Arizona Sunshine 2 Review (PSVR2) – The PlayStation VR2 has been gaining plenty of good additions to its library, but Arizona Sunshine 2 may be one of its best. Taking what made the original so fun, expanding, and adding much desired and wanted additions.
Vertigo Games has come out on top, taking all the fan feedback and addressing it in Arizona Sunshine 2.
Arizona Sunshine 2 Review (PSVR2) – Easily The Best Sequel To A VR Title To Date
Not Much In The Story Department
Arizona Sunshine 2 takes us back to the deserts of Arizona, where we once again take on the role of our unnamed protagonist as he’s enjoying his life living in a trailer.
While partaking in some target practice against the various Freds (Zombies), our hero is interrupted by a helicopter crashing down next to him, his home. We head out to reach the helicopter and hope to find any survivors.
Though hoping to find humans, he discovers a dog named Buddy, and the two of them join forces to hunt down patient Zero in hopes of finding a cure for the zombie outbreak and perhaps for our hero to cure him of his loneliness by finding more humans.
There isn’t much in the way of the story, and there doesn’t need to be seeing what the game is about.
Its simple story takes a back seat to what makes Arizona Sunshine 2 so fun: the extremely precise gunplay.
VR Settings For Everyone To Enjoy
Being a VR title, you get your standard VR settings to help those with motion sickness that can be fully adjusted to help everyone.
You can play the game seated down or standing up, and I recommend the standing option due to how often you have to reach down and grab your guns from your holsters, which is much easier to do standing up than sitting down.
Arizona Sunshines 2 features some of the most precise shooting I’ve experienced in VR. It’s so satisfying to shoot at zombies precisely and watch them react.
It was so good that, at times, I just raised my hand and knew exactly where the bullet would go without having to aim.
You can equip two holster guns from handguns, uzis, and a double-barreled shotgun. You can also store two extra guns with Buddy with a vest with two gun holsters.
Along with your one-handed weapon, you can equip one heavy weapon like a pump action shotgun, assault rifle, and flamethrower.
Percies Shooting And Satisfying Reloading Animations
Weapons are easy to grab by reaching down your left or right hip and pressing the R1 button to equip. The heavy weapons have you reaching behind you and pulling the gun off your back.
It is a fun process and feels immersive. Shooting at zombies is extremely satisfying, and the new gore system in Arizona Sunshine 2 stands out with plenty of zombie damage.
Shooting a zombie in the head can blow off half their head, exposing all the gory bits inside. Shooting off their legs or shooting them in the body exposes the intestines and ribcages.
One of the best features in the game is the manual reloading, which you can turn off if you choose. Reloading your weapon as you go through all the motions of reloading: Popping out the expanded clip, grabbing a new one off your vest, inserting it into the gun, and then cocking the gun to load it.
Reloading is satisfying when you do it, and I couldn’t get enough. My favorite was the double-barreled shotgun; you must open the barrel as the shells shoot out. Insert one shell at a time and then fling the barrel closed with the motion controls.
Melee Is Brutal But Not Very Effective In The Long Term
Melee was missing in the original Arizona Sunshine, but it’s found its way into the sequel. Melee weapons are few and far between, but they are satisfying for short bursts. The melee weapons are weighted; utilizing them will give you a workout.
Melee has a brutality to it. Weapons get stuck inside the undead if your strike isn’t strong enough, and you must pull the weapon out, sometimes dragging the body with you.
Unfortunately, these variety of weapons degrade rather quickly. Sometimes, after four strikes, there isn’t a dedicated inventory slot on your character to keep them.
You can save them to the two inventory slots on both arms, but that would mean giving up something more substantial, like grenades and pipe bombs. Some cool things you can do are take a grenade, shove it into their mouths, and watch it explode.
Sadly, this seems to be the case with every VR game I play, but throwing objects such as grenades is cumbersome, and I can’t figure out when to release the grenade with my hand, motioning it to fly more than two feet.
It’s a problem I experienced here, and I ended up sticking to dropping grenades and running away as fast as possible.
Co-Op Multiplayer Is A Blast, And Buddy Shines As A Companion
Buddy isn’t just for show. You can order him to attack zombies and even retrieve items for you. You can use him to solve puzzles and clear paths for you blocked by dead bodies by having him squeeze through areas to move them out of the way.
You can play fetch with him with balls and even zombie parts like arms or legs, and of course, you can pet Buddy all you want.
The campaign can be played entirely through online co-op, with a four-player horde mode. Unfortunately, I couldn’t try out the horde mode due to not finding any players during the review process, but I did try out some co-op. It was a blast, and I didn’t run into issues in my short time with it.
Visually, the game is very impressive. There is plenty of detail worldwide and many more locations than the original, from town neighbourhoods. Hospital buildings and military bases are just a few examples.
The sound design is equally solid. The zombies sound terrifying, and our protagonist does a great job even though hearing him call every zombie Fred gets annoying rather quickly.
Arizona Sunshine 2 is an absolute blast. With its fantastic and precision gunplay, other titles would do well to follow it in the VR landscape. It may not feature a memorable story, but it’s easy to make your memories with all the various ways to take down the undead.
Arizona Sunshine 2 is easily one of the best PSVR2 and VR titles out on the market today.
Arizona Sunshine 2 releases on PlayStation VR2 on December 7, 2023
Review code kindly provided by PR.