Review: Sony PSVR 2

I’ve always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to virtual reality. There are a lot of reasons for this, too. There is the extensive cost of most high-end VR units. There is the sometimes-complicated setup. There is the lack of truly transcendent visuals. And then there are the games themselves, which have historically lacked the depth and creativity I’ve come to expect from traditional console titles.

Sony’s latest VR unit, PSVR2, can’t solve all these problems. But it does solve some. And in doing so, it emerges as the finest virtual reality unit in the field, a truly premium experience that immerses you in each and every game world. If you can afford the hefty price tag ($549, plus the cost of the PlayStation 5 you’ll need to run it), you’re looking at the defining virtual reality experience on the market.

As the name indicates, PSVR2 is PlayStation’s second foray into the virtual reality market. Seven years ago, Sony dropped the original PSVR, and it was a solid but clunky device, essentially a band-aid VR solution. It mixed old tech (Sony’s aging PS Move controllers) with a new headset. And it worked sure, even saw the release of several stellar games, including an "Iron Man" VR game that quickly became the favorite title in my virtual reality library.

But it wasn’t truly satisfying. Setup was a pain, a mess of wires and an additional box you needed to connect to your PS4. And the Move controllers didn’t feel as natural as the control mechanisms coming from the HTC Vive and other VR headsets.

PSVR2 has none of these issues, and from the moment you unbox the unit, it feels instantly modern. Setup is breeze this time around: Your PSVR2 head unit connects to your PS5 via a quick USB-C cable, and the new Sense controllers pair in an instant. The controllers feel terrifically modern, too, in line with what you’d expect from a Meta Quest 2. Other little touches abound. The PSVR2 includes a built-in sound solution, a pair of earbuds that are built directly into the headset and can be tucked into tiny nooks in the headset when not in use. Ultra-robust surround sound these are not (and you can still use more potent wired headphones if you choose to), but the convenience of these earbuds and their relatively solid sound had me relying on them frequently.

The headset itself manages to deliver a magical blend of comfort, forward-thinking ideas, and impressive performance. First off, there’s the comfort factor. This is definitely one of the larger VR headsets you’ll find yourself donning, yet it feels terrifically well-balanced. A dial on the back helps you adjust the tightness of the unit, and you can also adjust how closely the front portion tightens to your eyes and forehead.

Even better, you can adjust the width between the lenses. This lets you find a perfect position for the lens, one that keeps your eyes from strain and keeps the images focused, an addition that instantly alleviates a lot of the headaches some gamers experience with VR. I’ve long struggled with VR headaches, too, but I’ve stretched my sessions to as long as two hours on PSVR2, with no issues.

Overall, this winds up being the most comfortable VR headset I’ve ever donned, despite the fact that it’s still a wired unit. Thankfully, PSVR2′s wire is terrifically long, so in most of your gaming, you won’t even notice it.

Those basics set the stage for a fantastic VR experience, and PSVR2 finishes things off with two more strong features. First off, the unit automatically streams whatever the gamer is seeing to the big screen, letting anyone watching you appreciate the action. The second pushes PSVR2 into a special class of product: eye tracking.

With some light calibration, essentially, PSVR2 will track what you’re looking at, delivering a next-level brand of immersion that I’ve never quite experienced in gaming. This was stunningly on display during "Horizon: Call of the Mountain," which is quite easily the standout game on PSVR2. During several moments in the game, I actually made eye contact with characters talking to me. And after several moments, they looked away.

It’s hard to explain how much I lost myself in these moments of "Horizon"; there’s a new kind of video game magic here, something that draws you into the game a little bit more than usual. And really, that’s what virtual reality should do: You’re donning the headset to get pulled into a game in ways that your big screen can’t reproduce.

"Horizon" delivers this, serving as a masterful showcase for PSVR2′s capabilities and upside. Like most VR games, it’s not a tremendously long experience, but it is immersive in multiple ways. There’s the eye tracking, and the details you’ll see when you look down at your hands. Locomotion can be finicky (you pump your arms to walk), but it still manages to be effective. And the entire experience is absolutely beautiful: Horizon builds a beautiful, world that’s filled with details in every corner, no matter where you look or how deeply you try to inspect the scene.

If there’s a downside to PSVR2, though, it’s that there aren’t more stunning titles on the fledgling VR machine. Your old PSVR library is not compatible with PSVR2, so you’re limited to the small library of new titles on PSVR2. Eventually, we’ll see more ports of Meta Quest games, too, and hopefully Sony will continue to support its young machine. But for now, you simply don’t have much of a library to play with.

That’s that much more noticeable, too, because like all VR games, "Horizon" is somewhat short. You’ll finish it in under 10 hours, so you’re not getting a ton of deep, open-world replayability.

It’ll be on Sony to change this – and to deliver more brilliant games that take advantage of the finest VR headset on the planet. Luxury VR gaming arrives with PSVR2. And sure, it’ll cost you. But if you can afford it – and be patient for the new generation of VR games – you’ll find it’s well worth it.

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PSVR2

4 out of 5 stars