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This freeze extends to all Microsoft-related gaming. After weeks of rumors and speculation, Bethesda shadow-dropped The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered  today on April 22, 2025, much to the delight of many long-time fans of the Elder Scrolls series. While such a large RPG would generally be right in our wheelhouse, we’re going to sit this one out. Normally, such an omission would not necessitate an announcement from us, but things are a bit different now. On Thursday, April 3, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement made Microsoft a priority target, calling for the boycott of all products whenever possible, due to Microsoft’s ongoing complicity in the Palestinian genocide. As part of our efforts to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to exist, we will abide by the BDS recommendation to boycott Microsoft’s gaming products.  The simple fact of the matter is this: I, personally, cannot in good conscience support Microsoft so long as they aid and profit from the ethnic cleansing and murder of the Palestinian people. And while reviews are not necessarily an advertisement, they do sometimes lead to sales or further engagement on a topic. I do not want to be a part of that. I hope you understand, and I hope my readers also consider divesting from Microsoft products and holdings where possible. Thank you, Taylor J Rioux Owner, JetsonPlaysGames

Kaya’s Prophecy  does not shy away from its influences, positioning itself as a mash-up of Slay the Spire  and Stacklands . However, by explicitly naming them, it does open itself up to direct comparisons. While it may not reach the highs of Slay the Spire , the comparisons are not at all disastrous for Kaya’s Prophecy , which manages to blend the village management mechanics quite well with the card-based battles.  Publisher: Yogscast Games Developer:   Jérémie & Thibaut Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on April 10, 2025 on Steam. Developed by Jérémie & Thibaut, Kaya’s Prophecy  starts off with the destruction of a nearby village by a malevolent god. As the sole survivor of the event, you must rebuild the village and repopulate, all while checking off the boxes the game gives you in your checklist. There is a story here, but it’s not particularly substantial — you just get snippets here and there after major checkpoints, as well as dialogue between the villagers and whichever boss you encounter at the end of the area. Once that basic plot groundwork is laid down, the game hits the ground running, putting you into the village management portion of the game. Building up your village requires you collect and stack cards to craft recipes you either buy or find, which in turn allows you to check off the list of objectives to progress further. Items you don’t need or have too many of can be turned into Evil Blood, which can then be turned into booster packs to provide you with another set of resources or locations that you can use to craft what you need. The RNG nature of these booster packs adds a bit of tension, as each day in the village is on a timer and you need a specific number of food items in a day to appease the god who torments you. This may lead to frustration early in the game, but by the later stages of a run, you’ll have more resources and food than you know what to do with. Explorable locations can be purchased from an in-game shop once it is crafted, and this is where the game brings in the Slay the Spire  aspects all the marketing alludes to. Starting on a map with multiple pathways, you work your way through card battles and randomized events to collect resources which can be brought back to the village to help in advancement. Some resources are only available through the exploration and card battling portion of the game, so venturing out is necessary — it is also the most fun aspect of the experience. I love these card battler games, so there’s just going to be some bias there, but Kaya’s Prophecy  nails the battles, even if they’re on the easier end. The attractive art and clear visual indicators make Kaya's Prophecy easy on the eyes. Each battle consists of your exploring villager taking on 1-3 enemies using hands of cards dealt to you 5 at a time. Your villager has 3 energy, which can then be spent to use those cards, with each card having a specific cost tied to it. Card types are split between armor cards, utility cards, and attack cards. Attack cards do damage to enemies, armor cards give your villager armor to resist attacks, and utility cards do things like draw additional cards, heal, or give your villager additional energy to use on a given turn. While this is extremely similar to Slay the Spire , this game differs in the fact that armor is carried over between rounds and it is not as difficult. Building your deck in Kaya’s Prophecy  is extremely easy and I would say a mostly passive endeavor. You gain powerful cards through equipment you craft within the village sections of the gameplay and you can occasionally swap out abilities here and there when you traverse through locations. Not a ton of customization, but you do get noticeably more powerful as you advance — to the point where later stages of combat feel mostly inconsequential. The art style is simple-but-effective, with easy to read icons and text, and pleasant backgrounds and UI elements. It clearly draws major inspiration from aboriginal cultures, using similar body paints and even leaning into the Australia/Oceania connection by using cassowaries as recurring entities on the currency and other iconography. Whether those cultures are well represented is not really something I can speak on, but I do not feel like there’s any hint of negativity in the portrayal. However, the stylings being so obviously drawn from traditional aboriginal imagery was immediately obvious to me, a random American across the planet, so I do wonder how this lands with people within those cultures or spaces. I’m not sure that I would consider Kaya’s Prophecy the most original game — it is blatantly and intentionally not so. However, the concepts and ideas it draws from Slay the Spire  and Stacklands  are well executed, with great balance between the two disparate gameplay sections. While the two elements themselves are quite different from one another, they are married beautifully together, with each feeding into the other to create a fun, varied experience. Verdict Despite not being wholly original by design, Kaya’s Prophecy succeeds in marrying the two disparate ideas of card battler and village management. A simple, yet distinct art style, combined with timeless deck building mechanics makes for an endearing and addictive experience. Image Credits: Yogscast Games Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Bailing on the high seas Don’t let the cutesy art and cheerful tunes fool you — Seafrog  is brutal. A hybrid platformer and skateboarding game, Seafrog  lures you in with its intuitive controls and fun animations, then hooks you by making sure there’s always just one more thing to collect. Using your trusty wrench to ollie your way across gaps and grind your way over spikes, the crux of the game lies in collecting objects to advance the story and repair your ship.  Publisher: OhMyMe Games Developer:  OhMyMe Games Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Releasing on April 15, 2025 on Steam. While the basic mechanics are simple, with only a single button used to skate or perform tricks, the real challenge comes from navigating the levels using the tools available to you. Levels, separated by ships and broken down into sublevels or rooms, get progressively harder and more intricate as you advance through the game, with many challenges or sub-objectives available for you to participate in as you play. While the first few levels may only include a ramp and a rail to navigate, you’ll soon find yourself under threat of sawblades, freezing temps, and acid pits — forcing you to get creative in how you traverse the landscape. These platforming puzzles are brutally difficult at times, requiring split-second precision and specific gear to conquer.  The frustration can be exacerbated by the game's checkpoint system, which sees you returned all the way to your main ship upon death. Failing a task could set you back minutes at a time depending upon what you have unlocked or where you are trying to get back to — and that’s just getting to your destination. Still, despite any frustration, the level and puzzle design is great overall. I found myself admiring the ways in which I could use my various tools or gear to navigate sections in myriad ways. For example, a room may look like you need a specific tool to advance, but smart use of boosts or rail-grinding can deliver you safely to your destination. That creativity is aided by the availability of upgrade pathways (chips) provided to you. These chips can serve as flat stat boosters (extra health, boost speed or fuel, and even increased trick points) or provide the necessary function of being able to utilize specific environmental pieces (mag walls, bumpers, etc). You can mix and match these chips to give you whatever specific boosts you might need in any given moment, although many are either outclassed by other available options, or rendered obsolete when you finish a ship. It feels a bit like the Mega Man games, in some respects. If the level design and puzzles are the peaks of Seafrog , the progression is the valley. There’s an absurd amount of backtracking to be done within the game in order to progress or collect many of the items. With four main ships (themed zones with specific gimmicks), you will progress part way through one at a time, hopping through several (or all of them) before ever being able to complete any individual ship. In order to finish the first ship in its entirety, you’ll need equipment and items from the second and third ships, which you won’t know until you arrive in a room you do not have the tools for. This ship-hopping takes away from an otherwise arresting rhythm of tricks and ollies that are so much fun to pull off. The game’s fast travel or navigation systems make this more of a slog than a joy, as you’ll need to travel to specific rooms in order to teleport back to your main ship. Once there, you can choose to change your next destination to various limited other rooms on each ship.  