Review of Arizona Sunshine 2 VR Rating *****
After spending nearly 60 hours on this game, I can say that it is one of my top five VR games. As for the 60 hours, I could have considerably shortened that time had I known a few tips I will share here. My first tip deals with the difficulty level. There are four levels of difficulty: story, adventure, survival, and apocalypse. The default level is survival. The difference in difficulty level is the speed at which the zombies, or Fredies, as they are referred to in this game, move. Say you have twelve Fredies coming at you. In survival mode, maybe seven to eight will move like track stars. Step down to the adventure level, and perhaps only five or six will move with great alacrity.
I started with survival and found that I had difficulty dispatching the Fredies before they got to me. I was maybe halfway through the game before I decided to give myself a break and try the adventure level. The adventure level isn’t a walk in the park. You’ll still be challenged to ward off a slew of fast-moving Fredies. There was one section that I could only get past by dropping down to the story level. I returned to the adventure level once I made it through this section.
You have a holster that can carry two weapons. At various points in the game, you will come across semi-automatic rifles, machine guns, and other assorted long guns that you carry over your right shoulder. Somehow, I didn’t get that memo until later, after not knowing how to carry a shotgun I came across. Tip number three: The shotgun is one of the better weapons. You can dispatch two or three Fredies with one shot and kill them at a distance; reloading is done by simply pumping a new round into the chamber. This brings me to another tip I wish I had known earlier: you can select automatic reload, which allows you to reload your weapon by bringing it close to your ammo belt.
Besides ammo, you should be on the lookout for metal, glue, and alcohol as you play the game. These items are needed whenever you come across a crafting machine. You combine these items in the crafting machine to create land mines, grenades, stick bombs, and Molotov cocktails. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to light a Molotov cocktail. I learned by accident that all you have to do is pull the trigger of the controller that is holding it.
There will be points in the game where you run out of storage space. In those instances, call Buddy, the German shepherd, and you will see that Buddy has his own holster that can carry weapons. As for Buddy, he is a great companion to have along. He saved my butt on more than one occasion by viciously attacking an approaching Fredy.
When you come across a new weapon, it is usually a good idea to swap guns. The most effective weapons are the machine guns with the circular magazines, the shotgun, the blowtorch, and the gun that shoots ammo that explodes on impact.
Despite the frustration I experienced early on because I didn’t know about the tips mentioned here, I found this game highly entertaining. There is a story with a definite goal: find patient zero. There is humor throughout. The graphics and sound are top-notch. There is a satisfying splash sound whenever you shoot a Fredy in the head. At one point, while outside with some wind blowing, I saw a dust devil. That is a level of attention and detail you don’t often see.
Except for one section in the airport terminal, which took me hours to get through, the game has checkpoints that are spaced so that you don’t have to repeat prior accomplishments. As for puzzle solving, there are several times when you will have to figure a way out of an area or into a room or higher level to move forward or retrieve an item. I would have liked more of those types of scenes and perhaps a few less Fredies to contend with.
Lastly, the closing chapters were well done and made for a satisfying ending.
Arizona Sunshine II is a must for any VR enthusiast.