So I just finished up Gunjack by CCP, made famous by the incredible Eve Online, Eve: Gunjack takes you to a deep space mining operation and it is your job to fend off pirates and Asteroids alike from the comfort of your 5 ton turret.

Though taking place in the Eve universe, outside the name itself this could simply be any alien spaceship hoard mode game.

Don’t get me wrong,  I think CCP did a good thing leveraging the Eve name as they did with Eve: Valkyrie for the Oculus Rift, but if you are looking for any ties to the Eve universe you will not find them here.

What you will find however is a decent shooter with a cool control scheme that sets it apart from any other titles currently available for Rift or Vive.

The version I played through was for the HTC Vive, though from what I understand the difference between the Rift and Vive version is minuscule.

The control scheme in this game is often slammed in reviews, as it does not use the Vive-motes for anything other than the trigger buttons to shoot and touch pad to reload.

Personally I found this to be perfectly fine, the turret direction is determined 100% by the direction you turn your head, and while it may be a little jarring at first to some, it ends up working very well long term.

Though it is recommended you play seated,  I found it much more enjoyable to play standing, giving you a much greater sens of presence and allowing you to feel like you were actually in the turret.

The game spans 20 levels and will offer about an hour and a half of game play for a single 20 level run. There is scoreboards and the ability to get a “Master” level rating on each level if you get a high enough score, this will be required if you intend to get all the Achievements available. You can also find 2 boss fights and 2 “bonus” levels which are destroying an endless onslaught of asteroids until you turret is damaged enough to have to pull out.

My only gripe is that, as with most VR titles, this game is really short. Given the simplistic nature of the game itself, CCP could have easily made this 100 levels had they chosen to do so at very little extra expense.

The level are all fairly similar with wave after wave of enemies showing up in varying patterns and formations. Enemy types continue to get more and more challenging over the 20 level by adding attacks that will disable your turret, or scramble your radar, etc.

You also have additional power ups to add to your arsenal that are dropped by destroying green ships, they will include things like homing missiles, a powerful focused laser and even a stasis bubble that will slow ships down in time.

The game retails for $10.99 Canadian and I can easily recommend it. It will make for a good demo for friends if you plan on showing off the VR HMD you own. Controls are intuitive enough that in a minute or so even non-gamers can jump and feel comfortable.

All in all a worthwhile endeavor and a solid 7/10.