Seafrog ’s unexpected difficulty is heavily contrasted by the playful and whimsical vibes of the story, dialogue, and music. So much of the text is joking and tongue-in-cheek wordplay, all while the characters are vocalizing complete gibberish. Chipper tunes blare in the background as you splatter rats or exorcise ghosts; each animation from your frog is cute and stylized, enhanced by the vibrant pixel-style graphics. It’s family friendly in all the ways that matter, and it’s a joy to play most of the time. While the story is sparse and by no means laugh-out-loud funny, it’s worth a smile.  Despite the seeming identity crisis,  Seafrog is undeniably fun. Doing trick combos is entertaining, even if extremely simple, navigating the ships through inventive application of your abilities is rewarding, and I can skateboard on top of rats to extend my combos. Which is where the disappointment comes in for the fast travel system, I suppose. When I turn on Seafrog , I just want to keep playing it, and sometimes the game seems like it doesn’t really want me to. Verdict Surprisingly difficult, Seafrog  is at times a joyous experience and at others a bit of a bore. Creative level design lends itself to navigating through inventive use of your abilities, but failure is punishing in all the wrong ways. Contrasting that brutal difficulty with such cheeky dialogue and light tunes is, in a way, a bit of a laugh. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

You cannot extinguish the fire within us. * THERE ARE BIG STORY SPOILERS FOR PYRE  IN THIS REVIEW . Please leave if you do not wish to read them. The year Pyre  came out (2017) feels like a lifetime ago. While many of us saw Donald Trump for the lying, manipulative, and vile bastard that he is, we were barely into his first term as president. It felt like we could still claw back some semblance of a soul, like America could still be healed, and that we would find ourselves in a better place once this monster was excised. Of course, this was fantasy. As the onslaught of fascist rhetoric and Nazi salutes across the U.S. over the last decade have worked to normalize what would have once been considered an abhorrent ideology, Pyre feels like both a warning of what awaits us and a call to action to stop it. Publisher: Supergiant Games Developer:   Supergiant Games Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on July 25, 2017 for Linux, Windows PC, and PS4. Released August 3, 2017 for Mac OS. The Reader, our protagonist, is found alone and dying in the desert by three companions, known as the Nightwings, who then bring The Reader in and provide reprieve. It is here the lovely Reader reveals their ability to read — a crime in the Commonwealth from which they hail.  Having been exiled from the Commonwealth for undisclosed crimes, The Reader now finds themselves in a desolate landscape full of desperate folks trying to find their way — in more ways than one. Most are simply trying to escape this exile in The Downside (the realm the exiles have been banished to); some may have lesser motives like simply causing havoc, while others harbor more grandiose plans. In order to escape, one must participate in a series of rites handed down by an oppressor on high. Taking the form of a sports competition that plays a bit like a mix of basketball and rugby, the rites serve as a way for the participants to prove themselves worthy in the eyes of the scribes — revered entities which at some point created the rites themselves. Each participant has their own abilities and functions within these rites (determined by the race of the particular participant) and you must use them to douse the opponents flame by bringing the ball into the goal until the target score is achieved. Aside from the different characters having different playstyles, there are many amulets and character upgrades to mess around with that can alter the way moves work or increase their potency. There are also shops where you can buy upgrade materials to increase the levels of the amulets you already own, or you can buy new amulets, crystals that provide temporary buffs, and even consumables to reset your characters talent tree. While the rites and supporting systems are extremely fun to mess with, and each rite holds a lot of variety in how you might approach the encounter, I find myself thinking very little about them upon reflection. They feel nearly inconsequential in how I evaluate what this game has to offer.  Pyre is one of the most consistently breathtaking games I've ever played. Whether or not Supergiant foresaw where we were headed, there remain a number of parallels between the events and entities of the game and the political realities of 2025 America. The exiles, cast down by their own fascist overlords, are not entirely unlike those poor souls kidnapped and violated by the current US administration, forced to endure humiliation and pain in labor camps abroad in order to entertain a class of people who wish for nothing more than to harm those they cannot control. It’s a bit depressing to look back and see a century of American media, art, and literature explicitly telling us that this kind of thing is very bad, yet we managed to plunge headlong into the pyre. Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. In spite of the pain and misery that permeates the Downside, there is also hope. Throughout the conversations you have with your crew (all of which are displayed beautifully by the magnificent artwork by Jen Zee, and punctuated by the phenomenal score from Darren Korb), you learn more about what drives each of them. People they want to go home to, friends and family they wish to reconcile with, or even finding the courage within themselves to stand tall in the face of adversity — each companion has their own reasons for their participation, but throughout it all they remain steadfast in support of each other. The bonds develop over the course of the game, yet as people come and go from your team, they always remain steadfast in that support, uplifting and assisting even when not present.  Please, just play this game. As you progress through the story, you get bits and pieces of information about how the Commonwealth is struggling to deal with the brewing revolt your team has spurred on, but you never see the whole picture from your side. Instead, the game relies on the player and The Reader having faith. Not faith in the sense of praying to the Scribes or some outer being, but faith that those whom you have helped along the way will do the same for you — and for the people of the Commonwealth. In the end, The Reader and some (but not all) of the crew are freed, thanks to the sacrifices of those they travelled with. When The Reader arrives on the other side, they discover that those they have helped have also   done so for others. That so great was the collective action undertaken by the revolutionaries, the ruling class submitted without a fight. The voices of the oppressed rang out in unison and shook the heavens, creating change without bloodshed. It may feel like a pipe dream to some, but I have hope that we can achieve much the same — that through our support and love for one another, through our collective voices and actions, we too can create a better world for ourselves and future generations to come. Verdict While elements like the artwork and music are truly exemplary, the real value in Pyre lies in the tale it tells and the characters who shape it. Dealing with themes of fighting oppression, redemption, and hope, Pyre  remains a poignant piece nearly a decade later. Perhaps especially so, now.  Image Credits: Taylor Rioux and Supergiant Games

