Have you ever wanted to be part of a starship command where you could go through space and doing what you could to help protect the right? What about being able to command your own ships into combat in hopes that your strategic mindset would have a victorious outcome? If the plan didn’t work out, how would you upgrade and make your fleet stronger? It’s really interesting when you think about all the movies, shows, books, and games that we may have played and if given the opportunity to be in that situation if we would do things the same or have a better way to go about the situations. So does developer White Noise Games show us what controlling a fleet and being part of the action is all about? Let’s find out with Eternal Starlight for PCVR.
Eternal Starlight is a tactical space combat game built for Virtual Reality where you will experience conflict, meet a variety of alien species as you plan your next hyperspace jump in hopes of collecting the technology to upgrade your fleet and become victorious. So before go in and start to vaporize anything you can with every attempt, there are some things you will want to make sure of first. One, please make sure whatever controllers you are using are fully charged. Second, make sure any updates that are needed are fully updated. I mean, there is nothing like trying to record gameplay only to find out something popped up that there was a need for an update in the middle of recording. And last, there is not an option for sitting, so make sure you are good for standing. With that said, let’s continue.
When you first start the Eternal Starlight, you will notice the music. The music is a perfect sci-fi setting and is something I would listen to just by itself. So great job with the music selection White Noise Games, great job. We learn that Earth is really no more as the Earth’s biosphere was nearing a collapsed state (this is why we need to take care of our planet) and that we are setting out to find a new home among the stars. That’s when we are introduced to Proxima, basically humanity’s last hope, but also an unsure hope as we are not alone here as we will soon find out. You see, like anywhere, there is the good and the bad. The bad, who are not welcoming such as the ruthless alien race called the Kraya. The Kraya want Proxima for themselves and it’s going to be up to you and your commands in hopes that you can defeat the Kraya and make Proxima safe for all.
When it’s time to get into the tutorial of sorts, this is where you should pay attention as you will learn how to zoom in and out so you can make the ships massive or tiny just depending on how you like to have things which options is always a nice thing to have. Being able to drag where you want your ships to go with your controllers or hands (as an option with the Oculus Quest/Quest 2 with the hand tracking) is a nice way to play with the boundaries and plan your strategic battle plan. In the missions, which can be short, you will have to scan different objects while being on the lookout for enemies which you will need to take care of. What I really like is using the Fusion Beam on the enemies as it was like having a mini Death Star power in your ship. Activating your ship’s special systems is a simple as using the trigger buttons and then click and drag the icons of what you are trying to use that icon on a focused object.
Before the start of each mission, there is a story aspect where you can select your choices which is always fun if you want to be the one with an attitude or try to be the one who is all serious. But the thing about dying here in Eternal Starlight is once it’s over it’s kind of over with permadeath added. So you will want to plan accordingly. Also, mission maps and rewards for so said missions are randomized. So what one may get on one mission, you may get something else. If you fail a mission, you can keep going, and depending on which missions you do, that will determine your allies in the final mission. So when you take all of that into consideration, there is quite a bit to come back to.
Looking at the sound and graphics. As I mentioned earlier, the sound of the game and music is awesome. There was some issues with the dialog as it would start out with sound and then cut out. But the explosions and gun fire really did sound good. Graphically, seeing everything close up had plenty of detail. Seeing the different ships close up or even from a distance, to even reading the words of the choices, there were no issues making things out which is always a good thing.
There are some things that I hope to get updated. For one, I just mentioned the dialog. Hearing what sounded like words only to then just drop felt a little off, but didn’t discourage me from playing. Second, I hope an option for sitting gets added. There are many players who may not be able to stand for long periods of time or even at all ether due to injuries, a disability, or even age could be a factor that would love to be able to see what is on the screen. If you are one who likes to sit while playing, this is an issue. I get that standing is what this was designed for and I did stand in some of it, but when you are doing the actions of the combat, you don’t have to stand since you can zoom in and out. So adding that feature might be a nice touch for some. And third, multiplayer. Eternal Starlight would have even more fun to be had if there was a way to battle against others. Since the game is single-player only, not saying that should not stop you from playing, just saying it would be an awesome feature to have in the game.
Eternal Starlight brings the Sci-Fi RTS gaming with content and even some realism with the permadeath. It allows us to escape into a different futuristic place and time and puts us at the help of trying to save humanity when there isn’t much hope left for humanity to have. And when it seems that when the ones closest to use to the ones that we may barely know or not even at all, we can all get a sense when something may not be right or worse. We can each take it upon ourselves to make the world a better place not only for ourselves but for each other. And who knows, that one act of kindness that may not take any effort at all, could be a world of a difference to the ones that we didn’t even know that was watching.
Eternal Starlight is out now for Oculus Quest/Quest 2 on the Oculus Store and Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Eternal Starlight, please visit the site, follow them on Twitter, join their Discord, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have some strategies to work on.
