I've had an interesting experience in VR land recently and a title that really captured me.
When I was a kid and had just seen Star Wars I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven if this were available back then.
The title is Eve Valkyrie Warzone. They spent $30 Million creating it and even use Katee Sackhoff's voice (Starbuck in the recent BSG series).
In this you are flying fighters in battles on a team against another team with with real players on both teams.
In addition you earn experience over time that increases your rank and you are grouped with other players of a similar rank. The result is that the game play continues to evolve. Players learn how to fly different ships and learn which ships work best in different battle modes. This makes each battle completely unique. You never know who you will have on your team or the opposing team or what their favorite ships are.
You start each battle being launched like a Viper in Battlestar Gallactica from your carrier into battle with one of an assortment of ships you can chose from. You have to learn how to fly each type of ship and use its capabilities. You cooperate with teammates to achieve objectives. The types of battle are 10 or 20 minutes in length unless the objective is completed earlier.
For example in one mode of combat each team tries to control Relay stations with drones. Your team destroys opposing team's drones and plants your drones to control the relays. If you get control of all 3 relays the opposing carriers shields go down for about 90 seconds and you attack the carrier or alternately have to defend yours. After external cooling vents are destroyed the internal fusion reactor is exposed and the carrier can be destroyed. In a few battles there is a draw and in some battles a carrier is destroyed the battle ends there. Typically the team that inflicts the most damage wins.
I'm using my flight rig and feel like I am there being urged into battle. The dog fights are very intense and fast moving and I'm really enjoying this.
There is a learning curve and a lot of buttons to map to my stick and what they do varies by ship
Focus - allows you to highlight an opponent who is highlighted in yellow.
Primary fire - cannons, lasers, etcm
Secondary fire - missiles, etc..
Countermeasures - anti-missile flak, cloak, Shield, etc..
Ultra - some weapon that takes a while to charge
Virtual Reality makes this game! You can be flying in one direction and using your head tracking to get missile lock on a target going another direction. You can feel like you are out in the vastness of space of in a confined area. You can fly around asteroids, inside large space stations. Meanwhile your heads up display is showing you where all the opponents and mission objectives are located.
Absolutely amazing!
Sadly they were creating this title for years before VR headsets made available and wanted to be the first big block buster in VR, but headset sales were much lower than original expectations and they never recovered their investment making this game. They disbanded the VR development team that created it last October
On the other hand this is a great example of what is possible in VR with enough effort.
