PS4 Game Reviews
All-in-one
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is a difficult game to review. Sometimes it's great fun, sometimes it's an incredibly banal but weirdly addictive grind. Other times it's a buggy mess. Our enjoyment of Breakpoint has fluctuated so much over the review period that we had to sit down and carefully consider whether we actually think it's worth...
Review Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - A Great Example of Less Is More
Going batty
Yooka-Laylee was born out of a desire to return to the 3D mascot platformers of the mid-nineties. The initial game by Playtonic, a studio that has several ex-Rare staffers in its ranks, found a degree of success in this mission statement, but it didn't quite measure up to expectations. It's a cutesy, colourful collect-a-thon with nice...
Review Castle Crashers Remastered - This Zany Brawler Is Chaotic, Ridiculous Fun on PS4
Cartoon violence
Castle Crashers Remastered is a pretty straightforward update to the cult hit beat 'em up, but that doesn't mean it's any less fun. The PlayStation 4 re-release has been refreshed with higher resolution visuals and a rock solid, 60 frames per second performance, but it's otherwise the same cartoonish brawler you know and love, warts...
Review Tropico 6 - Dictator Simulator Brings The Goods
It's-a me, Tropico
Tropico 6 is a political strategy game that puts you in control of a tropical island nation, and asks you to maintain power by any and all means necessary. Assassinations, bribes, rigged elections - it's pretty much a Kim Jong-il simulator, only with an irritating-at-first-but-you'll-be-humming-it-later mambo soundtrack. Perhaps...
Review FIFA 20 - Seriously Shoddy Career Mode Almost Results in an Own Goal
Wide of the post
FIFA 20 has three core modes of play: Ultimate Team, Career Mode, and the all-new Volta. However, only one of these modes stands strong as a rock solid time sink -- care to guess which one? If you said anything but Ultimate Team, then you haven't been paying attention. Once again, EA Sports bolsters the mode that makes FIFA one of...
Review Sayonara Wild Hearts - An Emotional Journey Inside a Neon-Filled Music Video
Sayonara bye bye
If you’ve ever been watching a music video, and thought “wow, listening to this is cool, but I wish I could play it,” look no further. A literal emotional journey that takes you through the highs and lows of falling in and out of love, Sayonara Wild Hearts is a vibrant and creative rhythm game. Using tarot cards as a framework...
Review Contra: Rogue Corps - Bargain Bin Isometric Shooter That's Easy to Forget
Corps, blimey
Contra – or the infinitely more extravagant Probotector, as it was originally known in some European territories – is a revered name in video game fame; Contra: Rogue Corps, the franchise’s first non-pachislot outing in almost a decade, does not live up to the property’s illustrious legacy. This artistically inconsistent...
Review MLB The Show 19 - Sony's Flagship Sports Series Keeps Getting Better
The Bryce is right
Republished on Tuesday 24th September 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. With no competition and an unexciting elevator pitch [Poor pun intended – Ed], we were ready to pinch hit on MLB The Show 19 until next...
Review The Last of Us Remastered - Naughty Dog's Masterpiece Is Even Better on PS4
About a girl
Republished on Tuesday 24th September 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Success comes with scepticism. From the second that first-party outfit Naughty Dog’s survival horror experiment The Last of Us was compared...
Review The Surge 2 - Great Combat, Genius Ideas, and One Too Many Issues
Walls of Jericho
Developer Deck 13 is so, so close to putting out a good video game. After failing to capitalize on the clear potential of The Surge, the studio is back with a sequel that is bigger and better in almost every way, but it continues to slightly miss the mark in one too many key areas. The Surge 2 will satisfy those looking for their...
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube152k Watch on YouTube Review Mutazione - A Human Story Told by a Cast of Mutants
Dramatic reading
"Mutant soap opera" is an odd phrase to describe an adventure game, but it does a good job of summing up Mutazione. You play as a young girl named Kai who travels to the titular island to help her grandfather, who has fallen gravely ill. However, once you arrive in the sleepy setting, it's not long before you're introduced to each...
Review Utawarerumono: Zan - A Hack and Slash Retelling That Feels a Little Flat
Fan service
It's not often that we see games get remade in an entirely different genre, but that's essentially what Utawarerumono: Zan is. The Utawarerumono (you better believe we have that name copied and ready to paste) series typically focuses on strategic, turn based and grid based combat, but with Zan, Utawarerumono steps into unfamiliar action...
Review The Sojourn - This First Person Puzzler Is No Walk in the Park
Taking a scroll
The Sojourn seems to have emerged from nowhere, but it's a pleasant surprise. It's a tranquil first person puzzle game that appears to be inspired by The Witness, with a similar art style and attitude to its storytelling. In practice, this puzzler has more in common with Portal; both are about reaching the end goal by cleverly...
Review Yakuza 3 Remastered - Rough Around the Edges, But Still a Great Yakuza Game
Return of the Dragon
Yakuza 3's infamously slow start sees series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu enjoying a relatively quiet life managing an orphanage on the sunny shoreline of Okinawa -- but it's not long before our hero is dragged into yet another dramatic feud between yakuza clans. Yakuza 3 was an ambitious jump forward for the franchise back in 2009,...
Review Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son - Time-Looping Puzzler Can't Live Up to the Iconic Movie
Phil Connors simulator
In Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, a virtual reality sorta-sequel to the classic movie, you play as Phil Connors Jr. -- the cocksure son of Bill Murray's character and social media influencer on the rise. He's back in Punxsutawney to see his family and celebrate the unveiling of a statue in his father's honour. It's meant...
