Hello everyone. Anybody like Roblox?
Introduction
Roblox is gaming platform aimed at... Idk anymore - to encourage creativity in the act of making and playing games. I could probably get away with saying "just kidding I made that up" because that's not the reality of Roblox. You probably know more of it as child-targeted gambling, sweaty mouse/keyboard fps players, "wtf this is made in roblox??", pedos, and probably other Roblox meta I'm forgetting. With the mess that it is, Playstation and/or Roblox decided that they still needed Roblox on Playstation to be a thing and in October 10th 2023, it did.
Now, up to that point, I mainly played on PC. Roblox games are usually designed with a keyboard and mouse and it is where you can get the best performance with a good rig. That doesn't mean I never want to play on a Dualsense controller on my 4k oled ai assisted best for ps5 tv with 60fps (fyi I don't have a 4k oled ai assisted best for ps5 tv I'm just a person who (will) writes reviews as a hobby), it's just how (almost) every Roblox game is at their peak. With Roblox now being on a console that I own (ps4), I at least thought of trying it and possibly reviewing it. That is today's post.
Common Issues Between Most Games
This is the first thing I should point out, which does not look well for Roblox on Playstation.
First of all, most games do not use Playstation icons (square, triangle, cricle, x, etc.) on, you know, Playstation. It is likely because Xbox got Roblox first before Playstation, but I don't call this a valid excuse for games still being updated. This isn't a problem on pc/mobile/xbox or games with easy controls, but it gets really confusing when it's telling you to press Left Bumper for example. What the heck is Left Bumper?!?!? The trigger?!?!? No. It's actually what Xbox calls L1 on Playstation or L on Nintendo. What an oddly complicated name. This is espcially bad in games with more complicated actions or when remapping inputs (I'll get to that).
Another big problem is the lack of chat, which is shared between both console versions of Roblox. Basically any game that relies on chat, like roleplaying or team based games, is pretty much pointless on console outside of using private servers and getting friends to play in it on a voice chat or something, which I assume most of my friends aren't gonna want to do, for better or for worse.
These two things basically kill the most popular games like Adopt Me (but that game is trash on console regardless, I'll get to it), but there's still fun to be had here even without those two basic features. I'll start with a game that can kind of be fun which requires both and doesn't have either, at least when Roblox first lanuched on Playstation.
Daybreak
Daybreak is meant to be a 8v1 horror survival game kind of like Dead by Daylight but you're either poor, really gay, or are like me and just want a good Roblox game for once. Like I said, there's no chat and on October 10th, there was no Playstation icons either. Quickchat exists, possibly for console players, but barely anybody used it as far I remember.
I played as Sarah (Lone Wolf) when I first played on console since she doesn't need chat or other survivors to be useful. I also played as Iris (Pot of Life) and Yronica (Egocentric Leech). I don't know why I played as Iris/Yronica when I can't see chat, especially as Iris as I can't see anyone beg for or tell anyone about pot of life, but I did. I still lost almost all of my games regardless.
I also played as killer once. The killer doesn't matter here since I have big issues with how it works on a controller. Let me provided a comparison: In the Last of Us Remastered/Part 1, which can be played on the same platforms as Roblox now, you can turn around 180 degrees by pressing cricle while holding down on the left stick. Daybreak does not have an equivalent. There's definitely a reason for Daybreak not having it though so this isn't a good comparison, HOWEVER this does present my issue. Daybreak locks in first person when playing as killer and survivors often take sharp turns or do "jukes", often needing quicker camera movement than it allows you to. I have no clue how to combat this here. There's a possibly that I could get used to this, but I didn't want to try.
This leaves survivors. I played this several times after October, both on PC as I did before and on PS4, and the only one I would play as here would be Serena (Hunter's Instinct). She can basically track the killer with trails that they leave behind, which is the most useful to both console player Serena and other survivors when they are able to see it. Her perk has more to it than that. If you play it, you can read more about it. This is the best I was able to do on console without chat. Tabitha (Maternal Instinct) might also work, provided you are willing to guess where the killer is, as well as basically any chase character. The game on its own could still be fun with those characters, but not having chat is not worth any benefits the ps5 brings.
