Haunted Headsets: Spooky and Supernatural VR Games for October and Beyond

October isn’t merely a time of year. It’s a state of mind. Black cats, full moons, and the color orange don’t mysteriously vanish on November 1, so why should your love for the supernatural?

Whether you prefer your ghosts friendly or fiendish, we’ve got games to indulge in all year round. You don’t need to say a spirit’s name three times, or light a circle of candles, or stand in a salt circle. Just put on your headset and try out The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Lies Beneath, or Duck Season. We even have a few games for the faint of heart, like Ghost Giant and Waltz of the Wizard. Check out the full list below, ranked roughly from “drinking a warm cup of cider by the fire” to “barricading the doors and windows.”

Note: This list is periodically updated. To ease you into the spooky season in 2022, we’ve added Resident Evil 4, The Twilight Zone VR, and Red Matter 2.

Autumnal

Ghost Giant

If you’d rather be a ghost than be haunted by one, give Ghost Giant a try. You play as—well, a giant ghost. A giant ghost with an enormous pair of spectral blue hands. From high above the landscape you watch over Louis, a lonely little cat who desperately needs a friend. Clear the forest road of boulders, shop for sunflower seeds at Monsieur Tulipe’s shop, memorize a secret handshake, and more in this heartwarming adventure that’s more cozy than creepy.

Available on: Quest Platform

Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition

Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble—but bubble with what? That’s up to you. Waltz of the Wizard is a sandbox for aspiring magic users. Use ingredients to devise spells like “Magnetize” and “Polymorph” and the ever-popular “Fireball,” and then use those spells in turn to reveal the secrets of the wizard’s tower. Pocket dimensions? A mysterious labyrinth? There’s plenty a keen eye can discover here. And even more to come, we might add! Come 2021, Waltz of the Wizard will add the massive Natural Magic expansion, adding new areas and spells to a game that’s already delighted Oculus users for years. (PS: Waltz of the Wizard is also a great way to test out Quest’s hand tracking capabilities, like making things explode with a snap of your finger!)

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Spooky-ish

Resident Evil 4

It’s been nearly two decades since Leon S. Kennedy first wandered into a sun-dappled village in search of the president’s daughter. Two decades—but the opening of Resident Evil 4 is as tense as ever, as murderous ganados flood from the buildings and attack from all sides. Now, thanks to Armature Studio (in partnership with Oculus Studios and Capcom) you can experience a faithful recreation of this survival horror classic from an all-new perspective. Step into Leon Kennedy’s shoes, fight through near-endless ganados, and try to find out who or what has turned these villagers into violent and single-minded monsters. Resident Evil 4 VR is a great way to experience this fan-favorite, whether it’s your first time through it or your fiftieth.

Available on: Quest Platform

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

New Orleans teems with the undead in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Drawing on Robert Kirkman’s celebrated comics, Saints & Sinners plunges you into a war between competing factions. Grisly combat underpins a grim story here, as you fight for survival amid the ruins and try to discover the secrets of New Orleans. Secrets so significant, it’s rumored they might turn the tide of the war. It falls to you to decide the fate of the city and your fellow survivors—assuming you can survive the walkers, of course.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

The Room VR – A Dark Matter

A dark matter, indeed. There’s always been an eerie undercurrent to The Room’s puzzles, and this initial VR outing is no different. A sealed sarcophagus is just the first clue in this ominous adventure, as you investigate the disappearance of a member of the British Institute of Archaeology. Expect to fiddle with lots of elaborate machinery, cranking gears and popping open hidden drawers as you try to solve the case—and save yourself.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Red Matter 2

Deep in an abandoned research base on one of Saturn’s many moons, secrets reside. Dangerous secrets. Secrets that could potentially destroy the entire galaxy. In Red Matter, your job is to bring these secrets to light—and, if possible, to put an end to any threats before they become unstoppable. Red Matter and its recently released sequel are masterful adventure games, peppering an alt-history version of the space race with just a dash of otherworldly horror at the edges. Explore awe-inspiring installations in the depths of space, solve puzzles, and uncover a mystery that spans the solar system. And remember: Not everything here is as it seems.

Available on: Quest 2 // Rift Platform

Wilson’s Heart

Wilson’s Heart is a brilliant homage to the black-and-white monster flicks of yesteryear—to Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and more. Awakening in an abandoned hospital, Robert Wilson (voiced by Peter Weller) is forced to contend with the supernatural at every turn, using his mysterious mechanical heart to solve puzzles and battle back foes. It’s a thrilling pulp-horror adventure where peals of thunder accompany haunting revelations, and bolstered by voice acting from Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, Michael B. Jordan, and more.

