HIGH Surfing a missile into a building is rad as hell.

LOW There’s a suboptimal amount of downtime in the stage design.

WTF Joe’s eloquent way with words.

Are videogame bad guys deliberately stupid? It’s a question I’m sure nobody on the planet has ever asked before, but the bad guy in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Lord Ruse, comes across as a prime example of being a blithering dum-dum.

First, he’s a bad guy gunning for domination in a world where Sega’s premiere bad guy-killing ninja Joe Musashi exists. He then intentionally attacks Joe’s home while he’s chilling with his wife, dog and students, confidently relegating the killing of said super ninja to his most inept followers and leaving before the job’s done — so now Joe has to prioritize killing the bastard in a personal way.

Players will rely on Joe’s trusty katana during this 2D side scrolling quest, as well as a pocket full of throwing knives and an understated ability to dive-kick dudes in the face. Over time he’ll acquire new moves and additional gear, but don’t expect new weapon types. Blowing fire and summoning snake gods are all well and good, but Joe’s ultimately a katana guy through and through.

In his pursuit of vengeance, Joe will discover amulets that improve or modify certain abilities. He can equip some that cause enemies to drop more money or better healing items, while others offer rechargeable barriers that absorb a single attack or give significant damage buffs as his combo meter rises.

Naturally there are a ton of bad guys to meet and defeat along the way, from low level ninja to far more competent ‘elite’ demons, robots and skilled swordsmen.

Most enemies have two damage gauges to keep track of — their basic health and a stun meter that opens them up for an instant execution marker which will see Joe bullet across the screen turning every vulnerable enemy a into bloody mist. It should be mentioned that doing these instakills never, ever gets old and is heavily encouraged by showering players who use it with more resources than normal kills.

To get specific for a moment, there’s an excessive amount of hitstop on attacks, causing the action to briefly freeze as blade meets flesh. Most titles usually reserve this for heavy or perfectly-timed hits, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance liberally applies it to pretty much everything. It’s a double-edged approach, with many combos feeling weighty and powerful in nature, but this staccato rhythm of sword swipes staggers the flow of combat and lingers just a little too long when the player takes damage from enemies.

With that said, for the most part the action feels solidly enjoyable with plenty of scope for player expression and experimenting with flamboyant combos that brutalize enemies halfway across the screen, their broken corpses flopping around like pincushions full of kunai. However, I’m also curious to see how the same combat engine would fare if the hitstop was completely absent.

Something that’s more of a clear issue is that Joe commits to certain attacks, meaning that he can’t roll or jump to safety until the attack completed. It leads to the master ninja feeling less sprightly than he probably should, tanking hits with his face instead of swiftly sweeping out of range, making performing certain moves more unsafe than they probably should be. Not that enemies are particularly deadly for the most part, many of them putter through their standard attack animations without much regard for what Joe’s up to.

Bosses are the usual motley crew of idiots who think that they can take on Joe Musashi and live, though series veterans will recognize a few returning faces. They’re fine, but rarely standout – most of them are punching bags, honestly. That’s not to say that they don’t have attack patterns that require avoiding, but Joe can absolutely body them for the most part.

In terms of presentation, Shinobi looks great — absolutely fantastic in places, even, with a hand-drawn art style that continually impresses from the first scene in a gorgeously sunlit field, all the way to later stages storming through rain-slick cities, towering mountain passes, underground secret bases and the welcome return of an awesome surfboarding section. That said, I do find the overly angular stage design to detract from things somewhat, though I’m sure the choice was made to make surface areas more easily recognizable.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance takes a psuedo-metroidvania approach to level design. It isn’t all one large interconnected world to explore, but rather a bunch of levels peppered with secrets that can only be fully explored when bringing back tools and skills acquired in later levels — things like walls requiring climbing claws to scale, updrafts that necessitate the use of a glider, or anchor points that Musashi will need a grappling hook to latch onto.

Despite this, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance doesn’t take full advantage of the approach. Players will often return with new gear only to pick up a single item or perform a short platforming sequence instead of uncovering new areas to explore, enemies to kill and bosses to defeat. It’s largely disappointing when compared to other games that utilize the approach well, though there are portals known as Ankou rifts that offer more challenging subrooms filled with enemies or tougher platforming sections.

The puzzles on offer generally exist to slow the proceedings down. Flipping switches to open doors is rarely an exhilarating gameplay mechanic, and pushing heavy objects across a floor to block a laser or power a device doesn’t exactly scream high-speed ninja action. Little of this is significantly additive, instead leading to far more downtime than is desired.

I generally enjoyed Shinobi: Art of Vengeance just fine. On the upside, the combat engine is fluid and satisfying to experiment with, and for the most part Shinobi: Art of Vengeance generally offers a reasonably good time. However, as a longtime series fan I expected an absolutely awesome outing, and it never quite hit the heights I was hoping for.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Lizardcube and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 20 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 T and contains Blood and Violence. The good stuff! The official description reads: This is an action-platformer in which players assume the role of a ninja leader trying to save the world from an evil corporation. From a 2D/sideways perspective, players explore levels while fighting various enemies (e.g., ninjas, soldiers, monsters). Players use swords, throwing stars, and dramatic special moves to kill enemies in frenetic combat; fighting is highlighted by cries of pain, brief slow-motion effects, and frequent blood splatter. One boss fight allows players to dive inside the creature and slash at a giant heart.

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. I don’t recall any instances where lack of sound would be a problem. I’d say it’s fully accessible without audio.

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

The post Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The Dark Grip power up is a blast.

LOW It’s a roguelike, so expect some runs to be complete write-offs.

WTF Dashing forwards doubles as a deflecting move?

Absolum takes place in a fantasy world where certain types of magic are militarily suppressed by a tyrant known as the Sun King who enforces his rule by locking up or murdering anyone who gets in the way of his ambition. Our heroes set off on an adventure to fight back and topple this system, only for things to go badly wrong roughly ten minutes into their mission.

Said heroes do have an ace up their sleeve though — while they can technically die, it doesn’t last long until they’re reborn in a sanctuary hidden away from prying eyes. So, after being stabbed, bludgeoned, bitten or burnt to death, they’re able to dust themselves off, power themselves up with various goodies from their previous attempt, and have another crack at taking down the Sun King.

Most of the enemies are a standard fantasy medley of orcs, goblins and humans poking at things with spears for the most part. That description also fits the playable characters who are a decent enough cast of misfits, and personable enough once they get talking. That said, Blaze Fielding levels of character design excellence are not to be seen here.

