Looking back, the PlayStation 4 launch titles were terrible (but pretty) games

[Eggman]

I would passionately disagree with this statement, but I understand how both are enjoyable (yet clearly flawed) games. Each are gonna heavily resonate with somebody.

I think in those first few years, most people buying PS4 consoles were doing it out of price/power, or because their friends already had one. For an enormous chunk of the game buying audience, no exclusive is more valuable than the ability to play Madden/FIFA/CoD with your friends. If the first person in your gaming group goes PlayStation, that sets the platform for the rest of the group.

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I believe the first person in the group tends to be more of a core gamer that will be swayed by the exclusives/game library of a certain platform so even if it is indirect the exclusives still have a big affect. Core gamers will be followed by the casuals.

 

[Andromeda]

Why do you ignore Resogun ? It was more than excellent, fun to play and pretty at the same time.

 

[Oreiller]

Second Son was much better than Infamous 2, don't @ me.

 

[RingRang]

Resogun was awesome, but yeah, everything else was pretty much garbage. It's my one fear with the PS5 launch already. I really hope they have a stronger first year than they did with the PS4, because it was pretty rough.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Knack is a fun game.

 

[Truly Gargantuan]

Second Son is good as far as launch games go. It was pretty, but a bit by the numbers for Open World games. I got it through PS+ ages ago and it's a great game to just play mindlessly while listening to a podcast or something.

 

[Goldenroad]

The saving grace for both consoles was Assassins Creed Black Flag. Game looked great, had a fun story, and lots of stuff to come back and keep doing until newer better games came out.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

First Light > Second Son

 

[pswii60]

Resogun saved PS4 launch like KI saved XBO launch.

It was great fun.

But I thought KillZone SF was abysmal. A complete disjointed forgettable mess with the worst final level of a game this generation. It suddenly turned in to the worst stealth game of all time.

 

[Ryuhza]

I still intend to finish Knack one day. I didn't hate what I played of it (hard), but at some point I set it down and neglected to come back. I think I'd gotten fully hooked into Battlefield 4 for that point. BF4 was like 75% of my first year on PS4. Great game. I'd kill for them to give it a Pro patch, stuff like FoV settings, and the option to disable the grody post processing. Hardline too, for that matter. Ah well.

 

[Deleted member 17990]

Infamous SS was great, sorry OP you're wrong.

 

[Sheng Long]

Resogun kept me busy.

I really liked Infamous SS when it did come out.

 

[Andromeda]

I don't know where this Infamous SS hate comes from. But it was a very fun game and very well liked by the critics (even if not as good as Infamous 1 and 2, I agree there).

I think some people just thought it would be a better GTA5 or a better Assassin's creed because it's an "open world game". Do those people expect some GTA5 or RDR2 open world stuff when they play Mario Odyssey or Zelda BOTW ? it's like the game was so pretty they had to say it was pretty shallow compared to GTA5. Like how many open world game are more detailed and intricate than GTA5 ?

Contrary to those Rockstar games Infamous is super fun, and has responsive controls. A very enjoyable game to play and look at.

 

[Pankratous]

Both games were very enjoyable. Can't agree.

 

[random88]

Shadowfall wasn't nearly as bad as people are saying, it was a fine game, it just isn't as good as KZ 2. And it was a next gen showcase.
And Second Son is also fine.

 

[No Depth]

LEGO Marvel and Injustice were alright. I mean I held off for the PS4 ports...

BF4 took a few months to fix its issues but it turned out well enough in the end...

I also enjoyed Shadowfall and never had a real issue with navigation as many did. Though I agree it lacked the weight and heft of gunfire as prior games. Still it was a fine launch experience.

 

[George Romero]

Second Son was much better than Infamous 2, don't @ me.

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hahahahaha

 

[PMS341]

Infamous was very fun to play, but I spent more time in the Photo Mode than anything.

 

[George Romero]

Infamous SS is bad, gameplay is weaker than infamous 2, who has a great gameplay, and great combat, story was boring too. You fight the same enemies over and over and over. I dont know who they changed so much the gameplay after infamous 2, that game was so fun.

 

[Andromeda]

And you also forgot Killzone SF Multiplayer game. You clearly missed all the good stuff apparently.

 

[Voke]

Second Son was pretty good, just not quite as good as the previous games. I remember when Dark Souls II released I didn't touch my PS4 for months straight. The gen didn't really start until 2015 tbh

 

[Deleted member 5604]

For me at least it was generally okay. The third parties are actually what let me down the most during the first year or so for ps4.

