Horizon Call of the Mountain

Horizon Call of the Mountain was a launch title for PlayStation VR2 and from day one served as the flagship showcase of what the new headset can do. The player doesn't take on the role of Aloy, but rather a former prisoner named Ryas, who journeys across overgrown ruins, mountain ridges, and valleys inhabited by mechanical creatures from the world of Horizon. The core of the gameplay is free climbing across rock faces, overhanging structures, and old ruins, where the player decides for themselves where to reach with a hand and how to find the next handhold, giving movement a physical sense of effort and height. The second pillar is archery — arrows are physically pulled from a quiver on the back, nocked onto the bow, and drawn by the player's own hands, making combat against the mechanical enemies one of the most natural-feeling shooting experiences virtual reality has to offer.

On the technical side, the game fully leverages the high resolution and HDR of the PSVR2 display to showcase expansive landscapes full of vegetation, bodies of water, and the series' characteristic mechanical monsters. Haptic feedback in both the headset and the Sense controllers rounds out the atmosphere — the player feels vibrations while climbing a rock face, when an arrow hits its target, or in the proximity of a dangerous creature, and the adaptive triggers create real resistance when drawing the bow. The music follows the tone of the main series, and together with the sweeping vistas it creates a sense of genuine adventure, not merely a brief technological demo.

At launch, the game was praised by critics and players alike as proof that a full-fledged AAA VR experience on console is possible, and many reviews recommended it as the very first title for new headset owners. To this day it holds its position as one of the best introductions to PSVR2 — offering a satisfying length, varied environments, and a sense of epic scale without requiring prior knowledge of the main Horizon games, and it remains a beloved showcase of what climbing and archery can be in virtual reality.

Why play it: For new PSVR2 owners looking for a first title to try out the headset — a satisfying length, varied environments, and climbing combined with archery require no knowledge of the main Horizon games.