Arizona Sunshine by Vertigo Games is a great game. We liked it so much, in fact, that we awarded it the designation of our favorite VR game of 2016. The complete single player campaign mode, cooperative multiplayer support, and addictive horde mode delivered a lot of content to a game that was already overflowing with fun and engaging gameplay mechanics.
At CES 2017 in Las Vegas, NV this week, we caught a glimpse of some potential new content in the works for the zombie-slaying shooter. Outside of the Intel booth area on the show floor, there is a short teaser video playing that shows someone on a turret mowing down waves of zombies. We can see that it’s set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Las Vegas strip (appropriate because it’s at CES in Vegas right now) as opposed to the Arizona desert featured in the core Arizona Sunshine game.
On-screen text mentions the need to collect packages, which alludes to a potentially objective-oriented gameplay loop, rather than the pure survival-based horde mode that’s already in the game. One of our only issues with the shooter as it exists right now is the lack of additional maps in horde mode, but if this is a whole new experience called Undead Valley, that would certainly alleviate some of those issues.
We know that this mode supports up to four players at once, just like horde mode, and it was shown running on an Oculus Rift with Touch at the event. We don’t know anything else at this time, but we’ve reached out to Vertigo Games for more details on what Undead Valley is and how it factors into the content strategy for the game moving forward.
Do you have any questions about this potential new game mode? Let us know in the comments and we’ll get to the bottom of it at CES this week in Las Vegas.
Additional reporting on this story was performed by Staff Writer Joe Durbin.
Last week we announced a comprehensive list of nominees for our 2016 Game of the Year Awards. There were over 20 categories selected with approximately 4-8 different games and experiences nominated for each category. That all adds up to a ton of amazing content we saw in VR’s first full year of consumer adoption.
We teamed up with the prolific Christopher Sabat (the voice of Piccolo, Yamcha, and of course Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z as well as Roronoa Zoro in One Piece) to record a video announcing each winner in every category. In my opinion, getting a glimpse of gameplay combined with that epic voice is absolutely the best way to experience our award selections. Check it out:
Since there were so many categories to decide and so many voices to hear, we actually had a true deliberation process in real-time using AltspaceVR. That means for three hours I, the Games Editor at UploadVR, Staff Writer Joe Durbin, Staff Writer Jamie Feltham, and Senior Editor Ian Hamilton, all discussed the nominees and who we thought deserved to win each and every category. That entire process was recorded, so get your popcorn ready.
We know it is three hours long, at the very least the first 25 or so minutes are pretty funny. The whole thing is embedded below.
We also have the third, and quickest, way to digest our selections and that’s in plain old text format.
Check them out below!
Best Music/Sound Design Winner: Thumper
Bound
EVE: Valkyrie
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Thumper
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Art Direction Winner: Bound
ADR1FT
Bound
The Climb
Obduction
Robinson: The Journey
SUPERHOT VR
Thumper
Best Online Game Winner: Werewolves Within
Arizona Sunshine
Battlezone
Dead and Buried
EVE: Valkyrie
Onward
RIGS
The Unspoken
Werewolves Within
Best Narrative Winner: The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
The Assembly
Edge of Nowhere
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Obduction
Robinson: The Journey
Best Immersive Film Winner: KÀ The Battle Within
Ctrl
Gnomes and Goblins
Henry
KÀ The Battle Within
Best Productivity App Winner: Bigscreen
Bigscreen
Envelop
LightVR
Virtual Desktop
Best Creativity App Winner: Tilt Brush
Gravity Sketch
Medium
Quill
Tilt Brush
Best Racing Game Winner: DiRT Rally
Blaze Rush
DiRT Rally
Driveclub VR
Project CARS
Redout
Best Horror Game Winner – A Chair in a Room: Greenwater
A Chair in a Room: Greenwater
The Brookhaven Experiment
Dark Days
Sisters
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Action/Adventure Game Winner: Vanishing Realms
Chronos
Edge of Nowhere
SUPERHOT VR
Vanishing Realms
Windlands
Best Puzzle Game Winner: SUPERHOT VR
Fly to KUMA
Hitman GO: VR Edition
Neverout
Please, Don’t Touch Anything
SUPERHOT VR
Water Bears VR
Best Shooter Winner: Onward
Arizona Sunshine
Damaged Core
Onward
Raw Data
RIGS
Space Pirate Trainer
Most Surprising New Game Winner: Onward
The Brookhaven Experiment
Eagle Flight
Onward
Space Pirate Trainer
Thumper
