The 7 Most Scary VR Games For The Meta Quest 3 That Will Frighten You

Want some fear? Some danger? Want to know the best scary VR games out there? Well you’ve come to the right place. There’s nothing like Virtual Reality for scary games, because the immersion of Virtual reality makes scary VR games make you extremely afraid when you are playing them. Scary VR games are so much more panic inducing because you can see the thing you’re afraid of right there in front of you instead of on a screen far away from your face. So if you want a great fright in the most immersive way possible read on. Here are the 5 Most Scary VR Games.

Oh, and this list won’t include mods for scary flatscreen games that are ported to VR. Here we’re talking about scary VR games that were always made with Virtual Reality in mind, or have a specific VR version made for it.

Scary VR Games - Phasmophobia

The Phasmophobia Logo

Want a very scary VR game to play with your friends? Well then Phasmophobia is the game for you! It is the only multiplayer VR horror game on this list, which is because experiencing a scary VR game with friends generally makes that game less frightening. Still, Phasmophobia has a lot of great frights in it, and more so than most of the other games on this list its multiplayer nature makes it possible to repeat it over and over so that once you’ve played it once you’ll still have the opportunity to be frightened again and again.

In Phasmophobia you and your teammates are ghost hunters who work together to detect and investigate a haunted house. You have a lot of modern ghost hunting tools to do this with, and more classic methods like saying the name of the ghost over and over until it appears. Though these ghosts aren’t content to be disturbed. This scary VR game is so scary because the ghost you’re hunting will appear and hunt you and your team right back.

Phasmophobia takes all of the best moments from ghost hunter TV shows and movies and puts them right into a great VR multiplayer experience. You can play levels over and over again, and each time the details of the haunting will be different, and you’ll experience new scares and new panic every time you play this scary VR game.

Phasmophobia is available on PCVR via Steam.

Scary VR Games - Into The Radius

The Into The Radius Logo

Into The Radius is a less traditional scary VR game. You might consider it more of a VR shooting game with its wide variety of weapons to use and enemies to encounter. Though what makes Into The Radius a scary VR game is its oppressive and lonely atmosphere. Here you’ll find fewer jump scares than in other scary VR games, and more of a constant feeling of dread. You have effective weapons, but the hazards you face are so otherworldly and numerous that many feel Into The Radius is a VR horror game.

Getting charged by one of the creepy enemies in Into The Radius

In Into The Radius you are an explorer of the Pechorsk Zone. This zone, the titular radius, is a strange and anomalous area where the laws of physics and reality are warped. The strange and terrifying dark entities that roam it aren’t the only dangers either. If you’re not careful you might wander into one of the many types of anomalies that dot the zone, either by chance or to try and unearth the artifacts that can be found inside of them.

A large anomaly in Into The Radius

Enemies can sometimes attack from seemingly nowhere, and once you go out into the zone it can be hard to feel truly safe. Even once you’ve cleared an area of threats there are always anomalies to scare you, and once the tide comes in all of those enemies will come back. You’ll have to scavenge what you can to survive, and sell to buy what you cannot find. Into The Radius isn’t only a great VR shooting game, but it will also scare even the most veteran of explorers.

Into The Radius is available on the Quest as a standalone game or via Oculus or Steam PCVR.

Scary VR Games - Face Your Fears 2

The Face Your Fears 2 Logo

There are a lot of more linear horror games that not only give you a story, but also give you a lot of things to be afraid of that you’ll be mostly defenseless against. While a lot of scary VR games fit into this category most of them aren’t as scary or fun to play as Face Your Fears 2.

In this VR horror game you are trying to find your sister in a remote area. The last thing you heard she was hanging out at an old house and called your mother sounding terrified. Unfortunately on the way up there you hit someone with your car and crashed… but when you look close it’s not actually a person, but a doll of some kind.

Whatever you hit with your car in Face Your Fears 2

So you leave the road to find help, and things only get scarier from there. Every place you go as you search for your sister is weirder than the last, and even the objects and notes you find along the way point to a dark history surrounding the area. Even the animals seem evil and dangerous.

In Face Your Fears 2 you truly will have to face your fears, and it won’t only be ghosts chasing you this time. Even rats and snakes come after you. This scary VR game keeps you guessing as to what exactly will be coming after you next, and changes up the locations and scares often to stay interesting and more importantly frightening all of the way through.

Face Your Fears 2 is available on the Quest standalone.

