How To Get Contractors Showdown And Play On the Meta Quest 3 and 2
So you’ve heard about the amazing VR Battle Royale game Contractors Showdown and want to get in on the fun.
That’s awesome, and welcome to the best new VR Battle Royale Shooter there is. You’ve probably heard about how great this game is, and I can say from all of the fun I’ve had that there isn’t a Battle Royale quite like this one out there.
The movement is quick, and the shooting has a very good feel to it. Not to mention the map is huge, there are a ton of players, and there are so many different types of guns and equipment to try.
So you’ve heard about the amazing VR Battle Royale game Contractors Showdown and want to get in on the fun.
That’s awesome, and welcome to the best new VR Battle Royale Shooter there is. You’ve probably heard about how great this game is, and I can say from all of the fun I’ve had that there isn’t a Battle Royale quite like this one out there.
The movement is quick, and the shooting has a very good feel to it. Not to mention the map is huge, there are a ton of players, and there are so many different types of guns and equipment to try.
How To Play Contractors Showdown
Anyway, if you want to know how to get Contractors Showdown on your Meta Quest 3 then you’ve come to the right place. The same things said here apply to any Meta Quest device like a Meat Quest 2 or Pro as well.
Purchasing and installing Contractors Showdown on the Meta Quest is really easy. Here’s how to do so entirely in your Quest device, though you can also purchase the game through the Meta website or App on your phone before putting on your headset to install it. First put the headset on.
When you’re in your home screen you can open the store by hitting the orange button at the bottom with the shopping bag on it (when you point your controller pointer at it a bubble will show up saying “Meta Quest Store”).
Oh, and your headset will need to be connected to a WiFi network for this to work, so if you aren’t already then click on the WiFi icon on the left side of the menu bar to open your settings and connect to a WiFi network.
This orange button opens the Meta Quest store. You’ll need to go there to get Contractors Showdown.
At the top left of the store screen click on the magnifying glass search icon.
A little keyboard will show up below. Start typing “Contractors Showdown” into the search bar and hit the blue arrow to search for it.
Then click on the Contractors Showdown icon under “Apps.”
Searching for Contractors Showdown in the Meta Quest store.
Now you’ll be on the Contractors Showdown store page. There will be some more information about Contractors Showdown on it, and you could also hit the “View In Store” button to see a video about the game and some screenshots if you like.
If you’re reading this then you probably already know that you want Contractors Showdown. So hit the blue button that shows you the amount the game costs.
When you buy this game for the first time there won’t be “Gift” next to the price.
Unfortunately Contractors Showdown isn’t free. So you’re going to have to pay for it using a credit card. If you haven’t already linked a card to your account then you will be prompted to enter valid card information that can be charged for the purchase.
Once you’re done with that and you’ve purchased the game click the button on the right side of the menu bar that looks like a grid of 9 squares. This will take you to your app library.
You should now see an icon for Contractors Showdown in your library. If you don’t you can always search for it by clicking the magnifying glass icon in the top right and typing “Contractors Showdown” into the search bar.
If the icon is greyed out then point and click on it with your trigger to start installing, and then wait for the installation to complete.
Installing Contractors Showdown on a Meta Quest headset.
Once the game is installed just click on it again and you’ll find yourself in Contractors Showdown!
Now that you’re in the game there is an excellent tutorial that will show you the basics of how to play. That was how to get Contractors Showdown and how to play Contractors Showdown. Enjoy!
Into The Radius 2 Early Access Release Date Announced As July 24th
Here is a long anticipated release announcement for any fan of VR Survival Games or VR Shooters. Into the Radius 2 will finally be hitting Early Access on Steam on July 24th.
Sorry standalone purists, but there has been no additional announcement concerning a Quest version of the game, so for now Into the Radius 2 will be PCVR only. However, I’m sure that won’t be the case for too long.
Here is a long anticipated release announcement for any fan of VR Survival Games or VR Shooters. Into the Radius 2 will finally be hitting Early Access on Steam on July 24th.
Sorry standalone purists, but there has been no additional announcement concerning a Quest version of the game, so for now Into the Radius 2 will be PCVR only. However, I’m sure that won’t be the case for too long.
