If you received a distress signal, would you answer it? Would you do whatever you could to try and answer the call if it was someone you knew, or would you not even bother with it? What if, by answering that call, you could stop whatever was about to happen? It’s interesting to think about what could be at the other end or who or what may have sent it. But does the developer, Vertical Robot, improve on what has worked? Let’s find out with Red Matter 2 for PlayStation VR2.
Red Matter 2 is an award-winning, one-of-a-kind, immersive puzzle-adventure game that takes you on a heart-pumping journey to the far reaches of space in a dystopian cold war setting. Step into the shoes of Sasha, an agent awakened, by Beta, in a lunar base by an undercover operative tasked with solving environmental, physics, and logic puzzles as you try and uncover the secrets of the mysterious Red Matter. So before you try to answer the call, there are a few things that you should be aware of. First, find the most comfortable place to sit. You can stand and play, but you work too hard. Second, make sure you have something to drink by you. Not because you will be sweating, but you may not want to stop playing and it’s good to be hydrated. Third, make sure those Sense controllers are charged. you don’t want to have to stop all because you forgot to charge them. Fourth, I am not going to spoil anything for anyone. And finally, just have some fun.
In Red Matter 2, the story continues from the first game, Red Matter, playing as Sasha Riss, where you are trying to escape, with some help, from the Atlantic Union base and where you receive a distress signal from a crewmate and hopefully find out what has happened. When I first started the game, I had to take a moment to make sure my eyes were working right. Not because anything was wrong, but because everything was so right and I haven’t even started the game yet. There is just something about standing and being immersed in what Vertical Robot has done here that makes you really appreciate it all.
Before you begin, you need to select if you want to play Seated or Standing. Some may wish to play seated or standing, either way, you can’t go wrong. For me, I play seated. Then I went into the Options and selected the audio. I turned up the levels from the defaults and instantly, it was music to my ears. Just to get an idea of the controls, they are pretty simple.
If you like to have Subtitles on, you may want to make sure the Subtitle background is off as it adds this background to them. Go into Preferences as this is where you can choose your movement style, Blinder options, and there is even an option for Combat Difficulty. Once you have everything the way that you want them, it’s time to start the adventure. Once the game starts, you are being called and you learn that your mind has been put into another body as you are trying to escape the base. This also serves as a tutorial to get used to everything. So pay attention to what is being said or the result may not be what you would like.
Just as in Red Matter, your suit has tools that can scan items using the adaptive triggers, so you can see what they are. These include really anything that can be scanned from letters that appear in a different Volgravian language to simple things, such as a plant. Your tools also have a connector, that when placed in different communication ports, can gather and also send information. Your tools can also be used for grabbing items as well as a gun that you will receive later on in the game that the accuracy is spot on. I have to say that all works pretty well.
As you play, you have what is one of the important parts of the game, the story. The dialog works well here and you can hear the voice actors enjoying themselves and not just sound like they are reading. Red Matter 2 is not going to spend the majority of the game having you read or hear the dialog, but just enough to keep you intuned and engaged with what is going on, and many players, including myself, will appreciate it. You will also have your fair share of puzzles that are not difficult, but they will require you to adjust objects of the environment in order to solve them. Some will require you to turn knobs to get the circuits flowing in the right direction and there will be puzzles where you will need to get to a certain point. You will find that each location you come across will have its own sense of purpose from the dialogue that is being said and the puzzles it presents. One of my favorite puzzles in the game was controlling the rocket that can shoot out fire.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. Visually, Vertical Robot has pushed what seems like the graphical limits and left the blueprint for what VR games should look like. From the environments and just being able to look into space and the universe at your feet to just moving around inside and out to see how everything has this reflectiveness that everything really needs to be seen to be believed. It honestly is that good. With the immersion, there is something special here with the PlayStation VR2 features. Moving along on the rails and passing each rail structure, you can feel it in the headset. Not in a banging your-head type of way, but just in the right way that you would expect it to feel. The adaptive triggers felt right and even moving my thumbs around on the Sense controllers, my character’s thumbs were moving to the different parts of the top of the controllers. With the sound, you have the music, you have this soundtrack that breathes Science Fiction to the communication between you and Beta to even the more simple things like carts moving and doors opening and closing, which sounded incredible on the Pulse 3D Audio headset.
There are a few things that I would love to see. For one, more with the combat. The combat felt great when shooting the gun, and I just wanted to see more of this. And finally, more Red Matter. If that means having some DLC in the future or a Red Matter 3, so be it. Either way, I am all in.
Red Matter 2 shows its presence in a way that needs to be experienced. It gives us the heart that is within its story and keeps us along for the adventure while making us want more. There are times when we are presented with a visual story of an experience that should not be missed and this is one of those times. We sometimes get lost in our own reality that when trying to get lost in others, we may forget how truly special ours really is with the ones that we care about the most. We have those that are special that if they needed help, we would do whatever we could to make sure they received it. But, how well do you think we would be if we all took the time to help all those in need?
Red Matter 2 is out now for the Oculus Rift/S and the Quest 2/Pro on the Oculus Store, the PICO Store, PlayStation VR2 on the PlayStation Store, and Steam VR. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Vertical Robot, please visit their site, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to go back and enjoy the view.
