The Meta App Lab has grown from its original 15 titles to over 1000 high-quality VR games to try out. We’ve play-tested everything and have a list of the best App Lab games you need to play on your Meta Quest today.
The App Lab is Meta’s ‘pre-release’ channel to showcase games before they are released on the official store. However, Meta’s submission requirements don’t always make sense, and a lot of App Lab games are high-quality and full releases.
If we missed your favorite game, comment below and let us know!
What Are The Best Meta App Lab Games to Play?
Don’t feel like doing a ton of reading? Here are our favorite App Lab games you need to go search for and play today:
- Rogue Stargun
- All Hail the Cook-o-Tron
- Car Parking Simulator
- Arrows
- Ancient Dungeon
- Puzzling Places
- exVRience Golf Club
- Pavlov Shack Beta
- Operation Serpens
- SAIL
- Discovery
- Help Yourself
Criteria For Our List
So, what makes a good App Lab game? Unlike the official store, a lot of the games in the App Lab are made by independent developers or small teams. This means that some of the graphics may not be polished as much as Population: ONE. However, it also means that you can reach the developer on social media or Discord and they will be happy to hear your suggestions and feedback.
When reviewing all of the games in the app lab, here are the key criteria we wanted to see:
Replay Value
Like all VR games, we want ours to have good replay value. We aren’t that interested in a technology demo that is less than 2 hours. All of our games below have lots of replay value and deserve to take up space on your Oculus Quest, even if you only have the 64 GB version.
Uniqueness
One of our favorite parts of the App Lab is how it gives unique and different games a chance to stand out. There are plenty of VR shooting games available on the main store, so an amateur version on the App Lab needs to be different.
Polish
Even if an independent developer makes the game, we expect a certain level of polish to make our best App Lab games list. We want clear controls, a progression in difficulty, and a sense of achievement to reach.
Some of the games we’ve showcased on this list before, like Gorilla Tag, Deisim, and Guardians, have graduated from the App Lab into the main store!
What factors do you think are important in a VR game?
Next, let’s get into our best App Lab games in more detail. These games are 100% worth your time to try out and play today!
Rogue Stargun
Rogue Stargun is my favorite space combat simulation game. It offers an action-packed experience where you will pilot five distinctive starfighters. You can interact within each VR cockpit, controlling things like the flight stick and targeting system.
I really enjoyed the story-driven single-player campaign, which featured over 24 unique missions in land and space environments. Each starfighter offers a unique experience, adding depth and variety to the gameplay.
What makes Rogue Stargun truly fun to play is its seamless integration of engaging storytelling and dynamic space battles. The combination of a well-crafted narrative, visually stunning VR cockpits, and the variety of starfighters provides an immersive and enjoyable experience.
Click here to view Rogue Stargun.
All Hail the Cook-o-Tron
All Hail the Cook-o-Tron is a VR cooking game where you have to make orders in order to satisfy your customers. Quest users who have played Cook-out VR will want to know how Cook-o-Tron compares to that. In our opinion, it’s actually a lot better. Cook-out had a lot of chopping and placement of ingredients, without much variety. Its strength was in its cooperative multiplayer mode where you can play with three other friends.
Cook-o-Tron doesn’t have a cooperative multiplayer mode, but its game mechanics and gameplay are better in every other way. You have to make a wider variety of food and all from scratch. The game uses real life physics, which can make placing burger ingredients more unpredictable and quirky.
Cook-o-Tron features a respectable campaign mode with good difficulty progression. There is also an arcade mode, where you see how long you can last for. Overall, All Hail Cook-o-Tron is one of the best App Lab games you can play today.
Click here to play All Hail the Cook-o-Tron.
Car Parking Simulator
Car Parking Simulator is exactly what it sounds like. You have to maneuver and park your vehicle in a number of situations. However, the game is a lot more than that and deserves a spot in our best App Lab games list.
