by Chris Selogy
I take a look at five of the six games that are available to PlayStation Plus members for this month at no extra cost.
July is the first month where PlayStation Plus begins a new format where all six games that are available for the whole month are made free with the first update of the month and will be replaced with a fresh slate at the beginning of August, which is a big departure from the staggered releases that we’ve seen on the service for the vast majority of its life. That means that each title is available for exactly the same amount of time with no real surprises, such as games lasting for longer or shorter than you’d normally expect. With that, I made some videos to show what’s interesting about the games I’ve played from this group and try the others for the first time to see what it has to offer.
Dead Space 3 (Vita)
EA’s popular horror franchise started off strong, but the third entry was widely criticized due to microtransactions and more of a focus on action and co-op modes.
Editor’s Note: I’m not a fan of horror games, so this video doesn’t show off much of the game.
Doki-Doki Universe (PS4/PS3/Vita)
Coming from a team with some ties to the original Toe Jam & Earl games, Doki-Doki Universe is a weird mix of personality quizzes and some simple planet sequences where you talk to its inhabitants, solve their problems, and learn some life lessons about being a human to help the robot QT3 gain some human qualities and avoid being decommissioned. I found this to be a neat little game, though definitely not something that everybody will like.
Muramasa Rebirth
Unfortunately, I am not able to capture Vita games at this point in time, but I hope the upcoming PlayStation TV helps to remedy that this fall. Muramasa Rebirth is a remastered version of the cult hit Wii Super Metroid-style game where you can play as one of two characters that run around the world, slicing up enemies, collecting new swords to fight with, and exploring this crazy beautiful world that Vanillaware has created.
Strider (PS4)
This reboot of the classic arcade action game puts that style of frenetic action into a world that works more like Super Metroid, with more of a focus on exploration and collectibles while cutting up Soviet robot soldiers and bosses. Strider seemed like a cool spin-off of a more modern game, like Shadow Complex, with more of a focus on action than guns.
TowerFall Ascension (PS4)
This critically-acclaimed Ouya multiplayer game gets some enhanced single-player modes to go along with its great multiplayer bow-and-arrow shooting action to make this a great addition for multiplayer-minded PS4 owners. I haven’t tried out the multiplayer yet, but the quest mode is a good way to tune your skills when friends are not around. The trophies for this game are insane.
Vessel (PS3)
Vessel is a notable PC puzzle platformer featuring an inventor who must work with these autonomous water creatures that he has helped to create to solve puzzles and potentially destroy them, though the game does a poor job early of explaining exactly what’s going on. I enjoyed the puzzle stuff, but the lack of context for the story was disappointing.
Stay tuned for a similar article for Games With Gold later this weekend.