Redfall

Arkane has cemented itself as one of the top names when it comes to creating highly dynamic sandboxes with the likes of Dishonored and Prey, and the studio is definitely one of the crown jewels of the Xbox Game Studios roster post the Zenimax acquisition. Fans were understandably excited about Arkane’s Xbox exclusive project Redfall, a co-op game that blends the developer’s signature ability-based gameplay into the core gameplay loop of looting and shooting that had the potential to be a smash hit.

But in actuality, Redfall is anything but. It’s a painfully generic looter shooter that’s subject to a bevy of gameplay and technical problems. Repetitive content, dull gameplay, and an uninteresting story are just some of Redfall’s issues that get compounded with a wide variety of technical issues to make for a consistently frustrating experience. It’s obviously a big shock for fans of Arkane’s works, and there’s no doubt the developer has heavily fumbled with this project.

BLOOD AND TRUTH

SIE London Studio’s Blood and Truth was an unexpected surprise earlier this years. Promising and delivering on the allure of high-octane action and a story you could actually invest in, it was a better game than most expected. Another area where it impressed quite a bit was the visuals, with crisp technical work across the board, excellent animations, and truly impressive facial and performance capture.

In this feature, we’ll be listing what we feel are fifteen of the most disappointing games on the PS4- but disappointing, we should remind you, does not mean bad. Many of these games are a lot of fun, some have improved vastly since launch and managed to turn things around from initial disappointment. Being mentioned in this list simply means that these games, when we played them first, failed to live up to the standard of quality we expected them to hit.

Also note that for the purposes of these list, we’ll only be looking at PS4 exclusives- barring a couple entries that were either only console exclusives at launch, or remain console exclusives to this day.

With all that out of the way, let’s get into it.

DRIVECLUB

When Driveclub first launched, it’s fair to say that it ended up disappointing a whole lot of people. Though it was stunning to look at and hit technical heights that console games rarely do even to this day, there were many who felt that the game was, all said and done, a bit too dull, a bit too uninspired. Developers Evolution Studios would go on to provide excellent support for the game following its release, and arguably pretty much managed to turn things around, turning a disappointing launch into what was a legitimately great driving sim. Their subsequent closure, even in light of said recovery, proved to be a shockingly premature and abrupt one.

Until Dawn

Wonky frame rate aside, there’s a whole lot to like about Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn. It has all the odes to a teenage horror slasher except the overall direction is influenced by your decision making. The backstory and lore is fairly well done, even if some of the characters can be grating (looking at you, Emily). Most importantly of all, it’s scary especially when making all the wrong decisions and potentially getting everyone killed because, well, they die in horrible, horrible ways.

The Inpatient

From the same developer of Until Dawn, The Inpatient looking great seemed to be expected. However, as a PlayStation VR title, it goes even further with its tout facial details, atmospherics and lighting. The textures are also impeccable though this should be considered within the context of the PS VR’s power. It may not be the best looking PS4 game but The Inpatient certainly stands out in the VR space.

Note: This list contains console and timed exclusives as well.

Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom

After numerous delays, Level-5’s epic RPG will finally be releasing in March for the PlayStation 4 and PC. Set several years after the first game, players will control Evan, the young king of the Cat tribe after his kingdom is overthrown by the Rat tribe. With numerous allies to gather, a new mode for kingdom building and revamped combat, Ni no Kuni 2’s gorgeous visuals are just one of the reasons for hopping back into the world.

Capcom’s Monster Hunter World was posed to draw big at release so it’s perhaps no surprise that it was the number 1 selling game in the UK. As per Chart-Track however, it also saw far higher week 1 sales in the region compared to any other game in the series till date. So yes, it performed even better than Monster Hunter Generations for the 3DS in 2016.

In second place is Dragon Ball FighterZ which set a new record in terms of chart position for the franchise. Unit sales are apparently the same as Dragon Ball Xenoverse on the PS4/Xbox One but that debuted in third place in 2015.

The rest of the chart is predictable enough. Call of Duty: WW2 is in third place followed by FIFA 18 and Grand Theft Auto 5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild fell to sixth and seventh place respectively while PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on the Xbox One hangs around eighth place. The few surprising games are Rocket League: Collector’s Edition in ninth and The Inpatient for PlayStation VR in tenth.

One of the biggest surprises of the PS4 was Until Dawn, the cinematic horror game by Supermasive Games that managed to defy all expectations and deliver a memorable experience when it launched in 2014. Now, we will get to see its prequel- in VR, at that- with The Inpatient, which is almost here.

The Inpatient takes place in the 1950s, and lets players explore Blackwood Sanatorium in first person, letting you see the terrifying events that led up to the heart pounding developments that happened in Until Dawn. First person and VR are both suited to horror- so The Inpatient should actually be one of the better games available on PSVR.

Sony and Supermassive have also confirmed that the game will have the same kind of choice and consequence driven gameplay that made the original game so beloved. The Inpatient is available now- be sure to check out the launch trailer for the game for yourself below.

