In Adr1ft, 505 Games is sending players into orbit as a lone astronaut trying to navigate the debris of their destroyed ship and find a way back home. If that sounds familiar, that’s because, try as it might, Adr1ft won’t be able to overcome the shadow of Gravity, a movie with basically the same premise.
However, 505 Games is carving out its own niche by bringing the player closer to the action than ever by utilizing the Oculus Rift’s groundbreaking VR tech to make this experience feel even more real than ever.
At E3 2015, 505 Games had a demo of Adr1ft available with Oculus support, and the results are unlike any other game at the show.
I was thrown right into action as an astronaut floating through ruined corridors, feeling my way around and bouncing off every wall and piece of debris along the way. With the help of the immersive Oculus goggles and headphones, Adr1ft takes complete control of your senses. I became so absorbed by the game, my body reacted naturally to everything on the screen.
I found myself literally dodging objects coming at me in the game from my chair, moving my head up and down as my character took stock of the ship’s damage, and waving my hand in a desperate attempt to get the ship’s polite (but annoying) voice A.I. to shut up.
And while the cramped corridors gave the game a Kubrickian sense of claustrophobic terror, it’s when I entered a gigantic glass dome that Adr1ft really came together.
Here I was completely tetherless, with no walls to cling to or ship to navigate. As I looked through the glass dome onto Earth, I got the greatest sense of what Oculus can do for gaming, even though I also felt like I was on Disney’s Tower of Terror without a seatbelt.
As the demo ended, my character died a fairly gruesome death, struggling and panicking while floating into the deepest reaches of space.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some terror too, and for anyone with a few DSM-IV boxes checked off, Adr1ft is likely to leave you curled into a ball searching for your happy place - but it’s definitely something you need to experience yourself. Take a look at the new trailer for Adr1ft below:
Adr1ft will be out on Playstation4, Xbox One and STEAM in September 2015 and all major Virtual Reality platforms when they are released.
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