Metaverse & VR

Among Giants Review: Hard, Weird, and Absolutely Unmissable in VR

14 Mai 2026 •

A Game That Doesn’t Care If You Like It

Let me be blunt: Among Giants is not here to hold your hand. It will not pause to explain why you just fell off a cliff for the tenth time, nor will it offer a comforting waypoint when you’re hopelessly lost in a forest that seems to breathe. And yet, after a decade of covering VR — through the gold rush, the trough of disillusionment, and the slow burn of maturity — I can say with confidence: this is one of the most immersive, atmospheric, and genuinely memorable VR games I have ever played.

That’s not a claim I make lightly. We’ve seen the tech demos, the wave shooters, the ported flatscreen titles that feel like an afterthought. Among Giants is none of those things. It is a purpose-built VR epic that refuses to compromise on its vision, even when that vision is opaque, punishing, and occasionally infuriating. In an industry that increasingly sandpapers every edge, that alone makes it worth celebrating.

What Is This Thing, Anyway?

You play as a wanderer in a world that has clearly seen better days. The premise is thin — something about a lost civilization, giants that once roamed, a mystery to unravel. But to focus on the narrative would be to miss the point. This is a game about being in a place. A place that feels ancient, hostile, and achingly beautiful.

The opening moments are a masterclass in environmental storytelling. You emerge from a cave into a valley that stretches toward a monolithic, crumbling tower. The scale is dizzying. You look up, and the sky seems to press down on you. The sound design is sparse but precise: wind, distant birds, the crunch of your own footsteps. It’s the kind of moment that makes you forget you’re wearing a headset.

But then you try to climb a rock face, and the game reminds you that it has teeth.

Climbing That Actually Feels Like Climbing

The movement system is a hybrid of teleportation and free locomotion, but the real star is the climbing. You grab holds with your hands, pull yourself up, find purchase with your feet. It’s physically demanding in a way that most VR games only pretend to be. After an hour, my shoulders ached. After two, I was genuinely exhausted.

And I loved every second of it.

There’s a tactile satisfaction here that’s rare. When you miss a handhold and slip, you feel it in your gut. When you finally crest a ridge and see the next area unfold below, the payoff is earned. This is not a game you can play while lounging on a couch. It demands you stand, stretch, reach, and sometimes fail.

The Difficulty: A Feature, Not a Bug

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Among Giants is hard. Not in a cheap, unfair way, but in the sense that it trusts you to figure things out. There are no glowing objective markers. No quest log. No NPC telling you to go to the thing and press the button. You have to look, listen, and think.

I spent forty-five minutes trying to find a path through a sunken canyon. I backtracked, climbed the wrong wall twice, and nearly threw my Quest across the room. But when I finally spotted a subtle crack in the stone — a handhold I’d missed because I was looking for something more obvious — the satisfaction was electric. I wasn’t following a breadcrumb trail; I was exploring.

This approach will not work for everyone. I’ve seen reviews from players who bounced off it hard, calling it frustrating and poorly designed. I get it. In an age of frictionless experiences, asking a player to work for their progress feels almost radical. But in my view, that friction is exactly what makes Among Giants special. It respects your intelligence, and it trusts you to be curious.

Atmosphere Over Action

Don’t come here expecting combat. There’s no sword, no gun, no monster to slay. The tension comes from the environment itself. A sudden drop in temperature as you enter a shadowed gorge. The distant rumble of something large moving underground. The way the light filters through leaves in a forest that feels older than human memory.

The visual fidelity on Quest 3 is genuinely impressive. Developer Smesh has worked miracles with the hardware, delivering draw distances and lighting effects that rival PC VR titles. The art direction leans into a stylized realism — think the work of Moebius filtered through a survival documentary. It’s not photorealistic, but it’s evocative.

There’s a sequence in the second act where you navigate a series of underground caverns lit only by bioluminescent fungi. The colors shift from deep purple to electric blue, and the shadows dance in ways that made me stop and just look. I took off my headset after that session and felt like I’d been somewhere real. That’s the magic.

But Let’s Talk About The Rough Edges

I would be doing my job poorly if I didn’t mention the issues. And there are issues.

Performance stutters: On Quest 3, I hit several areas where the frame rate dropped noticeably, especially when looking out over large vistas. It’s not game-breaking, but it breaks the spell.
Opaque puzzles: There’s a line between challenging and obtuse, and Among Giants occasionally steps over it. One puzzle involving rotating stone pillars had me consulting a guide. I’m not proud of it, but there it is.
No comfort options: If you’re prone to motion sickness, proceed with caution. The game offers snap turning and vignettes, but the climbing and free movement can be disorienting. This is a game for VR veterans, not newcomers.

These are not dealbreakers for me, but they’re worth noting. The game is ambitious, and ambition sometimes means rough edges. I’d rather have a flawed masterpiece than a polished mediocrity.

What This Means for VR

We’re at a strange moment in VR. The hardware is better than ever, but the software landscape has become cautious. Publishers are chasing safe bets — ports of established franchises, multiplayer shooters, fitness apps. Among Giants is a reminder that VR can be art. It can be strange, difficult, and deeply personal.

I think about the moment near the end of the game, when you finally reach the summit of the giant tower. The wind howls. The world stretches out below you in a patchwork of ruin and rebirth. There’s no fanfare, no achievement pop-up, no score. Just you, and the view, and the quiet understanding that you earned it.

That’s the kind of experience that stays with you. That’s why I still believe in this medium.

Is Among Giants for everyone? No. And it doesn’t want to be. But if you’re willing to meet it on its own terms — to struggle, to get lost, to push through the frustration — it will reward you with something you won’t find anywhere else. In a sea of safe bets, this is a game that dares to be difficult. And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need.