It’s a crazy week for Sony. Just a day ago they had to announce the closure of Concord, the live-service shooter from Firewalk Studios that launched less than two weeks ago. It is undoubtedly the biggest flop the PlayStation brand has ever seen. But while Concord is being laid to rest, possibly forever, PlayStation’s latest exclusive is getting ready to meet its adoring public, and the reviews are nothing short of glowing.
Super cutesy platformer Astro Bot is due to launch tomorrow, September 6 for PS5 and the reviews have begun rolling in. Critic after critic have bestowed high scores on Asobi’s new game. In fact, based on both Opencritic and Metacritic, Astro Bot is the highest reviewed game of the year.
Well, almost. On Metacritic the issue is confused slightly because Astro Bot’s impressive score of 94 currently grants it second place. First place is held by Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree with a score of 95. Of course, Shadow of the Erdtree is actually an expansion rather than a standalone game, so it all comes down to a technicality: Astro Bot is the highest scoring standalone game of 2024.
Over on Opencritic, the answer is much more clear cut because Astro Bot currently holds a 95, putting it one whole point ahead of Fromsoft’s massive add-on.
That mighty impressive score also means Astro Bot is now the highest rated PlayStation exclusive on Opencritic, as well as the 8th best reviewed game. The previous best-reviewed PlayStation game on the site was held by Kratos in God of War 2018.
Metacritic’s history goes back a lot further than Opencritic, so Astro Bot doesn’t rank as highly. Over there, it’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves that boasts the accolade of being PlayStation’s highest rated game. Meanwhile, Astro Bot’s score of 94 ties it with numerous amazing games, including the likes of Gears of War, God of War, Call of Duty 4, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Devil May Cry. Not bad company to be in.
Of course, critical reception doesn’t always equal sales, so we will have to wait and see if the adorable Astro will shift millions of copies. Anecdotally though, I have to say there’s a lot of hype surrounding Astro’s triple-A, full-game debut, especially given how good his previous adventure was.
