Originally scheduled for a late May release, melee combat game Swordsman VR is now available for Oculus Quest and Meta Quest 2 headsets via App Lab, alongside the advanced combat update launching for all platforms.
The advanced combat update adds over 1,000 new animations made possible by extensive motion capture and improvements to enemy AI prediction. While the game has been available on PC VR and PSVR for a while already, the update is available now for all platforms, coinciding with the Quest release.
On Reddit, the developers also addressed some promised features that are missing from the update, or features that are now no longer available. SinnStudio said that features like finishers, executions and grabbing enemies’ weapons were “affected by the new combat mechanics in significant ways and sadly, we were unable to complete them in time for the update.”
A Quest release for Swordsman VR was confirmed back in October 2021. Initially, developers SinnStudio wanted a full Quest Store release for the game, but Meta asked the studio to “take the direction of an App Lab release to gauge interest.”
It will be interesting to see whether the game picks up interest from the Quest user base, especially given its similarities to other physics-driven combat titles like Blade & Sorcery. We enjoyed parts of Blade & Sorcery, but also found it lacking in some features and encountered performance hitches on Quest 2. It overall felt “still two or three updates away from really escaping its tech demo roots, and … more like a preview both for what the finished product will look like.”
Could Swordsman VR scratch an itch that Blade & Sorcery: Nomad didn’t quite capitalize on? Let us know what you think in the comments.