I was one of the few people who unironically liked Knack. Found it a ton of fun in co-op on hard difficulty. KZSF couldn't keep my attention at all and stopped playing the campaign a couple of levels in, and I am not much of a mulitplayer gamer so even though that aspect of the game was received better, it didn't matter to me.

I like Infamous Second Son a lot, even though overall it wasn't better than the previous two games (the side activities really let it down), it was still a good game.

Other than that all I played in the first year were cod ghosts, shadow of mordor and dragon age inquisition. All were let downs in some way or another, but at least mordor was enjoyable for the time I played it.

2014 was the year of the Wii U for me, and xb1 had a much better first year first party wise which is why I was going to buy it (but ended up winning it at the end of 2014 in a contest), that e3 2014 for ms that unfortunately became the e3 of cancellations was also winning me over, especially the likes of Scalebound RIP. 2015 is when PS4 got going on all fronts (first and third party) and has not let up for me thankfully.

 

[Dylan]

I tried to play Infamous: Second Son on PS Now.

Hilariously, if you don't have a Dual Shock 4, you can make it about 10 seconds into the game before it asks you to tilt your controller to proceed. So I guess I won't be playing it.

I also tried Killzone: Shadowfall but by the time the intro was finished I was already sick of it. Holy mother, that intro takes forever!

 

[ryseing]

Yeah, Infamous SS is not good. It's shockingly short. Finished it in one day. Game I ended up playing the most during the launch year was TLoU MP.

The saving grace for both consoles was Assassins Creed Black Flag. Game looked great, had a fun story, and lots of stuff to come back and keep doing until newer better games came out.

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Damn straight. I was disappointed by 3 so wasn't planning on picking up 4 until the Watch Dogs delay was announced.

I ended up playing through AC4 three times, once on Xbox One while my launch PS4 was being fixed.

 

[ZSJ]

The problem with second son is that Infamous 2 was perfect

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Meh. Second Son's gameplay, especially combat and traversal, is much better.

Second Son's biggest sin was the side content being blander than all hell and the world just not having much to do period besides the story. Mafia 2 had similar issues and I thought that was pretty good too.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

Resogun's still one of the best games on PS4 and Infamous Second Son came out in 2014, so it wasn't a launch title.

Flower and Sound Shapes were also launch titles since you're only talking about Sony games.

 

[onpoint]

Resogun is great though.

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This is the truth. Shouldn't be forgotten.

 

[CosmicGP]

Yeah Shadowfall had stunning graphics and art but in typical Killzone fashion (imo) bland storytelling. Perfectly adequate for a launch game.

I put Killzone and Tomb Raider into the same camp of 'can't tell a compelling story/craft an interesting cutscene to save their lives' but somehow games like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed can. Glad they (appparently) overcame that with Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

[carlosrox]

The PS4's entire exclusive library prior to Uncharted 4 was absolutely embarrassing, and I deeply hope Sony won't repeat it with their next console.

Shadowfall, Knack, Second Son, The Order, DriveClub - just a firehose of mediocrity.

It's hilarious how people claim exclusives are the primary reason Sony won this gen, when they amassed their lead during the biggest draught of worthwhile exclusives the company has ever seen.

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Uncharted 4 was worse than half that list though.

Game's a massive slog by the second playthrough and I kept wondering when the game would really let me play the game and enjoy the mechanics for more than a few minutes outside of climbing, talking, and walking. The pacing in that game was fucked.

I'd rather play Shadowfall, Knack, or Second Son before I play UC4 again. Enthusiastically at that.

 

[IDontBeatGames]

very little substance from sony's first party offerings this gen, especially if you don't want to play as an angry dad with a weapon and shallow gameplay. hoping we see more weird stuff like parappa the rapper next gen.

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[Screen Looker]

Resogun was the best game on consoles at the time. Fight me!

 

[Normal]

Delsin was a great protagonist with a solid design. The game was fun too.

 

[RestEerie]

I played alot of warframe & resogun during launch.

The ps4 really started to hit its stride for me when destiny & bloodborne launched and after that, the train just continue to blast full speed ahead.

 

[Mollymauk]

I still find that beanie very upsetting

 

[mxbison]

None of those were terrible. In fact not a single one of the games that people here usually like to shit one was terrible.

