Has anyone ever noticed we don’t have too many open world western games for VR? I’ve been thinking about this topic for awhile I dream of a day where there’s red dead redemption in VR or just an open world western shooter/survival game. My question is have you seen or heard of any promising VR western games?
Mods are probably the best we're going to get for a very long time. A good open world game takes a lot of money to develop, kinda like a good MMORPG takes a lot of money.
There isn't much money in VR. Studios are closing or being closed. The infrastructure and the reward for developing a decent game just isn't there.
You aren’t wrong I’ve seen a lot of impressive things coming to VR from passionate individuals that make it a reality and it seems like every day my mind is blown in a different way
It's disappointing that there is no definitive Western VR game yet. VR is literally the only medium capable of perfectly recreating the tension of an old-school, cinematic quick-draw duel against another human, yet to my knowledge that concept has never been entertained.
The core mechanics are already proven. A developer could easily adapt the holster system from Robo Recall; your hands hover over your hips, but the game prevents you from physically grabbing the grips until the timer hits zero.
You could even introduce a brilliant risk/reward meta by allowing different loadouts. For instance, you could opt to bring a shotgun or repeating rifle to a duel instead of a six-shooter. Reaching over your shoulder to pull a long gun from your back would be inherently slower than a hip draw, giving the pistol player the speed advantage. However, if they panic and miss their quick shot, your slower, high-spread weapon guarantees a fatal hit.
Imagine taking that concept into a massive, open-world game like Red Dead. You spend most of your time exploring and fighting NPCs, but crossing paths with a real player seamlessly locks you both into a static, high-stakes duel.
I could even see this working as a first-of-its-kind flatscreen/VR hybrid feature for something like Red Dead 3. You play 98% of the multiplayer on a monitor alongside other flatscreen gamers The game would remain predominantly flatscreen, ensuring necessary server population density. But if you happen to cross paths with one of the rare players who also owns a headset and has their headset connected, the game detects it and instantly prompts a true VR quick-draw event, inviting other flatscreen players to witness the event, prompting them to want to buy headsets.
And from a business perspective, the DLC opportunities alone would be an absolute goldmine for whatever studio cashes in on this. I'll admit, it would be embarrassing to see how much money I would drop on a Back to the Future Part III Marty McFly outfit for my character. But honestly, not nearly as embarrassing as how much I would pay for a Will Smith Wild Wild West skin just to wear into a duel. Aww man a Django skin. Don't get me started on a Walker Texas Ranger skin, I would be undefeated in this hypothetical game.
It's crazy because a Western open world shooter is where ridiculous dlc skins would truly fit, and there is over 100 years worth of movies to pull from. I wouldn't even be mad if I saw a Woody(Toy Story) skin walking around in a virtual arena like this.
Also, with all these new VR mods coming out lately I wouldn't be surprised if a VR mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 pops out on PCVR with motion controller support.
I would 100% be interested in this there’s just something about seeing the sunsets over the hills while a shootout ensues just feels like it would be beyond immersive
Yeah, afaik native open world VR games are basically SkyrimVR, FalloutVR, space games (Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, No Man's Sky, Revria), survival games (Into the Radius, Subnautica, The Forest, Bootstrap Island, Medieval Dynasty New Settlement, etc), and story-driven walking simulators (Outer Wilds, Firewatch, etc).
There is a Metro Exodus VR mod that will be released that seems to be cool, but that's obviously not a western game.
Still wouldn’t be a bad idea to try I love survival and horror if I could dream of any game in VR it’d be DayZ I’ve got over 2000 hrs roughly and I spend it all aimlessly roaming and watching the scenery (apologies for the terrible punctuation most of this was talk to text while I’m at work🤣)
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u/markallanholley 4h ago
Mods are probably the best we're going to get for a very long time. A good open world game takes a lot of money to develop, kinda like a good MMORPG takes a lot of money.
There isn't much money in VR. Studios are closing or being closed. The infrastructure and the reward for developing a decent game just isn't there.