You’re hanging off a cliff side. Your palms are literally sweating because your brain is convinced that if your grip slips on this jagged piece of virtual rock, you're plummeting hundreds of feet into a jungle filled with mechanical dinosaurs. This is the reality of Horizon Call of the Mountain. It isn't just a spin-off. Honestly, for many of us who picked up a PlayStation VR2 at launch, it was the entire reason to own the headset.
But here’s the thing.
The game is weirdly polarizing. You’ll find people who swear it’s the pinnacle of immersive tech and others who complain that it’s basically just a "climbing simulator" with a bit of archery thrown in. They aren't entirely wrong, but they're also missing the point of what Firesprite and Guerrilla Games were actually trying to do here.
The Reality of Being Ryas
In the main Horizon games, you're Aloy. She’s a superhero, basically. She slides, she rolls, she shoots three arrows at once while jumping off a Thunderjaw. Horizon Call of the Mountain changes the perspective entirely by putting you in the boots of Ryas. He’s a disgraced Shadow Carja soldier looking for redemption.
It's personal.
When a Watcher lunges at you in VR, you don’t just press a dodge button. You physically move. You feel the haptic feedback in your headset rumble as a Tallneck walks over you. That sense of scale is something a flat screen simply cannot replicate, no matter how many teraflops your console has. The developers leveraged the hardware to make the world of Horizon feel terrifyingly large.
Why the climbing actually matters
Let’s address the elephant in the room: you spend about 70% of this game climbing. If you hate upper-body workouts in your video games, you're going to have a rough time. However, the climbing mechanics are surprisingly nuanced. You aren't just tapping a button; you're reaching, gripping, and sometimes leaping for your life.
There's a specific rhythm to it.
The game introduces tools like the Pickaxes and the Ropecaster that change how you interact with the environment. It's tactile. You reach over your shoulder to grab your bow. You reach to your hip for your arrows. This physical loop creates a flow state that makes the downtime between combat feel like a mountain-climbing expedition rather than just a loading screen between fights.
Combat is a Dance, Not a Brawl
If you go into Horizon Call of the Mountain expecting the free-form movement of Zero Dawn or Forbidden West, you'll be disappointed. Combat happens on a rail. Literally. When a machine attacks, you move in a circular path around the arena.
It feels restrictive at first.
But then you realize it’s designed this way to prevent you from throwing up in your living room. VR motion sickness is a massive hurdle, and by locking the combat to a circular strafe, the developers allow for high-speed action without the "sea legs" requirement of most VR shooters. You're aiming for components—blaze canisters, power cells, armor plates—just like in the main games. Tearing a component off a Scrapper with a well-placed precision arrow feels incredibly satisfying when you're the one physically pulling the string back.
The Visual Benchmark
We need to talk about the foveated rendering. This is a fancy tech term that basically means the PSVR2 tracks your eyes and only renders the spot you’re looking at in full detail. Because of this, Horizon Call of the Mountain looks better than almost any other VR title on the market. The lush greenery of the Carja territories is vibrant. The water looks wet. The lighting filters through the canopy in a way that makes you want to just stop and stare.
Actually, you should stop and stare. There are "vistas" scattered throughout the game specifically for this.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Length
A common complaint is that the game is short. Most players wrap it up in about 7 to 10 hours. In the world of 100-hour open-world RPGs, that feels like a demo.
But VR is exhausting.
Playing Horizon Call of the Mountain for two hours feels like a full afternoon at the gym. The density of the experience matters more than the raw hour count. Every encounter is hand-crafted. There’s no procedural filler here. You’re paying for a premium, curated "theme park" ride through the Horizon universe. If you want endless grinding, go back to the Forbidden West. This is about the feeling of being there.
The Technical Hurdles and "The Mura"
It isn't all sunshine and robot dinosaurs. The PSVR2 uses an OLED screen, which is great for blacks but leads to something called "mura"—a slight grainy texture over the image. In the brighter scenes of Horizon Call of the Mountain, you'll notice it. It’s a limitation of the hardware, not the game, but it's something a "pro" writer should tell you before you drop $500 on a headset.
Also, the calibration can be finicky. If your floor height isn't set perfectly, you'll find yourself trying to grab a ledge that feels like it’s three feet higher than it actually is. It’s annoying. You’ve gotta make sure your room is well-lit or the tracking will lose your hands right when you're trying to notch an arrow.
Is It Still Worth Playing?
Absolutely. Even years after its release, it remains the "gold standard" for what a AAA VR experience should look like on a console. It bridges the gap between tech demo and full-fledged game. It proves that the Horizon IP isn't just about Aloy; it's about the world itself.
The sense of presence is the real hero here. When you sit in the boat during the opening "Machine Safari" sequence and a Snapmaw swims right under your hand, the lizard brain kicks in. You flinch. That's the magic.
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Climb
If you're diving into the game for the first time, don't just rush to the end. The game is packed with interactable objects that do nothing for the plot but everything for the immersion.
- Calibration is King: Take five minutes to redo your eye tracking and floor height every single time you start a session. It prevents 90% of the "jank" people complain about.
- Check the Comfort Settings: If you have "VR legs," turn off the vignettes and the snap turning. The game becomes 10x more immersive when you have full control over your movement.
- Play the Safari Mode: Use it to show the game to friends who don't play games. It's the best "look at this" demo ever made for VR.
- Focus on the Crafting: Don't ignore the mid-climb crafting. Physically assembling your tools makes you feel more connected to Ryas's journey.
- Take Breaks: Seriously. The eye strain from the high-contrast HDR can sneak up on you. Play in 45-minute chunks to keep the experience fresh.
The next step is simple: stop treating VR like a secondary console experience. Clear some floor space, make sure your controllers are charged, and actually try to "live" in the world. The mountains are calling, and honestly, the view from the top is better than you think.