Not ready to plonk down your first $100 on Quest games? Thankfully there’s an impressive number of free games, experiences, apps, and social VR platforms to keep you playing before you’re paying—all of them compatible with Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Meta’s latest, Quest 3.

Looking to make your Quest 3 gaming experience even better? Don’t miss our top picks for the most essential Quest 3 accessories.

Free Quest Games

Yeeps: Hide and Seek

As a Yeep, your belly is full of stuffing used to craft anything from pillows for building to bombs for destruction. Pull items from your vast imagination and toss them into the world. The game’s intuitive block-based building makes it easy to express your creativity at any skill level.

• Developer: Trass Games
• Store link

Maestro: The Masterclass

Step on the podium and become a true orchestra conductor in Maestro: The Masterclass. Play hands free or grab a chopstick and master the real hands motions that command the orchestra through an off the rail conducting masterclass that culminates with an epic symphonic concert in a packed opera house. Good luck, Maestro!

• Developer: Double Jack
• Store link

Gorilla Tag

Like your primitive ancestors, Gorilla Tag will have you lumbering around a tree-lined arena using its unique ‘grab-the-world’ locomotion style that lets you amble around like a great ape. Chase the other apes and infect them or climb for your life as the infected chase you. Pure and simple. Make sure you’re far from TVs, furniture, babies, and pets because you will punch something in the mad dash for sweet, low-poly freedom.

• Developer: Another Axiom
• Store link

Noclip VR

Riding off the success of cult-like status of ‘The Backrooms’ Internet lore, Noclip VR lets you and online players explore the liminal spaces, solve puzzles, and escape that which lurks within. To move, you’ll need to swing your arms, and always keep in ear-shot of your friends, otherwise they won’t hear you scream. Gameplay is a bit barebones, making it feel more like something you’d find imported on a social platform like VR Chat or Rec Room, although it’s definitely invoking Gorilla Tag vibes.

• Developer: SuperFPS
• Store link

Population: One

Population: One is basically VR’s most successful battle royale, letting you climb, fly, shoot, and team-up with whoever dares. The free-to-play game does feature microtransactions, but only for cosmetics, which is nice. It’s more than just a battle royale though: you can play in the sandbox for custom maps and rules, team deathmatch with customizable loadouts, a 12v12 war mode, and more.

• Developer: BixBox VR
• Store link

Gun Raiders

Gun Raiders serves up a healthy slice of multiplayer shooter action with multiple game modes that let you jetpack through the air, climb from wall to wall, and shoot down the competition. There’s the same sort of microtransactions you see in bigger games, but it they’re all avatar skin stuff, so no pay-to-win here.

• Developer: Gun Raiders Entertainment Inc.
• Store link

Gym Class – Basketball

Gym Class – Basketball is the solution if you’re looking to shoot some hoops and dunk like you probably can’t on a physical court. Online multiplayer lets you go head-to-head for a pretty convincing game of b-ball thanks to the game’s physics-based and full-body kinematics.

• Developer: IRL Studios
• Store link

Blaston

This room-scale shooter is now free-to-play, letting you take on friends, family and foes in head-to-head 1v1 dueling. Refine your loadout and jump into the action as you scramble for weapons and send a volley of hellfire at your enemies, all the while Matrix dodging through this innovative bullet hell meets futuristic dueling game.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Hyper Dash

Hyper Dash is a multiplayer shooter that basically fills in where Echo Combat never could (never mind that Echo Combat was never on Quest, and is now entirely defunct on Oculus PC). Letting you quick dash, sprint, and rail grind around, Hyper Dash manages to serve up an impressive number of modes, including Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and Elimination. You can also take on both Quest and SteamVR users thanks to the inclusion of cross-play.

• Developer: Triangle Factory
• Store link

Ultimechs

Ultimechs should look pretty familiar: it’s basically Rocket League, but instead of driving around in cars, you’re given rocket-powered fists to punch balls into the goal. Online multiplayer includes both 1v1 and 2v2 matches, offering up tons of opportunities to earn cosmetic gear that will let you outfit your battle mech into something unique. There are also now two paid battle passes too, offering up a ton of cosmetics to set you apart from the competition.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Battle Talent

Battle Talent is one of those fighting sims that let you go ham on ragdoll baddies, which in this case are wily goblins and loads of skelingtons. This physics-based roguelite action game lets you climb, run and slide your way through levels as you slash, shoot, and wield magic against your foes.

