The Gallery 2 - Heart of the Emberstone dated for October 18th!

Well, it's official. The Gallery: Episode 2 - Heart of the Emberstone has seen a slight delay to October 18th. Honestly, I'm not sure why Cloudhead Games feels the need to apologize for taking more time with the game, they can take as long as they need, because we know that we're likely to end up with an engrossing adventure that will put us in another time and another place. The first game just had so much atmosphere, and remember, it was a launch title. Somebody may have came to The Gallery 1 only very recently, and thought, "What's all the hub-bub about?" But if you played it back at the Vive launch, you know just how special it truly was. It was our first brief taste of what a more triple A style adventure could be like. Of course, it wasn't too long after that, we ended up getting more legit triple A content (Raw Data & Arizona Sunshine), and the Gallery 1 started to become more of an afterthought.

Cloudhead games finished that first game a very long time ago, and have been slaving away on Episode 2 all this time. Plus, just imagine everything they learned from the first attempt at a VR title.

One of the more interesting things about Episde 2: Heart of the Emberstone, is the visual style this second game is capturing. It definitely looks to be a significant departure from the first. The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth were both mentioned specifically as influences, and it's pretty obvious from the new artistic direction Emberstone is taking. The first game was criticized thoroughly because of it's length to price ratio. I have to imagine that Cloudhead is sick of hearing that argument, and we're likely in for an adventure almost double the first.

The game will be arriving for both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on October 18th for the price of $29.99. The first game happens to be on sale on Steam right now for only $9.99, but there's expected to be a special bundle on launch day to get both episodes for a reduced price. Another huge bonus for owners of the first game, they will get a discount on Episode 2. Personally, I enjoyed my time with Call of the Starseed, but it's a whole new VR world out there right now, and Cloudhead better take their new game far beyond what Starseed did. There are a lot of impressive games finally starting to hit hit the market and what dazzled gamers at the Vive launch, might not dazzle them 18 months later. It's definitely exciting to see the big games of the Fall starting to show up in October. Arktika 1, Emberstone and Brass Tactics are all locked and loaded for the month.