As a VR enthusiast, it’s hard to understand why the Oculus Quest 2 still hasn’t hit critical mass. It’s not a matter of cost: the Quest 2 is half the price of the PS5 and Xbox Series X and less than a third of a 30-series GPU, and unlike all of those, is widely available. It’s not due to a lack of content either. There are hundreds of games on the Oculus store, and at least a dozen I would consider must-plays. There are even more if you have a decent computer to link to, like Half-Life: Alyx, Star Wars Squadrons, and my personal favorite, Insomniac’s Stormland. I don’t think it's an accessibility issue either - at least not for the vast majority of potential VR players. Resolution and high refresh rates have virtually eliminated the disorientation of early VR, and even if you’re especially squeamish, every game has plenty of settings built in that help eliminate any discomfort. If you ask me, the Quest 2 ought to be as ubiquitous as the equally-priced Nintendo Switch, but as of this past July, the Quest 2 has only sold four million units to the Switch’s 89.
Is there anything that can save VR? Before I played Resident Evil 4 VR, I probably would have said this is as good as it gets for the Quest 2. Now that I’ve got my hands on it, however, I firmly believe that remakes are the future of VR.
I’ve played close to 100 VR games, and I’ve never had an experience like Resident Evil 4. There are better-looking, more immersive, and higher quality games out there, but none have ever given me as much joy and nostalgia as playing Resident Evil in VR has. As soon as the opening cutscene ended and I took control of Leon, I was instantly transported. I know every inch of RE4’s village, castle, and underground mines, but I never felt like I’d been to these places until now. RE4VR feels like the difference between looking at a picture of the Parthenon versus traveling to Greece and standing in the center of it. Seeing RE4 on a screen is incomparable to seeing it in person, and experiences like this have the potential to sell VR to even the most reluctant players.
It does something that a remake or remaster can never do. No matter how much Mass Effect Legendary Edition or Spyro Reignited may look like how we remember them, they’ll never be able to capture the experience of playing games as a kid. Revisiting classics through remasters and remakes definitely induces nostalgia, and they have the power to trigger all manner of memories and feelings from the past, but a fresh coat of paint just isn’t enough to truly bring me back. Resident Evil 4 VR, despite it being a completely different format, has moved me in ways a normal remake never could. This game makes me regress, and from talking to other people and watching streamers play it, it seems to be doing the same thing to everyone that grew up with Leon’s Spanish adventure.
I can’t play the Spyro trilogy for the first time again, nor can I approach it with the same innocence and sense of wonder that I did when I was ten years old. I still love the series, but games have changed a lot since Spyro first came out. There have been 20 years of evolution and innovation since Spyro the Dragon was made, and I’ve seen how games have been refined and enhanced since then. I’ve changed a lot too. I’m a critic now, and I pick games apart and analyze them for a living. I can revisit Spyro from a new perspective, but now I experience it as an echo of the original - a snapshot of my childhood.
RE4VR doesn’t function like a remake or remaster at all. When I play it, it's a way of experiencing something I’m intimately familiar with. It’s somewhere between nostalgia and deja vu - like going somewhere you’ve only been in your dreams. When I’m fully immersed in a VR game, it's the closest I ever get to that childhood feeling of getting totally lost in a game, and the familiarity of RE4 makes that even more profound. I know every inch of this game, yet somehow I’m also seeing it all for the first time.
VR remakes like Resident Evil 4 are a much easier sell to non-VR players than other games in the medium. I can preach about how remarkable Half-Life: Alyx is until everyone hates me (which happens often) but it's impossible to really understand how great that game is unless you play it for yourself. This has always been a huge barrier for VR, which is why Oculus was so keen on developing a wireless model that could more easily be taken on the go and shared with friends. People need to try VR before they really get it, but remakes of classic games like RE4 might just be compelling enough to convince people to take the dive sight unseen. “It’s Resident Evil 4, but you’re actually walking through the village yourself” is easy to wrap your head around, and a pretty intriguing premise too.
RE4 isn’t the first game to get a VR remake, but it is the first to really capitalize on the nostalgia potential. Skyrim VR, No Man’s Sky, and LA Noire VR are all modified - and in some ways, compromised - versions of modern games, but RE4VR is entirely modernized and enhanced by VR. This isn’t just an alternate way to play RE4, it’s the best way to play it in 2021.
Facebook clearly sees the potential for VR versions of classic games, having announced GTA: San Andreas at last week’s Facebook Connect 2021. We should expect to see more PS2-era games on the Quest 2 (or Meta 2, I guess), hopefully a lot more. Games like Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill 2, and Beyond Good & Evil are ripe for VR versions, and I’d love to see even older games like GoldenEye and Perfect Dark remade for the Quest too. A robust library of classic games is exactly what VR needs to attract a wider audience, and Resident Evil 4 was absolutely the best place to start.