The 8th console generation saw Playstation take great strides with their exclusive titles. Now closing in on a year since the launch of the PS5, Playstation’s list of exclusive titles is in total, more impressive than either Microsoft or Nintendos. Below are 10 that stand out the most to me.
10) The Fat Princess (PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3)
Here’s one you probably didn’t expect. The Fat Princess was a real time strategy game that came to the PS3 back in 2009. The premise of the game is as follows; there are 2 teams, both fighting to return a princess to her castle. To make your opposition’s task more difficult, players can feed the princess, thus making her heavier and harder to transport.
A seemingly simple plot, The Fat Princess is arguably one of the most ambitious indie titles of its generation. It is heaps of fun, and has a cosy, cartoony style.
Alongside saving the princess, there are a number of additional modes, such as team deathmatch, invasion, and Queen’s rule (a footballing game), which give The Fat Princess a whole lot of replayability.
Considering that Modern Warfare 2 was at the peak of its powers back in 2009, The Fat Princess was, and still is, a nice alternative to action packed shooting. It always springs to mind whenever I think of the PS3.
There is also a PSP port with even more modes!
9) Detroit: Become Human (Playstation 4)
The game (like an equally good PS4 exclusive, Until Dawn), takes place from the perspective of a variety of characters. These are Connor (a synth cop who hunts down synths that have transgressed from their initial function), Markus (a synth who tries to free other synths) and Kyra (a synth who develops true consciousness).
The different characters available to us allow the developers to deal with a range of different issues within the topic of artificial life in a clever way.
The branching storyline format for games can be hit or miss, but Detroit: Become Human is most certainly a hit.
It is narrative heavy, and will leave you with more questions than answers, but that is the sign of a good story.
It is available on PSNow, so you’d be a fool to not give it a go if you were already subscribed.
8) Little Big Planet 2 (Playstation 3)
Unfortunately less popular now than in its heyday of 2011, Little Big Planet 2 truly took the gaming world by storm.
With Stephen Fry narrating, and our protagonist Sack Boy (arguably the most iconic gaming icon of the 2010s), the Little Big Planet series paints itself as a crash course in imagination. Alongside a carefully woven story mode, the second entry in the series greatly improves on the creation tools available in the first title.
No longer are you limited to making just platforming levels, now you can put together near enough whatever you want; racing, puzzle, RPG levels, just to name a few, can all be put together. The simplistic, child friendly design of Little Big Planet 2 makes the toil of putting together your vision a lot more palatable.
It is a charming game, with adorable visuals and audio. I will admit, however, that series like Little Big Planet series are perhaps never going to stick around for long.
With the recent release of Dreams (a creation tool for games, which could also have made this list), another creation game was plastered with near perfect scores, but hardly played a year down the line. Creation games are in theory wonderful games, but many of us play games after a long day at work, devoid of the energy such games demand to be enjoyed.
Of course, there are heaps of fantastic, more active gamers than I who have put together a host of excellent downloadable levels on Little Big Planet 2. Thank the Lord for them!
7) Spider-Man Miles Morales (Playstation 4, Playstation 5)
I won’t give away too much of the narrative for this one, as it is a fairly new title. I will just say that it looks absolutely beautiful. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a PS5, this is the most graphically impressive thing you can play on it. It is scary how impressive Spider Man: Miles Morales looks on the new Sony console.
The game is in every way an improvement on the previous title. The combat feels silky smooth, and the game world seems more lived in, more authentic.
6) Ratchet and Clank (Playstation 4)
The game, based on the movie, based on the game.
The 2016 release was a great installment for the Ratchet and Clank franchise.
Like all other entries in the series, the 2016 entry has you play both as Ratchet, a Lombax, and Clank, a robot. The gameplay consists of platforming, shooting (with some of the most inventive weapons in gaming), and puzzle solving (mainly with Clank).
You travel from planet to planet in a relatively linear fashion. The level design in this game is both truthful to the series’ origins, and yet a lot brighter and more daring. The levels feel a lot more open, and the series jump to the 8th console generation meant some truly astounding graphics.
I could have chosen other titles, but this one, since it’s based on the film, feels considerably more big budget. It provides a cinematic experience, with some truly excellent gameplay.
5) Death Stranding (Playstation 4)
This one certainly divides opinion, but for me, this game is entirely unforgettable.
Death Stranding takes place in a dystopian world. You play as Sam Porter Bridges, a courier who is employed to deliver supplies to a range of isolated colonies, in the hope of reconnecting them. The tricky part about the postman's job is the poisonous rain which falls; timefall, if hit by it, will massively increase the speed of the aging process.
The game is full of rich, prescient allegory and themes, as Kojima is well known for. However, the gameplay itself is arguably where it is most interesting. The game is a first person walker. Most of your time is simply devoted to collecting and then delivering packages. Unlike in other games, wherein you can have an inventory of 10 guns stored presumably in your back pocket, Death Stranding makes it challenging to carry merely a few packages.
