u/MrDarcky

The showcase was decent. I Am Your Beast VR and Lanesplit caught my attention the most. Breachers: Outbreak, Exoshock, and Outlanders VR looked promising too.

But through roughly half the trailers, I kept thinking the same thing:

Why is this in VR?

Familiar genres are fine. They just need to gain something from the medium.

A VR game doesn’t need a mechanic that would be impossible on a flat screen. VR makes almost anything more immersive. I just don’t think immersion is enough on its own. The headset should change the experience in a way that actually makes me want to put it on.

I kept asking “why VR?” during trailers for things like:

• Sudoku in a headset
• Regular puzzle games
• A card battler
• Yet another puzzle-adventure built around pressing buttons, pulling levers, and finding objects
• A horror game where VR means opening doors with your hands

Most of that is easy to imagine on a monitor or even a phone. So why put on a headset?

Puzzling Places has a clear answer. You’re building a 3D model in the space around you. You can pick it up, bring it closer, turn it around, and inspect it from any angle.

Card games can work great in VR too. But the cards should feel like actual objects. You should want to pick them up, turn them over, look at them, and hear how they sound in your hands. I didn’t get that from the Primal Rumble trailer.

Puzzle-adventures and horror games often run into the same problem. Pressing a button with your hand instead of a controller is nice. It doesn’t really change the game.

Racing games and flight sims already have a reason to be in VR: speed, scale, and the feeling of sitting inside the cockpit. Even better when you can physically turn the wheel with your own hands.

Action games also gain a lot when your body and the space around you actually matter: movement, height, flight, weapon handling, distance, and positioning.

Too often, it felt like the developers chose a familiar genre and simply replaced button presses with hand gestures.

I think “why VR?” should be one of the first questions asked during development.

If you don’t have an answer, why build the game for VR? It may work better on another platform, with a much larger potential audience.

Which familiar genres does VR genuinely transform, and which are just as good on a flat screen?

And what are the best and worst VR takes on familiar genres you’ve seen?