The 20 Google Daydream apps and games you need to download

Google’s Daydream View headset is light, comfy, and stylish – like a well-made pair of cosy winter slippers, if you like. Place Google’s swanky smartphone-powered headset on your noggin though, and you’ll be greeted with a world of virtual possibilities, beyond anything your actual slippers can replicate. Here’s a look at our 20 favourite Daydream apps and games right now.

REZ INFINITE

Rez is more than 15 years old and traces its origins back to the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, but it’s been reborn in VR with Rez Infinite – and this is truly how the game was meant to be played. It’s straight-up stunning and runs super smooth as you soar through abstract, polygonal environments and blast enemies that approach. Rez Infinite manages to be both frenetic and totally Zen-like, thanks to its harmonious pairing of visuals and audio.

ECLIPSE: EDGE OF LIGHT

Daydream’s mandatory motion controller means VR games can add in a fair bit of interactivity, and Eclipse: Edge of Light is easily one of the most impressive examples we’ve seen to date on the platform. It’s a first-person adventure, but rather than ride on the rail of a fixed path, you’re given free rein to wander around, fire your jetpack to boost about, and use a mystical artefact to solve environmental puzzles. You’re also able to look freely and can even see your own video-game hand moving with your Daydream controller.

AUDIO FACTORY

Like a lot of VR experiences – especially those on mobile – Audio Factory is more or less a tech demo. However, this tech demo comes from Google, and it’s a lot more impressive than your average quick-hit experience. As the name suggests, Audio Factory is all about sound: it’s a showcase for spatial VR audio using regular ol’ wired earbuds, and it really impresses as you fiddle with electrical currents, trigger the showers in a faux forest, and strum strings.

VIRTUAL VIRTUAL REALITY

Yes, you read that right – Virtual Virtual Reality offers double the virtual and also double the fun. Seriously, it’s arguably the most impressive and engrossing Daydream experience to date, with a definite Portal vibe to the humour. In Virtual Virtual Reality, you play a human in servitude to futuristic robots, who use you to provide “artisanal human companionship” to A.I. entities via VR headsets.

FANTASTIC BEASTS

You might not know the difference between a hippogriff and thestral, but that doesn’t mean you won’t appreciate waving around a magic wand and getting up close and personal with three gigantic (and often intimidating) magical beasts. Set in Harry Potter’s wondrous universe, Fantastic Beasts sees you tend to three mystical creatures while their owner Newt Scamander is away. His voice is there to guide you, mind, and with a few flicks of your wand, you’ll be making potions and throwing grubs to gigantic multi-winged eagles in no time.

WONDERGLADE

Wonderglade is definitely aimed at little ones, but that doesn’t mean you can’t barge them out of the way for a minigame binge yourself. It’s okay, you’re bigger than them, and their reach is too small. You can do whatever you like. Games range from minigolf, a marble maze, putting out fires with a hose, and wacking diamonds out of the air with a stick. Admittedly those are probably not the official names, but you get the picture.

NETFLIX VR

When it comes to watching TV, the bigger the screen the better, right? Well, you might not believe it, but the biggest screen in your flat might be inside your Daydream headset. And the virtual home you watch it in might even be swankier than your own. Just fire up the Netflix VR app – the very same one as on Gear VR – and you’ll be whisked into a posh pad with a massive-looking telly on the wall featuring your very own Netflix queue.

MEKORAMA VR

Take a dash of Monument Valley, add a cute little robot, season with VR magic, and you’ve got yourself this adorable little brain puzzler which sees you rotate levels and manipulate obstacles to lead a little mechanical fellow along a journey of exploration. You can scan QR codes online for more levels too. Yes, they’re still a thing. We just checked.

HUNTERS GATE

We spent more time marvelling at the beautifully crafted level design in Hunters Gate than playing the actual game itself, thanks to its third-person view which gives you the impression that you’re towering over a gigantic Warhammer-like tabletop game. Stare too long though, and enemies will swarm you from all directions. Controls are simple – aiming at an enemy automatically fires projectiles at it, while clicking in the touchpad (which is also used to move around) releases a more powerful area-damage attack.

THE TURNING FOREST

Kudos to the BBC for this original gem: The Turning Forest is a brief, 360-degree fairytale about a child who happens across an enormous, fantasy creature in the woods, and then they go on a bit of a surreal journey together. It’s fabulously gorgeous, with the layered autumn trees and leaves falling from above, plus the dazzling ride on the back of the beast. And like Google’s Audio Factory, this one’s a showcase for spatial audio.

UNTETHERED

Not every intriguing Daydream game has to be an action-packed thrill ride – in fact, the curious Untethered is quite the opposite. You take the role of a radio DJ on his first day of a new gig, and you’ll actually use the microphone to read scripts and interact with callers as you settle into the routine. Over time, Untethered starts weaving a few story threads, and you begin to piece together the mystery around this odd Oregon town in the States.

STAR CHART VR

Want to see the stars? Just fire up the impressive Star Chart VR with your Daydream View and have a glimpse up at the virtual sky. It’ll show you all of the major constellations in the sky, letting you look closely and examine the stars that make up each shape. Better yet, you can hone in on each planet in our solar system for a close-up, and even explore the site of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing and a scene featuring the Mars Curiosity Rover.

ARCSLINGER

We’ve always wanted to be a gun-slinging cowboy ever since we fired our first spud gun, but for some reason, our Texan hotel owner didn’t take too kindly to us shooting potatoes into the sky while scaring the locals. Thankfully you can do whatever you like in VR, and blasting bad guys with a magical 6-shooter is a great way to relieve stress while living out our childhood cowboy dreams.

GOOGLE SPOTLIGHT STORIES

Google has been gradually building its library of Spotlight Stories over the last few years, and if you haven’t seen ’em, then you really should experience them in Daydream – some of them are pretty marvellous. Essentially, they’re 360-degree videos albeit with a light whiff of interactivity: the original stories progress all around you, but only continue once you look around to the next key action area. More critically, they’re all super-beautiful original animated shorts

KEEP TALKING AND NOBODY EXPLODES

This title is unique, in that it offers simultaneous multiplayer gaming with only one headset required. How? One person wears a headset and is presented with a randomly generated explosive device, with all sorts of puzzles, switches, knobs and levers to tinker with. The other people in the room have access to a manual which contains all the instructions for diffusing the bomb. Communication between the headset wearer and their peers is, as you’d imagine, crucial.

YOUTUBE VR

This app does pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to do – namely serve up all of YouTube’s growing 360 content in one easy to navigate place. Our favourites include the Natural History museum’s Rhomaleosaurus exhibit video. It’s one of those giant underwater dinosaurs with nasty-looking teeth, which comes to life before your very eyes, in a rather alarmingly realistic fashion.

GUNJACK 2: END OF SHIFT

If you’ve used Samsung’s Gear VR – Daydream’s chief rival – then you probably know about the original Gunjack, which is spun off from the fuller-bodied EVE Valkyrie space shooter game on higher-end VR platforms. Gunjack 2: End of Shift is essentially more of the same, but that’s not a bad thing. The campaign has a bit more storytelling than before, but you’re not here for the characters – you’re here to blast the hell out of wave after wave of alien ships that pop into view.

SO LET US MELT

So Let Us Melt is a “walking simulator” – an experimental, minimally interactive game that tells the story of a new world being built over the span of several million years, all told with super-abstract sights across an array of dazzling environments. Spoken narration helps establish exactly what’s happening, while the game itself amounts to a slow rollercoaster jaunt through beautiful terrain and some moving narrative bits along the way.

TWILIGHT PIONEERS

Magic. Swords. Dragon souls. Enemies. Dungeons. Nope, this isn’t Skyrim, but it’s as close as you’re going to get on your phone in VR, for the time being at least. While waving around a floating sword without any actual arms is a little disorientating at first, Twilight Pioneers does a good job of sucking you in, thanks to your ability to walk around freely, using a combination of the trackpad and your head movements – freedom that’s lacking in most of these other VR titles.

HORIZONS

Why simply listen to pulsing electronic beats when you can be immersed in them in VR? That’s the idea behind Horizons, which serves up a few different audio/visual experiences that surround you in delightful interpretations of the paired songs. The best of the bunch is “Outlier” by Bonobo, paired with a sparkling flight around mountaintops and into the depths of the ocean, as you zip through rings and guide a massive flock of birds around.