The Unspoken
Vanishing Realms
Best Mobile VR Game Winner: Minecraft
Dark Days
End Space
Minecraft
Neverout
Sisters
Tactera
Wands
Best Rift Game Winner: The Unspoken
Arizona Sunshine
Chronos
The Climb
Damaged Core
Edge of Nowhere
Lucky’s Tale
SUPERHOT VR
The Unspoken
Best Vive Game Winner: Arizona Sunshine
Arizona Sunshine
The Brookhaven Experiment
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
The Lab
Onward
Raw Data
Vanishing Realms
Best PS VR Game Winner: RIGS
Battlezone
Bound
How We Soar
Job Simulator
Rez Infinite
RIGS
Thumper
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Social Variety Experience Winner: AltspaceVR
AltspaceVR
Bigscreen
Destinations
High Fidelity
Rec Room
Toybox
Most Innovative VR Game Winner: Fantastic Contraption
Accounting
Damaged Core
Eagle Flight
Fantastic Contraption
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
The Lab
SUPERHOT VR
Breakout VR Game Studio Winner: Owlchemy Labs
CCP Games (EVE: Valkyrie, Gunjack, Project Arena)
Cloudhead Games (The Gallery)
High Voltage (Damaged Core, Dragon Front)
Insomniac (Edge of Nowhere, The Unspoken)
Owlchemy Labs (Job Simulator, Rick and Morty)
Playful Corp (Lucky’s Tale, Wonderland)
Squanchtendo (Accounting)
Survios (Raw Data)
Best VR Game of the Year Winner: Arizona Sunshine
Arizona Sunshine
Damaged Core
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
Onward
Rez Infinite
SUPERHOT VR
The Unspoken
Most Anticipated Upcoming VR Game of 2017 Winner: Star Trek – Bridge Crew
Arktika.1
Fallout 4 VR
Farpoint
Lone Echo
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Rock Band VR
Star Trek: Bridge Crew
Wilson’s Heart
What are your picks for some of the best games and experiences this year? Did your favorite not win what you thought it would? Let us know in the comments below!
Ilium VR are working on a new VR-centric gun peripheral which plans to use Valve’s SteamVR ‘Lighthouse’ tracking to bring realistic weapon control to virtual reality games.
Shooting things in games is cool. Shooting things in VR can be infinitely cooler. Add in a dedicated controller that gives you the physical feel of a weapon and add tracking and peripheral functionality to it and you have something that has the potential to take shooting things to the next level.
Ilium certainly think so as they already begun a crowdfunding campaign to kick off their plans to build a virtual reality-centric gun peripheral to be powered by Valve’s Lighthouse tracking system. Athena is the peripheral’s name and it will come in the form of a futuristic looking assault rifle.
For clarity, outside of the design renders seen in the above promotional video, the rifle peripheral being demonstrated is not Athena but Ilium VR’s earlier VR gun dev kit “The Persuader”, modeled on the M1A1 Thompson ‘Tommy Gun’ and using a rudimentary mount for a standard SteamVR controller in order to leverage its tracking.
The Athena is an altogether more ambitious beast and promises recoil action, the ability to reload via a magazine pull-out / pull-in action, whilst also integrating standard joystick and button inputs. What makes the device interesting however is the team’s plans to integrate Valve’s ‘open’ SteamVR ‘Lighthouse’ tracking functionality into the device. Basically, the final peripheral would be clustered with sensors to enable the gun to detect the sweeps from SteamVR’s laser base stations, and as with the packed-in SteamVR controllers, beaming that data wirelessly for a compatible game to map to in game actions.
We reported recently that Valve’s long awaited plans to open up the Lighthouse platform to form a tracking standard of sorts for developers and manufacturers had finally begun in earnest. Valve announced just prior to the company’s Steam Dev Days event that it’s already licensed Lighthouse tracking to some 300 companies, royalty free since it’s original announcement back in august. According to Valve, the company are gearing up to show off “new VR peripherals” which will be made available for “demonstration and design collaboration with attendees,” at some point in the future.
The Athena is one of the first gaming specific product we’ve seen to take advantage of Valve’s new initiative and it’s a brave move. Traditionally, peripherals for gaming have rarely fared well. Gaming systems (including the SteamVR powered HTC Vive of course) ship with standard controllers allowing developers to target them and hone their software knowing that everyone who buys their game or application will own those devices. 3rd party peripherals on the other hand require the manufacturer to acquire interest and support from those same developers to add in legacy support for the proprietary device. The Catch 22 situation of course is that, developers don’t want to commit resources to build around a device few customers own and customers won’t buy hardware without software support.
