Townsmen VR
More actions
| Townsmen VR | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | VR |
| Developer | HandyGames |
| Publisher | THQ Nordic Mobile (formerly HandyGames) |
| Platform | SteamVR, Oculus Rift, Viveport, PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest |
| Device | Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 3 |
| Operating System | Windows, Meta Horizon OS |
| Type | Game |
| Genre | Strategy, Simulation, Casual |
| Input Device | Tracked motion controllers |
| Play Area | Seated, Standing, Room-scale |
| Game Mode | Single-player |
| Release Date | 8 February 2018 (Steam Early Access); 24 March 2022 (Steam full release); 22 February 2023 (PlayStation VR2); 4 January 2024 (Meta Quest 3) |
| Price | US$39.99 (Steam); US$29.99 (Meta Quest 3 at launch) |
| App Store | Steam, Oculus Store, Viveport, PlayStation Store, Meta Horizon Store |
| Website | https://store.steampowered.com/app/749960/Townsmen_VR/ |
Townsmen VR is a virtual reality city-building and god game developed by the German studio HandyGames. The player oversees a medieval settlement across 13 islands, assigning jobs to villagers, building production chains and defending the town, and can pick up villagers and resources by hand or shrink down to view the town at street level.[1][2] It is a VR entry in HandyGames' Townsmen series, which the company describes as its longest-running IP, "spanning well over a decade and dozens of versions across countless devices".[3]
The game entered Early Access on Steam on 8 February 2018 and was fully released there on 24 March 2022.[1] It launched on PlayStation VR2 on 22 February 2023, the headset's launch day, and came to Meta Quest 3 on 4 January 2024, where UploadVR described it as the first main Quest Store game available only on Quest 3.[4][5][6] In 2018 it won the Best Game Design award at the German Computer Game Awards (Deutscher Computerspielpreis).[7]
Gameplay
The player acts as a god-like ruler of a medieval village. The campaign is fully voiced and spans 13 islands and archipelagos, with an advisor character named Sir Clunk-a-lot giving tutorial tips. More than 20 buildings can be unlocked, placed freely and upgraded through research. Villagers are assigned jobs and tasks, and production chains turn raw materials into goods; for example, grain from farms is ground at a mill and baked into bread. The Steam store page lists about 20 raw materials, farm animals, hunting, a harbor for trading ships, and hazards such as wolves and bears.[1] In addition to the story campaign, a sandbox mode lets players replay most campaign islands without restrictions or with self-chosen challenges, such as the starting number of villagers or the presence of pirates.[1]
The game relies on direct hand interaction with tracked motion controllers. Players can carry workers or resources straight to where they are needed to speed up construction and production, push a windmill's sails when there is no wind, brush over trees, shape clouds into thunderstorms and catch fish by hand.[1] In a February 2018 hands-on preview, UploadVR highlighted the ability to lean down and pick up slow villagers to speed up their work, and compared the game to Lionhead Studios' god game Black & White.[8]
The view can be changed from a bird's-eye overview to a close view at eye level with the villagers.[1][5] Movement works by grabbing empty space and pulling oneself across the island; UploadVR's review noted that the game had few comfort options for this movement.[9]
Later islands add combat. The player recruits soldiers, builds catapults, bows and crossbows, and defends the town against the Black Knight's raiders and against pirates on some islands. According to the store description, any object the player can pick up can also be loaded into a catapult as ammunition.[1]
Development
Townsmen VR was developed by HandyGames, a studio based in Giebelstadt, Germany.[7] In its February 2018 preview, UploadVR reported that HandyGames intended to keep the game in Early Access for a full year, with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The stated goals were to "increase the number of playable islands, expand on the economy (more buildings, jobs, resources) and in general add to the depth of the game", with player feedback guiding development.[8] The game ultimately stayed in Early Access on Steam for just over four years, leaving it on 24 March 2022.[1]
For the PlayStation VR2 version, HandyGames added support for features of the headset and its Sense controllers: controller haptics for the environment, weather, pets and the ocean, headset haptics during earthquakes, finger touch detection for handling townspeople, and adaptive trigger feedback when holding objects.[3][2] When Android Central compared the PS VR2 and Quest 3 versions in January 2024, it found that the PS VR2 version had self-shadowing, better shaders and higher-resolution textures, while the Quest 3 version fixed some interaction problems: the player's hand no longer knocked over everything it touched.[10]
On 7 August 2026, HandyGames announced its transition to the name THQ Nordic Mobile. Its internal development team in Giebelstadt continues as HandyGames Studios, and co-founders Christopher and Markus Kassulke lead both the publishing label and the development studio.[11] As of October 2026 the Steam store lists HandyGames as developer and THQ Nordic Mobile as publisher.[1]
Release
| Platform | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SteamVR (PC) | 8 February 2018 | Early Access launch[1] |
| SteamVR (PC) | 24 March 2022 | Full release; US$39.99[1][9] |
| PlayStation VR2 (PlayStation 5) | 22 February 2023 | Headset launch day; digital and physical editions[5][3] |
| Meta Quest 3 | 4 January 2024 | US$29.99, EUR 29.99, GBP 24.99; Quest 3 only at launch[4][12][6] |
Sony listed Townsmen VR among the PS VR2 launch lineup titles in January 2023.[13] The PlayStation Store page lists it as a single-player game for PS5 that requires PS VR2 and the Sense controllers. It supports sitting, standing and room-scale play, with a minimum room-scale area of 2 m by 2 m, and is rated ESRB Everyone 10+.[5]
When MIXED reviewed the game in April 2022, it was also sold for PC VR on the Rift store at US$39.99, and by January 2024 it had also been released on Viveport.[14][6] On Steam it supports 11 interface languages, with full English audio.[1]
