Blood & Truth
| Blood & Truth | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | Virtual Reality |
| Developer | London Studio (SIE Worldwide Studios) |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Platform | PlayStation VR |
| Device | PlayStation VR |
| Operating System | PlayStation 4 |
| Type | Game |
| Genre | First-person shooter, Action |
| Input Device | PlayStation Move |
| Play Area | Seated, Standing |
| Game Mode | Single-player |
| Release Date | May 28, 2019 |
| Price | US $39.99 (launch) |
| App Store | PlayStation Store |
| Website | https://www.playstation.com/games/blood-and-truth/ |
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Blood & Truth is a 2019 virtual reality first-person shooter developed by London Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 using the PlayStation VR headset. It was released on May 28, 2019, exclusively for PlayStation VR, with input handled by two PlayStation Move motion controllers.[1][2]
The game follows Ryan Marks, a former British special forces soldier who returns to London and is drawn into a conflict with a crime boss after his father's death.[1] It grew out of "The London Heist," a shooting segment in the 2016 compilation PlayStation VR Worlds, and was conceived as a cinematic, set-piece-driven action title in the vein of crime and action films.[1][3] Blood & Truth was the last game London Studio developed before Sony closed the studio in May 2024.[4]
Gameplay
Blood & Truth is a single-player first-person shooter played entirely from Ryan Marks's viewpoint. The player does not walk freely. Movement uses a node-based system in which the player looks at a highlighted position in the environment and presses a button on the PlayStation Move controller to slide automatically to that cover point or waypoint.[1][5] Road to VR described this as "node-based smooth locomotion," sliding between predefined positions rather than teleporting, and rated the game's comfort highly as a result.[5]
Combat is built around cover and gunplay. The player ducks behind objects, leans out to shoot, reloads manually, and dual-wields weapons such as automatic pistols, revolvers, a combat shotgun, and an assault rifle.[2][6] Weapons are drawn from an on-body inventory: the player reaches to holsters on the chest and hips to grab guns and reload, rather than selecting from a menu.[2] Between firefights the player interacts with the environment to find weapons, ammunition, intel, and collectibles, and the game includes lock-picking and other manual interactions.[2][6]
Reviewers noted that aiming depends on the precision of the PlayStation Move controllers, and that controller drift or the light-based tracking could make headshots and long-range shots difficult.[1][6] The campaign runs roughly four to five hours; Road to VR completed it in about four hours and twenty minutes, while UploadVR reported around five hours on the Normal difficulty.[5][6]
Development
London Studio was a Sony first-party developer in London, England, formed in 2002 from the merger of SCEE Studio Camden and Team Soho, the team behind The Getaway.[4] The studio had produced the shooting segment "The London Heist" for PlayStation VR Worlds (2016), and Blood & Truth was developed as a full-length expansion of that concept, described by the studio as drawing on classic London gangster films.[1][3] The game was announced at Paris Games Week in 2017.[1]
The studio used motion capture, facial capture, and photogrammetry to build the in-game characters, with the stated goal of giving virtual characters film-quality performances.[1][5] Cinematic and facial-performance work was carried out with external partners including Goodbye Kansas and Cubic Motion, and the cast included actor Colin Salmon.[7][8] Road to VR called the character visuals "a bar setting moment for virtual characters" in VR.[5] The game runs on London Studio's in-house engine.[1]
The PlayStation VR release date was confirmed as May 28, 2019, during a State of Play presentation in March 2019, and the game had reached "gold" status (finished and ready for manufacturing) by mid-April 2019.[2][9]
Release
Blood & Truth launched exclusively for PlayStation VR on the PlayStation 4. It later became playable on PlayStation 5 through that console's PlayStation VR backward compatibility, where a 2020 update raised its resolution and frame rate (up to 90 frames per second), but it remained a PlayStation 4 title and no native PlayStation VR2 version was released.[10]
| Platform | Release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4) | May 28, 2019 | Worldwide release; requires PlayStation VR and two PlayStation Move controllers[1][2] |
Reception
Blood & Truth received generally favorable reviews. On the review aggregator Metacritic it holds a score of 80 out of 100 for the PlayStation 4 version.[11] Critics praised its cinematic presentation, character animation, and voice performances, while criticism focused on the narrative, the limited freedom of movement, and the aiming precision of the PlayStation Move controllers.[1][5][6]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| IGN | 8.7 / 10[1] |
| Road to VR | 8.5 / 10[5] |
| Edge | 8 / 10[1] |
| Push Square | 8 / 10[12] |
| GamesRadar+ | 4 / 5[1] |
| GameSpot | 7 / 10[1] |
| Game Informer | 6.5 / 10[1] |
Road to VR praised the game's "strong gunplay that doesn't overstay its welcome" and its character performances, but said the story weakened in its later stages when it relied on a vaguely defined secret organization, and noted that weapon scopes were small and hard to look through.[5] UploadVR called it a "tour de force for PSVR" with responsive gunplay, while flagging controller drift during aiming and the restrictive, rail-like movement system as drawbacks.[6]
Commercially, Blood & Truth reached number one on the United Kingdom retail sales chart in its week of release, which Sony said was the first time a virtual reality title had topped that chart.[1][4]
At the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards in February 2020, Blood & Truth won the award for Immersive Reality Technical Achievement; the Immersive Reality Game of the Year award that year went to Pistol Whip.[13] The game was also nominated for VR/AR awards at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards and The Game Awards 2019.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 "Blood & Truth". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_%26_Truth.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "PS VR Blockbuster Blood & Truth Launches May 28". 2019-03-25. https://blog.playstation.com/2019/03/25/ps-vr-blockbuster-blood-truth-launches-may-28/.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Blood and Truth: how Sony's London Studio is taking VR to the next level". https://www.techradar.com/news/blood-and-truth-how-sonys-london-studio-is-taking-vr-to-the-next-level.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "London Studio". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Studio.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Blood & Truth Review - Action Movie Antics With Unmatched Character Visuals". 2019-05-28. https://www.roadtovr.com/blood-and-truth-review-psvr-action-movie-unmatch-character-visuals/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Blood & Truth Review: Another Roaring Exclusive For PSVR". 2019-05-28. https://www.uploadvr.com/blood-truth-review/.
- ↑ "Blood & Truth". https://goodbyekansas.com/work/blood-truth/.
- ↑ "Blood and Truth". https://cubicmotion.com/case-studies/blood-and-truth/.
- ↑ "Blood and Truth PSVR Has Gone Gold". 2019-04-12. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2019/04/12/blood-and-truth-psvr-has-gone-gold/.
- ↑ "Blood & Truth and Firewall Zero Hour Enhanced for PSVR on PS5". 2020-11-09. https://roadtovr.com/blood-truth-firewall-zero-hour-ps5-update-enhancements/.
- ↑ "Blood & Truth Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/blood-and-truth/.
- ↑ "Review: Blood & Truth - Confident Cockney Crime Drama Is a PSVR Dream". 2019-05-28. https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/blood_and_truth.
- ↑ "Pistol Whip, Blood & Truth Win At 2020 DICE Awards In Immersive Reality Categories". 2020-02-14. https://www.uploadvr.com/pistol-whip-blood-truth-dice-awards/.