Arizona Sunshine 2 Review (PS VR2 & Meta Quest)

It seems I’ve grown rather fond of projecting bullets into the rotting flesh of a zombie’s temple these past few years. I’ve grown so fond of it, even, that I no longer seem to cower before the hordes of brain-munching nonconformists, but instead prefer to hurl myself at them, to the point where I’m grating teeth into their drooping eyeballs or severed limbs. If anything, become a bit of a habit, and it’s mainly thanks to Arizona Sunshine 2 that I’ve acquired this newfound fondness of such a ludicrously gory extracurricular activity. Thanks, Vertigo Games.

Sure enough, I was all the merrier when I discovered that Vertigo Games was gearing up to produce a well-needed sequel to the VR shooter. For what it’s worth, I almost expected a second installment to grace the Meta Quest just as soon as I caught wind of the first game’s sales figures. It was always in the cards, and so, when Arizona Sunshine 2 did come knocking, I was more than willing to suit up and throw myself beneath the warming sun of the sun-kissed desert all over again — if only to right a few wrongs and rack up yet another bundle of corpses with my trusty Molotov cocktails.

It is worth pointing out that, while Arizona Sunshine 2 isa sequel, the truth is, you don’t really need to understand the lore of the series to make headway in the second chapter. Of course, it certainly helps — but it isn’t mandatory in any way shape, or form. Curious to hear more about it, anyway? Then let’s dive right into the thick of the post-apocalyptic universe and get to the chomping.

It’s Another Gore Fest 

Arizona Sunshine 2 begins like most, if not all video games that take the zombie-slaying formula for a whirl: there’s a survivor, a companion of some sort, and an infinite wealth of flesh-deprived corpses standing between you and salvation. As the “Survivor”—a crude humor-loving veteran whose purpose, other than annihilating copious amounts of zombies, is to locate a remedy for his mind-smelting loneliness, you must once again embrace the undead corridors of the Arizonan desert. There’s a solid four-hour campaign to shovel through, and a couple of additional button-mashing modes that essentially grant you the freedom to swat zombies and weave a web of headshots into a tapestry of blood, flesh, and bone. Nifty.

The goal in Arizona Sunshine 2 isn’t all that different from the first: load up on melee and ranged weapons, and go to town on a slew of zombies for a dozen or more hours. In addition to the seemingly infinite number of corpses there are to sift through, the campaign also offers a variety of environmental puzzles and the occasional platforming segment. To that end, there aren’t a huge amount of differences between the first and the second entrée; the latter is equally as rife with crude humor and brash one-liners, as you’d naturally expect from the dog-adoring, gun-toting antisocialite.

There is one major difference between the first and second installment — and that’s the actual amount of content that each has in their corresponding casket of curiosities. Arizona Sunshine 2, outside of its core campaign mode, also rolls out the blood-soaked carpet for Horde Mode—a four-player bullet bonanza in which players are invited to trial new weapons, and web a slew of consecutive headshots together in unruly, unorthodox, and often unnecessarily violent methods. So, a lack of material isn’t really an issue.

Abandon Hope

The setup is simple: you’ve abandoned all hope of finding a way out of the zombie hellhole, and have resorted to cigarettes, alcohol, and toilet humor to keep you company whilst the world goes up in flames. There’s a rescue helicopter out there — but it crashed, and the only thing that came out of that unfortunate incident was the arrival of a new companion—a sombrero-sporting canine named, well, Buddy. Arizona Sunshine 2 picks up from here — aboard a scrappy trailer, and in receipt of a treasure trove of weapons and projectiles. Where are you going? Who knows — but it’s going to be bloody, either way.

The bulk of the campaign sees you traversing vast open plains in search of new weapons to acquire, items to collect, and zombies to roundhouse kick with the back end of a machete. Granted, it isn’t the most thought-provoking experience out there, but it is, more or less, enough to get the cogs turning and a few belly laughs churning. And that’s what Arizona Sunshine 2 is: a silly, sporadic, and mindlessly violent VR shoot ‘em up that doesn’t even attempt to take itself seriously. The world may be burning, but who’s to say that the final days on earth can’t be spent with good company (or a dog, in this instance) and an undying hunger for blowing brains out the back of a corpse’s skull several thousand times over?

The fact that Arizona Sunshine 2 doesn’t take itself seriously is what made me fall in love with it, to begin with. I could’ve been tore limb from limb at any moment, but the fact that each ruthless encounter was often met with a tongue-in-cheek remark or a simple joke somehow managed to make those survival instincts disappear at the flick of a switch.

Boom, Headshot!

Gameplay in Arizona Sunshine 2 isn’t all that different from the original: you blow heads up, and you somehow make it look good. As the famed Survivor, you can carry up to two weapons, as well as a number of projectiles, such as grenades and Molotov cocktails. What’s more, you can also strap a couple of sidearms to your companion, too, which means, while the ammunition can be worryingly scarce, weapons are always available at the touch of a button. Does that mean you’re perfectly safe and borderline invincible in most, if not all confrontational situations? No, not even slightly.

As ammo is often hard to come by in Arizona Sunshine 2, it does mean that you’re often left with an ultimatum: flee for the hills, or execute a thread of perfect headshots. For me, I found that, once the training wheels had be kicked off, and that I no longer needed to rely on Buddy to rescue me from the many, many corpses, the latter option was surprisingly effective—easy, even. But that isn’t to say I made every encounter a total walk in the park, mind you. In fact, I often found that, if I wasn’t entirely aware of every enemy within the entire field of view, I was only setting myself up for instant death. It didn’t happen much — but it definitely kept me on my toes over the course of the journey.

It goes without saying that, when there are countless flesh-eating zombies on your tail and only a couple of bullets in the chamber — you’re going to feel that adrenaline rush. And honestly, that’s the sort of ordeal that Arizona Sunshine 2 kept rolling from the moment in started, to the final few minutes before the credit roll.

Verdict

Arizona Sunshine 2 does an exceptional job of bringing the bullets, carnage, and post-apocalyptic pandemonium to a whole new level, and it does so with a tremendous amount of style, no less. It isn’t a serious game — but that’s precisely what makes it all the more appealing; it thrives in peculiar situations, and it manages to use surprisingly good dialogue to segue each story beat over to the next one. And sure, while that amount of carnage did often spew out a couple of technical errors, such as zombies pouring through the woodwork of a seemingly indestructible set piece, I often found that I was so “in” to the actual slaughtering of hordes that I didn’t mind all that much. Aside from the odd head bursting through a concrete surface, there wasn’t all that much to complain about, as the campaign just flowed from one junction to the next.

To answer the question, is Arizona Sunshine 2 better than the first? Yes, it is, and it’s mainly down to the fact that it’s a glossier, souped-up extension of the first, complete with richer dialogue, and a sufficient amount of character progression, too. Granted, it doesn’t feature the most thought-provoking story in the world, but it does do just enough to keep you invested for the long haul and right up until that all-important fleshy climax.

If you had to pick just one zombie shooter on VR this year, then you ought to give Arizona Sunshine 2 some food for thought, as it clearly has all the right hallmark qualities to be a genuine contender in the undead rat race. Simply put, if it’s a headshot-hugging adrenaline fest that you’re on the hunt for, then look no further than Vertigo Games’ newest arrival.