Claiming a seat on the virtual reality money train, Sony revealed the prototype ‘Project Morpheus’ at GDC 2014 and recently confirmed more details, including news of its 2016 release date, at this year’s GDC. The state-of the-art headset device is designed to increase work in tandem with the Move and DualShock, of which Sony demonstrated via a few demos: The Deep,or should I say Shark Cage Jump Scare Simulator 2015, in which you play as a pair of sentient hands tasked to kill baddies with a 9mm, and The Assembly, a mysterious VR adventure game that is best explained by watching this video.
.jpg)
Project Morpheus will go on sale in 2016 and could change the way we game
The bottom line is that Morpheus is expected to increase immersion and draw us in deeper toward the Matrix WITHOUT the robot overlords and creepy fetus jars, and it definitely shouldn’t disappoint if it has functionality with these titles:
1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida has expressed interest in seeing a horror property like P.T./Silent Hills made playable with Morpheus capability in the near future, and while that might have been a guaranteed pants-crappingly good experience, it’s not going to happen because the whole Silent Hills project has been canceled. So, what about that other Hideo Kojima developed game, the upcoming Metal Gear sequel, The Phantom Pain? Imagine the tension of prowling on hard Earth in first person mode, silenced pistol in hand as Punished Snake, infiltrating rain-soaked enemy jungles and high security desert outposts without certainty of what’s next beyond your intel. Perhaps not quite as scary as a ghost chick, but it’d be pretty drawer-soiling nonetheless.
2. Star Wars Battlefront
Four planets! Frostbite Engine! Play as Darth Vader! 40 Player Deathmatches! Friggin’ SplitScreen! Every new feature announced for EA DICE’s reboot of Battlefront hypes up my inner child more and more, but you know what would make him REALLY explode? MORPHEUS. Bobbing and weaving through Endor trees on a speeder bike is adrenaline-pumping as is, but if EA threw literal bobbing and weaving into the mix, Andrew Wilson could shut the hell up and take my LIFE SAVINGS.
3.We Happy Few
This trippy survival roguelike game follows one happy town by the name of Wellington Wells. Almost too happy. Specifically, the drug-fueled Bioshock-esque-dystopia trying to conform kind of happy. I’d just love to take a calm stroll through one of many Wells’ quaint, idyllic streets, and what better way to take in the scenic 50’s aesthetic of this lovely town than through those brand new VR gizmos? Don’t be a downer, but an upper. Lots of uppers. Otherwise the townsfolk are happy to give you some persuasion, persuasion of the billyclub variety. If the devs want to throw in some authentic red pills, they’d add Morpheus support, and virtual blunt trauma would be more joyous than ever before! Right?
4. Last Year
It’s still a work in progress, but it’s an intriguing one. Former Ubisoft developer James Matthew Wearing recently crowdfunded $114 grand to help bring his ambitious project Last Year to life. Essentially the video game equivalent of Friday The 13th, Last Year is a first person survival horror game that takes several cues from iconic slasher flicks. Five players play as a team of classic high school archetypes with their own strengths and weaknesses (For example,the Jock is more combative whilst the Nerd takes a more strategic approach), and they must work together to outwit and fend off a killer. Though the game unfortunately nearly fell prey to vicious copyright claims over it’s killer bearing more than a passing resemblance to Jason Voorhees, Last Year is aiming to release next year, and I’d love to get behind the mask wearing a literal mask as I terrorize some saps online.
Which games would you like to see come to Project Morpheus?