Illium are of course aware of this and have tried to mitigate the issue by entered into a partnership with Invrse Studios (The Nest) and Vertigo Games (Arizona Sunshine) who will both include updates to add native support for Athena to their games. A good start indeed.
Athena is currently being offered via an Indiegogo campaign with a lofty $100,000 funding target. Backers can notionally get their hands on a single gun along with The Nest and Arizona Sunshine for $300. The device itself has a timeline for delivery of December 2017. The campaign seems troubled currently however, with just over $4000 of that goal currently met. It’s not clear how key the funding is to progress of the product.
It’s an interesting project and one we hope to see more of in the future, especially if the Ilium team manage to square the peripheral support issue mentioned above. However it does join Stryker, another VR-centric peripheral featuring impressive recoil, in the same space. We’ll watch with interest to see how much traction both projects gain in the future.
CAUTION: Before reading on, it’s probably best that you complete all of your holiday shopping for others (something you’ve hopefully done so you can avoid the herds of last minute buyers at retail stores). Still here? Alright. The Oculus Home Winter sale is officially here! Oculus has revealed their price cuts across a library of games and Rift owners will be hard pressed not to add a few things to their collections. Also, with the Oculus Touch now in consumers hands, players may be inspired to try a few more experiences because of that.
There are some major releases included in the sale, many that we’ve covered at length previously. Hitman GO VR lets you make moves with an isometric view of different settings and is the definitive version of the miniature digital assassin’s virtual board game. The Climb, which we reviewed before the release of the Oculus Touch, is a whole new experience with the motion controllers. One of the best VR games around, Arizona Sunshine, also brings some top tier zombie survival to the Oculus winter sale.
Beyond the individual price drops, there are also a couple bundles. The Gamepad Greats bundle includes Project CARS, Edge of Nowhere, Chronos, AIrMech: Command, and Damaged Core for $89.99. The Oculus Touch Launch bundle includes Space Pirate Trainer, I Expect You To Die, Kingspray Graffiti, SUPERHOT VR, and The Climb for $89.99. Now, it may be tempting to jump on all of these offers, but keep in mind the Steam winter sale will also be going live on December 22nd (this Thursday), so shop wisely.
Earlier this week Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive launched their long awaited zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift for Oculus Touch. On Steam players can unlock 37 Steam Achievements, which VRFocus has listed below.
Arizona Sunshine takes place across a series of huge south western American environments, including blistering-hot deserts, treacherous canyons and deep, dark mines. Players have over 25 different weapons to choose from, with both single-player and co-op multiplayer modes available. Steam currently offers a 15 percent discount until 13th December, dropping the price £29.99 to £24.49 GBP.
Full Achievement List:
And the award for Can Killer goes to…
Finish the level Base
Steady Hand
Kill 50 zombies with a Headshot
LOOT!
Collect some loot!
Headshots like a Boss!
Kill 100 zombies with a Headshot
It’s a Sunny Day!
Finish the level Bridge
No Mercy
Kill all zombies that are locked up in the cage in Canyon
So Sqhuishy
Throw a duck
It’s getting Hot Hot Hot!
Finish the level Canyon
Charley Horse
Play for a total of 2 hours
Badabing Badaboom!
Kill 20 zombies using grenades
Freddy, you there?
Play for a total of 3 hours
Flashed your way out!
Finish the level Caves
Eye see you..
Shoot with a sniper in the game
Master Scavenger
Collect a ton of loot!
You climbed the
Climb the scaffold in the level Traintracks
Delayed
Finish the level Traintracks
Baby Wipe War
Shoot with the Machine Gun in the Refinery
Biting the Bullet
Finish the level Refinery
Howdeeyhow!
Finish the level Trailerpark
I’m not the only one?
Listen to the radio in the level Sunshine
Direct Hit!
Kill a zombie with an object
You Win!
Finish the level Sunshine
Rescued!
Complete the entire campaign!
Medium well beef plz
Eat 10 burgers
Juicy Meat
Collect 20 burgers
Last Man Standing
Be the only survivor in Horde Mode
VR Creep!
Play the game for 4 hours in a row
Skull Cracker
Kill 300 zombies in Horde Mode (streak)
A Thousand Miles
Walk a distance of 10 miles
Duck Attack!
Kill a zombie with a duck
We have ourselves a Cowboy
Kill 400 zombies in Horde Mode (streak)
Quack Quack %$#@!
