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The anticipated arrival of the HTC Vive is here, delivering next-gen virtual reality to gamers in the form of a diverse array of stunning VR experiences. For gamers with a PC that meets the minimum requirements to be VR ready, you’ll be able to instantly immerse yourself in the games available on HTC Vive.
Often times, all you’ll need to be ready for VR is just ensuring you have a powerful enough GPU such as an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or greater. NVIDIA and HTC’s joint program will also conveniently tell you if your gaming hardware is ready for VR and the HTC Vive. In the following article, we take a look at seven of the most promising VR games launching on HTC Vive.
Everest VR
Through a collaboration between developer Sólfar Studios and movie visual FX company RVX—along with the help of VRWorks tech from NVIDIA—HTC Vive users will be able to scale the world’s highest mountain in Everest VR. Mount Everest has been recreated in astonishing fidelity and detail by stitching together over 300,000 shots of the mountain before painstakingly transforming that into a 3D model using Unreal Engine 4. Players can explore key stages of an Everest ascent including Base Camp, Khumbu Icefalls, Lhotse Face, the Hillary Step and finally the Summit.
Budget Cuts
Budget Cuts is a VR stealth game that sees you playing the part of a disgruntled employee who is made redundant due to budget cuts. He then decides to break into the company offices of Trans Corporation to sneakily approve his own job application. You move around the corporate office environments by placing markers on the floor and instantly transporting to that spot. As you move around solving puzzles you will have to avoid being spotted by murderous robots and use throwable objects to take them out. Budget Cuts is humorous, immersive and a lot of fun on HTC Vive.
Final Approach
An amusing exploration of the world of aeronautics, Final Approach gives you the chance to take part in several different facets of flying. You can pop balloons by tracing a path for a plane with your finger and you can also assist airliners in takeoff and landing procedures. You can even help land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier before putting out its engine fire. Final Approach features a wide variety of flight-based VR activities for you to partake in, which are all worth experiencing on HTC Vive.
Hover Junkers
HTC Vive owners get to experience a thrilling post-apocalyptic online multiplayer game in Hover Junkers. Each player has to build their own Hover Junker (a ship that is a modified floating platform) out of bits of scrap they scavenge from the environment. In this way you can keep modifying and upgrading your ship throughout the game collecting more scrap as you go, either to use in further upgrades or to sell. When you encounter other players you can engage in combat using the game’s armory of weapons, too.
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed is an episodic fantasy adventure that follows the story of a girl who receives a cryptic message from her missing twin sister. As she searches for her sibling, she’s assisted by a mad professor who may not be all he seems and as the story progress she comes into contact with several bizarre characters, increasingly surreal environments and ultimately a mysterious cosmic machine. The game makes use of virtual reality and the HTC Vive in some interesting ways as you walk, sit, crawl and spin your way around the game’s fantastical world.
Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption is an evolution of a 2D puzzler that was released back in 2008, but lent itself beautifully to VR. In Fantastic Contraption on HTC Vive, you have to get a pink ball from its starting position to a target zone by building a contraption that can navigate all the obstacles in between. You’re limited to using just a few types of wheels and connecting rods but although your set of tools is limited, the ways in which you use them can be quite complex and inventive. The hybrid building/puzzling nature of the game makes for a fascinating VR experience on HTC Vive.
Thunderbird
In the stunning VR adventure Thunderbird, you begin the game in a snowy mountainous region standing next to a mysterious locked metal door. You are given no instructions or hints as to how you should proceed and it’s entirely up to you and your wits to find your way through the game. The further you get in Thunderbird the more surreal your situation becomes as you gradually learn about your surroundings and start to encounter huge mythical creatures.