'Arizona Sunshine' Nearing Release, Closed Beta Imminent

Vertigo Games first revealed its VR zombie shooter, Arizona Sunshine, in May 2015. We had a chance to give an early build of the game a run at the Steam VR Developer Showcase in January, and we liked what we saw. At the time, the developer was coy about release date specifics—it would only commit to “later this year.” It’s getting late in the year, but it appears that Arizona Sunshine is still on track for a 2016 release.

For most of the year, Vertigo Games quietly continued its work on the game. It wasn’t until mid-August that the developer started releasing tidbits of information on the Arizona Sunshine Steam community page. The developer also started sending out information about the game via newsletter.

For the most part, the community updates have been small bits of information such as concept art and weapon and character models. In the most recent newsletter, Vertigo Games upped the ante. The developer released three screenshots of the game’s Arizona desert environment.

One of the three screenshots depicts a bridge over a river. Vertigo Games said that the scene features “water effects, wind whipping through the brush, and dust sweeping the canyon floor,” which should help sell the realism of the experience.

Vertigo Games included an image of abandoned cars lined up on a highway (a familiar apocalypse movie trope) and poses the question, “Did they leave anything useful in these cars?” which suggests that part of the game includes scavenging for gear.

The demo of Arizona Sunshine that we tried in January felt like a classic arcade on-rails shooter, but the full game may turn out to be a less linear experience. The third and final screenshot that Vertigo Games sent in the newsletter is of an abandoned mine. The developer noted that “clearing buildings presents a different challenge to fighting zombies in the open.” You get the advantage of being able to take cover, but the limited number of exits could pose a serious problem.

In addition to the environment screenshots, Vertigo Games announced that it would be conducting a closed beta in the coming weeks. The developer plans to pick testers at random from the pool of people signed up for the game’s newsletter.

Vertigo Games has not yet announced the release date for Arizona Sunshine, but with a beta test taking place shortly, the launch can’t be too far off.