It was around mid-October when I first saw an advertisement for the Oculus Quest 2. I knew immediately that I needed one. Unfortunately I was a bit late to the draw and it didn’t get to my house until 11:07 a.m. on Jan. 12. Being 11:07, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy it until around 3 p.m. when school let out. Thankfully, however, that gave me plenty of time to hype up the product in my head. 

Once the clock struck the hour, I rushed over to the charging station and put the headset on as fast as I could. Less than 15 minutes after I had donned my crown, I was browsing their diverse selection of games in the store. I had some previous knowledge of a few games, thanks to my brother, so I had a general idea of what I wanted. Eventually I settled on The Walking Dead, The Climb, and (after much deliberation) Superhot.

Once I made the final purchase, I had around 15 to 20 minutes to fiddle around with the headset and get my “hub world” to look as I wanted it to. There were several default options for the background – Passthrough, Cyber City, and Space Station to name a few. After spending far too much time looking through them, I decided to load up one of the default programs that could help me get a start in my first long-term VR experience.

After about 15 minutes of getting my bearings, I loaded up Superhot. In this game, you are constantly bombarded with “red guys” (the enemies) and you have to fight them off, which sounds pretty simple, right? Well, no. It isn’t that simple. The catch for this game is that time only moves when you move. Thankfully, this only applies to when you move either your hands or your head in a way that moves your “body.” After around two hours of numerous frustrations and triumphs, I decided to give it a break. Now thoroughly drenched in sweat, I took a second to think about what I liked and disliked about the product.

My main issue with the headset is that it is somewhat uncomfortable on my head. I had to tighten the straps to the point where when I take it off, there is a very large and VERY noticeable red stripe right across my forehead. My next complaint is that you have to have a Facebook account in order to do just about anything with the product. Disregarding those minor issues, it’s relatively cheap, coming in at $299 for the 64Gb version and $399 for the 256Gb version. The controls are intuitive to the point that I felt like I had hours of experience with the controls just 15 short minutes after I started. Furthermore, the sound quality is fabulous considering the fact that there are no headphones and instead speakers pointed directly at your ear.

From the Quest 2’s shockingly low price to insanely fun games, I think this product is a great piece of hardware for people that are just starting to get into VR. A solid 9.7/10.