Trying every PS-Plus Extra game: Shadow of the Beast

I was initially excited to play this game because it seems like a graphical upgrade to a type of game that we saw so much of way back in the days when our consoles weren't capable of much else. Although considered an action-adventure game, I am reminded of the days back on the Sega Genesis for titles such as Streets of Rage or Golden Axe but obviously with much better graphics and sound.

It was initially released in 2016 but has undergone some graphical upgrades for the version of it that I played. I toyed around with it for an hour or so but ultimately found it to be a bit too old-school for me to really enjoy it. There are some types of side-scrolling games that I really enjoy but this type simply isn't one of them.

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The graphics are pretty crisp and the story is actually pretty interesting and that is all fine and dandy but in my mind that doesn't change the fact that we have kind of moved on from this type of game. The introduction of combos, which wasn't part of the original gameplay, I suppose would appeal to some people but for the most part I didn't feel as this was enough to keep the game interesting for very long. Essentially, no matter how you slice and dice it (quite literally in this sense) the encounters with enemies start to seem mundane and "more of the same" even in the first hour of gameplay.

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The game is 2-D outside of cutscenes and Quicktime Events and that is just fine with me. I actually prefer these kinds of games over full on 3D games. However, this still doesn't do enough to make it not boring when you basically have 4 types of enemies that you encounter in the first hour and they just come in different mixes at various stages in your progression.

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This is just a personal thing but if I never see another QTE ever again in any game that would be just fine with me. I think that all got flushed out of my system when I was playing all the God of War games and now I feel as though it is just a tired aspect of gaming especially when the buttons that must be hit are extremely easy to pull off. This is where GoW actually did QTEs very well. The button combinations would come at you fast and furiously and when it was necessary to mash square as fast as you could there was normally some reason why it was there such as you needing to clear enough of a room in order to have enough time to get a door open. Perhaps it changes later but in Shadow of the Beast I didn't encounter any QTE that wasn't just some dopey, oh you have 5 seconds to find the square button type situation.

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It has an arcade feel to it as well which might appeal to some users out there but at least in my world, I haven't been chasing a high score since I was throwing quarters into a DigDug machine in the 80's. Maybe I am just out of touch but I don't really get why anyone would aspire to have the highest score in a 1-player game anymore.

You can use your score to buy upgrades in the game and once again this might be because I only played for an hour, but I didn't see any particularly good reason to try to get the highest score that you can because I ended up having a lot more "currency" than I actually needed. While I am not sure about this I think that the score you can possibly acquire is designed the way that it is so that it isn't actually possible for you to get super duper powerups too early, regardless of how flawlessly you perform.

The platforming is actually pretty interesting and I enjoyed it a great deal more than I did the combat. The scenery is fantastic for a 2D reboot game and I think I probably would have enjoyed this game more if that was more of the focus of the game rather than trying to make it into a fighting game primarily.

I think that there is likely a very limited audience for this game, or even games similar to it for the time being and that is likely the reason that it is available for free now nearly 8 years after its original launch.

I think that it is worth having a look though if you have a PS-Plus account and especially if you were around in the late 80's and early 90's when basically every game was some adaptation of exactly this. If these sorts of graphics were possible in the 90's people would have crapped their pants when they saw it, but in 2016 to now, none of this is anything particularly special anymore.

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Games I have already tried in my journey to play at least 1-hour of every PS-Plus Extra game