UploadVR noted that the game had already been released on Rift, Steam, PS VR2 and Viveport, so it was not exclusive in the wider sense, and that Meta had earlier said there would be no Quest 3 exclusives until 2024; the game arrived four days into that year. Android Central called its early appearance as a Quest 3 exclusive a surprise and reported that the game did not support the original Oculus Quest or Meta Quest 2 at launch.[6][10]
Reception
| Outlet | Platform | Score or verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic | PlayStation 5 | 76/100 (4 critic reviews)[15] |
| UploadVR | PC VR | Recommended[9] |
| Gaming Nexus | PS VR2 | 8.5/10[16] |
| PlayStation Universe | PS VR2 | 7/10[17] |
Reviewing the PC VR release, UploadVR gave the game its "Recommended" label. It praised the sound design, the option to drop down among the villagers and small touches such as cats that purr when held. It criticized the limited comfort options, the micromanagement and how easy it was to brush a villager off the island by accident.[9] MIXED, which tested the PC version on a Meta Quest 2 through Link, called the controls "intuitive and well-thought-out" but noted minor bugs, simplified squad control and friendly fire from archers.[14]
On PS VR2, Gaming Nexus called it "an extremely entertaining, well-made delight" and said it caused no motion sickness, while noting that it has no "genre-busting mechanics" and takes a while to pick up.[16] PlayStation Universe praised the tactile interaction and the model-village art style. It found the arm-crawling movement disorienting and the pace "quite sedate", and called the game a fairly simplistic city builder compared with Cities VR.[17]
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Deutscher Computerspielpreis | Best Game Design (Bestes Gamedesign) | Won, EUR 40,000 prize[7][18] |
| 2018 | Deutscher Computerspielpreis | Best Innovation (Beste Innovation) | Nominated[19] |
The winners were announced on 10 April 2018.[7]
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 "Townsmen VR on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/749960/Townsmen_VR/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ian Hamilton (2023-01-23). "City Builder Townsmen VR Comes To PSVR 2 At Launch". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/city-builder-townsmen-vr-psvr-2/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Townsmen VR is coming to PlayStation VR2". THQ Nordic Mobile press. 2023-01-24. https://press.thqnordicmobile.com/townsmen-vr-is-coming-to-playstationrvr2. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Forge your Virtual Kingdom". THQ Nordic Mobile press. 2024-01-04. https://press.thqnordicmobile.com/forge-your-virtual-kingdom. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Townsmen VR - PS VR2 Games". PlayStation. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/townsmen-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Henry Stockdale (2024-01-07). "Townsmen VR Hits Quest 3, But Older Meta Headsets Aren't Supported". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/townsmen-vr-quest-3-exclusive/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Deutscher Computerspielpreis 2018: Das sind die besten deutschen Computerspiele". Deutscher Computerspielpreis. 2018-04-10. https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/deutscher-computerspielpreis-2018-das-sind-die-besten-deutschen-computerspiele/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 David Jagneaux (2018-02-02). "Hands-On: Townsmen VR Is Like A More Whimsical Black & White". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/hands-townsmen-vr-like-whimsical-black-white/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Rebecca Hills-Duty (2022-05-09). "Townsmen VR Review: Little People In Little Houses". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/townsmen-vr-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Nicholas Sutrich (2024-01-08). "The first exclusive Meta Quest 3 game is already here". Android Central. https://www.androidcentral.com/gaming/virtual-reality/townsmen-vr-meta-quest-3-exclusive. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ "HandyGames Transitions to THQ Nordic Mobile to Spearhead Premium PC and Console Ports on Mobile Devices". THQ Nordic. 2026-08-07. https://thqnordic.com/news/handy-games-transitions-to-thq-nordic-mobile-to-spearhead-premium-pc-and-console-ports-on-mobile-devices. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ Benjamin Danneberg (2024-01-06). "Step into a Medieval City with Townsmen VR for Meta Quest 3". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/townsmen-vr-quest-3-release/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ Shawne Benson (2023-01-19). "PlayStation VR2: 13 new titles and launch lineup revealed". PlayStation Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/2023/01/19/playstation-vr2-13-new-titles-and-launch-lineup-revealed/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Benjamin Danneberg (2022-04-19). "Townsmen VR review: A grandiose plea for virtual reality". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/townsmen-vr-review-a-grandiose-plea-for-virtual-reality/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ "Townsmen VR". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/townsmen-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Eric Hauter (2023-02-27). "Townsmen VR". Gaming Nexus. https://www.gamingnexus.com/Article/11802/Townsmen-VR/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Neil Bolt (2023-03-10). "Townsmen VR Review (PSVR2) - A Model Sim Endears With Tactile Charm". PlayStation Universe. https://www.psu.com/reviews/townsmen-vr-psvr-2-ps5-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ "Gewonnen! Und nun? - Fünf Fragen an DCP Gewinner Christopher Kassulke von HandyGames". Deutscher Computerspielpreis. 2018-10-22. https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/gewonnen-und-nun-fuenf-fragen-an-dcp-gewinner-christopher-kassulke-von-handygames/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- ↑ "Deutscher Computerspielpreis 2018: Jury nominiert die besten Computerspiele". Deutscher Computerspielpreis. 2018-03-06. https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/presse/deutscher-computerspielpreis-2018-jury-nominiert-die-besten-computerspiele/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.