RIGS Mechanized Combat League Preview - E3 2016

While Virtual Reality technology has already made its consumer debut for those with powerful PCs, the consoles have to wait until the upcoming October release when the PlayStation VR hits stores. Designed to function with the PlayStation 4, The PlayStation VR has a 5.7 inch OLED panel, with an RGB sub-pixel matrix resolution of 1080p, or 960xRGBx1080 per eye. The headset also has 9 positional LED's on its surface for the required PlayStation Camera to track 360 degree head movement. We had a chance to try out the system as well as one of its upcoming games, RIGS, at E3 this year.

RIGS takes place in battle arenas where robots participate in a sort of sporting event. The Mechanized Combat League has simple rules – players are split into two teams of 3, and to score points you must simply fall through a large hoop-like ring in the center of the map. The desert-like arena we played on featured a variety of ramps and underpasses to provide flanking and cover opportunities on your way to the goal. You can only score points, however, when your rig becomes supercharged after you’ve either collected enough items around the arena, or eliminated a few of the opposing team members. At that point it becomes a careful dash to the center to make the jump and hopefully score.

In our demo there were three different RIGS machines to pilot, each with its own set of weapons and positive/negative design aspects. Some machines were larger but had more health, while others were smaller and faster. At this point the PS VR headset was on my head, and to select the robots I simply needed to look in its direction and press X on the DualShock 4 controller. While the game was deploying to the arena, I could look around the large cabin, my virtual pilot’s hands located in front of me just below the normal view, and great visibility in all directions.

As the battle began, movement felt both natural and engaging. Piloting the mechs around the arena was fluid and using the PS VR headset to look around was natural and worked well, in correlation with turning my RIG using the thumbstick. Though sometimes disorienting, as in any VR experience, RIGS kept my vision focused on the objectives and it helped with any sense of physical disorientation. There is no reticule in the game, as players must turn their head and aim at the target they wish to engage. It took a couple of encounters to get used to, but by half-time I’ve had a few kills and led my team in points scored. The opposition tried to stop me from jumping through the ring, both physically and with special abilities, but I had managed to outmaneuver those attempts.

In the second half, the enemy team actually got off to a quick start and managed to bring the score to within a point. However, at that time I had decided to focus on eliminating the enemy and let my team do the scoring. The RIG comes with three different modes – speed, repair, and damage assigned to the face buttons of the controller. With speed, my RIG was able to move fairly quickly; when I came across an enemy, I switched my power to damage so that my rockets could inflict maximum pain. Outside of combat, I switched to the repair mode to restore my health. It worked wonderfully and provided nice added depth to the gameplay. In the end, my team managed to recover and came away with a comfortable victory.

Our time spent with RIGS was a rather enjoyable. The PlayStation VR worked well and motion tracking didn’t exhibit any issues. Further, the gameplay itself seemed quite fun as well, and if the developers at Guerrilla Cambridge manage to carefully balance all the different mechs in the game, this could very well be the Rocket League equivalent for PlayStation VR. RIGS Mechanized Combat League does not currently have a release window, and will be a PS VR exclusive title. The PlayStation VR system will be released October 13, 2016 for US$399 / CDN$549 for the base model, and US$499.99 / CDN$699 for the Launch Bundle that includes the required PlayStation Camera as well as a pair of PlayStation Move controllers and PlayStation VR Worlds games.