Prepare for the grueling heat of the Grand Canyon State. Arizona Sunshine 2 won’t make it easy to survive the sweltering landscape.
Dealing with zombies is no easy task. They already smell, and they never stop. Add in the grueling heat in Arizona Sunshine 2, and it’s even worse. Under the right conditions, any random person can bake an entire sheet of cookies on the dashboard of their 2010 Nissan Altima. In this particular situation, some might be driven by their desire to simply survive. Others may just want the quiet. But a select few still want the companionship of another whose motivation isn’t eating brains.
Stuck deep in the outskirts of the Grand Canyon State, one has to survive the massive hordes of undead. How is that possible when help always seems just out of reach? Get your pistols ready and prepare to let the bullets fly. Countless questionable sausages and beef patties lie between one’s character and certain doom. Check your guns twice and ensure you’ve got enough ammo. From developer Vertigo Games comes a zombie shooter game that does not make it easy to get to your goal. Rest assured, Buddy the Dog will be along for the ride. Let no Freddies stand in the way of this new friendship.
It doesn’t take long to figure out the solution to the character’s predicament. There are obviously zombies everywhere. But after happening upon a downed military chopper, it becomes apparent that the armed forces already have an idea of how to stop things. Once this radio chatter ceases, it’s on to finding that one Patient Zero.
Arizona Sunshine 2 controls feel fantastic. There are a few games one can play that feel so ‘right.’ Before ever getting into the game, developers ensure players calibrate things to their liking. Calibration involves ‘grabbing’ the character’s ammo/weapon belt and pulling up to the desired height. It is important to raise the belt to about chest height when seated. Otherwise, people will, like I do, find their hands physically reaching through their couch for virtual ammo.
If your back problems are as annoying as mine, there is a seated setting for Arizona Sunshine 2 if standing becomes too much. Reaching from the seated position for ammo, in certain situations, feels silly. To pick up any item in Arizona Sunshine 2, one must wait for a circular reticle to appear over an object. Once this shows and trigger 2 on either controller is pressed, the player character picks up the highlighted object.
Losing health in Arizona Sunshine 2 is as easy as it sounds. There are tons of zombies around. Getting bitten or struck by one will damage one’s health severely if allowed too long. So what’s the solution to this? Hilariously enough, my character has to scrounge for questionable meals like burger patties, rancid pizza, or sausage with an uncomfortable amount of preservatives. To regain health with these items, one must bring it up to the character’s mouth, a crunching sound following a successful ‘eat’ action.
Weapon selection is great in Arizona Sunshine 2. Once the story becomes more lively, so to speak, the amount of weapons one can carry becomes clearer. Being able to take up to three firearms at a time is an excellent feature in this shooter title. On either side would sit my pistols or my pistol/sawed-off pair combination. When coming across a rifle-class weapon, such as a full double-barrel shotgun or hunting rifle, this firearm is accessed by reaching over the right shoulder.
There’s no greater feeling than headshotting freddies to my left or right while dual-wielding Desert Eagles. It’s a fun way to handle this ability, but it is best saved when one is in a pinch. Pistols are great for short to mid-range combat. It’s a bit of a chore to use shotguns, with the long-barrel double feeling like it takes even longer to use than the sawed-off. While both are effective, the sawed-off fared better in the majority of situations, though one can push zombies back with a gun long enough to reload.
Overall, the best weapons in Arizona Sunshine 2, personally, are of the full-auto variety. Some might prefer a standard full-auto military rifle. Others might feel the Tommy gun suits them best. My choice between the two is the Tommy Gun, simply because it’s a wonderful sight to see the chaotic spread of rounds when the trigger is held down. The only issue with the Tommy Gun is that it requires 50 9mm rounds to be considered ‘full.’
We also cannot forget about incendiary rounds such as grenades, mines, Molotovs, and the traditional frag grenade. A special suitcase will appear at seemingly random points during Arizona Sunshine 2. Accessing this will allow one to create Molotovs from every item, like glue. Yes, two units of glue will get you such a thing. Glue and nails will make a frag grenade. Regardless of the incendiary of choosing, it is a good show to see multiple freddies turned into mist by one explosion.