If you haven’t tried the predecessor to this title, Into the Radius is one of the best VR Survival Shooters ever created, up there with other greats such as The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. It’s combination of decrepit eastern bloc and surreal alien settings makes its atmosphere unmatched, and the freedom afforded in its gameplay hardly seen elsewhere in the Virtual Reality gaming scene.
Into the Radius 2 promises to be a continuation of that fine legacy.
Through the many articlesfound here about the first Into the Radius game, you might guess that the first title is a favorite for this publication. While a tense, surreal, survival shooting experience in Virtual Reality might not be for everyone, if you like any of those descriptors then it is likely a game for you.
Understandably, it is extremely exciting to hear about a sequel.
Here is an excerpt of the press release provided by the developers over at CM Games concerning Into the Radius 2:
“Into the Radius 2 is an immersive VR survival shooter, set in a realm of surreal landscapes and deadly anomalies known as Pechorsk Security Zone. Arm yourself with realistic weapons and team up with friends as you venture deeper into the mysteries that lie within the zone.
The sequel retains the beloved features from the original, including meticulously crafted weapons and attachments, a sophisticated loot-management system, and the freedom to explore the secrets of the dangerous locations teeming with anomalies and haunting enemies. Building on this foundation, Into the Radius 2 will introduce riveting expansions, starting with the option for two-player co-op (currently in beta, expanding to four players with updates).”
Additionally CM Games also stated the following, which reveals the absolutely massive amount of content that is already planned for the early access release, and is sure to balloon further as development continues on the game.
“Like the original game, this is just a first stop on a long journey to full release, and this is our first public version of Into the Radius 2.
Here’s what you can expect from the initial Early Access launch of the game:
-2 locations + new UNPSC Explorer facility
-7 top priority missions and a number of secondary missions
-13 weapons, some of which have more than 1 variant
-Several backpack options and 6 types of chest rigs to choose from
-A variety of new anomalies and entities
-Single player and 2 player co-op (currently in beta, expanding to four players with updates”
As CM Games have shown in their various Devlogs, Into the Radius 2 is shaping up to be not only a continuation, but an expansion of it’s predecessor, and I for one am very excited to try it.
Into the Radius 2 will be 39.99$ on July 24th and beyond. Admittedly a little pricey for a VR title. Though the developers over at CM Games have stated that they will not ever permanently change the price.
The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners Aftershocks Walkthrough and Guide - Part 2 - Rampart
Stuck in The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners: Aftershocks? Wondering where to go next? Maybe you just like to see what is in store for you before you get there, or want to look back and see if you missed anything in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: Aftershocks.
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with this complete walkthrough. These articles will detail how to progress through the main story missions as quickly as possible, with a couple of guiding tips thrown in here and there to make your adventure smoother.
Today we’ll be recovering the second national guard cache, which has been found by the Tower in the abandoned Rampart High School.
Stuck in The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners: Aftershocks? Wondering where to go next? Maybe you just like to see what is in store for you before you get there, or want to look back and see if you missed anything in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: Aftershocks.
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with this complete walkthrough. These articles will detail how to progress through the main story missions as quickly as possible, with a couple of guiding tips thrown in here and there to make your adventure smoother.
Previously we went to Bywater to retrieve a National Guard Cache. Today we’ll be recovering the second national guard cache, which has been found by the Tower in the abandoned Rampart High School.
This guide assumes that you are starting Aftershocks with the "Aftershocks Quickstart” option in the main menu. If you’re playing Aftershocks after completing the main campaign then some details might be slightly different, but the challenges you face in the missions will be the same.
If you are missing some of the recipes then you can still pick them up while doing the missions in this walkthrough, though they won’t be explicitly pointed out here. For a full list of all recipes in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, check out our recipe guide article.
Spoilers will be as light as possible, but there will be story spoilers by necessity in this walkthrough. There won’t be any explanation of what is going on in the story beyond what is necessary to make the walkthrough make sense.
The Resting Place
As with any mission in this The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Aftershocks walkthrough, let’s talk about getting ready for the struggle ahead.
