“Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War” had a surprise announcement for the PlayStation VR recently. The news came on a PlayStation Blog post, and with that came even more news that the game is getting an equally surprising September 18th release date. Unearthing Mars 2 is a sequel to the previously released Unearthing Mars game that came out in the first half of last year also for the PlayStation VR and for PC through Steam. The original game received mixed to overall bad reviews, only receiving a 51% of Metacritic. The game must have done good enough financially or there was enough fanfare and passion from the developers to warrant the game getting a sequel. The game is being developed and published by Winking Studio as was the case with the first Unearthing Mars game. Such as with the original, Unearthing Mars 2 is a Virtual Reality first-person shooter with a futuristic theme to it. However, Unearthing Mars 2 will be only a first-person shooter game, unlike with the original that had many different gameplay styles to try and capture the potential of the PlayStation VR. With the announcement of the game and its release date a new two-minute trailer for the game was shown off too, you can watch the trailer here.

The trailer starts off with a fully rendered cutscene showing how the PlayStation VR controller is being used as the games main weapon. The trailer shows off a plethora of different enemies and a targeting system that looks much more polished and refined compared to the first game. The trailer begins transitioning into several voice acted cutscenes. The cutscenes show off some of the games main story and the plot, this leads right back into another quick transition of action-packed gameplay. The next bit of gameplay shows an impressive amount of very large and unique enemies that have distinct characteristics. The game seems to be using the same refined targeting system from earlier for all of the game's enemies. The trailer wraps up with a cliffhanger ending showing off a suspicious character and building.

The main plot of the game is that you go back in time to an ancient civilization on Mars with the objective of extracting “Phobos fragments” which are then processed in the games “Ark Device.” The fragments are used to understand the world around you and the ancient civilizations secrets. The ancient civilization is currently in the midst of an ongoing war. Each stage in the game features six or more different weapons for the player to use. Additional weapons like chain guns and rocket launchers can be unlocked through advancing in the game's story. According to the developers, even more weapons can be found during boss battles.

“Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War” is due out on September 18th for the PlayStation VR. The game is rated T for teen and will cost $19.99 USD. The game is currently only announced for the PlayStation VR but may also come to PC later down the road as was the case with the original Unearthing Mars game. Winking Studio will still have a decent audience for the game with the PlayStation VR recently surpassing 3 million sales worldwide.