PlayStation LifeStyle
HomepagePlayStation LifeStyle's Reviews
Dragon's Crown Pro is that same Dragon's Crown we all loved and remember from 2013, it's just shinier, prettier, and on the latest console. If you've already played it to completion (or simply to death) on other platforms, there's very little reason to come back for a second purchase.
Guns of Icarus Alliance will appeal to those who love working on teams. A good selection of ammunition and ability modifiers can help to craft a personalized loadout, even if the class selection of players feels limited. While the presentation is a bit generic, it will please steampunk fans. A metagame that runs constantly helps to make even a small match feel like part of something bigger. Still, a small selection of character classes makes one wonder what else could be done with the fantastic idea of battleships in the air, and an already small player population might mean there won't be many battles in just a few months' time. At just $14.99 USD, however, Guns of Icarus Alliance is recommended for those who want a different kind of co-op experience.
All that said, there's a fun and entertaining game here. Despite its problems, I walked the scorching sands again and again until I reached the center of the city and completed the game (yes, I did end up using some blessings and portals to do it). City of Brass is a really fun first-person roguelike, but the die-rinse-repeat formula wears thin far more quickly than it should. There's simply not much more to do or see once you've played for a few hours or reached the end. Combat remains largely the same simple fare throughout, apart from intense boss encounters that account for a comparatively small portion of the game. Upgrades earned over time and different ability setups through the genies offer the promise of varied gameplay, but City of Brass does little to entice the repetitive play that the genie's curse asks of you.
From an accessibility standpoint, however, HIVE: Altenum Wars does little to make the player feel welcome, and even less still to reward their perseverance in staying. It feels very much like an alpha gameplay demo for a game years down the pipeline. HIVE is a shooter that misses the mark almost entirely, but does, at the very least, provide a very solid foundation upon which Catness Games could build something truly special with more time spent iterating and refining the process.
Dead Secret works as a mobile VR game, but its simplistic roots are painfully obvious on the PlayStation. The ability to play the game on a TV without a headset feels like a tacked on addition that wasn't optimized. Using PSVR, Dead Secret certainly has its frightful moments, and the story is intriguing enough to drive a player through to the end, but with all the great PSVR games out now, Dead Secret feels like a dud on the platform. It takes more than an intriguing story to make a great VR experience. While I had a fun rifling through Dead Secret's mysteries and more than once found myself spooked, it's not an experience I have a desire to play again or showcase on my headset.
I can't say The Swords of Ditto is a flawless experience. But I can say that the combat, progression, aesthetic, and couch co-op combine to create something wholly unique and engaging, to the point where I will gladly continue to play long after review, with the hope that future patches may resolve my complaints. The love and attention to detail that went into its conception is apparent and permeates to the player. There's a lot going on here; a burst of emotion and detail pour out of the experience. Yet somehow, the game remains simple and elegant. The road ahead may be filled with death and sadness, but the kazoos and cartoons keep rolling, making every play session of The Swords of Ditto a real treat.
This doesn't mean that all is lost for lone adventurers, however. With a debt being owed to Castle Crashers and Adventure Time in terms of both humor and visual style, The Adventure Pals has enough going on to keep you interested during the slightly more repetitive sections of play. Had it packed more of a challenge – even if it was optional – The Adventure Pals would be running close to the front of the indie platforming pack. Though the final product doesn't quite get there, it's still plenty enjoyable, especially in co-op.
PlayStation 4 owners certainly got the best deal out of the ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ collection, as the Future Blessings title is tacked on, price-wise, as DLC. Vita owners, I am so sorry that each costs $39.99, and you don't have access to this collection. The combined duo is certainly the best way to go, even for die-hard otome fans. As sweet as the romances are, there simply isn't enough in Future Blessings to warrant an additional purchase. Fortunately, PS4 players have ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ to see all of these romances through to the end, and despite the glaring typos, jumps in logic, and overly simple gameplay, it's worth it to press X to get to the various conclusions.
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is another hilarious creation by Justin Roiland and Owlchemy Labs. It brings the world, characters, and humor of Rick and Morty to life in a way that you simply can't experience outside of VR. It's relatively short length is easy enough to complete in a single VR sitting, but aside from Easter eggs for hardcore fans and difficult challenges for completionists (good luck with the battery), there aren't a lot of reasons to jump back in to play it again once Rick and Morty vanish through that portal for the last time. Virtual Rick-ality is for those who love Justin Roiland's style of humor. Others might find some moderately intriguing puzzles and fun object interactions, but the humor and licensed content are the central constructs that really justify the purchase.
