So as some of you might know, I've only started doing VR at the beginning of 2024 and had an awesome time finishing many games. Now that I'm out of the honeymoon phase, it's time to visit some of the higher quality games that I've missed out on. So look forward to many reviews of the greatest VR games that released over the years.
I wanted to start with Arizona Sunshine 2 because of the hype of the first Remake releasing. It might've taken me a little longer than expected to finish it, but here we are and I'm excited to talk about it!
Arizona Sunshine 2 released on December 7th, 2023 and is available on Steam, Meta Quest, PSVR2 and Pico 4 for $39.99, but goes on sale once in a while so make sure to keep an eye! The developers are the well known Vertigo Games who developed some big hits like After the Fall and Metro Awakening. It's one beast of a studio and they keep releasing hit after hit.
Gameplay
First and foremost, I want to mention that the main campaign is fully playable in co-op with another player. I want to give a big thanks to Alisson for completing the game with me. He's been of great help in a few of my reviews so I wanted to take a moment of appreciation.
This is a zombie shooter game and contains pretty much all of the essential mechanics that a game like this should have. Ammo management is very important. You can't just go all guns blazing because you'll quickly realize that you have no way to defend yourself. Headshots are very important to do, but also very stressful. Because if you miss, maybe that bullet was really needed for another situation for later.
So scavenging is something that you'll notice that you do a lot in the game. You'll find different types of ammo for different types of guns that you have. You can only have 2 small weapons on the sides, and one big weapon on your back, and sometimes you have to make some big decisions on which weapons you want to keep.
You'll also be collecting bottles of water, and other types of canisters. And you'll find workstations where you can use these materials to build up different types of explosive grenades.
The last thing that you can collect is food. And this is simply to recover your health. You can take 3 bites out of the food to recover yourself. Something to keep in mind is that you only have 2 slots to store either grenades or food.
The game is divided into chapters, most of the game is simply to go from point A to point B. But they keep things interesting. You'll get moments in the game where you have to run for your life because the horde of zombie is too big. There are moments where you have to do some climbing to get to difficult parts, and sometimes you just have to survive for a really long time.
Story
I enjoyed the story of the game. You're simply a man that is very lonely due to surviving the zombie apocalypse for a very long time, but without any human interaction.
One day, you see a helicopter that crashes close to you. Because of how desperate you are, you go investigate, hoping to find someone alive. Sadly, the pilot did not make it, but to your surprise, you find a healthy dog in the back, which is exactly what you needed to keep your sanity going.
On the radio, you hear the pilot's team talking about a patient Zero that could solve the zombie apocalypse. You've decided to go on a journey with your dog, buddy, to find this patient zero so you could gain the people's trust and finally have human interaction.
After learning all of this, the story doesn't step over too much and your objective doesn't change. So the game can definitely be played without paying too much attention to it and not being lost. But I'm someone who loves story focused game, and there are moments that were gripping that I'm not going to show since it's best to experience while playing the game.
One unfortunate thing is that the main surprise of the game is kind of obvious and I bet that a lot of people figured it out before it happened. I'm usually pretty dumb figuring things out, but this one was a little too easy.
One thing that I have to mention is that since you're alone most of the game, there's a lot of dialogue where you speak to yourself. By the end of the game, you kind of get tired of hearing what he has to say. The guy is pretty dumb and say dumb things a lot of the time. It just gets old after a while. And when you are low on ammo. He keeps reminding you over and over that you don't have much, which is an other annoyance.
Graphics
I love the variety of environments that you're thrown in! They're very nice to look at in VR, and it really feels like you're in the hot Arizona part of the world. You'll find yourself in sewers, rural areas, open camping ground, train section, and other places. It never really feels like a cut and paste. And there are some memorable sections, because this was actually Alisson's second playthrough, and he would often say something like "Oh no, not this place!", which always made me super nervous haha.
The graphics on PC were very nice. The VR engine is not easy to optimize compare to flat screen games, but vertigo games really goes out of their way to make some of the best graphics on there. Every sections looked really good, and I never really noticed a moment of framedrop that impacted my gameplay.
Playtime / Difficulty / Co-op
So Alisson and I played on the hardest difficulty, and we did die a lot! I personally enjoyed the balance. I think that it only takes 2 to 3 hits to die, but it never really felt unfair. We just needed to try harder and eventually ended up making it out of these messy situations. Headshots were still a one hit kill, which is one of the reason why it still felt fair.
Your team mate can also be revived, but that will only happen when you've cleared the room out of zombies.
The sharing of ammunition and guns was also good in co-op, we were able to decide who were getting which guns and who were getting which type of ammunition, and it felt like we were doing some good teamwork together. I must admit that Alisson did carry me in a few sections haha.
The nice thing is that when you die, you can't move your camera, but if your friend moves to another section, the camera will move to another spot. So you're not bored looking at nothing.
Something that I must admit that I find strange is the character design. They've just decided to put a mask over their head and they just look like bandits, which doesn't really fit well with the setup. They look very silly, and they're making it worst with the climbing animation being so weird, and because I'm short, when I was aiming, Alisson was just seeing me putting the gun over my head when I was shooting. I wish that they would've put more work on that.
The game took us a little over 9 hours to finish. I'd say that it could've maybe taken us an hour or 2 less if we didn't die as much, and we did spend some time in another mode during one of our session, and we weren't rushing. We enjoyed ourselves. So it's fair to say that the game can take between 7-9 hours in total. Which I'm fine with, since you can only do so much with a zombie game. It didn't overstay its welcome.
Horde mode
Additionally, the game contains a horde mode, which is pretty fun! You basically have to survive as long as you can and you try to achieve the highest score on the leaderboard. There are zombies that will come to you in waves, and after a few of them, you get to have a break to replenish your ammo and replan your strategy.
Its easy at first, but after a while, you have to be careful not to be stuck in an enclosed area because it can get very dangerous. We enjoyed our time and I could see myself jumping back in it once in a while. It's great replayability and a good way to justify your purchase since it's not just about finishing the game. There are a variety of maps that you can chose from.
I hope that you guys enjoyed my review of Arizona Sunshine 2! I know that I'm super late for this one, but I really want to catch up on some games that defines VR, so you'll be seeing many review of high quality games in 2025 from me. So make sure to subscribe to my channel to see how well these games stand in the modern age.
