When I first tried Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on PlayStation VR way back in 2017, I was blown away. Sneaking my way through the grimy, hauntingly eerie Baker estate through a headset was a level of immersion I’d not seen in a game.
Looking back, though, it was certainly imperfect. The resolution drawbacks were fairly significant, you still had to use the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller and there were some odd cut-to-black moments for certain transitions when protagonist Ethan Winters was moving, like dropping from a ladder. To be fair, it’s clear that such concessions were necessary for a first-gen VR experience, but it nonetheless makes the experience feel a tad dated in hindsight.
None of that is an issue with Resident Evil Village, the franchise’s second outing that’s fully playable in VR on PlayStation. (Sadly, Resident Evil 4 VR is an Oculus Quest 2 exclusive.) Where RE7 translated somewhat awkwardly to VR, Village feels absolutely built for it. Across the board, Capcom has smartly leveraged the PlayStation VR2‘s beefier specs and unique features to take an already great game and deliver an experience that is, hands-down, one of the best I’ve ever had on VR, even after only a couple of hours.
That starts with the visuals. On a base level, the PS VR2’s 4K HDR support already puts it well above the 1080 HDR of its predecessor. What’s more, the PS VR2 leverages eye-tracking to improve the fidelity of what you’re directly looking at by reducing image quality in your peripheral. In other words, Village is remarkably crisp in VR, with the game’s realistic character models, solid art direction and intricately designed levels all looking quite sharp. I’m also not normally someone who notices the implementation of 3D Audio (spatial sound), but I absolutely felt the difference here, adding to the immersion as all kinds of vampires, ghouls and other creatures hissed at me from the shadows.
But beyond that, the game’s cinematic presentation truly comes to life in VR. When a gruesome Lycan tackles you to the floor, snarls through its blood-soaked fangs and takes a bite out of you, it’s frighteningly up-and-close-and-personal. Running through the sadistic Heisenberg’s trap-infested catacombs feels like a thrilling rollercoaster ride thanks to the ability to freely rotate your head as you slide down a slope. And yes, seeing everyone’s favourite tall vampire, Lady Dimitrescu, tower above you is genuinely chilling. It’s one thing for Capcom to tell us she’s 9’6″ — it’s another to see that represented, to scale, in VR. Village wasn’t a terribly scary game on the whole outside of the horrifying Beneviento house, but seeing the game’s nightmarish assortment of enemies from this new perspective absolutely makes them more fearsome.
More importantly, though, VR dramatically builds upon Village‘s already satisfying gameplay mechanics. As mentioned, RE7 in VR was limited to the DualShock 4, which made the headset feel more like an add-on than the actual main event. Village, on the other hand, is playable entirely with the PS VR2’s comfortable motion-controlled Sense gamepads — a setup that offers two key benefits.
First, you can now fully interact with your surroundings by moving your arms, whether that’s reaching down to pull open a drawer, sliding a lock on a gate, or rotating an ornate tablet for a puzzle. Considering a key part of Resident Evil is scouring every nook and cranny to find precious ammo, herbs and other resources, the motion controls make otherwise basic activities feel far more engaging.
Of course, full control over Ethan’s arms extends to combat. At any time, you can swing your arms upward in a blocking position to protect against upcoming attacks or make slashing and stabbing gestures for knife attacks. Through this interactivity, Village‘s rudimentary melee combat feels genuinely engrossing, especially when you’re low on ammo and have to desperately fall back on it. Capcom has even made it so the knife will automatically return to the sheath on Ethan’s left arm should you drop it. While this may break the immersion a bit, it’s worth it so you don’t have to try fumbling around to pick it up. The same applies to the other weapons that Ethan will acquire.
And on that note — first-person gunplay with the Sense controllers is an absolute blast. So much so, in fact, that it’s hard to believe I ever settled for using a controller and VR setup with RE7. That’s because it feels so intuitive. Naturally, aiming anything with motion controls will automatically feel more immersive than analogue sticks, and that’s before you factor in the differences between each gun. For example, reloading your handgun means you have to physically grab a clip from your hip, push it into the bottom of your firearm and then pull back the slide on top. Your shotgun, meanwhile, requires you to load shells one at a time and then pump the barrel between each shot.
