Gaming & Culture —

At E3, Sony shows what Project Morpheus’ actual VR games will look like

As release gets closer, tech demos start to look more like releasable products.

In previous demonstrations of its Project Morpheus VR technology, Sony has primarily shown demos that were more technical proofs of concept than actual games. At E3 2015, Sony finally seemed ready to show more demos that could form the basis of actual games that might be released for the headset when it launches in early 2016.

While these demos were far from complete, they generally felt like kernels that could grow into solid game experiences for PlayStation owners interested in being VR early adopters. Here are some quick impressions of the six demos we tried on the show floor.

Rigs: Mechanized Combat League

By far the most complete Morpheus game at the show, Rigs is being sold as "virtual reality's first eSport." It's a three-on-three first-person shooter at its heart, but the focus isn't simply on which team can capture a base or get the most deathmatch kills. Instead, each mech-suited character must collect glowing yellow orbs around the map to go into a powerful "Overdrive" mode, then jump through a hoop at the center of the stage before being killed.

Shooting opponents slows their progress and also scatters a few yellow orbs for pickup. The demo showcased three classes of mechs with different pros and cons, each of which could in turn toggle between three modes focused on speed, attack, and health regeneration.

While lateral motion is controlled with a left thumbstick as in a normal FPS game, aim and orientation in Rigs are entirely guided by head movement. Moving your head even slightly off-center to the left or right causes your mech to turn and quickly catch up with where you're looking; a prominent 3D laser sight emanating from your mech helps guide the process.

The E3 attendant on hand to explain the game suggested making very small head movements to start, to get acclimated to the control scheme, and I'm surprised to say it worked wonderfully. After just a minute or so, it was easy to make slight adjustments or relatively quick 180 degree turns, without any nausea (the anchoring of a prominent heads-up display and mech suit border probably helped with this). What's more, being able to simply look at a target to aim felt much more natural than fiddling with a thumbstick to center an aiming reticle. This is one to watch out for.

London Heist: Getaway

Yes, this image is from the old demo of the game. Just imagine a similar scene in a van...

This demo was a follow-up to the impressive London Heist VR demo shown at GDC this year, which had me hiding behind a desk and searching for treasure while holding off waves of bad guys. The new scene was a seated experience, taking place in the passenger seat of a car under fire from all sides by waves of vans and motorcycles.

Before the action got going, there was a chance to fiddle around a bit in the car. Reaching out with the Move controller to adjust the radio tuning knobs, pull down the sun visor, pick up and throw a soda can, or adjust the AC vents still has a high degree "gee whiz" novelty after so many years of twiddling thumbs on a standard controller.

Once the action got going, the demo played out like a shooting gallery, albeit a thrilling one. Seated in a chair, there was none of the dodging and ducking behind cover of the previous Heist demo, which made things a little less impactful. The machine pistol shooting is still top-notch, though; it's amazing how intuitive it is to just point and shoot in VR space using a Move controller, which tracks your real-world movements to virtual world aim perfectly.

Blowing up a van by hitting its gas tank is exciting in the 3D surroundings, and reloading by actually picking up and thrusting a magazine into the weapon is as satisfying as ever. An entire game of these non-stop shooting experiences might get a bit tiresome without some other gameplay to break it up, but as a ten-minute demo, it's a great thrill ride.

Super Hypercube

In development since 2008, Super Hypercube is much older than the Morpheus concept itself, but it nonetheless seems well suited to the VR environment. This puzzle game requires players to rotate complex stacks of blocks in all three dimensions such that the resulting orientation can fit through a precise cutout in a quickly encroaching wall.

With each success, an additional block is randomly added to the block pile, making the resulting puzzle more complex. The wall sometimes rotates at the last minute, too, so you have to be alert as it approaches.

To see both your block stack and the encroaching hole effectively, you have to lean around in the virtual space to get the correct perspective. This is a bit annoying in practice, though it helps give you an intuitive understanding of the complicated 3D object that would be harder to gauge on a flat TV monitor. Overall, Super Hypercube seems like a great demonstration that all sorts of abstract games can work in VR.

Monster Escape/Monster Battle

These demos, which will come included as part of The Playroom VR collection, involves one player controlling a giant dinosaur with a Morpheus headset, with up to four others controlling tiny white robots using standard DualShock controllers and a TV screen. Notably, the Morpheus player doesn't need a controller at all and instead uses head movements for everything.

In the first section, the Morpheus dinosaur player uses his or her head to smash buildings lining a long, straight road. The others players, as tiny robots, must dodge the detritus the dinosaur kicks up in the process. The first time you head-butt a building is pretty satisfying, but after that it gets a bit tedious.

In the second section, the Morpheus dinosaur has to dodge as the four tiny robots opponents pick up and throw all that detritus at this head. There are some nice artistic flourishes here, like a streak of oil that obscures your vision when an oil can hits you.

I had a blast trying to duck out of the way of incoming projectiles from all sides, bobbing and weaving in my seat and really feeling it when I got hit. Following all four players as they run around and attack from the front and sides is surprisingly tough in VR, but necessary if you don't want to get smacked on the side of the head. It's not an experience with a lot of depth, but it will probably serve as a good first introduction for a lot of VR players.

Wayward Sky

A slightly modified Morpheus adaptation of an existing Gear VR game, Wayward Sky puts you in a god-like view of a tiny world. You guide your heroine from a third-person perspective by simply pointing to a location and clicking a button, like a 3D virtual reality update to an old point-and-click adventure.

The demo had players pulling levers and clicking buttons to distract various marching robots that block the protagonist's path, as well as a few chickens that are integral to solving some of the puzzles. At one point, you could grab hold of a chicken and fly, Zelda-style, leaning left and right to dodge steel girders being brought down by a giant mech. It was all a bit simple in this show floor demo, but the stationary, above-the-world perspective seems ideally suited for a VR pointing and clicking.

Impulse Gear

The VR game company recently featured in a Wired profile is trying to bring a full first-person shooter experience to the Morpheus headset. To do so, it has developed a prototype controller that holds a PlayStation Move wand in a form factor that looks like an assault rifle. One hand goes on the trigger while the other balances the gun from the front, with a thumbstick to control movement.

The result is a first-person game that decouples the directions you're moving, looking, and aiming from one another. If an enemy pops up to one side, you can start firing at him before you turn to get him fully centered in your view. If large spiders start biting at your legs, you can fire at your feet without staring at the ground.

Walking around in the VR environment while standing still in the real world wasn't as nauseating as I expected—something the designers attribute to the larger scale of the alien world. Still, holding the rifle controller out in front of me constantly was a recipe for shoulder pain, even in a short demo. Dodging behind rocky outcroppings and popping out to fire was also a little slow and awkward with the game's current control scheme. Still, I hope they work out the kinks—the promise of being able to play a full first-person shooter in VR without the threat of nausea is a tantalizing one.

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Channel Ars Technica