The First 30 Oculus Rift Launch Titles

The Oculus Rift is nearly here, and countless gaming enthusiasts around the world are excited for its release. To build up to the launch, we put together this look at the first 30 games that will be available on the Rift.

Oculus rates each game with a comfort level related to the amount of movement within a game. "Comfortable" equates to little or no movement within the game. "Moderate" includes some gentle camera movements. "Intense" is anything more complex, like running and jumping in first person shooters. We have included this information on each game page.

Adr1ft takes place on a space station orbiting Earth. The game begins with some sort of catastrophe occurring on the space station, which causes several sections to be torn apart. You play as an astronaut aboard the space station, and you must try to stay alive and determine what caused the destruction.

I had the chance to try a demo version of the game at CES 2016, and found the graphics quality to be excellent. The controls were a bit sluggish, but this was deliberately done by the game designers to emulate the feeling of moving around in an gravity-free environment. The graphics mixed with the pleasant soft music lead me to describe it as "The most peaceful way to die in space."

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Adventure Time: Magic Man's Head Games starts off with Magic Man transforming you into a balloon. You would be in deep trouble, but Finn and Jake come along and make it their mission to find a way to transform you back. You work with the two courageous heroes of the story in your search for Magic Man. Along the way you fight enemies and rescue friends to progress the story.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

In AirMech: Command, you take sides in the ongoing war, fighting inside of your customized AirMech. The AirMechs can transform into a number of different machines to help gain an advantage against the enemy. The game supports several different game play modes, including coop missions and PvP battles.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Albino Lullaby is an adventure horror game. Instead of simply using jump scares and gore, the game attempts to use stimuli that are psychologically terrifying mixed with a continuously evolving environment to terrify players. The game will be released in three installments. The first one was released on Sept 15, 2015 and it will be updated to support the Rift upon the release of the devices. The next two installments of the game are scheduled to be released later this year and will also feature support for the Rift.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Audio Arena is a unique game using the head-tilt controls built into the Rift to move around and dodge enemies. The game plays music, and enemies are spawned to the beat of the song playing. There are special power ups to destroy the enemies, but the ultimate objective is to merely survive until the end and make it to the next level.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable.

The developers of BlazeRush define it as a survival racing game. Similar to many racing games, you pick a vehicle and have a variety of weapons to use against your competitors. Unlike most racing games, however, there are no shields, no health, no level ups and your car has no brakes. This makes it all the easier for you and your friends to blow each other out of the race, or for you to crash into a volcano and die. The game was released in 2014 on the PS3 and for PC, but it will receive an update to support the Rift.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

In Chronos, you take the role of a hero on a quest to save his home from a great evil. The game takes place inside of an ancient labyrinth, and you must solve a variety of puzzles and fight enemies in order to determine the origins of the great evil plaguing your home and destroy it.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Darknet puts you inside of the machine, as you work to hack through virtual computer systems. The systems you hack earn you in-game cash you can use to purchase equipment upgrades to improve your hacking abilities. The game play is best described as a strategic puzzle. The puzzles are randomly generated based on your position in the game, making the game highly replayable.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Dead Secret is a VR mystery thriller game. You find yourself outside of a home in the middle of nowhere. You decide to enter the house and look for other people, only to find you have stumbled onto the scene of a recent murder. You are then forced to investigate the dead man's past while trying to figure out what happened before you are also murdered.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Hidden Path Entertainment created a new "Enhanced VR" edition of its Defense Grid 2 tower-defense game. The game features optimized controls to take advantage of the Rift's various motion detectors and give users a more immersive interface. It also features some new exclusive content not in the original Defense Grid 2 game including a story expansion with five new levels and a new storyline following the character General Fletcher.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

White Door Games created Dreadhalls as a horror dungeon crawler. The game attempts to take advantage of the immersive VR experience to create a more frightening experience for gamers. The game also incorporates puzzles and a dark story line to keep users off balance as they slowly move from the deep dark tunnels.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Elite Dangerous starts you off with a small starship, one of many in an immense galaxy. The goal of the game is simple, to increase your standing in the universe by acquiring new skills, wealth and more powerful ships. The game is not exclusively available for VR, but it was a goal of the design team throughout development to add support for virtual reality and to make the game as immersive as possible. Using the Rift while playing the game not only gives you new in game controls but also lets you experience the world the way the developers wanted you to.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Esper 2 is a sequel to Esper, which was a launch title on the Samsung Gear VR and will also be released on the Oculus Rift. You play as an agent of ESPR and travel the world to find people with telekinetic powers. You also possess powerful telekinetic abilities, which you use to solve a wide number of puzzles and progress through the game.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

The new EVE: Valkyrie Founder's Pack enables you to be one of the first players to experience the EVE: Valkyrie game world. In addition to early access to the game, the Founder's Pack includes an exclusive Squadron 33 Wraith Fighter and a war chest containing 2,500 gold. The game is available for free to anyone that pre-ordered the Oculus Rift.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

