Science

'Dragon Front' Will Be Oculus Rift's First Great Game

Checking out our first look at 3D card battles in 'Dragon Front.'

The Oculus Rift is in the pre-order phase right now, and one thing it desperately needs is a killer game, and today is a step in the right direction. Even though the dev kits have been out in the world for a couple years now, there are only so many nauseating adaptations of The Legend of Zelda that you can endure before you begin to worry that the Rift may be only a super expensive toy. One or two great apps need to be shown before people start forking over the kind of money to use Oculus-based entertainment, and Dragon Front is a perfect initial outing.

From High Voltage studios, Dragon Front is a Magic: The Gathering-style card collecting and dueling game, with a focus on damage/defense metrics. Players draw from customized deck and arrange the cards in a playing field, all while hovering god-like above the action. A four-by-four matrix limits the battle focus, and players take turns chipping away at their opponents hit points. There will be single player and multiplayer modes, with online options or AI opponents with customizable strengths.

If this is starting to look a bit like virtual reality Hearthstone, then good— because Oculus needs a few big draws on this level.

Further gameplay elements include choosing between warring factions with various boosts, and a series of buffing spells and enchantments that trigger new gameplay modes. “Hero” characters will serve the fairly standard role of being overpowered units that can wreck some real havoc, and there may also be some form of base building element. The player decks will start with an option of 250 cards to customize from, and like any good card collecting game I’m sure there will be paid options to expand.

The announcement says this is an early 2016 release, and with Oculus Rift shipping on March 28, it seems like a no-brainer that this is a launch title.

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