The PSVR 2 has had a tumultuous first year and half. With all the uncertainty regarding the hardware, and Sony's future support for it, I wanted to spend some time sharing my thoughts about the hardware and the games that I've played on it, because I've actually really liked the PSVR2, and I think it would be a shame (and a mistake) if Sony kills it prematurely.
I've been a late adopter of VR. I played a few VR games on a few different headsets at friends' houses over the years, but never really got into it. The games were fun to a degree, but they never wow-ed me to the point that I felt I needed to run home and order my own VR headset. They also usually made me nauseous within 20 or 30 minutes of play. It wasn't until playing Star Wars: Squadrons and Ace Combat 7 on a friend's PSVR that I finally actually wanted a VR headset, and the PSVR actually felt comfortable to wear.
But I had already played Star Wars: Squadrons and Ace Combat 7 on standard displays, as well as Resident Evil VII, so there weren't any PS4 VR games that I was really eager to play. Déraciné was really the only PSVR game that I wanted to play at that point. So I decided to wait until I could get a PS5 VR headset instead.
When I actually started playing PS5, I was really liking it. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that when all is said and done, the PS5 might end up being my second favorite console after the PS2. The novel haptic feedback and surprisingly accurate motion sensor functions have even rekindled a long-lost love of Gran Turismo (and racing games in general), and it just so happened that Gran Turismo 7 was supposed to get a really good (free) VR update for the PSVR 2! Since I had been enjoying the system, I was a lot more inclined to spend more money to get the most out of it. I got a nice tax refund in 2023, and put that money towards a PSVR 2 headset.
The PS5 was heavily marketed as being fully backwards-compatible with PS4 games, so I would surely be able to go back to the PS4's VR catalogue and play any of the games I had missed out on. Or so I thought...
This entire review is available in video format on YouTube.
The Game Library
A video game console, or VR headset, is nothing without games to play on it, and this is where the PS5 starts to fail miserably. It does have good games, but it lacks any killer exclusives. Most of what is offered are little more than glorified tech demos, VR expansions to non-VR PS5 games, or ports of VR games on other platforms -- quite a few of which are actually scaled-down imitators of the version that is available on current PC VR headsets. Games like Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village were already 2 years old when the PSVR2 launched, but they were the marquee launch titles for the headset.
The worse offense, however, is that the PSVR2 does not support any of the original PSVR games for PS4. This is despite the fact that the PS5 was always marketed as being fully backwards compatible with PS4 games. I specifically bought the PS5 with the disc drive so that I could go back and play my library of PS5 games on discs (and also so that I could save money by time-sharing games with friends). I get that the PSVR2 hardware works under totally different principles compared to the original system. But that doesn't mean that Sony couldn't have developed an API to translate the inputs from the PSVR2 into commands that PSVR games could understand.
The PS5 was heavily-marketed as being fully backwards-compatible with PS4, and PSVR.
In any case, the net effect is that those of us who bought a PSVR2 are stuck with the hardware's limited library and don't have the luxury of the back-catalog of great PSVR titles. That means no Star Wars: Squadrons, no Resident Evil VII, no Déraciné, no Ace Combat 7, and no Superhot VR among other PS4 VR games.
I actually was not aware that the PSVR2 wouldn't support PSVR games when I bought the hardware. The PS5's marketing had so heavily-promoted backwards-compatibility with PS4 games, that it never occurred to me to even check if the PSVR2 would be backwards compatible too.
Since I had never owned the original PSVR, and I was expecting the PSVR 2 to be backwards-compatible, I was actually excited that I would get to go back and try out those old PSVR titles. While I was waiting for the PSVR2 hardware to be delivered, I bought a fancy new flight stick with the expectation that I would be able to play Star Wars: Squadrons, and I also bought Déraciné, Ace Combat 7, and Star Trek: Bridge Crew with the expectation that I would be able to play them on the PS5 with the PSVR 2.
OK, yeah, sure, that mistake was on me. I should have verified the backwards compatibility before buying those older games. That was stupid on my part. But again, the PS5's marketing had pushed the backwards-compatibility with PS4 games so thoroughly that it didn't even occur to me that the VR games might be an exception.
I could not play my backlog of PS4 VR games on the PSVR2.
Luckily, I was able to borrow a friend's PSVR headset so that I could play those games, so the money wasn't wasted. And this also gave me an opportunity to more directly compare the PSVR with its next-gen successor.
