Falcon Age

Falcon Age is an action adventure from studio Outlier Games that arrived on Quest in 2020 following its earlier PSVR release. The player, in the role of a young woman named Ara, returns home from prison to find her planet under the control of a mining corporation, and as the very first act of the story frees and befriends a young kestrel. The falcon becomes a constant companion throughout the game — the player feeds it, pets it, sends it to attack enemies, has it collect items, and gradually upgrades its gear with helmets and armor, which makes the game work half as a platformer with a bow and guard-drone hacking, and half as an intimate study of the relationship between a human and an animal who must trust each other. As the game progresses, both Ara and the falcon learn new tricks, further regions of the planet open up, and the history of the corporate domination that must be overthrown is gradually revealed.

Controls use the standard Touch controllers for shooting the bow, handling items, and gentle gestures toward the bird, which feels fresh on the standalone Quest headset thanks to lower latency and freedom of movement compared to tethered PC versions. The visual style combines sandy desert scenery with the industrial aesthetic of corporate occupation, abandoned villages, and mining facilities, and the music paints in the melancholic atmosphere of a planet that has lost its freedom and awaits an uprising. The graphics are readable and colorful on Quest's mobile hardware, even without the detail offered by the PC and console version for PSVR.

Critics praised the game above all for the emotional bond between the player and the falcon, which gives the otherwise unassuming action gameplay an emotional weight that VR adventures rarely offer. Falcon Age remains a widely praised example of how virtual reality can deepen the bond between a player and a game character through a single gesture of petting, and it ranks among the titles often recommended as a showcase of VR's emotional potential, even for players who otherwise prefer a calmer pace than purely action-oriented titles.

Why play it: For players who prefer a calmer pace and are looking for the emotional depth that VR adventures rarely offer, thanks to the touching bond between the player and their falcon built through the gesture of petting.