While Sony has been somewhat tight-lipped on the details surrounding its successor to the wildly popular PlayStation 4, they put almost all their cards on the table today during a live stream event showcasing not just the upcoming console’s unique look, but the library you can expect to start playing on the console when it launches this fall and beyond. While nothing shown was shocking in any real way, apart from maybe one title, we still got a decent look at Horizon 2: Forbidden West, as well as the much-rumored Demon’s Souls remaster by BluePoint Games. But let’s take a look at what was officially announced and feel free to click on the name of the game to check out their own trailer for a more detailed look at gameplay and their reveal.
Given the popularity of several franchises that have come to the PlayStation brand, it’s no surprise to see that Grand Theft Auto 5 will hit the PlayStation 5 in 2021. The game also hits PlayStation 4 free with PlayStation Plus later today for those that have the service. PS4 gamers will also get $1 million in GTA cash each month leading up to the release of the “Expanded and Enhanced” version that launches sometimes in 2021.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Insomniac showed off a pair of titles today with a spin-off to their highly successful Spider-Man game, as well as a new Ratchet and Clank title, both of which are coming to the PlayStation 5. For Spider-Man: Miles Morales, this spin-off focuses on Miles Morales, so it’s unclear if this is a full game or a prologue tease for the next major installment. We saw Miles use some of his unique abilities, such as his venom blast, as well as some new weather effects that were not present in the previous title. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, sees the duo entering into dimensional rifts that transport the heroes to new worlds in an instant. It’s a shame the quality of the stream wasn’t terribly impressive, but the game packs all the action you expect from the franchise.
Sony then showed off a few PlayStation staples in Gran Turismo 7, which is destined to be a visual powerhouse for the console, as well as dipping back into both Little Big Planet with a co-op adventure game in Sackboy: A Big Adventure, as well as the return of the charming Astro bot in Astro’s Playroom, which has some of the same platforming vibes as the newly announced Sackboy game.
Project Athia
We then saw some gameplay clips of a new Square Enix game in Project Athia, an adventure game made by the Final Fantasy 15 team. Not much is known about the title other than it has you playing as a woman battling large mystical creatures in gorgeous environments. The title also appears to be exclusive to the PlayStation 5. Another title shown off was Returnal, a third-person shooter game where you’ll slowly go insane upon each death, as your character is trapped in an endless loop of horror and intrigue. Developer, Lucid, then showed off their online multiplayer game in Destruction Allstars, which seems like a combination of Destruction Derby meets Sunset Overdrive.
A few more games by a few small studios continued as we got Stray, a game about a cat living in a robot-filled world, a remarkably impressive adventure game in Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which has a Pikmin meets Ori sort of charm, and a hand-drawn high school game called Goodbye Volcano High by developer, Ko_Op. Oddworld Inhabitants is also back with a new game starring Abe in Oddworld: Soulstorm, and we finally got a look at gameplay for Shinji Mikami’s Ghostwire: Tokyo, which frankly, I was expecting the game to be more impressive than what was shown. Developer Superbrothers then showed off Jett: The Far Shore, which had a No Man’s Sky vibe to it, despite it being unclear if anything that was shown was the actual gameplay.
Godfall
Gearbox finally showed off gameplay for their upcoming Godfall, which looks fun, but somewhat generic at the same time. The quality of the video feed didn’t really do the game justice, but I expect more impressive footage to be shown off as we get closer to the game’s launch. The creator of Hyper Light Drifter is back with Soul Ash, a game that feels like a combination of HLD and Journey. IOI showed off the trailer for Hitman III, which will release next January. Developer, Neostream’s Kickstarter game, Little Devil Inside was also shown off to a pretty enjoyably trailer, showcasing a lot of gameplay from the title. We also got a look at some NBA 2K21 gameplay of a single player on a closed court, and surprisingly no microtransactions were shown off in the trailer. Shocking.
Bugsnax, a game by the creator of Octodad was shown off, showing a mixed food combination of creatures as they explore a cartoonish world. We also finally got to see BluePoint’s secret project, a fully remade from the ground up version of Demon’s Souls, which is likely to be many player’s most anticipated release coming to the next-gen console. Arkane Studios then showed off more gameplay footage of Deathloop, a game that plays a bit like Dishonored, but see’s you playing off against a rival assassin as you try to break the loop of death as you hunt down 8 different targets.
Resident Evil VIII
We then saw a pair of Capcom games in Pragmata, a bizarre-looking game of a hulking spaceman and a little girl, as well as a trailer for Resident Evil VIII which until the name came up, looked like anything but a sequel to Resident Evil 7. The game certainly looks interesting, but since the next generation PSVR hasn’t been announced yet, it’s unclear if the title will offer that option for PS5.
Finally, we saw a trailer for the breathtaking sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn in Forbidden Forest. A decent amount of gameplay was shown off, detailing a world plagued by sickness as you encounter all new threats, as well as returning ones as Aloy is back to save the land. The game looks amazing, but given the team behind it, I’m not surprised.
Sony then ended the show with a look at the console, the 4K Ultra Bluray, High-Speed SSD, Raytracing, PlayStation 5, which looks like an award given out for Router of the Year. I’m not crazy on the controller’s design either, as I’ve stated before. While pricing was not talked about, we did have it announced that an all-digital version of the console will ship, and while specs were not discussed, it was previously rumored that the PlayStation 5 would have two different spec systems; one at a premium cost, and the other a fair bit cheaper. We also were shown new remotes, controller chargers, and headsets, and they showed off the controller yet again, sporting a microphone, speaker, and USB C support.
While the event was largely impressive, Nothing shown was truly groundbreaking or shocking, expect for maybe Resident Evil VIII. We expected Horizon 2 to be shown, and Demon’s Souls was pretty much a given as well. It would have been nice for Sony to announce pricing, or at the very least an actual release date, but it’s likely that Sony is keeping that close to the chest in order to compete with the Xbox Series X, which is in a do or die situation for Microsoft, a company that could very well attempt to undercut costs to push units. Either way, gamer’s everywhere should be excited to see everything announced here and Sony finally had a showing that truly showed off something for everyone.