We've explored many places across virtual reality and mixed reality software in 2024, and picked some of our favorites.
We're rolling out our picks for the best of 2024 in three separate articles on consecutive days. Today's article focuses on the best new title for three platforms in 2024, PCVR, Quest and Apple Vision Pro. We'd love to hear some of your favorites in the comments as well, so please share.
On Thursday, we'll share our favorite mixed reality and hand tracking software, including some early access awards and titles we hope to see expanding considerably in the years to come.
On Friday, we'll close out this lineup with our biggest awards of the year covering the Best VR Game Of The Year on any platform, Best VR Hardware, Best Developer, and Best Updated VR Game. We'll also include our game of the year pick for PSVR 2 on Friday, rather than in today's article, as we use every last hour available to assess how Alien: Rogue Incursion stacks up against the rest of the year.
Now, to kick off our first best of 2024 awards.
Favorite Exploratory Experience
We've seen across 2024 how VR headsets can enhance narrative experiences. Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom adapted the popular series into an interactive movie, Gargoyle Doyle mixed MR museums with VR comedy, while Emperor, Body of Mine and Impulse: Playing With Reality proved the emotional impact these stories can deliver.
Our award goes to Astra, an emotional adventure that lets you explore the stars from your living room. Between visiting moons in fully immersive environments by beaming onto them like a transporter, exploring what you find in your mixed reality spaceship, this tale ultimately resonated with us.
Don Hopper
Favorite New Apple Vision Pro Game
As the debut year for Apple Vision Pro, we've mostly seen existing experiences ported onto the headset with a few original titles among them. We enjoyed playing Game Room, Puzzle Sculpt from Schell Games, Marvel’s What If…?, and Soul Spire, while other big names like Synth Riders, Demeo and Job Simulator also appeared.
That said, our inaugural winner for this category is Thrasher. Puddle's game saw release on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest in 2024, with Steam planned in 2025, and pinching its slithering creature around your room is definitely vibe-inducing. It's great fun to jump in for a few minutes.
Sarah Thwaites
Favorite New Quest Game
To say this has been a busy year for Quest games would be an understatement. Between UNDERDOGS, Ghosts of Tabor, DIG VR, Max Mustard, thoughtful adventures like Umurangi Generation VR, action-packed titles like Action Hero and Vendetta Forever, or smaller indies like Hide The Corpse, By Grit Alone and Starwave, we've been spoiled for choice.
That's before mentioning big hitters like Metro Awakening and Skydance's Behemoth, too. We've also witnessed creative new concepts emerge like Maestro and I Am Cat, which have delivered delightful new ways to expand playful roleplay with both hand tracking and controller tracking.
With that said, nothing ultimately beats Batman: Arkham Shadow for us. Camouflaj has built upon its work in 2020's Iron Man VR to deliver a truly compelling action-adventure, taking the best parts of Rocksteady's flatscreen Arkham series and expertly adapting the series for VR. It's a brilliant game that feels right at home alongside the main series.
Henry Stockdale
Favorite New PC VR Game
It's been a better year for PC VR gaming. While mods are ineligible for awards, we'd be remiss not to recognize the impact of Praydog's Universal UEVR Mod. Blade & Sorcery entered full release, we've seen multiplatform releases like Metro Awakening, The House of Da Vinci VR, Subside, Skydance's Behemoth and Trombone Champ: Unflattened, plus exclusives like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Ultimately, our award goes to UNDERDOGS, One Hamsa's VR mech brawler roguelike. It debuted early in January, when our writer called it “a new benchmark” for the genre, and Steam's “overwhelmingly positive” reviews seem to concur with the assessment. The weighty feel of these mechs is not to be missed, and whatever One Hamsa does next with this franchise is something we cannot wait to see.
Pete Austin
