Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-Ality PSVR Review: The Squanchmower Man

[Wilhelm]

It’s time for PSVR owners to get riggity-riggity-wrecked now that Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality has been ported from the PC onto the PS4. The game has been around for about a year for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners, but now PlayStation owners have the opportunity to take it for a spin and see how schwifty this VR experience is for themselves. As a diehard fan of the show (don’t worry I’ve never screamed about being Pickle Rick in a McDonald’s before) I was more than pleased to get the opportunity to review Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality and see for myself just how much I squanched it.

Worlds Within Worlds

In Virtual Rick-ality, players will take on the role of a fully disposable Morty clone brought to life to carry out arbitrary tasks for Rick. Fortunately, the tasks are somewhat more amusing and complex than, say, passing the butter. Though players start out just doing some laundry in the garage, they’ll quickly find themselves doing things like fixing Rick’s computer, tuning up the spaceship, or grabbing some deliveries left in the driveway.

Deciphering what needs to be done to complete a given task is usually not that hard at all. Even if players are having trouble figuring what needs to be done, NPCs will drop clues that range from a simple hint to a blatant direction as to what to do next. Many of the puzzles are well-planned and clever, but shouldn’t drive players anywhere near insane.

Most of the game's puzzles and tasks will remind players of Job Simulator or Accounting+ in their execution and humor. It makes sense considering that Owlchemy Labs are the same team behind Job Simulator and Justin Roiland’s (Creator and the voice of both Rick and Morty) Squanch Games helped make Accounting+. With that said, don’t go into the game thinking that its jokes are going to be completely on par with an episode of the TV show. It’s funny, but it’s not quite on that level and there’s a lot of downtime.  

Fan favorites characters like Summer, Mr. Meeseeks, and Mr. Poopybutthole also show up throughout the game and help add some fun and familiarity. It should be no surprise that the game relies heavily on players already being fans of the show and familiar with the content, but there are still plenty of things that should feel new when discovered.

Coming Up Short

While Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality definitely delivers some fun and funny moments for the TV show’s core fanbase, it is not without it flaws. Probably the biggest issue for the game overall is the way that the PlayStation Move motion controls function in-game. A lot of stuff ends up on the garage floor during a playthrough and it can be an arduous task to pick it all up. Even though there’s a system that sort of teleports items in the hands of a player, it’s not totally foolproof.

It’s also really hard to justify the price point of $29.99 for the amount of content that’s included. The entire game can be beaten over the span of two to three hours. And while there are a few collectibles and hidden secrets here and there, overall there’s not much replayability. If Virtual Rick-ality had come in around $14.99 like Accounting+, which has about the same amount of content, it would’ve made a lot more sense.

Still even with that said, this is a Rick and Morty game, and it’s the type of series that evokes and certain kind of loyalty in its fanbase. So, it’s safe to say that even with the lack of content, humor that falls a little below the standard line of quality, and a hyped-up price tag, fans are still going to pick this up. Afterall, it would be hard to have a full collection of branded merch without it. Plus, it’s not like the few hours of gameplay that are there aren’t enjoyable; quite the contrary, actually. Fans will most definitely enjoy their time in the VR world of Virtual Rick-ality, but they shouldn’t go in expecting to have their minds totally blown either.