Just about everyone can appreciate the exhilaration of a first-person shooter (FPS). From avid gamers to the occasional player, FPS in VR elevates shooting games to a whole new level. Duck and dodge in immersive new worlds, empty your clip or charge up your laser and take part in ‘jump out of your seat’ action like never before.
From Oculus to Vive, PSVR, or any other VR-compatible device, shooting games are a heck of a good time. But with so many titles hitting store shelves these last few years it can be hard to keep track of what’s what.
Luckily for you, we’ve done the research (which basically means we’ve played all of these games for you. Oh the torture lol). That’s the good news. The even better news is that we’ve taken these experiences and used them to compile a list of the best VR shooting games.
In this guide, you’ll find the best VR shooting games that we feel deserve a shot to be played (pun definitely intended).
The Best VR Shooting Game
We’ve seen a lot of VR shooters in the past few years. From zombie killing and sci-fi excursions through the cosmos, to intense militarization simulations and dinosaur hunts on a lonely island.
Today, the world of VR shooting games is your oyster, honestly.
Read on for a synopsis of the highlights for each VR shooting game, what we like about it, and, of course, what VR systems you can play the game on. That way you don’t have to get attached to a game you can’t even play – a major bummer we want to help you avoid!
Without any further ado, in no particular order, here are our top 12 best VR shooting games!
1. SUPERHOT VR (Rift, Vive, PSVR, Windows VR, and Oculus)
It’s not technically correct to call Superhot a ‘shooter’. However, we had to add it to this list as given the selection of guns you can use as weapons. That said, if you’ve never played any of the SUPERHOT games, then we want to make sure you know what to expect. The game itself is more of a puzzle shooter than a straight-up FPS.
In SUPERHOT, time only moves when you do. Cool, huh?
While you are aiming and firing your weapon, so is everyone else. Until you stop…take a second to take in your surroundings and start moving again. In this way, it’s more like a puzzle game when you find out how to take out all your opponents without getting hit.
It is a cerebral puzzle shooter combination that only gets better in VR while you try to carefully control and alter your movements appropriately.
2. Phantom: Covert Ops (Oculus Quest)
Phantom is another one of our selections that made it into the ‘VR shooter’ game category on a technicality. Still, Phantom is one heck of a game and it’s place here is well-deserved in our opinion.
Phantom Covert Ops, despite its combat-oriented name, is more a gambling game than a shooter, even though its FPS features are nonetheless more advanced than many of the entries on this list.
The game kicks off with you infiltrating a hostile camp on a kayak, utilizing muted weaponry to sneak around in enemy territory.
Stealth not your thing? Prefer to go in guns blazing or play the hero? There are non-stealth options, too. If you get captured, you can also count on a trustworthy machine gun to handle most of your problems. You can never go wrong mowing down your enemies with a machine gun, after all.
In the end, this game offers a unique blend of stealth and brute force options that should have its home on every best VR shooting games list.
3. Pistol Whip (Oculus, Rift, Vive, PSVR, and Windows VR)
Another great example of a shooter with a twist can be found with Pistol Whip. In this VR shooting game, you sport a pistol (as the name aptly suggests), but you’re using it in a way that blends blasting rounds with a little rhythmic flair. The goal? Taking out enemies to the rhythm of the music. So not a classic FPS, but an absolute blast to play in virtual reality.
The longer you’re in time with the beat, the greater your score. If SUPERHOT interested you and you loved playing Beat Saber, then this game is going to hit the spot.
The game launched with 10 original songs, but has since added several songs for free as post-launch upgrades. A popular post-launch level is called “Full Throttle” and is inspired by Mad Max. It is a treat to play, so give Pistol Whip a chance for some incredibly unique shooter experience.
4. Island 359 (Rift and Vive)
With Island 359 we delve deeper into a more classic representation of the VR “shooter” genre. Think Jurassic Park meets Zombie Island as this game puts you in the role of dinosaur hunter.
While hunting dinos in VR can be downright terrifying, it’s also incredibly fun. Island 359 walks that line beautifully. A combination of a shooter and survival game, you are dropped in a jungle filled with dinosaurs that would love nothing more than to gobble you up for breakfast. What they don’t know is that they are the ones being hunted.
With a variety of modes and styles of gameplay, and dozens of weapons to choose from, it is the prime example of a shooter game that keeps on giving.
5. Onward (Oculus, Rift, and Vive)
For a competitive multiplayer shooter, look no further than Onward.
Onward is a hard-nosed, gritty and realistic military simulator that puts a wide range of weaponry at your disposal. It hosts three game modes to play, all with 5v5 dogfights. This gives the game a lot of realism with tons of replayability.
Onward is still early on in development, so expect a few glitches and issues here and there, but the game has so much untapped potential and a lot of promise as developers continue to work on it.
For fans of the best VR shooting games that are steeped in realism or military-style design and play, there isn’t a better option on this list. If it isn’t already in your VR library, then you are going to want to get in on it ASAP.
6. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Windows VR, PSVR, and Oculus)
Zombies – need we say more?