Daybreak did eventually add Playstation icons too, but apparently messed up one input somehow. Not a big deal though since they fixed it shortly after. As you will see later, this is still better than most games.
Most Games Still Work Fine Though
Basically, any game that uses Roblox's standard ui stuff and recommended control scheme work fine (possibly with extra coding). get a snack at 4am, Natural Disaster Survival, Late To School, ROBLOX NPCs are becoming smart, get hit by a car simulator, and basically every showcase game will all work, although Late to School shows Xbox icons (luckily the game is easy to control), ROBLOX NPCs are becoming smart is impossible to finish due to missing chat, and Natural Disaster Survival and get hit by a car simulator lose their social purpose due to missing chat. I would still play them on PC over Playstation because those games just feel right over there, but these are fine on Playstation as well.
flex your weather also works fine, once again despite losing it's social purpose (flexing) without chat... why did this get recommended to me on console?
Robot 64 and Microwave Dinner are basically the best way to play those games, despite Robot 64 using Xbox icons and Microwave Dinner thinking your using an Xbox controller whenever you use the dpad... ok. Being based off pre-exisitng console games probably helped with that. I also played Regretevator which I only know about it because I wanted to joke around when someone was streaming it on a discord call. Outside of the call, I've only played this game on Playstation and it works great here too minus the Ui not being easy to close. Again, no chat so all games here lose it's social purpose, but the appeal of those games aren't in the social aspect which makes for great alternative to PC.
LOCOfficial is great because its a good game that not only gives Playstation icons, but also grants you the ability to choose what icons to use in the settings. Goated.
That's it in terms of "works fine". Almost every game from here on to the very end will have issues, whether it's something minor like Playstation icons or big like not having good precision on a controller.
Super Doomspire
Starting off with a game that hasn't been updated since before Roblox on Playstation was even announced, Super Doomspire is really confusing sometimes with inputs. This is where I learned the Left Bumper wasn't the trigger, but it was also where I learned that Xbox is garbage and I want nothing to do with the brand (just ignore Hi-Fi Rush in my Steam library). Good precision is also not here (no motion), but I don't think a game like Doomspire ever needed really accurate precision. It also lacks a quick way to change tools, but I was still able to win games or survive for a long time after losing all of my teams spawns without changing tools quickly; Most of my loses actually, if the platform had anything to contribute, it would be moreso due to Xbox icons on Playstation. This game is fine on both console and pc but I'd rather play on PC.
neon Knights
Similar story to Super Doomspire, except there's no z axis to worry about and the game was updated after the Playstation launch but still doesn't include proper Playstation icons. Unlike Super Doomspire, I'll probably still play neon Knights here as well as on PC and hope that it will still be updated, but probably more on PC.
Flood Escape 2
There's parts of this game that are best on pc, but console isn't bad either. Again, no chat or Playstation icons, but what's here isn't bad. Games require pressing the touchpad (or view on Xbox) to control the ui or at least for some required function. Most games just use a pointer to emulate a mouse, but some games actually make it so you can go through each option individually, something that makes the experience more natural with a controller. Flood Escape 2 does a weird thing where the Retro version uses the latter but the current version uses the former. Why did Crazyblox change this? I don't know. Also, until today, I thought that the other server types were unaccessible on console since they weren't in the lobby, but they were moved to the spectate menu at some point. That is another odd change I have no idea why it was made.
Amelia's Cafe
Now, I would love to talk about this game, how it was on PS4, and my experiences with horror games in general, but you can't play this on console. Yeah. Some games choose to not be on console, whether it be for lack of support or some other reason. This does make me wonder why some games choose to support it while others don't, especially when there's one out there that does being absolutely horrible to play on console. That's the next game.
Adopt Me!
I'm not linking this one because you all should know what "Adopt Me!" is. If you don't, google it. I was originally not planning on talking about the game here because I was not feeling it. However, me writing this post got delayed so much that I did play during the time that I wasn't writing this post, and it was only because I needed to get the Four's Company trophy and I had 3 accounts plus one friend playing this exact game.
