If you’re someone who has ever watched rad videos of people doing parkour on YouTube and have thought to yourself, “Dang, I wish I could do that,” then it looks like your time has now (sort of) arrived.
Coming from Joy Way, Stride is a new virtual reality game set to release this summer that will have you bouncing across rooftops down wires in a massive cityscape. The game features parkour-style locomotion which will be the primary means with which you get around town.
In addition to purely running about, Stride will also feature plenty of combat scenarios, too. Armed with what looks to be only pistols, Stride will allow you to either shoot or melee attack foes that you come across while playing. You can also seemingly slow down time during these situations in order to pop-off some very cinematic-looking shots at enemies.
And while the gameplay of Stride looks pretty cool on its own merit, the narrative that Joy Way has put together sounds pretty interesting to boot. The game takes place 15-years after an environmental accident left the in-game city known as “X” cut off from the rest of the world. Now, gangs essentially dominate the town with many average citizens being caught in the crossfire.
You can check out the teaser trailer for Stride right here:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0VyrBS4Iw]
If you’re familiar with console games, Stride looks very similar to Electronic Arts’ series called Mirror’s Edge. First released in 2008, Mirror’s Edge placed you in a dystopian city much like Stride does where the main character, Faith, was able to traverse about using parkour. The visual styles between Mirror’s Edge and Stride are pretty darn similar, even down to your main character’s gloves, which have only changed from red to blue between the two titles. It’s clear that Joy Way has taken a lot of inspiration from the cult-classic here in Stride.
While it’s still uncertain just how beneficial Stride will be when it comes to burning calories (given that there is quite a bit we have not been shown), it looks as though one of the game’s main mechanics might make for a decent workout. Stride’s primary means of travel, which involves running and parkouring all over the city, seems to only work whenever you moves your arms quickly up and down at your side. This means that instead of simply moving a joystick in a certain direction to move, like some other VR games would require of you, you’ll have to actively pump those arms to play the game. It’s a simple idea, but one that should definitely get you up and off of your couch.
For more on Stride, you can head over to the game’s official Steam page to read more. While an official release date and price for the title have yet to be given, Stride is planned to launch on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, and Valve Index VR devices this summer. And while it won’t be coming about at launch, Joy Way had said (via Road to VR) it hopes to bring the game to PS VR and Oculus Quest, too.
