HIGH The atmosphere is top tier.

LOW Repetition and recycled content.

WTF …Happened to my save file?

Like every games writer approaching the end of the year, I’ve started to compile a list of my top 10 games of 2025 in an effort to appease the algorithmic gods that give this writing hobby of mine some semblance of meaning. As someone who is less constrained by the new release schedule than many, I like to focus on my top 10 experiences regardless of release date, so I don’t have to overlook any titles that impressed me. With that being said, here’s a sneak preview:

Pacific Drive is likely going to take the gold.

Loading into the original title, I expected a narrative heavy driving adventure. What I experienced was an extraction-based survival challenge with a large splash of SCP and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The player’s time is divided between maintaining their car’s condition by avoiding dangers in an anomaly-filled forest and looting every resource they can find in order to upgrade the car for even deeper ventures into a mysterious place called The Zone. I’m not a car guy, but I loved every second of my time exploring and learning about how the world worked, and by the time I was set to leave my garage for the final time, I had an appreciation for a game that tried something different and nailed the atmosphere it was going for.

With the recent release of the “Whispers in the Woods” expansion, I took the opportunity to grab my car keys and hit the road for another journey… and I have thoughts.

As an overview, the DLC adds an 8–12 hour side story campaign to the main title alongside new anomalies, new mechanics and a fully voice-acted narrative. The original mix of cozy and unnerving from Pacific Drive‘s initial release has been replaced with a spookier, more sinister tone as we learn more and more about a fanatical cult operating within The Zone. 

For players who read “Pacific Drive but spookier” and are already sold, then feel free to stop reading here. For everyone else, I can happily report the atmosphere in Whispers in the Woods has been amped up and the visuals continue to look phenomenal. However, there were a few bumps in the road… I was initially taken with the DLC, but as I started to settle into the new, poorly-explained gameplay loop, cracks started to appear.

There are two new main systems to contend with. Instead of collecting energy to form an exit gateway as in the original Pacific Drive, the player now needs to collect a certain number of “artifacts” that will be sacrificed at an altar to open an escape route. These artifacts each have their own quirk that will apply to the player and their car, with the effects ranging from good to ‘get rid of this thing as fast as possible’. I do like the fact that the player can no longer tell where the level exit will appear. Previously the escape could be trivialized by plotting a clear route, now the player needs to adapt on the fly, leading to far tenser rides.

Secondly, holding on to too many artifacts will gradually increase The Whispering Tide. If it maxes out “they” will begin hunting the player across the map, I will not be elaborating further because that’s part of the experience, but thankfully, this aspect can be offset this by equipping the remnant with attuned parts which will help hide the player’s presence from “them”.

In theory these are both fine systems, leading to more varied escapes and encouraging veteran players to update their car. Sadly, these new attuned parts are just glowing versions of existing parts, so I was forced to unlock everything again, minus the joy of discovery and added frustration because they are harder to repair. While different artifacts do have slightly different impact levels, the player almost always has the ability to choose either a positive one or an ignorable negative effect. This leads to the gameplay loop feeling very similar to the original Pacific Drive — simply collect enough circular energy sources to escape through a portal.

This repetition is not helped by the story missions being essentially the same task repeated seven times. Go to a new area and find an audio file, listen to it to unlock a trial with a special gameplay condition, complete the trial to unlock a new area, and repeat. The areas each have their own quirks and the trials often come with substantial restrictions, but I was left wanting when it came to the diversity I had hoped for from an expansion. The new anomalies are interesting but I had encountered the majority within a few hours of play and none caused me to change my approach to the maps, which are still heavily filled with well-known anomalies.

When it comes to the actual narrative, I prefer the story of the main game. However, I do want to acknowledge that the DLC offers strong voice performances to accompany the player throughout their journey. I was a disappointed to see there was less environmental storytelling than the first go-round and that it was almost all contained to audio logs, but the characters are at least interesting. For newer players, the story is completely separate from that of the original Pacific Drive, so players can drop in and out without concerns of spoilers.

I wanted to be able to write this review and profess my love for Whispers In The Woods as a reason to revisit one of my favorite titles of the past few years, but it left me wanting. On paper it’s more Pacific Drive with a Halloween skin, but I wanted more from an expansion. If it had been marketed as a smaller ‘trials’ pack my expectations might have been more in line with the actual experience.

There is clear care put into this expansion and it’s easy to see the vision Ironwood Studios had, it just didn’t land with me. However, I do hope they continue trying to experiment because I would love this studio to create a new experience as much as I love the original Pacific Drive.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

— Adam Sharman

Buy Pacific Drive: Whispers In the Woods — PC — PS — XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ironwood Studios and published by Kepler Interactive. It is currently available on PC, PS5 and XBX/S. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the expansion, on top of 32 hours in the main game, and the game was completed. There is currently no multiplayer option.

Parents: The game has an ESRB rating of T due to Fantasy Violence and Language. Pacific Drive can be very unnerving when the player is unaware of the world around them and the expansion has a horror theme including ghastly enemies that can ‘charge’ the player as a mild jump scare, although their threat level is minimal. The visuals and soundtrack of the expansion further play into this horror element but no violence is shown to the player character.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes alongside a host of accessibility features.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has subtitles for all dialogue, which is the sole way the story is conveyed. No audio is essential for gameplay and the subtitles cannot be tweaked beyond on/off. While some anomalies have audio cues, these are all accompanied by some level of visual cue. It can be helpful to hear certain anomalies without looking, but this has minimal gameplay effect. The car can develop quirks which include the horn being honked as an effect, which may be more difficult to identify for players with hearing difficulty, but this is a rare occurrence and there are ways to identify the quirk without hearing the sound.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls on both keyboard and controller.

The post Pacific Drive: Whispers In The Woods Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to the Lies of P: Overture DLC on the So Videogames Podcast, Episode 443. For further coverage leading up to this review, please listen to Episode 442 and Episode 441.

Starting off with the DLC I mentioned last week, and I believe the week before — Lies of P: Overture. This is the expansion to Lies of P, the souls like featuring a theme that is kind of based around a fantastical version of Pinocchio coming to us from Korean developer, I believe their name is Neowiz. I think, the main game. Incredible stuff. I think it’s one of the, one of the only developers, I think, that really can hold their own with from when it comes to like, level design and just general gameplay flow. They’re not reinventing the Dark Souls wheel as other people have done, and which I think is a fine idea.

I certainly don’t think every game in the souls like genre has to be like Dark Souls. but neo is are clearly fans and lies of P. The base game is a pretty fantastic experience. It can be difficult, although I will say that this new DLC has included difficulty levels so it can be done. It can be done in souls like everybody pay attention. There’s easy, medium and hard and they work. They do not break the game. They do not, make things terrible. It takes the experience away from no one. the hard level is fucking hard. The medium level still pretty challenging. The easy level. It’s not a cakewalk, folks. It’s still difficult, but it is significantly easier than the hard level. So hats off, number one. Just right out of the gate. Hats off to neo is for adding goddamn difficulty levels. I know that all the get goods like whine and moan and kick and scream and no one wants the difficulty level and the souls like, but neo is proves you can do it and do it properly and successfully. It is great. I love, love, love that there are difficulty levels in this. It’s still a fucking great game. It doesn’t matter what difficulty, it’s still a great game. The mark of a great game, still a great game. Here it is. Okay. That said, okay, so the DLC is a I feel like it’s 15 or 20 hours at least, and it takes the main character P back in time.

So it acts as a prequel of sorts. And I, you know, it’s been a while since I played the base game of Lesa P. I didn’t remember the story beats, I didn’t remember the details. So as I was going through Lies of P: Overture, I was like, I kind of remember this, and I kind of sort of remember this. But when we got to the end of the DLC, it really brought things together and I was really quite impressed. But I’m watching my wife go back through Lesa P now. Quick throwback. If anybody was listening back then or if you know me or I’ve, I’ve talked about this a couple times. My wife was playing the base game of lies and P a while ago when it dropped. And there’s one portion of Lies of P, there’s only one, only one time in the entire game where they take away your bonfires, where you cannot leave the level, you cannot go and level up. You cannot go back and resupply. You just have to make it through the next battle. You have to, otherwise you cannot progress. And my wife got stuck. She was playing the game. She was low on supplies. She was in a bad way. She was actually going back to the hotel, which acts as your hub to respec as she got caught in this trap and she got so frustrated that she quit the game, but she saw me playing it.

