PlayStation Magazine UK - 12.2019

093

REVIEW

LAST MONTH

ON PS PLUS

Last month really knocked it out of the

park – literally. Amid all the whispers

about one of gaming’s most hotly

anticipated follow ups, there was also

news about a little game called The

Last Of Us Part II. Ah, we’re kidding,

(and you absolutely shouldn’t skip our

in-depth feature, beginning on p50), but

let’s save the best until last.

PS Plus tried to

get away with

offering another

yearly instalment

of a sports franchise. The cheek! At

the time of writing, Sony hadn’t done a

switcheroo with MLB The Show 19 like

it did with PES 2019 a few months ago

• though developer SIE San Diego Studio
  being tight-lipped about the inevitable
  2020 followup makes it less egregious.
  Baseball fans didn’t just enjoy
  Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce
  Harper gazing at them from their
  game library, they also got the dulcet
  commentary of Dan Plesac, Matt
  Vasgersian, and Mark DeRosa. The new
  Moments feature even allowed you to
  recreate famous plays from MLB history


• though that’s a bit ‘insider baseball’ for
  us (yes, wecando this all day).
  The main event,
  of course, was
  the Last of Us
  Remastered.
  Surprisingly, baseball featured in this
  post-apocalyptic survival tale too; wrap
  some barbed wire around a bat and you
  had a fine weapon to use against your
  fellow survivors... though we couldn’t
  get such favourable results against the
  horrifying Clickers.
  Joking aside, if you’d not experienced
  Naughty Dog’s tale of survival and
  redemption, you had no excuse to not
  jump in last month. Its inclusion in the
  PS Plus lineup presented the perfect
  opportunity to play it in time to board
  the hype train all the way to February
  next year when Ellie’s tale of revenge
  releases. We don’t doubt we’ll be seeing
  an influx of fern tattoos in 2020.

@KoeniginKatze

MUTAZIONE

Teenage Mutant Human Drama

G

reen fingers clearly

run in the family. And

no, we’re not talking

about Tung’s relatives,

though he’s one of the

residents of Mutazione island

whose family isliterallygreen.

We mean Kai’s family. While

visiting her ailing grandpa

(and shaman) from the big

city, she begins to take up

his task of tending to the

island’s gardens and strange,

mutated flora.

Mutazione is a mutant

community built upon the

ashes of a calamity: when a

meteor hit an island resort, it

obliterated most of the area’s

inhabitants, but also allowed

new life to spring forth. The

mutated human population is

now only numerous enough to

fill a small village living under

the massive Papu tree. As Kai,

you help out your grandpa,

in the process realising your

activity has wider implications

for the island, and by the end

of the journey you’ll feel like

you’ve unearthed plenty about

the mutant population.

LEAF ME ALONE

Not that the mutant status

of the village’s inhabitants

really matters. The novelty of

aqua-eyed cat-human Miu or

amorphous blob (and science

whizz) Jell-A quickly wears off,

and the very human soap-

opera-style drama begins.

Each of the neglected gardens

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@MrOscarTK

VERDICT

GARDEN PARTY

Kai has to tend to is based

around an emotion, usually

reflected in the interactions

between the characters in

the village that day – from

sadness to jubilation. Often

your task for the day revolves

around growing a plant to

help someone out. Your

grandfather’s given you his

drum and taught you a melody,

and using different melodies

you can speed up the growth

of the plants to harvest seeds

(which you can also find dotted

around the world).

There’s a creativity to

tending the gardens, but little

challenge. For the most part it’s

merely a vehicle for the story

(though you can spend more

time on them if you want).

But good use is made of that

narrative – you really feel like

you’re meeting everyone in

the village for the first time,

and learning more about them

as things progress. And that

coming together is successfully

wrapped into a larger, slightly

grander plot too.

Making sure you talk to

everyone in the village to eke

out more of the story feels

heartwarmingly rewarding.

Mutazione is an island holiday

you won’t forget in a hurry.

Visually beautiful, and packed

with great dialogue and

emotional intrigue. The strong

narrative makes you feel a part

of the story. Oscar Taylor-Kent