Over the past year, a trend had begun to settle into Sony’s PS+ freebies on a month to month basis.  The company would offer a handful of secondary, yet intriguing games that fall in the indie, arcade, or just straight up under-the-radar niches, but neglect to pair them with a substantial AAA or noteworthy title to bolster subscriber enthusiasm.  After a righting of the ship over the past few months with the right balance, now Sony has gone in the opposite direction. They’ve included one very strong title as the cornerstone of its free downloads, then surrounded it with uninspired, often lukewarmly received indies of several platforms. It begs the question: can one game carry an entire month? It comes close, but not quite this time. Let’s take a look at ’em.

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Sucker Punch Productions

PS4

inFAMOUS Second Son

Morality systems in videogames — which also falls into the spectrum of a Karma Meter — can be tricky, as they often wobble along the line between authentic transformation and role-playing of a character and the reward-based system of the player experience. It’s an issue that other action-RPGs have tackled with varying degrees of success across roughly twenty years, from Knights of the Old Republic to Fable, and it’s surprising how little certain contemporary games stray from the lopsidedness of that paradigm. inFAMOUS Second Son delivers a robust third-person superhero experience befitting the entries that came before it. Jumping ahead ahead seven years to tell the story of new protagonist Delsin Rowe, the player navigates a sandbox environment with his newly-gained powers to control elements commonly found in urban environments.  That aspect of Second Son works splendidly, but the game’s responses to his decisions fall into the binary “good vs. evil” morality system that’s existed for decades, and it shows.

 Strike Vector EX

Arcade flight simulators have been in short supply on consoles over the past decade or so, to such a degree that the announcement that Crimson Skies — a game going back two generations — would become backwards compatible sent a legion of fans into euphoria. In swoops the like-minded Strike Vector, which sets its sights on crafting an experience that captures both the classic, fast-paced energy of arcade cabinet experiences from yesteryear with a science-fiction edge.  Toggling between first-person precision and third-person speed controls similarly to regular FPS games, Strike Vector accelerates through tight spaces for breakneck arena-style multiplayer combat, though a lack of additional content surrounding its well-executed, nostalgic premise might cause it to run out of gas for some.

Nordic Games

PS3

Truck Racer

In the Twisted Metal car-vs-car fighting franchise, there’s a semi-truck named Darkside that provides a unique experience when selected as the combatant in the game. Surrounded by fast speedsters and large clunky behemoths with specific powers, the semi’s blend of moderate acceleration, power, and control involved with balancing its wheels while hooking around corners offered a compelling, albeit underappreciated alternative in the arena battle design. That’s the same kind of appeal presented by Truck Racer, which essentially duplicates the same-old formula of track racing games with a pack of semis speeding and swerving along both dusty and stable roads. With a graphical interface and visual tone similar to Burnout Paradise, Truck Racer lets its concept speak for itself, capturing the destructive mayhem of the races in a simple, unrealistic, but lively package.

Handball 2016

The sport of handball fits somewhere between basketball and soccer, two games that, obviously, have been highly represented on consoles for decades now. Of course, while playing handball in person, there’s enough deviation in strategy and physicality to lead someone to pursue the sport as an interest; whether the same holds true for a videogame of said sport, which maintains popularity in countries outside the US, is another thing altogether. Handball 2016 gives it a whirl, though, replicating the sport’s maneuvers alongside dozens of real European teams and with play-by-play commentary.

Vertex Pop

PS Vita

We Are Doomed

If the folks at PixelJunk had decided to tackle the Asteroid-like twin-stick shooting arcade game, then it probably would’ve looked a whole lot like We Are Doomed.  Much like Geometry Wars, Vertex Pop’s creation boasts vibrant colors, unique geometric shapes, and a unique soundtrack, only the aesthetic they go for — blocky designs for transitions and explosions, more pastel and softer colors — lands on something categorically different. Unfortunately, the diversion in art design tends to be the only real distinguishing trait here, almost as if We Are Doomed functions more as a skin layered atop previous games than its own creation.

Hatoful Boyfriend

And finally, there’s Hatoful Boyfriend, which is also called … Pigeon Boyfriend.  It’s a dating sim visual novel that takes place in a school for pigeons, and, well, you can put two and two together in terms of what you’ll be doing in this oddity.

Semi Racing, Handball, and Pigeon Dating Comprise Infamous PS+ Games for September

Resident Evil. Yes, Sony is offering a number of other free games across all three platforms to PS+ subscribers in October, but it’s hard to shake the impact of that title’s appearance in the rundown for the month of Halloween. Part of the blame falls on the enduring influence that the franchise has had upon the survival-horror genre, but it’s also because of the somewhat nondescript nature of the rest of the titles made available this month. From a fast-paced beat-’em-up set in a popular ’80s franchise and to a vivid experience where you guide and preserve the fate of a prehistoric tribe, the overall batch of games for October have their bright spots beyond the HD remastering of an iconic title, but not enough to generate much enthusiasm for the month’s offerings as a whole.

