The best games for PlayStation VR 2

If the PlayStation VR 2 is your first foray into the world of VR and you’re looking for some guidance on what you should be playing first, you’ve come to the right place. After nearly a week with the PSVR 2, we’ve narrowed down some of the top games across a variety of genres to really put your new headset to work.

Now that we’ve had a chance to play launch line-up games like Horizon Call of the Mountain, Resident Evil Village in VR, and more, we can confidently share titles you should be downloading first.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

Unquestionably the most graphically impressive game on PSVR 2 right now is Horizon Call of the Mountain. This spinoff based on the popular open-world series has you clambering up cliff sides and firing off arrows as you attempt to survive some encounters with nasty robotic critters. As the primary exclusive, Horizon is the main showcase of the PSVR 2’s many unique features, from eye tracking to in-helmet haptics to adaptive triggers.

Just a note: If you’re brand-new to VR or you get motion sickness easily, Horizon is going to be a bit of a tough pill to swallow, since it’s built around some of the more quease-inducing gameplay aspects in VR. Until the game adds a teleport movement option, be very wary.

The Last Clockwinder

While less of a graphical stunner than Horizon, The Last Clockwinder makes up for it by being one of the most unique and creative VR games ever made. The premise: You’re attempting to revive a defunct clock tower by using robots that record your exact movements. So, if you want to turn a crank, you can record the movement of you doing it once and the robot will then turn the crank forever. This gets increasingly complicated as you record yourself throwing balls into the air that another recorded robot can then catch and move along the line, until you have a fully automated assembly line. All of this is paired with an endearing storyline and stellar art design.

Tetris Effect: Connected

One of Polygon’s favorite games of the last decade continues to get revived for new platforms, and PSVR 2 gets the latest incarnation. If you’re familiar with Tetris, you’ll be well served here, thanks to an incredible backing soundtrack and trippy visuals. The PSVR 2’s haptics groove along to the beat in cool ways, and as a bizarre extra feature, you can activate “Zone” mode just by closing your eyes, thanks to Tetris Effect’s use of eye tracking. Tetris Effect is also very welcoming to new VR players, with minimal risk of yarfing. Always a good thing!

Thumper

Another music-heavy re-release in the vein of Tetris Effect, Thumper arrives on PSVR 2 as the thumpiest title in the launch line-up. This action rhythm game has you piloting a metal bug as it zooms along a track, and you’ll have to hit the right inputs timed to the music to ensure that you don’t turn said metal bug into scrap. The trippy, Tron-esque visuals fill your entire field of vision thanks to PSVR 2’s wide, 110-degree viewing angle, and the helmet’s haptics will bounce right along with the beat… so long as you’re hitting your cues. A stellar experience for anyone who enjoys a laser light show every now and then.

Moss and Moss Book 2

The cutest titles in PSVR 2’s launch line-up are Moss and Moss Book 2, games that have you commanding a little field mouse as it attempts to take on various fantasy beasts. This is a strange twist on the VR format, in that you’re overseeing all of the action from above rather than stepping into the perspective of Quill, Moss’s adorable mouse. New to PSVR 2 are improved haptics and the PS5’s adaptive triggers, which make the experience of mouse survival all the more harrowing.

No Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky has supported VR since way back in 2019, arriving on the first PlayStation VR and PC. Since then, the game has seen a number of updates, but the VR functionality hasn’t gotten as much love. That changed with the Fractal update, timed with the launch of PlayStation VR 2.

In addition to adding native support for PlayStation VR 2 on PS5, the Fractal update massively enhances the VR experience across all platforms. New context-sensitive gestures and buttons allow you to access your quick menus and multi-tool abilities much faster than before. You can also freely examine the cockpit of your favorite starships, which are now fully rendered and interactable in VR.

Given the remarkable post-launch support that No Man’s Sky has gotten, it is easily one of the most robust and jaw-dropping VR experiences available on any platform, and it is a great showpiece for PlayStation VR 2.

Resident Evil Village

The original PlayStation VR launched with support for Resident Evil 7, thus making one of the scariest games ever made even more horrifying. Capcom is continuing that strategy by releasing a PlayStation VR 2-friendly mode for Resident Evil Village right alongside the headset’s launch day.

This new mode allows you to experience the main campaign entirely in VR, with brand new mechanics for inventory management, weapon aiming, and knife slicing. The game looks absolutely stunning in VR, offering up some of the best visuals we’ve seen in PSVR 2. It’s also a blast to play, so long as you can stomach the lack of a teleport movement option. But if you can handle Horizon Call of the Mountain, this should be no problem at all.