Ilysia is an upcoming VR MMO currently in the final days of its Kickstarter campaign. After initially launching with a meager $60,000 target, the team has far exceeded that and is already over double the original asking amount.
As of the time of this writing, Team 21 has just over $125,000 in Kickstarter pledges. Admittedly, if you know much of anything about what it takes to make an MMO, that isn’t very much money. However, the team is small, reportedly very efficient and lean according to themselves, and has clear goals. Time will tell if they can deliver.
We first reported on Ilysia last weekend after I spoke with some of the founding members of the project. Needless to say I’m impressed with what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, so I’m eager to dive in for myself and see how it stacks up.
One of the main things I’ve been most curious about is the gear and equipment system. In games like OrbusVR, which is the first actual MMO in VR, character models are extremely simplistic and all of your gear is managed and seen in a floating flat menu. Same with Skyrim VR without mods and so many other RPGs with VR support.
But in an MMO, especially a VR MMO, I want to be as immersed as possible. Ideally, to really capture that Sword Art Online meets .hack//sign meets Ready Player One vision, we need everything to be interactive and to have gear and equipment visible on a fully-tracked body — not floating hands and torsos.
In some brand new exclusive Ilysia assets provided to us by Team 21, it looks like they’re doing their best to deliver on that front. In the GIF above you’ll see the equipment menu — this is shown to manage what you’re wearing and see what you look like, but once you equip weapons you’ll grab them physically on your body. There are slots for: head, shoulder, chest, arms, legs, hands, feet, rings, neck, back (that means capes! woo!), belt, house key, and mount. Gear will also be tiered based on color, such as: grey (Poor), white (Common), green (Superior), blue (undisclosed tier name), and orange (undisclosed tier name).
There will be one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, ranged weapons, offhand items like books, relics, and totems, and consumable items like food and potions. You can also choose your character’s gender, race, facial preset, hairstyle, and skin tone. All standard fare for the most part.
Here is the belt slot weapon being drawn in-game as an example:
According to the developers you’ll have two hip slots, two back slots, and two belt slots for weapons and items. Additionally, you can see in the featured image at the top of this article every character is wearing full armor with varied styles, donning a multitude of weapon types, and showcasing a diverse set of character styles.
Since it’s a free form class system, it looks like you’ll be able to have a very open-ended progression system, as shown in this menu:
Finally, here are some in-game screenshots that show off the world, various characters in-game, and some battles.
As of now, backers have unlocked 11/14 stretch goals after hitting the $125,000 threshold. This includes full-body VR tracking, mount breeding, a battle royale instance, pet breeding, additional starting zones, and more. Plus, this glorious mount named Handsome Joe’s Prized Pony for all backers:
The remaining stretch goals include a PvP Honor Rewards System ($150,000), Guild XP and Leveling ($200,000), and expanded player-owned Inns / Shops with Skills and XP ($250,000).
What I like about this art style (which I’ve been told is not final and will be improved) is that it reminds me a lot of old-school EverQuest. To me, those are still the glory days of MMOs and the developers claim to be intent on rediscovering that sense of wonder for VR.
Ilysia is slated to eventually release at some point next year on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest with full crossplay between all platforms. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
[Disclosure]: The author of this story, David Jagneaux, pledged to the Ilysia Kickstarter at the $50 ‘Alpha Squire (Early Access – A1) tier. This has not affected his coverage of the game.
Ilysia is an upcoming VR MMO currently in the final days of its Kickstarter campaign. After initially launching with a meager $60,000 target, the team has far exceeded that and is already over double the original asking amount.
As of the time of this writing, Team 21 has just over $125,000 in Kickstarter pledges. Admittedly, if you know much of anything about what it takes to make an MMO, that isn’t very much money. However, the team is small, reportedly very efficient and lean according to themselves, and has clear goals. Time will tell if they can deliver.
We first reported on Ilysia last weekend after I spoke with some of the founding members of the project. Needless to say I’m impressed with what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, so I’m eager to dive in for myself and see how it stacks up.
One of the main things I’ve been most curious about is the gear and equipment system. In games like OrbusVR, which is the first actual MMO in VR, character models are extremely simplistic and all of your gear is managed and seen in a floating flat menu. Same with Skyrim VR without mods and so many other RPGs with VR support.
But in an MMO, especially a VR MMO, I want to be as immersed as possible. Ideally, to really capture that Sword Art Online meets .hack//sign meets Ready Player One vision, we need everything to be interactive and to have gear and equipment visible on a fully-tracked body — not floating hands and torsos.
In some brand new exclusive Ilysia assets provided to us by Team 21, it looks like they’re doing their best to deliver on that front. In the GIF above you’ll see the equipment menu — this is shown to manage what you’re wearing and see what you look like, but once you equip weapons you’ll grab them physically on your body. There are slots for: head, shoulder, chest, arms, legs, hands, feet, rings, neck, back (that means capes! woo!), belt, house key, and mount. Gear will also be tiered based on color, such as: grey (Poor), white (Common), green (Superior), blue (undisclosed tier name), and orange (undisclosed tier name).
There will be one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, ranged weapons, offhand items like books, relics, and totems, and consumable items like food and potions. You can also choose your character’s gender, race, facial preset, hairstyle, and skin tone. All standard fare for the most part.
Here is the belt slot weapon being drawn in-game as an example:
According to the developers you’ll have two hip slots, two back slots, and two belt slots for weapons and items. Additionally, you can see in the featured image at the top of this article every character is wearing full armor with varied styles, donning a multitude of weapon types, and showcasing a diverse set of character styles.
Since it’s a free form class system, it looks like you’ll be able to have a very open-ended progression system, as shown in this menu:
Finally, here are some in-game screenshots that show off the world, various characters in-game, and some battles.
As of now, backers have unlocked 11/14 stretch goals after hitting the $125,000 threshold. This includes full-body VR tracking, mount breeding, a battle royale instance, pet breeding, additional starting zones, and more. Plus, this glorious mount named Handsome Joe’s Prized Pony for all backers:
The remaining stretch goals include a PvP Honor Rewards System ($150,000), Guild XP and Leveling ($200,000), and expanded player-owned Inns / Shops with Skills and XP ($250,000).
What I like about this art style (which I’ve been told is not final and will be improved) is that it reminds me a lot of old-school EverQuest. To me, those are still the glory days of MMOs and the developers claim to be intent on rediscovering that sense of wonder for VR.
Ilysia is slated to eventually release at some point next year on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest with full crossplay between all platforms. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
[Disclosure]: The author of this story, David Jagneaux, pledged to the Ilysia Kickstarter at the $50 ‘Alpha Squire (Early Access – A1) tier. This has not affected his coverage of the game.
Star Wars: Squadrons is finally here and it absolutely delivers. From the incredible set piece moments, excellent new characters, and fantastic VR space combat, this is an adrenaline-fueled blast in the galaxy far, far away that you won’t want to miss. Here’s our Star Wars: Squadrons VR review with all the details!
I don’t typically play space combat games, space sims, flight sims, or any of that sort of stuff. Furthermore, I’ve never played a game with a flight stick for more than just an hour or two to test things out. All of that changed with Star Wars: Squadrons.
From the very first moment I booted it up I played the entire game with a VR headset and flight stick, specifically the Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTAS, and it was so good — so authentic even — I don’t really want to play it any other way. I’ve tried keyboard and mouse and gamepad too, both get the job done and it really feels great with a gamepad for my tastes, but I surprisingly prefer the flight stick or full HOTAS instead. For a game that’s designed for VR and non-VR across PC and consoles with cross-play on everything, this is perhaps the best compliment I can give: it feels madefor VR. And from what we’ve heard, it basically was from the very start.
Star Wars: Squadrons Story Mode
In Star Wars: Squadrons the story shows both perspectives and bounces back and forth between the Galactic Empire and New Republic. The Prologue is split into two parts, introducing both sides, immediately after Alderaan is destroyed during the events of A New Hope. Then it fast-forwards a few years and the rest of the game takes place after Return of the Jedi in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor.
Right at the start of the game you get to customize each of your pilots down to their face, voice, and name. I wasn’t expecting this considering you don’t really see them much, but these are the same avatars you’ll use in multiplayer so getting ownership of your identity across the game for both the Republic and Empire is a great touch.
