PlayStation Universe
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Moonscars is a standout example of what a 2D souls-like should be. From its beautifully atmospheric world, exceptional animations, to its fluid and gratifying combat, makes Moonscars an absolute pleasure to play. A best in class 2D souls-like.
It may take time getting to show it, but Hokko Life is a delightfully deep and engaging community sim that lets you move at your own pace. Patience is very much required to see the best of it.
Potion Permit offers up quite the accessible life sim experience, making growth progress more quickly than most games in the genre. A bit of the luster is lost in this change of focus, but the product itself is a fun, engaging, light-hearted, and accessible time.
Session: Skate Sim is unique amongst its peers. Its control scheme, while taking time to master, is massively rewarding. Rolling around the streets and finding your own skating lines is addictively entertaining. It's a shame about the quest system, its overall presentation and some of the rough edges but do I feel Session is a few patches away from greatness.
Metal: Hellsinger is an absolute head-banger of a game with amazing tracks to accompany each level, but it's rhythm-based gameplay does little to stop it from constantly reminding you of the games that inspired it, games that are fundamentally better executed in their core gameplay. It's repetitiveness and lack of any innovation doesn't make it a must-play game for shooter fans, but it's music does for any heavy metal fan.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is an expertly crafted work simulator. The methodical dismantling of the ships is very satisfying. It contains an addictive gameplay hook and an intriguing story that focuses on the exploitation of workers. It is a job well done indeed.
By maintaining its easily accessible JRPG mechanics, gorgeous tabletop aesthetic and engrossing narration, Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden manages to elevate itself above its Voice of Cards brethren thanks to a neat, Pokémon style monster collection mechanic. Much more than just a token inclusion, this new monster collecting mechanic not only expands the player's arsenal in battle, but provides ample additional incentive to explore The Beasts of Burden's painterly, card-flipped lands far and wide in search of rare monsters to recruit.
Soulstice etches its own namesake in the hack n' slash genre. While it lacks the same level of combat depth and demand, it focuses more on narrative quality, accessibility, and presentation to reach success.
Wayward Strand all in all is a unique enough game that showcases interesting game elements and story with interesting characters and different backgrounds of characters that think, talk, and feel all uniquely different. But with different narrative outcomes and endings it does not feel entirely rewarding to play the game more and more to get those unique differences or moments.
Inscryption is an amalgamation of deck-builder and escape room games, and is unlike anything I have ever played before. In an age of video games where uniqueness is at an all-time low, it was amazing to be so surprised at regular intervals. Inscryption will test what you think a card battling roguelite is and its constant twists and turns will keep you on your toes. It's a game where I fully feel like I have sculpted my deck myself; it's wild, it's dark and it's utterly brilliant.
Shifting the action from both the muddy trenches of the Western Front and the snow-dappled rural expanses of the Eastern Front to the blood-soaked peaks of The Great War's arguably most sophisticated theatre of conflict, developers BlackMill Games and M2H have excelled themselves with Isonzo. A thoroughly thoughtful and visceral first-person shooter where tactics and strategy are valued equally to a quick trigger finger, Isonzo isn't just the best entry in the WW1 Game Series to date, it also happens to be one of the best tactical multiplayer shooters full stop.
NBA 2K23 makes some worthy adjustments to gameplay, making this more entertaining without losing the game's fundamental presentation and feel. At the same time, even the map shrink in The City isn't enough of an addition to make 2K23 worth a must-buy status. Not enough of the game changes to merit a purchase this year, unless you maxed out everything in last year's release and want a fresh start. NBA 2K23 is more for die-hard fans than every before.
While far from perfect, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R brings an enhanced version of the 2014 release to modern consoles. Network choices, lack of any narrative flow, and almost zero jumping-off point for newcomers makes this a title almost strictly for the JoBros. Thankfully, that doesn't keep it from being an intriguing fighter in its own right.
Steelrising puts together a solid, accessible Soulsborne title complete with fun combat and simplistic RPG elements. However, the dated aesthetic combined with the overstretched narrative and the foibles that come with it make this feel like a Spider Entertainment game and more of a basic third party title. The heart of the development team shows from time to time, especially near the end of the game. But, the way the team executes this formula knocks the fundamentals out of balance, creating an uneven experience with too much of its weight on the back end.
Certainly representing the definitive version of the flawed but ultimately enjoyable Biomutant on PlayStation consoles, Biomutant's PS5 debut largely erases the performance issues and instability that plagued the PS4 version of the game, delivering a handsomely made open-world adventure that can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages.
If you're the sort of person who saw martial arts movies in your teens (or younger) and immediately started mimicking scraps with your best mates as you left the cinema, then Midnight Fight Express is for you. Jacob Dwinzel feels like he is aspiring to be the games industry's equivalent of The Raid and Gangs of London director Gareth Edwards and cannot wait to see whatever violent delights this acolyte of cinematic violence comes up with next. For anyone else with even a passing affection for roaming brawlers, Midnight Fight Express boasts some of the most satisfying combat I have experienced in any game of the last few years and on that fact alone carries it to a high recommended indeed.
While it brings some of the regressive issues of the era it was born in, Pac-Man World: Re-Pac is a solid remake of a fondly-remembered platformer.
There's no denying that The Last of Us Part I might be a tough sell to folks who expected a reworked content offering in line with the overhauled audiovisual presentation and other technical advances. For those with accessibility needs, the lucky few who have yet to experience The Last of Us at all or even just the number of players who want to immerse themselves in the ultimate form of Naughty Dog's opus, The Last of Us Part I makes a more than compelling case for its existence and stands shoulder to shoulder with the best games on PS5.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : The Cowabunga Collection compiles the best TMNT games from the 80s and 90s into one convenient package. The included enhancement options help to alleviate some of the inherent issues from past hardware, but it could have given the Green Team a little more love to really push this over the edge. Either way, this collection carries nostalgia in spades and gives newcomers and fans alike another chance to don their bandanas and take it to the Foot Clan.
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed might be a brutally honest remake of the original game, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to sit through all its rough parts. Few elements of the core gameplay remain as fun as they were on the PS2, but it's far too shallow to be worth it, especially when it is still riddled with performance issues that can seriously effect your experience.