Update June 7: Rec Royale is now live on all platforms and it’ll stay there indefinitely after an earlier beta test. The update includes a number of changes to level design based on player feedback, and players are now able to walk over almost any terrain type. Players can also toggle locomotion “between head based direction or controller based direction in Settings > Gameplay.”
Original story below.
Battle royale games are the new hotness. Your kids are playing them, I’m playing them, you’re probably playing them: we’re all playing them. Whether you prefer PUBG’s slow-paced realism or Fortnite’s fast-paced action and base building, or even H1Z1’s vehicular-focused Auto Royale mode, there is certainly a battle royale game out there for just about everyone.
A few developers have tried to capture that thrill for the VR market, but no one has really succeeded. The typical designs don’t carry over easily and there aren’t enough people in headsets yet. Rec Room developer Against Gravity is hoping to have a work around for those issues.
Simply dubbed Rec Royale, this new game mode will put 16 players (that’s a lot less than 100) against one another in an all-out war to be the last man standing. The setting is a national park’s forest, complete with lots of trees, mountains, and rivers — as well as “tons of loot for scavenging” according to a PlayStation blog post by Against Gravity’s Community Designer, Shawn Whiting.
Just like the rest of Rec Room this new Rec Royale mode will be 100% free and fully cross-platform across PSVR, Rift, and Vive. The new game mode will introduce a few new mechanics for the title as well, such as a backpack for quick swapping weapons.
The new game mode will host a public alpha test for all registered Rec Room players on May 25th (that’s this Friday) lasting until May 27th on all platforms in preparation for the game’s full launch on June 7th.
Despite the fact that this sounds more like a classic King of the Hill game mode with clever “Battle Royale” marketing attached to it, I’ll certainly be checking it out.
Let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below!