The entirety of Squadrons takes place from a first-person perspective whether you’re talking to crewmates in the hangar or flying your starfighter during a mission; it’s a big reason why the VR support feels so natural. The only times the camera is not inside of your face are during the cutscenes that take place before and after missions.
For these moments, when the camera is sweeping across your squadron or zooming in on characters while they fly, you see a rectangular letterbox floating in front of you, sort of like the Cinematic Mode on PSVR. It’s absolutely immersion breaking, no doubts about that, and a bit of a bummer, but cutscenes like this are expected in non-VR games so this is a price to pay in order to get VR support out of a AAA project like this. Sacrifices needed to be made and I’d rather have a VR hanger and briefing room than 30 second cutscenes in VR.
The other sticking point about Squadrons’ VR support is that there is zero motion controller functionality here. You have no hand presence in the cockpit at all — it’s just a head tracking only game. Some die hard VR purists will likely be upset about this, but honestly, give me a great flight stick over inaccurate motion controllers that lack realistic resistance and tension any day. You’re sitting still when you play a game like this so all you need is head tracking. It works great, looks great, and most importantly, feels great.
Even if Squadrons was just its Story Mode and practice/training map and that’s it, this would feel like a complete game. My playthrough came in around the 10 hour mark, but it could probably go higher if you played on a high difficulty setting or replayed missions to get more medals. There are four difficulty modes to pick from so there is some replayability, but I imagine most people will spend the majority of their time in multiplayer..
Surprisingly, the cast of new characters is memorable and full of personality for both the Republic and Empire. Between missions there are opportunities to chat with all of them to learn more about their backstories and motivations that helps add a lot of context to how they act. One of the Republic pilots used to race previously and your squad mates poke fun at her for being a show off. Eventually, she teaches you how to drift in an X-Wing and it’s an exhilarating moment reminiscent of scenes with Poe from the new trilogy.
Most of the missions can be boiled down to taking out squadrons of enemy fighters, defending larger ships, eliminating big ships, and escaping or escorting. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this gets repetitive, but the way EA Motive mixes things up, shuffles these pieces around, and introduces one-off set pieces here and there keeps you on your toes. By the time you reach this midpoint of the story in Mission 6 things get pretty interesting with bombing runs in a Y-Wing and a big, bombastic finale that rivals the spectacle of the films themselves. Chase sequences were also some of the best moments and it made me wish for more time trials or flight trials to put my pilot skills to the test.
Star Wars: Squadrons Gameplay And Ships
In a lot of ways this feels like a dream game for Star Wars fans. We’ve gotten dozens of games focused on the Jedi vs Sith with lightsabers and force powers and there have even been a heavy share of ground combat games that require you to know your way around a blaster. But not since the 90s and early 2000s have we gotten a game that was really focused on space combat in the Star Wars universe. Until now.
The industry has made huge strides with technology in recent years and visually it’s hard to find any faults at all with Star Wars: Squadrons. The overall presentation quality is on par with DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Each map has a similar layout — they’re all in space after all — but the planet backdrops are gorgeous to behold and various bits of debris add enough variety here and there.
In VR there have been some performance concerns. For me personally VR mode only worked if the game was windowed, but after a patch it works from Borderless mode as well. I notice some very occasional stuttering on Ultra with an RTX 2060 Super, i5-9600K, and 32GB RAM but it’s not enough to really impact the experience. I’ve heard of others having far more issues with crashes and freeze ups in VR but haven’t experienced that personally.
The hangar is the unexpected highlight of the package due to how immersive it is to chat with crew members and just watch people working in the background. You really get a sense for what the inside of a hangar might truly feel like, almost like waiting in line at a big Disneyland Star Wars ride. And Squadrons features an excellent score that swells in combat appropriately and punctuates every moment with just the right emphasis. And yes, it’s all functional in VR — including the hangar and briefing room, complete with NPC conversations.
Squadrons is a special kind of wish fulfillment in that regard. Every cockpit is painstakingly recreated here with insane attention to detail so that instruments and indicators are all in different places depending on which ship you’re flying. From the wide, open canopy of the X-Wing and A-Wing to the closed tunnel vision of the TIE Fighter, each ship feels and plays dramatically different.
As far as I can tell equipment loadout options are the same or on par across factions, for balance, but the choices you make will change based on the ship. Since the X-Wing has shields maybe you sacrifice a bit of its hull capacity for better acceleration or speed? Perhaps you want to beef up the TIE’s maneuverability even more to go all-in on a zippy ship that’s hard to hit? You can get really creative there.
Star Wars: Squadrons VR Review – Comfort
Since Star Wars: Squadrons is an always first-person VR space combat game, it’s impossible to eliminate all artificial motion. By nature you’re flying a ship in space, banking, turning, and rotating during combat. For some people it’s going to be uncomfortable no matter what, but some ships may be better than others. For example, the TIE Fighter has a very enclosed cockpit so the field of view outside of the cockpit is more limited than the more open X-Wing and A-Wing. Playing with a flight stick also helps to ground you and aid immersion which can combat sickness.
When you’re out of the cockpit you can turn on snap turning instead of smooth turning if you’d like for hangar exploration, or you can just turn your head around instead. Compared to other space combat games I’ve played, it seems quite smooth and comfortable but I don’t typically get sick so it’s hard to say. As long as performance is good, framerate is consistent, and you’re not seeing any major issues it should be okay for most people. No one on staff has been affected by playing. it.
The first three missions of the story after the prologue have you flying X-Wings and A-Wings, so switching back to a TIE Fighter in the next mission after that is a huge shock to the system. Not only do these fast and nimble fighters not have any shields, but they’re far more agile as well. Drifting in a TIE Fighter feels like you’re doing a donut in a street racer and watching the stars swim by as you flip around is extremely exciting.
Even though Squadrons isn’t a space combat simulator game, it’s more of an arcade-style experience, there is still a lot of depth here. For starters, you’ve got to manage your system’s power flow. For Republic, that means engine, lasers, and shields. By flicking the switch on the top of my joystick I can reroute power on the fly to whatever I’m doing at that moment. On top of that, you can designate shields for the front, back, or balanced during combat, boost, drift, and more.
At first it’s a lot to take in; there is a steep learning curve when using a stick essentially for the first time and being in VR, you can’t exactly see the buttons easily, but you eventually get the hang of things. I tried playing with a gamepad a little bit and the learning curve is far less steep. It feels really, really good with a controller in your hands and you don’t lose out on any functionality playing that way. I also tried out keyboard and mouse, but for me, that felt like a huge step backwards in terms of immersion.
After I got a feel for where each button was it all started to feel like second nature. Keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepad, have the same sort of muscle memory that kicks in after a while to a lesser extent, but after trying all three formats the HOTAS is absolutely my favorite way to play, followed by gamepad.
Star Wars: Squadrons Multiplayer
There are two main multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Fleet Battles. You can do a solo Fleet Battle with everyone else filled by AI allies and enemies, or invite friends in for a co-op affair against the AI as well. As far as I’ve seen there is no way to do a solo Dogfight match against AI or to have a co-op Practice flight, but you can spawn squadrons during Practice to sharpen your dogfighting skills.
You don’t even unlock Fleet Battles until your online rank is at least 5, so Dogfight is all you can do at first. There is a ton of map variety ranging from destroyed docking yards, massive relay stations with trenches and debris, or even huge asteroid fields that resemble obstacle courses. Not crashing becomes just as difficult as avoiding enemy fire. There’s even a giant, empty map that’s just a void of space. Keeping up with speedy TIE Fighters there is extremely difficult.
In Fleet Battles though, that’s where Squadrons really comes alive. In this game mode there are two armies with massive flagships anchoring their spot in space. First, the fighters battle it out in a game of tug of war to try and earn enough “morale” to wage an assault. From there, whoever wins the tug of war, takes the fight to the enemy’s two medium-sized capital ships. Once those are down you can attack the opponent’s massive flagship to win the match — but it’s not that simple.
At any time during a Fleet Battle the enemy can win back the morale tug of war and flip to the offensive, forcing you to go on the defensive. Once you’re attacking a flagship, like a Star Destroyer, you can take out its subsystems such as the shields, its power supplies, its turrets, and so on to slowly chip away until it’s destroyed in an epic ball of fire.
