There are issues with each of Downward Spiral: Horus Station’s core elements, but the game’s hugely compelling atmosphere, ever-evolving arsenal and first-rate immersion is more than enough to see you through to the end. From the chilling exploration to the nimble combat, this is an adventure that keeps its hooks in you and occasionally even pulls off that rarest of sensations: to make you forget where you really are in the world.

A mostly welcome ending to a mostly excellent series, then. Vader Immortal’s ambition has occasionally outstretched its capabilities, and, even for a two-hour adventure, its pacing hasn’t always been on point. But Episode III offers the best of the series’ combat, some of its most memorable high points and a relieving lack of its lowest. As far as the concluding part of Star Wars trilogies go, that’s a very good spot to be in.

The experience itself is good fun and a mostly engaging horror shooter from start to end. It blends together arcade gameplay elements with intense horror action, bringing some fantastic enemy designs and brilliant settings into the fray. While the visuals might not be the most stunning we’ve seen on the platform, it’s nonetheless competent and what lacks in fidelity it makes up for in style. Though probably not a system seller, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a good PSVR 2 exclusive and an easy recommendation for fans of horror and arcade action. [Recommended]

Fated: The Silent Oath deserves to be experienced not for its lush environments or adventure gameplay, but because it’s one of the few VR games yet that effectively creates a connection between you and the characters around you in a way that’s unique to the medium. Something as simple as nodding your head can spark a powerful reaction both in the game world and, more importantly, inside you. There aren’t many VR experiences that pull that off quite so successful yet and, for that reason alone, Fated is worth your time — even if it is a bit brief.

Sony Pictures VR and nDreams have built a solid foundation for a decent co-op multiplayer experience with Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord. We've found good mechanics and an overall engaging presentation in what we've played so far, but we'll need to play more to report properly on the online multiplayer experience and performance across different headsets. The biggest lingering question is whether there's enough variety to sustain players coming back for multiple sessions across the main campaign, let alone beyond that.

Originally released in 2015 for PC, Mac and Linux before eventually making its way onto consoles, ChromaGun was initially both hailed and mocked for (lightly) scratching gamers’ itches for a new Portal-like in the absence of Portal 3. Following its long-awaited VR port, ChromaGun VR is definitely not up to the bar set by the Portal series, but its puzzles are satisfying nonetheless.

Any issues I had with TMNT: Empire City were overcome by just how fun and breezy the game is to play. If I bumped into anything I didn't care for, seconds later I was on to something else and did not care enough to dwell on it. The glitches I experienced were a nuisance, but easily overcome. Cortopia never forgets that this property is based on a comic book that across forty years has not taken itself too seriously while entertaining fans of all ages. Empire City lives up to that standard. Longtime TMNT fans and newcomers alike will find something to like in Empire City.

It’s certainly easy for basically anyone to craft a simple beat in Track Lab, but someone looking for anything more advanced would be better spending their time in a program like GarageBand. For VR junkies, the prospect of becoming a virtual DJ is certainly appealing, but a game with pre-selected and popular song clips like Electronauts will be a lot more satisfying and a lot less time-consuming.

Journey for Elysium’s gorgeous black and white visuals offer a terrific atmosphere and the trip to the end is fun, thanks to the variety of game play elements. But the game is over way too soon with some frustrating boating sections and simple puzzles.

Stifled is a one-of-a-kind horror game that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. The use of sound to allow you to see the world around you but also alert your enemies creates a terrifying and suspensful dynamic that left me quivering in my shorts. The pacing isn’t perfect and some other pieces felt lacking, but the core premise of Stifled is so very strong it’s impossible not to recommend it. This game should be experienced by anyone that wants to see how VR as a medium can transform the way we interact with video games.

Arizona Sunshine combines the narrative power of a fully-featured 4+ hour campaign mode, with the intensity of a wave-based horde mode, and then adds multiplayer to both experiences. The protagonist’s witty humor make it worth recommending on his charming personality alone, with enough depth and variety to keep people coming back for several hours. By doing so many things so well, Arizona Sunshine quickly rose to the top of the pack as the best overall zombie shooter we’ve seen yet in VR.

Maskmaker is peppered with magic moments but also padded with more routine and familiar gameplay, plus a heavy-handed narrative. Its best moments achieve an intricate balance between body-swapping puzzling that helps lift the veil on some of the story’s deeper themes, and I would have happily spent hours more making masks in the welcome confines of its workshop. But the game often feels like it’s presenting puzzles for the sake of it and could have helped its story breathe by stripping back some of the exposition.

Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis has enough moments of interest to make it worth a look, but there’s nothing particularly deep or memorable here. Perhaps you’ll have better luck with performance, but as-is, it clearly needs some optimization work to be a smoother, less glitchy experience as a whole. And even then what’s here is mostly derivative, if compelling at-times, VR adventure fare.

My heart bleeds for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall. It’s a game of genuinely admirable aspiration that, in many ways, is painfully close to achieving its goals. But every time I started to settle into its gorgeous world and brilliantly over-the-top-lore one of its many issues would make itself known. The combat is a mess in need of a significant overhaul, the UI is fussy and unhelpful, and a string of bugs and puzzle roadblocks kill any sense of momentum. With more time under the hood, a lot of these issues could have been refined and Tempestfall would have been a highlight in a meager year for PC VR releases. As it stands, this offering might be only worthy of Sigmar’s wrath.

