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New Astro Game

Astro Bot has become PlayStation’s Mario character. The two only other Astro games been Astro’s Playroom for PS5 and Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PSVR. I have played them both couple of times and I did like them a lot. The gameplay were easy and very optimised. The newest installment Astro Bot just released and I played it through. It is devloped by Team ASOBI, a Japanese studio that have made aforementioned games.

Plot, Gameplay, Controls and Visuals

As every other Astro games, the plot is rather thin. In Astro Bot the bots are travelling in space (their spaceship being a PS5 console) and they are attacked by a monster that torns the spaceship in pieces, scattering all the bots around the universe. Your mission is to collect them all back and also fix the broken spaceship. I did find the story’s thinnes being OK for game like this, because the main point is platforming and collecting things. If I may to compare it to something, I’d like to say in number one platform Super Mario games the plots are always very simple as well.

The gameplay is platforming and of course there is so much to collect. Not just the missing bots, but coins (that can be used to buy collectables) and other things. There are 50 planets and every galaxy has a final boss that can be unlocked after collecting certain number of bots. The boss battles were fun and I think I liked them most of the game. Every level/planet has usually 5-7 hidden bots to be find and some of them were very well-hidden. Overall there are 300 bots to collect.

Astro Bot also have a base camp, or like a hub area where you can see your collections and open other areas to some secret levels. Not spoiling what they are, but everything in the game has something to do with PlayStation and its games’ iconic characters.

The game utilise every gimmick of the Dual Sense controller; motion controls, haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and touchpad. I personally don’t like motion controllers unless they work flawlessly, and they did. Overall the controls worked fine even though there wasn’t barely any settings for them.

The game isn’t overly difficult, except some of the later bosses and some extra levels, and the difficulty also lies in the collecting everything. Yes, it is kinda collectathon and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but at least it’s fun.

I did play Astro Bot through using PS5 natively and PS Portal. PS Portal worked OK even though there was some difficulties with the image quality. Quickly searching online, there seems to be some HDR issue with playing PS Portal.

Visually the game looks crisp and clean, like an animation movie. Very much like the other Astro games. The game ran smoothly 60fps but what was missing was options for the gameplay. I really wanted an option for the camera, to make it move much faster than it did natively. Also photo mode was missing, kinda, because it can be only unlocked by collecting certain amount of puzzle pieces (that unlocks the Safari Park in the hub area). I think it’s a HUGE misstep from the developer, because not everyone is skilled enough to collect enough of them.

In the end

Astro Bot is full of fun and joy. I played this through in about 9-10 hours. Its gameplay is very well-crafted and everything works like a charm. All the gimmicks of Dual Sense controller were utilised and the game looked and played perfectly. What it was missing only were photo mode natively and more gameplay options. Every other way Astro Bot was an excellent experience. Yes, it might be a little bit tedious to play through all the 50+ levels but the innovative gameplay made it all worth it in the end.

I do recommend Astro Bot to everyone.

Astro Bot is available only on PS5 (reviewed).

SCORE:

5/5

“The game utilise every gimmick of the Dual Sense controller”

RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2024
GENRE: Action
DEVELOPER: Team ASOBI
PUBLISHER: Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
PLATFORMS: PS5 (reviewed)

 

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