Scary VR Games - Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted

The Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted Logo

If you’ve ever played or heard of the Five Nights At Freddy’s series of games (there are a lot of them now) then you know that these games became very popular for doing one thing better than any other horror game out there. That thing is Jump Scares.

An approaching animatronic nightmare in Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted

The VR entry into this series called Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted is no different. This game takes the classic Five Nights At Freddy’s formula and transports it to VR. Not only are the jump scares so much more up close and personal in Virtual Reality, but you also have to interact with all of the buttons and tools in your security room with your actual hands. One of the things that makes scary VR games so much scarier is that when you’re scared it can be really easy to panic and miss a button, and that’s what makes Five Nights At Freddy’s VR a great way to play the game.

As in all the other Five Nights At Freddy’s games, you are a new employee at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza working the night shift. Your goal is to survive to 6 AM for a few days in a row. This isn’t as easy as it might sound, because the animatronic animals aren’t animatronic, they’re alive, and they’re coming to get you. You have to use whatever tools are at your disposal, security doors, flashlights, whatever will keep the deadly machines at bay, to survive. It’s a tense experience made all the more tense in Virtual Reality.

Oh, and this isn’t just one scary VR game, Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted combines many of the classic Five Nights At Freddy’s experiences into a single package. That’s a lot of scares for your dollar, especially if you’re a fan of the series and want a new way to replay the games.

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Help Wanted is available for Quest standalone and PCVR, and on Steam for PCVR.

VR Post Apocalyptic Horror - Metro Awakening

The Metro Awakening Logo.

Metro Awakening is the first Virtual Reality game in the Metro game series, based on the famous series of books.

It takes you back, once more, to the metro tunnels underneath Moscow in the aftermath of a nuclear war, except instead of filling the shoes of Artyom as in other Metro games, instead you take the role of a man who becomes known as “Khan.”

The ruins of the Moscow metro tunnels in Metro Awakening hold horrors physical and spiritual.

Originally a doctor, Khan’s awakening into somebody who sees what is going on beyond the rusted pipes and old train cars of the physical metro is a fascinating tale, and a lot of fun to play through.

While not as traditional of a horror experience as other titles on this list, Metro Awakening has a similar Post-Soviet horror feel to it as Into The Radius does. The main difference being that Metro Awakening is far more story focused and far more linear.

In this fantastic post apocalyptic Virtual Reality horror shooter you sneak and crawl through the abandoned metro tunnels fighting scores of mutants, beasts, and whatever other physical horrors the metro can through at you as you look for your wife.

One of many scary mutants in Metro Awakening.

Of course, things aren’t always as they seem in the metro, and that’s where this game gets really scary.

Scary VR Games - Cosmodread

The Cosmodread Logo

As the name implies, Cosmodread is a scary VR game set in space. Not just any space, deep space. Deep space where there are terrors unlike any on earth.

A space horror in Cosmodread

Cosmodread is also the only roguelike VR horror game on this list, and while you might think a game that is designed around you dying constantly would drain some of the fear out of it or be too short, well fortunately you would be wrong. The fact that dying means you have to start all the way from the beginning makes this game somehow even tenser, and just playing it is plenty scary.

You are a lone survivor aboard an experimental starship in deep space. This ship came across a terrifying and large organic creature that can somehow live in vacuum, and that creature isn’t content to just look at humans, it wants to eat them. Oh, and the ship’s security system has also gone crazy, so there’s robots to worry about too.

The space beast in Cosmodread

The sights and sounds of Cosmodread are truly terrifying, and make for quite a VR horror game. Even when no enemies are around the groans and creaks of the decaying ship you’re scuttling through remind you constantly that you need to leave, and when you’re close to enemies their screams, fleshy noises, and groans make them even more horrifying to hear than just to look at.

The horrors of deep space can even appear in areas you’ve already cleared, and more than anything else you have to worry about not having the ammunition or supplies to make it all the way through them to repair the ship and get back to earth. Cosmodread is a fun roguelike that is hard to complete, and a very scary VR game. Whenever you think you’re on top of this game and are about to win, it throws something new at you to terrifying and hurt you.

Cosmodread is available for standalone on the Quest and Oculus PCVR and on Steam for PCVR.

Zombie Survival Horror - Propagation: Paradise Hotel

A zombie outbreak has come, and it has overwhelmed the city you live and work in. Now you’re stuck at the Hotel that you work in, and things aren’t looking very good.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel starts with you locked in a kitchen and unsure if most of the people you knew and worked with, including your sister, are even alive anymore, you and your friend decide to make a break for it.

Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned, and soon you find yourself trying your best to navigate your way to the hotel roof alone and desperate for ammunition and supplies.

Zombies refuse to stay down in Propagation: Paradise Hotel.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a very well made VR Zombie Horror game that really leans into the horrors of being alone and desperately trying to survive a zombie outbreak inside of a massive complex like a hotel. It also features the unique twist of zombies not staying down once you put them down, and so you better get away fast before they get back up.

The only downside of this game is that it is fairly short at about four hours, but what is here is absolutely fantastic. No zombie horror experience on the Meta Quest 3 matches the feeling of quiet desperation and fear as you sneak through the hotel doing your best to take what you can take, proceed to the next area, and try not be noticed by the hordes of the undead.

Grim and scary sights like this are all over this VR horror game.

For a survival horror experience that gives you weapons and still often makes you feel powerless there’s none like Propagation: Paradise Hotel, and it feels fantastic to play in Virtual Reality.

Scary VR Games - BONUS - Lies Beneath

The Lies Beneath Logo

You might have expected only 5 games in this list, but it wouldn’t feel truly complete without at least mentioning Lies Beneath. This game might not be as outright scary as the rest of the VR horror games on this list, but the enemies sure do look creepy.

A creepy enemy in Lies Beneath

In Lies Beneath you are a student back from college looking for her lost father in your hometown. Something isn’t right though. It’s like the whole area is decaying and becoming evil, and before you know it strange creatures are attacking you. Uncovering what exactly Lies Beneath and why everything is so strange and hostile is genuinely mysterious, and there are a lot of great moments and combat encounters along the way.

The reason why this game isn’t more prominent on this list of the most scary VR games, is that while there are a few frightening moments in Lies Beneath, and the monster designs are truly monstrous, it’s more of a shooter than a horror game. The linear nature of it, combined with your ever increasing competence and power, make it a more action focused experience than other games on this list, even more so than Into The Radius.

Still, Lies Beneath is genuinely terrifying at times, and is overall a very underrated VR shooter with some scary horror elements thrown in. So if you want a more action packed scary VR game, give Lies Beneath a look.

Lies Beneath is available for standalone play on the Quest.

Well that’s all for this list of the most scary VR games. If you’ve got another game in mind that you think should have been on this list because of how scary you found it, then feel free to leave a comment.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - A Very Scary Zombie VR Game

If you’re wondering whether or not you should try Propagation: Paradise Hotel, or whether it’s worth your time and money, then this review will answer those questions. We’ll go through the premise, looks, sound, and game mechanics of this zombie VR game. Welcome to this Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a zombie horror survival game from Wanadev Studios, the people behind the original Propagation VR, which came out.. oh woa that's a long time ago.

The Release Date Of Propagation VR

So this is the zombie VR game that they've been making since, and they've come a long way from standing still while zombies run at you. Now we can actually move. Oh, and there's tools, and scavenging, and stealth. Paradise Hotel is definitely a huge upgrade from the original Propagation, it's more of a game than a novelty. Though if you leave this review with anything, it's that this game is very short, a few hours at most, but it is a satisfying short game, though you won't get as much entertainment value for your money as you might with other games, even VR singleplayer games.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - Game Premise

The premise is the usual early zombie apocalypse sort of thing. You're stuck in the kitchen with your buddy Owen, and your sister is alive on one of the upper floors. Oh, and the military is on their way to rescue you. So you need to go up through the hotel, get your sister, and make it to the roof for rescue. Though what makes this game different from most zombie games is that the zombies don't stay down.

A Zombie that won’t stay down

Every corpse you run across is a potential threat, because unless their head is completely destroyed, they'll get back up even after you put them down. Areas that you previously entered aren't safe, because what was once just a dead body might get up and try to eat you. We'll get into that more in a bit here, but first let's talk about the presentation.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - Visuals

For a Quest 2 game, this looks really good. The blockiness and low res textures and objects that you see in a lot of VR games, standalone ones especially, isn't really obvious until you look for it. Though that could also be because most of the game is dark, like really dark. It's a horror game so that's definitely par for the course, and it means you'll always want to use your flashlight.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a dark game

Though you also need to be careful not to run out of flashlight batteries. This darkness definitely helps smooth out some of the usual rougher graphical edges that are more obvious in well lit rooms. Still, for a game running on a Quest this looks good, and considering the sheer amount of gore in some areas you might not even want it to look better.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - Sound

Though where this zombie VR game really shines is the sound. More specifically, the lack of it. There's not a lot going on for long stretches, and those moments where the tension is building and you're looking around every corner or at every corpse and wondering where the next threat is going to come from is aided a lot by the sound design.

