PlayStation Plus New Free Game Is a GOTY Contender, Fans Agree

PlayStation Plus users are declaring a new free game addition to be a GOTY contender, and I’m not at all surprised.

Last month, Giant Squid’s Sword of the Sea landed on the service’s extra tier as a day one release.

You may know Giant Squid as the studio that brought you The Pathless and ABZU, with new release Sword of the Sea having a very important Journey connection.

Journey is one of the greatest games of all-time and Sword of the Sea is actually directed by Journey’s art director, Matt Neva.

Sword of the Sea utilises Journey’s wordless storytelling, with Neva reusing a desert location as he felt there were many ideas pertaining to this not used in Journey.

Within Sword of the Sea, players will control a Wraith who explores a desolate world atop a hoversword, seeking to bring it back to life.

The hoversword functions much like a skateboard or snowboard, allowing the player to seamlessly traverse the game’s vast desert.

Your job is to collect Ocean Seeds, bringing them back to the desert wasteland.

I’ll admit, I’ve yet to try out the game myself; it launched while I was at Gamescom and I’ve barely come up for air since, but it’s very much one I’ll get around to soon.

I know it’s a banger though; my colleagues have said so, plus Sword of the Sea boasts a score of 88 on Metacritic.

Over on Reddit, user Packer224 wrote, “Sword of the Sea just came out and it’s already my GOTY.”

“It’s been an absolutely stacked year so far for GOTY contenders, but somehow I think this takes the cake for me. It takes the best parts of Journey and ABZU, two games that I love, and expands on it, giving it a great unique identity and a gaming experience that I literally didn’t put down from beginning to end.”

“Just started it last night and have to say it’s magical. So simple, so easy to play and calming. Journey was also a favourite of mine,” replied stinkybumbum. I’ll gloss over that username.

“Truly f**kin incredible game. Momentum and curiosity are rewarded heavily. Movement is just so fun in it. New game + is super fun,” remarked Are_alright_afterall.

Of course, others argued that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserves GOTY but the OP did say “my GOTY” and we’re all entitled to an opinion.

Personally, I’m still backing Split Fiction but there’s plenty of time left for something else to take my number one spot.

The bottom line is that Sword of the Sea is at the very least not a PlayStation Plus addition that you should miss out on.