Because my family always owned XBoxes (my brother started with the original XBox when it came out) and I never liked the old Playstation controllers (but love the XBox one), there wasn't any thought I needed to waste on which console to get, when I picked up my first.
Since then, however I've been looking for story games, and a lot of friends have convinced me that I needed to try out a couple of titles that where all Playstation exclusives (The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War, Death Stranding, etc.), so I decided to get one, once the next console gets released - that was the Playstation 5, and when it came out I was still busy playing the Assassin's Creed games, so I decided to get a PS5 when it was on sale... however that never happened, as it was scarce and only got more and more expensive.
But this Easter there was an sale, where I got the new version of the Playstation 5 for ~100€ cheaper, so I had to buy it.
Only having one game (Syndicate) I was delighted to find, that there was already something pre-installed, and I thought that it was just a simple game with not much to offer (similar to those VR games), but turns out, I was totally mistaken.
Astro's Playroom is "mostly" a 3D platformer, where you control this sweet little robot in a "robotic" world, through different "hardware themed" rooms that consists of 4 levels to pass through. Each of these levels features slightly different play styles, sometimes the game turns into a 2D game, sometimes you need to fly through an area, sometimes it becomes a jump and run game. Each of these play styles comes with its own set of controls, utilizing the full potential of the controller; including the integrated mic, the gyroscope, the different triggers (with and without resistance), and even the touch pad.
And I have to say, this controller is actually quite impressive, to the point that it's a shame that most games will probably never utilize 80% of its capabilities (at least all those games that will strive to be cross-platform).
Besides that, the game is really fun, you get to hunt for a lot of cleverly hidden collectables that will keep you engaged, it is full of cute little ideas that are fun to explore, and (last but not least), it is full of references throughout the history of Playstation and gaming. I - being someone that was never really involved with the Playstation - recognized some artifacts and games, and had a lot of fun, identifying and remembering them. I cannot start to imagine how much fun and nostalgia this is for someone who was playing with this platform for decades.
It took me about 4 hours to play through the "main story", and additional 3 hours to find all the gimmicks and gadgets and do all the races once, etc., which again is quite impressive for a game that is completely free to play, and basically a tech demo. And to not get bored, there are 10 races you can do afterwards, where you can try to improve your performance for yourself, or compared to the rest of the world in speed-running some of the passages that you already played in the game (I scored every race around place 200.000; with the top players needing half to a quarter of the time I needed).
Who would have thought, that a free and basically tech-demo game could be so much fun? And who would have thought that a company making money with selling a console (for which they don't even really need any marketing anymore), would put so much love and energy in something that is basically a tech-demo? Heck even the credits where fun! How could I give anything else than 5 Stars? I've paid money for worse!
Since then, however I've been looking for story games, and a lot of friends have convinced me that I needed to try out a couple of titles that where all Playstation exclusives (The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War, Death Stranding, etc.), so I decided to get one, once the next console gets released - that was the Playstation 5, and when it came out I was still busy playing the Assassin's Creed games, so I decided to get a PS5 when it was on sale... however that never happened, as it was scarce and only got more and more expensive.
But this Easter there was an sale, where I got the new version of the Playstation 5 for ~100€ cheaper, so I had to buy it.
Only having one game (Syndicate) I was delighted to find, that there was already something pre-installed, and I thought that it was just a simple game with not much to offer (similar to those VR games), but turns out, I was totally mistaken.
Astro's Playroom is "mostly" a 3D platformer, where you control this sweet little robot in a "robotic" world, through different "hardware themed" rooms that consists of 4 levels to pass through. Each of these levels features slightly different play styles, sometimes the game turns into a 2D game, sometimes you need to fly through an area, sometimes it becomes a jump and run game. Each of these play styles comes with its own set of controls, utilizing the full potential of the controller; including the integrated mic, the gyroscope, the different triggers (with and without resistance), and even the touch pad.
And I have to say, this controller is actually quite impressive, to the point that it's a shame that most games will probably never utilize 80% of its capabilities (at least all those games that will strive to be cross-platform).
Besides that, the game is really fun, you get to hunt for a lot of cleverly hidden collectables that will keep you engaged, it is full of cute little ideas that are fun to explore, and (last but not least), it is full of references throughout the history of Playstation and gaming. I - being someone that was never really involved with the Playstation - recognized some artifacts and games, and had a lot of fun, identifying and remembering them. I cannot start to imagine how much fun and nostalgia this is for someone who was playing with this platform for decades.
It took me about 4 hours to play through the "main story", and additional 3 hours to find all the gimmicks and gadgets and do all the races once, etc., which again is quite impressive for a game that is completely free to play, and basically a tech demo. And to not get bored, there are 10 races you can do afterwards, where you can try to improve your performance for yourself, or compared to the rest of the world in speed-running some of the passages that you already played in the game (I scored every race around place 200.000; with the top players needing half to a quarter of the time I needed).
Who would have thought, that a free and basically tech-demo game could be so much fun? And who would have thought that a company making money with selling a console (for which they don't even really need any marketing anymore), would put so much love and energy in something that is basically a tech-demo? Heck even the credits where fun! How could I give anything else than 5 Stars? I've paid money for worse!