So on this very blog I discussed the original Sony State of Play and how it was overall disappointingly boring. Almost two months later we have the sequel, and this was a marked improvement with still some flaws that should be discussed.
First of all, I want to give praise to the announcer for this time around; her voice was soothing and confident, conveying emotion with her words without overdoing anything. A very good performance that needs to be remembered for all future presentations. Nintendo likes being cheeky, and that is there thing. Being more straight-faced yet friendly looked very well for Sony here, and I think that similarity yet contrast is the best way to play off of what we already know works for video announcements as well as being your own different thing.
Now onto the games themselves, all six of them:
More content for Monster Hunter: World is appreciated, even though the game was not something I could easily grasp I could feel the quality and love behind it. It’s a well-crafted game that deserves it’s praise and more content for it is a smart move. Sadly, being the first reveal also brought out two major problems. 1) This game isn’t exclusive to the PlayStation and it’s doubtful this content pack will be either. The word exclusive was not used, and Sony makes sure to use it. Considering I’ve debated buying a PC copy of the game for a while to try my best at it again, this content pack may sell me a second time, but it wasn’t on PlayStation the first time for me and it won’t be the second time either. 2) The video took too long. This was a roughly ten minute presentation altogether and Monster Hunter: World saw the lion’s share. Considering it isn’t an exclusive game, the decision is baffling and I found myself bored due to seeing how relatively little time was going to be left over. Great game, not a bad portion by itself, but needed to be handled differently for this video conference.
Riverbond was the first new announcement, and it looks fine for what it is. A crossover for indie game characters in pixel style, and it’s a dungeon crawler. For some people, it’s all their favorite genres rolled up into one. For me, it’s an easy pass. This actually means I have no real criticism for this section, it came and went because it showed all it needed to. I don’t know if it was needed, but it stayed it’s welcome so I guess I’m glad it did.
We’re getting a live service game based on the Predator franchise. It was described in a way that reminded me of Evolve, Dead By Daylight, or the Friday the 13th game. Sorry but hard pass, and this one I think should have been cut. I had to re-watch the video to remember it existed, and i cannot imagine this being something people would be clamoring over when there are other games to choose from, and only one of them is highly regarded. Maybe it’ll blow us all away, but I’d rather just watch the first film again. This isn’t my genre, and I think the people who do like this genre already have Dead by Daylight and are happy with that.
We finally saw more of MediEVIL Remastered. It looks gorgeous, it looks like it will have similar gameplay to the original. I might buy this game when the price goes down, because if it’s sixty or forty dollars I feel it needs the sequel remastered as well. I’m afraid that Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro: Reignited Trilogy may have opened the doors in one unexpected way; selling so well that Sony will try shoving that price tag on future remastered that don’t have the sequels. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled noticeably is forty dollars despite only being one remaster, and I’m expecting that to be the price for MediEVIL Remastered. I’m assuming, because they’ve didn’t say, nor did they give a month, just claiming it’ll be out in the fall. I can’t in good faith give them praise for this announcement. In all, we didn’t actually learn anything. We knew the game was coming, we knew what the original was and that this was a remaster. This video said those exact same things but added in the word “fall”. Honestly disappointed in how little it meant bringing that game’s existence back up was.
Away, a game with an interesting concept with very ugly graphics. Maybe it was just me, but something looked off while watching the footage. Not in an uncanny “it looks so real!” way that I think the developers wanted. The main character, a small carnivorous mammal that could glide, looked very low-poly. I am not a graphics snob, when I call something ugly, it’s usually the design and not the pixel count. I’d rather check out Deadly Creatures, but for a new IP with a concept not done too often, I’m okay with it’s appearance even if I was turned off.
So let’s be real, this was almost basically a reminder of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The game looks beautiful, I was far more invested this time then when I last saw it all those years ago, I was one of many to assume it had been cancelled and this proved me wrong. Still, like with MediEVIL, we did not get a release date. This time, not even a vague notion like “fall”. While this game gets a bit more of a pass since there was skepticism it was canned, I won’t be upset that it was showcased, but I do still think it needed a release date after all this time if they felt the need to end a video conference with it. They could have just put screenshots on their Twitter and told us they were still working on it. This comes across as cynical hype machine work, and I left feeling, not much different. I should probably just finally play the original if it’s that good.
All in all, a more mixed bag than the previous attempt, but they showed us the groundwork. I said I believe in second chances but not thirds, and this was a second chance that proved something. It proved they listened, proved they will do a better job communicating with us when it’s a smaller scale announcement, proved they will showcase new IP, games, and use the platform to clear up information that we have been waiting for.
However, they also proved some of the more cynical marketing tactics will be in place. I’m not surprised, or even disappointed, but it means that while I’m okay with State of Play, I now also know that it may not always be a thing I’m excited for. I still prefer E3, and I still prefer Nintendo Treehouse, but I’m open-minded that this is the right path for Sony.