Okay, so here we go. I watched this thing about nDreams, you know, that VR studio? They’ve come up with something that might just make you throw your headset in excitement. It’s called Reach, led by this new crew, nDreams Elevation. Anyway, last week they gave us a sneak peek and… wow. Picture a cinematic parkour, combat, and a whole lot of VR magic.
Matt Duff, who’s the design brain here, went on about these three pillars. Yeah, like those ancient Greek ones but not. Action, adventure, and uh—presence. Not sure if that last one’s mystic or what, but it sounds important. They’ve gone “VR first” with this. It’s all about grabbing stuff and hauling yourself around. Seriously, you reach and pull, and it’s like you’re Spider-Man in a VR world.
Jumping is, oddly enough, a big deal here. (Jumping in VR? Seems risky, but hey.) Duff mentioned something about gestures and tricking your brain. Magic voodoo if you ask me. But it’s kinda cool that if you see it, you can probably climb it. Gives you that kid-in-a-jungle-gym feeling, I guess.
So they’ve got this thing—Full-body Awareness? No floating hands here, folks. Nope. Your in-game person moves like a real person. Supposedly. Guess that means no more weird flailing limbs, which is… nice?
The combat bit—it’s all about choice. Go in guns blazing or be the shadow in the night. There’s a bow (hello, Legolas), with arrows that go boom or freeze stuff. You can even mislead those enemy dudes with your arrows. Crafty, right?
Reach is dropping on VR thingamajigs later this year. Wishlist it if you’re into that kind of virtual thrill ride. So yeah, that’s about it. Stay tuned or whatever.