It's not the dated graphics. It's not the inexplicably long loading screens. It's not even the fact the hammy voice acting, or the fact that the game has a pretty steep price point considering what it has to offer. The main thing that stands out in Beast Quest is the lost potential of what it could have been: a rich, engaging RPG about a young knight finding his feet in a magical world. It wouldn't have reinvented the wheel, but it could have at least tried to give us something more to work with than the bare bones of a game from the 2000s.
God of War is an epic reboot of an epic franchise. The evolution of Kratos could have gone horribly wrong. Instead, Santa Monica Studio has given the franchise the treatment it deserves. This new narrative tone has heart, and serves to make Kratos much more relatable in his new role as protector, while remaining as brutal as past installments. Reworked and improved combat options make for an enjoyable and customizable experience, and phenomenal audiovisual performance ensures that each trip to the mythical lands before the Vikings is a wonderfully grisly experience. God of War is a must-buy experience well worth the wait.
Super Daryl Deluxe could be something really special if it was better curated, but there's simply too much fluff for it to be at its best. Developers need to remember that sometimes less is more, and that it's better to leave players wanting more rather than wanting to bounce before the credits roll. There are some great ideas here, and some really funny writing, but the good moments are all surrounded by a bunch of middling ones.
It's frustrating that Gal*Gun 2 is obsessed with sex as a plot point, mechanic, and motivator, in spite of everything else it has going for it.
Once you get used to the gameplay loop after the first few missions, different types of Jackals and Titans that sport progressively tougher armor begin to be introduced, but it turns into a bit of a chore after a while. Extinction is just too simple of a game to justify its price tag and didn't hold my interest for the entirety of the campaign or its side activities—which include time trials, your everyday horde mode, and basic multiplayer functionality. It just seems like a project that is too big, yet too small, for the developers at Iron Galaxy, and the times when it does all click together are few and far in between.
There's a lot to like about the approach that's been taken with Regalia. The developers have taken a good story premise and weaved it into a game involving world building, classic text adventures, dungeon crawling, crafting, and social bond-building, as well as all the other fripperies you'd expect to find outside of the field of battle. The problem is that none of those strands are as fully formed as they'd need to be to be able to call the game a real success in any one area.
While these things keep the game from being perfect, however, they don't stop it from being great. Owlboy is a must-play platformer for fans of the genre and of gaming's history in general. It's also a truly wonderful revelation on the PS4, feeling right at home on the console in a way that made me briefly forget at times that the game was a port. Come for the charming art or the offer of some quick hits of nostalgia, but stay for the sublime storytelling and fluid gameplay.
Crisis on the Planet of the Apes shows VR players what it means to be an ape, not only putting them in the role of the fur covered creatures, but also requiring that they move and act like one too. By the end, I felt sufficiently ape-like. Crisis accomplished its goal of immersing me in the role, even if some of the more brilliant ape interactions were one-off moments rather than regularly used mechanics. Sadly, this brilliant immersion is hampered by dull environments, enemy encounters that become boring, and a fairly weak story that requires the films in order to mean much. Even then, the duration of the hour-long experience can be summed up simply by saying “ape escape.” Crisis on the Planet of the Apes creates some interesting new ideas for virtual reality, but it ends up tripping over its own big monkey feet along the way.
Masters of Anima is for those who love to multitask. Ordering various groups of guardians to attack multiple groups of enemies while also moving around, dodging attacks and performing combos can make for a very hectic game. But for those who live for the thrill of a job well done amidst a bunch of chaos, Masters of Anima was made for them. The rest of us will have to suffer through some agonizing deaths on a painful path to better skills before this game really opens up. Appearances can be deceiving, and Master of Anima is certainly a prime example of this phrase.
Infernium attempts to pay homage to older games, and mostly leaves the player alone to discover the world on their own. Problem is, many of the connections between levels only make sense to the developer, and while the game's scares may cause a good jump or two, they are easy to see coming after the first few times. Permadeath is a mechanic few games use these days, but when dying in a game is this agonizing involving multiple loading screens, the player may almost welcome obtaining a game over since it's the last time they'll see that purgatory.
Island Time VR is a delightful escape to a remote tropical island, but this isn't LOST. The secrets of this tiny plot of land can be figured out all too quickly, and there's not enough of an element of random chance to retain interest in repeated playthroughs.