During the summer months over the past few years PlayStation have highlighted 4 titles that they’re excited about and offer discounts on their launch over the summer. There have been some great games featured over the years such as Journey, Everybody’s gone to the Rapture, Hohokum and The Swapper.
This year’s lineup has been revealed and it’s genuinely looking like one of the best lineups so far. All the games featured have been games Sony have promoted pretty heavily at various conferences since their reveal. And it’s great news we’ll be able to finally get to play these. With that said take a look at this year’s awesome offerings from PlayStation Store PLAY.
Headlander – 26th July 2016
Headlander was announced at PAX 2015 Expo. It’s been in developed by Double Fine Productions who boast a very respectable CV of cult classic games. Headlander is the first game to be published by AdultSwim who want to tackle videogames as well as hilarious television.
Headlander is a a retro-futuristic, side-scrolling, action-adventure game set in a world inspired by 70’s science fiction. It is a world of automation, a utopia gone wrong in which all of humanity have transferred their minds into robotic imposter bodies and are ruled by a deranged computer.
You are the last known human in the universe, and all that’s left of you is a disembodied head. Seeking clues to your fractured past, you must travel through a hostile world of machines, using a special helmet that allows you to dock into and take control of any robotic host body. As you launch from one body to the next, you’ll start to discover that things are not quite what they appear to be, and the fate of humanity has yet to be decided…
Headlander plays like a Metroidvania style game. The main character is essentially just a head. The character moves around in a helmet which is basically like a little rocket ship. It also has a tractor beam which is used to remove heads from other robots when needed. Certain robots have specialized features, so it’s about taking control of specific robots bodies when needed. The helmet also has a weapon system for defense.
ABZU – 2nd August 2016
ABZU was announced during the Sony press conference at E3 2014. It’s in development by Giant Squid Studios which was founded by “Flower” and “Journey” art director Matt Nava. This alone should have you excited for this one. The name ABZU derives from ancient words with AB meaning Ocean and ZU meaning to know.
ABZÛ will take players on an epic adventure into the depths of the ocean, where they will encounter majestic creatures and discover long lost secrets. The game draws inspiration from a deep, innate story that we all carry in our collective subconscious, a universal origin myth that resonates across cultures. As such, the name ABZÛ references a concept from the oldest Mesopotamian mythology: it is the combination of two ancient words Ab, meaning ocean, and Zû, meaning to know. Essentially, ABZÛ is the ocean of wisdom.
The game is essentially a swimming simulator but with an emphasis of exploring the big blue ocean but in a peaceful manner interacting with the life living in the sea.
Brut@l – 9th August 2016
Brut@l was announced at the PlayStation Experience in December 2015. Developed by StormCloud Games, they’re more known for their “colourful kids mobile titles” (from their official website). But in 2014 announced that they’d be going in a change of direction with a “altogether darker, retro, but still imaginative new title for PlayStation 4”. What we got was indeed darker with Brut@l.
Brut@l is a modern re-imagining of the classic ASCII dungeon crawler with roguelike elements.
With Perma death as a key feature players choose their hero: Ranger, Mage, Warrior or Amazon then descend into a procedurally generated world constructed entirely from ASCII.
With weapon crafting, potion brewing and an onslaught of enemies to face, can you survive this Brut@l dungeon crawler?
Brut@l is set in a world created from ASCII. You choose from a Ranger, Mage, Warrior or Amazon. You begin with only shield, torch and your fists and have to craft weapons and items to assist you in reaching the 26th floor. Here you battle the “Guardian of the Dungeon”, a dragon. Sounds odd, but fun, and looks awesome.
Bound – 16th August 2016
Another game that was revealed at PlayStation Experience in December 2015. Bound is developed by Plastic Studios. Santa Monica Studios have collaborated with Plastic in the past with Datura and Linger in the Shadows both of which were for PS3. Santa Monica have helped smaller developers in the past with some epic adventures such as Journey, Unfinished Swan and Flower, so again you know this game is going to release having been in very safe hands.
Bound is a 3D platformer designed for people with the desire to concentrate on the narrative side of games and experience a mature story. On the other side of the spectrum, Bound is also being prepared for hardcore gamers looking for the challenge of one big puzzle that can be only solved by a community of players working together.
The result: we are going to deliver a “notgame” to you, which is also a game. It’s up to you to decide how you would like to play.
Bound is about a world that exists in the mind of a women who is revisiting her childhood memories. It’s a platformer in which you’ll be making the protagonist dance past the challenges.
Certainly a very diverse and exciting looking lineup of games for the summer for PS4 players. If you’re a PSPlus subscriber you’ll save 20% off the game on pre-orders. From the PlayStation blog:
All four games are available for pre-order starting today, making their console-first digital debuts on PS4. To celebrate the launch of these titles, PlayStation Plus members will save 20% on pre-orders for PLAY 2016 games. As an added bonus, each game in the PLAY 2016 lineup comes with an exclusive PS4 theme when pre-ordered. But that’s not all, anyone (PS Plus member or not) who purchases two or more PLAY 2016 titles by August 23 will receive a coupon for 20% off their entire cart purchase at PlayStation Store.* For those of you bargain hunters out there, don’t worry — you can take advantage of both offers at the same time.
Sources:
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/headlander-ps4/
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/abzu-ps4/
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/brutal-ps4/
http://sms.playstation.com/bound/
– Murr