She’s like, oh man, I wish I had finished that game. And I’m like, yeah, you had a good time, you should come back to it. So she did. Had to talk her into it a little bit, but I sold her when she knew that there were difficulty levels. And plus we knew where that catch point was. Right. So we knew it was coming. It wasn’t a surprise anymore. So she was well prepared this time. Went into it, blew through that boss like on the second attempt, no problem. And she got past it. Huge weight off her shoulders. I was so proud of her for coming back. And now she’s pushing on into the main game doing the DLC. But I bring this up because as I’m watching the wife go through the story, I’m kind of watching her play the main game again. I was like, oh, right. Like I remember all the characters and I remember all the narrative ties and all of the things. And so it’s making me really appreciate Lies of P much more. I, you know, I, I don’t necessarily advocate for replaying games unless you swing that way. I very rarely replay games, but if you are, or if you haven’t played lines up for a while, or if you’ve never played it it the DLC will make so much more sense and will be so much more meaningful.

If you have recently played through the base game of lies and and your memory is fresh on all the characters and all the plot beats, because the developers really go overboard and in a good way, in a good way. Not a bad way, a good way. On the story in Lies of P: Overture, the story beats are great, and in general I really celebrate lies. because not only do they break the mold by adding a difficulty level, they break the the from soft mold by telling a story that is very easy to follow and easy to understand, and they don’t make it cryptic. I mean, there’s item descriptions to read if you want to, but basically there’s tons of characters all around and they’re like, hey man, here’s what’s happening. And they just fucking tell you. And it works. It works well, the lies of PR world is amazing. It’s really well fleshed out and believable and full of atmosphere. It just proves you do not need to hold back all the information in order to make a compelling experience. Neowise proves you can just straight up tell people what the fuck is going on, and even give them a difficulty setting to, and it’s still a fucking great game. So I love them for breaking the mold that way as well. The story stuff in overture is amazing, especially when you get to the end. I thought it was quite touching and quite sad, and I very rarely feel that way about games in general, and certainly not much about souls likes, but they really lean into the narrative and the characterization, and I really appreciate what they did there.

I’m not going to spoil anything, but it was really well told. There were lots of callbacks to stuff in the main campaign. Lots of characters made a reappearance, lots of like lots of those moments where you’re like, oh, that’s where that dude came from. Or oh, I remember that guy. So that’s how that happened. And you get like a lot of those moments which stitched up together really well, which I think is great. I love it a lot. So the DLC gives you an easy mode, which is great or, you know, difficulty levels. let’s see, what else do they give you? I don’t know, there’s like a lot of stuff. I think that just lines up does really well. Like for example, there’s lots of quality of life touches. They change little things. Like when you have enough experience to gain a level, it changes the display. So you know right away if you can. So you’re not wasting your time going back to your bonfire. They also tell you how many levels you have saved up, in case you don’t want to risk going to the next section, which I think is great. you could find that out already, but having it right there, on the screen just makes it so much easier.

They go above and beyond to make sure you can finish the side quests. Every time you get a new item or a side quest item, an icon appears on the fast travel menu. So let’s say, for example, you’re in whatever level and you get a new item and you’re like, oh, right, this goes to so-and-so back wherever they were. If you go back to the bonfire like you’re about to fast travel, they’ll tell. They straight up tell you they’re like, this is the guy. They show you a little icon of the character, and all the characters in the game have little face icons and you recognize them. So you’re like, oh, it’s the shopkeeper, and he’s over on this street. They tell you literally where to go Exactly. And it just saves you so much fucking time. You don’t have to like YouTube it all the time or look it up. They just are like, here, this is where we want you to go, and you go and fucking do it. And I will say that in terms of level design, they are very conscientious about making these side quests easy to finish, because most of the time the guy or girl or robot or whoever that you need to talk to is very close to the bonfire that you go to. So like, it’s not like you got to like, dig deep in the hinterlands and keep going and like, you’re gonna get on.

It’s like most of the time it’s like, just go to the hotel or go to the street and there’s a guy standing right there. Or like, you go to this room, there’s a guy right there. And I fucking love that. Like, it’s like it doesn’t take away from the game at all. It makes it very easy to fix these, fix these things you need to fix. Solve these problems, help these people out, get these side quests done. It’s great. It’s like a quality of life thing that I think is amazing. I will say that.. What else? They also are really nice about giving you warnings to, like, if you’re about to get into a not in the main game. I think they’ve added this after that happened, I think they probably got some pushback on that. The thing that trapped my wife, I think a lot of people were kind of mad about that. but like now, when I was about to go into the final leg of the game, like, big warning comes up, hey, man, you’re about to go into the final leg. This is the end of the game. Are you sure you want to do this? I appreciate that, don’t trick me. Don’t let me. Don’t let me make a mistake I don’t want to make. So I like that a lot.

so that’s good stuff. They add a bunch of new weapons. The bow, which is the first truly ranged weapon of Liza P, which is amazing. I love the bow. It does not break the game, but it is just so useful and helps out so much. It’s probably why there’s always a ranged weapon in every fucking souls game ever, because sometimes you just need it. They add a boss rush and a boss replay mode. I didn’t mess around with those very much, but they’re there if you want to. overall, I mean, so it’s the same base game of Dark Souls third person combat, really tuned, really tight. I think it works well. Great atmosphere, great story, great character. lots of quality light stuff. It’s really, really good stuff. I’m not perfect, though. It’s not perfect. So I will say a couple of things. really quickly that could be improved. I feel like, For whatever reason, I got backed into corners more often here than I ever did before. Like, I would be rolling around and, you know, dodging, fighting some guy and I would find myself backed into a corner and then the enemies would close in, and then I couldn’t leave the corner and I would just get, like, trapped, you know, corner trapped. And I was stuck. That happened like a notable amount of times. And I don’t know if that’s like level design or it might have something to do with how many of the enemies in Lies of P, especially Overture, are extremely, like, overly aggressive.

I found that to be quite true. And it’s not just my imagination. As I was watching my wife play the game, she was rolling around and dodging guys and getting back stabs pretty easily. And that was all going fine. And then when she got to the DLC, she was not able to do that anymore. Like the dodges weren’t working. She couldn’t get the backstab in. I think they have really reduced the ability for me to move around. They want you to parry more often, which is a bad idea. so I think that, I got trapped in corners more often than I would have liked. That was not fun. I’ll say also that some of the bosses are just like so fucking super aggressive. Like, it’s really it’s really annoying. I did complete the DLC and I can think of like 2 or 3 bosses that just like they’re in your face constantly, like you barely have room to breathe. You barely have room to, like, use a health potion. And in lines of pee, you have to juggle a couple things, like you have to sharpen your weapon during a battle. You have to take like life potions. If you have any other supporting items, you have to kind of like mess around with the D-pad to kind of navigate those. And when you’ve got a guy stabbing you in the face with a sword 17,000 times and he never backs off, it’s really hard to do it.

So I feel like the bosses were a little bit too aggressive. a couple in particular, but overall I think they just turned up the aggression too much and they don’t give the player enough time to breathe. And that kind of goes hand in hand with the paring and the dodging. I think both these things need to be fixed. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but like, when you try to dodge Eliza, it’s, like, impossible. I feel like you can’t dodge anything anymore. you have to be, like. Like pixel perfect with your dodge to get that tiny ass little window of iframe invincibility frames. But like I was, was not dodging anything. And in fact, I was failing to dodge so often I had to change my play style. And P, his left arm is,mechanical and you can swap it out for different things. And there’s a shield arm, which I barely ever used in the main game. I only used it for like, I think two bosses and I never touched it otherwise. But in this I actually equipped it and left it on the whole time because I was having such a tough time dodging that I needed like an extra shield to kind of get through some of these sections, which to me feels wrong.