If your radio isn’t tuned to station 47 then tune it. You’ll be able to hear not only a Tower broadcast about the national guard cache at Rampart, but also the random changes to different locations for the day (i.e. caches, patrols, etc).
Keep your radio tuned to channel 47.
Oh, and make sure to check the steps leading into the bus. You’ll find that somebody has left you a note.
Someone left you a note on the steps leading up to the bus. Very ominous.
Anyway, on to preparing for the mission. Just like previously when we went to Bywater, there are a ton of human enemies guarding the Rampart High School and the cache within.
While stealth is an option if you prefer it, this mission can be completed by avoiding human opponents instead of fighting them, it’s better to make sure you’re prepared by bringing some firepower that is effective against armored human soldiers armed with guns.
Bring at least one larger firearm and at least one pistol. A bow can be useful if you want to rely on stealth, but if you bring one it’s wise to bring another large firearm for backup. Using a few of your backpack slots to carry a bandage and a couple of explosives as well won’t hurt.
There will be a ton of loot to be had during this mission, and regardless you should be pretty well off in the resources department already, so don’t worry too much about leaving room for scavenged items. It’s time to have fun with all of the recipes and items you found during the original campaign.
Finally, make sure you’ve got a couple of melee weapons for walkers, and it might be wise to bring some food if you plan to try and get some of the crafting recipes found in Rampart after you complete your main objective of finding the cache.
There are no bells in this mission, so you will have unlimited time to search the area for any recipes you might have missed. The only time constraint is your stamina bar getting smaller due to hunger.
The Rampart National Guard Cache
Once you’re armed to the teeth and ready to go, head over to the boat and leave for Rampart.
Luckily the route to your objective is pretty straightforward. Once you arrive in Rampart take a look at your map
A direct route to the national guard cache. Watch out for the tower patrols on the way.
See the route outlined above? That’s the most direct route to the cache, and sort of your only route. You can also go around the top of the gym, but if you go that way you will definitely run into trouble.
Normally in Rampart there are more ways into and out of the school open to you, but here in Aftershocks they’re mostly blocked off. To get to the cache and the entrance to the east wing of the school beside it, you’ll have to go through the courtyard.
The courtyard is the most dangerous place to be in Rampart right now. It’s full of Tower patrols. After you go through the gate which is right in front of where you will spawn in, you’ll see or hear them.
The Tower soldiers aren’t very observant and can be avoided if you are careful.
There will also be some stationary tower grunts guarding the side entrances to the courtyard, like that on the other side of the basketball court, and the other one from behind the east wing of the school.
I recommend following the path highlighted on the map above and just going straight through the courtyard. There are a few Tower patrols that you can sneak past if necessary, or fight.
Fighting them isn’t tough because you can easily get the jump on them, or use explosives like nail bombs or sticky bombs to perform an effective ambush. With all of the tools at your disposal they should be no problem.
Whether you sneak through or fight your way through you’ll find the national guard cache near the open entrance to the east wing, on the bottom right of the courtyard on your map. It’s under an awning and next to a big yellow schoolbus.
The cache is on that table next to the school bus, already opened.
Unfortunately the cache is mostly empty, but there is a note inside, a bandage, and most importantly a strange key. Make sure to take the key.
The note will give you some story and tell you to go to the library. Conveniently there is an entrance to the school that is very near the library and right next to the cache. If you’re facing the empty cache box, just turn around.
The entrance to the school next to the cache.
Head inside and get your melee weapons ready for some walkers.
There aren’t any human enemies inside of Rampart, they’re confined to the courtyard, but inside there will be plenty of walkers and plenty of wire traps.
Luckily these traps aren’t the explosive sort we saw last time, they’ll only hurt you a little if you touch them. It’s easy to disarm them by just touching them with an object, like your flashlight or a melee weapon. So they’re mostly harmless.
These wire traps are easy to disarm by touching them with an object.
Anyway, once you’re inside, immediately take a right and go down the hallway that ends in the door blocked by that computer cart, like you can see in the screenshot above.
