Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 Review — IGN
At its core, Insomniac Games’ new adventure strives to make you feel like Spider-Man. And, thankfully, Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 succeeds at nearly every swing across Manhattan’s rooftops. I was left delighted at nearly every step of its 15-hour adventure thanks to a surprisingly deep tale that mines the plights of both Spider-Man and Peter Parker to great emotional success. Underpinning that engrossing narrative is an excellent set of webswinging mechanics, which — combined with fun gadgets and plenty of puns — makes for thrilling action in both the massive setpieces and in the quiet, confined corridors of tense sequences. Insomniac’s first foray into the realm of Marvel superheroes is a continually exciting adventure whose open world and combat are only occasionally caught up in a web of overly familiar trappings.Swinging around feels, quite simply, spectacular. There’s a small learning curve, but after getting comfortable with the basics, it’s nearly effortless to make Spider-Man look graceful in every swing, leap, and lunge. And man does it feel good to find the right mix of jumping, crawling, web zipping, and wall running.LoadingI’ve spent hours just soaring around the skyscrapers of New York City, testing the momentum of my swings to find just the right point to gain an extra boost of speed, or leaping off the Avengers Tower to test how close to the ground I could fall, just to swing out in the nick of time. Similar to how God of War’s Leviathan Axe felt so good to throw around, Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man’s swinging mechanic, enhancing it with additional moves like a focal point webzip that allowed me to turn any ledge, beam, or satellite tower into a jumping off point to continue my non-stop movement. Open-world traversal hasn’t been this smooth since Sunset Overdrive (which, not coincidentally, Insomniac also developed).
Doing What a Spider Can
And, happily, no aspect of New York’s architecture can really stop Spider-Man. Discovering how a powerful, but nimble, Spider-Man tackles fire escapes, both vertically and horizontally, or watching him slip through the metal grating of a water tower is endlessly entertaining.
His animations are so detailed that no matter the obstacle, I got the sense that I could truly do whatever a Spider-Man could.
Every IGN Spider-Man Review Ever
That was surprisingly true of indoor locations, too. The main story missions often took me into large-scale interiors, sometimes for light puzzle solving, and occasionally for stealthy takedown scenarios. For anyone who’s played the Batman: Arkham franchise, the framework is largely the same: enter a room, avoid being detected, and use a mix of gadgets and (relatively) quiet web takedowns to take down the crowd.
Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man’s wonderful webswinging.
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These stealth scenarios perfectly highlight Spider-Man’s talents — especially his love for designing gadgets. There’s a methodical thrill to plotting out the order I wanted to web up enemies, whether luring an enemy out toward me for a stealth takedown or by firing off a web trap that would stick them to a wall.
There’s enough enemy variety (some react differently to your webbing than others, like big brutes that can’t be taken down as easily) that I always enjoyed the light bit of strategy these sections demanded, and would happily work my way through a dozen more.LoadingOf course, Spidey gets up close and personal with foes a lot of the time, too, making for combat that’s equally fun, if a little slow to show its true depth. At first, I found myself pretty much just punching and dodging, occasionally webbing up a foe so I could focus on a more powerful baddie. But as I unlocked more skills from Spider-Man’s skill trees and gadgets, combat became an improvisational delight. After some leveling, I could pull an enemy’s gun away and smack him in the head with it, while a previously planted web trip mine strung two other enemies together. I’d then web-zip my way to a floor above me to smack an enemy off a railing while simultaneously sending a spider drone after two more foes. That balancing act consistently delivered on the powerful and fun fantasy of being Spider-Man..jpg)
To be fair, Spider-Man’s combat owes a lot to the aforementioned Arkham franchise, right down to the slow-motion crunch when you take out the last baddie in a bunch, but that template is sped up dramatically in order to take advantage of Spidey’s nimble nature.
The combat and gadgets fulfill the fun and powerful fantasy of being Spider-Man.
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That feeling of fluid movement only falters during boss battles. Insomniac throws in some big and exciting boss fights full of tense action. They’re sparingly involved, as many of the more fascinating setpieces of the story don’t involve one-on-one fights. But because the adventure is both front and back-loaded with boss fights, there’s an odd lull devoid of huge bouts right in the middle of the story. That’s not inherently bad, especially as a lot of great character work is done in the second act alongside those blockbuster action sequences. But because the first couple of bosses boil down to round-based pattern recognition, they felt a bit simple and rote.
