The PlayStation 4 line up already feels stacked as we begin our journey through 2018, with January already featuring a PS4 exclusive in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT and PSVR exclusive The Inpatient. There are a lot more games to come from the House of Sony, so many that we’ve split our list in two. We’ll be seeing fan favourites return as well as new IPs over the course of the year, so lets get started.
God of War
Platform: PS4 – Release date: Early 2018
God of War may be one of the most, if not the most, anticipated PS4 titles for 2018. Not only will we see the return of Kratos but we’ll be exploring a new world alongside him. Gone is the Greek Pantheon of gods, replaced by Norse mythology, but even more intriguing is that Kratos has a son named Atreus, who will play a big part in this adventure.
God of War is shrouded in mystery regarding its plot. We don’t know how Kratos ended up in this world, who Atreus’ mother is, or how his relationships with the likes of Odin, Loki, Thor, and Hel will unfold. What we do know is that this will be a long game with its length confirmed to be between 25 to 30 hours long, and there’s a whole host of new information that was released just this morning.
While a release date hasn’t been confirmed either the PlayStation Store did put a date of March 22nd on the game’s listing. The date itself is significant, as it marks the anniversary of the first God of War game’s release for PS2. Maybe Sony are using the date to signify a rebirth of the series?
Detroit: Become Human
Platform: PS4 – Release date: Q1/Q2 2018
Quantic Dream games have explored some very different themes through the narratives they tell. From the bizarre mystery of Fahrenheit, to the murder mystery of Heavy Rain, and a psychological thriller in the form of Beyond: Two Souls. Each explores the nature of choice and it appears all the lessons learnt from those games have culminated in Detroit: Become Human.
Detroit: Become Human’s roots are found in 2012, from Quantic Dream’s Kara tech demo. That demo became a focal point for David Cage and the rest of the team, leading to a reveal of Detroit: Become Human at Sony’s Paris Games Week conference in 2015. The game explores the themes of artificial intelligence, and how it adapts to a human world where AI is very much subservient.
In the demos we’ve seen so far there has been a situation where an android takes a child hostage, while another tries to defuse the situation. In another segment an android witnesses child abuse with choices having to be made on whether to get involved. Each choice made in these scenarios, like in previous Quantic Dream games, will determine the path of the story.
Shadow of the Colossus
Platform: PS4 – Release date: 2018
Considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time, it appears that Sony are using Shadow of the Colossus to show off its own progress as a hardware manufacturer. It first appeared on PS2 before being remastered for PS3, and now this new release on PS4 Shadow of the Colossus continues to inspire.
The game has had a huge visual upgrade over the previous iterations, with the PS4 edition having been built from the ground up. No doubt Shadow of the Colossus will garner the attention of new fans thanks to its journey filled with battles against the large scale creatures that inhabit the world.
Spider-Man
Platform: PS4 Release date: 2018
One of the first superheroes you think of from Marvel catalogues of characters is always going to be Spider-Man. Easily one of the most popular characters from comics, movies, and games, we’ve been waiting a long time for an exceptional game featuring the webslinger to appear. So at E3 2016 in stepped Insomniac Games to unveil Spider-Man, with a much deeper trailer coming a year later at E3 2017.
As far as we know this version of Spider-Man is very much established, appearing to skip the whole origin story, and instead throwing players into the shoes of a Spider-Man that has swung around the block a few times. We also know that one of the main groups he’ll be facing off against will be The Demons, with Wilson Fisk also making appearances.
Marvel is licensing out its properties to a number of different developers, but as far as we know the PS4 Spider-Man game exists in a different world to that of the upcoming Square Enix Avengers titles.
Dreams
Platform: PS4 – Release date: 2018
Media Molecule’s Dreams is a rather mysterious title. Officially announced back at E3 2015, but having appeared in the PlayStation Meeting PS4 unveiling, it definitely caught people’s attention due to the amount of crafting that could be done. Dreams looks like an evolution of LittleBigPlanet, expanding greatly on what that series did for player creation. The latest trailer for Dreams managed to capture the essence of what players will be able to make, and it appears to include almost anything.
While Dreams seems to have its own story mode, which will most likely act like an introduction to the creation tools, the bulk of the title will be about creating and sharing your own dreams. These dreams can take on the form of any genre going on by what we’ve seen so far, from first person to space shooter to open worlds. The only limit is your imagination.
There was supposed to be a beta for Dreams back in 2016, but that’s now on the cards for 2018 ahead of what we hope is a final release for this weird and wonderful looking game.
That’s all for this entry, but as we said at the head, there’s plenty more to come for PlayStation 4 owners. However, we’ll be exploring other platforms and genres when we resume Ones to Watch next week.Â
JR.
God of War does look interesting but I fear it may be too different. I just can’t see how they can plausibly transition the character from Kratos, the God of War, to Joel from The Last of Us in such a short space of time. Happy to be proven wrong of course.
Can’t say I’m feeling the excitement for Detroit. I’ll probably enjoy it but it’s kind of like, ‘oh yeah.. that game… yeah, I’ll probably play it one day.’ …5 years later, it’s still in the backlog.
Spider-man is the most anticipated game by a mile. Insomniac and Spider-man should be a match made in heaven. Expecting great things. Sunset OD proved they still have ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is. Saying that, I really enjoyed the Resistance games too (the third one in particular) but I’ll always think of them most fondly for Spyro & Ratchet & Clank.
Shadow of the Colossus is probably going to be great too. I haven’t played the original (gasp) but I’ve only heard good things. I did play the HD remaster of Ico on the PS3 but never got around to playing Shadow once the PS4 came out. I wish you could use the DS4 on the PS3 – I’d go back and play all the PS Plus games I never got around to playing in a heartbeat. I just can’t use the DS3 now – it’s bloody awful.
Does anyone actually care about Dreams anymore? Did they ever? I know we shouldn’t judge until we’ve played it but it seems like such a waste of a great studio. Dancing puppets and clouds – it just doesn’t seem very interesting to anyone but the people making it.
I’m more interested in Days Gone, The Last of Us Part II, whatever Sucker Punch are currently working on (to name a few) – but we probably won’t see those until next year. Hell, we probably won’t see half the games on this list – you know what they’re like with their last minute delays.
MOVE
Sucker Punch is doing Ghost of Tsushima. I thought every PlayStationer (like myself) knew this.
As for the games in the lineup (both mentioned and not); I wan’t ’em all, I wan’t ’em all, I wan’t ’em all and I wan’t ’em now (guitar solo ensues).
JR.
Well to be fair, I’ve always considered myself an Xboxer… ahahahaha… can’t even say that with a straight face XD
Wow, had no idea this game even existed. Looks amazing! Maybe we don’t need a Japanese Assassins Creed after all.
Now, I will banish myself to the corner for bringing great shame to the Playstation order :D
TSBonyman
Dreams and Detroit: Being Human are both definites for me, don’t really know what to expect from the new God Of War but i don’t think it’s going to be the same tightly focused experience of the previous games.
Steelhead
Detroit is the definite buy for me here. One of the few games I’m really looking forward to this year.
God of War and Shadow of the Colossus may get a look in depending on my backlog/whatever else comes out.
Another one I like the look of is Biomutant. Quite charming and full of potential I think.
Crazy_Del
Cannot wait for God of War and Spiderman. This Spiderman game is looking way better than previous Spiderman games and you use the environment which is brilliant. Also looking forward to Detroit: Become Human
Nate
Cracking list of exclusives, it’s going to be an exciting year!