• Developer: CrossLink
• Store link

Cards & Tankards

Cards & Tankards is a pretty addictive social collectible card game, letting you collect and battle friends with over 180 cards. With cross-play against SteamVR headsets (also free on PC), you may consider hosting your regular game night playing more than a few rounds in the game’s characteristic medieval fantasy tavern.

• Developer: Divergent Realities
• Store link

Vegas Infinite

No real cash gambling here, but PokerStars’ Vegas Infinite not only let you go all-in on games of Texas Hold’em, but now a full casino’s worth of table games a machines that are sure to light up the dopamine starved pleasure centers of your brain. It’s all free play, so you won’t be risking real cash unless you buy in-game chips, which cannot be turned back into real money: it’s only to keep your bankroll flush for free play.

• Developer: LuckyVR Inc
• Store link

Bait!

Since the Fishin’ Buddies update, this classic VR title has gotten a whole new lease on life as a multiplayer VR fishing game that lets you sit back and crack a cold one with the boys as you reel in the big’uns. The additional social areas also let you sit back between your fishing adventures to take part in casual mini-games.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Gods of Gravity

Gods of Gravity is an arcade-style RTS game where you compete in an epic showdown of between celestial gods (2-8 players). Scoop up ships and fling them to capture a nearby planet, or open wormholes to teleport them across the solar system. Hold planets and moons to boost your production. Mine asteroids for the powerful resources within. And if you dare, capture the sun for the ultimate buff. Then send a massive fleet to conquer your enemy’s home planet. Last god standing wins.

• Developer: Trass Games
• Store link

Social VR Platforms

Rec Room

Without a doubt one of the most fun, and most expansive VR titles out there… and it’s free. Sure, you can pay real cash for in-game tokens to buy spiffy clothes for your avatar, but that’s really up to you. Gads of mini-games await you in both first-party creations such as the ever so popular co-op Quests—that could be games in their own right—to user-created stuff that will keep your pocket book gathering dust. It’s social VR, so meet people and have a ball for zero dollarydoos. Fair warning: there’s a ton of kids.

• Developer: Rec Room
• Store link

VRChat

If you’ve been anywhere near the Internet in the last few years, it’s likely you’ve already heard about VRChat, the user-generated social VR space filled with… well… everything you can imagine, re-pro games included like Among Us, Mario Kart, and even a version of Beat Saber. Fashion your own avatar or download the millions of user-generated avatars out there so you can embody SpongeBob, Kirito from Sword Art Online, or any one of the million anime girl avatars that you’re bound to see there.

• Developer: VRChat
• Store link

Horizon Worlds

Horizon Worlds has changed a lot since launch. It now includes more tools, user-generated content, and some more compelling first-party games which has rounded out things to make it more competitive with Rec Room and VRChat. You may want to check in just to see the state of Meta’s first-party VR social platform. Whatever the case, the price of ‘free’ is hard to argue with.

• Developer: Meta
• Store link

Continue on Page 2: Free Experiences & Apps»

Meta announced that security patches for Quest 1 are officially coming to an end next month, marking the final phase-out of the now five-year-old headset.

Meta sent an email to Quest 1 owners on Friday stating the 2019-era Quest will no longer receive any security updates or bug fixes starting August 31st, 2024.

While users will still be able to download and play supported apps, the company notes that “if any security vulnerabilities are discovered in the future, private data that is directly stored on the device or accessible from it would be at risk of compromise.”

Then, in March 2024, the company announced it was removing the ability for developers to target Quest 1 for new apps, essentially halting any new games or experiences.

It’s unclear whether Quest 2 will meet a similar fate so quickly. While Meta hasn’t released official sales figures, the company’s 2020-gen standalone is widely considered the best-selling VR headset to date. To boot, it still holding the top spot as a the most popular VR headset on Steam, with 38.10% of surveyed users using Quest 2 to play SteamVR games.

Meanwhile, Meta appears to making room for a new headset to supplant Quest 2 in its lineup, as Quest is now out of stock in nearly all regions when purchased direct from Meta.

You can see the full email from Meta to Quest 1 owners below:

Hi [User],

We’d like to let you know that starting August 31, 2024, we will no longer provide bug fixes or security updates for Meta Quest 1 headsets. You will still be able to download new apps and continue using your existing apps as long as they are supported by the developer. However, if any security vulnerabilities are discovered in the future, private data that is directly stored on the device or accessible from it would be at risk of compromise.

This update follows our announcement in January 2023, when we stopped releasing new features and new Meta Quest apps for Quest 1 on the Quest Store.

We’re excited about the future of Meta Quest and look forward to providing you with more groundbreaking MR experiences.