Unfortunately, that becomes pretty noticeable with the huge gap in major villain encounters. Still, there are some smart and fun twists in boss battles toward the end of the campaign to look forward to.LoadingThe variation in Spider-Man’s fighting style and inventive gadget arsenal — which is hardly a surprise given Insomniac’s knack for wacky weapon wheels in series like Ratchet & Clank — is also extended to Spider-Man’s wardrobe. His portable closet of unlockable Spidey suits all come with their own powers. Each power can be used independently of the outfit once unlocked, which is a godsend. It’s a joy to swap among some of the unexpected late-game duds, though I’ve become quite fond of this Spider-Man’s new main suit.
That said, I largely relied on the first couple of powers for almost the entire campaign. The singular power to fill out your focus meter for special finishers or to restore health from Peter’s white-spider costume was so consistently useful that I didn’t want to give it up, and I never felt like the world encouraged me to use the others.
Swapping between mods to adapt to specific side challenges — like one that could prevent my combo counter from immediately resetting with each hit — was always more useful than swapping between different abilities.
Concrete Jungle
Spider-Man’s New York is an absolute blast to swing around, in part thanks to how gorgeous the shiny skyscrapers of the city look. Spider-Man does have its graphical hiccups — for example, the faces of Peter and other key characters are spectacularly animated while less notable characters are flat and often out of sync with dialogue. But its New York City is undeniably gorgeous, particularly on a PS4 Pro. Swinging around at dusk as the calm oranges of the setting sun hit the reflective glass of New York’s skyscrapers at just the right angle evoked some of the most calming, zen-like gameplay sessions I’ve experienced in awhile.
Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t offer a a 1:1 recreation of New York City, but most of the key landmarks — including my old apartment — are recreated faithfully.
Neighborhoods have distinct enough character to be discernible as I swung from one to the next. Yes, certain aspects of the city, like water towers or certain building fronts, can start to feel repetitive. But Insomniac has done a pretty great job of capturing the city’s look with the sheen I’d expect for a world full of superheroes and super science.LoadingThat feeling is only magnified by the score. Spider-Man’s main theme recalls the triumphant horns of the MCU Avengers score, rising at just the right moments as I raced to stop a crime or to save some locale from a villain’s evil plot.
Outside of the main campaign, there are dozens of other side objectives scattered throughout the city, which add another 15-20 hours of exploring, though my enjoyment of them varied greatly. I was never outright bored by any task, but some were reused so often that I found myself running through the motions of scenarios I once found exciting. The fourth or fifth time you figure out how to take on a horde of enemies committing a crime or fend off waves of enemies at an outpost is still entertaining — the fortieth is much less so.
It dilutes what starts as a fun, heroic act into a repetitive, going-through-the-motions activity that often had a knack for popping up just as I was making my way to a major story mission.
Outside of stopping those optional crimes, Taskmaster’s tough combat, race, and stealth challenges kept me coming back for better scores. And though finding landmarks and backpacks encouraged me to hit every corner of the city, the activity itself was pretty easy. Peter outside of his suit can also engage in a couple science minigames, one of which is essentially the pipe challenge from the original BioShock. I have a soft spot for that type of puzzle activity, but their inclusion contributes to some of the campaign’s odd pacing issues. They’re introduced just after your first real taste of being Spider-Man, and then interrupt the action anytime Spider-Man needs to do something science-related within the story.LoadingThe brilliance of what the world could have been can be seen in a handful of brilliant side missions.
One tied nicely into the main story, culminating in an optional boss fight. Another suite of tasks forced me to actually have a good sense of New York’s neighborhoods. These sidequests helped bring the world of Spider-Man and its open New York City to life — I just wish a few more of them cleverly gave the world and my actions more significance.
Update: A day-one patch for Spider-Man has introduced a wonderful photo mode to the experience. It feels like the next evolution of photo modes before it, being so bespoke to Spidey himself. Being able to create comic book covers or panels is a delightful twist, and effectively allows you to create your own Spider-Man comic books should you want to.