There is an in-game tutorial that takes you through all of this against AI, as well as the aforementioned AI enemies only mode you can play solo or with friends.
The biggest problem facing Star Wars: Squadrons though is a question of longevity. Once you finish the campaign all you can do is Dogfighting (Team Deathmatch) and Fleet Battle, that’s it. There are no plans for DLC, no plans for new maps, new ships, or anything like that. The developers have been very clear that Squadrons is sold as-is and will not be a live service game. It’s a great game already, but it could offer so much more had EA been willing to fund an ongoing support cycle. Instead, it’ll never grow beyond what it is right now. Hopefully there is enough interest to generate plans for a sequel that does get ongoing support.
Squadrons also contains a seasonal ranking structure, similar to most AAA online games, complete with ranks, rewards, daily missions, and so on. There are plenty of carrots to keep you moving along and coming back to earn juicy cosmetics since EA has stated there will be no microtransactions at all this time.
Star Wars: Squadrons Review Final Impressions
While I would say that Star Wars: Squadrons has exceeded my already lofty expectations overall, it’s not without its faults. It still manages to out-perform every other VR space combat game I’ve tried across the board for my tastes and offers a ton of nuance in its gameplay and immense entertainment with its full campaign. If you got a chance to try the brief, but magical, X-Wing VR Mission in the first DICE Battlefront game on PS4 with PSVR and wished it could have been made into a full game, then this is exactly that and so much more. Multiplayer is thrilling and extremely fun, but is lacking in options and variety a bit. There were some tiny performance issues and a lack of VR motion controller support, but all that is forgivable.
Minor gripes aside, for fans of Star Wars, fans of arcade-style space combat, and fans of just flat-out immersive VR, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than Star Wars: Squadrons.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines. This review was originally published on October 1st as a review-in-progress and has since been updated and finalized throughout.
Star Wars: Squadrons is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $39.99. VR support is included with PSVR on PS4 and any PC VR headset on PC through Origin, Steam, and the Epic Store. This review was conducted primarily via Link cable on PC with an Origin copy of the game using an Oculus Quest and Quest 2 via Link cable and Virtual Desktop. It was also tested on a Rift S.
Solaris: Offworld Combat, the next VR shooter from Firewall Zero Hour developers First Contact Entertainment, is out now for PSVR, Rift and Quest. Check out our impressions in our Solaris: Offworld Combat review!
Note: This review was originally published on September 26th, 2020. It’s now been updated to include the PSVR version.
Following up on one of the most successful and well-known PSVR games, Firewall Zero Hour, is no small task. Especially when your next game, in this case Solaris, launches first on different headsets (before the recent PSVR homecoming). But for all its differences and unique challenges, I think Solaris is still mostly a worthy follow-up to the breakout PSVR hit.
The big difference here is that Solaris is not a realistic-style tactical military shooter. At all. Whereas Firewall borrows heavy inspiration from the likes of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, Solaris is more like an alternate reality sci-fi version of Quake with its focus on pick-up-and-playability and quick-paced gameplay.
Everything in Solaris is about as streamlined as it can possibly get — for better and (in some small cases) for worse. For example, there are no game modes to pick from, maps to select, playlists to queue for, or anything like that. The main menu literally just says ‘Play’ or asks you to put on the helmet to enter a game. That’s it. From there you’re spawned into a match with seven other people in a 4v4 game to capture control points that move around the map, sort of like Headquarters in Call of Duty. It’s very quick and efficient and, above all else, very fun.
In addition to the four guns (starting pistol, automatic assault rift, grenade launcher, and rocket launcher) there are two equipment items: proximity mine and deployable cover shield. It’s enough gear to add some strategy to encounters, but does feel a bit light overall.
Another example of this streamlined approach is the lack of an inventory, weapon switching, or reloading. You walk over weapons to pick them up and then it auto-switches to that new weapon. You shoot the special weapons until they’re out of ammo and it switches back to your starting pistol. No reloading ever required. In this way the “weapons” actually function a bit more like upgrades since they’re temporary. It adds intensity because you can visibly see when others pick up the weapons and creates competition to see who can get them first.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Review – Quest vs Rift
Solaris: Offworld Combat is out on both Quest and Rift with cross-buy and cross-play support. So even if you only have one headset, you’re playing against and with people on both platforms at all times. Visually it’s extremely similar. So similar in fact, that other than a few particle effects and lighting enhancements you can barely tell the difference. Gameplay is functionally identical. The only difference I’ve ever really spotted from a performance level is at the start of a match on Quest, before you’re ever in combat, there is a little bit of jitter and stutter as things are initializing, but once you’re in the game and actively playing, that all goes away. Refer to the video below for a side-by-side comparison.
However, not all of the streamlining they’ve done is for the better. One great example of this is weapon handling. In Solaris, you literally cannot control your left hand at all. Every weapon in the game is essentially one-handed just like the pistol, which is fine in and of itself, Half-Life: Alyx did this as well, but in Solaris your left hand isn’t tracked at all. If you reach out with your left controller it doesn’t do anything, you’re only using it as a thumbstick to move around.
The issue with this is twofold: a lack of presence and immersion, but also a lack of gameplay opportunity. In games like Onward your left hand is equal to the right hand, you could pull your pistol with the left hand, cradle the gun on your left shoulder and even pull the trigger left-handed if you wanted to. But in Solaris your left hand is basically the left half of an Xbox controller in your hand without tracking.
All that being said — you will forget about it. While playing I tended to rest my right controller on top of my left controller to steady the aim regardless of weapon so it generally felt like I was using both hands in-game even though I wasn’t. I genuinely stopped noticing or caring about it during the heat of battle.
Solaris: Offworld CombatReview – Comfort Settings
Solaris: Offworld Combat should be avoided if you require teleportation movement to enjoy VR because smooth, direct locomotion is the only option. That being said, there are some settings you can tweak to make it more comfortable if you’re not extra sensitive. In the main menu options you can switch between smooth and snap turning or turn on/off the FOV vignette for turning and sprinting.
Another odd limitation is the restricted physical crouching. I know the Quest and Rift S are capable of accurately tracking me as I lay down on the ground, or even roll around, because I’ve done it in games like Rec Room and Onward, but there are invisible barriers in Solaris that only let you go down as low as the crouch button animates.
Probably more than any other shooter I’ve played in VR, Solaris is the most seamless to play. It’s pure entertainment that just works. You never have to fuss around with anything feeling wonky or off because all the things that usually cause those issues in VR just aren’t here. On the surface things can see simplistic, but in the moment they absolutely are there to ensure the game is as fluid and playable as possible from top to bottom.
Solaris: Offworld Combat Review Final Impressions
Solaris: Offworld Combat is more than just the sum of its parts. While it’s easy to nitpick some of the decisions made, like your left hand not really being tracked in the game or the lack of a party/friend system at all for launch, the fact of the matter is that it’s still just incredibly fun to play. Visually it looks great on both Rift and Quest and the gameplay has that quick and seamless feel of Quake mixed with a slick Tron-style aesthetic. Despite the issues, Solaris is easily the most accessible and streamlined VR shooter I’ve played in recent memory and scratches the arena shooter itch I’d forgotten I had.
Solaris: Offworld Combat is out now on Rift and for Quest with cross-buy and cross-play functionality across both platforms. This review was conducted using both versions of the game, but most time was spent in the Quest version. A PSVR version also release today, May 18th. For more on how we arrived at this score, check out our review guidelines.
After months of searching for a regularly-priced Oculus Quest, I was finally able to purchase one recently. The Oculus Quest tutorial wowed me, Beat Saber convinced me of VR gaming’s unrivaled fun, and then Half-Life: Alyx made me a true believer.
[UploadVR regularly commissions freelance writers to review products, write stories, and contribute op-ed pieces to the site. This article is an op-ed from a new VR user that just recently got a headset.]
Even as a newly converted user, I absolutely recommend buying a VR headset even if you’re not a gamer. Over the past several months, my wife and I have been sheltering in place, having our groceries and meals delivered, and growing increasingly bored at home due to the COVID-19 coronavirus global pandemic . The Quest offers us a chance to escape our one-bedroom apartment, while simultaneously bringing us closer together. She likes to demolish every single one of my Beat Saber scores and I like to routinely ask, “Did you see that?” when playing Half-Life: Alyx. She never does, but I tell her about it after anyway.
