Today, we venture back into gaming in a an alphabetical order, and all the way back to "A". Thanks to my now long-ago purchase of a VR headset, I felt as though I should give some of the more "lauded" virtual reality games an attempt.
I made a purchase, and buckled into my Quest 2, in an attempt to see what really makes Sunshine in Arizona different from other parts of the world.
Turns out it is an unexplained zombie apocalypse, that you find yourself in the middle of. The game offers stick based, navigational movement, and weapons with which you can use to shoot the zombies which hunger for only your flesh.
The control scheme and visuals lead to a non nauseating effect on the brain; but it isn't the most immersive experience ever. It feels like a PC game from the mid 90s or early 2000s in terms of visual fidelity and environment art; and below this, while immersive; is a collection of incredibly basic gameplay mechanics of shoot, reload, go get the key to unlock the door / gate / whatever; and try to avoid expending too much money.
Arizona Sunshine tries to do survival horror in the first person, but the way in which it achieves this is by giving you a lack of ammunition; forcing you to be absolutely perfect with each shot; or it will be back to the loading screen for you.
Granted, you can wander you way through the horde of zombies; but as time goes on, this becomes less and less possible as the density of the horde increases and your patience for waiting for yet another reload (be it for your weapon, or the game) decreases.
This is a game that I played through to the refund window, and even after a lengthy period of time since purchase, Steam support were able to provide a refund. I think this is the first time I've ever done this, and I am certainly not ashamed.
This would give you all the information you need to know about this game - it is a labour of love and work, but the marketing got me good. The game is just simply too basic to be a standalone title for the PC VR space; and feels like a Half Life 2 mod downloaded from the early 2000s Internet.
Want more content from me?
Witness my futile efforts to play my Steam Game collection in alphabetical order.
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If you prefer sleeping in your designated time zone, go watch replays on YouTube.
Man, you have to hate when that happens!
Far too often, but my bullshit detector gets better as I age. :D
I am a sucker for Zombie games... If you do all the games from A to Z, let me know when you arrive on P, for Project Zomboid, and we can coop if you want ^^
I don't have that game in my collection, and I'm trying to limit my expansion into additional games that would see me unable to complete this list prior to me turning into a zombie myself. :P
It's not what you sell but how you sell it, the cover of the game looks very flashy, but when you play it it's a bit disappointing, it's like you say, it looks like a Half Life 2 MOD because of how simple it is, well, at least Half Life 2 was a great game at the time.
Not only that, but the mechanics themselves are uninspired.