Higher fidelity graphics and series of missions for pilots added for:
Happy 250th Anniversary to the United States of America
If you haven't already and want to add your vote showing interest for Guardians Planetfall among PSVR2 players, you can use their Discord Invite link (good for 30 days) here: https://discord.gg/NYmwJ89p3
Then visit the Polls channel and leave your vote.
Why? Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXJg833KzCg
How do my results compare to May?
It's a pretty big drop from my monthly norm and the first time I am in single-digits for PSVR2 since 2023. The drop is primarily due to being out of home for a family vacation for almost 1/2 the month, then getting sick and feeling too ill to play VR once back and even before the vacation I was spending more of my play time to complete the excellent 007 First Light.
New games that I played in June include:
I also played more of the following:
I am not sure what the exact requirement is to get this stats report, but I am in US region and received it via email from email@email.playstation.com with subject that includes text PS VR2 stats. So if curious, look for this email for yourself and if you feel comfortable, please share your stats report in replies below.
To receive these, I believe minimal requirements are:
Plus some mystery trigger to get subscribed for this particular PlayStation Email report on monthly basis.
Update: This PSN Account privacy setting must be set to Full
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Archery RED on the PSVR2.
It is a game design that is singularly focused on a single gameplay mechanic of aiming and shooting arrows and providing multiple game modes and variety of scenarios in which to use this mechanic such as targets, switches, portals and a small variety of enemy types that can attack back.
The two modes of play available are Campaign with 31 fixed design levels and Endless (Corridor) available and displaying "more coming soon" which reminds me of SkyLeap which was also focused on one broader gameplay mechanic (platforming), also launched in fairly polished state, with relatively small set of short levels and an Endless / Survival mode and then got updates that added new levels and modes.
The Campaign (0:55) will put you through a series of levels introducing new types of targets, switches, portals and enemy types where you score different amounts based on where your arrows land on the targets where you get ranked at end of each level from lowest (F) to highest (S). It doesn't seem to factor in time / damage taken or arrows missed for how you score and Rank and there are no online leaderboards which was one of the competitive drives in SkyLeap. I would also have liked the menu screen to show my level scores / rank for any of the levels completed which it currently doesn't provide.
The Endless (15:08) Corridor moves you forward on your platform through corridors spawning various types of targets you must destroy to open path forward before your platform collides with a closed wall. Additionally, you have spikes that you can't destroy that you will need to physically dodge (like in Beat Saber / Pistol Whip). Just as in Campaign, you may have targets spawn in any direction that you need to take out. Due to nature of platform moving and getting faster the longer you survive, this is the only mode where time is a factor. This mode would be even better served by an online leaderboard showing your best score to compare with friends as you try to go beyond self-imposed targets (beyond trophy targets).
Graphically, everything is crisp and clear with no signs of any reprojection. It is using an art style & design that reminds most of Superhot on the PSVR1. The particle effects of charging bow, shooting, and hitting targets are satisfying. I also like how incoming projectiles look as they fly by your head when you dodge (even without bullet time) and that you can shoot incoming projectiles with your arrows.
Audio features a fitting soundtrack during levels that gets silent in the menu screens. The sound effects is what stand out more with how your bow charges and shoots. One area of improvement could be better directional audio signals so you have more than the visual indicators to clue you in to targets / enemies spawning outside of your view.
Very satisfying haptics are present in the controller for when you are pulling the arrow against your bow string where you can feel the strength notches of your pull and along with the audio-visual feedback, shooting arrows feels very satisfying. There are no headset haptics for when you take damage. You don't feel any resistance build in the adaptive triggers which is another missed opportunity, but what they have implemented feels pretty good even without that.
