PS5 Game Reviews
Mini Review PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack (PS5) - Another Chill Crisis Chore
Clean up Shinra's dirty deeds
Now that PowerWash Simulator is out on basically everything, we're starting to get some really interesting DLC. With Square Enix Collective publishing the game, we've seen a pair of exciting crossovers so far. The first was with Tomb Raider, in which you wash the exterior of Lara's massive mansion. Next up is this, the...
Review The Legend of Dragoon (PS1) - A Flawed But Charismatic Classic
The legend lives on
For many, the PS1 was defined by the global recognition of Japanese role-playing games. Final Fantasy VII obviously led the charge in this regard, but it was flanked by now legendary properties like Breath of Fire, Wild Arms, and Suikoden. It's easy to see the impact that the JRPG boom had on the gaming landscape of the late 90s...
Mini Review Tetris Effect (PSVR2) - Stunning Puzzler Now Looks Better Than Ever
Memory blocks
Back when Tetris Effect launched on PS4, it was with full support for the original PSVR. At the time, we thought it was glorious, but realistically, the hardware's limitations meant the picture was never super clear. The spectacle of this flashy take on the familiar falling block puzzle game wasn't lost on us, though, and it remains a...
Review Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (PS5) - Excellent Action RPG a Must Play for Masochists
The stuff Wuxia dreams are made of
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty raises the bar for Soulslike combat to such an extent it deserves to break free from that descriptor entirely in favour of something new. It provides deeply intricate combat and an exhilarating arcade alternative to FromSoftware's more contemplative formula. A game like Elden Ring seeks to...
Mini Review Altair Breaker (PSVR2) - Unfinished Online-Only Sword Fighter Doesn't Cut It
Altair Broken, more like
Altair Breaker is a multiplayer sword-fighting game from Swords of Gargantua developer, Thirdverse. It's set on the floating island of Vastus Isle, once a magical workshop but now turned to ruins by LAWS (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems). As a sword-fighter, you're tasked with helping Stella, a humanoid AI, in clearing the...
Mini Review Drums Rock (PSVR2) – A Pretty Fun, but Uneven Experience
A snare drum in the plan
Ever wanted to play the drums, but never had the musical inclination? Developer Garage51 has you covered, providing a virtual space to prove that you’ve got the beat. The presentation of the game, while not bad, is familiar territory. Lots of demonic and cartoonish imagery abound, giving the title a Guitar Hero aesthetic...
Review Battlefield 2042 (PS5) - Maybe One for the Future
Nostalgia trick
Republished on Wednesday, 1st March, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of March 2023's PS Plus line up. The original text follows. The games industry stops for no one, and just one week after Call of Duty: Vanguard was put out by Activision, Battlefield 2042 is here to try and eat its...
Mini Review Zenith: The Last City (PSVR2) - VR MMO Is Heavy on Content, Light on Entertainment
Massively middling
Zenith: The Last City is the closest thing we’ve got to a fully-fledged MMO in virtual reality to this point. It checks a lot of the RPG boxes with dungeons to run, raids to complete, gear to grind, and sizable expanses to explore. While it’s undeniably impressive as a proof-of-concept, Zenith is an otherwise painfully average...
Review Scars Above (PS5) - Ambitious Sci-Fi Adventure Fails to Launch
Less isn't always more
With an intriguing set-up, likeable lead, and aspirations of grandeur, Scars Above is a sci-fi adventure game that we really wanted to like. Unfortunately, the experience is held back by lacklustre combat, abysmal map design, and a central narrative that ultimately fails to launch. After a mysterious alien artefact known as...
Mini Review Startenders (PSVR2) - A Delightful Extra-Terrestrial Bartending Experience
Just the usual, please
In Startenders you take on the role of a mundane office worker who has accidentally been abducted and forced into working shifts at the Startenders Bartending Academy. This involves you serving weird yet wonderful concoctions to even stranger beings from galaxies far, far away. It all sounds simple enough, however with a wide...
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube150k Watch on YouTube Mini Review Kayak VR: Mirage (PSVR2) - An Immersive Yet Thin Experience
Paddle away the stresses of the day
A throwback to the early PSVR tech demos, Kayak VR: Mirage is one of those games you just need to try out on PSVR2. The premise is pretty simple: you're dumped on a kayak and will use the PSVR2 Sense controllers to explore varied exotic locations. That's really all there is to it, but its kind of the point...
Mini Review Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder (PSVR2) - A Rock Solid Cave Digging Roguelike
We can dig it
Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder doesn’t beat around the bush much, so we won’t either. It’s a surprisingly solid cave spelunking roguelike. It’s not here to dazzle with unprecedented visual splendour or novel new gameplay ideas. It just provides some good old-fashioned gunslinging and money hoarding fun. Being a roguelike, Cave...
Mini Review Thumper (PSVR2) - A Return to the Music Visualiser from Hell
Things that go Thump in the night
Thumper was a highlight of PSVR's launch lineup back in 2016 — check out our review through the link to learn why. It's a relentless, frantic rhythm title that has you racing through space, matching actions to the beat of the heavy soundtrack. The game is just as excellent this time around, if not better. While...
Mini Review RUNNER (PSVR2) - Akira Inspired Arcade Shooter Will Put You Through the Wringer
Too wild for you to handle
Iconic 80s anime Akira serves as the inspiration for RUNNER, a breakneck sci-fi arcade shooter which arguably tries to do too much. As a smuggler in an aggressively hostile world, you must outrun robo-cops through seven dynamically generated stages, dual-wielding pistols while you issue a little justice all of your own...
