Budget Cuts Ultimate Review (PS5 / PSVR2)

Budget Cuts Ultimate is a virtual reality stealth action adventure from indie developer Neat Corporation. You take on the role of the last human worker within TransCorp, a factory that has taken optimisation to a whole other level by replacing employees with robots. After you receive a mysterious briefcase from an outsider, it’s up to you to discover the odd goings on within the factory, save humanity, and escape with your life.

You’ll be exploring various locations within TransCorp’s facility across a five-hour campaign, from plain administrative offices to production lines in full swing. Equipped with a teleportation gun, you avoid pursuers by traversing through small vents into hidden passages between the walls. You’ll be teleporting, sneaking, and stabbing your way past evil security drones and robots, which patrol restricted areas and shoot on sight, setting off the headset haptics. Physically ducking and dodging your way through a room of angry robots can be extremely thrilling. As you go you’ll need to rummage through cupboards and drawers in search of access keys to aid in progression, or items to help defend yourself. Knives, scissors, mugs, stationary — if you can find it, you can throw it.

During our playthrough, we unfortunately encountered some major hand tracking issues. Often our right hand would drift out of position or get stuck in place, unable to move or interact with anything. Even resetting the position using the Options button didn’t seem to resolve the drifting issue. Restarting the application, however, appeared to fix it for a brief period. The hand tracking isn’t the only glaring issue, as the game has some noticeable jagged visuals, making it difficult to read text and repetitive robot voice lines, breaking the immersion somewhat.

Budget Cuts has thrilling stealth gameplay that’ll have your heart pumping as you dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge your way past robotic pursuers. With a solid length campaign, headset haptics, and an intriguing story, you’ll want to see this one through to the end. Although some major hand tracking issues and jagged visuals cut the immersion, we’d still recommend you optimise your time and give this one a shot.