To start, the game has different difficulty modes and vehicle types such as a sedan, SUV, or hatchback. Physics are done well, so you can feel the difference in driving each vehicle. Like a real car, we found that the game works best when you are sitting down to play.
Once you get into the game, you’ll find that it has over 65 levels to complete! Other than easy or advanced parking maneuvers, you’ll also have to handle your vehicle in other situations too. Where the game has a lot of potential in the future is in its free-roam mode. This allows you to drive around and explore a city in virtual reality.
In free roam mode, you can find new challenges and activities to do while you drive around. It’s this mode that we think has a lot of opportunity for new features to increase the replay value of the game.
Click here to play Car Parking Simulator.
Arrows
Arrows is a VR tower defence game. You have to protect different cities, forts, and lands with a bow and arrow from escalating waves of enemy attacks. If you’ve played other bow and arrow games like In Death: Unchained or Holopoint, the controls will feel natural to you. However, shooting at moving targets from varying distances is HARD and it makes Arrows more challenging than those games.
Each level has multiple different vantage points you can shoot your arrows from. Finding the best one to sit at is not always easy. Most levels also have a cannon in it, which allows you to fire a bomb and take out multiple enemies. The cannon has a reload time so that it can’t be used too much.
Arrows also has other power-ups and abilities you can unlock and bring into battle for more variety.
The game has over 25 levels to play in and three different difficulty modes. We found the game to be challenging on normal play mode. We sailed far too many arrows over the heads of the bad guys, so our tip would be to aim lower.
Click here to play Arrows on the App Lab.
![Arrows VR / Oculus Quest 2 [App Lab] / Deutsch / First Impression / Spiele / Test / Quest 2021](https://arvrtips.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FmvE5NOKnZPM%2F0.jpg)
Ancient Dungeon Beta
Ancient Dungeon Beta is a hack and slash action game that takes place in a dark cave. The awesome twist to the game is that each dungeon is generated procedurally within your room-scale guardian boundary. Those with larger play spaces available will instantly see why Ancient Dungeon Beta is one of the best App Lab games – and free too!
Ancient Dungeon Beta features 90 Hz support for the Oculus Quest 2 and feels great. Dungeons are generated with multiple levels so that they feel big and massive no matter how big your space is. Lore has been recently added into the game to give it some more depth too.
As you travel deeper into the dungeon, you unlock its secrets. Along the way, you will fight various bad guys and animals, plus bosses too. There are achievements to unlock and permanent upgrades to help you out in subsequent plays.
Did we mention that Ancient Dungeon is currently FREE? There is no telling how long that will be the case, so go download it today. This was one of our best SIdeQuest VR games too and we are excited to see it on the App Lab early.
Click here to play the Ancient Dungeon Beta App Lab game.
Puzzling Places
Puzzling Places is a virtual reality puzzle game. If you want something more chill and therapeutic, there is something really great about putting together puzzles in VR. We also like that the puzzles in this game come from real and beautiful places around the world.
The beta includes six different puzzles ranging in size from 20 up to 200 pieces. Some of the famous places featured from around the world are Tsuruga Castle, Tatev Monastery, and the Market Square in Gliwice.
Puzzling Places has a few features that helped put it into our best App Lab games list. To start, the environments are beautiful and relaxing. Each puzzle is very high quality. You can play the game seated, standing, or moving around. Plus, the controls are easy to learn. Puzzling Places is a great showcase to show your family who has never played in VR before.
Click here to view Puzzling Places.
exVRience Golf Club
exVRience Golf Club is a VR sports game that immerses you into the world of golfing. Your controllers will serve as your club. The game features an 18 Hole Golf Course with lakes and rivers. There’s also a leaderboard where you can compete in tournaments and try to emerge a winner.
exVRience Golf Club also features a 9 Hole Moon Chip Challenge course and Helicopter Flyovers. It also features amateur and pro modes including swing path and club angle.