Ad Infinitum

Sure, this may look like your average World War 1 title at first. But Ad Infinitum throws in some truly terrifying creatures that hunt you down. There’s nothing like ambling along in a trench at night while it’s raining only to encounter a large, slender, multi-legged beast with claws for days. We don’t know if there will be shooting but expect lots of puzzle solving and running for your dear life.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Supermassive Games began development of The Inpatient following their previous game, Tumble VR. Continuing with work on Sony’s VR platform from Tumble VR and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, The Inpatient is being developed using the Unreal Engine 4.

Several key writers and directors from Until Dawn returned to their roles with The Inpatient, including Nik Bowen, Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick.

Announced as one of the headlining titles for Sony’s PlayStation VR Platform for the near future, The Inpatient was announced at their E3 show in 2017. Taking place within the Blackwood Sanatorium, the player character, who can be a man or woman by the players’ choosing, seeks to regain their memories. The game takes place 60 years before 2015’s Until Dawn, acting as a prequel to that game.

Making full use of the immersion of VR, Supermassive went to great lengths to make sure what the player felt within the world of the game, including details like seeing the player’s body when they look down, voice interaction with NPCs and subtler elements like binaural audio to draw the player in. The game was originally intended to launch on PlayStation VR on November 21, 2017 and November 22, 2017 in North America and Europe respectively, before being pushed back for January 23 and 24, 2018 for unknown reasons.

Story

Taking place within the Until Dawn universe, 60 years prior to the events of that game, the player is a mental patient within the Blackwood Sanatorium. The player’s gender is selectable, allowing them to be either a male or female, and they are interned within the facility suffering from amnesia. The player can interact with NPCs via voice commands, as they traverse and endure the facility, determined to get their memory back. Beyond the scares, the memories you retrieve are supposed to tell of some shadowy conspiracy. It’s really for the best that we don’t spoil the finer details and outcome of the story, since it is the large point of the game, but it is known that much like Until Dawn, the story will alter itself due to the choices of the player.

Gameplay

The entirety of The Inpatient is played from a first person perspective, which follows as a VR title. Players follow the story of their protagonist, sex and skin colour of their choosing, as they try to recover their lost memories and survive their time in the Sanatorium.

Players can interact with the game through the PSVR Headset, either a Dualshock 4 or two PlayStation Move controllers and their voice. Special voice technology ties the player right to the in game character, allowing the character to say exactly what the player wants. Using two PlayStation Move controllers gives the player finer control over their hands in the game, bringing them deeper into the experience. The experience is highly guided, with the player making decisions about how to proceed as they go and altering the course of the story through those decisions.

The player will regain memories through the game, though the details of them can be influenced by different decisions made throughout the game. You’ll meet and interact with the staff and patients of Blackwood, each with their own reasons for what they do and how you react to them will have significant impact on the story.

Characters

The star of the game is intended to be the player themselves. Supermassive went to great lengths to remain immersive with Sony’s VR technology, choosing to allow the player a choice in being Male or Female, the ability to look down and see their body, which is not something typically done in VR due to all the extra work, and interacting with the game’s NPCs via voice, as well as through audio design all speak to some serious dedication to this as a VR experience. The player is as a result, not very defined within the world of the game.

The player is first greeted within Blackwood Sanatorium by Jefferson Bragg, an older man who is the owner and operator of both Blackwood as well as a nearby hotel and mines. His insistence that he wants to help the player recover their memories seems less than sincere, suggesting that there are deeper motivations at play.

The nurse in charge of the player’s care is Victoria LaBoucher, voiced by Melodie Casta. The young African American woman is an empathetic, caring and calm nurse who fits her profession like a glove. She wears a light blue dress, white apron and cap, always looking collected. Her coworkers hold her in high regard, with Abe calling her a “smart cookie”. She holds some very progressive ideas for her time as well.

Abe White, voiced by Max Lloyd-Jones is the orderly who spends a lot of time moving patients between locations in Blackwood. He’s a young white man with slicked brown hair and a humorous side that he uses to try to keep the patients at ease. Victoria sometimes needs his help to subdue unruly patients. He’s got his eye on another staff member, but it seems like his advances are destined to be rejected.

Suzanne Daniels, Voiced by Alex Paige Fream, is the young Asian American nurse who works at Blackwood and the unreciprocating object of Abe’s affections. She’s a popular woman with an optimistic outlook that brightens the days of those around her.

Suzanne might have her eye on David Miller, voiced by Kevin McHale. The suspicious man isn’t seen too often during the game, but he holds his fellow staff in high regard. He’s not the biggest fan of Mr. Bragg for some reason.

The player will either meet Gordon or Anna Bennet, depending on wether the player is a male or female. The cellmate of the player character, they’re highly mistrusting of the Blackwood staff and prone to outbursts of anger. However, for some reason it seems like there’s more to them.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.