I feel like that you should be able to dodge out of the way. That should be a viable, tactic. I mean, that’s pretty viable for most souls games. It’s kind of a basic fundamental principle. So I feel like the dodging needs to be tweaked. You need more iframes or to make the animation quicker or something. It needs to be tweaked because dodging just does not feel viable. And I will also say the parrying Is tough. The timing on it is really tight and it’s also very unimpressive when you do it now. We have recently talked about Expedition 33 on the show. It’s definitely going to be one of my games of the year for sure. It’s a wonderful experience, but they take pairing to a whole new level where you just parry everything, and when you do, you get these awesome animations. Feels amazing and I feel like they have just raised the bar on parrying every game from this point forward from now until the end of time. If you’re going to do a parrying, it’s got to be a badass parry. Otherwise, why do it? And in P they don’t do badass parries. It’s like you. You parry, and if you do it correctly, you get like this tiny little flash of like red light. And honestly, it’s kind of tough to tell that you even parried. Like the enemies often don’t rock back, they don’t get stunned. There’s not much that happens other than the fact that P does not take damage, so it’s kind of like a survival tactic, but it’s not cool.

It’s not impressive, it doesn’t feel flashy when you do it, and it’s just not good enough anymore. They you need to parry, and when you parry, it’s got to be fucking like, stylish and flamboyant and badass. It’s got to be on the par of, like, expedition 33. They have just they have changed pairing forever. So props to Sandoval Interactive for that. And coming back to to doing pairing and PM like am I even pairing? Is this even happening? What’s even going on? I don’t understand anymore. It’s not enough. So they need to like fix that for sure. What else? Anything else? the only other thing that I kind of want to complain about, just to just to get it off my chest is. It’s like a, it’s like a, it’s a hit and a miss. It’s a hit in that like, developers let you respect so many things you can respect, you can disassemble your weapons, you can mix and match your weapons to make weapons that fit you. You can respec your own skill tree. You can respect the items that go into your mechanical arm. And if you want to rearrange those things, you can, which I think is great. You can basically respec anything in the game except weapon upgrade materials, which drives me fucking crazy.

I don’t know why they would let you respect basically everything, but not this because you find so many weapons and sometimes you just want to, like, experiment with them, right? So like, for example, my wife started out with the strength based weapons and she spect for that. And then after a while she’s like, oh, you know, I really like this. I like the agility weapons better. And I’m like, yeah, I like agility as well. So she respect. But she had sunk a lot of materials into strength based weapons by this point already. And you can alter them a little bit, but you can’t just fully respect them. I’m talking about get all your fucking materials back and just put those materials into something else. Why not? You went all the way on all these other systems, which is great and I love it and I respect you for that. Why would you not go all the way on the final system? I don’t see the logic here. And what I think it is, is adherence to the formula that FromSoftware laid out. I think they’re following it for whatever reason. They were willing to break the mold on so many things, but on this one, they were not willing to break the mold. And I just have to I have to say it’s a bad call, because you find so many weapons that you want to experiment with them all. You want to try them all, find favorites.

They’re great weapons, and especially in the DLC, there’s so many cool weapons to use that I wanted to try every one of them, but I didn’t have enough materials for all of them. And so I feel like just give me the materials back. Like let’s say for example, you can only maximum upgrade, maybe like three weapons. Okay, that’s fine, I can leave the other ones on upgraded, but if I want to switch, I will take my mats back and I will still only have three upgraded weapons. And honestly, what does it matter anyway? What? Does he even fucking care? I mean, you made these weapons. Do you want me to use them? Do you not like why did you create them if you don’t want me to use them? What is the value of locking me into weapons? When you let me change basically everything else in the game, it doesn’t make sense. I think it’s a mistake. I think it’s a genuine mistake. And I think, neo needs to fix that for next time. If you could take your weapon material upgrades back, that would be the fucking perfect thing, because then you could really mix and match and change your build and explore how the game plays and find something that really works. Why don’t you want to do that? I think you should do that. They’ve gone three quarters of the way. You might as well go all the way.

So that’s one of my other complaints. Other than that, I mean, so all that stuff said, all the stuff I’ve just ranted about, I think Lies of P: Overture is a pretty amazing DLC. It’s chunky. It took me, I believe, 15 to 20 hours, which felt like just the right length. It had story ties that were absolutely strongly tied to the main campaign. This wasn’t just like a tossed off, like one off. It was like it really called back to like, central characters to things that happened. Like it made sense. It explained a lot of plot holes that people thought were plot holes before. It plays well, it adds great weapons. I mean, the bow itself makes the DLC worth it, but like the Wolverine claws or the exploding sword, or the gun blade and stuff, or the arm that shoots blades, like there’s all sorts of stuff that I think are amazing you can take back to the main campaign. Overall, Lies of P: Overture delivers a lot of value. Great story, great gameplay, lots of new weapons to play with and it was a good length, too. Ultimately, I felt very satisfied by the time I finished it. It was a little bit on the difficult side. A little bit. Enemies that are too aggressive. And I got backed into corners a little bit too often. Could have polished up some of the spots, but you know those are those are small things.

Lies of P: Overture is pretty outstanding stuff, and this is a great way to do DLC. Other developers who make soulslikes should pay attention to how it was done here.

And the score for this content is 8.5 out of ten. Excellent stuff.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This content was developed by Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio, and published by Neowiz Games. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, and XBO/S/X. This copy of the DLC was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 18 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the content was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has received an M rating from the ESRB and contains Blood and Violence. The official summary reads: “This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of the puppet Pinocchio in his search to become human. From a third-person perspective, players explore environments, collect items, and battle various enemies (e.g., puppets, mechanoid creatures) in melee-style combat. Players use swords and mechanical arms with ranged attacks (e.g., Puppet String, Flamberge) to kill enemies. Boss battles depict more prolonged combat against larger enemies. Battles are highlighted by slashing sounds, cries of pain, and large blood-splatter effects. Some environments depict bloody corpses and large blood stains on the ground.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Every line of dialogue is accompanied by written text, and I personally found the font size to be easily readable. Sound is completely unimportant for playing and enjoying this game since there are no audio-only cues for incoming attacks. I played it for some time with the volume turned fully off and had no problems. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram and the controls are remappable. The default scheme is similar to other soulslikes, meaning we use the circle button to run/roll/dodge, the shoulder buttons are for light and strong attacks, the square button is for using items, the left stick is for movement and the right stick handles the camera.

The post SVG REVIEW Lies Of P: Overture appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stepping into [redacted location] for the first time.

LOW A pretty obnoxious summoner boss in one of the sub-dungeons.

WTF Count Ymir’s whole deal.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review covers the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC only. For a more complete description of Elden Ring systems and general information, please see our main review.

*

We have officially reached the point where mainstream videogames are so massive in scale that their DLC is the size of an ideal standalone release. Featuring an entirely new open-world map that’s maybe a third the size of the main campaign, and hosting a self-contained story quest that took me over 30 hours to complete, Shadow of the Erdtree — the first and only expansion for Elden Ring — feels unusually ceremonious, even by FromSoft standards. That it improves an already fantastic experience should come as no surprise given the developer’s track record with DLC, but what’s most impressive is that it feels almost like a miniature Elden Ring in and of itself.

The expansion (accessed from Mohg’s boss arena after defeating both he and Starscourge Radahn) concerns Miquella, one of the most enigmatic figures from the main quest. Supposedly one of the more benevolent of Marika’s children, all we know going into SotE is that he has discarded his corporeal flesh and retreated to another realm called the Land of Shadow. Much like the Lands Between, it resides under a massive tree and has already been ravaged by war before we arrive. We don’t immediately know where Miquella is, but others have come seeking him as well. Naturally, their stories often unfold whether we’re around to experience them or not.

SotE is large enough that it requires its own difficulty curve, and immediately there’s a problem. This is explicitly endgame content, meaning that by the time players are even able to access this expansion, they’re likely at the point where their build is beginning to plateau and leveling up has less impact. To counteract this, the devs added collectible items that can be used to boost player stats, but they’re only effective in the Land of Shadow. They’re typically found near major landmarks and after defeating bosses, so the player’s power level in SotE will depend in part on how thorough they are. It feels less organic than earning experience and fine-tuning a build, though I’m hard-pressed to think of a better way to do it.