There's this creepy, hollow noise that constantly plays. It's like being in a haunted graveyard, which you kind of are, and all you'll hear are your footsteps as you walk around. Then, when a zombie wakes up and starts to growl, it fills the silence. The whole effect is very foreboding.

Just Around This Corner Are A Ton of Zombies

Propagation: Paradise Hotel saves the music tracks for the action packed moments in between sneaking, so when you do get attacked there's some serviceable action tracks. These aren't phenomenal, but really amp up the surprise and panic when the long quiet is broken by combat. Propagation: Paradise Hotel uses sound well to make it a scarier game and accentuate the pacing of tension buidling and sudden spurts of action.

There's also the voice acting, which is... okay. At least for the english version there's a few strange intonations on words, but overall there's very little emotion or weight behind the voice acting. Luckily there isn't too much of it, but overall it sounds like most people aren't too bothered by the zombie apocalypse, and it's a little jarring. Still, the protagonist's voice is pretty good, and she does genuinly sound worried, scared, or triumphant at times.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - VR Controls

Before we get to the gameplay let's also talk about the VR controls. They're pretty standard, and nothing absolutely phenomenal or terrible, but there is one quirk. Unless you've broken your hand several times and can't turn your wrist anymore, or you've been typing on a keyboard for so long that the carpal tunnel has forced your hand to a constant 45 degree angle that you'll have to turn your wrist awkwardly to aim down weapon sights. Luckily you can fix this by changining the vertical controller orientation down or up as you please. -10 worked well for me, but you might be more comfortable at a different setting.

The Propagation: Paradise Hotel Settings Menu

There's also no collision between your hands and the environment. The various keys, tools, switches and physical objects you interact with in the game world actually felt really good and responsive. Your hand won't just slip right off of them, and if you turn your hand the object will turn too, so there was never that awkward moment of flailing around while trying to flip a switch. This is easier said than done, and overall the controls were good and tight from interaction to aiming.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - Game Mechanics

Like we talked about before, a lot of the scariness in this game comes from the dead things not staying dead. Early on you won't be getting much ammo either, and so you'll have to scavenge a lot for bullets, healing antiseptic, and batteries for your flashlight. Even light can be a scarce resource, so you are encouraged to not always light up an area, which definitely adds to the spooky factor.

The first half of this zombie VR game relies on stealth a lot to conserve your resources. The zombies don't stay down, hit hard, and take a lot of shots to put down. So you'll be well off sneaking around from room to room. This section of the game plays into its strengths a lot. You feel vulnerable, and there's no way to clear an area and completely feel safe. Even if you've already been somewhere before you can't just run around like you own the place. The zombies own the place, and you're just passing through to try and get to get higher in the hotel and escape.

A Deadly Hallway

It works really well, and the potential of this game really shines through... until you get the shotgun. The shotgun can turn a zombie's head into mist, and they won't get back up again. This is really awesome at first, but as a consequence the game becomes more linear. You don't need to retread areas as much, and when you do there won't be any of the undead there to greet you. So a lot of the tension of sneaking and scavenging as efficiently as possible dissipates.

Instead the zombie VR game becomes very combat focused, and the combat itself isn't the greatest part of this game. It ends up being a combination of reloading really quickly, and keeping the zombies away, which you can by hitting them in the face. So you get into this loop of shooting, and then swinging to chain stun whatever zombie you're facing. Oh, and in this part of the game you'll be getting mountains of ammo.

A Pile of Ammunition

Where once you had to be careful and look closely, you'll just be getting piles of it. The zombies do get harder to compensate for your new power, but you can't sneak around them, so you'll have to blast your way through. So this becomes a subpar zombie action game towards the end.

Oh, and there's puzzles thrown in there sometimes... they really just break up the tension and don't really serve much of a purpose. I'm not a fan of these puzzles, they felt silly. Turning some knobs to activate a pump seems reasonable to give you a slightly different thing to do for a little while and break up the sneaking and combat. Trying to find out what number a jersey is to find out a door code felt very gamey in a bad way.