Settings wise (0:10), you can choose whether to hold your bow in Left (default) or Right hand and there are two control options (Default & Simplified) where I stuck with the Default for what I played. Aside that you adjust haptic feedback strength in your controllers from 0-100% (default), turn on / off the sound effects or music and change language. Lastly, while the core gameplay is always just using your bow & arrows, you can move within your VR boundary to dodge / rotate as needed. You never move (forward / back / strafe) using thumbsticks, but the game does support rotating / turning using thumbstick but only provides Snap turn option with configurable angles. I don't like Snap turns and it felt slow to use here, so I quickly adapted to just turning in-real-life for my rotating needs. Any other movement is by shooting arrows that trigger teleports or platforms to move.
The game is featuring a Platinum trophy which will unlock for anyone with the skill to last 5+ minutes in Endless and complete 30 levels of the Campaign with the skill to get 3 consecutive S Rank in just 3 of the levels. If you know which levels you can easily get S Ranks in, you can just play three of those in order until you get it, so much easier than getting 3 Stars in 10 different tracks in SkyLeap. I also think surviving 5 minutes will not be as challenging as climbing over 500 meters in SkyLeap. I think anybody that enjoyed the Platinum in SkyLeap will enjoy it here as well but at a lower challenge level.
While I've repeated that this is an easier game than SkyLeap, I think it has very similar appeal, but one part of the challenge here is that there are no control assists. At least on default control, the game is not providing any kind of assist for how the bow aims and fires and your targets can be moving and it takes time for arrows shot to land on destination and depending on how much you pulled your arrow impacts both the speed of your shot and the rate of your drop-off.
I think the most important part of the game is how well that bow & arrow use feels and I think with the haptics and audio-visual feedback along with consistency of tracking of how the motion controls are working is what makes or breaks the game and after a little time spent calibrating myself to aim more consistently (4:05) I ended up feeling like they do have this part dialed in pretty good.
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Bearly Armed on the PSVR2, perhaps only if you are specifically looking for a simple stationary arcade shooter and don't mind broken trophies (not broken if keep DualSense connected).
It is a simple stationary arcade shooter with tutorial, 3 game modes with 5 levels (with 1 tryout area each), culminating in one boss level to complete the game. The premise of the game is there are a bunch of evil teddy bears lead by evil mastermind bear Frank that have seized control of a toy factory in which they are building an evil teddy bear army to take over the world. You are lead in your quest to save the world by Buddy, the dude-bro panda bear you save from being eaten by one of the evil teddy bear in the menu screen.
For all variety of weapons the game uses (depending on game mode), your reloads are handled by throwing your weapon and then retrieving another from your belt. You grab weapon to use by holding R1 / L1 (middle-finger grip button) on either hand controller. It does not use capacitive touch to be sufficient to hold the weapons and there is no option for toggle to hold vs grip to hold, but the nature of the game reloading by throwing weapons away and not always holding weapon didn't lead to grip finger fatigue for me, but it probably could for a longer play session.
The three main game modes are:
Graphically, the game is crisp and clear with no signs of any reprojection. I think it is a bit too dark and and it isn't as satisfying as it should be to shoot the evil teddy bears (better death animations / ragdolls, not necessarily gore). The shotgun weapon has a really wide spread in terms of visible projectiles but still works, the water gun doesn't cause much of a visual effect as it puts out flames and the freeze weapon area effect has a weird delay in how it freezes targets.
For audio, it features extensive voiced dialog from evil Frank and Buddy, your panda bear ally that introduces you to the game whom you help through the levels. I think Frank is voiced well portraying with an interesting personality of a demented evil teddy bear sick of being a child's play thing for humans while Buddy is kind of an annoying overly eager panda bear that repeats himself too much. The sound effects in the game have good amount of pop for shots but also have more out of place sound effects for actions like hitting evil teddy bear with your thrown weapon that remind you the game is aimed at younger audiences. Keeping with that theme, the soundtrack can feel off for the setting. It doesn't provide 3D directional audio to let you know which direction to focus on so you have to look around in a 180 degree view to stay on top of the incoming horde of evil teddy bears.
