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VR is a medium that is gaining more and more popularity by the year, but despite that, it’s been very tough to get the triple-A developers of the world to come into the fold. It’s unfortunate because just about every genre manages to translate into VR pretty seamlessly. When you have games as big as Skyrim VR on the platform while also being able to handle a massive title with even bigger expectations like Half-Life: Alyx, you have to wonder why more game series hasn’t taken to VR yet.
I’ve been a VR enthusiast for over 4 years, and I have several headsets in my home as well as numerous experiences with other ones in the tech world. It’s also an awesome way to work out these days, and I find a way to work in VR to my routine pretty regularly. That being said, I find it annoying that the VR world doesn’t get nearly the same amount of releases that the flat screen gaming world has to offer. So many of my favorite genres are completely barren when it comes to choices of games, and it’s unfortunate when so many games would translate so well to VR.
I’ve had ideas for games that need to be in VR for years, and now, I’m going to share them with you. With all the triple-A titles out there, someone needs to drop the hammer in the VR world and show the rest of the gaming industry just how damn cool these games could really be. We’re going to check out the games that should be in VR as well as the games that are similar to them that prove their need to exist. Let’s explore.
Selection Criteria
- Easily translates into VR
- Would benefit from motion controls
- Amazing game worlds that would be a marvel to explore in VR
- Physically engaging experiences
Games That Need VR
Devil May Cry
The Devil May Cry series has been one of the staples of the gaming industry for years now, and although few hiatuses have happened, these games generally explode on the market whenever they’re released. For those who have never played them, they revolve around high-octane action, guns, swords, and slaying demons. The weapon switching, in particular, is a big draw to the game, as well as the ability to rank your stylishness during a combat encounter. Devil May Cry also throws huge spectacle-like boss fights at you that all have unique mechanics to get the hang of, and VR already has tons of high octane boss fights in its pocket, so no there would be no issue there.Â
The Game That Proves It Can Work
This would translate so well into VR, and you need to look no further than a particularly awesome game in Sairento VR. This game has you playing as a futuristic ninja, fighting with a sword and a variety of guns, working your way through various levels, and taking on tons of enemies while soaring through the air in slow motion. Does that sound familiar to you? Because that’s exactly what Dante and Nero have been doing for a decade now, and there is no reason that they can’t continue these antics in VR.
Mass EffectÂ
As far as modern RPGs go, for me, the holy trinity that we all should bow to are the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the original Mass Effect trilogy. They have consistently been the biggest names in the industry when it comes to RPGs, and in case you haven’t noticed, almost every big release is an RPG in some form or fashion these days. Games that used to be action games have now become action adventure RPGs, and the landscape is full of these types of titles that emphasize player choice and exploration.
Do you know what platform is great for exploration? VR. Taking a game in the scope of Mass Effect and putting it into a VR setting is not only a match made in heaven but a beyond obvious one. The reason is that it’s simply taking two games that already exist in VR and combining them.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
Currently, Skyrim VR on the PC is pretty much the best VR RPG you can find. Alongside that, you have No Man’s Sky, which is an infinite space adventure game that also added a VR mode that lets you play the entire game in VR, motion controls and all. All you have to do is take the writing of Skyrim and the exploration and mystery of No Man’s Sky and combine them to get Mass Effect in VR.
The awesome powers, mesmerizing sights like the Citadel, and great arsenal of imaginative weaponry would fit perfectly in VR. Taking the game’s cover mechanics and making them revolve around your own body instead of a controller would make a ton of sense also. Bioware has yet to jump into the VR space, but they have to know the potential, and what better way than to restore your name in the public eye with a revival of a legendary series that makes you the main character?
Bioshock
One of the most singular series I’ve played to this day has to be Bioshock. Its vibe is totally its own, and it’s one of the most interesting stories in all of gaming with some twists that stand up next to anything in media history. Part of what makes Bioshock such a special game is the atmosphere in which the games take place. Whether it’s the disturbing undercity paradise gone wrong of Rapture or the utopian city in the sky Columbia, every area is just incredible to explore. Of course, the most exciting part of the game comes with its combat, which takes normal weaponry and combines it with the ability to use a myriad of powers that you gain by injecting plasmids into your arm.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
The powers, in particular, would translate incredibly well to VR. Imagine having to pull out a plasmid syringe and inject it into your virtual arm, seeing the powers surge through your virtual veins only to unleash a powerful ice blast from your hand or even something crazier like a swarm of bees. Add to that the somewhat modest visuals that have defined the series over the years, and you could easily see it making the jump to VR.