My main choice was the sword knight Galandra, a strong all-rounder. There’s also a Dwarf with stone-hard fists and a blunderbuss, a frog sorcerer who floats around the battlefield unleashing magical justice and a patchwork rogue type who seems the optimal choice for anyone looking to perform freeform combos. The first two are available from the outset, the latter two must be discovered on the journey.

While Absolum is definitely a roguelike, it offers a mostly-traditional 2D side-scrolling approach. Stroll from the left side of the screen to the right mangling anything that gets in the way, pick up gems and loot to either help in current or future runs, and choose a preferred path through the chaos.

If the setup is standard side scrolling fare, then it’s fair to say that the developers have pretty much nailed the combat. Players can run around, dash towards enemies to deflect their attacks, dash up or down to avoid them as well, and use a large variety of special moves to mince through enemy hordes. There’s even the occasional Golden Axe-style mount for added lethality and protection.

One twist to this formula is the addition of Rituals. After nearly every encounter in a given location, the player is offered various rewards ranging from gold and gems to Rituals that can substantially change their playstyle with tweaks such as punches setting foes aflame or well-timed dodges blasting them with lightning.

There are also character-exclusive perks like the Dark Grip, which I fell completely in love with since it turns out that strangling dudes in Absolum is totally awesome. Stroll up to some dirty-looking malcontent, hoist them up into the air by their throat and wait until they turn blue and die, coughing up large chunks of mana in the process.

It should be mentioned that the benefits of some options aren’t always exactly clear, as Absolum is often missing basic information in info panels such as how much damage being choked actually does (lots) to enemies or how effective a floating spectral sword is at stabbing dudes, but experimenting with new discoveries is all part of the experience.

In fact, ‘discovery’ is a watchword here as Absolum shows strength through the variety of things hurled at players. Especially in the early runs, there’s almost always some twist coming out of nowhere to open up new routes, make new friendships or reveal new enemies and bosses lurking in the shadows. One time I was waiting for a lift to another area, only to have a bunch of grenades hurled at me instead. I’m not sure if this was due to the character I picked or not, but my Dwarf didn’t get a warm welcome in that zone.

Of course, this variety in conjunction with the random nature of roguelikes has a downside. When scavenging for life-replenishing food after rough battles, it’s often (literally) a feast or a famine — pointlessly abundant one run with waste aplenty, then an absolute void of sustenance the next. The same goes for abilities and power-ups — one run offers perfectly synchronized Rituals that complement each other, and the next is nothing but a ramshackle collection of redundant nonsense that doesn’t mesh.

If I had a complaint besides the random awful luck of roguelikes, I’d have to say that I’m getting sick of seeing boss characters that borderline cheat by being slathered in hyperarmor that allows them to ignore player attacks until it shatters. It comes across as a bit lazy, honestly — there’s one Warlord boss in particular that takes nasty advantage of this with huge grab windows that last too long, able to snatch players out of combos, mid-attack. It’s not exactly game breaking, but I’d be happy to see it toned down or binned completely moving forward.

I’d also hoped for something to add replay value after killing the true final boss, but Absolum doesn’t introduce any new features that I’m aware of– no randomizers, no new skill tree unlock, and no surprise bonus characters. Given how generous the devs are with content up to that point, it’s a little strange to see the content feed suddenly stop dead like that. Rolling credits feels almost anticlimactic a result.

Minor quibbles aside, Absolum is an excellent beat-’em-up full of cool combos, neat build variations, random events and enjoyable roguelike power evolution spearheaded by a team that Absolumetely knows what they’re doing when it comes to crafting quality content. For fans of roguelikes or side-scrollers, this is one to check out.  

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Guard Crush/Supamonks and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 17 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes due to lack of available players pre release.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. The official description reads: Absolum is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB with Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the roles of rebel heroes battling a fantasy villain. From a 2D side-scrolling perspective, players use swords, spells, and melee-style attacks to defeat creatures and human enemies (e.g., goblins, raptors, captains, ghosts) in “beat-’em-up”-style combat. Battles are highlighted by impact sounds, colorful light effects, and cries of pain. A red puddle of blood is depicted on one ground level. One character is seen smoking a pipe. The words “damn” and “hell” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles that cannot be altered or resized. I don’t recall anything in the game that would require the use of hearing for successful play, so I’d say it’s fully accessible.

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

The post Absolum Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Linking seamlessly flamboyant chains of acrobatics and death.

LOW No rapid-fire option for automatic sword swings can wear on the thumb.

WTF Super Express to Hell!

Ninja Gaiden‘s been on vacation for a while at this point. Well, break time’s over, bastards — The Game Kitchen, developers of the highly regarded Blasphemous series, have decided to cook up a delicious new entry in this legendary IP.

Despite Ninja Gaiden typically being known for its bloodsplatteringly vicious 3D combat entries, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound instead hearkens back to the classic NES trilogy with a modernized take on the 2D ninja platforming that got the ball rolling in the first place.

After a short playable prologue, Ragebound’s new protagonist Kenji Mozu scoots through a quick obstacle and tutorial course introducing the most important mechanics and subsequently gets Izuna Dropped on his head by the legendary Ryu Hayabusa as a reward for completing his trial.

Things suddenly kick off in a serious way, Ryu has to leave for America in a hurry, and series veterans will undoubtedly be pleased to hear that the Hayabusa Ninja Village continues its longstanding tradition of being razed to the ground by demons every other week.

Before long, Kenji joins forces with Kumori, a Black Spider Ninja Clan operative with a penchant for hurling razor sharp kunai into the faces of anyone she deems unpleasant. The catch is that they have to literally fuse into a single body to survive, so while Kenji emerges from this joining as the dominant character, Kumori aids him as a powerful spectral sidekick capable of hurling projectiles and using ninpo magic to annihilate any fiends standing in their way.

I found these two new protagonists to be great, playing off one another as mismatched partners facing impossible odds — one full of zeal and righteousness, the other cynical and pragmatic. They may be original characters, but players familiar with the franchise are likely to recognize certain parallels in their design and combat style right away. Kenji is basically a greener, brasher approximation of Ryu Hayabusa and Kumori carries herself as an infinitely cooler version of Ayane from the Dead or Alive series.

As someone who may or may not be dead, Kumori is also able to step into the Demon Realm whenever Kenji comes across demon statues dotted throughout the stages. These tend to be where the toughest platforming challenges take place, but even though Kumori has to complete her tasks on a strict timer before being recalled, she won’t die if she takes too much damage or drops down a pit which allows for as many retries as the player needs to succeed.

Combat is slick, speedy and satisfying thanks to perfectly responsive controls. Kenji can kill many enemies with a single sword slash, cut through incoming projectiles, or kickflip off nearly every enemy or attack in the game using a technique known as the Guillotine Boost — and it isn’t just an optional extra thrown in to spice things up. Players will be required to frequently make use of it to cross yawning chasms filled with airborne baddies or to bounce their way towards secret areas and items tucked just out of reach.

