PlayStation VR2 is nearly upon us and with the hardware comes a whole host of VR games to play. There are very few exclusives only playable with PlayStation VR2, but many developers have ports available on day one. This is fantastic for new VR players, and perhaps a little disappointing to veterans. Whether you’re diving into VR for the first time or you’ve played plenty on competing headsets, here is a list of games, presented in alphabetical order, I enjoyed for the first time, or all over again in PlayStation VR2.
After The Fall
After the Fall is a horde zombie shooter. If you’ve played Left 4 Dead or any of the games inspired by it, you basically know what to expect here. It turns out, however, that this genre works really well in VR. You won’t quite face the same number of zombies as you do in comparable games, but scrambling to manually reload your weapon while a group of zombies moves toward you is scary and intense. The game offers up to four-player co-op, but I had a great time making my way through the levels alone with the help of A.I. players, too.
Demeo
Action games work well in VR and allow you to use your actual arms to perform impressive moves, but Demeo is a slow-paced strategy RPG and feels unique as a result. In Demeo, you stand over a board game and physically move a figure around a board as though you are playing a turn-based strategy game. Zooming into the table and checking out the layout of the dungeon works well and looks cool, and the slow pace will be especially attractive to players still getting their VR bearings.
Gran Turismo 7
The only PlayStation VR2 exclusive on this list, the Gran Turismo VR update is almost exactly what you expect it to be – you sit in the seat of your car and race. It’s a little strange, functionally, as moving around the menus, and making decisions outside of the races takes place on a flat screen within the headset, but once the actual racing starts, you are in the seat of a car in first-person. You use the standard PlayStation 5 controller to race, which seems odd at first, but feels right after spending a little time with it. You can also look at your cars in your garage in VR, which is a nice touch.
The Last Clockwinder
The Last Clockwinder is the kind of puzzle game that truly feels like it would only work in VR. The context for the story is you are in charge of a facility that must be managed by automated robots. For example, the first task in the game is harvesting fruit, which is done by setting up a bunch of robots to pick the fruit, throw it to the right place, and process it. You set up these robots by standing in place and recording your actions. For one robot I pantomimed picking the fruit and throwing it, for another I pantomimed catching it and placing the fruit where it needed to go, and for the third robot I pulled the processing lever. Standing back and watching your robot clones loop the actions you performed is where the game really sings.
The Light Brigade
There is no shortage of games where you shoot guns in VR and that’s for good reason – it’s fun to take aim and fire a weapon in a virtual space. The Light Brigade, however, stood out for a few reasons. It’s a roguelike game where you try to make as much progress as you can through a series of random levels, and the gunplay is surprisingly slow and precise. Instead of firing off a hail of bullets like I did in After The Fall, I found myself taking cover and lining up precise sniper shots in a satisfying way. The Light Brigade also makes you put together your hands in a prayer position at the end of each level, which is a fun and simple action in VR to perform.