Summary
While VR gaming has had a bumpy ride, delivering some of the greatest gaming experiences around, but also struggling to truly take off, one of its biggest obstacles is the terrible motion sickness some players get when they strap on the headset.
Luckily, there are quite a few brilliant games out there designed to minimize motion sickness with a variety of solutions. Whether it’s just about standing on the spot, a great teleportation feature, or clever workarounds, there is a whole host of brilliant VR games out there to play even if motion sickness is a problem.
Some VR games get so popular and nail a vibe so well that they become essential purchases. Rhythm games showed early dominance in the VR world, andPistol Whipreinvents the rhythm game as an immersive action movie where the player needs to shoot targets to the beat of a track like they’re John Wick in the club making it one ofthe best action rhythm games ever made.
This is also a great test for motion sickness. In terms of movement, it’s pretty light, with the world moving around the player rather than the player moving themselves. Even for people who get motion sickness, it’s comfortable, but it’s a good bellwether game to see just how bad the motion sickness gets.
7I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy And The Liar
Think On Your Feet Mr. Bond
One of the unexpected but glorious side effects of VR gaming was the discovery of just how funny it could be, and one of the best franchises that’s friendly towards gamers who get motion sick. Gamers play as a secret agent trapped in a variety of absurd puzzle rooms, where they need to escape before getting unceremoniously killed in a variety of bizarre over-the-top ways.
In terms of motion sickness, the player doesn’t need to move much at all. The game essentially takes the form of escape rooms that can be done stationary, making it perfect for gamers who get a little motion sick but still want to get immersed in the worlds of VR.
When the originalSuperhot wasreleased, it was a sudden indie smash hit for its intuitive “time only moves when you do” mechanic that leads to a host of one-part puzzle one-part action scenarios where the player must fight off a horde of shimmering red bad guys in incredibly fun ways.
Because time only moves when the player does,Superhot VR, the VR adaptation of the game, actually has a self-limiter built into the mechanics. There’s no need to go fast if the player gets motion sick, and they can take it as slowly as they like and can evenplay with friends at the same time. It’s an intuitive and natural solution, making this incredibly fun game accessible for everyone.
One common and fair criticism of many VR games is that they’re more “experiences” than actual “games” in the traditional sense.Mossfeels like it is tailor-made to counter that criticism, merging all the fun of a good old-fashioned adventure game into the VR setting.
In the game, players have a top-down perspective on an environment where they’re tasked with guiding an adorable mouse through the environment in a series of puzzle, combat, and adventure scenarios. It’s a great game, suitable for the whole family, and has a delightful toybox feel in VR that provokes very little motion sickness.
As one of the best games of the classic era, it’s hard to believe that Tetris’s enduring appeal would have lasted this long, yet,Tetris Effectreigns supreme not only asone of the best iterations of the core Tetris formulabut also surprisingly one of the best VR games on the market.
In VR, the kaleidoscopic and beautiful light shows that embody the vibrantTetris Effectbecome ever more visceral, while the same old Tetris goodness remains intact. It’s no challenge for gamers with motion sickness, and it’s a great introductory game to the sensory pleasures of VR for gamers of all stripes.
Before the brilliantResident Evil 4 (2023)came out, the more subtle but genuinely revolutionaryResident Evil 4 VRarrived in 2021, entirely re-inventing a classic of the PS2 era for the modern day in stunning fidelity. For a game that most fans have played countless times, VR reinvents it all, making what’s now pedestrian scary once again.
Luckily,Resident Evil VRalso offers a hefty suite of control options to try and combat motion sickness. It offers the popular teleporting method where the character doesn’t walk, or it has a phase system, where pushing forward turns the screen black for a moment, before fading back up. Both are useful in reducing motion sickness and bringing this genuinely brilliant game to a wider audience.
One of the only problems withHalf-Life: Alyxis that it has set such a high bar for VR gaming that it’s hard to imagine how it will ever be topped any time soon. As a somewhat prequel/side-sequel toHalf-Life 2, fans were always going to eat it up, but Valve brought their trademark gameplay expertise to the world of VR and made something astoundingly good that holds up to the Half-Life legacy.
Luckily, Valve were no slouches on control options either to keep the game as open as possible for as many players as possible. The game’s teleporting system takes a little getting used to but becomes completely unobtrusive after a while and feels second nature. It’s a great solution to a great game that motion-sick gamers can play with no fear, made even betterwith a hefty suite of fan-made mods.
ThoughBeat Sabermay not be the best VR game ever made, or even the most innovative, in terms of sheer fun that can be played by any gamer, no matter their susceptibility to motion sickness, then it doesn’t get any safer or better thanBeat Saber.
Simply put, the player stands on a platform and must wave two light batons to hit cubes in specific directions in time with a musical track. It’s a clear riff on the Guitar Hero franchise, but its incredible fan community, addictive gameplay mechanics, and friendliness to gamers with weaker VR stomachs make it the best game for VR gamers with motion sickness, hands down.