Exploring Rapture in VR would be a chilling experience but wouldn’t be too unlike some of the horror experiences we have in VR currently, like Resident Evil 7, for example. If you’re curious how the plasmids would translate to VR, look no further than games like Skyrim VR and The Wizards: Dark times. Both games utilize an impressive magic system that has you blasting magic out of your hands, and it feels and looks incredible, so there is no reason that Bioshock’s impressive array of powers wouldn’t work as well.
Bioshock has been looking to make a comeback for some time now, and although the rumors of a sequel have been rampant lately, there is nothing really concrete. Bioshock has never been known for being a long game either, so why not take this first-person adventure into the next era with the only true first-person gaming that exists today in VR?
Dark Souls
The world is still currently buzzing from the release of Elden Ring, and rightfully so, but the name that FromSoftware hasn’t mentioned since 2016 is that of the one that started it all for them, Dark Souls. Dark Souls is a pretty simple game at its core. You fight through multiple interconnected levels against increasingly difficult enemies and fight bosses that guard each area.
Surrounding everything is usually a pretty vague but intriguing story and a handful of characters whose intentions are usually pretty vague as well. The gameplay involves the use of melee weapons or long-range and magic attacks. That’s really it; no bells and whistles here are needed as the challenge and design of this game series have been plenty to take the flag and run with it.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
In VR, we currently have multiple games that bare an incredible resemblance to the style of Dark Souls. First off, we’ve got the extremely underrated In Death: Unchained. This game has you taking up arms with a bow that has a ton of different attacks and variations and simply throws you into the game world with little explanation why.
The music is somber as you fight through scores of enemies and bosses in a terrifying vision of heaven gone totally wrong. To say Dark Souls is an influence on this one is an understatement. The level design and enemy design are both highly reminiscent, and the mood is similar too. One could easily see this as Dark Souls VR, the bow edition, if you squinted your eyes a little bit.
The other title that shows how great Dark Souls could be in VR is Until You Fall. This is a roguelike that has you working your way through randomly generated levels of medieval-type enemies and over-the-top crazy-looking bosses using an array of melee weapons and special abilities that charge over time.
The combat is cleverly based on both the strength of your swing as well as the placement of your body. This would work extremely similar to how Dark Souls treats its strong and light attacks in its game, and the difference would simply be the amount of strength you felt like putting into your attack.
The aesthetic is noticeably different, but the gameplay is definitely similar. An honorable mention goes to Skyrim VR and the mod Darkened, which takes you to a remote island that is filled with horrific enemies, obscure quests, and absurd-looking and challenging bosses. The mod’s direct goal was to create a Dark Souls experience in Skyrim, and it does exactly that and is all the more chilling and engaging in VR. FromSoftware’s lead creator Miyazaki has the proof that it would work in VR; he just has to make it happen.
Madden NFL
Madden is one of the select few franchises in gaming history that has lasted over 20 years in the industry. With each summer, you know that a new Madden game is right around the corner, for better or worse. Lately, the series has started getting a bit stale as EA increasingly neglects to fine-tune the gameplay, and a host of other issues appear yearly.
This franchise is in serious need of a change of pace, and what better way to do that than to launch it into the awesome world of VR? Sports, in general, work very well in VR, and there is already a huge VR golf community as well as a VR tennis one. While football is definitely a bit harder to implement than those two sports are, there are already a few examples of how Madden NFL would work great in VR.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
2MD VR Football: Evolution is an awesome game and a cheap one that you can currently get on all VR platforms. It has you commanding a team of modestly animated tackling dummies, drawing up custom plays on a whiteboard, and taking to the field in a two-minute drill scenario against increasingly difficult teams.
You play as the quarterback here, and the throwing physics here are absolutely awesome, offering you the ability to put your whole arm into the throw, evade the oncoming rushers with your actual body, and even run for the first down. The experience is somewhat limited here, but it offers a ton of replay value, and it’s quite the achievement considering the small company behind it. Put EA at the controls with their endless budget and Madden’s graphics, and you could get an absolutely amazing experience.
