Panoptic (2020) is an innovative ‘PC vs. VR’ game that plays out like a game of 1v1 hide-and-seek, with one VR player seeking out a flatscreen PC player who tries to blend into the crowd. Now the studio behind the game has announced Panoptic II and says it plans to expand the game with up to 1v4 multiplayer and make the game more widely accessible with support for Quest 3 and mobile devices.
The News
Developer Team Panoptes announced Panoptic II late last month in a livestream where the studio elaborated on plans for the game.
The studio confirmed that Panoptic II will continue to be designed around a singular VR player who acts as the ‘seeker’. But the studio plans to make the game accessible for larger groups and on more platforms than the original.
Instead of a single non-VR as the ‘hider’, Panoptic II is said to support up to four non-VR players who can work together to outwit the seeker. And this time around the non-VR players will join the game from mobile devices (presumably iOS and Android), making the game more accessible than the original game which required the non-VR player to play on the same PC being used by the VR player.
That new approach to non-VR players also stands to make Panoptic II more accessible to VR users; the studio says it has plans to bring the game to PC and, for the first time, Quest 3 as well.
Team Panoptes tells Road to VR that the gameplay loop will be expanded from the first game, and include brand new maps.
The studio is aiming to fund development of Panoptic II with crowdfunding support via a Patreon campaign, and says it plans to release early versions of the game closed testing, with a first build expected in Q1.
My Take
Panoptic’s asymmetric PC vs. VR gameplay is undoubtedly niche, but incredibly fun. During the Covid pandemic, friends and I spent many hours playing the game remotely using Discord and Steam’s ‘Remote Play Together’ feature.
Thanks to VR, the seeker’s embodied presence and giant scale feel exceptionally imposing to the tiny non-VR player, creating tense moments where a single slip-up could lead to a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase. The seeker may be powerful, but with roaming NPCs that look identical to real non-VR player, there’s many opportunities to blend in and outwit the seeker.
For as unique and enjoyable as the gameplay was, the technical structure of Panoptic (a multiplayer game where both the VR and non-VR player are expected to play from the same PC) made it minimally accessible.
Panoptic II’s approach should make the game considerably more accessible. Not only because it will add support for Quest 3, but also because non-VR players will be able to join from their phones. With any luck, the phone version of the game will be ‘free’, which would turn the Quest 3 version of Panoptic II into a portable party game.
Back when I was playing with my friends over Discord, it was easy for the non-VR players to take turns being the ‘hider’. But as the only one with local access to the VR headset, I was the only one who got to play the role of the seeker. With the purported changes to Panoptic II, I’m already looking forward to being able to take my Quest anywhere and pass it around to friends so they can finally experience the other side of the game.
