Robo Recall

Robo Recall
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Epic Games
Publisher	Epic Games
Platform	Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest
Device	Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest
Operating System	Windows
Type	Game
Genre	First-person shooter, Action
Input Device	Oculus Touch
Play Area	Standing, Room-Scale
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	Oculus Rift: March 1, 2017; Oculus Quest (Robo Recall: Unplugged): May 21, 2019
Price	Free with Oculus Touch (Rift); US $29.99 (Quest)
App Store	Oculus Store
Website	https://www.meta.com/experiences/robo-recall-unplugged/1906871599408213/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Robo Recall is a virtual reality first-person shooter developed and published by Epic Games. It was released for the Oculus Rift on March 1, 2017, where it was free to owners of the Oculus Touch motion controllers, and a Oculus Quest version titled Robo Recall: Unplugged followed on May 21, 2019.

The game was built in Unreal Engine 4 and grew out of Epic's earlier Bullet Train tech demo. It was the first full virtual reality game Epic Games produced, made possible by funding from Oculus that allowed it to ship at no cost to Rift players. Critics received it favourably as a showcase for Unreal Engine in VR; it holds a Metacritic score of 85 based on 11 critic reviews.

Gameplay

Robo Recall is a wave-based score-attack shooter. The player takes the role of Agent 34, a "Recaller" working for the company RoboReady, who is dispatched to disable malfunctioning service robots after a virus turns them hostile.

Locomotion uses Teleportation rather than smooth movement: the player pushes forward on a thumbstick to launch a destination marker and rotates the stick to choose which way they will face on arrival, a system the developers tied directly to combat positioning rather than treating it only as a comfort option. Up to four weapons (a pistol, a revolver, a shotgun, and a plasma rifle) are carried in holsters at the hips and over the shoulders, and the player draws them by reaching to the holster and pressing the Oculus Touch grip trigger. Beyond shooting, the player can physically grab robots, dismantle or throw them, and catch incoming projectiles to fling them back; time slows at certain moments to reward precise aiming. A scoring system awards combos and style for these actions, with leaderboards, unlockable challenge modifiers, and replayable "All Star" variants extending a campaign that runs roughly two to five hours on a first completion.

Development

Epic Games had explored VR mechanics in the 2015 Bullet Train demo, whose core ideas of gunplay, slow motion, and catching bullets carried over into Robo Recall. Oculus then offered to fund development of those mechanics into a complete game. Robo Recall was the first full VR title Epic created, built by a team of about 15 people reassigned from other projects and led by designer Nick Donaldson.

The game was announced at Oculus Connect 3 on October 6, 2016, where Epic confirmed it would be "100 percent free" for Touch owners because Oculus's funding was enough to release a full experience at no cost to the user, and a playable 10-minute demo was shown. Epic targeted a first-quarter 2017 release and shipped it on March 1, 2017.

At launch the game shipped with full mod support through the Robo Recall Mod Kit, an Unreal Engine-based editor that exposed the Blueprints visual scripting environment and let players alter environments, sounds, physics, skins, fire rate, and object reactions. The kit came preloaded with assets from other Epic properties, including character models from Paragon and items from Fortnite and Unreal Tournament. Because Robo Recall was a Rift exclusive, a community project called RoboRevive used SteamVR's Unreal Engine plugin to let HTC Vive owners run the game, though its control scheme was imperfect given the differences between the Oculus Touch controllers it was designed for and the Vive wands.

Release

Platform	Title	Release date	Notes
Oculus Rift	Robo Recall	March 1, 2017	Free for owners of the Oculus Touch controllers
Oculus Quest	Robo Recall: Unplugged	May 21, 2019	Standalone port; sold for US $29.99

The Oculus Quest port, subtitled Unplugged, adapts the game for standalone hardware and remains available on the Meta Store as of 2026, where it is priced at US $29.99 and holds a 4.5-star rating across about 4,300 user reviews.

Reception

Robo Recall holds a Metacritic score of 85 out of 100 from 11 critic reviews, with no mixed or negative reviews recorded, and a user score of 7.8. Road to VR's Matthew Magee scored it 8.5 of 10, calling the combat "exhilarating, slick, satisfying, and challenging" while criticising the limited environmental variety across its three locations, a static world that does not respond to destruction, and occasional hit-registration and physics issues. Other published scores include IGN at 8.5 of 10, Game Informer at 8.75 of 10, Destructoid at 8.5 of 10, and The Guardian at five stars out of five.

Game Informer named Robo Recall its Best Virtual Reality Game and Best VR Shooter of 2017. It was also nominated for Best VR Game at the 2017 Golden Joystick Awards and in immersive-reality categories at the 21st D.I.C.E. Awards in 2018.