The 3 Greatest VR Real Time Strategy (RTS) Games on the Oculus Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3
Real Time Strategy is not the most represented game genre in Virtual Reality or on the Oculus Quest 2. As we’ve covered before here that is partly due to a lack of innovation for VR strategy games, and partially due to the VR format being much better suited to innovation in other areas.
The closeness of Virtual Reality and the ability to turn your arms into controllers is much more suited to Shooting or Fighting games than the Strategy genre. Still, VR Strategy Games on the Oculus Quest 2 offer some head turning visuals, and great use of 3D space that utilizes VR controls. So here’s what we’ve got, the 3 Greatest VR Real Time Strategy Games on the Oculus Quest 2… for now.
Real Time Strategy is not the most represented game genre in Virtual Reality or on the Oculus Quest 2. As we’ve covered before here that is partly due to a lack of innovation for VR strategy games, and partially due to the VR format being much better suited to innovation in other areas.
The closeness of Virtual Reality and the ability to turn your arms into controllers is much more suited to Shooting or Fighting games than the Strategy genre. Still, VR Strategy Games on the Oculus Quest 2 offer some head turning visuals, and great use of 3D space that utilizes VR controls. So here’s what we’ve got, the 3 Greatest VR Real Time Strategy Games on the Oculus Quest 2… for now.
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Eternal Starlight
As we’ve said in our video on Eternal Starlight, it isn’t the future of the RTS genre, but it is one hell of a take on a Strategy game in Virtual Reality.
In Eternal Starlight you take on the role of a Captain for future humans who have managed to carve out a new home (not Earth) among the stars. Unfortunately a particular faction of aliens has decided that humans must vacate the planet they have settled on or face annihilation.
With nowhere else to go you must stand and fight and defend humanity’s new home. Gather what allies you can and assemble a fleet, because it’s going to get rough. Don’t worry if you fail though, Eternal Starlight is a roguelike, so you can always try again from the start if your flagship goes down in flames.
The roguelike portion of this game is by far it’s weakest, and seems to have been added to make more game out of less. You will end up repeating the exact same missions, all formatted like RTS story campaign missions, over and over again. Though there is some satisfaction in getting slightly further down a mission tree than you did before.
Each mission in Eternal Starlight begins with a brief chat over the comms to give each mission in this VR RTS a little context.
The meat of the gameplay is directing your low poly ships to face towards other low poly ships and exchange volleys of gunfire ranging from canons to lasers.
All, of course, depending on where the weapons are mounted on the ships themselves. Every ship has shields, armor, and hull points. Get those hull points to zero and they explode in a great fireball.
This gameplay takes place over a variety of missions. Protect the space station, destroy the asteroids with explosives, close the stargate that is spawning enemies, and so much more.
Each mission starts with dialog between the quirky alien races that you fight with and against, which is mildly entertaining the first time, but ends up just being something you just skip past the third to tenth times.
Equipping a ship in Eternal Starlight. This Virtual Reality strategy game is all about customizing your small collection of ships.
Throughout these missions you build your fleet up from just your flagship into a force powerful enough to stop the destruction of the human race, or your fleet is too weak to complete a mission and you start over again. Each ship can be customized with different turrets, upgrades, and special abilities.
There is some tactical depth to making a fleet of ships that complement each other, but you will soon figure out which weapons and abilities are just flat out more powerful than others, and use only those.
Eternal Starlight doesn’t captivate as much as a strategy game with more depth would, but it’s easy to get into and easy to enjoy for about as long as you would enjoy most Virtual Reality titles on the Meta Quest 2 (Six to Eight hours).
The controls are occasionally clunky, but make good use of the 3D space in VR. Moving your ships with the Oculus Touch Controllers in 3D space feels natural when it works properly.
Homeworld: Vast Reaches
Luckily it seems that more innovation and effort has been put into the VR RTS space more recently by Virtual Reality Game developers. With none other than Gearbox Software credited as having had some part in the making of Homeworld: Vast Reaches.
