About a month ago I drunkenly signed up for a higher-tier subscription system called PS Plus Extra. By doing this I woke up the next day with a heavy head to find that I now had access to around 100 games that I previously did not have access to. I only had a few months left on my subscription at that point and knew that there was no chance I would be able to play all of these games unless I had a system in place. The rules are simple: I play every game for at least an hour and then decide if the developers did a good job at getting and keeping my attention. If at that point I still like the game I will carry on playing it for longer. Unless I can't even figure out how to play the damn thing because the tutorial is broken, I will always keep at it for at least an hour even if I hate it.
I ignore AAA games for the most part and try to focus on trying to find hidden gems. So far my search hasn't been terribly fruitful and only a handful of games like Spiritfarerer have stuck out as being amazing.
I was absolutely delighted at how much I enjoyed Dragon Quest Builders and since I never played Minecraft I wasn't aware of how amazing and addictive this simplistic game design could be.
There is a big discussion out there about how DQB is NOT a Minecraft clone but I just finished stating that I never played Minecraft so I will sit that discussion out. It looks like a Minecraft clone to someone like me that never jumped on that bandwagon and this is why I call it as such.
The premise of the game is pretty simple: You run around and collect resources in order to build up your city and improve the life of all the people who there. You'll find other people to move to your city and once they get there they will make things that you can pick up later from the communal drop-chest. They don't really make very much stuff so I wouldn't say that having a lot of inhabitants actually benefits you a great deal but it's part of the game and in order to progress you MUST help these people so it's fair enough.
The entire world you find yourself in consists of various blocks and almost all of these are things that you can gather and use back at your village to make various things. At first it seemed kind of tedious but then I really started to get into it and I was actually quite surprised about how much fun it can be to build your city. I never really got into the advanced things like building exterior walls that are tough for enemies to destroy but I did build a ton of rooms and when you start making defenses (which will happen in the very first act) it is really fun to see how effective they are against the waves of enemies that are constantly attacking.
One thing I really like about the combat is the fact that losing or having the enemies bust through the walls is only a temporary setback. They can't permanently destroy anything and when they do knock it down it is pretty easy to put it back. The only thing I would complain about as far as combat in your town is concerned is that I myself caused far more damage to my structures than any enemy ever did because your strikes, even if they hit the enemy, are likely to extend beyond them and knock down your own city walls.
Combat itself generally speaking is really easy because all enemies telegraph their attacks and they are quite easy to dodge. You just need to make sure you don't get greedy after they take a swing at you because most of the time that I ever took damage was when I tried to get in a few more "thwacks" than I actually had time for. You have access to so many healing items in the game that dying is very rare.
So you are meant to go out and explore the land while simultaneously building up your city. Thankfully, the city cannot suffer damage when you are not in it and I am happy to see that this is the case. I think it would be annoying AF if you were out collecting tree branches only to get a message that your city is being destroyed.
It's up to you how lavish you want your structures to be. The only requirement for something to be considered a room is that it have walls 2 blocks high, a door, and a light source. Personally, I have never even put a roof on a structure because it actually makes it more complicated to even see what is going on inside unless you switch to a very close camera angle.
I hesitated to even start playing this game and I am just delighted to see that even though it is quite simplistic and combat is repetitive as hell, that the game stays interesting well beyond the 1-hour threshold that I set for myself. I probably have around 20 hours logged in the game already and I am looking forward to playing it again today. I really didn't think that this would happen because when I looked at the demos I thought it looked stupid.
Do yourself a favor and at least have a look at this one because I was really surprised at how much I liked it. There have only been a few games over the past several years that I have stayed up well beyond my self-induced bedtime to play "just one more quest" and the next thing I know it is the middle of the night.
Dragon Quest Builders is an excellent game and since it is free for members, there is no reason to not play it!
Games I have tried in my journey to play every PS-Plus Extra game for at least an hour
- Windbound (survival game with rogue-like elements - not recommended)
- Magicka 2 (top-down humorous multiplayer hack and slash-sort with immense spell system - maybe recommended)
- Tearaway: Unfolded (charming casual 3D platformer with inventive graphics and gameplay designed for all ages - recommended for casual players)
- Spiritfarer (casual simulation / resource-management style game with an extremely good story - recommended for all)
- Observation (point and click survival sort of... interactive game of sorts set in space - found it very boring after just one hour and do not recommend)
- Gabbuchi (simplistic puzzle game that I feel is better suited to mobile devices. Not recommended on consoles)
- The Messenger (8-bit style action/platformer that is a throwback to original Ninja Gaiden. It's simplistic fun. Recommended)
- Megadimension Neptunia VII (typical JRPG with some adjustments made to combat for uniqueness. Could be fun and I lukewarmly recommend for someone willing to dedicate 50 hours to a turn-based RPG)
- Monster Jam: Steel Titans 2 (monster truck racing game that will appeal only to people who are already fans of the sport - not recommended for any other people)
- Entwined (Visually appealing rhythm pace game that is very easy to pick up but gets repetitive after 30 minutes or so - recommended for anyone that can get it for free.)
- 2Dark (8-bit graphic survival horror/stealth hybrid. The game becomes extremely difficult really fast and therefore failed to hold my attention - not recommended)
- Virginia (interactive-cinema...not really a game and it is over in a couple of hours. Not recommended)
- Trials of Mana (simplistic action RPG that will definitely appeal to the casual gamer that is a fan of old-school RPG combat mechanics - recommended)
- Journey to the Savage Planet (FPS exploration game in a semi-open-world environment. The game is intentionally silly and I loved it - recommended)
- Resogun (arcade-style single-screen SHMUP that will get boring to most people after an hour or so. Not recommended)
- The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (point and click adventure game that doesn't work on consoles and is just irritating to play - not recommended)
- Mighty No. 9 (it's Mega Man but terrible. Definitely not recommended)
- Moving Out (delightfully funny moving company simulator. It gets boring and repetitive pretty quickly. Recommended for a short laugh)
- Last Day of June (a sad story done in 3rd person perspective that while an interesting story and/or life lesson, quickly becomes repetitive and dull. Not recommended)
- Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom (action adventure RPG with an inventive combat system that unfortunately becomes very boring very fast. Filled with bugs and invisible walls, I lost interest within the first hour. Not recommended)
- Hue (inventive puzzle-platformer that whose basic controls are the reason why it is fun. This is also the reason why it gets old after a couple of hours)
- Dragon Quest Builders (simple building game similar to Minecraft with a quest and story system built it. A lot more fun than I thought it would be and highly recommended)