The SoulKeeper VR is one of those games that I personally really looking forward to. In fact, the trailer was one of the most impressive demos that I've seen for virtual reality. SoulKeeper VR is an upcoming RPG virtual reality game for the HTC Vive. I remember how excited I was when I first saw the gameplay trailer, the graphics were just out of this world,with fully detailed structures and atmosphere, stunning animations and visual effects - exactly the fantasy world I want to be part of. In terms of visuals and gameplay mechanics, this game reminds me some other RPG games that I used to play, like Dark Souls III and The Elder Scrolls. It is quite rare to see a game with such a high artistic visual quality so high, I was utterly overwhelmed and many of the reactions that followed that trailer felt the same.
In the prototype demo trailer, we can see a character fighting against several enemy characters using various type of weapons, including a magic want and a long knight sword. The character is dodging some attacks and also conjuring magical spells by drawing symbols in the air. This is one of the Dual handed spellcasting gameplay mechanism, where players will be able to cast different types of spells by using the Vive controllers to draw different shapes in front of them. The visual effects that follow the magic casting gesture are just very impressive. You can really feel like a very powerful sorcerer when you cast those spells on your enemies.
I've seen other screenshots from the game posted on their Twitter, and the images only reinforced my feeling that this is certainly an exceptional game. You just don't get to see such highly detailed artistic environments in games these days. I just hope that the same visual fidelity will be retained on release. We've already seen games that look really amazing in early gameplay footage, but the graphic fidelity is decreased when the game is officially released. I don't think this will be the case in SoulKeeper VR due to the very demanding Vive HMD minimum hardware requirements. This is actually one of the biggest advantages of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets compared to other headsets, they are backed up by very powerful hardware, which allows developers to create games with great visual qualities.
SoulKeeper takes full use of SteamVR roomscale and the complementary motion controllers to bring an RPG experience that was never seen or played like before. For example, you can reach your sword at your back by physically moving the controller in motion like you are drawing the sword which is located behind your back, in the virtual world of course. You use the motion controllers to control your sword for both attacking and parrying.
There are also going to be multiple playable characters that you can choose from, each one with a different set of skills and abilities. You can even fly a mighty red dragon, make barrel rolls and breath devastating fire. Hel Systems released a downloadable VR demo that was released to help the developer test out the dragon flight mechanics.
On their Facebook page, they also mentioned a multiplayer mode I am really looking forward having a multiplayer mode, I really think that this adds a very high replay and social interaction value to the game.
SoulKeeper VR is planned for release at the end of 2016 according to the latest update on the official forums that was posted on May 9, 2016. There is also a lot more to talk about so we'll keep you posted with more news and updates about SoulKeeper on this page.