Vox Machinae – Preview (PAX East 2018) (Oculus)
Notice: We received access to test out this game at an event put on by Oculus. .
Vox Machinae is the newest game from developer Space Bullet. In Vox Machinae you take on the role of a pilot in a mech suit. Forget everything you think you know about mech games in VR as you step into the cockpit of your mech and prepare to be wowed. This isn’t your average run of the mill mech game where you suit up and use traditional control schemes, you are fully immersed in the cockpit and are completely in control of every aspect of your mech.
Vox Machinae is a competitive multiplayer experience where teams of mech suit wielding players partake in a team based death match. In this world, strategy and skill will get you so much further than going in rockets blazing. The controls are vast and take some time to get the hang of, but thanks to the tutorials you’ll feel confident that you’re in control as you start your first match.
As you enter the game you’ll find yourself in the cockpit of your own mech. On the left side of the cockpit is your key and throttle. You will use these to boost yourself into the air, enabling you to fly over the enemy team and rain down missile and laser strikes down on them. There is a lot of strategy involved with this – soar through the air for too long you will find yourself over heating and hurling back towards the earth at an increasingly rapid pace. Failing to correct this will find you landing hard, disabling and even dismantling your legs. Falling in this way will take away your ability to walk making you change your tactics on the fly. There are a couple ways to counteract this. First, by shutting off the key you will stop overheating and begin to cool down, but the give and take requires that you stop refueling as long as the key is turned off. So you will cool down more rapidly, but you also have the risk of running out of fuel. Another option involves free falling and hitting the throttle to slow you down as you approach the ground, this decision will run the risk of overheating before you hit the ground, but wont stop your fuel from filling back up.
Finding the right balance for you will be part of the strategic process that each player must go through as they find a play style that fits them best.
On the other side of the cockpit you’ll find quite a few key items that will be necessary in order to pilot your mech to victory. On the far left you will have your radar that you can move around until you find a comfortable place for it so that it is in your line of sight, but not in your way. you’ll also find the levers you need to move forward and backward and side to side, all the while making sure that you don’t overheat. Moving the mech in and out of combat can be tricky and the control scheme is extensive, but playing through the tutorial will set you up for success as you battle your opponents. Stick with it and in no time you’ll start feeling confident with the controls.
The weapons are mapped to the trigger buttons. You have everything from missiles to lasers, but like everything else, using them to frequently will over heat your mech and shut you down briefly leaving you completely vulnerable.
Vox Machinae is being developed by an impressively small team and due to this they have had to make some decisions as the game heads to early access. Rather than add a bunch of subpar maps and modes into the game they are focusing on perfecting the content that they deliver. Starting in early access will allow them to continue to evolve the game as people have the chance to try the game for the first time. At the launch of early access Vox Machinae will be strictly an online multiplayer game which will make the early access and beta experiences all the more valuable in helping to shape the game into what the final product will eventually become.
Early testing has already proved to be a positive experience. One seemingly small yet incredible useful feature that was added to the game is the voice chat. By picking up the walkie talkie you can communicate with your team in real time. not only can they hear you, they can see your avatar in a small screen mimicking your actions on the screen. The developers said that this was to be a gateway for non-VR players to see a small glimpse of what they are missing by not playing the game in VR. Considering the game is cross platform and right off the bat will be playable on Oculus and Steam, VR players will be able to play against Steam players and vice versa.
It’s also notable that after our play through there wasn’t even a hint of nausea or headache. Comparing that to a game like Rigs where after 5-10 minutes of gameplay most people need to take a break before matches, Vox Machinae can be played for extended periods of time with ease.
As Vox Machinae heads to early access in the near future you’ll soon have your chance to try out this incredible experience for yourself. One that we guarantee you won’t soon forget.
