The Steam Autumn Sale Virtual Reality Special – Get Your VR Cheap

The Steam Autumn Sale is upon us and our poor wallets, so we’ve weeded out all the Oculus Rift compatible games on sale right now.

Oculus Thrift

For those on a budget (generally that means most of us), the Steam Sale is a time of both joy and despair. Joy that the games you’ve been pining after all year are finally affordable, despair that in the process of buying them all you’re likely to bankrupt yourself. This year is even worse I’m afraid, because there are now a fair few titles out there that have varying levels of support for virtual reality via the Oculus Rift. So we thought it might be helpful to list all of them currently on offer. I won’t list prices as this is a global website, but at the time of writing all had some element of discount applied. Here goes:

Strike Suit Zero [66% Off]

Flying mech space action AND virtual reality? Surely too good to be true. Strike Suit Zero takes a good stab at the space shooter genre and throws in some pretty good Oculus Rift support too. Rift support is still being worked on and updated, but it’s come a long way since the original release and now works well.

Euro Truck Simulator [66% Off]

Fancy guiding 10 tonnes of mobile metal across the beautiful roads of Europe? Well Euro Truck Simulator lets you do so, and now thanks to early, experimental Oculus Rift support, you can do this in virtual reality too. And the support is pretty good, save for some odd aliasing and a slightly jarring ‘look left and you’re leabing out the window’ mechanism, it’s an oddly compelling VR experience.

Slender: The Arrival [50% Off]

Surely everyone is familiar with Slenderman by now. The horror title that originally debuted on Unity as a simple yet terrifying escapade into a spooky wooded setting, hunting pages holding clues to the legend of the eponymous terror. This new version revamps the visuals and adds a plot to boot and by all accounts the Rift support (no surprise as this is Source) is excellent. If you’re brave enough, give it a shot.

Dream [33% Off]

One of the first titles ever to have announced Oculus Rift support. As Sam Read from Development Studio Hypersloth, creaters of Dream, told me back in October 2012:

You explore the main characters dreams to try and find out who you are and what you want to do with the rest of your life. We really try to reward the player for exploring the environments with extra narrative and items that can be used later in the game, but there are also a lot of puzzle and horror elements to the game.

A Steam Greenlight project, it’s always had an intriguing art style that I felt would work well in VR. This project is still in development, but buying the game now gets you early access to the current alpha version.

Doorways: Chapter 1 & 2 [60% Off]

Steam description describes Doorways thus:

Doorways is an episodic survival horror game, featuring a complex story and deep atmosphere. Each chapter will challenge you with its fast-paced gameplay and breathtaking visuals and sounds, so prepare to immerse yourself in a terrifying psychological experience.

Another horror title with an interesting Gothic feel, the title seems to have garnered a good reaction from the press. Another Steam Greenlight game, Oculus Rift is stated as being ‘beta’ so be prepared for some rough edges.

Paranormal [33% Off]

Another early access title with ‘future’ Oculus Rift support planned, Paranormal is a dynamic horror game which claims every playthrough is different:

Experience the horrors of a haunting that’s never the same twice.

Paranormal is a 3D fully dynamic haunting experience. The player takes the role of Mattel Clark, an artist who has a haunted house. Mattel decides to film the hauntings with his camera, which is the viewpoint of the game.The player controls the camera as the hauntings slowly but surely escalate into something far worse and more horrific.

With multiple endings, a different experience every time, top-notch graphics and sound, Paranormal is a constantly evolving indie horror game.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 [75% Off]

Fancy chopping people up and getting paid for it? Surgeon Simulator, with support for the Oculus Rift and the Razer Hydra gives you the chance to do just that. A darling of the viral video a few months back, and now featuring Team Fortress 2 characters, this one’s a fair bit of fun – be warned however, it will highlight your clumsiness, potentially with fatal results.

Interstellar Marines [33% Off]

Another in-development game with Oculus Rift support planned for the ‘near future’, think Rainbow Six 3 Crossed with a heavy Dose of the movie Aliens.

Interstellar Marines resurrects the old school tactical FPS, offering a unique blend of co-op, role-playing and nonlinear gameplay. Set in a believable future, you take on the role as an elite soldier handpicked to join Project IM, a top secret military program being assembled to protect mankind from all dangers outside our solar system.

Lunar Flight [75% Off]

Frankly, one of the most accomplished and immersive VR experiences available today, Lunar Flight puts you in the pilot’s seat of a Lunar Lander and challenges you with piloting through various challenging missions. The sense of place is superb and the sense of place immense, be warned however, this is no easy arcade romp. This will test your reflexes and coordination to the max.

Kairo [70% Off]

Kairo is another early Oculus Rift supporter, it’s steam page describes it thus:

Enter the lost world of Kairo. Explore vast abandoned monuments. Bring strange and ancient machinery back to life. Slowly uncover the true purpose of Kairo and fulfil a great destiny. Kairo is an atmospheric 3D exploration and puzzle solving game.

Full Oculus Rift is available out of the box with this title.

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome [55% Off]

I tested at early version of this game a while back and it’s still one of my favourite VR experiences, one that I return to often. It’s essentially an Arcade Base Jumping title, but it’s Oculus Rift implementation is second to none, and it’s a great game to boot. For adrenalin rushes and an experience sure to get your heat pumping this is a premier VR title every Rift owner should posess.

That’s it for now. Please bear in mind that the above was all correct at the time of writing, but do let us know if you find any errors or if we’ve missed a title that you think should be on the list. Also, let us know what you think of your purchases in the comments below.

Happy shopping!