Virtual Reality Games
Virtual Reality is an amazing experience that leaves you with your mouth open, especially during the first few hours of play. Best of all, there are a lot of free demos, games and VR movies that are ideal for experiencing virtual reality. We have compiled some of the most spectacular.
TheBlu – HTC Live
TheBlu – The Whale Encounter is the first virtual reality experience that everyone should try. It barely lasts two or three minutes, but you will not forget it in your whole life.
You appear, suddenly, at the bottom of the sea, on the bow of a huge sunken ship. Fish begin to emerge around you, blankets giants … And then appears Ella. We are not going to tell anything else to avoid spoiling. But it is an experience that everyone who has VR glasses should try.
TheBlu – The Whale Encounter is free on HTC Live, but is included in the full version TheBlu, with two other scenarios, which is also available for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality.
Animation Shorts in Virtual Reality
The animated virtual reality shorts are very abundant, because you can get inside the movie and touch the characters while the animation is playing.
Leaving older ones as Invasion !, Asteroids!, or Allumette; three new shorts have been released recently, that I want to recommend because they are very good.
Crow: The Legend
A short for Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR of about 20 minutes, from the director of Madagascar. You can watch the trailer just above. It tells the story of a raven who has become an improvised hero, when he decides to end the winter so that his friends do not die of cold.
We are part of the story, since we are the god that brings the seasons and we have to act so as that the story progresses.
Age of Sail
This beautiful short from Google for Steam VR has been directed by Oscar winner John Kahrs. It will make you experience a sailboat in a rough sea … and you will know how is to survive a shipwreck.
The Bond
Released last October, The Bond transports us to an alien planet that reminds us of the Avatar movie, where we put ourselves in the shoes of a healer who empathizes with the creatures of the forest, good and evil.
Google Earth VR – Oculus Rift / HTC Vive
Google has several interesting virtual reality experiments, but nothing as shocking as Google Earth VR.
You have before our whole planet, in virtual reality. You can zoom in, and when you get close enough, you can fly over the cities and mountains in real size.
It is an incredible feeling, and also useful, because we talk about exploring all the content of Google Earth to find places or get routes, but in RV. One of the ten experiences and free virtual reality games that you should not miss on PC.
BBC Home – A VR Spacewalk
The BBC has created several free virtual reality experiences for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The most impressive is BBC Home – A VR Spacewalk, where we become an astronaut of the International Space Station, who is about to take a walk outside the station.
A walk you will never forget. The views with the Earth in the background cause vertigo! It’s the closest thing to becoming George Clooney or Sandra Bullock in Gravity.
Another free BBC experience that is also worth trying is BBC 1943 Berlin Blitz. It puts us inside a British World War II bomber, with the real voices of the crew.
Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine – HTC Live
HTC Vive offers two free Star Wars virtual reality experiences, and both are equally impressive, on a different scale.
The most amazing is Star Wars: Trials of Tatooine. Seeing the Millennium Falcon land in front of your face, in real size, leaves you with your mouth open.
What comes next is a succession of spectacular scenes where you have to act as a mechanic for the Millennium Falcon, help R2-D2, and even fight against the imperial troops.
The default setting shows little definition, so it is convenient to add more resolution in the Steam VR configuration, for a cinematic experience. The other free experience, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay, is closer and more interactive.
Here you are a mechanic who repairs drones, and you have to fix different robots, manipulating them in 3D. If you want to feel inside the Star Wars movies, this is your chance.
The Lab
Who said Valve no longer makes video games? Ok, it’s not Half-Life 3, but The Lab is a genuine Valve game. Or rather a compilation of mini-games designed to show the wonders of virtual reality.
The Lab is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality, and consists of eight very varied and fun experiences. From defending a castle by shooting the invaders with your bow, dodging laser shots while attacking a group of ships, playing with a robot dog, or buying at the DotA 2 secret shop.
It is an ideal game to show the RV to other people, because there are many different mini-games and all are simple to play, and very spectacular.
Epic Roller Coaster
One of the most popular experiences of RV, are roller coasters. The feeling of riding in the attraction vehicle is completely real.
There are many variants of this type in the virtual reality of PC, but many are simple 3D videos, and others do not have much quality. One of the best is Epic Roller Coaster, a roller coaster game with several staged routes where many things happen around: medieval battles, Zombie Apocalypse, space stations …
It also includes a multiplayer competition where you compete for times, depending on what it takes to travel each circuit, with players from all over the world.
Epic Roller Coaster includes a free roller coaster set in a Jurassic world full of dinosaurs, which is also one of the most spectacular. And it is available for all three platforms. An alternative also very impressive, but paid, is Summer Fanland.
Waltz of the Wizard
Waltz of the Wizard is the closest thing to becoming a Harry Potter wizard that you will experience without paying. If you like it, you should not miss complete game The Wizards or Runes: The Forgotten Path.
Waltz of the Wizard makes you a wizard in front of a potion cauldron. Mixing different ingredients and concoctions, you will create effects as spectacular as Fireball, Giant, or turn everything you touch into butterflies.
The game is full of details, and there is also a maze full of dangers and several secret rooms, if you explore the wizard’s castle.
It is a highly recommended experience because everything is interactive. You have to take the potions with the movement controls, and turn the wrists to spill them in the cauldron. You also cast spells with the movement of your hands. Waltz of the Wizard is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality.
Rec Room
A true multiplayer game in virtual reality. Create an avatar, meet your friends, and explore thousands of rooms created by players, with scenarios inspired by shooters, sports, paintball, challenges, and anything you can think of.
It is the game that shows that social multiplayer games are also possible in virtual reality. It also offers cross play between all PC RV platforms, and PlayStation VR.
Here are some others that we also like very much. Try them, they are free!
- Spiderman Homecoming – All
- Face your Fears – Oculus Rift
- Dreams of Dali – HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
- Coco VR – Oculus Rift
- Nefertari – HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
