someone else can easily climb onto you and steal the disc or stun you with a punch to the face. As a result, simply chucking it down to the other end of the arena or bouncing it off of walls to create an opening for your teammates are all viable strategies.
What this change does is create a whole new paradigm to the start of the game. Instead of dashing towards the middle to grab the disc after every point (although it still happens at the start of each match) the receiving team is given a major advantage. You can strategize to all fly together in a tight formation to try and block opponents and stun them as you zip by. Or you can spread out and have one person grab the disc while the others go deep for a long pass.
On the defending team you now have to decide whether you play defensively and wait for them to approach with the disc, or if you attack them head on. Before you wouldn’t have much of a strategy until after the disc was in play, but now, you’ve got to decide your move before you even leave the launch tube. You can see how it impacts Overtime as well down in the video below.
The only real downside to this new change is that it seems to have introduced a bizarre bug (as of last night) somehow that sometimes allows people to spawn into the arena before the match starts, in which case they can easily score before anyone else has even launched. That should get cleared up via a patch soon enough, if it hasn’t already. The update also introduced spectating and some other minor tweaks. Echo Combat, a first-person shooter expansion of the game, is coming next year too.
Are you still playing Echo Arena? It’s free to download on Oculus Home and you can read our full, scored review right here. Let us know what you think of it down in the comments below!