There are all manner of new weapons and spells to play around with, but SotE feels mostly familiar, perhaps overly so at first. One of the most common complaints I’ve seen about the base game is that it felt emptier than previous FromSoft releases — that the open world added dead space between places of interest. Those folks will likely feel the same way about SotE, and I’ll admit that for the opening hours, I worried that the spell was breaking for me. I was seeing plenty of the usual suspects — oh look, another Ulcerated Tree Spirit — and the rewards for careful exploration were often crafting materials, smithing stones, or nothing at all. Even some of the early dungeons read like Elden Ring leftovers, such as a small castle on the initial horizon that feels a bit like a warmed-over Caria Manor.

As I delved deeper into the Land of Shadow, however, I came to realize that FromSoft had found new ways of hiding their light under a bushel. They can no longer surprise us with scale — not after the core campaign disguised the size of its map and hit us with a Z-axis expansion — so instead they rely upon our existing understanding of Elden Ring to wow us with some of their wildest, most colorful and varied landscapes yet, and with them some extraordinary additions to the mythos. Miquella may be the focus of the expansion, but other factions that were previously under-represented are elaborated upon here.

FromSoft is often criticized for a relatively hands-off storytelling approach that relegates most of the relevant details to item descriptions, but I see it from a different angle. The lore enriches the experience for those with the drive to seek it out, but FromSoft stories tend to be simple in nature and more about the personal journey. The unique amount of information that each player absorbs is part of that. We’ve been wanting to know more about Miquella for more than two years, and now that I’ve played SotE, I believe I have a decent understanding of him. However, that’s only based on the incomplete picture that I have, drawn using whatever details I happened to pick up. I have zero doubt that my understanding will continue to evolve when the community gets its hands on the expansion.

There are few things I value more in videogames than a sense of discovery, and FromSoft can scratch that itch better than nearly anyone. They know how to tempt us with a tantalizing silhouette on the horizon. My character’s voyage through the Land of Shadow was dictated almost entirely by me seeing something cool in the distance, wondering how to get to it, figuring it out, and being rewarded. Sometimes that reward was just a gorgeous view, but that can be enough. Anyone able to even reach this DLC certainly understands by now the value of slowly opening a massive door to reveal a beautiful vista on the other side.

I wrote in my initial impressions of Elden Ring that its free-roaming nature and almost total plotlessness made it feel closer in spirit to early Zelda than nearly any other modern title. That’s doubly true for SotE, partly because it’s more compact, and partly because FromSoft hasn’t leaned this hard into abstract space in a while. SotE‘s centerpiece legacy dungeon, for example, never once feels like a practical dwelling, but its gimmick is something we never saw in the main content — it’s a castle with numerous entrances and exits that requires multiple passes to complete and acts as a conduit between other parts of the map. That’s worth the trade-off, and it’s part of what makes SotE unique from even the base game, where the regions were largely arranged in a line.

Of course SotE isn’t a metroidvania, but it shares some common DNA in how vertically aligned it is and how often it dips, overlaps and doubles back on itself. While it’s not as impressive a feat as the original Dark Souls perfectly positioning its levels and skyboxes in such a way as to create the illusion of an open world, it’s not far behind. There’s something satisfying about skipping a seemingly non-optional dungeon by finding an obscure side route that spits me out at the back end.

The new bosses (of which there are many) are also almost uniformly great, which should come as good news to those who found Elden Ring‘s original rogues’ gallery a bit lacking. I can’t elaborate much, but there are delightfully few gimmicks to be found here — these are simply well-tuned battles in visually stunning arenas. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a higher number of great boss fights in SotE than in the entire base game.

There’s a caveat, though. A new FromSoft release always comes with the advent of a new Ultimate Opponent, and SotE‘s main quest culminates in a final boss that I suspect will break a lot of people. I haven’t decided whether it’s tougher than Malenia, but the fact that I’m even considering the possibility should be all the information that anyone needs. The encounter itself is an awe-inspiring story moment, so to a degree it’s earned — this isn’t so much a criticism as me issuing a “buyer beware.” Miyazaki’s stated goal with Elden Ring was to make it their most accessible game ever, and I do wonder if their ongoing quest to find every player’s pain threshold is at odds with that.

FromSoft frequently quotes its own work, and in the spirit of Elden Ring being something of a victory lap for them, SotE unambiguously references pretty much all of their recent output. Even fans of Bloodborne and Sekiro will spot some familiar imagery, all remixed to feel fresh and of a piece with the universe of Elden Ring. It’s a nice way to cap off a tremendous winning streak and reaffirms that the modern FromSoft catalogue is something we still so rarely see in this medium — an actual body of work defined by a unifying vision.

Given that Shadow of the Erdtree is roughly the size of what a standalone FromSoft game used to be — it took me longer to finish this than, say, Bloodborne or Dark Souls III — I imagine that it will be received like one. While it took some time to find its footing, it emerged not just as a great expansion, but as a great entry in the studio’s catalogue, period. It’s a shame that the barrier for entry is so high, because I’m already looking forward to revisiting it.

8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. It is currently available on XBO/X/S, PS4/5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 35 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. The entirety of play was spent with multiplayer features enabled.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. There are a couple of suggestive character designs throughout and a bit of mild profanity, but the violence is where Elden Ring earns its rating. This is arguably FromSoft’s most gruesome game to date, with severed parts and mutilated corpses littering the landscape. While it’s fitting with the tone of the world and tastefully portrayed, it’s not for children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Audio cues are frequently used to notify players of either points of interest or approaching enemies, and the game doesn’t offer any sort of visual representation of these cues. The lack of visual cues renders an already-obtuse game even more difficult, and forces players to be even more alert. As such, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great atmosphere. Good-looking stadiums & players. Translates the boardgame rules well.

LOW Myriad glitches and bugs, frustrating multiplayer, repetitive announcing, microtransactions.

WTF Why can’t I consistently execute actions I know I should be able to execute?

Blood Bowl 3 was a rollercoaster of emotions.

It started with the initial excitement of seeing my favorite tabletop game being again realized in a digitized format, allowing me to play without lugging around physical components.  The excitement built up as features and teams were announced, and launch crept closer. 

Then, disappointment as bugs and glitches plagued the launch and microtransactions were revealed to be the real star players. 

However, I await redemption — I fully expect the game to be patched and tweaked into a fully-realized and enjoyable experience… at some point in the future.  

Blood Bowl 3 turns gamers into virtual coaches of Blood Bowl Teams — football that’s warped by the Warhammer universe into a twisted parody where giant rats and heavily-armored Dwarves roam the pitch. 

In the sparse campaign, the coach’s current team is disbanded, requiring a complete rebuild and training, which serves as an equally sparse tutorial that kind of explains how to build a team and sort of how to control them.  Between matches, various former star players are introduced in humorously clever vignettes that completely fail to move the already limited ‘story’ forward, but they do an amazing job with world building and immersion by showing the depravity and dark comedy of Blood Bowl’s seedy underbelly of performance enhancers, bribery and dirty play. However, despite the chicanery and shenanigans, Blood Bowl 3 is a fairly straightforward strategy title. 

After creating a team of miscreants, 11 players are arranged on the field and coaches have a total of 16 turns (8 per half) to maneuver individual players from a top-down or isometric perspective. 

Players have a movement allowance based on a pre-determined agility score, and can conduct an additional action in the form of attempting to block an opposing player, throwing the ball, or fouling a player already knocked to the ground.  Virtual dice rolls determine the outcomes of these actions, so a key skill for a coach in Blood Bowl is to minimize or manipulate dice rolls to their advantage.

As much emphasis is placed on attempting to knock out, injure, or even kill opposing players as there is in trying to score touchdowns, with Star Player Points being awarded for all of these.  These points are used to purchase additional skills, and additional players may be signed after a match to replace any who were horribly maimed. 

The mechanics of the boardgame are well represented here.  The various stadiums look amazing, animations are smooth, and characters are detailed, down to the swish of a Skaven’s tail as he waits to pounce.  Tons of information is available to a coach, up to and including the probabilities of a dice roll working out in their favor.  Basic gameplay is quick, and most of the time if something goes wrong, the coach will understand why it’s their fault. Unfortunately, everything else can be a bit of a mess. 