I'm glad I didn't intend on playing this game because the ui is absolutely garbage to control. People say that modern game ui is garbage, and Adopt Me is that if the ui was good but somehow still garbage. I was not able to get my cursor to certain areas in most instances, espcially if I go past where I intended to go and/or open other menus/have natural popups. I actually had to leave and rejoin because I had too many menus up and I had no idea how to close them only to have many menus show up again (didn't help that my friend was sending trade requests). This wouldn't be an issue if the mouse pointer was used, but NO. For some reason, the navigation is by option, which makes it really difficult in this case since all options can be highlighted and selected regardless of what menu you are in. I think exceptions exist, but inventory was not one of them, and it is a major menu that can't really be ignored. I said earlier that going per option is more natural over a pointer, but this game fails to make the per option thing work in execution.
I was able to play normally after some struggle. I got a scooter that I equiped to somehow. I then realized tha there's not much to do in the game without chat. Yeah, this game has turned into a pet gambling and trading simulator which both work fine on console, but 1) I have no desire doing either and 2) the latter kind of needs chat too. So how the most popular game messed up it's console port and still has console players on it is beyond me.
I forgot if this game used Playstation icons or not, but that is something I don't want to go check
You might ask at this point "Rylie, what Roblox games are better on Playstation than on PC?" I already gave three examples, Robot 64, Microwave Dinner, and LOCOfficial. I would also add Regretevator, but I haven't played on PC to get a good comparison. But those are games where you aren't missing out much on when playing on PC. Roblox games are PC games first, but there are some games that could be better on Playstation. Mainly the ones that actually offer something exceptional, something not really offered outside of Roblox, and/or stuff that feels really good with a controller (I know you can use controllers on PC, but have you tried using a controller on PC that isn't an Xbox one?). No game here truly surpasses it's PC conterpart, but 4 games do have that potential.
Arsenal
This game (sadly) has the best support for Playstation I've seen out of every game I've played, excluding the games that use Roblox's default schemes. First of all, Rolve was very quick to add proper Playstation support (I think it was added the day or two after October 10th), which is something most games I have looked at still haven't done (provided they are still being updated of course). There's also rumble (the only game where I noticed it), which with the Dualsense makes it feel really nice. It's not the best out there I've felt (Outside of Astro's Playroom, the best I've felt so far goes to Hi-Fi Rush, ironically a game from Sony's competitor), but it is a neat touch.
So what's wrong with this game? It's an fps without motion support, so aiming isn't the best. I heard that the hitboxes are different with controllers compared to a mouse/keyboard, but I much prefer a mouse/keyboard in this case to get better precision, which is a shame as I actually like playing with a controller with rumble. Prehaps if Roblox gives devs access to controller motion and adaptive triggers and Rolve uses them, I'll consider Dualsense and mouse/keyboard equal, but until then, it's just another option.
Encounters
Encounters is a type of game that can't be found easily on Playstation 4/5 (at least as far as I'm aware). Encounters is like Power Stone/Shrek Superslam meets Super Smash Brothers meets Copyright Infringment. It's a fine game when I originaly played it on PC a year or two back before Voldex took over. It has since lost its charm, having a bunch of changes that are for the worse in my opinion, like doing anime characters or removing the automatic match making system outside of competitive games. The game also isn't and wasn't balanced as far as I can remember. Regardless, I like it, just not as much.
Playing Encounters on Playstation is odd. First of all, as normal, no Playstation icons. This got me confused in several matches, trying to use my Special (3rd option in the corner from top to bottom) but instead using my Ultimate attack (4th option), vice versa, and anything I had mapped on the face buttons. I also got confused trying to remap my controls, getting the mappings wrong a few times when I went to try them. Second of all, locking on to an opponent doesn't always work or works too good. This causes me to lock on someone I don't want to lock on but can't change or turning downward and 180 degrees when my opponent gets below me, which happened several times. Third, sometimes I just dash. I think the stick is causing it and I have no idea why the developers thought this was a good idea. I've lost several lives because of it.
I got a bit used to the controls, at least with the top buttons. I've set R2 to be my main attack and R1 to the alternate attack so I can just hold R2 to shoot and R1 to use spinning blade as Alina. Surpisingly, this works well with other characters too with different move sets. Regardless, I still wanted full support.