Current sports games that work well in VR include Sports Scramble, a game that puts various twists on tennis, baseball, and bowling, and my favorite, Sparc, which is a brand new sport created for VR that is both fierce workout and incredibly fun to play. In terms of catching mechanics, plenty of games have shown off object physics, such as Blade and Sorcery and Half-Life: Alyx, so just replace that sword you caught flying at your face or Headcrab you ripped out of the air with a football, and voila, there is your catching mechanics. To me, making Madden NFL in VR would basically be printing money for EA and an absolute game-changer in the world of VR sports.
God of War
God of War got a major revival in 2018 with the release of God of War on PS4 and is getting the sequel this year in 2022. It’s become a more strategic action-adventure RPG, and that style would lend itself particularly well to VR. There is a ton based around combat in this game, and that specifically involves the use of the Leviathan Axe. The now-iconic axe has been used all over the game, from combat to puzzle-solving, and there is sure to be the same amount of that in the sequel. The axe returns to the main character Kratos telepathically, and that exact reason is where the VR would fit in seamlessly with God of War.
Plenty of games currently has a telepathy mechanic that allows players in VR to reach out and telepathically grip objects that might be on the floor or just out of reach. This is done to make sure gamers don’t fall over or smash into things while reaching for things in the game world, and this mechanic would work perfectly for the Leviathan Axe. Currently, several games utilize this kind of mechanic, but there is really only one that is a direct representation of how this would look in VR.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
Skyrim VR on PC has access to countless mods that not only add content to the game but change the very way you play it as well. One of these quintessential mods is called Weapon Throw VR. It lets you throw any weapon in the game, and by pressing a button on your motion controller, it will return back to you. You can customize the speed, too, so if you want it to return back to you as fast as it does to Kratos in God of War, then it can do that too.
You can even download a mod in Skyrim VR to get the Leviathan Axe so you can see for yourself how cool it would look in VR. Add to that the amazing exploration, mind-blowing graphics, and engaging platforming that could easily be done using a mechanic similar to something used in The Climb 2, and you’d find yourself with a recipe for an amazing VR game.
Call of Duty
Yes, I know Call of Duty is the most oversaturated series of all time, and we get more than enough on the flatscreen, but for those of you not very VR inclined, you need to understand just how awesome it is to shoot a gun in VR. Right now, there are tons of shooters in the VR landscape, and while there are tons of fun to be had with them, none have the pedigree or budget that the Call of Duty franchise has behind it. The feeling of firing a gun in VR is just incredible, and using attachments like the Provolver basically puts you right in the game with realistic weight and recoil. With a game like Call of Duty in VR, the sky is the limit for how popular this medium could go.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
There are plenty of games that show just what Call of Duty could be in the VR space right now, but the most notable one is Pavlov VR. Pavlov VR has tons of different game modes as well as ones added by the community on a daily basis and features countless realistic weapons that all have realistic simulated weight and reloading requirements.
To further the Call of Duty simulation, you can actually download a bunch of old Call of Duty maps in the game and play team deathmatches and other modes there, which feels like you’re already playing Call of Duty in VR. In case you think only one game has managed it, you’d be very wrong. There is also Contractors VR, Stand Out VR, which perfectly recreates Call of Duty: Warzone, and even a game like War Dust, which gives you a massive battlefield to fight on with tons of other players.
Call of Duty is possibly the biggest franchise every year in gaming, and there is no reason that the king of shooting games should not be thinking about making a jump to the best possible shooting platform on the planet.
Final FantasyÂ
Final Fantasy is one of the most popular franchises of all time, and although it’s obviously had its missteps as every franchise will when it lasts over 30 years, recently, the series has done very well and currently has the most played MMORPG in the world. The single-player Final Fantasy games have always been the phenom of the gaming world, though, and already, one of the recent Final Fantasy games in Final Fantasy XV has already attempted a VR mode.
The VR for that game was definitely more modest than expected, though, and felt more like VR fishing than anything Final Fantasy related, but still, the graphics were incredible and made all the more impressive considering it was on one of the weakest VR headsets, the PSVR.
Imagine they took these over-the-top magic attacks and terrifying-looking monsters and put all of that into VR? I mean, Skyrim VR works perfectly as a VR title and although the combat in that game is certainly routed in a more grounded approach than the anime action of Final Fantasy, showing what a massive RPG game could look like in VR is completely doable based on the massive success it had. Final Fantasy’s wild worlds and iconic monsters would be a marvel to witness in VR, and games like Sairento have already shown how high octane combat that involves aerial maneuvers can be done right.
