Is Aloy really that short in Horizon Call of the Mountain?
Don't look down.
Perspective is a funny thing, especially when you're playing in VR - be it seated, standing or otherwise.
Well, however you choose to play Horizon Call of the Mountain, it turns out Aloy is a lot shorter than some players imagined.
Players have been sharing screenshots on social media of the game and the series' protagonist does indeed look a little small. One player even gave her a little boop on the nose.
But is this all just a matter of perspective?
I hadn't necessarily clocked Aloy's height when I first played the game - being too busy gawping at the vistas, ducking under Tallnecks, and trying not to hurl when I let go of a rope from a great height just to see what would happen.
So I went back in to check. For reference, I'm a fairly average 5'9 and initially played sitting down. In the game's options you can freely select between sitting and standing to realign the perspective.
According to this Horizon wiki, Aloy is 5'6, so slightly shorter than me in reality.
However, in-game she certainly seemed quite a bit shorter than I felt as my character while standing up, with a definite feeling of looking down on her. Her height doesn't exactly bother me - if anything it means she's framed in the shot - but it does make me feel tall by comparison.
Thing is, while you can switch between sitting and standing options, you need to manually realign the camera by holding the options button. I initially forgot to do this and, well, I felt like an Ent.
A quick realignment and Aloy was back to being the same height as before - a height that is perfectly respectable, I should add. So if the perspective seems off, don't forget to realign the camera.
Still, beyond the realism of the graphics and the gimmicky controls, feeling tall is a novelty I didn't expect VR to provide.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is Sony's flagship PSVR2 launch title, released earlier this week. Check out Ian's thoughts in Eurogamer's PlayStation VR2 review.