We’re both gamers with a handful of consoles, so we’re not new to video games, but we were not prepared for how VR felt. No amount of YouTube reviews could really put into words how real VR gaming feels, and how fun it can be. Super Mario 64 was the first game I ever played, and putting on the Quest headset is the closest I’ve ever come to that moment of pure wonder again from 20 years ago. After many consoles and games played, it was the first time something felt genuinely new and unique, with ostensibly infinite possibilities.
VR Gaming Has a High Barrier of Entry
While I do recommend having a VR headset, many barriers may turn people away. For one, VR headsets are expensive, and many of the high-end VR headsets require constant connection to an expensive gaming PC. It’s also tough to find one right now because, now that we’re all inside, everyone wants one. Having a headset also requires a decent-size room to fully appreciate it, which means many will have to rearrange their living spaces just to play VR games.
With the world seemingly at a standstill in many regards, it’s a great time to hop into VR gaming, so long as you have money, space, and are lucky enough to find one available for purchase. If the stars align for you, as they did for me, you’ll know that VR is not just a video game console but a window into many worlds.
Why I Finally Decided to Buy a VR Headset
I had wanted a VR headset ever since the first Oculus Rift hit the market, but I was in college and didn’t have the money for the headset or the computer to run it. I considered buying a headset again when the PlayStation VR launched. Both my wife and I demoed the PSVR at a Best Buy, but my wife felt sick after trying Batman: Arkham VR. It was also too expensive, and there wasn’t yet a game I was dying to play.
Our perceptions of VR changed during the winter last year after we played Beat Saber at an arcade. The arcade had a VR area with four HTC Vive headsets and charged ~$7 per person to use. Afterward, my wife and I couldn’t stop talking about the experience. We had no idea that VR had gotten that good so fast, and we talked about buying one, but the prices were still too much. We didn’t know about the Oculus Quest yet.
After my wife saw YouTuber Naysy flawlessly execute Doja Cat’s Say So on Beat Saber, she asked me to look into VR headsets again. At the same time, I couldn’t escape media coverage of the new VR-only Half-Life entry. That’s when I learned that the Quest could connect to the PC to play high-end VR games. I was sold. But even after we reluctantly agreed to spend the money, finding the headset proved to be a nightmare. At one point, we briefly considered buying from a reseller and paying $200 above the standard $400 price tag. We waited, instead, impatiently, and got one at its standard retail price.
Gaming On The Oculus Quest
Once our Quest finally arrived I must have spent 30 minutes just messing around in the tutorial area. There were rockets, a ping pong ball and paddle, a blimp, and a retro console that could be loaded with other experiences via cartridges. Just using the grasp button to pick something up was unbelievable. I can’t think of a better way to introduce VR to a newbie, so kudos to Oculus for pulling off the best, most fun tutorial I’ve ever played — game devs, please take note.
The first game I purchased was, of course, Beat Saber. The “killer app.” VR’s neon-glowing, Tron-inspired savior. I think I’m probably the worst Beat Saber player ever to wield the sabers, but damn is it fun. When you get in a rhythm and start slicing cubes, you feel unstoppable. The very rhythm of the universe flows through you in a way that Guitar Hero could never accomplish. I know I probably look like a giant dork wildly swinging my arms, but I like it, and it pushes me to stay active at a time when going outside is precarious.
My wife, on the other hand, is a prodigy. The Quest has a screen sharing feature that streams the gameplay to a nearby Chromecast, so I’ve seen her play. Excuse me, I’ve seen her slay. The sabers are surgical and unyielding in her hands, and she maintains her poise. She dances softly to the music while halving cubes at speeds at which my limbs simply cannot compute. When it comes to Superhot VR, however, that’s where I shine.
I’m sure everything has been said about those two games, but there’s a reason they’re so beloved. Not only do they perform well on the wireless Quest, but they both also have addicting gameplay loops with simple mechanics that become increasingly complex. Dodging one bullet in Superhot VR is easy, but dodging five bullets while another two enemies approach with knives is a whole other ball game. I’m convinced that Superhot VR is actually a workout game, to which I say, “well done, you made me do 100 squats and had me asking for more.” I could go on about both games, but words alone cannot do them justice — you must try for yourself.
I’ve only owned the Quest for a few weeks so far, and I’ve already bought four games. My wishlist so far is about a dozen games and growing every day. With so many good games on the Oculus store, I’m glad we splurged on the 128GB version. It’s incredible how many games are available on a headset that runs on a souped-up smartphone processor.
Oculus Quest Demos and Experiences
I’m also glad that there are several demos of popular games out of the box, allowing users to try before they buy. The demos are also perfect for showing a newcomer the ropes, which is hard to do when someone is wearing a headset. Unlike traditional gaming, you can’t just point at a screen and shout “there!”
I tried a demo for Space Pirate Trainer and liked its arcade shoot-em-up mechanics so much that I bought it. I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t have a chance to play it. Game trailers, as good as they may be, still don’t come close to experiencing the gameplay first-hand for a VR app.
Though the Quest is primarily a video game console, it also does non-gaming experiences just as well. The Oculus store offers plenty, such as National Geographic’s Explore VR, which lets users snap photos of famous locations from around the world. When not playing, I find the Quest’s lobby to be calming, and there are different background options available for download. My current pick is a space station with beautiful views of stars far away.
The Quest’s Oculus TV app has a ton of VR video content, and it’s also possible to download YouTube, Netflix, and other video apps. I spent a few hours watching Netflix on the Quest from a simulated living room located on top of a mountain resort. The non-game experiences are not the main draw, but they’re fun, especially when you can’t go outside. I stood on the shore of a German lake last week without having to board a flight.
Notes On VR Safety
When it comes to keeping players safe, the Quest has a few great and non-intrusive features. The Guardian System is a feature that passively alerts players when they’re near the boundary. The room-scale guardian can be set manually via the controller, and it remembers the boundary perfectly every time. There’s also the option to set up a stationary Guardian when playing in tight spaces. Getting close to the boundaries triggers a grid wall with lines that transition from blue to red as users get closer.
Passthrough is another safety feature that activates in two different ways. Completely leaving the area triggers Passthrough, and so does double-tapping on either side of the headset. Passthrough lets users view their real-world surroundings, albeit with a black and white filter, so they don’t need to remove their headset to see the real world.
Oculus Quest Upgrades
I’ve made a few upgrades to the Quest to corrects some of the system’s flaws, but it hasn’t set me back too much. I purchased a silicone cover from VR Cover that sits on top of the padding to prevent sweat and bacteria from accumulating on the foam. The silicone cover, apart from making it easier to wipe away sweat and dirt, also helps the headset stay put thanks to the inherent grippiness of the material.
I also got some controller grips that are more similar to the Valve Index controllers for better handling. The straps fasten to the back of your hand, making it easier to grip the controllers. And the grips also come with wrist straps as an added layer of protection.
And to fix the just okay battery life, I’m planning on attaching a power bank to the headset later. There are other accessories and upgrades out there, such as prescription lenses that attach to the Quest lenses, so you can pimp your Quest as much as you want.
Troubleshooting Oculus Link
I did have trouble setting up the Oculus Link software, which lets you play PC VR games on your Quest via USB cable, but I managed to fix it finally. It used to be that users had to buy Oculus’ USB-C 3.0 Link cable, which costs $80, or a third-party equivalent. The included USB-C 2.0 charging cable, though similar in appearance, did not work for the Oculus Link because of its data transfer limitations. But Oculus somehow fixed the issue, allowing users to connect their headset with the included charging cable. That didn’t work for me.
I think my computer wasn’t outputting enough power to the Quest, so it kept disconnecting. I read a few threads on Reddit, and I bought a 10-foot USB-C 3.0 cable, in case that was the issue, and a powered USB hub. That seemed to fix the issue, and I’ve been able to play Half-Life: Alyx for hours at a time.
It hasn’t been perfect, though, as my computer has been crashing at random moments. At this point, I don’t believe it’s a headset issue, so it must be a software issue. I have a decent gaming PC, which gives me the chance to experience some of the best games not available on the Quest, but Oculus Link has a ways to go. I’m giving the software the benefit of the doubt because it’s only been out for a year or so, but I do hope it improves soon.
