Oculus First Contact is our No.1 ranked Free VR Experience on the Oculus Quest!

When most people think about the Oculus Quest 2, they think about the VR games you can play on it. Games like Beat Saber, The Walking Dead and Pistol Whip. However, if you limit your horizon exclusively to the game category, you're missing out on some amazing stuff. At VR Game Rankings, we specialize in ranking games, but VR experiences can hold as deep a place in our hearts, if not more so! In fact, you can argue that certain VR experiences are much more powerful than any game, with the caveat, that they're typically very brief. (We've recently ranked the Top 25 Best Free Oculus Quest Experiences, so be sure to check out the full breakdown)

When Facebook acquired Oculus back in early 2014, they knew they'd need a killer app that could give a first time user a brief, but powerful glimpse into the power of VR. Something that could knock their socks off, and let them know two things... first, that VR is here to stay, and second, that this is just the beginning. So, an internal team, known as "Oculus Rex", went about the process of creating that specific demo... it would be known as Oculus First Contact.

On December 5th, 2016, Oculus First Contact launched alongside the first generation of Oculus Touch controllers. It was a critical piece of software, because it would help onboard new VR users, but more importantly, it would do so in an engaging and entertaining way. Users would use the motion controllers and all their various buttons, but wouldn't be conscious of the training wheels. They'd be so captivated by the experience, that they'd forget they were in what's essentially a beginner's tutorial.

The plan worked! VR users everywhere were blown away by the experience. Many will try it several times, just to soak it all in. Then get their friends and family to give it a go. Oculus First Contact was probably the most popular Oculus Rift demo material on the platform. If a friend was coming over to your house, and wanted to try your VR gear, you'd boot them into Oculus First Contact. It was standard procedure.

Of course, when Oculus decided that the VR industry needed a killer standalone headset that would appeal more to a mass market audience, they knew that this audience would need a similar onboarding process. The question was... could Oculus First Contact be successfully ported to the Oculus Quest? The power differences between the two platforms is pretty substantial. Also, even if it could be translated over to the new mobile platform, would it still have that special something? Or would it lose the key ingredient in the translation?

Oculus Rex, the internal developer behind the project, achieved the impossible! Not only did Oculus First Contact make the transition with flying colors, but you'd be hard pressed to tell many differences from the Oculus Rift version. You'd have to A/B both versions aggressively back and forth to nitpick it. Even the incredible lighting seemed to make it through intact!

So, what turned out as some of the best ever demo/onboarding material on Oculus Rift, also works fantastically well on the Quest! This is great news for all involved. If you're a brand new owner of an Oculus Quest 2, and you're looking to enjoy a super cool experience, then by all means try Oculus First Contact. Then let your whole family try it. For those of you that don't own a Quest yet, you're sure to know somebody that does, that could give you a quick sample of our No.1 ranked VR Experience on the Oculus Quest, Oculus First Contact. With as well as the Oculus Quest 2 is selling this holiday, you're sure to know somebody that can't wait to show off how cool this Virtual Reality technology is. Exciting Times!