Firmament offers up another substantial slice of patently difficult puzzling that fits right in line with Cyan Worlds' other hit titles, although its VR implementation feels like an afterthought. It's undeniably a good and beautiful game, but less so across the board when played in VR.

Ruinsmagus is a definite treat for anime fans, as it serves up a thick slice of art and narrative inspired by some of the greats. The game's battle system is mostly efficacious, although it's hindered by a bad inventory management system. Its penchant to adhering to some flatscreen traditions is also a sore spot that makes it feel mechanical, and about as repetitive as its dungeons.

ROM: Extraction is an interesting new twist on the wave shooter genre with its multiple bouncy exploding orbs and tactical bullet time feature. With only a single environment, single pistol, and no coop multiplayer (coming in 2017), you'll be relegated to competing against the leaderboard for the time being. 'ROM' could use a shine-up with more weapons and greater enemy variety to keep things interesting. [Tested with HTC Vive, Oculus Touch]

Star Wars: Beyond Victory - A Mixed Reality Playset has the production value of some of ILM's greatest virtual reality games, but seems to fumble with the reason for why it actually needs mixed reality in the first place. While a two-hour story mode nails the Star Wars feel and packs emotional punch in VR, its limited MR gameplay keeps it from reaching lightspeed.

Although Star Wars Vader Immortal - Episode III is meant to be an exciting conclusion to the series, with massive robot battles, escapes down cavernous tunnels, and duels to the death, it's hard to feel too excited when these experiences crash head-first into its paint-by-numbers locomotion scheme and general lack of player-to-character interaction, which effectively muffles what should have been a resounding and climactic finish. It still however serves up one of the most visually stunning VR experiences to date, although its flaws ultimately compound in the third episode, making it somewhere between good and great.

With one foot thrust into the present and one foot invariably still stuck in the past design-wise, Vertigo Remastered is not entirely polished to a mirror sheen, but it's a gem worth experiencing just the same. It does an admirable job of serving up a good degree of variety, fun set pieces, and an all around interesting experience that, despite pervasive physics-based bugginess, may be worth your time.

Synapse gives players an incredible feeling of telekinetic power that's undeniably cool and fun, and also adapts some of the best mechanics from nDreams' last game, Fracked. But Synapse follows a now familiar pattern for the developer: unique and well-built VR mechanics that are unfortunately paired with middling game design that lacks enemy, weapon, level, and scenario variety. While the game asks players to beat a 'full run' three times to reveal its full narrative, you'll have seen most of what the game has to offer not long after your first completion. As a roguelite, Synapse is missing that compelling feeling that makes you want to try new strategies as you play over and over.

The Midnight Walk is visually distinct and creates effective contrast between a Burtonesque 'grotesque' style and small moments of beauty thanks to strong lighting and composition. It's nice that players are given the option to experience the game's unique world up close and personal in VR. But beyond being a very cool immersive tour of someone's artwork, the basic gameplay doesn't feel particularly native to VR and the poetic narrative didn't resonate with me in a meaningful way. This walk might not be for everyone, but inside the headset is the best way to experience it if you love the style.

Zombie Army VR faithfully brings the storied franchise to VR for the first time, serving up enough zombies to shake a Tommy gun at. There are less zombies than you'd think, but good enough variety to keep you on your toes. While the game makes an honest effort at translating the franchise to VR, its pacing in the later levels pushes the boundaries of immersive actions, revealing its flatscreen roots. While zombies are fun to go 'splat', boss battles left a lot on the table, feeling more like same-y summoner types that would let the zombie minions do all the work.

Seeking Dawn is a VR sci-fi shooter with an ambitious list of features on top of its single or multiplayer campaign mission: weapon crafting, base defense, resource management, and survival elements. While all of these are certainly present, some feel shoehorned in for the sake of making a full length game. At its core though, it's a standard sci-fi shooter brought to life in VR, and done so with enough care and attention that would make it a really fun experience if it weren't for the crafting drudgery.

You're not getting the full-fat Resident Evil level of scares or production value, especially at a runtime of less than four hours, although Propagation: Paradise Hotel manages to offer up some terrifying thrills just the same. While I wish the narrative were stronger, and functional bits were more polished, it certainly departs from the namesake's waves hooter roots while setting up a sequel that might just be worth waiting for.

People with play areas at least 3 metres square will have the best time but, even then, compared to the standouts in the VR shooter genre the fun is limited. [Tested with HTC Vive]

Wall Town Wonders offers a charming, visually captivating experience as you manage a tiny, bustling town spread across your real-world walls. Gameplay however feels underdeveloped, which limits appeal beyond brief, casual sessions. The concept and visual execution are definite highpoints, although some may struggle to sustain interest in the long term.