A Quest You Won’t Regret
I can’t speak to the quality of other VR headsets, but I can say that the Quest is an amazing introduction to the medium and invites a larger audience to participate. Sure, the content running natively on Quest doesn’t look as great as content on other headsets tethered to a PC, but it runs games like Beat Saber, Superhot VR, and Pistol Whip with little to no hiccups.
Overall, the Quest condenses the VR gaming experience into a device that is not too heavy, not too expensive, and not too needy in terms of space, while delivering top-notch gameplay on the go. And at a time when we’re all supposed to stay inside, having the Quest has been therapeutic. A VR headset will never compare to the outside world, but I am able to, at least for a few hours, travel to different worlds and go beyond these four walls.
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Would you wear the same pair of underwear multiple months in a row, sitting in the flaked remains of your dried sweat and bodily detritus which has justifiably ejected itself from your filthy human body? Don’t answer that! Whatever your personal hygiene regime, your VR headset is probably a hotbed of disease and petulance. And it must be cleansed.
All joking aside, it’s pretty impractical to completely sterilize your headset—no matter how germaphobic you may find yourself these days—but you can still get peace of mind with a thorough cleaning and a few preventative measures to make the process easier next time around.
The Enemies
Macrogunk – the things you can see or feel, such as oily secretions called sebum, salt from evaporated sweat, hair, dead skin cells, makeup, dust, etc. These have a good chance of working their way into every crevice, but you’ll most likely find them ground into the facial interface foam, nose guard, on the lenses and the interior area around them.
Micro gunk – the things you can’t see or feel, including pathogens like viruses, bacteria, protozoan, or fungus. Micro gunk absolutely loves macro gunk, so keeping a headset clean helps reduce growth & transfer of your face garbage from one person to another. It’s also good habit no matter what’s going on outside, pandemic or otherwise.
How to Clean Your VR Headset
Protip: keep it in a glass case and you’ll never have to clean it!
You can clean a headset by wiping it down to remove the macro gunk and mostly go about your life unphased, provided you’re making sure to keep good hand hygiene, i.e. washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, using hand sanitizer, and making sure not to touch your face. Sanitizing after a suspected encounter with an unwanted pathogen is a different story, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Headset manufacturers have their own cleaning guidelines, however there are some general tips you should consider:
Don’t
Don’t use harsh abrasives or solvents such as alcohol, acetone, etc. These can damage glue holding fabrics together and many types of plastics, leaving a frosted, ugly residue that you really don’t want, especially on your lenses.
Don’t use household cleaners like Clorox wipes. It may be tempting since they’re readily available, and most polymers shouldn’t react with non-bleach Clorox wipes, but you don’t want the wipes’ chemical irritants anywhere near your eyes, breathing pathway, skin etc. Using Clorox wipes on hard plastics like the headset’s outer surface and controllers is probably totally fine, but keep them away from the facial interface, lenses, and nose guard.
This one’s controversial, but don’t use compressed air. Not only could you risk blowing more garbage into the inside recesses of your headset than you actually intended to remove, but the fluorocarbon-based propellant inside the can may damage plastics if they spurt out accidentally in their liquid form.
Do
Use a lint-free cloth to do the lion’s share of the work, both inside and out. Remember: lenses can scratch easily, and should only really be cleaned with the included microfiber cloth or a lint free cloth, cleaning in gently expanding circles.
Use nonabrasive antibacterial wipes on everything but the lenses. Great for cleaning all styles of gunk.
Take off removable parts and clean separately. If you can comfortably remove a part from your headset, like a facial interface, nose guard, or light blocking guard, it may help to remove these pieces so you can get into all the crevasses, both on the part itself and where the part snaps in.
Take preventive measures such as buying a VR cover for your facial interface, or an entirely new facial interface with an easy-to-clean surface like PU leather (aka pleather). Manufacturers almost universally sell VR headsets with spongy foam facial interfaces that soak up sweat and grime, so this is a great way of keeping your headset clean in the long run. You’ll find a load of them on Amazon, eBay, and from specialized vendors such as VR Cover.
Quest needs UV-C death rays, not hand tracking – Image courtesy Oculus
There are a few ways to mostly sterilize your headset, but you may be better off focusing on keeping it generally clean unless you suspect it’s been exposed to a nasty pathogen. While we’d rather point you to the WHO or the CDC for advice on something so dire, here’s a few tips to consider in addition to your own research:
Alcohol-free Antibacterial wipes: Non-alcohol based antibacterial wipes are perfect for cleaning facial interfaces, both foam and less porous surfaces like PU leather, and there are actually some on the market specifically designed for the task. VR Cover sells alcohol-free, hypoallergenic and unscented wipes just for the job. These include hydrogenated castor oil however, which may leave some residue on lenses.
Ultraviolet Light: The nuclear option. Short of baking your VR headset in an oven (don’t do that), you can sanitize pretty much anything with UV radiation, namely UV-C radiation. UV-C light destroys the molecular bonds that hold together the DNA of viruses and bacteria in a matter of minutes, and is used in hospital settings for that purpose, as well as in nail curing boxes to quickly dry nail polish. You can pay up to $200 for a UV-C box from manufacturers like PhoneSoap, which offer a box big enough to fit a VR headset, or you can make one yourself. This UV-C Shoebox Instructable shows the basics of how to go low-tech with a UV-C light, cardboard, and some aluminium foil. Like with ordinary sun rays, it’s probably best to cover the lenses if you go this route because of possible damage to the displays. Never look directly at a UV-C light either. Eyeballs are important.
Quarantine your headset: Maybe you lent your headset to a friend who has a virus, cold, whatever. One of the lowest tech solutions is to simply put down the headset and leave it be. According to a study from the Nation Institutes of Health (NIH), the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been observed live up to four hours on copper, up to a day on cardboard, and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel. Don’t burn it with fire, or smoother it with hand sanitizer. Follow the steps above, and maybe take a rest from VR for a little while if you think your sick little cousin coughed inside it.
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Having gone to tradeshows for the past five years and undergoing hundreds of VR demos from headset manufacturers such as Oculus, HTC, Pimax, Google, and more, I can say that I’ve personally seen staff use isopropyl alcohol wipes for quick and easy sanitation. I hesitate to offer that advice to anyone with a headset for personal use, simply because these companies are prioritizing user safety over device longevity. Whatever the case, make sure to check your manufacturer’s guidelines so you don’t void your warranty.
When Boneworks (read our full review) released late last year from Stress Level Zero it led the charge in redefining how we interact with virtual objects in digital space. We took some time to speak with Brandon Laatsch from Stress Level Zero about the game’s innovations and successes.
By all accounts, Boneworks seems to have single-handedly ushered in a new era of interaction in VR games. For the next year or two I’d imagine we’ll often discuss types of interaction systems in terms of “pre” and “post” Boneworks. Or in other words, Stress Level Zero did some really impressive and immersive things with the way the game handles physics.
In most VR games before Boneworks when you reach out to touch something your virtual hand passes through it or becomes a silhouette of some kind to indicate you can’t do that. If you try to push open a door it doesn’t work unless you grab the door knob. If you want to shove an enemy you need to grapple them in the right spots and if you want to hit something hopefully you’ve found the right item and swing at something that’s assigned as having collision properties.
“After Duck Season we had a lot of ideas for what we could do that we felt would be much more mainstream and really push the medium forward, especially physics interaction in VR,” says Laatsch. “We had a lot of ideas from making YouTube videos [with Node] and seeing what people are responding to. Viral marketing is what sells games. What’s gonna sell new technology to people is seeing what their peers and people they relate to are playing and what they think of things. So we’re like, well, it’s very important to consider presentation inside the headset, as well as presentation outside of the headset.”
That’s on display immediately in Boneworks. When you pick up something that’s clearly heavy, like a metal barrel or a two-handed sledgehammer, you have to treat it as such. An early sign posted during the tutorial segment instructs you to pretend you’re lifting something in real life even though there’s not actually anything in your hands. Mime it, if you will.
That not only tricks your brain into moving accurately, but also makes it more entertaining and believable to watch for a viewer — which is crucial not just for selling VR to a consumer, but demonstrating it to friends too.