Spider-Man PS4 Photo Mode Screenshots
Slow-Spinning Redemption
I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too.
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Thankfully, the story consistently delivers that sense of weight and impact, albeit after a somewhat slow start.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man is one who has a history in this world, and it feels earned thanks to smart integration of familiar villains rather than throwing them at the screen for the sake of fan service. The script allows time for the central villains (and Peter’s relationship to them) to believably develop, making for some emotionally powerful scenes toward the end that definitely had me misty eyed on a couple of occasions.
I appreciated Insomniac’s surprising amount of restraint when it came to villains, but I loved the focus it put on Peter Parker and his relationships even more. I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too.LoadingPeter’s story is one of mentorship, smartly showing how he can simultaneously look up to one mentor, while becoming one, too. That dichotomy offers Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal a chance to convey Peter’s various facets, and he does so with an emotional honesty that made this version of the Spider-Man one of my favorites on screen.
Peter is someone who can succeed while he makes mistakes, and that juxtaposition offers a wealth of relatable material that carried me through much of Spider-Man’s story.
I won’t spoil Miles’ part in the adventure, but I enjoyed his inclusion and, thanks to a charming performance, I was as endeared to him as I was to Peter.
Spider-Man’s story is as captivating as anything the MCU has offered.
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Perhaps most of all, though, I loved Peter and Mary-Jane’s relationship. It’s well-trod territory, but Insomniac injects new life into it, in part thanks to Spidey and MJ actors Lowenthal and Laura Bailey’s performances. These are two people who have a history together, and watching them try to figure out what future they have, if any — as friends, coworkers, or more — is an absolute joy to watch.
A number of Peter and MJ’s scenes feel instantly relatable, from the two having their first dinner in months together, navigating whether they’re comfortable with one another, to Peter trying not to lose his cool over a misinterpreted text.
It’s one of my favorite romances in a game ever, and contributes to a story with personal stakes as captivating — and often much more — as anything the MCU (and most superhero movies) has delivered.
I wanted Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 to make me feel like Spider-Man: To sail between the highrises of New York City, to nimbly web up hordes of enemies, and tussle with familiar, animal-themed villains. Insomniac Games’ first foray into the world of Marvel handily delivers on all of that. But what I didn’t expect from Spider-Man was to come away feeling just as fulfilled to have inhabited the life of Peter Parker. Aside from a few odd pacing issues, which momentarily took me out of the experience of being a superhero, and a world of optional missions that don’t always quite live up to the heft of the main story, Insomniac has delivered a Spider-Man story that both surprised and delighted me, coupled with gameplay that made me feel like Spider-Man nearly every step of the way. The Wall Crawler’s open world doesn’t consistently deliver the thrilling moments of its main campaign, but the foundation laid here is undoubtedly a spectacular one.
Dreams Review — IGN
What is Dreams? Well, It’s pots of paints, a ball of clay, a games compendium, a music studio, a creative classroom, an animation programme, a social network, your first footsteps into game development. And crucially, often incredible.
Media Molecule’s follow up to the LittleBigPlanet series follows its established mantra of play, create, and share, but takes it to an all-new level. Whatever path you choose to take, getting lost down it is easily done as new bursts of joy are discovered around every corner. Like a Mary Poppinsesque bottomless bag of creativity, you never quite know what you’ll end up playing when booting up Dreams, or what inspiration will be sparked inside you to sculpt, paint, or engineer yourself. It’s a highly ambitious concept, and one that has been magically brought to life.LoadingWhen starting up Dreams for the first time, you’d be forgiven for not knowing where to start. After a short string of basic, yet important tutorials, the most alluring and arguably best place to head is Art’s Dream — the two to three-hour story mode created by Media Molecule all within Dreams itself.
You follow the titular Art, a down-and-out musician who’s recently abandoned his post as a double bass player in a jazz troupe, as he goes slaloming through three distinct settings: a fairytale-like rural area, an industrial world laden with steam trains and neon-soaked cobbles, and a digital forest where steel takes the place of wood and LEDs flicker like owls eyes watching from their branches.
