When we saw Red Matter at a Oculus Connect 4 last year, we were immediately taken in by the adventure puzzle’s wonderfully weird, retrofuturistic vibe. Now, Madrid-based studio Vertical Robot tells us pre-orders are open today for Red Matter, with launch coming later this month on Rift.
Launching on May 24th exclusively on Rift, Red Matter places you in the role of an astronaut from the Atlantic Union who’s tasked with investigating one of a Volgravian top-secret research project located on a distant planet.
From what we’ve played in demos, the game looks to be a highly-polished experience with some pretty strong narrative elements, and a heavy emphasis on object interaction.
The design of the game is clearly hearkening to some pseduo-soviet republic, replete with Cyrillic-style script thanks that’s decipherable thanks to your handy translator unit.
As seen in the our OC4 demo, locomotion is fairly unique, offering a point-and-fly style movement scheme that lets you select a place and then jetpack over on-rails at a variable speed—functionally making it a sort of teleportation movement scheme. It’s uncertain if more locomotion options will be available at launch.
“For this game we wanted to create a distinct, out-of-the-ordinary sci-fi world,” says Tatiana Delgado, Vertical Robot co-founder. “We found inspiration in Soviet space race visual propaganda, because of how bold and iconic those images are. However, we wanted to distance ourselves from reality by creating a dystopian fantasy in which the Cold War is waged between two made-up nations: the Atlantic Union and the People’s Republic of Volgravia.”
Vertical Robot is an indie studio comprised of four industry veterans who have worked at studios such as Tequila Works, Mercury Steam, Pyro Studios and Yager. After working on games such as the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow saga, Deadlight and SpecOps: The Line, they decided to transition to VR development and create their own independent studio.
Check out Red Matter on the Oculus Store here.
