Summary
One of the best things about VR gaming is the ability to get into a game with friends and hang out with their physical avatars. There’s a lot of potential for social interactions and multiplayer gaming of all kinds in VR. Developers have only scratched the surface of the kind of connected experiences VR and XR could provide, and yet fans already have some excellent examples of VR multiplayer games.
Whether players are looking for competitive PvP shooters, co-op dungeon crawlers, orsocial deduction games, VR has some great options. For those looking for a pure co-op experience where they can work together with their friends, this topic will highlight the VR games that offer content, quality, and most importantly, fun, for two or more players.
1Dungeons Of Eternity
Raiding Party
For players with some good co-op friends, grinding throughDungeons of Eternityfor ever-improving loot can be a lot of fun. The co-op dungeon crawler mixes a little sci-fi with its fantasy aesthetic, and tasks players with delving into dungeons from a relaxing home hub to get ever more loot and passive perk points.
While it starts well, the game lacks a little variety once players have experienced the varying types of dungeon crawl, and the replayability comes from the enticing loot grind. It won’t satisfy the grind for hundreds of hours, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had fora party of 2-4 co-op friends.
2Legendary Tales
Co-Op Loot Crawl
The VR action RPGLegendary Talesis one of the few VR titles that offers the depth of character customization, through skill trees and random loot, that players would expect from the genre. The game has aphysics-based combatsystem that feels highly reactive, and players can spec their character to take full advantage of the physical parrying and melee, or opt for ranged weapons, gesture-based magic, or any combination of those.
This makesLegendary Talesan engaging ARPG to play solo, but it’s even better with friends. The game supports up to 4 players with drop-in co-op that lets players go through the full campaign together, and it’s definitely advisable to bring friends for some of the game’s more challenging bosses.
TheArizona Sunshineseries is one of VR’s most popular franchises, offering satisfying first-person zombie shooting with an uncommon level of polish.Arizona Sunshine 2tells an original story, without much reference to its predecessor, but it picks up whereArizona Sunshineleft off in terms of gameplay. There’s a greater variety ofweapons that all feel good to use, and more challenge with larger and more impressive zombie hordes to slay.
As with the original, the full single-player campaign is playable with a friend, and there’s a wave-based horde mode to dive into as well. Facing down a horde standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a friend is an unmissable VR experience. For co-op players who enjoy this, the remake of the original is well worth playing with a friend, too.
After The Fallis a co-op horde shooter from the developers behind theArizona Sunshinegames. It takes influence from flat-screen games likeLeft 4 Deadto create an immersive horde shooter for up to 4 players. The game takes place in a frozen-over LA, with a layer of permafrost covering the environment and a chilly, zombie-like foe known as the Snowbreed overrunning the place.
WhileAfter The Fallwas originally released in 2021, it’s one of a handful of longer-running multiplayer VR games where players can jump in and find random players to join without much trouble. Playing with friends is the best way to experienceAfter The Fall,though. It may have been a while since its last major update, but mowing down hordes while hunting for upgrade discs is still as fun as ever.
5Into Black
Surviving Together
Into Blackcomes from veteran VR developer The Binary Mill, creators ofResistandGun Club, among other highly regarded VR titles. At its core,Into Blackis a sci-fi survival-crafting game, but the variety of gameplay on offer goes beyond that description, expanding its 1-to-4-player campaign into a full-blown sci-fi adventure. Players can work together to gather resources, upgrade equipment, and fight off alien threats in a variety of biomes that each have their own mechanical quirks and lightpuzzle elements.
Despite some technical hitches that hamper the latter part of the experience, the campaign is a highlight for co-op VR, and the game also offers modes outside the campaign for players that want more, like resource-gathering missions and even a PvPvE mode.
Phasmophobiahas gone from strength to strength since its original early access release, across both flat-screen and VR. It’s now more fun than ever to get into a lobby with three other friends to hunt some ghosts. While it’s a great game on the flat-screen,VR brings another level of immersion toPhasmophobia, whether that’s actually talking into the spirit box or waving a crucifix desperately in a spirit’s face.
The added layer of immersion allows the spookier moments in the game to shine, even with the tension-cutting presence of friends. Perhaps the best thing aboutPhasmophobiais that whether players want to play co-op or alone, flat-screen or VR, they can do so all in one seamlessly integrated version of the game, including cross-playing with flat-screen and VR players together.
Hellsweeper VR’s intense combination of melee, guns, and magic in its combo-focused combat ballet is impressive enough solo, but it only gets wilder with two players combining their abilities. The game takes freedom of movement further than most VR games, with wall-running, air-jumping, and slow-motion backflips all possible. It combines this with a combat system that lets players pull offDevil May Cry-esque combos like launching an enemy with a sword and air-juggling them with dual-SMGs.
With two (or three) players, the carnage that can be created in the game’s myriad combat arenas is a visual feast, and post-launch updates have upped the fidelity on bothQuest 3andPSVR 2, as well as adding new weapons and progression systems to play with. There are hours of co-op fun to be had inHellsweeper.
No Man’s Skyis one of the most expansive co-op games available in VR. For players who love exploration, survival, base-building, and sci-fi worlds and creatures, there are potentially hundreds of hours of playtime across an open universe.No Man’s Skytakes an interesting approach to its co-op system. Players can join a lobby together, see avatars, and interact while experiencing parallel progression (i.e., separate saves and quest progress), allowing up to 16 players (or 32 on PC) to join in this way.
There’s also a more direct form of co-op that players can join from the summonable Space Anomaly multiplayer hub. From there, players can start instanced missions where other players can join, progress quests together, and share progress and rewards. This approach allows for both direct co-op and more laid-back social co-op, where players are free to pursue their own objectives, which is a relatively unique multiplayer experience.
