The Forest VR Review Played in PCVR On The Oculus Quest 3

The Forest sounds like it would be a fantastic VR game for a ton of reasons. First of all, because Virtual Reality and survival games are a match made in heaven.

Seriously, survival games are one of the genres that really thrive in the VR gaming space. This is even true among flatscreen games ported to VR, like Subnautica.

So naturally I was really excited to get to know The Forest VR based on what I already knew about the game. It’s got a vast open world with a ton of things to do and constant challenges to overcome. There’s hunting, gathering resources, and building your base to do to constantly keep you busy.

More than anything else I was looking to facing the constant threat of the mutant cannibal people that hunt you with more and more aggression and force as time goes on. That was a challenge that would be even more fun to face when fighting them with my actual hands in VR.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite turn out how I imagined. The Forest VR has the bones of a good VR game, but has a lot of little things holding it back from being as great as it should be.

We’ve got some beef with The Forest VR… but I still kind of love it

I can only imagine how awesome of a VR survival game The Forest VR could be if it had had more time and effort put into it by the developers.

While there’s no Sons Of The Forest VR, it would be really nice if the developers took another crack at a VR mode for one of their games and made a great VR Sons Of The Forest, unfortunately for now all we’ve got is this VR The Forest port.

If you want to try The Forest VR yourself and you have an Oculus Quest 2 or Oculus Quest 3, also keep in mind that The Forest is a PCVR game, meaning that you can’t run it directly on your Quest device. You’ll have to connect your Quest to a computer to try it. So you can play The Forest VR on the Oculus Quest 2 or 3 if you’re wondering.

Anyway, on to the review. This is my experience playing The Forest VR on the Oculus Quest 3, and why you may or may not want to do the same thing too.

The Forest VR Review - The Technical Stuff

The feeling that the developers of this Virtual Reality option for The Forest didn’t get all of the time they would need to finish it is really prevalent.

It’s still called a “Beta” in the main menu, though with the release of Sons Of The Forest and no updates for a very long time, it’s clear that the current state of VR The Forest is as good as it’s going to get as far as the developers were concerned.

Which is a real shame since the whole experience is just so… janky.

See the warping here? Well this is what I saw in my headset, and it happened all of the time.

Let’s start by talking about graphics and performance. As with most VR titles this will vary a lot depending on your personal setup, whether you’re using Airlink or a headset that is cabled directly into your PC, and your PC specs themselves.

Still, I’ve run a lot of PCVR games and few of them run as poorly as The Forest VR. Hopefully this has something to do with the graphics card being used and you don’t have similar issues, but the first hurdles to get over were all related to low frame rates and choppy visuals.

That’s also why the screenshots in this article all look a little bad, though I’ve generally tried to pick moments that look good. Even with a PC that is overall very capable of running PCVR games smoothly it is clear that The Forest VR is poorly optimized.

While I’ve heard that this may be because of the brand of graphics card you’re using. It’s possible that AMD cards run better, but overall it is clear that you’re probably going to have trouble running VR The Forest at anything above 45 FPS even with graphics settings turned down, and it’s still going to look bad.

A view of the beach… still doesn’t look half bad when you don’t move your head

Quick movements, such as those you’ll do during combat, make this problem even worse.

There are a lot of things in The Forest VR that take you out of the experience purely because of the quality of the Virtual Reality port, and a big one is how choppy your frames will get when you’re swinging your axe at an aggressive cannibal.

VR melee combat, or ranged combat, or combat of any kind, gets really hard and awkward when you need to react quickly to something with your actual body, and the reaction that you see in the 3D VR view doesn’t keep up with your hands and head.

That, combined with the visuals that are hampered by performance issues and look grainy and just plain weird makes for an immediate negative impression just when starting the game for the first time.

That’s all we’re going to say about the technical issues of The Forest VR, but there are other things that are also hard to swallow about this Virtual Reality game.

The Forest VR Review - The UI and Bugginess

I can’t tell you how many times I was feeling truly immersed.

