Joy Way’s STRIDE The New Parkour Action Game Leaps into VR This Summer

The first-person Parkour Action game was popularized by DICE's Mirror's Edge that came out in 2008. Being a critical success, it was only a matter of time that this would translate into VR as headsets become more commonplace in the industry. Here enters the developers, Joy Way, with their new Parkour action game, Stride, that wears its influence from Mirror's Edge on its sleeve, from the sterile dystopic city, parkour elements and even a homage to the main character, Faith's gloves, with a minor color change. Coming this summer, players will able to leap across roof-tops in a massive cityscape with what boasts to be a smooth and immersive locomotion system.

Stride drops players into the city-state X, 15 years after an environmental disaster had cut it off from the rest of the world. The city has fallen to the growing gang violence over what little resources are left. It is up to the player to help the innocent victim caught in the crossfires of the rival gangs in the conflicting city.

Stride‘s movement-based locomotion allows players to freerun across the city, leaping, sliding, and wall-running to get from A to B in as creative a way as their hearts desire. Based on footage released by the developers, Stride won't just be using the stick locomotion but will require physical movement of the arms by the player. If you are worried about the possibility of motion sickness while playing, Joy Way has stated on their Steam Page it has been tested that Stride did not cause significant motion sickness. Although some players may minor uneasiness when playing it for the first time, it will start to subside after a while of playing.

While Stride‘s parkour is a major focus, players will also have to fight their way across the gang-riddled rooftops of City State X. During combat, players can choose to stealthily take out their targets or fight them head-on with melee combat. Using their environment and parkour abilities, they can pick off large gangs that aim to overwhelm the player. Gunfighting is another option in the player's arsenal to dispatch the gangs who want to kill them.

There has been no exact release date or price for Stride but Joy Way has given the release window of the “late” summer of 2020 coming launching on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, and Valve Index VR devices.  In a statement to Road to VR, they hope to bring the title to the PSVR and Oculus Quest as well eventually.