What games am I enjoying?
Since I couldn't play PS4 back-log, what PS5 VR games have I been playing?
Well, let's start with Gran Turismo 7. With the VR and motion steering on the Dual Sense controller, Gran Turismo 7 is an absolutely phenomenal driving experience. I probably put another hundred hours into the game after getting the PSVR2, playing a bunch of the post-campaign content. Being able to simply turn my head to check my mirrors or look over my shoulder to check my blind spot before attempting a pass or taking a corner makes the game feel so much more like actually driving, than playing a video game.
This entire essay was released early to my
Patrons in the form of a YouTube video.
I had already played through both Resident Evil VII (on PS4) and Village on PS5 before the PSVR2 released, so I skipped the VR versions of both of those. I did, however, try the VR demo for Village and played the Resident Evil 4 remake in VR. I never cared for Resident Evil 4, and I blame it for killing the classic survival horror genre, including the painfully slow decline of the Silent Hill series. I do like the VR version of Resident Evil 4 Remake, however. It takes itself a bit more seriously as a horror game, and the VR is very immersive. The more serious tone does make the silliness of the original seem a lot dumber, but the improved situational awareness offered by VR makes the game less needlessly and annoyingly difficult.
Being a football fan and vocal critic of Madden, I also tried out a pair of VR football games. The first is an arcade game called 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR. It's a silly backyard football game that's mostly just mini-games. I didn't really care for it.
The other game, NFL Pro Era turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I was also expecting Pro Era to be just some extremely limited and simple mini-games, and maybe some 2-minute drill scenarios. But no, this is a full football game. The sequel has a more complete multi-year career mode, but I haven't played the sequel yet, due to on-going elbow pain that may have actually been caused by playing too much of NFL Pro Era.
I may have suffered a long-term elbow injury from playing too much NFL Pro Era and Kayak VR.
The other VR game that contributed to my elbow pain was Kayak VR. This is one of the big breakout successes of the PSVR2, and is one of the system's prettiest games. It's also a great workout! Even without the weight of holding an actual paddle, or having to press against the resistance of real water, miming the kayak paddling motion can get surprisingly exhausting.
This is one of the silver linings of the lack of an extensive or robust games library. In lieu of blockbuster AAA games stealing the spotlights, smaller indie titles had an opportunity to shine. One such small standout it a little virtual vacation game called. After Gran Turismo 7 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain, Kayak might be the premiere launch title for PSVR2 (even though it is also available on PC VR platforms, and has been for about a year).
Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a surprisingly
robust VR horror game.
Another smaller indie game that I liked a lot was a horror game called Propagation: Paradise Hotel. Much like with NFL Pro Era, I was surprised by how robust and full this game feels. I thought it would just be a zombie shooting gallery with maybe a few childish puzzles, but it turned out to be a full-fledged, old school survival horror experience. It is a little on the short side, and ends with a sudden cliff-hanger, and the difficulty curve gets very steep in the final stretch of the game, but I liked it a lot, and I will happily buy the concluding chapter, if and when it becomes available on PSVR2.
I also took the PSVR2 as an excuse to pick up No Man's Sky again. I hadn't played it since its original, disappointing, launch. I keep hearing that it's actually a good game now, and sure enough, it is.
I was much less happy with Swordsman VR. I thought that a sword-fighting game in VR, with motion controls would be really cool, but without the tactile feedback of feeling the impact of the swords on each other, it ended up being a very awkward gameplay experience. Driving cars, piloting fighter planes, and shooting guns seems to translate much better into VR than something like sword fighting.
Without tactile feedback, sword duels
in Swordsman VR just didn't feel right.
I played other PSVR2 games as well, but I don't have time to talk about them all.
I would like to have been able to play more of the VR games available (on both PS4 and PS5), but it's hard enough to carve out large chunks of time to play video games now that I have a toddler running around the house, and it's even harder yet to put much time into VR.
Hardware, setup, and comfort
Once I got over the disappointment over not being able to play PS4 VR games, I was actually very happy with the PSVR 2 hardware.
First of all, I will admit that the PSVR2 headset isn't quite as comfortable to wear as the PS4's VR headset. I don't get the nausea that I suffered from earlier VR headsets, but I do start to suffer from pain the back of my head and my neck after extended periods of using the PSVR2. The original PSVR headset cleverly included a large headband that distributed the weight of the lens housing up the forehead and towards the top of the head. This made the headset feel less heavy compared to other VR headsets on the market at the time, which reduced neck strain and pain that would accompany prolonged use.