Two Big Boys

Speaking of gamey, there's even a final boss. We’re not going to anything else about that or the story here though.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel Review - Conclusions

Propagation: Paradise Hotel has some neat ideas but never fully commits to any of them, and so it just becomes all about the shooting at the end. If they'd leaned more into the horror aspect then there would be a great zombie horror game here. As it is now it's too short and gives up on what makes it unique halfway through, so there's only really a couple of hours of fantastic gameplay here that you can't find done better somewhere else.

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How To Play Gorilla Tag Without VR On PC For Free

Maybe you don’t have a VR headset, and maybe you still want to play Gorilla Tag without VR on your PC so that you can still join your friends. Well, that’s possible, though what you can do in Gorilla Tag when you play it without VR is very limited. Gorilla Tag is a game designed and meant purely for Virtual Reality, and the fun of the game comes from vaulting yourself around with your VR monkey hands. Still, if you really want to play Gorilla Tag without VR, then here’s how, and all completely for free.

These steps will work with the Steam or Oculus version of Gorilla Tag, but keep in mind that Gorilla Tag is a game meant to be played in VR, and so playing it without VR will not be the same sort of experience.

How To Play Gorilla Tag Without VR On PC - The Monke Mod Manager

The first step in playing Gorilla Tag without VR is downloading and installing the Monke Mod Manager. It’s a great application that you can use on your PC to install Gorilla tag mods, and you’ll need it to play Gorilla Tag with no VR headset. Go to the Monke Mod Manager github page that you can find at this link. Click on the MonkeModManager.exe link under “Assets” to download it.

The Monke Mod Manager Github Page

After Monke Mod Manager is downloaded, launch it to start it. You might get a popup like the one you see here if the installer can’t find where your Gorilla Tag launcher is, especially if you’re running it through Oculus.

If You See This You’ll Have To Manually Find Your GorillaTag.exe

That’s alright. If you run Gorilla Tag through Steam click OK and then find and select GorillaTag.exe at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gorilla Tag. If you run Gorilla Tag through the Oculus app then you can find and select GorillaTag.exe at C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\Software\Software\another-axiom-gorilla-tag (your filepath might be a little different depending on where you have Steam or Oculus installed, just find the “Steam” or “Oculus” folder and follow the rest of the path from there).

Whether Monke Mod Manager found the path automatically or you had to find it yourself, it will start up and you’ll see a menu with a bunch of check boxes. Scroll down to the very bottom and check the boxes “BananaHook”, “Bepinject”, “Newtonsoft”, “TMPLoader”, and “Utilla".

All The Mods You Need To Install With Monke Mod Manager

Then hit “Install/Update” in the bottom right corner. After a few seconds the mods will be installed, and you can close the Monke Mod Manager. Now on to the next step to play Gorilla Tag on PC.

How To Play Gorilla Tag Without VR On PC - UnityExplorer

Now that the proper mods are installed via the Monke Mod Manager, there’s another that you’ll need to add manually without it. It’s called UnityExplorer, and is used more commonly as a debugging tool for game developers. Here we’re going to use it to play Gorilla Tag without a VR headset. First go to the UnityExplorer github page. Under “Releases” click on “BepInEx Mono.”

The UnityExplorer Github Page

This will redirect you to a thunderstore page where you can download the BepInEx Mono version of UnityExplorer. Click on the “Download Manually” button and the files will download to your Downloads folder.

Downloading UnityExplorer From Thunderstore

Go to your Downloads folder just like with the Monke Mod Manager, but this time extract the zipped folder that was downloaded. If you don’t know how to do that check out this helpful article. Once that is done copy the UnityExplorer.BIE5.Mono.dll and UniverseLib.Mono.dll files from that folder and paste them in C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\Software\Software\another-axiom-gorilla-tag\BepInEx\plugins if you’re using an Oculus installation or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gorilla Tag\BepInEx\plugins if you’re using a Steam Gorilla Tag version (your filepath might be a little different depending on where you have Steam or Oculus installed, just find the “Steam” or “Oculus” folder and follow the rest of the path from there).

The Gorilla Tag BepInEx plugins Folder With UnityExplorer Added

How To Play Gorilla Tag Without VR On PC - Running Gorilla Tag

Now you’re ready to run Gorilla Tag with no VR headset, straight on your PC! If you’re using Steam then launch the game from Steam, but if you’re using Oculus you’ll have to run the GorillaTag.exe directly from the installation folder, and this works with Steam as well. As a reminder you can find this .exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\Software\Software\another-axiom-gorilla-tag if you’re using an Oculus installation or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gorilla Tag for Steam.

