AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
Civilization VII is on the way to the Meta Quest sometime this Spring, but you don’t have to wait until then to play great strategy games on your Meta Quest headset. Strategy games in VR come to life like never before, giving you a new angle on the action so you can get up close and personal.
Whether it’s commanding armies, building cities, directing ships to attack or mine, or even terraforming an entire planet, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of high-quality strategy games already available on the Meta Quest platform. I can’t wait to see Civilization like never before on my dining room table in a living board game but, until then, here’s how I’m strategizing away my time.
Dark fantasy comes to life
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Underworld Overseer sees you excavating and managing a dungeon from the perspective of the almighty Overseer, including the ability to directly pick up your units and move them around where you want. As you command your units to dig further underground, you’ll unearth treasures galore and build new areas that’ll attract all sorts of different creatures to your dungeon.
The game evokes memories of the hit Dungeon Keeper games from the 90s and early 2000s, something I lauded when I first wrote about Underworld Overseer last October. I got access to the next big update recently and it offers additional levels and challenging new enemies for free. Plus, a Pico version is coming out for wider international availability soon.
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Demeo has been the go-to recommendation for turn-based strategy for years. Demeo sees players choose one of seven different heroes, each with their own unique set of skills and movement options. Players make two actions during each turn which consists of movement, attacks, or special cards in their hand. Levels are proceedurally generated and scale up to four players.
It’s a brilliant multiplayer title that’s managed to sidestep the toxic nature of many multiplayer games, offering up a friendly community and tons of fun. It’s been so successful Resolution Games was able to deliver a PvP spinoff called Demeo Battles in 2023 and is currently working on an official Dungeons & Dragons VR game using the Demeo engine. You can even play with your non-VR friends thanks to cross platform play!
City building for real
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Little Cities proved that city building doesn’t need to only be for the hardcore stat nerds that love games like SimCity and Cities. That’s not to say that these folks won’t also enjoy Little Cities, but the game isn’t designed to keep you in your headset for hours at a time, just little sessions here and there as you desire.
Each session begins with an empty island that you’ll need to zone for and build on to create the mini city of your dreams. A little $6.99 DLC package introduces snowy islands that bring winter coziness to this already cozy game, and hand tracking support means you don’t even have to grab your controllers to have fun. If you do want more detailed city building, Cities VR is actually a game on the Quest, too.
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Sick of building on Earth? Per Aspera VR will take you to the red planet to terraform and colonize its harsh landscape into something a lot more livable for humans. It’s more stat-heavy than Little Cities but I didn’t get overwhelmed by it at all. In fact, I had an easier time playing this one in VR because of the VR-centric controls and the ability to feel more “aware” of the planet, as a whole.
Aside from great gameplay, the game’s story is intriguing and well voice-acted. You’ll begin the game playing as AMI, an artificial intelligence (or maybe not so artificial since it’s you) that has been tasked with getting the planet ready for the first humans, scheduled to arrive in a few short years. A DLC even brings about life in Mars after terraforming is done, dealing with the myriad of problems that come about with a flourishing planet.
Give me some space
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If you’re sick of city building and just want to get out into space, these last two options will be right up your alley. Gods of Gravity launched as one of the earliest free-to-play success stories and quickly became my strategy game of the year in 2023. It’s a built-for-VR experience that sees you capturing planets to farm resources and build bigger squadrons, all with the goal of capturing all the home planets in a system.
The game is designed to be played multiplayer but a single-player campaign delivers all the strategy you want without a pesky story getting in the way. You’ll play as one of several different gods, each with its own set of powers, that’s able to physically grab any ship in the squadron and launch it like a dart. The strategy is real and the players will give you a serious challenge, especially as you make your way to the tournament rounds. This is Chess in Space and it evokes some of my favorite moments from Ender’s Game’s Command School.
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Last, but certainly not least, is Homeworld: Vast Reaches. Yes, it’s that Homeworld and it’s in glorious VR and mixed reality for the first time ever. I grew up with the Homeworld games and always wondered what it would be like if I could be the one physically grabbing those ships and pointing them where to go with more than just a mouse and a keyboard. Now I don’t have to wonder anymore! The mixed reality mode even puts ships and asteroids in my living room, making it feel even more unique.
Homeworld VR is an original story that takes place between Homeworld 1 and 2, helping fill in some gaps in the story. Don’t worry if you’ve never played any game in the series, though! The excellent narration and beautifully illustrated story keeps you in the loop. The campaign can be finished in just a few hours and it’s not as detailed or stat-heavy as the non-VR versions of the game, but I tend to find that this method works best in a headset.