The trio of plotlines intertwine to tell a surprisingly melancholic and emotionally involving story and is a much more mature one than seen in previous Media Molecule games. It’s a beautifully told tale that isn’t afraid to tackle some serious subjects, which it manifests throughout via visual spectacles such as the dreaded Thornbeak, a charcoal-feathered oversized crow that was the source of Art’s childhood nightmares.
It’s a beautifully told tale that isn’t afraid to tackle some serious subjects.
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In order to battle those inner and outer demons, you’ll run the gamut of game genres along the way.
There’s everything from classic point-and-click adventure to puzzle-platforming, some twin-stick shooting, and even a sprinkling of bullet hell. It all crescendos in a final half hour of explosive psychedelia that results in what I imagine giving Pink Floyd the dev tools to Sayonara Wild Hearts would feel like. It’s infused with song throughout, with absurdist musical numbers punctuating the story, such as a take on ‘90s east coast rap and a haunting jazz piece that I still find myself humming the bassline of with regularity.LoadingWhile never providing much of a challenge, Art’s Dream does a fantastic job of blending solid combat and puzzles with a compelling plot. Most impressive, though, are its distinct and varied audio-visual stylings, which act as a great way to showcase just what is possible with Dreams’ creation tools.
Back to School
When first casting your eye over Dreams’ creation suite, it can be a worryingly overwhelming proposition. This isn’t a game where you can afford to dive in blind.
But after completing the first set of basic tutorials it all started to make sense. The multitude of multicoloured glyphs that sit at the top of the screen soon meant things to me and I actually found myself enjoying the tutorials rather than them being tiresome chores as they can often be in other games. The key to this being that even while it’s teaching you the basics, Dreams is encouraging you to be creative at every turn – nudging you to not simply follow instructions when building a simple bridge or painting a garden, but teaching you to be willing to put your own spin on it.
Dreams is encouraging you to be creative at every turn.
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Media Molecule has done an outstanding job at teaching you the basics and in some cases so more advanced techniques, with the most complex batch of tutorials being a series of Masterclasses led by developers who take you step by step through their respective areas of expertise. These include Sculpting a Male Bust, Stylistic Scene Creation, Sculpting and Level Assembly, and Remixing Dreamiverse Dash (one of the Media Molecule designed games included).
As of now there are only these four masterclasses available, which is a shame because I’ve found them to be the most engaging lessons, whether creating alongside or simply watching the artists at work.
Another of my favourite sub-menus of tutorials are the “How To..” videos. These range from beginner-level creations such as making a window to more advanced techniques like “How To… Make a Shooty Cannon”. Pleasingly, these are much more abundant than their Masterclass cousins and I’d especially recommend them if you’re planning on delving into the game-making side of Dreams. Overall, there’s no shortage of tutorials to get sucked into when you begin Dreams, with the vast majority being informative without stepping into patronising, and really good help you find your feet in what can be an intimidating place at first.
Even after absorbing a lot of tutorials, though, controlling Dreams can initially feel unintuitive. To some extent this is to be expected: Dreams is attempting to do things that a home console has never done before, so naturally it will have button inputs that are unfamiliar.
I spent a while trying to work out which of the three different ways to control Dreams was best for me. The default, which involves using the DualShock 4’s motion controls to move my Imp (your smiley, colourful cursor) around the screen, ended up being my chosen weapon after spending time with each, but in truth I found it hard to find the perfect combination for me.
At first it can feel cumbersome to move an Imp with motion controls while at the same time moving around in 3D with the left stick and rotating around it with the right. I quickly got more used to the control scheme when using the DualShock 4, but never felt I could be as precise as I wanted to with the motion controls when trying to be delicate with a paint brush. I’d often find myself slashing a swath of colour across my canvas where all I wanted to do was add a small detail. Thankfully, the trusty undo button comes to your aide in times like this, but having to try a dozen times to get it right is still aggravating.
LoadingOne way to improve this is to use the PlayStation Move controllers if you have a pair lying around. These allow you to be much more deliberate in your actions, but in turn come with their own unwieldy control scheme that never quite clicked with me. The third and final option is a new addition since early access and means using the DualShock but with motion controls removed, where your Imp is moved using the left stick. It allows for small details to be made easier, and straight lines to be created with much more ease, but altogether it feels like the flowing, magic wand-like feel of Dreams is lost.