I had managed to get over the choppy frames and bad resolution and just play the game without minding it. In our quest here at Reality Remake to try all VR games, I had already put up with worse.

I just started feeling the pressure, had a fight with a mutant, chopped down a tree, delivered some logs to a construction site. Any of the many things you can do in The Forest VR.

For a split second I had finally felt immersed, then I walked into a piece of luggage for a split second so I saw “Movement Blocked.”

I wish this popup never existed

I’m not against popups on your screen in VR games. This review is not going to say that all UI elements in VR games are always bad.

UI popups that appear constantly without any need for them are though. If my movement is blocked then I can tell it is blocked because I didn’t move.

Seriously, this popup will appear every minute or so, and sometimes for no apparent reason. It is so annoying and a constant reminder that you’re in a game. I’m pretty sure it’s broken, just like crouching.

Even if you turn physical crouching on in the settings menu, bending over sightly to hit a locked piece of luggage with your axe will completely mess up your perspective.

A reminder that this is still a Beta years after it’s last update

Sure you can fix this by walking around a little, and then your feet will come back down to the earth, but you need to bend over a lot to wash your hands or interact with something.

It would also be nice just to be able to bend over without thinking “Well now I’m going to teleport into the sky a little bit and have to wait for that to go away.”

There are a ton of things like that in The Forest VR, and I’m not going to list all of them for you here. There are a ton of little pieces of jank that could be solved with just a little more polish put on the experience.

Let the player bend over without their height bugging out. Let them walk into a rock without a popup appearing. There are so many things like this that just scream “abandoned VR port” that you will see all of the time.

Just like with the poor performance and bad frames per second you just have to learn to ignore them to get any joy out of The Forest VR, and that’s asking a lot of a player that’s trying to have fun.

Fighting a mutant in VR The Forest

Oh, and while I never expected much, the The Forest VR controls are occasionally very bad as well.

We’ll talk about the good things here as well, but your selected dominant hand will always have something in it, like your survival axe, and you still use the grab button on that hand to pick things up.

The logic of Virtual Reality controls generally tries to follow some form of real life logic. Like, if you have something in your hand, your hand is dedicated to using that thing.

Say you try to pick something up with your non dominant hand, the hand that will be empty. Nope, instead you pull out your lighter. The natural instinct to use your empty hand to pick up an object constantly creeps into the experience.

I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally took out my lighter by hitting the grab button on my left hand while trying to pick up something off of the ground.

The control scheme in The Forest VR is another constant point of annoyance, and often feels as half baked as other parts of the experience.

Chopping down trees is pretty fun and intuitive though!

Oh, and for my final complaint, I’ll say that jumping out of your body to watch your character do an animation is always jarring in VR. Though it was probably easier from a technical level to do things this way.

For instance, every time you skin an animal or climb a rope, you stand in place while you watch your character bend over and do the thing.

In The Forest VR you are forced to view your character do certain things from outside your body

Of course your view being forced into a predetermined animation would also be jarring, and so would the animal’s skin just jumping off of their body and into your inventory.

This is why most VR games have you do an action yourself, with your real hands. To be fair that’s hard to implement too, and like with so many other things there probably just never was the time to make it happen.

I feel bad for whoever was working on this VR version of The Forest, it must have been really disappointing to see all this potential go to waste.

That’s not to say that there isn’t anything in The Forest VR to be happy about, what feels finished is really very good, and so let’s talk about that now.

While this has been a very critical review so far, there are definitely good things in The Forest VR.

The Forest VR Review - The Good Things

So we’ve spent quite a while here talking a lot about what’s bad about The Forest VR. I’m doing that mainly so that you don’t get your hopes up and only read half of this article before going charging in and being disappointed.

Let’s finally quit being so negative and talk about what’s good about this survival game’s VR port.

There’s a lot to do and see and find in The Forest, and it is a massive game too. Standing on a hill and looking out at the landscape below you is always breathtaking in Virtual Reality, and The Forest has a lot of natural beauty for you to enjoy.