Once you reach the end of the hallway turn left and go up the big staircase. Once you are at the top of the stairs go down the hallway leading out of the stairwell until you see some double doors on your left next to a blockage in the hallway where the roof caved in.
Those double doors lead into the library, and once you enter the library keep to the left and you’ll find the contents of the national guard cache just behind the big desk there.
That’s a lot of loot!
There you are, the contents of the national guard cache. Fill your backpack up to your heart’s content. You’ll never want for medicine or bandages again with this haul.
I do recommend you prioritize the “box of loot” items though, since you’ll probably not be able to take everything.
Leaving Rampart
Oh, and on the desk next to the cache is a note with some more story, and the news that the Reclaimed will be there soon. Specifically, it says that they’ll be attacking the courtyard with all of the Tower soldiers inside of it.
This isn’t great news for you, since you’ll be leaving through the courtyard. The exits other than the way you came in are all blocked.
Head back out of the high school the way you came. Head back out through the library’s double doors and take a right. After heading down the stairs just keep going straight down the hallway until you see the exit on your left.
Exiting back to the courtyard, be ready.
Get ready, because there is going to be some fighting out in the courtyard. As soon as you exit the school a couple of large squads of Reclaimed troops will spawn in and sweep the courtyard for enemies, which includes you.
Unless you managed to make it through stealthily and without destroying a single Tower soldier out there. I’m unsure if this is a bug, but I found that if I didn’t get rid of any of the Tower soldiers patrolling then the Reclaimed will just not spawn in.
Though the moment you do shoot a Tower soldier they will spawn in regardless. This seems odd, so I can’t be sure if the same will happen for you, but if you prefer the stealthy approach then you might have an easier time leaving Rampart if you stick to being sneaky.
In the likely event that the Reclaimed do show up they will quickly overwhelm the Tower guards that remain, though the more Tower soldiers you left behind the more there will be to resist the Reclaimed.
The Reclaimed patrols are very tough.
The Reclaimed will be harder to take on than the Tower were though, their groups are bigger and more heavily armed. You’ll have a tougher time blasting your way through.
That being said, once the Tower soldiers are gone the Reclaimed will patrol the courtyard, giving you opportunities to slip around them by stealth or ambush them. You can head back to the boat you came in on via the main gate, or head there by taking the path leading around the Gym, which will be free of human enemies once you make it out of the courtyard.
Regardless, you are strong, and there will certainly be tougher battles ahead. So don’t worry, you’ve got this whether you need to blast or sneak your way out. Head back to the boat that you arrived on, in the top left corner of the map.
Once you’re back at the boat you came in on travel back to The Resting Place, organize your loot, and go to sleep.
Going back to sleep in The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Aftershocks DLC.
Need a guide on what comes next? Well next time you’ll be heading to The Ward to get another national guard cache. To find out how check out part 3 of this The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Aftershocks walkthrough.
Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck VR Review - A Wacky Breathedge VR Sci Fi Experience
Today we’re reviewing another VR game, and today it's time to get in depth with a Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck review.
The flatscreen game Breathedge, which this game is loosely based on, was fully released in 2021, and according to steam reviews has been very well received.
Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck is a Virtual Reality take on the original game for the Meta Quest, and unfortunately it doesn't quite make the cut to really be called Breathedge VR. If that’s what you’re looking for here, then you’ll be disappointed.
Today we’re reviewing another VR game, and today it's time to get in depth with a Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck review.
The flatscreen game Breathedge, which this game is loosely based on, was fully released in 2021, and according to steam reviews has been very well received.
Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck is a Virtual Reality take on the original game for the Meta Quest, and unfortunately it doesn't quite make the cut to really be called Breathedge VR. If that’s what you’re looking for here, then you’ll be disappointed.
Not Quite Breathedge VR
The sci fi space future of Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck looks pretty great
Why? Well, mostly because it's clear that a lot of the features and progression systems that made the flatscreen game interesting and challenging are just straight up gone in Cosmic Cluck.
There's technically crafting, but instead of the Subnautica style progression present in the flatscreen game where you improve your tools and spacesuit so that you can go further into the expanses of a space junkyard, in the VR version you're really just crafting items that are needed to progress the main story.
