Vertigo 2

Vertigo 2
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Zulubo Productions (Zach Tsiakalis-Brown)
Publisher	Zulubo Productions (PC); Perp Games (PlayStation VR2)
Platform	SteamVR, PlayStation VR2
Device	Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, PlayStation VR2
Operating System	Windows, PlayStation 5
Type	Game
Genre	Action, Adventure, First-person shooter, Sci-fi, Indie
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers
Play Area	Standing, Room-scale, seated
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	PC (SteamVR): March 30, 2023; PlayStation VR2: January 15, 2024 (digital), February 9, 2024 (physical)
Price	US $29.99
App Store	Steam, PlayStation Store
Website	https://www.zulubo.com/vertigo2

Property "Developer" (as page type) with input value "Zulubo Productions]] (Zach Tsiakalis-Brown)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Vertigo 2 is a single-player virtual reality action-adventure shooter developed by Zach Tsiakalis-Brown under the studio name Zulubo Productions. It released for PC VR headsets through SteamVR on March 30, 2023, and later came to PlayStation VR2 in January 2024.

The game is a sequel to Vertigo (originally released in 2016 and reissued as Vertigo Remastered in 2020) and is set in an underground facility called Quantum Reactor VII, where the player fights through android security forces and alien creatures that leak in from other universes. It was developed almost entirely by one person and received the UploadVR and Road to VR VR Game of the Year awards for 2023, along with a nomination at the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

Gameplay

Vertigo 2 is a first-person shooter played from a first-person perspective in room-scale, standing, or seated configurations using tracked motion controllers. The campaign spans 18 chapters and runs roughly 10 hours on the normal difficulty. Players collect 14 weapons over the course of the game, each with its own physics-based handling and manual reload mechanics. There are 10 boss encounters.

Movement supports both smooth locomotion and teleportation, which the developer describes as equally viable play styles. The design borrows from Half-Life: Alyx, including wall-mounted health regeneration stations that recharge the player's health. In its review, Road to VR noted the game's cartoon art style, varied enemy types, and unpredictable level design.

Development

Vertigo 2 was made by Zach Tsiakalis-Brown, who handled the visuals, code, writing, music, and game design himself; the main exceptions were contracted voice actors, community playtesters, and some stock animations. The project was built in the Unity game engine.

Tsiakalis-Brown told UploadVR that the game took roughly six years of on-and-off work. The concept began as drawings and story outlines he created with high-school friends, including the alien designs. A vertical slice was built between 2017 and 2019, after which he dropped out of college in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked on the levels in sequence, finishing the final one in fall 2022. He has cited Half-Life: Alyx and Boneworks as influences, crediting Alyx for showing a high level of polish and detail and Boneworks for prompting him to rewrite the game's physics-based interactions. Tsiakalis-Brown has also done contract work for Valve on controller technology demonstrations.

A free post-launch update called the "Bottomless Update" was described by the developer as the game's final content update. It added a level editor, additional modifiers, and new playable characters intended to extend play beyond the main campaign. An expansion titled Into the Aether is available on Steam.

Release

Vertigo 2 launched on Steam for PC VR headsets on March 30, 2023, at US $29.99. A PlayStation VR2 version published by Perp Games was first announced for a December 12, 2023 digital release, then delayed; after several delays it launched digitally on January 15, 2024, with a physical edition following on February 9, 2024.

Platform	Release date	Publisher
SteamVR (PC VR)	March 30, 2023	Zulubo Productions
PlayStation VR2 (digital)	January 15, 2024	Perp Games
PlayStation VR2 (physical)	February 9, 2024	Perp Games

The game supports 10 languages: English, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Ukrainian, Dutch, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.

Reception

Vertigo 2 was reviewed positively by VR-focused outlets. Road to VR gave it an overall score of 9.5 out of 10, with subscores of 9.5 for gameplay, 9 for immersion, and 8 for comfort, and called it one of PC's greatest VR games since Half-Life: Alyx despite its lower budget and less photorealistic visuals. UploadVR named it their VR Game of the Year for 2023 and described it as an "essential pick" for players wanting a single-player campaign comparable to Half-Life: Alyx, praising its visuals, gunplay, and creativity in design and world-building. Road to VR also named it its PC VR Game of the Year for 2023.

At the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards in February 2024, Vertigo 2 was nominated for Immersive Reality Game of the Year; the award went to Asgard's Wrath 2. On Steam, the game held an overwhelmingly positive user review rating.