The Game That Proves it Can Work
You would certainly not be doing any turn-based combat here, so instead, you’d be looking to a system where team-based combat could work. That would involve giving out orders in the heat of battle, and while a lot of games aren’t using that type of mechanic right now, one very good game is. Tales of Glory is a medieval combat simulator that has you leading an army into battle, and the most unique mechanic in it is the ability to shout out to your army and get them positioned, have them use special attacks, and all kinds of other things. This would fit in really well with how Final Fantasy games work, and it would be awesome to see something implemented if the series ever takes to VR.
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid has been one of the best-selling games of all time, and pretty much every game in this series has rewritten the rules in the stealth-action genre regardless of the year it came out. The stealth-action mixed with the completely crazy story gravitated with so many players, but since Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the series has been dead. Hideo Kojima has left the building, and the series has seemingly gone with him, so a huge move by Konami would be to revive this series in VR.
Metal Gear Solid revolves around sneaking around, using cover and deception to stay one step ahead of your enemies, and fighting weird bosses through a variety of tactics. The stealth part is what is most appealing in VR. Leaning around corners, lining of the perfect shot, picking up enemies, and hiding them in covered places. These are all things that would work incredibly well in VR. Shooting, check, creeping around corners to see things not in your initial field of view? Check. What about crazy bosses requiring bizarre strategies to defeat them? Well, Half-Life: Alyx, Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, and an Oculus game called Defector all have that in their bags already.
The Game That Proves It Can Work
Although it’s not a hugely popular VR game, Espire 1: VR Operative has you sneaking around multiple levels trying to stealthily take down soldiers. You can take them on in combat with guns and melee weapons, or you can sneak behind them, yell freeze and knock them out and hide their bodies. If that sounds like Metal Gear Solid, you’d be right, and the game wears that inspiration proudly on its sleeve. Hitman VR is also proof of it as well, with Agent 47 doing his best Solid Snake impression and the VR implementation that goes with it. With that in mind, putting a Metal Gear Solid VR game together shouldn’t be all that hard. Plenty of games have already put that into motion, so Konami just has to recognize it and capitalize.
The Legend of Zelda
I know what you’re you’re thinking. Nintendo? VR? Not in a million years! This is kind of right in a way because of all the gaming companies out there, Nintendo has been the most steadfast in their rejection of VR to this point. It’s strange because they were the initial innovators of making your body a controller with the Nintendo Wii, but alas, no Nintendo VR games exist currently. That could all change if they took their flagship franchise, The Legend of Zelda, and put it in the world of VR.
Zelda has always been a game about exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat, and those are two things that fit the bill in VR very well. Plenty of games offer a beautiful world to explore along with a sizable sense of adventure and a strong story. Zelda has never been all that worried about complex combat either, and that fact would be fine in VR, where your body is the controller anyway. Link’s bow in particular would work incredibly well as would melee combat.Â
The Game That Proves It Can Work
Asgard’s Wrath is one of the more interesting VR titles we’ve had in the past few years, and it really did something that few other VR titles have done. It is a full-fledged action RPG in the vein of Skyrim but with a coat of Norse mythology. The adventure is decently long and involves some incredible sightseeing, puzzles, cool combat, and interesting boss fights. It’s all right there for Nintendo to build on if they choose to, and I would be thrilled to see what Zelda would feel like in the virtual world.
FAQ
Question: What is the Best VR Headset?
Answer: There are a lot of trains of thought on this, but the best overall headset in terms of price, quality, and accessibility is definitely the Oculus Quest 2. It’s a portable headset that can be played wireless or hooked up to a computer to function as a PCVR headset, and it’s the only headset of its kind to provide that.
Question: What is the Best VR Game?
Answer: Skyrim VR is the most amazing experience you can have in VR. The game is pretty much endless and provides some of the most amazing-looking locations on the platform. The combat is also incredibly fun, and the questing is pretty much infinite.
Question:Â Which VR Game Should I Start Out With?
Answer:Â Blade and Sorcery is a pretty great entry into the VR scape. It’s a simple arena combat game with possibly the best physics engine, and the best part about it is that it was made by one guy. The endless mods for it change up the experience considerably, adding lightsabers, new levels, new enemies, and even voice packs into the game to make things even more exciting.
Conclusion
VR might not be for everyone, but there are tons of games that would fit so well into VR that it’s hard not to dream about it. Seeing these triple-A studios dive into VR would be so huge for the platform, so hopefully, they realize what’s right there in front of them to take.
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