Forefront Is A Battlefield-Inspired 32-Player VR FPS From The Breachers Team

Forefront is a competitive 32-player VR FPS that's inspired by Battlefield, and we interviewed the developer to learn more.

Developed by Triangle Factory, whose previous work includes tactical 5v5 shooter Breachers and Hyper Dash, Forefront is a more expansive shooter focused on near-future warfare that splits you into two larger teams. Featuring land, air, and sea vehicles for traversing and fighting, the studio promises “large-scale maps” with semi-destructible environments. Here's the announcement trailer.

Before today's reveal at the VR Games Showcase was also accompanied by news of the

UploadVR interviewed Triangle Factory producer Jeroen Dessaux to learn more. After shipping Breachers, the studio wanted to go even bigger for its next game while looking for a hole in the market. Development began roughly a year and a half ago.

“We always say we make our childhood shooters. Hyper Dash was like Unreal Tournament and Quake, Breachers was Rainbow Six Siege with Counterstrike. Now we're looking at games like Battlefield with Forefront, it's the type of game that we really wanted to make.”

Going from smaller scale arenas to such an expansive battlefield presented challenges, with Dessaux noting how vehicles would be controlled as one example. Because Forefront is also targeting Quest 2, the rendering “needs to be efficient” while using “some smart tricks” and optimization remains ongoing.

Forefront features two gameplay modes for 16v16 matches, dividing each team into squads of four. The factions in the game are said to be a country's military pitted against a private military group called Orpiment Renewable Energy (O.R.E.), hired to protect different mining sites against takeover.

One mode is 'Rush', where you attack two sites and move onto the next two if you successfully destroy them. Dessaux describes this as “very linear and less vehicle focused,” while 'Conquest' goes heavier on vehicles with less focus on walking around and shooting.

With gunplay, Dessaux describes Breachers as being “more arcade-like” for better focus on the action by comparison. Forefront features more realistic reloading while also offering an option for automatic reloading, though the latter is “a bit slower than somebody who's really trained into realistically reloading their gun.” The aim is to equal out any potential competitive advantages.

“We want it to feel realistic but also cater to people that are not interested in that. It's not that hardcore if you don't want it to be.”

Weapons and gadgets are tied to your chosen class. Dessaux offers an example of the Medic class charging up shock pads before applying them, or the Recon class having grappling hooks available. He believes these gadgets are “perfect for VR,” and there are four classes available. If you die, you can respawn into the match.

At the early access launch, Forefront will ship with four maps alongside land, sea and air vehicles, with an update plan already charted out.

“There's still more content that we want to add, and we'll keep supporting the game for many years. We hope that people know us from Hyper Dash and Breachers and that we've proven that we keep supporting our games. We aim to do the same with Forefront, so there's a lot more in store after the early access release.”

Considering Hyper Dash later pivoted to a free-to-play model over a year after launch, I asked about Triangle Factory's plans for its latest game. While Dessaux says that “things on Quest are shifting more towards free to play,” Forefront will be a paid app, and he detailed the studio's experiences with Hyper Dash.

"[Hyper Dash] was a good experiment for us. It's very interesting to see the numbers that it gave from that, and there's still a ton of players playing Hyper Dash. But it's a different kind of monetization, and it's something that's difficult for us to do. It's a strange market and we are not super focused on getting that maximum return of investment. We just want to make the games that we want without focusing on too much monetization."

Dessaux believes Forefront will be “a good investment” with its planned free updates, and he mentions that in-app purchases will be available if anyone wants to further support the studio.

With platforms, Dessaux addressed Triangle Factory's decision to continue supporting Quest 2 given its recent discontinuation. Stating that “over 50 percent of players” in the ecosystem still use Quest 2, he believes it shouldn't be forgotten just yet. Bots will join if a game doesn't have the full 32 players, and cross-platform multiplayer will be supported.

“We want to get as many people as we can in this game, and it's already tough to fill up servers for other multiplayer titles.”

The studio can't commit to PlayStation VR2 release yet, but they are looking at the idea. Dessaux explained that the Breachers PS VR2 port was “quite time-consuming” and faced delays before launching in December 2023. If such a port does happen for Forefront, it'll be post-launch.

Forefront arrives in early access “at the end of 2025” on the Meta Quest platform, SteamVR, and Pico, while a full release window is unconfirmed. Playtest sessions will begin this summer, and more details will be shared nearer then via the studio's official Discord server.