Haptics are not present in the controllers nor in headset for when you take damage and the game is not making use of adaptive triggers to improve the gameplay experience of using charged freezing weapon or when weapons need to be reloaded.
All settings can be accessed from title screen (0:30) with only change I made to make the enemies "crazy" instead of "cuddly". It does provide height calibration, but the auto-detection was accurate and I didn't need to adjust.
The game is not featuring a Platinum trophy, but 100% of trophies would unlock for anyone that just completes Tutorial + 5 levels of each of the 3 Modes (+ tryout area in each) and then defeated the final boss. That said, none of the trophies unlocked for me in what I played (until I played again with DualSense connected).
The only replay value is to improve your local high scores for each of the levels. The game is not using any online leaderboards.
There is nothing wrong with the game except broken trophies, but nothing particularly great either. It's aimed at younger players and fine for what it is.
Update: Saw how someone has unlocked some of the trophies so tried launching game with DualSense also powered and then replayed the Tutorial to see trophy pop. Confirmed with DualSense connected, all trophies are unlocking as expected when playing using VR2 Sense controllers.
Here are the games covered that are on or coming soon to PSVR2:
There was also Transformers Beyond Reality Redux, but I think PSVR2 already has better version of the game (since 2023): https://store.playstation.com/product/UP2055-PPSA13726_00-0146925864854028
Finally, the games I think a lot of PSVR2 players should be asking to bring to PlayStation:
Doing so does make developers think about or add PSVR2 to their eventual release plans.
I felt there was better representation for PSVR2 in this showcase than in the past. Here are the games and their individual trailers that are coming to PSVR2:
Finally, the games I think a lot of PSVR2 players should be asking to bring to PlayStation:
Industry struggles exacerbated by the pull of Meta platform funding that was clearly subsidizing a lot of the development costs aside, VR isn't going anywhere as long as players keep buying enough of the good games at fair prices to keep more good games coming.
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I highly recommend playing CleanSheet Soccer 2 on the PSVR2, especially if you are into Soccer.
It is the 2nd iteration of CleanSheet Soccer which is a sports game focused on being a professional goalkeeper. Clean Sheet in Soccer is a term used when a team concedes zero goals in a match.
Where the original game had two main gameplay modes (Set Play & Quickfire), the sequel has five main gameplay modes (Match Play & 4 types of Drills), but also features a Creator mode where you can create your own Match Play Scenarios to help you train and then a Career mode which is a set of completion tasks (Days Active, Balls Saved, Drills Completed or Scenarios Completed) to advance your League standing. Lastly, there is a Tryout mode where if you complete set of 4 drills, you can earn a Transfer Request that lets you switch between Leagues.
I think the biggest improvements are to the game design starting with introduction of 3 Leagues (Waveport City, Forgehill Rovers and Stanton United) which changes look of your title menu / hub area each having their own voiced Coaches (Penny, Gunnar and Albus). The League structure / coaches add context & guidance for how you start and advance in Career mode and pursue tangible "game" goals of promoting League standing (Beginner, Contender, Pro, Elite and Legends) while unlocking content (Stadiums, Balls and Gloves). The game starts you with a randomized induction into one of the 3 Leagues and to change to another, you would just need to complete the previously mentioned Tryout mode successfully. All this being added, it still let's you play whatever gameplay mode you want to play like the original so this League & Career context is added without taking away any freedom.
Another substantial improvement is how the title menu UI is streamlined to provide you quick access to all the game modes using tabs and including the leaderboard on their respective screens instead of having to go somewhere else to view leaderboards like in the original (and DodgeCraft from same developers). This extends to how the game provides optional concise tutorials with mini voiced videos that can be played within menu that tell you everything you need to know before starting. As part of the streamlining, they have also removed things the prior game included like Fitness Goals and Stats.
