Don’t get me wrong, there are some odd ones on the Xbox Series X side too (The Gunk?), but it definitely felt more like a parade of existing franchises than what we saw from Sony back in June. I’ve gone back through and taken a look at everything announced for the PS5 so far and here are some of the weirdest games for the PS5 that have got me excited for November.
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Bugsnax
Easily topping the list is Bugsnax. And while I won’t be able to pry the title of Chief Bugsnax Aficionado away from our own Philip Tracy, the sheer ridiculousness of the trailer for this game couldn’t help but grab your attention. It opens on an animated strawberry taking off through the brush just saying “strawberry” to itself in a singsongy fashion until it is picked up by a narrating Walrus that introduces us to the Island of Bugsnax after popping the living strawberry in her mouth and then sprouting a strawberry on her hand. At the close of the trailer, the walrus, explorer Elizabert Megafig, is called away by one of her followers due to a fire in the village before a creature that appears to have undergone a full transformation due to consumption of bugsnax comes charging at the camera. The creatures on the island are literally described as being “part bug and part snax” and you are going to be tasked with discovering, hunting and capturing the 100 different species on the island using a variety of bait and traps. While doing this, you must also discover what exactly happened to Elizabert and the rest of her team. The game comes from the team behind Octodad, which if you never played it, is about an Octopus just trying to make his way through the world as a human being with a family and subjecting you to deliberately terrible controls. So yeah, weird concepts are kind of their bread and butter and I’m excited to see whether they can deliver again.
Stray
Another weird PS5 game whose trailer intrigued me is Stray. The game has you wandering around as a cat with a glowing backpack in a once-human world that is now entirely populated by robots. I have plenty of questions and I’m honestly not sure whether the game has any intention of answering them. The team behind Stray said that it will involve exploration, puzzle-solving and action sequences, but whether there is a true storyline remains unclear. Beyond the odd premise of the game, the art design looks amazing with the rundown moody environments splashed in neon light. The little glimpses into the robots going about their lives and completely ignoring you as you pick your way through the alleyways and buildings just piqued my interest more. The game won’t be arriving until 2021, but I’ll be keeping tabs on it.
Little Devil Inside
The quirky art design alone would have won me over, but watching The Little Devil Inside’s gameplay kept drawing me into this odd little game further. There appear to be two storylines playing out in the trailer with an explorer/adventurer wandering through dangerous environments and alternating between fleeing from or doing battle with a whole host of creatures and character. The other depicts an old man going to the store, napping, going to the bathroom, and generally just living a normal life. So yeah that’s a weird combination. Whether these are both the same person and the game is split across two different time periods or it’s two different people can’t really be answered at this point. The action/adventure component of the game shows you using a wide variety of weapons to combat different beasts. You’re also traversing across environments such as forests, deserts, ice-covered lakes, mountainsides and more. I’m not entirely sure what your motivation for these incredibly harrowing adventures. Perhaps it’s just a “because it’s there” scenario, but regardless it’s beautifully rendered and compelling looking.
Destruction AllStars
Catch the wrong split-second of footage from Destruction AllStars and it just looks like a well-rendered, but simple destruction derby game or possibly a Rocket League ripoff. But there is something weird underneath the hood in Destruction AllStars. The opening of the trailer gives you a WWE-style introduction to the cast of characters that immediately jump into their vehicles and take off at full speed intent on destroying one another (or at least one another’s vehicles). Now the character design that looks like Fortnite meets Lucha Libre meets EDM DJs combined with the highly-detailed car models and destruction were certainly part of what captured my attention. Then you see characters start getting ejected out of their vehicles mid-destruction derby and keep battling one another running alongside, leaping over, or hanging on to cars and resorting to kicking and punching one another and its a real maelstrom of mayhem. I’ll grant you it’s a little less weird than a walrus turning into some kind of living bug and snack hybrid, but it was out there enough to have me wanting to see more.
Deathloop
The basic gameplay might look familiar to fans of Dishonored or Prey, but the premise is definitely weird and I’m 100% on board. Arkane, the team behind the aforementioned games created this new IP as a PS5-exclusive that pits two assassins against one another in a time loop, with one trying to break the loop and the other trying to maintain it. When playing the game in single-player mode, you are Colt, charged with treason and now trapped on Blackreef Island with one day to kill eight targets and thereby break out of this time loop and…well we don’t really know what if anything might happen from there. Like Groundhog Day or Live Die Repeat (or Edge of Tomorrow) you are simply going to keep reliving this day until you manage to get it right. The actual gameplay is first-person with a variety of powers, weapons and skills at your disposal to take on the many lower-level residents of Blackreef that are out to kill you as well as those crucial eight targets. Of course, leading the other side is the other assassin I mentioned, Julianna. In the multiplayer game, your opponent will get to control Julianna and try to put you down before you can escape the time loop. While dying until you finally manage to win is kind of a description that could be applied to lots of games, this is actually rolling it into the plot and I’m definitely intrigued by both the single and particularly the multiplayer.