“We went after the genre of a physics action adventure FPS because it has a long tradition in the game industry of being a strong performer,” says Laatsch. “It’s what Sony goes after for a lot of their big tent pole releases.
“So we wanted to go after that and beyond and really tried to take a stab at being what we think action-adventures genre could become in VR, like, what does VR enable and that’s where the marriage of physics came in. Physics for a game can only go so far with a keyboard and mouse, you know. Following the launch of Half-Life 2 in 2004, you would say, ‘Oh, wow, the keyboard and mouse is really spectacular for physics input!’ But since then, in over 15 years, not a ton of expansion on physics has happened. You can list off some, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild, you have Red Faction, a handful of fitness games that have risen to the top, there’s Bioshock, There’s a handful of them, and then in terms of game design, a lot of that stuff somewhat stagnated over the last few years.”
If you draw a line charting the changes in how players interact with digital worlds using keyboards and gamepads since Half-Life 2, that line doesn’t have many fluctuations in it other than the titles Laatsch cites specifically.
Imagine playing a game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (VR or otherwise) with an actual physics-simulated world rather than just a bunch of geometry you walk across and pick up a few items in. Bethesda does a great job of selling illusions, but when you craft a world full of physical interactions the illusion starts to become reality, at least virtually.
“Then we looked at VR input devices, like we have this three 6-DOF tracked devices between the headset and controllers and they’re very accurately tracked,” says Laatsch. This is the input we’ve been waiting for to be able to push things further, right? To push to beyond what’s out there in traditional gaming. And the nice thing too is because it’s your actual body, there are real world limitations to how fast those tracked devices can move. It’s not like the flick of a mouse where you can send your character spinning in a circle super rapidly because in the real world you can only move your hands so fast and you can only accelerate your hands so fast or whip your head so fast. Like there’s actual real world constraints which are tied to your own anatomy, right?”
This is where the miming of actions becomes even more important. In a lot of video games your character learns new abilities and can suddenly swing weapons faster, hit harder, and do unnatural maneuvers that defy the laws of physics. But to instead flip things around and use the laws of physics as the basis for your gameplay puts added stress on your actual body. What looks cool and feels cool are often very different things in VR.
“So we figured this is ultimately where physics can take the next step. Boneworks is not saying, ‘Here’s a complete exploration of what can be done with physics in VR’ though, like no, we think of it as this is the beginning of it.
“And it’s our job and everybody else’s job, hopefully, to now try to go and, as much as I hate to say it, make Boneworks age poorly. Like, we want to look back in 10 years and say, ‘Dang! It was awesome for the first time, but it’s unplayable now!’ That just means that we’ve done a great job here and now.”
“We had to figure out what a longer form VR gameplay session looks like,” says Laatsch. “Like, how fast can you move and how quickly can you do things? Eventually playing just gets way too tiring for long sessions. We had that experience and compared to something like Sprint Vector, where it’s like, everyone only has a few good a few races in them where they’re trying their hardest before they get too tired…In that case, it’s a race. It’s supposed to be exertion. But looking at the action-adventure genre and looking at how we can encourage people to play for an hour-long session or two-hour long session or, you know, whatever…To try to stand, you know, try to be on your feet all day is like a very full day at work, and you come home, then you’re exhausted.”
As someone that often binges VR games to get through them for reviews, I can personally confirm how exhausting many of them tend to be. But as the medium continues to evolve and grow, making room for more physical games (without leaving behind less intensive experiences) is important for innovation.
“Design-wise we wanted to make something, reckoning back to what I was saying earlier about reading well to the 2D viewer as well as to the in-headset viewer,” says Laatsch.
“Ultimately, where does it go? It seems like VR is, you know, we’re getting to a great point in terms of the amount of installed hardware on the PC side of people having CPUs and GPUs powerful enough to buy it. They’re just a headset away and we’re seeing the headset conversion starting to really ramp up with a good assortment of quality headsets out there for them to buy.”
So you’ve got your greasy mitts on a Meta Quest 2, and you’re wondering what to buy after you’ve exhausted all of the best free games and experiences available on the standalone headset. Whether you’re into active games, puzzles, or just want to slice or shoot the ever-living crap out of something, we’re here to help you settle into your new headset with a few games that should keep you playing for hundreds of hours yet to come.
Note: This list includes only native Quest games. Don’t forget that you can also play PC games with either Oculus Link or Air Link and a VR-ready PC. Find out if your PC is ready for Link.
This list below is a great starting point if you’re looking to burn pretty close to a single Benjamin, although you should definitely check out our list of the best and most rated Meta Quest games now available, which also includes prices to help you whittle away your hard-earned cash.
Each genre section breaks down pretty close to $100 bucks, which includes games to get your heart pumping, shooter fans, puzzle nerds, fantasy swordplay geeks, and much more.
Multiplayer Shooting Madness
After the Fall – $40
After the Fall is basically Valve’s Left 4 Dead in VR. This four-player co-op shooter pits you against hordes of zombies across a handful of linear levels, all of which are characteristically dotted with safehouses. Zombies aren’t very intimidating as individuals, but when the masses start streaming in from every corner, you’ll be glad you have a good team to back you up and the gun you grinded for with the points you picked up from—you guessed it—shooting zombies.
Population One is VR’s very own battle royale, letting you team up in 24-player matches so you can climb, glide, run, and scrounge your way to victory. You’ll be battling against teams of hardcore players in this heavily populated, cross-platform shooter, so make sure to pick your squad wisely.
The Quest version of Onward was widely maligned for bringing down the PC VR experience when it went cross-platform, but it’s still one of the best mil-sims on Quest. This online mil-sim shooter is filled with hardcore users thanks to its realism, which means you’ll need to use all of the sort of military tactics to win against the other team. Communicate clearly, make sure you’re not running ahead of the pack Leroy Jenkins-style, and get good at shooting.
We loved 2019 for its bounty of VR games and emphasis on new hardware, but 2020 is looking to bring a host of big budget titles and polished indies alike that should not only keep us all happily strapped into the headset, but attract a steady flow of new users to VR in the process too.
Here, we take a look at our top anticipated VR titles coming to the full gamut of platforms out there, which includes SteamVR headsets (Rift, Vive, Windows MR, Valve Index, etc), Oculus Quest, and PSVR.
Note: PlayStation 5 is set to arrive for holiday season 2020, which ought to arrive with a bevy of new games for the backwards compatible PSVR. Sony hasn’t announced the second iteration of PSVR yet, so we’re hoping to learn more about awesome PSVR platform games soon.
Studio description: Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series. It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival.
Studio description:Don the PlayStation VR headset to suit up as the Armored Avenger in an original Iron Man adventure! Using two PlayStation Move motion controllers fire up Iron Man’s Repulsor Jets and blast into the skies with an arsenal of iconic Iron Man weapons at your fingertips. Face off against Iron Man’s greatest foes in high stakes, action-packed battles. Upgrade tech in Tony Stark’s garage to customize Iron Man’s sleek suit and awesome abilities.
Studio description: Explore the remains of a civilization ground to a halt in an alternate 1980s, craft a range of ranged and melee weapons, and wield devastating powers with real-life movements. Go solo or join up with players worldwide as you face relentless hordes and colossal bosses in a bid to take back the city.
Studio description: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your tactical kayak, utilise military weapons and equipment to evade and neutralise the enemy threat. Engage your targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows: it’s your mission to execute your way. Phantom: Covert Ops is stealth action redefined.
Studio description: Jack and Liv are back in Lone Echo II. Return to the rings of Saturn in this highly-anticipated sequel, to unravel the mysteries of Lone Echo and journey deeper into space – past the very boundaries of time itself.
Studio description: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an action-packed and incredibly immersive VR experience set in World War II, where you step into the boots of an agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in war torn Europe. A deep single-player campaign takes you through historic events on land, air, and sea, sabotaging Nazi bases, subverting enemy plans, aiding the French Resistance, and much, much more.
Studio description: You’re the sheriff of cityblock 303, a retro-futuristic cyberpunk slum where the only inhabitants of note are other “low-fi”. Humans too poor to jack into the platform, and rusting old robots that didn’t achieve the intelligence singularity. What you do with your time is up to you. Are you a good cop, hotshot?
