Journey to Foundation is a VR RPG based on an Asimov classic

Journey to Foundation is an upcoming narrative RPG adventure inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series of novels. It’s an ambitious title that looks to give sci-fi fans a very immersive VR experience. I was fortunate enough to get an early hands-off peek at what the full-on experience will be like for fans old and new.

The game takes place in the Foundation universe but is looking to tell its own story. Players will take on the role of a Mentalic, which is a person with special psychic powers they can use to manipulate the minds of other people and read their emotions. These abilities will factor heavily into the game and player’s will have to choose the best way to utilize them for any given scenario. For instance you might use your powers to make a patrolling pirate smell something burning off in the distance and leave their post so you can sneak by. Or maybe players will choose to use them to make shooting their way out of a tight corner easier using bullet time or life drain Mentalic skills. The game definitely seems focused on letting people play how they see fit.

The pre-alpha build I saw played on the Quest 2 featured a mission where the main character was looking for a Foundation informant. In order to get to them, players had to find access to the lower levels, in order to access them there were basically two options: work with one of the more questionable citizens to kill a higher up, or work with the higher up to kill the shady fella. Choosing to betray the higher up meant shooting their way out of their office, however I did not get a chance to see what the game’s other branching path would hold for players. Overall though such choices are indicative of the kind of personal narrative experience players can expect.

While my demo was fairly brief, there were a few other features worth mentioning that should make their way to the final version of Journey to Foundation. For instance, players will be able to collect several mods for their blaster that will change up things like ammo types. Players can expect hacking puzzles that will help them break into things like chests and lockers. And folks who play using the PSVR 2 will be able to use eye tracking when selecting dialogue options.

Although my time with Journey to Foundation was short, I could see what an ambitious undertaking it is for the team at Archiact. The team wants to build a truly encompassing VR Sci-fi VR experience, which is no small undertaking to say the least. We still have some time before we’ll get to head to the stars though, as Journey to Foundation is still in development with an official release date of Autumn 2023.

This preview is based on a hands-off preview of a Meta Quest 2 build of Journey to Foundation. The game is set to launch for PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2, and PICO 4 in 2023.

Blake Morse

Events Coordinator

Blake has been writing and making videos about pop-culture and games for over 10 years now. Although he'd probably prefer you thought of him as a musician and listened to his band, www.cartoonviolencemusic.com. If you see him on the street, buy him a taco or something. Follow him on twitter @ProfRobot