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Red Matter 2

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Red Matter 2
Information
VR/AR Virtual Reality
Developer Vertical Robot
Publisher Vertical Robot
Platform Meta Quest, Oculus Rift, SteamVR, PICO, PlayStation VR2
Device Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 3, Pico 4, Pico Neo 3, Pico 4 Ultra, PlayStation VR2
Type Game
Genre Puzzle, Adventure, Action
Input Device Tracked motion controllers
Play Area Standing, Seated, Room-scale
Game Mode Single-player
Release Date August 18, 2022 (Meta Quest 2, Oculus Rift, Steam)
Price US $29.99 (Meta Horizon Store, Steam, PlayStation Store)
App Store Meta Horizon Store, Steam, PICO Store, PlayStation Store
Website https://redmatter2.com/
See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Red Matter 2 is a single-player virtual reality puzzle adventure game developed and published by Vertical Robot, an independent studio in Madrid, Spain. It is the sequel to Red Matter (2018) and continues that game's fictional Cold War between the Atlantic Union and Volgravia, with the player again controlling the agent Sasha Riss.[1][2] The game was released on August 18, 2022, for the Meta Quest 2, the Oculus Rift PC platform and Steam, at US $29.99. A PICO version followed on December 8, 2022, and a PlayStation VR2 version on May 18, 2023.[1][3][4]

Red Matter 2 is known mainly as a graphics showcase for standalone headsets. Vertical Robot announced it as having "the best graphics on mobile VR to date", and in their reviews Road to VR called the Quest 2 version's graphics "best-in-class" and UploadVR said it set a new visual standard for the headset.[5][6][7] After launch the studio shipped upgrades tuned to each headset: an eye-tracked foveated rendering update for the Meta Quest Pro in October 2022, a higher-resolution Pico 4 version, a native 120 fps PlayStation VR2 version, and a Meta Quest 3 update in October 2023.[8][9][10] The game won two D.I.C.E. Awards in 2023 (Immersive Reality Game of the Year and Immersive Reality Technical Achievement), was nominated for Best VR/AR at The Game Awards 2022, and was Road to VR's Meta Quest Game of the Year for 2022.[11][12][13]

Reviewed 20 September 2026. Release dates, prices, platform updates, review scores, awards and every citation checked against the studio press kit, store listings and the cited press articles. About review dates.

Gameplay

Red Matter 2 is a linear first-person puzzle adventure. As in the first game, the player's motion controllers appear in the game as a multi-tool held in each hand, with mechanical claws for grabbing and operating objects, a scanner, a flashlight and new attachments. The claws can turn into a gun, and a hacking tool is used on terminals.[7][14][5] Vertical Robot co-founder and technical artist Norman Schaar said the studio built a fully "physicalized" world to maximize the sense of immersion.[5]

The puzzles are environmental: pulling levers, pressing buttons, redirecting power and light beams, operating machinery and completing hacking mini-games on terminals.[6][15] The sequel adds a jetpack that lets the player hover and propel forward with a limited amount of vertical thrust that recharges on contact with the ground; UploadVR described platforming sections that require calculated movement with it.[7] Combat is new to the series: the player uses an energy pistol against security drones, and some sections instead ask the player to avoid turret drones through stealth.[6][7] Vertical Robot said the goal was to bring the series "closer to the adventure genre", with puzzles still playing a big role.[2]

Comfort settings include smooth and snap turning with adjustable speed, smooth or teleport movement with adjustable speed, blinders, standing, seated and crouch modes, subtitles and an adjustable difficulty.[6] The PICO Store lists room-scale, standing and sitting play, and the PlayStation Store states a minimum play area of 2 m x 2 m for room-scale play on PlayStation VR2.[16][4] Road to VR's first playthrough took about seven hours; MIXED put the PlayStation VR2 version at roughly eight hours, and COGconnected at five to six hours.[6][15][17]

Story

The game picks up after the first game's cliffhanger. According to Meta's launch post, Beta, a double agent sent by the Cosmoburo, helps Sasha escape the Atlantic Union's simulation; the two find themselves at the Atlantic Union's lunar base, where they pick up a distress signal from an old friend left for dead during the incident at Strelka N1 and set out on a rescue mission across the Solar System.[2] In MIXED's summary of the plot, Sasha wakes in the body of a guard at a hostile military base, and the injured colleague being searched for is Stas Volkov, who has left a trail of video messages.[15] The PlayStation Store describes the campaign as following "a mysterious signal across moons, orbital stations, and abandoned Volgravian facilities".[4] The story continues directly from the first game, but UploadVR noted that new players can follow it because the mechanics are introduced without assuming prior knowledge.[7] Voice acting is in English and Spanish; the Spanish voice-over was added to the Steam version in the 1.0.006 patch of October 4, 2022, which also brought the subtitle list to English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.[4][18]