Review Bus Simulator - Public Transport Shouldn't Be This Much Fun
On the buses
The simulator sub-genre has become something of a joke, and Bus Simulator seems to recognise that it’s part of the punchline. This cunningly self-aware public transport affair from StillAlive Studios straddles the line between silly and serious, blending arcade action with obsessive attention to detail. It plays a little bit like if...
Review eFootball PES 2020 - Same Shirt, Different Name
If it ain't broke, don't match-fix it
Just when you thought PES was getting old and stale, it gets a new name. That’s right, for a franchise that began as International Superstar Soccer, changed to Pro Evolution Soccer, and sporadically adopted and rejected the name of Winning Eleven, Konami has decided 2020 will mark the new era of eFootball PES...
Review Rebel Cops - Intense Turn-Based Tactical Response
Police brutality
Rebel Cops is what would happen if you crossed Lethal Weapon with XCOM. It’s a hard-boiled cop drama that plays out in isometric, turn-based confrontations between the criminal underworld and the only cops in the town of Ripton that haven’t yet been bought off or slaughtered. Set in the nineties, you’ll foil bank robberies,...
Review AI: The Somnium Files - Top Notch Visual Novel Tainted By Flawed Puzzle Solving
Dream machine
What a weird and wild ride AI: The Somnium Files is. At its heart this is a detective thriller styled as a visual novel, but that basic description sells this consistently bonkers title very, very short. The characters, their interactions with one another, and the world around them are all over the top and comical to some degree, yet...
Review Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered - Level-5’s Masterpiece Is Tidier Than Ever
A whole ‘nother world. Beautiful, en’t it?
Oh, how we could fling superlatives to describe how utterly wonderful Ni no Kuni is. Forgive us, then, for choosing the word tidy. Yes, tidy is the right word to open our review of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered. Not just because this is clearly the tidiest edition of the game so far,...
Review Headspun - A Buggy FMV Adventure with a Decent Story and Little Else
Inside nout
The brain is a complex thing; vast, mysterious, and packed full of drones in ties controlling our thoughts. Or, so says Headspun, a disappointing FMV/management hybrid that has you rebuilding the functions of a man’s mind following an accident. It’s a neat concept, but one marred by glitches, outdated mini-games, and irritatingly...
Review Agatha Knife - A Sweet Natured and Deeply Disturbing Adventure
All the little animals
Agatha is a little girl who loves animals. She also likes to kill them, because stocking her mother’s struggling butcher shop makes her happy. She hates that her furry friends look sad when they face their end. Agatha tries to quell her sadness and insomnia by creating a religion in the hopes of revitalising her mother’s...
Review Smoots Summer Games - Daley Thompson's Decathlon Is Better
Run away
Tokyo 2020 is about a year away and the popsicle section in your local supermarket has likely been scaled back, but that ain’t stopping Smoots Summer Games from bringing some sunshine to the decathlon post season. This ugly sports game looks like it’s stepped straight off a smartphone and into the stadium, but it’s aiming to make you...
Review Blasphemous - An Unholy and Triumphant Metroidvania
King of the castle
Perhaps ‘Dark Souls-vania’ is a bit of an overstatement, but there’s no denying the plethora of influences, both modern and contemporary, in this gorgeously sacrilegious metroidvania. Blasphemous is dripping in grim atmosphere and stuffed full of macabre religious iconography, bloody combat, and enough lore to fill the Old...
Review Metro Exodus: The Two Colonels - Satisfactory Action Down Under
Sound of the underground
After pitching itself as the series' big, breakout, open-world moment, it's almost comical that the first piece of downloadable content for Metro: Exodus immediately returns to what it was originally known for. The Two Colonels is a short, linear, claustrophobic experience that's not much more than serviceable in any...
Review The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors - A PS4 Remake of a Classic Beat-'Em-Up
Tengo's game works
Developed by NatsumeAtari's Tengo Project team, The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is a remake of a 1994 SNES beat-'em-up, The Ninja Warriors Again, which in itself felt like a mixture of sequel and remake of TAITO's 1987 The Ninja Warriors arcade game. With gameplay that expands upon the template set by the likes of
Review Risk of Rain 2 - Frantically Challenging Action Makes for Compelling Co-Op
Heavy loot showers expected
Risk of Rain 2 might just be one of the PlayStation 4’s most addictive co-op experiences. Crash-landing on a hostile planet littered with sparsely detailed but highly stylised landmarks and architecture, you and your team must survive using weapons and abilities that are in constant flux as you slot in more and more...
Review River City Girls - Retro Brawling With a Twist
Girls about town
Dishing out knuckle sandwiches as either Kyoko or Misako in couch co-op brawler River City Girls is immediately fun, with the combat comparing favourable to the genre favourites of yesteryear. As tends to be the case with this sort of title however, fighting the ever growing hordes of enemies on your quest to rescue the duo’s...
Review Monster Hunter World: Iceborne - A Truly Monstrous Expansion that Destroys Expectations
Beastly
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is an expansion that just keeps on giving. We've sunk close to 100 hours into Iceborne and it feels like we're still discovering something new every time we boot it up. Capcom has gone above and beyond with this one, transforming an already amazing action role-playing game into something truly special. This is...
Review Torchlight II - Diablo's One True Contender Finally Comes to PS4
Killin', lootin', and feedin' your dog
Back in 2009, developer Runic Games gave the dungeon crawler a spark of new life in the form of Torchlight -- A colourful action-RPG, both fun and satisfying to play. It was a finely tuned example of the genre, no doubt because of a creative team that consisted of ex-Diablo 2 devs. A sequel came in 2012,...
