When you install your PlayStation 5, you will have the nice surprise of discovering a free game to accompany it: Astro’s Playroom. It’s a tech demo to show the capabilities of DualSense to gamers, but it’s also a full game.

If it may seem childish at first glance, it is undoubtedly a must for players on PlayStation 5, whether they fell into the world of PlayStation when they were small, or with this new generation of console.

Lore

Astro’s Playroom allows us to discover a fantastic universe which is supposed to represent the interior of the PS5. Through colorful and fun levels, the game highlights the new features of the console while using the capabilities of the controller.

A smart idea, especially since rather than simply offering us to feel the new vibrations, we will have the right to phases of gameplay that will allow you to play with these features just as it should.

Game

In Astro’s Playroom, we play as a little robot who will be able to wander through magical worlds to collect coins, find collectibles and fight cute little enemies.

This platform game uses the most classic codes of video games, offering us fun universes and transforming natural environments into high-tech scenes.

Whether it’s the jungle or the snow, all the objects that we encounter are in fact components of our console and the PlayStation legacy. We cross precipices by walking on controller cables for example, and we must pay attention to what surrounds us to fully enjoy the wonderful world of Astro’s Playroom.

Our little hero can fight, jump and hover for a few moments, a pretty basic gameplay at first glance, but that’s precisely the point.

The idea is to be able to quickly take control of our character because that’s not what matters. What matters is the gaming experience that the controller will provide us.

Indeed, when you walk, the DualSense will try to simulate what the robot feels, so that you have the same sensations. This means that if your reboot is walking in water or skating on ice, your controller will align the vibrations to help you feel that sensation.

Make no mistake, the speaker built into the controller has a lot to do with it. You don’t feel the difference whether you walk in sand or on an iron plate so easily just with vibrations. On the other hand, the vibrations accompanied by the sound coming out of the DualSense give us the perfect impression of feeling the difference.

Ditto when you cross a level where it rains. The vibration + noise duo makes us believe that we feel the raindrops on the controller. It’s really well done and we immediately get into the game.

It is not only this feature that is highlighted. The game offers us to put on outfits to test the controller. Whether it’s a ball that you have to steer with the touchpad or a rocket that you direct using the giroscope.

This rocket, moreover, like the arc, allows us to test adaptive triggers. To summarize, the game can change at will the resistance which one meets when one uses the two triggers at the back. We must therefore force to launch our rocket, while the arc does not have the same feeling of tension.

The vibration + triggers + sound trio (on the DualSense) is a perfect combo for a platform game like Astro’s Playroom.

Obviously the game does not stop with this demonstration of the features. It is at the same time an original way to discover the PlayStation heritage. But above all, it is a priceless gift for fans of the Japanese brand.

During our discovery, we collect artifacts which are in fact PlayStation accessories and consoles that have been released since the first console in 1994. We collect them and exhibit them in a room that more or less resembles the most nostalgic gaming room. of us.

And the icing on the cake is the way the worlds are populated. There are a multitude of other small robots in the universes that we cross and if some live their lives taking pictures, resting or being in funny situations, there are also a ton of winks. eye for the games that came out on PlayStation.

So we meet disguised robots, whether with outfits to remind us of God of War, The Last of Us, Devil May Cry, … all the games that have marked the history of PlayStation are present. And suddenly we spend our time looking for little robots in the levels to see the scenes with the heroes of our childhood.

Lifetime

The game is not long, and you will have done the tour in 5 hours maximum. A “chrono” mode is in the game if you want to compete with your friends.