Review: Zombie Bar Simulator
I was shocked to see Zombie Bar Simulator get a PSVR2 release, with it being around under its old name Horror Bar VR for years now across a number of platforms including the original PSVR. It just wasn’t one that I hadn’t thought would make the jump to the the PlayStation VR2.
Release Date: April 19th 2024
Developer: VR Factory
Publisher: VR Factory
Price: US $19.99 / CAN $26.99 / €19,99 / £15.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Code Provided For Review *
Mixing It With The Dead
Zombie Bar Simulator VR falls into a game genre that has been around since the start of Virtual Reality, which will see you preparing drinks and food for customers visiting the bar. The only difference is your customers are the undead and it has you creating some disgusting drinks and meals.
It will start you off easy creating drinks and then adds some food options, but as you progress you will start to get different sorts of mugs/glasses for your drinks, extra elements for preparing your drinks and also more complex food options – and of course more than one customer approaching the bar at once. As with all of these types of games, by the end its all about multi-tasking with your orders and time management to make sure your customers are severed in a set time or else they will walk away.
One thing the team at VR Factory have got right for me in their take on the service is, they have managed to keep the difficulty spike right – meaning you aren’t all of sudden overwhelmed by what the game starts to throw at you.
With the theme the ingredients you will be using get very ghoulish, which will see making drinks with eyes, mixed with things like blood or acid and topped with an ear, nose or worm. With the food replacing fries with fingers and having you making burgers from brains, hearts or livers just to name a few things on the menu.
Outside of cooking you will every now and then get some distractions in the bar, things like cockroaches running over the counter that you need to squash, bats flying at you and a drunk zombie scaring the customers you need to shoot with a gun behind your bar. Meaning its not only serving the customers in time you need to be concerned about.
All of the cooking, drink making and dealing with the distractions all comes together and works smoothly from a design front, with the bar around you being very close for you to just turn in your playspace to grab what you need. However, there is a few bugs I have encountered that were in the version I played back on Viveport back in the day. Like sometimes the bun for the burgers might fall through the plate you have put on the counter, meaning you then need to cook another one – and this can become annoying when you are timed with multiple customers.
Outside of the main mode that will see completing days, you will also get a free play and endless mode. You will also be earning money as you complete your days work, this is used to visit the shop to purchase new skins for your utensils and items around the bar.
One-Star Hygiene Rating
To go with theme and with the disgusting menu, your bar is not passing any hygiene test either with the aforementioned cockroach infestation, the dirt and grime around the kitchen and the choice of ingredients – but, luckily your clientele aren’t really bothered. The various undead that visit your bar all look great, as do the ingredients, your utensils and your hands – which carry on the undead theme. The background view from the bar does look like it it has lower textures, but you are not often looking out into the bar, as most of the time you will be looking about your bar/kitchen area.
For the sound you have the noises of making drinks and cooking in different ways as you do your order, the random grunts of the zombies when placing and receiving their orders and the sounds of the things that might invade your bar. This is mixed with the sounds you expect in a bar like a buzz of an atmosphere and some funky music in the background. Which is all that is really needed for a game in this genre and setting.
Comfort
The Verdict
Zombie Bar Simulator brings a more grotesque take on the bar/food prep simulators in the VR space, with its ghoulish ingredients that are perfect for your undead clientele. Where all the mechanics work well and smoothly, there is some little bugs that can make you miss the timer on your orders – which can be annoying when they happen. My main concern for the game, is this genre of game has been ever present in the VR space and might not entice the early adopters of VR, but its certainly worth taking a look at if the PSVR2 is your first headset.