Alongside some more details on PlayStation VR 2, Sony has announced Horizon Call of the Mountain, which has very few details surrounding it, but appears to be more than just a simple rail shooter. Rail shooters have been common in the early eras of virtual reality gaming, but many consider the genre more or less a gimmick that doesn't explore the medium's capabilities properly. The short look at Horizon Call of the Mountain isn't exactly promising, but there are hints that the game has larger ambitions than putting the player and a predetermined track.
The reveal process for Sony's new virtual reality rig has been slow, and potential buyers haven't even gotten a look at the headset itself yet. The first thing to be revealed about PSVR 2 was the PS5's new VR controller, but now that more specifications for the system itself have been listed, the first exclusive game for it has been announced. Horizon Call of the Mountain comes from Zero Dawn and Forbidden West developer Guerrilla Games, with help from Firesprite, which is most recently known for creating The Persistence.
PlayStation's trailer for Horizon Call of the Mountain doesn't necessarily inspire confidence in it being much more than another rail shooter, but it also doesn't really have any significant details to speak of. It opens with some words from Guerrilla Games studio director Jan-Bart van Beek about the game before roughly 30 seconds of in-game footage is shown. The perspective of the player has them sitting in a boat, slowly moving down a stream as a Tallneck stomps overhead. Putting the player in a boat isn't the most inspiring first look, since the scenario seems to indicate Call of the Mountain being rail shooter experience.
Horizon Call Of The Mountain Will Allegedly Innovate
The words of van Beek, on the other hand, assuage some of those immediate concerns. The introduction starts with some words about how Forbidden West is part of just the beginning to the Horizon franchise. The developers have also been working on Call of the Mountain, which has been "built from the ground up for PlayStation's next-gen VR hardware" and "designed to push gameplay technology and hardware innovation." Those are all words not uncommon to the marketing departments of the video game industry, but the Horizon brand being attached seems to add some legitimacy to those claims.
Guerrilla Games could just be waxing romantically about the potential for Horizon Call of the Mountain redefining VR games, but a former Forbidden West developer has chimed in on Twitter with some corroborating sentiment. Chris James is formerly a senior world designer for Horizon Forbidden West, and claims Call of the Mountain "will change what AAA means for VR." The project has apparently been under wraps and in development for quite some time, and James' distance from Guerrilla makes the lofty claims about Horizon Call of the Mountain being innovative a bit more believable, even though the very first gameplay clip doesn't bring anything to mind besides a rail shooter.
Sources: Chris James (via Twitter), PlayStation (via YouTube)