Besides offering us the base Destiny 2 game for free this month, Sony was gracious enough to present some other free titles via their Playstation Plus program. I’ve already written about my experience with Destiny 2 but I took some time over the weekend to check out the other games and wanted to share some thoughts. Honestly, it sounded like a fantastic month on paper but in practice I have already played each title long enough to get first impressions aside and have deleted them all off of my hard drive. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the games are bad, I actually see potential with them all and I’ll get into that when I discuss each individually, it’s just that they are games that fall into a “not for me” category. With that said, the title’s I’ll be covering today are God of War III Remastered, Foul Play, and Another World 20th Anniversary Edition. Let’s get to it, shall we?
God of War III Remastered:
This is the first time I’ve personally played a God of War game. When the first couple entries in the series released my PS2 had taken a dump and I never bothered to replace it. I was a primarily PC player for a few years before I picked up a PS3, which is where God of War III first appeared. The latest iteration of the series came out earlier this year, and in between there the Remastered for PS4 version of God of War III. Somehow or another I’ve still not played a one. Leave it to Playstation Plus to allow me the luxury of being able to figure out I wasn’t missing much and not having to pay for something to figure that out.
This isn’t to say that this isn’t a good looking game, despite being a 2015 remaster of a 2010 game. It’s not as sharp as games released in the last couple of years (see the excellent Shadow of the Colossus for how a modern remake looks), but it runs without a hitch and looks pretty damn good. It shows its age in some ways, but I’m not decrying it for this. I shouldn’t expect 2018 graphics out of an 8 year old game, remaster or not. What I can say is that despite its excellent visuals (the opening scene climbing up the back of titans who are climbing Mt. Olympus was pretty epic), its game play is fairly repetitive and something I think I may have outgrown. This is strange because I loved the last Devil May Cry title and listed the new one that’s coming soon on my anticipated list from E32018, and God of War has a similar combat: Button mashing works, but there is some nuance that can be found if you’re willing to put in the time. I think perhaps the setting appeals to me more with Devil May Cry, but whatever the case I’m sort of over mindless beat-em-ups.
Foul Play:
I guess that’s why I wasn’t overly impressed with Foul Play either. It’s a side-scrolling brawler done in a 2D style reminiscent of Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. It attempts to set itself apart by using a combo mechanic that doubles as your life. You’re an actor in a play, and the game unfolds as if you are on a single stage and playwrights are moving scenes around for you. You can see the crowd at all times, and what you do with your combos influence their mood which is represented with a gauge at the top of the screen. Do well and get rewarded with cheers but do poorly and you’ll fail a stage.
It’s a neat idea but I’m just not into these types of games so much anymore. I’ve tried to pick up indie titles like this in the past to relive fond memories of childhood but as games have evolved so have I, and I’m into things that are a little more sophisticated these days. Oh you fancy, huh?
Another World:
Lastly we have a port of the PS3 remake of Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition. Originally released in 1991, Another World was a success on computer systems and consoles of the time, with a unique art style and game play that feels much like old school computer games like King’s Quest, where death was a very real thing and mistakes were costly. It took me a while to even figure out how to get past the little worms at the beginning of the game let alone the big beast that chases you through the first few minutes. In 2011, the 20th Anninversary Edition remastered the graphics to a minute degree, making it look a little crisper, and running at higher resolutions. This port is the same thing so if you played it on your PS3 you needn’t bother with the PS4 version.
I took a bunch of screenshots of my time with the game but I managed to somehow only copy one image and had already deleted the rest off of my console believing that the rest were on my flash drive. I stole some Internet comparison images for use here, just so you can get an idea. It’s a uniquely styled game and were I not knee deep in other projects I might devote some time to it, but I realize I probably won’t ever play it an removed it from my hard drive accordingly.
Not to be overly negative but it was a poor month when it comes to these offerings, but I am completely happy with Destiny 2 outside of being a little confused as to what I’m supposed to buy to be able to play once I finish the original campaign. I see a package on the Playstation Store to get the first two expansions, but it won’t show the pricing for Forsaken individually because the other expansions are required to buy it (this shouldn’t be secret information). I also see the Forsaken Legendary Edition for $60 that is the equivalent to when I purchased The Taken King last year that had all prior content in it. There’s a deluxe edition too that has a season pass for Forsaken that reportedly will bring three more DLC packages down the line. Whatever the case I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
That’s it for this time. Happy Gaming everyone.
Me Vs. Myself and I 