Outside of building your original multiool gun in the first twenty minutes or so, that's about it as far as creating things that give you more capabilities. From there on out you're just gathering what you need to craft the next item that progresses the story, and so there's really no need to explore or think about what you would like to gather or build next for yourself. The game tells you exactly where to go and what to do the entire way through.
You start the game, check for what mission you are doing, and then do it. Usually this means gathering crafting materials, maybe solving a light puzzle, or just traveling to the next mission marker. Then every now and then you craft an item with one of these crafting machines and put the crafted item somewhere to continue the game.
Crafting in this Breathedge VR game is almost purely to create items that just advance you to the next objective.
Therefore, you never get that feeling of incrementally improving yourself so that you can go further and further into space. You just keep doing what the game tells you to do, follow the next objective marker, until you’ve followed and done them all and the game ends.
Stuck Between A Family And A Corporation in VR Breathedge
Fighting a robot in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck.
Still, that doesn't mean there's no merit in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck. This isn’t a bad game just because it doesn’t give you much freedom.
I actually found a few things to be quite enjoyable and unique in this experience, and its tongue and cheek humor is just as prevalent as in the original flatscreen game. For instance, you take the role of a man named... Man. You're on your way to meet up with your Grandfather, who you haven't seen in a very long time.
You've got a delivery for him, and things aren't going well at your job. Unfortunately, things quickly go wrong when you end up crash landed inside of a junkyard. Fortunately, you've got a helpful and talkative chicken to guide your way.
Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck - The Good
From there you quickly assemble all of the tools that you will need to do accomplish all of the space work and space fighting you will need to do to make your way to your grandfather.
That's most of what you do in VR Breathedge, space gathering, space traveling, and occasionally space puzzling. Here's where I can finally talk about my absolute favorite part of this entire game, and that is how you travel.
You start with a sort of EVA pack setup, you can slowly scoot in any direction you like, up down, sideways, forwards, backwards, but you quickly find that when you're outside you'll run out of oxygen before you can really get anywhere.
That's what makes this game more interesting and challenging than it would be otherwise, the simple fact that wherever you go you have a very limited amount of time before you will run out of oxygen, and you'll need to enter an oxygenated area or find an oxy candle to refill your suit before that happens.
This adds a constant low level of tension to any of the tasks that you do in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck. Making tasks that otherwise would be entirely without risk or tension always inherently dangerous.
An Oxy Candle in this VR Breathedge game. Used to refill your oxygen.
That's why you'll need a way to get around quickly, because areas where oxy candles can be found can be very far apart, and that's where the grabber comes in.
With it you can pull items towards you from far away, and more impressively pull yourself towards far away objects. I have to say, this is now one of my absolute favorite ways to travel inside of a Virtual Reality game.
If there's one huge positive that you should take away from this Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck Review it's that pulling yourself around these huge ridiculous sci fi environments is an absolute blast, which is only occasionally cut short when you try to pull yourself towards an object that is too far away and have to scramble to find something that is close enough for your beam to latch on to.
There are many sights to see on the way to your next objective marker.
Unlike most methods of movement in Virtual Reality titles, this one isn't immersion breaking and makes sense in the game’s universe. The world of Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck is definitely one in which a handheld beam can pull you towards distant large objects, or pull small objects towards you.
It's wacky sci fi technology in a wacky VR sci fi world. You're using an ingame item that requires some skill to use efficiently and correctly to slingshot yourself around the environment. It's not only a very engaging way to travel quickly, but also one that is in harmony with the world around you.
This isn't using a joystick to slide around the world, it's using a piece of the world to fling yourself around it. The grabber is fitting for this game and also very entertaining to use. Not to mention a fantastic way to incorporate movement with the use of VR hand controls.
You can also use the tool for combat, which is less impressive but also unique. Instead of just shooting laser bolts or something, you actually have to grab items with your tractor beam and shoot them at enemies to deal damage.
Fighting a group of robots in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck.
This is also a pretty creative approach that leans into the inherit wackiness of the world of Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck. The only downside to combat in this Virtual Reality game is that the designers didn't take it much farther than this.