I’ve had errors when trying to create a team that caused the game to crash.  I’ve been locked out of making decisions during a match numerous times, making me restart (or forfeit) while the game waits patiently for an action that physically can’t happen.  Hell, even figuring out where the ball is can be an issue sometimes. 

I’ve been prevented from using team apothecaries for no readily-explained reason, and I’ve also seen injured players remain on the pitch despite them being required to miss the match.  Information is available, but it takes a lot of searching to find, and some actions that should be possible (such as a Blitz action during a movement) are inexplicably locked on some occasions but not others. 

Putting all the hiccups aside, the single player campaign is simply too limited to be engaging, which is a real missed opportunity.  The AI is beyond lackluster, making truly baffling decisions early and often. Such brainless opponents might be nice for new coaches to cut their teeth, but the tactics they’re learning against such simpletons won’t be useful against a human coach worth their salt.

Looking at multiplayer, it’s problematic. 

Most online competitions appear to be locked and/or password protected, which isn’t always apparent when trying to find a league to join, and quick matches can take far too long to find an opponent.  I don’t know whether this is a matchmaking issue, or if people simply aren’t playing until Cyanide works out all the bugs. 

Once I found some players online, I have never managed to finish an online match — either coaches drop if they realize their opponent is competent, or matches just crash. 

Microtransactions also rear their ugly head here.  Up until recently, coaches were required to purchase cosmetic items for individual players on a team rather than as something the unit type can use, meaning one had to buy the same pauldron 11 times!  This was eventually patched out due to intensely negative feedback, but many features and cosmetics are still simply missing and will apparently be doled out in upcoming “season updates.”  Time will tell how these will work and what will be included for the original purchase price.

Blood Bowl 2 suffered a poor launch, but was eventually patched into something enjoyable, and the developers have already been at work on fixes for Blood Bowl 3, so I am guardedly confident that it will eventually be a good experience…  but that time is not now, sadly.  In its current form, Blood Bowl 3 is not worth the purchase price — yet — but I’m ready and willing to love it when it matures. 

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cyanide Studios and published by Nacon.It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/PS5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Many matches were played to completion, but the campaign mode was not finished. 1.5 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence. The official description reads: This is a turn-based strategy game in which players control and manage a football team consisting of fantastical creatures (e.g., dwarves, elves, trolls). From a top-down perspective, players take turns rolling dice to move the ball and players down the field. To prevent opponents from scoring, players can use a variety of punches and kicks, knocking out/killing opposing team members. Some attacks are highlighted by quick sequences: bludgeoning opponents with fists; charging opponents with a horn attack; using a chainsaw to kill an opponent. Blood-splatter effects occur as players are injured; blood stains linger on the field after attacks. The game depicts characters drinking beer in a commercial and drinking mugs from a beer keg. The word “b*tchy” appears in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All dialogue in the game is supported by subtitles, although there were instances where the subtitles didn’t match the spoken dialogue exactly, and at least one instance where the subtitles did not appear during a spoken commentary section. All gameplay elements have a visual component.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The game offers a partial map diagram for specialty actions/functions: Additional controls are as follows:

Keyboard and mouse:

Arrow keys (and/or WASD) move the camera

Q and E rotate the camera

Left click selects a player or confirms an action.  Holding the left mouse button brings up a menu wheel of available actions for a player.

Right click deselects a player or cancels an action.

Controller: (Xbox layout described. PS5 and Switch controller layouts are available as well).

Left stick moves a selection icon to select a player

Right stick moves/rotates the camera

A selects a player or confirms an action.  Holding A brings up a menu wheel of available actions for a player.

B deselects a player or cancels an action.

The post Blood Bowl 3 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A wonderful playlist with interesting remixes.

LOW The art style does nothing for me.

WTF What’s with all of these RPG elements?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from Gamecritics.com.

Ever wanted to have Cloud, Squall, Yuna, and Vivi team up to fight Sephiroth and Kefka? Well now you can in the latest Final Fantasy rhythm game. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is the newest installment of this musical remix series where players can go through hundreds of songs from the franchise’s history.

In Bar Line, players will be using a combination of pressing or holding buttons to tap in time with the music, as well as flicking or moving the control sticks to hit notes, or some combination of these options. In some songs, it can also require players to hit a note and then move the control stick to follow the note up and down the screen. There’s also a simple control mode where players can hit one button to hit all notes in the song, or a pair mode which allows two players to play on one note chart. All three control styles can be used for all parts of the game, making it the first of the series that can be played completely co-op if desired.

Bar Line has three different modes of play — Series quest (their campaign mode), Music Stages (their free play mode), and Multi Battle (online multiplayer). Series quest takes players through each individual game, playing through the bigger songs while cutesy versions of game characters and monsters will battle underneath the notes. Once the level is completed, the song unlocks for free play. Each song can also have an additional modification where it can be more strict on timing when players hit the notes, or it can make notes move faster than normal. There are some light RPG elements as well — completing songs will level characters up and enable them to do special moves if players nail a long chain of notes or getting through a certain portion of a song. The other two modes, the Music Stages and Multi Battle mode, are more about getting the highest score and highest chain possible.

As you can tell from what I’ve said so far, there is a lot going on in Bar Line, and this is both for better and for worse.

For example, I love the expansive playlist of over 350 songs that collects all of the greatest hits from the Final Fantasy IP, but it also includes different types of remixes and tracks from other media, like the mobile games, animated films, and other Square franchises. On the flip side, the RPG elements are superficial, and I only needed to pay attention to them if I wanted to achieve a specific side goal during a song in order to get an unlockable. I also have to admit that the art style did absolutely nothing for me. So much so, in fact, that I eventually turned off the art because I wanted to focus solely on the note charts.

That said, the music nerd in me enjoyed Bar Line‘s rhythm aspect, especially as it seems more focused on playing different parts of a song, rather than specific instruments in a song. In a way, it felt more like being a conductor rather than someone seated in the orchestra, and for this music I think that’s the appropriate choice. Also, being able to play every minute of Bar Line in co-op is an interesting addition to the rhythm genre since there can be more than two players on different note charts, while having some paired notes go between players kept the music sounding and feeling fresh.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. The note charts are interesting and build on themselves as sections of a song are repeated, the track selection is immense, and as a bonus, it plays great both in docked mode or on the go, which means that it’s easy to pick up and get a couple of songs in, anywhere or anytime. Rhythm fans and Final Fantasy fans alike shouldn’t miss out on this one.

For me, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line gets an 8 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Square Enix.  It is currently available on PS4 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. About 1 hour was spent in multiplayer

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Mild Suggestive Themes. From the ESRB Website: “This is a rhythm game featuring characters, settings, and sequences from the Final Fantasy franchise. Players engage in rhythm-based battles, commanding their fighters to use swords, pistols, and magic spells against enemies (e.g., dragons, ogres, half-human creatures). Video clips/cutscenes also depict instances of violence: large-scale battles with explosions; a character impaled by a lance; characters shot with guns/arrows, accompanied by brief blood spurts. Blood may also appear on the ground and on characters’ faces. Some female characters wear revealing outfits (e.g., low-cut tops, deep cleavage). The word “a*s” appears in the dialogue.”

Colorblind Modes: There is one color change option. This changes the notes from red, green, and yellow to blue, teal, and orange.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Text and voiceover are in the game, but the text is not resizable. Playing with no sound doesn’t hinder gameplay, since each note has an indicator on when the note needs to be hit. This game is fully accessible. 

Remappable controls: This game features no remappable controls, and no control diagram. Players can use the face buttons (A, B, X, Y), the shoulder buttons (R, L, ZR, and ZL), or the directional buttons (up, down, left, right) to hit the notes. Players will also use the left or right joystick to flick in directions, or to follow a note on screen.

The post Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line Video Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Nightmarish imagery and enemies.

LOW A shortage of fantastical fungus powers.

WTF is the Winters motto.

In 2017, Resident Evil 7 reinvigorated a franchise that many thought was past its prime.

A refocusing on survival horror over action, a first-person perspective realizing the initial title’s original intent, a mystery plot mostly unburdened by series lore – much has been said about these things elsewhere, but one aspect I’d like to highlight is its new protagonist, Ethan Winters.

