Doom VFR

Doom VFR is a standalone VR spin-off of the rebooted 2016 Doom, set in the same complex of the UAC Martian mining facility shortly after the outbreak of the demonic invasion, in which the player takes on the role of a digitized consciousness of a facility employee and faces hordes of demons with fast, aggressive gunplay. Movement is handled mainly through teleportation between points in the environment, which was a common approach to addressing motion sickness at the time of release, but the game supplements it with the ability to quickly close the distance to enemies for effective close-range finishers, similar to the brutal execution animations from the core game. The pace of combat remains fast and aggressive, with an emphasis on constant movement between cover and switching weapons depending on enemy type, though overall combat is somewhat slower and more cautious than in the non-horror version of the game outside VR.

Visually, the game draws directly on the environments and enemy design of the core Doom game, with a bloody, dark aesthetic of Martian complexes and hellish portals, which feels considerably more intense and oppressive in the headset thanks to spatial awareness of attacks coming from multiple directions. The sound design relies on heavy, aggressive music and noise effects characteristic of the series, which in VR further heighten the tension while advancing through the facility's dark corridors. The shorter playtime compared to the core game is offset by the intensity of individual encounters and the need to decide quickly whom and how to attack, since VR lacks the easy overview that a classic screen offers.

At release, Doom VFR was received as a solid, if more intimately scaled, attempt to bring the iconic series' fast, aggressive action into virtual reality, and it was especially praised for how well the combination of teleportation with close-range finishers worked to keep the game's pace up. For Doom fans, it was a way to experience the Martian facility and the hordes of hell from a completely new, immediate perspective, and the title is still cited as one of the more technically accomplished attempts to bring fast FPS action to VR on PSVR.

Why play it: For Doom fans wanting to experience the Martian facility and the hordes of hell from an immediate perspective — a more intimately scaled but technically accomplished port of fast FPS action to VR.