Just a year after its brilliant sequel, Arizona Sunshine Remake arrives on PSVR2 as a graphically revamped version of the 2016 original. However, it isn’t just a graphical glow-up that Vertigo Games has in mind, as it’s also bringing its far more advanced (and satisfying) reload mechanic back from the sequel.
The base game includes its campaign, horde mode, and two sets of DLC, making it a fairly fun 5-10 hours offering on first playthrough. There are more difficulty levels — we had much more fun playing through on Survivor difficulty — and you can play the whole thing in online co-op with a friend.
The main attraction here is the advanced reload mechanic from Arizona Sunshine 2. While the original method is still an option (pulling guns into your chest to reload), the new process of whipping out a magazine, slapping a new one in and cocking back your gun is endlessly entertaining. The shooting feels great just as it did in the sequel, with zombies’ heads exploding on impact and fantastic haptics on the Sense controllers.
Sadly the campaign itself is starting to show its age. It’s not very long, which isn’t much of an issue, but it lacks the interactions of its sequel. Arizona Sunshine 2 has you searching bins, skips, cars, and drawers, and generally playing around in its VR environments. While most of these are present, levels lack the playground feel of its sequel. Had you called this a “remaster” maybe that would’ve been fine, but seeing as it’s a “remake”, it’s sad to see very little has been done to improve the VR-ness of this release.
At least graphically this is sure to impress. Again it doesn’t quite have the same level of detail of the sequel, but there’s been a general sheen added to the whole thing. Gun models look fantastic and the lighting is brilliant, with some darker levels giving us chills as our muzzle flash illuminated the faces of approaching zombies. This is also a corker of a game for those PSVR2 OLED panels, with its orange Arizona hues looking fantastic on Sony’s headset.
For those keen to revisit this PSVR classic, the remake is still a fun zombie shooter, with solid gunplay, brilliant graphics, and a decent wee package of content. It’s also launching at a reduced £25/$30, making it fairly inexpensive. However, if you’re new to the series and want to dive straight into the series at its best, we’d recommend its superior sequel over this.