Sony's first party - overrated, underrated, or just right?

I think they are fine right now but think they need to branch out from third person action rpg at some point. Most of their games are starting to look the same to me.

I wish they would invest in more fps and multiplayer games. I want another MAG or socom. I wouldnt mind another killzone if it was as good as killzone 2.

If we're following the technical definition of first party ... that would leave out Insomniac. Right?

In which case, they have Astrobot which i loved. HZD was solid. Killzone SF and Infamous SS were both disappointing. Tsushima looks meh. Drive Club was meh.

Can't bring myself to play any of their more cinematic games at this point.... so to me their first party is pretty meh.

Their lineup from last gen was so much more impressive 3 Motorstorms, 3 Uncharteds, 3 Resistance games, several Ratchet and Clank games, 2 Infamous games, 2 Killzones, 2 God of Wars, Warhawk, Little Big Planet, Last of Us.

@mandzilla:

"Well it's an adventure game, set in the third-person perspective. Slightly different but not much."

No. Because you hardly DO any of the playing at all. Think Walking Dead from Telltales or Sam and Max. That's basically what Detroit Become Human is like.

@nepu7supastar7: I guess Detroit: Become Human is more along the lines of interactive drama stuff like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls yes. Maybe I should not have included that one.

It seems the OP needs re-assuring about his purchase, but I got nothing except bad news for him as...

Insert Sony movie game here ___________ = overrated, sorry about the reality check OP (no i'm not) lol

I'd say just right. Most of the games deserve the awards and things they received.

Resistance sold really well on the first game. They fucked up the second game. But the third game was the best and had poor sales.

LittleBigPlanet sold really well on PS3 and the third one was made by a third party developer not MM. It was alright. I would say that franchise will see another game eventually.

Killzone was good up to 2....and then it just couldn't compete with the other big name shooters. Same with SOCOM. It was good in the PS2 days and butchered when it came to PS3.

I think Sony is smart by sticking to mostly single player games. When the majority of third party titles from Activision, EA, Ubisoft and other publishers (I'll bet you can name more multiplayer shooter games than single player story games like God of War or Last of Us from those companies) it makes more sense to tap in to the market that's not being oversaturated by the big third party companies

Just right, I suppose. My favorite first party game would have to be Gravity Rush 2 though, which I consider underrated.

Truth hurts, lol.

It's alright. I've seen enough contentions for it.

They struck a perfect balance and lately I can't get too greedy with what I play.

Sony's first party AAA offerings are overrated. Their overall offerings... Not so much.

You look at their AAA level first party products such as..

UC4

TLOU

HZD

GoW

GoT

DG

Etc...

^These are the AAA games that Sony's devs are putting out. Nothing wrong with those if you only enjoy third person singleplayer cinematic experiences, but there isn't a lot of diversity there.

Was the 2nd game really that disappointing? I heard it was a big step up from the first one, which itself wasn't so bad for a launch title. From what I've seen it looked pretty fun anyway. Resistance 3 I have watched a friend play, and the single-player was awesome. Multiplayer seemed solid also. Didn't realise the sales were bad for it.

Yeah hopefully. There's definitely room on the market for more user creation games, particularly with it being a platformer as well. One of the most creative IPs I've seen for Playstation.

Killzone 3 tried too hard to appeal to the COD crowd, by ditching the slow/realistic player movement from Killzone 2. Could have done better with the story also. It's a neat sci-fi universe they've established though, so should totally keep it going. Shadow Fall might have been a bit underwhelming, but Mercenary on the Vita was done well.

Sure, it does make good business sense to have the single-player scene locked down when, as you mentioned third-party devs are mostly focussing on multiplayer. Even so, I'd still say there's room for Sony to release their own stuff and get good sales. All they need to do is release a decent game without any loot box, microtransaction bs, and they're already better than EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Bethesda among others. Could be a good time to jump back in what with the backlash against many of these companies.

Even just something low-budget to test the waters, Warhawk 2 would be cool.

