December is known by many as “The Holiday Season”, as it’s when Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa take place. These three holidays are renowned for their religious significance, and- especially Christmas and Hanukkah- for their gift-giving aspect.
If you have a friend or family member who loves virtual reality, here’s five VR games that I’d recommend as gifts.
First up: Sairento VR.
This game was made by Singapore-based developer studio Mixed Realms. It’s best described as a cyber ninja role-playing game where the player fights enemies based on traditional Japanese roles in war, such as Bushi and Ashigaru. These enemies have a sci-fi twist to their appearance and weaponry, and so does the player.
Next on the list: VAIL.
VAIL is a multiplayer shooter developed by AEXLAB. The game offers a nice variety of game modes, weapons, gun sights, and maps designed in a cool minimalist style. Because of the variety, VAIL suits a variety of ages, playstyles, social skills, etc. However, keep in mind that the base game is free, but it only comes with the social hub. To get the full experience of game modes, VAIL Combat is available for a price of $29.99 on the Meta Store.
Third up: Elven Assassin.
Made by a Polish group known as Wenkly Studio, this is arguably one of the best tower defense-style games in VR. It’s based in a fantasy world where the player is armed with a bow, infinite arrows, and spells of their choosing. The player is tasked with defending an objective, like a castle, from an infinite army of orcs and the occasional troll and dragon. The player can teleport to different towers built on the battlefield to see different vantage points, and single-player and multiplayer is available.
Fourth is Job Simulator. Despite being made by Owlchemy Labs, which has a human staff, the game is essentially AI’s recreation of what it’s like to work at a job. The player can choose between four jobs: Office Worker, Auto Body Shop Mechanic, Convenience Store Clerk, and Gourmet Chef. Once they’ve chosen a job to work at, they’re given different tasks that simulate what working at a (highly simplified) real-life job would be like. It’s great for all ages due to its simplicity in gameplay, easy-to-understand instructions, and its basic yet comedic sense of humor.
Lastly, Synth Riders.
Synth Riders is a rhythm game developed by Kluge Interactive that offers an immense selection of music albums, singleplayer and multiplayer, and a light workout. Playing the game is relatively straightforward. A simple way to describe it is kind of like reading and playing sheet music- if the notes were primarily neon pink and blue and sometimes neon green and yellow, and the player had to “catch” the notes as they moved toward them instead of playing them. After playing Synth Riders for roughly thirty minutes, you may start to feel a soreness in your arms from how much you’ve been waving them around.
Even though these five games differ from each other in gameplay, purpose, and coding, they’re equally entertaining nonetheless. I would even argue that they’re essential for every person’s library of VR games. With that being said, I hope this list has helped you find a good gift this December. Happy holidays!
