PS5 Horizon: Call of the Mountain

[DisturbedSwan]

This is arguably the showpiece, flagship title for PSVR2 and it hasn't failed to disappoint. Having only played two games on the system so far (this and GT7), with both being incredibly impressive in VR, I have to give this the edge as it fully utilises PSVR2's capabilities to its fullest extent, all the features like the haptics, finger tracking, impulse triggers etc. all come into play to create one super immersive environment to explore, with a Wheel and Pedals I'd imagine GT7 would be equally as impressive but seeing as I've just got the DualSense to use for that, this gets the edge ever so slightly. 

 

Coming from PSVR1 where 'standing' games were severely crippled by poor tracking, I watched on in envy as I saw numerous headsets launch with full roomscale tracking like the Vive, Index, Rift Pro etc. and whilst I can't quite achieve that myself as my living room isn't big enough, there's more than enough freedom to move about and the tracking is fantastic with this in comparison. It feels like the realisation of what I wanted PSVR1 to be all those years ago, a fully fleshed out AAA game made from the ground up for VR that fully immerses you in the experience with controls and tech that don't detract from the experience. 

 

At its heart, this is a climbing game though. I'd say 70-80% of the time you will be clambering up Mountains, man made structures, along peeks, valley's  and everything in-between really. At first the climbing is quite one-note, you just climb with your hands up various surfaces but as the game goes on you unlock pickaxes which make you feel like Lara Croft in the recent Tomb Raider titles and a grappling hook-like device which enables you to swing across chasms. Imagine what the climbing sections of an Uncharted or Tomb Raider would feel like in 1st person and you've got a rough estimation of what this is like really, enemies and combat sections are in the game but they're treated as boss battles at the end of a chapter and are fleeting experiences that whilst incredibly thrilling are gone before you know it really. 

 

It's a linear experience without too many branching paths, open areas or anything like that, there are a few times where you can choose to go down the right or left path at particular sections but that's about it really, it's very much a cinematic linear type experience. There's a few collectibles to get along the way in the way of targets you can shoot with your bow that are sometimes placed in sneaky locations, puzzles with stones you can stack upon one another to eventually make a cairn and legendary mountains to climb, the latter of which seems to be mainly tied to the story. There are also lore collectibles you can get and pieces of armour to collect that when you've accumulated 4 or 5 upgrade your armour capabilities, nothing to ground-breaking there but it helps break the game up.

 

There's also a theme park like ride where you travel along in a kayak through the rainforest whilst various monsters either clamber, fight or jump over you, it's definitely a mode you will try once and show to friends and family members to wow them as they come round but that's pretty much all it is. Another inclusion is the challenges you can do, there's an archery challenge where you can attempt to outscore Aloy's 1500 points (which I managed a few nights ago) and an assault course challenge where you have to climb, jump and shimmy your way through a course beating a certain time, I think I need to get further into the game before this fully unlocks for me, but what I have tried is good fun. 

 

So yeah, very impressive overall, I'm about 5 hours in and have to wean myself off it every night once my 90 minute session has finished. Had no issues with motion sickness or anything so far either which is great, have been using the 'comfort' setting for now as I don't want to overdo my capabilities too soon. I can see why some may be disappointed there's not more combat in it, at its heart it is a climbing game first and foremost, but for me it's still spectacular. 

 

My stream from last night:

 

A few pics:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[spatular]

thanks for posting impressions dude!

 

wanted to ask - does this have teleport options for movement?

[DisturbedSwan]

18 hours ago, spatular said:

thanks for posting impressions dude!

 

wanted to ask - does this have teleport options for movement?

 

No worries!  Yeah it does have teleport, saw it in the options menu, although I don't use it myself. I use the two sense controllers in a walking motion whilst standing in one spot to move forward then use the right analogue stick to move the view left or right but it's the kind of slideshow image instead of full movement when I turn it if that makes sense, it's on the 'comfort' setting as I had issues with getting a bit motion sick in PSVR1.

[spatular]

Nice one, glad teleport is an option. Yeah the slideshow makes sense ive seen that in other vr games

[mmmark]

It’s so odd to me that that’s the comfort setting. I tried watching you play but it was hurting my head with the sudden jump cuts way of moving. I can only play with full fluid movement but apparently that’s what makes most people violently ill. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah that's fair enough @mmmark everyone's different, just about finding that sweet spot for yourself whilst in VR really, I had troubles with motion sickness in PSVR1 which is why I'm cautious with this but that'll hopefully go once I get my VR 'legs' so to speak.

 

Can more exports from my Twitch streams, this time you can see my movements in the PS Camera, no audio still though because of Char's TV watching. I think in one of them I take about 45 minutes to complete a Cairn stacking puzzle  felt a bit stupid taking that long but oh well ha. This game really has some amazing moments, the combat - once you get a hang of the dodging - is absolutely fantastic, the scale of these enemies and how intelligently they move in front of you is just absolutely mad in VR. Some cool stealth moments too skulking about, trying not to get spotted by Watchers in certain areas, a few new weapons too which have allowed me to reach new areas - although no fast travel as of yet - presume it's something that'll be unlocked after I finish it.

 

Not sure how much longer I've got left, but I've put in about 10 hours so far, so it's quite a meaty game for VR really.

 

 

 

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this last night, think it took me about 11 hours overall. 

 

Really enjoyed every second spent with it really and don't really have too many faults with it, definitely the showpiece of the PSVR2 line-up and its first killer IP in my view. There is a lot of climbing and First-Person Platforming so if that's not your bag then I can see folks maybe not having as good a time as I did with it but if you're into platforming, climbing, using loads of gadgets (Zelda-esque) as you go through the game to plot your path forward then I think you're dig this.

 

The combat is absolutely spectacular as well, the size and scale of stuff like a Thunderjaw, Stormbird etc. is just absolutely bonkers. Using the bow feels super satisfying in combat, when you hit just the right piece of armour with the right type of arrow and see it all fall off them in real time above and around you, it's exhilarating. There is a second weapon that gets introduced about halfway through the game that I won't spoil but it's one of the ones from the mainline games so nothing crazy surprising or anything, it's nowhere near as good or satisfying to use as the Bow either so I seldom used it really.

 

There's one set piece moment towards the end as you're climbing between Tallnecks as a load of enemies are attacking you and it's so incredibly exhilarating, this is the only real set piece like this in the game but it's memorable and bloody amazing.

 

So yeah, can't really recommend it enough, I'm not sure I'd say go out and buy a PSVR2 to play this game but if you do pick one up make sure this is at the top of your 'to buy' list I guess.

 

Got a few collectibles to mop up and a couple of miscellaneous tasks to do and the Plat should be mine. Only one that I thought would give me trouble is getting a high score on the Assault course but I managed that last night after about a half hour of trying and bucketloads of sweat 😂

 

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Ended up going back and mopping up a few collectibles and got the Plat, pretty easy. Some of the lore collectibles were a bit buggy and counted twice (and one thrice maybe?) but yeah all done in the end.

A fantastic PSVR2 introduction.