VR demos can be a great way to check out whether or not a game is for you before you actually buy it.
Demos are free so you can check out what a game has to offer and whether or not it’s well-developed.
In this post, we’ll provide our picks for the best VR demos that you can check out for upcoming VR games.
Winner
Green Hell VR
If you’re a fan of survival games, then Green Hell VR will be a treat for you. It’s highly complex with tons of mechanics to explore and the VR is quite well-optimized as well. The depiction of the sprawling Amazon rainforest is something to behold.
Runner Up
Virtuoso
Virtuoso is a music-creation sandbox that you can experience within VR. The instruments are all very responsive as they were designed specifically for VR. The visuals are also a treat to watch as you compose music.
Also Great
The Last Taxi
The Last Taxi is a highly dense game where you play the last human taxi driver. You don’t drive the taxi as much as you keep the guests comfortable. You can interact with them in whatever way you choose and naturally, that affects the way the game progresses.
Now that we have reviewed the best ones, let’s look into detailed reviews of each.
Best VR Demos - Top 3 Reviews
#1: Best All-Around VR Demo - Green Hell VR Review
Survival games have really become extremely popular in recent years with titles like Rust and the Forest making huge waves. Another great survival game that burst onto the scene was Green Hell.
Now, we have Green Hell’s VR version available for sale. Before you buy the VR version though, we highly recommend that you check out the demo first.
Why?
Well, that’s because the survival experience becomes a lot more visceral and intense when you’re in VR. The distant sounds of wild animals will send chills down your spine as you explore to find sources of sustenance.
It’s a highly nerve-wracking experience that rewards the player for successfully avoiding predators and finding food and water.
Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Green Hell VR
User-friendliness: Green Hell VR is quite user-friendly but sadly, that comes at the cost of less in-depth survival mechanics. That being said, the game still has deep enough mechanics to keep you engaged as you explore the Amazon rainforest.
Genre: Green Hell VR is an open-world survival game where your only task is, well, to survive. Survival games are not for everyone which is why it’s a good idea to try out the demo before you actually buy it.
Fun factor: If you’re into survival games, this is one of the most polished ones out there. The VR really adds to the immersion and it’s quite well-optimized too. This leaves you to explore the rainforest with ease without worrying about motion sickness or nausea.
- Great random encounters with predators
- No motion sickness
- Great sound design
- Decent graphics
- Responsive controls
- Survival games don’t appeal to everyone
Best All-Around VR Demo
The best all-around VR demo is Green Hell VR thanks to its great mechanics, user-friendly gameplay and immaculate sound design.
#2: Best Music VR Demo - Virtuoso Review
If you want to spend an afternoon being creative and coming up with all sorts of fun tunes and beats, then definitely give Virtuoso a try.
It boasts six different instruments that were all specifically designed for a virtual reality space. Not only are they highly responsive and intuitive to understand, but they can also be adjusted in a variety of ways.
This allows you to create highly dynamic beats to include within your music. Virtuoso also comes with a virtual microphone that can be utilized to record vocals.
It’s super easy to get the hang of and once you do, you’re free to create whatever you want.
Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Virtuoso
User-friendliness: As mentioned earlier, all of the instruments featured within Virtuoso are super easy to get the hang of. Since they were made specifically for VR, they are highly responsive.
Genre: It’s a music creation sandbox so it doesn’t really have much in terms of challenging gameplay or a goal that you have to achieve. Ultimately, the goal is to create something great and have fun while you’re doing it.
Fun factor: Again, the fun factor for this game is something that will vary from person to person. Everybody likes music but not everybody wants to sit and put the time in to create music themselves. However, if this looks like something you’d enjoy, then definitely give it a shot.
- Virtual microphone
- Six different instruments to choose from
- Responsive instrument controls
- Fun and good-looking environment
- User-friendly
- Could use a little more depth when it comes to instruments
Best Music VR Demo
The best music VR demo is Virtuoso thanks to its user-friendliness, responsive instruments and virtual microphone to record vocals.
#3: Best Narrative-Driven VR Demo - The Last Taxi Review
The two games we’ve talked about so far don’t really have heavy narratives to support them. That’s not the case with The Last Taxi, in which you play the last human taxi driver in a world that’s politically divisive.
The game is not focused on actually driving the taxi, but rather, you talk and interact with the passengers that choose to avail of your services. It’s fully up to you how you want to interact with them. You could antagonize them, or you could empathize with them.
Your decisions affect the gameplay and plot.
Furthermore, the world within The Last Taxi is a sight to behold within VR. The futuristic city looks incredibly vast and intimidating. However, at the same time, it also invites you to explore it and figure out its many mysteries.
Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy The Last Taxi
User-friendliness: There’s not a whole lot to The Last Taxi’s gameplay and most players will be able to figure out how to navigate its world with ease.
Genre: As mentioned, The Last Taxi is highly narrative-driven and it can be characterized as a mystery game. It’s incredibly well-crafted and it definitely offers a story that’ll be appealing to a large player base.
Fun factor: If you’re the type of person that enjoys a good story and loves navigating through different moral and ethical dilemmas, you’ll enjoy this game. However, if you’re looking for something more gameplay-focused, then this might not be the game for you.
- Intuitive controls
- User-friendly
- Immersive soundtrack
- Mesmerizing visuals
- Great story
- Not very gameplay-centric
- Confined free access
Best Narrative-Driven VR Demo
The best narrative-driven VR demo is The Last Taxi thanks to its stellar soundtrack, engaging plot and unique premise.
Buyers’ Guide
In this section, we will discuss what factors you must assess before you decide what VR demos to check out.