The other major new addition is the ability to Hypercharge Kenji and Kumori’s attacks by killing specific enemies in sequence or sacrificing a little health, allowing them to slice through most enemies’ defenses to dispatch them in one murderously powerful blow. It’s exceptionally useful, and in order to fully leverage it, players will have to think quickly about the optimal approach to many situations.

It’s important to note that Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound isn’t a metroidvania or a roguelike — it’s a traditional stage-based action-platformer in the vein of the original NES titles. Nearly every stage looks fantastic in a chunky pixel art manner, with plenty of detail and great animation throughout as players follow Kenji and Kumori’s journey through burning temples, mountain pathways, across the tops of high-speed trains and more. I only disliked the design of one stage, a sickly and unpleasant biolab which simply didn’t hold up to the quality of the others.

Also of note is the amount of variations throughout each stage to help spice gameplay up. Whether fleeing from a demon who somehow learned how to operate a bulldozer, speeding across the countryside on a motorbike or having to take cover from powerful explosions in the background of an unfinished construction yard, there are plenty of neat setpieces to help keep things interesting.

The journey may not always be an easy one, but I absolutely loved it. It’s just… Goddamn, my thumb really hurts now.

Given that Kenji and Kumori have fixed stats, players can’t simply level up by killing minions to overcome challenges through brute force. That said, there are numerous Golden Scarabs and Crystal Skulls tucked away in each stage which can be used to purchase items from a shop between stages. Obtaining new projectiles and super arts, and equipping up to two talismans that help or hamper their chances of succeeding in each level can make a real difference.

Positive effects can include healing on chain kills and obtaining Hypercharge attacks from linking multiple Guillotine Boosts together, whereas negative ones may involve not healing at checkpoints or restarting the entire stage upon death in exchange for higher completion ranks at the end. Every stage has a rank associated with it, and challenges can range from trivialities such as deflecting a few projectiles to more challenging ones such as beating Ryu Hayabusa in a duel fresh out of the tutorial.

Make no mistake, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound can be a tricky game, even on the Normal difficulty setting. However, it also allows players to make the experience as easy or as hard as they like, whether through unlockable weapons and talismans or by using an in-game accessibility menu that can slow down overall speed, reduce taken damage or even make players invincible to pretty much anything other than falling off the map — so while it’s a tough game by default, pretty much anyone should be able to succeed through tweaking various settings. There’s also no antiquated ‘lives’ system looming overhead, and plenty of checkpoints to quickly return to.

In fact, about the only real complaint I have about Ragebound is that there’s no rapid-fire option in the menus for repeated sword slashes. Some of these bosses can take a real pounding, so after a few deaths and hammering away at the melee button like a madman each time, my thumb started to feel somewhat abused. It’s not typically a concern while making headway through each stage, but some bosses have massive health pools to be whittled down, leading to serious physical fatigue.

Aside from that one issue, it’s hard to fault anything about Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It’s damn near perfect, and offers an immensely satisfying experience with plenty of replayability — it’s so good, in fact, that after completing it for the first time, I sat down and immediately completed it again on Hard Mode.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by The Game Kitchen and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S/PS4/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed twice with all achievements earned. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violence. The official description reads: This is a 2D action-platformer based on levels and characters from the Ninja Gaiden universe. Players control small ninjas as they battle enemies (e.g., human commandos, ninjas, demons) in fast-paced combat. Players use swords, thrown weapons, and magic skills to kill enemies. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Some attacks allow players to dismember or behead enemies, and a handful of boss creatures are depicted with exposed organs and/or skinless, flesh/sinewy bodies. Some female enemies are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., low-cut tops, a lot of cleavage). The word “a*s” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. All dialogue is delivered through text. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized, though seemingly not enlarged. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The karakuri system adds a fresh, welcome twist to combat and exploration.

LOW I’m not in love with most of the crafted armor set designs.

WTF Japanese words scattered throughout the translation at random. Sou desu ne?

A few years ago, a nifty little hunting title known as Wild Hearts was released on most modern platforms, back before the Switch 2 was a thing. Released under the EA Originals banner, reportedly poor PC performance and quickly losing support meant that it never got the recognition I feel it deserved as a lovingly-crafted Monster Hunter-style adventure with a fresh tool-building twist intelligently grafted on to it.

Over the years I’ve made no secret of the fact that I thought Wild Hearts kicked ass. Now it’s back for another shot on Switch 2, dropping the EA umbrella and coming in hot with all previous DLC from the Karakuri Edition and post-release updates included as standard at launch.

Taking place in the gorgeously portrayed feudal Japan-themed Azuma across large hunting areas based on the four seasons, a critical imbalance in nature is causing gigantic monstrosities known as Kemono to venture outside of their usual territory and clash with the woefully-unprepared humans around the besieged hunter stronghold of Minato. It’s a story that delicately examines the subtle interpersonal relationship between man and nature, eventually coming to one inevitable conclusion — nature needs to get kicked right back into its hole, one squad of hunters at a time. Ooo-rah!

That said, while players will have to kill the vicious troublemakers endangering the lives of everyone in Minato, I knew I was going to love Wild Hearts almost immediately during one of the tutorial sequences where players are encouraged to stealthily sneak up behind a docile, passive animal and… pet the absolute hell out of it. Who’s a beautiful little abomination of nature? Is it you? Yes, it’s you! Awww, lookit your cute little face!

Rampaging monsters the size of a house trying to chew villagers in half don’t get off so lucky though, so it’s a good thing players have plenty of awesome weaponry to unlock and utilize against them whilst playing through the story. There’s a total of eight weapon types on offer, which are varied, effective and almost uniformly cool as hell.

For instance, the seemingly traditional Katana transforms into a ridiculously awesome bladed murderwhip threshing machine capable of whittling unfortunate kemono to bits at the touch of a button, and the Claw Blades allow hunters to hook into their target before dancing through the air, swooping in and out of range to avoid attacks while tearing into enemies with the same casual disregard for gravity usually seen in something like House of Flying Daggers. Even the Bow, rather than being a slow and precise single shot ranged option, is instead a relentless artillery machine capable of embedding dozens of arrows into hapless enemies before a charged shot detonates the lot at once.

Having been infused with a karakuri device at the start of the adventure, players are also able to use various resources to conjure up wonderful contraptions that make hunting more convenient and enjoyable. From permanent ziplines ferrying hunters up sheer cliff faces and across canyons, to gliders and launchpads helping them soar towards distant targets, various skills unlocked along the way make getting around each area a breeze.

