Continued from State of the Play PlayStation, we now have a solid look at many of the upcoming PS5 titles. Your mileage may vary on how the lineup looks, but the recurring question where are all the ps5 games not fully answered. Some of the biggest games at the showcase were remakes or remakes of old games such as Until Dawn OR Silent Hill 2 remakes, or PC ports of titles already released as God of War: Ragnarok. That’s not to say there weren’t some great new PS5 games, but one in particular has me scratching my head at what we’re left with.
She would be Concord, the debut game from first-party PlayStation developer Firewalk Studios. A 5v5 endless multiplayer shooter, the game didn’t exactly give me the best first impression. The writing and characters in the cinematic trailer feel like microwaved leftovers from Guardians of the Galaxy, and knowing that this is an Overwatch-like heroic shooter where the cool cutscenes and lore won’t actually be reflected in the gameplay doesn’t help. Of course, Concord could very well surprise once we get our hands on it, but Sony putting so much focus on a game that looks so bland just reminds us that they have two strong first-party shooter IPs that have fallen on their backs. -Catalog for a very long time: Kill Zone and Resistance. Why should Sony bring these forgotten franchises back into the spotlight? Let me explain myself.
Sony’s FPS crisis
Concord being the first game to appear during the game state isn’t something that happened in a vacuum. Ever since Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision, there has been a question mark hanging over the PlayStation brand, which is what will happen to the Call of Duty franchise now that its direct competitor owns it. A large part of Sony’s argument in the regulatory case that tried and failed to block Activision’s acquisition hinged on Call of Duty, with Sony stating during the case that “Microsoft claims that Nintendo’s differentiated model shows that PlayStation does not need Call of Duty to compete in effective way. But this reveals Microsoft’s true strategy… After the transaction, Xbox would become the one-stop shop for all of the console’s best-selling shooter franchises.”
To address the concern, Microsoft and Sony signed an agreement to keep the long-running series on multiplatform, but such deals aren’t bulletproof. Microsoft has full control over the Call of Duty IP, meaning Sony is effectively at its mercy when it comes to that franchise. However, Sony’s argument that PlayStation needs Call of Duty to stay competitive is a defeatist mentality. Call of Duty being the number one shooter franchise is not predestined by the gods. Franchise trends throughout; Watch Halo go from the top of the universe in the mid-2000s to just “one of many” shooters in the modern era, or Overwatch being the world’s biggest thing at launch so far becoming a laughing stock as Blizzard tries and it fails. to deliver on the many promises of what Overwatch 2 was supposed to be.
However, none of this changes the fact that right now, Sony doesn’t have a standout FPS to call its own. Helldivers 2 was definitely a surprise hit, but it’s a third-person shooter with no campaign. There is also the last problem with the PSN login requirement which, even though he had turned backstill caused a lot of chaos in the gaming community and caused the game to be delisted in 177 countries. Sony needs a big win in the FPS space to counter Microsoft which is gobbling up the likes of Activision, Blizzard and Id Software. Fortunately, Sony has two legacy franchises waiting in the wings that could help it out of this bind.
Helghan Forever
At a time when a large part of Sony’s brand is focused on first-party AAA games like The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon or Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, leaving Killzone out to dry is a serious missed opportunity. More than most other franchises, Killzone was synonymous with the PlayStation brand in the PS3 era, with the release of Killzone 2 in February 2009 being a milestone for a console that seriously struggled with quality franchises in its first two years. . Alongside the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted 2, Killzone 2 helped change the reputation of the PS3 and finally made it a worthy competitor to the Xbox 360. That it was a sequel to a game that was NO this welcome in the first place only made Killzone 2 even more remarkable.
The first Killzone was released in 2004 on the PS2, and despite much pre-release hype as Sony’s potential answer to Halo, the game received mixed reviews. It’s not a bad game by any means, but it’s a disappointing start to the franchise considering how compelling the world and visual design is. It often felt like a good game with great presentation, including Brian Cox’s stellar vocal performance as Scolar Visari and Joris de Man’s iconic original score. But Killzone 2 showed that sometimes it’s worth taking a second chance on an idea that didn’t work out perfectly the first time, heading to Spectacular comments (including IGNs), and sale more than one million units worldwide in less than two months. The Killzone series would become one of Sony’s flagship franchises in the years that followed, with a PS3 sequel Killzone 3 launching in 2011, and one of the PS4 launch titles in 2013 being Killzone: Shadow Fall.
