My PlayStation 4 went on the fritz today (all of a sudden I’m sporadically getting the pulsing “blue light of death” during boot up), but looking ahead at all of the exclusives coming to Sony’s console has helped to lift my mood. Two titles from independent developers stand out in particular: WiLD and Rime.
Described as an online survival adventure game “devoted to the wilderness,” WiLD comes our PS4 way from Wild Sheep Studios, a new indie developer co-founded by Michel Ancel, the father of Rayman, and the creator of Beyond Good & Evil. Not a whole lot has been revealed about the game beyond the fact that it will make all creatures — horses, wolves, sheep, birds, fish, boars, human beings, etc — in the game playable. I love anything that has to do with animals and nature, plus anything from the genius brain of Michel Ancel, so I’m especially psyched up for this one. I bet you will be too after watching the Gamescom reveal trailer.
Next up is Rime, an open-world adventure puzzle-platformer from Deadlight developer Tequila Works and Sony XDev Studio Europe about a boy who must escape an island stricken by a terrible curse. Again, not much information is being released about the game yet. I can simply tell you that artistically it looks like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker mixed with a Studio Ghibli film, and has the spirit and immersion of a Team Ico production. Frankly, that’s all I need to know. A game like Rime eases the pain of not knowing what the hell is going on with The Last Guardian. Check out the new Gamescom trailer and prepare yourself to be blown away!