Ethan was an everyman caught up in fantastical circumstances with the simple goal of
rescuing his missing wife. Although mostly a blank slate for the player to imprint
themselves upon, he nonetheless approached events with an understandable incredulity and avoided the usual aloof, cool-as-a-cucumber energy common to leading men. The fact that he often says “WTF…” kind of sums him up.

In the Shadows of Rose campaign – the main course of the Winters’ DLC expansion for
Resident Evil Village – Ethan’s now-teenage daughter continues that legacy as a more
relatable protagonist than the mill of tough supercop-types that have saturated the
series. Although only three hours long, the content is a superb distillation of what made
Village such a treat, further elevated by artistic flourishes only possible through its unreal
setting.

Returning to a third-person perspective, Rose travels through a mindrealm imprinted on
a laboratory sample of the mutamycete (the magical black mold that causes the events of RE7
and Village) as she seeks a way to rid herself of the powers granted to her by thanks to her
unusual lineage.

Even moreso than its predecessor, Shadows flits between several gameplay types. It
starts as the rather familiar mansion exploration, blasting shuffling monsters with only
limited ammunition, before playing with escape room and stealth mechanics.

While each section of the campaign is solid (with the return to the doll house being a particular
highlight) there are some missed opportunities thanks to the half-baked implementation of
Rose’s powers. Players get charges of mold energy that can be used as a means to
open new areas or stun enemies and… that’s about it.

There is a final boss fight where a slew of new abilities are unlocked, all over-the-top and ultimately
some high notes to end the campaign on, but this bombast just demonstrates how much more could’ve been added throughout. However, implementing those wild powers from the finale would’ve required a much different game, however, and Winters’ is really just another visit to the village.

As such, Capcom gets away with remixing familiar locations and re-using assets because this is a dreamscape remembrance of those people and places. Its most interesting and terrifying setpieces are those unconstrained by the real – a display of mutilated Rose copies, murderous giant-sized dolls, and the scariest mannequins I’ve yet come across in the genre. It’s a dash of unexplained and ephemeral Silent Hill in a series that has typically taken painstaking efforts to explain itself through science fiction schlock.

They can’t help themselves, though. Similar to the base game’s campaign, it has a room towards the end filled with notes that explain some of the supernatural within the setting’s own internal logic. It’s weak storytelling that should’ve been revealed in dribs and drabs — but even then, why bother? Embrace the weird, Capcom.

Those explanations do not diminish the strong emotional core of the campaign, however. This DLC is Rose’s coming-of-age and ultimate acceptance of her powers while the mutamycete plays on her insecurities. When all is revealed, the script slows for a brief rest and the finale is as satisfying as it is tragic. No Resident Evil I’ve yet played has ever plucked at my heartstrings so effectively.

In terms of content apart from Rose’s journey, The DLC also includes the option to play the main Village campaign in third person.

There’s certainly an audience for this, capturing the essence of the Resident Evil 2 and 3
remake, but I found it mostly distracting. While that extra situational awareness can help prevent taking
unexpected damage from enemies outside the first-person sightline, this is still very clearly a game designed for its original vision. Object interactions can be janky, and cutscenes will jarringly go to first-person and back to third when gameplay starts up again.

The final piece of the DLC consists of additional characters for Mercenaries, a horde mode where
players fight through levels racking up points for killing enemies. The Winters’ Expansion
adds three new characters — famous boulder-puncher Chris Redfield and two of Village’s
antagonists, Heisenberg and the meme queen Lady Dimitrescu, who play decidedly
differently than the gun-toting protagonists.

Heisenberg wields his big hammer, has Magneto-like powers and can summon a
mechanical monstrosity. However, the big girl is the best addition, adding a “thrill” meter that
unlocks different attacks but must be kept up with kills. Lady Dimitrescu adds laughter to the
slaughter as she shreds enemies with her claws, and it gives the mode an infectiously gleeful energy.

While the Winters’ Expansion offers some neat new toys to play with, it’s the Shadows of Rose campaign that is its triumph. Despite a few blemishes and a short length, it once again proves that Resident Evil still has a lot to give. I just hope we get to see Rose again, perhaps with a few new powers under her belt.
The series’ original characters should all be pushing 50 by now, and she’s just the fresh
face to carry the series forward – out with the old, in with the mold.

— Stephen Cook

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Capcom. It is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, XBO, and XBX. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. This is a survival-horror action game in which players assume the role of a girl (Rose Winters). From a third-person perspective, players explore environment sand use pistols and shotguns
to shoot and kill fantastical creatures. Some attacks result in decapitation of enemies; some areas depict bloodstains and corpses within the environment.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. (See example above.) The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. Unfortunately there are no visual cues to help with growls or other monster sounds coming from offscreen. Players who have hearing issues should be ready to take a few hits after being caught by surprise. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable when using a controller. Keyboard and mouse bindings are remappable.

The post Resident Evil Village: Winters’ Expansion Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great features ease players into another massive world.

LOW It’s more of the same.

WTF I think I’m ready for the next mainline Assassin’s Creed now.

I’ve written at length about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

It’s an enjoyable action-RPG that shakes up a long-running series I love while streamlining conventions of the genre in ways that make it more approachable than most. Eivor’s epic quest across England (and Ireland, and France, and etc…) was one I kept revisiting during the past year and a half, as its exploration, meaty combat, and vast open-world still had its hooks in me. So much so, in fact, that I was looking forward to diving into the latest expansion, Dawn of Ragnarok, even after over 100 hours spent in the base game.  

While the core of what makes Valhalla great is still present in the Ragnarok DLC, there’s a lot less ambition present. Rather than being a fresh experience, it’s more like a retread of what I’ve already been through. 

Players control Eivor once again, this time fully embracing her destiny as the Norse God Odin. Similar to certain missions in the main campaign, she steps into her dreams as the deity to figure out how to stop the impending doom known as Ragnarok. Players control Eivor throughout this new story, though she is referred to as Havi (Odin) in a new environment known as Svartalfheim.

Svartalfheim is a mythical dwarven realm, and arguably one of the nicest vistas the series has thrown players into. It’s a gorgeous environment full of mythical creatures like giant boars and enemies known as Muspels. The grand scale that was present in the base game is still here, as is the freedom to explore every inch of the map.

Similar to what I would do in Vahalla, I found myself running down the main path, only to get distracted by something cool on the way there. Sometimes there’s a cave full of hidden gear, or maybe it’s an angry bear that’s hell-bent on ruining my day. There’s also a group of assassins roaming the map, similar to the Order in Valhalla‘s main campaign. 

While these distractions are enjoyable, the overall structure feels too similar to what we already have. Instead of an epic, mind-blowing adventure, I was going through the motions as missions play out similarly — investigate an area, eliminate enemies, talk to NPCs to gather info and then kill more enemies.

That’s not to say it’s bad though. The same great combat is here, with a few new tweaks and additions. The main one is being able to absorb different godlike powers from enemies. Being able to wipe out a group of Muspels and then reviving them to fight for me ruled, and disguising myself as one of them and gain the ability to walk on lava and move undetected in heavily guarded areas was also great. My favorite, however, was being able to turn into a raven and fly around the map. It adds a lot to the traversal and makes getting around the large map so much easier. 

I also enjoyed many of the boss fights. Going up against massive enemies that look like they came out of a Souls game was cool, especially with the opening boss wielding an ax and fire-based attacks. These were some of the hardest fights I’ve encountered in the series, and they provided plenty of challenge. 

The absolute best part of the Ragnarok DLC, however, isn’t even a feature exclusive to it.

In late February, Ubisoft released Title Update 1.50.0, which added a host of new accessibility features that let players customize aspects of the gameplay. A custom difficulty option allowed me to tweak stuff like the parry window, how much damage Eivor receives, and even how level scaling works. There’s also no penalty for tweaking these, so being able to make the game easier and more forgiving lets players of any skill level experience everything Valhalla has to offer. It’s an amazing toolset that I hope other developers take note of. 

One final thing Ragnarok did that I enjoyed was the ability to play with a boost in my overall level.

