PlayStation: The Concert Review

My thoughts and feelings on PlayStation's Concert experience.

---

It's no secret that I've been looking forward to PlayStation: The Concert. I probably talked about it a bit too much to my friends and colleagues, and even wrote a blog post about how excited I was to see it. So when April 21st rolled around, my partner and I headed out to the show, excited to see a celebration of PlayStation and hear some amazing soundtracks.

After watching the concert, I was left with mixed feelings. On one hand, hearing some of PlayStation's scores live, accompanied by great visuals, was a great experience; on the other hand, the condensed line-up and lack of love for other titles left me wondering what could have been.

Not Giving That Celebration Feeling

This is more about the build-up than the concert itself, being touted as a big celebration of PlayStation, I was hoping to be surrounded by PlayStation cosplayers, paid actors or even some experiences to help drum up the excitement. Instead, everything felt empty. The merch stand was very bare bones, as well as being pricey and fairly restrictive with a t-shirt and pin bundle, but you couldn't mix and match so if you wanted a Horizon top, with an Astro Bot, then tough luck, you'd have to get both bundles or settle for one, which felt like an odd rule. The only other thing was a small booth that let you take your photo with Astro Bot, which was nice, but the overall atmosphere and build-up just felt very lacking.

Playing The (Recent) Hits

PlayStation has been around for a long time, and there are so many titles that hold a place in so many of our hearts. For me, the likes of Ratchet & Clank, InFamous, and Resistance each have a big place in my gaming history; however, those titles barely got a mention, with the focus being on the four modern heavy hitters like; The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War and Ghost of Tsushima. I'm a huge fan of all of those titles, but for a celebration of PlayStation, it felt fairly limited.

Each composition of the titles and the visuals was done incredibly well. Each 20-minute composition delivered a great musical experience. With the enormity and scale of God of War and Horizon being perfectly juxtaposed with the likes of The Last of Us' more intimate soundtrack. The music was accompanied by a large backing screen and five foreground banners that would drop down and rise during the performances to create some neat visuals of the games to run alongside the music. When everything went well, PlayStation: The Concert really was a great show.

For me, the best score combination came from Horizon and The Last of Us; that's not to say Ghost of Tsushima and God of War weren't good, but the visual design alongside the scores just seemed to work the best during those games. The minimalist music of The Last of Us let the performers take centre stage, delivering some beautiful moments, but it was also a treat seeing the giraffes rear their heads for their moment in the spotlight. Horizon opened the show and did a wonderful job. The visuals of Horizon were astounding, and seeing them projected in front of you whilst the orchestra blasted the music kicked off the show in a tremendous way. There are even some vocal performances from songs within the game that are all performed very well.

Unequal Love

Despite Horizon, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima and God of War taking top billing, there were also scores from other titles in there, with Helldivers, Bloodborne, and Uncharted all receiving a small moment of appreciation. I mean, the Uncharted theme is an absolute staple for adventure scores. The problem was that the visuals for these other titles didn't get the same love, with Bloodborne and Uncharted essentially being relegated to an animated backdrop. Given how beloved these titles are, it felt like a massive shame, with the visuals taking a step back, instead of helping elevate the already great scores like they were doing with the other titles. The scores themselves were still great, but when PlayStation hyped up the visuals, it's a shame to see the second billing titles getting a clear underappreciation.

Final Thoughts

PlayStation: The Concert was a good time. I enjoyed myself a lot, but I can't help feeling like the concert missed the mark. I went in hoping for a celebration of PlayStation and came out feeling thrilled but also slightly shortchanged.

For fans of gaming soundtracks and lovers of PlayStation, the concert is still a great experience to witness. It's a concert I enjoyed, I just wish the catalogue had been broadened and more love was shown to some of the older titles, but what was on show was still a great time, and if they were to do a follow up, I'm fairly certain I'd buy tickets to watch it all over again, just this time I'll try not to let my expectations get so high.

---

PlayStation has now listed the US tour dates. The initial launch only included European tour dates, so it's good to see the promise of US tour dates coming to fruition after some of Europe's dates were cancelled.