Vertical Robot has never been a huge company. They’re officially listed as 2-10 employees on LinkedIn and I couldn’t find an exact number for the current team, but they’re a small and personable company that has always strived to give gamers the best experience possible. Whether it’s creating a new language for a title so Russian players wouldn’t feel left out of the translating game or doing Reddit AMAs, they’ve always been driven by customer experience, gaming as a passion, and atmosphere. When they created the first Red Matter for Oculus and HTC, folks wondered whether or not they could replicate that experience while keeping true to their ethos as a small, personable studio driven by a passion for gaming.
I won’t waste your time with a bunch of puff and fluff to stave off giving you a direct answer. They blasted expectations away with the sequel Red Matter 2, specially ported for the PS VR2 so that gamers could take advantage of the Sense controllers that come with the PS VR2. This is a welcome addition since the tools you use in-game are already modeled after the consensus VR controller setup, this just adds that little extra for fans of immersion. The continuity between the in-game tool and your controller is ultimately the only real point of this game where I had any issues, but we’ll come to that later.
The first thing you notice with this game is the graphics. It’s ridiculously good-looking. I mean, it’s beyond ridiculously good-looking. If you ever saw that viral video of Ride 4 on PS5 going around on Twitter, it’s easily that level of gorgeous and refined. Vertical Robot somehow took a team smaller than the Justice League and created a game that looks photorealistic at points. It’s a testament to the dedication and passion of this team and it’s no doubt part of the reason that this franchise is considered a must-have for VR headsets.
Maybe one day we’ll get a fully upgraded version of the original for the PS VR2 because I missed the hype on this one with the original PS VR and I’m still mad about it writing this review. I should have known about this game considering how often I kept looking up lists of the best PS VR games and would try to grab a game or two from those lists every time I could. Thankfully the press for this game has been much better and it allowed me to go back and grab the original for the PS VR, but I would really love to see a “Definitive Edition Dual Pack” one day. I realize that’s a pipe dream, but let a man have his hopes.
As with the original, the game embraces a Cold War aesthetic, which remains one of the coolest-looking things you can use in a video game. Vertical Robot somehow manages to capture an aesthetic and improve upon it at the same time. As previously stated, they invented a language so that Russian-speaking people wouldn’t feel like they missed out on translating items in puzzles because they natively speak the language — I imagine Call of Duty Russian players felt this way about the first raid. That language is back and so are tons of artistic items decorating your environments as you explore them and solve more puzzles.
Also included in this version is a bit of platforming with a jetpack. The jetpack took me a couple of minutes to learn and I messed up my first few jumps, but it becomes pretty standard after that and it seems to be designed with a little wiggle-room built into the capacity of the pack itself. In other words, your character reaches the next platform with more than enough room and power to spare, plus the kit recharges once you land.
The in-game tool that you use to solve puzzles will also allow you to press buttons and manipulate the environment. You can also carry certain objects by grabbing it with both hands using the tool. It’s here that I ran into the game’s only issue. My character would constantly drop items if I walked too close to a walk or another object. Sometimes it would be impossible to find those objects once they dropped. I dropped a hammer while attempting to solve one of the early puzzles involving a door mechanism that needs to be replaced as a whole and I have no earthly idea where that thing went. I ended up not needing it for the puzzle, but it would have sucked if I had needed it.
Beyond that one, single issue, nothing else really present a technical challenge that I couldn’t impact in any way. Combat might be controversial in reviews, but I didn’t have the same problems as other people. I am not saying the issue isn’t there or that you might not experience some dissatisfaction with the first-person shooter combat elements in the second half of the game, but I can’t write about what I didn’t experience. I thought it was a nice change of pace from constantly solving puzzles and the impending feeling of doom, but your mileage may vary.
Some titles are just meant to be played and experienced in VR and then some games were built in VR from the ground up. Somehow Red Matter 2 manages to be both. If you’re looking for some of the best that the PlayStation VR2 has to offer, Vertical Robot’s newest release must be on your list. Red Matter 2 is universally loved and adored by fans of VR, Vertical Robot is now also becoming universally loved and adored by fans of VR. With content like Daedalus, Red Matter, and now Red Matter 2, it’s easy to see why.
Vertical Robot simply gets it.
BSO Rating: 9.5
Note: Vertical Robot provided BSO with a copy for review on the PS VR2. All opinions in this article are about this version of the game.
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
