Genshin Impact developer miHoYo has just unveiled its next open world game, Varsapura, with a 31-minute gameplay video.
The developers haven't shared much in the way of official details, but the footage provides more than a glimpse at what players will find in this upcoming title. The setting is a surreal, near-future city plagued by Mind Rot, a sort of parapsychological force that erodes reality, spawns monsters, and threatens both minds and the world at large.
It's all quite mysterious and subtly unsettling, a blend of bureaucracy (chiefly the SEAL, Shadow Emergency Alliance), psychic hazards, and mind-bending realities that reminded us of Remedy's Control. At the beginning of the demo, the player starts as an applicant to SEAL and undergoes mind-verification, interviews, and psychological evaluation as they attempt to join an organization dedicated to containing or reversing mind rot events. Later, they become an operational SEAL officer, and that's where we first see the combat of Varsapura. It looks like a fairly standard action combat system, featuring fast-paced action where the protagonist uses an umbrella to damage foes both in melee and from afar.
Some missions seemingly involve environmental hazards and puzzles, such as avoiding mind rot contamination, reacting to unstable environments, and using unique character abilities. Moreover, unlike in Control and more like miHoYo's games, the player will be able to count on the help of NPC squadmates.
At some point in the demo, we see that players will be able to drive vehicles to navigate the open-world environment. Varsapura also appears to offer RPG-style dialogue options to choose from, and some of them even seem to use specific character attributes or skills, like Empathy, Persuasion, or Deception, to accomplish their goal. Of course, the extent of the dialogue's consequences remains unclear at this point.
Varsapura, which is being developed with Unreal Engine 5, is still clearly a long way from launch. In fact, miHoYo is recruiting more people across its Shanghai, Singapore, and Los Angeles offices to work on the project.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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