Whenever a company releases a new console, chances are pretty good that the console is going to also be launched with a game featuring one of the company’s most notable or famous characters; think Super Mario World or Halo or Legend of Zelda. For years that character was Crash Bandicoot for Sony, but they never outright owned the title and now Activision owns its rights and the game can be found on many different platforms. But around the same time that Sony lost the exclusivity to Crash Bandicoot as a franchise, they purchased a little Dutch company by the name of Lost Boys Games. That studio eventually became Guerrilla Games and they would eventually create the character of Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn, which is now synonymous with PlayStation’s system, which now includes the new PlayStation VR2.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is an ambitious title that takes out the character of Aloy as the primary character and replaces her with a former Shadow Carja member by the name of Ryas. If you’ve never played the Horizon franchise, it’s a post-apocalyptic open world inhabited by dinosaur-looking machines with a penchant for killing humans and other animals. Naturally, you defeat these next-generation beasts with a bow and arrow, just loaded with an arsenal of different attachments designed to give you the edge in combat. Not only are the visuals in the franchise some of the best in gaming, but the performances delivered by some of the characters in the Horizon franchise are among the best in gaming.
Notable names like Lance Reddick, Queen Angela Bassett, Carrie Anne-Moss, and more have delivered epic performances as characters of this vastly different landscape. They’re currently making a series out of the show for Netflix, but Horizon Call of the Mountain is their first offering for the new PSVR 2 and very much a part of the Horizon world and story. Sony even tied the system directly to the game by making it the only bundle they offered at the launch of the PSVR 2. So, how does the new game play on Sony’s latest attempt at gaming peripherals? Is it worth your time or just a fun novelty?
When it comes to the story of the game, it’s pretty straight-forward. Ryas is a duty-bound sort of individual who seemingly got caught up with the Shadow Carja, themselves an insurgent-type of group bent on destroying the current world order, but insists he did so only because he happened to be deployed when everything went south and his had no choice but to keep his men alive. It’s not the first time we’ve heard this story dispatched in a game with warring sides and it won’t be the last. Fortunately for Ryas — or maybe unfortunately depending on how it turns out — his brother went missing while exploring the cause of machine attacks on his village. Ryas has been offered a pardon in exchange for not only climbing the dangerous mountain to find out what happened to his brother, but to also stop the machines from attacking the villages.
The gameplay is mostly a lot of climbing and fighting with your bow and arrow. You have numerous different tools and weapons you are able to craft throughout the game, all of which are meant to make your journey and fights more manageable. It’s a first-person perspective and believe me when I tell you that things are to scale. If you’ve ever wondered exactly how big those Tallnecks that you have to climb in the other games, Call of the Mountain covers that within the first five minutes of playing. They’re absolutely massive and it gives you the sense of scale that virtual reality can deliver where other systems simply cannot.
I will note that there are some issues with the game and the Sense controllers that come with the PSVR 2, but there are plenty of workarounds and resets for these issues and fans have been told an actual fix is coming soon. It’s a simple problem of the controllers not registering, which is a problem to be sure, but it’s also something that can be fixed without a recall or having to come up with a new piece of tech. It’s a coding issue and that seems to be the only real big hitch with the PSVR 2 at present time. So, there are some issues, but you’re largely getting a real gem here.
Using your weapons includes quite literally going through the motions. You have to reach behind you and pull out arrows and then draw them back and fire them as you would a real bow. It can actually become a pretty intense and physical experience, so people with movement issues should probably choose the controller option rather than the movement option. The game provides users with both options, so if you just want to sit there and use a controller but enjoy the VR world, you absolutely can. I personally enjoy the total immersion and use the Pulse 3D headphones to enhance my experience. With the physical movements, haptic controls, and 3D audio all at once, you can pretty easily find yourself overwhelmed with amazement. Virtual reality has truly come a long way and Call of the Mountain is a testament to just how far we’ve come.
All the basic and loveable features from past Horizon games are present in Call of the Mountain. You get a million different questions that you can ask people. You get the ability to craft numerous different items. Building friendships, running errands, finding collectibles and exploring for hidden tasks are all front and present from the very beginning. This is by no means a half-assed effort with the Horizon name slapped on the game. It tells a story, uses its characters, including Aloy, to great effect, and delivers an impressive and memorable experience on a new piece of hardware from the industry leader. In other words, it’s a damn hit and you should try it if you have the PSVR 2.
BSO Rating: 8.5/10
YouTube footage of me playing:
Kane Webb is an entertainment journalist for @BSO and @TheMarvelReport. He also writes about the USC Trojans for @AthlonSports and has been featured on @FanSided, @Scout, @Rivals, the Bakersfield Californian, Wisconsin State Journal, and much more. You can follow him on Twitter: @FightOnTwist