For the past year, Sony has been on a winning streak with PlayStation Plus, offering quality games like Uncharted 4, Shadow of the Colossus, BioShock: The Collection, The Last of Us: Remastered, and so many more. However, not every month is going to please the masses and May's PS Plus free games were no exception, leading thousands of subscribers to sign an online petition to have them changed. Cities Skylines and Farming Simulator 19 are both high-quality games and beloved on PC, but they're niche games that are releasing in a time when players are looking for distractions from the real world and looking forward to PS5 news.
Summer Games Fest has begun and Microsoft has already held the first event in its Xbox 20/20 experience, leading to the release of the Xbox Series X. On the other hand, we're nearing the end of May and Sony remains tight-lipped on the PS5 with nothing but rumors on when the PS5 reveal event will be held. The negative response and backlash to PS Plus May games is understandable, so here's a wish list of games that could turn that around. Even one or two of these would go a long way in making June 2020 a month to be remembered.
Dishonored 2
Toward the tale-end of the last generation of consoles, French developer Arkane Studios made a name for itself and surprised the industry with the release of Dishonored, a first-person action game that focused on exploration, stealth gameplay, and complete freedom in how players choose to approach each encounter. The team followed up with Dishonored 2, a direct sequel featuring two playable characters with unique abilities, lethal and non-lethal combat options, and an outstanding voice-cast including the likes of Rosario Dawson, Sam Rockwell, and Vincent D'Onofrio. A standalone DLC, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider released the following year, as well as a Dishonored tabletop RPG.
Dishonored 2 took what worked with the in the first game and expanded on those aspects, particularly its focus on player freedom by offering multiple playable characters with their own unique playstyle, as well as the chaos system where players can complete the entire game without taking a life. One of the most impressive aspects of the game is the Clockwork Mansion mission, where players move between multiple timelines at will as they traverse an enormous multi-level labyrinth-like mansion. It's easily one of the most creative and unique missions to come out of this generation and proof that putting Dishonored on indefinite hiatus due to the sequel's low sales numbers is nothing short of a tragedy.
Outer Wilds
One of the best indie's to come out of 2019 was Mobius Digital's Outer Wilds, not to be confused with open-world RPG, The Outer Worlds from Microsoft owned developer, Obsidian Entertainment. Cleaning up at the BAFTA's earlier this year, Outer Wilds was nominated for dozens of awards from Best Independent Game at The Game Awards to Outstanding Achievement in Game Design at the DICE Awards and Best Game of 2019 at the 16th British Academy Games Awards, which it ultimately won.
The concept for Outer Wilds is simple: the player is a space explorer and has 22 minute's (literally) to explore a mysterious alien planet before the sun goes supernova and explodes, killing the player and everything in the galaxy. However, that isn't the end of the game, only the end of that playthrough. The idea is built around players exploring the world and learning as much as they can before the sun explodes, taking that knowledge and applying it to the next playthrough. Outer Wilds breaks away from AAA game conventions, putting exploration and player discovery at the forefront, and it's one game that players shouldn't miss out on.
Dead Cells
Another indie hit from the last couple of years is Dead Cells, a 2D side-scrolling roguelike-Metroidvania from developer Motion Twin and Evil Empire that released back in 2018. Featuring procedurally generated environments, players need to make their way through a series of dungeons, collecting new weapons and power-ups to fight off challenging enemies, with the ultimate goal of defeating each of the game's six bosses, known as the "Keepers."
Using similar concepts to Outer Wilds, Dead Cells is a challenging game where players will die over and over again, learning from each run and applying the knowledge to the next playthrough. Challenging games can be a hard sell for many players, even if they would ultimately love the experience, so PlayStation Plus could be the perfect way to get Dead Cells into the hands of new players that might not have given it a chance otherwise. Motion Twin has also confirmed Dead Cells won't be getting a sequel as the team would like to use the momentum to create something new.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Before the success of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes brought the long-running survival-horror series back to the mainstream, it was 2017's Resident Evil 7 that properly revived the series from the dead. After the critical success of Resident Evil 4, Capcom chose a more action-oriented direction for its sequels, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Couple that with years of unfaithful spin-offs like Operation Raccoon City or Umbrella Corps, Resident Evil had become nothing more than a shell of its former self. That is until RE7 returned to the roots of the series while entirely reinventing what the series could be.
Developed on the RE Engine, Resident Evil 7: biohazard introduced an all-new first-person perspective, and focussed on survival horror over action, emphasizing exploration, resource management, scarce ammo, and challenging enemies. The RE7 formula is rumored to be heavily influencing the sequel with its first-person perspective and protagonist returning for Resident Evil 8. On top of that, RE7 would be a great addition for PS4 and PSVR owners, as the entire game can be played in VR.
Moving forward, PS Plus needs to focus on maintaining a good balance between genres and budgets i.e. offering a AAA game with an indie or niche game similar to Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Goat Simulator in January. It would also be nice to see Sony release another bonus PSVR game every other month while players are stuck at home and waiting for PlayStation 5.
PlayStation Plus members receive two free games every month with their subscription.