Death Lap is a virtual reality game that puts you behind the wheel of a comically dark game where you need to drive to survive. Starting today, you can buy this game for your Oculus Rift and Rift S, and also your standalone Oculus Quest.
OZWE Games are no strangers to the big stage, as they have had immense success with other games inside of the virtual reality world. With their series of Anshar Wars, they found something that worked. For this game, they wanted to take a bit of a different approach for their next strategy.
“After Anshar Wars, Anshar Wars 2, and Anshar Online, we wanted to make something different this time—not a sci-fi flying game,” explains OZWE Games Art Director Camille Muller. “We had become experts in motion-based games with a moving camera, and it would have been a shame not to use our expertise, so we thought about making a racing game. That’s how the idea of Death Lap came up.”
Bright colors, bold themes, and old-famished inspiration, this game has something for every VR user to love. “We spent a lot of time creating an innovative control scheme that doesn’t make people uncomfortable while driving,” says OZWE Games CEO Stéphane Intissar. “We learned a lot from our previous titles, the Anshar Wars series, where the players have to move all the time. In Death Lap, players can choose between three comfort modes, with various intensity. We hope this will please a large population.”
Each car has its own unique abilities and skills, making the driver, car, and track all have to be in sync to win each race. It isn’t a simple load in and race type of game, as your knowledge is going to be challenge each time you step behind the wheel. “The game’s campaign evolves with the player’s skills and knowledge more than just unlocking race after race,” notes OZWE Games Game Designer Yoan Santelli. “The more the player plays, the more they learn on each car and track. With this knowledge, they’ll improve race time, score, etc., and this is where the AI levels up to match the player skills. Really good players will battle against very strong AI opponents.”
“Each track is very different and gets harder and harder to master,” adds Intissar. “Don’t be surprised if some players have a very good lap time because each of them has a secret passage that only master players will discover. The leaderboard will be intimidating, but it takes time to master all of the skills.”
This game will challenge many, and mastering the controls are even more unique than mastering each track. Steering with one arm and aiming your weapon with the other is going to be hard for some, and even harder for others. It will take time to get used to this new way to play virtual reality games.
“Moving your body to shoot backward, aim with your arm, turn your head to see an enemy coming from the side—all those kinds of interactions are so much more fun when you do them with your body instead of just pushing buttons on a controller,” says Santelli. “You forget really fast about how to control your character and focus instead on the actions you want to make. You are the character.”
This game is priced at $19.99, and we are already loving what it has to offer. For more VR news and gaming community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
