Whilst everyone’s getting excited about the mere idea of Virtual Reality headsets making their way into our living rooms, it’s important to realise that you’re going to need some actual games to play. Luckily for us, not only is PS VR shaping up to be a great piece of hardware but there’s also a good looking bunch of VR games on the horizon too. Here’s our top 10 Playstation VR games that we’re looking forward to.
Resident Evil 7
With VR headsets making games more immersive than ever, why do we immediately want to immerse ourselves in world filled with horror? Why is this list not starting with ‘Nice Drink on a Hot Beach Simulator 2017’?
Well, the fact is that Resident Evil 7 will be playable without a PSVR headset but if you want full-on jump scares you’re going to want to the VR experience. Resident Evil 7 will have you stumbling around an abandoned, creepy old house only to find out it’s not that abandoned and it’s actually a whole lot worse than ‘creepy’.
Rigs Mechanized
If you’ve played any Overwatch recently, you’ll know just how much fun a competitive shooter can be. Sure, previous shooters have been good, exciting and well made in the past, but it’s only now that they’re actually fun.
RIGS: Mechanised Combat League looks to be a lot like Overwatch in that regard. RIGS: Mechanised League is a futuristic sport where teams of mechs and their pilots fight against each other to score points in a deathmatch which doesn’t actually result in any death. Of course, this being a VR game you’re placed into the cockpit of your mech and you’re able to point your mech in the right direction with just a turn of your head. With all of the action occurring around you, you’d think that RIGS: Mechanised League would leave you feeling disorientated but it’s surprising just how well it works.
Headmaster
Headmaster is a game where you have footballs (soccer balls) floated into you and you simply head them into the goal. Sounds simple, right? Well, it’s actually quite a difficult skill (at least Arsenal’s defenders make it look that way) and it’s a huge amount of fun when done in Playstation VR.
Headmaster really is as simple as it sounds, but the gameplay mechanic of simply launching your head forward to make ‘contact’ with the ball is surprisingly enjoyable and something that only works in VR. The people making Headmaster have tried to add as much variety and depth to this simple mechanic, by having moving, robotic goalkeepers and bricks being thrown at you, which you avoid, as well as footballs, which you don’t avoid. It’s hardly a sprawling 100-long epic but Headmaster is great fun and a real example of just what new experiences VR has to offer.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew
Admit it, even if you’ve never been a fan of Star Trek, we’ve all thought about how cool it would be to sit on the bridge of the S.S… whatever and bark commands at people.
Whilst it might be difficult to find other people that have VR headsets, the idea is strikingly simple and amazingly cool. You sit in one of the seats on a starship and you have to perform your duty, whatever that may be. You see, each seat has different responsibilities, so if you’re in charge of weapons, you’ll need to be charging and aiming lasers whilst people in charge of engines will need to make sure they don’t overheat and you’re not going too fast.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew is promising to have a dynamic storyline, which will change depending on your successes and failures. It’s also going to have procedurally generated missions, which hopefully means you’ll have an entire universe worth of content to work through with you and your crew.
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
If you’re excited about the idea of play Until Dawn in VR, you need to be less excited. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is very loosely based on the original Until Dawn as it’s now an on-rails shooter instead of the interactive movie that the original was.
This being said, the game is really good fun and full of jump-scares as you make your way through the mines you explored in Until Dawn. It’s pretty impressive that Supermassive Games have made a shooter scary, but with the constant stream of creepy creatures and monsters jumping out in front of you you’ll never feel at ease.
Golem
Playing as a child who’s been injured and is now bed-bound might not sound too great. What if I told you that this kid had the ability to posses and control small rock monsters? Sounds better, right?
What if I then told you that as you control these rock monsters you get involved in melee combat and you need to parry and thrust with your sword. Finally, what if I told you that these small, doll-sized rock monsters were just the beginning and before you know it, your possession powers become more powerful and you eventually take control of 15ft rock monsters? Well, that’s what Golem is.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
This is another franchise that’s making the leap to VR and along the way, it’s having to change the way it’s played. Whilst the original Psychonauts was all about platforming and hilarious character, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin has you playing through what’s almost a point and click adventure, though it does still have the same charm and humour.
What makes Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin so interesting is the movement of your character. The bottom line is that you can’t walk through the environment and instead rely on your ‘clairvoyant’ ability. This allows you to jump into the body of characters you encounter, with each character giving you a new perspective and sense of scale. So whilst the area you’re in might look pretty ‘normal’ whilst you’re seeing it through the eyes of Raz, what happens when you jump into the body of, say, a rat? It seems like a really smart way of using VR and the idea of getting another point and click adventure by Tim Schafer means this is something I can’t wait to play.
Ace Combat 7
OK, so there’s no gameplay of this thing out there yet and all we’ve got to go on is an announcement trailer. This doesn’t stop Ace Combat 7 being one of the coolest games currently being developed for PSVR.
It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to figure out how amazing it’ll be to sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet and get involved in dogfights at 200 miles an hour. How the game will capture the sense of speed and altitude we’ll have to wait and see, but let’s assume they’ll get it right. Let’s assume this will be incredible.
P.O.L.L.E.N.
Another example of game developers wanting to use the immersive powers of VR to place us in horrible spaces. Again, it’s no sunny beach you’re exploring here instead you’re a mechanic sent to an outpost located on a Saturnian moon.
Instead of having a welcome party you soon discover that this space base is awfully quiet and it’s then up to you to piece together just why there’s no-one about. Think of a combination between Dead Space and Gone Home and you’ll be someway to figuring out what P.O.L.L.E.N. is all about. It looks totally atmospheric and let’s just hope the story is worth exploring for.
Batman Arkham VR
I’ve always thought the coolest thing about Batman wasn’t his gadgets or his fighting abilities but it was always the way he was one step ahead. You get get to be called The World’s Greatest Detective unless you’ve got some brains upstairs and there’s not been too much made of Batman’s smarts in the recent Arkham games.
This is where Batman Arkham VR is stepping in. There’s little combat in the game, though you do get to throw a batarang or two, with the main focus being exploring crime scenes and using your detective skills to figure out just what’s happened and who’s behind it.
That’s it for now. With PSVR’s release edging ever closer, we’re always hearing about new games being announced, so the reasons to be excited just keep on growing. Are you convinced by PSVr or is it going to take more games or a cheaper headset to get you interested? Perhaps there’s a game that we missed out on? Either way, let us know in the comments.
