During Computex 2016 HTC was in full force, showing off its Vive VR headset and a number of different experiences that are coming down the pipe. Lanh and Nirave had the opportunity to check out two of these experiences, with Lanh playing the game JeeboMan and Nirave trying out Front Defense.
You can hear about their impressions in the video above, as well as get a recap as to what other types of HTC Vive demos were present. However, what we really want to highlight is the game that Nirave played, Front Defense.
At the end of May, HTC announced Front Defense as the first game that would see the HTC employees participate directly in its creation. While Front Defense is actually built by Fantahorn Studio, the new startup is comprised of current HTC employees. HTC says that this is an “independent content developer” that is sponsored as an ‘internal startup’ dedicated solely to the creation of VR content. Basically, it sounds like this is sort of like what Pokemon Company is to Nintendo. Separate but highly connected.
Front Defense drops you in a WW2 era setting, and at least in the demo, you’re hunkered down behind some sandbags as Nazis coming storming at you. You have a few weapons on your side, including a machine gun, rocket launcher, and some grenades.
During his time playing the game, Nirave seemingly fell in love. What made the game so compelling was a combination of factors. First, the graphics are truly quite impressive. But even more important is the attention to detail. Like Nirave notes, if you throw a grenade wrong it could bounce off of an incoming tank.
The kind of precision involved in Front Defense makes it clear the team knew exactly what the HTC Vive’s hardware was capable of and so we are likely looking at one of the first Vive experiences that takes full advantage of what the headset has to offer. The end result? In Nirave’s own words, “I’ve used Vive before, and compared to the other experiences — this blows it all away.” This certainly makes us excited to see what other projects Fantahorn has in store for us in the future.
What do you think, excited to see what’s next for the Vive? Or are you more interested in the Rift or even the Playstation VR?
Leave A Comment