Leisure may be the end of labor, but there’s no end to space. IXION  is a game that is mostly what you make of it. This city building survival simulation starts pretty slow, guiding you through tasks on a space station before eventually unleashing you into a journey focused on the preservation of humanity. Beyond the complex building mechanics, or choices you encounter throughout the story, the game is dripping with subtext and leaves empty space in the narrative for you to draw your own conclusions. For many players, this sort of storytelling may never land, but for anyone paying attention, there are signs all around the mostly empty reaches of space. Some obvious ones hit you right off the bat, such as “DOLOS” — the name of both the company who created the space station Tiqqun, and the name of the company’s CEO. If you are familiar with Greek mythology, you may recognize Dolos as the spirit of deception and trickery; the names in general are sometimes a dead giveaway for the characters or places they represent, but they can serve a further purpose — obfuscation. If you take every event or person at face value, you’re going to get a completely different understanding of the events of the game than someone who tries to read into every name or event beyond what is given explicitly in text. Exactly just how much of what the players may imagine in their mind is true remains unanswered, with gaps purposefully laid out in the text for your own interpretation. Many names are references to famous people or characters, but just how many of those names mean anything is a bit up in the air, as well.  Publisher:  Kasedo Games Developer: Bulwark Studios Platform:  Played on PS5 Availability:  Releasing on April 8, 2025 for PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Released on December 7, 2022 for Windows PC. Unfortunately, that open-ended writing does not translate well to all aspects of IXION, particularly its main gameplay, and its supporting tutorials and text. While the base-building is certainly deep, and there are a number of systems to engage with, things like the tech tree remain a bit too obtuse, with no clear explanations or expectations of the types of benefits you may receive. For players who are not intimately familiar with the genre, I suspect the overall development pathways and orderings will also remain unintelligible — a fact the game seemingly makes little effort to rectify through its opening tutorial section.  On top of this, the speed of the events and timelines in any given scenario have a deleterious effect on the overall experience. By having building timers of double digit cycles, and resource transportation also taking some in-game time (depending on distance to your factory), any error becomes a profound waste of time — one you may not see the effects of for long periods. For example, say you are building along and everything seems fine, but a new objective appears that requires a resource you have no easy means of getting at this time. You will then have to shift your focus to developing this new project to the detriment of others, and if your earlier building introduced inefficiencies, you might be out of luck. While there is technically no timer pressing you, it adds up to be a frustrating endeavor.  These issues are exacerbated by things like the game's decision to have dismantling bases take just as long as building them, and I would sometimes run into issues where buildings I was trying to dismantle would refuse to come down, no matter how close I placed a workshop or how many roads I had coming in and out of the buildings. From the technical side, there remain several standout issues. Right off the bat it's obvious this game is not well suited for console as the UI is extremely busy, and elements are small. Icons like the directional input you use to inspect an element often blend in with the background, and using the control sticks to navigate such an intricate game is difficult. Some of this comes with the territory on a port of a base building game — there’s no easy answer for a game as mechanically complex as this. Text for the tutorials is also extremely small. While there is an option to increase text size in the menus, it does not seem to apply universally as UI text is still small and tutorial entries, which require heavy reading and inspection, are difficult to discern beyond a few feet from the screen. IXION has many systems to play with, and a story that keeps things moving in interesting directions. That’s not to say this is a bad port. The game runs quite well, so no crashes or graphical issues, and I never experienced slowdown or other performance-related problems. I have not played IXION  on PC, but as far as I can tell, the actual mechanics of the game have not been pared back in any way from the PC version. If you are a fan of this game from PC, but just want to experience it on console, you‘ll be relieved to learn the game is still fundamentally the same through the porting process. And while some elements can be hard to discern, the ability to jump to specific areas or UI elements at the press of a button does help with navigation. Despite some qualms I may have, the game does land with me in many ways. I like the music, the base building and re-building is extensive if you like fiddling around with things like that, and the layered story is deeply interesting to me, even if I was unable to draw hard answers from elements here and there. I think there’s a lot here to engage with, but I am hard-pressed to draw major conclusions on so much of what exists. Some of these gameplay issues are exacerbated by my own failures to understand or engage with the mechanics in the intended ways, but without a guiding hand from the game, I’m a bit lost on where to begin.  It’s a shame that so much of the core loop didn’t hit for me, as I do find the story and overall narrative to be endearing. I kept notes as I played, trying to find the truth of the matters at hand, suss out who was lying, guessing motivations and outcomes — all of this was fun . I think a lot of this does come down to my own fascination (especially recently) with philosophical works. I will say that if you are at all familiar with works such as Aristotle's Rhetoric or really any Socratic era philosophy, things might take a bit more shape for you in those empty spaces left by IXION’s narrative design. These things are not required reading, of course, but just something to keep in mind if you’re interested. The overarching plot is also pretty heavy-handed in the way it takes shape as an allegory or commentary on our own budding technocracy (and the technophiles who proselytize it), as well as its inherent failures or shortcomings. If real life circumstances are weighing on you regarding these issues, keep that in mind, as well. I would like to add the caveat that I have not completed the game at this time. Not ideal for review purposes, so I’m gonna keep this one unscored. For now, these are my impressions of the incomplete experience. A score will be added once the game is finished. Verdict IXION  is a bit of a mixed bag. Complex and vast systems at play often veer on the edge of tedium, all while being somewhat obtuse. Music is good, but there are not very many tracks, so you end up with repetition. The highlight might be the story for me, with layers of storytelling woven throughout, but as the events of the game may not be extremely straightforward or obvious, how this lands for each person is going to vary wildly. IXION may be what each person makes of it, but I’m not positive the ingredients ever coalesce into something greater than the sum of its parts. Image Credits: Kasedo Games Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

True surprise is rare to come by in this age — at least with respect to media like video games, film, or TV. The internet, as terrible and powerful as it has become, has flattened the landscape in its wake; spoilers abound on social media or message boards, guides that provide every solution — impatience is rewarded with answers. But what of discovery? What is to be said of the journeys we share, or the pathways we  create in our wake? Blue Prince  offers a glimpse into a world that was, and one that could be; an ever-shifting den of possibility whose features and purpose are determined by the players themselves. Publisher:  RAW FURY Developer: DOGUBOMB Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Releasing on April 10, 2025 for Windows PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. You are Simon P. Jones, heir to an impossibly vast mansion, courtesy of your now-dead great-uncle, Herbert S. Sinclair. The prize on Mt. Holly does not come without some stipulations, however, as you have been tasked with finding the 46th room in the 45-room estate. If Simon is unable to find the secret room, he will forfeit the right to inherit the property, so he must make his way through the ever shifting halls to find the keys and clues necessary to reach his objective. There are a few key pieces of this puzzle that are given to the player right away: rooms are generated in sets of 3 and made via blueprints when you interact with a door for the first time, you must go north to reach the antechamber marked on your map, and the rooms within the mansion reset on each given day. There are various other constraints to hinder your journey as well, such as limited steps to explore, or currency like gems, keys, and coins that are used throughout a run. As the player, you will have to plot and plan your way through the abode, managing all of your resources wisely — all whilst fighting the randomized nature of the house itself. To be honest, the game flat-out kicked my ass for a lot longer than it probably should have (or at least it felt that way at the time). Early on in the game was particularly frustrating because I would run into too many dead ends, never find a room facing the direction I needed, or even prematurely ending a day because I simply did not have the keys or gems required to advance. Some of this was my own fault, of course, but much of it felt like it was out of my hands, as if I were heavily relying upon RNG to advance. But as you explore the mansion things really start to open up for you, in more ways than simply having more rooms to walk through. Many rooms have puzzles, which can sometimes lead to items or keys, but many also contain notes or images — clues to help you solve other puzzles, or portions of the overarching story there for you to put together. Yes, advancing does still require a bit of luck, but as you play you’ll