Population One, the battle royal in virtual reality

There is who is giving shape to the future of the videogames, and not only, by getting inspired by science-fiction scenarios like the one of Ready Player One. It is there that they want to arrive and it is in that direction that we are going step by step. Fortnite, king of the Battle Royal, did a big step toward the future with its live concerts on the platform. But another Battle Royal wants to challenge the limits of the possible. It is Population One, the first Battle Royal in virtual reality.

Endless possibilities

BigBox VR launches Population One, the first Battle Royal in virtual reality.

“As well as every modern Battle Royal, Population One drops the players inside a huge map (about a kilometer square), where they will fight with the other partecipants. But Population One goes over the classic rules of the genre, by focusing on the movement and on the choices of the player through the “Vertical Combat System” that allows to climb everything and to fly everywhere.

Furthermore, when it’s the moment to look for a refuge, we can build one. The veterans of the Battle Royal will look for the victory by focusing on the control of the map, by lurking on elevated points that will give them a perfect overview of the situation”.

To a first sight Population One seems Fortnite, but here, the developers promise, the possibilities are endless. 

During the interview of the Washington Post to the developers the journalist asks if it is possible to climb the high tower in the middle of the map. “Sure”, answer the developers. “And where is the starting point?”. “Everywhere”.

And it is true, eveywhere we can climb only by raising up a hand. Welcome into the future of the Battle Royal.

How do we play to Population One

Let’s enter in the heart of the game. This Battle Royal divides us in groups of three and it throws us on the map. A classic beginning for one of the most loved genre of videogame of the moment. 

Together with us there will be other five groups of three. And so our match started in the classic way that we well know. A challange to the last survivor, by killing all the adversaries that we will meet around the map while this inexorably shirnks. 

To say it like this it seems a script already saw too much times. However already during the fall toward the map we will find out that the virtual reality donates us unexpected joys. 

The virtual reality of Population One

If we open the arms we will fall slower, by finding the time to choose the best place for the landing. If instead we wrap the arms on the chest we will fall down as a missile on the map. 

But the virtual reality does much more. Here you have a skyscraper that we would like to climb in front of our eyes. Let’s raise up a hand and push to the interaction button on the viewer’s controller. Let’s repeat the operation until when we will arrive on the top. Right like if we were really climbing something. And if once on the top we would like to lean out of the skyscraper to look around, it will be enough to really strecth out our body forward. 

At the beginning we will find this way to explore the map such exciting that we will forget the real purpose of the game: stay alive until the end and eliminate all the adversaries. 

But the possibilities are really endless. We can do whatever we want with the virtual reality of Population One, straight with our hands! Open the supply boxes, open the energetic bottles, open a banana. We can lie down as a sniper and remain hanged with a hand on the ledge of a building while with the other one we shot the enemy. 

The game arrived on the marketplace

Population One arrived on the marketplace the last 22nd of october. It was thought for Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift, it is available though even for Htc Vive and Windows MR and we can play to it only on Pc.

The videogame is available on the stores of Oculus and of Steam for the price of 29,99€, inside then there will be a system of purchase in app and a battlepass for the players. 

At the moment the one of the trio, for a total of 18 players, is the only mode available, but the developers say that in the future it will arrive even the couple mode and solo mode. 

This post is also available in: Italiano