Once I found what felt right for me, I had a go at building something from scratch, which resulted in a series of unsuccessful projects at first. In the days after, however, I felt myself learning and picking up techniques, crucially feeling like I was making progress and never feeling lost. I was by no means creating masterpieces but I was having a great time doing it, and that’s the crucial part.
The act of sculpting and painting was fun and, even if the final product wasn’t as impressive as I’d envisioned, it was still an entirely enjoyable process. After all, the best part of a LEGO set is building it – otherwise you’d just buy a toy ready-built.
After all, the best part of a LEGO set is building it – otherwise you’d just buy a toy ready-built.
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Sculpting is done by first choosing a shape and its material and smearing it onto the screen in a satisfying motion. You can then add and subtract shapes from it or mould it more freely if you wish to get the exact shape you’re looking for. Once achieving a form you’re happy with you can add coats, styles, and effects if you wish. There’s a variety on offer and you’ll soon learn which does what, and the corresponding look and feel it will give your dream. A shiny wax surface accompanied with the flow effect and the addition of the comb tool can create a river with a current, for example.
Even small simple objects like flowers and bowling balls that I was forming delivered their own levels of satisfaction. Whether that be when receiving a thumbs up from someone who had stumbled across my creation in Dreams’ built-in browser, or that unique thrill of someone using it in one of their own dreams.
This is the crux of what makes Dreams so special to me. The sense of sharing and community is unlike pretty much anything I’ve seen in a game before. The ability to take any asset uploaded to the server and remix it for your needs is a thing of beauty. Whether it be a piece of landscape, a character, or a sound effect amongst myriad other categories. If the idea of creating a whole fully workable game sounds daunting or you simply have no interest in doing so, there’s so much more you can try your hand at. You can become a tree specialist, a voiceover artist, or a music maker in the fully kitted out audio studio and contribute to other people’s whole fully workable games.LoadingFor me, it was the painting side of creation I found myself drawn to most in my time with Dreams.
There’s something satisfying about the way flecks of paints are applied to the screen, which varies depending on the angle of your controller and amount of pressure you place on the trigger. It feels like you’re actually brushing the strokes and feels wonderfully fluid as you sweep each layer of colour onto the other. I won’t be in a position to forge any Rembrandts any time soon, but once again I had a great time using the tools and was not necessarily concerned by my less-than-stellar results.
That’s not to say that stunning works of art can’t be made in Dreams. The tools are there and there’s no shortage of proof that they work. The quality and variety on show when browsing through the “Dreamiverse” (the server where all Dreams creations are stored) is immediately apparent. It inspired me to persevere and get better where it would feel easy to give up. A bad workman blames their tools, after all.
Share Play
Many will see the prospect of being able to make their own games as the most enticing aspect of Dreams.
Never before has this been attempted on consoles, at least not to this level of scale and complexity and open-endedness. No longer are the LittleBigPlanet-shaped chains of side-scrolling platforming tied around your ambitions when it comes to Media Molecule’s in-game game-making. Just from a quick browse of the Dreamiverse hub screen you can see the range of game genres and artistic styles people have already achieved. From the remarkably polished Wipeout homage “SlidEout 3019” to the sloth-led, Captain Toad inspired mascot platformer “Pip Gemwalker”, the level of depth displayed is astounding. Even though you shouldn’t expect to reach these heights straightaway, it’s empowering to know that it can be done.
No longer are the LittleBigPlanet-shaped chains of side-scrolling platforming tied around your ambitions.
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Once again, the tutorials are key when first stepping into Dreams game design – especially if, like me, you’re taking your first baby steps into making a game of any kind.
If you played a LittleBigPlanet game you’ll be on familiar ground to start with, however, as the basics you’re taught relate to basic platformers, whether that be programming a character with a jump function or connecting a button to a bridge that lowers upon pressing.
This is where ‘logic’ comes into play and things start to get exponentially more complicated. Mercifully, the lessons are taught at a kind pace and I never found myself lost in the tangle of wires and cables connecting objects together at first. The more ambitious I got, however, the less I started to build from scratch and started to take advantage of maybe Dreams’ biggest asset: that ability to use others’ assets to create your own.LoadingThe shareability of all items uploaded and made public means that you don’t have to – nor are you expected to – create a whole game independently from scratch. Alongside a couple of Media Molecule provided templates, such as a basic first-person shooter, you can also remix creations by the community.