In the meantime, Meta Store Support is available to assist you with general inquiries.

Thanks,

The Meta Store Support Team

Resolution Games today confirmed that Spatial Ops, the studio’s multiplayer mixed reality shooter currently in beta, is heading for full launch on Quest sometime later this year.

Spatial Ops lets you turn any physical space big enough for mixed reality play into a virtual battlefield, replete with barriers and a host of weapons, such as Tommy guns, revolvers, shotguns, scoped rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, and a riot shield—making it feel more than a bit like a game of laser tag on steroids.

Featuring 1-8 players, Spatial Ops offers a number of modes, including a solo PvE bot mode, and PvP modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Domination, and Free-For-All.

While it might seem like the game is designed with VR arcades in mind, thanks to a handy level editor basically anyone can pick up Spatial Ops and tailor it to their living room, basement, or well-lit outdoor space for some pretty impressive battles. Check out our early hands-on here to learn more.

Resolution Games says the launch version of Spatial Ops will focus on reduced gametime setup, pre-set and movable maps, performance optimization, more gameplay, more enemies, and more modes.

Spatial Ops is already available to wishlist on Quest 2/3/Pro via the Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store). If you’re interested in playing the open beta, you can play it via SideQuest up until its full launch.

RIVEN (1997), the sequel to iconic point-and-click puzzle-adventure MYST (1993), just got the VR treatment in its new remake. Unlike Myst, which felt a little too game-y and obtuse at times, Riven plays a lot more like a modern title, which thanks to Quest and SteamVR support, is true in every sense of the word now. Granted, you’ll need to look past some VR implementation issues which keep it from feeling like a ground-up VR native, although however you play, you’ll be exploring a fascinating world that’s both puzzle-dense and undeniably beautiful at every turn.

RIVEN Details:

Available On: Quest 2/3, SteamVR
Reviewed On: Quest 3, Quest 3 via Link
Release Date: June 25th, 2024
Price: $35
Developer: Cyan Worlds

Gameplay

I know Riven pretty well by now, having shuffled my way around its five PlayStation 1 discs a number of times as a kid. This is the first time popping back in as an adult though, so I kind of get the chance to not only relive a bit of the past, but rediscover puzzles long forgotten, this time in the immersive first-person view of a VR headset.

While I really can’t stop nostalgia coloring some of my experience with the new 3D-rendered Riven, I’ve spent enough time in VR to know where things fit on the VR-port-continuum. Some games feel unnecessarily forced into working with VR, some are indistinguishable from VR-natives, and somewhere in the middle are great games that still feel like ports, but that’s okay because they bring enough to the table on their own. That’s where Riven sits—great game that works pretty ok in VR.

If you’re playing it for the first time, you’re in for a patently Cyan experience of deciphering codes, shuffling puzzle pieces around, and visiting (and possibly re-re-revisiting) places, doors, and enigmatic set pieces to figure out the world around you. That’s reason enough to play if you’ve never had the chance. Riven’s puzzle can be tough for the uninitiated, but ultimately more rewarding than Myst thanks to its heaps of environmental storytelling that feels less formulaic, and a lot more organic. More on that in the Immersion section.

If you have played before though, many of the game’s puzzles and gadgets are slightly modified from the originals, likely due to the spatial nature of real-time 3D graphics as opposed to the single-frame point-and-click original, which was much more static in how its presented interactive elements. A 27-year-old walkthrough guide that works with the original may still be useful to help with the broad strokes, but you’ll definitely notice differences here and there, with some puzzle elements simplified, or complicated in new ways separate from the original.

One thing that hasn’t changed is there’s still a ton of walking and looping around to do, which is just a feature of the game due to its wide and varied puzzles. You’ll spend a good amount of time circumnavigating one of the game’s five islands for the umpteenth time turn on a thing, to return to a puzzle across the map to see what it did. Then again, that’s just the old school charm and hands-off approach Riven brings to the table.

Not only that, but the old school approach to game design makes you rely upon your own spatial memory. There are no map markers, signs, or ‘helpful’ NPCs to guide your way—an aspect of the game that still makes it one of my favorite experiences.

And unlike Myst, you can go a pretty impressive distance through the game with only a few hard roadblocks to stop you, making progression feel very natural. Then again, Riven is beloved for being more organic in level design, and less formulaic than Myst overall, feeling much less like of a jumble of toys, and more like Cyan’s modern titles Obduction (2016) and Firmament (2023).