• Gravity Rush 2 (action adventure game with fast movement in every direction. It has RPG elements and a pretty decent story. Make it past the first hour and the game really opens up. Recommended)
• Oddworld: Soulstorm (2D+ platformer with great graphics, sound, and voice-acting. Unfortunately it is plagued with a lot of repetition. Recommended for a few hours)
• Bee Simulator (sort of like a flying FPS game but with no combat. It's graphically impressive and filled with tidbits of knowledge about bees... unfortunately it is repetitive as hell and gets boring fast. Not recommended)
• Prison Architect (a prison management simulator game similar to SimCity. It's a great game but just like most simulation games, it just isn't very playable using a controller. Not recommended on PS4)
• Hotline Miami 2 (a top-down shooter with gruesome violence and terrible AI. Would be great for speedrunners and hardcore gamers. Casuals like me are going to quickly tire with it)
• Battle Chasers: Nightwar (turn based RPG of medium-length that does a good job of teaching you how to play in the first hour. It's pretty old-school and I happen to like that... recommended)
• Chorus (3rd person open-world space fighting game. It's graphically impressive but combat is too repetitive to really hold your interest for the entire story. Still recommended though.)
• Portal Knights (a very well made survival action builder game similar to Minecraft. I really enjoyed this and look forward to playing it more. Recommended)
• Saints Row: The Third (clever and funny FPS game that intentionally puts you in impossible and absurd situations. It's innovative and humorous but ultimately quite dated and got repetitive and boring pretty quick. Not recommended)
• Balan Wonderworld (A rather beautiful 3D(ish) platformer that is extremely easy but still engaging enough to hold your attention for a few hours. Recommended for casual gamers)
• The Artful Escape (an adventure game of sorts with awesome visuals and music, but repetitive areas and controls combined with IMO far too much dialogue makes this game get boring, fast... Worth a look but not recommended to play)
• Until Dawn (interactive horror game that you don't really control a great deal of. It's reasonably entertaining, you can't lose, and the graphics and sound a pretty great. It's not really a game but I enjoyed it and played it to its finish. Recommended)
• 11-11: Memories Retold (a WW1 story that doesn't actually involve much input on the player's part. The game is very boring despite having a wonderful graphical style: Not recommended)
• Desperados 3 (a real time tactics / stealth game that I personally do not feel belongs on consoles at all. If you have never played these sorts of games on PC your opinion might be different. This one gets a "maybe.")
• Maneater (Action RPG where you play the role of a deadly shark. The idea is decent but ultimately the extremely repetitive gameplay makes this one easy to miss. Not recommended)
• TorqueL (physics puzzle platformer that is simplistic at first but quickly becomes maddeningly difficult. Gets boring pretty quickly on consoles and would be better suited as a time-waster on mobile devices. Not recommended on PS4)
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon: Turn-based cutesy RPG that is extremely story-driven just like anything Square is involved in. If you are huge fan of Final Fantasy you might like it, for me it was one hour then done forever.
• XCOM 2 : (Turn-based Sci-Fi game set in a dystopian future where you are part of the rebellion. Despite a very slow start IMO the game really gets involved later on... recommended)
• Darksiders Genesis (Top-down hack and slash that reminds me a lot of Diablo 3 but with a more restricted environment. It's very fast paced and as easy or difficult as you want it to be. It's a lot of fun and therefore comes highly recommended.)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (a copy/paste of so many other RPG's out there with too many cutscenes as is so typical of Square-Enix. Recommended for superfans of the movies, but not for really anyone else.)
• Injustice 2 (a DC comics oriented fighting game with tons of characters and IMO extremely complicated gameplay. It could be great for someone who is willing to devote enough time to memorizing all of this, but I am not that guy.)
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm episode 1 (A graphic adventure that isn't really a game so much as it is a movie that you have some control over. Recommended for people looking for something extremely casual but with a very well-written story)
• Evil Dead: The Game (a team based multiplayer game that has the humor and gore that you would expect from anything done by Evil Dead. Unfortunately, it doesn't really stand out from the pack well enough for me to give it high props. Recommended for a short while - see if you disagree with me)
• Immortals: Fenyx Rising (A Zelda-esque open-world game based on Greek mythology that is one of the best games I have played in a while. Highly recommended)
• Pixel Piracy (an 8-bit adventure game of sorts that puts you in the role of a pirate ship commander. I'd love to tell you what the objective in this game is, but I don't know what it is. I was extremely bored after the required 1-hour of play and immediately deleted the game from my hard drive. Not recommended)
• I am Satsuna (an old-school turn-based RPG developed by Squre Enix that functions exactly like Squaresoft games from the 90's. Recommended for people who really love that sort of game environment but not so much for anyone else)
• Killzone: Shadow Fall (an open-world(ish) FPS game with RPG elements. I found the interface to be hard on the eyes and that they really do a terrible job of teaching you how to actually play the game. Not recommended for average gamers but possibly a real winner for veterans of the franchise because the story seems quite good.)
• Dead by Daylight (A multiplayer survival horror game that was probably very fresh and fun when released in 2016 but these days there are so many clones of this type of game that there isn't much incentive to play this one)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (A open-world RPG/FPS game similar to the FarCry series. IMO the world is unnecessarily huge and there is a lot of dead space with nothing in it. This means a lot of your time is spent just traveling from one mission to the next and the missions all start to feel the same after a while. I lost interest after 4 hours or so)
• Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin (a metroid-vania-esque platforming with townbuilding elements. This is a casual game that will appeal to most people I think, especially those who are looking for a little less "hardcore" game to play. I have gone well over my 1-hour requirement and think I will continue and perhaps complete it. Recommended)
• Shadow of the Beast (an action adventure platformer fighting game that is a throwback to the 1989 original. It looks promising at first but ultimately the action part of the game is pretty repetitive and well, this isn't much of a surprise seeing as how it was drawing its inspiration from a game that is nearly 40 years old. Fun for a while but I bet you won't stick with it. Maybe recommended)

All other games I have already reviewed (there are a lot of them)