HeliRaid (Beagle Reality) -Play NYC 2023
Back to: Play NYC (August 2023)
Game: HeliRaid
Developer: Beagle Reality
The year is 2096 and a ruthless totalitarian Order has complete control over this bleak dystopia. In a struggle to restore the people’s freedoms, the resistance sends out a group of brave fighters dubbed the Hellcat Squad to attack and sabotage the enemy’s communications arrays.
The game is called HeliRaid, a Meta Quest 2 VR headset game. You play a sharp-shooting gunner on the helicopter gunship Stingray, providing air support against hostile enemies. In this mission, you are to protect your hacker squadmate as she sabotages government broadcasts by replacing their propaganda & misinformation with upbeat music to give people hope.
Playing this game reminded me of the arcade rail shooter Gunblade, except HeliRaid feels miles ahead in terms of gameplay, clarity of purpose and of course, graphics. You kind of feel like you’re there in the helicopter controlling an actual gun as you’re able to move around freely using the VR controls.
Plus, HeliRaid addresses the number one problem plaguing most VR games, which is nausea. Beagle Reality has done a phenomenal job of minimizing this issue without sacrificing dynamic gameplay. This is accomplished by 1) running the game at 90 frames per second, and 2) removing the need to quickly swing around quickly like in most first person shooter games.
Instead, the player is given a (more or less) stable field of view from inside the chopper. The cut-scenes also offer great animations and feeling of movement, but are shot in stable angles that don’t give you a headache.
Subtitles and voice-overs help narrate the story from the viewpoint of the helicopter pilot and your squadmate. They’ll provide you with mission details and feedback from the battlefield.
In terms of graphics, certain limitations should be noted. The Meta Quest 2 is, at its core, an Android device with hardware that make it technically difficult to render high-end visuals.
For example, while the game has great foreground details of the battle areas, there isn’t enough processing power to do the same for the background at the same time. Beagle Reality’s solution was to reduce background details, making it look somewhat blurry.
Personally I think it was a great move and don’t see this as a downside. It removed distractions from my field of view and helped me focus on the mission area while I played. I actually rather liked it. Besides, human eyes do this naturally anyway, like when you stare at your finger in front of your face; everything else will be blurred.
The design of the city is also quite fascinating. It takes influence from some of the developer’s favorite anime shows like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. The result is a hodgepodge of different cultural influences thrown together in one place mixing arabic, cyrillic, and even asian characters.
Development
HeliRaid is developed by Beagle Reality, a 4 man team founded by Rustam Mirzakhmedov. Some of Rustam’s inspiration for the game comes from playing Battlefield 4 with his friends and his love for Hong Kong films (John Woo stuff). And an arcade rail shooter favorite, Gunblade.
His motivation (well, one of them) comes from the awful nausea he felt after playing various VR games. He felt there had to be a better way to design for VR with an improved playing experience.
INTERVIEW (edited for brevity)
Another motivation is to tell a good story in a shooter game. Most (like Call of Duty and Battlefield series) lack a good storyline and quickly get repetitive. With HeliRaid, Rustam wants to showcase a variety of environments and situations (kind of like the Uncharted series).
An early access version of the game is soon to be available for free download. A full version has estimated release date of May 2024, with proper funding. It will be a single player campaign with different levels, with future ideas including expanded weapon choices and different challenges (like timed challenge).
Availability
Available soon: Metaquest 2 VR (App Lab) – Early Access version
Full version release date: Best estimate, May 2024
Price: Early Access – Free
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More Info:
https://www.facebook.com/heliraidvr
https://discord.gg/24uzZs6teq
Event: Play NYC (August 2023)
