Most people think of VR games as either gimmick-driven or involving leaping around your living room like Tigger with a blindfold. Retropolis 2 is one of the third type: a classically “flat” genre game that has been elevated by dropping it into VR. With the number of escape room-like VR games, I guess point and click was going to be a natural progression.
Retropolis is a noir detective story set in a cartoon world of robots. The style is not quite what I’d think of as cell-shaded, but has lots of big blocks of bold colour, like a picture book. There’s a stop-motion effect to the animations and, with VR’s full 3D depth and 360-degree views, it feels like sitting inside a piece of artwork.
The developers clearly have a love for the old point-and-click adventures like Monkey Island as they nail the key aspects. Mostly this is down to humour in the dialogue and the in-character narration, right down to good old “that won’t work”, and “there’s nothing interesting about that” kind of dialogue. Your inventory even follows you around like Rincewind’s Luggage in the Discworld games.
There’s a cast of supporting characters and the puzzles are varied, multilayered but rarely as obtuse as those classic games. A wider mystery drives the plot. It’s quite nostalgic but even without the warm fuzzies the game stands on its own as a very pleasant series of jokes and puzzles. Retropolis certainly feels a lot more accessible than those old games just from being a tighter experience.
I said there are no gimmicks, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make full use of VR features. There’s some nice and satisfying physicality to things like levers and switches. You can eat, drink robot alcohol/oil, smoke some bolts and even wear hats. This also means you get a pretty great variety of puzzles.
The puzzles are generally well-balanced. There are some more abstract puzzles that you can skip at the cost of missing a trophy but everything else tends to be self-contained enough that all the pieces you need are right in front of you. The game does suffer a bit in the more open areas as it’s not always clear which area is important and when. That’s where the most retro of hint systems come in.
There’s a button in the pause menu that straight up just takes you to a walkthrough webpage. You’ll always find the answers you need, but sometimes all you want is a quick nudge in the right direction and you’ll have to be careful not to read too far.
I was surprised that even with the guide there is another layer of puzzles. Take a look at the trophy list and a good few of them require you to discover or accomplish things you generally won’t in your first playthrough. Some of these were still sitting at 0% player completion while I was playing. It’s probably a matter of time before someone puts together a trophy guide but I enjoyed the sense of mystery.
The only major issues I had with Retropolis were its beginning and end. Mostly that’s there’s not much time between the two. My first playthrough took around four or five hours but there is some replayability for trophies and Easter eggs. Additionally, this is part two of a trilogy and where the beginning gets you up to speed to the point I don’t feel like I missed out on the first game, the ending is actually pretty abrupt and jarring. Sure, I’ll play part three but now I have to wait for it. Also, if you did want to play part one you’re going to need another platform as it’s not available on PSVR2.
I was surprised by how much fun I had with Retropolis and by how well it echoed old point ’n’ clicks. It’s an immersive artistic experience that will delight puzzle fans and despite its short length still feels satisfying.
Developer: Peanut Button
Platforms: PSVR2, PCVR, Meta Quest
Publishers: Peanut Button, Perp Games, Perpetual Europe