The Drills menu includes 4 gameplay modes that you can play Ranked (for XP and leaderboard placement) or Unranked (choosing level, difficulty & duration / lives):
The Quickfire here looks & plays similar to the original game, but the game design is improved to where the difficulty starts higher and I felt ramps up faster and hopefully doesn't have a ceiling (like original) so you don't end up playing 2+ hours.
Match Play (32:00) is the equivalent of Set Play in the original where you pick from 7 distinct categories of Scenarios and then get 10 random shots (in Ranked) you need to save from a large pool of possible Shot Plays. A key difference comparing to original is that it used to let you choose the width of your goal while the sequel just has the 1 smaller size. I think the game developer realized that most people can't run around in VR for the wider goal and most would choose the smaller size, so have only provided that as a fixed selection. Another difference is how the original offered more Analytics and ability to use Replay Cam, but I only played around with those features a few times and don't miss them. Lastly, the original used to display the number of possible shots included in each of the distinct categories of Scenarios while the sequel does not. On plus side, it is still my favorite mode of the game and looks & plays better.
Graphically, this was developed to release for PSVR2 first and while the original was also crisp and clear with no signs of reprojection, it looks a lot better. Especially on the starting soccer field that isn't part of a Stadium with the beautiful sky and large draw distance with trees and buildings in the background that all look higher resolution than anything in the original.
Audio is another area where I feel this is improved where none of the chosen soundtracks felt overused or not to my liking, but none have stood out as high-energy and fantastic as the soundtrack used for The Favelas paid DLC in the original. I think all voiced dialog is very well done while some of the written dialog from the coaches could use a proof reading pass.
Haptics are much improved in the controllers where you feel good level of haptics for all interactions with balls or other parts of gameplay. However, I think the headset haptics have either gone missing or become too subtle to notice. I think game does provide you a head and for sure a floating body (you can see looking down) but incoming balls aren't colliding with your head or body like they used to in the original and this might be why headset haptics are missing.
For Settings (2:50), it doesn't provide any comfort options because all gameplay is 1-1 motion so all you can do here is choose from supported languages and adjust the audio mix. The one setting I miss compared to original is option to enable full body collision because I liked that enabled in the original (which also caused headset haptics). This is also where you can modify your equipped Ball and Gloves option from the Equipment tab where in original, you went to a different room that featured in-game Pro Shop showing available paid DLC options to purchase and your unlocks. The sequel doesn't need anything like that because all unlocks at this time are from playing the game.
It is featuring a Platinum trophy where you would need to promote in Career to Legends for one of the Leagues, manage a Clean Sheet in every Match Play Scenario challenge and complete 5 League Transfer Requests to play at least once as each of the 3 Leagues. I think everything else will unlock as part of that.
I feel like the improvements in the sequel are the result of developer paying very good attention and actively seeking variety of players feedback on the original. They have streamlined the interface. Given it more of a career progression structure with unlock rewards for those that appreciate it. Added more variety of gameplay activities. Don't drag out the Quickfire Survival difficulty scaling with ceiling to require long play sessions to be competitive on the leaderboards. No longer have in-game Pro Shop for cosmetics and added Platinum.
This is what I like to see from VR developers when they get to build on the successes of their first game, that their next game does nearly everything better.
This update (0.1.0.46) focuses on control settings — and upcoming updates will bring further improvements to the control setup process, including VR-specific ones.
For PC:
Added control templates for popular joysticks: Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog, VKB-Sim Gladiator Mk.II, Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas One, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, and Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS Flight Pack.
Note: The Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas One is coming to PS5 as Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas 5 (releasing June 15th)
Compare here:
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Dungeons of the Deep VR on the PSVR2, especially if you are looking for VR games you can play seated using DualSense.
It is a grid-based first person RPG, now fully playable in VR with 11 unique lengthy dungeons to explore containing 35 unique fully animated monsters to survive while using 14 different weapons and magic against them featuring click-based real-time combat where you need to manage your movement, main weapon & off hand shield / weapon stamina.
