Marvel: Powers United VR is a hard game to score, because its best characters make it feel like an 8/10 while the majority of cookie-cutter heroes bring it closer to 5/10. Ultimately it’s a little more of a muted take on the superhero VR genre than we were hoping. It’s carried by its best characters, heroes with truly unique abilities that evoke sheer blockbuster comic book joy you’ll keep coming back for. But much of its cast struggles to stand out from a set of templates that limit their capabilities and the repetitive mission structure and forgettable boss battles put a ceiling on the fun.

The Persistence offers something fresh and engaging by mixing different genres that we don’t often see melded together so well. On a moment-to-moment basis the horrors lurking around every corner keep you on your toes and the give-and-take aspect of its roguelike nature ensures that no two runs are ever quite the same. The lack of Move or PS Aim controller support is a bummer, but it still plays wonderfully just on the standard DualShock 4. This is a dark, challenging stealth shooter that PSVR fans can keep coming back to for quite a while.

Hopalong: The Badlands is a cheerful VR shooter with a great locomotion mechanic and a few hours of flawed fun to support it. Whilst navigating the wild west is an intuitive joy, simplistic design and frustrating difficulty spikes mean it’s easily forgotten soon after the credits roll.

If only Seeking Dawn had more of the former and less of the latter, this review would have been written very differently. As it stands, it’s a flawed — but absolutely gorgeous — VR FPS that struggles to find its footing.

Gunheart is a perfect example of how to iterate and improve on a game over the course of more than a year in Steam Early Access. What started out as a basic co-op VR shooter with teleportation movement is now one of the most feature-rich VR games we’ve seen in recent memory. Dozens of weapon mods, dynamic mission generation, excellent co-op, high-flying fast-paced movement, and enough bullets to make John Wick blush all add up to Gunheart being an easy recommendation.

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.

At its best, Budget Cuts is a gleeful stealth playground that thrives on the spontaneity it demands of players. But it’s a game that can also succumb to the weight of its lofty ambitions just as often as it realizes them. We won’t be ready to put a final score on Neat Corp’s debut until we see how its bugs work out, but right now Budget Cuts shows how far we’ve come and how far we’ve still got to go.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew’s The Next Generation DLC is pretty special. The attention to detail afforded to the Enterprise-D is mind-blowing, the overhaul to Engineering (now Ops) is much-needed, and the expansion of Ongoing Voyages missions and new enemies add variety to an experience that can otherwise grow stale over time. However, it doesn’t do enough to really shake up or improve the core experience enough to elevate the game as a whole. It’s basically more of the same with slight alterations.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew’s The Next Generation DLC is pretty special. The attention to detail afforded to the Enterprise-D is mind-blowing, the overhaul to Engineering (now Ops) is much-needed, and the expansion of Ongoing Voyages missions and new enemies add variety to an experience that can otherwise grow stale over time. However, it doesn’t do enough to really shake up or improve the core experience enough to elevate the game as a whole.

This is simple, brain-teasing sneaking that encourages the player to experiment and take risks, though rarely takes its own advice on board to create something truly memorable. Despite its ambitions it’s by no means a revolution, but gamers that just picked up a Go will definitely appreciate having a full, story-driven experience to dive into.

If you have any interest in building your own model railway, you’ll find Rolling Line is a typically delightful VR experience from Gaugepunk Games. While it’s not a true replacement for the actual hobby, it is a fitting companion to it, allowing you to build away to your heart’s content. Controll issues aside, if you’ve ever dreamed of building your own world free from the limitations of this one, this is a great place to start.

With only 10 songs, you can blow through that track list, beating most all of them on at least Hard, in a single afternoon. Mastering them on Expert takes time, but it gets repetitive. The only game modes are an arcade-style Solo and a pass-the-headset-style Party Mode. We’d love to see a campaign (which is mentioned on the Steam page) as well as more robust multiplayer features. In its current state, we absolutely recommend Beat Saber wholeheartedly.

A painfully dull test of endurance, Time Carnage is as lifeless as VR wave shooters come. Even for an over-saturated genre, this is surprisingly devoid of invention; stand in place, shoot hordes of incoming attackers, unlock a new gun, do it all again. There is at least enough functional content to save the game from reaching Pixel Gear levels of travesty, but there are many, many other wave shooters you should play instead of this.

From the bright visuals to the peppy voice acting, Island Time has plenty of charm as well as the foundations for a solid survival game. Sadly it’s far too limited in scope and can be mastered in less than an hour. With a few more fresh ideas Flight School could have had a hit on its hands, but as it stands the game’s fun is quickly-forgotten.

Repetitive finale aside, Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR is a surprisingly likable movie tie-in with several great ideas behind it. Its best ideas are underdeveloped but still manage to make a mark (sometimes literally), making for an experience that’s a step above the standard tie-in fare.

