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Hands-on review: PS4 PlayLink's 'That's You' And 'Knowledge is Power'
Mon, 4th Dec 2017
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Sony has introduced a set of new games as part of its PS4 PlayLink series. These games are to encourage non-gamers to socialise with friends and/or family members.

Although video gaming is enjoyed by people of many ages, it's not an entertainment form for everyone as several people still cannot handle a normal gaming controller. Well Sony is trying to persuade the casual crowd to play games in the PS4 PlayLink series as your smartphone/tablet now acts as the default controller.

Two games that I had the chance to test out were 'That's You' and 'Knowledge is Power'. If you own a PS4, you will need at least two or more smartphone/tablet devices to play these games. A normal DualShock 4 controller is not compatible and both games aren't solo experiences too.

The first game I played was 'That's You' which is an interesting game where you have to guess the personality of the person you are playing with. The more you know this person, the higher the end score will be.  The categories change each time you play, but when I played it with my brother the first subject was about Halloween. It asked us how we would handle kids knocking at the door during Halloween.

Me and my brother know each other too well and we pretty much had similar preferences. We basically chose all of the options to tell the kids to go away and never bother us again. It was funny, although it was too easy.

There were even chances for you to design a picture or t-shirt using the touch screen of your device. You and the person you are playing with will have to choose the best looking design.

Again, me and my brother aced this as the only thing we were able to draw were either cats, or the face of WWE's Stone Cold Steve Austin. You cannot really draw something elaborate on a touch screen so this is why we chose to draw easy things.  The other category was our taste in music. Again, we aced this category as we both listen to hard rock and heavy metal. Obviously we knew each other inside and out and getting high scores was pretty easy.

That said, 'That's You' can get boring if you know the person you are playing with too well. It would be better if you play this game with people you don't know inside and out. It's a game I feel that will be good to play for school kids to get to know each other.

After we played 'That's You', we decided to play 'Knowledge is Power'. This is somewhat of a successor to Sony's previous 'Buzz' series as you have to compete with your friends in a general knowledge style quiz show.

As expected, the game is only playable with two or more people and you use your smartphone/tablet in order to answer the many multiple choice questions that await you.  At the start of each round, players can vote on the category that they are familiar with. This somewhat evens the playing field since there are lots of questions ranging from topics such as movies, world history and more.

In order to win at this game, the person who is the fastest at answering the questions usually wins. However, there is a way you can sabotage the brainiest person in order for you to win.

Each player can make life harder for the genius in the room by adding junk onto their screen. This includes green slime, bombs and even ice to slow down your opponent(s). The junk usually makes it longer for people to answer questions therefore decreasing their chances of winning.

Overall, both ‘That's You' and ‘Knowledge is Power' are fun games that anybody can play if they own a smartphone/tablet device. The latter one is more fun, but I enjoyed playing both games as they offer something different.

Verdict: 7.5/10