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.

End Space isn’t the best VR space combat game I’ve played. It lacks the polish of similar games like House of the Dying Sun and doesn’t have multiplayer dogfights like EVE: Valkyrie, but what it lacks in professional touch it more than makes up for with ambition and a strong core design principle. Fans of space combat that are yearning for a single player affair on PSVR (or Gear VR) should definitely check this one out.

For under $10, it’s hard not to take a chance on some WW2 deathmatch action. As it is now though, Front Defense: Heroes needs some serious TLC to become a trusted VR shooter that people will come back to. The core premise of the game is valid—essentially Day of Defeat in VR—but whether Fantahorn is able to put in the hours to make this rusty wheel eventually spin before its true consumer release… well … we’re hoping for the best.

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is a veritable Saturday-morning cartoon, replete with wacky characters and some pretty groan-worthy humor. Impressive animations and game environments are a big plus, although characters can straddle the uncanny valley at moments. The point-and-click style node teleportation works fairly well, but at the ultimate cost to immersion. In all, there's a strong family-friendly Nickelodeon vibe throughout the game, which can make it feel a little too juvenile for most of the tax-paying public.

Sacralith: The Archer's Tale marries expert-level visual polish with a clever and engaging bow shooting extravaganza to make what is clearly approaching AAA territory. The narrative, and characters within it, are also high on visual polish, and thanks to motion capture, are decidedly 'human enough' to be convincing. The level of difficulty is extremely high, making for multiple hours of bow shooting throughout the game's singular campaign.

Red Matter showcases impressive worldbuilding, a knack for high degree of polish, and an engaging enough story to make this a single sitting game worth at very least three hours of your time. Puzzles aren't terribly difficult, but usually come to a satisfying enough resolution, and always feel necessary to the overall narrative. While the game's commander, a voice over guide, can grated on my nerves, it's an easy defect to ignore in the face of an overall excellent sci-fi thriller adventure.

Electronauts' greatest achievement is perhaps its ability to translate untrained musical creativity into something that sounds good while maintaining the feeling of really crafting something of your own. The experience overcomes a familiar musical barrier—the fear of playing something that sounds bad—which all too often keeps people from connecting with music from the creator's perspective. Fans of EDM will find Electronauts to be a totally unique way to experience and interact with music while expressing their inner groove, and those with more musical talent will find a surprisingly capable set of tools for mixing and performing.

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.

Echo Combat shines when you're in the heat of the moment, with its brilliant zero-g locomotion scheme, and variety of weapons, counter-weapons and throwable grenades; despite only serving up three maps and two gameplay modes, there's just enough meat on the bone here. The lobby and match-making system so far have only gotten in the way of this, rather than helped, but offer minor inconvenience to the overall feeling that the game is truly from the future.

Blade & Sorcery strongly demonstrates that physics-based melee can work in the right conditions. It’s not clear at this point whether it will stay on the tech demo side of things instead of a more fleshed-out game though. Early adopters of the game GORN don’t seem to have a problem with that in the slightest, so hopefully those impressive slow-mo combat gifs will keep on coming.

I walked away from Final Assault feeling that all of the basic ingredients were there to make for a truly engrossing and fun game. The addition of a campaign mode though, which is promised to release sometime between now and its March 2019 launch, will make it much more appealing for players like me who would rather play offline. That said, I’ll definitely be playing more on the game’s road to launch.

Fujii doesn't fit squarely into an existing genre, but does a good job of making you feel like you're exploring and discovering a world you've never seen before but are glad to be able to visit. Thoughtful design is apparent throughout from art direction, visual & sound effects, locomotion, and interaction; Fujii's organic and reactive world is ripe with satisfying 'game feel' that shines brightly thanks to VR's ability to let you reach out and touch what's around you. While the game's free-form gardening mechanics feel adequately deep, it's missing a compelling reason for players to return after they've already discovered the extent of Fujii's relatively small world.

In its early access state, Gadgeteer is both a fantastic Rube Goldberg-style reaction machine builder and, at its most gripping moments, a true example of VR Presence—where the act of building and testing a machine becomes so engaging that you forget you’re playing with code instead of physical toy dominos. The collider occlusion bug within the physics system should still be addressed, and continued improvements toward the locomotion system would be nice. But, content-wise, Gadgeteer is already a complete package out of the box. At $15, I consider it a steal.