It’s important to note that you don’t need to worry about pricing or a budget when it comes to VR demos. This is because demos are, of course, demonstrations. Hence, they are always free.
The purpose of a demo is to have you check out a portion of a game or a VR experience to see if you like it or not. If it’s something that you enjoy, then you can consider purchasing the actual full game or VR experience.
While price is not a factor when it comes to VR demos, there are some other factors you must assess when you play the demo.
Please note that these are factors you must think about and take into account as you’re playing the demo. This will help you determine whether or not you want to spend money and buy the full experience or not.
The factors you must assess include:
User-Friendliness
The most important thing you must assess as you’re playing a demo is how user-friendly the game is or isn’t.
- Are the controls clunky?
- Does the game feel like it’s not well-optimized with framerate issues or clunky movement?
- Are the UIs confusing or annoying to navigate through?
These are all questions you must ask yourself and observations that you should make. This will help you determine whether or not a certain VR game is actually worth buying for its full price or not.
It’s also important to note that some demos may have optimization issues that could be fixed in the actual game. Developers typically make announcements about such fixes, so you can keep an eye out for those as well.
If you experience optimization issues in the demo, but the developers announce that they’re aware of the issue and will fix it for the full game, that’s something to keep in mind.
However, if the core gameplay feels clunky or unsatisfying to play, then that can be a nail in the coffin.
Nausea and Motion Sickness
This is another big factor to consider when you check out any demo for a VR game. Nausea and motion sickness is highly subjective when it comes to VR games. Some people feel no nausea at all, while for others, certain games can be unplayable.
This can often be for the same game even.
For example, there are tons of people in our team that have tons of fun playing Echo VR with each other.
However, many people in our team never play Echo VR because it makes them unbearably nauseous.
Hence, this factor is something that you can’t really figure out for yourself just by looking through online reviews. That’s because your experience might be entirely different despite what the reviewers say.
That’s why VR demos are such a great thing to check out before you actually spend money to buy a VR game.
They perfectly replicate the experience and allow you to gauge whether or not a game will be enjoyable to you or not.
Obviously, if a demo makes you feel incredibly nauseous, you know that you shouldn’t waste your money on it since you won’t be able to play it in an enjoyable manner.
Genre
Another highly subjective factor that you must keep in mind is the genre of the game. Naturally, everyone has their own tastes, and not all people will enjoy the same type of games as everyone else around them.
Hence, it can be a very good idea to check out a demo for a VR game that you may be interested in but are still on the fence about.
Naturally, the world of video games is vast and there are a ton of different genres to explore and get into. Not only that, but you also have many games that blend many different types of genres together as well.
Due to all this, it can be fairly tricky to gauge what a game’s genre is and whether or not it’ll be something that’s your cup of tea or not.
Again, this is where the VR demo is the perfect tool to help you decide. When you play the VR demo, you can easily understand whether or not the game will offer an experience that you’ll enjoy or not.
Fun Factor
Lastly, of course, it’s the reason why we all play VR games or just video games in general: To have fun.
Of course, if a game isn’t fun and only has repetitive, monotonous gameplay to offer, it won’t be worth buying.
Developers do their best to pack the most exciting elements of their VR games into their VR demos.
Hence, if a VR demo does not seem fun to you, then there’s a high chance that the full game won’t be that fun either.
On the other hand, if a demo provides you with a ton of variety with in-depth, dynamic gameplay, a cinematic story, etc., then you can consider buying the full game.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a Demo?
A demo is short for demonstration. Game demos have been around for a long time and they are always available for free.
A demo usually showcases a small part of the game to the target audience. You can play the demo to get an idea of what a game has to offer. You can then make a much more informed decision regarding if you want to buy the game or not.
We always recommend that you check out a game’s demo before you actually buy it.
How Long Should I Play VR?
We recommend that you take a 15-minute break after every half hour. If you think you can handle more, you can push that to 1 hour. However, you should never go beyond that.
It’s very important to take regular breaks in between VR sessions. This will ensure that you don’t develop issues such as nausea and eye strain.
How Do I Prevent Motion Sickness in VR?
There are a number of ways you can avoid motion sickness in VR.
First of all, we recommend that you check your hardware as well as in-game settings. Ensure that the lens distance, interpupillary distance, etc. are all best suited to your face shape.
Next, ensure that the in-game settings are best suited for you as well. This includes settings such as field of view, frame rate, latency, and more.
What are the Features That Make a VR Game Responsive?
There are two main features that need to be well-optimized in order for a VR game to be responsive: Frame rate and latency.
Frame rate refers to how many frames per second the game is running at. Latency refers to how long it takes for an input to register on the screen.
Naturally, both of these need to be at an acceptable level for the game to be properly responsive and offer an enjoyable experience.
What Causes Motion Sickness in VR?
There are many reasons why one could become motion sick while in VR.
The most common reason is that your settings are not properly adjusted. Make sure to check all hardware and in-game settings to ensure they best suit your needs.
Secondly, a game may simply not be well-optimized enough and just the nature of the game may cause motion sickness. For example, if a game is about launching into space, that experience by itself could cause you to become nauseous.
Final Verdict
That concludes our post on the best VR demos currently available online.
In our opinion, Green Hell VR takes the cake for the best VR demo since it does a great job of showcasing everything that the game has to offer. It also does this in a way where it does not spoil the entire game experience for you.
We highly recommend that you check out VR demos for games before you actually decide to buy them. Since they are completely free, you don’t really lose anything. They can help you make a much better and much more informed decision regarding the VR games that you buy.
Do let us know what you think in the comments below.