16 January 2024 , 14:00
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Square Enix’s bet on a more colourful brand of 4v4 multiplayer is primed to pay off, providing it can find a decent-sized audience to support it at launch.
Not two minutes into this round of Smash the Star – Foamstars’ signature game mode – and already I’m perched on a froth pillar of my own creation, sniping at members of the opposing team. Sadly it isn’t long until a player-summoned giant blue bubble begins rolling at me, ultimately squashing my chances of becoming a Star Player. If this doesn’t tell you that there’s something refreshing and dare I say ‘frothy’ about Square Enix’s upcoming hero shooter, I don’t think much else will. I came away from my recent four-hour hands-on preview session thinking 'yup, this is exactly the kind of fun shot in the arm the current landscape of competitive PvP needs.' There’s not really anything else like it.
Obviously, there’s a temptation to draw the obvious comparisons with Nintendo’s ink-filled Splatoon series. True, two teams of four compete to win against the other, albeit shooting a much more harmless form of ammunition. However, your ultimate objective isn’t to cover the map in your team colour's foam, you can’t swim in it to make a quick getaway, and you can’t instantly spawn at another team member’s location on the map upon death. So far, in all three distinct multiplayer modes I was able to check out, Foamstars stands on its own.
The first was the aforementioned Smash the Star. It’s here where players must try to gain the most ‘chills’ possible – nobody dies in this world of Bath Vegas – to try to become Star Player. Doing so sees your character’s abilities and damage buffed for the remainder of that round, which finishes when either the Star Player has been taken out, or the timer runs out. Smash the Star is the most basic PvP offering Foamstars has, but the Star Player twist still gives it an edge over the traditional Team Deathmatch found in other shooters, and it’s a good chance to test out the unique weapons and abilities of each of the titular heroes.
Dancing on the duck's head boosts it to your end goal, but leaves yourself open to attack. (Square Enix)Far more strategic and multilayered was Rubber Duck Party, a mix between the familiar Capture the Flag and Overwatch 2’s Escort game mode; only the objective here is to secure the giant rubber duck in the middle and shove it into the opposing team’s end of the map. This is the only one of the three available PvP modes at launch that isn’t reliant on your ability to rack up as many chills as possible. Instead, it hinges on your ability to capture the duck while fending off the opposite team, after which you have to dance on its head to move it from checkpoint to checkpoint – because of course you do.
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Rubber Duck Party was definitely where I had the most fun during my preview session, as it highlighted the features that are unique to Foamstars. In what other hero shooter will you find yourself dancing on a giant duck head to try to boost it further towards your goal? Foamstars isn’t afraid to have fun – and even poke fun at its central theme – to stand out from the crowd. The third mode, Happy Bath Survival, is the weakest link, forcing two team members to foam up the playfield from the sidelines as the other two duke it out; it’s fun, but a bit more of a stop/start experience which can take you out of the moment.
Surf the suds
In addition to these three quirky modes that very much form Foamstars’ bread and butter, the session was a good excuse to try out the different characters themselves. Each Foamstar comes equipped with two unique skills that have a cooldown, alongside a super ability that takes a bit longer to recharge, and I quickly found my favourite among the available roster: her name is Rave Breaker and she comes packing a wide hose jet, perfect for covering a lot of ground in your team’s foam to let them slide around faster. Using such a wide Jetstream also works well for crowd control, even if it means contending with a longer reload time than other Foamstars.
Elsewhere, Soa is easily the game’s all-rounder, equipped with dual pistols that shoot bubbles out relatively quickly, and a simple grenade-throwing skill. The Baristador (no guesses what his occupation is) utilises a long hose that essentially functions as a long-range sniper, ideal for when you want to pick off Star Players from afar. In terms of the full roster, Foamstars will have eight unique heroes at launch, but so far, there seems to be a great mix of both skills and ranged attack types.
Regardless of which foamstar you choose to play as, the characters I had time with all feel immensely satisfying to handle. Being a PS5 exclusive has allowed Square Enix to focus on making the act of sliding around on the slide board, then bashing into foamed-up enemies, incredibly gratifying to pull off. The DualSense controller’s haptic feedback is rarely taken advantage of these days, and here it’s perfectly implemented in a way that makes sense.
Rave Breaker's ability to shoot a wide spread of foam very quickly means making it easier for other players to slide around. (Square Enix)Overall, I came away from my Foamstars preview session extremely impressed about this lighter, frothier brand of hero shooter. And Sony is using the title to bolster the value of PS Plus because it's launching on the subscription service one whole month before its full, platform-wide release. So if you're a member, watch out for it in the PS Plus February 2024 lineup. Non-PS Plus subscribers, meanwhile, will be able to purchase the game for PS4 and PS5 in March, and you'll be able to duke it out in all three modes discussed, as well as an entire other horde-like PvE mode I didn’t have time to mention.
Foamstars is a live service game so of course, it'll have a paid-for battle pass, but as with Fortnite, it will also launch with a free tier that lets players gain access to a generous suite of unlockables as part of each season. At the time of writing, it's unclear which kind of unlockables will be separated into what category, but Square Enix assured me that it won't result in any pay-to-win perks. The length of each season also wasn't mentioned during my preview session, giving me the sense that many of the live-service details are being ironed out.
In addition to Foamstars being just pure fun to play, it seems like Square Enix has taken note of what has and hasn’t worked recently in the live service market, to try and give this its best possible shot. I really hope Foamstars manages to cut through the noise and sticks with PS5 players when it launches into PS Plus later this February. After all, if soft launching into PS Plus initially before becoming a paid-for game following its first month of release was a release strategy that worked wonders for Rocket League back in 2015, it certainly can also do so for a hero shooter as joyous as this too.