Swords of Gargantua VR, the melee action game that we feel is the closest virtual reality has come to a Dark Souls-like experience, is entering its Open Beta phase this month. From May 15 – May 21, PC VR users can access the game via the Steam or Oculus store and test it out.
The previous closed test for Swords of Gargantua was closed to just Steam users, but the addition of the Oculus Store will give the team an opportunity to stress test for a much larger control group and get some additional feedback from users on other platforms. For the curious new faces that want to jump into the game, Swords of Gargantua is an action game where up to four players team up to fight against the giants known as Gargantua and their forces.
The development team, Yomuneco Inc., is aiming for hyper-realistic VR combat where the weapons collide with solid objects realistically, giving haptic feedback and requiring players to more strategically attack their foes. Parrying and attacking the enemy’s openings is the key to victory, so some players will have to unlearn the habit of wildly swinging that other VR combat games has cultivated. Blade & Sorcery is going for a similar, albeit more traditional visually, physics-based combat style.
To get an idea of how the game plays or any issues we’ve run into, you can read either of our two Swords of Gargantua hands-on previews. We played an early build of the game at GDC 2018 and checked out an updated build a few months later.
The full version of Swords of Gargantua is due sometime in 2019 and will feature 100 single-player missions, 30 weapons, and is playable in seated, standing, or room-scale VR. The four-player online co-op will be cross-platform, between Steam and Oculus Home.
If you’re interested, you can sign up for the Open Beta via the Swords of Gargantua Discord channel or find more details on the official website.
