EVE: Valkyrie (VR)
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Critic Reviews for EVE: Valkyrie (VR)
Strong first impressions make this ideal when showing off your new Rift headset, but theres little to keep you flying beyond those first few moments.
There is some single-player content, but other than the challenging wave-based survival mode, which is a great way to learn the abilities and limitations of a newly unlocked ship, the appeal wears off quickly. What passes for campaign missions are so quick and easy they’re barely there at all, and the enemy ships are so weak they might be made of tinfoil. There’s also a “scout” mode where you search uninhabited maps for hidden items to reveal extra bits of lore, which couldn’t be less exciting. Not knowing anything about EVE Online’s lore the story of cloned pilots signing up as mercenaries didn’t do much for me, though the voice acting isn’t bad.
The experience of sitting in a VR space fighter is thrilling, but single-player and multiplayer options are sparse
At its heart Valkyrie is a straightforward, arcade shooter which lacks enough variety in its gameplay to stop it growing stale quite quickly, and, for the asking price, it’s perhaps only fully recommendable to the most enthusiastic of space pirates.
Despite the convoluted focus on getting players to spend money, I can see myself constantly going into EVE: Valkyrie for skirmishes months down the line whenever I boot up the Oculus Rift. It's addicting and easy to pick up, and the progression system has legs without feeling like I need to dump money into it. It's crazy to think we've come this far, as I can recall playing MechWarrior back in the early 2000s with a rudimentary helmet, dual joysticks, and a rumble vest at a friend's house. This is much cooler than that, suffice to say.
EVE: Valkyrie could be one of the definitive multiplayer experiences for VR, though it does feel like you’ve seen everything within the first couple of hours. The multiplayer is a bit light on content, but what is here works really well. You can’t really beat that feeling of being a pilot in a space battle even if it is pretend, and EVE: Valkyrie lets you live out that fantasy well. It will need a really active community and regular updates to make sure it has long term appeal, otherwise the game will begin to feel stale as the same few maps and modes cycle over and over. If you are getting a PSVR headset and have always wanted to partake in a space dogfight then EVE: Valkyrie may be for you.
Eve Valkyrie got the most spectacular and breathtaking space dogfighting ever, but it lacks in game modes and fresh ideas.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Space combat simulators will hopefully become a mainstay of VR in the future, but although this lays the groundwork the experience itself is limited and repetitive.
