Received a Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S for Christmas? You lucky thing. It’s one of the few pieces of tech that could truly increase the fun factor during a holiday break, alongside a PlayStation 5 Pro.
Wondering what you should actually play on it? There’s good news.
Meta has a sale on at the moment, and there are some killer titles in there that should be part of almost every Meta Quest owner’s library.
Below you’ll find a list of recommendations for new Quest 3 and Quest 3S owners (Quest 2 owners are invited too), most of which are part of Meta’s seasonal sale.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
If you have a new Quest 3 or Quest 3S, it includes Batman: Arkham Shadow, one of the most high-profile Meta VR releases in years. This is effectively a virtual reality take on the Arkham console games, considered some of the best superhero tie-in titles ever made. You are Batman, and play in first-person, punching, pushing and batarang’ing enemies and taking on whole crowds of baddies. It’s not just combat either, with puzzles and exploration too.
7th Guest
A masterclass in VR immersion, this atmospheric but not scary horror-themed adventure puzzler is based on an FMV game from 1993. As you progress you open up more rooms in the game’s mansion, while spectral visions of the past unravel a mysterious story. The meat is the puzzles, several of which are found in each room, and they have a great sense of physicality that proves the value of VR.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus
Mapping a full console style parkour game onto VR sounds like a recipe for nausea but this is a remarkable success at bringing the appeal of the console games to Meta Quest. The environments and stealthy traversal are great, even if the combat is something you may want to avoid when you can. Just like the older Assassin’s Creed games, then.
Superhot VR
One of the classics of VR, Superhot has been around for the better part of a decade. But it has ages beautifully, in part thanks to the super-stylised graphics on show. In each level you have to take down a series of enemies, requiring a precision James Bond or Ethan Hunt would be proud of. But it’s all possible because time only moves forward when you yourself make a move.
Walkabout Mini Golf
This is one of the most fun multiplayer experiences you can have in VR. The title says a lot of what you need to know. You and up to seven other people play mini golf in daring courses way more out-there than anything you’d see in real life. It’s highly creative and just pure fun. There are also loads of DLC courses, should you get stuck into the experience.
The Room VR
The Room was already one of the best iPhone games. Now it’s one of the best VR games. It’s an escape-the-room-style title where one intricate puzzle leads onto the next. You can finish it in around four hours and there’s not masses of replay value here, but the quality level throughout is excellent.
Red Matter 2
A proper sci-fi adventure that immerses like few other titles. You play an agent who has to explore a moon base (and more) during a time of futuristic cold war. It features great puzzles and exploration, and a top sense of being rooted in the environment. There’s a bit of combat too, which isn’t really the focus, but it doesn’t detract from this VR classic. The original Red Matter is worth playing too.
Bonelab
Some may find a lot of VR games feel a bit stiff and prescriptive, not really making the most of the fidelity of movement you can make in VR. Bonelab is nothing like that. It’s a riotous physics simulation sandbox. Bonelab is strange, a bit janky in parts abut it does have a multi-hour campaign to get you introduced to what is a VR toy box that is many people’s favourite VR game.
Blade & Sorcery: Nomad
This isn’t part of Meta’s Christmas and New Year sale, but it is one of the most notable VR games to date. Disclaimer: this one is absolutely not for kids. It features quite brutal physics-based combat. Much like Bonelad, the key draw is this isn’t fighting that asks you to swipe a hand in the right direction, at the right moment. You can improvise, and the results are generally what you might imagine they would be.
