If you own a PSVR with an aim controller, it goes without saying that you’re interested in the games out there that would work best with it. After all, for a first person shooter, the aim controller does represent the ultimate in VR immersion. So here’s an excellent selection of the best PSVR aim controller games on the market today.
We must start, of course, with…
Far Point
Far Point by Impulse Gear, is, to many people, the defining game for the PSVR aim controller, as SONY actually timed the release of the aim controller to synchronize with that of the game. Anyone who’s played Far Point with the aim controller will tell you that it is just about the only way to truly enjoy the game.
The controller itself feels lightweight and ergonomic, but comfortable; and while that’s an important consideration, it pales before the level of immersion – and the feeling of being in the game – that the aim controller brings to Far Point.
Explore an unknown world!
The opening sequence of Far Point is nothing short of breathtaking. You’re a space shuttle pilot, en route to recovering scientists who are studying a wormhole near Jupiter. Suddenly, there is a blinding flash of light, and you’re transported to a new extraterrestrial world. Separated from your scientific colleagues in the beginning, you must venture out onto this new world to find them, and to eventually escape from the planet.
As you travel over the surface of the world, you will discover holographic records that will give you clues to the scientists’ location. The story-line is brilliantly presented, and portrayed in exquisite virtual reality environments.
The aim controller gives you superb control
While it’s of course possible to play Far Point with a standard PlayStation controller, the PSVR aim controller gives you an experience that is light-years beyond that.
When you hold it in your hands, you really feel as if you’re holding a weapon, and the action of aiming and shooting becomes completely intuitive.
Used in concert with the Play Station’s camera, the controller follows your movements in 3D space with perfect precision. Move your hand to the left or right, and you will see your character positioning his rifle perfectly.
Some of the standard tactics used in first person shooters, such as angle shooting or blind shooting, are all entirely intuitive with the aim controller, with no additional buttons required.
The PSVR aim controller – the most intuitive FPS controller available today
The design of the aim controller alone would be a reason to buy the PSVR. Besides the excellent fit and the perfect tracking, the PSVR aim controller is also extremely light. SONY has done a phenomenal job of distributing its weight correctly.
Besides this, the aim controller has all the buttons that you would normally find on a conventional PlayStation controller, in addition to some extra features, such as a touchpad.
It also includes two analogue sticks, a directional cross button, the L1, L2, R1 and R2 buttons. On the aim controller, the R2 button is the trigger. There are other buttons that will allow you to select options and sharing. Vibration motors are integrated into the handle of the aim controller to provide you with feedback.
A standalone device
However, one of the best elements in the design of the aim controller is that it’s a standalone piece.
It isn’t an empty frame in which you’re supposed to insert a standard PlayStation controller. No, the aim controller is designed to be exactly what it is – a standalone controller that enables you to simulate using a weapon in a shooter game.
Finally, the battery just requires a micro USB connector, and you can use the controller for several hours before having to recharge it.
Far Point’s cooperative missions and challenge mode
Even if Far Point’s campaign is rather short, and will only last you about six hours, the game offers some interesting additions to extend playing time. For example, you can access two-player cooperative missions that will allow you to play online with your friends.
These are essentially “horde attack” games where you and your friends will have to face successive waves of enemies that attack you.
Even though you have the help of other players in these missions, the number of enemies is proportionately increased, so the missions are still a challenge. If you stay together and fight as a team, you can also resurrect your team mates. If you prefer solo play, Far Point also includes a challenge mode with a leader board.
The challenge mode combines the campaign levels with new attacks from enemies at unexpected angles, as well as increasing the frequency of those attacks. A timer is continuously counting down, and you have to reach the next checkpoint in the game before time runs out.
All in all, Far Point is an excellent buy, and certainly one of the best PSVR aim controller games.
Firewall Zero Hour
Firewall Zero Hour pits four players in a team against four other people, in a brilliant multiplayer experience. One of the teams is made up of attackers who are trying to enter a secured area to access documents from a laptop. The other team is made up of defenders who must fend off the attackers and maintain the security of the installation.