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Capcom

PS4

Resident Evil

Other horror games did come before Resident Evil, but it’s hard to dispute that the original trek through a mansion in Raccoon City claims responsibility for the outbreak of the survival-horror genre. Since then, it has been remade and remastered several times, yet in the process hasn’t lost its spine-chilling potency or difficulty. What it’s gained in this latest HD version for current-gen consoles, however, can be found in the moody widescreen graphics, surround-sound atmosphere, and the option to flip off the frustrating tank controls while navigating through the mansion’s fixed angles. These improvements are incremental over the Gamecube’s revamped presentation from 13 years prior, yet one can chalk that up to Capcom’s diligence in respecting the original intentions from floor to ceiling. This is survival horror as it should be, focused on survival and genuinely horrific elements above run-and-gun zombie killin’.

Transformers: Devastation

Platinum Games has developed a reputation for creating fast-paced, chaotic experiences, whether they’re taking on new properties — like Bayonetta or Vanquish — or established franchises. Their taken on the Transformers universe, Devastation, brings together their love for anarchistic destruction with the scale of the iconic metal robots, with a similar kind of rapid fighting style to their other games driving the story through the streets of a cel-shaded New York. With a visual style reminiscent of the classic cartoons and a no-holds-barred approach to the battle mayhem, it speaks to both those with ’80s nostalgia and those who dig the current cinematic universe. Transformers: Devastation earned praise from critics and players alike for the strengths that Platinum Games have made their fans accustomed to for the better part of a decade.

Ubisoft Montpellier

PS3

From Dust

The term “power fantasy” frequently gets tossed around with video games, but the term very aptly applies to From Dust. Falling into the subgenre of “god games”, this title from Ubisoft Montpellier finds the player taking control of both terrain and terrestrials as The Breath, an ethereal entity with the fabric of nature and ancestral knowledge at its beckoning. The goal is to assist a tribe in the rediscovery of their ancestors, spurring their expansion across a primordial landscape of lava, water, and vegetation that’s altered by the player to help in their endeavors … and to shield the tribe from disaster. Beautiful visuals melt together with dazzling physical manipulation of the terrain to create a strategic, intuitive environmental puzzle game.

Mad Riders

Lighter and more arcade-inspired than its competitors, this budget off-road racing title from Techland and Ubisoft puts the player in the seat of a four-wheeler and sends them careening through nearly 50 of fast-paced, outlandish tracks. While gathering bonuses scattered along the pathways, the player races several other opponents while avoiding obstacles and performing stunts for extra boosts in experience. While brisk and beautiful within its cel-shaded presentation, both players and critics dinged Mad Riders for its iffy controls and responses to physics, along with a lack of innovation in its melting-pot approach to the off-roading genre. For a budget racer, however, it seems like it gets across the finish line well enough.

PS Vita

Code: Realize – Guardians of Rebirth

Sony continues their journey into free visual novels with Code: Realize – Guardians of Rebirth, often regarded as one of the better entries in the otome genre from developers Idea Factory and Otomate. Taking control of an isolated young woman named Cardia, whose body courses with poison that’s transmitted by touch, the story follows how she comes to be associated with Arsene Lupin, an antiheroic thief, and how the pair embark on a search for the girl’s father. Traditional dialogue choices have overarching impacts upon both the characters’ impressions of the main character and the plot’s trajectory throughout a vaguely steampunk-esque atmosphere, yielding an experience well-received by both critics and fans of the visual-novel niche.

Actual Sunlight

Brought to life through the Steam Greenlight initiative, Actual Sunlight first arrived on PC as an experience that shares many similarities with the visual novel genre. Alas, this one carries very gloomy, non-escapist subject matter — depression, futility, and suicide — that might keep some at arm’s length from its text-based ruminations. The folks at WZO Games urge those considering Actual Sunlight to ponder their individual perceptions of those upsetting topics, but both players and critics felt that it’s worth the time and energy to follow along with protagonist Evan Winter’s trials through the bleak rat race of life.

Chills, Tears, Spirits and Warring Robots in October’s PS+ Goodies

It’s hard not to feel nostalgic while looking at the roster of freebies available to PS+ subscribers for the month of August.  Familiarly-shaped blocks dropping on top of one another, ships zooming around  in the expanses of space, and energy blasts fired off at robots in a closed-off arena?  Sounds more like the cabinets in an arcade during the ’80s than a slate of new games released on the latest consoles. Save one heavy-hitter sequel in a semi open-world franchise, the offerings from PlayStation this time around are mostly small-scale, pick-up-and-play diversions.

