February is already almost here, which means there’s a new slate of free (technically complementary) games set to hit Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription service. This month sees the addition of one of 2019’s best action-adventure games in Control: Ultimate Edition, the Jet Set Radio inspired Concrete Genie, and Destruction AllStars, Sony’s more lighthearted take on Twisted Metal.
Each is available for download starting February 2. Control and Concrete Genie are up for grabs until March 1, while Destruction AllStars can be snagged until April 5. The latter follows in the footsteps of Bugsnax, which launched on the service and was available on PS Plus for roughly two months before being removed.
Control: Ultimate Edition
Before Control released in 2019, Remedy Games was best known for their incredibly atmospheric action-adventure horror game, Alan Wake, the influential 2001 third-person shooter, Max Payne, and perhaps to a lesser extent, Quantum Break.
However, Control has quickly taken its rightful place alongside those games as one of the best in the genre. As the studio’s most ambitious title to date, it ties in with all of those games, effectively creating what is now the fabric of the Remedy-verse.
Control follows Jesse Faden as she searches for her missing brother in The Oldest House, an eldritch doorway between the real world and the Astral Plane hidden deep in the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control.
We loved Control in 2019, praising it for its “gorgeous set design,” combat that “provides for some of the coolest gaming moments you’ll see all year,” and its “side missions [that] give it an X-Files quality…” Since then, Remedy has released two worthy expansions: The Foundation and AWE. The Ultimate Edition of the game includes the base games, as well as both expansions.
Concrete Genie
Concrete Genie was also released in 2019, and while it shares a darker palette with Control, it offers its own take on the supernatural, making for an entirely different kind of action-adventure game.
Players are cast in the role of Ash, who lives in a city overrun by grime and pollution; that’s not to mention the group of bullies terrorizing him at every turn. As an artist, it’s Ash’s job to “bring the city back to life” and rid it of the darkness that’s turned it sour by painting colorful creature murals throughout the game’s various neighborhoods.
Aside from the Jet Set Radio style painting mechanics attached to the PS4’s motion controls, Concrete Genie features a number of puzzles to solve, as well as a good helping of platforming and open-world traversal.
Destruction AllStars
Concrete Genie may be about creating works of art, but Destruction AllStars is all about, erm, well, destruction. Vehicular destruction that is.
On the surface, Destruction AllStars shares a few obvious similarities to Twisted Metal (it’s hard to avoid), but this PS5 title seems to have a lot in common with Rocket League as well, though we’ll have to save our full judgment on that until it releases on February 5.
Players can, of course, drive a number of vehicles in the game, smashing into and destroying their opponents’ rides until there’s one winner left standing. But players can also hold their own on when outside of vehicles, thanks to Hero abilities. In fact, as pointed out in a recent State of Play, players can traverse arenas to find and acquire new vehicles to get back into the chassis-crunching rat race.
There’s still a lot to learn about Destruction AllStars, but it looks like it could be one of the PS5’s standout titles. Stay tuned for our review.
That’s it for February’s complementary PlayStation Plus games. Be sure to download January’s selection, which includes Maneater (PS5), Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4), and Greedfall (PS4), before it disappears on February 1.