Sony's exclusives are looked highly and it is deserved, so just right.

I would love another Socom. Socom: Confrontation had a very bad start and lost a lot of players quickly, but became pretty good after a little time. Then Socom 4 came out and was complete garbage. So it had two bad Socom games back to back so I doubt we will see another one.

If they were anymore overrated, they'd be called Pee Salty Seas. lol :P

I think many of them are overrated. That doesn't mean they aren't great, but some games, like Uncharted 4, are rated with perfect scores while I would give it an 8.

@mandzilla: the second one was designed to be more like other FPS games of the time. Biggest fail was taking away the Insomniac weapon wheel that was present in every game since the original Ratchet and Clank. Even Ted Price admits he messed up R2 and they credit the fan backlash on that game for the poor sales of R3.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/resistance-2-single-player-is-terrible.354133/m

https://youtu.be/bbHweHG5UkY

Warhawk? Once again all of their MP titles didn’t do so hot. The original didn’t- I doubt there will be a sequel. Same with twisted metal, motorstorm, socom, Resistance and killzone. If the games sold more there would be a higher chance to see more of them. Some of them had their own development problems though like twisted metal and motorstorm 3

Personally I’d like to see the Jet Moro franchise make a comeback

For LPB, MM is working on their new IP Dreams. Maybe they’ll go back to LBP. I’d rather wait for them to make another one versus another developer doing it. A third party made LBP3 and it wasn’t as good

Since FPS was the major genre all throughout last gen i think Killzone could not compete with the titles that were multiplat and better known like CoD and BF. It is hard to make an original unique game in that genre when there have been dozens of FPS. For example how many games can you say are similar in style to Uncharted? Besides the modern Tomb Raider games, none. Therefore it is more unique and able to get more attention.

@Diddies: iirc , they even closed down the developer that made socom so yeah it is unlikely, but not impossible.

All of sony's first party games have certain look to them which is no bad thing. I think uncharted is a great series but looks to be finished interesting to see the next naughty dog project after the last of us 2.

@ahmedkhan1994: SOCOM 4 was terrible, tried to copy other shooters like CoD instead of its original mechanics. It sold terrible. Also MAG and Unit 13 did terrible too. They made 2 average reviewed and 1 terribly reviewed plus terribly selling games before Sony closed them.

KZ3 still had slower movement with heavier weapons such as the light machine gun. KZ2 and KZ3 felt similar enough with a few differences. KZ3 seemed more story-focused. It also bogged down less. Plus, there are button equivalents for Six-Axis functions. The only thing I liked better in KZ2 was the far more aggressive ATACs. On the other hand, I didn't like the AI buddy in KZ3 who kept getting into my line of fire.

Funny, because I remember many of the cows also hating on Activision, Ubisoft and EA for churning out samey template games especially Ubisoft but gets extra defensive when someone point out the Sony's lineup.

This. Anyone who can't see the pattern is a hypocrite.

Well, they themselves are screaming it from the rooftops:

@jcrame10: by that logic, many games would not have gotten the chance to improve like knack 2.

I'd say slightly overrated - their games tend to be super polished with amazing production values, but there is no denying their first party lineup can feel homogenous (third person story-driven action games), and I can't think of any major Sony first party game that is particularly original when it comes to gameplay mechanics - this gen they have all felt pretty 'safe'.

Personally, I'll take a game that is unique/ambitious but kinda janky over something highly polished that doesn't do anything new.

still, I'm very happy I have a PS4 for its first party lineup, its certainly proved to be a worthwhile purchase.

@pc_rocks: Movie Games are full motion video games from the 90's on systems like 3DO, CDi, Sega CD, and PC at the time with games like Supreme Warrior, Dragons Lair, Night Trap, etc... little to no gameplay.

Games of today have far more gameplay than any of those. Most of Sony's first party are narrative driven but they aren't movie games.

@blankz: Hi alt, you done trolling yet?

