Virtual Reality Sneak 'Em Up Budget Cuts Looks Ace
Virtually dunking robots into bins
I'm not sold on virtual reality, but I am certainly interested in hiding in vents and lobbing knives at robots' faces. That's Budget Cuts [official site], a first-person stealth game coming to Valve and HTC's Vive space-sensing cybergoggles. Imagine, if you can, reaching out into a virtual world with your own hands and... dunking a dead robot into a bin. That future is almost here. Observe:
It took me a while to realise, so I'll point it out in case you haven't twigged: the teleportation portals aren't just fancy sneaky tricks, they're how you get around. Locomotion is an issue VR folks are still wrestling with, especially when VR's combined with motion controllers (as the Vive is). One solution we're seeing a bit is 'point to move' type stuff, and here that's pulled into the game world as a portal gun. I'm impressed by how quickly the player reportals at points in the trailer, zipping around.
Anyway, beyond that, I am also into breaking into places and hiding in vents and rifling through drawers and, of course, throwing knives at robots' faces then dunking them into bins.
Valve's Chet Faliszek said on Twitter, "If you ever heard me talk about an amazing stealth game on the [Vive], this is it". Yes, I imagine he does have a soft spot for Vive games, but his enthusiasm does it for me.
Details are scarce right now, but developers Neat Corporation call this video "a very early look" so Budget Cuts is probably a fair way off yet. As for the Vive itself, pre-orders start at the end of February then it'll launch in April. No word yet on how much the goggles cost.