This week saw the release of June’s Playstation Plus update, with 2 new titles for the PS4: Trine 2: Complete Story and PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate. For anyone who hasn’t experienced either of these new PS4 games on other platforms, both are terrific indie games well worth your time.
Trine is a side-scrolling action platformer and puzzle game where you control 3 distinct characters (Amadeus the Wizard, Zoya the Thief and Pontius the Knight) and must switch between them on your journey in order to utilise their distinct skillsets to defeat enemies and increasingly complex puzzles.
Whilst your milage on Trine 2 may vary with your ability to appreciate the (admittedly wonderful) mechanics, especially in lieu of the game’s terribly standard fantasy narrative, PixelJunk Shooter is a whole other kettle of fish. A twin-sticks shooter of some class, Shooter is, in it’s own quirky way, Q-Games’ most relaxed game so far.
Combining exquisitely responsive controls with the developers standard combination of sharp, fun and clean graphics and great music, Shooter really exceeded my expectations when it first came out on the PS3. What really makes it a great deal of fun is the game’s mind-bogglingly enjoyable fluid dynamics. Watching lava cool into rock on contact with water has never been so fun.
With the addition of these 2 great games to the PS4 store on the PSN, another great game landed on the PSN last month: Transistor.
Transistor, put simply is a magnificent game. Whilst it’s main story may only last just over 6 hours, those 6 hours are some of the most well written, designed and elegantly apocalyptic moments in a game i’ve played in a very long time. I’ve seen other reviewers refer saying it looks like Final Fantasy VII if it had been designed today – it’s even better.
Basking in ruinous hand-drawn images of a social-media lead post apocalypse, Transistor is part action RPG, part real-time-but-also-turn-based strategy. You play as Red, voiceless protagonist and former singer, whose voice has been stolen by a oligarchical sect, during an assassination attempt on her life, who are hell-bent on bringing social eugenics to the city of Cloudbank. Along for the ride is Transistor, the very sword they tried to assassinate her with, found impaled within an unnamed man now dead, but whose voice and consciousness is now trapped within the weapon.
With one of the best soundtracks ever put in a game, excellent (if slightly obfuscated) gameplay and a compellingly oblique story, Transistor is a must-play game.
With these 3 great games, Playstation has added to its already strong roster of indie games on the ps4, with equally highly acclaimed indie games already on the platform like Mercenary Kings, Child of Light and Trials Fusion. Are there any upcoming games that you’re looking forward?
