The Best Games To Play On Meta Quest 3/3S
Make the most of your time beneath Meta's VR headsets with these eight immersion-escalating experiences.
Posted a month ago
With the recent release of the Meta Quest 3S, virtual reality gaming is more accessible and affordable than ever. Of course, having the latest hardware strapped to your head does little good without great games to play behind the goggles. Thankfully, the Quest 3S - and 2023's Quest 3 - support a massive library of experiences, from mixed reality mini-games to open-world epics.
That said, sorting through the Meta Store’s hundreds of games can be about as much fun as bumping into furniture during a boss battle. But not to worry - we've done the leg work for you, sinking dozens of hours into virtual worlds to bring you the eight best reasons to dive into the immersion-ratcheting medium.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Batman: Arkham Shadow just might be the best pack-in title since the original Nintendo console's Super Mario Bros. That might sound like a bold statement, but the new game - bundled with both the Quest 3 and Quest 3S - not only captures the spirit of the beloved Arkham series, but does so from a fresh first-person perspective.
Complemented by intuitive controls, it delivers all the combo-based combat, clever investigative play, and gadget-fueled fun fans have come to expect from the series. Best of all, it does all this within a richly realized, atmospheric Gotham City that puts players behind the cowl like never before.
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR
©Ubisoft
If Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay has you pining for that satisfying blend of sneaking and stabbing, look no further than this VR take on Ubisoft's stealth-action series. Like Batman: Arkham Shadow, Nexus swaps the franchise's traditional third-person formula for one that puts you right beneath the hoods of its heroes.
This means unleashing the iconic hidden blade and performing daring parkour stunts from a more thrilling, first-person perspective. And while Nexus offers a dozen-or-so-hour AC campaign, it breaks it into a sort of “greatest hits” format, allowing you to defeat targets as three fan-favorite protagonists Ezio, Connor, and Casandra.
Resident Evil 4 VR
©Meta, Capcom
Seeing as Resident Evil 4 has been ported to every platform this side of a Keurig coffee maker, you could be forgiven for scrolling right past it in the Meta Store. That'd be a mistake on par with turning your back on a crazed, chainsaw-wielding villager though, as this virtual reality take on the survival horror favorite is one of its best.
More than a mere port, this latest iteration has been rebuilt and optimized to fully leverage and showcase the virtual reality platform. Toss in its terror-ratcheting first-person perspective - and perfect-for-VR Mercenaries mode - and this latest version breathes plenty of fresh life into the rotting corpse classic.
Tetris Effect: Connected
©The Tetris Company, Enhance Experience
While many of the Meta Quest's best games offer full-on, AAA game-flavored experiences that could find you happily beneath the headset for hours on end, the platform's also perfect for quicker, arcade-style bursts of fun.
Tetris Effect: Connected firmly falls into this camp, re-imagining the classic puzzler with eye-popping visuals, slick effects, catchy tunes, and over 10 different modes offering unique spins on the brick-falling formula. Supporting excellent co-op and competitive multiplayer modes, it also sheds the stigma that VR is an isolating, solitary experience.
Asgard's Wrath 2
©Sanzaru Games
If you didn't think an open-world, console-rivaling action role-playing game - complete with all the visceral combat, clever puzzling, and character progression you'd expect from the genre - could be realized in virtual reality, well, you haven't discovered Asgard's Wrath 2 yet.
Borrowing and blending the best elements from blockbuster series like The Elder Scrolls and God of War, this sprawling action-adventure is as visually stunning as it is deeply absorbing. Sporting a size and scope comparable to console and PC RPG epics, it invites brave adventurers to lose themselves in its beautiful, virtual realms for dozens of hours.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
(Editor's Note: Due to the graphic nature of this title's gameplay, we haven't included a video or screenshot for this game. It's definitely not for younger or squeamish audiences. If interested, you can watch the game's trailer on YouTube.)
Originally released on the Quest 2, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners easily earned a spot in our regular nightmare rotation with its solid mix of gore-soaked, close-quarters combat, desperation-driven scavenging, and tension-cranking survival.
But the horror game's Quest 3 update further preys on our fragile psyches with significantly updated visuals and a fresh, story-expanding chapter full of new frights. If you're craving a console-quality action-adventure that fully leverages VR's extra immersion to elevate its scares, this one's worth braving the hungry hordes for.
Beat Saber
Beat Saber has been appearing on “Best VR Games” lists for almost as long as the platform has been available to mainstream audiences. But over six years after its release, the gripping rhythm game remains a must-play for anyone who straps on the goggles.
On top of offering an incredibly absorbing, accessible experience that perfectly showcases the technology, it allows you to burn calories while having a blast. All that, and its latest expansion lets you slice and smash blocks to 11 Britney Spears songs, giving a whole new meaning to the lyric: “Hit me baby one more time.”
Metro Awakening
©Vertigo Games, Deep Silver
Virtual reality's added immersion is an especially good fit for horror games and other experiences fueled by heavy, foreboding atmospheres. Metro Awakening fits this bill and then some, sending players into post-apocalyptic Moscow's haunted, suffocating subway system.
A spin-off of the cult-favorite, story-focused shooter franchise, it delivers all the spooky exploration, nerve-fraying stealth, and visceral combat fans love, while also building on the series' rich, supernatural-leaning lore through a brand new, standalone prequel story.