RIGS: Mechanized Combat League
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| RIGS: Mechanized Combat League | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | Virtual Reality |
| Developer | Guerrilla Cambridge |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Platform | PlayStation VR |
| Device | PlayStation VR, PlayStation 4 |
| Type | Full Game |
| Genre | Shooter, Action, Sports |
| Input Device | DualShock 4 |
| Game Mode | Single Player, Multiplayer |
| Release Date | October 13, 2016 |
| Price | US$49.99 at launch; US$19.99 on the US PlayStation Store (October 2026) |
| App Store | PlayStation Store |
| Infobox Updated | 6/29/2015 |
RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, usually shortened to RIGS, is a competitive multiplayer first-person shooter virtual reality game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. It was developed by Guerrilla Cambridge and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it was released on 13 October 2016 as a launch title for the PlayStation VR headset.[1][2] Players pilot armed mechs called Rigs in 3v3 matches of a fictional sport set in the year 2065, which the developers described as a mix of motorsport, shooting and basketball.[3][4]
The game is built for VR from the start and has no flat-screen mode; it requires a PlayStation VR headset and the PlayStation Camera, and it is played with the DualShock 4 gamepad.[1] UploadVR counted it as one of only two full gamepad-based first-person shooters on the headset at the time and named it its PS VR game of the year for 2016.[5] Sony closed Guerrilla Cambridge in January 2017, three months after launch, and the game's online servers shut down on 12 August 2022. The offline single-player modes remain playable.[6][7]
Gameplay
RIGS is a competitive 3v3 arena-based first-person shooter with fast-paced, action-oriented gameplay.[3] It uses the PlayStation VR HMD with the DualShock 4 controller; PlayStation Move controllers are not required.[8] Each player sits in the cockpit of a mech armed with two guns.[1][5]
Rigs
Players drive mechs of different archetypes, and each Rig has its own appearance, weapons, abilities, speed, armor and other stats. The game has four chassis classes.[9] Guerrilla's launch tips describe them as follows:[10]
| Chassis | Description |
|---|---|
| Sentinel | Can take a lot of damage; UploadVR described it as the defensive class[10][9] |
| Hunter | Small, fast Rig that can get through gaps quickly[3] |
| Mirage | Tall, agile Rig that can double-jump[3] |
| Tempest | Lightweight Rig that can hover and gives an overview of the arena[3][10] |
There are 24 Rigs in total.[8] At the E3 2015 reveal, Guerrilla Cambridge showed two teams with team abilities: the Cobras' "vampire" ability restored health after a takedown, and the Dynamos could knock out an opponent with a melee attack and take its overdrive.[3] Every Rig has three power modes that the player switches between: Turbo Mode for movement speed, Repair Mode for self-repair and Impact Mode for damage output.[10] Takedowns and collectible orbs fill an Overdrive meter; in Overdrive all three modes are active at once.[9] When a Rig is destroyed, the pilot is ejected into the air.[7][9]
Modes
The game has three competitive modes, including a basketball-like mode.[9]
| Mode | Objective |
|---|---|
| Power Slam (PowerSlam) | Take out opponents to collect power orbs and enter overdrive, then jump through a hoop to score; the developers called it "basketball with guns"[3] |
| Endzone | Objective mode built around a ball carrier[9][10] |
| Team Takedown | Team deathmatch[9] |
The offline career mode puts the player and a team of AI pilots in a league. Winning moves the team up through the leagues and unlocks new pilots and Rigs.[8] Besides league fixtures there are tournament fixtures that award cups, and a "Top Gun" trophy for the pilot with the most aggregated personal points. Matches and trials earn credits and fame. Credits buy Rigs and better AI pilots, and fame attracts sponsors who offer credits and cosmetic items in exchange for completing challenges.[10] Online, players can play 3v3 matches, 1v1 matches in which each player leads two AI teammates, and private matches with friends.[8] The PlayStation Store lists support for up to six online players.[1]
Virtual reality design
Head movement is central to the controls. In the E3 2015 demo, players steered and aimed their Rig by turning their head (head tracking), and Guerrilla Cambridge said the final game would offer a choice of control schemes for comfort.[3] The released game has a VR Comfort Settings menu with a choice between Head Turning and Stick Turning, and a toggle for a dynamic Visor Mask.[10] In UploadVR's review, David Jagneaux described the comfort features as a narrowing of the field of view during swift turns, similar to Eagle Flight, an option to decouple the Rig's horizontal movement from the player's head, and a menu-based respawn that replaces the ejection sequence.[9] UploadVR reported that the game runs at 60 frames per second, reprojected to 120 frames per second on the headset.[5]
Guerrilla Cambridge described RIGS as built exclusively for Sony's headset, then called Project Morpheus. Piers, one of the developers, said the team had to learn new ways of laying out environments and designing interfaces for VR.[3] When Road to VR covered the reveal, it noted that the high speed of the mechs raised questions about motion sickness.[11] Discomfort came up again in reviews after launch (see Reception).[2]
