Bravo Team (a great name in my opinion) is an upcoming first-person shooter being developed by Supermassive Games, the same video game developer behind Until Dawn Rush of Blood for PSVR (2016), the newly announced (at E3 2017) Inpatient for PSVR, Tumble VR, Killzone HD Hidden Agenda and others.
Supermassive Games describe Bravo Team as a first-person VR cover shooter. The game takes place in a fictional modern city in Eastern Europe. You are part of an escort mission that goes terribly wrong and now it's up to you alone, or with a friend (the game supports two-player online co-op gameplay), to fight back and survive. The developer developed the game to challenge the player, making the enemies smart an adaptive, so you'll need to think to think tactically instead of just spraying your bullets everywhere. If you play with a friend, you both need to coordinate your and be in constant communication in order to prevail.
The game sports a variety of tangible firearms for you to use on the battlefield. What's great about Bravo Team is that it supports for both the PS Move motion controllers and the PSVR Aim Controller, as well as the DualShock 4 controller if this is how you prefer to play a shooter or don't currently own any of the VR controllers. For those who don't know, the PlayStation VR aim controller is a gun-shaped controller that was designed intentionally with games like Bravo Team in mind. It's very precise, but most of all, you can really feel like shooting with a real gun. You can hold it with one hand or grab the front hand for two-hand handling. It's much more intuitive for FPS games than the DS4 controller and benefits from better immersion in VR games due to the physical connection to the VR world, instead of playing with a controller that doesn't resemble how the gun handles in-game.
Supermassive Games have mentioned on their website that the Aim Controller was a great inspiration for them and they actually designed the game around those advanced controllers. Other gameplay mechanics are also made to be very intuitive, like leaning right or left to take cover or lift up the controller about your head to shot blindly at your enemies when you ar me behind cover. The thing is that this mechanics should be native for everyone because we just use the controller in a way that we would have used it in real life.
In my opinion, first-person shooters are among the most exciting games to play in VR. If you've played games, for exmaple, like Raw Data, Hover Junkers, Arizona Sunshine, Space Pirate Trainer, The Arcslinger, Superhot, or Onward, for example, you know exactly what I am talking about. On HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, you have your touch controllers, and most of the games are optimized for these controllers. For PSVR there aren't many games optimized for the PS Move or the new Aim Controller, so it's great to see another shooter that has given a lot of attention to make sure the games played beautifully with those optional VR accessories. There is another game called Farpoint that was also designed to take full advantage of the PlayStation VR aim controller, and you probably want to take a look at this game as well.
I was really excited when I first saw the trailer at the E3 2017 PlayStation conference. I'm sure that there are many PS VR users who just die to get this type of shooter. As of the time of writing, we haven't heard any word about Bravo Team featuring a competitive multiplayer game mode. Supermassive Games only mentioned a single-player and two-player co-op option. I know that there is a great demand for competitive multiplayer VR shooters. The thing it that because the selection of games isn't vast, people will buy this title regardless and having a co-op is really nice, but for some not having a multiplayer option might be a dealbreaker.
For me to enjoy a co-op shooter, I need the game to be very challenging. I can tell you how much I enjoyed doing Nightfall missions in Destiny each week, and the reason for that it's because it was something freaking hard to finish. I also expect the gunpaly mechanics to be nailed just right, so shooting will feel as intuitive it possible can.
Graphics-wise, the game looks really nice in my opinion, but I need to wait for some real gameplay footage to evaluate it properly. I just hope it's offered a lengthy gameplay and it won't feel like another short VR experience like many of the PS VR games out there. This is why I believe many people prefer a multiplayer mode because of its added replay value that it brings with it. Many of my friends are waiting for the next full locomotion multiplayer military shooter, and I wonder how close Bravo Team can answer their heart wishes.
As of the time of writing, there is no release date. Just follow this game's page for more information in the news section in the bottom of the page, where we'll share more updated when they are revealed. So far so good, and I am really excited about this game. Let's hope that it will stand by its promise and we can enjoy a great VR shooter experience.
Don't forget to check out the launc trailer from E32017 below.
Image credit: Supermassive Games