I picked up aPlayStation VR2last month, and I’m already feeling buyers' remorse. Even though I purchased it at a reduced price after Sony was clearly trying to lower its stock of the failed hardware, it still feels like it doesn’t have much to offer after a few weeks of fiddling with it.
The majority of its launch line-up was ports of games we’d already seen on the last headset, whileHorizon: Call of the Mountainwas a brilliant albeit brief exclusive that had to carry the entire launch on its shoulders. 18 months later, nothing else has come along to match it, and Sony seemingly has no interest in banking similar blockbusters. It was dead on arrival, and it feels like we are never getting aHalf Life: Alyxport orAstro Bot: Rescue Missionremaster.
But I was curious, and picked up a headset anyway in the hopes it would eventually prove to the world it was more than a half-baked follow-up. Jokes on me obviously, but the new State of Play has given me a brief glimmer of hope.
While it wasn’t featured in the recent presentation, having appeared in the last one,Alien: Rogue Incursionwill be arriving on PS VR2 this December, and appears to be a faithful survival horror shooter in which you will navigate confined environments and do battle with xenomorphs. While it isn’t the VR treatment for Alien: Isolation many diehards are hoping for, I can hardly say no. If it provides a convincing atmosphere with relatable characters and tense gunplay, it will be a winner.
But onto the State of Play, and exactly what it offered for Sony’s flagging headset. First up is The Midnight Walk, a new project from Lost in Random developer Moon Hood Studios. It’s a hybrid release, meaning it will be playable in virtual reality but also as a normal experience. I have long thought this approach is ideal for riding the lines between the two mediums, as one is still vastly less approachable than the other. This harrowing, Tim Burton-esque adventure seems utterly bizarre in its world design and mechanics, but that’s precisely what allowed it to cast such an immediate spell on me.
I have no idea how it will play or what journey it intends to take me on beyond its surrealist visuals and captivating sense of place, but when it comes to virtual reality, that’s more than enough to make me jump in. Lost in Random was also an underrated little gem in itself, so with a follow-up that only plans to experiment even further, I’d be silly not to give it a shot.
Metro Awakeningfollowed in its footsteps, which iscreepy in a very different way. While it’s not being developed by 4A Games, this post-apocalyptic adventure seems to understand all the things that made its predecessors so compelling and hopes to translate them into VR. In Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus, you were expected to keep a constant eye on cracks in your gas mask, fuel in your flashlight, and monitor the condition of most equipment so you’re not faced with mechanical errors when it matters most. This sense of immersion is palpable, and translates beautifully to virtual reality where interacting with every little object is so vital.
I want to poke, prod, and toy with the virtual worlds I inhabit in this medium, and when that is taken away or the illusion proves insufficient, I stop caring. Half-Life: Alyx and Horizon: Call of the Mountain perfect this approach, and Metro Awakening seems to understand it just as much. But let’s move away from this poignant immersion and have some silly fun, since VR is equally suited to freeform chaos in which you may do just about everything.
Hitmanwas adapted by IO Interactive into VR last year, but it has yet to hit PS VR2. That’ll soon be changing, and I can’t wait to experience one of my favourite trilogies in recent memory from a new perspective. One where the procedural carnage of trying to murder your targets and not get caught takes on a whole new meaning when all control is in your hands. I’ll be honest, it looks a bit janky, but that only makes me more excited.
Agent 47’s trilogy of assassination thrives on giving the player huge environments to explore with seemingly limitless possibilities, to the point that tens of hours can be spent on its levels and you still won’t have discovered everything. This very same trilogy in virtual reality with all the slapstick freedom this affords sounds so fun, and a game I could dip in and out of without worry. My PS VR2 needs a regular driver that isn’t Beat Saber, and this could be just that.
Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m bargaining with my very soul by hoping some of these titles hit the mark, and hoping beyond that will Sony continue supporting the hardware before it’s taken behind the garden shed to look at the flowers is borderline foolish. But I bought one of these pesky things, and I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna use it.
