PSVR is one of the best new gaming innovations of the last few years. When it was launched, many thought VR seemed like a strange gimmick, and PSVR was no different. Enough games are out now, however, to make it a worthwhile and engaging way to play games.
Since its release in October 2016, the virtual reality playset has seen its trickle of games turned into a healthy stream of content, although most have been released in relative obscurity. While lots of the catalogue for the PSVR consists of smaller experiences and games, VR’s potential has lead developers to bring newer games to the platform.
When Resident Evil 7: Biohazard launched we received our first “traditional” VR game, which is why it’s on our list, but there are now so many other excellent titles to enjoy too. From these “traditional” games, massive experiences that’ll take you ages to complete (and tire you out in the process), to smaller quick-fix games for parties, there’s something for everyone on VR.
To help you get your head around the best of PlayStation VR’s incredible library, here’s a collection of the best PSVR games available right now…
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Astro Bot Rescue Mission
As well as being one of the very best experiences on PSVR, Astro Bot is also an excellent game in its own right. Developed by ASOBI! Team at SIE Japan Studio, it’s a 3D platformer game with a cutesy mascot character and 20 levels of fun.
Across five worlds, you’ll rescue over 200 little robots and work your way through a fun little story. As well as being an enjoyable platformer at its core, the game also makes the most of its VR trappings – for instance, you can lean your body to see past obstacles, or even do a headbutt motion to overcome adversaries. It’s well worth checking this one out.
Although it may not be all that groundbreaking in terms of gameplay, the core idea of Star Trek: Bridge Crew is too great for fans like us to resist: using the magic of VR to plonk players onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise, the game allows up to four players to work together and pilot the ship through Klingon space.
There are four roles of choose from – captain, tactical officer, engineer and helm officer – and a bunch of scenarios to tackle, including a set-story campaign and a randomly generated mode. It may not be one that you revisit a bunch of times, but this game is well worth checking out if you’re a Trek fan.
There is nothing better than WipEout Omega Collection if your dream of a true VR experience is feeling like you’re rushing along in an anti-gravity craft at breakneck speeds. For the uninitiated, WipEout is the franchise that kick-started the PlayStation in the ’90s. Now it’s the most beautiful game on PlayStation VR and isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Playing like a futuristic Formula One, WipEout sees you careening around tight futuristic tracks intense races with 11 other drivers as you gun for first place. It has Mario Kart-like elements too, with weapons and buffs to attack and defend while you race. In VR, everything becomes so much more intense and realistic and, to help you through the experience, Sony has included three different viewing modes to ensure you don’t end up throwing up your lunch too soon. If you want to get the most out of your PlayStation VR headset, this is the only game you’ll need.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s brilliant Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 surrealist, rhythm-based, sci-fi shooter already had the HD treatment when it released on Xbox One in 2007 but this is a whole different beast in PlayStation VR.
Thanks to its rather low system demands, Rez Infinite runs silky smooth, pulling you right into the music as you unconsciously bop your head and body targeting oncoming threats. Seeing Rez Infinite‘s “Area X” in VR is also an absolute treat for the eyes and ears. If this was the only way to enjoy every piece of music ever made, I wouldn’t be complaining.
Moss
Coming from a new studio with its first IP, Moss is as wonderfully charming as you can get in VR. Taking place in amongst the long grass, swamps and caves of a mouse-sized view of the world, Moss places you in the floating head of a magical creature who’s working with a young mouse adventurer called Quill. Together she and you traverse diorama-like levels with puzzles and combat, all so you can rescue her uncle who’s left to fight an ancient evil that’s awoken. You won’t find a better excuse to sink hours into a VR world than by playing Moss.
Horror has a new home in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Harking back to the series’ glory days of exploring and backtracking your way through the halls of a haunted mansion, Resident Evil 7 ups the ante by letting you play your way through the horrific experience entirely in VR. As you can imagine, it changes the pace of play and is a sure-fire way to make you scream. Not only is this the most complete VR experience in PlayStation VR, but it’s also an absolute riot – even if you’d rather be in actual hell than playing through some sections of Capcom’s latest horror entry.
Superhot VR is unlike anything else you’ll have played. It’s a first-person shooter that’s actually a puzzle game where your every movement advances time. It’s bullet-time the shooter, it’s a game that revels in making you feel all-powerful. It’s just action bliss distilled into its purest form.
