This is purely for fun. I haven't played any of these titles for more than 4-5 hours as of yet, but within the last month or so a wave of new next-gen games (technically?) have arrived. The only one not on the list that I have is Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, which is a different bag of cats I am saving for a rainy day. The rest, in no particular order, are all quite similar to one another to certain degrees: each deals with exotic fantasy or science-fantasy settings, you control a protagonist, there's an emphasis on melee combat, and to various degrees you do exploration, either in a directed dungeon delve style or open-world (or both). So....now that we're finally getting some new next gen games on PS5, how do they hold up on the first few hours' playthrough?
Horizon: Forbidden West
I'll get the easiest one out of the way first. If you played and finished (and enjoyed) the original Horizon: Zero Dawn this is a no-brainer, as its a direct sequel to the first game, picking up with Aloy's story a few months after the battle at Meridian. It's proving to be more of the same so far, with a few new refinements and quirks, and I am quite liking it. Horizon has usurped the Fallout and Metro franchises as my favorite post-apocalyptic setting. The game has difficulty scaling, and while I play it on the default normal settings, it's nice that it lets people seek a harder (or easier, story focused) challenge, since a nontrivial portion of H:FW is centered on story and discovery anyway.
About the only negative I can suggest is that the new game has big shoes to fill, and since the first game focused on a story that tied into revealing how the post-apocalyptic world came to be, this one is now more focused on how Aloy can try to fix things, with a fairly clever take on why things need fixing.
Either way, this is the title I will be playing the most in coming weeks/months.
Elden Ring
Despite discovering this From Software title is part of the Dark Souls line, enough reviewers convinced me that this was a bit more transcendent with its focus on open world exploration that I decided to give it a try. So far I am not disappointed; the key reason being the major irritations I had with the Dark Souls style have lots of little, sometimes very subtle but very important quality of life fixes, and the game managed to do the Souls thing while also being more accessible as a result. Still....don't take my word for it, try a copy from a friend or see if there's a demo somewhere before assuming anything, especially if you hated the Dark Souls games (which I most definitely do, for so many reasons). Elden Ring is not making me want to smash the TV at all, and despite there being plenty of horrid boss monsters wandering around, all thanks to some clever changes in core design mixed with a fluid open world experience filled with interesting things to discover.
Babylon's Fall
One of two Square-Enix games released recently, this title reminds me most of the old PSP era dungeon crawlers with a focus on party and gear management, but now with way too much games as a service content, including an entirely unnecessary season pass and storefront model. In playing so far after several hours I noticed the following, to contrast with reviewers who have trashed the titled for various reasons:
The graphics are not exemplary of next-gen consoles. The "artistic painting style" some people mention exists and is interesting, but is not the reason people are annoyed with the graphical look; I find it fine, but I am perplexed as to why the developers thought this style would go over well with a crowd looking for a next-gen appearance.
The play mechanics are solid, but you need to get a bit in to the game to realize this. Once you start leveling, swapping up for better gear, the dungeons (well, cooridor/crosswalk crawls) start getting a lot more interesting. But this game has done something I haven't seen in a long time: at one point I realized I was pushing down five buttons on the controller almost all at once, I needed essentially my entire hand engaged with the button scheme to get it to work right. I pulled it off, but let me tell ya', if I leave this one alone for a few weeks before picking it up again I'll probably forget all the nuanced commands and their relationships again. BF would be better suited to have a simpler control scheme.
Finally, while I'm enjoying the story (what story there is), it's a weird mish-mash of medieval, Roman and victorian era thematics, smashed together and stuck in front of a cypher for the legendary Tower of Babel. Or something. Um, don't play this for the story, is what I am saying.
I like playing it, but I suggest for everyone else to wait for it to go on sale if a weird dungeon crawler style experience with tacked on games as service elements sounds intriguing to you.
Final Fantasy Origins: Strangers of Paradise
Okay, I've only spent two hours with this one, but it's definitely got a Final Fantasy vibe with it. The game is pure ARPG action and combat, with story moments jammed in via CGI, at least so far. This is also, curiously, a dungeon crawler so two for two with Square-Enix here. Unlike Babylon's Fall, this one has you working as a team in the single player mode (rather than solo), and maybe you can do multiplayer, I haven't tested that out yet.
The dudes on your team at the start grunt a lot. There's a story but they are just here to chew gum and kick chaos's ass, and they will trade up for the silliest looking loot as long as they get better gear stats to do it. The play mechanic feels solid, and has some of its own nuance, in a manner which I felt was both less predictable (so more frustrating) but also a bit more fun than the way Babylon's Fall does it.
Beyond that....jury is still out, here. But I definitely want to keep playing and see where it all goes, but honestly I haven't got as good a feel for this as Babylon's Fall yet. I do wonder why Square-Enix chose to release two games in the same genre/style so close to one another. It forces comparisons, and neither game seems to come out looking as good as if Square-Enix had consolidated resources and made a single, better example of this genre instead.
So, if its not obvious, I am suggesting Horizon: Forbidden West is the best new release on PS5, and well worth it so long as you finished the first one (and if you haven't go do that first then pick this one up). Elden Ring is fascinating, and I wonder how long I can play it before the souls elements get to me. Both FF Origins and Babylon's Fall are weird ducks and you should get into them if you like weird, experimental Japanese dungeon crawl games, but if you had to pick one....um....check back later, I am still undecided on which one I actually think is more satisfying (or less irritating).
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