Astro Bot the video game that pushes the limits of PS5 DualSense

Thanks to PlayStation, we had the opportunity to play Astro Bot, a new platform title exclusive to PlayStation 5 that was unveiled at the State of Play in May and that aims to push the DualSense experience to the limit. In this 40-minute demo, we were able to explore 4 planets to see what awaits us in this title that will be released on September 6th.

The PlayStation 5 mothership has been damaged

In this direct sequel to Astro’s Playroom, little ASTRO and his crew have been scattered across several galaxies. So the friendly android has to use his DualSpeeder to search for them on more than 50 planets, each with different challenges, lots of danger, surprises, and most of all, a lot of fun.

Under this premise, we have to explore all the planets. In those that were available in this hands-on, we could see how the development team has excellently evolved the gameplay.

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DualSense at its best

Undoubtedly, one of the most striking things about this new version is how they have adapted the levels to the multiple haptic sensations provided by the PS5 controller. In this demo, we could literally feel undoing a giant zipper, bouncing on a ball, being in water, using a giant magnet, and even breaking glass with the little robot’s head or feet. All of this with adjustments to the very intuitive controls that will make the experience easier for even the smallest players.

Among the novelties that we saw in the demo and that stand out the most is a kind of dog that serves as a propeller and the possibility of becoming a kind of balloon.

It has also given continuity to the many nods to the various PlayStation franchises, both in the levels and in the little robots that we rescue. However, the level design invites you to explore everything to get all the robots and puzzle pieces to platinum the game.

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The difficulty is progressive, and from what we saw, there are some levels with higher challenges that we can skip if we find them difficult.

The only boss we faced seemed well done, especially since we had to use the DualSense triggers. In this fight, they worked as a kind of boxing glove, mixing slingshot functions, which sounds strange, but that’s how it was.

Now we just have to wait a few months for its release. After these first impressions, we leave with a great taste in our mouth, because we are definitely in front of one of the best platform video games of 2024.

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Astro Bot will be available in a standard physical edition that will come with a printed poster folded inside the box (the first shipment) and in digital with two variants, the simple one that in the content is similar to the physical edition and the Digital Deluxe Edition that will include: