VR games are played with a virtual reality headset. A virtual reality headset is a special piece of gaming hardware that connects to a PC. The player wears it on their head, covering their eyes and ears. When worn, a virtual reality headset will immerse the player within the game world, with the game’s first-person viewpoint appearing on a screen within the headset. The headset will have a way of tracking the player’s body movements, enabling them to move and look around the gaming environment as if they were in the game itself. VR headsets will usually come with a pair of motion-tracked controllers that let players interact with the game world. Because they’re tracked, players can see the controller’s position rendered in the game, which enables players to interact with game objects.
The difference in moving from a monitor-based first-person perspective to a virtual reality viewpoint is profound. VR games are built for the player to be a part of the world in a much more tactile and interactive fashion than other games. Walking, turning, ducking, and moving their hands in the real world will see the player perform the same actions within the game. This means they can duck behind a wall to hide by crouching in the real world. They can move levers, pick up items, aim guns, and even throw grenades in game by moving their arms in the real world.
Because of this interactivity, VR-specific titles tend to involve lots of physics objects for the player to manipulate. These can be items to move around and stack or even zombies to grab and bash.
The breadth and scope of VR titles can range from first-person zombie shooters to tabletop [strategy games](/c/strategy-games) where you reach out and move the game pieces to sitting in the cockpit of trucks or spaceships and moving the controls with your hands. Pretty much any FPS game can work as a VR title, given relatively few modifications.