London-based studio Lucky Mountain Games has announced Heroes of Forever, a multi-dimensional arcade cover shooter for PlayStation VR2. It will launch in 2024.
Get the first details below, via PlayStation Blog.
As an agent working for Time Enforcement Command (TEC for short), an organization that specializes in maintaining order in the multiverse, you are tasked with confronting a corruption that is sowing chaos across space and time. You must leap through dimensions and timelines to stop these crises from altering history forever by blasting enemies as fast as possible.
Of course, all missions come with risks: You’ll have to dodge oncoming barrages of enemy fire to ensure your survival and discover ways to interact with the environment around you to complete levels successfully. If you have a competitive side and a burning desire to scale the scoreboards, you’ll have to creatively use your surroundings to maximize your high score in record time.
With non-stop, heart-pounding combat sequences, you may want to call some reinforcements to aid you in your missions—we’re happy to reveal that Heroes of Forever will have a multiplayer mode with support for up to four-player cooperative play.
Gather your friends in the TEC HQ and take a thrilling leap through time together!
Before we delve deeper, let’s talk about the game’s inspirations. We’ve put a great deal of effort into capturing the essence of the great light gun games and arcade cover shooters of the 90s, which we’ve combined with the narrative design and style of classic action movies (primarily sci-fi hits from the 80s-90s).
These influences permeate all aspects of the game, so there’ll be plenty of nods to classic films, games, and other media throughout. Can you figure out our inspirations for the levels we showed in our trailer?
There will be many more levels to discover, each of them being an alternate timeline and/or location for players to restore order to.
While we’d be honored to hear Heroes of Time described as a spiritual successor to any classic arcade shooter, we’re also dedicated to developing a refreshing gameplay experience that takes advantage of the exciting possibilities of VR.
For instance, our key aim is to evoke nostalgia throughout the player’s journey. With the help of PlayStation VR2’s 3D audio, we’ve developed immersive soundscapes that transcend familiarity, adding a unique sense of wonder to every scenario. Dynamic lighting also enhances the low-poly visuals of our game, granting a fresh feel to the retro-inspired scenery for players to enjoy.
Similarly, PlayStation VR2’s haptics allowed us to adjust the feedback for all the weapons you will encounter in Heroes of Forever, meaning they each have a weight and kickback corresponding to their appearance. This was crucial for us regarding level design, as the player starts each level with a unique, mission-appropriate weapon—and a corresponding host body, of course.
We’d like to conclude with some words about our community mission: to unite players of diverse backgrounds and experience levels over a shared love for action-packed, arcade-style gameplay.
We’ll be working hard to ensure that our game modes accommodate all kinds of players, whether you want to savor the story solo, team up with other agents in cooperative play, or show off your high scores on our online leaderboards.
Furthermore, Heroes of Forever will be an experience suitable for new and seasoned VR users, complete with comfort settings and adjustable difficulty modes.
Watch the announcement trailer below.