Revealed at the VRLA Winter Expo last weekend, Survios' Raw Data is a VR-exclusive co-op shooter for the HTC Vive. Two players take on waves of enemy robots with energy katanas, bows and arrows, and a variety of firearms. With the HTC Vive's motion controllers, weapons are operated with gestures - pull a bow string to draw it, or pump a shotgun to reload it.
Raw Data embodies what Survios calls "active VR", a set of principles that extend beyond what's possible with the current generation of VR tech, to how the game itself should be designed around that technology. This can be seen in how you switch between weapons; all are available by reaching for different parts of your avatar's body, rather than selecting from an inventory or a menu. Just reach over your back to pull out your sword, or unholster your pistol from your hip to equip it.
UploadVR spoke with Survios' Co-founder James Iliff about how active VR creates different kinds of experiences to the seated, cockpit-style games more commonly seen on the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR: "...There’s really something insanely exciting and visceral about being able to stand or sit, be able to get up and move around, interact with your environment in a living way, it’s almost a living breathing environment," he said. "And you can be there with your friends or multiple friends in VR at the same time accomplishing a mission together or playing a game together or socializing and hanging out."
Survios is currently seeking additional funding, so there's no concrete release date for Raw Data just yet. But it already exhibits innovative VR-specific solutions to traditional first-person shooter mechanics, and looks like a hell of a lot of fun to boot.