My first ‘game’ was a combination of the aforementioned FPS template, another user’s small platforming section, and a gigantic wedge of waxy cheese that I sculpted, which rotates when stepping on a button. You can then shoot at the cheese, because why wouldn’t you?
It was in this moment that I fell in love with Dreams’ creation suite. I realised that I could make as weird an experience as possible and no one was there to say “no”. While I don’t possess a great amount of interest in programming logic or carefully sculpting detailed characters (nor do I have the time), it’s the ability to create using others people’s creations that I’ve enjoyed the most. Placing Batman on Tatooine with R2-D2 under the shadow of a Christmas tree being projected by the planet’s twin suns, for example. Dreams is a kit basher’s paradise and a place for worlds to collide in increasingly odd ways.
Of course, you don’t even have to create anything at all if you don’t want to, but instead chose to watch, play, and experience all manner of dreams created by others.
Making Waves
Surfing through the Dreamiverse of community created content can become an absolute time-suck in the best way possible. Akin to spelunking down wikiholes or losing yourself in YouTube algorithms, you pick a starting point – whether that be something grand like high science-fiction or a more mundane notion like an apple — and before you know it you’ve enjoyed a dozen unique games or pieces of art before finding yourself stood inside Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. You may only spend 30 seconds in some creations, but as someone’s imagination gets its hooks in you you might spend 30 minutes exploring another.
14 Community Creations Made In Dreams
Just as you can create whatever you like in Dreams, you can view pretty much whatever you want as well. There are all sorts of games enveloping every genre imaginable, from cute character platformers to first-person military shooters, to even hour-plus-long action RPGs. There’s also, of course, a large helping of imitations and re-imaginings of established franchises such as the Batman Arkham series or the Sonic franchise – seriously, there’s so many Sonic games.
If you feel like being a bit more cultured, though, you can browse though the art section and effectively spend a day at a gallery without leaving your sofa as vast watercolours and ridiculously detailed sculptures fill your screen.
Then there’s some dreams that combine the two and offer completely singular experiences that you just wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. The most pertinent example of this perhaps being “Haus of Bevis”, a walking sim of sorts that begins as a tour of a sculpture gallery before taking a sinister turn. I won’t spoil it, as it’s really something that you should experience for yourself.
You never know quite what you’re going to get, and that’s the unique joy of Dream Surfing.
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You never know quite what you’re going to get, and that’s the unique joy of Dream Surfing. I’ve played BABATUNDE The Father Has Returned, an arena fighter, multiple times due to its fluid-feeling movement and dynamic power-kick animation, but also spent the best part of 15 minutes staring at a fully realised cooked breakfast as my eyes glaze over at the sight of a puddle of baked beans.
There’s also the “Autosurf” button, the variation on Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” which selects you a random taster of the Dreamiverse. It’s like a friend offering chocolate to you from a box without knowing what flavour each is; it’s a lucky dip. You may get one of your favourites, and savour it, or get one that you’re not overly keen on, but at the end of the day it’s free chocolate and how bad can that be?
If you want to take less of a chance, however, then there’s a helpful tagging system for all creations that lets you be more specific with what you’re looking for. Looking for a shooter? Then search “shooter”. Want it to be third-person? Then add that. Looking for something with aliens in? Simply add “alien” as a keyword, and so on and so on until you find something that catches your eye. Adding more tags will help you narrow down your search until you’ve found the exact thing you’re looking for. It’s a smart system that, along with the numbers of thumbs up a dream has received, gives you a clearer indication of what might be worth spending your valuable time on.
LoadingThere’s a level of weirdness on offer that you wouldn’t normally find on the PlayStation, even in the less-trodden recesses of the PSN store. For example, I’ve controlled a three-inch-tall man holding a ham-joint walking around the inside of a cardboard box while hurling insults and trying to pick a fight with a pair of giant hairy feet that tower over me. It’s these bizarre dioramas mixed with jankier creations that add a sense of charm to Dreams and often ended up being some of my favourites. It reminded me of browsing through Vine and stumbling across a particularly odd six seconds that I couldn’t wait to share with others.