The game includes a digital Manual (1:15) that covers Game Goal of surviving each dungeon to make it to the next where the game will automatically save and if you die during the dungeon, you will return to the beginning of that dungeon with the same stats you made it to the dungeon with. You are not able to save during the dungeon and even the first dungeon took close to 1 hour, so make sure you have enough time for each subsequent dungeon as you progress.
Each dungeon will get progressively tougher, but you will also be starting with more health, find better weapons and have more gameplay mechanics to use for your survival.
The game does not support playing with anything other than DualSense controller because it uses D-Pad for movement and Touchpad for Map. Combat is handled using R2 (once you have main weapon equipped), but is only active for melee weapon when in close proximity to enemy. Blocking is handled using L2 (once you have shield equipped) and can be used to avoid taking damage from melee and ranged attacks. The Circle button releases Spore Orb that identifies any weakness your enemy might have. The Triangle button uses equipped Magic (past the first dungeon) and the Square button uses the Flask (past the first dungeon).
Graphics are decent except during intro boat ride. The game is using reprojection, but I only noticed it during the opening boat ride. It does feel like everything including our arms / weapon are a bit over-sized, but once engaged in the gameplay, it wasn't a distraction. The creature attack and defeat animations are good quality.
Audio has great soundtrack uniquely themed for each dungeon and satisfying sound effects.
Controller haptics are used heavily, like when your health is low. It is also using Adaptive triggers to make different switch type interactions feel different. It is even using headset haptics where opportunities exist to use that.
There are no settings other than adjusting audio mix levels.
The game is featuring Platinum trophy, which I think anybody that completes all 11 dungeons will earn.
It is a simple but engaging game that is well designed for what it is trying to be and looks decent, sounds great and plays well enough.
Source: https://www.gamefile.news/p/paramount-games-studio-tmnt-last-ronin
For those unfamiliar, they made 3 quality VR games (Behemoth + S&S Chap 1 & 2) available on PSVR2. For anyone interested in these, I am providing region-free links below because these can be hard to find on the PlayStation Store.
While their next game will be non-VR, hopefully people still enjoying the games they have released can bring them back (or consider adding VR mode to their new game).
Is it a good idea for VR developers like Survios and Vertigo Games to convert their made for VR games to release non-VR / flat versions?
I know the Flat2VR Studios business model is sustainable because they have been publicly happy with level of sales for their game releases relative to their development, licensing and publishing costs where they take existing games and skillfully upgrade them for VR releases, so my instinct is that the reverse must also be sustainable, yet we see some VR studios having layoffs after spending time converting from VR to non-VR so I've been thinking about it.
Known examples:
It is a little early to judge how The 7th Guest Remake does compared to The 7th Guest VR, but I Am Cat and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin VR - Brutal Edition both did better on day 1 of PSVR2 (per user ratings influx) than The 7th Guest Remake is showing for its PS5 release. Even less on Steam which never got The 7th Guest VR. It only shows 2 reviews on Xbox and I couldn't find it on Nintendo.
Alien: Rogue Incursion VR continues to do better than the non-VR release and I doubt that Iron Guard: Day Zero will do better than the VR version, but hopefully well enough to cover modest cost of the port to make it available to much larger potential of players.
I think Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2 is a case where non-VR does much better than VR (even though the game is better in VR).
I think the issue is that while non-VR has much larger player base, there is also much higher competition for attention.
Where a Flat2VR conversion gets lots of attention by the VR players, a VR2Flat conversion doesn't get the same spotlight by the flat players. I think that is where the risk or opportunity cost is higher when a VR game studio spends time & cost doing a VR2Flat conversion.
I still think it is worth trying for the VR game studios to get additional revenue from non-VR players interested in their games, but it shouldn't cost so much that if it doesn't work, they end up having to do layoffs over continuing with their other projects. I mean, ideally, non-VR is a source of additional revenue to let them continue doing what they are best at (VR games).