Since the advent of zombie mode in shooter games and the rise of games like Left 4 Dead, the shooter and zombie genres are a match made in bloodthirsty brain eater zombie heaven.
Shooting is just a small part of the total experiences of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, making this game so much more of an interactive and engaging experience. A nice reprieve from the traditional shoot ‘em up zombie games we usually see.
The developer, Skydance Interactive, employs a unique physics-driven arms management system that breaks the typical experience for most VR shooters. A combination of steadying your aim and even handling two-handed weapons with both hands appropriately makes for an intensely fun (and nerve-wracking) experience while a zombie shambles in your direction.
Sticking with the vibe of fighting for your survival, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners does a great job of putting you in the headspace of making every movement and every bullet count while your heart races in the midst of attacking an enemy camp or facing down a horde of zombies.
7. Sniper Elite VR (Windows VR, Vive, PSVR, Rift, and Oculus)
If taking down hordes of enemies isn’t your style, or up-close and personal sneak-and-shoot doesn’t scratch that itch for you, then maybe taking down enemies from a couple of hundred yards away is just what the hitman ordered.
A VR spin-off of the popular ‘Rebellion’, this game is ideal for those who want to take an assassin-style role from afar. One thing we loved was the tactile satisfaction of manual reloads chambering the rifle round for each kill shot.
Even though Sniper Elite VR gameplay might be considered a bit ‘basic’, it is a surprisingly meaty VR shooter that you won’t regret picking up and trying out.
8. Population: One (Windows VR, Oculus, and Rift)
It was only a matter of time before a battle royale style game would come to VR systems. ‘Population: One’ fills that Fortnite-style void for VR players, putting them in the center of all the action.
This game drops you into a battle royale fight with both friends and foes, centering around a three-squad team against other triad teams in a fight to the literal death.
With a familiar wall-building system and even a wingsuit-enabled gliding/flying option to keep things fresh, Population: One is one of the best VR shooting games out there for some super fun team fights.
With a huge and growing community around this VR shooter, there is a lot to love with this game and the promise of future updates and improvements as time goes on.
9. Stand Out: VR Battle Royale (Oculus, Rift, Windows VR, Vive)
Speaking of battle royale games for VR…there is no way our list would be complete without Stand Out: VR Battle Royale.
If you love PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds, then you’re going to enjoy Stand Out, no questions asked. Some might even go so far as to call it a near rip-off of PUBG. It mimics the concept, visual style, and even a majority of the rules and mechanics of PUBG and throws them into a VR game.
Regardless of how you feel about the idea of a PUBG clone in VR, it is an intensely fun game. PUBG doesn’t have a VR option and is such a popular game it was an inevitability that someone would recreate the game for VR players eventually. While we may not feel great about that, we still have to recommend it for any fans of the battle royale shooter style of games.
10. Robo Recall: Unplugged (Oculus – Rift and Quest)
Robo Recall was one of the premier shooting games launched with the Oculus Rift. It was a top-notch immersive experience back then, and, despite some graphical and visual issues, is still one of the best VR shooting games on the market bar none.
t is fun, intuitive, and quickly gets you immersed in the game, but it’s also just plain fun. It is a tried and tested choice for anyone looking for VR shooting games. It may not be our favorite game on the list, but we would be wrong to not include it at all given its popularity both then and now.
11. Compound (Rift, Vive, Windows VR, PSVR, Oculus)
This VR shooting game looks like it was ripped straight out of the 1990s and transported into the 2020s.
This game appeals directly to the nostalgia of the shooting games of the ‘90s , such as the infamous Wolfenstein and groundbreaking Quake. The difference is that Compound offers a surprisingly high level of visual fidelity given the graphics style. If your heart aches for reliving those days of some of the oldest 3D first-person shooters, then this game was designed specifically for you.
More than a simple ode to these games, though, Compound comes into its own as a great VR shooting game with super fun levels, plenty of interesting and enjoyable enemies to square off against, and a whole lot of new ways to love the “good ol’ days” brought into the 21st century.
12. Gun Club VR (Rift, Vive, Windows VR, PSVR, Oculus)
Wrapping up our list of the best VR shooting games is “Gun Club, perfect for those who simply want to plug in and have a relaxing shooting experience. Gun Club VR is a virtual gun range, nice and simple.
You can take a break from the fast-paced stories and heart-thumping action to just work on your aim, fine-tune your skills and reflexes within the VR shooting space, and just unwind a little bit. Feel free to just do some target practice, either at standard targets or a fun, fast-paced mode where little alien targets pop up at you.
For those who are interested in more realistic games and weaponry, Gun Club VR is one of the best VR shooting games because the guns are fairly close to their real-world counterparts, too. Either way, Gun Club VR has earned its way as our coziest title on this list.
The Best VR Shooting Games of 2022
There you have it, our list of 2022’s best virtual reality shooting games. See something we’re missing? Have a favorite game we somehow skipped over? Let us know about it so we can fire it up and see for ourselves.
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