New ships, upgrades, decals, paint jobs…even new game modes are unlocked piece-meal, a gating feature which I don’t think was strictly necessary. Unlocks are thrown at you left and right, even when you can’t afford them. UI widgets confuse in a maze of menus appearing everywhere from ten feet in front of you all the way up to your chin. Outside the moment-to-moment dog-fighting, EVE does less well. Still, as my time in VR increases, so does the period I can spend in EVE without retreating back to the real world, which is encouraging not just for EVE but for my VR experience in general. Then I’m blinking in the dim light of my game room, taking deep breaths and waiting for the walls to steady, which can take a minute or two. It’s one of the more exhausting games I’ve played, and I find myself pulling the headset off after three or four matches, or about half-an-hour of play. You’re rarely flying in a straight line, and in fact spend most of your life looping through the scenery trying to get a bead on your target. Settling into my cockpit for the first time in Elite: Dangerous VR (review later), and then again in EVE Valkyrie, were both legitimate Dear Diary moments.įrom the moment you’re ejected out of the launch tube, stuff is whizzing by. Not only that but the released point of view increases your awareness ten-fold and the feeling of expanded presence is amazing. EVE’s cockpit is relatively simple (so far at least…I’ve only played in the fighter class ships), with a few read-outs and a functional HUD, but there’s no time for anything else anyway, and it’s a comfy place to be.
![eve valkyrie vr review eve valkyrie vr review](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iDhFpeYFbL8/mqdefault.jpg)
There’s plenty of fixed foreground reference for the avoidance of that pesky motion-sickness, and tons of interest on your control panels. The game never punishes you, and so isn’t for everyone, but once you get into the spirit, you’ve got to love it. Twist around asteroids, smash into obstacles, and butt heads with other fighters.
![eve valkyrie vr review eve valkyrie vr review](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81snMJ0jZiL._SL1500_.jpg)
I occasionally pine for finer control, but this is a dog-fighter, and doesn’t have time for simulation. It’s no Elite or Star Citizen, but it’s straightforward fun akin to Lucasarts games of old.
![eve valkyrie vr review eve valkyrie vr review](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eCUw4_-K4TE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Get killed, and a few seconds later, you’re back in the game. Blasters for close-up work and and homing missiles on cool-down. Pitch, yaw, roll, fast, slow, and turning if not on a dime, then on a two-pound coin. A little bit of background story, and you’re straight in to a trainer mission to familiarize you with EVE’s mega-simple controls. Early Game (0-5 Hours)Ī single crash put a damper on my first session with the game, but no biggie. It was X-Wing that really defined the genre back in the 90’s, and while we don’t have X-Wing VR yet (except for Battlefront’s Rogue One demo thing, but that’s short and a Playstation exclusive in any case), what we do have to tide us over is EVE Valkyrie. In-cockpit dog-fighting has been a favourite genre of mine all the way back to the original Elite.