Adr1ft

Once again we are here with everything that we missed for the week (that we know of). This week we see the cancellation of a long-awaited space survivor game, a …
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Another year has come and gone, and with 2015 now firmly in the rearview, it’s time to look forward to the biggest Xbox One game releases of 2016. Well, the …
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“We want people to look at it and say, ‘OK, that’s something Activision could make,'” Grip Games CEO and co-founder Jakub Mikyska says of The Solus Project following a hands-on session with the game at E3.

It’s a lofty goal, and I’m not entirely sure it’s one the teams at Grip Games and co-developer Teotl Studios are pulling off. But The Solus Project certainly does not appear as an indie game. So while you’re unlikely to mistake it for something with the visual fidelity of Destiny or the next Call of Duty, the Unreal Engine 4-powered game at least looks like it’s slipped into that somewhat barren in-between category. The Solus Project‘s graphics make it look like a AA game. It’s something more technically impressive than what gamers are used to getting at ID@Xbox price points, but you’re unlikely to mistake it for the next Activision blockbuster.

The demo opens with us taking control of an astronaut stranded on a grassy beach with a rocky outcrop to one side and a body of water to the other. Straight forward it is, then. Mikyska tells me that players can pick up things in the environment, so I immediately try to grab every plant I see, but most aren’t pick-ups. Eventually I do come across some plants that can be picked up along with water, health packs, a flashlight and other goodies.

Intelligently managing and holding onto items will be important, since you’ll need resources to prevent dying of exposure, thirst or starvation. Your inventory will of course be limited to prevent stocking up on too many resources to easily overcome the game’s challenges.

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Yesterday a leaked trailer for developer Three One Zero’s Adr1ft hit the internet and showed a September release window. Today, publisher 505 Games confirmed that the “first-person experience” title will release in September, months ahead of the virtual reality headsets it will eventually be supporting.

Shortly after the trailer, hit the internet, Three One Zero confirmed its validity on Twitter. “Our #ADR1FT #E3 trailer has leaked. We made it with Blur. 100% game assets.”

Adr1ft will release simultaneously on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam in September, with virtual reality versions coming once headsets begin hitting the marketplace in 2016. Though 505’s press release does not mention any headsets by name, Three One Zero tweeted last week that it had taken possession of a Valve HTC Vive, and the game has previously been playable at conventions on the Oculus Rift. Likely of more interest to Xbox gamers, is that creator Adam Orth told XBLA Fans at PAX East in March that Adr1ft would be coming to all headsets, which would seemingly include the Microsoft Hololens.

Hit the jump to see the trailer, which shows the game’s protagonist struggling to avoid large debris while floating through Earth’s orbit.

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“This is Adam Orth, creator of Adr1ft,” a PR man states matter-of-factly.

Orth is the game developer best known for causing a 2013 internet riot with his infamous #dealwithit tweet. Here at an AMC Loews theater in Boston the weekend of PAX East, he stands up in front of a handful of media members to talk briefly about his game. The whole scene feels pleasantly at odds with the commotion and excitement (real and feigned) back at the convention center I’ve just left. Orth is soft-spoken and unassuming, and aside from just showing the game, there is scarcely any attempt made to hype up the audience. None is needed, because when I pull on an Oculus Rift moments later, I am immediately impressed by Adr1ft.

The added immersion of the VR headset helps, to be sure. But Orth insists that his game was designed to captivate players with or without another reality strapped to their faces. Certainly some of the enveloping feeling of space’s vastness is lost when the headset comes off. After it does, however, watching XBLA Fans’ John Laster and Jill Randolph play on a regular old TV screen is still a treat. Spectating their non-VR play sessions makes me want to get back into this game that is somehow being built by the small team at Three One Zero.

Adr1ft doesn’t seem like something that a diminutive indie developer could create in short order — but that’s exactly what it is. After less than a year in development at Three One Zero, the game’s Gravity-like take on space exploration mission turned disaster is moving. Floating aimlessly through the wreckage of a space station, I take in the little things, like a single leaf escaping from the station’s garden as it collides softly with my helmet. Turning to watch this green speck drift away, I’m dumbstruck and a little frightened by the vast emptiness of space engulfing it. Turning again, I find myself confronted with a familiar, comforting image that I have to assume has left many real-world astronauts breathing a little easier: Earth.

Later, Orth will ask what we think this sort of experience is worth and what games we think it’s in the same class with; he seems sincerely interested in knowing what value others place on his project. It’s a degree of humbleness his many detractors from two years ago might not expect from him.

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#dealwithit

That was Adam Orth’s comment in 2013 about future consoles being “always-online.” It was the comment that sparked major internet backlash, put him on his path to be released from Microsoft and set his life in a spiral.

You could say his life was…Adrift. You could say, this is his attempt to #dealwithit.

Studio Three One Zero describes Adrift as “an immersive First Person Experience (FPX) that tells the story of an astronaut in peril. Floating silently amongst the wreckage of a destroyed space station with no memory and a severely damaged EVA suit, the only survivor struggles to determine the cause of the catastrophic event that took the lives of everyone on board. The player fights to stay alive by exploring the wreckage for precious resources, and overcomes the challenges of an unforgiving environment to repair the damaged emergency escape vehicle and safely return home.”

Sound familiar? Parallels can be drawn to Adam Orth’s experience and his attempts to salvage his life, pick up the pieces and learn from his mistakes in the process.

Check out the trailer below for the first look at Adrift.

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