Onward (2020), the tactical mil-sim shooter from Meta-owned Downpour Interactive, is getting a big 2.0 update soon. It’s been a long time coming too, as the game’s last major update was nearly one year ago.

Onward hasn’t been abandoned, although it has seen fairly light updates in the year since the studio released its big ‘Mercenary’ update, which brought to the game in February 2024 a PVE mode and various graphic tweeks.

Now, Downpour Interactive is set to launch its 2.0 update for Onward, which Meta says in a recent blogpost that sometime this year, Onward will receive “its biggest update ever,” noting it will include a host of content.

This includes what Meta calls “a massive graphical overhaul across weapons and utilities,” in addition to a new Operator system with 20 new characters, and new map content. More information on the 2.0 update is said to arrive “very soon.”

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This follows turmoil in the wider gaming industry, which included wide-ranging layoffs at Downpour Inteactive in 2023; founder and CEO Dante Buckley, who started the studio in 2015, departed the company a month prior to layoffs.

Initially released on Steam in Early Access in 2016, and later released in early access on the original Oculus Quest in 2020, Onward focuses on realistic squad-based gameplay and unrelentingly faithful reproduction of real-world weaponry.

You can learn more about Onward the Horizon Store page on for Quest 2 and above, and on Steam for PC VR headsets, where it’s regularly priced at $25.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    One of thee things I desperately want is for them to at least add an option to turn off the stupid vignette when a shot or explosion goes off nearby. I just cannot stand vignettes, and it has literally put me off playing the game after a first go when I installed it a long time ago. Just the OPTION, for God's sake.

    • namekuseijin

      oh come on. that explosion vignette is often there even in flat games…

    • VRDeveloper

      This effect allows players to use suppressive fire, which wouldn't work in other games. So, I really hope they never remove it because the game's purpose is to be a tactical combat simulator, and suppressive fire is a fundamental element of tactical combat.

      • impurekind

        I don’t care about the excuse behind why it’s there; I care about the actual execution. And, in case I wasn’t clear, I think, regardless of the intent, the execution is crap. Shoving a vignette on-screen like that, especially give I personally think vignettes can actually add to motion sickness, as well as the fact it just looks crap, is a bad way of achieving what they want to achieve. Now, I’m not gonna put in my time and energy to come up with a better solution on the fly here, but I guarantee you a million dollars there’s a much better solution than this. And I’m not up for a debate about it.

      • dimitrius

        sim concordo plenamente… mas uma coisa que tem que ser concertada neste game é o efeito da granada de fumaça… na versao 1.7 que eu jogava desde 2017 era simplesmente fantastica tanto a fisica dela quanto o efeito.

  • Mike_Of_Sweden

    Love this game. Have been playing it for a couple of years and it feels like I never gonna stop playing it. Most bang for the buck of every games I every played!

    • spirr9986

      Truly one of the BEST

  • NL_VR

    Well i guess its Onward 2.0 not Onward 2

  • NL_VR

    "Sometime this year" it says

  • NL_VR

    Lol What are you taking about.
    And I’m not german

  • Lupus Worax

    Never forget that Downpour are straight down traitors leaving all the pc players left with nothing. I will never forgive them for what they have done!