Astro Bot, developed by Asobo Studio and published by Sony is a classic 3d collectathon platformer in the genre's ultimate form. Astro Bot makes you remember why you even started playing video games, you want to grind in this game you don't have to grind to get anywhere (no diss against grindy games but that seems like what most AAA games are designed for nowadays).

Astro Bot stands at a decent 10-17 hours in length (but probably more since it's a collectathon) and with that length it makes you want to get at least every bot in every level, very commonly making me replay levels right after I finish them just to make sure I got everything. The gameplay is decent on its own. It's a standard 3D platformer with a jump-on-head Mario-like platforming style that is unchanged from the PS5 pack in Astro's Playroom. The gameplay variety comes in with all major levels having a gimmick item that spices up the gameplay themed on the level or world.

"Gimmick" huh? Don't we hate gimmicks?

Gimmicks can be overplayed and frankly annoying shallow gameplay mechanics that while initially may serve to change up the formula, eventually just become sore spots in otherwise decent games. Astro Bot does not have this issue whatsoever. Astro Bot introduces gimmicks so frequently that the only real reoccurring gimmick is that there's always a new gimmick. Astro Bot plays to its strengths and showcases the PS5 hardware like no other game has or probably will, fully exhausting its entire feature set in ways that make features that seemed mostly worthless before seem useful and integral to the console:

Whether it's becoming the size of a rat and running around the level like ant-man transforming to solve puzzles, becoming a sponge man to suck up water to grow bigger, and then releasing it to use the game's amazing liquid and water physics to solve platforming challenges, turning into a metal ball like Samus to roll around and become a walking (er-rolling) tank, or a Bayonetta style time slower to traverse an environment moving faster than the speed of light. Astro Bot just keeps chucking new ideas at you that you never even have time to get sick of.

So... is there a story?

Yeah, but it's more of an explanation of what caused Astro and his bots to be separated and to give him a reason to go on his big adventure. Astro and his friends start by driving around a giant PS5 spaceship when an alien of some sort decides to just ruin Bro's day and cause him to crash land into a desert planet (why does every sci-fi protag crash into Tatooine). While the ship was crashing the alien stole all the PS5's CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage alongside throwing all the bots across the galaxy. Astro's mission is to bring all the Astro bots home and repair the PS5-ship. I won't spoil the ending (don't worry you're not missing much), but this story isn't the story I care about and isn't the focus.

The real story.

It's the collectibles, they're all references to various franchises, not only from Sony but spanning almost entirely across the third-party and sony landscape. The real story is our personal connection to these characters and places. I've genuinely gotten emotional seeing all these different franchises, many I am very familiar with and have years of history with. The pure appreciation and attention to detail these devs have brought to truly respect gaming history shows a true dedication and understanding of our industry.

Technically, It's a masterpiece.

Astro Bot runs at a locked 60fps at 4k on the PS5 without fail whilst providing some of the most intricate and jaw-dropping physics, fluid, and particle simulations alongside beautiful raytraced global illumination and reflections. All this without ruining their art style in the pursuit of realism. Astro Bot's art style is a masterclass of clean and simplistic but detailed characters that tie in all these different art styles into a cohesive but varied and vibrant style.

Bugs are a myth and I've never been able to break its physics or make it act in an unintended way. You think you've discovered a backroom or an out-of-bounds area until it unlocks a secret level and you get an achievement. It's flawless, games like this don't come around often.

Final Score

I like to review games based on their merits in their own genre, alongside a general rating and a breakdown in a few major areas.

Tech: 10/10 (graphics, physics, backend)
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Bugs: 10/10 (higher is less)
Value: 9/10 (playtime, quality of time spent, amount of time spent)

Rating as a 3d Platformer: 10/10

Rating as a general game: 9.5/10

Final Rating: 10/10

Astro Bot is a lovingly crafted miracle game, something we don't see often. From start to finish, it keeps you hooked with the want to explore every crevice of its beautiful bug-free (not in the literal sense, there are bug enemies) world.

I can HEAVILY recommend Astro Bot to almost everyone.