Arizona Sunshine Remake review — A short and violent romp through a never-ending stream of the undead

I’m relatively new to the VR scene and, as such, I wasn’t around to experience Arizona Sunshine when it was originally released. But after finishing my first playthrough of Arizona Sunshine Remake along with its two DLC, Dead Man and The Damned, I can only imagine how blown away people must have been upon its initial release. Sure, there are a few dated mechanics, and the game doesn’t always have great object detection, but it still quickly became one of my favorite VR experiences and made me excited to add Arizona Sunshine 2 to my wishlist.

Arizona Sunshine Remake doesn’t waste any time thrusting the player into the action. The story revolves around a sarcastic and increasingly frustrated protagonist attempting to find whoever is sending out radio broadcasts in hopes of uniting with other survivors. To reach his destination, he will have to use a surprisingly varied arsenal of weapons, continuously scavenge for supplies, and brutally murder thousands of zombies. The story may not be anything to write home about, but it serves its purpose and provides the player reasons to explore a wide variety of locations, including the sunbaked mountains of Arizona, pitch-black mine caves, abandoned army facilities, and even trailer parks. 

Variety is Arizona Sunshine’s greatest strength, as it never lingers in one location for long, choosing instead to continuously push the player forward, often into increasingly difficult enemy encounters. To help manage these encounters you’ll have your pick from a slew of weapon types, with three weapons allowed to be held on your person at any moment. Shotguns, revolvers, sniper rifles, bolt action, and rapid fire options are found nearly everywhere you go, giving you ample opportunities to test out each weapon and figure out which you are most comfortable with.

If I’ve scared you into thinking this may be some incredibly difficult VR experience, then I apologize. Despite the game ramping up in later areas, encounters remain quite manageable, with the whole game having more of an arcade shooter feel than a survival horror experience. That said, if you’re a sadist and want to suffer, then you do have the option to up the difficulty and/or choose to go with manual reloads, both of which severely impact the overall tension. That’s not to say the game is easy otherwise. Even on the default difficulty and with the easy reload option toggled, you will still find multiple instances where you face overwhelming odds and may even perish to the horde a few times if you’re not fully aware of your surroundings.

These horde shootouts are often the best part of any given location. Managing your ammunition, knowing when to shoot and when to wait, knowing when to knock out a few kneecaps to slow the mob rather than going for headshots, and knowing when to utilize any melee weapons at your disposal are all imperative to surviving. But none of your planning or skill will matter if you don’t take time to scavenge. Nearly every room you enter will have ammo, food, or weapons hidden throughout. So open anything with a handle, search every nook and cranny, and don’t rush through areas. Anything less than remaining fully stocked at all times will often lead to a death sentence.

I’m not one to seek out games where you have to scavenge, in fact, I often go out of my way to avoid games with similar concepts, but something about Arizona Sunshine’s presentation makes scavenging enjoyable. I never once became annoyed at having to seek out ammunition, and found myself greatly enjoying the tension that stems from later parts of the game which have you poking your head around corners and opening doors slowly, gun at the ready, never quite sure of what may be on the other side.

In fact, everything from Arizona Sunshine’s presentation to its gunplay just feels right. It has a great aesthetic, impressive graphics, a humorous protagonist, and fun enemy encounters. Nearly everything you see can be interacted with, and the player is always rewarded for exploration. The only time the game shows its age is with a few clunky detection instances, such as getting stuck on doors you’ve opened, or trying to pick up ammo and your character picking up literally everything but what you want. I also had an incredibly difficult time with ladders – I have no idea why – but they are so sparse that it never became more than a slight annoyance. These issues aren’t much of a problem if you remain fully stocked at all times, but if you’re in the middle of a fight and you’re frantically opening drawers or car doors looking for ammo, then you might become frustrated.