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Double Damage Games

PS4

Rebel Galaxy

Rebel Galaxy welds together the thrills of classic space-warfare simulators, the choice-based flair of an RPG, and the general attitude of a space opera. Hot on the heels of No Man’s Sky, which also boasts lots of freedom in terms of planet-hopping combat and commerce, Double Damage Games strikes first with its fusion of ship-to-ship warfare, vessel customization, bartering and choice in where to travel throughout a randomly-generated environment. Some have taken issue with a few of the game’s drawbacks, namely the two-dimensional controls in combat and the grinding nature of its progression. That doesn’t seem to have slowed down the satisfaction that Rebel Galaxy offers folks longing for the return of this style of game, earning praise for its amusing writing, audiovisual delights, and capturing of the spirit of the space-pirate adventures from yesteryear.

Tricky Towers

Imagine trying to line up and fit together Tetris-style jigsaw pieces without walls on either side of the playing field to keep everything together. Then, flip the concept so that the objective is not to eliminate rows, but to pile up as many pieces together as possible while working against the push and pull of gravity and the pokiness of the pieces’ angles. Toss in competitive multiplayer, and that’s Tricky Towers. The brand-new puzzler from WeirdBeard games was released at the beginning of August for the PSN, so it still needs a bit of time to build a consensus on how the game stacks up to other tower-building or competitive puzzler games. While its influences are pretty plain to see, the vibrant style and fast pace of Tricky Towers have something going for it.

SEGA

PS3

Yakuza 5

After four successful entries, there’s little reason for SEGA to deviate from what’s previously worked so well in the Yakuza franchise. Instead of changing things up, Yakuza 5 merely expands its scope, incorporating five distinct fictionalized locations across Japan — all inspired by real cities — while allowing the player to control five different characters as it tells their stories.  Continuing the narrative from Yakuza 4 while focusing on a truce between clans that’s on the cusp of being broken, SEGA unites authentic open-world exploration with sharp hand-to-hand combat in its realistic take on gang warfare on the streets of Japan. Being that it was only released on the PS3 and considering its “competition” in The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, Yakuza 5 understandably fell somewhat under the radar in North America.  Now’s the time to give it the attention both critics and fans feel it earned.

Retro/Grade

It’s not uncommon to hear somebody talk about getting in the groove of an action or shooter game, but that’s literally what has to happen in Retro/Grade to keep propelling forward. The game essentially takes place in reverse, where a fighter pilot named Rick Rocket must follow the sequence of his shots during a massive battle with rival spacecraft to prevent a tearing in the space-time continuum. This occurs by way of rhythmic controls that play like a fusion of Guitar Hero and Gradius, where the player navigates the ship into the pathway of the blasts and moves away from inbound hostiles. Colorful visuals, a nifty soundtrack from Skyler McGlothlin (aka Nautilis), and a uniquely engrossing mood created by the controls and audiovisual tempo make for a totally different kind of rhythm game.

Puppy Games

PS Vita

Ultratron

Humanity has been wiped out by evil robots, and all that remains is a humanoid battledroid with one thing on its mechanical mind: vengeance.  If that sounds like something straight out of the ’80s, then the sights, sounds, and controls of Ultratron will do nothing but reinforce that. Dual-stick shooter controls akin to Geometry Wars — and many, many others from the old-school arcade era — collide with profoundly retro aesthetics in this indie from Puppy Games, with 40-plus vibrant levels to keep the legacy goodness going for quite a while. Whether the nostalgia will hold one’s interest throughout those levels likely depends on the player, but those who relish racking up high scores and fighting out of tight spaces will likely get a charge out of this one.

Patapon 3

For a while in the middle of the PSP’s popularity, the original Patapon was one of those most-play games for the handheld console.  The rhythm franchise that put the player in control of a tribe of black silhouettes, who journeyed forth to recover their land and discover true contentment, enjoyed success in two sequels that more or less duplicated the strengths of the original entry.  Patapon 3 finds the tribe nearing the end of their voyage, to which they’ve encountered many obstacles on the way to nirvana, illustrated against handsome graphical backgrounds and marching to the beat of a catchy drummer. Unfortunately, the notable presence of multiplayer and a lack of innovation within the premise prove to be obstacles that the final installment couldn’t conquer, leading to a positive yet unenthusiastic reception from both critics and longstanding fans of the little tribe.

August PS+ Offerings Dominated By Spaceships, Blocks, and Robots