Even better, there’s a wide range of camp amenities to help players mould the world of Azuma to their advantage. Tents can be placed to allow fast travel anywhere the player desires. Forges let players tinker with their equipment while away from headquarters. My own favorite camp was located on a lovely sandy beach where I had set up a kitchen to refine meals while passively harvesting fish from the sea nearby. It lends the world a sense of ownership not seen in many competing titles.

The karakuri aren’t just handy for getting around, though. Usually while fighting a boss for the first time, players will be struck by inspiration towards the latter stages of the battle, with an onscreen prompt flashing up to introduce a new tactic for overcoming deadly attacks or exploiting a weaknesses. The first time a giant boar performs its stampede attack only to be comically flipped fifty feet into the air by a hastily conjured bulwark is a gaming moment I’ll forever treasure.

There are a lot of these tactically-beneficial constructions to discover, from anti-air firework artillery blowing enemies out of the sky, to giant mallets smashing kemono sniping perches. They’re not necessary to succeed during hunts, but they certainly make things easier and are incredibly gratifying when used properly. By the end of the adventure some truly insane devices are at players’ disposal. Special mention goes to the Celestial Cannon, which is complete overkill in some circumstances but never fails to raise a grin.

As expected, the selection of beasts in Wild Hearts S gets more menacing as players progress. Initial encounters with giant rats and boars give way to gigantic lava-infused monkeys, glacial wolves and colossal tigers. There are a number of reskinned fights scattered across the four main lands of Azuma, but the variety seen in the enemy roster is still pretty decent.

Successful hunts naturally mean harvesting parts from these giant bosses in order to make new gear — and here’s where Wild Hearts S disappoints a little.

While the new equipment is undoubtedly useful, most of the armor sets look middling on a visual level. This led to me using the wooden ninja skin originally included in the Karakuri Edition from the start of the campaign all the way to the end. That one looks pretty awesome, unlike most of the craftable sets. Still, the stat boosts and bonus skills naturally make crafting worthwhile, conferring abilities like more effective healing, physical and elemental protections and various tweaks to stamina usage, evasion and special attacks.

Performance on the Switch 2 is generally decent. It’s not a locked 60fps, but it holds up better than I was expecting given the performance complaints leveled at the original on every platform. For what it’s worth, I thought it ran perfectly well on the Series X and this Switch 2 version didn’t have me balk at the comparison, so that’s a positive outcome for this port.

Wild Hearts S is a welcome and surprisingly capable port of what I always considered to be a truly fantastic and criminally underappreciated title when it launched a few years ago. EA may have dropped support for Wilds Hearts in a hurry, but I’d absolutely love if Omega Force continued to forge ahead with this IP independently. Azuma ain’t gonna save itself, after all, and it’s far too charming a world to leave to its own devices.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo America. It is currently available on Switch 2, with a very similar original release on XBX/S/PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch 2.

Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed, alongside three full playthrough and hundreds of hours on the Series X version. 6 hours of play were spent in multiplayer in this version, with two entire playthroughs spent alongside friends on the previous platform.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Users Interact, Use of Alcohol and Violence. The official description reads: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a character that hunts down demonic creatures. As players traverse a fantasy world, they can complete quests, interact with characters, and battle large fantastical creatures (e.g., giant rats, demonic boars, ice wolves) in melee-style combat. Players use swords, claw blades, hand cannons, and bows to kill enemy creatures in fast-paced combat. Battles are accompanied by impact sounds, slashing and particle effects, and cries of pain. The game contains references to alcohol in the dialogue (e.g., “I’ve got some sake with your name on it”; “It’s a strong spirit that brings inebriation with a single sip”; “Drunk again”), and a handful of scenes depict characters drinking sake.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.  It should be noted that the accessibility settings found in Wild Hearts / S are extremely comprehensive, with a wide range of options to suit.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. The only thing I’d say Deaf players might have an issue with is locating hidden Tsukumo by their unique clacking sound. However, a later upgrade to the hunting towers allow for their locations to be revealed on the map screen, so this is a temporary issue.

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

The post Wild Hearts S Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The animation is way better than it has a right to be.

LOW The story barely evolves and remains one-note from start to finish.

WTF Some of the fauna encountered expire horrifically during battle.

Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson is a 2D JRPG deckbuilder with rhythm action elements. Players take control of Rob, a talented but unknown musician from a remote area who harbors big dreams of trekking across the world and smashing his way to victory at the upcoming Battle of the Bands hosted by musical megacorp SMR.

However, whispers abound regarding this tournament. Could it be that SMR are instead up to nefarious schemes, rigging these battles so that only the most malleable and easily-bought contestants make it through to the end, winning a tournament that’s little more than a hollow scam to exploit musicians for corporate greed?

Well, yes. It pretty much says as much right from the start. Anyone expecting wild plot twists is going to leave disappointed, so expect musical assassins and goons to be deployed en masse to prevent Rob from winning the competition fairly.

See, music isn’t just a pleasant or occasionally irritating distraction in this world — it’s how people survive. Out in the forests and grasslands, acoustically empowered foes lie in wait to annihilate Rob via the medium of turn-based battles, and it’s here that the rhythm-based battle system comes into play.

Starting out with his trusty six string guitar, Rob can assemble a deck of commands that are randomly drawn from a pool. Three in a row can be set in motion to attack and debuff opponents, or heal and strengthen Rob’s defenses, with timing based QTE’s assigned to each action. Hitting these QTEs accurately can influence battle by enhancing damage dealt, or mitigating damage taken.

Rob will find three additional instruments to unleash havoc with, each of which has its own battle theme when in use. The Bass Guitar is a heavy hitter, the Synthesizer features a warlock style approach of slamming out buffs and debuffs, and the Eight String causes damage to Rob in order to power up its attacks. Each instrument also has passive qualities, with the Synthesizer triggering equipped mods if enough frequency is gained during the turn, for example.

Sound complicated? It can be if desired, though the extremely mild difficulty means that learning the nuances of the battle system isn’t necessary. QTE checks can also be disabled, which I did as I found they weren’t adding anything to the experience — with the Guitar Hero-style “Crescendo” super attacks being the one exception. After building enough meter and initiating the Crescendo (or having a boss encounter do the same to Rob) a musical highway of notes appears alongside a cool animation. It’s a neat touch.

The graphics are… interesting. I don’t think the style is anything to write home about, but the animation is almost unnecessarily lavish. Every attack has a different animation associated, including found or purchasable ones that can be cut into the deck. Cutscenes and Crescendo sequences have clearly had a lot of effort put into them, and it’s downright weird to see a fairly generic graphic style have an almost overwhelming amount of care put into the animation. It might even be a negative in some ways — with no way to skip many of these animations, they slow battles down more than necessary.