Available on: Rift Platform

Duck Season

Duck Season is a perfectly pleasant nostalgia trip that fondly recalls playing Duck Hunt in your basement as a child. It’s a good ol’ time—until it’s not. Duck Season is delightfully off-kilter, juxtaposing the coziness of a warm and familiar setting with the growing sense that something is wrong with it. It’s a slow and satisfying burn that plays on childhood fears, and a multitude of endings and secrets make it worth a second or even third playthrough. Oh, and it’s a solid Duck Hunt adaptation as well.

Available on: Rift Platform

Arizona Sunshine

The desert is hot, dry, and entirely too full of zombies. Arizona Sunshine was one of the Rift’s earliest first-person zombie shooters, and it remains a top-tier survival horror game thanks in part to its Old West trappings, opening with towering orange buttes and an abandoned mine. It’s tough, too. Picking off a zombie or two isn’t bad, but when the hordes descend on your position? You’d better be a crack shot with a pistol or you’re going to run out of ammo fast. The Dead Man and The Damned add-ons expand on the story behind Arizona Sunshine’s apocalypse, and once you’ve fought your way to the very, very end… well, there’s still a horde mode, if you think you can hold out against unending waves of undead.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Spooky

Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife

Are ghosts afraid of other ghosts? Turns out the answer is, “Absolutely.” In Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife, you’ve died and returned as a Wraith. Wander the Barclay Mansion and uncover the truth behind your own death—but beware the Spectres, sinister spirits who watch you from the shadows. You’ll need to use all your otherworldly talents to survive, including the ability to walk through walls and manipulate objects with your mind. Even that may not be enough. Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife brings the famed World of Darkness tabletop setting to life for a slow-burn horror story that’s as satisfying as it is terrifying.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition

A young boy has disappeared and you may be his only hope. At least, that’s what you tell yourself as you plunge into the iconic Black Hills Forest with little but a flashlight, a camera, and your trusty dog Bullet. Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition borrows and builds on the found footage conceit of the films, forcing you to document the evidence you find hidden in the forest… assuming you can trust your own eyes. Bloober Team made a name for itself with breakout psychological horror hit Layers of Fear, and Blair Witch follows in the same tradition, manipulating your reality even as you try to pin it down. But hey, at least in the Quest version you can always reach down and pet the dog.

Available on: Quest Platform

Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul

Experience the gut-wrenching terror of Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul. With nothing but a battery-hungry flashlight and a bit of courage, you’ll live through an original story that’s steeped in the mythology of the acclaimed Paranormal Activity film franchise. Developer VRWERX cranks up the tension with their proprietary “Scare Randomizer,” which guarantees you’ll never really know when you’re about to scream—until it’s too late. With no HUD to take you out of the experience, you’ll have to commit yourself to the terror that awaits you in Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul. Good luck.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Cosmodread

Something has gone very wrong aboard this spaceship. The power flickers on and off. A sort of…mold…is growing in the corridors. And sometimes you open a door only to find—well, best not let them get close enough to find out. Fire your crossbow and run. Cosmodread is the follow-up to 2016’s legendary Dreadhalls. Building on its predecessor’s ideas, Cosmodread is infinitely replayable, a run-based survival horror game that sends you to a different procedurally generated spaceship each time and challenges you to make it back home. Scavenge for weapons and ammo, keep an eye on your available oxygen, and uncover what horrors happened before your untimely arrival.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

Do you have what it takes to work at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza? Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted collects some of the best moments from the series into one nightmare-inducing compilation built for VR. Steel your nerves and try to survive the night shift—just you and a bunch of obviously-not-threatening-at-all animatronics. Help Wanted is claustrophobic and tense and full of jump scares, and arguably the definitive version of Five Nights at Freddy’s whether you’re an old fan or a total newcomer.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform

The Twilight Zone VR

“You’re traveling through another dimension—a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.” The Twilight Zone VR is eerie from the get-go, as you journey through an immersive recreation of the classic title sequence, complete with voiceover and the iconic theme song. Three brand-new The Twilight Zone stories follow, each haunting in its own unique way. Every chapter plays differently, from stealth to shooter and beyond. Explore a bizarre workplace, survive an environmental apocalypse, and escape an alien ship, all in The Twilight Zone.

Available on: Quest 2

Lies Beneath

“A young university student returns home, but will this hurried homecoming be happy or haunted?” Spoiler: It’s haunted. The town of Slumber, Alaska has been infested with strange monsters in Lies Beneath, a survival horror game with an eye-catching comic book look. Don’t mistake it for style over substance though, as Lies Beneath underpins its brush and ink aesthetic with white-knuckled melee fights, tense chase sequences, and a note-perfect feel for pacing that keeps the story gripping from start to finish.

Available on: Quest Platform // Rift Platform