The sound is also amazing. The wind blowing through the trees, a deer jumping through a bush, a mutant screaming in the distance. All of the sounds can take you from relaxed to fully alert in a second. It’s very well done.

Chasing down a deer with an axe in The Forest VR

More than anything else what shines in this game are the tools and weapons you get your hands on, and the building.

First let’s talk about your tools and weapons. Shortly after starting the game I figured out how to craft a slingshot, which turned out to be as cool as it was ineffective.

It’s ineffective because the stones don’t go very far and do very little damage, but what was cool about it was that the slingshot actually works really well with VR controls.

There’s no cheap “press this button to fire slingshot” instead you pull back the slingshot by holding trigger on your dominant hand, and then actually aim and release it.

The slingshot is ineffective, but a lot of fun

It’s pretty intuitive after you figure it out, and a ton of fun to aim and shoot. It feels like you’re using an actual slingshot and is a ton of fun.

The bow is also pretty easy to make, and is also way more effective against the mutant cannibal enemies. Also it’s a great tool for hunting more illusive game more easily.

It works just like the slingshot, pull back while holding trigger with your dominant hand, aim and release to shoot.

The Bow is more effective and even more fun

A lot of items are meshed very well with the VR motion controls, and when they work they work amazingly well.

You can tell what had a decent amount of development time before development quit on the Virtual Reality support, and what was finished to an acceptable degree functions very well and satisfyingly.

Chopping down trees for sticks, leaves, and logs is also a ton of fun. Chopping around the sides of the tree with your actual hands feels good when you notice a section of trunk fall away with each strike.

Then you look up with your actual head to see the whole thing fall down before your eyes. It’s those sorts of magically immersive moments that make The Forest VR feel worth it.

Delivering more logs to the log cabin

The building is also fun, despite being rudimentary. There’s no manual combining of items by wrapping rope or hammering pieces in like in Green Hell VR, and there isn’t any craft to crafting like in A Township Tale.

Still, putting your construction site in place and adding pieces is fun in VR The Forest, and putting even a simple log cabin together comes with a feeling of accomplishment after chopping down all those trees and hauling all those logs.

Big expansive VR survival games that give you the amount of building and crafting options to play the game your way like The Forest VR does are few and far between. So it’s hard to hate this experience despite the flaws, because building a log fort to fight off hordes of cannibals is something you can’t do in any other Virtual Reality game.

All in all there are a lot of little things holding The Forest VR back, but beneath all of them is a truly great VR survival game. There’s a gem lying beneath all of these performance issues and general jankiness. If you can get past all of those things there are hours of fun to be had. If you can’t get past all of those things then I really can’t blame you.

Hopefully we get more a more complete Sons Of The Forest VR down the road. I know I’d try that game just for VR.

Whether you choose to play The Forest VR or not, there are also other great VR survival games out there, and whatever experience you choose to pursue, enjoy!

The Best Open World VR Games

So you want to experience a fantastic open world in VR. You want huge vistas, interesting landmarks to explore, and all sorts of fantastic things to find in a huge landscape brought to you in Virtual Reality.

Well good thing you found your way here, because you’re about to discover the best Open World VR games in existence. While these VR games have a variety of different mechanics and VR interactions, each is guaranteed to give you a massive place to explore and discover intriguing things.

These are the Best Open World VR Games.

Into The Radius

The Into The Radius Logo

If you’re looking for a truly weird place to explore then Into The Radius will certainly deliver. In all of the VR games I’ve played none gives as much of an experience of the surreal and scary quite like Into The Radius does.

In this game you’re an explorer doing your best to survive the Pechorsk Zone, which is a huge open world area comprised of 5 areas where the laws of the natural world no longer apply.

Fighting the dark figures in Into The Radius

As you hunt for artifacts, scavenge for supplies, and try to complete missions you’ll have to fight your way through the hostile dark figures that stalk the radius, and dodge the deadly anomalies that dot the landscape.

Into The Radius is a great open world game not only for its numerous combat and survival challenges, but for the imagination behind its world.

