The high-stakes gamble behind CCP's Oculus Rift pack-in

This Monday, CCP Games will begin inviting over 1,000 players into the Eve: Valkyrie alpha. Outside of a few trade shows and the yearly Fanfest gathering in Iceland, this is the first time the larger virtual reality and space simulation community will be able to try the game.

This is a big deal.

Eve: Valkyrie isn't just a departure from the more methodical political intrigue of CCP's Eve Online. It's also the publisher's first major virtual reality release. There is also the fact Valkyrie will come bundled with every Oculus Rift that has been pre-ordered. The stakes are incredibly high; it's not just CCP's reputation on the line, but Valkyrie will be one of the first experiences that players have with retail virtual reality.

If Valkyrie is disappointing, it's possible a whole generation of players will feel let down by their $599 purchase. If it's successful? It will open a whole new world for gaming.

Where to start I've been playing the alpha for a few hours now, and it was fascinating to explore Eve: Valkyrie away from the expected trade shows and planned events that make up a game's preview cycle. I was at home, on my own rig, and could fly as often as I liked. When you get serious about the game, you quickly realize how much is going on. "I would advise new players to do basic training first," Andrew Willans, lead designer on Valkyrie, told me. "It's something we haven't really advertised, but I want to draw people's attention to it. The training program explains the game's controls — I played Valkyrie on a standard gamepad, although it also supports flight sticks — and shows you how to use your guns, countermeasures and look-to-lock missiles. "It's kind of a playground; you can spend as long as you want in there and it's up to you when you exit," Willans said. "That would be my first tip, to get used to the basic rig." It's good advice, as Valkyrie can be initially overwhelming. Your gut lurches as your fighter is shot out of the capital ship's tube, directly into battle. It takes a few rounds to get used to tracking the movement of the enemy by moving your head. It can be easy to get lost in the somewhat amazing fact that you're piloting a fucking spaceship, much less think about doing it well. You have to allow the wonder of it all to wash over you before you can focus on your skills as a pilot, and the training mode is a great way to fight past that initial "wow" factor.

The final version of the game will do a better job of getting players up to speed, I'm told. There will be a playable prologue that sets things up before you appear in the game's hub, and the training will explain a bit more of the game's story and explore who you are in this world. This isn't just a multiplayer game, and there will be many ways to play. That was by design.

"One of the battles we'll be facing is that since we have such a low pool of players from day one, but it will gradually increase throughout the year, we have to keep players engaged," Willans said. "We'll also have a range of player-versus-environment elements." These missions will flesh out the game's world and introduce the characters while allowing you to play by yourself, away from the pressure of your teammates or human-controlled enemies.

The trick is to offer different ways to play so everyone, no matter their comfort level with action games or VR, will have a place to begin. It's not just a matter of having many different modes, but different intensities of play.

"We don't yet know who our audience is. It would be crazy to assume everyone who buys an Oculus is a hardcore gamer; I don't think that's the truth," Willans said. "We're going to have a really diverse cross section of people who are buying the technology."

Valkyrie will feature a "scout" mode where players can enjoy flying around the environments and taking in the sights and sounds. The team is even hiding "loot crates" and audio logs in the scout mode, so you'll be able to learn more about the world and why these battles are taking place by flying around on your own.

This will also be a good mode for introducing friends and family to not only Valkyrie, but virtual reality in general. If someone doesn't want the stress of a dogfight but would love to experience the fun of piloting a ship, scout mode will be there. There will also be survival modes, where the game throws increasingly difficult AI-controlled pilots at you, if you'd like to hone your skills away from other human players.

Eve: Valkyrie's alpha is focused much more on the multiplayer portion of the game, however. And holy shit, is it intense.