Game

Black Shades VR

Your one job: keep the VIP alive.

In development Meta Quest · No public build

Illustration drawn for this site; not a screenshot.

What it is

A VR reimagining of Black Shades (Wolfire Games, 2002). You are a psychic bodyguard protecting a VIP from assassins hidden among the civilians, and from zombies, in a procedurally generated city.

Black Shades VR keeps the original’s goal (protect the VIP from assassins and zombies, level after level) and adds VR interaction, a point store and new enemy types.

Gameplay

Assassins actively hunt the VIP and will push past you to reach them.
Zombies swarm both you and the VIP.
Innocent civilians wander the city. Shooting them costs you points and risks friendly fire.
Bodyguards can be hired to help protect the VIP.
A run ends if the VIP dies, or if you do.

Game modes

Tutorial

A guided, step-by-step walkthrough of the controls and game mechanics.

Inspiration

A hand-authored campaign of preset missions, modelled on the original Black Shades campaign.

Missions

An Inspiration-style campaign built from an authored set of custom levels.

Endless

Random weather and unlimited levels. Choose which kinds of characters appear, including zombie-only waves. It ends when the VIP or you die.

Weapons and grenades

Weapons

Pick weapons up in the city, or buy them in the Armory and set your starting loadout.
Each weapon has its own magazine size, fire rate, damage and reload behavior.
Both hands are tracked independently, so you can carry and fire two weapons at once.

Grenade types

Grenade types and how each one behaves
Type	Behavior
Standard	Timed fuse explosion.
Impact	Detonates on first contact.
Remote	Sits until you detonate it manually.
Shield Bubble	Deploys a protective sphere that absorbs damage.
Shield Wall	Deploys a flat rectangular barrier.
Smoke	A lingering cloud that blinds enemy line of sight. It does no damage.
Flashbang	Blinds every enemy that can see the blast. It never blinds you.
Distraction	Spawns hologram VIP decoys that scatter and pull hostile targeting away from the real VIP.

Grenade techniques

Throwing

Tap the B or Y button on an empty hand to throw. A grenade leaves your hand at the speed your arm gave it, so a lob and a hard overhand go very different distances.

Cooking

Hold the button instead of tapping it to pull the pin early and shorten the fuse, then release to throw. A grenade will never detonate in your hand, however long you hold it.

Cover

Explosions are stopped by walls. You cannot grenade someone through cover, and cover protects you from your own blast in return.

Points and the in-game store

You earn points by neutralizing threats. Points persist across games and can be spent in the Store, found in the Armory on the main menu and on the victory screen, on consumables that carry into your next game.

Spend points on:

Extra magazines
Extra grenades
Extra med kits
VIP body armor, which reduces damage to the VIP's torso
VIP head armor, which reduces damage to the VIP's head

Points also unlock extra ammo types for the weapons you own: pay once, and that round is refilled at the start of every run.

Trailer and screenshots

None are published.

Build and status

Status: In development
Platform: Meta Quest
Engine: Unity with the Meta XR SDK
Genre: Action
Latest stable internal build: v0.13.0
Availability: There is no public build.

Credits and notices

Some audio and design data in the game come from the original Black Shades. Third-party credits are listed in the game's Credits screen.

Meta Quest and Unity are trademarks of their respective owners.

Black Shades: The 2002 game by Wolfire Games that Black Shades VR reimagines
Unity and the Meta XR SDK: Game engine and Meta Quest VR support

Questions about Black Shades VR?

Email us, or grab the facts and logos from the press kit.