Top 15 Free Games on Oculus Quest 2
If you haven’t already been considering Oculus Quest 2, now could be the time. It is being touted as the best VR headset to date. For those of you that have taken the plunge and are looking for that next great VR game or VR experience, but don’t want to break the bank, read on. Over the preceding paragraphs, we’ll break down the top 15 FREE VR games and experiences available on the Quest 2 today. Let’s kick things off with the most popular game around here, the Euphoria XR office. There may be a surprise at the end…so don’t go dive into your new headset quite yet! Before you go down, there is a surprise at the end. Don’t forget!
ECHO VR
This is a zero-gravity Esports virtual reality experience. It will have you punching other players in the head (it’s surprisingly satisfying! Be warned) while trying to grab flying discs which you then use to score goals. This fast-paced e-sports VR game is a lot of fun and you’ll be shocked at how fast the hours can go by while playing. Surprisingly, it is a very comfortable game to play regardless of how it might sound. Flight around like Tron, playing a kind of space frisbee, trying to score goals, and fend off enemies. Two-way communication keeps the competition high and engaging. It’s pretty amazing this is a free VR game, considering it may be one of the best VR games overall out there. Give it a go, you won’t be let down!
PUPPET FEVER
Puppet Fever is a VR party game designed to be used by multiple players at the same time. One in VR, and the others helping out via a mobile app and their cell phones. It supports up to four players when using the supporting app which is available on both Android and iOS. You can also join in on the fun from a PC as well!
As for the game, it’s a little like Charades. You draw a card and act out the action described on the card. There are a ton of silly props, sounds, actions, and the like you can use to help win the round. It is a unique and surprisingly fun VR experience that will keep the whole party laughing for hours. Those joining in on their mobile devices can watch the player in VR and interact with the props, sounds, etc. helping to figure out what the heck the card said! Fun game and a great overall multiplayer experience.
VR CHAT
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to partake in a simple chat with others in VR, you already know it’s a pretty interesting experience. And this VR experience takes that idea to a whole new level. VR Chat does suffer a bit from the port over to mobile technology (the Quest 1 and Quest 2) as it runs better on PC powered VR system, but overall still does a great job at creating an interactive and engaging experience.
Use avatars you hand out and chat with friends or colleagues, enjoy private and public rooms, explore user-generated worlds, and more. VR Chat is an online multiplayer social VR experience designed to bring people together and does a good job of that. The spaces in VR Chat can be fairly intimate, so if you tend to be shy or introverted, don’t be surprised if the experience comes off as overwhelming. PS: This can be a great work tool for creative meetings!
First Steps is a game designed to introduce people to VR and the mechanics of using systems like Quest 1 and Quest 2. Beyond that, there isn’t a ton going on. However, if you’re looking for something to show grandma of your annoying little brother, this is a great app to use as ‘VR training’ experience. Your little bro will be kicking your butt in more complex games before you know it!
The experience itself is a series of several mini-games that allow you to mess around with the mechanics of VR. As mentioned above, this is a great experience to showcase what you can do inside a virtual reality environment. If you end up liking First Steps and are looking for other similar experiences, you can also check out “First Contact”. Not quite as good as First Steps in my opinion, but simple, fun, and another great way to get people up to speed inside of VR.
First Contact is another free option you can check out which is great for people new to the virtual reality world.
BOGO
If you want a pet with no commitment and no cleanup, Bogo might be something you should check out. Bogo is another free VR game experience that allows you to have a virtual pet in a virtual reality environment. I think it’s great especially for those that are on the younger spectrum of those using VR than those that are on the older spectrum. I’ve seen people on both sides play and they both really loved this cool game experience. In fact, I actually really enjoyed it even though it’s not a super long experience, it’s still cool to have the virtual pet that you can head on the head, throw a stick for it to fetch, you can feed it, and play with it.
It’s a fantasy animal character that I wish they would do this with actual animals someday. I would love to have a cat or a dog that I had to feed, jump into, and play fetch with, inside of virtual reality. If you love to give virtual reality training to your pet, this game is for you.
UNDER PRESENTS
Under Present is actually just a free VR oculus game demo of the longer content for the actual game but it’s so cool and so interesting you need to jump in to check it out. After giving it a try, you’ll consider buying the full version once you jump into this free VR oculus game demo. The result is a very unique experience it’s brought to us by the people that did a Virtual “virtual reality”. So if you’ve ever played that before, you understand what I mean by interesting.
It’s a VR multiplayer experience when you jump into this, which is another worldly multiplayer hub. There are some unique aspects to this game in that. There are actual physical actors from time to time that come into this game, I’m not sure if they’re still in there right now but there have been different shows that they put on, you can buy tickets to, to actually go, see inside.
The “Under Presents” including a recent Shakespeare show if I’m not mistaken just trust me if you have not tried out this game it’s something to at least try the demo. It is free it’s unique it’s really kind of hard to explain what it is exactly into. You try it because it’s just very different so give it a shot.
ANNE FRANK HOUSE VR
In this game, you get to visit the house of Anne Frank in virtual reality and learn from this small piece of World War 2 history. I’ve heard from several people that have actually physically visited the Anne Frank House and this is a very realistic rendition and interpretation of the actual location. This sounds extremely long experience but as a free VR historical experience or as a VR educational experience where you can explore these rums see exactly what it was like to be inside of this building where Anne Frank was and even see the hiding place inside of that building, It’s a really cool way to explore history in virtual reality.
HALF+HALF
“Half + Half” used to be a paid VR game but they actually brought it down to a free VR game on Oculus Quest 2 which is amazing. This is another online VR multiplayer game that’ll have you either playing hide and seek in a unique way where one person is huge and the others are small swimming in the ocean. Several awesome games in this cool VR experience are all designed to bring people together and allow good healthy social VR interaction.
