miHoYo unveils Varsapura with large gameplay footage
The official announcement of another open-world title, Varsapura, has been done by miHoYo, with a 31-minute-long video showing gameplay. The footage, made with Unreal Engine 5, offers a moderately revealing take on the surreal near-future setting of Varsapura and provides details on its mechanics, albeit the developers have chosen to keep some particularly official information laid low.
Setting the Threat Mind Rot
The game Varsapura is set in a city fighting with "Mind Rot," being a parasitic psychological force distorting reality and possibly giving birth to monstrous entities. The ambiance of bureaucratic nature mixed with psychic horror could be compared to Remedy's Control. Players participate with an organization called the Shadow Emergency Alliance (SEAL), with responsibilities to contain these supernatural threats.
The gameplay demo begins with the protagonist applying to join SEAL. From psychological evaluations to interviews and mind-verification tests, the game establishes an unsettling and ambiguous tone.
Combat dynamics and exploration
Once an operational SEAL officer, the video showcases Katana's action-oriented combat system with some of the following gameplay features
- Umbrella Armament: The protagonist uses an umbrella to execute melee and ranged attacks against different enemies.
- Squad Dynamics: Notably, unlike other genre counterparts, player characters on missions get support from NPC squadmates.
- Environmental Hazards: Various missions involved traversing unstable realities while avoiding contamination from Mind Rot.
- Vehicle traversal: Driving through the open world is enabled with drivable vehicles.
RPG Aspects and Dialogue
Varsapura embeds RPG mechanics into its narrative platform. The footage shows dialogue options, apparently dependent on certain character traits. Depending on the skills at his disposal, a Player may choose to resort to Empathy, Persuasion, or Deception within the framework of a dialogue for the sake of the aforementioned goal. To what extent these various factors will impact the storyline remains undefined for now.
Development Status
The project seems to be still in the early stages of development. miHoYo is recruiting talent through its offices in Shanghai, Singapore, and Los Angeles to aid in the development of Varsapura, implying that an official launch is still pretty far away.
