Top ten: Vive games you want in your eyeballs right now

You’ve just spent around $800 on the HTC Vive. So really, if I’m totally honest, buy whatever you like. But there are some very interesting games coming out and you really should be looking forward to playing them, unless you’re going to keep the thing sealed and eBay in twenty years time.

So here are a few that have caught my eye and, a little disclaimer here, I’ve set some rules.

Many of the games coming for the Vive are already available for other VR headsets and as such will only feature support from the Vive’s headset.

By all means get and play Elite Dangerous, Truck Simulators and Alien Isolation on the Vive if you wish but I’m discounting these in favour of the games that use the whole system.

The Wake

Zombies you say? Of course there’s zombies. Compared to The Brookhaven Experiment (coming later), The Wake takes the more comedic weapon approach to zombie combat in chainsaws and bats, as well as guns and axes.

Hopefully we’ll see more of this game in the coming months.

Irrational Exuberance

Exploration games will come in to their own with VR and Irrational Exuberance will allow you to just do that.

There are lots of cool, pretty things in deep space and you can just float around and look at them. It’s one of those games best played with Brian Eno soundscapes in the background, atmospheric and epic.

Audioshield

Quite similar to Audiosurf (which is also available with headset only support), Audioshield will use an algorithm to scan your music collection and generate an interesting challenge in game for you to play.

Using two shields of red and blue, you hit incoming balls with the corresponding colour, hold them out for a longer ‘note’ and combine to hit a purple ball.

You’ll certainly need some space and adequate warning before someone comes near you and you accidentally punch them in the face.

Cloudlands

No system with a motion controller is complete without a golf game and the HTC Vice is no exception. Cloudlands takes the cool ideas behind Mini Golf holes and builds the environments for them to match.

It’s very low tech in so much as you just swing and that’s it. You’ll also be able to do local and network multiplayer along with sharing your own creations with an upcoming course editor, which should give the game a longer life than most golf games.

A-10 VR

In an effort to go full holodeck, A-10 is a sci-fi shooting gallery like you’d have seen in Tron, Star Trek and the like.

You shoot objects coming through portals that completely surround you and you can also get power ups and aids like slow motion. Best score wins. Simple and well executed.

The Brookhaven Experiment

Survival horror games are the most intense experience in VR gaming (See Alien Isolation) and The Brookhaven Experiment sees a mixture of tropes come together in one game like some sort of grotesque baby.

Weird looking monsters like in Outlast, very limited lighting like Slender and one upgradable weapon in a pistol will keep you safe as waves of enemies attack you.

Budget Cuts

Budget Cuts is a spy puzzle game where you infiltrate environments and sneak around. But in a futuristic Sci-Fi twist, you get cool toys to play with. Think Portal meets SuperHot with a dash of old school Metal Gear Solid. Plus it’s quite colourful which is nice.

A Legend of Luca

Zelda-like dungeon games are quite common but to have one in a VR environment is quite interesting. With your stats above your head so it doesn’t impede your view, you go around rooms, slashing barrels, blowing up walls to make new doorways and slaying enemies.

It certainly looks like it could be fun as long as the game doesn’t become repetitive.

You might also like Crystal Rift in Early Access, which seems to be a dungeon game that’s a lot more fantasy based with nasty looking enemies. If like me you’re a fan of the 80s TV show Knightmare, these games are the closest you’ll probably get to experiencing it.

Marble Mountain

Marble games are probably some of the oldest games in history, from solitaire to plastic puzzle games, so it makes sense that its at the forefront of new technology. Marble Mountain will see you negotiating puzzles with the marble through various environments like dungeons, grassy pillars, deserts and more. With the controls moving your marble like Nintendo’s Super Monkey Ball and the full 360 view you can get from the headset helping you with puzzles, this will be a interesting bit of fun.

Virtual Desktop

Ok, this isn’t a game. But if you’re going to get a super cool toy, don’t you want it to do super cool things? Virtual Desktop is exactly what it says, converting your desktop for VR use in something that Charlie Brooker has probably used in a terrifyingly prophetic episode of Black Mirror. If you’re going to browse the web, why not try it in VR?