 

[Bog]

I basically just played Black Flag that first month or so.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Thank fuck for Warframe. That game kept me busy in those barren early months. And it hadn't even reached its superior later forms.

 

[Melchiah]

A lot of people talk about how bad Microsoft's launch was compared to Sony, but Microsoft had a better launch lineup, and they had Titanfall in the Spring, while Sony had Infamous for that slot.

Microsoft: Forza, Dead Rising 3, Killer Instict, Ryse, Peggle 2
Sony: Killzone, Knack, Resogun, Warframe

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Lest we forget, DC Universe Online, Contrast, Outlast, Don't Starve, Doki-Doki Universe, TowerFall Ascension, The Pinball Arcade, and Zen Pinball 2 were not available on XBO at the time * , and there were remasters like Flower, Dead Nation, Sound Shapes, and Escape Plan, which were new to those who jumped ship from 360.

* EDIT: + Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

 

[Penny Royal]

Infamous was content-light, but it's still a great looking game, and the combat and traversal are still really good fun.

KZSF yeah, pretty but dull...not a disaster tho

Knack is GOATGoF

Can't imagine why the OP omitted Resogun tho...

 

[msdstc]

Fetch quests were easily the weakness for Infamous one follows by the whole logic of the good vs evil path. It was entirely one path or the other and this determined how much you could level up. There was no mix up and they could have done something there to make the dynamics of the game more interesting.

For FPS last gen, certain franchises would easily score in the mid 80s regularly in metacritic dropped down by quite a bit. Check FPS scores in general at the beginning of this gen, vs priors...

I remember the main one that was a surprise was the Battlefield series that on average would score in the high 80s/low 90s. BF4 was broken at launch and was essentially a beta for an entire year before actually running well. PC version has like an 80 average overall in metacritic. BF4 was still a very good game for FPS standards.... once it was actually working.

Killzone Shadowfall wasn't great, but I don't think it was THAT bad. I guess 70ish overall is fine.

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You just confirmed my argument though. The reviews weren't harsh, the games were BAD. BF4 reviewed poorly because it was broken much like driveclub getting middling reviews. If both came out clean they likely get damn good reviews. That doesn't mean reviewers are harsh, it means the generation got off to a rough start, and again that's not uncommon at all, most generations developers either rush stuff out at the start or are still trying to find their footing with the new hardware.

 

[Mechaplum]

very little substance from sony's first party offerings this gen, especially if you don't want to play as an angry dad with a weapon and shallow gameplay. hoping we see more weird stuff like parappa the rapper next gen.

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You can race cars, save little VR robots, control gravity and fly through the skies, don a super hero costume, fight zombies on a bike...

Did you really look?

 

[BAD]

Very telling that so many are saying they played a lot of Black Flag, a port of the 360/PS3 title, at launch instead. I did too, it was much better than the exclusives.

 

[jukeboxhero2396]

Really wish that Killzone Mercenary was originally designed for PS4. Think it would have been better than Shadow Fall.

 

[endlessflood]

Loved infamous SS, one of my favorite early PS4 games

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It's one of my favourite PS4 games full stop. On the Pro it's still one of the best looking too.

 

[Jegriva]

This gen was so easy to win.

Xbox with the presentation disaster.
Nintendo with the old 3DS and the Wii U.

Sony was basically Inzaghi-ing it.



(I wish I had more time to look for easy Inzaghi goals)

 

[Deleted member 42484]

Loved infamous SS, one of my favorite early PS4 games

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Same. One of the only open world PS4 games I've beaten.

 

[TheGhost]

Killzone was never a good franchise with it's sluggish controls. Horizon was the best thing to happen to Guerilla. When I saw kilkxone was a launch title and people got excited as if it's gameplay quality was on par with COD or battlefield? Felt like I was in the twilight zone

I loved Infanous Second Don though. Good showcase of the system and movement felt great.

 

[Dysun]

Killzone is the typical launch console game. Meant to show off the improved graphics of the console in a competent, yet unremarkable game. It was fine for what it was.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Second Son was a step back from Infamous 2 in every way but visuals.

It's very impressive how that game managed to be both shallow and spread too thin. First Light is the superior PS4 Infamous by far.

 

[Nostradamus]

PS4 launch (window) titles were pretty good actually. Resogun was amazing, Shadow Fall was bland but more than decent and Infamous was a great game.