The Best Virtual Reality Game of 2016

Honorable Mention: Job Simulator

It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Starting with a few runner ups, let’s look back at the best VR games from this year and our 2016 winner!

Job Simulator is exactly what the title suggests. You throw on your VR headset and are instantly transported into the year 2050. Robots now do all of your everyday jobs from 2016, and so the only way to experience said jobs is to head down to the museum and use ‘JobBot’ to learn what it is ‘to job’.

You’ll be able to work in a garage fixing vehicles, as a cook, at a standard office job, and a few more average titles. Except, while the real-life versions of these duties can actually be quite boring, Job Simulator somehow manages to make everything a joy.

There’s nothing quite like launching a slice of unneeded bread across your kitchen as you send the ketchup-covered mess of a sandwich out to the awaiting customer. Heck, picking stylized objects up just to interact with them is oddly satisfying. There’s plenty to toss, inspect, and mix in these environments outside of your actual work tasks.

More importantly, Job Simulator is a great way to induct yourself into the world of VR gaming. It doesn’t have nauseating camera controls, or require years of video game experience to enjoy. Just do as you would in real life, and have way more fun doing it.

It may not offer an extensive adventure or a high number of levels, but what is there is enjoyable and lighthearted enough to give you a good laugh whenever you need it.

Honorable Mention: Batman: Arkham VR

Batman: Arkham VR created some serious buzz when it was first revealed at E3 earlier this year. Allowing players to quite literally jump into the shoes of everyone’s favorite caped crusader, Arkham VR is an investigatory mission much like what you’ve seen in Arkham City or Arkham Knight. Alfred now stands right in front of you, and yes, you can throw a Batarang at just about anything, including those pesky Riddler Trophies.

Arkham VR doesn’t try and tax you with tricky gameplay mechanics or difficult AI to overcome. It’s all about the experience here. The feeling of being Batman, not just controlling him. You can use your scanner, Batarangs, and grapple gun to aim, shoot, or throw just as Batman would. In short, Arkham VR is the game that Bat-fans have been dreaming about for quite some time.

While the experience is incredibly fun, it doesn’t last long at all. The main portion of the game is over and done with in the space of 90 minutes, and going through it a second time around isn’t quite as fun. Still, for those 90 minutes, you’ll become the Batman. Considering one of VR’s biggest draws is its ability to offer experiences you could never have in real-life, Batman: Arkham VR does a fine job.

Second Runner Up: I Expect You to Die

Ever wanted to be an elite secret agent? Wait, what a silly question. Of course you have! I Expect You to Die allows you to be exactly that. You’ll be thrust into deadly situations like bomb defusals in a locked car, daring submarine escapes, and a number of other deadly missions.

I Expect You to Die isn’t just a one and done kind of game, though. Once you’ve made your way through the challenging missions one time, you can head through again and tackle them in an entirely different way. While this all sounds well and good as a traditional gaming experience, it’s the use of VR that brings it all together.

Frantically searching around a car for any item that might be relevant to disarming a bomb, all while the seconds tick away, is far more stressful when you’re sitting right there. You’re the one fumbling items, and you’re the one who’s likely going to explode here. From the excellent Move and Touch controls to the clean visuals and creatively genius levels, I Expect You to Die is one of the most polished VR experiences around.

Unfortunately, the game only has four levels, and while they are fun to repeat, we were still left wanting. There’s always a chance more could come as DLC, but just be aware that as the base game, there’s not much to do once you’ve exhausted these four scenarios.

First Runner Up: Thumper

Music rhythm games aren’t anything new. Heck, Thumper isn’t even the only game from the genre to hit VR headsets this year. Yet, it’s so immersive that you’ll find yourself losing hours at a time in its eerie worlds.

You are a metallic beetle speeding down a narrow path through some dark, atmospheric place. Except, you’ll come across obstacles that you’ll need to navigate with expert timing in order to reach the end and defeat the weird bosses that await you. Each hit, grind, jump, and crash that you make as you speed through neon blurs is perfectly interwoven with a thumping soundtrack that perfectly encapsulates the level.

Each of your movements makes a noise that compliments both the action and the booming soundtrack in the background. Throw on top of that an ever-increasing pace, complex sequences of button presses, and getting consumed by the vibrant neon flashes around you, and Thumper is one of the most immersive VR experiences available.

Even if you manage to finish all of the levels available in Thumper, there are high score leaderboards to test your mettle against. What’s more, each level is split into sections and, depending on your performance, you’ll be graded. For any perfectionists out there, the temptation to try and S-rank every level will lead to endless hours of challenge and enjoyment, particularly thanks to Thumper’s incredibly challenging later levels.

There are few better feelings than perfectly nailing an intense section of a level, helping to create the intelligent soundtrack blaring in your headset, and just letting yourself be enveloped by the flashes, sparks, and other-worldly effects going on around you. Thumper is a sensory overload, to the point that extended amounts of play can leave you feeling like you need a nap. But oh boy, is it fun.

Best VR Game of the Year: Rez Infinite

Rez has always been applauded for blending music, visuals, and gameplay seamlessly into a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled experience. Rez Infinite takes all of this, polishes it to 1080p, adds in some incredible extra levels, and plugs in VR support to ensure that you never want to play Rez any other way ever again.

For those unaware, Rez Infinite’s premise is simple. Players have to shoot down targets as the protagonist ‘entity’ makes its way through the different layers of levels. Trippy, psychedelic neons surround you as enemies fly past from all angles. The camera spins and twirls, only sending you further down the colored rabbit hole.

Taking all of the title’s already excellent gameplay and transforming it into a VR experience creates a fascinating sci-fi world. The unforgettable soundtrack pounds in your ears as you turn your head to aim and fire at an encroaching enemy behind you. It doesn’t take too long for you to have completely forgotten about the world outside of your VR headset, and you’ll be having too much fun to care anyway.

Though there may not be a ton of levels on offer, Rez Infinite’s levels ooze replayability. If you didn’t completely nail it the first time around, you can bet your bottom dollar you’re going to want to. You’ve then also got a handful of bonus levels, alongside a Score Attack mode to master your shooting skills.

Honestly, Rez Infinite may be worth picking up for the new Area X level alone, which really makes use of today’s more powerful hardware while still maintaining the spirit of what makes the original levels so great. Rez Infinite is a fast-paced, incredibly enjoyable sensory overload, and the best VR game of 2016.

Congratulations to Rez Infinite, the winner of our Best VR Game category for 2016! Be sure to visit back this week more award announcements including the big one, our game of the year for 2016! For the full list of award categories for 2016, visit our nomination page here.