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Originally launched on Meta Quest in November 2025 and now arriving on Steam, STARVAULT is a free-to-play online shooter that bills itself as VR's first true first-person MOBA.

Sometimes a game catches you completely off guard, even if it’s on the second time around.

When I first played STARVAULT during early access, I thought it was good. Polished, well made and full of potential, certainly, but not a game I expected to spend much time with. Well, fast forward about a year and I have somehow logged more than thirty hours into the Steam version in just two weeks.

Considering MOBAs are usually my least favorite type of online shooter, that should tell you everything you need to know. Theia Games have crafted something genuinely special here and, much to my surprise, I have found myself completely hooked.

The Facts

What is it?: A fast paced, strategic first person MOBA that shares gameplay elements with a hero shooter
Platforms: {LINK REMOVED}Meta Quest, SteamVR
Release Date: 27 November 2025 (Quest), 25 June 2026 (Steam)
Developer: Theia Games
Publisher: Theia Games
Price: Free to Play Zero to Hero

The objective in STARVAULT is simple: destroy the enemy base before they destroy yours. However, it's never really that simple, as almost every minute of every match presents another decision that could influence the outcome. Your friendly NPC units – known as ‘Creeps’ – constantly push down the lanes, applying pressure to enemy defenses and creating opportunities for your team.

Venture away from the lanes and you'll find more powerful ‘Jungle Creeps’ that offer perks for your team. Timed objectives can swing momentum in your favor, while portals create new strategic opportunities throughout a match. Then there is the Titan; a giant stone automaton that, once defeated, can be piloted directly into the enemy's defenses with devastating results.

What makes STARVAULT so compelling is the way all of these systems interact. Every match becomes a constant balancing act between farming experience, securing objectives, supporting teammates and knowing when to commit to a push. The game rewards skill, certainly, but the teams that consistently succeed are usually the ones making the smartest decisions. Understanding where you should be, what objective matters most and when to abandon one fight in favor of another often proves just as important as killing the enemy in front of you.

Fifty Shades Of Slay

At its heart, STARVAULT is a game about progression, both within individual matches and across your broader playtime. Every creep you defeat, every objective you secure and every enemy hero you bring down contributes towards making your character stronger. Leveling up unlocks new abilities, currency unlocks new items and before long your carefully chosen hero begins to evolve into something uniquely suited to your playstyle.

What I particularly enjoyed is that progression never feels automatic. Every match asks you to make meaningful decisions about how you want to develop your character. Do you lean harder into survivability? Double down on damage output? The item shop and ability upgrades provide enough flexibility that the same hero can feel quite different from one game to the next.

The game currently offers fifteen playable heroes and this is where STARVAULT truly excels.

While it follows many traditional MOBA conventions, the roster feels much closer to a hero shooter in practice. There are tanks, supports and damage dealers, but those labels only tell part of the story.

There’s a fully airborne drone, heroes that throw energy balls, blade-wielding assassins, heavy machine gunners and even mech units that move using arm-swing locomotion reminiscent of Gorilla Tag. One hero might use a grapple hook to reach inaccessible high ground and take the enemy apart from a distance, while another literally backflips into the enemy team hurling knives with deadly precision. No two characters feel alike, even when they fulfill a similar role within a team composition.

Even more impressively, all of them feel viable.

Balancing a roster this diverse cannot be easy, yet Theia Games have done an exceptional job of ensuring that every hero feels like they have a place within the game. Throughout my time with STARVAULT I never encountered a character that felt obviously overpowered, nor one that seemed remotely redundant.

Regardless of whether you're piloting a hoverboard-riding healer armed with twin pistols or a heavily armored frontline tank wielding an axe and shield, every character feels capable of contributing to victory. Moreover, in the right hands, each hero can become an absolute menace on the battlefield.

Playing The Long Game

I was fortunate enough to have access to all fifteen characters on Steam, allowing me to appreciate just how varied the roster is. On Quest, however, I followed the intended progression route and have unlocked a few characters the hard way – by grinding through gameplay.

While unlocking heroes requires a reasonable amount of grind, STARVAULT remains entirely devoid of pay-to-win mechanics. Every character can be earned simply by playing the game. Players can choose to accelerate progression with real money if they wish, but there is absolutely no requirement to do so.

The onboarding process is also very well thought out. Players have access to a hub world where they can experiment with every character before purchasing them. Tutorials, practice spaces and even a dedicated deathmatch arena allow you to familiarize yourself with heroes before committing your hard-earned currency.

This feature wasn't available when I first played the game and its inclusion has gone a long way towards making STARVAULT's considerable complexity more approachable for new players.

My only real criticism is that evenly matched games can become battles of attrition. Matches regularly stretch into the thirty-to-forty-minute range and can occasionally exceed that. For players like myself who often squeeze gaming into small windows of free time, this can be difficult.

If I could request anything from the developers, it would be to add a second, smaller map with all the same gameplay elements but designed around fifteen-to-twenty-minute matches. This would go a long way towards making STARVAULT even more appealing, particularly to those of us perennially short on time.