It was over six years ago now that a small group of people gathered together to run a Kickstarter campaign for a first-of-its-kind VR headset. They raised nearly $2.5 million and the Oculus Rift was born. Fast forward to 2018 and the Rift has been on the market for two and a half years and amassed an impressive ecosystem of games in that time. We’re here to pick the 25 best.
Throughout the week we’re going to be updating this list with five games a day in ranked order, leading up to the game we’ve crowned as, yes, the very best game on the platform. Once we’re done, this will be our new and definitive list, replacing our previous, smaller version. Updates will appear on this very page so make sure to check back through the week.
With that said, here are UploadVR’s 25 best Oculus Rift games.
25. Dirt Rally – Read Our Review
Against all odds, Codemasters did a fantastic job of porting Dirt Rally over to the Oculus Rift. This is one of our very favorite VR racers, despite the very thought of a rally game in VR making our stomachs churn. Unlike some games that strip back their content in VR *cough* Gran Turismo Sport *cough*, Rally provides the full experience inside a headset.
That means there’s plenty of content ready and waiting in this high-speed, bumpy ride. But it’s just how finely tuned the experience is that really separates Dirt Rally from the pack. No one knows how to do racers like Codemasters, and the mechanical precision and campaign depth on display here is fantastic. Other racing sims may offer bigger, more authentic experiences, but none are quite as fun to play as Dirt Rally.
24. Creed: Rise to Glory – Read Our Review
Few sports go hand-in-hand with current VR systems as well as boxing, and Creed: Rise to Glory is undeniably the best entry into the genre yet. Developer Survios was able to build upon its three other VR releases (each of which was in consideration for this list) with a game that didn’t just let you live out the boxing champion fantasy but is also smartly made to keep you grounded in VR.
Creed uses what Survios calls the ‘Phantom Melee’ system, which is designed to do away with those awkward spamming issues that many VR boxing games struggle with. It simulates fatigue and places restrictions on your character, forcing you to fight with fairness and strategy. That makes for thrilling multiplayer that isn’t just a chaotic free-for-all. The best thing we can say about Creed is that you could strip the movie tie-in right out of it and you’d still have something every bit as thrilling. The proof is in the punch.
23. Transpose – Read Our Review
After the bullet-dodging thrills of Blasters of the Universe, Secret Location had its work cut out for it maintaining its standards with Transpose. Fortunately, the game passes the difficult second album test with ease; Transpose is a mind-bending puzzle game in which you record your own actions, store them as echoes, and then work together with your past self in order to solve a series of challenges.
Hyperbole be damned; we were often reminded of Portal as we trekked through the game’s ethereal world, defying gravity and gradually being introduced to new concepts that shift the core mechanics in clever, enlightening ways. This is an example of a VR game that feels demonstrably made for the platform it’s appearing on, providing gameplay experiences you simply won’t have seen on a TV or monitor before. That’s something every VR developer should be considering at the heart of their projects.
22. Wilson’s Heart – Read Our Review
There are few weirder, wilder and genuinely more memorable VR adventures out there than Wilson’s Heart, a fantastic Rift debut from Twisted Pixel. In this twisted psychological thriller you awaken in a hospital with your heart missing, replaced with a mechanical monstrosity. Things only get stranger from there. It’s a stylish descent into madness that pays tribute to classic cinema in some interesting ways.
What we love about Wilson’s Heart is its approach to motion control in VR. Twisted Pixel puts a heck of a lot of effort into coming up with new types of interactions that you’ll have never experienced in a game before. It makes for a game that’s sometimes exciting, sometimes scary, but never anything less than absolutely fascinating to play and sets the studio up to be one of VR’s more prominent developers going forward.
21. The Unspoken – Read Our Review
Everyone wants to use VR to become Harry Potter, and The Unspoken is probably the closest you can get to that right now. Insomniac Games’ brilliant multiplayer VR title takes a thoughtful approach to wizard dueling in VR, coming up with a battle system that cleverly works around the platform’s constraints whilst retraining the magical feeling that comes with casting spells.
The Unspoken’s battles are as intuitive as they are satisfying thanks to a UI that grounds you right in the center of the experience. Summoning a fireball and sending it hurtling towards your enemy feels great and never gets old. Insomniac also gets extra points for strong post-launch support for the game, which included adding on a full single-player campaign too.
Tagged with: oculus rift
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via Mint VR