EVE Valkyrie

Space may be the final frontier for man, but it’s one of the first frontiers being explored by virtual reality. Titles like Elite: Dangerous and Eve: Valkyrie are fueling a space combat renaissance, and the best way to play is sitting in a virtual cockpit, ogling the various console instruments and peering out into the great unknown between waves of fighters.

Eve: Valkyrie trades the hard sci-fi trappings of games like Star Citizen and Elite in favor of a more streamlined, arcade experience. You don’t need to constantly manage energy resources between your shields, weapons, and engine; all you need to do is point and shoot at any ship you can catch. The true skill is measured by how well you can stick to evasive enemies and dodge incoming fire.

The visceral experience of sitting in this futuristic cockpit is the biggest selling point to Valkyrie. Being able to move your head to track ships as they fly across your bow or turn aggressively brings you into the experience in a way a 2D screen cannot, and I cringe every time a blast breaks through the cockpit windows and the cold ice of space takes over my vessel. The potential for a defining VR experience is here, which is why the extreme lack of compelling content is such a shame.

In Valkyrie you play the clone of an ace pilot, experiencing deaths countless time but remembering your previous failures so you can presumably learn from those mistakes. Few details are given as to who you are fighting for and what is at stake, but the setup is intriguing. Rather than continue to build on this narrative kernel from the opening sequence, CCP offers a handful of wave-based combat scenarios and a scouting mode where you can fly through the small number of environments to locate backstory “echoes” and some salvage for ship upgrades. The environments used for both are pretty to look at, but largely stagnant; you can’t even shoot the debris floating through space. The lack of more scripted mission sequences is a major wasted opportunity. I hardly expected a game in 2016 to have less compelling content than decades-old space-combat forefathers like X-Wing and Wing Commander.

Instead, Valkyrie places the majority of its chips on a multiplayer bet. Dogfighting is undeniably alluring, but the design choices the team made feel ripped straight out of a first-person shooter. Your mode options are 8v8 team deathmatches and a thematically strange conquest mode. A long progression eventually allows you to unlock a couple other ship types and cosmetic customizations, but even with different ships at your disposal, the battles lack dynamism, and my interest in continuing the progression unlock stream subsided.

Another problem facing Valkyrie is one completely out of CCP’s hands: low player population. Given the extremely short supply of Rifts out in the wild, most of your battles are fought against bots rather than real people. This problem should be alleviated when Oculus ramps up production, but by then, will anyone be around given the limited content?

Based on early demos, Eve: Valkyrie seemed to be one of the brightest beacons for virtual reality gaming. That potential clearly exists in the final version, but woefully underdeveloped single-player and multiplayer offerings ultimately suck the air out of the cockpit.

Who hasn't dreamed of flying around in a spaceship, shooting massive cannons, and saving the day with daring stunts in intense space dogfights? Well, EVE Valkyrie takes us one step forward in our quest for space dominance, with the most realistic spaceship flight simulator ever developed for VR platforms.

Don't let the game's innocent single player deceive you: a world of skilled pilots and harsh challenges await you online. Hone your skills, keep your motion sickness in check, and be ready to experience one of the most promising VR experiences to date.

Couch Combat

Games like EVE Valkyrie excel at one thing: delivering the impression that one has left the comfort of their home to join some distant – often perilous – space conquest or such. In this aspect, EVE Valkyrie certainly delivers.

As the name implies, the game is part of the EVE Online universe. This means that players can expect the same kind of tactical combat and impressively detailed spaceships to be part of the whole experience – to a certain degree. While the main "essence" of Online is here, combat has become the sole focus of the experience.

Being a VR title, most players would expect an immersive (and sometimes dizzying) experience. Fortunately, this is one of those rare VR games that must be played seated. It also only supports external controllers, so keep your Xbox One controller handy if you're looking to give this one a shot.

Difference in Skills

There's a ton to learn about the intricacies of flying a spaceship in EVE Valkyrie. Like Microsoft Flight Simulator, this isn't a game where you just pick up a controller and expect to be the best pilot there ever was – it takes some trial and error before you become an ace of space warfare.

Thankfully, though, EVE Valkyrie comes with a pretty well-executed tutorial that teaches players the basics – and then some – of commandeering a spaceship. Once you're done with that, it's time to head into the single-player mode.

The game's campaign is essentially a walk in the park compared to the horrors that await you once you decide to try out the multiplayer mode. One complaint I have with the game is that maybe it is a bit too easy to bear, with the campaign offering very little in the way of a challenge. For a VR game, that's good enough.

Challenge the World

Once you take your spaceship skills online, a whole new world of excruciating challenges opens up to you, making you reconsider if anything that you learned playing through the solo campaign was worth it at all.

The difficulty spike is noticeable, with split-second decisions becoming instrumental in your way to victory. Add to that the usual disorientation that comes with flying a ship in zero-g – and the motion sickness of VR itself – and you got yourself a recipe for disaster.

Keep your sick bag in hand just in case, though be warned: once the game clicks with you, this is one of those multiplayer experiences that are difficult to put down.

Pros

• Great VR gameplay
• Tons of unlockable ships and weapons
• Well-crafted tutorial

Cons

• Can be disorienting to play
• Doesn't support VR motion controls