With what the team at Vertical Robot managed with Red Matter 2 on the PSVR2, I was super excited to see what they were going to do with an upgrade to the original – as this game looked great back 2018.
STORY
In the game you play as Agent Epsilon, who crashes onto one of Saturn’s moons, Rhea, and close to a military base belonging to the People’s Republic of Volgravia. You mission soon becomes to investigate the base for information around a top secret research project – the questions is can you find the answers?
GAMEPLAY
Red Matter is a puzzle game and not much more outside of this, when it comes to the gameplay element of the title. When investigating and moving between puzzles it is pretty linear in design. But even with this approach the game is still really enjoyable, as the puzzles are well designed to suit the narrative and location of the game – be accessing systems to turn on power to the station or aligning satellites.
Each section of the military base you visit will throw a puzzle your way, and at some points the lack of information and direction needed to understand what you are trying to achieve can be frustrating. However, when you figure it out, at times you might be kicking yourself over something simple you missed. After solving the puzzles in each room more of the story will unlock, as you start to find out what was actually going on in this base.
One element of Red Matter than impressed me back when I first played it and still did playing it now, is the amount of items that you can interact with and scan for more information. Which really makes the game world feel alive, and adds to the immersion, as you will find yourself wanting to stop and scan everything you can.
Just a warning to end the gameplay on Red Matter, if you have played never played the first and have played the sequel, this one will not bring any combat as that was introduced in the second game.
PRESENTATION
As previously mentioned the original release from 2018 looked outstanding, but the update has seen the team bring in 4K textures and have the game running at a native 90fps with no re-projection. With this in mind and updated textures it really has made the game come to the standards of the Red Matter 2 – and revisiting it with these updates made it feel like a whole new experience. The military base has never looked so good, all the imperfections, scratches and marks on the base surfaces look outstanding. With every section being brought to life by the great work with the lighting to set to tone in each room you visit. However, my only issue was every now and then some of the real-time shadows looked lower resolution than the rest, but this does not break the overall fantastic immersion in the game.
Adding to visuals a great use of audio, with the base being brought to life with the use of environmental sounds in this run down location to keep you in the world. All the button pressing, switch flipping and lever pulling sounding clear and ominous light music playing throughout while exploring. Matched with fantastic voice acting for all the required dialogue in the game, and you can see the level of detail Vertical Robot has put into every element of game.
COMFORT/CONTROLS
Vertical Robot have made sure it comes with a lot of comfort options. You can be play seated or standing, with smooth locomotion, teleport and even a low gravity jump – which you can also control the speed of. You can also use smooth or snap turning and use vignettes if needed. Making it accessible for anyone when it comes to comfort.
TRACKED CONTROLLERS
GAMEPAD
LONGEVITY
The game took me around three-hours to get through, and was really enjoyable and well paced being around this length. This was my second time playing with the first being on PCVR, and I really enjoyed it again after returning so long after my original playthrough. I feel it does need a good break before you would want to play it again – so some might never return after completing it.
REVIEWED USING PLAYSTATION VR 2
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgment of the product.
REVIEW OVERVIEW
Red Matter looked and played great back in 2018, and now with the enhanced visuals and extra touches added by Vertical Robot it shows the game can still stand up to what it being released to this day. The puzzle gameplay and how alive the world feels is still up with some of the best, and it was great revisiting the world that feels so alive and remembering how great it is.
GAME DETAILS
Release Date: October 5th 2023
Developer: Vertical Robot
Publisher: Vertical Robot
Price: US $19.99 / CA $26.99 / €19,99 / £15.99
* Free Upgrade if already owned on PSVR
