Rightly heralded as one of the highlights of the PSVR launch line-up; EVE: Valkyrie thrilled with its relentlessly engaging mix of gorgeous visuals and frenetic space combat. What folks didn’t take especially kind to however, was the lack of content that the game offered and this is something that EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone hopes to address in earnest.
This is EVE: Valkyrie with extra trimmings
From the get-go, it’s probably best to think of Warzone as the Game of the Year edition of EVE: Valkyrie, so religiously does it stuff into itself all the content that has been released to date before wrapping it all up in a big neat bow. For the uninitiated, EVE: Valkyrie is a space shooter that takes place within the currently PC only EVE Online universe, and has players battering each other with lasers, missiles as well as an assortment of other gadgets with the eternal goal of raking in enough space dough to upgrade their ships and do it all over again, just quicker and flashier.
More than just a straightforward shooter, Valkyrie distances itself from its genre kin by implementing a class-based dynamic into the selection of ships that are on offer. Similar in some respect to Blizzard’s Overwatch, Valkyrie allows players to fill roles such as damage dealer, support and healer (in the case of the latter you can fire a beam that replenishes the shields of your mates), and in doing so provides a much more varied selection of playstyles than a straightforward space shooter would normally accommodate.
When it comes to the bread and butter of the EVE: Valkyrie experience which arguably lay in its competitive multiplayer modes, developer CCP aims to keep folks invested in its online space battles not only through its aforementioned decent space shooter mechanics, but also through the loot that drive its progression system.
You see, in addition to unlocking extra cosmetic bits and pieces for pilot and ship alike, the capsules which you get rewarded for completing missions, daily challenges and multiplayer battles can also be used to bolster the abilities of your chosen craft; buffing such things as jet boost capacity, shield generation and much more besides. Likewise, EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone allows folks to fork out real-world money for the capsules should they so wish, though ultimately, the game does a decent enough job of dishing them out to players that you won’t really be tempted to reach your hand into your pockets.
Ensuring that the attention of its player base remains focused upon its multiplayer offering, EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone also includes all of the expansion and downloadable content that has been released to date. What this means is that players can get stuck right into the Carrier Assault, Joint Strike, Gatecrash, Wormholes, and Groundrush modes at no extra cost; the latter in particular proving to be a game-changer of sorts for the EVE: Valkyrie universe as it opens up planet-based battles to players for the first time.
Another nice feature (and something that other developers should really consider with their own online focused PS4 games), is that EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone allows cross platform play; permitting PS4 players to pit their mettle against PC folks which in turn always ensures that whenever you go online, you’re almost always guaranteed to find a game session pretty swiftly if you have the cross platform box checked.
So make no mistake, while EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone is a game that provides players with a bevy of content for the multiplayer side of things, as it is, there just still isn’t enough content for solo players to really sink their teeth into. Beyond the training scenarios, survival modes, and the disjointed story type ‘recall’ missions, which neither tell a cohesive story nor do they really involve any high stakes, there just isn’t enough to sustain single-player space shooter aficionados for the long-term.
Still one of the best experiences PSVR has to offer
If you’re the lucky owner of a PSVR rig and missed out on EVE: Valkyrie the first time round, then Warzone is arguably a great excuse to make up for lost time. When you secure the PSVR headset over your head and thrust yourself into your first battle, it’s no exaggeration to say that EVE: Valkyrie immediately makes an impression.
As your ship twists and turns through space, weaving and dodging in and out of the exposed hulls of large capital ships, asteroids and more all the while you’re returning fire to pursuing enemies, the sensation of actually feeling like a space fighter pilot is one that EVE: Valkyrie fosters with breathtaking spectacle.
It’s also notable that the game looks fantastic on PSVR (PS4 Pro owners get a bunch of additional visual enhancements here too, such as extra effects and sharper visuals), with beautifully rendered starfields, ships and planets, EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone arguably ranks as one of the most attractive games for the platform. Surprisingly too, despite the vast range movement that the game allows, there isn’t even a hint of motion sickness at any point; something that’s quite the feat considering how VR efforts that normally permit from such freedom of movement often tend to afflict its players with the condition.
In Summary
Despite the additional content that has been stuffed into EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone, the fact remains that for spacefaring lone wolves, the latest iteration of CCP’s space shooter will have little to sustain them once the initial audiovisual thrills have subsidised. The flipside of that coin of course, is that EVE: Valkyrie remains the engaging, eminently playable space shooter that it always was for folks who wish to immerse themselves in its compelling multiplayer modes and in that sense, there is clearly much to love here.
In the end though, by opening up EVE: Valkyrie to the much larger contingent of players that exist beyond those who are lucky enough to own Sony’s PSVR rig, CCP are effectively giving the game and its community a well-deserved shot in the arm as support for its long-term prospects continue to thrive going forward. And if you’re a PSVR owner that has yet to sample the delights of CCP’s latest and have even the smallest fondness for multiplayer space shooters, then EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone is perhaps the most non-brainer purchase you’ll ever make.