The Moss series is a set of two adventure games which make full use of VR technology to enhance immersion and define gameplay. In a recent blogpost from Doug Barton, a designer at game developer Polyarc, the developer discussed new features that would be coming to the games in order to make better use of the PlayStation VR2 technology.
Moss and its sequel Moss Book II came out in 2018 and 2022 respectively, the first game was an ambitious VR title releasing at a time where players were slow to adopt the technology. The franchise represents the potential of VR technology on PlayStation devices and will continue to do so when PlayStation VR2 releases in February 2023.
Moss is a combination first person and third person adventure game. Players take on the role of a mysterious individual who discovers a magical library book. Within the book, our player meets Quill, an adventurous mouse. The player indirectly controls Quill by solving puzzles and clearing the path for their new rodent friend. Meanwhile the player is represented as a masked figure whom Quill is aware of, giving the game a more intimate story.
The new features coming in PlayStation VR2 will bring the immersion of Moss to a new level and these changes take place on both a hardware and software level. The game will now be able to detect input like eye-movements and even the degree of force in order to make the results of a player’s action more consistent and lifelike. For example objects in the world of Moss will now react to varying degrees of force, some objects will be programmed with a strength that determines under how much force they will break and the new hardware of PlayStation VR2 allows Polyarc to detect that force in the game.
Other changes thanks to PlayStation VR2 include improved haptic feedback, which allows for more immersive resistance when touching and interacting with the game, a two-controller setup which allows for more natural movements on the part of the player, the previously mentioned eye tracking will help guide players by emphasizing objects they look at, and last but not least there will be an overall graphical improvement to the game at 90FPS and 4K resolution per eye!
Moss and Moss Book II are available for pre-order now. The games are expected to be launch titles for the new PlayStation VR2 system when it finally comes out in February 2023.
