Become a Vampire to Fight Vampires in Sci-Fi Shooter ‘Dixotomia,’ Launching Out of Early Access Today On Meta Quest

At the heart of sci-fi shooter Dixotomia is a dual nature — it’s right in the name. What isn’t immediately obvious, however, is the choice that dual nature will put to you: whether to maintain your humanity or sacrifice it to embrace the powers of the undead.

Dixotomia is set in the distant future, where you find yourself in the shoes of a special operations contractor stranded on a far-flung planetary colony. A strange cult has taken over, but they’re not just fanatics — they’re vampires. As you take them on, fighting through research facilities and squaring off against robots, soldiers, and creatures of the night, you’ll soon find yourself infected with vampirism, giving you access to both a host of sci-fi weapons and dark, supernatural abilities.

While having the powers of vampires at your disposal will certainly make fighting them, as well as the rest of Dixotomia’s enemies, a little easier, becoming a vampire yourself isn’t necessarily all positive. What you choose to do with your power is a major part of the game’s story, with your choices affecting how things will eventually play out. Empowering your vampiric side comes at the cost of your humanity — and might change what you ultimately become.

In a practical sense, though, some of your choices in Dixotomia will come down to your preferred combat style. Are you more drawn toward technological marvels of destruction or to the unknowable powers emanating from your vampiric blood? Which you choose to favor will change how you face battles throughout the game, as well as bring about consequences in the story.

Dixotomia launched in Early Access back in August. To celebrate its full release today, we sat down with Director, Project Manager, & Deep Matrix Founder Aleksandr Smetanin and CEO Artem Volosnikov to talk about the choices you’ll make in Dixotomia’s narrative and the team’s approach to bringing together shooter mechanics and supernatural powers.

Aleksandr Smetanin: Dixotomia is a VR shooter in a world of a sci-fi dystopia. Become a SpecOps contractor, fight a vampire cult and its vile bosses. Experience immersive action with brutal guns and vampiric abilities. Can you uncover the dark secrets of a distant planet and return back unchanged?

Artem Volosnikov:Dixotomia is a story about an internal choice, when everyone decides for themselves whether to remain human or become a powerful being while losing something human. In the game, we explore the planet Karna and its mysteries, while making a choice between becoming part of the planet or uncovering its secrets and fulfilling our mission. We encounter the stories of key characters who conduct secret affairs to serve their interests, see the consequences of the activities of corporations, and meet the quintessence of the planet in the form of the Lord Dragon.

AV: In Dixotomia, we added a choice that affects the ending of the game. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time and perhaps experience to implement a full change of plot branches depending on the player’s choice, but the endings directly depend on what the player does: whether they become a vampire or remain human.

Different endings will show what happened at the end of the game depending on the player’s decisions. We won’t go into details, but soon you’ll be able to see it with your own eyes. While we won’t directly say how a player can get this or that ending, it definitely depends on what the player is more passionate about: using vampire magic or obtaining the latest technologies.

AV: Yes indeed, in a shooter, the arsenal is practically the main focus of the entire game. We were inspired by Doom, the BioShock series, the theme of the future, futurism, and scientific discoveries and achievements. We wanted to put both nice visuals and balanced power into the main weapon so that it would be interesting to play and would feel real. We didn’t do anything specifically aimed at defeating vampires with canonical crosses or stakes because we have a more futuristic idea and not classic vampires — but for these purposes we introduced skills that would emphasize our acquired vampire nature and immerse us in the setting. In addition, we’ve made visual changes to the main weapon, which show that the weapon has become more powerful not only in numbers but also visually. And we have a “spark” on our right hand, an ultimate gadget that makes us not just a shooter, but a unique combat unit.

AV: The combination of shooter elements and vampire abilities is again dictated by the narrative. We combine the conventional evil that we’re fighting against and the technological progress that we personify, and specifically our hands give us a clear division of where our weapons are and where our skills are. By dividing our leveling branches into two hands, we clearly showed that the player has a choice and what they will influence. I wanted to show that we don’t have a separate vampire mode and a separate techno mode, so I combined everything in one, but in different hands.

AV: The idea of ​​Dixotomia was originally about internal struggle, duality, people making decisions based on personal preferences. The plot changed several times. Initially, it was a war between vampire clans and people on Earth, then the idea moved to space and remained there. Part of the inspiration for the game was the arcade games of the 2000s, where you shoot at the screen with a plastic machine gun and kill enemies. Culturally, I was inspired by films about the future, technological discoveries, things that don’t exist yet, because the game is for trying something that won’t work out in life. In addition, I love paintball and partially took the combat component from it.

AV: During the development of the game, it changed many times — both little things and key decisions changed. Over eight years of development, many things were rethought. The game went from a “craft” to a large full-fledged product, where every detail was made based on convenience and player feedback. Analyzing our desires and capabilities, we identified the ideal solutions for the game. Each stage of development brought the game to a fundamentally new level. We tried many solutions for every problem and player request. And having gone all this way, we can safely say that having released the game, there is a clear understanding of how to make another game or the second part, so that it surpasses Dixotomia in quality several times over. This does not mean that Dixotomia is poorly made, but that there are grandiose plans for creating the next part!

AS: Players can expect a complete and polished experience. The full release will expand the game’s lore, introduce deeper character progression and offer a wide range of power-ups and skills. Compared to the early stages of Early Access, nearly all bosses have been significantly improved and reworked. Even Early Access players will discover plenty of new content and surprises when the full version launches.

AS: We’re incredibly grateful to our community, and Meta employees for their feedback and support throughout development. The full release represents the vision we’ve been building toward from the start, and we can’t wait for players to experience the world, challenges and story in its final form.

AV: I would like to say that the game is not just a commercial product, but the work of hundreds of people who put their souls into development, were passionate about the idea, and waited for the release for a very long time. For me, the biggest reward is the positive feedback from people who motivated me to develop all this time, as well as the negative reviews and feedback that motivated us to become better and make new, cool solutions. I’m very glad that the game is being released, and the path that I went through, I went through not only thanks to perseverance, but thanks to all the people who supported me and were there for all eight years and helped me cope with all the problems.

You can harness vampiric powers and futuristic weapons in Dixotomia today — find it on the Meta Horizon Store for 19.99 USD.