@pc_rocks: right, because Assassins Creed has changed so much in the last 20 games

@ahmedkhan1994: Knack was one game. Zipper made 3 bad games in a row. I’m not saying I’m happy they closed them down, I would love to see a new proper SOCOM title, but I can understand why they did if the company wasn’t getting good reviews OR good sales.

And UC has changed so much in the same last 20 years? Besides the cows wasn't just making fun of AC. They were attacking Ubi for any and every game. Nice cop out, oh and I also listed Activision and EA. Sony is as or much more guilty of that if we go by the list that was posted and you tried to DC it.

Nope. That wasn't the reason. Try again or better yet ask your overlord Sony why it's proudly advertising it as the movie. The reason is right in the video.

Sony's numerous studios are the masters at making 3rd party action games with scripted scenes. If you love them, Sony's first party is amazing. If you do not like 3rd person action games with movie like action scenes, Sony's first party is probably overrated. Everyone will have their own preferences for games they like and whether these types of games do it for them.

If you want a different genre, Sony's first party is pretty lackluster.

This. Nothing else to say really.

I usually don't care much about storylines in games and just want to play the damn game, but I gotta say that Sony's games really excel with their storylines, and I actually got interested in the characters and what they had to say. God of War, Uncharted 4 and Horizon have storylines that are as interesting as any great movie.

And no, Sony's games are not just movie games. There is usually decent gameplay to be found also. That been said, Sony's games haven't given me the greatest of the greatest gameplay experiences this gen. I think that games like the Yakuza series, Persona 5, Until Dawn and Fallout 4 outperform Sony's own games.

@djoffer: I was also disappointed with Uncharted 1 and 2. It felt like a chore to complete them. Have you tried Uncharted 3 and 4? They are a lot better. A lot.

LAUGH OUT LOUD

Hahahahaa, oh my god! Perfect!

@pmanden: 2 is widely considered the best of the series, 3 the worst.

I like Sony games but that was hilarious! Movie games indeed.

@vfighter: I know, but I disagree. Uncharted 3 beats no. 2. No. 4 is the best of all, especially in the graphics department of course.

Just about right, I guess. They're good at what they do, and dominate the cinematic-game genre.

But they depend too heavily on the same cinematic-game formula... Sony Interactive Entertainment may as well just call itself Sony Pictures Interactive.

Yeah, that's the downfall of many FPS games, taking too many cues from the competition and diluting your own game's identity. At least they decided to bring back the weapon wheel for R3, but damn... it deserved more love than that commercially.

Hey, I've seen worse games get sequels. Despite the low sales, I think Warhawk was solid, especially for a free to play launch title. Anyway, low sales need not be a deterrent. Times change, and with the improvements to PSN since the PS3 days along with a larger install base, I have no doubt that you'd see a lot of interest from players. If Sony are worried about sequels to Motorstorm, Twisted Metal, Resistance or Killzone not doing so well, they could always go the remaster route on the PS3 entries first to gauge the response, at little financial risk if they flop.

Jet Moro would be sweet, as would a LBP sequel. Yeah true, better Sony handle it themselves. Heck, even a Little Big Planet PSVR game seems like a no-brainer given the recent success of Astro Bot.

Sure, I get that it's hard to stand out when a genre is so saturated like the FPS last gen. Killzone is a better series than CoD and BF imo, just doesn't have the same brand power. Same thing happened to Titanfall this gen. Uncharted is a great game no doubt, and fully deserving of the attention it gets. I guess I'd just like to see genuine multiplayer exclusives again from Sony, rather than them simply including a multiplayer mode as an afterthought on single player centric games (e.g. Uncharted, The Last of Us).

I thought about this a bit. They do not make the kinds of games I like for the most part (the main exception being the FANTASTIC JOY that is Ratchet and Clank); however, I still think that they are great at what they do so I voted that they are rated:

Just Right

Sony has great first party teams. They deserve all the praise they get, even if I do not care for the games.

@mojito1988: Yeah agreed. Even though the games don't appeal to me personally, I don't think they're overrated.