State of Play February 2021 Overview

Sony doesn't like to do things slowly. With the pairing of the original PlayStation and Wipeout, the insane pacing (for a platformer) of Crash Bandicoot, and up to the modern day with the super fast SSD in the PS5, the company has a thing for speediness. The State of Play event certainly wasn’t an exception to this, with even the iconic cross, square, triangle and circles bouncing around like a spaniel chasing a tennis ball as it opened, and the relentless speed didn’t stop from there.

First off, speaking of Crash Bandicoot, his latest entry is getting a super snazzy upgrade for the PlayStation 5. Last year’s Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time was already pretty smooth looking, but with 4K 60FPS visuals, it’s going to look even better on Sony’s latest soon. The loading times are reducing, the adaptive triggers are going to be used so you can feel your multiple deaths, and 3D audio is coming. 

Next in line was a PlayStation Studios title that we’re all excited about, and that’s Returnal. The dark and brooding new trailer gave us a closer look at the planet our hero finds herself in. Main character Selene is fighting some of the creepiest looking enemies that we’ve seen in a long time, with more tentacles than our editor’s hard drive. It all ends with Selene returning to what appears to be her home, as she explains that she can’t relax any more. We don’t know why, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t related to all those monsters that have been attacking her. It’ll be coming out on the 30th of April

The voiceover presenter then tells us we’re going to see details of a “high impact new PS4 game”. It’s Knockout City, which we already heard about as coming to the Switch, but this confirms that it will be coming to the PS4 as well, and with crossplay. The title is a kind of cross between Jet Set Radio and Dodgeball. It’s a PvP arena that sees you fighting with other players, aiming to knock them out by throwing balls, or in some cases, even your teammates at them! A release date wasn’t announced, but a crossplay beta starting soon was. 

If punching and kicking lots of people in a short space of time is more your thing, then the trailer that we got for Sifu, Sloclap’s upcoming kung-fu brawler would likely be what you would want to see. The game sees all kinds of fights going down, with crowbars and machetes being liberally used, and plenty of shirtless Chinese gentlemen trying to rearrange each other’s faces in the most skillful manner. We know it’ll be coming in 2021, but again there’s no date just yet. 

From there, it was off to see the new title from the creators of Hyperlight Drifters. Heart Machine are giving us a colourful and vivid adventure platformer called Solar Ash. Starring a character called Rey, this is a stylish parkour-esque exploration title. There’s a huge woman too, so it’s likely the internet will love this in a weird way!

And talking of things the internet loves, remember Five Nights at Freddy’s? Well after a few years, the series is returning later this year to the PS4 and PS5 in the form of Five Nights and Freddy’s: Security Breach. With a first-person viewpoint, lots of neon lights and a ball pit, this looks to be a slightly different direction for the series, but with a lot of familiar animatronic faces. 

Another familiar face was that of Abe, the mudokon star of the Oddworld games, including the upcoming Oddworld: Soulstorm. Our hero looks super high-definition, but as instantly recognisable as always. Creative Director Lorne Lannin talked us through what to expect, including what they call “2.9D platforming”, which means the game is a bit more 3D than before, but Oddworld Inhabitants hasn’t gone as far as to go full-on three dimensional just yet. There’s some stunning looking set pieces, including a section that appears to be on a moving train. 

We’re told that we’ll be able to feel Abe’s heartbeat now, and he can scavenge his surroundings for loot. There’s a pacifist option too if you’re not up for violence, but the big new feature is the ability to possess your enemies and use their own powers against them. It’s out on the PS4 and PS5 on the 6th of April, and will be free for PS+ players on the PS5.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a charming looking game that we were treated to next. With Dreamworks-style graphics, cute black creatures that feel very Ghibli-esque, and beautiful mountain top vistas, this is a gorgeous looking title. A dreamy pan pipe soundtrack rolls over before everything goes so much darker and giant evil creatures start to assemble. Our protagonist dons a wooden fox mask and gets to work on it. We’ll be getting this artistic adventure on the 24th of August. 

Arkane comes next, and its hotly anticipated Deathloop. An all-new trailer shows us far more of the game than we’ve seen before, and it’s looking very much like classic spy thrillers. With cutaways to silhouette cartoons, fast-paced shooting and a theme tune that wouldn’t be out of place on a Bond film. The extreme violence and bad language wouldn’t fly, so we can expect this to be a bit more of a mature title than some of the others seen tonight.

We already know that the looping of time is going to be an important mechanic here, but it looks like it’ll be looping an awful lot, with the trailer proudly announcing that “if at first you don’t succeed, die die and die again”.

The last trailer is billed as “a huge update for one of 2020’s most celebrated games” so we’re finishing largely how we started. It is, of course, more content for Final Fantasy VII Remake. We are getting a whole host of extras coming to the PS5 with enhanced graphics, a photo mode, and a new “classic easy” difficulty level. The draw for most of us though is the addition of a chapter dedicated to Yuffie.

The add-on is billed as Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and will be coming on the 10th of June, with the majority of the PS5 enhancements being a free upgrade, but the Yuffie mission being a chargeable extra. The new mission sees Yuffie working with Avalanche to steal a rare mataria from Shinra, killing a slew of gigantic robots in the process. 

And with that, the show is over. It only took half an hour, but there was more gaming than you can shake a stick at, and frankly I’m sweating a little bit. 2021 is set to be a great year for those who can actually get hold of a PS5, and for those who can’t, the PS4 is still very much supported so they get a great time of it too. What was your favourite announcement? Let us know down below in the comments your highlight of this epic State of Play.