At the time of this writing, PS3's online store was about to get shut down, but after tons of complaints Sony surprisingly caved in, even though it most likely will get shut down anyway sooner rather than later. This made me think to check out (at least some of) the games that are only available on PS3, for personal curiosity and posterity's sake. That was my only real reason to check out Blast Factor, a PS3 launch game that is meant to show off the console's particle effects, the sixaxis motion controls, and the fact that you can now buy videogames digitally. Might seem obvious now, but in 2006 this was a fairly big deal.

Other than being a good showcase for all those things, Blast Factor is actually not half bad as a twin stick shooter either. Its obvious surface-level similarities to Geometry Wars (another launch game, that one on the Xbox 360 instead) will show immediately, but there's nothing wrong in taking something that works and tweaking it a bit. Blast Factor's two tricks are the sixaxis controls and the fact that the main method of destroying enemies aren't specifically your shots as much as the chain explosions that an enemy will create.

Getting it out of the way immediately, obviously the motion controls are very tacky and stick out really badly from the rest of the game. You can slow down time by shaking the controller, which is an action that can be useful but was more of a hindrance because of how sensitive the controls are, leading this action to be triggered by accident more often than not, and you can tilt the field by literally tilting the controller, which is the worst offender. Not only is it a complete pace breaker but there's literally only one enemy that this move will be useful against, which really makes it feel like Sony told the developers to add some motion-based actions at the last second. The mechanic of having to use enemies' blasts to create a chain reaction that can very quickly wipe out entire waves is, instead, pretty fun. It makes the game feel pretty different from most other twin stick shooters as it makes you prioritize enemies based on size and/or positioning, and in general it's a fun gameplay loop.

I wouldn't tell anybody to start up their PS3s and go on PSN specifically for Blast Factor, but next to other purchases this can be a pretty ok time-waster. It offers some extra content, it's pretty easy to just pick up and play, and for the price of $3, you could honestly do a lot worse nowadays. Shame that Bluepoint became just a port/remake company after this, because the foundation of Blast Factor is surprisingly solid.

On release I saw all the negative press and reactions, passing on it without much more thought and diving back into endless, blissful MGS4 sessions.

Some 14 years later - jaded from the rapidly declining state of the modern gaming industry - I found myself scooping up various physical copies of hidden gems for the PS3, throwing in Alone in the Dark for a couple of bucks.
Turns out you have to disregard the majority opinion if you want a title packed with fresh ideas.

The game is janky, the voice acting sits in the limbo between laughable and dull and the episodical structure with TV style recaps is a miss for me. The reward for giving it a spin is a game that offers you physics based puzzles, with some of them having multiple (even unintended) solutions, a real time inventory that has you looking down into your jacket, on the fly choice between first and third person, crafting that requires the actual components of what you are trying to make and not just some scrap metal, a dedicated button for closing your eyes and cruising through Central Park.

Aye, the story. A bunch of tropes, a hamfisted connection to the very first game in the franchise and some guy doing a Times New Roman T-Pose.