This title, by First Contact Entertainment, is all about teamwork. Since you face off against teams of human players who will try to out-think you, you might find the going hard at times.
Strategies and tactics
A house that you infiltrate can be very small, and if you make contact with a defender, his teammates will probably come to his aid instantly, forcing your team to stay close to each other and cover each other, all of which is easier said than done.
Playing defence is generally thought to be much easier in the game, because you can take up ambush positions while waiting for the attacking team to arrive. This is much easier than attacking and trying to take a fortified location, which can make the game a trifle one-sided.
One possible downside of this game is that you can control cameras when you die, allowing you to move around the map and tell your allies where your enemies are. This is rather a flaw in a game of this sort, since games like Counter Strike make the acquisition of information an end in itself. The game will feel pretty standard to the advanced player of first person shooters, with the standard array of guns, including an assault rifle and a shotgun.
Combat is very immersive
However, setting the game in virtual reality massively adds to the interest of the game, and the game is intensely immersive in its own right. You will hide behind walls and take cover behind surrounding objects, such as tables.
Shooting with the aim controller feels incredibly realistic, and you really feel that bullets are raining down around you, and you have to protect yourself.
There are many open areas in the maps, and a good number of observation points, so if you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself out in the open, and in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It’s a good game that focuses on realistic tactics. The controls are accessible, the maps detailed and well made, the objectives simple, and the game is certainly one of the best shooter experiences out there.
Arizona Sunshine
Vertigo Games really came up with a winner with Arizona Sunshine, racking up a million and a half in sales in the first year since the game’s release.
Arizona Sunshine is where virtual reality meets the zombie apocalypse. Set in an area of the South Eastern United States, you realize early on that all of America has been taken over by zombies once again.
What is it with these repeated zombie invasions of the United States? Is someone is trying to make a point here?
Well, be that as it may, Arizona Sunshine is a reasonably interesting shooter
You play as a character who wakes up in a cave in the Arizona desert, but you don’t really know too much about what’s going on. As the plot unfolds, it does so much like any zombie apocalypse movie out there. You’ll search for survivors, and try to find a radio signal that will lead you to a safe area that hasn’t been taken over by zombies.
The suspense keeps you going
Yes, the plot is clichéd, but there will still be times during the game when you’ll wonder how your character is going to get by, and whether he’ll be able to survive. You’ll feel the suspense, and that’s what keeps the game interesting.
The environments are fairly diverse, from sun scorched deserts, to dangerous canyons, to abandoned mines. Along the way, you’ll have to keep searching for weapons and ammunition to enable you to stay alive.
The aim controller fits in very well, and whether you’re using the aim controller or a standard move controller, you can pick up just about any object at hand and swing it as you wish. If your health falls, searching around the levels can allow you to find food that will let you regain some of your health. Don’t expect a large menu – the food is all steaks.
Oddly enough, while the zombies putrefy in the most natural manner possible, the steaks stay fresh just fine. Odd world.
Co-op mode
The game can also be played as a team with up to three friends in a cooperative online mode. You can play the entire campaign in co-op mode, coordinating your actions and quadrupling your fire power. The game is repetitive, but the gameplay still manages to be fun.
The PSVR aim controller works with a great deal of precision, and in the easy mode is actually equipped with a laser site that enables you to use the aim controller with deadly efficiency.
Bravo Team
Brought to you by Supermassive Games, Bravo Team makes some drastic choices in its game mechanisms and in how the game plays out. Rather than leave the choice of whether to teleport or use direct travel to the player, as most games do, Bravo Team forces a teleportation system on the player.
However, what a player loses in mobility, he gains in the immersiveness of this truly great shooter. This game allows you to not only hide behind a car or a wall, but crouch to avoid enemy fire or bend physically to take aim at an enemy or to avoid incoming fire.
As you can imagine, a game that so much focuses upon realism of movement in first person shootouts is virtually tailor-made to the PSVR aim controller.
You’ll have to watch your ammunition while playing this game, and keep collecting more as you move through each level. If you run out of ammunition for your own weapon, you can equip a handgun to carry you through until you find your next lot of ammunition.
