Gaming

What are the best space combat/exploration games for the Vive or Rift?

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Elite: Dangerous vs Star Citizen vs Star Conflict

Specs

Steam Rating

Mostly Positive

Genre

Space trading and combat game

Co-Op

Multiplayer

Controller Support

Full

# Players

Greater than 1,000,000

Release Date

2014

Multiplayer

Open Play / Solo Play / Private Group

Level design

Open World

Learning Curve

VERY Steep

Internet Connection

Required

Game World Size

Milky Way Galaxy [Diameter: ~100,000 Light-Years]

Steam Rating

-

Genre

-

Co-Op

-

Controller Support

-

# Players

-

Release Date

-

Multiplayer

-

Level design

-

Learning Curve

-

Internet Connection

-

Game World Size

-

Steam Rating

Mixed

Genre

Action / Space

Co-Op

8 Player Online

Controller Support

Partial

# Players

-

Release Date

-

Multiplayer

-

Level design

-

Learning Curve

-

Internet Connection

-

Game World Size

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Great Oculus Rift integration

Elite Dangerous has very good integration with the Oculus Rift thanks to its cockpit view only gameplay philosophy. All ship UIs are part of displays that appear on each side of you that appear when you turn your head, so accessing the navigation or ship menus happens seamlessly just by looking in their direction. The game also uses the direction you are looking in for targeting, so your lock on target is whatever you're head is pointing at. By sitting in the cockpit of a ship, you are given a stationary frame of reference that helps prevent motion sickness associated with movement in game when you aren't actually moving.
Comment

Pro
 Exploration at every level of detail

Full exploration of the galaxy is planned, allowing you to be able to jump from star system to star system, and fly around within a solar system from planet to planet, eventually going all the way down to a planet's surface at a 1:1 scale in a later update. Planetary landings will require a lot of details to be developed and designed, but you can still see the level of detail shift in action when flying into a planet's rings, where getting close enough show the individual asteroids within, which you can then interact with through mining, or by having a battle among them.
Comment

Pro
 Built with future expansion in mind

When Elite Dangerous come out, development won't stop. To build a game with the huge scope of Elite Dangerous, not all of it can be done at once, so the developers have adopted an approach of incremental improvement. Various game play elements are being designed as a foundation for later features. For example, although planetary landings aren't going to be available until a later update, the engine has been designed to be able to support going from lightyears away to meters away.
Comment

Pro
 Very realistic representation of space & star systems

Elite Dangerous uses publicly available real world star maps that we have of the Milky Way consisting of 150,000 star systems. Although in the current beta, full access to the entire galaxy is limited, in the final game, you will be able to visit any of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy on a 1:1 scale. Stars that we do know of are properly mapped in place and are of the correct type given the information we have about them. Stars we haven't collected data on are procedurally generated which allows you to explore any of the 400 billion of them. Star systems are intelligently simulated using the "Star Forge", a generator that simulates the creation of a star system forming from its nebular cloud to determine what celestial bodies appear and what orbits they have. This feature leads to many varied and unique star systems possibly with planets that can co-orbit around each other, or with binary star systems, and infinitely more possibilities.
Comment

Con
 "Mile Wide and an Inch Deep"

The game has a serious problem with depth and requires the user to repeat the same few fun actions over and over again. The world is massive and beautiful but feels empty. The game gets stale quickly despite being visually stunning.
Comment

Con
 Really complicated to learn

Looking up faqs and trade routes from first hand users will be the norm for figuring out many aspects of Elite: Dangerous. On top of this notes will have to be taken, which is made more difficult by the fact the game does not support in game not taking. So a pad and paper is recommended to remember all of the minutia of the game.
Comment

Pro
 Vast, detailed sci-fi world

A long term goal is to have over 400 different star systems in game, most of which will have many planets within them.
Comment

Pro
 Dynamic economy system

The economy of the game and the actions to keep it moving are constantly going on in the background but allows for players to step in and out of it at their leisure in order to take part.
Comment

Con
 Still in alpha stages of development

Comment

Pro
 Ability to command persistent ships and stations

Players will be able to command multi-person ships with other users who will be able to command their own stations on said ships.
Comment

Pro
 Being in the cockpit creates near perfect VR immersion

More so than FPS games, Star Conflict achieves incredible immersion by positioning the player where the pilot is. This puts the player's entire body in the same position as the character, which adds to the feeling of actually being there as opposed to sitting in a chair in the real world while your character is walking around a room.
Comment

Pro
 Includes both PvE and PvP missions

There are player vs player arenas as well as quests and mission within the world against NPC enemies. This allows you to practice against AI, and once you get good you can progress on and challenge other players.
Comment

Pro
 High quality graphics and aesthetic

Star Conflict has high quality graphics and interesting ship design. There's also good detail in the surrounding world that really makes it look great, especially in VR where you are fully immersed in the world.
Comment

Con
 Multiplayer with friends require two Rifts

It's the early days of VR, and it's rare to find another person that owns a Rift (especially with the Vive gaining popularity lately). Playing MMOs with random other players online can still be fun, but the experience is much better when you have a friend to play it with. It will be hard to find a friend who can play with you, as you will both need a Rift and a capable gaming rig.
Comment

Con
 Plagued with admin abuse

Endless reports of people having unpleasant run-ins with admins.
Comment

Con
 Quickly turns grindy to encourage spending money

While the game starts out with fast-pasted progress it quickly turns into a typical MMO grind that can be sped up by paying real world money.
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