Development

Vertical Robot is a studio in Madrid founded by developers who had worked on console titles including the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games and Spec Ops: The Line.[1][19] The core team is two people; for Red Matter 2 it grew to four full-time developers and two part-timers. The game runs on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine, and the studio said that support from Meta's Oculus Publishing program was "invaluable".[20]

Red Matter 2 was announced on April 20, 2022, during the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, for the Quest 2 with a release later in 2022; PC VR and PlayStation versions were not confirmed at that point.[5][14] Vertical Robot confirmed a PC VR version on July 8, 2022, and on July 11 announced the August 18 date for both the Quest 2 and Steam, with no timed exclusivity.[3] In the launch post, game director and programmer Iñaki Hernandez said that "immersion is front and center" in the studio's games and that "we want to transport you to a different world, to let you dream and to let you live incredible experiences", and Schaar said the studio "wanted to bring the franchise closer to the adventure genre. Puzzles still play a big role, but there's a whole lot more!" Schaar also said the game was built with scalability in mind so that its content could be scaled up for PC or for more capable standalone headsets, and Hernandez noted that one puzzle uses ray-traced reflections.[2]

Platform versions and updates

Vertical Robot treated each headset as a separate performance target, and the differences between versions were reported in detail by the VR press.

Meta Quest Pro. An update released on October 25, 2022, the day the Quest Pro launched, added eye-tracked foveated rendering and local dimming. The studio said the eye-tracked rendering allowed a 30 percent increase in resolution, and UploadVR later called Red Matter 2 the first major title to support the feature on Quest Pro.[9][8] The studio told MIXED that implementing foveated rendering took about a month.[20]

Pico 4. The PICO version released on December 8, 2022.[1][16] Ahead of that release, Vertical Robot published a technical comparison: the Pico 4 renders the game at 1,872 x 2,060 pixels per eye against 1,226 x 1,440 on the Quest 2 (at the lowest IPD setting), because the Pico 4's GPU can be clocked at 587 MHz against 490 MHz on the Quest 2, both headsets using the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1. The Quest 2 version uses 4x MSAA with dynamic fixed foveated rendering and subsampling, while the Pico 4 version uses 2x MSAA with static fixed foveated rendering at its most aggressive level and no subsampling.[21] UploadVR summarized the result as more than double the base resolution on the Pico 4, attributing the 20 percent higher GPU clock to that headset's larger fan and vents.[22]

PlayStation VR2. The PlayStation VR2 version was announced for May 18, 2023, with native 120 fps rendering and no reprojection, eye-tracked foveated rendering, 4K remastered textures, enhanced lighting and bloom, and custom controller and headset haptics.[23][24] The PlayStation Store listing confirms eye-tracked foveated rendering, headset vibration, controller haptics and adaptive triggers.[4] UploadVR's Henry Stockdale contrasted the native 120 fps with PlayStation VR2 ports such as Resident Evil Village and Gran Turismo 7 that reproject 60 fps to 120 Hz, and wrote that for newcomers PlayStation VR2 "feels like the definite way to play Red Matter 2", while repeating that the gunplay "doesn't quite cut it".[25]

PC. The Steam version received the matching 1.0.007 patch on September 11, 2023, with enhanced lighting and bloom, 4K remastered textures and achievements. Earlier patches had increased the speed of the gun projectile and added environmental hints for certain puzzles (1.0.002, August 22, 2022) and tuned the gun's physics to improve aim (1.0.003, August 25, 2022).[26][18]

Meta Quest 3. A free update released on October 2, 2023, eight days before the Quest 3 launched, added dynamic resolution scaling with an upper limit of 3,322 x 3,519 on the Quest 3 (the Quest 2 version had rendered at a fixed 1,226 x 1,440), 4K textures with up to a 16x increase in pixel count, 8x anisotropic filtering, PCF 5x5 shadow filtering, dynamic shadows for spotlights, mesh LOD improvements to reduce pop-in, and an adaptive frame rate of 72 to 90 fps during combat. Achievements were added for both Quest 2 and Quest 3, and the Quest 2 version gained dynamic resolution.[27][10] Vertical Robot said of the comparison with the PlayStation VR2 version: "PSVR2 does run at 120 native and it does have a bloom pass, but we are getting closer than ever."[27]

Physical edition. On April 16, 2025, Limited Run Games opened pre-orders for a PlayStation 5 disc edition of Red Matter 2 (and of the first game) at US $39.99, with the ordering window open until May 25, 2025, and shipping estimated for late September 2025. The discs contain only the game, with no special edition.[28]