While shooting junk items with your handheld multitool gun thing is a fun concept, the enemies you face just orbit around you and shoot at you from close range. There's not much tactical consideration to take during each combat encounter, and really it ends up just being a somewhat repetitive game of grabbing and flinging items accurately as quickly as you can.
The combat, like a lot of this game, is creative, fun, and innovative on the surface, but quickly reveals itself to lack sufficient depth or variance to stay interesting for long.
There are some missile turrets later on in the game that switch things up a little bit, but they don't stay intersting for long either, because they just devolve into standing still and grabbing and flinging missiles back to it. The turrets are even less engaging than the bots.
Launching a rocket back at a turret in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck.
Now there is one combat encounter in this game that was actually extremely superb, and while I don't want to spoil the game by telling you what it is, I will say that it exists and was very fun.
The downside of playing a single interesting, varied, and complicated combat encounter is that ultimately it revealed that Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck is a game where combat could have been more interesting, but the end product was cut short of being all that it could be.
Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck - The Bad
You need to keep an eye on your oxygen all of the time.
Though, shooting the junk items that you find is also a good way to tie in many of the bits and bobs floating around that you will be gathering to craft story items. That's their only use, just pick them up when the game tells you to, otherwise they're good for shooting at hostile robots and nothing else.
That's one of my main gripes with Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck, it feels like the developers started off with the idea of making a full survival crafting experience like the flatscreen game, but ended up making a linear story driven game instead with just the veneer of survival crafting on top.
You don't really make interesting decisions on where to go and what to do in Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck, and that's another important takeaway from this review. While you gather resources, and occasionally craft things, and there is a big world to fly around and explore, this isn't a game you can build interesting things in, or improve your character to take on greater challenges in, it just seems on the surface like it would be.
This VR game is about following the objective markers on your HUD and doing what your mission tracker tells you to do while you receive phone calls and listen to them. Actually, you mostly listen to your chicken companion, who I personally found to be extremely annoying and sometimes very reptitive, it would just say the same voicelines over and over sometimes.
That's kind of part of the tongue in cheek humor of this game though, and also leans into the rugged individualist vs greedy corporation story that is also a big part of the game.
Humor is really subjective and that part of this game also may or may not be for you. If you don't like the sort of tongue in cheek humor of Breathedge then you will probably not enjoy this game, but if you like that sort of humor you'll find a lot of laughs.
The chicken can be obnoxious, and funny.
I laughed out loud a few times while playing this game, and only found the chicken to be overly annoying occasionally. There's some puns, and overall the world and its characters are ridiculous, but in a fun way.
It's a shame there's not more of them. Really, it's a shame that there isn't more of this game in general. I'll end this VR Breathedge review and leave you with the number one biggest issue with this game, and that's that it is just way too short. I completed the entire experience in about two hours.
Even for a VR title that is extremely, unacceptably short for the price of 24.99$. During the entirety of these two hours you also only make a single choice that actually affects the game, and so if you want to play it twice you could get maybe four to five hours out of this experience to get both endings. Though both endings are almost exactly the same.
The story of this Breathedge VR game is mostly given to you through phone calls.
That being said the gameplay itself was getting repetitive, because it lacks depth, and so I was already about ready to finish my time with this Breathedge VR game regardless. Still, I can't help but feel that there was so much lost potential here, and there are a few parts of this game that absolutely shine with creativity, and will stick with me for a very long time.
I don't regret my time with Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck, but I do regret the incredibly high asking price of 25 dollars for admission. As it stands there just isn't enough game to justify that cost.
If I had to guess it seems the developers cut a lot of planned content for this game, and that's just such a real shame, because with some more features and freedom I could see this being a classic.
As it stands it's just overpriced. If this game sounds interesting to you, then wait for a sale.
4 Awesome VR Space Games on the Oculus Quest 2
Want to experience the dark depths of space? Want to immerse yourself in the final frontier? Well there’s no better way to immerse yourself than with Virtual Reality, and no more convenient platform for VR than the Oculus Quest 2. While there are a lot of Sci Fi games set in the depths of space, this list will focus on non-sci fi games that are about our Solar System, and the technology that we already have. No hyperdrives or laser cannons here.
