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Virtual Reality is often seen as the lesser format when it comes to gaming, especially due to the lower-quality graphics and the gameplay capabilities being more limited than what devs can do with other titles outside of VR. Factor in all of that with many also being unable to play as a result of motion sickness, and then you obviously have a less-than-desirable market for VR games.
However, VR games provide some of the most immersive experiences, since when you don your headset, you are quite literally stepping into the game world and experiencing everything first-hand. VR games have only been getting better and better in their storytelling strength, expansive world-building, and more complex gameplay systems, and the following are not to be underestimated.
Horizon Call Of The Mountain
The Horizon series still feels as amazing in VR as a launch title for the PSVR2, taking Guerrilla’s world to more immersive heights, but with not quite the same open-world feel as you might be used to with Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. This new entry also sees you as a new protagonist, Ryas of the Shadow Carja. But don’t worry, Aloy still plays a role in the story and will make an appearance.
The robot action is designed just the same as in the previous entries, with you using a bow to target the weak spots of the machines and having to dodge their incoming attacks, but integrated into VR. The scenery is stunning as ever, and you get to explore and scale the environments from the first-person POV, so it will be something akin to playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in VR. Just don’t expect as lengthy an adventure.
Alien: Rogue Incursion
If FX and Hulu’s Alien: Earth has got you fired up again about the Alien series, Rogue Incursion is the latest chapter in the ever-expanding Alien video game universe that launched exclusively for VR. Like Alien: Isolation, this one also comes with an original story set between the first two movies and follows the new protagonist Zula Hendricks, along with her android companion, Davis.
Zula is a former Colonial Marine on a mission to stop the Xenomorph experiments taking place in a Gemini Exoplanet Solutions facility on planet LV-354, or Purdan. As is always the case, the Xenomorphs are crawling all over the facility, and you’ll have to keep an eye on your tracker and exterminate them before they can get you. It’s more shooter-oriented than survival horror, but the eerie atmosphere will be felt even more in VR.
Alien: Rogue Incursion is part one of a two-part story.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
While The Walking Dead got a masterful run from a storytelling perspective with Telltale’s version, which lasted four seasons, there was never a licensed Walking Dead game that brought on zombie carnage that could measure up to the likes of Dead Rising and Dying Light. Well, enter The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, taking the series to post-apocalyptic New Orleans for a gory zombie hack-and-slash VR experience.
The gore system is pretty gnarly as you might expect, with bonus points being earned for walker decapitations and dismemberment, and your choice of weapons is pretty expansive too. The New Orleans environments are very atmospheric and haunting, and become extremely suspenseful in VR when those zombies start growing in numbers. There is branching dialogue and questlines as well here; just don’t expect top-of-the-line graphics on the character models.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
Systems
- Released
- November 16, 2023
Everyone thought Assassin’s Creed in VR would be a disastrous idea, but turns out, it holds an even better Metacritic score than the mainline Assassin’s Creed Mirage. What’s amazing with this experience is you get to live out the stories of Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2, Connor from Assassin’s Creed 3, and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in immersive VR, three of the best games in the AC series.
The elements of stealth, parkour, hidden blade assassinations, and leaps of faith are all achieved in first-person and in glorious VR, which brings a totally different experience. Revisiting the iconic protagonists and locations of Renaissance Italy, America during the Revolutionary War, and Ancient Greece will feel unreal with the way the environments are recreated in VR. There’s also a story tying everything together.
Metro Awakening
The long-awaited follow-up to Metro Exodus came in the form of a VR prequel game set five years before the first game and Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novel of the same name. Instead of Artyom, you are now Serdar Iskanderov, or Khan, who was an important NPC in the previous games, and now you get to play his origin story. In Awakening, you follow Khan through the underground metro system in search of his wife.
Even in VR, the lighting, atmosphere, weapon design, radiated creature design, and characters all look seamless and identical to a normal console version of Metro. It’s likewise a narrative-driven title rather than an arcade-like shooter, and, in fact, brings back the more intimate survival horror element missing from the larger-scale RPG design of Exodus. Awakening truly awakens the roots of the Metro series.