The PSVR2 doesn't have that high headband for some reason, and so it doesn't re-distribute the weight as effectively. There might also be less padding, and the hardware might be heavier. Within probably 20 minutes of putting on the headset, I start to feel pain and pressure. It's not an excruciating or debilitating pain by any stretch of the imagination. If I'm really into a game, I won't really notice it until I stop playing. Usually I can relieve the pain by taking a short break to loosen the head strap or take the headset off. I never had to do these things with the original PS4 VR headset.
Compared to the original PSVR [LEFT], the PSVR2 [RIGHT] is a breeze to set up.
The PSVR2 headset more than makes up for that discomfort by having much better tech, and being overall easier to use. The PSVR2 is a breeze to set up and play, especially when compared to the complicated spaghetti of cables required to get the original PSVR running. Here is what you need to do to set up the original PSVR on PS4:
- First of all, you need a PS4 Pro. A regular launch PS4 won't play VR.
- Then, you need to connect the PSVR Processor box to the HDMI port on the hard-to-reach backside of the PS4.
- Then run a separate USB cable from the PSVR Processor box to the front of the PS4.
- Then you have to plug in the PSVR Processor box's power adapter to a wall outlet.
- Then run another HDMI cable from your PSVR Processor box to the TV.
- And you're not don't yet, because now you also need to connect a PS4 camera to the PS4 another hard-to-reach port on the back of the PS4 console.
- And you're still not done, because you still have to connect the PSVR headset to the PSVR Processor box.
- And if you want to hear anything from your PSVR headset, you also need to plug the headphones into the PSVR cable adapter.
And now you are finally ready to play PSVR. You know, after you also calibrate the camera, charge and calibrate the controllers, and oh! Since it uses the camera to track headset and controller motion, you have to stand or sit in a specific place directly in front of the camera. In all, you have to connect 7 or 8 different cables across 4 different pieces of PlayStation-branded hardware. It was like having a dev kit instead of an actual retail product -- very clunky and cumbersome.
Now let's go through the grueling process of setting up a PSVR2 headset on a PS4...
- First, you plug the cable from the PSVR2 headset into the easily-accessible USB-C port on the front of the console. ...
... and you're done!
There's no external camera for the PSVR2 headset because it uses internal sensors, accelerometers, and built-in cameras for motion-tracking. And the earphones are built-in to the headset, so no extra cables or connectors are required for that either. I can sit or stand anywhere in the room, including plopping a VR gaming chair in the corner so that I'm not in people's way or risking someone tripping over a cord.
As such, setting up your PSVR2 and then unplugging everything for storage is way easier quicker, and doesn't require tearing apart your entire entertainment center to access hard-to-reach ports on the back of the console or TV. It's just so much more convenient in every conceivable way! With how much of a pain it is to hook up everything on the PS4, I don't blame any of the people who set it up once, and then never bothered to play it again after they took it all apart to store it for a while.
The PSVR2 feels like a generational leap in hardware.
The PSVR2 headset also has other nice bells and whistles. The new PSVR2 controllers are a huge improvement from the silly wands that the PSVR used. These new controllers have haptic feedback and joysticks, which means that games on the PSVR2 can play and control more like regular games played with a controller, but with the added bonus of tracking the motion of your hands.
The PSVR2 also has its own haptic feedback. The headset itself will vibrate, for example, if the player takes damage in an action game, or crashes your car in a driving game. And the screen is bigger, higher resolution, and much more vibrant.
Lastly, there's a nifty camera pass-through button on the headset, which allows you to use the front-mounted cameras on the headset to see a display of your actual physical surroundings. This is useful for making sure that you aren't about to bump into something when moving around playing a room-scale VR game, or if you need to quickly check on a kid or a pet while playing, or maybe even to check your phone, all without having to take the headset off.
Overall, the PSVR2 is just a much nicer piece of tech. It definitely looks, feels, and plays like a generational leap in hardware and software design. Aside from being less comfortable to wear, it far surpasses the original PSVR in every way!