Studio description: Vertigo 2 is a single-player VR adventure. Explore the depths of the vast Quantum Reactor as you descend to finish your journey home.
Studio description: A dedicated VR stealth-action experience from the makers of Battlezone and the BAFTA-nominated Sniper Elite 4, in partnership with Just Add Water. Fight for the Italian Resistance in a daring mission to rid World War 2 Sicily of the Nazi U-boat menace.
Description: Solaris: Offworld Combat is a multiplayer team shooter developed by First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind Firewall Zero Hour (2018). The studio is still extremely tight-lipped, having only revealed the trailer above.
Studio description: Firmament is a resplendent fantastic steampunk journey — a monumental voyage through diverse and curious realms with the ever-present assistance of a helpful clockwork adjunct, and the deep and moving instruction and emotional chronicles of an ethereal mentor.
Studio description: Saints & Sinners is a game unlike any other in The Walking Dead universe. Every challenge you face and decision you make is driven by YOU. Fight the undead, scavenge through the flooded ruins of New Orleans, and face gut-wrenching choices for you and the other survivors. Live The Walking Dead.
Studio description: Fight your fears head-on in The Walking Dead Onslaught, the official VR game of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Experience an all-new exclusive TWD story, defend yourself with real-motion melee and ranged combat, and confront both the horrors and humanity of the apocalypse.
Description: Population: One is an upcoming battle royale shooter from the studio behind VR indie hit Smashbox Arena (2016). Although it may be late to the table, as its been delayed from its original early 2019 launch window to a vague ‘2020’ release date, we’re still looking forward to what promises to be a capable, clever, and solid battle royale shooter in VR.
Studio description:Paper Beast is a playful exploration game set in a colorful ecosystem born out of big data. Undertake a virtual journey of discovery through an immersive and poetic gameplay experience.
Have me missed anything important to you? Let us known in the comment section below!
Every year is the biggest year for virtual reality. It seems more developers are delving into VR to explore the medium, hone their techniques and find out what works and what doesn’t. Virtual reality fans walk a similar path; every achievement in this burgeoning medium sets a new bar, and a new expectation of something greater as a result.
Now, a little under four years since the big names in hardware released their first generation consumer headsets, we live in a time when a number of VR games have actually approached the best that any gaming platform has to offer. And although this next decade is slated to include big titles from established studios, next-gen hardware built by the biggest in manufacturing, and experiences that teeter on complete photorealism, it’s these formative steps that are defining what’s fun, meaningful, and technically possible.
In our third annual Game of the Year Awards, we again celebrate those VR games—those stories that can only be told through the act of suspending your disbelief and immersing yourself in another world, head-first.
Without further ado, Road to VR’s 2019 Game of the Year Award winners:
Sanzaru Games and Oculus Studios brought Asgard’s Wrath to life as a part of the Oculus initiative to fund less, but bigger titles for the Rift platform. And outside of some PC-to-VR ports, it doesn’t get bigger than this melee-focused action RPG, which puts you squarely in a world that’s surprisingly alive, and boasts a depth in gameplay and visuals that make it truly something to behold. There’s little filler in the 30+ hour adventure, but even if you go for the meatiest bits, you’re looking at very least a hearty helping of gameplay that should last you well into the double digits.
While this Norse-inspired adventure doesn’t occupy an open world, it feels impressively large in scope as you traverse the game’s many layers, including moments when you need to either be god-sized or mortal-sized to solve puzzles and engage in epic combat, and when you have to control your chimeric animal pals to act as both keys to specific puzzles or order around as essential combat partners.
The game’s gestural-based combat takes some time to massage into muscle memory, but once you get down the basic moves of parrying, blocking, and countering, the game really starts to take flight. And when you begin matching those moves with more difficult enemies, many of which have their own combat styles, you’ll quickly learn that Asgard’s Wrath demands nothing short of precision (i.e. no wildly waggling your controller).
How much you like the puzzles or combat is basically subjective, but one thing that’s positively undeniable is the game’s visual finesse. Although object interaction wasn’t notable, Sanzaru expertly showcases its attention to detail as one of the key pillars of immersion. Textures, character animations, level design, all of these things are impressively realized, making it one of those games that begs for your attention long after you complete its twisty-turny story.
Wary of other rhythm games in the wake of Beat Saber (2018) hype? You shouldn’t be, as Cloudhead Games thrusts into the genre with its addictive and mightily impressive title Pistol Whip.
Pistol Whip successfully marries rhythm and shooting, and gets mega style points in the process, as it draws on things like the John Wick film series and Equilibrium (2002) for inspiration. You might also describe it as a fun mashup between Superhot VR (2017), Beat Saber, and Smash Hit (2015).
Like any good arcade game, cognitive load is high in Pistol Whip. You’re tasked with returning fire and dodging incoming bullets from scores of enemies—approaching the sort of flow state you achieve in a bullet hell game, except you’re using your whole upper body to physically flow to the beat. Its bass-heavy music goes particularly well with the punchy tones of your gunshots.
The more you fire on-beat, the more points you get, forcing you to not only shoot accurately, but to feel the music and really immerse yourself in the cool, stylized world. The song library is still a little on the low side, but it doesn’t stop the game’s replayability from being both extremely high and ultimately super satisfying.
PlayStation London Studio heard loud and clear from players of PlayStation VR Worlds (2016), the studio’s PSVR launch title, that VR needed more of the narrative-driven action teased by the ‘London Heist’ mini-game. And in Blood & Truth, the studio delivered, full stop.
Blood & Truth is the fully fleshed out vision that ‘London Heist’ deserved. Set in the midst of two warring crime families, the game takes players on an action-packed journey with strong gun and shooting mechanics, richly detailed environments, and action set pieces made to make you feel like you’re the star of your own action movie. With a smart approach to locomotion (which lets players focus on the fun) and thoughtful details (like the ability to twirl pistols around your finger for extra flair) the game manages to hit a consistently satisfying note throughout.
We also really enjoyed the scene where the player sneaks into a modern art museum, which London Studio used as a genius way to pepper the game with some rather unique VR moments that otherwise would have lacked context.
Blood & Truth is an impressively crafted experience that is not only expertly designed around the limitations of the aging PSVR, but even manages to raise the technical bar for character rendering and performances on any VR platform even against much more powerful PC hardware.
Note: VR games which were available on other VR platforms in previous years were not considered for our Quest Game of the Year award.
From the earliest days of VR you can people talking about how cool it would be to wield a lightsaber. And as VR matured over the years that talk slowly moved toward wanting a full-blown VR game in the Star War universe. There were teases… oh there were teases. ILMxLab itself put out the 10 minute Trials on Tatooine back in 2016, but it only made one thing clear: this wasn’t enough.
That project, along with other pioneering VR work by ILMxLab, like Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The VOID, finally culminated in Star Wars: Vader Immortal – Episode I, the first of a three-part narrative adventure on Oculus Quest.
Not only is Vader Immortal – Episode I (and the two following episodes) likely the most successful fusion to date of consumer VR and one of the worlds biggest media franchises, it’s also a stunning proof that you don’t need high-end computing power for an engaging and immersive experience.
For players taking their first steps into VR with Quest, Vader Immortal – Episode I is an ideal opening act that strikes a great balance between narrative and gameplay. Though this singular episode doesn’t run very long, it takes players on a thoughtfully crafted journey that sells the feeling of actually being part of the Star Wars story.
And for the more hardcore gamers that can’t quite get enough Vader Immortal – Episode I‘s ‘lightsaber dojo’ offers up wave-based combat which is challenging and engaging enough to easily triple the time spend in the campaign portion of the game. And as the first part of a trilogy, Episode II & Episode III are already available for players to continue the story.
Five Nights at Freddy’s took the Internet by storm back in 2014 with its memorable jump scares and bizarre re-imagining of the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant/arcade attraction. Now, Steel Wool Studios has rebuilt the game from the ground-up as a Freddy Fazbear-brand VR experience, which includes a number of minigames in addition to the good ol’ classic task of evading the deadly animatronics from your curiously unsafe control room.
