Whether you’re looking for a challenging mental workout or want something more immersive than your average VR experience, plenty of great VR puzzle games are out there.
From escape rooms to physics-based sandboxes, there are many different types of puzzles to enjoy in VR, and some are just as entertaining as they are challenging. We’ve rounded up the best puzzle VR games you can play now!
GNOG
GNOG is a concise, charming puzzle game in a tactile world of toys and secrets. It features eye-catching designs, playful interactions, and a rich, reactive soundtrack that evolves with every level.
Using your controller, you press buttons, pull knobs, spin levers, and rotate a monster head to uncover its secrets. Designed to reflect real-world toy designs, each GNOG head is a miniature world you can explore, and each interaction generates lively feedback and surprising consequences.
Then, each level comes alive with a dynamic score by Marskye filled with wacky puzzles that reward you for your efforts.
The game is short, but seasoned players and puzzle solvers will be able to zip through the nine levels in about two hours. It’s also elementary to pick up and play, so even those uncomfortable with VR can enjoy the fun. This makes GNOG an excellent choice for newcomers to the genre or those looking to add a unique experience to their library.
Squingle
Squiggle is a psychedelic puzzle game that plays to VR’s spatial strengths. Guide two rotating orbs through a series of cosmic 3D mazes in an engaging and trippy experience.
Squiggle takes a similar approach to juggling but with orbs that twist and turn through bendy, bubbly tubes. This gives you a lot of design space to play with, and the levels can quickly become quite challenging as the balls start to twist and turn – relying heavily on momentum rather than sight alone.
The iridescent visuals are pristinely sharp, and the game can run at a smooth 120Hz on Quest 2. While Squingle may seem like it won’t get onto Oculus’ curated store due to its odd appearance, it’s a fun and creative indie puzzle title that deserves a spot on the Quest ecosystem.
Tetris Effect
Tetris Effect is a VR puzzle game that puts players in the world of Tetris, bringing out the rhythm and flow of the iconic puzzle game. It’s a dream project from developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, best known for games like Lumines and Rez.
It takes Tetris’s best parts and mixes them with various light shows, music and visual effects to create a truly immersive experience. The game’s Zone meter fills up as you play and can be squeezed to slow everything down, the music and particle effects becoming more subtle so that players can focus on the blocks in front of them.
Tetris Effect also features a variety of ‘effect modes’, allowing players to relax and enjoy the experience or take it up a notch for a more intense and challenging session. Each mode is themed and paired with specific music to bring out the varying emotions of each level.
Red Matter
Red Matter is a VR puzzle game that uses its immersive world and intelligent puzzle design to create a truly fascinating experience. The enthralling narrative and clever puzzles make it one of my most genuinely interesting VR experiences this year.
To solve the puzzles in Red Matter, you use your multi-tool to interact with objects scattered throughout the game’s environments. These include letters, images, and even some holograms.
The multi-tool is a great feature that makes Red Matter feel like a real VR experience. It allows you to use your hand to manipulate objects, and it also means that many of the game’s items can be picked up and held with your hands.
In addition, the game features several different ways to move around the base of Rhea, ranging from low-gravity guided hops using your suit to smooth locomotion that enables you to walk and teleport in place. It’s an intelligent implementation that reduces motion sickness and enables you to explore this detailed Saturn moon base in the best possible way.