On the other end of the scale, the overall quality level of some players’ creations after only a year in early access is astonishing and I often found myself exclaiming, “How have they done this?!” as I found new things that amazed me. It’s a testament to the tools that Media Molecule has provided that all of this is possible, but also to the community of Dreams and their boundless imaginations.
The sense of community really is there in the rawest sense of the word as well, that’s clear to see when taking a peek into the genealogy of some of the larger playable projects, such as The Pig Detective series. There are almost ‘micro game studios’ operating within the Dreamiverse already with numerous people contributing small pieces to create a more impressive whole. These range from people scoring the music to games for others, to more granular aspects like fine-tuning the walking animation of a character.
A genuine sense of community that I can’t say I’ve experienced before in a game.
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It’s that ability to combine and design with others that gives Dreams a genuine sense of community that I can’t say I’ve experienced before in a game. LittleBigPlanet took baby steps towards a create, share and play ecosystem, but Dreams builds on it in almost every tangible way and feels like a burgeoning social network as much as it does a place to play games.
It promises so much more as well. People are already performing live music concerts from their bedrooms using Dreams, and it’s begun seeping its way into education with virtual career fairs being made and sign-language learning tools available. It’s exciting to think that there is already so much to see, do, and create in Dreams, and it hasn’t even really got going yet. Media Molecule has planted the seeds by creating the tools necessary for players to express themselves. It’s now up to the community to grow these ideas and help Dreams flourish by creating, sharing, playing and having a ton of fun whilst doing so.
It’s a cliche, but Dreams really is something that needs to be played to fully grasp an understanding of. It’s unlike anything else: an ambitious project that has been expertly brought to life by Media Molecule, and an audacious experiment in game design that gives you endless ways to enjoy your time with it. The creation tools allow for ultimate expression despite there being a few controller related challenges to work around – never enough to deter.
The vast range of experiences already on offer via Dream Surfing means that no two sessions playing it are ever the same, offering fresh ways to have fun every time you start it up and see what community creations have popped up while you’ve been away. Whether you just want to create, purely play, or get involved in a bit of everything, Dreams offers it all to you. This is one dream I urge you not to sleep on.
A Thief’s End (The Way of a Thief) — player reviews, critics’ reviews, scores, rating We do not add non-judgmental reviews, because we do not know how to determine their ratings based on the written text and cannot think them out for the author. We are trying to make the most objective rating based on the actual ratings.
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10
Igromania Reviewed by: Not specified
Uncharted 4 is one of those games where after the finale you sit in complete silence for another ten minutes until you gather your strength to finally say: “Wow”.
The one-of-a-kind work of a talented studio, accustomed to going beyond what is permitted and doing things that leave no one indifferent. Well, along with this — just a luxurious adventure, which in 2016 has no equal.
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10
Playground Reviewed by: Unspecified
Uncharted in general, and Uncharted 4 in particular, is a work of genius. It will make a great gift for anyone who loves games. The last part puts an end to the series, causes a storm of emotions and falls in love with you forever. And no, this is not the end of the path of the long-suffering thief. This is the end of an era that we will always remember. Thanks Naughty Dog. It was great.
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10
[email protected] Reviewed by: Not specified
Uncharted 4 is the perfect adventure, an almost flawless adventurous story. No one else can do this today — without inventing anything new at all, the developers again made the best game for the platform.
The bar is set incredibly high. To surpass Uncharted 4’s level of staging, come up with an even more twisted plot, and just as perfectly balance puzzles, shootouts and acrobatics in the gameplay, the next game in the series will have to jump above its own head.
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10
3DNews Reviewer: Not specified
The end of the series turned out to be not only the brightest, most beautiful and thoughtful adventure of the tetralogy, but also the most personal. It’s a self-contained story, but the real enjoyment will come from those who have been with Drake since the beginning. One can only guess how difficult it was to bring such a saga to a proper ending, but Naughty Dog succeeded. A Thief’s End is a wonderful end to Uncharted, from the first to the last frame. We will miss you, Nathan. It was unforgettable!
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10
Kotonavty Reviewer: Not specified
The game is beautiful.
