PS4 Game Reviews
Review Trials Rising - Addictive Vehicular Platforming with Some Issues
The rise and fall
What do you do when you practically perfect a franchise on your first attempt? That’s the dilemma that Helsinki-based developer RedLynx has faced for some time now, with Trials HD taking the world by storm on Xbox 360. Ten years later, the Finnish firm is still making egregiously addictive vehicular platformers – but how does...
Review Steins;Gate Elite - The Greatest Visual Novel Just Got Even Better
El Psy Kongroo
What would you do if you had the ability to send text messages back in time? Maybe you’d send yourself the answers to a test at school, or maybe even the winning lottery numbers. If you knew what the future held then there are loads of little things you could do to improve your life. It all seems fairly harmless as well, right? But...
Review Far Cry: New Dawn - Yeah, It's Okay
Jesus take the wheel
It's a cliche, but Far Cry: New Dawn is the video game equivalent of popcorn. Bits of it taste great, but most of it is just there to be consumed, free of expectation. You shovel it into your mouth and admittedly it can be difficult to stop until the bag is empty, but you'll barely remember eating it once you've sat down and had...
Review Jump Force - What the Hell Did They Do to Goku?
Go ahead and jump
We've played some ugly anime games in our time, but there's a special place in art style hell for Jump Force. What should be a grand celebration of all things Jump, this crossover fighter is loathsome in its portrayal of the awesome manga and anime heroes that make up its character roster. Jump Force opts for a "realistic" visual...
Review Eden-Tomorrow - Lousy Gameplay Drags Down a Noteworthy Narrative
Just thinkin' about tomorrow
If it’s not an online focused multiplayer title, chances are the next PlayStation VR game you play is one that promises mystery, suspense, and intrigue as you explore a hostile alien world. They seem to be all the rage nowadays despite their questionable quality, and Eden-Tomorrow is no different. From developer Soul...
Review Metro: Exodus - Technical Limitations Subdue an Otherwise Solid Shooter
Rusty Russia
Metro: Exodus feels like it should be the series’ coming-out party. After two fairly niche releases on the previous generation of consoles, the third instalment is quite clearly positioning itself as the best post-apocalyptic experience from developer 4A Games yet. It’s a grand promise, but the finished product doesn’t manage to...
Review Conarium - An Atmospheric Lovecraftian Adventure
Spectacles, tentacles, wallet, and watch
Thrusting us tentacle first into the weird and wonderful world of H.P Lovecraft, Zoetrope Interactive has ported its Steam release, Conarium, to PlayStation 4. What might seem at first glance to be a first-person horror game filled with jump scares and hideously graphic gore, a la Outlast, is in fact a more...
Review The King’s Bird Review - Relaxing Indie Puzzler Never Quite Takes Flight
Failure to launch
Unshackled from the restraints of gravity, The King’s Bird follows the story of a young girl who takes to the skies, gliding effortlessly through vibrant 2D worlds while uncovering the history of her world. Fuelled by relatively simplistic gameplay, The King’s Bird involves moving fluidly between platforms and utilising the...
Review Away: Journey to the Unexpected - A JRPG-Roguelike Mashup With Serious Flaws
Going rogue
The roguelike genre has exploded in popularity in recent years with titles like Rogue Legacy acting as a shining example of what games in that style can be. One of the great things about Rogue Legacy is that you can tackle its four bosses in any order, allowing for enormous amounts of freedom. Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a game...
Review Spike Volleyball - Life's a Beach and Then You Cry
Will do, Spike
For an extremely popular genre, the budget distribution across sports games is somewhat out of whack. You’ve got FIFA at the top of the league, with Madden and NBA 2K not far behind – but not even popular sports like tennis can get appropriate funding these days, resulting in rubbish attempts like Tennis World Tour. You’d think...
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube152k Watch on YouTube Review God Eater 3 - Fast and Fun Action That's Rough Around the Edges
Kick ash
God Eater 3 presents a monster-slaying jaunt through a post-apocalyptic world absolutely stuffed with storytelling cliches and over-the-top combat. Between its predictable plot and horribly outdated visuals, it's easy to look at this latest instalment and chalk it up as just another throwaway action role-playing title for the anime crowd,...
Review Kingdom Hearts III - An Ending Worthy of the Wait
Believe in your hearts
For one group of devotees, Kingdom Hearts III is far and away the most important game of the generation. Announced all the way back at E3 2013, Square Enix’s latest Disney crossover attempts to conclude a story 17 years in the making, while also inviting newcomers along for the ride. The adventures of Sora, Donald Duck, and...
Review Hitman: The Complete First Season - An Exemplary Assassination Sandbox
Phwoar-ty seven
Republished on Wednesday 30th January 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Hitman: Blood Money is the golden standard for IO Interactive's stealth franchise; we can all agree with that. Hitman: The Complete First Season,...
Review For Honor - Medieval Brawler Comes Out Swinging
'Tis but a scratch
Republished on Wednesday 30th January 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. The back and forth of a mano-a-mano sword fight rarely gets encapsulated effectively in video game form, and even the likes of Nioh or Dark...
Review The Hong Kong Massacre - Hotline Miami's Chinese Knock-Off
Wrong number
We were ready to like The Hong Kong Massacre from Swedish indie studio Vreski, but unfortunately it disappoints at almost every turn. This top-down, twin-stick shooter is clearly inspired by the excellent Hotline Miami, a game with brutally fast action, instant restarts, and an addictive rhythm to its gameplay. This title has attempted...
