Played Horizon Call of the Mountain: The mountain is calling and it looks amazing

First off, a shameful confession: I haven’t played either Horizon: Zero Dawn or Horizon: Forbidden West before. Yes, I’m ashamed, but there’s always something, the dog had to go out and I also had to go to the dentist, and that’s why both titles are still neatly stacked on my Pile of Shame.

But maybe that’s not so bad, because it allows me to approach Horizon: Zero Dawn completely unaffected. Yesterday I already told you about my impressions of Playstation VR 2, today it’s about what I experienced under the glasses. Yes, and that’s pretty far away from what series connoisseurs will expect from my impression so far. Where Horizon 1 and 2 are action role-playing games in huge open worlds, including diverse customization options, lots of freedom and all sorts of side stuff that needs to be done, Horizon: Call of the Mountain is not all that. So, probably at least, the two-part demo I’ve played should give you a good idea of ​​what’s to come.

First the obvious differences: This time the hero isn’t redhead Aloy, but Ryas, a fighter against [hier bitte den Namen seiner Feinde einfügen, ich kenne die Hauptspiele wie erwähnt nicht].

How successful he was remains to be seen, because at the beginning of the demo (which almost certainly marks the beginning of the adventure), he was captured and must now join his enemies in investigating a strange threat. On his way he will meet various characters from the main parts, as already revealed, including Aloy.

The second big difference: While Aloy’s appearance is now iconic among gaming fans, Ryas is likely to be denied such fame, because VR is usual for playing from the first-person perspective.

Will there be skill trees? Will I be able to customize Ryas in any other way? Everything is not clear yet, in fact there is still relatively little information about the game a few weeks before the launch.

Horizon Call of the Mountain played: The mountain is calling and looks fantastic (2)
Source: Sony

What’s clear: this is going to be a pretty linear experience! When playing, the path was always predetermined, and it relies primarily on movement-intensive climbing, interaction with the environment – such as when doors have to be opened – and the use of a bow, which you receive immediately after the beautifully staged river trip. You already know them from the first trailer.

When playing, I was asked to use the “immersive” mode of locomotion. This involves holding X on the controller, then swinging your arms back and forth to run. It works and doesn’t feel bad per se, but it’s a bit silly. We could actually be out of the phase of funny VR gimmicks of this kind by now, however, and that’s why the integration might make sense: I can imagine that people who tend to motion sickness, with this somewhat “more natural” way of moving could cope better.

There will also be an alternative, normal analog stick control, but I haven’t tried it. But it will probably become my standard when I later play Call of the Mountain privately or as part of our reporting. Because some actions, such as looking around with the right analog stick, work unfavorably while you happily shake your arms back and forth.

So yeah, so you’re running down a linear path, swinging your arms up mountains, shooting at hidden targets and…yeah, and. This was the bulk of the exploration gameplay in the demo. It is already known that the later course of the game will also remain linear, but there will be different paths to reach the goal. Let’s see how extensive this feature will be. You will also unlock unspecified “tools” in addition to the bow.

Played Horizon Call of the Mountain: The mountain is calling and looks fantastic (3)
Source: Sony

It gets more hectic in the fights, and there were two waiting for me when playing: A small Robo-Dino as the conclusion of the exploration section, as well as a boss fight against his giant brother, who was outsourced to the second demo sequence mentioned.

In essence, both clashes worked the same: you can no longer walk around freely, instead you move from left to right or vice versa in a circle around the enemy in the middle. It feels strange at first, especially with gesture locomotion enabled.

Here it is suddenly completely different, you have to more or less “box” to the left or right (again with the X button pressed) and then take a step there, for example if you want to dodge. Whenever an opportunity arises, you shoot a few arrows at the mechanical grouch, VR-usual by the way, by pulling arrows out of the virtual quiver behind your back and inserting them.

At the end of the first, smaller fight, I had no more idea how this was all supposed to work than I did at the beginning and was only victorious because the difficulty was set very low. I stumbled, got hit constantly, fired badly at the biting robo, and didn’t feel like I’d accomplished anything when I finally scooped up my reward (some resource).