discover new room types, get permanent upgrades, or uncover solutions to puzzles that can be carried over to future runs. Resource management is key as you make your way through the manor. The way the story and the puzzles themselves are presented is truly brilliant. Blue Prince  makes excellent use of space and color to tell a story in each room. Hidden meanings in the details may help you solve one of those puzzles you stumbled upon earlier, or they may simply illuminate the minutiae of the lives that were lived here in this building. There are traditional cutscenes, but most of the story is told through these visual details and through the notes and letters you find scattered across the demesne. Eventually, all of this riddle solving and room hopping will lead you to your destination, and the credits will roll, but that’s not where the game ends. Myriad secrets lie in wait throughout the estate on Mt. Holly, many of which have very little or nothing to do with the main mission of finding room 46. Rooms that seem to serve no real purpose early on become essential to unlocking the true mysteries of Blue Prince . Puzzles become increasingly complex the deeper you go — requiring information from many rooms, or even multiple other multi-step puzzles to be solved beforehand. I have not worked everything out yet, myself. There seems to be so much left to uncover, and it’s all a bit mystifying for me as a person who does not regularly play or enjoy puzzle games. But that might be why I loved this game so much. Unveiling hidden levers or getting a lead and working it out over time (all of which was unassisted by guides or other players) took effort, but everything I needed was right here in-game. There was no need to look online for solutions, or have knowledge outside of the scope of the notes I’d find, so those “AHA!” moments became all the more rewarding for me. It was also revealing.  Cutscenes are sparse, but are very effective in their delivery. In many respects, Blue Prince  held a mirror toward me, and allowed me to see aspects of my own habits, tendencies, and thought processes that I had not actually given much thought to prior to playing. Despite my lamentations of the instant gratification culture that permeates gaming in general, I am not immune to those same thoughts. I found myself hitting walls, unable to really figure out what I was doing. Was this puzzle one that my notes could help me solve, or did I just not have all of the information yet? Could I just brute-force it? Under normal circumstances, the answers to those questions would be just a few clicks away and maybe they already are, but I stuck with it and I was rewarded — not just with gems, keys, or cryptic notes, but with a sense of pride. Pride in that I had done it myself. A sensation that my own impatience may not have allowed me under normal circumstances. It has also revealed that I just may not be cut out for puzzle games in the same way I am for other game types. It seems that, as the years have gone by, my patience and curiosity have waned. Where as a child or teen I could spend days on end banging my head against a wall until I had an epiphany, now even small obstacles could make my hands tighten up a bit. I’d like to think that by working through this game I have reclaimed some of those virtues for myself, and maybe as I continue to work through it, I can hone them a bit more. Verdict One part puzzle game and one part roguelite, Blue Prince is a beacon of creativity and mystery. Masterful use of space, color, and the video game medium itself have concocted a beautiful blend of storytelling and puzzle solving. In many respects, Blue Prince is a collaborative effort between the game and its players, with each run feeling unique by handing the players the keys to the manor — figuratively and, for Simon, literally. I have not uncovered every truth within Blue Prince , and maybe I never will, but not knowing might just be the best part. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux and DOGUBOMB Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

“Form without function is as meaningless as an empty prayer” Bombastic and beautiful, SONOKUNI bursts onto the scene with a wholly unique visual flair. Starring the vengeful Takeru, it is a tale of two clans — the Sonokuni and Wanokuni — who are simultaneously at odds and collaborating. Taking inspiration from Japanese mythology (including some famous names such as Susanoo and Tsukuyomi), it explores themes of extreme violence and their moral implications. While the implementation of these mythologies may not be particularly interesting, the game itself is. Publisher: Kakehashi Games Developer:   DON YASA CREW Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Release on March 24, 2025 for Windows PC, and March 31, 2025 for Nintendo Switch. SONOKUNI was created by DON YASA GROUP, a 7-person hip hop group who took up game development during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in Japan. The pandemic made live performances impossible, so the team decided to take their talents and apply them to a new medium — infusing their game with energetic sound and a distinctly Japanese neon visual style. The entirety of the game is very explicitly Japanese-inspired. Beyond the sights and sounds, even the story is borne of the culture. At first presented as a history lesson, the game starts by revealing some history on a chalkboard, but soon sends you back in time and places you in the shoes of Takeru. You are tasked with killing enemies in the vicinity, with glowing red footsteps showing your path through the building. There’s a shield, which only protects against projectiles, and an attack which is used to slay enemies, but can also deflect certain red projectiles. The enemies are quick and you die in a single hit, but luckily you have a bit of time-slowing at your disposal to help you get through the day. The game is quite difficult — the time-slowing ability is in short supply and enemies are fast, but the game does give you hints after death as to what was needed to survive. As you also get checkpoints after each encounter, you’ll never feel like you lost progress when you fail. Truly, each encounter is a puzzle, and you’re meant to at least have some ability to view the pending fight beforehand as the game uses a top-down perspective for the combat. The top-down perspective would normally allow for a better view of the battlefield, but in SONOKUNI your ability to distinguish objects against the background is not a priority, it seems. As the game’s defining fault, visual clarity is at a minimum; Backgrounds are busy, enemies can feel indistinguishable from the background or other objects, and the bounds of the areas in which you are confined are sometimes unknowable. Despite the visual confusion, it does have a unique style unlike anything I’ve really seen in a game.  All of this comes to a head during the boss fights. Tough as nails, these ferocious foes force you to use every tool at your disposal. Planned movement, pointed shield use, and timely attacks are integral to getting through these encounters. While it’s difficult to determine what needs to be done on the first run of each boss, they always follow the same exact pattern, allowing you to learn the moves and improve as you go. Combat sections are presented from the top-down, and are visually busy. Once you have escaped the confines of a combat section, you’re plopped into the Sonokuni village, where all of your people live. Here you meet characters like the village chief, your brother, and many Wanokuni citizens. This change of scenery also comes with a change of perspective, moving to a side-scrolling view that is reminiscent of older games like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link or Faxanadu . Those perspective shifts evolve even further in these non-combat areas by frequently changing where your character is coming from on-screen, or using character sizing changes to give the illusion of a 3d space. Perspective is not only important to the visual identity of the game, it is integral to understanding the story itself; It is a portent of events to come, and a message to the players beyond what transpires in text. First impressions of the Wanokuni are poor. These tree people all look alike, do not understand the Sonokuni, and want to assimilate the Sonokuni into their lifestyle by offering a pill that will transform them. There is a question as to whether this transformation would come with the loss of the self, and debate between the characters regarding such, but the Wanokuni themselves do not seem to display any individuality; whether that lack of individuality of spirit is a part of the transformation process or something more is unknown, at first. Takeru does not want to assimilate, and thus begins her quest for vengeance, aided by Susanoo and Tsukuyomi. While the mythology aspect of the game is underwhelming, the game does explore some deeper ideas beyond ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ The events of the game are punctuated by the almost hypnotic beats of the DON YASA GROUP’s music that permeates throughout. Japanese rap is not necessarily my forte, but it’s high-energy and succeeds in setting the mood in any given scene. Unfortunately, the songs are very short, and loop endlessly. In combat areas it seems to repeat the same 15 seconds ad infinitum, which becomes grating after failing an encounter or boss for the umpteenth time. These songs are so short that you can often reach the end of them during a