Exploration is pretty typical stuff. Each town has a few shops and NPCs, and Rob will occasionally encounter simple puzzles such as shoving boxes, copying environmental patterns or ensuring switches are hit in sequence. There’s a decent diversity of environments, but it’s notable that none of the characters Rob meets along the way are even remotely interesting or fleshed out. It harms the sense of discovery when all that’s waiting in the next outpost are more inconsequential background faces chucking out the odd music pun.

Fretless is remarkably frictionless, but not necessarily in a good way. Standard enemies pose little threat, but still take a while to whittle down with no way to skip attack animations or immediately stomp underpowered adversaries. I killed most bosses on my first attempt, with one of only two deaths in the entire game occurring because I killed myself attempting to learn the Eight String Guitar — which, as mentioned earlier, sacrifices Rob’s health to strengthen its attacks and can kill players who aren’t being judicious with its use.

Bizarrely, the final stretch of the adventure devolves into a monumentally non-thrilling stealth sequence where being spotted by roaming guards results in being evicted from the premises and starting over. On the one hand it’s simple to stay hidden, as their field of vision is projected around them in plain sight. On the other, it’s an absolutely terrible sequence that took far too long to get through, not helped by the fact that I spent ages looking for an exit, only to find that the camera perspective made said exit look like a solid wall.

It’s unfortunate that I find myself having to put the boot in this hard to what’s obviously a passion project from an indie developer, but my emotional state playing Fretless oscillated between boredom, irritation and occasionally finding it all mildly pleasant. Perhaps it will hit differently for someone who’s into the music scene or deckbuilders, but as a JRPG fan who’s partial to a good rhythm action game, it hit a bit of a bum note for me.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ritual Studios and published by Playdigious Originals. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB.  It’s fine for kids, I’d think, with its upbeat approach to nearly everything that’s going on and cartoonish villainy from the bad guys. However, watching the skin melt clean off (potentially artificial) wildlife to reveal a skeleton as they die seems massively at odds with its usual vibe, even if there’s no blood involved.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game’s story is told entirely in text, so subtitles aren’t needed. While music is a big part of the game, I don’t recall anything from the rhythm based gameplay that didn’t also have a visual cue that would suffice.

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

The post Fretless: The Wrath Of Riffson Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH B. Jenet is back, and I will be taking no further questions on this matter.

LOW Ronaldo looks extremely out of place in this lineup.

WTF  My newfound paranoia about getting punched in the face whenever people ask if I’m okay.

Ah, who doesn’t remember Garou: Mark of the Wolves?

SNK’s time skip of the Fatal Fury storyline was a firm favorite amongst fighting game fans with a bold new character roster, comparatively approachable combat system compared to their King of Fighters games, and truly slick animation for 2D fans to drool over. Feels like it came out only yesterday, doesn’t it?

Sorry, granddad. It actually came out more than two and a half decades ago. Oh dear.

As in most fighters, the narrative setup isn’t that important. Main characters Rock Howard and Terry Bogard make their triumphant return, along with many of the original cast. B. Jenet is back and looks absolutely fabulous, Gato’s still a bone-crushing reclusive edgelord, Hokutomaru’s grown up to the point he doesn’t look like a literal child anymore and… man, it’s good to see them back in action in a modern fighter.

On top of that, some Fatal Fury favorites from earlier titles have joined the roster, including Mai Shiranui and Billy Kane, and most of the new character designs do a good job of measuring up to the old crew. Preecha, Joe Higashi’s bookworm student, is one such addition with her mastery of Muay Thai and impressive kick combos. There’s also the addition of Cristiano Ronaldo, who looks completely out of place here thanks to an odd lack of expression and his soccer-oriented playstyle.

Then there’s Salvatore Ganucci, apparently a popular real life DJ who comes across as a far more worthwhile addition. He’s got a bizarre fighting style that hits surprisingly hard, and his inherent weirdness honestly won me over — one super involving punching his opponent to the beat while looking straight into the player’s eyes being a personal highlight.

On top of this, expect an appearance from Capcom’s Ken Masters and Chun Li in the first season pass — which is thoughtfully being offered to every player who buys the game. Expect more fan faves to come down the DLC pipeline as time goes on.

As far as modes go, there’s the traditional assortment of offerings for single and multiplayer shenanigans. Episodes of South Town is a story-based RPG-lite offering where each character has their own tale to fight through, levelling up as they go while earning new skills to help them progress. It’s a neat little extra.

Then there’s the more traditional arcade, versus and online modes. Nothing earth-shatteringly new, but well-considered and with various customization options available, such as setting up favorite music tracks to play on certain stages.

Mark of the Wolves was well known for trying new things with its fighting system, and City of the Wolves is no different. It makes some bold moves within the genre, along with a new combo system that heavily encourages cancelling EX Special moves into one another to slam out terrifying amounts of damage. Newcomers and beginners may be nonplussed by this almost-mandatory requirement if they want to be competitive, but it does make for some intense bouts.

One of the other big new tweaks is known as the ‘Rev Gauge’. This starts out empty at the start of each round, but can ramp up towards triggering an overheated status if players aren’t careful with stuff like chaining their EX attacks or using the Rev Guard. During this period they can no longer use many of their best tools or combos and become susceptible to being guard crushed if they attempt to block a sustained counterattack. This status also takes bloody ages to reset itself naturally.

There’s another unique hook called the SPG gauge, and it attaches itself to a third of each player’s health bar. Players choose whether to have it active when their health is good, somewhere in the middle, or right when they’re in danger of getting their ass knocked out. Either way, when it’s available players can slam out crushing attacks that power through enemy hits, as well as allow them to use their most damaging super attack, the Ignition Gear, which has the additional benefit of completely refreshing the player’s Rev gauge when it lands.

These mechanics may all have crazy names, but they tend to have some crazy effects, so it balances out. There’s also the return of Just Defense, where blocking at the exact moment a hit lands returns some health. Feints and Breaking allow for fake outs and quick recoveries, as well as some unorthodox move linking potential.

City of the Wolves is quite a mechanically deep game, and to my eyes, has an incredibly well considered fighting experience powering it. Such depth will require practice, which means that casual players might have a hard time jumping on for fifteen minutes a day. Basic, simple combos aren’t going to cut it against some of the insanely-lengthy murder chains that even intermediate players can whip out. The difference in damage is just too extreme, and the optional Smart Combo mode for beginners is more of a learning tool than a serious way to play.

