The Best Oculus Quest 2 games of 2023 If you're lucky enough to own the Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset, you'll want to get...
The Best Oculus Quest 2 games of 2023
If you're lucky enough to own the Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset, you'll want to get some of the best Oculus Quest 2 games.
There are a lot of games to choose from, from rhythm games like Beat Saber to full-fledged VR adventures like Half-Life: Alyx.
So, with that in mind, take a look at the best Oculus Quest games you can buy and play right now.
1. Half-Life: Alyx
Half-Life: Alyx is the game to go to if you want to show off what real virtual reality can do. Even though it's not Half-Life 3, it's a game made by Valve just for VR headsets. The gaming giant didn't really think it would sell a lot of copies, though.
Even though it's a niche game, it's a great example of how good VR games can be when time and skill are put into making them. Christopher Livingston praised Half-Life: Alyx on our sister site PC Gamer(opens in new tab) for its attention to detail, interaction, story, setting, and other things.
Even though it's not technically a Quest 2 game because it's not on the Oculus store, you can play one of the best VR games ever made by connecting the Quest 2 to a gaming PC with the PC link cable.
2. Population: One
Even though Population:One is an exclusive VR Battle Royale game for Oculus, it is not just a copy of Fortnite, no matter how flashy it looks. You and two other teammates will be dropped into a dangerous area where you will have to look for weapons and supplies to stay alive. You can use a lot of different guns and build a lot of different things. But the real star of the show is Population: unique One's vertical battle system.
You can climb every surface you see. As teams fight to get the high ground, this makes for intense firefights. You can use a wingsuit to fly into battles or quickly move around the map if you are high up. The whole system is an original addition that gives the battle royale genre new life.
It's amazing that a game of this size and complexity can run so smoothly on the mobile chip in Quest 2. In addition to tight controls, immersive environments, and a fun game loop, developer BigBox VR is always adding live events to keep the game feeling new.
3. SuperHot VR
SuperHot VR might be perfect for you if you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a polygonal hitman moving through a series of stark environments. The main idea of SuperHot is that time only really moves when you move. This idea is brought into the virtual reality world by the game. So if you physically move out of the way of a bullet, it will go from moving slowly to moving faster.
SuperHot is pretty cool on its own, but, ironically, it feels even better in VR. All of a sudden, you're in the middle of slow-motion action that seems way too busy. To avoid a one-shot death, you have to really think about where you are in space and plan several steps ahead.
It's also pretty funny. Throwing a book or even your own gun at an approaching enemy and watching them break is like a mix of Jason Bourne, John Wick, and Austin Powers. Just know it can get really interesting. And if you don't have much room around you, a right hook meant for an enemy might end up hitting a wall instead.
4. Beat Saber
Beat Saber is like what you'd get if you put Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, and a little bit of Star Wars in a blender. In this game, you have to match the color of your saber to the color of the blocks you want to cut in order to cut them at the right angle.
In addition to the speed going up, there are dangers like bombs and walls that you have to avoid. The result is a full-body workout with an EDM soundtrack that makes your heart beat faster. It's a fascinating thing to do that could only work in virtual reality.
The single-player career mode will keep you busy for hours, with requirements that get more and more specific as you go. In free play, you can jam out to any song you want, and you can turn on or off modifiers that help or hurt you.
A new player might turn on a bonus multiplier to help, but a pro will make the game harder by only letting them make one mistake before they lose. Recently, Beat Saber got an update that lets you play head-to-head against your friends to see who is the best swordsman in your group.
5. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is the first single-player AAA game from the Quest. This herculean effort combines a long campaign, good physics, and realistic environments to make a horror game that is hard to take your eyes off of. You'll have to sneak, shoot, and scavenge your way through a New Orleans full of zombies. Every big decision you make will have big consequences.
With an advanced crafting system, you can make makeshift gear that looks and feels real. Just like in real life, you have to hold these weapons the right way or they will break after a while. You have to figure out the best way to reach your goals when your weapons break down and your stamina is limited. Things may get harder as a mission goes on if people try to be sneaky. On the other hand, if you charge into an encounter with guns blazing, you may not have any weapons to fight a group of zombies.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners has the right mix of immersion and fun that the Quest store is sorely lacking right now. The best AAA VR campaign is Half-Life: Alyx, which is only available on PC.