When the worst thing you can say about a game is that it is too short, then you know you have something special. But Arizona Sunshine manages to be too short, and just the right length at the same time. I wanted the experience to continue, but ending where it did ensures that the game never becomes stale. Thankfully, the remake version comes with both DLCs and a Horde Mode, so my experience didn’t end when I completed the four or so hour long campaign.

An addition I was surprised to see was co-op and multiplayer. I had always believed Arizona Sunshine to be a single player experience, but I am so glad they added in other options. While you can tackle the whole experience solo, it’s also possible, and dare I say recommended, to invite a friend for co-op if you want to survive harder difficulties. Of course, the horde mode also includes multiplayer, but more on that mode later.

After completing the main campaign, I dove into the Dead Man DLC, which may have been the wrong choice if I was expecting something different. Sure, there are a few new characters, but the story is too short to ever allow the player to get a feel for the protagonist, let alone anybody else. Essentially you’ve been tasked with launching a missile and then escaping, but unfortunately, instead of creating an entirely new area to explore, you trek through many of the same locations that you did in the base campaign. All this DLC really amounts to is a few timed enemy encounters where you just blindly shoot everything in sight while waiting for a lift to arrive, and multiple instances of running for your life. Admittedly, it is still fun, but that says more about how solid the core gameplay of Arizona Sunshine is, rather than the DLC itself. Despite lasting maybe 45 minutes, I found myself bored, which is something I never felt during the main campaign.

Next, I jumped into The Damned DLC, hoping for a better experience than Dead Man delivered and boy, was I pleasantly surprised. The Damned was exactly what I was hoping for from DLC content. It feels fresh, adding in new characters who are actually given a bit of personality and some funny back and forths, a much more claustrophobic feel, and amounts to what is essentially an hour and a half of non-stop intense action. The Damned is extremely linear, but that’s not to its detriment, instead the premise of having to fight your way from the top of a Dam to the bottom is intriguing, and I appreciated the tightness and pace of the DLC. That’s not to say there isn’t any variety, as your frantic escape will have you fighting your way through cramped hallways, crumbling stairwells, scenic tourist overlooks, and offices filled to the brim with dead workers and military personnel. 

The Damned also has a bit more of a story than the base campaign, with a protagonist who isn’t speaking just to himself this time around. It’s still nothing to write home about, but it helps provide a sense of urgency lacking in the base campaign. The game’s sarcastic quips and humorous dialogue still shines through despite the new characters, and I found myself invested in helping Liam escape the Dam.

To end my journey through the world of Arizona Sunshine, I booted up Horde Mode. Now I’m not a huge fan of horde modes and I don’t tend to gravitate to multiplayer for this type of content, but despite being a relatively barebones experience, I still had some fun here. It is certainly useful in keeping players engaged with Arizona Sunshine long after they’ve completed all the core game and the DLC has to offer.

In horde mode, you can choose to ride solo or team up with up to three other players in an ill-fated attempt to survive increasingly difficult waves of enemies. You’ll spend your time collecting resources, finding keys, and destroying objects to slowly expand your playing field. It’s nothing we haven’t experienced before, but I still had a blast. The tension ramps up quickly and if you’re playing with those easy to excite, like I was, it makes for a hilarious experience full of chaotic screams and out of breath exclamations for help. I’m not sure if it is a mode I will come back to often, but I do see value in it and expect there may be quite a few others, especially Call of Duty Zombie fans, who will enjoy it. 

Since I am new to Arizona Sunshine, I can’t vouch for the changes made between the original release and this remake, but I can say that Arizona Sunshine Remake feels like a modern VR title. Often Arizona Sunshine surpasses the interactivity and creativity of many more recent releases, and had the word “remake” not been in the title, then I’d have no idea the core game released in 2017. Everything here is solid, with fun gunplay, exciting set pieces, a variety of locations to explore, great interactivity, and often funny dialogue. Sure, there are a few janky moments, but nothing that dampened my time in the sun-drenched world of Arizona Sunshine.

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