Collect all the ducks in the game
Green Thumb
Pick up all shovels inside the shop in the level Sunshine
Hard Boiled
Complete the Apocalyptic Mode
Go Outside
Unlock all the achievements in the game
Gun Collector
Collect all the guns in the game
The Sherrif has arrived!
Kill 1000 zombies in Horde Mode (streak)
The Vive gets a lot of releases each week and this one is definitely packed full of content.Smashbox Arena is the multiplayer highlight for this week and drops teams of three into an arena with weapons and physics based power-ups. It’s a treat to play and the pacing allows for a degree of tactical teamwork that is definitely needed in VR multiplayer games — we loved it in our preview. Then Arizona Sunshine, a zombie survival game, is our other highlight. With a great deal freedom when exploring and realistic weapon mechanics, along with a full campaign to explore, Arizona Sunshine is one of the best VR games we’ve played to date — read the full review for more.
We also have a top list of the absolute best HTC Vive games — which is updated every few months with the latest and greatest options.
Offroad Paradise: Trial 4×4
Price: $10.39 (Currently Discounted)
In this driving experience, you control the steering wheel but watch from a 3rd person view as you try to guy your offroad vehicle over jagged terrain safely. Essentially the game serves as a vehicle-based puzzler.
Recommendation: Keep an eye on it while it’s in early access. Don’t pull the trigger just yet.
Braun Future Operating Room, from NMY Mixed-Reality Communication GmbH
Price: Free To Play
In B. Braun Future Operating Room you get a glimpse of the potential future of surgery involving nanobots. Using your controllers, you remove as many damaged vessels as you can and move up the Steam leaderboards.
Recommendation: A free snapshot of the future. Grab it.
Thunder Spheres, from sitckee
Price: $10.39 (Currently Discounted)
If you take billiards and mash it with a bow and arrow in zero-g, you’d have an idea of what Thunder Spheres is. You tackle the unique experience in 3 different zones: Astronauts, Explorers, and Circus.
Recommendation: Grab it while it’s on sale. Otherwise keep an eye on it to see if they add a bit more content.
ZombiesTown VR, from GMD Studio
Price: $5.99
ZombiesTown VR is a wave shooter with a cartoony aesthetic. Dual-wield your guns and survive the onslaught.
Recommendation: Not a lot of depth, we’re getting tired of these. Skip it.
The Jigsaw Puzzle Room, from MobileFusion Apps Ltd
Price: $3.99
Many board and card games have been brought into the virtual spaces so it’s no surprise to see jigsaw puzzles get their just due. The Jigsaw Puzzle Room offers three different puzzles sizes and internet radio stations to calm you before scattering every piece in frustration.
Recommendation: Not too expensive if you’re a puzzle fan or glutton for punishment. No cleanup either!
Bowling at the Lake, from WhirlVFX
Price: Free
Bowling at the Lake is a pretty self explanatory experience, letting you rule the lanes with the sounds of nature for contrast against the collision of bowling ball and pins.
Recommendation: Simple and functional. Missing multiplayer but worth its free price tag for a relaxing experience.
Keep Defending, from Faster Time Games
Price: $5.94 (Currently Discounted)
In Keep Defending you use your archery skills to take out enemies while setting up your own evolving defenses in this tower defense hybrid. Early Access contains a couple levels to give players a taste of the gameplay.
Recommendation: Smooth and visually appealing aesthetic and solid gameplay in EA. Keep an eye on it as it evolves.
Arcade Saga, from 2 Bears Studio
Price: $29.99
As the first game from Vive Studios, Arcade Saga takes crucial elements from classic arcade games and makes them your go-to arsenal for conquering enemies. Fracture, smash, and bowshot your way to survival while upgrading over time.
Recommendation: A bit pricey, even for the high-quality.
Street Champ VR, from Zynk Software Srl
Price: $0.99
If you’ve ever wanted Frogger in a virtual space, Street Champ VR delivers. This game tasks you with crossing growingly dangerous roads and pushing your high score further and further.
Recommendation: A cheap way to get some competition brewing with friends.
PLANNES, from Tricol Co., Ltd.
Price: $13.49 (Currently Discounted)
Tennis in VR is a cool idea. Zero-gravity tennis in VR is even cooler. PLANNES drops you into a sci-fi setting on a tour on of the universe as you take on the best players from each planet. In this sport you’re given rackets with unique abilities as you defend and attack as quickly as efficiently as you can.
Recommendation: Fun and beautiful game. Grab it.
Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot VT, from Panoramik Inc
Price: $10.49 (Currently Discounted)
Wave shooters are nearly a dime a dozen in the VR ecosystem, so it takes a degree of effort to stand out. Cargo Cult attempts to do so by dropping you on a traveling battleship as you take on waves of assailants.
Recommendation: Variety with a degree of difficulty. Buy it if you’re aching for something new.
CRAFT: Work VR Shop Demo, from CRAFT
Price: $6.99
This title serves as virtual workshop and sandbox for you to plan and create a variety of projects with all the tools you need at hand and a great deal less risk to your well being.
Recommendation: Currently has crash issues, but the concept should at least keep you checking in on it regularly.
Recommendation: Free and quick way to see your friends freak out when trying VR. Pass otherwise.
Star Kingdom – The Elements, from Hyperator, Inc.
Price: $1.99
Wield the elements to solve puzzles, illuminate your path, and unravel the mysteries.
Recommendation: Cheap in Early Access, so not bad, but don’t expect anything robust.
Remembering Pearl Harbor, from Deluxe VR
Price: $9.99
This immersive experience retells a historic moment through the voice of Lt. James Downing, the 2nd oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor.
Recommendation: This is one of the better attempts at bringing history into the virtual space. Add it to your Steam collection if you’re a history buff.
Smashbox Arena, from BigBox VR, Inc.
Price: $23.99 (Currently Discounted)
In this team-based action game, you shoot, dodge, and defend while coordinating with your teammates to take down the enemy team.
Recommendation: Simple and fun game with a structure that encourages actual tactical gameplay in conjunction with your team. Must have.
ROM: Extraction, from First Contact Entertainment
Price: $16.99 (Currently Discounted)
This arcade wave shooter lets you occasionally slow down time while shooting and throwing orbs at the enemy robots, adding a degree of originality to the experience.
Recommendation: Great mechanics and visually striking. Multiplayer will be added for free, so get it if you’re not tired of wave shooters yet.
Escape Artist: The Trial, from Morrow Games
Price: $3.59 (Currently Discounted)
Escape Artist: The Trial is an escape the room experience that switches up the formula a bit by allowing you to break some things to create the solutions for the various puzzles.
Recommendation: Pretty short experience and may be a bit jittery when running. Pass.
Kingspray Graffiti, from Andrew Bates, Craig Bentick, Nolan Cunningham, Onomis
Price: $14.99
Grab your friends and bomb walls with the legendary art-form. Kingspray Graffiti offers realistic spray and drop effects and mechanics for up to four players.
Recommendation: Check out our review. It’s described as a must have for fans of the style.
World VR Competition, from MT Worlds
Price: $8.39 (Currently Discounted)
Through 8 events, bring friends over and set various scores in the different contests. Your skill, instincts, and reaction time will be tested as you climb the online or local leaderboards.
Recommendation: Simple concept with fun execution. Grab it and call your friends.
World of Golf, from Krazy Studios
Price: $4.49 (Currently Discounted)
With a full set of clubs, take on a 18 hole virtual course in World of Golf. Experience the hook, slice, fade, or draw based on the physics of your swing and utilize the room-scale to walk and read the green.
Recommendation: Solid in early access. Grab it or at least keep an eye on it as it evolves. Not many golf sims yet, somehow.
CRANGA!: Harbor Frenzy, from HandMade Game
Price: $9.99
CRANGA! basically gives you the controls to crane and allows you to play Jenga with massive industrial shipping containers. Includes various container types and game modes.
Recommendation: Pretty basic, but not bad if you love puzzle games.
Arizona Sunshine, from Vertigo Games, Jaywalkers Interactive
Price: $33.99 (Currently Discounted)
Many have tried their hands at delivering the zombie apocalypse to VR and Arizona Sunshine gives you a wealth of tools to survive the horde. The game has realistic weapon handling, surroundings you can explore freely, co-op multiplayer, and more.
Werewolves Within is the virtual version of classic hidden role and social deduction games for 5-8 players. Some are villagers while others could be the werewolf, so use your abilities to try to figure it all out before it’s too late.
Recommendation: Received a solid score from us and could provide endless fun with the right friends.
Super Kaiju, from Directive Games Limited
Price: $9.99 (Currently Discounted)
Collect and customize a team of Kaiju as your progress through an intense sports tournament. Super Kaiju takes the wave shooter and flips into a competitive arena shooter.
Recommendation: Loads of fun with lots of character. Grab it.