If players aren’t at the recommended level for this postgame DLC, they’re allowed to boost their stats. That enhanced level carries over into the main game as well. Similarly, if their gear isn’t up to snuff, the game loans out new weapons, armor, and other crucial pieces of kit to help them out, though these can’t be upgraded or taken into the base game. Funny enough, the weapons I had were slightly better than the ones loaned out to me, but the feature is great nonetheless. It takes that more ‘streamlined’ approach to RPGs and really runs with it, allowing any potential difficulty spikes to be eased without sacrificing the enjoyment. 

Despite these welcome new additions, I still felt that Ragnarok suffers from playing things too safe. It’s just more Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for better or worse. For players who truly can’t get enough of Eivor, this is another winner. However, players like me who were looking for a slightly fresher spin after 100+ hours are likely better off waiting to see where Ubisoft takes the series next. 

Disclosures: This DLC is published and developed by Ubisoft. It is available on PS4/5 PC, XBO/X/S and Stadia. This copy was obtained via publisher for review and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 15 hours were spent in single-player and was not completed (still playing). There is no multiplayer. Approximately 100 hours were spent in the base game and earlier expansions that were completed before playing the DLC.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. The official description reads as follows: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a Viking mercenary (Eivor) who travels through England to forge alliances, lead raids, and defeat rival clans/rulers. Players explore open-world environments, perform missions (e.g., hunting for items, battling enemies), and use stealth to discreetly kill human targets. Players also use swords, axes, arrows, and siege weapons to kill multiple enemies (e.g., soldiers, mythic boss characters) in frenetic melee-style combat. Combat is highlighted by screams of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some weapons allow players to decapitate enemies; zoomed-in sequences depict victims’ bones, organs, and muscles getting damaged by players’ blade. The game contains some sexual material: a mission taking place in a brothel; topless women straddling men; a character agreeing to “lay with” a man (kissing is depicted before the scene fades to black). A handful of sequences depict screen distortion/discoloration and impaired movements after players’ character consumes mushrooms or inhales mushroom-based fumes (dialogue states, “I may still be buzzing from these mushrooms.”). Players’ character can also engage in a drinking contests; later sequences depict the character stumbling as the screen tilts and blurs. The words “f**k” and “c*nt” appear in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: I spent most of my time playing the game on mute and found no issues. Everything has some visual cue and the subtitles could be resized. There is also the option to include closed captioning to clearly label every noise in the game world. This content is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the game does offer remappable controls and there is a control diagram. The Y-axis can be changed.

The post Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Ragnarok Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH One last hurrah for Haven Springs.

LOW  Being sad in four different seasons instead of just one. 

WTF Maybe I should try a career in radio? 

I reviewed Life is Strange: True Colors for GameCritics and consider it one of the finest works of art I’ve experienced all year. That review can be read here, where I go over the specifics as to why I enjoyed it overall, as well as some added context for the emotional state I was in while writing. 

All that really needs to be said about the full game is that it made me process emotions I didn’t think I was ready to process. Fear, bitterness and the constant feeling of holding onto the past were all thrown at me over the course of my playthrough, with an ending that helped me come to terms with my depression and what could have caused it. I expected the first post-game add-on, subtitled Wavelengths to be a bit of a breather after what I witnessed. 

In a way it is — though there were more than enough emotional breakthroughs for an add-on this short. 

Taking place a year before the events of True Colors, players control Steph as she starts her new job at Haven’s record store as both a sales associate and local radio host. Returning players will no doubt be familiar with Steph’s story, as she was one of two potential love interests in the main campaign. 

Steph is at an interesting point in her life. Reeling from the breakup of her band, the end of a relationship, and the traumatic events she endured at Arcadia Bay (the setting of the LiS prequel game Before the Storm) she sees her new job as the beginning of a new chapter.  

As an add-on, the gameplay is exactly the same as it was in the main experience, though there are two major elements that make it stand out. First, it all takes place in a single location (the record store/recording studio) and it also lacks any supernatural elements, which are a staple of the Life is Strange games. Instead of seeing physical manifestations of emotional turmoil, I was treated to something very few games throw at me — the mundane. 

Most of the game revolves around doing double-duty as both a record store clerk and radio DJ. This includes answering phone calls on the air, reading ads, or even cleaning the store. The story is broken up into four seasons across a year, with different events happening around Haven as time passes. It might not sound exciting to roleplay as a depressed zoomer who has to balance two jobs while trying to find dates on an app, but Wavelengths managed to pull me in. However, despite the ‘normal’ premise, this DLC is an emotional rollercoaster.

The crux is that Steph has to deal with the baggage she carries through this new chapter in her life. Choosing to stay in a small town instead of seeing the world in a band as she wanted is something I could relate to, as I regret not taking more chances and leaving home when I had the opportunity. The conversations she has with callers to the indie station she runs are also entertaining, as she unexpectedly becomes a ‘psychic’ of sorts, giving people advice on-air while forcing players to make some tough choices. For example, I had to console a young woman who was scared to leave a friend behind as she started college. It was hard to decide what to tell her, and I still feel like I didn’t do a great job of handling the situation. Similar to what I experienced in True Colors, these choices stuck with me long after my sessions ended and I mulled over every conversation. 

Since it takes place in a record store, I’m glad to report that the music selection kicks ass. Artists like Hayley Kiyoko and Pond are featured on the soundtrack, and having these songs in the background helped me feel immersed me in the vibe and the experience. 

As I mentioned in my original review, the reason True Colors stuck with me were the lessons I learned after finishing it — I learned that time heals all wounds, and that I should let go of problems now, instead of letting them fester. Wavelengths gave me another character doing the same, with fresher wounds and even heavier emotional baggage. As a prequel, knowing Steph’s fate from the beginning made her emotional growth feel even more rewarding, and reminded me that things will get better. 

It just takes work.

Disclosures: This game is published by Square Enix and developed by Deck Nine. It is available on PS4/5, XBX/S/O, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 5 hours were spent in the single-player and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated M for Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence. The official description reads as follows: This is an adventure game in which players follow the story of a young adult (Alex) trying to manage her empathic powers while solving a mystery in a Colorado town. From a third-person perspective, players explore various locations in town and interact with townspeople. Cutscenes depict some instances of violence: a man punching and kicking another character; a man shooting a character; a woman punching a character in the face repeatedly–Blood sometimes appears on characters’ knuckles and/or faces. The dialogue contains some suggestive references (e.g., “You know dudes can do nice things without the expectation of getting laid, right”; “Maybe Diane and I still hook up”; “…I thought you were f**king my girlfriend!!”). Some sequences allow players’ character to drink shots of alcohol or cans of beer, and one sequence depicts a drinking game in a bar. The town contains a marijuana dispensary; both marijuana and paraphernalia are visible when talking to characters in the shop. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” appear in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles and on-screen instructions can be adjusted and audio is not needed to enjoy this game, thanks to the abundance of visual cues. This game is fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: No the controls are not remappable but there is a control diagram.

The post Life Is Strange: True Colors – Wavelengths DLC Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s more Wasteland 3. That’s great!

LOW Most of the new additions and ideas sound interesting but don’t really work out.

WTF There’s no way to stop companions from slaughtering factory workers?

My verdict on Wasteland 3‘s base game was that it’s pretty incredible. It offers a great story set in a bizarre world with lots of memorable characters, and the solidly engaging battle system on top of it made it one of 2020’s best. When I learned about its first DLC, The Battle of Steeltown, it seemed like a great excuse to hop back in to see how inXile have shaped the game since launch.

Coming back to it after all this time, I found that the various bugs and performance issues I previously experienced were all but eliminated. It was a great experience then, and it’s in much better shape technically now. Wasteland 3 remains one hell of a game, and any role-playing fan who hasn’t jumped yet in should get on it, pronto.

The central location of the Steeltown DLC is a factory which produces the vast majority of Colorado’s weapons and technology — or at least it used to, since it’s recently come to a screeching halt in production. This isn’t a good thing in a world infested with bandits and raiders, so the Rangers get an urgent request from the Patriarch of Colorado to go and see what the hell’s going on.

Upon arriving at their destination, the Rangers are greeted with a chaotic scene. The gates of Steeltown are closed, gunfire and alarms can be heard within the walls, and a large group of angry refugees are demanding the release of relatives who’ve been trapped in the factory for weeks, contradicting the company employee telling everyone that their loved ones are just been doing some very extended overtime.

