A disappointing mixed bag of games

Of the two dozen or so games currently available on Gear VR, Darknet is the closest thing to a killer app for the system. The hacking-themed puzzle game involves depositing viruses on a hex grid so they'll spread to the target core before hitting hazards like anti-virus programs or shields. Each individual puzzle is part of a larger, networked grid, integrating a metagame that requires you to purchase power-ups to efficiently navigate through the larger network of smaller puzzles. It seems simple at first, but Darknet quickly grows to require a lot of second- and third-order logical thinking ahead, under what can be a strict time limit.

As one of the first games announced for the Oculus Rift back when it wasn't even a functional dev kit,is one of the only apps on the system that feels like a fully realized game rather than a short demo or proof of concept. What's more, it feels explicitly designed for a VR environment, somehow pulling off a stylish take on the kind of cheesy visualization of "cyberspace" you might expect to see in a bad '80s movie. More than anything else, Darknet was what I was excited to play every time I put the Gear VR back on.

Outside of Darknet, there are a few games that at least seem like good examples of the Gear VR's promise. Esper makes clever use of the touchpad and gaze controls as toggles for telekinetic powers, asking you to "use your mind" to move blocks and balls around the room through simple puzzles. Protocol Zero is an interesting, stylish, point-and-click take on the first-person stealth genre that seems smartly designed with the limitations of VR navigation (and nausea) firmly in mind. And third-person space shooters Anshar Wars and Vanguard V work surprisingly well in VR, using your gaze as a natural input for both aim and directional movement.

The problem with almost all of these games at this point (aside from Darknet) is that they feel like not much more than demos. Many simply end unceremoniously once the tutorial segment is over, others are so repetitive and bare-bones in their current form that a few minutes feels like all you'll ever need to play. This is perhaps not surprising, since the Oculus Store's incomplete payment infrastructure means every title on the service currently has to be offered to users for free. We're hopeful these titles will be fleshed out a bit once they are available in paid versions, but for now they're basically just intriguing tech demos.

Aside from the games mentioned above, there's already a bit of a "me too" feeling in a lot of the games available on the Gear VR. Turret shooters—where you rotate in one place and fire projectiles at moving targets—are quickly becoming the early go-to genre for unimaginative Gear VR developers. There are already four examples of the form available—Romans from Mars, Lunasee, Shooting Showdown 2, and VRtillery—and while they all work just fine, the extremely simple gameplay generally loses its appeal after just a few minutes.

The Gear VR also features quite a few third-person action/platforming titles, which give you a god-like view of characters that look like they're running around a toy box. It's an endearing trick of presentation, and being able to control the camera angle by simply moving your head is immediately intuitive. Still, these experiences largely feel like they'd be nearly identical on an old-fashioned, flat display, and none of them yet really have the depth necessary for long-term interest.

Video in the round

All told, the most awe-inspiring and impressive moments with the Gear VR thus far have all come from outside of games. Simple, minimally interactive virtual reality experiences like The Deep, BluVR, and Titans of Space have become go-to apps when passing the Gear VR around a party for friends to check out. It's incredible just sitting in place and following along with your gaze as sea life or entire planets fly by in sharp, well-rendered, 360-degree glory. Without the power of a high-end gaming rig, the 3D graphics are just passable, but the sense of being surrounded by a complete, stereoscopic 3D world just can't be matched by a flat monitor, no matter how powerful the hardware.

The handful of live-action 360 degree videos are more of a mixed bag. Some, like a panoramic tour through the interior of a NASA space shuttle, are crisp, well-shot experiences that make you feel like you're actually in another place. The majority of these videos, though, are taken at a lower resolution that makes things feel muddy and distorted, especially if you try to focus on far off objects in the stereoscopic distance. It's as if you've been transported to inside an old cathode ray tube standard definition television set: it's impressive that you can look around what was previously a flat world, but it still feels like a step back to a much murkier past.

Yet even these low-resolution videos deliver a sense of presence that really shows off the value of VR. Watching a Cirque du Soleil performance high above you from the equivalent of the stage floor or looking around a Paul McCartney concert from a vantage point on top of his piano is impressive even if the figures look a bit out of focus at the current resolutions. Similarly, doing a slow fly-by of the skyscrapers in Manhattan or the glaciers off Iceland is an experience that's hard to replicate in real life, even if the videos are a lot fuzzier at the moment.

Right now, the biggest thing holding Gear VR video back is the limited selection. There are a handful of standalone apps showing off the concept, and Samsung is delivering a new, short 360 degree video every day through the Milk VR app, but it's still very early days. Things are just as limited when it comes to watching 2D video through the virtual "theater" app; if you want to watch something like Netflix or titles downloaded from Google Play, you're out of luck—if you want to sideload your own video files to an SD card, you're in the clear.

As the technology to capture and distribute VR video becomes more standardized and higher quality, this could easily be the killer app for Gear VR and its ilk. As it stands, what's already being offered is still a novel and impressive experience that's hard to get anywhere else.

All in all, the mixed bag of Gear VR apps currently available still makes it hard to justify a purchase for anything other than early adopters and novelty seekers. If you already have a Galaxy Note 4 or were strongly considering one as your primary phone anyway, perhaps the Gear VR is unique enough for a $200 purchase—just for the experience. Otherwise, it's hard to rationalize the complete, expensive dive into the Samsung ecosystem only to try the current handful of free apps.