This sounds fairly simple, but when you have a group of beasts just a few feet away, this real-time, multi-step process is a real game-changer. Indeed, there’s a nail-biting tension as you pepper an enemy until he falls, only for your clip to go empty as he starts to get back up, leading you to frantically have to reload your gun, aim and fire before he lunges at you. (For this reason, I didn’t bother with managing two weapons through dual-wielding, one of the VR version’s new features, but that’s still an undeniably cool option to have.) An added benefit to all of this? It addresses two of my only issues with Village — the downplaying of horror in some sections and the game becoming too easy by the end as Ethan becomes a walking armory. When you have to fend off macabre foes who are quite literally up in your face through skin-of-your-teeth gunplay, things definitely feel scarier and more challenging.
Honestly, my only gripes with Village‘s VR version are pretty minor. You have to download a separate free file on the PlayStation Store that works alongside your copy of the base game, so your previous saves unfortunately can’t be carried over. There are also some jarring moments in cutscenes where Ethan may automatically move where you’re not looking, resulting in some brief disorientation. On the whole, it’s a lot smoother and more natural than RE7, leading me to feel no motion sickness, but these (few and far in between) instances are still worth mentioning.
Resident Evil games have always been designed with replayability in mind, which is undeniably valuable for many, but I’ll confess that I’m generally not inclined to revisit the same campaigns for bonus weapons and other unlockables. However, Village is one that I absolutely intend to see through to the end another time on PS VR2. The heightened atmosphere, jaw-dropping sense of scope and gripping combat afforded by the headset make this a legitimately transformative version of Resident Evil Village. Outside of Horizon Call of the Mountain, this is easily the PS VR2’s killer app.
Resident Evil Village‘s VR mode is available for free to anyone who owns the standard or Gold Edition of the base game. It’s worth noting that yet-to-be-revealed PS VR2 content is also in development for the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake.
Image credit: Capcom
That’s why I’ve been so intrigued by the PS VR2, a glossy new peripheral for the PS5. For me, it’s been an opportunity to get back in the saddle and fall back in love with an old hobby. And in the past several days, I’ve had a blast doing just that. In many ways, I’m reminded of why I loved VR in the first place while also appreciating the many improvements Sony has made. There are some reservations, to be sure, but based on my early impressions of the headset, there’s a lot to like here.
I should mention, however, that I’ve experienced a mild level of discomfort after using the headset. I don’t get actual motion sickness, though my head starts to feel uneasy and even a little nauseous. Historically, VR has never done this to me, but I’m chalking this up to the fact that it’s also been years since I’ve used a headset this extensively. (I had a brief period of trying the Meta Quest during early COVID lockdowns before stopping in favour of going for walks.) Since I haven’t had the PS VR2 for too long, I’ll have to see how my experience improves over time, but for now, I’ve only been going at it in spurts.
This benefits the visual fidelity of games across the board, and that’s before we even get into 
For one, it’s got adaptive triggers to give you context-specific tension for actions like drawing a bow in Horizon Call of the Mountain (more on that later). Adding to that is the haptic feedback, which gives you unique sensations for things like building different structures in Cities VR. On the whole, I really like the look and feel of the Sense controllers. Strangely, though, PlayStation won’t be selling these separately at launch, which is slightly concerning should you run into issues and have to potentially wait a while to get a repair.
Thankfully, Horizon developer Guerrilla Games and Firesprite (The Playroom VR) have crafted an exceptional experience. In
But above all else, I was impressed by just how much the moment-to-moment gameplay got its hooks into me. In many non-VR games, movement can feel on rails; how Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake or God of War‘s Kratos clamber up walls will be exactly the same each time you play, no matter who’s playing it. But Call of the Mountain feels so much more engaging because you actually have to physically do everything yourself. This includes walking (alternating between swinging your arms), climbing (reaching out to grab ledges, often hand-over-hand) and jumping (pushing behind you). Being out of shape like I am will only add to the sweat-inducing immersion. And that’s just in regular sections.
Sure, I could have actually fought the Watchers using Call of the Mountain‘s oh-so-satisfying archery. Since the game requires you to unholster the bow, grab and nock an arrow, aim, and then fire, it can feel simultaneously suspenseful and badass to land a shot in the heat of battle. Still, I wanted to see if I try to zip past them, and it was downright thrilling. Whether it was fighting or fleeing from machines, the rush of playing Call of the Mountain was often exhilarating. Best of all, it runs for about seven hours, which is surprisingly meaty for a VR game. (For reference: Batman: Arkham VR, the original PS VR’s “killer app” at launch, was just under two hours.)
This means there’s something for everyone, and even specific experiences to suit your mood. After a long day, the calm and relaxing vibes of exploring a jungle paradise in Costa Rica in Kayak VR were exactly what the doctor ordered. Thanks to some wonderfully intuitive paddling controls, I could just float around at my leisure and soak up some beautiful scenery. Likewise, I enjoyed roaming around a galaxy far, far away with familiar faces like C-3PO and R2-D2 in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. On the flip side, Jurassic World Aftermath is a tenser experience that has you sneaking around to avoid fearsome dinosaurs. I didn’t love the cel-shaded art style or rudimentary AI of the beasts, but otherwise, it was a solid encapsulation of the atmosphere found in the original Jurassic Park movie.
What holds the PS VR2’s launch lineup back a bit, though, is a general sense that something’s missing. As cool as a lot of these games are, they feel familiar. Indeed, many of these titles are available on other platforms, including the original PS VR. If you’ve never played VR before or have even been out of the game for a while like I have, this won’t be as much of an issue. Even still, this means that there aren’t many experiences actually built from the ground up for the new hardware. This sort of goes against Sony’s positioning of PS VR2 as a “next-gen” headset; the tech may be new, but the experiences — however good they may be — largely aren’t.
This leads to the biggest issue with the PS VR2: the price. The base model costs $750 in Canada — well above the $520 and $650 price tags for the PS5 Digital Edition and standard PS5, respectively. An $820 Call of the Mountain bundle is also available, but that only saves you $10 since the game is $80 on its own.
When you first put on the PS VR2, there is, of course, a brief calibration process. Most of that is fairly standard for a VR headset, but two features immediately stood out. First, there’s the new See-Through View, which leverages the PS VR2’s new front cameras to let you quickly see get a black-and-white look at the real world. With past VR devices, it felt cumbersome to have to lift the headset just to see my surroundings, especially after you’ve found the right adjustments to fit it on your head. Seriously, it can’t be understated just how handy it is to just press a button to do this now without needing to remove the headset.
Then there are the controllers. Rather than iterate on the original PS VR’s wand-like Move controllers, the PS VR2 has spherical ‘Sense’ controllers. I quickly appreciated this novel futuristic look. On top of that, they have some of the PS5’s DualSense gamepad’s signature features, like adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. Most importantly, though, that round form factor gives them a very natural and comfortable grip.
Then there’s your bow. Requiring you to reach back and unholster the weapon from your back then do the same to pick up an arrow before you nock it only builds on the immersion. Naturally, pulling back gives you a satisfying DualSense-esque vibration that enhances the full degree of motion you have over the actual aiming. All of this works together to truly sell the idea that you’re using a bow and arrow. It also adds a welcome layer of tension to combat, as the pressure’s on you to quickly draw, load, aim and shoot. The only element here that felt a little awkward was dodging, which you do by holding a button and pushing your arm to either side. To be fair, I’m sure this was the best way to mitigate any motion-sickness for more sudden dashing, but it took some getting used to.
Given that this was a relatively brief demo session, there’s still a lot I need to see. For one, the rest of the launch lineup. PlayStation is promising