Release

Platform Release date Notes
Meta Quest 2 (Meta Quest store) August 18, 2022 US $29.99 at launch and as of September 2026; Quest Pro update October 25, 2022; Quest 3 update October 2, 2023[1][29][9][27]
Oculus Rift platform (PC VR) August 18, 2022 US $29.99 on the Meta PC VR store[1][30]
Steam (SteamVR and Oculus PC) August 18, 2022 US $29.99 list price; minimum specification Intel i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1060, 8 GB storage[1][31]
PICO (Pico 4, Pico Neo 3) December 8, 2022 Listed for PICO 4, PICO 4 Ultra, PICO Neo3 Link, Neo3 Eye, Neo3 Pro and PICO Space Pro[1][16]
PlayStation VR2 (PlayStation 5) May 18, 2023 US $29.99; ESRB Teen; physical edition by Limited Run Games announced April 2025 at US $39.99[4][32][28]

The launch price was US $29.99, EUR 29.99 and GBP 22.99.[1] As of September 2026 the game remains on sale on the Meta Horizon Store, Steam, the PlayStation Store and the PICO Store.[29][31][4][16] In October 2023 Vertical Robot told MIXED that its next project was still in a "brainstorming" phase, that no decision had been made about a Red Matter 3, and that it had no plans to expand the team significantly.[20]

Reception

Outlet Platform Score
Metacritic (aggregate, 8 critic reviews listed, 7 scored) PC 84/100[33]
Metacritic (aggregate, 7 reviews) PlayStation 5 89/100[17]
OpenCritic (aggregate, 10 critics) All 87, "Mighty", 90% recommended[34]
Road to VR Meta Quest 2 8/10[6]
UploadVR Meta Quest 2, PC VR Recommended[7]
IGN PC 80/100[33]
Meristation PC 90/100[33]
COGconnected PlayStation 5 95/100[17]
GamingTrend PlayStation 5 95/100[17]
Push Square PlayStation 5 80/100[17]

Reviews were positive and concentrated on the visuals and the object interaction. Road to VR's Ben Lang scored the Quest 2 version 8 out of 10 (gameplay 7, immersion 8, comfort 9), writing that it brings "best-in-class graphics and interactions to Quest 2" and comparing its immersion to Lone Echo and Half-Life: Alyx. He found some puzzles obtuse and lacking objective reminders, the jetpack "too slow to be engaging", the combat "more of a chore than fun" because of difficult hit detection, and the story, told largely as a radio play with little direct character interaction, forgettable.[6] UploadVR's Harry Baker gave it the site's Recommended label and called it "nothing short of an incredible technical achievement" that set a new visual standard for standalone hardware, while criticizing the pacing of the second half, repetitive combat and stealth sections, and puzzles that occasionally lack enough clues.[7] MIXED's Jan Wöbbeking, reviewing the PlayStation VR2 version, praised the graphics and the use of headset vibration but reported bugs and poorly tuned puzzles in the later sections, including hacking mini-games that could become impossible to complete.[15]

User ratings are high across stores. As of September 2026 the Steam version is rated "Very Positive" (92 percent of 673 reviews), the Meta Horizon Store listing averages 4.8 out of 5 from about 2,700 reviews, and the PlayStation Store listing 4.82 out of 5 from 2,434 ratings.[31][29][4]

Awards

Award Category Result
The Game Awards 2022 Best VR/AR Nominated[12]
26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (2023) Immersive Reality Game of the Year Won[11]
26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (2023) Immersive Reality Technical Achievement Won[11]
Road to VR 2022 Game of the Year Awards Meta Quest Game of the Year Won[13]
UploadVR Best of VR 2022 Best VR Developer (Vertical Robot) Won[8]

