The story is something of a ground-level take on Game of Thrones concepts that follows outcast soldiers as they fight for an independent future where they’re free to live their lives (or die) on their own terms. From the unrelenting Crucible Knights, to the savage Godfrey and the nearly unkillable Malenia, the game’s bosses beckon and compel you to traverse the expansive Lands Between to test your mettle (and patience). These encounters are essential elements of the Souls experience, and the monstrosities and demigods the player faces here are some of the most inspired and insanely difficult the studio has concocted. The core of Elden Ring’s brilliance is its combat, particularly the maddening wars of attrition with the game’s bosses. But the interior sections of the game bring that grisly, architecturally lush fans come to expect from the studio, and more importantly, despite the vastness of the world, the flow and design of the environments are as high quality as any other title in From Software’s catalog. The aura of Elden Ring is certainly distinct from its Souls predecessors, with more diurnal, spacious landscapes that fundamentally change the way combat and exploration are approached. The Lands Between, miraculously, is an enormous upscaling of From Software’s immaculate level design that doesn’t feel diluted at all. The most extraordinary thing about Elden Ring is its game world, which, without exaggeration, could be the best open-world sprawl ever created. It’s easily the best non-first-party title on PS5. But art and presentation are essential to the experience as well, and the game absolutely nails the bleak, gothic atmosphere of the original while also painting a bizarrely serene picture of a land that is both tormented and brimming with wonder. Gameplay is, indeed, king, particularly in titles with combat as refined and timing-based as Demon’s Souls. Bluepoint Games’ 2020 PS5 remake is about as polished a remake as one can find, with a complete visual overhaul, more balanced combat, and a re-recorded orchestral score elevating the 2009 classic to current-gen standards without sullying or obscuring the original vision whatsoever. The Soulslike wave is currently one of the liveliest subgenres in the industry, and From Software’s Demon’s Souls, the gnarled, punishing, poetic masterpiece that helped start it all, still stands as one of the best games of its ilk. The guns, Slabs, and Trinkets you employ throughout the campaign make for a truly flexible gaming experience that allows you to play in the style you want (a promise many games make but don’t keep) and harnesses the power of its mind-bending concept exceptionally well. But what Arkane has put forward here isn’t a simple retread, with the time loop element adding a palpable sense of both permanence and impermanence to the game world and the stealth gunplay. On its surface, Deathloop looks and plays a lot like Dishonored, which isn’t a bad thing. And the payoff to Colt and Julianna’s homicidal tango is one of the most unsettling and divisive twist endings in recent memory. The time loop concept is handled perfectly, with Colt’s looping day on Blackreef opening up unique gameplay opportunities (like sticking and unsticking items in time via Residuum) as players attempt to uncover the true nature of the events on the island piece by piece. It’s difficult to elevator-pitch what’s so brilliant about Deathloop because its greatest virtue really lies in the sum of its parts. But in truth, the thing that brings the whole game together and acts as the glue that makes Astro’s latest adventure so memorable is the infectious soundtrack, which somehow makes the PS5 and its synthetic innards seem cute. The meta-ness of the game’s environments (GPU Jungle, SSD Speedway) is a charming way of showing off the sheer power of the console while also establishing an emotional connection between the player and the hardware they’ve just spent an inordinate amount of money to get their hands on. It’s one of the most polished, inventive, adorable games you can play on PS5, and it serves as a beautiful welcome gift for those hopping aboard the current-gen hype train. But this PS5 hardware showcase, starring the eponymous bobbly robot, is precisely that. When it comes to console pack-in games, we don’t necessarily even presume they’ll exist, let alone be an essential title in the console’s library (á la the iconic Wii Sports). It’s not that Astro’s Playroom blew away expectations.
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