EVE: Valkyrie isn't the only VR title Crowd Control Productions (CCP) has been working on. The company will also release EVE: Gunjack, an immersive arcade shooter based on the EVE world and exclusively available on VR devices. Your goal in the game is to battle against endless waves of enemies in defense of a mining platform.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

MORE: The History Of Virtual Reality

MORE: Virtual Reality Basics

MORE: Virtual Reality in the News

MORE: All Virtual Reality Content 

Fly To Kuma is a puzzle game with over 100 stages. Your goal is to help a group of bears safely navigate through each level by using various objects. Sometimes it will be as simple as getting over a gap, while in other levels you will need to block the bears' path to prevent them from wondering into dangerous traps.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

In this action adventure you take control of a goblin to solve puzzles and fight swarms of enemies. You will travel through four main areas each with a different elemental theme and with monsters that take advantage of that elemental power to defeat you. Herobound Spirit Champion is available on Gear VR and will be released for the Oculus Rift.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is a game designed for multiple people to play together. One player is locked in a room with a ticking time bomb, and if they don't stop it, the building blows up and everyone dies. Lucky this player, his friends (the other players) are bomb experts, that work to decipher information about the bomb and teach the first player how to disarm it. The game supports VR, but it will work on a PC with a traditional display as well.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Lucky's Tale is a third person platformer adventure game that takes place in a bright, colorful world. The game is similar to classic entries to the genre, such as Banjo Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot. You'll fight off creatures and solve puzzles in this VR adventure game designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift. The game will come bundled with every Rift sold, so in a way, Lucky is to Oculus what Crash was to Sony in the early days.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

Do you have what it takes to be the Omega Agent? Strap into a jet pack and fly around the Omega Islands to solve puzzles and complete missions. The game has a total of 40 missions to complete and the islands are full of secrets for you to explore as the island trains you to be the world's ultimate spy.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Pinball FX2 VR is the first game to let you live the dream of playing pinball in VR. The game creates a room containing an arcade style pinball machine. You walk up to the machine and start playing pinball. The game attempts to recreate the real life sounds and feeling of playing one of these arcade classics.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Project Cars puts you behind the wheel of any one of a number of famous cars. You then sign up with a sponsor and begin your career racing around the world to earn fame and fortune. The game has become a favorite in the world of esports for its realistic and immersive game play.

• Game Play: First-Person Or Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Radial G is another racing game, and unlike Project Cars, it doesn't aim to be down to Earth at all. Although the game still tries to be realistic, it is set in the distant future, and instead of racing a car you fly a ship. You can build and customize your ship with a wide selection of weapons, shields, perks and other gear to create the best possible racer.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Rooms is a unique twist between a 3D platformer and a puzzle game. You play as a girl, Anne, that is trapped inside, and must find the way out. Along the way there are a total of 144 puzzles, 96 of which are part of the main storlyline, while the other 48 are devoted to gaining new special abilities and gear to make getting through puzzles more interesting.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

You find yourself stranded on a desert island. Your ship is destroyed and you have no way to get home. There is nothing you can see nearby, with the exception of one building. Upon entering you find out it is an interstellar casino. Now that you are here, your only hope of returning home is to win big and obtain the parts you need to fix your ship and get off this strange planet.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Comfortable

Smashing The Battle takes place at a futuristic construction site. The building was being constructed by robots, which subsequently fell pray to a hacker who ordered the robots to attack all of the human workers on site. The game is layered out in multiple episodes with two playable characters, The Survivor and The Chaser. Each character has a unique story for each episode as they fight the robots and try to resolve the situation.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

After detective Paul Prospero received an unsettling letter from Ethan Carter, he realized that the boy was in grave danger and set out to find him. By the time Prospero arrives, Ethan Carter has vanished following a murder, and Prospero must search through Carter's home town of Red Creek Valley to discover what happened to the boy and the surrounding murders.

The game contains puzzle elements, but focuses mostly on the game story to keep players' attention. The primary focus during development was on the game characters, the story's mood and on the game atmosphere to make an immersive experience.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

Vektron Revenge is a classic arcade shooter re-envisioned in VR. The game has no level or time limits. The simple goal of the game is to shoot down enemies and dodge 3D obstacles in a 360 degree environment, survive as long as possible, and get the best score.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

VR Tennis Online is exactly what it sounds like—an online VR tennis game that lets you compete with your friends and other players around the world. The game does add a few extras, including special moves you can learn, and offers a wide selection of characters for you to choose from. However, it is mostly an immersive tennis game taking advantage of VR to create a more realistic experience.

• Game Play: Third-Person
• Comfort Level: Moderate

Windlands sets you free on a series of islands high in the sky. You use a grappling hook to cling to passing objects and swing yourself through as you explore and navigate around the world. The challenge is to figure out how to navigate the world in order to reach the highest points and special locations without falling.

• Game Play: First-Person
• Comfort Level: Intense

MORE: The History Of Virtual Reality
MORE: Virtual Reality Basics
MORE: Virtual Reality in the News
MORE: All Virtual Reality Content