It has been nearly seven years since Vertigo Games graced the VR landscape with Arizona Sunshine, a simple VR FPS title that focuses on gameplay elements, and semi-realism (mostly on the realistic reloading mechanics) to drive suspense in a zombie-filled landscape, providing a fun torrent of flesh-hungry patrons lying in wait to dine on your flesh. Luckily, we here at CGMagazine have been granted the opportunity to play Arizona Sunshine 2, and it really does shine.
Arizona Sunshine 2 picks up two years after the first entry left off and throws the player face-first (literally) into a zombie apocalypse in the middle of Arizona. Your unnamed protagonist still sees echoes of his friend, Fred—a name he funnily uses for almost all zombies—and he has developed a new dark sense of humour and ways to dispose of these Fred adversaries (Fredversaries?) for the occasion. Unlike almost all the other zombie games, Arizona Sunshine 2 doesn’t take itself seriously at all and that’s a good thing.
Let’s be real, Arizona Sunshine 2 is gameplay-focused. There’s no truly compelling story (at least from my time spent playing), but the writing is superb and keeps the gameplay fresh with sharp-wit quips from the protagonist. Fans of the original can rest assured of the familiar voice that powers the adventure, Sky Soleil, returns as our carnage-hungry non-Fred, and his voice work is as sharp as ever. Funny enough, Soleil, the protagonist, and even the Freds are NOT the stars of the show this time around. The star is Buddy, your loyal German Shepard who is 100% more original in personality than name.
First and foremost, YES, you can pet Buddy. Now that the important bit is out of the way, Buddy plays an integral role in the sequel. He’s an expert at deading the undead, and with a simple command, he can make short work of any single Fred with quickness. While Buddy does add enough to make the sequel (more on him later, I swear) fresh and new, that’s not all the devs at Vertigo Games have in store for players.
“Let’s be real, Arizona Sunshine 2 is gameplay-focused.”
While the control scheme almost mirrors the first title, Arizona Sunshine 2 has an overall layer of polish the first didn’t, and the environment feels more alive than ever. The atmosphere is further emboldened by the musical score of Jonathan van den Wijngarden, as each encounter forces emotions out of you—whether you want them to or not—by the percussion that can be heard in the background during tense moments. Everything players expect out of the original Arizona Sunshine is present here but improved upon in a myriad of ways.
Combat is the bread and butter of the Copper State. There are hand grenades, pistols, machine guns, machetes, hand axes, and even flamethrowers that can mow down Fred’s legions. While aiming, Arizona Sunshine 2 provides the player with a handy laser pointer that shows where shots will land. I much prefer this to a reticle in the dead centre of the screen as it helps with immersion, a wise choice by Vertigo Games.
Each weapon has a different feel to it, including melee weapons. Landing a shot with a handgun just feels good, and the more satisfying and weightier revolver makes Fred fall limp with a single shot to the head. One thing Vertigo Games excels at is firing a weapon is good fun.
“Reloading is not an afterthought in Arizona Sunshine 2, it’s a game mechanic and each gun reloads way differently than the last.”
After seeing a poor Fred who met his end by way of hatchet-to-the-head before we had a chance to meet, I reached over to pull it out. After giving it a single air test swing, I swung at the dead body multiple times and hacked off a couple of body pieces effectively turning Fred into a human pile of cadavers. The developers informed me that 100% of the current Arizona Sunshine 2 player base has done the same (maybe not as many times). It makes me wonder if Fred is the true hero of the story with such a show of overkill.
The environment is hungry for the player to mess with it. Arizona Sunshine 2 allows the player to open abandoned car doors, shoot lights out, and explode barrels with a satisfying effect, and the moving pieces really move. I came across a tire swing with an unfortunate Fred stuck halfway through it, and the allure to push the swing and see what happens was too strong. There’s a zombie apocalypse, it seems everyone’s dead, of course pushing Fred on the tire swing is the top priority!
The player can get Buddy involved in many of the environmental activities. I was able to motion him into a shopping cart and push him along as he happily wagged his tail. As Freds were rolling underneath my carriage of destruction, happy ice cream truck music played in the background, which really made this moment a home run. As a more morbid bit of environment interactivity, you can play fetch with Buddy with a dismembered Fred arm (or leg, preference counts). There is just so much to interact with in Arizona Sunshine 2 I can safely say with my time behind the headset I barely scratched the surface.
“Arizona Sunshine 2 is shaping up to be an incredibly fun title that doesn’t take itself seriously.”
During my final three minutes of play, I reached an incredibly tense moment. I was equipped with a flamethrower in one hand, an axe in the other, a grenade—literally up my sleeve—and an empty grenade launcher on my back. There is also a food item up my other sleeve (which you can eat to restore health, duh) and I ran headfirst into a pile of Fred. This is where realistic reload mechanics come into play. Reloading is not an afterthought in Arizona Sunshine 2, it’s a game mechanic and each gun reloads way differently than the last.
Reloading my flamethrower while Freds were close enough to smell their favourite gum flavour was a Herculean task, and unscrewing the O2 canister was next to impossible due to this. This was the horror/tense aspect I was looking for through all the fun scattered throughout the environment. Arizona Sunshine 2 puts it on the player to remain calm and remember how to reload in these scenarios.
After mowing a couple of Freds down with an axe and creating a bonfire with another battalion, the reloading is what finished me off in the end. As the Freds swarmed me, and Buddy was busy eating another Fred’s face, my (real life) Apple Watch warned me my heart rate increased, and as I went to look at my wrist, I was shown my health gauge quickly descended to zero in-game. Vertigo Games even placed a watch on your left wrist as your health gauge, a really small and effective decision that made so much sense at the moment.
Arizona Sunshine 2 is shaping up to be an incredibly fun title that doesn’t take itself seriously. While it is fun to gallivant through the landscape and mess with everything involved, there is actual tough combat here that constantly tests the player’s mettle on juggling where everything is at all times in a pinch. Solid sound and UI choices, as well as the best boy companion, give this title a leg up on its predecessor and make it the title to look out for as we inch closer to release. Arizona Sunshine 2 reminds me of what would happen if a VR FPS game’s DNA was spliced into a Dead to Rights crossover with I Am Legend, and I can’t wait for a chance to walk in the Arizona Sunshine again.
