Sony Rises to Occasion With Diverse, Low-Key PS+ November Offerings

No Gods of War or Princes of Persia to be found in Sony’s slate of PS+ freebies for the month of November, which stays almost entirely away from high-profile franchises and AAA releases. Spanning from a so-called “walking simulator” to a word-solving RPG and a high-flying BMX trick game, there’s a lot of variety and uniqueness to be found in the curated titles. Most of them have received substantial acclaim, too, for the novel directions they’ve taken in their respective genres, showing that big titles aren’t necessary to generate enthusiasm when the content’s distinctive. Let’s jump into the games.

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The Chinese Room

PS4

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Projects like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture are tough to label, transcending the notion of what a videogame should consist of while telling an interactive story. Plot is everything here: the player navigates through a small, empty English town filled with glowing energy orbs, which unlock fragments of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of all these residents. Development team The Chinese Room drew inspiration from classic science-fiction novels instead of overtly religious themes, concentrating on an ominous mood lingering throughout the beautifully rendered countryside town. Rapture lingers in a fairly neutral philosophical zone that allows the story and gameplay — or lack thereof — to speak for itself, which guides it through many of the normal criticisms and praises that other “walking simulator” games endure from both critics and players.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters

Atlus have taken the charms and corniness of B-movie science-fiction and elevated them — literally — with The Deadly Tower of Monsters, a quirky top-down action game that has players progressing up a, well, tower in a vintage low-budget movie setting. With the director voicing a “commentary” for the film’s DVD release as an amusing narration device, standard dual-thumbstick controls take three high-profile (in-universe) actors through different cinematic scenes. Critics cite the short length and simple gameplay as mild negatives, but that doesn’t stop the general consensus from being a thumbs-up for its tongue-in-cheek attitude and raw amusement factor.

PS3

Dirt 3

Codemasters has been doing the racing-game thing for a very long time: Colin McRae’s Rally, the first entry in the series that evolved into the Dirt franchise, was released in the ’90s. It’s a well-regarded franchise featuring fast-paced rally racing with a robust offering of modes, a legacy continued by Dirt 3, which steers the franchise even further back to its core rally strengths. Alongside the standard racing mode that centers on earning sponsorship attention through reputation points, the game also features a few obstacle-style modes, such as capture-the-flag and a fairly peculiar option where you can spread a zombie infection. Both critics and longstanding fans feel that this installment keeps speed with the rest of the franchise.

Costume Quest 2

We’re a month past Halloween, but for those that didn’t get their fill of trick-or-treating and the spooky holiday spirit, Sony’s got the answer by making Costume Quest 2 free for download. Once again, through a mixture of quirky characters, turn-based combat, and role-playing depth, Double Fine delivers an enjoyable tale of Reynold and Wren defeating foes hoping to overtake Halloween. This time, they’re against Dr. Orel White and his voracious legion of Grubbins who hope to brush away the holiday, employing time-travel and outlawing of the decay-heavy festivities. Those hoping for more of the same from the original will find it in Costume Quest 2, as well as a dialing-up of the personality that made the first one such a hit with even more humor and abilities.

Bacon Bandit Games

PS Vita

Letter Quest: Remastered

It takes a certain amount of gusto and ambition to take a chance on combining two very specific niches like role-playing games and word-spelling games, yet that’s precisely what Bacon Bandit Games did with Letter Quest. The execution plays out probably about how one would expect: two hooded grim reapers land attacks on incoming foes by the player successfully spelling words from a grid of letter tiles (picture Boggle or Scrabble), with each victory granting level-up currency to purchase upgrades. There’s a quickview dictionary for defining the words, playful wordplay in game’s onscreen descriptions, and appealing artwork bringing life to both the heroes and the villains. Critics and players have found Letter Quest‘s blend of turn-based combat and spelling mechanics quite addictive for both younger and older audience, which is a good thing considering there’s over 30 stages to tackle. Cross buy available with PS4.

Pumped BMX+

Finally, we’ve got a port of the mobile game franchise Pumped BMX, a stunt cycling game developed by Yeah Us Games, led by someone with experience riding bikes. Colorful graphics and natural fluid movement capture the experience of accelerating into the air and performing tricks, racking up points along earnest 2D courses. It’s the nature of this kind of beast for the jumps, stunts, and landings to get a bit repetitive after a while; however, according to critics, the game’s focus on staying anchored with realism also seems to have overly impacted its gameplay variety as well. Cross buy available with PS3 and PS4.

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