Dead Hungry, from Q_Games
Price: $29.99 (Currently Discounted)
While we have a wealth of zombie games, even just this week, Dead Hungry employs you as a food truck worker with the power to heal the shambling beings with crafted meals.
Recommendation: The combination of a wave shooter with a food-prep sim comes together well, but it’s a bit pricey.
Endless Night – Alpha, from Yerawizard LLC
Price: Free
Endless Night is a dark and demonic room-scale shooter where you take on waves of evil creatures coming from every direction.
Recommendation: Currently free and in early access. Grab it and see how it evolves over time.
Killer Klownz, from Peter Labick
Price: $1.99
Face your childhood fear as you take down waves of clowns with your automatic rifles. The game features room-scale gameplay that scales to your space.
Recommendation: Inexpensive wave shooter. Get it if you need a new one in your collection, but it’s nothing new other than the enemy of choice.
Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality, from Bossa Studios
Price: $19.99
Stark contrast to the other surgery simulator available this week, Surgeon Simulator gives you a medical sandbox and lets you wreck the operating room. Operate on Bob or even aliens in outer space.
Recommendation: Loads of fun with dark humor to boot. Must have.
Snakes on an Extradimensional Plane, from Team Neon Snakes
Price: $1.79 (Currently Discounted)
Samuel L. Jackson would be proud. This abstract experience lets you weave colorful trails as you guide mice with jetpacks to escape the grasp of glowing snakes.
Recommendation: A very pretty and inexpensive casual affair. Worth the grab.
Recommendation: If it fits your project, give it a shot. It’s free!
The Table At War VR, from KudaiGame
Price: $19.99 (Currently Discounted)
The Table At War VR brings tabletop strategy to life in a big way. Use your virtual cards to influence your forces on the battlefield and destroy enemy bases. Includes a story and survival mode in addition to PvP.
Recommendation: Very solid game and the mechanics will make you want a Yu-Gi-Oh card game in VR ASAP.
Broken Blue, from Backlot Realities
Price: Free
Broken Blue is, “a Puzzle Solving VR Game that utilizes an innovative interface to allow the player to traverse and explore the game’s content.” You will be playing as Blue, an AI program who’s programs have become broken down due to “the flow of time.” Your job is to solve puzzles and restore Blue to his former glory.
Recommendation: Broken Blue may be free so the demand for high quality is admittedly lowered. Give it a look if you’ve got spare time and hard drive space.
Standing back-to-back with my fellow zombie slayer, UploadVR’s very own Joe Durbin, I peer down the barrel of my pistol at the walking corpse that’s stumbling toward me. I glance down at the ammo belt around my waist and notice I’m running low — only about 4 shots left after this clip is done. The hulking mass of a former human is only a few feet from my face now, so I level my sights at its head and squeeze the trigger. Click. Out of shots. I frantically release the magazine, then slam a new one into place by bringing the gun down to my belt, and raise my arms again just in time to blow a huge chunk of its head off, dropping it to the ground, just before it gnaws on my face.
Wave completed. I take a deep breath and get ready for the next onslaught.
This happened in Arizona Sunshine’s multiplayer horde mode — a small slice of the game that would have been enough for most developers to sell as a standalone product. Instead, with Arizona Sunshine, Vertigo Games have packed in not only a single player and multiplayer horde mode with endless waves of zombies, but they’ve also thrown in a robust campaign mode that can also be played both alone and with a friend. It combines together into a deep and diverse overall package that leaves me wanting more as I write these words.
Before approaching this review, I had to ask myself: What really makes a good zombie game? Obviously, zombies are at the core of the experience. They’ve got to be scary, first and foremost. In Arizona Sunshine there are a handful of moments that raised my hairs and gave me goosebumps, but it wasn’t as frequent as other games that bill themselves as primarily horror experiences. Instead, just like its approach to everything, the horror elements are only a small part of a much more complex puzzle.
You’ll hear them shuffling toward you, growling and moaning with each step, and you’ll feel the terror as an entire horde of them comes pouring over a gate or down a mine shaft after you. That’s all here. But what you won’t find is the inability to escape, or reposition yourself, or at least move out of the way. So many other zombie shooters in VR right now are obsessed with either locking you in place, neutralizing your ability to move other than what your room allows, or location-based teleportation to pre-defined areas. Luckily, Arizona Sunshine’s movement system offers flexibility, even if it’s still a form of teleportation.
