Yeah, I got a Samsung Odyssey HMD cheap (for a VR headset, ~$300) while they were in production and I used my headset to play Half-Life: Alyx, Phasmophobia, and Boneworks. Alyx was very well polished (for a VR game) and nothing came close to that. The rest is varying levels of jank and it will take about 20 mins to set up the headset every time when I could boot up any other game in less than a minute.
And on top of that anything that wasn’t those 3 games just didn’t feel like it was worth the work to play for me. Boneworks got close to Alyx in terms of polish but if someone was prone to motion sickness at all it would be unplayable. I haven’t ever been motion sick in my life but my stomach turned the first time the game “dropped” me down a hole. And Phasmo while it was far more immersive and scary in the headset it just wasn’t worth the hassle of setting up the headset only to get a headache in 20 mins of playing because the glare was not great on my headset making dark rooms hard to see in. Better headsets might fix a lot of those issues but the price point, ease of use, and QoL features are not in favor of it ever being more than a party gimmick.
The average person isn’t going to want to pay what I did for a few good games that might make them motion sick and a lot of janky garbage. And now most headsets are more expensive than that unless you want the Meta ones that are locked down.
The Reverb G2 can be had for also $300 on sale and the experience isn’t nearly as bad as you describe. There’s also tons of great VR content out there, it’s just not advertised.
Some of my favorites:
Vertical Shift: fairly short and barebones but it’s got a full range of powers for you to play with around an open world. Fun VR mechanics worth the sale price, despite the minimal gameplay.
You mentioned Boneworks and Phasmophobia which are also both a lot of fun, but motion sickness and multiplayer can make them not as convenient to always be ready to play. Of course, if we mention Boneworks then we have to talk about Duck Season. Blade and Sorcery should be on the list as well, it’s just too good to pass up. And well, if we’re talking about B&S we can’t ignore GORN.
Pistol Whip is basically a rhythm John Wick simulator. Very worth the cost of the game, lots of content, multiple free content updates - just a stellar game through and through. Also much more engaging than BeatSaber IMO, never been a fan of flailing my arms to slash blocks on beat. But shooting and dodging? Give me more!
Bonus: They just released a map creator. The life of the game is virtually infinite now, so that’s exciting :)
Superhot VR pre-content removal. Still a great game without the ending though.
V-Racer Hoverbike is a great VR game oriented Hoverbike Racing. Great sense of speed and feel, motion sickness is somewhat a given given the nature of the game…
Rez Infinite for anyone who remembers Rez for the PS2.
Pavlov VR is also a good popular fun game for your VR FPS itches. For more, there’s Into the Radius, Arizona Sunshine, ARK and ADE, Naked Sun, Bandit Point, Risk of Rain 2 VR (mod).
Speaking of mods, Subnautica in VR…
And one of my favorite pass-times, Holo-ball! It’s basically racquetball :)
There’s a couple party games that are fun as well, Wii Sports style with Pure Bowl VR, NVIDIA’s VR Funhouse, Tennis Arcade VR. All pretty decent (particularly compared to others that are available). Oh, also check out VRNoid which has brickbreaker and Hyper Psychic Gauntlets for a unique game. You can also play all your NES roms in VR with 3DSenVR which is pretty awesome. While we’re here, give Metroid Prime a playthrough with Dolphin VR, or all 3 if you get it running :)
Then there’s the whole world of productivity/not quite gaming programs.
I love, love love SynthVR. It’s just one of the smartest uses for VR, period. Create your virtual environment and just make it a giant music setup. Absolutely stellar. Similarly, Vinyl Reality for using your own music to DJ and mix! There’s also a drumming program called Paradiddle which is awesome for the same reasons. For painting, Vermillion.
If you’ve got a HOTAS or a racewheel there’s also a number of games that work great in tandem, Elite Dangerous for your space trucker sims (for this one, be sure to get SCRCPY for your android phone and run XS Overlay or OVR Toolkit to bring your phone with you in VR), Star Wars Squadrons, Drone Hero.
All in all - I’m with you. I bought a ton of VR games and these are just some of the most memorable, but they are all very easy to jump in and play, no setup required with fairly minimal issues regarding compatibility or potential for motion sickness.
Especially the hobby oriented one, any music and art programs in VR are just such great concepts that are executed very well.
There’s also a staggering lack of good content. That, and a bunch of QoL problems have yet to be fixed.
