Hands-on with CCP’s virtual-reality dogfighter EVR

Experimental Oculus Rift game

Want to make 1500 EVE Online fans totally flip out?

Corral them into an auditorium for an EVE&nb♉sp;keynote dur♕ing Fanfest 2013, announce that a small internal team has developed a playable virtual-reality dogfighting game for the Oculus Rift, and then explain that a day-long tournament is going to take place.

Codenamed EVR — get it? — the game pits two teams of six against each other, in an arena littered with asteroids, the ruins of a cathedral, and the shattered husk of a Tempest warship. The set up is pretty bare-bones — kill the other team; stay alive — but the Oculus Rift execution is spot on.

Pilots have a full range of vision, and players who don’t take advantage of the virtual reality’s possibilities don’t last long in EVR. The small dogfi🎃ghters we piloted were fast and maneuverable enough to sneak up on unsuspecting or unfocused players, and I spent plenty of time craned backward🥃s in my seat, looking for enemy missiles.

As my demo handler put it: “If you’re only looking straight ahead, take the headset off and we’ll just give you a normal monitor.”  

The neatest trick was a missile guidance system that tracked to the Oculus Rift headset: hold the right trigger (we were using Xbox 360 controllers) to pull up the missile reticule, using your head to lock-on to enemy fighters. Even though matches are only three minutes long, there’s a great internal rhythm to EVR: use 💮lasers to close in♊ on enemies, launch a volley of guided rockets, and veer off, hunting for the next target.

The bad news: CCP’s official line is that there are no plans to release EVR to the wider public. It was developed as a special event for Fanfest attendees — CCP is hosting a day-long demo session tomorrow — and this might be the only time it’s available to play.

Still, as a proof-of-concept or prototype, EVR is a strong showing. Not to disparage the bedroom developers that are modding, hacking, coding, and figuring out how to trailblaze virtual-reality gaming, but EVR is the product of experi🌟enced developers, an🎃d it shows.

Even though the connection to EVE Online is purely cosmetic — it’s just a few art assets — the Fanfest community is clearly excited by the prospect of virtual-reality dogfighting. I’ve only played one match of EVR so far, but I can’t say I disagree with them.