Development
Guerrilla Cambridge, formerly SCEE Cambridge Studio, was a Sony studio in the United Kingdom that had worked for 19 years on titles including the MediEvil series, LittleBigPlanet PSP and Killzone: Mercenary.[6] In the studio's "goes gold" post, Mark Green wrote that Killzone: Mercenary for the PlayStation Vita had been its last full game before RIGS. The first prototype used animation-less EXO suits from Killzone moving through Killzone cityscapes.[7]
Sony's Andrew House introduced the game at Sony's E3 2015 press conference in June 2015.[3][11] According to Green, people at a later event in Paris queued for seven hours to play it, and the first live stream of a competitive 3v3 match took place at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2016. The game went gold on 21 September 2016. Over development the team made 20 TB of builds, recorded 9,114 lines of dialogue in each of 11 languages (100,254 lines in total), logged 8,748 bugs and made more than 1.3 million changelists.[7]
Release
RIGS was released on 13 October 2016, the launch date of PlayStation VR.[1][8] UploadVR listed its launch price as US$49.99.[9] Pre-orders included a Guerrilla-branded pilot outfit (helmet, uniform and visor graphics).[8]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 2015 | Announced at Sony's E3 2015 press conference[11] |
| 21 September 2016 | Game goes gold[7] |
| 13 October 2016 | Release on PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR; day-one patch adds private one-on-one matches and bot substitution in online play[1][10] |
| 17 November 2016 | Update 1.05 adds Quick Match (rotating Endzone, Team Takedown and PowerSlam) and tutorial checkpoints[12] |
| 20 December 2016 | Free Winter Season Update: Zurich arena, Weekly Trials and a Customization Store[13] |
| 27 December 2016 | First APX Rigs (Test and Vampire Rigs) added[13] |
| 5 September to 7 November 2017 | Free bonus game for PlayStation Plus members in the US and Canada[4] |
| 12 August 2022 | Online servers shut down; single-player offline modes remain[7][1] |
Post-launch updates
In November 2016 Guerrilla announced its first free update. Community manager Jeroen Roding wrote that it would add faster and more agile APX Rigs with lighter armor, a new arena in Zurich, weekly trials and a customization store.[14] The Winter Season Update started on 20 December 2016. The Zurich arena, the first European stadium in the league, is built around four sunken bowls inspired by skate parks and is playable in single-player and multiplayer. APX versions of the Test Rigs and Vampire Rigs followed on 27 December, with an enhanced boost, a higher top speed and new air-dodge and back-dodge moves, and the post said the APX Nuke Rigs would follow on 10 January 2017. Weekly Trials required players to clear six trials in a row at rising difficulty to win a pilot customization item and credits.[13] Roding also said that Guerrilla had no plans to introduce microtransactions.[12]
Studio closure and server shutdown
On 12 January 2017 Sony announced that it would close Guerrilla Cambridge and lay off its staff as part of changes to its European studio structure. Sony said it would try to move people onto other projects where possible. Guerrilla Games in Amsterdam, then working on Horizon Zero Dawn, was not affected.[6] Sony later confirmed that RIGS would get no further DLC.[15] Former developer Tom Jones told UploadVR that the team had still been working on more levels and DLC, and said that the game "never got the chance to grow and go to where we wanted it to be". He added that it "did a good job of pushing VR and setting a benchmark, perhaps, for other developers to follow".[16] Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn includes a hologram showing a RIGS arena with the game's logo.[17]
In September 2017 RIGS became the first full PS VR exclusive offered through PlayStation Plus, as a bonus game for members in the US and Canada.[15][4] The online servers closed on 12 August 2022, which ended online multiplayer and all other online features.[7][1] As of October 2026 the game is still sold on the US PlayStation Store for US$19.99. The store page warns that on a PlayStation 5 the game "may exhibit errors or unexpected behavior and some features available on PS4 may be absent."[1]
System requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Console | PlayStation 4 (PS4 version)[1] |
| Headset | PlayStation VR (required)[1] |
| Camera | PlayStation Camera (required)[1] |
| Controller | DualShock 4[8] |
| Online play | PlayStation Plus membership (no longer applicable after the 12 August 2022 server shutdown)[1] |
Reception
On Metacritic, RIGS has a score of 78 from 45 critic reviews, rated "generally favorable".[2] OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 77, with 59% of critics recommending it.[18]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| UploadVR | 8/10[5] |
| Game Informer | 7.3/10[18] |
| IGN | 6.5/10[18] |
| GameSpot | 6/10[18] |
| Eurogamer | No recommendation[18] |