On the flip side, it’s absolutely worth putting the time in. The online matches have been far more satisfying for me than the absurdly aggressive nature of recent fighters likes Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. Maybe that will change as time goes on and people start learning how to clean house with their given characters, but right now? It feels bloody excellent against similarly-skilled opponents. Even when I got my head smashed in, only Kain’s zoning nonsense ever came close to tilting me.

Part of this success is that all my matches have felt super-smooth with great rollback, and players typically get hooked up with one another at a fairly rapid clip. I rarely have time to bust out more than a few decent combos in training mode before a challenge comes in, and this is exactly what I want from an online cross platform experience. Minimal fuss, quick matchmaking and smooth online performance has been the order of the day so far.

Graphically, City of the Wolves is… fine. It’s an obvious step up from the most recent 3D King of Fighters entries with a stylized comic book aesthetic and clean lines, but it’s certainly not on the level of something like Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear -Strive– or Tekken 8‘s overload of sheer style and visual opulence.  It looks decent, and that’s about it.

It’s maybe no surprise by this point, but I moderately adore City of the Wolves. I played it for many, many hours straight during one particular online session, and when my age-ravaged thumb began to tire and chafe from constantly throwing out special moves and supers, I rubbed life back into it, chewed it like a dog (don’t ask) and kept on going until I was forced to finally take a break because I could no longer control the game to a reasonable standard. Even then, all I wanted to do was keep on slamming out Power Geysers.

That’s the sign of a damn good fighting game right there, I feel. Roll on Blue Mary’s inevitable comeback, my friends. We’ve got some arms to break.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by SNK Corporation. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS4/PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX and PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 18 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. The official description reads: This is a fighting game in which players can select from a large group of characters to engage in contests of strength. Fighters punch and kick each other as they attempt to drain opponents’ health bars; special moves feature flurries of kicking or large bursts of fire. Fights are highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and screen-shaking effects. Several female characters are designed with jiggling breasts and/or revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage). The word “sh*t” appears in the game.

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 do not play a significant role. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Goro Majima finally gets his very own game!

LOW The sailing and piracy aspects fall short of expectations.

WTF Sorry, no WTF moment here. Everything in this game is completely normal.

Some time after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, series favorite Goro Majima washes up shirtless and dehydrated on a small island and is promptly saved by an innocent little tyke named Noah who warily hands the tattooed weirdo a cup of water. This random act of kindness results in Majima dedicating his life to protecting the little guy from assorted bastards on the island and making sure Noah’s wish of seeing the world is granted… by becoming an actual pirate sailing around the high seas at the helm of his own pirate ship.

Typically, if a sixty-year-old man loses his memory, begins dressing up as a pirate and promises to take a random ten year old boy away from his family on an extensive adventure… well, it wouldn’t end well for them. However, the story told in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii isn’t terrifying — it’s heartwarming! Swoon as our lovable amnesiac ex-yakuza scamp rolls around Hawaii sinking enemy ships for plunder and stabbing the living hell out of anybody who gets in his way.

Of course, pirates have enemies and Majima will have to frequently defend himself from people who think a one-eyed maniac carrying a pair of razor sharp swords will make for an easy target. This entry opts for real-time third-person combat, and while Majima might be over the hill, he’s still a nippy little bugger in combat, scooting around the battlefield faster than a greased ferret shooting down a drainpipe.

Majima has access to two battle styles — his classic ‘Mad Dog’ where he brandishes a knife and can split into doppelgangers, and the new ‘Sea Dog’ pirate-themed stance where he dual wields a pair of cutlasses, can haul people around with a grappling hook or blast them in the face with a flintlock pistol. There are often tons of enemies on the screen, but fret not — Captain Majima is more than capable of ripping through anyone.

So, realism may have left the building, but joyful antics and salty shenanigans are in plentiful supply when it comes to Pirate Yakuza.

Unsurprising to anyone familiar with the character, Majima makes for an fantastic protagonist. He’s fearless and borderline demented, but also surprisingly sharp and empathetic in story scenes — at least when he’s not summoning cursed monkey Gods to punch people in the face.

The Hawaii map from the previous game makes a return, and there’s a few islands peppered nearby that can be visited for various reasons, from Noah’s home on Rich Island to the insane pirate lair known as Madlantis, where cannon-blasting seadogs drop anchor for well-deserved R&R. There may be shark tanks.

Naturally for a Yakuza game, there are tons of side activities, substories and minigames to indulge in. I’m not going to spoil them, but the revamped baseball minigame Bang Bang Batting deserves a special shout out, transforming one of the least interesting tasks in the series into a seriously addictive spectacle. It’s great.

Customization options aren’t too shabby either. Majima’s ship can be decked out as the player prefers, from the ominous black and gold setup I went with, to something that looks like it’s been dragged straight out of a magical girl anime with laser cannons melting everything in sight. Clothing options are also incredibly extensive, from basic t-shirts and hoodies to the apocalyptic Fist of the North Star-adjacent spiked shoulder pads I rolled with.

Given that this all of this madness sounds like it’s leading up to being the best game ever made, what’s the catch? Well, the catch is that as a side entry in the series, it doesn’t feel as fully-fleshed-out as it could have been.

Take the sailing, for example. The shipborne side of things isn’t bad, exactly, but it is disappointingly safe. There’s no truly open world sailing, with various maps being chopped up into sections and accessed via quick travel. Most battles on the high sea end in the blink of an eye, and its arcadey feel robs it of authenticity.

The fact is that despite the theming it’s not a pirate simulator in any way, and things such as weather changes are minor. Anyone who’s played Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag or Sea of Thieves will know how a sudden squall and churning waves can enhance the experience, but Pirate Yakuza doesn’t even attempt to compete on that level. For such a focal point of the story, being on the ship feels much like any other bolted on minigame in the series — decent, but somewhat throwaway.

I also have to say that despite liking the story overall, corners have been cut here, too. The whimsical and generally carefree nature of the plot is great, but there’s too much filler in the midgame. It doesn’t feel offensively padded out, but expect to fight human chew toy and supposed pirate boss “Keith” far more often than is desired, or to slam the brakes on storyline progression until the player levels up Majima’s ship or progresses through the ranks of the Pirate Coliseum before being allowed to continue to the superb finale. They’re unnecessary detours.

Despite all that, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is still pretty great overall, but this was one case where the devs should have pulled out all the stops to offer something truly different and unique within the series, and it didn’t quite get there.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Buy Like a Dragon: Yakuza Pirate in Hawaii: PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ryu ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. 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 PS5. Approximately 30 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, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence. The official description reads as follows: This is an action-adventure game in which players control an ex-yakuza (Goro Majima) stranded on an island in the Pacific. As players seek to regain Majima’s memories, they explore the island and battle enemies to become captain of a pirate ship. Players engage in melee combat, using punches, kicks, blades, and pistols to kill enemies. Fighting is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and frequent blood-splatter effects. Finishing moves can involve brief slow-motion effects and/or dramatic stabbings. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence: a character shot repeatedly; a bound man punched and kicked; a child kicked on the ground. Some female characters wear revealing outfits (e.g., low-cut tops, deep cleavage); in one background area, a man is depicted groping a woman’s chest. The word “f**k” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available, though elements such as the subtitles can be recolored to suit.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. There are no significant auditory cues. I’d also say that the game is also fully playable without audio.

