Thanks to virtual reality (VR) you can find yourself immersed in any number of fantastic locations real or fictional. In the last week alone on VRFocus we’ve discussed escaping the clutches of a demonic clown in a dangerous haunted house and partaking in gunfights in a version of the Wild West. We’ve had rocking out in a virtual music studio, battling pirates, weaponised cybernetic apes and becoming a race car engineer to becoming a warrior in a sword and sorcery fantasy land, Even being a basic wage slave, thanks to the latest update from Job Simulator.
Perhaps the most popular genre for VR gaming, at least critically, is that involving the subject of space. Be it dogfighting with spaceships or exploring alien worlds. The latest to be revealed in the latter category this week was Planetrism. Being built with Unreal Engine 4 by a two-man team (Mika Laaksonen and Kimmo Kaunela) Planetrism is expected to launch ‘in the near future’ for both of the main PC VR head mounted displays (HMDs) – the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Planetrism is an open world experience set some 200 years into the future and follows how the human race has fared following leaving the confines of an overpopulated and over polluted Earth. One struggling to cope as humanity realises Earth’s natural resources are all but exhausted. The human race is always moving, and move on it must, spreading out throughout the solar system.
“It is very harsh frontier life full of hard work, dangers of unknown territories, but there are also adventures filled with wonders and mysteries of universe.” Kaunela explained to VRFocus. But with the Earth all but reduced to a husk has humanity truly learned from their mistakes? Or is it doomed to repeat the process in its new home? The open world adventure is yours to decide.
We’ve now got a full array of screenshots for the title to show to you, with underwater scenes, oases in a dusty desert landscape, vibrantly coloured plant life and deep mysterious cave systems. Navigate through the gallery below and click on an image you want to see a larger version of. VRFocus will be back with more about Planetrism very soon
via Mint VR