There are a bunch of free games for the Oculus, soon to be Meta Quest 2. We’re going to go over some that we think will help you get used to your Quest and hopefully impress and amaze you with what this VR headset can do. You may have seen or played some of these. Hopefully we will surprise you with some that you haven’t tried yet, or some insight on one you have that sends you back in to see more!
If you like any of the games, you can click the link in the description or the image. NOTE: The links to the Oculus/Meta Store will open a new tab so you can visit the store, click to load the app into your headset and then just close that window to be taken right back here to find more games you want to load.
First Steps #
They provide you with some really simple, but fun toys to play with in this game. You’ll see how it takes a bit to get the hang of throwing a paper airplane in VR. I can’t tell you how many times my plane just went right into the ground. (That’s a hint) Try all the toys. Try stacking things on top of each other, knocking them off the table, throwing them. It’s all there for fun and to get used to things you’ll likely be doing in other games. Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
First Contact #
Pro Tip! Don’t forget to explore behind you, there’s some really cool stuff back there. If your space is big enough, you can walk behind the counter a ways and all the way behind you. You can sometimes get further by repositioning yourself with the re-center button. (Hold the Oculus button and it will re-center you where your head is pointed, and positioned and if you move your head forward or backward, the scene will move.) Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
Bogo #
Pro Tip! Don’t miss playing the games, they are simple, but fun and good practice for other VR games you’ll play later. We’ve gone back in this one a few times and it’s one of our favorites to show to someone new. Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
Dear Angelica – Spectacular. This amazing movie was painted entirely while in VR. It starts off slow, but give it a minute. It will really take off with the visuals. It can be viewed sitting down, but because it goes completely around you, above and below (and be certain to look up and down or you’ll miss some great stuff) it’s best experienced standing. Pro Tip! Don’t miss playing the games, they are simple, but fun and good practice for other VR games you’ll play later. We’ve gone back in this one a few times and it’s one of our favorites to show to someone new. Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
Anyway, don’t miss this fun game. One thing I liked about it was that you got fairly decent instructions in the game on what to do all along. Kinda rare in most VR games. You can visit their website, or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
Going to have to stop doing that… This is so much fun! If someone who doesn’t like doing puzzles loves this so much, puzzle people should love it! Standing in the middle of floating 3D puzzle pieces with the ability to “magically” point at a piece and “summon” it to you as well as “push” it back is so cool. Also, having multiple views of the completed piece adds a whole new dimension (Pun intended) to this game. Pro Tip! Once you have some of the structure built, be sure to look inside! You’ll find some great visuals inside these structures, not just outside. There are a number of fun objects to complete, some with not very many pieces and some with hundreds! There is even a way to make your own, which I’m itching to try… Note: Currently, this is an App Lab game, so a little harder to find. You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. We liked this one so much, we made a video of ourselves working on one that had already been started. Pro Tip! Turns out, there’s a not so obvious feature to “group” your pieces together. You can make multiple groups. Like when you’re doing a “real” puzzle and you sort all the “roof” pieces, and the “edge” pieces, etc… This is kind of a game changer so we made another video about it. You can see both videos in a playlist, here. or click the image below The links above are the the free trial beta version that has hours of play in it. They have now also got a full paid version with many more puzzles, some with up to 400 pieces! Here’s a link to the paid full version Puzzling Places for Oculus Quest 2. | |
You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
It’s a little addicting as you keep wanting to beat your last score and beat the other racers. I’m really enjoying the demo and you can buy a full version at the Steam store. I understand they are working on getting their full version into the Quest store as well. You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
It’s known as a roomscale game. This means that it takes all the space you have into consideration and then creates a path for you to follow so that it seems like you’re walking all over the place, but the game keeps you safely inside your guardian. The only limitation is that you need to have a 5 ft. by 5 ft clear space. Bigger is better, but that will work. Do NOT miss this one, it really is different and you will love it! You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store.
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You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
Epic Roller Coasters– Warning: We would advise caution with this game. As you can imagine, one of the things that brings on motion sickness in real life is even more in VR. Don’t be surprised if you feel nauseous. If you do, take the headset off immediately and don’t go back in for several hours at least. Don’t try to “tough it out”. You don’t want your body associating the headset with the nausea. That out of the way, if you tolerate the motion, this feels so real! You can ride several coasters and it has a mode where you can shoot at stuff! You can also do race mode and control the speed. There’s also a slow motion mode you should try! The game is free, but they sell bundles of new coasters for $10-$13 or $3 each for single ones. You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. | |
Puppet Fever– The good: It’s a charades style game where the person in the headset pulls a card with a word/phrase on it and then has to use the puppeteering items provided to create something that gets the other players to guess the word on the card. This is a fun one that allows you to play with up to 4 friends. One person is in the headset and the others are on their phones or tablets. The Bad: You all need to be on the same wifi, which could be a limitation. Also, the game is really short on instructions. I’m including a link to a video that does a decent job of explaining, but it is not an in-depth one. Also note it’s almost 3 years old. You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
Hand Tracking AppsThe Quest 2 has cameras at each of it’s front corners and it can use those cameras to track the movement of your hands. Enough so, that you can do most of what you do with the controllers to operate the headset, and you can even use them to play games! There are several games that do this, we’re going to show you two free ones that we loved! |
 Elixir – We had so much fun with this one we’ve gone back 3 times so far. It’s very short, but so full of things to see it is absolutely worth your time.
Essentially you are being guided by a wonderful disembodied voice. You just move along following what she tells you to do. You get to touch things and push and pull things. I won’t give it away, but at one point your hands become much more interesting to watch and wiggle your fingers.
