![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/clearwater.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\nAt its core is a flooded town, flanked by high vantage points, mountainous terrain, and industrial wreckage from the ongoing battle between the two factions. There are a ton of areas to hide in and around, giving players an opportunity for close-quarters combat and long-distance blasting, with a lot of it converging in the water-logged town center.<\/p>\n
Other new things include a pilotable drone for the Engineer class, which is by far my favorite addition, if only because, hey. It\u2019s a dang drone. The drone comes with a single slot for cargo, so you could airlift a medkit or ammo box to your buddies below. It also gives Engineers a minor role as a scout, letting them suss out where enemies are amassing when helicopters are all taken up or respawning. Yes, I tried to put a C4 charge on it. No, it didn\u2019t get it to work. Quest 3 footage below:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a new combat bow for Recon. It\u2019s stupid powerful. While it probably gives you a more stealthy approach, I think it\u2019s mostly bragging rights that you killed someone with a pointy stick. Just remember to grab an arrow from your chest inventory slot, knock the arrow and aim carefully.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a dyed-in-the-wool Forefront player, I don\u2019t need to tell you there\u2019s definitely fun to be had exploring this admittedly modest content drop. Still, I can\u2019t say I wasn\u2019t expecting a little more in the class-based gadgets department.<\/p>\n
While primary and secondary weaponry are all the same (save the bow), the 1.0 drop does include a new training ground so you can get to grips with everything the game has to offer, as well as a quick matchmaking function that wasn\u2019t previously available. It\u2019s something I wish I had before heading into my first match, which left me more wrecked than my hands-on with the 1.0 preview.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at Clearwater from the pilot seat of an Apache on Quest 3 to get a sense of the map\u2019s size and its general perf. New to the game is also manual in-cockpit controls for helicopters, which give you two sticks: a main stick for direction and a elevation stick to raise or lower:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Notably, the Quest version of Clearwater (and the rest of the game)\u00a0feels detailed enough when you\u2019re playing, as maps seem to be built around the headset\u2019s rendering ability by using clever terrain changes that keep a good amount of the action fairly close.<\/p>\n
Trees and texture loading are pretty noticeable though when in a quick vehicle in addition to a slightly less detailed landscape overall. It\u2019s nothing game breaking, although I could see the potential for some unwelcome surprises as Quest users go head-to-head with PC VR users, which have better overall rendering ability. To boot, the 1.0 update also brings dynamic shadows and better visual effects to the PC version.<\/p>\n
Now for the SteamVR version on my desktop running\u2014a fairly middling RTX 3060 (12GB) and 16 GB of RAM, which is admittedly in need of an upgrade eventually. For clarity, I\u2019m using Steam Link to my Quest 3.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a whole, it looks\u2026 actually pretty alright, considering it has to play cross-platform with both Quest and Pico standalone headsets. The dynamic lighting does increase immersion, and the overall sharpness of the visuals definitely make it my preferred way to play, although you\u2019ll still see some geometry popping here and there.<\/p>\n
If that were it, I\u2019d say this a fairly small update. Maybe not even enough to be called a 1.0 release on its own. One thing I didn\u2019t expect going in though was a healthy chunk of the update centers around four new perks for all classes. More ammo, increased movement speed, increased grenade throwing distance, the ability to reduce repair rate on vehicles\u2014it\u2019s a long list of new things that could measurably change combat moving forward, and give you a chance to better customize your soldier. I\u2019m interested to see this in action tomorrow when everyone gets 1.0 though to see just how much of an effect it has on gameplay in the long-term.<\/p>\n
For a deeper dive,\u00a0Gamertag VR,\u00a0who was in the same lobby as me, does a\u00a0great job of explaining each perk in his full 20-minute preview, including his general impressions of the game and 1.0 update. You might even see one of my many deaths (and maybe a kill or two).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n
When I say you\u2019ve played this before, I think it\u2019s pretty clear I don\u2019t mean\u00a0Forefront is some sort of glorified VR mod of\u00a0Battlefield. It\u2019s a real VR native that makes some smart choices when it comes to translating the genre, maps, weapons, everything into something that works in VR.<\/p>\n
That said, it doesn\u2019t have a massive player pool by traditional shooter standards (more on that below) even if it\u2019s cross-play between standalone and PC VR. That also means it also doesn\u2019t do ranked matches. The handful of official global servers are it for now.<\/p>\n
Still, that\u2019s not such a massive drawback. The most important thing you should know before hitting the buy button though is shooting in VR is a serious skill check, and doubly so (or triply) since Forefront treads the all too familiar line between arcade shooter and military sim.<\/p>\n
Realistic iron sight shooting, manual reloading, and a body-worn inventory of gadgets all make it the sort of VR shooting experience genre fans will instantly click with, or conversely decide it just isn\u2019t a right fit.<\/p>\n As glowing as my experience with Forefront has been, decidedly less immersive is the audio experience. Spatial audio seems to be fairly binary. You may have three friendlies behind you and three enemies in front, but all of it sounds like piped-in, in-your-ear chatter with no measurable directionality or distance fall off. Which is part of the reason I tend to not only mute my mic, but also all other players. Yeah, I\u2019m that guy.<\/p>\n And while I had fun traversing the new map and playing with the new gear, tactically placed ziplines, and every core vehicle you can think of, I left feeling like the 1.0 update as a whole wasn\u2019t such a massive value add.<\/p>\n Sure, it adds a measure of polish to the PC VR version and its new gadgets are fun, but I think the core of the argument is that Forefront\u00a0is already a pretty full-featured experience to begin with. I\u2019m not defaulting to my usual proviso with multiplayer VR shooters; there doesn\u2019t seem to be any shortage of players on servers at any time I checked the last few days, so I don\u2019t think low concurrents will be an issue in Forefront\u2019s near-term if they keep pumping out maps and more reasons to come back like we\u2019re seeing with tomorrow\u2019s drop.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, the best matches you\u2019ll ever find will undoubtedly be with a good group of people if you can wrangle them. There aren\u2019t dedicated servers though, so I\u2019ve found the \u2018mute all\u2019 option to be my number one defense from staying sane, as kids make up a good portion of the game\u2019s player base. Don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.<\/p>\n In the meantime, you can find Forefront over on the Quest Store<\/a>, Steam<\/a> and the Pico Store<\/a> right now with its early access pricing of $24. Starting tomorrow, April 23rd, that price goes up to $28. There\u2019s still no word on exactly when to expect it on PSVR 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forefront has been in early access for only a few months now, although Breachers (2023)\u00a0 developer Triangle Factory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[74,179,509,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-600281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-virtual-reality","10":"tag-virtualreality","11":"tag-vr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Image courtesy Triangle Factory<\/p>\n