conversation with another character, at which point the tune will abruptly stop, filling the room with only silence before once again beginning. All of this being exasperated by the repetitious gameplay loop and high difficulty of some encounters. Sonokuni is one of the most visually unique games I've ever played. The overall difficulty can be quite frustrating, as your character is terminated after only a single hit — even one small mistake means entire encounters need to be replayed. While for most enemy groups this becomes only a minor annoyance, there are a few bosses that really wore on me — most notably the final two. In these cases, the fights are very long and the screen is entirely too busy, which makes it much harder to keep track of all the moving parts. While players who are used to such visual noise might not have much issue, it's worth noting there are no settings available to alleviate this concern for anyone else. While it may be inspired by the events depicted in Japanese mythology and it may have mechanical similarities to games like Hotline Miami , I can’t help but feel I experienced something wholly unique. With its blend of art, music, and combat, SONOKUNI is sure to stick with me in the days to come. Verdict While SONOKUNI  doesn’t break barriers or have the most moving story, the visual style and music create a memorable experience. Combat is fast but measured, allowing you to correct your mistakes and make incremental improvements and progress. For anyone itching to try a new spin on the Hotline Miami  formula, this game has a lot to offer. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the developer

It may be the cutest Slay the Spire clone you’ll ever see, but how will it differentiate itself? Nif Nif is a cute and cuddly take on the roguelite deck builder genre with a bright and colorful art style. Development was inspired by the game director’s autistic son, opting for a more welcoming and violence-free take on the genre. Despite the aesthetics being more family-friendly, it’s easy to see where it draws inspiration from, especially Slay the Spire ; but how does Nif Nif  differentiate itself? The premise is simple, both mechanically and plot-wise. The story starts out with the forest Nif Nif (the pig) lives in becoming dirty and the animals of the forest succumbing to that same grime. Nif Nif must clean his way through his neighbors in order to save the forest. Not much else can be said for the plot — not that there needs to be much more than that simple impetus. Publisher: Springfox Games Developer: Springfox Games Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on April 1st, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam). Mechanically, this is a near carbon-copy of Slay the Spire . I do wish there were more to differentiate it, honestly; I would love to highlight major differences or key takeaways in that direction, but every single important design decision is a one to one clone. For example, the map structure is the same — branching paths that you choose put you into a fight, event, campfire, elite, shop, or boss enemy. The icons themselves are also reminiscent of Slay the Spire , sharing question mark icons for the event (known as ‘story’ in Nif Nif ) stages, and an eerily similar campfire icon for resting spots. All of the same hallmarks make an appearance, as well: cards are gained after a battle, sometimes you get one-time use consumables (soups), and shops sell you cards and soups to bring into future battles. The battles themselves are also nearly identical, only swapping health for ‘cleanliness.’ Get too dirty and you lose. You have cards for damaging enemies (swipe cards), and cards that give you armor to protect you from an enemy getting you dirty. Luckily, it is a tried and true formula. Deck building is fun, and the light difficulty plus colorful art keep the game a breezy jaunt. It is a game designed with less experienced players in mind, so I wouldn’t go into it expecting a challenge, but for teaching the basics of the genre it may be a useful entry point. If you have played roguelite deck builders before, this will look very familiar. I do want to highlight a few things that set this game apart. There are skins for the two playable characters that are unlocked as you level up, and you can equip hats (earned by first leveling up and then by completing a run wearing each subsequent hat) which function as stat boosts for your character. Once you reach level 5, you unlock the ability to farm for veggies, which can then be made into soups; soups can be brought with you from the start this way. The game also offers the powerful ability to upgrade cards after each fight, and presents the opportunity to thin your deck out much more frequently than any other deck builder I’ve played. On the technical side of things, Nif Nif  does not offer any display options beyond Fullscreen or Windowed modes. There are no accessibility options, and no graphical tweaks of any kind to be made. That said, it did function in fullscreen on my 1440p monitor, and looked nice enough. It also boasts 11 different languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Chinese (simplified and traditional). Each run of the game is incredibly short, with only one area available to traverse through, so you'll only fight a single boss fight. There are several different boss fights it cycles through, so replayability is there a little bit. If you’re looking for a deck builder to introduce younger audiences to the genre, this might be a good choice due to its light difficulty, and inoffensive visual identity and themes. Verdict Light in subject matter, content, and difficulty, Nif Nif doesn’t do enough to stand out from the pack for adults, but might just be what you need to introduce the genre to a younger audience. Its bright and cartoony visual style is a safe but effective tool in easing people into the game. As a nearly 1:1 clone of other games in the space, it is definitely derivative, but it is a tried and true formula that remains fun today. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the developer via https://www.keymailer.co .

Minnesota, rise up. March 25, 2025 — Six days after a series of social media teasers turned heads in the gaming sphere, Game Informer has officially announced their return to life — now as an entity independent of the GameStop brand. The initial teaser push had some (including myself) briefly worried about the new direction — would the old staff return? Would the scope of the magazine remain intact? These concerns were quickly alleviated on my end when many of the old staff posted teasers of their own. Game Informer was abruptly shuttered in August, 2024 after 33 years in publication, which came as a shock to many others in the industry, but was even more of a shock to me, specifically. As a Minnesota boy who grew up reading Game Informer, I always looked forward to getting those issues in the mail, and always felt a more personal connection to Game Informer due to our shared Minnesota roots. I got my first Super NES at FuncoLand (the original owners of the magazine), spent years reading the reviews or features in the magazine, and took pride in knowing that GI was based right here in my home state. In a landscape dominated by media and outlets from NYC and LA, you might be fooled into thinking that the only places (and voices) that mattered were there, but Game Informer was proof positive that this was not true.  All of which is to say that I was deeply saddened by its eventual end in 2024. I no longer subscribed to the print magazine, but I did continue to read their articles, and they maintained a level of quality rarely matched in the field. We lost a pillar of the games journalism industry that day. Now they’re back and promising some changes going forward. The first major point to come out of this return announcement might just be the best one — all of the staff initially laid off last year are back; 100% of the team who worked there last summer have returned. There is a promise of making Game Informer bigger and better than ever, but the exact details of content changes have not yet been revealed. Instead, the announcement was used as an opportunity to elaborate on some of the structural changes that have occurred since GI first went dark. Per their own announcement article , the Game Informer brand was purchased by the team at Gunzilla Games. As far as their independence goes, EIC Matt Miller writes: “From the start, the new owners insisted on the idea of Game Informer remaining an independent editorial outlet; they felt just as strongly as our team did that the only path forward was with an editorial group that made 100 percent of the decisions around what we cover and how we do so, without any influence from them or anyone else.” EIC Matt Miller details the changes and updates coming for Game Informer. Also returning for public view are the old articles that were lost during the shutdown. Thousands of articles from their storied history are back online, with new articles and features ready to read alongside them. While there is currently no way to obtain print versions of older issues of the magazine, they do offer the ability to view archived digital versions of more recent issues. Full glad am I to see GI back on its feet, and I’m ecstatic to see they’ve maintained some level of editorial independence in the process. Miller has promised a continued focus on highlighting the latest and best games, celebrating gaming’s history, and to spotlight the creators and players that make gaming so great. I can’t wait to see where GI goes next. Image Credits: Game Informer