Pechorsk was once a normal place, but now there are all sorts of insane gravity defying ruins and odd structures scattered about. You really never know what you’ll see and discover next while exploring in this VR open world game.

A massive anomaly in Into The Radius

Into The Radius has made its way on a lot of our lists here at Reality Remake for good reasons. Not only is it a blast to play with tons of horror and action packed gameplay, but it also gives you a mysterious and strange world to explore.

That’s why Into The Radius is among the best open world VR games out there.

Elite Dangerous VR

The Elite Dangerous Logo with “VR” slapped on it

So you want an open world to explore in Virtual Reality, well what if we told you that more than one world was available? Well there are many worlds to explore in the depths of space, and that’s why Elite Dangerous VR is such a fantastic choice as an Open World VR game.

There is so much to explore in Elite Dangerous VR that nobody has seen all of it. Even all of the players of this game put together haven’t explored a small percentage of the worlds in store, because Elite Dangerous VR models our actual Universe.

If you want to not only see the incredible sights of space, but also have an effectively infinite number of worlds to discover, then Elite Dangerous VR will satisfy your craving for deep space exploration.

The views of space in Elite Dangerous VR are unmatched

There’s also more to do in this VR open world game. There’s combat, space trucking, space piracy, all sorts of things. No matter what you choose to do your chosen profession will take you all over this gorgeous game in the cockpit of your ship.

As far as open worlds go they don’t get much more open than the depths of space, so if you want to explore the cosmos Elite Dangerous VR is a great choice of open world VR game.

Want to know more? Check out our review and setup guide for Elite Dangerous VR.

No Man’s Sky VR

The No Man’s Sky Logo for their expansion “Beyond”

Since we’re talking about VR open world space games we’ve got to mention No Man’s Sky VR.

This game has a lot of the same open world strengths that Elite Dangerous VR has, but with very different gameplay mechanics.

The universe is just as infinite in No Man’s Sky VR, but instead of always being confined to your ship you also have much more to do by walking around on the surfaces of planets like harvesting resources, fighting robots, and a ton more. All in immersive Virtual Reality.

Exploring a massive open world planet in No Man’s Sky VR

Learn alien languages, upgrade your ship, get a massive freighter, start a space colony, and so much more is available in No Man’s Sky VR. Of course, this game also has more worlds to explore than you can possibly imagine.

Despite getting a lot of bad press at its release, No Man’s Sky has delivered on so much since then, including this VR port, though on PCVR it leaves some to be desired. It’s easy to walk outside of your body, and the VR controls are a little janky at times.

So while not as smooth of a VR open world sci fi experience as Elite Dangerous VR, No Man’s Sky VR brings a ton of different gameplay options that Elite Dangerous’ purely spaceship and space rover based experience just can’t deliver on.

So while it’s not the best VR port around and can run pretty choppily, No Man’s Sky VR is still a fantastic open world VR game, especially on the PSVR2, where it runs much more smoothly.

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Logo

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is another fantastic example of a VR open world game done well.

In this game you are the Tourist, an infamous survivor of the zombie apocalypse in the universe of The Walking Dead and you’ve recently arrived in the flooded city of New Orleans.

This game has an interesting story with compelling characters that centers around your quest to find The Reserve, a bunker which is rumored to contain tons of weapons and supplies that everyone in the city wants.

A small horde of zombies in The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

Your mission to find The Reserve will take you all over the ruined and zombie filled streets of The Walking Dead’s New Orleans. You’ll need to scavenge, craft, and fight through not only zombies but also the human factions that all want a piece of The Reserve, and you.

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is a fantastic game not only for its story, missions, and events, but also the world that you enter every time you go out into the city.

There are all sorts of ruins to explore and sights to see in the zombie filled streets of New Orleans. The world is massive, though it is cut up into separate maps with tons of nooks and crannies to explore and things to find.

If you want a zombie themed open world VR game then there is no better one to scratch that itch than The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. It’s also available on the Meta/Oculus Quest as well as PCVR.

Green Hell VR

The Green Hell VR Logo

Both on PCVR and the Meta Quest platforms Green Hell VR is a fantastic game that lets you explore the Amazon rainforest in all of its green and dangerous glory.