Well, that is, the local picture is so impressive that, ironically, I don’t want to talk about it. When I try to tell people how good Uncharted 4 looks, I feel like Drake sharing with familiar stories about his very real journeys to mythical places — it sounds too good for anyone to believe. And indeed, to believe that A Thief’s End looks the way it looks, you need not only to see everything yourself …
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10
PS4N Reviewer: Unspecified
At the end of the 17 hour playthrough, all my nitpicking about the game can be described as: a couple of times badly worked animations during firefights (once I jumped on the enemy from above, but instead of slamming it into the ground, Drake just rolled down it and landed on his two legs) and a little nitpick about the plot itself. But against the background of all these 17 hours, during which the game never ceased to amaze me, it looks like a trifle.
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10
ITC Reviewed by: Unspecified
After completing the storyline in the A Thief’s End campaign, there is not much to do other than search for lost treasures and earn lost trophies, but you should not put the game on the shelf, because multiplayer this time, Naughty Dog turned out to be quite solid, albeit without revelations.
They give you a chance to play for almost all the bright characters of the series, without the obligatory recent appearance settings, too. Money earned during the game is used to buy…
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10
Age of Geeks Reviewer: Unspecified
Uncharted 4 is a grandiose and phenomenal conclusion (at least from Naughty Dog’s side) of the Nathan Drake saga. An amazing 15-hour adventure filled with great staging, exciting exploration and adrenaline-filled gunfights. This is a game polished to a shine, where there are almost no rough edges, and you can only find fault with trifles.
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9.8
Special Games Club Reviewed by: Not specified
Well, as you can see, the game got me hooked. Every second I admired the work done by the Naughty Dog studio, experienced the whole adventure with the heroes, sharing their successes and hardships. You can accuse me of an excessive sense of admiration, but it is these games that give genuine emotions that will stay with you for life.
This is a more than fitting end to the story, we can safely let go of Nathan Drake. It was his last journey into the world of the unknown.
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9.7
GreatGamer Reviewed by: Unspecified
At the same time, what is most surprising, it is completely incomprehensible exactly how Naughty Dog does this — after all, if you take Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End apart, then absolutely nothing cardinal you can’t find anything new here even compared to the first part — don’t consider a cat hook or a simple stealth that has appeared as something supernatural. However, it is absolutely impossible to break away from the game. But this applies only to the single, and Uncharted also has a great multiplayer …
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9.6
Gamer-Info Reviewed by: Not specified
Uncharted 4 is purely a matter of story. Multiplayer here is like a dog’s fifth wheel, and no one would have noticed if the notorious online was not counted here.
But he is. Calling it optional is an undeserved compliment. The rudimentary organ is represented by three modes on eight tiny maps, slightly expanding the combat mechanics of the game, allowing you to earn money right during the match and use it on magical contraption to help resolve the confrontation.
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9
Kanobu Reviewer: Unspecified
Uncharted 4 is the game of the year. Uncharted 4 is the metaphysical opposite of factory Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. Uncharted 4 is the perfect conclusion to Nathan Drake’s story. Uncharted 4 is 10 out of 10. Well, now that there are enough SEO beacons and cover quotes in the text, I can admit that Uncharted 4 is not quite the game that I expected from Naughty Dog. And it’s not that after the departure of Amy Hennig, who wrote the trilogy, the directors of The Last of Us, Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, set a new vector for A Thief’s Way…
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9
IGN Russia Reviewer: Not specified
Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End inherited some of the family’s vices and even got some new ones.
Therefore, immediately after absolutely delightful scenes, there follow those from which you only ask into the void “What are you doing?” However, among these shortcomings there are no critical ones that can spoil the impression of the whole game. Yes, sometimes it is boring, but these periods can and should be endured for the sake of many breathtaking scenes.
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9
gotVG Reviewer: Not specified
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the most beautiful game in the current generation of consoles. Advanced technologies, stunning play of light, natural facial animation, infinitely smooth motion animation — other studios will grow to this level for several more years. And is it worth talking for the thousandth time about the maniacal attention to detail? While playing the game before the release patch 1.02, I actually had to deal with millisecond freezes a couple of times and, surprisingly…
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9
GameMAG Reviewer: Not specified
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End combines the best of past games in the series, combining it with smart opponents and The Last of Us stealth mechanics.
