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Rhythm Shooter Audica has been making waves in the PC VR community since its debut earlier this Spring on the Steam Early Access program. Today’s version 0.4 update brought a ton of new features along with a huge announcement for PlayStation VR players.
Audica will be officially making its way to PSVR this Fall once the game reaches its final build number. Given the rate at which Audica has been updated since the initial Early Access days, there’s little reason to think this release is too far away.
Check out the PSVR announcement trailer at the bottom of this article.
Audica is a rhythm shooter game from Harmonix, the creators behind super-popular titles like Rock Band and Dance Central, and brings a completely unique way of interacting with songs to the table.
Developers say the initial idea for Audica came about when the question “Wouldn’t it be awesome to feel like an action movie star with the coolest soundtrack choreographing everything you do?” was begged. The result is a stunning mix of precision, creativity, and rhythm.
In Audica, the goal is to follow the targets that appear and shoot them with precision and speed, all while keeping cadence to the beat. It’s all delivered in a surreal, ethereal environment that immerses you into a trance-like state of musical euphoria.
When Audica launches on PSVR this Fall, players will be able to choose from four different arenas to play in, a variety of blasters, plenty of customization options that range from colors to accessibility settings, and even a campaign that stretches across the entire 30+ song soundtrack.
When Audica launched, it had around a dozen different songs available for players to experience, and every other week since then has been adding song after song and feature after feature.
The latest version 0.4 for PC VR headsets includes a slew of changes and tweaks that are all designed to enhance your Audica experience, make jumping in easier for beginners, and help those that might have physical impairments or accessibility requirements.
Audica’s unique rhythm and design is somewhat difficult to describe properly and is just better explained through imagery. Players follow the beat of a song and attempt to shoot targets as they appear or cut through melee missiles as they head straight toward you.
Some notes are quick hip-shooter style, while other notes require users to hold onto the trigger and power through a series of notes (machine-gun style), or hold onto a long single note while lightning emits from their blaster.
Anyone who has been enjoying Beat Saber and wants another stellar musical VR experience certainly owes it to themselves to give this one a shot, and PlayStation VR players will be able to join the club in the very near future.
Audica can currently be found on the Steam and the Oculus Store for $19.99. Whether or not Audica follows the Beat Saber model and gets a price increase at launch remains to be seen but, if you’re a PC VR player and want that $20 option you should probably pick it up now.
Veteran PC VR players can expect a slew of excellent changes from this latest update, which includes new sounds and visual cues that appear when you miss notes or lose a streak, new beginner difficulty adjustments, visual changes, and a new Temporal Aim Assist that should make things easier to understand and practice.
It also includes some bug fixes that revolve around hitching when melee attacks are performed and custom adjustments to haptics, among a large list of changes that Harmonix has published.