Now Playing: Eleven: Table Tennis (VR)

Eleven: Table Tennis VR is a very enjoyable simulation of table tennis in – you guessed it – VR. I did have my doubts about the game prior to picking it up in the recent Summer Sale. I’ve written before about the challenges in VR when a mechanic requires you to judge weight, power and distance – which is particularly important in a game like this.

But table tennis, in a way, seems uniquely suited to VR despite this challenge. The balls are light, so you don’t expect to ‘feel’ a heavy connection when you strike the ball with your virtual paddle. And, based on what I’ve played, the power you physically exert in reality for a strike has an exceptionally close correlation to the power you see exerted upon the ball in the game. Distance is a little more tricky, but it’s something you gradually learn to judge based upon your power and angle the more you play.

The most important thing they needed to get right in Eleven was the ball physics and I think they’ve pretty much nailed it. The way the ball moves, bounces and spins all had to look and ‘feel’ accurate. It’s kind of a nebulous aspect to discuss – the ‘feeling’ of how something plays, but I’m not quite sure how else to talk about it.

When I’m playing Eleven in VR, I really do feel like I’m playing table tennis. The way the ball bounces, the sound it makes as it strikes the paddle, the very slight vibration of feedback in the controller as the ball connects – it all adds up to what feels like a near perfect simulation of the real thing to the point that I sometimes reach out and futilely try to grab the virtual ball with my real hand.

Yes, it really is that good. Of course, doing such a great job of simulating table tennis mechanically in a game isn’t the same as making a good table tennis game. So what does the game side of Eleven have to offer? To begin, you have a single player mode against an AI opponent with an adjustable difficulty slider. This slider ranges from ridiculously easy to ridiculously hard.

Easy opponents are more likely to miss or overhit shots, whereas more advanced opponents are not only more accurate and less prone to mistakes, but more likely to hit tougher angles and use ball spin more effectively. I have to say, I’m really impressed by the AI system. I don’t know how it will feel on higher settings (I’m currently playing on the upper-medium level) but it never feels cheap or – even worse – like its cheating by pulling off shots or hitting angles that shouldn’t be possible.

If you don’t want to play a creepy, emotionless AI you can always play a creepy, emotionless human in the game’s multiplayer mode, but because I’m still kind of bad at the game and don’t really like interacting with other people, I’ve not tried it out yet. Beyond single and multiplayer, Eleven also has a few basic and forgettable ‘mini-games’ to check out, but this is one area that the game could use more improvement.

Eleven has the core gameplay down, it’s just everything surrounding that core that needs to be expanded and improved. More interesting / fun mini-games. More virtual environments to choose between. Maybe a custom music option. A selection of AI visual appearance options.

Eleven already has some pretty good customisation options – table / paddle colour and MP avatars – but more certainly wouldn’t hurt. And how about some kind of tournament mode against different (visually) AI with different skills and a ‘personality’ that determines how they play? As enjoyable as Eleven is in its current state, there’s a lot more they can add and do with the game to flesh it out and really make it a VR sporting game classic.

Overall, Eleven is a great table tennis simulation with a slightly above average ‘game’ aspect constructed around it. If you think you’d enjoy playing table tennis in VR then there’s no reason not to pick it up now. It’s not the kind of game I’ll sink hundreds of hours into, but it’s the kind of thing I’ll always keep installed so I can hop in and play a few rounds when I have fifteen minutes to spare.

7/10