Now, we know Guerrilla Games is busy with Horizon these days, but surely Sony has enough studios under its umbrella to let someone else take up the Killzone banner. Its unique blend of sci-fi space opera, FPS-heavy combat and ‘World War II in space’ aesthetics, along with the iconic Helghast troop designs, hasn’t really been borrowed from other shooters on the market. A new game in the series could also finally pull the trigger on a story campaign from the perspective of the Helghast, something fans have been asking for for a long time due to their charming backstory. Given Killzone’s importance to the history of PlayStation consoles, leaving it out of the PS5 seems like a massive unforced error. Killzone 2 in particular is close to a masterpiece of sci-fi shooter design and not only deserves a modern makeover, but also a proper new entry to continue the saga. But it’s not the only Sony shooter series that warrants a revival.
Vive la Resistance
As previously mentioned, the PS3 failed out of the gate given how few quality games were made for the console in its inaugural year. But of all the launch titles, the one that stood out the most was Resistance: Fall of Man, an original FPS from Insomniac Games, best known for Ratchet & Clank and its recent Spider-Man series. Although its multiplayer was bland, the single-player campaign was surprisingly bland and could also be played in split-screen co-op (remember that?). What’s more, its story was fascinating – set in an alternate history where aliens called Chimera invaded Earth in the 1950s – and Insomniac’s trademark off-the-wall weapon design made for a great game that got lost in the cultural conversation as games most anticipated launched in the system.
Despite this, Resistance was a regular player in the PS3’s catalog of franchises, with two direct sequels in Resistance 2 and 3 also released during the console’s life cycle. Sadly, the series suffered a downfall with the second game, which tried too hard to conform to the conventions of other shooters on the market at the expense of its own personality. Not only was the creative weapon collection from the first game reduced by forcing players to only carry two at a time instead of the entire arsenal, but the sparse campaign was also accompanied by a series of frustrating boss fights that tended to be most scenarios. sequence rather than dynamic battle. Multiplayer was improved, but the story was weak compared to the previous entry.
Insomniac righted the ship with Resistance 3, which returned to many things that both fans and developers enjoyed about the series. In an interview with Kotaku, Insomniac CEO Ted Price said that all the changes in Resistance 2 “may not have been a good thing” and that “in Resistance 3, we went back to some of our more traditional core mechanics that players loved, and then we built a story that was more personal… we’re really proud of Resistance 3.” But that improvement didn’t translate into sales, and the series fizzled out with its third and final entry badly received PlayStation Vita spin-off, Resistance: Burning Skies. If Killzone taught us anything, though, it’s that one misstep doesn’t have to mean giving up on a good series, and the alternate history world presented in Resistance is still full of creative possibilities. The unconventional arsenal of weapons can be a great way to enjoy a multiplayer package, and there are many unseen eras or locations in the world of Resistance that could be the focus of a new campaign if Insomniac or one of the other developers of The Sonys take another shot. that.
Sony has the resources to contend in the shooter space, such as long-dormant franchises like Killzone or Resistance, or popular shooter developers like Bungie. There are many avenues to build first-person shooters on the PlayStation, and games like Concord come from that need. We’ll see how Firewalk’s debut goes, but chasing the highs of other games that are already past their sell-by date is rarely a winning strategy. Not that Sony shouldn’t try to cultivate new IPs, it absolutely should, but if it needs a competitive edge, it would be worth highlighting PlayStation brand values that are, in fact, PlayStation-specific. And reviving the two big franchises in the genre you’re currently struggling with that have already established fan bases and are already tied to your console? That would be a way to get that competitive edge much faster.
Carlos Morales writes Mass Effect novels, articles, and essays. You can follow his obsessions I tweet.