The dawn of commercial virtual reality is almost upon us. In just a few short months' time, anyone with a few hundred dollars and a reasonable gaming PC will be able to step into high-fidelity, bi-naural audio supporting, high FPS VR, using commercial grade hardware. The HTC Vive will launch in perhaps as soon as this side of Christmas, while Oculus' Rift CV1 will debut before the end of Q1 and PlayStation VR won't be far behind.
This is all hugely exciting and there are a lot of people actively working on some unique experiences and games for when those hardware standards release. But what about in the mean time?
If you want to get an early look at PC grade virtual reality, you'll need an Oculus Rift DK1, 2 or one of the HTC Vive developer kits. The former two aren't too hard to get ahold of, they just cost a few hundred dollars. Congratulations if you can get one of the latter though.
Regardless of which you get though, there's plenty to try. Hundred of demos, games and experiences have been released for the HMD developmental kits over the past couple of years, but the sheer volume of them can be overwhelming.
Which is where we come in. It's been almost two years since we last told you what the best contemporary VR games and experiences are, so it's about time we gave you another run down. So without further ado, here are our favourite VR demos and experiences right now.
Time Machine VR
This is one of those really, really Early Access titles, where all that exists is a basic demo of what the final game will be like, but what is there is very exciting and fun in its own right. Time Machine VR might sound like it will send you back to lots of historical periods, but in reality it sends you back to one, really broad one: the time of the dinosaurs.
This time of course stretches for a couple of hundred million years and there's lots to see in that time, namely the dinosaurs themselves. Although the demo of the game is limited to under water experiences, there are a number of monstrous creatures on show and some basic interaction through bait balls, tags and scanning – all of which lets you learn more about the beasts as they swim about your pod.
And it's that pod is what makes this so great an experience. It's completely nausea free – unless you decide to move backwards and spin haphazardly – and despite being pretty, retains a strong frame rate even on weaker hardware.
While there is still lots more to see in Time Machine VR, what we've seen so far is very encouraging.
Neuro
Neuro is a much more passive experience than the dinosaur focused one above, with no interaction whatsoever beyond where you look having some impact on what's on show. Made by Kite and Lightning – the guys behind the Batcave demo and Sensa Pezo – this demo takes us inside a metaphorical and somewhat physical look at a person's brain. The visuals are, as you would expect from K+L, stunning, with wonderful lighting effects, high-resolution texturing and a great understanding of what is comfortable and immersive in VR.
While the travel through the brain is visually beautiful, the interactive MRI data is perhaps more exciting. It allows the player to delve into different parts of a person's brain scan, which has lots of potential for medical training, home learning and in-school education.
Neuro shows us a glimpse of what the future can be in so many senses, and that alone is worth adding it to the list of the best demos available in VR right now.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
This game has received a lot of coverage for being the first commercially successful VR breakout hit; though it is entirely playable without a VR headset. It doesn't work as well as it does because of its VR content, but the content outside of it. While one player must defuse a bomb within the confines of their HMD, other players (as many as you like) must view a PDF manual or printed instructions on how to do so. They then relay those instructions to the VR player.
It's frantic, fast paced and very good fun for everyone involved. Arguably it's just as much fun trying to decipher the instructions for the people reading the instructions in the real world as it is for the person in VR.
This game does what no others have achieved so far and made it fun to watch other people enjoy virtual reality, which has so far been limited to laughing at their reactions. Kudos to Steel Crate Games for a job well done.
I expect you to die
I expect you to die is a short point and click experience that really shows how the genre could make a comeback in virtual reality. A restricted, seated experience is something that Oculus is targeting with a lot of its titles, so something like this could work really well.
The game sees you playing a secret agent who finds themselves within the vehicle of the big-bad guy. Escaping is the name of the game, but doing so without dying will prove a challenge, as there are lasers to dodge, poison gas to avoid and the fact that you're in a car, within a plane.
The solutions once known make this one of the shortest experiences on this list, but it's still features great visuals, great atmosphere and some intuitive little puzzles that will have you scratching your head for a short while on your first play through. The menu environment is also a lovely touch, which shows that VR may revolutionise that aspect of the game into something much more interesting than the usual listed options and cycling imagery.
Mythos of the World Axis
Mythos of the Old World is a technical demonstration of how third person perspectives could be fantastic in VR. Being able to look in close to see what your character is doing, or lean back for more of a perspective is something that just isn't possible with traditional camera controls. Not only that, but the lighting and aesthetics in Mythos are so well done, they really elevate the atmosphere and make you want to look in close, as despite being very dark, there's a lot to see.
There's no combat and no real dangers beyond the jumps and the slow-acceleration of the playable character, but that's quite nice as it gives you a chance to sit back and soak in the atmosphere, of which there is plenty within this game.
Conclusion
How exciting is it, that we are months away from a VR commercial release and already there are these amazingly varied and fun experiences to enjoy? When we do get the final release hardware in our hands, the sky is the limit for what we can achieve. There's Epic's Bullet Train to look forward to, Henry VR the Oculus short film, the return of old-school platforming with Luckey's Tale and stunning space games like Star Citizen and Eve: Valkyrie.
It's a great time to be a gamer.