7 Best VR Survival Games for Meta Quest (And PCVR)
Something about Virtual Reality just makes for great Survival Games, especially on standalone platforms like the Oculus Quest 2. Oh, and if you’re here for PCVR games then you’ll find that most of these are also available on Steam.
Maybe it’s the feeling of actually being inside of the world you’re playing in, or using your actual hands to use the tools you need to keep yourself alive. Whatever it is you’d be crazy not to try VR Survival Games on the Quest 2, it is one of the best genres to experience in Virtual Reality.
The Survival Game genre has seen a massive boost in recent years with many great flatscreen games coming out like Valheim and Sons Of The Forest, and luckily some studios have also been focusing on this genre in Virtual Reality. More and more VR Survival Games have been coming out over the years, and as more are added to the Quest platform we’ll also be adding them to this list here.
So here are the best VR Survival Games on the Oculus Quest 3 and Quest 2.
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The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Chapters 1 and 2 - VR Zombie Survival Games
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Logo
Well known as one of the greatest VR game series out there, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners and its newest iteration The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution are knockout Zombie Survival Games on the Quest 2 based in the universe of The Walking Dead.
If you are even neutral on the concept of a zombie apocalypse you should play these games. Not only are there a ton of zombies (or rather walkers) to dispatch with one of the most straightforward yet elegant melee combat systems in VR survival gaming, but there are also human NPCs to get into firefights with and advance a very compelling story.
In this VR Survival Game there are a ton of zombies and people to fight with a variety of melee weapons and firearms
Most importantly to fans of VR Survival Games, not only will you have to fight to survive, but you will have to scavenge the ruins of New Orleans for materials to craft weapons, medical supplies, and food. Each day you will find less and less as supplies and materials from before the outbreak become scarcer and scarcer.
You’ve probably already heard of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, and that’s for good reason. It is one of the few VR games to combine a dangerous open world with a variety of secrets and systems to draw you into the gameplay, as well as a great story.
So if you’ve ever wanted to see how well you would do surviving in a zombie apocalypse, there’s really no better VR Survival Game I can recommend to you than The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners and it’s sequel. It’s got fantastic combat, heart pounding moments, and compelling characters.
Cosmodread - VR Sci Fi Horror Survival Game
The Cosmodread Logo
Zombies are scary, sure, but what if they don’t scratch that scare itch for you like they used to?
Well if horror is what you want in your Virtual Reality survival game then Cosmodread is the scariest survival game on the Quest 2. In it you attempt to repair and fly a half destroyed and alien infested ship back to Earth. Along the way you collect crafting recipes to create more weapons and items to help you survive in this VR roguelike horror survival game.
Cosmodread combines resource scarcity and terrifying enemies to make for a fantastic VR Roguelike Survival experience
Cosmodread is not only one of the best survival games on the Quest 2, but one of the best horror games. It’s terrifying looking enemies and creepy sound design will have you sweating to open a door and jumping at dark corners. The creaks of the decaying ship combined with the disgusting fleshy sounds of the alien growth means you never feel truly safe.
You shouldn’t feel safe, either, as the aliens only grow stronger as time goes on, and they can find you anywhere.
Cosmodread uses resource scarcity and an interesting crafting system to make you think on your feet and use every resource available to you to make your way from one end of the ship to the other through all of the dangerous aliens and malfunctioning robots so that you can make it back to earth and survive.
There’s really no other VR Survival Game like it, and when you’re low on ammo and hear the roar of an alien on your trail there’s nothing scarier in Virtual Reality.
Green Hell VR - VR Jungle Survival Game
The Green Hell VR Logo
If you want a survival experience that takes you far away from civilization and deep into the bowls of the Amazon rainforest, then Green Hell VR is the game for you. The jungle is an unforgiving place in this VR Survival Game, and so are its inhabitants.
When you are not hunting for food or figuring out which plants will make you vomit up all your nutrients, you’ll be fighting for your life against predators like pumas and leopards, and the native tribespeople who are very unhappy with your presence.
Green Hell VR combines a fantastic crafting system which involves combining items in your hands with intuitive actions like wrapping vines around a simple stone axe to make it stronger, or running a sharpened stone across a long piece of wood to make a sharp spear.
Even the leeches in the water make surviving in Green Hell VR’s jungles difficult
Gathering resources from the jungle and then building your tools and campsites out of the natural resources of the Amazon makes the most basic necessities of survival feel difficult to achieve and very earned when you do.
For a more rugged and true to life survival experience, there is no better game than Green Hell VR. It’s less combat focused than other survival games here, though there is plenty of combat to be had, and you’ll find that in Green Hell VR you’re far more challenged by more true to life challenges of survival like building your camp, finding the right food to eat, and staying hydrated.
Also just like its flatscreen counterpart Green Hell VR has seen and will continue to see updates like it has with the addition of the free Spirits of Amazonia DLC that was recently added. Now there’s new environments, new objectives, and new ways to survive in this fantastic VR Survival Game. It just keeps getting better.
