While it’s not yet clear what most of 2024 will look like for PlayStation owners, Sony is starting the year strong. Next week, it’ll drop The Last of Us Part II Remastered as its first major exclusive. A few weeks later, it’ll dip into live service with Helldivers 2. The rest of the year is a bit of a mystery from there, but it looks like PS Plus will help fill in some potential gaps.
To kick off 2024, PlayStation owners can claim three games at no additional charge with their PS Plus Essential subscription. The list is headlined by Game Awards nominee A Plague Tale: Requiem and the ultra-stylish Evil West. Both games are worth adding to your library, but there’s one title that you especially can’t miss: the absurdly entertaining Nobody Saves the World.
Developed by DrinkBox Studios, the team behind Guacamelee, Nobody Saves the World is essentially Diablo reimagined as a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s an action-RPG where players control an unremarkable person who accidentally embarks on a quest to save a fantasy world after acquiring a magic wand. That tool gives them the power to transform into a variety of different creatures, each of which has their own unique powers.
The most immediate fun comes from unlocking wildly different forms and seeing how they play. By changing into a rat, players can chomp enemies and inflict poison damage on them. Horse form, on the other hand, has players kicking enemies away with their back hooves. Each form is unpredictable and comes with a variety of skills that can be mixed and matched with other classes.
That ever-changing combat system especially sings thanks to its long list of dungeons filled with hordes of enemies, just like Diablo. Where it differs is that it’s not as reliant on loot and rare gear to drive its progression system. Instead, dungeons are combat playgrounds where players can test out new forms they’ve acquired and creative skill loadouts. It isn’t about min-maxing to create the most powerful build; it’s about the joy of experimentation.
Nobody Saves the World encourages that playstyle with its ingenious approach to progression. Throughout the adventure, players have a long list of tasks to complete. Many of those are specific to each class, encouraging players to constantly try new forms to level them up and unlock more abilities. Players can only become more powerful by trying new things, rather than grinding for the one piece of legendary gear they’ll never take off once found.
Though I played it when it launched last January, I have an even fonder impression of it after playing Diablo 4 just last month. I quickly got engrossed in the dungeon crawler over a few weeks (especially thanks to how well it ran on Steam Deck OLED), but its constant supply of loot and live-service hooks began to wear on me after a while. By its third act, it felt like I was doing chores anytime I popped into a dungeon. Nobody Saves the World avoids that pitfall by always putting play at the forefront.
Considering that there are some massive RPGs like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth right around the corner, now’s a perfect time to jump into a far more casual action game that’ll keep you entertained from start to finish. If you have a PS Plus subscription and want to grab it at no extra charge, make sure to claim it by February 5.
