The first time I got the chance to play Accounting, the debut VR game from Squanch Games (then Squanchtendo) in collaboration with Crows, Crows, Crows, I couldn’t help but laugh. Even though Justin Roiland, Tanya Watson, and William Pugh were all being interviewed in the same room while I was playing, it was physically impossible for me to not laugh.
Luckily that sense of pure, distilled humor and brilliance is also in Accounting+, a newly announced PSVR exclusive, but this time it seems like there is just a whole lot more of it to go around. We got the chance to go hands-on with some of that new content this past weekend at PSX in Anaheim, CA.
The original Accounting is a free download on Steam for HTC Vive (and unofficially Oculus Rift) and it’s a brisk journey through several layers of VR simulations, each of which get progressively more ridiculous the deeper you go. Roiland’s signature humor comes through from the opening moments and it features some of the most innovative character interaction we’ve seen in VR yet.
And it was definitely not the type of game you’d play once then never touch again. Because there was so much nuance to how conversations progressed and innovations in terms of the environments you’d explore, most people would be encouraged to play it through at least a few times to really see everything it has to offer.
The premise is of course that you are an accountant, as the name suggests, and find yourself on a journey through a series of VR experiences. It has an Inception-esque feel to it as you progress deeper and deeper into VR as the game goes on and the dark humor pulls no punches to make you feel as uncomfortable as possible.
Now Accounting+ looks to take all of that and multiply everything. Featuring over twice as much content, several new areas, new characters, and more, Accounting+ is shaping up to be way more than just a simple port over to the PSVR platform.
During my demo at PSX what I played was almost entirely new content. Things opened up with a very tongue-in-cheek tutorial that walked me through everything from interacting with the world around me to teleporting and rotating my view. These are all things that didn’t exist on Vive since the game was designed originally to be played with a roomscale setup.
Once out of there I came face to face with The Tree Guy, arguable the most popular character from the first Accounting game. He’s a white blob of a guy that yells and screams and flails at you no matter what you’re doing, but most especially if you touch any of his stuff. The vulgarity is jsut as hilarious as ever, as-is his appropriate response to someone magically teleporting into his home and invading his space. I’d freak out too, if I were him.
After causing a bit of a ruckus in that area I jumped into the next one which was totally new. Here I was in the back of a van with four small critters. One was driving, two were injured, and one was dead.
The driver and his passengers frantically start to yell at me, as-is the case with the majority of scenarios in Accounting. They’re fleeing from the cops so it’s up to me to figure out how to deal with the situation.
Before long the other critters in the van find bullets in their skulls as well, gushing blood, which only serves to make things even more hectic and stressful. I don’t want to spoil too much about the content of the game or its jokes — since that’s the whole point in playing — but suffice it to say that I sat there in my chair at a demo station in PSX and laughed out loud several times, not caring who was watching.
Obviously we haven’t seen all of the content that Accounting+ packs, but if it’s all of the same quality that we’ve seen so far then fans of Crows, Crows, Crows, Squanch Games, and Justin Roiland should not be disappointed. With twice as much content as the free version, this is certainly much more than just a port. You can find out more about the game in this on-stage discussion from PSX.
Accounting+ comes out very soon (as in like, next week) on December 19th exclusively for PSVR. You can still play the original Accounting right now via Steam for free. Let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below!
