While the main playable character is still the silent Otus, the switched characters cling to his talons and can execute different moves that help you navigate the world. The general gameplay revolves around you flying through each level, switching between various characters on the fly with L1 and R1. Owlboy’s aesthetic is dripping in visual splendour from the opening hour to the final credits While this all sounds very formulaic (and it is), what really sets Owlboy apart is the way it fuses this into a pixelated platformer with well written, charismatic characters and a rich lore around the history of owls that’s left up for interpretation when the final credits roll. What follows from here is a globe-trotting adventure that sees you take to the skies and depths of this beautifully rendered world in search of relics to prevent the pirates from taking over the world. You take control of Otus, a trainee owl who’s thrust into the midst of a battle between the owls and pirates. The story is relatively straight forward but there’s enough here to keep you playing through to the end of this 9 hour adventure to find out what happens. With some genuinely tough segments and a smattering of time-based and logic puzzles, Owlboy is an impressive Indie title, tapping into the old-school nostalgia of a by-gone platforming era making it one of this year’s surprise best game on PS4. Originally released back in 2016 on Steam but eventually receiving a 2018 release this past April, Indie platformer Owlboy is a tightly refined, charming platformer that manages to tell a story rich in lore with a handful of colourful characters to control.
A Beautiful, Tightly Refined Platform Game