Running Gorilla Tag With No VR Headset!

You’ll see a bunch of windows open up, and a third person view of your monkey. Congratulations! You’ve made it into Gorilla Tag without VR. You’ll notice that you can’t move though, don’t worry. click the button in the top right corner of the windows to close them, and then click the “Freecam” button on the top to open the Freecam menu.

Starting Freecam

Click the “Use Game Camera?” button. Feel free to set the movement speed to whatever you want. It will be 10 by default, but that’s very fast. Check the controls, they’re pretty standard, and then hit “Begin Freecam.” Push a WASD key and you’ll see your Monke move!

The Gorilla Tag Treehouse Without VR

You can move around and leave your tree to join a public game… but you’ll notice that there isn’t really a way to select any of the buttons on the Computer or anywhere else. That’s because you can’t move your arms, just your Monke in general. Still, you can interact with other players a bit and you will be in game.

Be very careful with this though, because using this could get you banned. Still, if you really want to play Gorilla Tag with no VR, this does technically work. Playing Gorilla Tag like this really makes a hollow shell out of a very fun game, but it is better than nothing if you don’t have a VR headset. Seriously though, your account could easily get banned if you play like this.

If you do get your hands on a VR headset then check out some of our other articles about Gorilla Tag, it’s a great game and deserves to be enjoyed at it’s fullest.

Google Earth VR Is A Mind Blowing Experience

Google Earth VR is a fantastic and underrated free VR game that can be easy to forget about even for VR enthusiasts. Well, don’t forget about it. Google Earth VR is a Virtual Reality experience that is fascinating even for those who are very familiar with VR games and applications, so don’t miss out for yourself. It’s free, and it will let you go anywhere in the world that you want to go. So here’s what you can do in Google Earth VR, and why it’s so great.

Google Earth VR - Travel The World

In case you’re unfamiliar, Google Earth, and its Virtual Reality counterpart, Google Earth VR, allows you to travel the world from the comfort of a computer or VR headset. Of course, here we’re talking about the Virtual Reality version of Google Earth, so you’ll need a VR headset to access it. You’ll also need to connect that VR headset to a PC to run the Google Earth VR application, sorry standalone only users, but this game is PCVR only.

The View Over Tokyo, Japan In Google Earth VR

Still, Google Earth VR is very much worth the trouble of connecting to a PC. It’s not a game in the traditional sense that you are given a goal to accomplish and the tools to accomplish that goal. The goal is what you make of it, because in Google Earth VR the game is the world, and your tools all give you the ability to explore the world. It’s truly fantastic, and in Virtual Reality an experience that is head and shoulders more immersive and impressive that in it is on the flat screen.

Half Dome, California in Google Earth VR

You begin the game overlooking the earth like some space giant, and you can spin yourself around the earth any way you want, position yourself over any country, any place. From the most dense and cultured cities to the most remote mountains and tundra, the whole world is right there at your feet. It’s an amazing feeling, and truly the best way to experience the real world in a virtual way.

Google Earth VR - Go Anywhere

It’s so odd to look at what you see in Google Earth VR, and then realize that what you’re looking at is a real place in the real world. You can think of anywhere you’d like to visit, and just go there immediately. From up above you can view the landscape and vistas of the area. Though the view isn’t perfect. You’ll see the same strange shapes and artifacts surrounding buildings and terrain as you do with flatscreen Google Earth.

Agios Nikolaos, Greece in Google Earth VR

Sometimes some areas will also only be mapped by a flat picture with no 3D models overlayed at all, which can be kind of a letdown, and not nearly as magical as overlooking a city with buildings towering up underneath you. Still, that’s not the best part of Google Earth VR, what makes this a truly magical way to explore the world without ever leaving your living room is Street View.

Google Earth VR Street View in a park in Vancouver, Canada

Street View brings you to the ground level of whatever place you are hovering over. There you are, right there on the ground at a moment in time. You’re surrounded by the real world, unmoving. If you’re in a city there are people, buildings, and cars. In more remote areas you can see the fields and trees and mountains. It’s beautiful, and it’s so immediate. You feel there, transported to a place in the world.

