Dynamic Racing With Two Major Caveats

Omega Pilot Evolution offers thrills, but falls short in two key areas.

There are more than a few racing games available in VR, but few have the speed of Omega Pilot Evolution, mainly because it’s challenging to make a game with such intensity in VR without causing motion sickness. At its peak, the game can feel like a chaotic blend of Wipeout and F-Zero as you rush through futuristic tracks in speedy machines across environments that blend futuristic cityscapes with oversized Greek statues. At other times it can feel confusing to follow and frustrating, as design decisions sap some of the fun from the overall package.

The game is developed by XOCUS, taking on the challenge of bringing such high-speed racing to VR. No matter how attuned you are to the medium or immune to motion sickness wearing a headset, more intense games will cause wooziness if not properly calibrated, and the more intense the game, the more work has to be done in order to make it a comfortable experience. And few experiences are more intense than sitting in a virtual cockpit to race around hairpin turns at 300 miles per hour.

Though there’s a rather significant difficulty curve and admitted lack of guidance in learning the controls and coming to terms with everything the game expects, it’s rewarding when it all clicks into place. Jumping into the game for the first time, you’re presented with a menu from which to select between four gameplay modes: a career mode that essentially serves as time trials for all the tracks in the game, a series mode where you compete in various grands prix, playing numerous consecutive races against bots to claim first place, a mode called Bot Races that includes both standard races and arena battles, as well as a multiplayer mode.

The controls take a bit of getting used to, but make sense in the context of a futuristic racing game. Imagine your vehicle not as a car, but as a plane tethered to the racing track. The triggers of each controller are used for acceleration (right trigger) and brake (left trigger), while you can grip the joystick in front of you using either controller and moving side to side to steer left or right. The brake and acceleration, alongside adjusting your speed, can also be used to intensify your turning radius. By holding brake while turning a corner you can turn more sharply, and often this will be required in order to navigate some sharper turns. Simply holding acceleration consistently without utilizing the brake will not earn you the best time. The A button on a Quest 3 controller can be used as a Nitro speed button, while you can fire weapons using the B button (more on that in a bit).

As a pure racing game, and enjoyed for its time attack and skill ceiling, there’s a decent bit of fun to be had here. There are an impressive 27 tracks on offer, and though some reuse the same environments, they each offer unique challenges and routes to test your skills.

In its purest form, it truly feels like a game that’s easy to learn the basics but difficult to master. You will likely run hard into a wall on the first corner of your first race, and struggle to clock decent times in your early attempts. The time trial mode is going to be your best bet to get accustomed to the controls before you even think about improving your time or racing against bots or human opponents.

It will take a few races, but eventually you’ll get a handle on what it takes to turn a corner, build up the most speed, and things begin to click into place. It’s satisfying when you finally understand these interlinked systems and post a good time. Taking that against racers where you have to work around the ships of others is a challenge, but one that’s rewarding when applying what you have learned.

It’s when stepping beyond the comfort of time trials and no-weapon races that cracks begin to form. Simply put, weapons in this game feel awful to use. After competing in a few series, or by taking part in arena mode, you’ll be given access to items stationed in weapon boxes around the track. The item you receive is always random, but includes things like mines that can be placed on the track behind you, rockets that fire directly in front of you, a shield, and even one that fires itself into the distance in front of you. The problem is, aside from the rockets where you can plainly see the direction of movement and aim these weapons in front of you, there is no feedback given to the player that a weapon has been used.

When I fire the arching weapon that fires into the distance, I often don’t see it leave my vehicle, where it is going, or if it hits. I don’t even know how far it can or will go. If I use a mine, I don’t know when it causes damage or even where it’s been placed, compounded by how difficult they are to see on the track making for a frustrating experience when my speed screeches to a halt in consequence.

You can see your shield when you use it, but due to the lack of clarity for other weapons, it’s impossible to know when is best to use it or if it actually saved you from damage. I often just use it and hope for the best as a result. Races where weapons are active were by far the least enjoyable part of the experience, especially when they could stack without anything you can do about it. On more than one occasion, a rocket has destroyed me only for me to respawn and be immediately destroyed a second time without anything I can do about it. They’re slightly better in arena mode, but not by much.

Winning a race with weapons active never felt like it was about skill. That’s all before discussing ship upgrades. Rather than offering unique ships with different stats that were balanced against one another to increase strategy, earning money from races and time trials simply gives you money to upgrade your current vehicle. It’s the least satisfying form of player progression – you already feel a sense of improvement by beating your personal best on a track or winning a race, but paying to upgrade your vehicle rather than unlocking a new one in some ways taints the records you scored. If you buy an upgrade and score a new personal best, did you improve, or did the upgrade propel you to victory?

Until all upgrades are purchased, this choice means you almost can’t compete with the best times or feel like you truly improved based on your own skill, because how much is it truly down to your own hard work?

Omega Pilot Evolution Review – Final Verdict

Omega Pilot Evolution is a genuinely compelling racing game, and it looks pretty decent too. It’s hampered by the need to play for hours to max out a vehicle before you can truly be satisfied with your records and ability to compete, and weapons that turn the hairpin thrill of a race into frustrating randomized chaos. Stick to the time trials and play of your own accord, and you’ve got enough here to justify the package. The rest is best left aside.

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