Knowing Riven’s past, I shouldn’t really complain about loading times—they’re certainly faster than shuffling through a broken jewel case filled with PS1 discs—however on Quest you’ll be sitting there for a while waiting for levels to load, the longest of which is the initial startup screen which the game warns “could take a few minutes” to do (it does). From there, whether on Quest or SteamVR, vehicle transitions will constantly toss out 10-second loading screens, which doesn’t sound like much, but happen on both sides of transfers between islands.

Another niggle: there’s no practical way to write down notes so you can remember clues or sketch out solutions, which is precisely what you’ll need to do to decode stuff. You can take a screenshot with the game’s built-in camera system, and that’s about it. I just wish there was a spatial pencil so I could annotate found letters, or somehow keep myself from taking off the headset to write stuff down.

Immersion

I had a chance to play both on Quest 3 natively and PC VR versions. Here’s the breakdown between the two, which most anyone can guess.

On the Quest version you’ll notice a ton of low-res textures and geometry that dynamically chunk-loads into place the closer you get to it. Once things are in place though, at times Riven can be one of the prettiest games on the Quest platform. That’s if there aren’t any NPCs around, which are bloated and a little too cartoony for the game’s lush, natural environment.

It also seems Cyan is throwing the entire toolbox of Quest performance tricks at you at all times, including what feels like always-on asynchronous spacewarp and glaringly obvious fixed foveated rendering.

Since it was primarily developed for the flatscreen PC crowd, the PC VR version is a fair bit ahead of the Quest 3 native in terms of visuals. Even on ‘Epic’ settings though, you’re bound to notice some oddly applied shaders that make shadows dance about and move when they shouldn’t, and also discrepancies in how shaders work in both eyes, leading to some pretty visible mismatches in shadows and lighting. Still. chunk-loading of areas is mostly minimal and textures are fairly high, making it rightfully a more graphically intense version of the game.

Like Myst, Riven suffers from middling object interaction, which is a shame considering how many items are strewn about in the game. Oftentimes I’d find myself trying to interact with something, only to find out I wasn’t pressing it correctly, or it wasn’t interactive at all in the first place, making it more of a guessing game than it should be. Here’s me fruitlessly grasping at a weird banana-kiwi thing, then trying to grab a strangely unusable pencil on the same table. Again, I wish I could use that damn pencil.

There is a physical inventory though where you can keep the various books you collect throughout the game, although you can’t use it for anything else.

Whether you’re on Quest or SteamVR, something that never fails to impress is coming to a precipice or turning a bend to find a new, breathtaking scene in front of you. Riven is all about natural beauty, punctuated with megalithic structures that don’t feel nearly as abandoned and lonely as Myst did.

There’s wildlife, sprawling villages, shrines, and plenty of environmental storytelling here to dig into, putting exploration at the forefront. There’s even inhabitants in the world, albeit too skittish to interact with such an obvious outsider.

Comfort

Riven features the full gamut of comfort options in addition to some quality of life options that make things a little easier, but likely less immersive as a result. Traveling between islands is always done on some sort of vehicle, which can be a little jarring for some since it’s fast and a bit jerky.

You can turn vehicles transitions off entirely though, essentially letting you jump right to the next island’s rail station, or put in the option to make windows dirty, which helps ground you a little more in the vehicle’s cockpit. The game also offers similar options for instant traversal of stairs and ladders, which otherwise a manually climbable.

Check out the full comfort checklist below:

‘RIVEN’ Comfort Settings – June 25th, 2024
Turning
Artificial turning
Snap-turn
Quick-turn
Smooth-turn
Movement
Artificial movement
Teleport-move
Dash-move
Smooth-move
Blinders
Head-based
Controller-based
Swappable movement hand
Posture
Standing mode
Seated mode
Artificial crouch
Real crouch
Accessibility
Subtitles
Languages	English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
Dialogue audio
Languages	English
Adjustable difficulty
Two hands required
Real crouch required
Hearing required
Adjustable player height

Ubisoft announced in late 2022 it was bringing a VR version of its motion-based dance game Just Dance to Pico 4, making it the first big exclusive to target what was essentially Pico’s Quest 2 competitor. Now Ubisoft has announced that Just Dance VR is coming to Quest later this year, ostensibly skipping Pico support entirely.

Pico announced during its Pico Product Announcement 2022 it was working with Ubisoft to bring Just Dance VR exclusively to Pico 4 in 2023, however it was subsequently dropped as a result of parent company ByteDance’s wide-reaching layoffs at Pico.

