James Pero

Gaming

'Low-Fi' is like playing 'Blade Runner' in VR

If you're the type of person who likes cyberpunk and open-world games, you should probably put Low-Fi on your radar.

From Low-Fi

From Blade Runner

As far as Blade Runner-esque open world games go, Cyberpunk 2077 may be capturing most of the attention, and rightfully so — the game looks pretty impressive.

A still from Cyberpunk 2077

But that doesn't mean that Cyberpunk 2077 is the only game that's big and moody enough to satiate all your neo-noir needs.

Low-Fi, which is currently playable in beta, is a game from Iris VR that blends the iconic noir-style cyberpunk of Blade Runner and open-world action-adventure and promises players "hundreds of crimes and stories to solve."

“The emphasis is on exploration and character-driven story. Like a holodeck program, the player is free to explore the city, further narratives, or just hang out in the arcade and spend their credits if they so choose..”

Iris VR

The story drops players into a world where the most fortunate people live in a simulation following the singularity between human consciousness and AI. Those that are left behind (a decidedly less fortunate class dubbed "low-fi") are left to fend for themselves in a dreary, neon-lit- dystopia.

“You are a police officer and have been transferred to a particularly crime ridden section of city-block 303. The only inhabitants of note in your jurisdiction are other low-fi, and the human intelligence (or lower) artificial life forms who have remained among the citizens after the AI singularity.”

The game promises a completely open-ended experience in which players are able to choose what they do and when, in addition to making moral choices that shape future narratives.

The game is still in beta and should be released in full later this year. There are still some bugs, but the visuals alone are enough to make our cyberpunk senses tingle.

Though Low-Fi was conceived as a native VR game, it will reportedly be playable on the PS5 through PSVR when it's finally released holiday 2020.

SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

To see more...

You can download the Low-Fi beta for $35 and play it on PC.

Thanks for reading,
head home for more!