For fans of the series that own a PSVR, Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV is the perfect spin-off. There is enough fan service to keep you smiling and enough original content plus exciting gameplay to make it fun in its own right. Surprisingly, Square Enix was able to craft an addictive fishing game that lets us see brand new sides of beloved characters and really feel like part of the team.

Intruders is a welcome case of less is more. It’s an engaging little short that largely keeps its ambitions in check with enjoyable if unremarkable sneaking. You likely won’t remember much about Intruders a week or two past playing it, but it keeps you hooked while it lasts. For a home invasion game, it’s perhaps just a little too safe.

Rise of Insanity isn’t a perfect game, but it doesn’t try to be. The story has some satisfying twists if you’re paying attention and the environments are well-designed with nice vistas and some top-notch jump scares to keep you on your toes. I’d have loved motion controller support or a more fleshed out VR integration, but as it stands as a gamepad-only VR title it certainly delivers good scares wrapped up in a solid story at a brisk two hour pace.

Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable is a disappointing adaptation of the popular series. While UNIVRS has done well with the combat and the controls, everything else ultimately falls flat. Between the performance issues, inconsistent visual quality, unreliable allies during solo missions and a short yet repetitive campaign, what's here feels rushed and unpolished.

As a live-service game with a long road map ahead of it, it would be too early to consider this our ‘final’ verdict of Firewall Ultra. However, in its launch state, the game is riddled with bugs, as well as frustrating UI and design decisions that often make it a drag to play. If you nonetheless wade through all that, the core PvP Contracts and the new co-op Exfil mode can still be tense and exhilarating with the right team. If these issues are ironed out, it may have better prospects in the long run with more content to come. However, the pricing structure at launch (with its push towards additional in-app purchases after the initial base game purchase) cynically encourages you to spend more to unlock additional content and features. It’s difficult to recommend Firewall Ultra to PSVR 2 owners right now, especially compared to progression-less but more polished and varied options like Pavlov.

Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior feels more like an expansion pack than a true sequel. There's an enjoyable but brief new campaign, new modes offer welcome variety, and staring down the scope to shoot Nazis feels great. However, very little has otherwise changed, while poor environmental interactions and odd design choices detract considerably from the immersion. If all you want is more Sniper Elite VR content, Winter Warrior delivers but it's a missed opportunity for improvement.

While it has some interesting ideas on how to present mental suffering, the innocent act of overlooking one crucial moment meant it ultimately failed to justify its tour of misery and left me with too sour a taste. By the time I discovered there was a sunnier conclusion out there, the damage had been done. That, coupled with the poor VR optimization, make it hard to recommend to anyone with an interest in its subject matter and I would advise people suffering from depression to actively avoid its troubling depictions. There may be some that applaud this unflinching approach to an impossible situation, but a lighter touch may have been the better approach.

After The Fall fills a hole in the VR market that’s been empty for far too long. It’s a polished, engaging shooter that will get its hooks into you after even just a few of its Harvest Runs thanks to the remarkable ease with which you can find friends to play with on any headset. But it’s also true that this is a mechanically straightforward shooter that’s closer to the breezy simplicity of Arizona Sunshine than it is the rivals that have long since surpassed Vertigo’s original VR hit. But that’s a calculated decision, and one that will likely work in After The Fall’s favor as it seeks to grow as large a userbase as possible. The verdict’s not quite in yet, but After The Fall might just be the co-op VR shooter to beat.

Front Defense feels like a game that was made without an audience in mind. The dedicated VR users that have enough space (it needs approximately three square meters of room) will have played plenty of VR shooters by now, many that are just better than this. The core gamers a WWII shooter is supposed to appeal to will get bored far too quickly with the lack of depth. And the small sliver of people left in the middle that are hungry enough to buy just another wave shooter will leave disappointed that this isn’t a more complete experience from Vive Studios.

The solution to Ancient Amuletor’s problem is simple; it just needs a lot more content. It’s like Ti Games established the game’s basic mechanics and then decided that would be enough for a full product. With just a few hours of content on offer it’s hard to recommend this otherwise promising game.

Twilight Path’s gorgeous visuals and massive world aren’t enough to hide the lackluster puzzle solving and brief journey through the spirit world. Since the adventure is over far too soon at barely more than an hour of gameplay, there really isn’t enough here to entice even the most hardcore puzzle gaming fans. Form was an excellent debut VR puzzle adventure for Charm Games, but Twilight Path feels like a step back. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of Twilight Path’s spirit world aren’t the only things about this game that are lifeless.

Who is at its best when there’s a hook; a gimmick so playful and innovative that anyone can get carried away in the madness that ensues. Instead of testing those waters, The Edge of Time settles for bringing the series’ most tried and true elements directly into headsets in hopes of winning over dedicated fans. It plays more like a rejected episode of the TV series rather than something that fully embraces its platform. The Who faithful be satisfied in that safety, I suspect, but I personally can’t help but wish this was a little more dangerous.

Separation is a game with something to say, it just spends too long trying to say it. While I wanted to fall for its wistful mountain climbs and poignant canyon descents, I became too frustrated with its tedious core treasure hunt to stop and pay its wider implications much mind. I suspect that some will make those connections, lost in the game’s alluring fog, but many more will be done with this pilgrimage long before it’s over.

Immortal Legacy is clearly half the game it was once intended to be, with missing puzzle pieces strewn throughout. What remains, though, is an often half-decent, if mostly uneventful, shooter. Control issues aside, it’s a palatable bit of VR action that, if nothing else, suggests China’s VR development scene is making strides beyond its previous efforts. Hopefully the next wave of China-made VR games gives us something truly special.