EVE Valkyrie – Virtual Reality’s Killer App?

When I asked David Reid, CCP’s Chief Marketing Officer, whether or not people will be able to play EVE: Valkyrie without a VR headset, his answer surprised me. “Could Valkyrie run without a headset? Yeah, we could certainly work and do that technically. But we absolutely do not want to.”

Surprising, from a business perspective. There are far more 2D screens in the world than there are VR headsets, and videogames, like any other entertainment medium, are all about getting bums on seats. But CCP have a plan – as David told me, they want Valkyrie to be the “killer app” for virtual reality.

As it turns out, space dogfighting is a perfect fit for virtual reality. It neatly sidesteps the disconnect that’s present when you use an oculus rift to play, for example, a first person shooter – there’s something about controlling where you walk without actually moving your legs that spoils the illusion in those types of games. When controlling a ship, however, where you’re supposed to be sitting down and looking around the battlefield through cockpit glass, it absolutely works. There is no disconnect.

That’s not to say there isn’t something very eerie about the experience. After a short presentation from CCP about their immediate plans for the EVE universe, I was sat down to have an Oculus Rift strapped to my face. Headphones blasting and controller in hand, I had a minute or so before take-off to admire the innards of the capital ship from which I was about to be launched. I say this not in a disparaging way – but this calm before the storm may have been the most memorable moment in the ten minute demo. Specifically, looking down at my legs, and seeing virtual legs in their exact place, clad in futuristic flight gear and nuzzled under a nonexistent sci-fi dashboard which my brain immediately insisted was actually there.

It’s probably the most understated “wow” moment in video game history, but it’s the most potent one for me. From that point on, I was completely sold on the idea that I was inhabiting the EVE universe. Looking around more, seeing the seat behind my head, the requisite sparking cables hanging from the ceiling overhead (why are spaceships so poorly maintained? You’ll never find exposed electrical cable on the HMS Invincible), sold it even more. Immersion is the keyword, the goal, the entire design philosophy.

Then Katee Sackhoff off Battlestar Galactica tells you to go and kill some folk. Your fighter is ejected through the launch tube with a force you can almost feel, then the real fun begins.

The controls are designed to be simple – every function of the gamepad makes sense. Left trigger for machine gun, right for missiles, bumpers to roll, left stick for direction. Layers of potential complexity removed, I suspect, to serve that all important immersion.

The brain is worryingly easy to fool. Rolling the ship, swooping between asteroids and bits of debris, I started to really feel that motion, all the while looking all around me in order to find enemies. Head-tracking is put to practical use as a way of painting targets for your missiles – hold down the left trigger, keep a bogey in the reticule long enough, and release a swarm of rocket-propelled death. Swerve around, finish him off with your machine gun. You could give yourself whiplash if you’re not too careful.

The combat is simple, basic stuff that’s been a staple of every space-fighting sim since 8-bit Elite, and that’s absolutely fine. With the addition of VR, and the grounded verisimilitude of the well established EVE Online universe, the whole definitely feels like more than the sum of its parts. It is often joked that EVE Online itself is “spreadsheets in space”, Valkyrie seems like an antidote to that, a way to actually, almost physically inhabit the universe. I couldn’t stop looking down at my legs every now and then – daring not to move them, lest the illusion be shattered.

It’s quite an experience, and aside from being a brilliant showcase for the Oculus Rift, it’s also a very competent action game in its own right.

I came away from the demo wanting more. Nothing has sold me on virtual reality as much as Valkyrie, to the point where playing it has almost convinced me to purchase either a Rift or a Morpheus when they become commercially available. It’s certainly good enough to be the killer app for VR CCP are hoping it will be.