Eve Valkyrie may be the space sim to rule them all
What a glorious era to be alive… and be a fan of space simulation games. It has been quite a while since we were able to satisfy our hunger for interstellar destruction. In my opinion, the last great space sim was Freespace 2, released back in 1999. After a drought of many years in which publishers steered away from releasing anything descent (the pun was worth the voluntary typo) in the genre, we will soon be attacked from all fronts with releases like Elite: Dangerous, No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen but the one that has me excited the most is Eve Valkyrie. Continue reading to find out why.
We can all thank the booming VR (Virtual Reality) industry and crowd-funding for this recent interest in the long forgotten genre. It is difficult to understand the effect of this technology unless you had access to private showings or conference demonstrations, but it obvious in its application in space simulation. Sitting tight in a cockpit, the player will only have to focus on the interface and the ship’s viewport from limited angles, evolving head-tracking from gimmick to a must have immersion feature.
Now VR doesn’t excite me as much as you could believe from my previous words, but I assure you this has changed since Eve Valkyrie’s new gameplay trailer hit the tubes yesterday. I’ll let the video speak for itself.
Convinced yet? I know I am. Many games are trying to reach this level of epic through VR but it is the first time I felt like living my childhood’s dreams of piloting a space fighter, commanding a squad of badasses stuck in an all-out star war. Excuse me.
Maneuvering around giant frigates while scouting the outskirt of the fleet? A large enemy force suddenly engaging out of warp drive? Sign me up for this gig. ASAP.
As much as No Man Sky’s procedural worlds, Elite: Dangerous exploration or Star Citizen’s persistent playing field could be great, nothing reaching the feeling of pursuing enemy ships while spotting one of your mother ships explode in the background.
Hopefully CCP Games can live up to the expectations they have created with this monster of a trailer. If the game even half as great as what we’ve just witnessed, I’ll be the first in line to grab a VR headset on release day. Cue the jumpsuit, single-malt scotch and joystick. It’s space sim time.