I went to the Discord server to suggest it. The server uses a bot to handle suggestions. I didn't get the suggestion bot to work on my end so I ended up asking the community about it. They told me that, sadly, the game isn't actually being updated, let alone having suggestions be implemented. They were right, despite the game pages saying it was updated this month, the last post in the server suggesting any update was in September 2023, before Roblox released on Playstation. It basically killed any hope I had for the game to actually add proper Playstation support.
SKENGINES RACING
I know kart racers (or in this case, train racers) aren't uncommon on consoles, but Skengines is the only one I have access to on Playstation at this time. This was recommended to me a console and I enjoyed my time with it. Skengines (along with most of games I've mentioned like Flood Escape 2 and Robot 64) continues the trend I see of good Roblox soundtracks. Skengines, despite using not Playstation icons, has controls that are easy to remember and work really well with Sony's controllers. I'd say it makes more sense than using a mouse/keyboard (I never used them with this game yet so I'll edit this post when I do, as well as mention it in the next CPR). Of course, there's issues with that, like rocket being horrible with a controller, but I don't think it is something the developer(s) could do much about it other than make it so they don't just explode in the air when close to ground or past the road in EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT! (which is odd). There's also other issues, but those I can't recall immediately. Skengines is good!
Like Encounters, I also suggested proper Playstation Support. Luckily, the Discord server for the game uses the forums feature instead of a bot for suggestions and the game is still being updated, so I was able to actually post it and actually have a chance of it being added. No one said anything on the topic that I made, but I'm hoping that the developer(s) saw it and plan on adding it. I'll edit this post if I gets added and mention it in a CPR. If not, no big deal. The game is easy to control regardless.
Theme Park Tycoon 2
This the last game I'll talk about. Theme Park Tycoon 2 has proper Playstation support. In fact, it actually works really well with a controller, which was surpising for the type of game it is. I didn't make any rollercosters in my time, but I did mess with the controls for them with the custom droptower. I'd say it wouldn't as good as a mouse but you can probably still make some cool stuff with just a controller and a console (same goes for more percise placements). This is the closest any Roblox game gets to being better than PC. I would go as far as to say it's a comparable experience. Now, I barely played it, but I know for sure I wouldn't change this later since I've played this game on PC a lot years ago and know that a controller felt as good as a mouse/keyboard.
Overall Thoughts
Roblox on Playstation is good when the developers actually make it good. Only 6 out of 19 games mentioned (this excludes Amelia's Cafe which isn't supported on console) that I would be likely to play on Playstation over PC or play it alongside PC, being Robot 64, Microwave Dinner, LOCOffical, Arsenal, SKENGINES RACING, and Theme Park Tycoon 2, which is about 31%. If we ignore chat, this is bumped to 7 or about 36%, now including Regretevator. Part of the reason why the number is low is because either most games don't go and make the Playstation or even console experience good, chat is a core part of said game and consoles lack chat, developers having no access to motion or adaptive triggers, even if the small amount of Roblox games that would use adaptive triggers would likely be first person shooters, or that the fact the Roblox is a pc game at heart and thus just fits better there rather on Playstation. This is shame to me at least as a long time player since 2017, as this means that Roblox on Playstation can't really be as good as it could of been had it launched years earlier, during Roblox's peak. While Xbox shares the same issues as Playstation, it at least is guaranteed to have support provided consoles are supported in the first place since it came out years earlier.
All of this makes me think that this is the worst version of Roblox available. There's just too much holding it back. Perhaps though, as time goes on, Roblox developers will better support Playstation and this review will become partially outdated. All we can do here is suggest the idea to the both game developers and Roblox developers and hope they listen.
I've been talking about Playstation this entire post. Fun fact: I've only been with the PS4 for 3 years. Yeah. The next post is a follow up to this one talking about those three years. Get ready, because I'm gonna info dump on you all again. Just you all wait. >:)
Edit (2/19/2024): "... is could still fun with though with those characters..." fried my brain when I read that today so I changed it. Also, someone in my SKENGINES Playstation support thread agreed with me yesterday, so there's that.
Edit (4/15/2024): Spelling and grammar corrections as part of the site redesign. Also, for the Daybreak section, I went and named each character's perk when first mentioned since you can use perks with other characters.