Meta Quest 3 Review

I’ll be sincere in this review from start to finish because everything here was completely new to me. I’ve had a firm opinion on the concept and ideology of virtual reality for a long time. My stance on VR is that it’s a gimmick, niche, and will never last. 

We’ve seen it before with gadgets such as the Eyetoy on Playstation 2 many years ago. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Kinect and I could go on. All experiences that took you outside of the traditional gaming space and plonked you elsewhere. OK, it’s not quite the same as VR, but I was of the same mindset this would fizzle out similar to what I’ve mentioned. 

I recently decided to invest in Meta Quest 3 and I’m surprised at myself in all honesty. You may be wondering, why bother if you have those opinions on VR? Let’s just say I’m willing to be proven wrong and I’m happy to give it a chance. Here I’ll be covering the great, the good and what could be better.

Be Prepared To Spend More

Frustratingly I found that almost straight away you need to start sinking more money into the experience. The standard head strap it comes with is god awful to the point where my six-year-old son couldn’t play. The head strap would not adjust to his head shape and the headset’s weight pulled down beyond his nose. For an adult, it becomes very uncomfortable for anything more than a short session. 

This meant I had to spend £27 on a much better strap over the extortionate cost of £70 for Meta’s elite head strap. Another issue I’ve found immediately is storage. Once you unwrap this from the box you won’t want it just knocking about strewn on a side somewhere. You need to keep the lenses out of sunlight at all times so you’ll need a carry case of some description if you want to take good care of it. So you’re looking at £30 upwards for a case, in which I’m yet to invest. 

You can purchase a variance of charging docks for the Meta Quest 3 but again, this is an expense you may not want. Batteries are the next cost, if you want to extend your playtime beyond the two-hour session barrier then you need to look into external battery options. Also, the hand controllers use a AA battery each so you’ll need to cater for this too. I’d recommend rechargeables here but then they seem to last a while, after four days of heavy play mine still have 80% charge.

An Extensive Library Of Games, Apps & More

Obviously when purchasing any piece of hardware for the first time, funds are limited. I was a bit wary coming from a console where I have 1300+ titles in my digital library to something new with zero games. There is an arsenal of free-to-play titles that are fantastic, two that stand out for me are Infinite Poker and Population One. There are even experiences for the younger kids with Meta Horizons, Roblox VR, Rec Room and more.

Delving into the realms of the paid games on the market, I was pleasantly surprised by how much is out there. Everything is organised neatly into a store similar to Xbox and Playstation with regular sales. I found most full-price experiences range around the £25 mark on average, so you’re not going to be dishing out £60+ to play the latest and greatest out there.

Applications are super immersive with Youtube VR feeling like you’re sitting in a cinema and it is insane how the perspective makes you feel like you are. Web browsing is flawless and if you wanted to, you could work from this headset without distractions. The Meta Quest 3 does a great job at making you feel contained within what is in front of your eyes.

Meta Quest+ Is Great

Don’t want to shell out for lots of games off the bat? I recommend Meta Quest+ which is essentially the Meta version of Xbox Game Pass. For the reasonable cost of £7.99, you have access to 2 new titles every calendar month. Once titles are redeemed they are added to your game library and are accessible as long as you are subscribed. If you leave the service and rejoin, you will still have access to the games you have redeemed. If you haven’t tried Meta Quest+ before, then they offer the first month free of charge and you can cancel if it isn’t for you.

It was nice of them to even email me towards the end of my trial asking if I wanted to remain subscribed and even directing me to cancel if I wished. Lots of organisations will often make it as hard as possible for you to leave. Xbox has only recently introduced subscription settings onto the console itself after almost 2 decades of Xbox Live. Meta Quest+ will also at the time of writing, allow you to redeem any past titles that have been added to the service.

The Tech Is Striving Forwards

I am not going to go into specifics of the headset itself as a quick Google search will direct you to the resolutions and power of the headset. After researching, there is much more power and improved resolution over the Meta Quest 2 and whilst it isn’t the best VR headset on the market for image quality and power, it competes with the best out there. Meta Quest is striving forward in comparison to the PSVR 2 for instance which unfortunately isn’t performing great in terms of sales and many projects are being cancelled by Sony and third-party devs.

The options are there to link your Meta Quest 3 to utilise PC and link up with your Steam library. This is an option I haven’t explored and I think it is amazing that it exists. If you have a high-powered gaming rig, then this will be ramped up in terms of performance, resolution and more games that can’t be handed on the standalone headset wirelessly.

Passthrough is excellent here, giving you new ways to play, being able to put a virtual Pool table in your living room and have a game whilst being able to see your surroundings is something that blew my mind, shout out to the Miracle Pool development team. But if you’re looking to just chill on the sofa and get stuck in and still be able to interact with people around you and do things like browse your phone, it can be done.

Final Thoughts

My feelings on VR are still the same in the sense that it is niche and this is down to several factors. Cost is still an issue and 99% of gamers would always pick a PC or console over a Meta Quest 3. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love everything I’ve experienced though. Immersion is just next level and you always feel like you’re inside whatever game you’re playing in. 

Would I recommend Meta Quest 3? I would if you were on the fence. If you have the room and several people in the family that would use the headset then you’re onto a winner. The technology is incredible but you’re limited out of the box. So if you’re investing then you need to think about sinking another £100-£200 in. I know that Meta isn’t making a profit from the headset itself so that I can understand. But VR is progressing well and is always a delight and extremely enjoyable to partake in. I’m glad I’m part of the journey. Will it hold my attention for the long term though? Only time will tell.