Arizona Sunshine Remake review

Killing zombies is a pastime that never grows old, no matter how many you shoot in the head with a rifle. At the end of last year, Vertigo Games released Arizona Sunshine 2, a big improvement on the original and gave players new and creative ways to kill the undead. After almost eight years since the original released, Arizona Sunshine Remake has been rebuilt with brand new visuals and exciting combat to harness the power of modern VR consoles. It’s not that different to the original, but it sure feels fun to play.

There’s not a particularly engaging story in Arizona Sunshine Remake, but there doesn’t need to be. You’re trying to survive in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, using anything you find to take them out. There’re plenty of weapons to use as you make your way across Arizona, such as pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles. You’ll also be using a range of melee weapons like pick axes and hatchets, as well as grenades that are super handy when clearing large groups of zombies. Controls are responsive and accurate, and you feel plenty of control when aiming down the sights of your gun.

Bullets can be sent straight through the skull for a pleasing headshot, limbs can be blown off, and if you get a thrill from hacking them from up-close, that’s also an option. The realism for swapping out ammo and reloading adds a layer of skill that isn’t obvious straight away, but knowing when to conserve bullets and reload is so important, especially when you disrupt a large group of them that decide to run at you in tandem. One of the most exciting and stressful moments came when trying to get into the mines.

I had made quite the noise trying to open the gates to the mines which saw around twenty to thirty zombies come out of nowhere. I was running short of bullets for my handgun, and my Uzi was running low despite having a large crowd still trying to eat my brains. Believing I was about to die, I stumbled across an assault rifle, and watching the entire crowd of undead full to the floor following a shower of hellfire was about as thrilling as you’d imagine. Going from accepting my fate to watching a shower of gore fill the screen was equal parts sadistic and exciting.

There is always plenty of ammo to find, and the wealth of weapons lying around are more than enough to help build your own portable armoury. As fun as it is wielding so many weapons, it can be frustrating when you do get attacked that there’s very little indication of whether any damage is being done. Health seems to deteriorate pretty quickly, and other than a bit of a red glare on the screen and checking your watch to see how close to death you are, there’s little indication or impact. There’s food scattered around so it can be replenished, but sometimes it’s too late.

Arizona Sunshine Remake is respectful of your time, and aware that full games require you to take a break in a playthrough. Chapters aren’t particularly long, and there are plenty of checkpoints that save progress regularly. It means you can take a break without feeling the need to rush through to find a save point. I rarely took a break, however, simply because I was having so much fun, and with the improved visuals, there’s a lot to like about the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Textures have been improved to make Arizona great to look at. A lot of VR games sacrifice visuals for getting the gameplay right, but Vertigo Games has done a solid job in making the world look good. Small details like clipboards with readable documents on them, to background environments making locations look bigger than they are all add to the appeal. There’s also plenty of detail in the zombies themselves, whether the generic shamblers or those with swelling pustules growing out of the side of their faces.

Arizona Sunshine Remake looks great and plays even better. Every bullet fires feels impactful while aiming and responsivity make playing so fun. Realistic reloads across a range of weapons mean each chapter is thrilling, especially when you find yourself trying to take out waves of zombies at a time. Despite health decline not being obvious, and there being a bit of repetition the more you play, it rarely gets boring, and is great for smaller sessions where you just want to put a bullet through a walking corpse or two.