Yeah, I got a Samsung Odyssey HMD cheap (for a VR headset, ~$300) while they were in production and I used my headset to play Half-Life: Alyx, Phasmophobia, and Boneworks. Alyx was very well polished (for a VR game) and nothing came close to that. The rest is varying levels of jank and it will take about 20 mins to set up the headset every time when I could boot up any other game in less than a minute.
And on top of that anything that wasn’t those 3 games just didn’t feel like it was worth the work to play for me. Boneworks got close to Alyx in terms of polish but if someone was prone to motion sickness at all it would be unplayable. I haven’t ever been motion sick in my life but my stomach turned the first time the game “dropped” me down a hole. And Phasmo while it was far more immersive and scary in the headset it just wasn’t worth the hassle of setting up the headset only to get a headache in 20 mins of playing because the glare was not great on my headset making dark rooms hard to see in. Better headsets might fix a lot of those issues but the price point, ease of use, and QoL features are not in favor of it ever being more than a party gimmick.
The average person isn’t going to want to pay what I did for a few good games that might make them motion sick and a lot of janky garbage. And now most headsets are more expensive than that unless you want the Meta ones that are locked down.
The Reverb G2 can be had for also $300 on sale and the experience isn’t nearly as bad as you describe. There’s also tons of great VR content out there, it’s just not advertised.
Some of my favorites:
Vertical Shift: fairly short and barebones but it’s got a full range of powers for you to play with around an open world. Fun VR mechanics worth the sale price, despite the minimal gameplay.
You mentioned Boneworks and Phasmophobia which are also both a lot of fun, but motion sickness and multiplayer can make them not as convenient to always be ready to play. Of course, if we mention Boneworks then we have to talk about Duck Season. Blade and Sorcery should be on the list as well, it’s just too good to pass up. And well, if we’re talking about B&S we can’t ignore GORN.
Pistol Whip is basically a rhythm John Wick simulator. Very worth the cost of the game, lots of content, multiple free content updates - just a stellar game through and through. Also much more engaging than BeatSaber IMO, never been a fan of flailing my arms to slash blocks on beat. But shooting and dodging? Give me more!
Bonus: They just released a map creator. The life of the game is virtually infinite now, so that’s exciting :)
Superhot VR pre-content removal. Still a great game without the ending though.
V-Racer Hoverbike is a great VR game oriented Hoverbike Racing. Great sense of speed and feel, motion sickness is somewhat a given given the nature of the game…
Rez Infinite for anyone who remembers Rez for the PS2.
Pavlov VR is also a good popular fun game for your VR FPS itches. For more, there’s Into the Radius, Arizona Sunshine, ARK and ADE, Naked Sun, Bandit Point, Risk of Rain 2 VR (mod).
Speaking of mods, Subnautica in VR…
And one of my favorite pass-times, Holo-ball! It’s basically racquetball :)
There’s a couple party games that are fun as well, Wii Sports style with Pure Bowl VR, NVIDIA’s VR Funhouse, Tennis Arcade VR. All pretty decent (particularly compared to others that are available). Oh, also check out VRNoid which has brickbreaker and Hyper Psychic Gauntlets for a unique game. You can also play all your NES roms in VR with 3DSenVR which is pretty awesome. While we’re here, give Metroid Prime a playthrough with Dolphin VR, or all 3 if you get it running :)
Then there’s the whole world of productivity/not quite gaming programs.
I love, love love SynthVR. It’s just one of the smartest uses for VR, period. Create your virtual environment and just make it a giant music setup. Absolutely stellar. Similarly, Vinyl Reality for using your own music to DJ and mix! There’s also a drumming program called Paradiddle which is awesome for the same reasons. For painting, Vermillion.
If you’ve got a HOTAS or a racewheel there’s also a number of games that work great in tandem, Elite Dangerous for your space trucker sims (for this one, be sure to get SCRCPY for your android phone and run XS Overlay or OVR Toolkit to bring your phone with you in VR), Star Wars Squadrons, Drone Hero.
All in all - I’m with you. I bought a ton of VR games and these are just some of the most memorable, but they are all very easy to jump in and play, no setup required with fairly minimal issues regarding compatibility or potential for motion sickness.
Especially the hobby oriented one, any music and art programs in VR are just such great concepts that are executed very well.
Oh, and check out the Pod-Racer VR on github. :D