Virtual reality (VR) gaming offers a much more immersive experience compared to traditional gaming on consoles or PCs. By donning a headset and using motion controllers that track your hands, you can step into expansive 3D worlds and interact naturally with the environment. It‘s a new frontier for video games that is still maturing, but there are already some incredibly fun and innovative titles that showcase the possibilities of VR.
In this guide, I‘ll cover the 10 best VR games available today and why they represent the current state of the art. For each game, I analyze the gameplay, immersiveness, availability, motion sickness factor, and overall enjoyability. My selections span different genres from shooters to music games to fantasy combat. Whether you‘re new to VR or a seasoned virtual reality gamer, these are the cream of the crop that no fan should miss.
1. Half-Life: Alyx (Best Overall)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest via Link cable
Valve‘s return to the acclaimed Half-Life series after over a decade, Half-Life: Alyx finally arrived in 2020 to critical acclaim. Set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, you play as Alyx Vance as she and her father Eli secretly mount a resistance to the alien Combine‘s occupation of Earth.
Spanning 11-12 hours of gameplay, Half-Life: Alyx takes gravity gloves, pistols, shotguns, grenades and your wits to fight off zombified headcrabs, barnacle creatures and Combine soldiers. The detailed environments, physics interactions, world-building storytelling and varied combat encounters set a new bar for VR gaming.
Valve specifically designed Half-Life: Alyx from the ground up for virtual reality and it shows. Interacting with control panels, reloading guns, throwing items, using your multi-tool gravity gloves to pull objects towards you – every mechanic feels natural and immerses you further into this dystopian sci-fi world. While there‘s occasional slow-paced exploration, the frequent combat and environmental puzzles maintain an exciting momentum from start to finish.
For both Half-Life veterans and newcomers, Half-Life: Alyx delivers an unparalleled VR experience that leaves you in awe and eager to return to this rich universe. This isn‘t just the best VR game currently available – it may be one of the best games period.
2. Beat Saber (Best Rhythm Game)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR
Part lightsaber slash ‘em up and part rhythm game, Beat Saber is a VR sensation that deserves every bit of its popularity since launching in 2018. As colored blocks fly towards you synced to an energetic musical beat, you have to slash red and blue blocks with the corresponding saber. It sounds simple enough until the pace picks up and blocks come cascading from every angle.
With a great track list spanning pop, electronic, rock and more, Beat Saber gets your whole body moving as you squat, lean and dance to rack up points and avoid obstacles. It feels so intuitive swinging your motion controllers to slice through blocks that you forget about the VR headset on. And with new music packs releasing regularly, the replayability is infinite.
While it may induce some sweaty brows, Beat Saber showcases VR gaming at its most fun and active. It‘s the ultimate rhythm game meets Jedi training that you can keep coming back to with friends for high score battles.
3. Superhot VR (Most Innovative Shooter)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR
SUPERHOT VR turns one of the most innovative indie shooters into an even more wildly creative VR release. With a stark white minimalist art style, time only moves when you move. This means that in the middle of a frenetic gunfight, you can stop, carefully plan your next move and then engage bullets whizzing towards you when ready.
While the story only lasts 3 or so hours, SUPERHOT VR‘s unique premise leads to immensely satisfying gameplay. Grabbing bottles and throwing them to stun enemies, dodging past attacks with subtle head movements, snatching weapons out of mid-air to open fire – you feel like an unstoppable John Wick-esque assassin. It also supports full 360 movement so you‘re always on high alert.
SUPERHOT VR is a short but sweet shooter that could only work in virtual reality. The immersion and mechanics merge together flawlessly for a one-of-a-kind experience.
4. Star Wars: Squadrons (Best Star Wars Game)
Platforms: SteamVR, PlayStation VR
Ever wanted to jump into the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE fighter? Star Wars: Squadrons lets you live out your space dogfighting dreams in a Star Wars game tailored specifically for VR.
Picking between piloting for the New Republic or the Empire, you‘ll customize your starfighter‘s weapons and components as you complete objectives in intergalactic space. The 8-10 hour single-player campaign tells a focused story from both sides that establishes the conflict. Cinematic cutscenes between battles also immerse you further while showing off the stunning visuals.
