Best Free VR Games

Propagation is a fast-paced wave-based survival horror shooter that has you pump lead through an endless horde of zombies. As these things so often go, a virus is behind all this, and for some reason, you’re left fighting for your life in an abandoned subway station.

Pinned down, you’ve got no other option than to turn to your trusty pistol and shotgun duo to mow through a good variety of enemies, including giant spiders, zombie crawlers, and more, all while vying to hit the highest score possible. There are four difficulty levels to choose from: normal, hard, nightmare, and impossible for the reckless out there. Propagation also looks excellent, with polished visuals, and plays equally well, with responsive, satisfying gunplay.

Propagation excels in the atmosphere department. The horde of advancing zombies and monstrous aberrations, the bleak, post-apocalyptic setting, and the clever use of lighting make for a genuinely terrifying experience, especially when wearing a VR headset, which ups the sense of immersion to a new horrifying level. And one that even seasoned horror buffs will appreciate. It isn’t for the faint of heart; you’ve been warned.

Though Propagation is designed as an arcade-style shooter with re-playability in mind, especially striving for a high score with each attempt, each playthrough or session lasts at most 45 minutes. As it stands, only a single map/level is playable, and there are only two weapons available. More content is reportedly on the way, and a new co-op DLC launched earlier this year. Although it, sadly, isn’t free. Those looking for variety are likely to get their fill and move on reasonably rapidly from Propagation.

Propagation is available for free on Steam and is compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

Portal Stories: VR is a community-made mod based on the acclaimed Portal Stories: Mel modification, which recounts the story of Mel as they discover a new personality core and come head to head with a new threat in the Aperture facility.

Portal Stories: VR is essentially a bite-sized mini-story set in the portal universe that offers players ten new puzzles to sink their teeth into and solve. It’s ripe with Portal 2’s unique atmosphere, humor, and visuals. All brought to life in an immersive 360-degree room-scale experience. If Valve ever needed proof of how wonderful Portal would be in VR, this is the game. It’s worth noting that those expecting the same expansive portal-based gameplay and physics as the base PC game might be disappointed.

Because Portal Stories: VR is essentially a mod, it does come with some notable requirements, not least that you’ll need to own the base Portal 2 game to play. Portal 2, sadly, isn’t free, but the investment is minimal as the game costs no more than a few dollars/pounds and even less during a sale. In any case, Portal 2 is a game any self-respecting PC gaming fan should experience at least once and is a prime entry in Valve’s rich back catalog.

Portal Stories: VR has limited headset compatibility, and you’ll need either a Valve Index or HTC Vive headset to play with those owning one of the range of Oculus headsets, unfortunately out in the cold.

Released as a companion to the 2019 Spider-Man: Far From Home movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality has you swing and web your way across New York as Spider-Man, which is, for us, an experience tailored-made for VR.

And, it doesn’t disappoint; the game captures the pure adrenaline-pumping, vertiginous thrill of it all thanks to the immersion of VR. You can pick from one of four Spider-Man suits, then jump in to navigate and scale the city’s countless buildings and towers in time trials, all while confronting a new enemy intent on causing no end of havoc in combat trials. There’s both a short story mode and a free roam mode for those that fancy carving their own path through the city.

While swinging between the skyscrapers of Manhattan at breakneck speeds is a unique experience in VR, Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality suffers from lackluster controls that may leave those hungry for pinpoint accuracy disappointed.

Similarly, the visuals leave a lot to be desired and lack polish, notably the blocky, detail-less buildings, and the map isn’t large enough to warrant repeated play sessions, other than for the immersive thrill of jumping off a building and avoiding the ground with a well-timed web sling at the last moment. If it were not free, we’d be wary about forking out money for such a limited experience.

Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality is available for free via Steam and is playable on a good range of headsets, including Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

Milkyway Funland transports you to an amusement park amid the stars in the 31st century, brought to life in virtual reality. With a VR headset on, you’ll be able to experience a collection of fast and fun rides and mini-games styled on arcade and carnival staples.

The mini-games include obstacle courses, a roller coaster ride fraught with dangers to avoid, a rhythm-based game a la Beat Saber, arcade shooters, pinball, and whack-a-mole, to name a few. The spread of games in Milkyway Funland is suitable for all skill levels and offers a light, fun way to experience VR that’s as suitable to first-timers as more seasoned players.

Despite a fun collection of mini-games that are well put together and genuinely fun in VR, Milkyway Funland comes with one major issue; paywalled content, or, in other words, pay-to-play content.

Firing up the game grants you a set number of ‘Free Tickets’ to experience the rides. Once you’ve used up these tickets, you’ll have one of two choices: either spend real-world money on in-game purchases to secure new tickets or earn them by playing a set selection of lackluster mini-games. Unsurprisingly, the better games found in Milkyway Funland require tickets to play, which detracts from the overall experience.

You can pick up Milkyway Funland for free (sort of) on Steam. The game is playable on a decent range of VR headsets, including the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.