Earlier this month we highlighted five huge gaming franchises with VR support you’d forgotten about.
Well, rather embarrassingly, we forgot about a fair few, too.
So we’re back with another round of forgotten VR tie-ins. Remember, we’re not talking mods or well-known ports here; this is strictly a list of franchises we’re dreaming of getting VR support… when they actually already have. We just forgot all about them because, well, they’re often very forgettable.
Rise of The Tomb Raider/Tomb Raider VR: Lara’s Escape
Yes, Lara Croft already made her headset debut but it wasn’t quite what we expected. The optional VR mode for Rise of the Tomb Raider, launched in PSVR’s release window, traded bangs and booms for a slow-paced exploration of the iconic Croft mansion. It might not have been exactly what fans wanted, but it was pretty fascinating to explore Lara’s life in this way.
Then there’s the slightly more bombastic free app to promote that movie everyone also forgot about. A free download on Gear VR, it was a much more explosive affair, though still not the full Tomb Raider VR experience we hope to see one day.
Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy has a bit of a weird history with VR. Ahead of PSVR’s reveal, Square Enix demoed a strange first-person shooter that tied into the world of Final Fantasy XV. The company showed it to press at E3 one year, but people thought it was universally underwhelming. Fast forward a few years and the company released a Final Fantasy XV… fishing game.
But! Monster of the Deep was actually a pretty good time, with amazing visuals and a play to the fantastic art design of FFXV’s many monsters. Again, though, it’s just not really Final Fantasy, is it? Here’s hoping Square brings the scale and excitement of one of its usual-sized adventures to VR soon.
Assassin’s Creed VR
Another weird history here. The only Assassin’s Creed VR experience you can try at home is one that ties into not classic games like II and Black Flag but… the movie. Yes, that pretty pants Michael Fassbender one from a few years ago. It mixed 360 and 3D elements and has you watching a Fassassin (not a typo and I wish I’d thought of that earlier) do some fighty stuff. Not super exciting.
But! There are better Assassin’s Creed VR experiences, they’re just for arcades and still not super Creed-y. Ubisoft’s made a handful of great multiplayer escape rooms using the IP, though they steer away from direct naming just so you don’t expect to stab anyone in the head.
Prey
Prey’s VR support is quite funny, because it was practically forgotten before it even came out. Promised by Bethesda and then hardly mentioned again, the first part of this support popped up almost at random. It didn’t bring the original sci-fi epic to VR but instead took a series of environments from the main game and morphed then into VR escape rooms. They actually weren’t bad, either.
Then, later on, the game’s curious multiplayer mode, Typhoon Hunter, got VR support too. It was a nice addition but arrived far too late for a game a lot of people had already played. Prey II needs full VR support, please.
Kingdom Hearts III VR Experience
This is probably the most recent entry on the list but, honestly, we’ll forgive you if you’ve already forgotten or are instead trying to forget about the eloquently-named Kingdom Hearts III VR Experience. Actually, by the series’ standards, that’s one of the better names. The game brought a handful of scenes from the series into VR for the first time, including our first full VR meetings with Goofy and Donald Duck.
But there just wasn’t much to it other than sitting through those scenes. Some ended with strange light shows recapping other events in the series thus far. Thinking about a true Kingdom Hearts VR game with a range of Disney characters really makes our mouths drool, so hopefully that happens soon.
