‘Tis the season to ignore societal pressures and only spend time with your family if you have a good relationship with them. Otherwise, hang out with people you do like and play some games. It’s the holidays, after all. It’s handy, then, that this round of PlayStation Plus titles is packing a game that you’ll need a friend, partner or sibling to play with.
As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, December’s PlayStation Plus Essentials games are It Takes Two, Aliens: Dark Descent, and Temtem. These three games will be available for download on December 3.
You know it’s a good PS Plus month when one title took out Game of the Year in the 2021 Game Awards. Developer Hazelight Studios is known for its innovation in gameplay, whether that’s the dual protagonists of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons that are controlled simultaneously or the co-op shenanigans in A Way Out. It Takes Two feels like a culmination of everything the studio has learned from its previous projects, putting two players in a co-op-only experience that throws new mechanics at the two players at an insane pace. Playing as Cody and May, a couple with heavy marital issues that were magically transformed into dolls, you will platform, shoot and puzzle your way through various environments and whacky situations as a genuinely thoughtful story unfolds. As you can tell, I’m pretty high on the game, and our review reflects that, landing on a strong 8.5.
It Takes Two is a co-op game that will have you looking introspectively at the way you express your emotions and how your feelings and how you choose to show them may affect those around you. Aliens: Dark Descent is a game about blasting away at a fuck load of Xenomorphs that have surrounded you on all sides. We love variety. Dark Descent is a real-time strategy title that challenges you to assemble a squad of hardened marines to mow through Xenos that want nothing more than to rip your gun-totting soldiers to pieces. Taking what is usually a turn-based affair and injecting it with the tension that only comes with making split-second decisions, Dark Descent does a great job blending the genre with the source material. We gave Aliens: Dark Descent an 8.5 in our review.
Right, the reductive rundown for Temtem is that it’s a legally distinct Pokémon on non-Nintendo consoles. But we here at WellPlayed are better than that. An MMO creature-collection RPG, Temtem takes a lot of inspiration from what has come before it in the genre while introducing players to a connected world and various co-op features you don’t find elsewhere. Set across various floating islands, players will head out to befriend a raft of Temtems to battle against friends, rivals, and Dojo Leaders (I’m trying so hard not to make the comparison). It has a strong and cute aesthetic with some fun ideas, so it’s certainly worth a look at if you’re a Pokéfan (damn).
If you haven’t downloaded Hot Wheels Unleashed 2—Turbocharged, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Death Note Killer Within, you’ve got until December 2 to do so. As always, please remember that you can add these games to your library and download them later if you don’t have any precious space on your hard drive.
Which game will you be downloading first? What games would you like to see in January? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
Adam's undying love for all things PlayStation can only be rivalled by his obsession with vacuuming. Whether it's a Dyson or a DualShock in hand you can guarantee he has a passion for it. PSN: TheVacuumVandal XBL: VacuumVandal Steam: TheVacuumVandal