Source: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/06/03/playstation-store-may-2026s-top-downloads/
Congrats to I Am Cat proving a new release can top the charts above all the evergreen and deep discount titles for the month. It just has to have high casual appeal and been on peoples wishlists for a really long time :]
Also happy to see Zero Caliber VR and the Moss games in the top 10 normally dominated by other titles.
PS - Please note that hybrids like Myst and Riven don't get counted in the monthly Top 10 PSVR2 tabulation by the PS Blog.
For anyone wondering about the hybrids, this is how much they dominate the PSVR2 best seller rankings on the PlayStation Store. Only 8 out of current Top 24 (Page 1) are VR-only.
How do my results compare to April?
I thought my most played for the month would be Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 since I played some long sessions of that whenever I played it, but Myst must have edged it out. Primary reason for reduction is I have less time to play on weekends and some of my play time is going to 007 First Light since that released.
New games that I played in May include:
I also played more of the following:
PS VR2 Stats, May 2026 (cusman)
I am not sure what the exact requirement is to get this stats report, but I am in US region and received it via email from email@email.playstation.com with subject that includes text PS VR2 stats. So if curious, look for this email for yourself and if you feel comfortable, please share your stats report in replies below.
To receive these, I believe minimal requirements are:
Plus some mystery trigger to get subscribed for this particular PlayStation Email report on monthly basis.
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I highly recommend playing Riven on the PSVR2, especially if you liked Myst or puzzle adventure games.
It is a puzzle adventure game that continues the story set after the good ending of Myst, where you are tasked to travel to Riven without a way back until you rescue someone. Unlike Myst, you don't have clues that have been left for Catherine to discover Age Books (for you to find) but you have a bit more direction of what your goal is at the start based on cutscenes and then your starting set of puzzles are more linear with just one path "forward" until you take your first Mag-Lev ride to a different island, at which point you start to get branching paths making rest of game as non-linear as Myst (to my observation).
Where in Myst, you could find Age Books and teleport to different island scale locations to progress in non-linear order, in Riven, you travel between islands using various vehicle rides like the Mag-Lev (34:10) or mine cart (40:10) without any loading screen transitions.
While the structure of progression is similar where you start on a central location and travel to other locations to solve puzzles that contribute to the central mystery being solved, it has a very different feel since no one in the story has left clues for you, but this also means the puzzles aren't relying on clues left for you to discover and then use. So the puzzle solving (at least so far) is less about remembering clue details and using them correctly and more about figuring out physical mechanics (42:30).
It does still have symbols (28:05) and other clues? (12:20) that I think will require remembering / screenshots (22:50), but it hasn't been an early focus like in Myst.
Graphically, the game is using reprojection like Myst which still gives softer look, but everything in the game world has higher graphical fidelity from faster loading screen (only when starting) to character cutscenes, to general environment textures and especially how good water and particle effects look. This is one of the prettier games I've played on the PSVR2, but I should mention that I am playing on the PS5 Pro and the game is tagged PS5 Pro Enhanced, so the experience may be different for base PS5. Also, while the game mostly looks very pretty, there are rare moments the graphics don't look as good like the water splash during bridge collapse (32:35).
Audio is uncompromised with no critiques. The soundtrack, ambiance, limited voiced dialog all feel on-point as do the directional mechanical, gas / steam and water sounds along with your footsteps on different surfaces.
The game is using haptic feedback for controllers (13:30), but very rarely and only interactions where your white ghost hands that have grabbed something turn golden / yellow. It doesn't produce any haptics for touching (14:30) or interactions (11:20) that don't change color of your ghost hands.
