Forget Tallnecks - Horizon: Call of the Mountain players are in love with the little things

Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR 2
(Image credit: PlayStation Studios)

While you might think the appeal of Horizon: Call of the Mountain might be in getting to immerse yourself in a fantastical world full of towering robot dinosaurs through PSVR 2, players are really latching onto little things like touching ferns or holding sticks.

Just take a look at the clips early players are posting to social media. You won't see big, spoiler-filled videos of the scripted story encounters and set pieces - instead, everyone is eager to share how they're playing around with small details in the environment. You can toss plates around, pick up torches and hold them to campfires to light them, or dip your finger in paint and use it to write messages on rock walls.

None of these things are new for VR games, of course. In fact, many of these clips are taken from an opening area that serves up a ton of objects to play with, and you see similar sorts of introductory VR physics playgrounds in games like Half-Life Alyx. Call of the Mountain does stand apart with its visual fidelity and attention to detail, however. For example, just look at how you can stick your hand in the water and watch the ripples form.

For me, I just want to play with the instruments. Who needs a new Samba de Amigo when you've got VR Horizon maracas?

In our Horizon: Call of the Mountain review, we call it a "a stunning game that really brings the Horizon world truly to life in a way I didn't really imagine was possible." It's the little things that really help to sell the reality of that world.

Speaking of little things, have you seen Aloy in Call of the Mountain? I had no idea our hero was so… fun-sized.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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