While playing, you have the ability to fly anywhere on the course. You can also adjust green speed, see statistics, and adjust club feel. It is the top VR game for a full golfing experience.
Click here to view exVRience Golf Club
Pavlov Shack Beta
Pavlov is a competitive first-person shooter game originally released for wired-VR headsets. It focuses on a realistic experience, with sights and sounds matching real life where possible. You can play in both casual and competitive modes depending on how confident you’re feeling. As well, there is an offline mode if you don’t want the pressures of playing with other people.
Pavlov Shack is a stripped down version of the Steam game developed for the Oculus Quest. Some graphics had to be scaled down for the Quest, but the game is still a blast to play. The official release of Pavlov: Shack is estimated for later in 2021. Until then, you can play the beta version by installing it in the Oculus App Lab.
Pavlov Shack had over 500,000 installs from SideQuest VR, which means that it is very popular. It rightly deserves a spot on this best App Lab games list. Cross-play is not supported yet, but is planned in the official Pavlov Shack release in the full Oculus Store.
Click here to check out Pavlov Shack Beta.
Operation Serpens
Operation Serpens is a wave shooting game. You join an elite squad that is formed to dismantle the evil Snakes Organization. The gameplay in this App Lab game is very simple – just grab the weapons and shoot the enemies.
There is no locomotion in the game so it’s very comfortable. Each level presents a new challenge and scenario in a slightly different style. This is a non stop action game and you will need to constantly duck and hide to dodge the bullets. Shoot at and eliminate hundreds of hostiles in a very short time.
Operation Serpens is a lot of fun and more in depth than it appears on first glance. It is a game you can play on your own or show off to your friends. Shooting feels challenging, while still natural. Mechanics are similar to Pistol Whip but without the movement or music features. Overall you will get a great arcade feel, hilarious moments and a lot of fun.
Click here to view Operation Serpens.
SAIL
SAIL is an action VR game where you explore islands with a ship and look out for loot. In the game, you will find lost treasure, fight skeletons, and climb monolithic cliffs. Players can walk around the deck, adjust the sails, and fire cannon at will. Weapons are hidden around the map, so look for them and use them for your survival.
While the map keeps expanding, you can explore 4 areas. The areas are Isla Fortuna, Monolithic Cliffs, Fool’s Paradise, and Shipwreck. SAIL features bosses, online multiplayer, and money system. It also features enemy ships, pirates, and forts. There are ship and player cosmetics, so feel free to customize the game to suit your playing fantasies.
Discovery
Discovery is a Minecraft clone for the Oculus Quest. It comes with 3 game modes – single player, multiplayer, and co-op. In the game, you explore and modify a world made of blocks to suit your creations. The blocks come in 16 different colors, so choose your favorite colors to build your world.
There’s a lot of things to be done while in-game. You can build entire villages, construct houses, or dig deep underground. You can also build a big city and construct monumental structures.
During darkness, you can design complex circuitry to light up your creations. You can also place torches around your creations to light them up. This will enable you to enjoy beautiful night and day cycles.
Discovery can be played with up to 4 friends online. It features 215 unique materials, 360 degrees immersion, and a built-in online world gallery.
Help Yourself
Help Yourself is an FPS game that lets you clone yourself and also play around with time. In the game, you collaborate with your virtual self. You are your own teammate and key to your survival!
Every step you take happens in a time loop will be replicated in the next loop by your virtual self.
In Help Yourself, you have to plan ahead and build a solid collaboration with your virtual self across several timelines. Help Yourself features a unique blend of analogue and digital art styles. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced VR gamers.
While it is also easy to pick up, mastering the game is highly challenging. We recommend that you use headphones to enjoy 3D sound experience.
Click here to view Help Yourself
What is the best App Lab game you have played for far? Comment down below and let us know today! Our list above has a really good sampling of what is available. Check out some of the videos for each game to get a better idea of the gameplay.
We will be updating this best App Lab games list continuously, so keep checking back!
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