Xortex 26XX – The Best VR Game Ever


I got my first VR headset in 2015, as an early Christmas present to myself from my wife.  I had purchased a high-end gaming rig a few months earlier – an I7 with GTX 1060 video card.  I remember the headset arriving the day before Thanksgiving, and spending several hours that evening setting up VR and jumping in for the first time…  It was magical, and that was just the calibration intro!  Followed by a “Welcome to VR” experience which was even more amazing.  You could move your hands and see them animated before you, and there were many things around you that could pick up or move.  When you waved “hi” at the robot, it waved back.  What a wonderful new world; one that we all take for granted today.

I started acquiring several games and other VR titles, getting as much content as I could.  I remember moving that little fox around a beautiful, miniaturized 3D virtual world in Super Lucky’s Tale, a VR version of a Mario-style scroller game.  Or the time I realized that I could look under the virtual bed by physically getting down on my knees and looking under the bed, to find the key that I needed to continue my journey.  VR opened up so many new possibilities.

Everyone remembers the original 1980’s Galaga arcade game.  Imagine a VR equivalent today with those rows of alien ships coming at you from all directions.  Now imagine that same VR Galaga, on steroids.  This is what I think of Xortex 26XX, which is a “mini game” inside the free SteamVR experience: The Lab.  The Lab itself is awesome.  So much detail all around you which is nothing but interactive VR eye candy.  Valve really went all out to create that virtual world and immerse you in it.  

The story with The Lab is that you are a “pocket time traveler”, and there are virtual 2D people all around you taking care of daily operations of a massive lab and the surrounding infrastructure.  They created so much detail in this world, and feel like I spent a bunch of time just creating a simple virtual raft on the water in PlanetVRium!  Xortex 26XX is a virtual arcade game inside the Lab.  Next to the arcade game is a basketball-sized transparent sphere which you “put on” your head.  As a result, you are transported to a tiny virtual dome; the only warrior in a tiny arena.

When you start the game, there are bots attacking one of your hands, which is a virtual representation of a tiny spaceship.  You must defend this spaceship; you have only one life and when you die it’s game over.  There are no extra lives, just start over and try again.  Some bots are miniature guided missiles coming at you.  Others are stationary, shooting deadly spheres at you.  Another bot emits laser beams that rotate around the room akin to all those movies where the thief is trying to bypass a laser security grid to get inside the vault.

Your spaceship/hand shoots at these bots and destroys them.  They are everywhere all around, appearing slowly at first and increasing to a frenzied pace.  You cannot possibly keep up, deadly things flying around in all directions in the tiny little dome.  Eventually something hits you; game over, try again.

The background music is the same 4 notes … repeated over and over … for as long as you survive.  But it somehow still makes you groove while you’re defending your ship. 

The game forces you to move around the virtual arena, a lot.  It incentivizes you with blue power-up spheres for you to reach out and grab.  They are the best item in the game and worth the effort to lean forward or crouch down to pick them up, wherever they may be in 3D space.  Initially they increase the multiplication factor on the scoring system: 2X, 3X, all the way to 10X, which is the maximum.  Then they are worth 1,000 points for each additional power up acquired after you reach the 10X max.  The bots themselves are worth 10 points, 20 points, 30, etc., up to 50 points for the biggest bot.  And this 10X multiplier makes those same bots worth 100 points, 200 points, etc.  So definitely worth the effort and risk to try to grab them every chance you get.

Xortex has a worldwide leaderboard, so you can see how your highest score compares to everyone else who has ever played this game.  I am currently ranked number 615 in the world, with a high score of 54,050 points.  I’ve recently started playing it again, after a several-year hiatus; I was working on PlanetVRium and didn’t have time for other fun in VR.  Earlier today I played 20-25 times trying to beat that high score.  The closest I got was 20,280.  My second highest game was 14K, and then an 11K game.  And several “horrible” games with scores under 10K.  I have no idea how I ever got to the impossible score of 54K – I guess a lucky break after lots of practice.

So, I still think that Valve’s Xortex 26XX is the best VR game ever, now 8 years later.  Yes, I like Space Pirate Trainer, Beat Saber, and other titles, but Xortex is my favorite VR game of all. The Lab is available for free on the SteamVR store.  The best game, free.  What could be better?  I hope you experience it for yourself.