Molotovs seem to work great at wearing down hordes, as the zombies walk right through the fire. Sticky grenades are an obvious choice when one is looking to make a quick getaway. Throw them onto the right wall can make short work of an advancing swarm. The frag grenade is great for an immediate explosion, but there’s less thought behind lobbing one. With a mine, setting it down in the right spot is necessary as it has a wider blast radius. With the right placement, it can take down three times as many zombies as a frag grenade would.
It’s also not hard to find oneself in a room with too much of an echo. A few too many times in Arizona Sunshine 2, Buddy can become the only thing standing between a zombie and me. In places like the large airport terminal, melee weapons are the most effective and safest option.
They don’t make much noise, and hitting zombies in the right places takes them down immediately. A single well-placed axe strike will prevent most of them from ever getting up. Melee weapons, like incendiary devices, can be placed within the ‘wrist’ area. To equip a given item, one simply reaches into the inventory slot and pulls out the desired item.
Enemies in Arizona Sunshine 2 come in a small variety. Luckily, there are no animal zombies to worry about. The zombies that used to be human are normally a small variety of nondescript characters with missing pieces. A handful of them have what looks to be bumps on either their arms, head, legs, or some combination of the three. These feel the most difficult type to take down, next to the portly zombie avatars. A single one of these walking puddles of ooze can take as many as five rounds from a pistol before going down.
Some enemies in Arizona Sunshine 2, even without pustules, will continue walking toward a player despite missing their entire head. This happens so infrequently it makes me wonder if there’s a way to trigger these zombie types. These are the ones that become scary when they get over-enthusiastic about taking a living person out.
Other than missing their whole face, some might wear helmets. There’s no point in wasting the ammo either because some helmets will deflect every round. If still intact after going down, it’s always a good idea for the player character to take a helmet. It’s possible to wear hats, though I am unsure if they protect anything.
Do not fear, for Buddy, the dog is also here. In addition to the arsenal allowed by Arizona Sunshine 2, Buddy gets to join in on the adventure throughout the sun-scorched state. After being found in a chopper, the canine has only one mission now that his team is gone: get any survivors to safety. The best part of the dog being in the Arizona Sunshine 2 is the fact that he can get pets. Sure, guns are cool, but this is a dog that can be set to target zombies that got away from a round.
For the more action-oriented of us, there is also Horde Mode. Instead of the Standard story mode, complete with drama, character development, and emotional growth, we have a simple shoot-to-kill survival mode. Trade in the heavy story for a simpler approach to Arizona Sunshine 2. For every four or five waves completed, a new gun becomes available.
In this mode, it is important to look over the shoulder constantly, as Freddy can come from all directions. Too long spent looking in one direction can end a game in Horde Mode fairly quickly.
The graphics for Arizona Sunshine 2 are not bad. They are certainly better than many games that attempt the same thing. Some of the edges of cars seem to be painted a little rough. Blood splatters, though, are amazing. A proper blood splatter is a good indicator of how well-aimed a shotgun round is. NPC zombie models come in enough of a variety not to feel tedious. That is an important detail to factor in when considering zombie hordes. It’s a little boring to see a group of the same enemy repeated over and over.
Voice acting for Arizona Sunshine 2 isn’t bad either. Where some VR roles may lack emotion, or one may act over-the-top, it does not feel as though the actors lacked skill or overdid things in online delivery. There’s enough comedy in the dialogue to break up the monotony, but not so much that it becomes unbearable to hear.
Arizona Sunshine 2 is a great VR zombie shooter for those wanting an introduction to virtual zombie killing. There is plenty to do throughout the game when it comes to exploring. A mindful player can have a surplus of ammo, given the proper situations and how they are handled. Weapons come in enough variety that multiple combinations can be tested. Dual-wielding is probably the coolest part of the weapons system.
There is a leaderboard for Horde Mode, and multiplayer is available for either game mode. But the player base is so small that one may only find two or three people hosting an open lobby. If there aren’t enough players on the Oculus, it is possible to cross-play with gamers on PSN. For multiplayer, it’s hard to say one way or the other what its current value is to the overall scope of the game. Regardless, Arizona Sunshine 2 has a solid story, and it’s a good title to add to the Meta Quest 2 library. It is also good if you’re just in it for the cute and helpful dog.