New to The Battle of Steeltown is a class of less-than-lethal weaponry designed to overload the cybernetic augmentations of workers the player will encounter without killing them. Since the factory workers may be getting a teensy bit exploited, it ‘d be bad form to slaughter them all on the spot. These weapons are a little harder to use than simply shooting someone in the skull, so weighing the additional risk of their use is a consideration during the strategic turn-based battles.

There’s a very strange problem with this non-lethal approach, however — early in the campaign, it’s mentioned that the party’s animal companions will rip innocent factory workers limb from limb if the team gets into combat with them nearby. It’s therefore a good idea to dismiss them back to Ranger HQ’s comfy kennel before things kick off. That’s a great option for any pets on team, but the human, robotic and/or synthetic companions are just as indiscriminately murderous as the animals.

As someone who always strives for the optimal ‘nice guy’ outcome, it’s a little dispiriting to have the Rangers aim to use non-lethal weaponry to bust up a riot, only to see the companion toaster launch flaming toast at a factory worker, or the robot chicken ripping their eyes out with his terrifying chrome-plated beak.

This unstoppable team aggro is a hell of an oversight. Encouraging nonlethal approaches, yet having no way to order squadmates to be dismissed or to stand down seems like a ridiculously obvious problem. I was almost sure I was missing something initially, but a cursory online search revealed other players were having the same issue and I’m sure as hell not killing any of them as a workaround.

Something else that’s questionable is the difficulty of the battles here in Steeltown. It’s been a while since I played through Wasteland 3, but this DLC seems a bit… well, brutal.

This new content features scalable difficulty, so the challenge should theoretically adjust to the team’s current strengths. I loaded an old save and came in at level 25, only to be absolutely steamrolled by the opposition despite having no issues with the main story quests. Some of the new battle mechanics are a little overdone for my taste too, such as the tar-thrower’s stacking movement debuff and the various shields that enemies now employ.

It’s also not the lengthiest DLC. Even after retrying some battles numerous times, I’d clocked it all in the region of four or five hours, and I wasn’t hurrying. Given that Wasteland 3‘s base content was so damn generous, Steeltown does feel a little bit inconsequential, rather than a significant undertaking for the Rangers to get stuck into.

The writing still remains excellent despite these issues. After undergoing a rigged medical to see if our Rangers were suitable job applicants clear to pass into Steeltown, we were given the highly important job of tightening any loose nuts that we might come across and given our own wrench. Sweet! Then there’s the toaster full of toasters, a talking toilet seat that can be used for its original purpose, and various zany moments that help spice things up.

So there are a lot of small, amusing moments scattered throughout, but the main quest doesn’t have much nuance to it — the workers are getting screwed over in Steeltown by the people in charge, and it’d be hard to find anyone who’d seriously argue otherwise. As a result, it’s a very one-sided situation as to who the Rangers should be helping out from an ethical standpoint. That said, this doesn’t mean the Rangers have to be particularly ethical when tidying up this mess. It’s just a bit more cut and dried than usual.

The Battle of Steeltown is a well-written piece of additional content for Wasteland 3 that doesn’t quite live up to expectations due to its experimental approach to combat and short running time. It’s a pleasant enough playthrough for a few hours despite the difficulty spikes, but it’s ultimately a compelling enough reason to come back to Colorado.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by inXile Entertainment. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language and Use of Drugs.

Colorblind Modes: There are no global colorblind modes available, but there is an option to apply colorblind settings to icons during battle.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles and the subtitles can be altered and/ or resized

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Wasteland 3: The Battle For Steeltown Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It feels so good to be back in this world.

LOW Some slight padding.

WTF Did a werewolf just maul me to death?

Any reviewer has likely experienced feelings of regret after something they write has been published.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla came out last year and I wrote a fairly positive review of it, owing largely to how much I enjoyed its vast open world, the wonderful sense of exploration, and its meaty combat. I docked a few points off because I played on a base-model PS4 and had some technical dissatisfaction. Over six months have passed since that review went up, I have not only finished the main story but upgraded to a more powerful machine. Now, 80+ hours later and switching between 60fps and 4K resolution, Valhalla remains one of the best action role-playing games around. 

While much of the controversy that plagued Ubisoft last year still lingers (including a lack of holding any executives accountable), I commend the team for masterfully streamlining western-RPG mechanics into something manageable, yet engaging. Even after the significant amount of time I had already put into it, I was more than happy to return and aid Eivor in another grand quest. 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids is the first of several planned expansions to the main game, which does not need to be completed in order for this add-on to be accessed. After completing the prologue and getting settled in Ravensthorpe, players meet a new character with a message from the King of Dublin. After sailing to Ireland and getting acquainted with the royalty, Eivor is thrust into a series of battles that take place in a more mythical version of the land than players might be used to. 

When not battling, Eivor is tasked with building up Dublin’s reputation. This requires her to take on certain tasks from neighboring kings which usually involve clearing out bandit camps, assassinating specific targets and even stealing some precious items.

Mission structure is similar to the base game. Players explore a large, open world and complete quests while stopping for the occasional collectible or upgrade. Each mission also has specific requirements, like not being detected or avoiding unnecessary killing. What makes these conditions refreshing is that most of the early fights are relatively easy. I was at an incredibly high level after beating the campaign, so going into this DLC meant that I would absolutely destroy any enemy I encountered, so avoiding destruction of everyone I saw forced me to rethink my approach in combat scenarios. Sure, I would have appreciated more mission variety and a lot of the DLC involves completing random quests to cross a certain threshold before progression happens, but this this padding never stopped me from enjoying the ride. 

Unlike the main campaign, ACV: WotD’s narrative is excellent. Eivor’s more personal connection to the king of Dublin as well as themes of religion, family and the agony of trying to fit in between two different worlds makes for a more compelling story. Even the writing is better, with a lot of smart dialogue and new choices that made me think about what I was saying to different characters. While players aren’t saving the world from destruction or overtaking England again, the smaller, more personal stakes hit me harder and I felt like I was making a mark on Ireland’s history. 

Another major addition comes in the form of trading and smuggling. Scattered around the map are trading posts that Eivor can take over. After obtaining a deed, certain resources are produced in real-time and can be traded to other regions for XP and an increased reputation. Seeking out trading posts was enjoyable and upgrading them became a priority for me. As I raided other areas for supplies and raw materials, I used the spoils of my plunder to not only upgrade these posts, but to increase their productivity. 

Overall, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids was the perfect excuse to return to one of my favorite games from last year. While there isn’t much new here to win new fans, returning players who couldn’t get enough of Valhalla’s rich world and exciting exploration will be right at home in the green fields of Ireland.

Disclosures: This DLC is published and developed by Ubisoft. It is available on PS4/5 PC, XBO/X/S and Stadia. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 25 hours were spent in singleplayer and the content was not completed (still playing). There is no multiplayer. Approximately 85 hours were spent in the base game and the main campaign completed before playing the DLC.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a Viking mercenary (Eivor) who travels through England to forge alliances, lead raids, and defeat rival clans/rulers. Players explore open-world environments, perform missions (e.g., hunting for items, battling enemies), and use stealth to discreetly kill human targets. Players also use swords, axes, arrows, and siege weapons to kill multiple enemies (e.g., soldiers, mythic boss characters) in frenetic melee-style combat. Combat is highlighted by screams of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some weapons allow players to decapitate enemies; zoomed-in sequences depict victims’ bones, organs, and muscles getting damaged by players’ blade. The game contains some sexual material: a mission taking place in a brothel; topless women straddling men; a character agreeing to “lay with” a man (kissing is depicted before the scene fades to black). A handful of sequences depict screen distortion/discoloration and impaired movements after players’ character consumes mushrooms or inhales mushroom-based fumes (dialogue states, “I may still be buzzing from these mushrooms.”). Players’ character can also engage in a drinking contests; later sequences depict the character stumbling as the screen tilts and blurs. The words “f**k” and “c*nt” appear in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: I spent most of my time playing the game on mute and found no issues. Everything has some visual cue and the subtitles could be resized. There is also the option to include closed captioning to clearly label every noise in the game world. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls are remappable.

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