PlayStation Magazine - 05.2020

093

REVIEW

LAST MONTH

ON PS PLUS

STAY INDOORS. Do not talk about the

event. Do not think about that most

heinous of creations. No, dear reader,

do not acknowledge it! Don’t look it in

the deeply disturbing eye! My secret

shame, my dark past, my... Sonic The

Hedgehog original character.

Before I turn to

dust through

embarrassment, let’s

run you through last

month’s PS Plus offerings. As you might

have guessed from that earlier outburst,

Sonic Forceswas involved in the

March lineup. A to-the-point adventure

with a robust character creator, Forces

allowed your fast and furry creations

to take the lead. In a world conquered

by Eggman’s evil empire, Sonic and

company were desperate for new blood

to lead the charge and strike back.

Sounds perfect for fulfilling a few spiky

fanfic fantasies... not that we’d know

anything about that!

Changing pace, last

month’s headline act

was Shadow Of The

Colossus. Bluepoint

Games’ from-the-ground-up remake of

Team Ico’s original vision is a must-have

for any PlayStation fan’s game library.

A lone swordsman, Wander, makes a

deal with a powerful and terrible being.

Alongside his horse, Agro, he must

search a vast and lonely land for 16

titular colossi, and kill them. This is not

a story with a happy ending... aside

from the fact that we gave it a 9/10

back in OPM #146.

Talk about an odd couple! Though we

suppose Plus has offered far more

weird and wonderful pairings than this

over the years. [Great, now we’re back

to fan fiction – ed.] If you’ll excuse us,

we’ve just thought of the perfect pen

name for our planned 20,000 word

Bayonetta-and-Dante-eat-pizza-and-

generally-have-a-nice-time-fic. It should

be done, oh say, this time next month?

See you then, and don’t be stingy with

the pineapple on our Hawaiian!

@KoeniginKatze

ELEMENT SPACE

It’s your turn to save the galaxy

T

hree years after the

end of the Galactic

War, there is a fragile

peace.But when that

calm is shattered by a deadly

terrorist group calling itself

Tempest, Captain Christopher

Pietham (that’s you) and his

small chosen squad of brave

comrades must fight to

protect the entire galaxy from

catastrophe. Luckily, they

have super-powerful space

guns – and lots of them.

As a turn-based combat game,

most of Element Space’s action

takes the form of head-to-head

confrontations with the enemy

on a grid space. Each member

of Captain Pietham’s team is

equipped with different skills,

and during fights you need to

call on their strengths to turn

the battle in your favour. The

eight recruitable companions

all have discrete skill trees,

allowing you to pick the

right one for the job at hand.

Likewise with 32 weapons

you’re able to select the

appropriate tool for the job too.

Each round grants every

character two action points –

one primary, one secondary.

These allow you to make one

attacking move (for example,

firing your weapon) and to

reposition a team member

behind new cover objects (all

of which offer varying levels

of protection) to improve your

situation. The turn-based

system works well and

INFO FORMATPUB INCA GAMES PS4 ETA OUT NOW DEV SIXTH VOWEL

@Rebeccastow97

VERDICT

BRAVE THE ELEMENTS

provides ample opportunity

for strategic thinking, but it

doesn’t really offer anything

new to the RTS genre.

MAKE YOUR MOVE

Between battles you’re able to

move around levels, pointing

and clicking to get your squad

to run in the direction you

want. Unfortunately, this

system is slow and frustrating,

and something that could easily

have been rectified by allowing

use of the analogue stick to

control your fighters.

Alongside the action you’re

given occasional dialogue

options. These moments allow

you to form the values Pietham

holds and, as a result, shape

the Galaxy’s view of him. Do

you want to be pro-debate

and democracy? Or do you

favour the way of bullets?

Sadly, there is no voiceover,

although a decent science-

fiction soundtrack does swell

and fall in line with the action

unravelling on screen. It’s just

about enough to mitigate the

missing voice track.

And really that’s Element

Space all over: by no means a

bad game, but one that offers

little in the way of ambition or

unique ideas.

Transposes the turn-based

shooter into a futuristic setting

competently, but ultimately is

far from essential. For genre

completists only. Rebecca Stow