MARE is a Beautiful VR Adventure from Ex ‘The Last Guardian’ Artist

MARE is a new adventure title from a former member of Team Ico, the studio responsible for the PlayStation classic Ico and the (very, very) long awaited The Last Guardian. Here’s the game’s teaser trailer.

Anyone who has experienced the bewitching, desolate charms of Ico, a 2002 platform-puzzler for PlayStation 2 following a boy’s quest to escape captivity alongside his female companion, you’ll likely draw some similarities with a new title being developed for Oculus platforms called MARE.

There’s a good reason for that too as the sole developer on the title, Rui Guerrero, was also part of Team Ico until he left part way through the group’s torturous development of the forthcoming PS4 title The Last Guardian. At first glance, there are glimpses of MARE which could fleetingly be mistaken for Ico. The bleached, softened lighting cast across a world filled with ancient ruins all towering over the protagonists’ tiny form. But MARE is all new and what’s more, it’s being build for virtual reality.

Coming to Oculus platforms some time next year, MARE follows the journey of a young girl and a mechanical bird as they traverse through a lost, mythical world. In terms of what the game is actually about, little is known just yet. What we do know is that the title is roughly 50% complete and is being built exclusively for Oculus VR hardware. You indirectly control the bird, glancing at key focus points in the world such that the bird triggers key events in the landscape. The recently released trailer (which you can view in full at the top of this page) shows the bird “sailing the winds” swooping between vanes, with the girl in tow.

The game looks stunning, with vast ancient deserted structures for the duo to explore and a Team-Ico-esque attention to beautiful animation clearly in evidence. A clear visual lineage can be seen here with comparisons to be made with Ico and The Last Guardian, something which will delight fans of those game.

Again, it’s not clear when we’ll see the final version of MARE ship, but Rui Guerreiro has stated that – given his pas experience with protracted development cycles – he’s not willing to set a timeline just yet. You can however find out more about MARE’s somewhat complex development journey thus far in an excellent expose over at Polygon here.