Asgard’s Wrath 2
Asgard’s Wrath 2
- Released
- December 15, 2023
- Publisher(s)
- Oculus Studios
- Platform(s)
- Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2
Asgard’s Wrath 2 made waves in the VR scene as part of the launch bundle for the Meta Quest 3, and became among the first original VR games to be taken as seriously as something like a Sony Interactive Entertainment IP. It’s an open-world VR RPG with branching dialogue, something that is still somewhat revolutionary and one-of-a-kind for VR gaming, considering the majority of titles are linear and move you from A to B.
In this game, you are indeed Asgard’s wrath, a Norse God who was betrayed by Loki, finding yourself in the realm of Egyptian Gods in a quest for revenge. You get to explore the ancient Egyptian temples and encounter Egyptian mythology, so if you are holding onto hopes that God of War will eventually fuse Norse and Egyptian Gods, Asgard’s Wrath 2 is already way ahead of the curve.
Edge Of Nowhere
Edge of Nowhere is a surprise VR game from Insmoniac, which you might’ve never even heard about. Yes, the same studio behind Ratchet & Clank, the Spider-Man games, and Resistance made a Lovecraftian survival game in VR based on the story At the Mountains of Madness. What’s even more innovative and jaw-dropping about this VR title is that you play from the third-person perspective.
In Edge of Nowhere, you are explorer Victor Howard, venturing into Antarctica in search of your wife’s missing expedition team, and what you uncover are otherworldly creatures inhabiting the caverns and mountains that the previous expedition team had likely encountered. There’s Tomb Raider-style climbing, a survival kit inventory system, and the environments here are also incredible at capturing Lovecraft’s novella.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Batman: Arkham Shadow
- Released
- October 21, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Camouflaj
- Publisher(s)
- Oculus
- Platform(s)
- Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S
Like with Assassin’s Creed Nexus, everyone expected Batman: Arkham Shadow to be as disastrous as Rocksteady’s live-service Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and another final nail in the coffin. And yet, the exact opposite occurred, with Batman: Arkham: Shadow earning a strong 85 on Metacritic compared to KTJL’s 60, and the fact that Rocksteady has officially ended all support for it.
Batman: Arkham Shadow’s story continues to expand the worldbuilding and rogues gallery of the Arkham video game series, presenting itself as a sequel to Batman: Arkham Origins and introducing new villains like the Rat King and Lyle Bolton (Lock-Up), along with familiar faces like Two-Face, Scarecrow, and Dr. Harleen Quinzel. The boss fights are well-designed, and you become Batman by grappling around and countering and chaining combos in VR.
Resident Evil 4 VR
Resident Evil 4 VR
Systems
- Released
- October 21, 2021
Although Resident Evil 4 Remake also comes with a VR mode, which is handled quite excellently, the original Resident Evil 4 received a full-on VR release that is even more extraordinary. It puts you right in the shoes of classic Leon S. Kennedy as he ventures through the Spanish village full of Las Plagas infected in search of Ashley Graham, and the environments and set pieces get relived in brilliant up-close and personal fashion.
Grabbing the medicinal herbs with Leon’s VR hands and rotating them around might just be the coolest reason to play this game, and all the traditional mechanics (even the typewriter and kicks), boss fights, and iconic story moments are seamlessly recreated. And then the VR item shop with the black market merchant, and the way the developers integrated the calls with Hunnigan and other characters is even better experienced in VR.
Half-Life: Alyx
Half-Life: Alyx is the absolute game that shows VR is serious and here to stay. Though many might’ve been disappointed that the next chapter in the beloved FPS Half-Life series went VR, it drew incredible acclaim, sitting with a 93 on Metacritic as well. This is the crown jewel of VR gaming, especially for storytelling and gameplay, serving as a prequel to Half-Life 2 and adding survival horror elements.
As the title suggests, you’ll be playing as Alyx Vance, who’s on a mission to rescue her father from the Combine, meeting a Tony Todd-voiced Vortigaunt named Gary along the way. The gravity gun is here, and to add even more immersion to the VR gameplay, you will have to place a controller over your mouth at points to stop Alyx from breathing in spores (kind of like Sam covering his mouth in the presence of BTS in Death Stranding, but in real life).
