Onstage at E3 2015 this week, Andrew House introduced a high-octane, big-hitting new title coming exclusively to Project Morpheus: RIGS Mechanized Combat League.
Down on the show floor, we caught up with Piers and Tom from Guerrilla Cambridge to learn more about their lightning-fast and explosively fun new VR arena shooter – and why you’re going to want to grab a VR headset and step into the arena.
- It’s all your favourite sports in one futuristic arena
Piers: “RIGS is a first-person, arena based shooter set 50 years into the future and is a collision of all different sports – there’s elements of motorsport, shooting, basketball and others that come together to create this combat league where the rigs are the heroes.”
Tom: “It’s all about the drama, knocking an opponent rig out of the air when they’re going to score, getting the big saves or scoring a last minute goal to win for your team.”
Piers: “We’ve taken elements from real sports that create tension, when it’s all on a knife-edge; the last minute goal, the saves and blocks – we’re inspired by the games that give you those moments.”
- You’re in the driver’s seat of enormous mech sports heroes
Piers: “The rigs aren’t just robots, they’re driven by you. You’re in control, and you really get that sense of size and presence when you’re inside Morpheus.”
Tom: “Head movement is a big part of how you control the rigs – in the game mode we’re showing at E3, that’s how players steer the mechs and use their aim. You can scan the skies and see other rigs, or change direction quickly. But ultimately, we’ll offer a choice of control schemes so people can take charge of their mech and be comfortable within the game.”
Piers: “We’ve made the Dualshock controls as natural and familiar as possible, so players can focus on what’s happening inside the Morpheus headset. We’re not going to overload you with controls, we’re stripping it right back to just what you need to compete inside the arena.”
- You can choose your rig and play your way
Piers: “Matches are 3-on-3, and the rigs come in different forms with different specialities. There’s the Hunter, the Mirage and the Tempest. Tempest is a lightweight flying rig, Mirage is a tall, agile rig that can double-jump and Hunters are small, fast rigs that can get through gaps quickly.”
Tom: “Different people like different things – I’m a big fan of the Tempest, hovering around with an overview of the arena, looking around with the Morpheus headset and seeing what’s going on in the match.”
Piers: “I really like the Hunter, diving in and out of cover, taking people out so they don’t even see me coming.”
- Different game modes mean more ways to play
Tom: “At E3 we’re showing a game called Power Slam, where you take out opponents to collect power orbs and send your rig into overdrive – which makes you run faster, shoot more powerfully and regenerate health faster. Most importantly, when you’re in overdrive you can jump through the hoop to score a goal and get points on the scoreboard. It’s kind of like basketball with guns.”
- You can pick your team and share tactics – but solo players have a place too
Piers: “We’ve brought two teams to E3, the Cobras and the Dynamos, each with their own special abilities that help in certain game modes. The Cobras have their vampire ability so they regain health when they take out an opponent. The Dynamos have a knockout power that lets them take down an opponent with a melee attack and steal their overdrive to deny them a chance to score.
“The mechs have different loadouts and abilities, but it’s down to how you and your team want to play that will influence which one you choose and how to combine the classes.
“As for single players, we’re not quite ready to talk about we’re offering there – we’re focusing on the team games for now at E3 as that best shows off what the game is all about – but we’ve got plans for what the single player mode will be.”
- It’s been built exclusively for Project Morpheus
Piers: “Everything we thought we knew about game development went out the window when we started RIGS so we had to learn everything from scratch, which is an incredibly refreshing thing to do. We learned new ways of choreographing an environment, new ways to design an interface – everything about it is different and really exciting.”
Tom: “It sounds cheesy, but working with the Morpheus kit is a little bit of magic. We obviously play the game every day and may have got used to it, but coming here and seeing people’s reactions when they play RIGS for the first time is incredible. You really have to play it to see what I mean.”
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