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

The post Like A Dragon: Yakuza Pirate In Hawaii Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The latest Virtua Fighter 5 edition, with rollback, finally available on Steam.

LOW The single player component is pretty barebones.

WTF Kage’s flying headbutt down attack looks absolutely lethal — to himself.

Rejoice, ye faithful, for the grand Virtua Fighter resurgence is nigh! Hooray!

For those who missed the recent news, Virtua Fighter 6 has finally been announced after almost two decades of waiting, so what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than for Sega to release a new version of Virtua Fighter 5 on Steam — along with some swanky new rollback netcode, a new intro song by legendary Sega vocalist Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and assorted balance changes? It may not be a brand new game, but still — nice.

Despite being based on a title that’s almost two decades old at this point, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. looks amazing. Stage design in particular is downright spectacular, offering sweeping grasslands, vibrant rain-slick cityscapes and a raft that carries players past soaring pillars of rock as players attempt to dunk their opponent into the drink. Characters are large, well-defined and sharply rendered to take advantage of modern 4K displays.

In fact, the presentation is generally great overall with big, colorful menus that hew closely to PlayStation’s Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown release from three and a half years back. It pops just a little more vibrantly, however, and seeing the main menu screen rolling continuous high level matches that can be enlarged at the touch of a button is as fantastic a feature now as it was back then, as a great way for new or learning players to see how certain characters can operate in skilled hands.

Speaking of characters, there’s a roster of nineteen playable characters, all with distinct and viable martial arts styles on offer. From MMA and Jeet Kun Do to Bajiquan and Drunken Kung Fu, there’s a style to suit nearly every taste. Though, let’s be honest — anyone who isn’t using Vanessa Lewis is probably doing it wrong, as her grapple-based beatdowns are poetry in motion.

The beauty of Virtua Fighter is that all of these fighting styles somehow feel reasonably authentic to their source material, even when someone’s being uppercut six feet into the air and punched five times before they hit the floor. It just works and feels strangely realistic, though arguably filtered through the lens of a Hong Kong kung fu movie.

Additionally, there’s a purity to R.E.V.O.‘s pugilism that’s downright refreshing at this point. In a genre where progress seems to be trending towards tacking on as many Supers, Rage Arts, Drive Rushes and Heat Gauges as possible, it turns out that there’s a lot to be said for simply focusing on the fundamentals. It’s all easy to understand on a visual level too, with no lingering hurtboxes or similar idiosyncrasies throwing players for a loop. Controls are simple – a punch button, a kick button, a guard button and various combinations thereof are all that are needed to delve into an extremely precise fighting and technical experience.

If I had to summarize Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. ‘s matches in a single word, it would be ‘explosive’. It’s not a game that rewards all-out aggression, but when fighters do clash their health gauges can be stripped down in astonishingly short order. However, there’s less of a focus on rushdown than in some competing games as defensive options are strong, most non-specialized attacks won’t hurt downed opponents, and maneuvering around the arena is also incredibly important. A huge lead doesn’t mean much if a player gets sloppy and winds up being tossed out of the ring.

As for the balance changes, they’re subtle. Weight classes have been tweaked so Taka Arashi’s a little more vulnerable than he used to be, and Eileen isn’t such a temptingly lightweight target. Some older moves have been returned to a character’s repertoire, and it’s all just a little more balanced than ever. Not that it was badly tuned before — quite the opposite — but nearly twenty years of digging away at a game’s core will often result in uncovering a few rough edges.

While it’s an excellent offering overall, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.‘s biggest weaknesses tend to occur outside the fighting. Namely, as a modern fighting package, it’s lacking in extras needed to lure in casual players. Not everyone wants to spend all their time online, and aside from a training and arcade mode, there’s not much else for solo players other than watching high-level matches stream in through the main menu. There’s nothing here on par with the extensive single-player offerings seen in recent titles such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and recent Mortal Kombat titles, and even character customization options have been pared back significantly since the days of the original Virtua Fighter 5 release.

Worse, though, for a title that focuses so much on online competitive play, there’s no cross-platform play with the PlayStation version of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, which has already been updated to maintain balance parity with R.E.V.O. Steam may be a huge platform, but with an older game like this Sega really should be casting the net as far and wide as it’ll go — and that includes an Xbox release too. Get everyone in on this party, dammit.

With those foibles noted, Virtua Fighter 5 is still a peerless fighter even after all this time, resulting in a game that’s still a joy to play. It’s the best version of a legendary fighting experience, and even if it doesn’t check all the expected boxes of a modern fighting game package, it still kicks ass.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is currently available on PC. A similar version is available on PS4 and PS5, but is missing certain new additions such as rollback netcode. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download before a key was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 7 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes. Furthermore, I’ve played a lot of VF5 over the years in its various forms.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence.  The official description reads as follows: This is a fighting game in which players choose from a large cast of international fighters to compete against others in one-on-one matches. Players punch, kick, and throw opponents as they attempt to drain their health bars. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and brief replay sequences of knockouts. These replays are shown from various camera angles, some of which are slightly zoomed in. Some female characters are designed with revealing costumes (e.g., deep cleavage, bikini-like tops); one character is depicted in a mannequin-like style with nipple-less breasts and buttocks. One character is described as using “Drunken Kung-fu” as his fighting style and can be seen drinking from a gourd during fights; some of his moves reference his drinking, letting players know how many drinks are needed to perform those attacks.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Characters have a few intro and win quotes delivered in various languages, none of which are necessary to enjoy the game or story. After all, there is no story aside from the background lore. Some audio cues can help discern certain moves, such as a swooshing noise signifying that sidestepping certain attacks isn’t possible, but there’s no need to rely on them. It’s a very visual game.

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

The post Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Combat is way more satisfying than the usual RPG.

LOW Enemy variety is somewhat lacking.

WTF 56 hours of play and I didn’t find a single decent greathammer.

Plague. Plague never changes… even when it originates on a distant island, turns people into homicidal plants and spreads across the land threatening to engulf all of civilization if not torn out by the roots.

Wake up hero, looks like we have a dreamscourge to burn.