Now under co-development by Ubisoft Paris and Soul Assembly, Just Dance VR – Welcome to Dancity is officially coming to Quest 2/3/Pro on October 15th, where it promises to let you “dance, play basketball and interact with fun items with up to 6 players.”

1 of 5

Just Dance VR is set to feature a social hub called ‘Dancity’ for global dance meet ups and socializing, with the ability to setup both public and private matches. Avatars are set to be customizable, with the addition of unlockable outfits which the studio says will be powered by Ready Player Me.

At launch, Just Dance VR promises 25 chart-toppers and original songs, with a short teaser setlist shown below:

• Don’t Stop Me Now By Queen
• Bad Liar By Selena Gomez
• Starships by Nicki Minaj
• Lights By Ellie Goulding
• Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
• A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) By Fergie Ft. Q-tip, GoonRock

You can wishlist the game here on Quest here leading up to its release on Quest 2/3/Pro on October 15th.

Blade & Sorcery, arguably VR’s top physics-based combat sandbox, is leaving Early Access today on Steam, which comes alongside the long-awaited 1.0 update that brings its final major content drop: the ‘Crystal Hunt’ campaign.

Update (June 17th, 2024): Blade & Sorcery is complete, at least according to developer WarpFrog which is turning on its campaign mode today in what promises to bring 7+ hours of dungeoning carnage.

We’re still deep in review, although thus far Crystal Hunt marks a notabe departure from the game’s sandbox-focused arenas by tossing you into a number of linked maps that are underpinned by an honest to goodness narrative and a progression upgrade system all about collecting crystals scattered throughout the game.

Tune back in soon for our full review, which is coming as soon as possible as we fight through this thick slice of new content. The original article announcing Crystal Hunt’s release date follows below:

Original Article (June 11th, 2024): For many, Blade & Sorcery was everything they ever wanted in VR: a place to beat the ever-living crap out of whoever, wherever, and with whatever. Beyond its massive assortment of melee weapons and AI enemies ripe for the ganking, you can also mod it to be basically anything you want.

For some though, the fighting sandbox had all of the right bones, but lacked the story, progression, worldbuilding—the adventures only your imagination could create in their absence.

Now, a little over five years since its Early Access release on PC, Blade & Sorcery’s massive 1.0 drop is looking to change that, which is coming to the SteamVR version of the game on June 17th as a free update. Check out the trailer below:

Developer WarpFrog says the game’s ‘Crystal Hunt’ campaign is bringing along with it a progression mode, tons of new weapons and skills, lore, and a definitive ending to the story.

Here’s how the studio describes the action:

Deep in the mountains of Eraden, entrances to long lost Dalgarian ruins have Inexplicably revealed themselves, triggering what folk have begun referring to as The Crystal Hunt. Within weeks of the first entrance discovery, major factions across Eraden mobilized to compete in finding these ruins and securing the valuables within.

Taking up temporary residence in abandoned Outposts dotted all around Eraden, the factions race to map out the surrounding wildlands and discover new Dalgarian entrances. This is where Player come in; also motivated to find Dalgarian ruins, Player will visit these faction occupied Outposts to gather intel on potential ruin locations.

The Outposts are as you know them in Sandbox and will be occupied by one of four factions, each presenting different challenges and difficulty levels. Outposts will have loot scaled on that difficulty, from gold and valuables which the player can use to purchase new weapons and armour in the shop, to Crystal Shards, which are minor magical crystals that can be used to unlock new skills on the skill tree.

Blade & Sorcery: Nomad (2021), a pared-down version for Quest 2/3/Pro, is also getting the big 1.0 update at some point, however there’s no release date on the books yet. As one of the most popular games on Quest, we’re really hoping for sooner rather than later, although it may take time, the studio says.

“Once PCVR is released and stable, the team can switch to the Nomad update porting process, which will for sure take months as it is a mountain of work. However, take solace in the knowledge that it is our goal to attempt a full port of the PCVR update to Nomad,” the studio says in a Steam news update.

“In the decision to release Nomad as standalone and not merge both versions into one game, we essentially doubled our work because it meant we had two separate developments to support. However this was the only way to make sure PCVR development was not limited by the Quest 2 hardware, so this is why Nomad is a completely separated “made for Quest” sister-title,” the studio explains.

Notably, as it leaves Early Access on Steam on June 17th, there’s set to be a price bump from $20 to $30, marking what WarpFrog calls “our final major content update” outside of further patches for bugfixing, stabilization and QOL things. If you manage to grab it before then, you’ll of course get the big 1.0 update for free when it drops next week.