Consider this your HTC Vive starter pack.
Playing a game in desktop-class virtual reality is unique. There’s an emotional component that’s tough to describe no matter how talented you are with words. The way your whole body moves to dodge the projectile headed your way, or that feeling when adrenaline kicks in and the music in the background becomes the choreographer for everything you’re doing in the game. It’s intense and fantastic, but the right game can take this experience to an entirely new level.
Here are five games you must have for the HTC Vive, no matter what kind of gamer you are.
Final Approach
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMUcH52HYZE?rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&controls=2&autohide=1&showinfo=0]
This is a fresh take on a game type that got insanely popular in the early days of mobile gaming. You exist as a sort of God Mode character, guiding pilots and people to safety in an array of increasingly complicated situations. Direct your planes to the safest landing point, but be sure to avoid combat pilots, alien spaceships, and weather patterns that could damage things.
It’s a casual game with a familiar concept, but the ability to move around and see everything from different perspectives makes navigating everything so much more interesting.
Buy: Final Approach ($24.99)
Holopoint
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OM-3RXaTHI?rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&controls=2&autohide=1&showinfo=0]
You’re going to see a lot of shooting games for the HTC Vive, and for a good reason. Being able top lift your arm in the real world and have your weapon match movement in the virtual world is a lot of fun, and being forced to physically dodge projectiles as they head your way is even better. The best of these experiences for the moment is not one with a firearm or a laser pistol, though. It’s with a bow and arrow.
Whether you’re interested in being Katniss Everdeen or there’s a Legolas costume in your closet — we’re not judging — this game is going to leave your arms sore, your brow wet, and your desire to head to a real archery range at 100 percent.
Buy: Holopoint ($7.99)
Job Simulator
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H9ieJk8AJ4?rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&controls=2&autohide=1&showinfo=0]
No attempt to explain this game to someone who has never been inside the HTC Vive before will ever sound fun. But you’d be hard pressed to find someone who has actually played Job Simulator and isn’t completely hooked. As one of the few humans left in the world, your robot overlords are trying to find pedestrian jobs for you to do. You can choose between cooking in a kitchen, fixing cars in repair bay, running a convenience shop, and more. Each job is incredibly basic, but contained within each job is the potential to cause a fair amount of chaos.
You want to hurl a bottle of Sriracha at your robot supervisor? Go for it. You want to see if you can get the perfect paper airplane to sail across a cubicle farm? All yours. You want to fix a bunch of robot cars for an hour? Sounds kinda boring — but you can do that too!
Buy: Job Simulator ($29.99)
Audioshield
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhSsdsu4yIk?rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&controls=2&autohide=1&showinfo=0]
What if your favorite song was broken down into a series of brightly colored orbs, and you had to punch them out of the way with a pair of color-matched shields in order to keep listening? Audioshield exists to keep you active and listening to just about every popular song you can think of. Search for a favorite — including stuff you have store locally — and punch your way to the end of the song.
A public rating system that combines activity level, punch intensity, and accuracy gives you reason enough to keep going at your favorite song, but it’s also an incredible way to take advantage of the HTC Vive controllers.
Buy: Audioshield ($19.99)
Unseen Diplomacy
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirQtdsG5yE?rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&controls=2&autohide=1&showinfo=0]
This game is the truest test of room-scale VR that exists today. Unseen Diplomacy requires you crawl around in ducts, sneak through rooms, and complete a series of spy-like tasks as you wander around in your actual room in real life. The game maps your physical space and arranges the digital world around your space, so it feels like you’re crossing a lot more space than you actually are.
It’s brilliant, if a bit short, and a perfect example of what is to come when you can move around.
Buy: Unseen Diplomacy ($2.99)
Bonus! The Brookhaven Experiment
This isn’t a finished game just yet, but the demo available in the Steam Store is all kinds of terrifying. Zombies come at your from every direction, and both the battery in your flashlight and the ammo in your gun are finite resources. If something gets close enough to bite, you can move out of the way and even pistol whip them to gain that extra second of survival.
The demo is only a couple of waves long, and the actual game promises to be more than just a standing shooter, so this is one we’re going to be keeping an eye on.
Download: The Brookhaven Experiment Demo (Free)
