The game will be part of the Oculus Rift VR headset's launch line-up

May 2, 2014 22:45 GMT  ·  By

This year's edition of the EVE Fanfest marks exactly one year since the original virtual-reality prototype set in the EVE universe kicked off, and developer CCP Games has delivered two exciting pieces of information to celebrate the occasion.

First of all, Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff will be joining the team, lending her voice and acting talent to portray Ran, the leader of the Vakyries.

"The first time I played EVE: Valkyrie I immediately knew I had to be a part of it. Even with the roles I have played, it is the closest I have ever felt to being a real spaceship pilot," said Sackhoff in a CCP statement.

The second piece of good news is that EVE: Valkyrie has made the transition to Unreal Engine 4, making use of the experience that the team acquired while working on CCP Games' first-person shooter, Dust 514.

Most of the members of the Valkyrie team were previously working on Dust 514, so they felt that it would be beneficial for the upcoming project to move away from the initial engine used, Unity.

The game has evolved a lot since its timid debut as EVE-VR, now being a full-fledged project at CCP, dubbed EVE: Valkyrie and being constructed with support for the Oculus Rift on PC and the Project Morpheus headset on the PlayStation 4.

For now, the team says that the biggest improvement in the game so far is Unreal Engine 4's lighting magic, a huge step forward from Unity's. The game was already very good-looking on the old engine, and it's most likely going to be one of the most visually impressive titles on the Oculus Rift launch line-up.

CCP seems to be very serious about properly fleshing out the game within EVE's universe and creating an immersive experience for its future players, especially since it will be one of the first games designed specifically for virtual-reality gameplay.

"I think we're going to have a little bit of an edge. We are making the VR experience the primary experience. We don't have to worry about, 'Yes, this works really well in VR but how would it work on a normal monitor,'" says Sgiurdur Gunnarsson, senior programmer at CCP, as quoted by PCWorld.

The developer claims that EVE: Valkyrie will retain its nature as a standalone title, a multiplayer-only, combat focused, arcade-style space game, without becoming a massive, sprawling game that will be tied into EVE Online, in a manner similar to the company's shooter, Dust 514.