Considering how No Man’s Sky has deservedly become something of a cult classic in traditional gaming, it’s disheartening that the state of its initial jaunt into VR is so disjointed. That said, porting a game as expansive as No Man’s Sky to a medium as complex and relatively uncharted as VR certainly had to have been a herculean effort. And, even given all of the objective issues that I found with this title, it would be entirely unfair to say that it isn’t a diamond in the rough; No Man’s Sky is now the most feature-complete VR game in existence.

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.

Larcenauts is a technically well made game with strong art direction, great performance, and a sense of progression with eight characters to unlock, each with different loadouts and customizations. In its launch state the gameplay feels more like a run-and-gun free-for-all than a team-based hero shooter, and it may take a balance pass (or two) to get things closer to the latter. While Larcenauts has the breadth of mechanics that you'd hope to see in a hero shooter, it's missing an immersive hook due to minimal VR-specific interactions. The developer has promised that more immersive interactions will be added down the line, but it's a shame they aren't part of the game from the get-to.

Ultrawings 2 is a sight for sore eyes, giving fans of the original more of everything in a new and improved package. Outside of fun flight challenges, Ultrawings 2 introduces a smattering of military-style combat missions that take the franchise in a new and interesting direction that we'd like to see more of. The formula of grinding for cash doesn't feel very magical after a while, and object interaction is lackluster, making for a more frustrating flying experience, although it's hard to knock such a plucky little flight game that sits neatly somewhere between simulator and arcade flier.

At best, the campaign mode is a guided way to learn the game's range of unique mechs before digging into multiplayer, but if you're only here for the campaign then you'll probably be disappointed at its poorly executed story and characters, and the significant pacing issues that come along with them. While the game's campaign elements don't deliver, Vox Machinae creates a totally unique and immersive mech experience that really makes you feel like you're controlling a giant robot.

Virtuoso is more than just an immersive place where you mess around with virtual instruments. It's more of a beginner's music creation tool than a simple sandbox. With only basic knowledge you can easily create music, although drilling into the settings and massaging a more unique sound out of the looper will ultimately be the most rewarding use of this immersive little music machine.

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.

COMPOUND clearly has a love for the classics, as it provides its own take on the single-player shooter genre with some stylish and well-crafted pixel art. The game cleverly focuses on slowing down the pace by making default gun handling a very deliberate experience, so only those who can master its slightly unorthodox reloading scheme (or use the optional auto-loading mode) can go full bore. Plenty of progressive weapon unlocks and three selectable gameplay difficulties give ample reason for players to come back for more pixel-busting carnage well past beating the end boss for the first time.

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.

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.

Favorably comparing a VR roguelike to 'In Death' is fairly high praise already, however The Light Brigade seems to do an even better job of enticing you back for more as you make successive attempts at conquering the dark forces that have removed light from the fantasy universe. The game's WWII-era weapons make for welcome and familiar additions while adding a measurable level of realism which manages to aid immersion far beyond what a plainer entry in the genre might. The game's color palette is a bit too muddy, making for not-so-awesome visual contrast, but that's small potatoes when looking at the bigger picture.

There's no denying the underlying game is fantastic, as Not For Broadcast confronts you with moral quandaries as you slowly become a well-oiled cog in a dystopian propaganda machine. While the game's binary button pushing wasn't as VR-native as we would have liked, the base game translates extremely well to VR, feeling decidedly more at home on VR headsets than on flatscreen monitors.

While not as photorealistic or high budget as Valve's Half-Life: Alyx, this VR-native shooter does its best impression of a 'AAA' game. Vertigo 2 isn't just bigger and weirder than the original at around 10 hours of campaign gameplay, but it's also full of so much heart and good humor that you'd swear the core dev team was much more substantial than just a single dude. The wild and lovably convoluted story may not add up, but you probably won't care since it's such a great and undeniably smart game.

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.

The sequel to the beloved Fisherman's Tale puzzle adventure is here, offering up more of everything, including new mechanics that make the basis for a wider selection of iterative puzzles. Set to a backdrop of an emotionally complex story, Another Fisherman's Tale feels like it's struck a better balance between its bigger themes and characteristic storybook narrative style, making it feel like a full-featured film instead of the charming, yet simplistic short we had with the original.