For a game that wasn’t originally designed for VR at all, Skyrim VR is nothing short of impressive. This really is the Skyrim that you know and love, but now you can enjoy it like never before with the immersive presence of a VR headset. With a large variety of control schemes to choose from and hundreds of hours of content, this is a game that all RPG fans and lovers of immersive fantasy worlds should play.

Thanks to improved tracking and sharper visuals, the PC version of Apex Construct is a step up from its console counterpart. With full 360 degree turning, combat is a much smoother experience and smooth locomotion on the controller’s navigation options feels much better. While many of the original issues we cited still remain, they’re much more manageable when you’re not fighting the limitations of the platform. If you’re looking to play Apex Construct, PC is definitely the way to go.

Ark Park is neither the thrilling prehistoric vacation of a lifetime nor the intense Jurassic shooter you might have hoped it to be. Whatever goodwill it builds in its opening moments is quickly spent on wearisomely padded out crafting mechanics and a half-baked, ill-advised wave shooting component that would have been better left on the cutting room floor.

Using VR’s unique potential to tell powerful and insightful stories with stark, reflective criticism is on display in ways we haven’t seen before. The humor won’t land for everyone and the message will likely get misinterpreted or lost by some, but The American Dream raises questions that are absolutely worth discussing regardless of your stance on gun laws. This VR experience, despite the quirky visual style, is not for the faint of heart.

On the gamut of magic-based first-person action games, The Wizards is definitely one of the better ones. Its spell-casting system is interactive without being too cumbersome and the campaign mode packs a decent amount of content. Plenty of collectibles, a replayable Arena mode, and lots of mission augmentations add up to this being one of the best ways to live out your most fantastical magical fantasies in VR. We just wanted more and preferably multiplayer of some kind.

When Bravo Team was announced at E3 last year it looked like an exciting, tactical shooter that would let players navigate environments in cooperative multiplayer. It more or less looked like the PSVR’s very own Onward or Rainbow Six. In reality it’s just another wave shooter, even if it uses a nifty gun controller. If you’re waiting on a more fully-featured shooter for PSVR, then keep an eye on Firewall: Zero Hour instead.

A short running time doesn’t stop Blasters of the Universe from being one of VR’s most delightful wave shooters. The hectic bullet-dodging action hurls you into a deadly ballet that feels fun far more often than it is frustrating. This is a finely-tuned and charming game that stands out from the sea of survival shooters out there right now.

Moss is the hidden gem the PSVR never knew it needed. From the first moment we played the game at E3 almost a year ago until we saw the closing credits roll, Quill’s adventure has captivated our hearts and minds. Moss strikes that perfect balance between tense, action-packed moments of combat with slow, methodical puzzles that require you to rethink the way you interact with video games through the power of VR. Polyarc has crafted one of PSVR’s most essential games to date.

Almost two years removed from the launch window of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Island 359 — a game that’s been in Early Access for almost just as long — has evolved from its humble beginnings into a shining example of not only quality VR gaming, but how to improve a project while in Early Access. They iterated on what worked and expanded in areas that were lacking until Island 359 became just as polished as it was ambitious. It’s still not for everyone, but fans of tense action games, shooters, and hardcore survival games owe it to themselves to get lost in the lush jungles of Island 359.

Brass Tactics is a big step forward for RTS games in VR. The tactile feeling of picking up, directing, and interacting with units using your own hands is excellent and the mixture of single player, as well as both cooperative and competitive multiplayer, all adds up to one of the most feature-rich strategy games we’ve seen yet. It lacks some of the depth and complexity of its modern non-VR counterparts, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more competent and engaging RTS in VR right now.

Apex Construct has a few too many niggling issues to be considered truly great but still remains a VR adventure you should absolutely undertake. It’s a rare chance to jump into an expansive journey and become a part of an engrossing world, warts and all. It proves that VR developers can now deliver the adventures we dreamed of having when we first picked up our headsets. The next step is to refine them enough to keep us believing we’re really there. For now, though, Apex Construct will do just fine.

Knockout League is a VR game that makes no qualms with trying to hide what it is or fool you into thinking it’s something more. This is about as direct a translation of the classic Punch-Out!! arcade-style gameplay as you’re going to find and it absolutely works, even if it lacks some originality. There is no better option out there if you want to punch some silly, often irritating, cartoon characters in the face — just don’t go in expecting a revelatory application of VR technology.

If you’ve never played StarDrone before and quite like the sound of 60 levels of moderately entertaining arcade puzzle action that plays on pinball then the VR version is a harmless way to experience it. If, however, you’re looking for something that feels like it truly belongs in this medium, this is not the puzzle game you’re looking for. The VR support is almost entirely without merit, answering the call for content on a platform that’s no longer in desperate need of it.