Arizona Sunshine Remake Review: now with more brains and whistles

Yes, believe or not, there's such thing as virtual reality classics already. And thus, a remake of an oldie makes total sense. You see, in VR eight years is quite some time, with tech evolving rapidly and users still hungering for more and better. Arizona Sunshine Remake is releasing today, and coming from the 2016 original, you can tell the difference. It quickly became a representative of VR in gaming with its humour, immersion, and sheer zombie fun, so I'd probably put it in my top 5 of "old" VR games deserving a modern version.

There's something cheesy and silly about the whole thing, which turns the premise into something arcadey for all (adult) audiences more so than a scary survivor horror game, which as you know can get very intense in VR. And that concept is something that now sees itself enhanced with both upgraded graphics, modern controls, and a tad more accessibility.

Nostalgia glasses can make users of the original remember Arizona Sunshine as something moodier and slightly realistic, but the thing is that game is, and even was back in the day, as ugly as its own undead people. Textures were blurry, models were low-poly, and the whole was pretty flat, with little to no lighting adding to volumes. But those were early PC VR times, not to mention PS4's PS VR and three years before the first Oculus Quest.

Arizona Sunshine Remake looks much better, naturally. It's not the most beautiful or atmospheric zombie game you can play in 2024 in VR, but it looks the part. It felt to me less improved than I was anticipating though, as I played on PS VR2 at Gamescom (and talked with the devs), which is the closest to PC VR on a powerful rig, thus meaning a downgrade to the standalone Meta Quest 3 I now used for this review. But besides the lower poly count, shaders and res in textures, it looks quite crisp, if you know what I mean. Like there's fidelity to it, and edges look sharp and clear, and it runs smoothly, which is a must here.

The original could become a bugfest too, mostly on PS VR, while Arizona Sunshine Remake is a much more polished experience. Little to nothing broke my immersion, other than the occasional flickering object or an annoying glitch by which I got stuck at a truck's trunk while scavenging for bullet magazines, only to see how a couple of Freddies scratched my face a little bit until I finally managed to move. There's a whole lot of clipping with corpses and such, but it feels "natural" within the type of game this is.

And how does it feel modern? I did enjoy the controls. They're based on the still fresh Arizona Sunshine 2, and you can do and sense a lot of things that weren't there in the 2016 original. Melee weapons satisfy even if they're not the most physically impactful out there in the world of VR, and you can now grab zombies and move/throw them around. Elements in the world are much more interactive too, which is something we take for granted in nowadays VR. Not just opening that door or drawer, but also breaking that glass, grabbing that can, touching that surface. And yes, doing you-know-what with the lighter, the cigarette, and your own breathing. Unfortunately, as far as I understand, collectible masks work the same as before: you find them around, they look like obvious secrets for completionists, but they don't seem like being taken into account, or to add any special effects, which would be pretty cool.

Gunplay has been improved as well. Might have been the lower resolution or poorer motion hardware back in the day, but I couldn't aim as accurately as I can now. I also decide how to hold each weapon, be it the bigger two-handed rifles and the like, or the one-handed guns and revolvers (as long as I'm not dual-wielding in the most fitting Western fashion), where I use the second hand to improve stability. Grenade and throwing physics seem a bit too exagerated to me, but overall what matters feels great, and then the modern accessibility options just add to user friendliness and immersion.

So, all in all, it's not the most advanced VR shooter as it's after all an adaptation of the original, and yet it somehow felt better to me than last year's Arizona Sunshine 2. It's neither the looker for the same reason, and you'll find the best of both worlds if you manage to play on PC VR... but with a wireless headset. But at under 30 bucks including all the DLC, or as a 10 bucks update for those who own the first game, I'd say you can't go wrong as far as VR zombies go as long as you're not looking for the depth, or flare, or advanced hand actions of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Resident Evil 4 or Village, or the upcoming Metro Awakening VR.

VR is living yet another comeback in this year's Q4, one of many after another draught (and a disappointing performance by the PS VR2), and even though we know it's not going to be for real as of yet, that it's not going to establish in the mainstream as it looked like it would happen after the Quest 2, the fact that we're getting this updated experience can only be good news. It got me hooked, it got me laughing, it got me smoking like a 90s movie actor while head-shoting dozens of Freddies amidst a dismembered mess, and now I want to keep playing in two-player co-op. Bring it on, and bring on Metro VR, bring on the Gundam anime, bring on the All on Board games, and more!