When the PlayStation Plus Deluxe service first came out, it included a lot of very big games. If you like big games, you have a lot to choose from. Sony has a huge library of blockbuster games, and Ubisoft, 2K Games, Rockstar, and others make some of the biggest games around.
People keep telling me, though, that one of the best things about subscription services is the chance to “discover” games they wouldn’t have played otherwise. A lot of these games were also available when PSPlus Deluxe came out, so let’s see how that goes. Here are ten strange, unusual, artistic, and interesting games for you to “discover” now that you can get them for “free.”
Ace Of Seafood
Ace Of Seafood is a beautiful and strange shooter game. It’s basically that joke from Austin Powers about sharks with lasers on their heads turned into a video game. You sail around the ocean, picking fights with other underwater creatures and shooting them with weapons that would make fighter jets blush. It’s chaotic and not always easy to play, but its downright Dadaist tone makes it a rare kind of “anti-game” that is both wildly entertaining and fundamentally subversive.
GreedFall
Many people wrote off GreedFall as “Eurojunk.” They thought it would be a D-list role-playing game (RPG) with some cool ideas but a lot of bugs that could only hope to be the next Dragon Age. GreedFall is almost an A-grade role-playing game, as it turns out. This thing is really good and has a great way to fight and a big world to explore. But what really stands out about this book is how harshly it criticises colonialism and the way that foreign powers like to divide up and fight over land that isn’t theirs. This game is smart and doesn’t back down, which makes it both interesting and thought-provoking.
Last Day Of June
This simple adventure game is a real screamer. An absolute tear-jerker. I’ve watched it three times now, and each time it makes me want to cry (and no, not like Dead or Alive does). It’s based on a song called “Drive Home” by an independent musician named Steven Wilson. This song is about regret and trauma, and it’s about a guy who kills his love in a car accident because he was in a hurry to get home. This game is about coming to terms with what happened. I can’t say this enough: this is not a “fun” game to play in the usual sense. But if video games can’t help us feel and think about these things, we don’t have the right to call them art, do we?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
This game is probably more well-known than most of the others on this list, but I’m including it anyway because not enough people have played it, no matter how many people do. Pathfinder is a huge game. The first time I played it, it took me about 120 hours, so that’s enough to justify a few months of PS Plus Deluxe all by itself. Still, this isn’t just content for the sake of content. Pathfinder is a dark fantasy story that is epic, world-shattering, and a lot like what Baldur’s Gate 3 should have been. Owlcat Games succeeded where Larian failed, and this is the only spiritual follow-up to Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale that you need.
FantaVision
A lot of the PlayStation 2 games on the PSPlus service are pretty well-known. For example, almost everyone who likes JRPGs or RPGs knows about Dark Cloud, Arc the Lad, and Wild Arms. FantaVision isn’t very well-known, but it’s one of my all-time favourite puzzle games. It was the first game for the PlayStation 2, and the main goal is to link together fireworks to make the best light show in the sky at night. When this game first came out, it made a lot of people scratch their heads. However, it was made by Sony Japan (back when Sony was interested in Japan), and fireworks are a big deal in Japan. Once you know that, it makes more sense that Slope Game was a launch title, and the fact that it’s still popular so many years later makes it even more sad that we’ll never see another one.
Ghost Of A Tale
Think of the Thief books (when Thief was great). Now, switch out the boring main character of Thief for a cute little mouse. That is Ghost Of A Tale. This is a stealth action game where you take on the role of a small rodent who sneaks around a mediaeval castle to save his love. Ghost of a Tale is surprisingly open-ended and full of different things to do. There are disguises, side quests, and multiple ways to move through environments, all of which encourage creative play. Even more impressive is that about 90% of the game was made by just one person, and yet it looks and plays so well.
Rainbow Moon
Rainbow Moon is the best game for you if you like to grind for experience in your RPGs. This tactics RPG is almost entirely about grinding, which means fighting endless waves of enemies, stopping in towns for quests to “fight some enemies,” and going into dungeons full of enemies to get the key to the next area, which has more waves of enemies. I’m not going to lie, you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy Rainbow Moon, but it has its place. So many RPGs ask us to pay close attention and get into the game. We are, after all, playing games with a lot of story and stats. On the other hand, Rainbow Moon lets us go through the motions of playing an RPG, but mostly just tune out and… grind. I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but Rainbow Moon is really good at what she does.
Bad North
Bad North is a beautiful little roguelike about keeping waves of Vikings from taking over islands. At first, you’ll only have one group of defenders and one or two boats full of enemies coming toward the island. At some point, you’ll be able to unlock more of these units and start to train them for close-quarters and long-range combat. However, the waves of enemies attacking the island will also get stronger. Bad North is very hard, and you have to make good use of the terrain because you’re usually outnumbered. So, being able to defend islands well is real 300 Spartans stuff, and it feels good.
Omega Quintet
Omega Quintet was Idea Factory’s first PlayStation 4 game. It was also one of the first JRPGs for the PlayStation 4. It’s also one of Idea Factory’s most forgotten games, so PlayStation Plus Deluxe might help people remember it. Omega Quintet is a game about an idol group that has to save the world from monsters by dressing up like magical girls and putting on outfits. It’s a lot of responsibility to put on the feet of a group of cute girls, but you just know they’re up for it. They’re armed with weaponized music and a lot of guts. This game is cute, funny, and has interesting ways to play. It’s also one of the last times Idea Factory added the ability to pan the camera low on girls wearing short skirts (they’ll cover themselves and yell at you if you do that, you dirty perv) and a jump button that almost only exists to make those skirts whoosh up completely.
Bound
Last but not least, I would be doing this list a disservice if I didn’t mention Bound as one of the last times Sony supported a truly artistic project before focusing solely on blockbusters. Bound is a platform game, but it’s not like any other platform game you’ve played. It is about a dancer or gymnast, and all of your movements are choreographed in order, with graceful leaps and precise pirouettes. Underneath this is a story that goes to some pretty dark places, but it’s a good one and worth hearing and thinking about.
