While most SteamVR games offer the same basic experience across the Vive, Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, there's a special class of games which truly shine on the Vive. The reason for this is the ability to add extra hardware for tracking, making it possible for your whole body to be an interactive part of the experience. As cool as it is to be able to move your real arms in VR, being able to move your legs and hips as well really pulls you in to the world you are exploring.
If you're going all in on the HTC Vive Tracker, these are the games you need to know about.
Island 359
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This intense survival game from CloudGate Studios was already an excellent Early Access SteamVR game, offering a huge island full of dinosaurs to explore and hunt and occasionally be terrified of. Like most VR games it started out with a pair of hands you could reach out with to do everything, but if you looked down there was no body.
With the addition of Vive Tracker support, Island 359 added a full virtual self creator so you can build a body to go with those hands. And because Vive Trackers allow you to track your whole body, you can move your arms and legs just like you would in the real world and see that translated virtually. It makes a huge deal when it comes to really making you feel like you are a part of the game, which in this case means dramatically increasing the growing fear of being eaten alive.
To get the best effect, you need:
- At least two Vive Trackers (adding a third to your belt helps but isn't necessary)
- Foot straps for your Vive Trackers
Tornuffalo
Full-body action was added to this ridiculous game as free DLC, making the game a great deal more physical and infinitely more entertaining. Where you originally only needed to worry about dodging all of the flying objects with your head, full-body tracking makes it so you need to move your whole body to escape massive projectiles.
It's not all about adding challenge though, you can now also use your feet to attack things. If kicking power shards while Matrix-style dodging a massive flying animal and some building debris doesn't sound entertaining, you're probably doing fun wrong.
Making this all work requires:
- At least two Vive Trackers (three is better but not needed)
- Foot straps for your Trackers
#SelfieTennis
Calling this a tennis game is kinda like calling Halo a driving simulator. You certainly could spend your time playing a traditional round of tennis, but there's a whole lot more going on and most of that stuff is a lot more fun.
If you do decide to play tennis, the Vive Tracker attached to the special VR tennis racket will make your serves feel weirdly real. The racket feels a great deal more realistic in your hand than the Vive wand, and that dose of realism makes it a lot more fun to send the perfect shot into the smiling faces of everyone watching you play.
For the best effect here, you need:
Arizona Sunshine
If you own a VR headset and haven't played this game, you are wrong. It's a fantastic zombie shooter with a great story, and the developers have been steadily improving the experience from day one which is excellent. But no matter how hard you try, no VR controller really feels like you're holding an actual firearm. Fortunately, for those who really need that immersion, the Vive Tracker is here to help.
Adding a Hyper Blaster with a Vive Tracker attached makes the combat in Arizona Sunshine feel that much more realistic, which is a ton of fun. Plus, being able to toss your gun in the air like a goofball and be able to actually catch it while wearing the headset is amusing.
To pull this off, you need:
Final Soccer VR
We've seen several games where you can use the HTC Vive to be the goalie in soccer and hockey, but with no way to track your feet it's a little difficult to do the other fun things. Final Soccer VR lets you add Vive Trakcers to your feet, and in doing so adds a shooting mode where your real world kicks send virtual soccer balls flying.
This game was already great with things like multiplayer mode vs other Vive players and even smartphone players, but adding Vive Trackers to the mix makes everything better.
To have the most fun in this game you need:
- At least one Vive Tracker (two and three Tracker modes are also supported)
- Tracker foot straps
VRChat
It's weird, it's fun, and it seems like everyone is going it. VRChat lets you jump in as whatever character you want and play with a bunch of other people. It's a simple social VR experience with a massive audience right now, and a great way to make yourself stick out in this experience right now is a set of Vive Trackers.
Where everyone else is only able to move their head and hands organically, Vive Trackers give you full-body articulation in VRChat. This makes you look and feel a lot more interactive, which is a lot more fun.
To pull this off you need:
- Two Vive Trackers (three is better but not needed)
- Vive Tracker straps
