The best VR games on PC

So you’ve got your shiny new VR headset for your PC. Now it’s time to stock up on the best PC VR games before you strap on. Immerse yourself in some of the coolest big-name PC games that you previously only saw in pancake perspective, or explore innovative made-for-VR games that introduce completely new possibilities of play. These are the best VR games that you can play on PC right now with your HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index or Windows Mixed reality headset.

Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx naturally holds pride of place on this list. The triumphant return of Valve’s flagship franchise is one of the best games of 2020 so far. The experience is pure Half-Life: exhilarating first-person firefights, challenging puzzles, and tense horror sequences. 

It’s all rendered in a lavishly detailed world with plenty of fun physics to play around with. Stepping into the shoes of Alyx Vance is one of the first things you should do after getting your headset.

Beat Saber

Beat Saber held the throne as VR’s supposed ‘killer app’ before Alyx pressed itself upon our faces, and it’s still an essential purchase for any VR collection. Even people who don’t usually go for rhythm games fall in love with Beat Saber. 

It’s a simple premise, but hard to master — slice up the incoming colored blocks to the thumping rhythms. The difficulty ramps up with various challenges and you’ll find yourself chasing that zen-like state while getting a workout. Then slot in some mods to jam out to your favorite songs.

Elite Dangerous VR

Elite Dangerous is a spacefaring sim on a truly vast scale, a 1:1 recreation of our own Milky Way galaxy. It’s a giant sandbox for you to make your own way in as a space captain: explore, fight, mine, and trade as you will, with the AI or other players. 

Playing in VR takes Elite Dangerous’ immersion to the next level allowing you to really feel like you’re in your cockpit, looking out at the vast galaxy. Remarkably, the game’s navigation system feels very smooth in VR, allowing new pilots to learn the ropes without motion sickness.

Skyrim VR

There’s no escaping Skyrim, as the fifth game in The Elder Scrolls series has been brought to near every platform. But even if you, the Dragonborn chief companion/mage/assassin/thief of Skyrim, has ganked every bandit and knocked over every pot in the province, the VR edition is still worth your consideration.

Skyrim VR comes with expansions but is unfortunately based on OG Skryim graphics rather than the Special Edition. But it’s the feeling of being there in the world of Tamriel and looking up at the dragon flying overhead that makes it so captivating. There are also plenty of mods to beautify the experience and add content.

Blade and Sorcery

If the main appeal of fantasy games for you is the combat, then Blade and Sorcery has the best around. An arena fighter with very well thought-out melee mechanics, Blade and Sorcery offers a satisfying arsenal of weapons to slice, dice, bludgeon, bash, and stab your enemies. 

The physics of the game actually give weapons a sense of weight and balance in your hand, avoid the infamous ‘wiggle of death’ VR sword fighting technique. The ‘sorcery’ part isn’t quite as developed, but new content is regularly added to the game and right now it’s still fun to mix things up with a few magical attacks.

Asgard’s Wrath

Asgard’s Wrath is one of the best Oculus exclusive VR games. It’s a Norse mythology-themed action RPG with a twist ⁠— you’re a god who towers over the mortal world, but can possess mortal heroes with your spirit to get in on the ground-level action. Your powers also allow you to transform animals into humanoid followers with special abilities. With 20+ hours of content and a richly realized world, Asgard’s Wrath is a top pick for Rift owners.

Apex Construct

There are a few archery-based VR games out there, but Apex Construct stands out for its more unique world and story. As a cybernetic archer awakened into a strange post-apocalyptic world, you must battle robots, solve puzzles, and uncover the mystery behind the demise of humanity and the AIs that have taken over. 

Robo Recall

Epic Games’ wacky shooter plonks you down in the midst of a robot uprising with more than enough means to take down the metal menace. Apart from gunplay, pretty much anything can be ripped apart and used as an improvised weapon, including the limbs and heads of your mechanical enemies.

Superhot VR

Superhot VR is all about being your most badass possible self. Time only moves when you move, allowing you to easily Matrix things up like its 1999. Pretty much everything around you can be a weapon. Start by throwing an ashtray to an enemy face, duck and grab their gun as it falls out of their hand, spray the chumps coming up behind you, turn around again to beat the last one to death with your empty gun — that’s a typical few seconds in Superhot VR.

Slick and stylish, Superhot’s time mechanic gives you breathing room to set up devastating combos while the in-your-face VR immersion still gets the heart pumping.

Moss

Moss is an enchanting VR platformer in which, rather than being a typical first-person protagonist, you help a cute mouse heroine called Quill navigate a fantasy world inspired by fairytale adventures. As well as controlling Quill, the player also has their own presence in the world and is able to move environmental objects to free up the way for Quill to progress. The mix of puzzling, platforming, and personality makes Moss one of the best VR games on PC.

The Mage’s Tale

The Mage’s Tale is made by InXile Entertainment, the same studio that brought us The Bard’s Tale. The industry veterans deliver a solid first-person RPG story with their brand of irreverent humor. The highlight is the magic system itself, as you’re able to create and tweak spells to use in combat that really make you feel like a powerful wizard.