By pressing forward on one of the Oculus Touch controllers’ analog sticks, or pressing the touchpad of a Vive controller, and then aiming out in front of me, I can choose where I’d like to teleport in the world, which results in a blink of the screen to simulate the movement. You’re faced with managing an endurance meter so you can’t just endlessly teleport across entire levels. It’s an effective solution to the movement problem, one popularized by Cloudhead’s The Gallery, and it avoids motion sickness. However, it would have been nice for the option of a more traditional control scheme for those that don’t suffer from motion sickness.
Even though the zombies in Arizona Sunshine retain a lot of what make zombies so scary in pop culture, it loses some of that effect once you realize how simple the A.I. is in the game. They either slowly walk around until noticing you, crawl on the ground if shot in the leg, or sprint toward you. One thing I really appreciated is that, regardless of the type of zombie, they’re lethal. If you make the mistake of letting one get close enough to hit you, they’ll start wildly flailing their arms making it tough to shoot their head and dealing severe damage very, very quickly. Within seconds, a single zombie can drop you from full health to death without much trouble. Luckily, there’s no risk of turning from a bite to worry about that I noticed.
Throughout the campaign mode I grew fond of the main character’s wit and humor. I began the journey waking up inside of a cave, presumably a hideout location. A zombie head rolls into the cave after getting lopped off by a bear trap — a safety precaution the main character took before resting. Jokingly, he refers to the dead monstrosity as ‘Fred’, a comical moniker he uses to refer to any and all zombies throughout the game.
After exiting the cave, I hear a human voice over the radio for the first time. I set out on my mission to find the source of the transmission and, ideally, a safe haven from all of the madness. It’s a simple story that never veers off track and has zero twists or turns, but it gets the job done. The focus isn’t so much on the overarching narrative, but more so on the world and the main character’s relationship to the apocalypse that makes it so pleasurable to play through.
Over the course of the 4+ hour campaign, the character’s humor is effective at offering a foil to the otherwise horrific hellscape of the Arizona desert during the apocalypse. Between scavenging for food and ammunition it’s refreshing to hear the protagonist remark about how ugly one of the Freds appears to be, or how the horde of Freds is ruining the intimate get-together he had planned for the single dead zombie in the middle of the room. Hearing my character exclaim, “You just had to invite your entire damn family, didn’t ya Fred!?” is much more entertaining than the stock grunts and complaints.
That personality shines through in the end, as well as his anger and frustration mounts and all serves to mark the ending of the campaign in a huge climactic battle. That personality was enough to make it an adventure worth taking, but it never ascends to he heights of other narrative VR games, such as The Gallery, in its storytelling. The utter lack of any other characters, or at least diversions in the plot, make this a very by-the-numbers story of the zombie apocalypse, one that we’ve all heard before, even if it’s exciting to play again in VR.
Which is what a lot of the experience boils down to. In terms of game design and mechanics, there isn’t a whole lot to make it sound very exciting on paper. You can move around large environments, point flashlights in the dark, shoot zombies, and fight for your life — but that’s been in games for years. The difference between a game like Arizona Sunshine and anything you’d play on a 2D display is that in this game, you feel like you’re part of the world. You embody the character, rather than piloting them through the window of your television.
My memories of playing the game feel more like I visited this place and vividly recall getting lost in the mines, scared for my life. In this way, it’s much more than just a simple video game. By crafting a full campaign mode that lasts several hours, Arizona Sunshine effectively transports you to this other world in such a convincing way that you feel what your character feels much more so than you would in any other traditional game.
Playing the campaign in multiplayer offers the exact same experience, but increases the difficulty in just as many ways as it decreases it. While you have a second pair of guns and pair of eyes in the world, you don’t have twice as much ammo to go around, forcing you to share and ration out each stash. The dark levels also require immense teamwork as only person is afforded the use of the flashlight. You better trust whoever you’ve asked to watch your back.
Then going one step further, Arizona Sunshine also offers a dynamic horde mode as well. You can play this endless wave section of the game either alone or, as we would recommend, with up to 3 other people, scaling it from either 1-4 players total. Each time we tried it out the zombies came from different locations, in different quantities, and different styles. Just like in the campaign mode, some of them were wearing helmets, while others were not. In later waves they started running and pouring into the arena in larger numbers, amping up the intensity even further.
Each time we tried to plan out our positioning, watching each other’s backs. It never panned out how we’d have liked. Eventually we got overrun, chaos ensued, and we died. But hey — at least we put up a good fight, right?
The horde mode is great, addictive, and immensely exhilarating, but I came away wishing for more. There only appears to be a single map with the same layout and time of day settings. There’s no progression system other than spawning newer and better guns as the rounds go on, and once you play it a few times, there isn’t much else to see. I’d love for some unlockable customization options, the ability to increase rank, acquire abilities, place environmental defenses like walls or barricades, or at least try out more than a single level. Those would make for great additions in an update.