John Wick Chronicles proves itself to be a fun and extremely svelte-looking entry into the wave shooter genre. If not for its extremely short story mode and a few ham-handed, immersion breaking moments, this would be the sort of AAA title that VR has been waiting for, but in the end is just another short but sweet VR demo.

It's not perfect, and it's clear Unearthed Inc: The Lost Temple isn't as clever or polished as other critically acclaimed VR puzzlers like Obduction (2016) or The Gallery - Episode 1: Call of the Starseed (2016), but it certainly has its own character and allure that merits further exploration in future installments. Boss battles however are a welcome addition, and help punctuate some of the game's less than enthralling fetch quests. [Tested with HTC Vive, Oculus Rift]

We were hoping Titan Isles would have evolved the Windlands 2 formula, which expertly balanced exploration via grappling hook-based parkour and immersive shooting mechanics to awesome effect. Instead, the game veers hard into arcade 'bullet hell' territory, which has cheapened some of the magic at the expense of more baddies and bigger bosses. Still, a mature locomotion system places Titan Isles as one of the most competent bullet hell-style shooters out there, although distinctly one that is no more than the sum of its parts.

A Fisherman's Tale is basically a well realized taster for many concepts we wish could have been fleshed out to greater effect. The game's narrative is banal, but inoffensive, and should appeal to younger gamers more so than adults, and the same can be said about the level of difficulty on the puzzles themselves. In the end, it's a bit like stepping into a storybook, replete with all the requisite charm and pre-chewed concepts that ought to delight at least more than a few kids and kids-at-heart, but not anyone looking for a serious adventure worth more than the one hour of gameplay it provides.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood starts out swell, slowly teaching you the gameplay mechanics while staying within the creepy haunted house ride theme. But as the game progresses the flaws really begin to show. Between the lack of interesting enemies and the basic shooting gameplay it’s just not that entertaining and falls flat. I found that fighting my way through seven levels was more of a chore than a fun gaming experience. For $20 there are better games out there. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is game you can probably live without playing. [Tested with PlayStation VR]

When the best thing you can say about a VR game is that it makes you want to play its non-VR inspiration, an opportunity has been missed. There are definitely glimpses of the game it could have been, but too few to salvage the experience. Add a point if a substantial patch materialises to address some of the issues.

Broken Edge is a multiplayer fencing game that offers up a great chance to roleplay a number of distinct fighting classes in a 1v1 battle. Single player is essentially just practice for online play, which is a shame since replicating moves isn't always a straightforward task and you may find yourself quickly outclassed by steadier hands. Most players may need a good amount of time in the dojo and in solo mode before you can not only replicate specific moves, but in a way that doesn't overextend outside of your headset's tracking volume.

The totality of the game lacks effective pacing as it bounces back and forth from puzzle to combat with little sense of synergy and no apparent climax. For those that are compelled by Boneworks' combat, the Arena and Sandbox modes offer up a great opportunity for extended gameplay, though we would have liked to see an emphasis on user-generated levels so that the community might flesh out concepts that didn't hit their stride in the campaign.

Battlewake serves up a short campaign and buffet of online modes that mostly do their job, although it's hard to say whether the plucky little pirate battler truly lives up to its full potential. The campaign, which should be an important anchor in times of VR multiplayer uncertainty, presents a melange of same-ish enemies and a forgettable story. The game's online modes aren't taking any risks either, although there's no telling how the community will take to Battlewake, which presents some fresh locomotion ideas and a good dose of wow-factor.

Fracked has a lot going for it: satisfying weapon interactions, a great visual style, a unique and very functional cover system, and a handful of side activities like skiing, climbing, and light puzzling to break up the game's pace. When it comes to combat, the game lacks the variety necessary to keep things interesting through the end, petering out early on with just three enemies and two main weapons. The story does its best to drive the action forward, but feels underdeveloped, leaving the player wondering what their motivations are and scratching their head at the perplexing ending.

Borderlands 2 VR technically works in VR but hasn't managed to escape the feeling of being an outright port. There's not much to the game which really feels like it's making good use of VR, and more than a handful of players are likely to find the game uncomfortable without cranking up the comfort settings. By the time you add up all the cons of playing the game in VR—no co-op, no DLC, no VR-specific interactions, poor graphics, gamepad-first design, and necessary immersion-reducing comfort settings—you might start to wonder why you aren't just playing the original Borderlands 2 in PSVR's 'game theater' mode—if not on your TV without the bother of the headset.

Torn is a single player adventure game that’s inspired by arguably the greatest sci-fi television of all time, The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. There’s much to like about Torn, but in the end it left me feeling, well, a bit torn.