What Google Earth VR adds is that you’re not just looking at a flat picture. You can look around with your real head in a full 360 degrees. It’s like you’re actually standing there, frozen with the other people around you. The ability to go anywhere and just… be there, is almost indescribable. It’s a giddy feeling when you get into it. The whole world opens up to you and you can go anywhere in a moment. The only better way to travel so quickly would be teleportation.

The Inside of a Cafe in Bagdad, Iraq viewed in Google Earth VR Street View

Google Earth VR - Conclusion

Unfortunately, Google Earth VR is not a perfect application. Not all places have the best or most high resolution images taken to represent them. Especially for street view. Fuzzy faces and blurred vistas aren’t the most immersive, especially when they’re so close that you could touch them. As mentioned before the buildings will also sometimes look a little crazy, but this is all a consequence of trying to map the entire world.

The view in Agios Nikolaos, Greece from a Parking Lot via Google Earth VR

Regardless of the levels of detail you might see and immersion you might have, there is still no easier way to see the world in immersive Virtual Reality than with Google Earth VR, and more than anything else it’s a great way for anybody to enjoy VR simply by using it to get a deeper understanding and experience of the real world. Oh, and Google Earth VR is completely free! So if you’ve got a PCVR capable headset it is more than worth at least poking your head in and gets our hearty recommendation. Enjoy!

The 7 Best Single Player VR Games

Want a fantastic Single Player VR experience? Well you’re sure to get one with one of the Best Single Player VR Games that you’ll find here. This list of Single Player VR Games focuses on Singleplayer experiences in Virtual Reality that not only have extremely entertaining and immersive gameplay, but a captivating plot and story that guides the experience and makes it meaningful. So if you’re looking for the Best Single Player VR Games, here they are.

Single Player VR Games - Half Life Alyx

The Half-Life: Alyx Logo

If you’ve heard about Virtual Reality gaming before then you’ve probably heard of Half Life: Alyx, Valve’s much anticipated sequel/prequel to the extremely popular Half-Life series. For the first time experience the infamous City 17 in fully immersive VR as you, as the heroine Alyx Vance, traverse through alien infested areas, futuristic alien structures, and old industrial areas as you shoot and puzzle your way through a fantastic Half-Life story.

Fighting an Antlion in Half-Life: Alyx

If you’re new to VR games and want a fantastic Singleplayer VR Game then there’s really no better place to start than Half-Life: Alyx. It has controls that are easy to use, and great teleportation if you’re prone to motion sickness. Enemies from headcrab zombies to combine soldiers contribute to thrilling combat, and you get a fun little arsenal to use to defeat them. This game is easy and fun to learn and entertaining throughout.

The biggest downside to Half-Life: Alyx is that it is only available via Steam for PCVR, sorry standalone users. If you want to play this game then you’ll have to connect your headset to a PC or try using Airlink.

Single Player VR Games - Into The Radius

The Into The Radius Logo

Now for a fantastic Single Player VR Game that is available both via PCVR and standalone. Into The Radius is not only a fantastically fun singleplayer shooting, exploration, and scavenging game, but also an extremely scary and atmospheric experience. It also has some of the best inventory management and weapon maintenance of any Virtual Reality game, so much so that others are starting to emulate it.

Fighting A Fragment Enemy In Into The Radius

In Into The Radius you are an explorer of the Pechorsk Radius, a hostile and strange anomalous zone where the strange black creatures and figures aren’t the only danger. There are deadly anomalies scattered around as well. Explore the radius to uncover its secrets as you delve deeper and deeper into more dangerous territory. Complete missions for your mysterious contractors, and sell or use the artifacts that you uncover.

Into the Radius is available on PCVR and standalone, and is overall a one of a kind and fantastic experience often compared to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games, though with a more lonely, scary, and oppressive atmosphere.

Single Player VR Games - Lies Beneath

The Lies Beneath Logo

Lies Beneath is a mixture of horror and mystery as well that combine for a standout example of a single player VR game with great length, story, and action. Seriously, this singleplayer VR game is underrated

In Lies Beneath you play as Mae, a college student, when a terrible car crash leaves you separated from your father. As you try your best to find him by exploring a series of abandoned forests and villages you will shoot and chop your way through hordes of horrifying and otherwordly enemies as you try to uncover where he is and what happened to him.

This singleplayer VR game is full of extremely memorable sections and even very interesting boss battles. The enemies you face change often enough to keep things interesting, and the environments do as well. If you want a truly otherwordly experience then Lies Beneath is the game for you.