Uncertain future
I do have some concerns about how future-proof the PSVR2 is, and whether developers will continue to support the PSVR2 in the next few years. Some existing games have already limited themselves in order to support PSVR2. For example, the version of Green Hell available for PSVR2 is not the full Green Hell game that is available on PC, and which supports current-gen VR headsets. Instead, it's a version called Green Hell VR, which is a port that was originally developed for last-gen headsets, and which is a scaled-down version of the full PC game. While the full PC game takes place in a large, open world jungle, the PSVR2 version constrains the maps to smaller, linear corridors of jungle, lined with cliffs and rocks. There's also a noticeable graphical downgrade from the PC VR version.
The jungle is a series of linear corridors
with occasional branching paths.
The more linear map is an obvious technical downgrade, but it does have some merits from a design perspective. It forces the PSVR2 version of the game to be more linear and purposeful, making it a tighter, and more story-focused experience. For better or worse, you can't really get lost in Green Hell VR. Since all the maps are linear corridors, even if you do loose track of your exact position, you just follow the one and only available path in either direction. Even if the PSVR2 is capable of providing the full PC experience, there is actually merit to allowing players to play the more limited and constrained version in order to keep the game more accessible to a wider audience.
But there are huge problems with this technical concession. The constrained, linear maps completely nerfs the A.I. for wildlife and causes problems for the balance of the in-game economy. Animals can't really run away from the player, because no matter which way they run, they'll hit a wall.
I also bought the PS5 version of Project Wingman, which is subtitled "Frontline-59". I had this game on my Steam wishlist as well, but bought the PS5 version when I saw that it included PSVR2 support. Unfortunately, just like with Green Hell, I found that the PSVR2 version is not the whole game; it's just a 6-mission expansion pack. The entire Project Wingman campaign is available on the PS5 version, but only the "Frontline-59" mini-campaign is playable in VR on the PS5. And again, just like with Green Hell, Project Wingman is playable, in its entirety, in VR on PC. Since the game was already developed with VR support for PC, I can only assume that the developers decided not to port the full game to PSVR2 due to some kind of technical limitation of the PSVR2 or PS5 hardware.
Only the expansion ("Frontline-59") missions of Project Wingman are playable in VR.
As a side note, one of the other reasons that I bought Project Wingman on the PS5 is because I had also bought a Thrustmaster HOTAS flightstick that is compatible with PS4 and PS5, and I wanted something to play it with. But Project Wingman on the PS5 doesn't support that flight stick. Why the hell did they make a flight sim for a console and not include support for that console's one and only compatible flight stick?! More importantly, why the hell can't Sony just let us use the flight stick as a "generic gamepad" and let us map its inputs to analogous functions on the PS5 controller? That's how I got my old Logitch flight stick to work with Ace Combat 7 on Steam. It wouldn't be optimal, but at least the expensive peripheral would be usable! Hopefully the upcoming Aces of Thunder will fully support PSVR2 and HOTAS...
So was the decision to limit the PSVR2 support for such games made by the developers for budgetary reasons? Or was there something about the PSVR2 that created an unsurpassable technical barrier to porting the full games? Am I going to be able to play current-gen VR titles on my PSVR2? Or will I be stuck having to settle for scaled-down, last-gen ports?
Sony Support?
But then again, the uncertainty regarding the future of the PSVR2 may not be up to game developers at all. It seems that Sony's leadership doesn't care about VR. Despite being a great piece of hardware, the PSVR2 had not sold particularly well, and Sony is reportedly cutting its funding and support for the headset. They've already closed the London studio that developed PlayStation VR Worlds, and has laid off staff at Firesprite studio (the developer of Horizon: Call of the Mountain, the headset's only real exclusive besides Gran Turismo 7). This supposedly only leaves 2 1st-party VR games still in development (as of the time of this recording). Sony has also halted production of new PSVR2 units while they try to sell the existing un-sold stock.
But then again, Sony also slashed the price of the PSVR2 in the summer of 2024, and multiplied sales of the headset. It seems that price was one of the biggest deterrents to the hardware's sales.
Sony is selling an adapter to use the PSVR2 on PC.
Sony also released a PC adapter for the PSVR2. I haven't bought the PC adapter yet, because I don't think my gaming laptop will run VR games. But I'm still thinking of buying the adapter anyway, before it goes out of stock. At the very least, if the PSVR2 dies on the PS5, then I might still at least be able to get some value from it on PC in the future.
In any case, I really like the PS5, and I really like the PSVR2. I hope that Sony continues to support PSVR2 after its summer sales spike. And I hope that more games come out for it. Personally, I'm looking forward to Aces of Thunder, Undead Citadel, and Alien: Rogue Incursion.