Mini Review Tentacular (PSVR2) - Physics Puzzler May (Ten)tickle Your Fancy
Release the Kraken
Tentacular is a physics-based puzzler where you take control of a tentacled monster who's raised by the townsfolk of La Kalma, a small village in the middle of the ocean. You're on a journey of self-discovery, trying to find out how you came to be and where you belong. Using your long sucker-laden limbs to manipulate objects, you...
Review Song in the Smoke: Rekindled (PSVR2) - VR's Best Survival Sim Is Even Better with PSVR2
Smoke on the water
Now virtual reality has been around the block a bit and begun to age out of its awkward teenage years, the technology has gotten a deluge of games in a small morsel of genres. First-person shooters, puzzlers, and rhythm games have proliferated — undoubtedly due to how intuitively and painlessly they make the transition to the...
Mini Review Demeo (PSVR2) - Dungeons and Dragons Experience Is One Roll Away from Perfection
Critical hit
Demeo is a one-to-four player tabletop turn-based dungeon crawler that can be played on both the PS5 and in PSVR2, the latter being significantly better. You choose your role from a possible seven classes (Guardian, Warlock, Sorcerer, Assassin, Hunter, Barbarian and Bard) and must traverse three floors, using card abilities and rolling...
Mini Review Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator (PS5) - Fun But Not Quite Masterchef
You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties
You'd think given the countless hours we've spent watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares that we'd have picked up a thing or two about running a successful restaurant. Alas, it seems the only thing we've picked up is his proclivity for foul-mouthed tirades, which we discovered a mere couple of...
Mini Review 2MD: VR Football Unleashed All-Star (PSVR2) - Revamped Arcade Football Doesn't Fumble
Hail Mary
Who wouldn’t want to be an NFL quarterback? The fame, the adulation, the roughing the passer penalty flags – it’s the thing dreams are made of! 2MD: VR Football Unleashed All-Star is an upgraded version of Truant Pixel’s arcade-inspired two-minute drill simulator, and it’s come a long way since we reviewed it on Sony’s original...
Damn and blaster
As the classic commentator’s cliché goes, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge - Enhanced Edition is a game of two halves. Originally released for the Meta Quest 2, this intergalactic virtual reality adventure bundles up the original campaign and its superior Last Call expansion. The result is a wildly inconsistent affair,...
Review Atomic Heart (PS5) - Alt History Shooter with an Identity Crisis
SovietShock
An alternate history set in the wake of World War II. A technological utopia hiding terrible secrets. A square-jawed, bloodthirsty protagonist. Mick Gordon spewing fire from the speakers. You'd be forgiven for thinking Bethesda just stealth-dropped another Wolfenstein. Alas, this isn't a new adventure for the Blazkowicz family, but it...
Review Like a Dragon: Ishin! (PS5) - One of the Most Intense and Intricate Yakuza Games Yet
Blast from the past
It's finally here! It's been almost a decade since Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! released exclusively in Japan on PS3 and PS4, with Western fans begging for a localisation effort all the while. But back then, the Yak--, er, Like a Dragon series was nowhere near as popular as it is now, and so here we are with SEGA greenlighting a...
Review Octopath Traveler II (PS5) - An Immaculate RPG with Brilliantly Realised Characters
Eight times the fun
Square Enix’s 2018 hit Octopath Traveler sold over 3 million copies worldwide, but never made it to PlayStation. Now, the series heads to PS5 and PS4 for the first time with Octopath Traveler II. Still with the striking HD-2D graphics of the first game, the sequel takes what its predecessor did and builds on it, creating a...
Review Wild Hearts (PS5) - A Fast-Paced, Thrilling Alternative to Monster Hunter
Domo arigato Mr. Kemono
Let's get the boring paperwork out of the way quickly. Yes, Wild Hearts is a lot like Monster Hunter: World. The similarities are plain to see, both structurally and conceptually. However, far from being a Monster Hunter clone, thanks to mostly fantastic creature design and splendid, fast-paced combat with an emphasis on ad...
Review Horizon Call of the Mountain (PSVR2) - Pretty Platformer Reaches New Heights
Just don't look down
Ever wondered why Aloy has abs so rippled they’d make a Greek statue blush? It turns out surviving the tribal world of Horizon is tough – as PSVR2 launch title Call of the Mountain can attest. This next-gen virtual reality effort from The Persistence developer Firesprite and famed first-party Guerrilla Games is unflinchingly...
Review Scarlet Nexus (PS5) - 'Brain Punk' RPG Gets a Lot Right, But Ends Up Feeling Stunted
Seeing red
Republished on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus Extra and Premium lineup. The original text follows. Scarlet Nexus is quite a unique action RPG set in a world where the human brain has evolved. Most people are hooked up to a kind of...
Review Outriders (PS5) - Great Combat? That's a People Can Fly Game
Ridin' dirty
Republished on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus Extra and Premium lineup. The original text follows. You know what? Outriders is pretty good. Torn apart during
Review The Quarry (PS5) - Maybe Until Dawn Was Just a Fluke
One foot in the grave
Republished on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus Extra and Premium lineup. The original text follows. Whether it likes it or not, Supermassive Games will always have its titles compared to Until Dawn. The British developer...
Review Horizon Forbidden West (PS5) - Aloy Returns in Superior PS5 Sequel
Red Head Redemption 2
Republished on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2023's PS Plus Extra and Premium lineup. The original text follows. With Horizon Zero Dawn, Guerrilla Games set the bar very high for itself. Its first attempt at an open world action RPG...
Review Wanted: Dead (PS5) - A Fascinating Mess of an Action Game
Dead, but not buried
Jeez, where do we even begin with Wanted: Dead? It feels like an action game from another age, harkening back to the many lower budget, madcap brawlers that found cult acclaim on the PS2 and PS3. It's also an extremely janky release, absolutely packed with dodgy character models, borderline unreadable combat animations, and...