Bravo Team also provides you with a companion
You can either play the game multiplayer online with a friend, or use an AI companion instead. There is a simple order system to enable you to interact with the AI. If you take too many hits, you can get into cover and fend off the enemy with your handgun until your companion comes to your aid.
Stealth kills are also possible, in which you can take out an opponent who has not spotted you, silently.
The only criticism of this shooter is that actions such as reload, activating a device or opening a door are all done with buttons instead of with intuitive actions.
That said, the use of the aim controller itself as a weapon is perfectly intuitive, so this is certainly one of the recommended PSVR aim controller games.
Chromagun
Chromagun is a puzzle game from Pixel Maniacs. The various puzzles are based on colours, which you sometimes have to combine together. You have a weapon that can shoot three colours, and you have to use this to solve various problems in the game. Your weapon can draw in red, blue and yellow on the walls or on spherical drones.
The robots in the game are naturally attracted to surfaces that are the same colour as they are, and you have to use this to manipulate their movements to make them open doors to the next room, allowing you to progress through the game.
The game is divided into several chapters, and you progress through the game to levels which have different mechanics, such as the combination of the three initial colours into three more. There are also hostile drones that attack you, as well as areas where you have to solve a puzzle against a timer.
Dick Wilde
This game is a wave shooter, and is a pure arcade game of the old school where you have to decimate waves of enemies. This game is by Bolverk Games, the creators of Kitty Apocalypse. Kitty Apocalypse was a tower defence game where you had to eliminate alien cats. Dick Wilde is roughly a shooter of the same order.
You have a selection of heavy weapons, and you must take out alligators, sharks, piranhas and other hostile wildlife. The game is rather offbeat and humorous, and the sets are quite colourful.
Like some of the advanced shooters today, this VR game will have you actually moving your body out of the path of projectiles, by bending over or dodging to the right or left.
Even regular players of run-of-the-mill shooters will find Dick Wilde a challenge. You can play it with the usual PlayStation controller, but an aim controller is really recommended.
The Brookhaven Experiment
This game is foreboding right at the start, where you can see a huge enemy in the distance who makes the ground shake all around you – and that’s before you even properly start out into the game.
This is pretty much a standard wave-shooter from Phosphor Games. There are four waves of enemies in each level, and your score comes up at the end of each wave. You’re then given a choice between regenerating your heath or getting ammunition for your weapons, or a battery for your lamp. You can also select your weapon for the next wave and the upgrades you want to take.
This is a very simple formula, but it works surprisingly well
You have to deal with enemy waves while paying close attention to how much ammunition you have and the level of your flashlight battery and secondary weapons.
You start the game with a simple gun, but by exploring as you advance through the levels, you will be able to unlock additional weapons, including a sub-machine gun, a shotgun, a magnum, and other weapons.
You can also acquire upgrades to your weaponry, such as a laser site, or an attachment to your weapons that reduces recoil.
This is another game that is entirely keyed to the aim controller, and those who are used to playing with a keyboard or mouse may have problems with the intuitive point and shoot system that the controller uses. You might note here that you don’t really move in the Brookhaven Experiment. You stand in one place and shoot enemies that enter your field of vision.
Balancing different factors adds to the immersiveness of the game
It is rather dark, which makes ensuring that you have power for your flashlight quite as important as ensuring that you have enough ammunition. You will not use the flashlight all the time, but will often have to rely upon your ears to identify the location of enemies.
This leads to a truly immersive experience where you not only point and aim with the aim controller, but actually have to rely upon a 3D soundscape to ensure that you can locate your enemies before they locate you. You’ll need a good pair of headphones to create the right soundscape for this game.
As you play the game you’ll have the feeling of actually relying upon genuine fighting instincts rather than upon the simple reactions of the average keyboard and mouse gamer. The Brookhaven Experiment is certainly an excellent VR experience.
Those are some of the best PSVR aim controller games. Others keep coming out at regular intervals, and if you’re a fan of shooters, the aim controller is certainly recommended.