However, Star Wars: Squadrons truly shines in the multiplayer modes whether cooperating with squadmates in Fleet Battles or facing off in intense 5v5 dogfights. Using one motion controller for your piloting stick and the other for throttle and systems management, you have full control over directing your starfighter through asteroid belts while unleashing lasers and missiles at TIE bombers.
For Star Wars fans, Star Wars: Squadrons is easily the most authentic and exciting way to experience space combat from the franchise outside of a theme park. It finds the right balance between accessible controls and tactical team-based multiplayer to compel you to keep suiting up for "one more mission".
5. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Best Apocalyptic Action)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest
Set in the TV show‘s universe shortly after the zombie outbreak, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners drops you into walker-infested New Orleans with plenty of undead horrors and morally grey choices awaiting you.
Making full use of VR, you scavenge through abandoned homes and dimly lit bars for supplies with zombie growls intensifying when danger is near. Crouching behind cars as walkers shamble past or stabbing them through fences creates nerve-racking close calls. And when cornered, swinging knives, bats and axes to damage brains rarely gets easy.
With a day/night cycle, hungry survivors watching your every move and faction reputations to uphold, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners captivates you in its interactive survival storylines. Hard choices always come with consequences as you balance helping other survivors with selfishly hoarding limited resources. And the psychological dread of slipping a walker mask on or facing the undead with just a flashlight maintains the TV franchise‘s tone.
For Walking Dead fans starved for new stories or gamers seeking a truly harrowing VR survival game, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners should be your first destination.
6. Blade & Sorcery (Best Medieval Combat)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest
For intense melee combat against hordes of enemies, Blade & Sorcery has no equal. Its advanced physics system lets you pick up swords, axes, maces, knives and even kitchen pots before unleashing bloody strategic dismemberment. Landing blows that slash off limbs, impale chests and decapitate heads never stops being viscerally and morbidly satisfying.
But Blade & Sorcery doubles down on medieval magic as well. You can freeze enemies with ice shards, set them ablaze with fireballs or force grip them to yank them over for the final blow. Even telekinetically guiding weapons towards foes or catching enemy arrows mid-flight further empowers your inner battlemage.
While early access and focused primarily on melee combat, Blade & Sorcery shows enormous potential for magic-fueled medieval warfare in VR. The freedom of experimenting with weapons and spells against enemy waves in its sandbox arena leaves you feeling like a mystical warrior.
7. Beat Saber (Best Rhythm Game)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR
Part lightsaber slash ‘em up and part rhythm game, Beat Saber is a VR sensation that deserves every bit of its popularity since launching in 2018. As colored blocks fly towards you synced to an energetic musical beat, you have to slash red and blue blocks with the corresponding saber. It sounds simple enough until the pace picks up and blocks come cascading from every angle.
With a great track list spanning pop, electronic, rock and more, Beat Saber gets your whole body moving as you squat, lean and dance to rack up points and avoid obstacles. It feels so intuitive swinging your motion controllers to slice through blocks that you forget about the VR headset on. And with new music packs releasing regularly, the replayability is infinite.
While it may induce some sweaty brows, Beat Saber showcases VR gaming at its most fun and active. It‘s the ultimate rhythm game meets Jedi training that you can keep coming back to with friends for high score battles.
8. Job Simulator (Most Humorous)
Platforms: SteamVR, PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest
One of the earliest VR-exclusive games, Job Simulator sets the gold standard for cartoonish sandbox style gameplay. Whether you pick office worker, chef, convenience store clerk or auto mechanic, your menial virtual job quickly descends into slapstick chaos.
While humor may be subjective, Job Simulator‘s physical comedy lands perfectly in VR. Holding coffee mugs awkwardly before dropping them, copying your boss behind his back or throwing convenience store products onto the floor encapsulates lowbrow humor at its best.
But Job Simulator also rewards creativity. See how high you can stack chairs or how far you can launch staplers with rubber bands. The sheer number of interactive objects lying around coaxes you into purposefully making a mess too. It‘s effectively a playground of meaningless tasks fueling your inner mischief.
