In what is definitely one of the more bizarre stories to come out recently, Onward, a well-regarded VR FPS, has just received what appears to be a massive downgrade in its latest patch.
The video itself certainly looks very damning, as it shows what occurred before and after the 1.8 update to Onward. The results--as you can see--are undeniable. It's a downgrade, no question about it, and everything from the graphics, (including the pop-in, which is now really noticeable) to the FOV and weapon sounds are all worse off now.
In a highly-upvoted Reddit post, there's also apparently been a decrease in the enemy squads players will now face, which aligns with everything else in that Downpour Interactive (the developer) clearly wanted this game to work on Oculus Quest and didn't want one version of the game to be better than the other. So the PC version has been downgraded and the Oculus Quest version is now essentially the default version of the game all-around.
To the developer's credit, there is a response to the Reddit post from the Onward Community Manager where they want to "get these issues resolved asap", which is nice to hear.
Onward's Steam page's Recent Reviews in particular are pretty spicy right now, so if you want more information be sure to check it out there.
Quick Take
Wow. We all joke about downgrades from before a launch to after a game's launch, but I don't think I've ever seen a downgrade occur this long after the initial release of a title. Onward has always been well-regarded in the VR community and to potentially throw it all away to pursue Oculus Quest players seems... well, risky. You've got a community you've built up over 4 years that loves your game, versus a potential community that could grow out of the ashes out of the old one? What were they thinking? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
What do you think of this news? Do you think this will be fixed? Do you think this will be a permanent change? Why do you think companies can get away with this? Let us know in the comments!