Lies Beneath is available on PCVR and Standalone.

Single Player VR Games - Vertigo 2

The Vertigo 2 Logo

If you’re looking for less otherwordly in a figurative sense and more in the literal sense, then Vertigo 2 is a great single player VR game that you should try. This game is more wacky than scary, and certainly does a lot of interesting things with its weapon and enemy design that you won’t find elsewhere in the Virtual Reality gaming landscape.

There’s Even Boat Combat in Vertigo 2

In Vertigo 2 you are Sonja, and you’ve found yourself deep within a Quantum reactor full of security robots and hostile aliens that all don’t want you around. As you journey to the center you not only fight your way through these opponents, but uncover the motives of the interesting and varied cast of characters that help and hinder your way through.

Made by a single developer, Vertigo 2 was a breakout hit for its humble beginnings. Not only does it have a very unique story and setting, but it constantly keeps things interesting though not overwhelming with its environments of otherworldly alien biomes and futuristic sci fi corridors. Your equipment is the same, with a ton of sci fi weapons that you won’t find anywhere else in VR games.

Vertigo 2 is available on PCVR only.

Single Player VR Games - Resident Evil 4 VR

The Resident Evil 4 VR Logo

Resident Evil 4 VR is a Virtual Reality port of the classic Resident Evil 4 that spawned a whole new generation of adventure shooters. This game is great in that it takes the classic gameplay of Resident Evil 4 and breathes new life into it with immersive Virtual Reality.

You Can Even Hold a Weapon In Each Hand in Resident Evil 4 VR

Embody Leon Kennedy as you are sent to a remote area of Spain to rescue the president’s daughter from the clutches of the Los Ganados cult. You have to fight, puzzle, and explore your way through the village, to the castle overlooking it, and beyond to rescue her and stop Los Ganados’s plans.

Just like the original, Resident Evil 4 VR keeps you guessing as to what exactly you’ll run into next with its variety of encounters and locations. The puzzling and exploration are top notch, and even improve on the original game through the addition of Virtual Reality to the controls and view. No more difficult tank controls, now you are freer than ever before.

Resident Evil 4 VR is available on PCVR and Standalone.

Single Player VR Games - Red Matter 1 and 2

The Red Matter 2 Logo

If you want a less combat focused and more story and puzzle focused single player VR game, then Red Matter and its sequel Red Matter 2 are the best in the category for their mystery and puzzle design. You won’t want to keep jumping back into these games just for the fantastic visuals or interesting puzzles and challenges, but also for the allure of the story that slowly unfolds and grabs you into continuing onwards to find out what is going on.

You take the role of a covert operative in a cold war future, and in both you have to investigate facilities out in the depths of space to search for answers. The setting of our solar system also gives the game a chance to show off absolutely breathtaking vistas of space. Even when running on a standalone headset like the Quest 2, these games look absolutely gorgeous.

While there are a lot of great puzzle and escape room games for the Quest 2 and Virtual Reality in general, the Red Matter series are by far the best of the bunch and are not only intriguing for their story, but for their very approachable challenges even for those that aren’t puzzlers by nature.

Both Red Matter games are available on PCVR and Standalone.

Single Player VR Games - The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 1 and 2

The The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Logo

If you just love zombie games, or want to immerse yourself more deeply into the world of the popular The Walking Dead series of comics and shows, then you’ll find no better way to do that than with The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners and its sequel The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution.

A Walker In The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

In these games you take on the role of The Tourist, a Louisiana legend in the post zombie apocalypse, as you enter the ruined and flooded city of New Orleans. Though you’re not alone, two factions fight for control of the city. You’ll have to combat them as well as the increasingly common groups of walkers as you try to find The Reserve, a rumored emergency bunker beneath the city.

With a wide cast of characters and interesting story, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 1 and 2 are more than just some of the best zombie games you can find in Virtual Reality, they present an interesting story that you get to make interesting choices in. The zombie combat system is fantastic and is very reminiscent of what you see the characters doing in the comics and shows, but now you’re doing it.

Overall there’s no better single player VR game for those that want a fun zombie experience mixed with a complete and satisfying story that actually gives you some freedom of choice. Both of these games are available on PCVR and Standalone.

There you go, the 7 Best Single Player VR Games. There’s something here that everyone will enjoy, so pick your favorite and have fun.