Sony Announced Next Several #PlayAtHome Games

There is a saying that if you look at a clock while something is cooking, time will feel like it is going much slower; Keep yourself busy, and time will fly by. Every time something like PlayStation’s #PlayAtHome program comes around, especially when I don’t cover it (thanks Aaron!), I’ll hear about them a week before the deal is live and forget they are happening. Luckily I got a reminder about Ratchet and Clank (2016)’s current free offering, still available until the 31st of March for those who also forgot.

However, PlayStation has announced the next several free games to keep in the #PlayAtHome program that will be available from the end of the month through mid-April. Not just a few games, 10… Including one of the best Rogue-likes ever created; oh, and Horizon Zero Dawn. We’ll get to Sony’s first-party entry in a minute, as that is the marque title pulling you in. Yes, I really am a tease.

From the 25th of March, you’ll be able to pick up Abzû, that watery game from those behind Flower and Journey. When I covered Abzû for the Epic Games Store a while back, I admittedly didn’t enjoy it all that much. However, I think that’s because of the type of game it is. When I am sitting bolt upright at my desk for my PC, I am not relaxing in the way you are supposed to for such a game. That game is omething you are meant to gawk at for being beautiful while feeling laid-back.

Along with Abzû is a loud unsetting bang of grenades, guns, and bullet parents dying in battle as I run through Enter the Gungeon for the billionth time. All of this is going on while I’m yelling like I am Brian Blessed. As a top-down dungeon crawler themed around all things firearms, it is the NRA’s fantasy come to pixelated life. I love and cherish Enter the Gungeon, as it is one of the few games alongside Loop Hero to pull me back into the Rogue-like world once again. If you haven’t played it yet, you are about to get shot in the face with guns and violence, and you’ll love it!

Next up is one that is both a remaster and a ground-up VR build of the 2001 game. Don’t worry, the VR is optional; Oh yeah, there will be VR games in here too! Rez: Infinite is a game I can honestly say I’ve never heard of. It is one of my few missing bits of gaming knowledge, and I think I can see why. It is a musical rail shooter. I think it would be fair to say Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Child of Eden was more or less a spiritual successor, and something I wasn’t into myself. Though that might have been because it slightly pushed the Kinect and Move. For some, it might be a blast from the past, for “young’uns” like me, it is a confusing bit of early 2000s experimentalism.

From exploring one colorful and dark hellscape to that place Sebastian has been telling me about: let’s go Under The Sea with Subnautica. This is about to get me assassinated, but I am slightly done with the survival-crafty thing as I’ve played hundreds and hundreds of hours of Minecraft. However, I’ve heard only good things from those I trust the opinion of. I don’t like the idea of searching for that diamond ore equivalent and have one of those ugly-looking fish brushing up against me. I stick by Billy Connolly (Warning: Strong Language): We don’t belong in the sea.

Speaking of not belonging, there are about several hundred puzzles that could be cut from The Witness, which is surprising given it only has 500. Ok, we get it, I don’t like something. Yet when it is 500 variants on the same line puzzle I’d rather make bullet orphans radicalize against me for my next run through the Gungeon. If you like a simple puzzle game that you don’t have to put too much effort into, Jonathan Blow’s very pretty but dull game is for you.

Next up is a selection of VR games, also available from the 25th. Unlike Rez: Infinite, these will require PlayStation VR hardware, and are not including VR simply as an optional extra. All these games (VR and non-VR) are only available from the 25th of March to the 23rd of April, so be sure to pick them up.

We’re starting with the PS5 demo room mascot: Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Of course, taking Astro from his little playroom and putting him by the toilet bowl after two hours with PSVR, you’ll be taking the charming little sod and his mates on an adventure. Honestly, I don’t know enough about this one as I tend to stay away from Sony’s attempts at VR after… The Incident.

Next we have Moss. No not just that thing growing around your stale body odor after a year of playing games and binging everything on Netflix. It is a single-player adventure/puzzle game that is in third-person. You guide a little mouse through a world that’s filled with platforming and combat. Once again, it is not one I’ve been clamoring for myself, but I can see why you’d enjoy the mouse-based adventure.

Following that is Thumper, a “rhythm-action” game that looks like the answer of what it would look like if a gritty reboot of Tron dropped acid. The trouble I have with it is the Steam tag “Great Soundtrack;” Yes, sometimes my research on these things includes Steam. Who is saying Thumper has a great soundtrack? The soundtrack is akin to (Warning: Strong Language) the Marvel Symphonic Universe; it is dull, emotionless, and just safe.

Next up is actually one of the most visually striking games from the mind of Éric Chahi, the designer of the 1991 game, Another World (Out of this World in America), and the 1998 game, Heart of Darkness. Paper Beast is for the most part a game for you to observe and create with, as you watch literal paper beasts walk, run, and fight through a desert. It is everything I yell should be done with visual mediums such as games, it is colorful, interesting, and downright beautiful.

Starting from the 19th of April, however, those of you who haven’t gotten around to Horizon Zero Dawn can pick it up. Not only that, but it is the Complete Edition with all the DLC-shaped bits for you to get your tech-dino huntress on. This is where I am about to get shouted at by angry young men who love a digital woman. I don’t entirely love Horizon Zero Dawn, it is a bit of the general open-world thing that was already over-saturated. That said, it is the type of game I’d have killed for when I was a young whippersnapper; It is big, explorative, and full of vim. Pick it up and enjoy it if you can, you are probably not the grumpy old man I am.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition is available from the 19th of April to the 15th of May. Though, while I am doing admin here at the end I should note something important. Subnautica, The Witness, Abzû, Rez: Infinite, Moss, Thumper, and Paper Beast are all unavailable in China. Honestly, I’m surprised the tech-dino murder ’em up is available there now. Along with that, Enter The Gungeon is not available in China, Hong Kong (or as China would like to say, “China”), Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan (or as China would like to say, “China”), and Thailand.