Review Life Is Strange 2: Episode 2 - Rules Is Spirited But Slow
Smells like teen spirit
Life Is Strange 2 sure is living up to its name, with the direct sequel to DONTNOD’s surprise episodic smash bumbling under-the-radar like it doesn’t even exist. Since the release of the follow-up’s debut, Roads, popular developer Telltale Games has shut down, and the third instalment in The Walking Dead: The Final...
Review Resident Evil 2 - An Admirable Re-Imagining of the 1998 Classic
You've got Redfield on you
Attempting to remake what is considered one of the greatest video games of all time has to be both an incredibly exciting and intimidating prospect, but just over three years ago, that’s the exact promise Capcom made. Many consider Resident Evil 2 to be the pinnacle of survival horror after it capitalised on the...
Review A Fisherman's Tale - A Tale That's Short But Sweet
Who lives in a fish shanty over the sea?
Fishing in VR would be great, wouldn't it? While fishing video games have been around for decades, there’s a spirit to the sport that only VR could truly capture. Lounging around in a little wooden fishing boat and basking in nature while waiting for your next catch to nibble at your line would be made that...
Review Wandersong - A One-Note Adventure That Sings from the Heart
The little bard that could
A bard isn't the likeliest of heroes where saving the world is concerned, least of all one with such childlike optimism as the main character of Wandersong. In this side-scrolling adventure, you'll guide the nameless protagonist on his journey to stop a god from destroying the planet. Instead of searching for a weapon or...
Review Vane - Exploration Has Never Been Less Fun
You're so vane I'll bet you think this review is about you
We were something like six hours into Vane when we glanced down at our phone to see what time it was, and realised that we'd only been playing the game for forty-two minutes. How was this even possible? It was like when Matthew McConaughey visited Dr. Miller's Planet in Interstellar: a world...
Review Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown - Explosive In-Flight Entertainment
Aced it
It's been a while since we last made a trip to Strangereal on PlayStation. The Ace Combat series has a long and relatively complicated history of releases scattered across a wide range of formats, resulting in a somewhat fragmented state. Fans largely agree, however, that the PlayStation 2 entries - 4, 5, and Zero - are the collective high...
Review Smoke and Sacrifice - Dark and Rueful Survival RPG
Captivating amid chaos
Solar Sail Games steps forward with a new open-world action RPG called Smoke and Sacrifice. Dark and repentant but aesthetically pleasing, Smoke and Sacrifice is more than just a survival game. In fact, it’s a story about the unabridged love of a mother and her child. As bleak as it may be, this world captivates you like no...
Unfair in love
Adding another several hours of content and continuing the story that started in Episode 1, Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Legacy of the First Blade - Episode 2: Shadow Heritage (good lord!) is a solid follow-up. New quests, a new ability, and a couple of new legendary weapons await, but once again, don't go into this DLC expecting any...
Review YIIK: A Postmodern RPG - Party Like It's 1999
Let's all meet up in the year 2000
The '90s. It was a wonderful time to be alive. An era before TOWIE, before PewDiePie, and before Ed Sheeran. Sheffield United were in the Premier League (briefly). We had it all. Pulp Fiction at the cinema, Oasis and Blur being horrible to each other every day, Curly Wurly's were like twice the size. It was...
Review Onimusha: Warlords - A Welcome Remaster That Doesn't Get It All Right
Blast from the past
Whenever someone raises the question of which dormant game franchises need to be resurrected from the dead, it’s never too long before Capcom’s PlayStation 2-centric Onimusha series comes back as an answer. The tales of a Japan overrun by the supernatural failed to put in an appearance anywhere outside of the sixth generation...
Review Megalith - A Run-of-the-Mill PSVR MOBA
Mega death
Virtual reality has a way of breathing new life into established genres by dropping you into the protagonist’s shoes or by transporting you into the game’s world. This has been the case for a variety of games that have found extensive success on the PlayStation VR platform, and Disruptive Games is trying to replicate that success with...
Review Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition - Still One of the Very Best Tales Games
The star still shines
When the topic of classic Japanese role-playing games is brought up, people tend to focus on a set few titles. Final Fantasy VII will forever be etched into the history of the genre for obvious reasons -- as is the case with several other entries in Square Enix's beloved series -- and most would probably give nods to properties...
Review Portal Knights - Likeable Minecraft-Esque Action RPG
Knight and day
It's no surprise that a global phenomenon like Minecraft has inspired countless other games in a similar style. Portal Knights is another title that borrows Minecraft's blocky art style and crafting system, but it manages to put a fresh spin on many things and in some ways outdoes those that have come before it. The most obvious way...
Review Steep - Chill Open World Winter Sports
Peak performer
Extreme sports of the wintry variety clearly aren't for the faint-hearted, and anyone that partakes in snowy slopes that have more in common with the vertical than the horizontal need their head examined. Not only is it dangerous but it also happens to be bloody expensive to boot, which means that most of us will only ever be exposed...
Review Kingdom Two Crowns - Enjoyably Minimalist Strategy
Regal action
Strategy games can be rather intimidating. Generally speaking, they're difficult by design, forcing you to think several steps ahead, and make decisions more carefully than you would in other genres. Occasionally you'll come across a strategy title that's a little easier to get into, and the Kingdom games are certainly in that ballpark...