For Settings (0:48), it provides option for Smooth or Teleport movement and you can't toggle between them using the Triangle button (like in Myst) so have to set here. You also have option between Snap (with angles) and Smooth Turns (fixed) and whether you prefer to play Left or Right hand dominant as well whether you prefer movement orientation by Head or Controller. You can play it seated or standing with X button able to auto-adjust height and you can toggle sprint on / off using L3 (when playing right hand dominant). The Triangle button is instead used to access your Inventory and there is a setting called Satchel Position to accommodate Standing or Seated preference. The game also provides vignette setting and has comfort presets for Quick Ladders, Stairs and Vehicle Transitions. If you are comfortable in VR, I recommend you turn preset of Comfortable to Custom, change Vehicle Transitions to Advanced and disable Quick Ladders / Stairs for the most immersive experience. The use of ladders is not finicky to disembark like it was in Myst, but getting out of some "vehicles" can be a little finicky (31:15).
The game is featuring a Platinum. The trophy list is 100% secret trophies to avoid spoilers, so I haven't reviewed but I have noted that some people have already unlocked 100% so I don't think any trophies are glitched and I doubt there are any grindy / annoying trophies in the mix. Based on my experience with Myst, I do think there will be some trophies you can miss and probably also different endings for you to get on subsequent plays (or you can use manual saves before such choices), but the game does not provide option to start New Game on Classic or Randomized like Myst, which makes sense as the puzzles aren't focused on finding clues that provide the answers.
I was impressed with my time with Myst, but this is a clear step up where it has improved on the strengths of giving a purpose and then engaging game world with satisfying exploration & puzzles to solve, but also addressed the weakness of not looking as good as I know PSVR2 games are capable of. It would be great if this could run without reprojection to look as sharp as the Red Matter games, but the visual splendor of the Riven game world outshines pretty much everything else I can think of.
This is a very well designed puzzle adventure game and while playing Myst is not required, I think it is worth playing first the same way it is worth playing Red Matter before Red Matter 2.
Source: https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/41830-the-boys
Interesting that every trophy is marked >!Secret!< and good that it will be including a Platinum
Here I was thinking they are doing okay following release of Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow with a new project for Project Hail Mary announced on their socials & website as coming to Mixed Reality and VR in late 2026, then come to see news that they have gone into administration.
I found verification of this here: https://insolvencyintel.co.uk/maze-theory-games-limited/
I also found that this is not their first time in this situation: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11132358
Learning about administration, it is not the same as bankruptcy (which in UK only applies to individuals). It is a formal court-ordered restructuring process where a licensed insolvency practitioner takes control of a struggling, but potentially viable company, to rescue it by restructuring its debts and selling some of its assets to pay creditors. It provides a temporary "breathing space" by stopping creditor legal action.
So, I think calling Maze Theory shut down or closed has been inaccurate, because I've not seen any separate news of layoffs of anything to suggest Project Hail Mary MR / VR work is not proceeding and the socials are still actively promoting their upcoming project.
Here is to hoping Project Hail Mary is a big success for them that helps them recover from current financial struggles and continue being award winning VR game developers.
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Myst on the PSVR2, at least if you can play on PS5 Pro where I had better experience than what my friends on base PS5 have described, so it may be situation like The Midnight Walk where it ran well (or well enough) on PS5 Pro, but not on base PS5.
It is a puzzle adventure game where you start on an island with no instructions and progress purely on the basis of exploring while making observations to start to unravel the story / mystery and needing to solve some puzzles along the way by finding the clues needed for things like time to set, safe combination, or symbols to set.
The puzzles themselves don't feel difficult or obtuse after you figure them out and the game is providing enough information that I've been able to proceed unimpeded in what I've played so far, but it does require figuring out how the puzzle mechanics will work. For example, for the clock tower puzzle it is essential that you realize holding the lever will make the center piece move just by itself or you won't be able to get numbers to align as you need (17:25). Another example, in Mechanical Book / Age, you have to realize while trying out the Rotation Simulator that it makes different sounds depending on the destination (27:30) because when doing the actual rotation, you only know where you stopped by the matching sound.