Final Score:8.5/10 – Great
Vertigo Games proved that even in the most saturated genre we’ve seen for VR games this year — shooters with zombies — there was still room for something fresh. Arizona Sunshine combines the narrative power of a fully-featured 4+ hour campaign mode, with the intensity of a wave-based horde mode, and then adds multiplayer to both experiences. The protagonist’s witty humor make it worth recommending on his charming personality alone, with enough depth and variety to keep people coming back for several hours. By doing so many things so well, Arizona Sunshine quickly rose to the top of the pack as the best overall zombie shooter we’ve seen yet in VR.
Arizona Sunshine will be available on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as on the Oculus Home Store for the Rift. You can also find more purchasing options on the game’s official website. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
In the run up to Arizona Sunshine’s launch next week for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch, Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive have been heavily promoting the title with numerous videos and screenshots. In October the studios released a downloadable virtual reality (VR) video for the two head-mounted displays (HMDs), and for gamers interested in seeing more ahead of launch now there’s another.
Called ‘Runner’ the video goes for a far more tense, horror feel than previous instalments. Taking place solely at night, there’s no combat or guns to be seen, just the player running through the night trying to out wit and out manoeuvre the hordes of the undead lurking in the dark. This trailer goes for a far more cinematic feel, reminiscent of any number of zombie movies from the past few decades.
You can checkout a 360-degree version of the video below, or head to the Arizona Sunshine website to download it for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
The videogame will be priced at $39.99 USD/£29.99 GBP, when it launches on 6th, December 2016. Currently it’s available for pre-order with a 15 percent discount via Steam for HTC Vive and Humble Bundle for Oculus Touch. Pre-orders will also receive an Arizona Sunshine compositor image for their headsets, a desktop background image, and concept art from the game.
Arizona Sunshine, as the name suggests, takes place across a series of huge south western American environments, including blistering-hot deserts, treacherous canyons and deep, dark mines. Players will have over 25 different weapons to choose from, with both single-player and co-op multiplayer modes available.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Arizona Sunshine, reporting back with any further announcements.
Vertigo Games previously promised that the gallery shooter videogame, Arizona Sunshine, would go one stage further than the competition. Opposed to limiting the player to a single position, Arizona Sunshine will take a leaf out of Epic Games’ Robo Recall book and allow for much greater freedom of movement. A brand new trailer showcases exactly that.
In Arizona Sunshine’s campaign mode, players will be able to freely move around the environment and explore the port-apocalyptic wasteland. While the early playable builds of Arizona Sunshine had the player largely stationary with ammunition readily available, the campaign mode will require much more caution as they search for supplies while keeping their wits about them; constantly prepared for encroaching enemies.
Set for release on 6th December 2016, for both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift (with Oculus Touch compatibility) a closed beta will be available later this month. Invitations have already been distributed to those who applied, and VRFocus will keep you updated with further activities from Vertigo Games.
VRFocus has heavily covered upcoming zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine over the past few months, reporting on the upcoming closed beta as well as new screenshots and videos. Now developers Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive have announced the release date for the first-person shooter (FPS) and a pre-order discount for eager players.
Arizona Sunshine will arrive on 6th, December 2016, the same day as Oculus Touch launches worldwide, alongside support for HTC Vive. The videogame will be available through Oculus Home and Steam respectively as well as Humble Bundle. From today until 6th, Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive will be offering a 15 percent discount for gamers through the two latter stores, dropping the price from £29.99 GBP down to £25.49. Pre-orders will also receive an Arizona Sunshine compositor image for their headsets, a desktop background image, and concept art from the game.
If you’ve not signed up for a chance to participate in the closed beta then there’s still time, all you need to do is sign up for the newsletter by 15th November. The beta will then begin on 22nd November, finishing on 29th.
Built from the ground up for virtual reality (VR), Arizona Sunshine allows players to handle, fire, and reload over 25 different weapons with real-life movements, whilst destroying hordes of zombies across a series of huge southwestern American environments, including blistering-hot deserts, treacherous canyons and deep, dark mines. Featuring both single-player and co-op multiplayer modes, players will be able to jump in for a short sessions or stay for the entire campaign due to the way its split up. Whilst multiplayer features both co-op campaign and a Horde mode for up to four players.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Arizona Sunshine, reporting back with any further announcements.