Whenever non-gamers need a gentle introduction to virtual reality, Job Simulator almost always does the trick. The bite-sized challenges combined with the freedom to fool around however you please makes it an essential showcase title for VR capabilities.
9. Pistol Whip (Best Action Rhythm Hybrid)
Platforms: SteamVR, Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR
Fusing rhythm mechanics popularized by Beat Saber with cinematic FPS action, Pistol Whip differentiates itself enough to earn a top spot amongst VR shooters. As you dual wield firearms ranging from pistols to shotguns, you gun down waves of enemies attack to the beat of adrenaline-fueled soundtrack.
However unlike most shooters, you have to both aim accurately AND match the music rhythm for high scoring hits. Failure to sync your shots perfectly with the beat lowers scoring potential drastically even if your accuracy is spot on.
Ducking beneath barrages of enemy bullets or sliding across the floor to down foes further immerses you in cinematic firefights. It feels like leaping straight into the climactic action scenes of a spy thriller film. And a bevy of style options for weapons plus modifiers like scoring multipliers or deadeye targeting raise replayability.
For VR gamers exhausted of typical zombie horde titles or arcade shooters, Pistol Whip offers a bass-thumping rhythm hybrid alternative filled with bullet-time moments ready for your highlight reel.
10. Thumper (Best Psychedelic Rhythm Action)
Platforms: SteamVR, PlayStation VR
Like rhythm games but want something far more intense than swinging lightsabers to pop songs? Prepare for a trippy, exhilarating ride with Thumper. Racing down a spiraling neon track through hellish abstract dimensions, you have to batter glowing obstacles to the beats and rhythms perfectly time or risk chaotic consequences.
With thunderous music underscored by your wraithlike character smashing barriers via the controllers rumbling, Thumper consumes your senses. The astounding tempo escalations matched to the increasingly psychedelic and distorted visuals make it feel like you‘re speeding through the very circuits of cyberspace. It haunts you long after removing the headset much like an actual acid trip.
While utterly bewildering and frustrating for newcomers, repeat plays reveal how Thumper rewards gradually learning rhythmic patterns and timings just like old rhythm game greats. And without the reliance on popular licensed music like Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band, Thumper provides a next level take on the genre.
Hopefully this list covers a wide range of excellent VR games to suit different interests and experience levels! However, virtual reality still comes with considerations absent from traditional gaming when picking titles. Here are the most vital factors to weigh:
VR Headset Compatibility – Unlike console exclusive games, VR titles can vary widely in headset support. So before purchasing any virtual reality game, always double check if it natively works on your VR headset like Oculus Quest or HTC Vive. While hacks exist to bypass this, they can degrade the experience.
Motion sickness – Since movement doesn‘t perfectly sync with what your body feels in reality, fast translations through VR spaces can cause nausea, headaches or disorientation after prolonged sessions. It really varies person to person too. Games like Beat Saber with more limited movement may fare better than dogfighting titles for motion sickness prone gamers.
Room scale availability – Room scale means supporting tracking throughout a play space so you can freely walk around. Not all VR games utilize this, instead relying on more stationary experiences or teleporting. If you have a large dedicated VR play room, seek out titles catering to that like Half-Life: Alyx.
Competitive multiplayer – Playing socially can greatly lengthen any title‘s enjoyability. So competitive multiplayer focused games like Star Wars: Squadrons may suit VR gamers wanting to face others online the most. However quality will vary drastically title by title.
Now that VR technology has fully matured over various hardware generations alongside developers gaining more experience tailoring gameplay for it, virtual reality gaming finally provides true immersion beyond what monitors can offer. And as more big franchises like Half-Life or Star Wars embrace creating original titles or spin-offs for it rather than mere ports, its clear VR is here to stay as the next evolution in gaming.
For anyone who loves video games, getting to literally step into your favorite game worlds amplifies enjoyment exponentially whether your tastes lean towards horror, music, competitive or otherwise. It may require some equipment investment depending on your platform of choice. But as hardware prices become more affordable parallel to software libraries expanding, VR gaming has arrived for mainstream appeal even if the market hasn‘t caught up yet comparable to traditional console install bases.
Just make sure to set aside room in your gaming budget to try many of these fantastic virtual reality titles! Your eyes (and your sense of reality) will thank you.
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