Back in July, at E3 2017, PlayStation announced the birth of their new PlayLink system – a collection of games that use your mobile phones and tablets to control the games. As an introduction they gave everyone on PS+ their first game, That’s You, for free! Now, we have 5 PlayLink games available for purchase, but this is a look back at the one which started it, the one which was brought out in order to get more casual people into gaming. Did it succeed in becoming a party favourite or did it die by the roadside? Let’s find out.
That’s You is very similar to a few of the Jackbox games but all rolled into one package. You have different categories; for example, Past times, Love and mysteries which each have their own sets of sub-categories. There are drawing rounds where you will take a picture of yourself or another player and then doodle on it to meet the requested criteria. For example, you may be asked to draw clothes as if you are going to the prom or make the person in the picture look like they are a ballerina. These rounds can get pretty hilarious depending on who you are playing with as everyone loves drawing on newspapers and making people look silly – now you can do it and earn points in the process.
We also have a bunch of question rounds, these are a bit more relaxed than the drawing round as they mainly revolve around ‘who do you think would be most likely too…’ questions. So not general knowledge or questions with a right or wrong answer, just silly fun trying to see what people think of each other. There is an option to filter out personal questions though if you are playing with someone you feel may not like certain questions. However, the majority are fun questions and harmless.
If you’re not happy with the questions on offer, find you are getting the same questions or if you want to pry into your friend’s life without them knowing, you can load custom questions in the app and play with those instead. This extends the life of the game and allows you to create your own personalised question banks for certain people or occasions. I’ve not tried this feature personally but my friend does it all the time and she can’t stop playing the game!
There aren’t actually many rules in That’s you outside of the above two modes. You don’t receive scores in the conventional sense as you are awarded them by the other players and for the majority votes in the questions. This is both good and bad, good in that you can have a lot of fun and it’s easy for anyone to just pick up a phone or tablet and join in but also bad in regards to the content may quickly become old or uninteresting. You can add your own questions as I mentioned above, but with there being only two modes, how long will it be until you have done everything you want to do?
Don’t get me wrong though, I think PlayStation was very clever making this a PS+ free game for the last 6 months and including it free with all of their major 1st party titles since E3. I believe it has most likely convinced a lot more non-gamers to enjoy playing with their friends and family and it has opened the way for even more amazing PlayLink titles.
PlayLink Integration:
This and Knowledge is power has an interesting feature. You can play a watered-down version of the games within the app on your device without having a PS4. Simply download the app and select the mode to play without a PS4 – it doesn’t offer all the features, but it’s a simple pass-the-phone/tablet version that you can play anywhere. This gives the app extra bonus points in my book as it means it isn’t just a simple interface for the game, it has its own content. In regards to the game, the app acts as you would expect, use it to take pictures, draw on things, answer questions and interact with the game. It works fine, although when I first got it, my PS4 couldn’t be found; however, each PlayLink title has an option to turn your PS4 into a hotspot and you connect to it directly. It gives full instructions on how to do this and it worked a charm!
Official Trailer:
Final Conclusion:
I think That’s You is a great introduction to the PlayLink games. Is it the best party game out there? I don’t think so. But for something that’s free if you are a PS+ member and cheap if you aren’t, it’s a great game to play with friends and family when you have 15 minutes to kill. The addition of adding your own questions extends the life of the game and is something none of the other games offers. It uses the app perfectly and provides a lot of silly fun for people of all ages.
A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes
That's You
£15.99
The Good:
- Can add your own questions
- The app integrates great
- Free for PS+ Members
The Bad:
- Not much variety
- Multiplayer only
- Can get old fast