Pro Tip! It’s a little tricky when you get started to move around. They have you hold your hands in a sort of triangle shape. Then you point that at the stones in the floor and when the one you want to go to lights up, you pull your fingers together. It is awkward, but take your time, go slow and work through it, it is worth it once you get the door open.
One more thing, you can absolutely play this sitting down, but if you have the space and can do it standing, I suggest that so you can walk around and lean over and look at all the things they put into this one.
You can find that one in the Oculus store here. |
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Pro Tip! When attempting to push the long buttons, it’s easier to make the tip of your finger red by holding a tight fist while you point. And you need to hold the buttons till they fill up.
Pro Tip 2! When using the virtual controller, tilting it forward as if you really had a controller will move the ball forward. I found both that one and the transport one awkward to use.
Social Games and AppsWe broke up the page here because the games/apps that follow all can have a social aspect to them. Where you can interact with friends, but also strangers from all over the world. This can be one of the best experiences you have in VR, but because one aspect of RL (Real Life) that follows us into VR… rude, obnoxious people who thrive on making others suffer, it can be temporarily awful. Yes there are many of them in VR and if you do these social apps, you are likely to run into them at some point. Don’t allow this to deter you. The positives of social games far outweighs what these people can do. Don’t let them push you out of enjoying these games. These apps have different ways of dealing with this. Some have “mute“, or “personal bubble” features. Others you will need to “jump out” of a room and then just go into another with friendlier people. Some allow you to make private rooms or spaces to use. |
 Pokerstars VR – So, we haven’t played this one yet. Not big poker players… But folks who do love this game. Basically you’re at a virtual poker table playing with other people. It’s a very social game so be prepared for that. This one is the most popular because it’s more “fun” there are things to play with besides the cards. This can also be a distraction for some. “Serious” poker players tend to prefer another poker game called PokerVR for that reason. You can find that one in the Oculus store here.
Not much reason not to try both anyway, This link is for Pokerstars VR. Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
 Echo VR – Warning #1 – In this game you are in a “weightless” environment. This is one of those games that can cause motion sickness in some. It happened to us. That being said, it was still fun while it lasted…
Warning #2 – When you start playing with others, there are some very serious players here and they can sometimes not be as tolerant of new players as they could be. Don’t get us wrong, there are wonderful people there that will be very helpful. We’ve heard of folks giving “hands on” lessons to new players. We just want to prep you just in case you run into this.
Warning #3 – It takes time to get any kind of proficiency with this game. Controlling your motion in “weightlessness” and then trying to catch and throw accurately in VR takes practice.
You’d think with all those warnings this game wouldn’t be so popular. But it is very popular. The basic premise of the game is based on the game played in the movie “Enders Game”. (If you haven’t seen this movie, do it…) Essentially it is a VR arena where you and teammates play against another team floating around the arena catching and passing a frisbee like item until one team gets in into the other team’s goal. There’s a lot more to it, such as you can “stun” your opponents by punching them… And there’s a practice arena so you can be alone while you learn. But this is just a general description here. We will provide a more detailed guide later.
Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
Bigscreen– This is one of those apps that will absolutely wow you. You can watch movies on a variety of Big screens. You can be in a drive-in, a home theater, a grand indoor theater, and more. You can invite friends to join you in your own room and either watch a rented movie, or stream one from your PC into the headset. The rooms are kind of cool so you could even just create one and invite friends over for a chat. Pro Tip: The 3d movies in your headset are way better than in the theater and inside Bigscreen you can watch free previews of 3d movies you can rent. Just seeing the previews is worth going into this app and playing with it.
Warning: When you go into the public rooms to watch free content, there are other people in there watching as well. You can see them, they will look at you sometimes. Usually, there are few issues. You can do things in the theater like get popcorn and throw it. You can throw tomatoes at the screen and draw on things. These can be fun, but some people use them to just be annoying. There are settings to limit this if it gets too annoying. Don’t let the rude people ruin your chance to experience this fun app.
You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
Rec Room # Rec Room– Rec Room is one of the most popular social apps in VR, and on PC. We’ll focus on the quest app here. Essentially, you enter locations, worlds of all types. You can stand around a campfire with people from all over the world. You can be on a pirate ship and talk to other players. You can also play games in this app. They are pretty famous for their paintball game, dodgeball, charades and there are a bunch more.
Warning: While this is a really fun game to explore, there are sometimes a lot of children in there. Some are nice, the others can get worse than you can imagine. There are rude adults as well, but the kids dominate this category in Rec Room. The program has “Junior” accounts that are supposed to be used for those under 13. This limits some of their access and stops them from doing some things.
We do not want to discourage you from using Rec Room, it can be really fun and interesting in there. You can meet some amazing people. Just be aware. Kind of like if you were traveling to a tourist city, you’d be aware that it could be dangerous and just be a little more alert.
You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store. |
AltspaceVR # AltspaceVR– Probably the next most popular app where people create worlds for others to visit. It differs from Rec Room in that it doesn’t have the games, but has more events. You can attend classes there, see live comedy shows, rocket launches, music, lectures, so much more. I suggest visiting their website and looking at some of the many events.
As you can imagine, there are less kids in AltspaceVR. You will still run into some extremely rude people here as well. These places take some time to get used to and learn how to deal with these things, but again, they are amazing places with so many things to see, experience, learn, etc. This type of app and interaction can be the best of what VR does.
You can visit their website here or Click here, or the image to get this in the Oculus store.
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