Object interaction is well designed in Five Nights at Freddy’s VR, which helps ground you in the world, and it’s really well polished on the graphical side as well. One big part of what makes FNAF VR great though is sound design, as you’re forced to not only look at the CRT monitors to see where each of the monstrous creations could be lurking, but you also have to listen for them clanking around. Ambient noises such as spinning fans and flickering lights really crank up the fear factor as you frantically pick apart what’s an important sound and what’s simply background filler. The lack of sound is even worse, as any FNAF fan can attest to.
Taking a big screaming Freddy to your face when you eventually fail to correctly manage resources is about 100 times scarier in VR; you simply can’t look away. You’d be forgiven if you’d rather watch someone else play from the comfort of your couch and a security blanket than actually dive in head-first based on how immersive and scary Five Nights at Freddy’s VR truly is.
Stormland, like most great VR games, is very much designed around its locomotion. While all too many VR games have players slowly (and boorishly) walking from A to B, Stormland makes moving around part of the game’s core fun.
This is achieved first with an expansive world. The game is set in a world where floating islands jet out of a sea of clouds. The disparate islands are a marvel to look at as the sun strikes them just right, and knowing that they are real places that you can actually travel to makes them that much more alluring.
Second, Stormland makes its movement between important gameplay spaces fun by making it interesting and different from the typical locomotion. When you set foot onto the cloud sea, you immediately kick into speedy slipstream which has you jetting around at high speeds. While we’d normally expect this kind of quick movement in VR could make players dizzy, developer Insomniac Games realized that trying fast locomotion to broad body movements goes a long way to helping players remain comfortable. And so when you slipstream along the clouds, you keep your arms pointed outward in a superman pose and steer based on the direction they face.
Third, Stormland mixes and mashes locomotion schemes to give players freedom. Slipstreaming gets you from island to island quickly, but what do you do when you get there and find that the precipice is hundreds of feet overhead? Nearly everything in the game can be climbed with a laser that projects to nearby objects from the palm of your hands, and you can even grab a wall and ‘fling’ yourself for some extremely quick cliff scaling. And once you’re up there, you can glide naturally through the air to land on unsuspecting opponents or even cruise toward your next island destination.
With these gesture-driven locomotion schemes working together effectively, Stormland gives players a thrilling freedom of movement that’s unsurpassed in other titles. We hope (and expect) to see future VR titles borrow heavily from the foundation of excellent locomotion that Insomniac built into the game.
Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), PlayStation (PSVR)
Release Date: August 14th, 2019 (VR mode)
PC-to-VR ports aren’t “perfect” for a number of reasons. It can come down to the limitations of aging game engines, a misunderstanding of what makes VR great, or the basic lack of time investment to fully realize a true VR version. Here, No Many’s Sky bucks the trend by presenting a fun and fully-playable VR mode, which thankfully came to all users this summer for free as a part of the base game on PC or PlayStation 4.
The VR mode is basically exactly what you’d imagine from No Man’s Sky in VR;blasting off into space is magical, exploring planets is awe inspiring, riding around in exovehicles is really awesome. It also looks great too, as the rich and vibrant universe demands even more inspection from the immersive viewpoint of a VR headset. That’s not to say we didn’t have our gripes with No Man’s Sky’s VR mode, as it largely ports over the same 2D inventory scheme as in the flatscreen version, and suffers from some clunk around the edges, the latter of which seems to have gotten better over the course of the last few updates.
But what really attracts us to No Man’s Sky is the utter vastness of the universe. The game is rife with opportunities to become a pirate, trader, fighter, bounty hunter, farmer—so much so that every quality-of-life update seems to tip the balance in favor of staying in the VR headset as opposed to just firing the game up on a flatscreen—the true mark of a great VR adaptation.
Available On: Oculus (Rift), Steam (Index, Vive, Rift)
Release Date: August 27th, 2019 (Early Access)
Until You Fall might seem like an odd choice for an Excellence in UI accolade, but the game succeeds here by knowing what to avoid in the game as much as what to add to it.
This rogue-lite melee combat game does a lot well, but in the interface department it makes several especially smart choices. For one, Schell Games was smart enough to realize that—in a game where players would not be using weapons other than their own—the ability to drop your weapons would merely add useless clunk to the game. Instead, weapons are summoned into players hands whenever they squeeze the grip buttons. This not only serves as a supremely efficient version of a ‘holster’, but it also feels really bad-ass to manifest your blades in the palm of your hand just before diving head first into a fight.
What’s more, when players aren’t holding their weapons, their hands become useful for other critical game tasks. Turning your palm upright reveals a menu of stats which speaks specifically to the weapon assigned to that hand. The menu floats above your hand, making it easy to optimally position, and disappears when you don’t need it any longer.
The game has also pioneered a very satisfying ‘crushing’ interaction which serves as a very engaging way to make important choices and selections. At the end of each room you get to pick between three different power-ups. When you decide which one you want, you reach out and grab it and continue to squeeze your grab trigger until you crush the power-up and consume its energy. With the addition of haptics and sound effects, it feels great every time, so it’s no wonder that we also see this same interaction used back in the forge for selecting and upgrading weapons.
And then there’s the game’s block and attack indicators. When enemies are attacking you you’ll see blue 2D block indicators appear showing you where to place your sword to block the attack. Although these can look and feel ‘arcadey’, their function outweighs any visual concerns; knowing when to block and where is part of the way that Until You Fall manages to set a deliberate and satisfying combat pace. Equally ‘arcadey’ but important and satisfying are the attack indicators. Once you break through the opponents shield you’ll get the opportunity to start a combo. In a combo you can dish out tremendous damage, but only if you strike along the indicated line in quick succession. Here too, great haptic and audio feedback make this feel awesome and satisfying.
Boneworks is a prime example of how independent developers who have the freedom to take risks can make huge contributions to their field. With two VR titles previously already under their belt, Stress Level Zero set out to make a no-compromise physically simulated VR experience.
By making nearly everything in the game physical and interactive, Boneworks delivers on player’s expectations of agency in a way that often goes far beyond its contemporaries. In the game, just about every object, enemy, and weapon is physically interactive, leading to moments where novel ideas—like, say, using a coffee mug as a melee weapon—actually work.
While the heavy emphasis on physics can be frustrating and wonky at times, it’s hard not to feel a sense of added embodiment when your ideas about what’s possible in the game world are satisfied in a realistic fashion. Things as simple as being able to push enemies away from you with the barrel of your gun—or as morbid as stabbing through multiple enemies simultaneously with a claymore—show a glimpse of the rich interactivity that is the ultimate goal of VR.
For its part, Boneworks is a flag in the ground which represents perhaps the most interactive physics sandbox seen in VR to date, and a proof point that glimpses the immersive benefits which come from more realistic virtual interactions.
Wolves in the Walls started out in life as an Oculus Story Studios project, although Facebook shuttered its first-party VR studio before the experience could be finished. It would have been a real shame if this highly immersive and well-realized retelling of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s eponymous children’s book wasn’t completed as a result. Thankfully, some ex-Story Studio veterans created Fable Studio and picked up the mantle to finish what Oculus had started.
Releasing its final chapter in November, the end result culminated in an intriguing and engaging story that centers around eight year-old Lucy, whose wild imagination has her convinced that wolves live in the walls of her home.
One of the biggest takeaways from Wolves in the Walls was how much digital humans can provide a sort of emotional immersion that will no doubt play a fundamental role in the VR games and stories of tomorrow. As cartoony as she was, it feels like Fable Studio really made it impossible to disappoint little Lucy. You’re her only friend and ally, and it’s too cold-hearted a prospect to break that trust, even just to see what happens if you don’t pay attention to her when she reaches out for assurance. In so doing, Wolves in the Walls shows off Pixar-level character design, which comes part and parcel with a rich color palette, cohesive set design, and a depth of animation expertise—all of which makes you genuinely feel like you’ve jumped into the pages of the book.
Fable Studio based their VR experience on a solid source material, but drawing you into that story would have been fruitless if you couldn’t connect with Lucy on some level. Here, she’s a real enough person to make you care about where the story ultimately goes, leaving you with a solid moment of self-reflection on your own ‘wolves in the walls’ once the credits roll.
Note: Games eligible for Road to VR‘s Game of the Year Award must be available to the public on or before December 13th, 2019 to allow for ample deliberation. Games must also natively support the target platform as to ensure full operability.