6. The Climb
Every once in a while, you need a break from the violence. This is where The Climb, a VR game by Crytek, comes in. The same people who made Far Cry and Crysis also made a great free-climbing simulator that makes players say "oh wow" instead of firing guns. You can feel the thrill of hanging off cliffs from the Alps to the American Southwest thanks to CRYENGINE, which makes the environments look real.
All of the courses in the game are hard and require you to use the right gripping techniques. Around each climb, there are different ways to get to the top that lead to different views of vistas and valleys. When you finish a climb successfully, you can move up in rank and buy new gear. When a run fails, scary plunges are given instead.
The Climb is a visual and physical experience that will blow your mind. If you want to get away from the monotony of real life and do something physically challenging, chalk your hands up and hold on tight to The Climb.
7. Onward
Onward's no-respawn 5v5 competitive gameplay is more like Rainbow Six: Siege than Call of Duty. For an operation to be successful, teammates must plan carefully and talk a lot with each other. Your number of hits is limited, and you have to physically chamber rounds to reload, making it feel eerily like being in the military. Since the Quest 2 doesn't have wires, Onward shines more on it than on any other VR headset.
Cutting the cord gives you a sense of freedom that lets you dive behind cover and crouch freely on any of the dozen official maps in Onward. There are a lot of maps made by the community to keep the game from getting old. Each place has a lot of details and a lot of places to hide during fierce firefights. Under fire, your vision gets blurry making you feel like you're in combat. Even though this is pretty immersive, being able to use all of your gear is really next level.
In order to reload any of the more than 40 guns in Onward, the clips must be emptied and rounds must be put into the chambers. This means it will take time to load and chamber clips into sidearms or each bullet into guns like shotguns and revolvers. No matter what loadout you choose, you always start with a health injection syringe, a radio on your left shoulder, and a tablet on your back. With these tools, you can bring downed teammates back up and talk to teammates who are too far away for proximity chat.
8. Until You Fall
Until You Fall is what you get when you mix the challenging combat of Dark Souls with a rogue-like. This is the VR game we didn't know we needed. It has a fun gameplay loop, a neon look, and a banging synth-wave soundtrack. With two swords, maces, or knives, you can strike, dodge, and counter your enemies to win battles.
Most of your time will be spent falling in battle, which is a shame. Every time you die, you learn something new and get better. From more health to more damage, these upgrades can change the way the battle goes in your favor. Each successful run is like playing one last round in the Civilization series. It makes it hard to put the game down.
Boss fights that are hard to win will definitely drive you crazy. When you're better prepared for a fight and have better gear and still win, it's pure bliss. You'll play Until You Fall if you like the sweet pain of Soulsborne games.
9. Resident Evil 4 VR
Resident Evil 4, which is one of the best games in the zombie-themed series, can't be played on the Oculus Quest 2. In fact, it might be the best reason to buy an Oculus Quest 2.
Even though the graphics won't blow you away, playing the game in virtual reality gives you a level of immersion that's hard to get anywhere else. With its motion controls and tracking, Resident Evil 4 VR is a new way to play the game, and it works surprisingly well for a game that wasn't made for VR. So, if you want a new way to play Resident Evil 4, the Oculus Quest 2 version is the way to go.
10. Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)
If you have an Oculus Link cable for your Quest 2, the version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that will come out in 2020 is a game you should try in virtual reality.
Not only has it been praised for how realistic it is, but it's also a beautiful game with a huge number of planes to fly all over the world. With VR support, a game that was already very immersive gets even more so. Mike Prospero, who is our deputy editor, did this, and he said that it was "like playing a whole new game." So this is a game you'll definitely want to play with Quest 2.
11. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Even though it's been out for ten years, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a great game to try in virtual reality. You'll need to hook up the Meta Quest 2 to a gaming PC or laptop, but since the game is old, it doesn't need to be very powerful. Also, it's not very well set up for the most advanced VR use. But Skyrim VR is more or less like stepping into a fantasy-themed Nordic country.
Skyrim can be played on a lot of different platforms, but VR is probably one of the newest and most interesting ways to play the great open-world game. It also changes the way you play the game by giving you "realistic" controls that let you attack draugrs and dragons by swinging your arm. Even though the graphics are old by 2021 standards, the art style and lighting in Skyrim still give you some beautiful views that are perfect for getting away from the stresses of real life.
No comments