Insomniac Games’ competitive VR spell fighting game, The Unspoken, isn’t just about multiplayer competition anymore. In response to high demand from the game’s fanbase, the developer added a single-player campaign to tell more of the backstory.
The Unspoken is a competitive multiplayer spellcaster dueling game in which you fight magic-wielding opponents in one-on-one battles to rise through the ranks of a secret underground fight club for fighters with magical powers. Insomniac Games released The Unspoken alongside the Oculus Touch controllers last December, and it quickly became one of the most popular titles on the Oculus Rift platform.
Insomniac Game said that the fanbase of The Unspoken grew larger than it could have imagined and that the best players are more skillful at the game than the developers who created the game. People seem to love casting magical spells at each other. However, not everyone is satisfied with the multiplayer experience. Insomniac said the addition of a single-player campaign is the most common request from its community.
“This is absolutely a response to the request from the community. We feel lucky that we are in a place that we can do that,” said Tim Salviti, Senior Community Developer, Insomniac Games. “We launched the game along with the Touch launch last year, and we set ourselves up with Oculus to be able to watch player habits, see what was doing well and then we pivoted our plan based on what we thought would get people most excited. And that led to everything from tweaks, to whether or not we were releasing an arena or class with an update, to the types of modes that we developed first. Eventually, it led to this one big delivery, which is the story chapter.“
The single-player Acolytes update gives new players, and less competitive players, a chance to play the game without worrying about getting trounced by a better player. The new campaign mode also allowed Insomniac to reveal more of the backstory and history of spellcasting duels on the streets of Chicago.
The single-player campaign borrows mechanics from the competitive multiplayer game, but Acolytes is not a direct conversion of the one-on-one battle system from the main game. When you enter a duel against another player, you’re both closed into a small arena until the fight ends. The Acolytes campaign is more of an open world system that you can explore at will. And the fights in the campaign aren’t limited to single opponent matches; you will find yourself battling more than one attacker at a time.
“Imaging the mechanics of the competitive game remixed- Spun out in a new way,” said Salviti. “So, instead of battling in an arena, you’re traversing the city rooftops actually moving through space and navigating different enemies at once in different combinations instead of keeping your focus on a single opponent.”
The Unspoken is an Oculus Rift exclusive title, and it requires Touch controllers to play. The Acolytes update is also free and it's available now.
