"Play Has No Limits"

9 September 2021

2 mins 30s

The King's Gambit

This spectacular new film for Sony PlayStation centres around a game of chess being contested by two extravagant characters sitting in an ivory tower high above an apparently dystopian city. As they move their pieces around the board, live figures representing chess figurines fight it out in the urban landscape below.

This is the advertising equivalent of Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' with everything possible being thrown at the screen to achieve the desired outcome. And that outcome is big, brassy and underlines the impressiveness of the brand.

Sebastian Böhm's reworking of New Order's classic track 'Blue Monday' plays its part as it binds the vignettes together, wafting in and out of familiarity in perfect harmony with the non-stop action.

This isn't chess as Beth Harmon pictured it on the ceiling of her room in a hallucinogenic state in 'The Queen's Gambit'... it's a lot more 'Fast and Furious' than that. It's coherent if you bother to pay attention with each chess piece being carefully represented by a human equivalent, but it works equally well if you just let it wash over you in a chaotic and meaningless fashion... because, either way, you get it – Sony PlayStation can deliver serious entertainment and excitement.

Global

Games Consoles