This is not a review. OK. Maybe it is. Kinda.
Fuck this game. I hate this game. No I don’t. I play the campaign over and over but the game wants me to hate it. Playing with the Move™ controllers can be done but it is just annoying moving. You’ll bump into invisible walls, you’ll have trouble turning around and get stuck clipping to a wall, you’ll open a drawer or a door and awkwardly maneuver your way around them. It’s all manageable but it is a pain in the ass.
The ONLY saving grace is the fact that you can dual-wield weapons. Mini-shotgun in your left hand, uzi in your right… LET’S DO THIS! … It is poss— oh hang on, I’m stuck on a corner. Now I gotta back up to turn around and… Ok.. I’m good. LET’S DO THIS!
Playing Arizona Sunshine with the Move™ controllers, oddly enough isn’t the ideal way to play this game. PS Aim™ is the way to go. There is an entire mode dedicated to holding two handed weapons as opposed to dual-wielding. So instead of pistols, there’s rifles, instead of the one handed shotgun, they are two handed, no more heavy magnums, just straight up assault rifles. This game only works because traversing through the environment is much less a pain in the ass.
This game should’ve been semi on-rails with the wands, anyways. The game progresses almost in a straight line with deviations being tiny. Using the Aim definitely works but you lose twin-fisted bad-assery.
The absolute best thing Arizona Sunshine ever does is send you into the mines. It is fantastic. Oddly enough and almost divine comedy ironic, this sequence is best experienced with the janky ass Move™ controllers. You’re going to be moving slow and methodical because it is dark, so, it almost works. ALMOST.
You have one hand holding the flashlight and the other with the gun and you just TLC Creep (ask your parents) through the mines, flinching at every groan. The muzzle flash illuminates your environment briefly, you see a Fred (that’s what the dickhead protagonist calls them) and you put a slug through its brain. This whole sequence is basically perfect. It is one of the few sequences in the game where you actually feel vulnerable.
As much as this game says you will scavenge for ammo and food… you probably wont have to after the mid point. You will have a lot of ammo and you can just go guns akimbo alllllllllllll the way up to the finale. The level in the mines makes you feel vulnerable because you REALLY have trouble seeing in the dark, even with the flashlight.
Finally Horde mode is garbage with the Move controllers so avoid that unless you are really comfortable. I don’t have much experience with Horde mode because it was really claustrophobic and I think I’d much rather do that co-op with a friend.
To be honest, I’m glad I own Arizona Sunshine, but I’m disappointed that I bought it. It definitely wasn’t as long as I was expecting and had some fun sequences but it being so linear and short was a letdown. Given that Move is a limiting control system, I find Horde Mode too constricting to even feel comfortable playing. Maybe if the game was $29.99.
Games like Resident Evil 7 and the upcoming Skyrim VR prove that you really don’t have to dumb games down for VR. Arizona Sunshine is a simple zombie shooter when it doesn’t need to be. There is more puzzle solving and exploration going on while you creep through the mines than you do mowing down Fred after Fred after Fred simply hitting checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint.
Ultimately, this game isn’t terrible. I have had a lot of fun playing it and I’m sure I’ll run through the campaign a few more times… WITH THE AIM!. I just wish Horde Mode would let me stretch my legs a little further and the controls with the Move were a little more intuitive.
J
@IamFN2K
PSN/XBL: IamFN2K
IamFN2K@gmail.com
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