It’s also incredibly difficult and frustrating, but you’ll realise rather quickly that you don’t care. This is what VR was made for.
As a prequel to Until Dawn, you’d be forgiven for thinking SuperMassive Games would simply rely upon old crutches for The Inpatient. However, this is a PSVR horror game unlike any other. Instead of pushing solely for jump scares like its peers – and sister titles Until Dawn and Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood – The Inpatient is driven by a sense of dread. It’s horrid, in the best sense.
Nothing says fun like working through a menial job as a computer experiencing a simulated past. Play as an Office Worker, Restaurant Chef, Auto Mechanic or even a Grocery Store Clerk and repeat increasingly chaotic and eternally baffling tasks for fun! Who could say no?
In all honesty, if you’re looking for a game anyone can pick up and play, you can’t go wrong with Job Simulator. It’s incredibly simple to play, with concepts anyone can understand, and you won’t be able to take your friends and family out of it once they start playing.
Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes
If you think VR is a lonely experience, you’ve clearly never played Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. This excellent multiplayer VR game tasks you and a group of friends with defusing a bomb; the catch is, only the PlayStation VR wearer can see the bomb. This means everyone else has to use an online, on-screen or printed manual to work together and help stop the bomb from going off. As you can imagine, it’s hectic, hilarious and a whole lot of fun.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim VR
Bethesda has been going big on VR. Both Doom and Fallout 4 have had VR treatments with Fallout 4 VR and DOOM VFR, but it’s Skyrim VR that really impresses. There’s something spectacularly magical about the Elder Scrolls series and Skyrim VR lets you delve right into the heart of it, spending hundreds of hours in a virtual Tamriel. It definitely has some shortcomings, it’s not as visually crisp as the PS4 remaster, nor is it as straightforward to play, but it’s an excellent example of how huge, sprawling RPGs will eventually be a portal into another world thanks to VR. While we wait for Elder Scrolls VI, this is a nice way to kill some time.
You wake up in a room, strapped into a chair, with your hands locked inside a puzzle box. You look around at your environment trying to find a way out. Sat silently in the corner is a man observing you, his face blanked out. This is Statik.
Providing you with absolutely no context turns this puzzle game from a neat VR experience into something you just have to play. Seeing as nothing makes sense, you need to focus on the task at hand – solving the puzzle box strapped to your hands. Just like its setting, Statik explains nothing to you about how to go about working through each of its puzzle boxes. Instead it asks you to play around with the buttons, working out what your fumbling hands are doing to the box with each controller press. It’s an excellent premise which makes brilliant use of PlayStation VR’s limitations to produce an addictive puzzle game. An absolute must buy.
Thumper
Drool’s self-appointed genre of “rhythm action hell” is actually the best way to explain Thumper‘s dark and unrelenting pace. Pounding drums and the sound of air rushing by soundtracks your uncontrollable hurtling into the unknown. Everything around you feels oppressive, consuming and the relentless barrage of obstacles in your way let up only occasionally to afford you some momentary solace before plunging you right back into another circle of musical purgatory.
To call Thumper anything other than brilliant is to do it a disservice. Created by two ex-Harmonix developers (Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band), Thumper is everything you want it to be and more. If you’re into your music and want a challenge unlike any other, this is the VR game for you. Be warned, it isn’t for the faint-hearted.
SuperHyperCube
With a name like SuperHyperCube I’m sure you’re expecting some sort of intense, noisy and colourful VR game to assault your senses. Maybe a platformer based around the tales of a superpowered cuboid, a Thomas Was Alone 2.0 perhaps?
Well, you’d be wrong as SuperHyperCube is a puzzle game, pure and simple. A wall with a hole zooms towards your floating cuboid shape and it’s your job to rotate your cube cluster to fit through the hole. Shapes become more complex, walls speed towards you faster, and ultimately SuperHyperCube sucks you right in.
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Beat Saber
If you loved playing Tap Tap Revenge back when smartphones were new but wished it was a little more three dimensional — and wildly chaotic — Beat Saber is the game for you. In it, blocks fly towards you as beating music plays, and you have to try your best to slash them with your Move sticks. It’s a hard game, and you’ll look like even more of an idiot to onlookers than when playing other VR games, but it’s also an incredibly fun experience. Check it out if you haven’t already.
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