At The Game Awards 2022 the game was one of five nominees for Best VR/AR alongside After the Fall, Among Us VR, Bonelab and Moss: Book II.[12] Road to VR named it Meta Quest Game of the Year for 2022, citing graphics and interactions that were "truly at home on Quest 2" while noting the combat had disappointed.[13] UploadVR chose Vertical Robot as its Best VR Developer of 2022, citing Red Matter 2's Quest 2 visuals, the higher-resolution Pico 4 version and the Quest Pro foveated rendering support.[8] The two D.I.C.E. wins and the other honors are listed by the studio on its own site and on the game's site.[19][35]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Red Matter 2". Vertical Robot press kit. Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/presskit/sheet.php?p=Red+Matter+2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "'Red Matter 2' Lands On Meta Quest 2 and PC VR Today". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2022-08-18. https://www.meta.com/blog/red-matter-2-lands-on-meta-quest-2-and-pc-vr-today/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harry Baker (2022-07-11). "Red Matter 2 Coming August 18 To Quest 2 & PC VR". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-release-date-pc-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 "Red Matter 2". PlayStation Store. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP3548-PPSA14636_00-000000REDMATTER2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ben Lang (2022-04-20). "'Red Matter 2' Announced for Quest 2, Promising to Deliver the "best graphics on mobile VR to date"". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/red-matter-2-meta-quest-announcement-gameplay-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Ben Lang (2022-08-18). "'Red Matter 2' Review - An Immersive Answer to Quest's Arcade Offerings". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/red-matter-2-review-quest-2-pc-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Harry Baker (2022-08-18). "Red Matter 2 Review: Stunning Visuals Drive An Engaging Sci-Fi Sequel". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-review/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Harry Baker (2022-12-21). "UploadVR's Best of VR 2022 - Game Of The Year & More". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/uploadvr-best-of-vr-2022/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2022-10-26). "Red Matter 2: Graphics pearl gets Quest Pro upgrade". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/red-matter-2-graphics-pearl-gets-quest-pro-upgrade/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Henry Stockdale (2023-10-02). "New Red Matter 2 Update Promises 'Console Quality' Upgrades On Quest 3". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-quest-3-enhancements/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Vertical Robot - 2023 Award Results". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. https://www.interactive.org/games/game_developer_details.asp?idAward=2023&idGameDeveloper=834. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Henry Stockdale (2022-11-15). "Among Us VR, Bonelab & More Nominated For Best VR At The Game Awards 2022". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/the-game-awards-vr-nominations-2022/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Road to VR's 2022 Game of the Year Awards". Road to VR. 2022-12-19. https://www.roadtovr.com/road-to-vrs-2022-game-year-quest-pc-psvr/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jamie Feltham (2022-04-20). "Red Matter 2 Announced, Coming To Quest 2 In 2022". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-announced/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Jan Wöbbeking (2023-05-19). "Red Matter 2 review: Even more of a graphics wonder on PSVR 2". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/red-matter-review-the-graphics-wonder-in-space-for-psvr2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "Red Matter 2". PICO Store. PICO. https://store-global.picoxr.com/global/detail/1/7140269648880140294. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 "Red Matter 2 critic reviews (PlayStation 5)". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/red-matter-2/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-5. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Red Matter 2 - News Hub". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2081470. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Vertical Robot - Award-winning VR studio". Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2023-10-06). "Red Matter studio says their next VR project is in the "brainstorming" phase". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/vertical-robot-future-plans/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  21. ↑ Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2022-11-10). "Pico 4 vs. Quest 2 graphics comparison with Red Matter 2". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/pico-4-vs-quest-2-graphics-comparison-with-red-matter-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  22. ↑ David Heaney (2022-11-09). "Red Matter 2 Reveals Pico 4's GPU Performance Advantage Over Quest 2". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-pico-4-performance/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  23. ↑ Henry Stockdale (2023-05-09). "Red Matter 2 Confirmed For PSVR 2, Coming 'Very Soon'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-psvr-2-version/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  24. ↑ Scott Hayden (2023-05-11). "Quest's Most Graphically Intense Game is Coming to PSVR 2 Next Week". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/psvr-2-red-matter-2-release-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  25. ↑ Henry Stockdale (2023-05-16). "Hands-On: Red Matter 2 Hits New Heights On PSVR 2". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-psvr-2-impressions/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  26. ↑ "1.0.007 patch". Steam. Vertical Robot. 2023-09-11. https://steamcommunity.com/games/2081470/announcements/detail/3691318004414690298. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2023-10-03). "Red Matter 2 gets a stunning visual upgrade on Meta Quest 3". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/meta-quest-3-red-matter-2-update/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Henry Stockdale (2025-04-16). "Both Red Matter Games Are Getting Physical Releases For PlayStation VR2". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-physical-release-playstation-vr2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 "Red Matter 2 on Meta Quest". Meta Horizon Store. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/experiences/red-matter-2/3682089508520212/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  30. ↑ "Red Matter 2 on Oculus Rift". Meta Store. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/experiences/pcvr/red-matter-2/3951725208233714/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 "Red Matter 2 on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2081470/Red_Matter_2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  32. ↑ "Red Matter 2 - PS5 Games". PlayStation. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/red-matter-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 "Red Matter 2 critic reviews (PC)". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/red-matter-2/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  34. ↑ "Red Matter 2 Reviews". OpenCritic. https://opencritic.com/game/13561/red-matter-2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  35. ↑ "Red Matter 2 - Official Website". Red Matter 2 official site. Vertical Robot. https://redmatter2.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
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