A PlayStation 5 masterpiece.
It’s that good, putting Team Asobi up there with the greats.
Astro Bot is an explosion of colour and creativity that constantly flips your expectations on its head.
At its core, Astro Bot is built on the technical foundation of Astro’s Playroom.
From a technical perspective, the execution is virtually flawless.
Let’s get the traditional Digital Foundry bullet point specs out of the way.
Frame-rate wise, it’s also simple - it runs at 60fps.
Again, it’s virtually flawless and I didn’t encounter a single drop anywhere else in the game.
As far as the nuts and bolts of DF are concerned, the results are excellent.
Loading between levels never robs you of control and is super fast.
It feels finely tuned from top to bottom and I think that’s something to commend.
The very first level immediately demonstrates this.
This isn’t something that directly influences the core gameplay but it makes itfeelbetter.
Throughout the game, the use of small, physics-driven props is a huge part of the presentation.
Seeing so many moving objects in a single scene as the frame-rate soars is striking.
Then we have things like deformable snow - or is that ice cream?
It feels like the developers really thought through how Astro Bot physically interacts with the world.
However, in giant sponge form, Astro Bot can smash through obstacles in a glorious display of destruction.
It feels so satisfying as everything crumbles around you.
You’ll see this throughout the game and smashing up the world is always a joy.
Really, the whole game feels as if it were created to push as much ‘stuff’ as possible.
Objects break, give and collect in huge numbers lending the game world a tremendous amount of life.
Of course, it’s not like the visuals are also excellent.
This is definitely one of those cases where the art direction and careful design take point.
There aren’t really any fancy new visual techniques on display.
Yet, it all gels into a cohesive whole.
That said, I would have loved a better HDR implementation.
controls selection is minimal with just two HDR presets.
I went with the brighter option and was generally happy.
Beyond that, the DualSense controller gets a significant work-out.
Unsurprisingly, Astro Bot takes that even further.
All of this accounts for just a portion of what makes Astro Bot so interesting and fun.
Firstly, when talking platform games, getting the basic move set and control nailed down is crucial.
Astro’s basic running and jumping have a satisfying feel and rhythm to them.
Running, jumping and attacking enemies always feels great.
However, at other points, you take on the powers of key guest characters from PlayStation’s past.
This puts a completely different spin on platforming and combat.
It’s extremely on the nose and I love it.
All of this is just barely scratching the surface.
Astro Bot is what video games are all about.
It’s pure joy and a reminder of what the first three generations of PlayStation embodied.
