Indie Focus: Almost Free PS4 Spectacular

Spectacular, spectacular. That is how I would describe the release of the now-current generation of consoles. That tense excitement before receiving it, the frustration when GAME screwed up your order so it was only dispatched the day after release, the relief when it arrived and actually worked, and finally the wonder when you’re finally staring at next-gen graphics on your own TV. This week on Indie Focus we are doing something a little different and covering two indie PS4 launch games that are almost free.

Contrast

Offered as part of the PlayStation Plus instant game collection, Contrast took DriveClub’s place when the racer was delayed into 2014. It’s a puzzle game in which you play as a little girl’s apparently invisible friend who can switch from her solid, corporeal form into a shadow and move around on other shadows. The game involves a lot of manipulating the positions of both light sources and objects to cast shadows to get you to where you are going. Manipulating objects can range from placing them to provide steps to jump your way up to playing with timed-closing umbrellas, but by far the most fun is when you find your way across a wall using the movements of people’s shadows.

The game’s storyline is actually quite dark, depicting a struggling couple, their child, and some gangsters. It’s a very strange plot that the game’s aesthetic only serves to further obscure. The people mentioned earlier are only seen via shadows, the only two actual corporeal people being the little girl who tells you what to do and yourself, and even you are a mystery as only the little girl can see you. Add to this the dark, fragmented floating islands that the game is set on and all does not seem as it first appears.

Contrast is an interesting game. Graphically, it’s not amazing, though its lighting and shadows are impressive, but its aesthetic is gorgeous and its particular brand of puzzling is surely worth a look if you’re up for some mind bending. After all, it’s almost free.

Warframe

As a free to play third person shooter, Warframe is unique on PS4 at the moment. It combines acrobatic gunplay with swordplay, random loot and some light crafting to become a genuinely enjoyable cooperative game that offers a lot of fun for free provided you are okay with the typical slow progression of a F2P game.

You and your three team mates will fight your way across a ship, taking out enemies and completing objectives as you go. To help you defeat enemies you have a selection of skills at your disposal, from simpler things like sliding on your knees whilst shooting to actual powers like invisibility and decoy. They look amazing on-screen and can easily turn the tide of battle if you know how to use them. Of course, if you don’t, then you’re likely to to slide your way into a group of enemies and die a most painful death. Thankfully, your coop partners can revive you when that inevitably happens.

As you fight your way through you’ll find credits and mods, the former being money and the latter being customisations that you can apply to your Warframe (essentially a class-type, each having different abilities and powers) or weaponry. These mods come with a variety of effects: some add fire damage to your pistol, some add additional stun chance to your sword, and each of them can be combined with others to increase their effects. Warframes can also be customised by adding mods to them which will result in giving your warframe additional powers, which are activated by swiping the dualshock 4’s touchpad.

Credits can be spent on a limited selection of items with the more desirable items being obscenely expensive. You tend to earn at least 1000 credits per level but weapons cost upwards of 25000. The game’s market is heavily skewed towards Platinum, the other currency that you buy with real money. It’s expensive, with the cheapest package available at £3.85 for 75 platinum, which is enough for the very cheapest of Warframes with others costing around £8 in real money. Don’t let that discourage you from trying the game out though (whether on PS4 or PC). It’s perfectly playable without all the fancy bells and whistles that are available through its market and more than likely a lot of fun with a few friends. Besides, it’s almost free.

So that’s two perfectly enjoyable games that are almost free on PSN if you have PlayStation Plus (and you should have it already), with Warframe actually being available to play online without PS+ at all if that’s what you prefer. They are both a little buggy but it’s worth checking  both of them out. Next week we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming when a little of this next gen buzz has worn off. Probably.