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Upcoming VR Parkour Game STRIDE Looks A Lot Like Mirror’s Edge

The freerunning-inspired VR platformer arrives on headsets Summer 2020.

STRIDE is an upcoming VR parkour action game from developer JoyWay in which players must save a city under quarantine from a vicious gang war. In order to save its citizens players will embark on a dangerous mission filled with high-flying stunts, intense gunfights mixed with hand-to-hand combat, and a plenty of slow motion.

Players begin in city-state X 15 years after a catastrophic environmental disaster left the once glorious metropolis cutoff from the outside world. As supplies dwindle and poverty spreads, citizens now find themselves caught in the middle of a war as rival gangs battle for what little that remains. Long story short the city is in desperate need of a hero.

Tasked with taking down these marauding gangs of black-clad baddies, players will navigate the many rooftops of city-state X in search of foes using parkour. This includes vertigo-inducing jumps, high-flying zip lines, precision wall hops, fast-paced vaults, and a variety of other freerunning inspired techniques. According to JoyWay, mastering your environment will be essential when engaging in combat, as players will often be greatly outnumbered. Based on the footage provided it appears as though players will be able to defend themselves using dual pistols as well as hand-to-hand combat.

While the developer doesn’t make any official references in any of the descriptions, its obvious STRIDE takes heavy inspiration from the 2008 first-person action-adventure platformer Mirror’s Edge, at least in terms of visuals. In addition to movement mechanics, city-state X is nearly identical to that of the City of Glass featured in Mirrors Edge.

STRIDE even assists players by marking certain climbable objects the color red, exactly how ME helped guide its players throughout each level. While the similarities are a bit blatant, it’s nice to see more VR games begin to take advantage of the physical capabilities afforded by modern immersive technology.

For those worried about motion sickness, JoyWay claims that while players may feel some slight uneasiness at first, the experience becomes significantly more comfortable once the controls have been mastered.

STRIDE launches on major PC VR headsets later this summer; that is unless EA’s legal team has anything to say about it.

Image Credit: JoyWay

About the Scout

Former Writer (Kyle Melnick)

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