Staying dedicated to keeping our body strong and healthy is important, but we shouldn’t overlook how we exercise our brains. Lots of people strengthen their mental muscles with sudoku, crosswords, puzzles, or by going to escape rooms with friends.
Those are all great ways to stay sharp, but VR puzzles and escape games are an effective way you can achieve a brain boost to combat boredom, improve creative thinking skills, and is a super motivating way to get brain exercise through the power of VR’s immersion.
Below are games that are going to stretch your mind out of its comfort zone, or at the very least make you think out of the box (or inside one, you’ll see).
Conjuror’s Eye
You’re a wizard that didn’t listen to the directions. Hey, we all can’t be genius wizards, or can we? Conjuror’s Eye is a short but magical puzzle game where you’ll craft and cast spells and put together seemingly random clues in order to escape from an ever-shrinking magic package you’ve been miniaturized in. Will you escape in time or will you get crushed? If you don’t like being in cramped spaces don’t play this game. If you like the rush of solving puzzles against time, you’ll do well. This is a good beginner to advanced puzzle and escape the magic wizard’s box game.
Developer/Publisher: Escality, LLC
Release Date: March 14, 2018
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, with tracked controllers
Conjuror’s Eye, $0.99
The Talos Principle VR
The Talos Principle is a story-driven 2D PC puzzle game that’s transitioned into VR. Use your critical thinking skills and find your way around the maps by placing laser door openers at robots and doors strategically. You’ll have to scout out areas and avoid damage dealing laser turrets to progress towards objective markers. Find block puzzles and unlock doors inside the game and feel like a mental gymnastics champion for solving them! This is an intermediate to advanced puzzle game.
Developer/Publisher: Croteam VR/Devolver Digital, Croteam Publishing
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, with tracked controllers
The Talos Principle VR, $39.99
Conductor
Play as a conductor that solves puzzles on a train and other mysterious locations. Add coal to the engine, blow the whistle, and look for clues to keep you and your runaway train away from Overcorp. Use the gravity cannon to lasso, move, break and launch objects, and then find and use tools to solve puzzles and objectives. Conductor will give you a few hours of action and adventure as an outlaw on the run. Can you put all the clues together to make it to safety? This is a good beginner to intermediate puzzle game.
Developer/Publisher: Overflow
Release Date: May 2, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, with tracked controllers
Conductor, $9.99
Abode
Look high and low for clues that will help you, a noir detective, solve other puzzles inside a futuristic home with a mysterious past. What’s behind this door? Follow your curiosity to escape the house you’re locked inside of as you pick up and break things, rummage through drawers, find hidden objects, and piece clues together. Make sure you read anything you find and don’t overlook small items. Abode will keep your brain thinking flexibly but will also try to throw you off a bit with decoys like a real detective. This is a good beginner to intermediate puzzle and a find a way out of the house game.
Developer/Publisher: Overflow
Release Date: November 1, 2016
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, with tracked controllers
Abode, $9.99
FORM
This is a mind puzzling game that takes place in a futuristic and surreal environment of Dr. Eli’s own mind. In Form, you’re to work out any memory generated mysteries that pop up as the physicist who is making sense of it all. This game has impressive graphics quality and mechanical puzzles that can be manipulated to open up larger areas and more puzzles. This is an intermediate to advanced puzzle and escape the mind game.
Developer/Publisher: Charm Games
Release Date: June 1, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, with tracked controllers
FORM, $14.99