In its review, UploadVR called the game "a must-play for competitive shooter fans". It found the single-player mode serviceable and the competitive multiplayer the main attraction, and it criticized the limited team customization, the lack of a cooperative mode and the simple Trial missions, which it said "don't add much".[9] GameSpot wrote that the game "nails first-person VR controls, but stumbles over the smaller details". IGN wrote that it brings "fast, intense multiplayer action" to PlayStation VR but criticized its "sub-par visuals" and "big matchmaking issues". Eurogamer wrote that it "shows that traditional multiplayer games can work in VR, but it can't quite prove that they should".[18] Game Informer found the core gameplay fun but noted that some players could get motion sick.[18] Several critic excerpts collected on Metacritic also mention motion sickness and limited content.[2]
UploadVR named RIGS its PS VR Game of the Year for 2016. Writing after the studio closed, UploadVR's Jamie Feltham called it one of the better reviewed games in Sony's launch line-up.[5]
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 "RIGS Mechanized Combat League". PlayStation Store. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/217556. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "RIGS: Mechanized Combat League". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/rigs-mechanized-combat-league/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 Rhys Sutheran (2015-06-18). "Six Reasons to Step into the Arena of RIGS Mechanized Combat". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2015/06/18/six-reasons-youll-want-to-step-into-the-arena-with-rigs-mechanized-combat-on-ps4/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 James Hallahan (2017-08-30). "PS Plus: Free Games for September". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2017/08/30/ps-plus-free-games-for-september/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Jamie Feltham (2017-01-13). "Remembering RIGS: What Sony's Guerrilla Cambridge Did For VR". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/remembering-rigs-sonys-guerrilla-cambridge-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jason Dunning (2017-01-12). "Sony to Close RIGS, Killzone Mercenary Developer Guerrilla Cambridge". PlayStation LifeStyle. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2017/01/12/sony-close-rigs-killzone-mercenary-developer-guerrilla-cambridge/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Mark Green (2016-09-21). "UPDATE: RIGS Mechanized Combat League goes gold". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2016/09/21/rigs-mechanized-combat-league-goes-gold/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Jason Dunning (2016-08-31). "RIGS Mechanized Combat League's Single-Player Career Mode Lets You Play Offline With AI Pilots". PlayStation LifeStyle. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/08/31/rigs-psvr-mechanized-combat-leagues-single-player-career-mode-lets-you-play-offline-with-ai-pilots/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 David Jagneaux (2016-10-11). "'RIGS' Review: The Creators of 'Killzone' Deliver On Their Competitive VR Shooter Promise". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/rigs-review-psvr/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Samrat Sharma (2016-10-12). "8 Ways to Hit the Ground Running in Rigs Mechanized Combat League". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2016/10/12/8-ways-to-hit-the-ground-running-in-rigs-mechanized-combat-league/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Ben Lang (2015-06-16). "Killzone Developer Announces Competitive Mech Shooter 'Rigs' for Sony Morpheus". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/killzone-developer-announces-competitive-mech-shooter-rigs-for-sony-morpheus/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Jason Dunning (2016-11-17). "RIGS Update 1.05 Adds Quick Match, December Update Will Bring New Rigs". PlayStation LifeStyle. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/11/17/rigs-update-1-05-adds-quick-match-december-update-will-bring-new-rigs/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Jeroen Roding (2016-12-19). "RIGS Mechanized Combat League: Winter Season Update". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2016/12/19/rigs-mechanized-combat-league-winter-season-update/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Jeroen Roding (2016-11-17). "Free RIGS Mechanized Combat League December update detailed: new arena, Rigs, weekly trials, more". PlayStation Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2016/11/17/free-rigs-mechanized-combat-league-december-update-detailed-new-arena-rigs-weekly-trials-more. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Jamie Feltham (2017-08-30). "PSVR's RIGS Is Free For PS Plus Subscribers This Month". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/psvrs-rigs-free-ps-plus-subscribers-month/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Jamie Feltham (2017-05-01). "Ex-Sony Cambridge Dev: PSVR's RIGS 'Never Got The Chance To Grow'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/former-sony-cambridge-dev-psvrs-rigs-never-got-chance-grow/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Jamie Feltham (2017-03-02). "Sony's Horizon: Zero Dawn Pays Tribute To PSVR's RIGS". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/sonys-horizon-zero-dawn-pays-tribute-psvrs-rigs/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 "Rigs: Mechanized Combat League (VR) Reviews". OpenCritic. https://opencritic.com/game/3386/rigs-mechanized-combat-league-vr-. Retrieved 2026-10-09.