They really put a lot of time and effort into thinking up these games to create social interactions so if you want to dip your toes into social VR interaction this is a great way to do it in a fun friendly and playful VR environment.
MISSION ISS
This one includes a disclaimer from me. I’ve played this free VR space simulation game several times, I have yet to finish it though. Even though, I’ve been playing VR simulation games for a very long time and almost nonstop for over a year and a half. Mission ISS still ties my stomach in knots and gives me some motion sickness so that is your fair warning when going into this game. This is a really cool VR educational experience though, from an educational standpoint.
Mission ISS is awesome you can spacewalk on the outside of the international space station in virtual reality, explore the entire inside of the international space station even performing actions such as docking a ship to the actual ISS. It’s something that is unforgettable and it’s so fun to play. Just keep an eye on your nausea levels as you play because that’s pretty easy in zero gravity to get flipped around. Mission ISS is a free Virtual Reality simulation of being an astronaut. If you are into space science, you should definitely check it out.
REC ROOM
Honestly, I’ve not explored “Rec Room” as much as I wish that I had. Rec Room is one of those games that’s free and has so much stuff going on. It’ll take a long time to explore all of it, especially now. They’re updating the game and adding in custom rooms that users have created on the Quest 2. “Rec Royale” The Battle Royale style game is coming soon and they’re adding some additional quests to the Quest 2 platform. There’s a lot going on in Rec Room from playing disc golf to paintball to questing to just going out and hanging out and playing basketball with some friends and all that in this free VR experience.
I love the idea of the Rec Room, there are some aspects of this VR experience to get a negative rap. Including the fact that there can be a lot of younger people there, that screaming can be vulgar and can create a negative social experience. There are some things you can do to limit that including blocking people from turning sound off or even having a safe bubble so people can’t get close to you.
Every time I’ve jumped in the Rec Room my best experience is to go in with people that I know and have fun with people that I’m familiar with. You can also meet some new people and make new friends. The rec room is just a blast. It grows and it grows and now with user-generated free VR content, there is so much more to explore.
POKER STARS VR
This one is for pure poker lovers. There are actually 2 free VR poker games on the Quest 2 but I like Poker Stars VR. Now even though, there’s some crazy stuff going on at the tables you can get different Interactable objects and items that you can play with, on the tables. The other stuff can also be fun, you can even play slots with a little VR slots mini-game if you want to play slots or you can head to the Black Jack table as well and it’s getting visual updates for the Quest 2. Poker Stars VR is just a really cool place to hang out with friends and play poker. If you do like poker, this VR experience is for you and the best part is it’s free.
ELIXIR
This is the only VR hand tracking game that utilizes hand tracking on the list. And that really is the point of the game. Elixir is the VR experience designed to showcase hand tracking on the Quest VR system. It does a good job of that and is actually fairly entertaining. It’s one of the best virtual reality hand tracking experiences I’ve seen at all. If you’ve never tried an experience utilizing hand tracking, I suggest you definitely give it a try. It will open your mind to what is possible with hand tracking and where the future of VR is headed. I love the Wolverine-like claws you get when you close your fists! It’s a short experience but worth a try!
FACEBOOK HORIZON
This one is another free VR social experience in Quest 2 “Facebook horizon”. Now, this is a game that is free, but it’s not available to everyone. Here is the link that you can sign up with to get access to the beta. They’re still on rolling access granting basis where you might get access now or you may get it later. Facebook Horizon is growing inside of this social platform and you’re able to check out some of the rooms by the Facebook Horizon team but the best part is checking out user-generated content and exploring stuff with friends and even making new friends.
I’ve explored haunted houses with some new people and had a blast doing it. I’ve explored corn mazes, I’ve got to hang out in a backyard barbecue, there’s just really cool stuff that you can do. They’ve got different games you can play, places to hang out, and a lot of creative tools if you are into creating. It’s really simple to get started on the Facebook Horizon.
BIG SCREEN VR
Big Screen VR is a free platform, in fact, it’s a really cool platform. I sat in a theater the other day with my friends, sitting on the couch next to me, and watch some shows inside of a movie theater with popcorn between us. It’s really cool even if you’ve got people in the same space to sit in a movie theater and watch something on the big screen. The best part is when you can meet up with people that you know or maybe that you don’t know and watch stuff in a theater even though you’re not in the same room.
In fact, there are things you can do on a big screen like watching TV together you can hook up your PC and stream content. You can also load content onto your device and watch it from there. You can even pay to go to the big screen cinema which in my opinion is the best way to experience cinema in VR. The quality that they get from the stream when you’re watching movies is really good.
Though they don’t have brand new cinema movies as of yet my fingers are crossed that it does happen eventually but they have a library of movies you can rent and even though both people have to rent the movie currently to be able to watch it together.
Surprise Gift: Side Quest
About that surprise, I mentioned above. Side Quest might be the best ‘free’’ VR experience out there. The program allows you to sideload a whole library of free user-generated VR content. Side Quest lets you load free VR games and free VR experiences onto your Quest that Facebook deems ‘not good enough or not ready’ for the Oculus Store. Be warned that many of the VR games and experiences on Side Quest are in development or untested on a large scale. Don’t be surprised if you come across bugs or incomplete experiences.
You will need to use your computer to access Side Quest and load content, but after that, you should be good to go! Just make sure to enable ‘developer mode’ before you begin. There is a ton of content available on Side Quest. If you’re into it, there’s a good chance someone has it built out there!
If I miss anything on the list that you think should have been included, please feel free to share! What’s your favorite free Oculus Quest 2 game? Did it make the list? Leave a comment below and let me know. If you enjoyed the list, please also feel free to share!
Stay safe and Happy Questing.