No trial necessary. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, developers of the beloved Yakuza (Like a Dragon) series, have delivered an enthralling spin-off with Judgment , a detective noir that exudes style. It’s a slight departure from their normal formula, yet it retains the studio’s signature blend of thrilling action, compelling drama, and quirky humor. While it might not rewrite the genre, Judgment delivers a thoroughly satisfying episode by leveraging a well-crafted protagonist and a meticulously realized world to great effect. Publisher: Sega Developer:   Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on June 25, 2019 for PS4; Released on April 23, 2021 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S; Released on September 14, 2022 for Windows PC. Featuring an all-new cast of characters, we get to see the Yakuza world from another perspective. Protagonist Takayuki Yagami is a particularly fresh breath of air, offering an alternative personality to the oft stoic Kiryu or the sincere-but-oafish Ichiban. A disgraced lawyer turned private eye, Yagami navigates the back alleys of Kamurocho using his street savvy and polished fighting skills. Along his journey, he must deal with his past disgrace as a lawyer and forge a path towards redemption, all while encountering new trials and tribulations. Yagami’s journey into a web of conspiracies — centered upon a series of grisly murders — is both engrossing and emotionally affecting.  Other characters, such as the tough Masaharu Kaito or the clever Fumiya Sugiura, keep the cast balanced out — offering their own backstory and quirks to uncover. The main cast is lovable, and even the side story characters get some bright moments in the spotlight. Each character feels like a layered or complex individual with their own sets of ideals and purpose, and that shines through in their conversations and in the cutscenes throughout the game. Kamurocho is itself a character, serving as the beating heart of Judgment . The neon-lit streets, the bustling arcades, the hidden alleyways — every detail is rendered with care. The city feels alive, with NPCs moving about, people visiting shops, and even enemies prowling the strip to find you. This is owed, in part, to Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s continued re-use of the setting. While there are differences from game to game, Kamurocho feels like an old friend. The stores, people, and streets are ever so slightly growing and aging with time, akin to features like wrinkles or gray hairs — but that spark never fades, and those old memories are a bright spot in the tapestry of the ongoing narrative of the series.  There's a real sense of a lived-in space in Judgment. Kamurocho is not the only recurring item, as the battle system from the main series (prior to Yakuza: Like a Dragon , at least) makes its return as well. The combat lacks mechanical depth, but remains playable and fun in spurts. Yagami’s two fighting styles — the fast-paced Crane and the heavy-hitting Tiger — keep each fracas dynamic. "EX Actions" — a staple of the Yakuza series — allow for spectacular takedowns, but are generally situational; you’ll need specific items, meet certain conditions, or be in a particular area for the actions to appear. Each brawl is an absurdly cinematic spectacle, but is a bit weaker in other aspects. For example, tougher enemies in the colosseum and late game bosses have ‘super armor’ — a sort of resistance to long combo strings or juggling — that can take the fun out of the melee by not allowing you to deal consistent damage. The enemies, on the other hand, are extremely strong and deal high damage in the late game, which might then require you to frequently pause the action to take consumables mid-fight. By contrast, the sounds of the game are a net positive. The voice acting, whether in English or Japanese, is superb, bringing the characters to life with nuance and conviction. Sound effects from objects or attacks are sufficiently punchy, and cars driving in the background breathe life into the city. To top it all off, the music keeps things moving with some varied electronic and rock rhythms for the more exciting moments in the game, but knows when to slow things down for the emotional scenes — and those emotional scenes are frequent. Whether you're drawn in by the story or the wacky sidequests, there's always something here for you to engage in. While the story might occasionally tread familiar ground, it's executed with the same sincerity that the Yakuza series is also known for. The twists and turns, though sometimes predictable, are delivered with a sense of drama that keeps you hooked. The game's exploration of themes like justice, redemption, and the blurred lines between right and wrong is handled with a mature and thoughtful approach; not every choice is an easy one for Yagami to make, as the greater picture of the plot is rarely black and white. Even the side stories are worth engaging in. Perhaps the tales here are not as zany or off-the-wall as some of the side stories in Yakuza: Like a Dragon , but many are extremely touching — once again highlighting what RGG Studio does so well — balancing those action-packed fights and silly situations with true sincerity and earnest messages of love, acceptance, and even forgiveness. As for more concrete examples of mini-games for players, the SEGA arcades are available to Yagami, meaning he can try his hand at some classic SEGA titles, like Viruta Fighter 5 Final Showdown or Motor Raid . There are other staples around, of course, like darts, mahjong, the batting cages — a veritable mountain of stuff  is present for you to enjoy. There’s even a new drone mini-game, or dating mini-game for him to partake in. You’ll never feel like you’ve run out of things to do. All-in-all, I had a very good time with this one. Judgment  is a tense detective story, a stylish action game, and a heartfelt look into the lives of the ordinary people of Kamurocho, all wrapped in a beautifully crafted package. It's a testament to Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s ability to mold stories filled with memorable characters and compelling events. I know there’s a second one already out, but I hope we get to see even more of the characters here, and I’m excitedly awaiting my next rendezvous with Kamurocho. Verdict Judgment  is a must-play for fans of detective stories and action games alike. It boasts a charismatic protagonist, an exciting combat system, and a visually stunning presentation. Despite hitting some familiar beats, it delivers an enjoyable and deeply moving escapade.   Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

I solemnly swear that this game kicks ass Note: There are some minor early game spoilers in the images for this article. I’ve been a big fan of Obsidian’s work for a long time, and I don’t really want to skirt around that fact. There’s just something about the way they deliver their stories and develop their worlds that just speaks to me on a fundamental level. From games like Knights of the old Republic II  and Fallout: New Vegas, to more recent entries like the Pillars of Eternity  (the first CRPG I ever played) and Pentiment , Obsidian has never failed to deliver an interesting experience for me. So, when I first heard Avowed  was being developed and would take place in Eora (the same world as the Pillars games), I was definitely excited. But I was a little nervous, too.  For starters, being in the same world as those Pillars of Eternity games carries a lot of baggage on its own. Would Avowed  be set before, during, or after the events of the previous games? Would those events matter in any way? Would the world be handled with the kind of care I felt they should be? Second, I don’t typically love first person games, and first person sword fighting (melee combat in general) is so frequently boring, I had concerns about the type of game we’d be getting — despite third person perspective being an option. In retrospect, some of these concerns feel a bit silly. It’s not my world, so what does it matter if they handle it differently than I would want? Plus, Obsidian has delivered fun first person adventures in the past with games like The Outer Worlds , so that concern is a bit unwarranted. I don’t really know what I was expecting, as I purposefully avoided much of the lead up to the game, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how much I would end up loving this game. Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Developer:   Obsidian Entertainment Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on February 18, 2025 for Windows PC and Xbox Series X/S. Avowed is a story-driven RPG in the same vein as other Obsidian classics, with a heavy focus on roleplaying and choice and consequence. As the envoy to the Aedyran Empire (lovingly referred to as The Envoy), the player character is on a mission to find out about and ultimately put an end to a mysterious disease plaguing the Living Lands, known as The Dreamscourge. As the journey unfolds, The Envoy fights more than just disease — lizard people, fascists, and even the land itself are all out to kill them. Something I really admire about this game is that it never pulls its punches. Dialogue may sometimes be long-winded, but it never feels out of place by explaining things to the player. In-world events or terminology that your character would know about are highlighted in the text, with the option to pull up a side menu to catch up on the vocabulary, but the world assumes you live in it. Rather than characters constantly pulling you aside and explaining things you would definitely already understand, the game leaves it up to the player to explore these events and ideas. This is not the first time I’ve seen something like this implemented, but it may be the best version out there. This facet of the game is also just plainly useful, even beyond making the dialogue flow more naturally. For players new, old, disabled, disadvantaged, or otherwise unaware, this spot lookup function becomes an excellent tool for keeping track of events as you explore the Living Lands. All of this allows the player to experience the story and dialogue scenes in a more meaningful and immersive way. The Envoy becomes a party to the events unfolding, instead of an outside child who needs their hand held at every turn. As so many of the events within the game are serious or dark, it allows the player to engage with them earnestly. That’s not to say that the game is devoid of levity, in fact it’s quite the opposite — sarcastic companions, absurd journal entries, and even dialogue options for the player litter the entirety of the game. The dialogue options are particularly refreshing, frequently offering you the option to outright dismiss or berate even important NPCs. Without going too far into the particulars of the game’s events, I will say I really enjoyed the story experience. Even beyond the overarching plot of the Dreamscourge, there’s a lot of mystery, adventure, and intrigue to be found. While it may not be the most reactive game ever made, I did enjoy how often dialogue choices or actions in a quest might shape the way a quest develops or how factions of people might treat you. Those choices feel impactful in the moment, and resolving some side quests can have big impacts on how major events unfold. The companions will comment on events in your chats with them, or even offer asides during a dialogue to give you a little more info or just chime in with their opinion on the situation. Journal entries and notes that you find in the Living Lands will give greater context to not only the events happening around you, but also the world at-large. Obsidian has crafted something special here. A world that feels truly lived in — not just by the inhabiting NPCs, but by the player character, as well. It’s a world full of events and goings on outside of the player’s immediate vision or control. That goes beyond the text, too. Tarps hanging over the streets for shade, stalls peddling goods or gossip, farms on the outskirts of a city — every bit of this game is built to make it feel like The Envoy is a part of the world, not its focal point. And it's a world that is exciting to explore through gameplay as much as it is through those texts and dialogues. I hear you, girl. There’s an intentionality to the way every street or cave is built in this game that astonishes me, even now. Nothing feels out of place or haphazard. The parkour system lends itself beautifully to this design ethos, with every aspect of the word begging you to look for hidden alcoves, or to try and find your way around a cliffside to scale it and find something neat. Avowed also has a level of verticality to the world that is rarely seen in RPGs like this — it’s built for you to climb, jump, and play around in it. Even your combat abilities can help you in your exploration with moves like a charging attack being used to traverse large gaps, or ice spells freezing water so you can walk on it. This exploration is also instrumental in upgrading your gear, with crafting materials or unique items strewn about the world. In fact, the game may be a bit too reliant on this exploration and collection aspect. Upgrading your gear is wildly expensive resource wise, and even if you break down every piece of normal equipment you find, you’ll never have enough resources to upgrade all of your unique items. This leads to some tough decisions early on, as you’ll have to decide which unique items to break down for rarer materials and which ones to build into early. And you do need to upgrade your gear. Even beyond the flat numbers of damage or damage reduction, the game’s gear system works on a rarity scale. If your gear is a lower rarity than your enemies’, you’ll take more damage and deal less as a percentage. The way to avoid this is to upgrade early — especially your unique gear, as upgrading those has the added bonus of forcing all future unique gear you find to be at the same rarity level or higher. There are caps to this, of course, with some materials only being available in specific areas, so you can never outpace the zone you’re in. As the quest unfolds, you will inevitably come across enemies of a higher gear level than what you have, despite all of your best efforts, so it’s here you will have to make the choice of whether to tough it out or run and come back later. It is possible to beat enemies of a higher gear level, it just becomes a test of your patience as enemies will take much longer to kill and your companions will constantly remind you to upgrade your equipment. I’m a completionist at heart, so this isn’t much of a pain point for me, but I do wonder how it goes for those who would rather just play the main story or only a few side quests. Speaking of the combat — it is phenomenal. Fast, fun, and often frantic, the battles are a real test of your awareness. Large groups of enemies swarm you, priests stand in the back line to heal and try to run from you to keep their buddies up, and environmental hazards or effects are always present for you to be aware of. Managing your own abilities and those of your companions in real time can be a bit tricky, but bringing up the ability wheel will pause time and allow you to select your next move more carefully. I love the battles here. There are so many abilities and spells to try, and with so many different combinations of spell effects and weapons to wield, you’re never out of options. You’re not locked into any one build, either. You can change your points spread across attributes or abilities at any time — for a price.  The exploration, combat, and story are the three major pillars of the game — and all are excellent. I should point out that the way the attributes work in Avowed is probably quite different than what many RPG players are used to. Might is the damage stat for all characters, even mages, Dexterity increases action speed and so on. All attributes are beneficial for all classes, to some degree or another. A full spread across all attributes is a totally viable way to build your character. I put points into everything except for constitution, as I played an evasive style and rarely got hit.  The art direction in Avowed is also top-notch. Stunning vistas, colorful flora, fauna, and clothing, bits of graffiti, and even the architecture — all of it left me in awe. You can really tell the team behind the game cared about this world. I can’t tell you how many times I exited a cave only to stand on a cliff and just take in the view of cities and seas in the distance. The way the visual style and world collide conveys a clear focus from that art team in making something look so cool. I have read that this is meant to be a smaller scale game and take less time than your average open world RPG, but I ended up with around 70 hours played when credits rolled. It is by no means a small game, but it is focused. Avowed  knows what it wants to do, and does all of that exceptionally well, but it doesn’t sweat some of the small stuff in ways that may or may not be missed. There are no theft or jail systems, not every object in the world is fully interactable, and not every NPC is a plaything for the players’ whims. Instead, Avowed offers a closer look at a specific place in a developed world with colorful characters and an interesting story to tell. The more I play it, the more I end up loving it and appreciating what we have here. I think that’s more than enough. Verdict Avowed is a game full of exploration, wonder, intrigue, and laughs. You can get lost in the world in so many ways — whether it’s the story that draws you in, the deep characters you fall in love with, or the parkour that keeps you playing, there’s so much to see and do. It may not have the most expansive map in the history of RPGs, but this adventure contains interesting exploration paths that are open to player creativity. While the combat and characters were the most arresting portion of the game for me, real lore sickos are in for a great time, as well. Avowed  is a tremendous game with a clear focus, and does what it sets out to do exceptionally well. It’s proof positive of Obsidian’s continued greatness, and I hope to see more of Eora in the future. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