From hunting animals to discovering which plants will make you sick or nourish you, Green Hell VR combines an intricate crafting, survival, and building system with a huge rainforest to explore.

You’ll even discover that you’re not quite alone in the green hell, there are some local peoples that aren’t too fond of you interloping in their territory.

Being attacked by a Jaguar in Green Hell VR

Green Hell VR is a fantastic VR survival game that constantly forces you to deal with the very real perils of your environment from leeches in the water to pumas stalking you between the trees.

There are very few games that combine survival elements with the thrill of exploration and discovery in a natural space quite like Green Hell does, and even fewer that do so in Virtual Reality.

Green Hell VR is a great open world VR game, and also a great story for you to discover. Why are you trapped in the rainforest? Why can’t you leave?

Hanging out and cooking food in Green Hell VR

If you want to discover the rainforest in all its dangerous beauty and master it then there’s no better VR open world game than Green Hell VR.

The Forest VR

The Forest VR Logo

While we’re on the topic of VR open world games that give you a big natural environment to explore, then there’s no way we won’t mention The Forest VR.

A PCVR port of the hit game The Forest, The Forest VR is essentially the same game but with a VR view and controls. While it’s not the smoothest VR port in terms of performance, quality, or VR interactions, it is still a great open world VR game to enjoy.

In this game you are a passenger on a crashed plane that must survive in a dangerous forest inhabited with cannibal tribes that only grow more aggressive as time passes.

Meanwhile you’re looking for your kidnapped son, and try to discover what exactly is happening in the remote stretch of wilderness you find yourself in.

Walking through the titular Forest

I’m not going to sugar coat this though, The Forest VR has a lot of jankiness to it.

From the third person animations to the annoyances of trying to crouch without being teleported into the air, and the input lag that can give you a headache or just make the game frustrating to play.

Still, The Forest is such fun as a Virtual Reality open world game if you can get over those things. It gives you a huge world to explore filled with dangerous cannibals, vistas and caves to explore.

Slingshotting a cannibal

There is a lot of VR game for you to have fun with if you’re able to, and exploring the forest and its mysteries while you gather resources and uncover mysteries is too much fun to not include it on this list.

Gorilla Tag

The Gorilla Tag Logo

If you’re into VR games then you’ve probably heard of Gorilla Tag. So we won’t talk too much about it here, but you might not have realized that Gorilla Tag is basically an open world game as well.

Each area in Gorilla Tag is connected, and whether you’re playing it on PCVR or the Oculus Quest it is completely free. Your first time exploring each area with this game’s fantastic movement system is still a ton of fun, because each of the levels is connected.

A fantastic piece of Gorilla Tag’s open world

There are a lot of nooks and crannies and things to discover and explore in Gorilla Tag, from a sunny beach to floating platforms high up in the sky.

So if you want to discover what is so special about Gorilla Tag’s VR oriented movement while also exploring an interesting world, then give it a shot. It’s free, and surprisingly satisfying as a VR open world to explore.

Ghosts of Tabor

The Ghosts Of Tabor Logo

If you want player vs player shooting action while you scavenge and explore a world ravaged island, then Ghosts of Tabor is a game that delivers just that. It is a fantastic VR shooting game and a fantastic VR open world game.

We’ve called it a VR Escape From Tarkov game before, and if you’ve heard of Tarkov then you know exactly what that means.

In Ghosts of Tabor you enter the world from your secret bunker by starting a raid, and in that raid you have a certain amount of time, at least 30 minutes, to find an extraction point and exit.

A massive building to explore in Ghosts Of Tabor

While you look for one you explore the map and try to find loot to take out with you and either sell for money to buy more equipment, or store in your bunker for later use.

Meanwhile other players might be your friend or foe out in Tabor, and the local FENIX rebels will certainly be unhappy to see you.

Oh, and just like in Escape From Tarkov if you die you lose everything you have on you. So staying alive is always your number one priority.