Want to experience the dark depths of space? Want to immerse yourself in the final frontier? Well there’s no better way to immerse yourself than with Virtual Reality, and no more convenient platform for VR than the Oculus Quest 2. While there are a lot of Sci Fi games set in the depths of space, this list will focus on non-sci fi games that are about our Solar System, and the technology that we already have. No hyperdrives or laser cannons here.
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Interkosmos 2000
Instead of saving the best for last, let’s get to it first. Interkosmos 2000 may be the ultimate space flight simulator available on the Meta Quest 2, and Virtual Reality in general. If you ever wanted to feel like an early astronaut, alone in a metal ship zooming around the earth at over 25000 kilometers per hour, then this is the game for you.
In Interkosmos 2000 you are the sole pilot of an aging spacecraft sent to the ISS to correct its orbit… and a variety of other places and things around the Earth (I won’t spoil it all). The piloting is tough and is pretty accurate to how piloting an actual orbiter would work, and the docking procedure for when you reach your destination is pretty faithful as well.
It’s not all piloting though, you’ll also have to deal with the realities of using aging technology in the harshest environment known to humankind. Manage your power, or your batteries will either go out, or overcharge and blow a fuse. Keep an eye on your CO2 levels and cabin pressure, and so many other malfunctions. Keeping your ship running is just as much a part of this game as piloting it.
If you want a game to sink your teeth into that really makes you feel like you are navigating through space in a (somewhat) modern and realistic craft, then Interkosmos 2000 is the game from this list to get. Nothing else on the market currently beats it.
Apollo 11 VR
Want to experience the moon landing as immersively as you can without going to the moon yourself? (I mean not even Jeff Bezos can afford that) Then Apollo 11 VR is as good as you’re going to get, for now.
It’s sort of a mix between a documentary and space piloting simulator. While you are given control at a few moments, such as docking two modules in space or landing on the moon, generally Apollo 11 VR is a very passive experience for the player. You don’t even have to do any of these things if you don’t want to, and can just have the game do it for you in a cinematic.
Most of Apollo 11 VR is essentially watching really cool cinematics from a perspective external to the craft, or from one of the crewmembers’ views. It’s main draw is that it looks really cool, and is a great passive experience. If you want something interactive though, look elsewhere.
Titans of Space PLUS
Want to explore the Solar System? Well that’s what Titans of Space PLUS does best. In this game you aren’t constrained to a space ship or other craft, or even to earth. Instead you board a sort of magical flying chair and zoom around the Solar System, with everything to scale. Want to feel like a giant? Well then scale everything down, or bask in the huge scale of the planets by keeping yourself in human size.
You can even ditch the chair if you want, but inside it is a whole lot of information. Listen to voiceovers telling you more about the celestial bodies of our Solar System and the space missions that revealed them to us. Titans of space doesn’t have any real any real gameplay to it. All of the interactions with the world are focused around viewing and moving around it. It is a purely exploration and learning based experience, though if you want to learn some interesting facts about the Solar System, it is a great VR experience.
Mission: ISS
Mission: ISS is another experience that is more educational tool than game. There is some interactivity to it. Using the handholds in the walls of the International Space Station to fling yourself down its hallways and modules is really fun. There is a brief spacewalking section, but it doesn’t really seem like an actual spacewalk. You are really light first of all, and they couldn’t even be bothered to change your hand models to look like an EVA suit. It’s disappointing really.
Otherwise using the ISS’s grabber arm (Canadarm) to secure a supply mission is an interesting and novel experience. Unfortunately that is basically where the fun ends. You can always explore the ISS and watch little video clips on the objects found inside, but that’s about it. So the bulk of Mission: ISS is an interactive museum. Still, it is free, and there are some very fun things to learn about humans living in space.
Anyway there you have it, these are the best realism focused VR titles on the Oculus Quest 2, for now. Hopefully one day there will be more interesting games that come out to flesh out this list a little more. For the time being the more realistic spacefaring experiences are mostly educational and dry with little interactivity.
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