Given that modders found a way to make DOOM 3 run astonishingly well in VR, it’s only fitting that Bethesda would do everyone a solid and make a DOOM 3 VR port official.
The game was one of six new PSVR titles announced by PlayStation this morning. It comes not long after Sony formally announced the second generation of PSVR headsets, which will come with an improved controller and a single-cable connector.
But a better quality-of-life is nothing without new games to test it on. So that’s where DOOM 3 VR Edition comes in. It’s a full port of the original DOOM 3, with the Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission expansion packs included. And like existing PlayStation games, it’ll run on existing and next-gen PSVR headsets (whenever those are released).
Perhaps most crucially of all, DOOM 3 VR Edition will have support for a quick turn button. “Feel even closer to the terror with all-new VR enhancements that allow you to peer around corners, angling your shots with flashlight-mounted weapons using motion controls, 180-degree quick-turn functionality to catch demons sneaking up from behind and an immersive wrist-mounted display to track your health, armour and ammo,” Bethesda said.
Doom 3 VR Edition will be out on PS4 and PS5 (via backward compatibility) on March 29.
Some of the other games coming to PSVR include Zenith, a VR MMO with a focus on a melee combat/magic system. No word on whether this will have crossplay with other VR systems, but hopefully it does. MMOs are hard to play when you’re stuck waiting to raid.
Another new title announced was Fraccked, a stylised action-shooter that combines skiing and a lot of ziplines. It’ll be out sometime in the Australian winter.
Song in the Smoke is a new title from the makers of Galak-Z, but there’s no anime influence in this title. This one is a VR survival adventure, not too unlike a lot of the survival indies that have been successful on Steam (The Long Dark, Rust both come to mind). It’ll be out sometime in 2021.
The last two on the list were I Expect You To Die 2 and After the Fall, the latter of which comes from the makers of Arizona Sunshine. I Expect You To Die 2 is basically an escape room VR adventure with a spy shtick, and follows on from the successful original that first launched in 2016.
So there’s a good mix of games if you’re a PSVR owner. The entire DOOM 3 experience should certainly be value for money: the campaign and expansions will provide about 16 to 18 hours of content, comfortably more than most single-player VR games.
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