Fighting another player in Ghosts Of Tabor

So if you want an open world to explore while combined with fantastic player versus player shooting and the extraction shooter mechanics pioneered by Escape From Tarkov, then give Ghosts of Tabor a look.

For such an action focused game it also gives you a ton of explore and discover, making it a great open world VR game as well.

If you want to know more then check out our article on Ghosts of Tabor.

Stormland

The Stormland Logo

Stormland is a VR game so old that you might not have heard of it. This was an early Oculus title from the days when standalone VR headsets like the Meta Quest weren’t even available yet.

So Stormland is PCVR exclusive, but wow is it a hidden gem.

In this game you’re a robot with human consciousness on an alien world, and it takes a lot of inspiration from flatscreen open world games.

Flying in Stormland

You explore around finding camps of enemies and clearing them to make the world a little bit safer, and there’s a shooting combat system that by today’s standards is a little unsophisticated. Oh, and the game is awfully short at about five to six hours.

Though where Stormland really shines is when it lets you loose to explore its open world. I’ve never had such a good time flying around in a VR game than I did when coasting through the alien world of Stormland.

The towering columns packed with vegetation and science fiction structures scattered around the place make Stormland a very pleasing game to look at and a great VR open world game to explore.

Despite how short of an experience it is compared to more modern VR open world titles, and a somewhat lackluster combat system, Stormland is a ton of fun to explore at least once if you don’t mind paying the price for it.

Grimlord

The Grimlord Logo

Remember Dark Souls? Or maybe Elden Ring. You’ve probably heard of at least one of them and are familiar with the concept of a “souls-like”.

These games are very well known for their excellent melee combat systems as well as their harsh punishments for repeated failure. Well Grimlord takes both of those things, and puts them into a fantastic open world just like any of the flatscreen soulslike games.

Fighting multiple enemies in Grimlord

The biggest difference is, of course, the addition of VR controls and a VR view.

Instead of hitting a button to attack in a set pattern, depending on your weapon, you’re now swinging your weapon any way that you want with your actual arm!

If a VR fighting game that includes a massive open world and soulslike progression sounds interesting in the slightest then you should really check out Grimlord, it’s a ton of fun.

Skyrim VR (With Mods)

The Skyrim VR Logo

It’s no secret that Skyrim VR was not a very good VR port. From the poor optimization to the lack of very basic VR interactions, it was considered a flop and a cash grab by its publisher, Bethesda Softworks.

Luckily as with all Bethesda games, Skyrim VR has had a lot of work put into it independently by the modding community.

If you want to do fairly basic VR things like grab stuff, have a physical body in the world, or enjoy melee combat that amounts to more than just flicking your wrist near an enemy, Skyrim VR with mods will give you all of that in the beautiful and immersive open world of Skyrim.

The entrance to Whiterun in Skyrim VR

Now you can experience Skyrim VR like you should have been able to from the start. While there are still some performance issues on certain graphics cards, Skyrim VR with mods really delivers on a VR Elder Scrolls experience.

Now you can explore Skyrim’s vast open world with truly immersive VR controls, and wow is it a ton of fun. If you’ve always wanted to explore Skyrim in VR, but the reputation of the VR port kept you away, it’s time to install mods and give it a go.

If you want the easiest way to install a large suite of Skyrim VR mods without having to worry about cross compatability issues, then check out our guide on the easiest way to install Skyrim VR mods so that you can enjoy this VR open world.

Minecraft VR

A Minecraft Logo

To cap off this list of the Best Open World VR Games, none needs as little introduction as Minecraft VR.

We don’t need to tell you anything about this game and what it entails, just that it’s possible to enjoy it in Virtual Reality and experience the most open of open worlds.

The satisfaction of creating a fantastic building is better than ever in Virtual Reality, and if you want a limitless open world to explore in VR then Minecraft VR will always deliver.

Well that’s it for our list of the best VR Open World games. If you want a big world to explore then you’ll certainly have found something on this list that you’ll enjoy. I’ve personally played every single one and found something to enjoy in exploring each of them, and you certainly will too. Have fun!