These boots are made for huntin' (and also out of the bones of my enemies). Seven full years after the massively successful Monster Hunter: World  seemed to take the gaming world by storm, Monster Hunter Wilds  arrives on consoles and PC, attempting to recapture that mainstream success. While Monster Hunter Rise  released in-between the two on Nintendo Switch (and eventually PC) to great success in its own right, Wilds is unambiguously a spiritual successor to World , sharing many design similarities – sometimes to its detriment. Publisher: CAPCOM Co., Ltd. Developer:   CAPCOM Co., Ltd. Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on February 28, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X/S Monster Hunter Wilds starts off with a very brief introduction — opening with a group of people fleeing from a then unnamed, unseen monster, taking refuge in a cave. It’s here that a child, Nata, is sent further into the cave alone, in order to give him a chance of escape. Nata is eventually free, and makes his way to the edge of the desert, where he is found by some hunters. A short explanation and monster attack later, and you’re off to the races. Riding a big dinosaur-bird-thing (Seikret), you’re chased by a horde of worm-like monsters and trying to save a little girl. While this first scene is an exciting introduction into our new world, it also shows us a bit about how the game will play out. See, despite the show of it all, and despite the tutorials introducing you to some mechanics as you go, nothing that happens here matters or is really under your control — you don’t have full control of the seikret and your attacks are meaningless. It’s truly unfortunate that most of the story plays out in much the same fashion. Long sequences of forced walking through new environments are spent with the player unable to control their own direction or movement — slowly plodding along as your handler gives you the latest exposition dump. For a game with such large and lovingly-crafted maps, it sure spends an awful lot of time making sure you can’t play it. This seems to be a holdover from World , as it also forced these walking segments on you frequently, while Rise  did away with them in favor of more read dialogue and cutscenes. The game does also have more traditional cutscenes, and they’re frankly so far beyond anything else the series has done, I’m almost shocked they were as sparse as they were. In some respects, that makes the moments sweeter — if you see a cutscene happening, you’re almost guaranteed to get something worthwhile. Those walking segments aren’t the only regression, either. Scoutflies have made their return, serving as the most boring solution possible to the question, “what if a player got a bit lost in our big maps?” The answer, it seems, is to just have glowing lines and an auto-pilot to bring you to where you need to go. While Rise  opened up the combat and movement through switch skills and wirebugs, respectively, Wilds  goes back to more traditional Monster hunter roots and avoids the question of playstyle customization entirely. That’s not to say there is no evolution in gameplay from World ; every weapon has new moves or combo routes, and new skills show up on decorations. The ability to swap weapons on the fly is also a nice change, but rarely seems to have any use case outside of niche elemental swaps during a fight or for swapping in a great sword to wake sleeping monsters. The cutscenes in Wilds look amazing, and are by far the best they've ever been in the series. Some other changes have come to Wilds  with varying degrees of success. Monster parts are now much more abundant due to the ‘wound’ system in place. Attacking a monster generates wounds that take more damage, which can then be manually burst through focus mode attacks, or repeatedly targeted with normal attacks for more damage. Once a wound has been destroyed, an additional monster part is generated, and the monster is often staggered. This has some broader implications on optimal play, but even at a cursory glance you could understand how this may affect weapon and armor crafting systems. This is compounded by the fact that, when compared to previous games, weapon trees are smaller and the required materials per craft appear to have been reduced. It's not unheard of to only have to fight a monster two or three times to craft an entire gearset, which is a substantial change from the loop the series is known for. Despite any issues or annoyances I have with these changes, it is unquestionably true that Monster Hunter Wilds just fuckin’ rips , man. This game is just so much fun — it feels nearly impossible to put down, especially once you actually get through the story and you just get to play . It takes too long to get there, that much is true, but when you do, Wilds opens up in ways that none of the other games in the illustrious series could dream of.  The environments are flush with interactables, collectibles, and monsters roaming around fighting each other — all while being engaging to explore due to twisting pathways and multi-tiered design. Varied weather patterns allow for different monster spawns or quest availability. Those same weather patterns also affect endemic life that appears throughout the land, what sort of collectibles you can gather, and can even change what type of drops you can collect from monsters in specific circumstances. World  has some of this, but Wilds turns it up to 11, creating a more natural, lively world. Wilds is visually breathtaking, but the real beauty lies in the deep gear customization. Equipment options are varied as usual, but the ease of getting decorations and charms makes building sets a much easier task, which in turn opens up a lot of room for equipment experimentation. Whether you’re suited up for comfort, style, or something in-between, there are more ways to get what you want, and it’s easier to do than ever before. Layered armor (equipped armor taking on the appearance of some other set of your choosing) returns and is available as soon as you make it to high rank quests, which is welcome as sets rarely visually mix and match particularly well in early ranks. In some respects, the fashion aspect may be the endgame loop for many players. With the abundance of materials and ease with which decorations are obtained, there are very few things to chase long after you complete the main story. There is a semi-customizable weapon series, known as Artian weapons, that you can chase for optimization. The parts needed to craft the base version of each Artian weapon are plentiful, appearing as rewards in essentially every late game quest you’ll take on after the main story, so the only thing to do is get the materials for reinforcement. Unfortunately, getting those required materials is a bit slow-going as the trading options and collection aspect of it are time-gated, so it’s more a passive endeavor. Unless you are specifically looking to craft those weapons for every element of every weapon type, you’ll get what you need eventually. All of this is to say that the only things worth actively chasing are related to cosmetic items or to check everything off your list. For some, this may be a negative, but for me, it allows me to just start or join quests to fight monsters for the sole purpose of ruining their life. I fight them because it is insanely fun to do. Learning their movesets, trying out new gear and weapons, playing with friends and hunting gold crowns — I found so much joy in just playing the game, unburdened by the chase of optimization. Because of this, fighting the monsters became the purpose versus the process, and boy do they deliver. Monster hunts are intense and thrilling. The monster hunts are a spectacle to behold. From the protective veil of Uth Duna, to the flaming mantle of Nu Udra, each monster has a unique flair and moves to watch out for. I do feel like the roster is a bit small, but the different monster types and varied movesets between each enemy keep the fights fresh. Many foes have huge area attacks that light up the screen, or interact with the environments in interesting ways, such as the cephalopod Xu Wu using tiny holes in the environment to escape, or the aforementioned Uth Duna swimming in the water out of bounds to launch a large breaching attack at the player. New moves for the player are a nice treat, as well, with many being impressive-looking in their own right. The combat is both showy and exhilarating in many ways, but I think it's a bit easy. This is the part that is hard to quantify or really parse for me, but I never carted until late into the story, and I have yet to fail a quest even though I’m now over HR 100. It’s hard for me to really say why this one feels easier than older titles. Sure, I now have 20 years of monster hunter under my belt, but that was true with Rise  as well. I suspect it has something to do with the seikret providing invincibility in a pinch and wounds being extremely powerful tools in keeping up aggression on the monster. I’m looking forward to seeing how the fights evolve as the title updates drop in the future — they always come with a sharp up-tick in difficulty. In the end, Monster Hunter Wilds  is a delightful and worthy addition to the Monster Hunter franchise, only held back by its frequent insistence on not letting you actually play it for the first 20 hours or so. Is it the perfect starting point for newcomers? Hard to say — some mechanics may remain obtuse for starters, but it is certainly the most accessible the series has ever been. While I can’t imagine what the changes mean for new players, as a long-time veteran I am more than happy enough with what we have, and I can’t wait to hunt more monsters in the future. Verdict Monster Hunter Wilds starts slow but is worth the wait. Bombastic battles and diverse equipment ensure you’re always either working on something or enjoying the ride when you play. Wilds retains many of the quirks and systems that the series has been known for over the last two decades, but this is the most accessible the series has ever been. While many of the series’ edges have been sanded off, it still remains a rewarding experience, overall. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux and Capcom.