Speaking of Books / Ages, the structure of the game and how you progress is non-linear. In the starting Myst island is a library that has a number of Books you can pick up and read about the corresponding Age (12:30). The puzzles on this island once solved will teleport you to one of these 5 Books / Ages when you uncover & touch the Book. In the teleported Book / Age, you need to solve some puzzles to find the Book that teleports you back to the starting Myst island. Then you use the map in the library to choose next destination (41:15).
While you are at a destination, I think you are meant to be finding Blue and Red pages that reveal more of the story where I think each page relates to one of the sons (Achenar & Sirrus). I think "we" are playing as the mother, Catherine or someone receiving messages meant for her by the father, Atrus (6:35). I am positive these Blue / Red pages can be missed, but you can also go back and look again. Your save file (auto or manual) shows how many Blue / Red pages you have collected.
Graphically, the game has a soft look due to use of reprojection but generally looks fine or even beautiful (sky in distance 20:18 or anything near you), but there are cases where something in the distance can look blurry like using library rotating tower to see where you can find next Book (15:35) that corresponds to the Access Key (9:40). There is shimmer on the text for the menu screens and you can see shimmer on some distant objects (like trees) but the draw distances are good and environments both indoors and outdoors feel immersive to be in with stable framerate. You can see ghosting from reprojection on the subtitles (2:15) so I turned them off and for some of the objects in the environment as you move by them (16:30). I think the game is using the OLED HDR because the colors in general and particle effects in particular are vibrant (22:45) and it does use true-blacks some of the time in the headset unlike the video capture which shows gray around the black boxes for the logos as game is starting (0:05).
Audio is uncompromised with no critiques. The soundtrack, ambiance, limited voiced dialog all feel on-point as do the directional mechanical and electrical sounds as well as your footsteps on different surfaces.
Haptics are completely missing for the VR player. There is a setting for enabling vibrations that is on by default, but I assume that is for non-VR players of this hybrid game playing with DualSense. I never felt any haptics in headset or controllers and it doesn't use adaptive triggers for anything either (like shooting arrow from crossbow 22:05). The game has lot of optional things you pickup or interact with (23:55) so the absence of haptic feedback as you do is missed even more.
For Settings (0:40), it provides option for Smooth or Teleport movement, Snap (with angles) or Smooth Turns (fixed) and whether you prefer to play Left or Right hand dominant as well whether you prefer movement orientation by Head or Controller (or Unlocked). You can play it seated or standing with X button able to auto-adjust height and you can toggle sprint on / off using L3 (when playing right hand dominant). Additional comfort options include Quick Travel for Ladders, Stairs and Vehicle Transitions. The ladders are a little finicky to disembark because you have to land your feet before it will let go, but it works well enough that I left Quick Travel on default (off). There is also setting to enable Classic Video Mode to get original FMV. I also noted the Help option exists when in-game to unstuck you (5:57).
The game is featuring a Platinum. The trophy list is 100% secret trophies to avoid spoilers, so I haven't reviewed but I have noted that some people have already unlocked 100% so I don't think any trophies are glitched and I doubt there are any grindy / annoying trophies in the mix. I do think it probably requires completing the game multiple times for potential of different endings or if you choose to play Classic or Randomized at the start (1:55).
My biggest concern going into this was my poor experience with Firmament from same developers which ran poorly for PSVR2 in 2 of the 3 larger outdoor areas even on the PS5 Pro (and I know it was worse for base PS5). For me, Firmament was a game that I would have to play non-VR if I wanted to continue unless they did significant patching to improve it. I know Firmament did receive some patches beyond when I last played so it may be improved to be more stable / acceptable, but what I had tried closer to launch was not something I wanted to spend time in. That is not the case here where I like the game itself more (the structure, story / lore, puzzles), the quality & quantity of VR interactivity (haptics still felt missing) that is generally jank free and I also find it immersive enough (audio / visual experience) to spend time in the game without the kind of performance or really poor resolution issues which pulled me out of Firmament.
It would be great if this could look as sharp as the Red Matter games, but accepting some visual compromise and lack of haptics, it is a very well designed puzzle adventure game.