Into the Radius - Surreal VR Survival Shooter Game
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What is a list of VR Survival Games for the Quest 2 without Into the Radius? Inspired by Roadside Picnic, the book which also inspired the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. movie and games, Into the Radius combines fantastic gunplay with a surreal and dangerous setting.
In it you are an explorer navigating the Pechorsk Radius, a wide section of land in Russia dominated by a massive black sphere hanging in the sky where the usual laws of reality do not apply.
While completing missions for the mysterious Committee you have to fight off hostile entities, which look a lot like humans (in most cases) but made of a strange black material, while also navigating fields of deadly anomalies that hold valuable and otherworldly artifacts inside.
Into the Radius has very intense and scary fighting
Into the Radius gives you a wide variety of weapons to choose from, which all handle incredibly well in Virtual Reality, and it’s gunplay is definitely a huge draw for this VR Survival Game. What enhances it beyond a normal shooter is not only the need to scavenge and hunt for artifacts to survive, but the mystery of the Pechorsk Zone.
Delving deeper and deeper into the Radius towards greater danger, while discovering bizarre sights and uncovering more about this strange place, is what makes Into the Radius a Virtual Reality Survival Game like no other.
Into the Radius is a classic of the VR Shooter and VR Survival genre, and it’s even got a sequel on the way, Into the Radius 2.
Song in the Smoke - Prehistoric Caveman VR Survival Game
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Want a survival experience that not only takes you far from civilization, but back in time before civilization even existed? Then Song in The Smoke might be what you’re looking for. In this VR Survival Game you are a caveperson discovering the secrets of the land as you craft a number of tools and weapons to hunt and fight prehistoric creatures.
Surviving the vicious predators of a wilderness before time is the hard part, but there is also a lot of fun to be had in the exploration of Song in the Smoke’s untouched wilderness. Not only do you find the sticks and stones needed to create your weapons, but mystical herbs and fruits to craft powerful elixirs.
Song in the Smoke immerses you in its mysticism from the very beginning, and through its many areas you can find secrets that not only reveal more of the forest around you, but your own potential.
Medieval Dynasty VR - A VR Medieval Life Simulator and VR Survival Game
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Medieval Dynasty New Settlement, or rather Medieval Dynasty VR, is a VR remake for the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 2 of the 2021 flatscreen medieval life simulator Medieval Dynasty. Unlike other Virtual Reality survival games on this list, Medieval Dynasty VR focuses more on being a life simulator than a purely survival focused experience.
This means you'll be spending a lot of time talking to the locals, completing tasks for them, and most importantly building a thriving settlement of your own on any of a few available plots of free land. It's very satisfying to go from nothing to putting up your first house to sleep and cook in, to erecting a huge variety of crafting and storage buildings to harvest all kinds of resources and make all kinds of tools.
What is most satisfying about Medieval Dynasty VR is engaging with its huge variety of crafting systems to make all sorts of things from tools to planks to pottery and beyond, and most importantly gathering and constructing buildings. You can even hire workers to work on your land for you and find a wife to marry and have children to continue your dynasty in future generations.
Stirring up some soup in Medieval Dynasty VR
While Medieval Dynasty New Settlement might not have the most satisfying end game at the moment, because those quests and tasks do eventually dry up and become repetitive, it does have a huge map to explore and secret treasures to find as well.
Uncovering the mysteries of Green Valley, the place where you are building your new home, offers some survival challenges of its own, though it is not hard to keep yourself hydrated and fed in this game, and the combat could use some more work.
Still, it is so satisfying to build yourself and your new home up from nothing, and there are many hours of fun to be had going from a nobody to a well respected local landowner in Medieval Dynasty VR.
If you want to know more about this fantastic VR game then check out our review of Medieval Dynasty: New Settlement.
Survivorman VR: The Descent - A VR Survival Game For Teaching You Real Survival Tactics
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Survivorman VR: The Descent is, of all of the VR Survival Games on this list of Virtual Reality Survival games, the most aimed at realism and teaching you actual survival tactics for the real world.
In this Virtual Reality game, you play as a survivor of a helicopter crash on a cold and desolate mountain. From the start you have very little to work with, and the cold and darkness of the arctic wastes that you have to survive in closing in around you. Luckily survival expert Les Stroud will tell you exactly what you need to do in order to stay alive, stay dry, stay warm, and stay fed.
Survivorman VR: The Descent is more of a survival learning tool than a real game, but is very interesting nonetheless. If you're interested in VR games for the purpose of learning actual things about the real world, then I highly suggest you take a look at this one.
The downside of Survivorman is that it's less a game and more a way to introduce you to these methods of real world survival for this potential real world situation. There is very little replayability, and it functions more as an interactive lecture than a game in the traditional sense of the word. It's also a very short VR survival experience at just a couple of hours.
Still, if you're really interested in survival in the real world instead of just the virtual world, give Survivorman VR: The Descent a look and see if you've got what it takes to listen to Les Stroud's advice and stay alive on the mountain.
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