PS4’s Share Play is a wonderful new feature

After PSN recovered from its overload this morning, I was finally able to test out Share Play with a few colleagues under varying conditions. Surprisingly, it worked quite well, though there are some slight caveats that might make playing some games near impossible.

My first test was with a buddy who lives in Florida, I was wireless and he was wired. Our first connection didn't go through, since my connection was too unstable. However, I then changed my Share Play quality from High to Standard and we were able to connect, albeit with a rather crappy image on his side. After hardwiring my PS4, the experience was a lot better. I switched my quality settings back to High and he was able to connect without a hitch. I then virtually passed him my controller and he was able to take control of Harkyn in Lords of the Fallen, leaving me to watch my character be controller by someone else. It's a surreal feeling, but it is pretty neat.

I then connected with another colleague, Joe Donato. Since he lives in New York, we could see if distance has any impact on quality. This time I had the wired connection while he was wireless. He too was able to hop straight into my game without a hitch, even though my settings were on High. That leads me to believe that the quality of the stream is dependent more so on the player who initiates Share Play, rather than the one connecting to it.

Choose whether to allow your friend to play your game, or have them join you for co-op

We then switched roles and had me connect to his game of Destiny, which was actually in the process of beating today's Weekly Strike on Venus. The best way I could describe controling another player's game, would be like using the Vita's Remote Play functionality, though certainly more impressive. I did find that movement and aiming did have a split second delay, making certain actions, like headshots, much harder to pull off.

Feeling more masochistic, we tried our hand at two games that actually require split second twitch reactions, Spelunky and Resogun, both which I played by being connected to his console. This time though, he didn't just allow me to play the game, I played along with him in simulated local co-op.

This feature is easily one of the most impressive, though one that certainly requires amazing internet connection. Spelunky specifically gave me tons of trouble since that game revolves around carefully timed jumps. I actually fared a lot better in Resogun, though admittedly we did play on Rookie.

What I can tell from this quick trial of Share Play's virtual local co-op feature is that not all games will benefit from it. For instance, fighting games or games like the aforementioned Spelunky, Towerfall and Resogun will always present the connecting player with a slight disadvantage. Playing a fighting game and not having immediate response time is a huge handicap.

Share Play is shaping up to be an amazing feature though, even if players use it to allow their friends to simply demo a game in order to convince them to buy it. While not all games will benefit from the slight lag it produces, it's still an admirable attempt, and is bound to get better as internet speeds approach ludicrous speed.

One more thing I have to note is that Share Play does require the person sharing his game to have PS Plus, though the person playing the game doesn't. However, if you do plan on using Share Play to simulate local co-op, then both users will need to have a PS Plus account.

Happy sharing!