Stranger Things VR is basically only for fans of the show who don't mind a four-hour recap of the past two seasons set to some admittedly excellent surrealist art, which deftly nails the nightmarish vibe of the Upside Down. Although there are hints of engaging mechanics at the beginning, none of them come to a satisfying conclusion, positioning Stranger Things VR as more of an extended commercial than a story truly worth telling.

Despite a host of redeeming qualities, including a cohesive art style, beautiful scene work and a no-gravity locomotion scheme that left me feeling completely nausea-free, you can't help but shake the feeling that there should be at least 10 times the amount of gameplay in the single player mode. In the end it feels more like a vertical slice, or a demo. [Tested with HTC Vive, Oculus Touch]

Defector serves up some high-octane set pieces that are clearly inspired by the myriad of Mission Impossible films, but is hobbled by a lackluster arcade shooter and toothless interactions with NPCs to boot. Its bog standard action movie narrative is mostly forgettable, but users may forgive many of Defector's cons considering its $20 launch price.

If you look past the game’s traditional canned responses, what remains is another person looking at you, and talking to you sweetly and affectionately; sitting on your lap and whispering in your ear. I personally found that last bit pretty off-putting, but again, I’m obviously not the target demographic here. The developers say their most important goal is to ultimately provide a sense of comfort to the user at the end of the day. Whether that’s right or wrong for whatever reason isn’t within the scope of this review, so we’ll just leave it at that.

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot has plenty of style and atmosphere to rely upon, which is probably more thanks to the recent entries in the franchise than work generated specifically for the game. As a title that takes only 1.5 hours to complete though, it struggles to flesh out any of the concepts introduced to the player, and feels less like a complete game and more like the beginning tutorial levels for each vehicle. When dialed in correctly, visuals can be cohesive and even pretty immersive, although it's hard to really care about a world you can only visit for such a fleeting amount of time. It is admittedly priced at $20, however there's basically no replay value once you've beaten it on its hardest mode.

Downward Spiral: Horus Station presents a visually rich world in this shooter-meets-adventure game hybrid, but crucially fumbles both story and gunplay elements to a very middling overall effect. While gunplay is optional, I hasten to think that based on storytelling alone, that Downward Spiral just doesn't have the guts to be anything but a very beautiful, but unfortunately boring exercise in opening doors, pushing buttons, and retrieving keycards.

Evasion brands itself as a bullet-hell shooter, but doesn't quite focus in on what makes the genre so appealing. While some of the elements are there, what results is an often ineffectual standard arcade shooter with a measure of random laser-filled chaos to its name. Co-op mode is measurably a better experience than single player, but only just, as player-to-player interactions are limited to infinite heals, making the human element the only pressing reason to stick around.

Bravo Team is a cover-based shooting gallery wrapped in a paper thin narrative. You can only kill so many faceless baddies before things become dull, and the game's limited number of weapons do little to mix up the monotony. It's nice to have another cooperative option on PSVR (and with PSVR Aim support to boot), but with the game's diminutive length and minimal allure of replayability, it'll be a one and done playthrough for many.

True to its name, Sniper Elite VR delivers strong sniping mechanics, but the surrounding action doesn't do it justice. With a great VR sniper scope implementation and the franchise's signature x-ray kill cam, delivering those long shots can definitely be satisfying. Unfortunately the homogenous enemies and weapons blur together against a backdrop of unmemorable levels and story. The game's graphical presentation on Quest is surprisingly good, with long draw distances, sharp imagery, and great performance. Sniper Elite VR is also a very comfortable game with a wide range of comfort options, but the teleport mode is painfully slow—to the point that I wouldn't recommend the game if you must play it with teleport.

Detached is good-looking game that could deliver more of what it does well, but instead bites off much more than it can chew in an effort to fill out functionality. The game primarily suffers from a lackluster single-player mode and a promising but feature-starved 1v1 multiplayer. The biggest barrier of entry is the game's locomotion style which is brutally unforgiving. [Tested with Oculus Touch, HTC Vive]

Marvel Powers United VR's high production value can't keep secret the game's true identity: unabashed wave shooting mechanics, bland enemies, and arcade gameplay that's more about points than fun or skill. If you were hoping that Powers United would make you feel like your favorite superhero, you'll be disappointed that the game offers no story, character development/progression, or meaningful exploration of the rich Marvel universe, and instead hinges around collecting outfits, poses, and props.

Loading Human wants you to create a bond with the characters of the world, but forces you to do it in a way that comes off as ham-handed and involuntary. Both writing and voice acting are better than average, and the world is almost always beautifully rendered, but this is dampened by inconsistent locomotion and cumbersome object interaction. [Tested with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive]

Twilight Path wants to deliver something grand, but doesn't give itself enough time to set up a world that you can connect with (and therefor care about). Without that, the game is purely reliant on its puzzles for delivering engaging gameplay, but misses a key opportunity to train the player with core concepts that are expanded and challenged as the game progresses. While the player is imbued with special spirit powers, they ultimately don't make you feel very powerful or part of the world.

