Take a break from playing tennis or launching potatoes into battle with your VR set and immerse yourself in a story-driven, beautifully rendered world. Journey to Elysium is a welcome departure from some of the more frenetic titles currently available in VR.
Journey for Elysium Preview
At its core, Journey for Elysium is a game about exploration and puzzles. Your character is a fallen soldier stuck in the Penumbra between life and death. You will travel the River Styx by boat in an effort to find Elysium and find your peace. Much of the navigation in-game involves navigating the river by rowing and stopping to take on puzzles when you hit a dead end. Unlocking your path to Elysium will require that you use your wits and solve an increasingly-difficult series of puzzles before completing your quest.
The game itself is visually stunning, with a unique black-and-white color theme that is punctuated by gold when items that you are able to interact with. All in all, it looks nothing like any VR game you’ve ever seen. There are two different navigation modes, allowing you to play seated in a more casual setting so that the story and puzzles aren’t bogged down by paddling your boat around.
Technical Stuff
- Supported devices: HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro, Oculus Rift, Windows MR, PSVR
- Supported Hardware: VR Ready PC (Minimum Requirements: Intelยฎ Core i5 4590 or above / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or above)
- Platforms (Download only): Steamยฎ, Oculus Store, Viveport, Microsoft Store, Playstation Store
- Number of Players: 1
The Kickstarter
According to the developers, the game is deep into the development process. The devs are hoping that a successful Kickstarter campaign will give them a chance to add bells and whistles that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to provide.
At lower levels of giving, you can join the game community and get access to the game early. With higher levels of giving, you will get physical and digital copies of the artwork in the game, a 3D printed character, and your name on a tombstone in-game. For the VIP tier, the devs will fly you out to Ghent, Belgium for the release. It’s quite an array of rewards.
You can contribute at their Kickstarter page here.
Verdict
We’re excited to see this project come to fruition. While some of the puzzle solving aspects remind us of Skyrim, the depth and complexity to the problem solving appears on a much higher level than an Elder Scrolls-style game. The beautiful art and the focus on exploration and puzzle solving is a smart move that many VR developers overlook. All in all, there’s nothing else available in virtual reality that is anything like Journey for Elysium.
Get Your Plugs In
The game is a release from two solid Belgian gaming companies: Cronos Interactive and Mantis Games. Want to see this effort be successful? The obvious way to help out is by throwing in for the Kickstarter. You can also follow the game at the official site or stick with Nerds and Scoundrels for all the release details.
Want to stay up on all the info on social media? Check out https://twitter.com/cronosinteractvย andย https://twitter.com/mantis_gamesbe on Twitter.
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