If you aren’t focusing on your balance, your character will tumble over, dropping and sometimes damages packages in the process.
It is difficult to traverse the game world, but luckily, players can leave down structures to traverse difficult environs, which can then be used by others. This is a lovely tie in to the plot of the game.
Death Stranding is not a game that on the face of things seems to be particularly interesting, I can only urge you to play it, and be nearly certain that your opinion will change.
4) The Last of Us (Playstation 3, Playstation 4)
Can you think of any other game series that has dominated the video game discourse over the past 10 years or so?
On top of being one of the greatest games of all time, The Last of Us has had a massive impact on games. Many great titles (some of which are on this list) clearly take influence from it, especially in terms of its narrative driven gameplay.
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after a spread of fungus that left the world in tatters. This mutant fungus turned those infected in zombie-like creatures, who became more deformed and dangerous over time. This was an intriguing premise, partly because the fungus in the game actually exists in real life.
You play primarily as Joel, a smuggler who has managed to survive the past 20 years. He is a lost spirit, since just at the beginning of the outbreak, his daughter was killed.
You are tasked to take a young girl Ellie across the United States. Initially reluctant, Joel and Ellie form one of the most human and believable bonds in gaming. Ellie is, it turns out, immune to the virus, which eventually results in one of the game's many deep moral dilemmas.
Alongside the immense story, The Last of Us boasts excellent gameplay throughout. It runs smooth, enemies are responsive, and the soundtrack and sound effects are particularly effective, just to compliment a few things.
If you have somehow missed this one, I urge you to go play it now. If you’ve only played through it once, I hope you go straight to a second playthrough.
3) Ghosts of Tshushima (Playstation 4)
Game reviewers are often criticised (as they should be) for spouting often unfitting platitudes, instead of giving any meaningful analysis. For example, playing X really makes you feel like X.
Unfortunately, I am resigned to this platitude with Ghosts of Tshushima. Playing as Jin, fighting against a Mongolian army in 1274, Ghosts of Tshushima really does make you feel like a samurai.
The game’s depiction of Japan is simply stunning. It is a labour of love to Japan and its magnificent cultures and traditions. It is something Kurosawa would most certainly have approved of. It is so nice to see an Asian culture brought to life in a big budget game.
All of this attention to detail and aesthetic bliss would be nothing if the game was no fun to play however. Luckily for us, it is a blast. Combat is incredibly smooth. Side missions are incredibly enjoyable and alluring. Don’t be surprised to be taken away from your goal by a bird flying by.
Just be sure to have a few weeks spare. Maybe play this while you’re in between jobs or on holiday. Preferably when you’re single. This is a game that will suck you in completely.
2) The Last of Us 2 (Playstation 4)
With around a year of separation from its initial release, I feel like people have become a lot more clear headed and a lot less vitriolic about The Last of Us 2. Upon its release, fans were outraged by the confirmation of certain leaked story details. Notably, the death of the beloved character from the first title, Joel, was heavily criticised.
This, along with mass disapproval of the introduction of a transgender character (not to mention a masucline woman), exposed rather a large section of the gaming community as extremely unnacepting of alternative lifestyles.
Games like Call of Duty, Assassins Creed and Wolfenstein all have bombastic, but ultimately trivial storylines. These are not as heavily critiqued as The Last of Us 2 however. It seems fairly obvious to me that the death of Joel is not the problem for many, but rather the inclusivity it is promoting. The allegations of Naughty Dog shoving the LGBTQ communtiy down our throat are frankly disgusting and backwards.
I hope that with a little distance from this vitriol, people can appreciate The Last of Us 2 for what it is; an extremely emotive narrative, with excellent gameplay and a cast of some of the best characters in gaming history. Not a box ticking, shallow piece of media.
It is upsetting that this one got so much backlash, but hardly surprising.
1) God of War (Playstation 4)
Do you remember what I said earlier about The Last of Us casting a massive influence on the gaming community?
This is perhaps the only instance of a game eclipsing it in terms of both narrative and gameplay.
Turning to Norse mythology as opposed to Greek, God of War (2018) follows Kratos and his son Atreus, on a journey to scatter the ashes of Kratos’ wife and Atreus’ mother. Upon her request, they journey to the peak of the nine realms to scatter.
This is a deeply emotional set up already, but the position of dramatic irony the game places us in (we know of Kratos’ mythological power, but his son does not) make the game that much more poignant.
The game feels positively cinematic. Its emphasis on narrative helps to develop Kratos’ character beyond what fans of the series might have expected.
Additionally, the combat is less combo/arcade style fighting based, instead focusing on singular, more organic fighting. Although God of War initially won its fans for its incredibly intense and intuitive action gameplay, the 2018 entry is less simple to master, but endlessly more satisfying when it is. Notably, getting to know the wide variety of uses for the axe will make you feel all powerful.
The game can often be found on sale on the PS Store. It is obviously worth its £20 price tag, but keep an eye out to see it go to half price every now and then.