Bonelab is similar to its predecessor in key ways—both the good and the bad. The game's physics driven world can be refreshingly immersive in the way that almost everything interacts together. But physics sometimes make the game less fun and even frustrating to play, especially when it comes to the game's many climbing segments. While there's lots on offer, including a campaign and several replayable mini-modes, they all suffer from the same core problems which is boring enemies with little variety, poor encounter & puzzle design, and bland weapons. In lieu of having those things provided for you, you'll have to extract your own fun by challenging yourself to execute stylish kills and physics-shenanigans with the game's all-you-can eat slo-mo feature. While the game repeats most of Boneworks key issues, this time around if offers proper modding support which could improve things significantly— that is... if the game's community is willing to spend the time building the toys this sandbox should have had from the start.

Well-refined visuals are impressive in their own right in Hubris, although the core of this shooter is a little too hollow to be truly engaging. Some good decisions make for highlights, like interesting environments and one-off narrative events, although adventuring is stymied by a "helpful" floating drone who just can't seem to read the room.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond proclaims to be a AAA production (and is priced as such) but falls well short of that bar. With simplistic core gameplay, uninteresting & daft enemies, and a lack of polish, the bulk of the game feels like a shooting gallery. The set-piece sequences which are supposed to deliver epic WWII moments are foiled by bad writing, pacing, and lack of player agency. A meaningful portion of the game (roughly 10–20%) largely ignores best practices of VR comfort and won't be comfortable for some players. Competitive players might find some fun in the game's fast-paced and largely competent multiplayer component, and the 'Gallery' mini-documentaries are exceptionally well produced, but a shame that they are locked in with a game that conflicts with their reverent tone.

AliceVR blurs the lines between fantasy and reality with a certain amount of competence in its loose sci-fi adaptation of the classic tale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but pushes too hard to put you into a world where up is down and down is up. Bodily discomfort is a serious concern once you go down this rabbit hole. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

The Walking Dead Onslaught unfortunately suffers from a bad case of being overstuffed with filler, making you grind through inconsequential missions to move forward in the story. Although there's some fun to be had mowing down zombies and hunting for useful items in the wasteland for a while, after the first few hours it begins to feel like a chore, and not an exploration of the world envisioned in the TV series. This is offset somewhat by the game's excellent character design, weapon variety, and physics-based zombie killing, but it does little to mitigate the hours spent loading up on items that never seems like just recompense for the time spent gathering them.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Tempestfall brings some good ideas to the table but only executes a few of them well. While the game’s ranged spellcasting is satisfying and fun, most of the focus is put into a shoddy melee system that’s functional at best and frustrating at worst, with enemy design and variety only exacerbating the issue. With inconsistent art direction and asset quality, weak sound design, amatuer-level animations, and poor writing, Tempestfall feels like a clear case of trying to do too much with too little.

Executing fast and artful kill combos is basically the reason for Bulletstorm to exist in the first place, but sadly the VR version doesn't deliver the same flow state as the original, making it feel more tedious and less fluid overall. Combine that with some very iffy visuals, which feel demonstrably worse in VR than on flatscreen, and you have a game that's not only uglier than the original, but less fun overall.

Siegecraft Commander is a tabletop strategy game that may look like a competent VR port of the PC game on first blush, but the game's core launching mechanic proves to be too encumbered and laborious to be truly fun in fast-paced play. Maps and units are well rendered, but an over-reliance on labeling units detracts from the game's immersion, culminating in an experience that just never hits its stride despite its innovative core mechanic. [Tested with HTC Vive, Oculus Touch]

Rhythm of the Universe: Ionia guides you through simple one-off puzzles and frontloads an embarrassing amount of exposition and cutscenes that stubbornly put cinematic pretense ahead of user immersion. Ionia talks of big game, but this musical adventure is over before it truly begins, which considering the level of pretense isn't the worse thing about this meandering 45-minute experience.

SOUL COVENANT hoped to adapt the series' hallmark melee combat and colossal monsters into a VR-native experience, but its obsessive adherence to repetitive wave-based missions and cumbersome narrative make it feel more like it has two feet firmly planted in the flatscreen era, and not the immersive, first-person anime-inspired game many were hoping for.

Gnomes & Goblins delivers a delicious appetizer but is spoiled by a rotten main course. After a lovely little prologue, the game opens up into a beautiful world with frustratingly little gameplay direction which is likely to drive players away rather than bring them back for more. To enjoy the game's best aspect—its visuals—you'll need a hefty rig; be sure to check the Minimum and Recommended specs before considering Gnomes & Goblins.