October is a time for tricks, treats, and scare-filled fun. Get a workout or play a game that will get your adrenaline fired up! Challenge yourself as a zombie-killing pro or start off as a beginner. See how many zombies and monsters you can hit, shoot, slice, or maim. Don’t kill off an entire pack of snack size candy bars — get rid of some zombies instead!
Zombie Training Simulator
This is one of the least intimidating first-person zombie shooter VR games around. It has a one-dimensional or flattened design to its zombie characters, so you’ll likely laugh when you first see them instead of feeling scared. This is a great introduction to zombie games for anyone who scares or stresses easily.
Fitness Potential
The upper body will get lots of attention with this game as you shoot hordes of zombies and gain combo points. Upgrade and unlock automatic weapons to take out the big ones for higher XP or use a propane tank as an explosive to take out larger groups. Add some weight resistance like a weighted vest or wrist and ankle weights for strength training so you’ll be ready when the Zombie Apocalypse hits.
Developer/Publisher: Acceleroto, Inc.
Release Date: April 15, 2016
Compatible with: HTC Vive, with tracked motion controllers
Price: $19.99
Link: Zombie Training Simulator
Header Goal VR: Being Axel Rix
You’re Axel Rix, a famous soccer player kicked out of the league for poor header accuracy and leading his team to losses. Your goal is to train to be the best zombie killer and a respected soccer player again. Jump and use your head to aim soccer balls to kill zombies, gain points, improve your header accuracy, and conquer various challenges.
Fitness Potential
The movement of using your head to jump and aim a ball at a virtual game board, zombies, zombie bosses, or any other objects is surprisingly a full body motion. This will take full upper body motion control, especially for the head, neck, shoulders, and core. You might want to use a weighted vest to make this movement more difficult if you feel like your own body weight isn’t enough resistance. The lower body will get tired after you jump to meet those soccer balls after a few minutes of gameplay. If using your neck is a challenging physical movement for you please rethink using this game as it uses a lot of neck strength.
Developer/Publisher: Codemodeon
Release Date: August 16, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, with tracked/touch motion controllers
Price: $14.99
Link: Header Goal VR: Being Axel Rix
ZR: Zombie Riot
Zombie Riot is a medium-intensity VR game that will have you shooting zombies of all sizes and types as you save the world. Use over 30 weapons to shoot, hack away, and headshot the living dead that are trying to crawl and stalk their way to you or are taking over an objective. Upgrade your weapons as you hit larger targets for more XP, gain a higher ranking on the Steam leaderboard, or advance to different viewpoints and stages of play as you defeat hordes of zombies.
Fitness Potential
As you fight to keep zombies away from you and the objective you’ll be using your upper body strength to shoot rapid-fire guns for an elongated time. If you add wrist weights while using ZR your arms and shoulders will be burning by the end of the game, we promise. Watch out for the stealthy mini-zombies are a great hand-eye coordination challenge and really keep you on your toes. The fast body maneuvering, rapid shooting, reloading, and constant awareness of your surroundings combined with a waist weight or weighted vest will definitely get your heart pumping and your headset sweaty.
Developer/Publisher: PlaySide VR
Release Date: May 25, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, with tracked/touch motion controllers
Price: $19.99
Link: ZR: Zombie Riot, ZR: Zombie Riot
Dead Effect 2 VR
Dead Effect 2 is a high-intensity first person that can be played as a multiplayer co-op/PvP shooter action game. Be warned that the realistic but graphic content of this game will have you mildly to super freaked out at how scary these zombies look as you fight to protect the people who are still alive on board the ship. Full of blood, guts, and gore, this VR game isn’t for the faint of heart. You’ll be using automatic guns, shotguns, sci-fi guns, and bows and arrows among other upgradable weaponry. Collect a whole set of gear and unlock your character’s fullest combat potential as you kill zombies, scary dogs, cyborgs, cannibals, and other terrifying monsters and bosses.
Fitness Potential
As you make your way around the ship looking for survivors you’ll be looking for ammo, better guns and melee weapons, and more monsters to kill. Use your entire body to stabilize yourself in the real world as your virtual one is going to be overwhelmed by zombies. You’ll get a full upper and lower body workout from shooting screaming astro-zombies in the face as they try to eat yours. If you want to kick your workout up a notch you can increase the difficulty and add weights to your wrists, waist, or ankles.
Developer/Publisher: BadFly Interactive, a.s.
Release Date: June 8, 2017
Compatible with: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, with tracked/touch motion controllers
Price: $19.99
Link: Dead Effect 2 VR