We’re well and truly into the spooky season, so to get myself in the mood I’ve been playing some Halloween-tastic VR titles that I’m excited to share my thoughts about.
The Oculus Quest 2 and Pico 4 are home to some of the best VR horror games out there, but there are a few duds; so to help you pick out the full-sized candy treats from the sugar-free tricks, I’ve listed a few games and apps that I've enjoyed playing and using.
If you aren’t a horror fan, don’t despair – scroll to the bottom of this page to see some jump-scare-free apps that I’ve also tried out this month. Spoiler alert: they're both amazing pieces of software.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
Whether you love the franchise or not, if you’re a fan of intense survival horror games with a moral dilemma-filled narrative then The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is a must-play this Halloween.
You take on the role of The Tourist, a legendary figure among the survivors, as you are somehow immune to the virus that turns people into mindless undead monsters. You’ve traveled to New Orleans to uncover a massive stash of government supplies known as the Reserve, though its whereabouts (and even whether or not it's real) are shrouded in mystery.
To uncover the secrets of the Reserve you’ll have to ally yourself with the various factions in the city, though for every friend you gain you’ll also make a few enemies. Saints and Sinners, much like The Walking Dead Telltale game, gives you choices that will shape how the adventure unfolds. However, unlike other titles, it gives you a lot more freedom to decide how you want to navigate the world. Those choices extend beyond the game’s dialogue too; every second of your explorations have you making real-time decisions on how you want to proceed.
But this game is more than just standing around and talking. When you take to the streets of New Orleans you’ll have to manage your resources carefully. While making well-aimed strikes against the ravenous fiends roaming the streets can help your weapons and ammo last longer, eventually, your tools will break and you’ll need to find or craft replacements. It’s not just your supplies; your health and stamina can run dry too, making you easy prey for the next horde that stumbles your way.
This style of incredibly immersive horror game can feel quite intense – even though the game’s comfort settings kept me from feeling nauseous I had to take several breaks to stop my heart from pounding through my chest – but if you can muster up the courage to tackle the monsters ahead of you then you’ll find this is one of the best VR horror games out there.
You can download The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners on the Quest store for $40 / £30 / AU$50, while its sequel, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 2 Retribution, will launch on December 2.
After the Fall
If you’re not keen to tackle the terrors of the night on your own, then you might prefer the Left 4 Dead-style multiplayer VR title After the Fall.
This game shares a lot of similarities with The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners; you’re one of a dwindling number of survivors in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with droves of undead fiends that aren’t called zombies – instead, they’re referred to as Snowies. But After the Fall trades Saints and Sinners’ narrative strengths and some of its variety for the ability to play with up to three other players.
I played After the Fall on the Pico 4 while I was testing the headset out for review, so I can’t speak for the Oculus Quest 2 version, which appears to have received a few extra updates compared with the version I played, but generally I’d agree with others that After the Fall isn’t the most exciting VR game out there. Case in point – while it does have a variety of enemies, the only real difference between most of them is how many bullets they can sponge up, leading to the combat feeling a little repetitive.
That said, the game still has many good attributes: the gunplay is a blast, and the ability to play with your mates adds a level of enjoyment that VR’s single-player experiences can lack.
If you’re interested in jumping in with your friends, you can pick up After the Fall for $40 / £30 / AU$50.
Drop Dead: The Cabin
Last but not least is Drop Dead: The Cabin, a game that actually won’t be released until early 2023, when it'll come to the Oculus Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Pico 4.
The latest game from developers Soul Assembly (Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, Drop Dead: Dual Strike Edition) has you and a friend using every gun, bat, and frying pan you can find to fight off an inexhaustible horde of undead. By exploring the cabin and its wider area you can find new tools to help aid your survival and keep the cabin’s lights on until you can be evacuated from the nightmare.
The Cabin’s world is an interesting mix of Stranger Things with classic cabin-in-the-woods horror and a VR version of Call of Duty’s zombie mode. The final product is an action horror title that’ll get your adrenaline pumping.
One of my favorite aspects of the game is that you play it using your Meta (or Pico) avatar. This makes it feel like it’s actually you and your buddy trying to survive, and not some faceless characters you don’t know nor care about.
I also enjoyed the intensity of the game mode – when the zombies start coming for you it feels like they’re really out for blood. If you and your partner aren’t working together and managing your resources carefully, you'll likely succumb to the zombie horde, as I did during both of my playthroughs (insert joke here about video game journalists not being able to play games).
My deaths unfortunately meant I wasn’t able to experience everything that the game had to offer during my allotted time. The game’s developers explained that, had I been able to survive for longer, I could have unlocked new areas to explore – map expansions that are as large as the central cabin area – that offer players rewards and challenges if they choose to venture out to one. There are three of these bonus areas planned for launch, with one being available at random per playthrough.
Drop Dead: The Cabin was a lot of fun, and I’m already counting the days until it launches, and I can redeem myself for the admittedly poor performance I put in. If you want to try it out before launch you can check out the game’s Discord for details about joining the beta.
Not-so-spooky VR apps
Don’t worry if you aren’t a fan of horror games, as I’ve got you covered with some VR experiences that won’t force you to fight zombies or explore a haunted house…
Wooorld
Ahead of its reveal, I had the chance to try out the Meta Quest Pro and several of the experiences that would be enhanced by its mixed reality capabilities. One of these apps was Wooorld, and its immersive GeoGuessr-like minigame might be one of my new favorite VR experiences.
Wooorld allows you and your friend’s VR avatars to explore 3D recreations of the real world while wearing a Meta Quest Pro or Oculus Quest 2 headset. As giants, you can tower above skyscrapers and draw pictures in the air to exercise your creativity, or to highlight areas you want to explore. You can then drop down to the human level and virtually visit sites through the many billions of 360-degree images that Wooorld has access to. You and your travel companions can even snap a few selfies while you’re there with the game's camera tool.
But for me easily the best aspect of the game is its Where in the Wooorld mode, which is basically VR GeoGuessr. Just like that game, Wooorld randomly drops you into a Google Street View image of somewhere in the world, and using just the information you find by exploring you have to guess where you are. I love GeoGuessr (in part because at school it was one of the few games we could play on the computers, as it resembled something educational), and the chance to feel present in those spaces, rather than staring at images on a computer screen, was a blast.
Wooorld will launch on October 25 – and I know I’ll be ready to download it right away.
Painting VR
At the same event at which I tested Wooorld, I also got to play Painting VR. Just like Walkabout Mini Golf the app’s premise is super-simple – it’s just painting – but its execution is superb.
In Painting VR you’re given a virtual canvas and a whole host of different paints and brushes with which to create a masterpiece. Whether you prefer a messy approach, where you throw paint cans, flick coated brushes, and move the resulting mess around the space with your hands (like me), or a more delicate touch, where you careful add details with pencil-thin brushes, Painting VR has something for you.
And if you don’t want to start from scratch you can import some well-known masterpieces – like the Mona Lisa and Starry Night – as a jumping-off point for your creativity.
There are also painting-by-numbers canvases that provide you with effectively a virtual coloring book. Using the settings, I was able to take one of these canvases off the easel, lock it in place on the floor, grab a brush and some paints, and sit down next to it for one of the most chilled-out experiences I’ve had in VR – all that was missing was some lo-fi background tunes.
Painting VR is available today on the Quest store for $20 / £15 / AU$27.32.
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