Crystal Rift is shaping up to be one of our favourite first-person games on the Oculus Rift.
It’s a grid-based dungeon crawler developed by Jon Hibbins and Nick Pittom. You might recognise their earlier works which include Spirited Away, the Boiler Room and My Neighbour Totoro; but what makes Crystal Rift special isn’t the development pedigree behind the scenes, but its grid-based movement, graphical style, attention to detail and sense of horror. Originally launched as a Kickstarter campaign in late 2014, the game was successfully funded by eager VR gamers and should finally see release towards the end of 2015. With a recent DK2 demo released to Kickstarter backers, we decided to load it up and see how the game is coming along.
It’s immediately clear that a lot of work has gone into the game over the last few months. Graphics are sharper, the controls are tightened and there’s a plethora of new puzzle types and enemies. Start the game and you’ll find yourself in a 3D menu where it’s possible to orientate yourself, fiddle with settings or start a new game. Once loaded you’ll find yourself in a dark, brick-lined dungeon. Interestingly, the controls are fixed-based, so press forwards and your character slides a few feet in that direction. Similarly, you can sidestep a few feet or rotate on the spot. It takes some getting used to, but soon turns the game into a frantic rhythm-based dungeon adventure game, as you skip, hop and slide around puzzles and incoming fire.
One of the most significant new additions to this latest version is a sword, which lets you destroy barrels and battle enemies. The former is a fun way to clear pathways, but the latter introduces some surprising but dificult turn-based sword fights with skeletons and minotaurs. You’ll need to practice your sword skills if you’re going to survive, because you need to strike at just the right moment to make it out alive. Avoiding incoming swipes is tricky thanks to the grid-based movement system, so it’s easier to back-off out of a room then jump forward to strike. As the game progresses you’ll pick up gems that add powerups to your sword, including a fireball that can be charged up by holding down the Xbox back trigger button. It’s a fun new addition to the game that some ineresting gameplay mechanics, and we can’t get enough of it.
Although we’re incredibly impressed with the new features and polish, there are still a handful of niggles that can cause frustration. Jump into a minecart and the game takes you on an automated ride through the dungeon. While this makes for a relaxing change in pacing, whenever the minecart reaches a bend in the track the camera suddenly judders left or right. It’s instantly dizzying, especially if you’re moving your head at the same time that it happens. Other niggles are to do with combat, which is turn-based and requires you to jump forward and swipe with your sword at just the right moment. Get it wrong and you’ll lose some health. That’s fair enough, but often you’ll be injured a split-second after an enemy has already taken a swipe; while at other times you lose health if you jump forward before the enemy has finished moving backwards. A tweak to the battle timings would be much appreciated.
We’ve had a blast playing through the latest demo, and it’s especially pleasing to see how well the two developers are working together. With additional levels and a little more variation in level design (forts, towers and multi-tiered areas would be fantastic to see with this visual style), we can see Crystal Rift becoming one of the de-facto Oculus Rift games. Hopefully we won’t have long to wait before the games release. To get in on the action yourself, head over to Steam or the game’s official website where you can buy and download the latest build.