Released shortly before the much anticipated, but much maligned, flatscreen game Homeworld 3, Homeworld: Vast Reaches is a fantastic addition to any strategy gamer’s VR collection and is basically a Homeworld game but in Virtual Reality.
Controlling your fleet in Homeworld VR is easy!
Rather than controlling your fleet of ships with a mouse and keyboard as usual, you’ll be using your hands and taking a god’s eye view of the battlefield as the newest controller of the titular Mothership as the Hiigaran people of the Homeworld universe once more defend themselves from great threats.
Homeworld: Vast Reaches is all about deftly organizing and controlling your fleet of ships as it grows bigger and better throughout the story campaign and you face greater and greater threats. Your ships are all organized in clustered formations called Strike Groups. Each of these strike groups is a group of ships that you organize and control as a single entity.
Inspecting a unit in Homeworld: Vast Reaches.
Each type of unit has different strengths and weaknesses in Homeworld VR, and mixing and matching which ships are combined in your strike group, as well as their formations, makes for some very interesting strategic decisions. Not to mention the more tactical nature of controlling your force in three dimensions.
All together Homeworld: Vast Reaches makes for a fantastic translation of the classic Homeworld experience to Virtual Reality, and is a strategy game that anybody who loves Virtual Reality and loves strategy games should definitely try. The only downside is its lack of Multiplayer or even a Skirmish mode. The entire game is limited to the Campaign, but that Campaign is well designed and thrilling from start to finish.
Battlegroup VR
Here we are saving what is, arguably, the best for last. If you want a Virtual Reality Real Time Strategy Game to really sink your teeth into, Battlegroup VR is what you’re looking for. It has a similar control scheme to Eternal Starlight, but with deeper customization and combat options that make it harder to grasp at first, but much more satisfying to master.
Battlegroup VR is a very intense VR RTS.
Once again you’ll be moving 3D ships in a 3D VR space so that their turrets point at the enemy ships and fire on them. Once again in a variety of missions, all with pre mission narration and plot. You will also acquire resources to build, customize, and upgrade a variety of ships throughout the game. There are a number of combat vessels to choose from, as well as support ships for those combat vessels.
There are a ton of fleet compositions to try, and a ton of different ways to equip your ships. If you like the sound of a game like Eternal Starlight, but want deeper mechanics and customization to sink your teeth into, then Battlegroup VR has you covered.
Customizing your commanders and ships is a must do for victory in this Strategy Game.
The missions are just as varied, from base defense, to convoy raiding, to convoy protection, to just going toe to toe with enemy vessels, there are a lot of tactical scenarios to try out. Though a lot tend to just devolve into straight ship on ship battles. Additionally the maps that these battles take place on tend to be a little bland and not offer a ton of terrain to break up the fighting.
Still, the visuals of Battlegroup VR are beautiful, by far the best out of any Oculus Quest 2 Strategy Game. Instead of the smooth low poly visuals of the other games listed here, Battlegroup VR goes for a high sci fi, high realistic and very dark aesthetic. It really pushes the Meta Quest 2’s graphical capabilities far, and still runs smoothly.
You can even see your ships out of the window of your flagship! Very cool.
The game uses these gorgeous visuals well. The bridge of your flagship stares directly into the dark of space, lined with stars. You can even see other ships right through the viewport. It’s very cool and makes you feel like you really are right there in the thick of battle directing things. You can even take direct control of your ship, if the game wasn’t hands on and in depth enough already.
That all being said the main downside of Battlegroup VR is the length of its combat. Sometimes you’ll end up a little bored, waiting for a ship to finish putting salvo after salvo into another vessel. The pacing of the combat is a little too slow at times, but that can be a blessing when the battles become truly massive.
Well there you have it, the 3 Greatest Real Time Strategy games available on the Oculus Quest 2. Hopefully this list will become bigger in time. There are also other games that, while not technically real time strategy, can still scratch that strategic itch, like Cities VR.
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