Taking place within the Pillars of Eternity universe, the player is hardly the standard RPG protagonist who begins as an unknown hero of humble origins. Not only are they the personal envoy of the Emperor sent overseas to root out the cause of the dreamscourge plague wreaking havoc, they were also touched at birth by an unknown god, resulting in their head sprouting a customizable amount of fungus ranging from a few cosmetic markings to a veritable forest cascading down their face.

As if that’s not enough, major political forces are at play in the background. A mass immigration is forcing the native population into shantytowns, and a rogue military element are more than happy to bring this lawless nation to heel by butchering everything in sight. Our fungally-blessed hero has the freedom to fight back against injustice or profit from it wholesale, making loyal companions or bitter enemies along the way, all while having an internal conversation with a new and unexpected voice in their head.

After initially wrecking on a small island just short of their destination, players are given a brisk tutorial on how Avowed works. The game can be seen from first- or third-person perspective and despite wearing half my body weight in plate armor, exploration via parkour is heavily encouraged. It’s common to leap across yawning gaps, haul oneself up ledges and duck under waterfalls to collect any loot squirreled away within.

Avowed doesn’t take place within a a truly open world, instead opting to whisk players to new regions via the overworld map, but each area is expansive and absolutely filled with tons of loot, sidequests and secrets to discover. Whether hunting down bounties or poring over treasure maps, there’s plenty to take care of while out romping through the world.

It’s a dangerous environment out there, and combat is particularly impressive in the flexibility it allows. While I settled on a warrior build wielding a giant two-handed axe, it’s entirely possible to dart around the battlefield wielding a pistol and a magical grimoire in either hand, blasting lead into the bad guys before broiling them alive with flame spells during the reload. Or perhaps players would prefer to be stealthy, sneaking up on unaware groups and thinning the herd by shanking them in the back, one by one.

Charging up massive power attacks, parrying the strikes of enemies twice the player’s size and dancing in and out of danger with quick dashes all just feel right. Rather than simple sword swings or outcomes that depend on behind-the-scenes virtual dice rolls, Avowed‘s melee is surprisingly gratifying for an open-ish world RPG.

As players level up they naturally obtain access to better skills and bonuses, and they’re not locked in to just one archetype — they’re able to mix and match skills and buffs from the Warrior, Ranger and Wizard trees at will. If the build goes awry or doesn’t perform as expected, paying a paltry sum in the upgrade menu will allow for a complete respec at any time.

I will say that the loot pool doesn’t cater to all players equally though. I wound up swimming in magical swords and shields by game’s end, and yet never once found an enchanted greathammer after more than fifty hours of play. Given how I initially wanted to build my character as a stun-focused berserker, that totally sucked, despite finding plenty of neat stuff otherwise.

Avowed‘s performance on the XBX was surprisingly solid in performance mode, with a smooth framerate that only stuttered or dropped while under load. It may not be rock solid, but it’s more than adequate, especially considering that the environments are nicely detailed, featuring lush scenery, barren hellscapes and even more in between.

My quibbles with Avowed are few.

During the prerelease review window, I did notice a few of the quest chains in the third major area did break prematurely. More fundamentally, as good as the combat is, the lack of enemy variety does become an issue in later stages. There are only so many humanoids, beetles and bears a player can kill before wishing something else was being crushed under their mace instead, and each enemy group encounter becomes lamentably predictable.

Avowed may also be a little too streamlined for stat-obsessed RPG players. While there is scope for setting up combinations of spells, debuffs and companion specializations, simply wading in with an axe and chopping everyone in the head can usually do the job just fine.

The final thing about Avowed is a little more fundamental — as fine as it is, it doesn’t break any new ground. It does everything it sets out to do, but there are few surprises in store for fans of the genre, and the scaled-down and guided approach that comes about as a result of a not-truly-open world lends it a slightly compartmentalized, more predictable and borderline regimented quality that some might find less than ideal.

Despite those complaints, I had a great time with Avowed. The dialogue is well-written throughout, the storyline keeps things interesting, choices and optional sidequests can have big impacts on events as a whole, and perhaps most importantly of all, everything eventually wraps together in a satisfying manner that pays respect to the player’s various choices made throughout their adventure. Plus great-feeling combat!

Avowed is just comfort-food adventuring all ’round, and if there’s more of this universe to come in the future, I’ll signing up for the next journey in a heartbeat.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is currently available on XBX/S and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 56 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 provisionally rated M and contains Extreme Violence, Drugs, Use of Alcohol/Tobacco, and Strong Language. While it’s not particularly gory in combat, there is a fair amount of blood and nasty stuff to be found throughout. F-bombs, corpses lying with half their body missing or spilling out, the usual.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. I couldn’t see any at least, which is odd considering the exceptional amount of other accessibility options found in the menus.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/or resized, with a very generous amount of options for tinkering with background opacity, font sizes and the like. There are no significant audio cues. This game is fully accessible.

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

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HIGH Surviving the final wave of a horde mode swarm when all seems lost.

LOW Crashing to the desktop, three times in a row.

WTF The available cosmetics are… uninspired… to say the least.

It’s an ugly planet – a bug planet! – and that just won’t do, so it’s time for humanity to rise up and destroy the alien threat before they destroy us!

It’s been a good year for fans of taking on relentless insect threats in videogames. Helldivers 2, the new Earth Defense Force, Space Marine 2 and its Tyranid onslaught… it seems like everywhere players look, there’s a bug with terrifying mandibles trying to chew their faces off. However, there’s now one more to consider, and it’s based on the most iconic movie featuring insect-stomping shenanigans ever made!

Enter Starship Troopers: Extermination, a follow up to Paul Verhoeven’s classic sci-fi war satire. Most people who saw it seemed to take away the message that blind faith in gung-ho jingoistic propaganda spewed out by a faceless government generally leads to a lot of naive recruits getting horrifically splattered across far off battlefields. I, as a member of the intelligentsia, took away a different and far more profound message – space bugs are coming, and they’re coming to kill us all.

Not to worry, though. As a first-person shooter supporting up to sixteen players at a time, Starship Troopers allows humanity to fight back and unleash hell upon any marauding spacebugs trying to turn humankind into plasma-melted soufflé.

After getting through a brief tutorial focusing on how to create and repair various structures in the field using a physics-defying building tool, players are given free rein to choose from various missions they want to be sent out on. There’s a largely forgettable singleplayer tutorial campaign voiced by Casper Van Dien (who played protagonist Johnny Rico in the film) but uninspired mission designs like “kill ten bugs” or “transport a single canister of ore” coupled with braindead AI companions will likely kill most people’s interest in this mode quickly.

The singleplayer’s clearly just been thrown together for the sake of it though. Multiplayer’s where the magic happens, and the magic typically involves smooshing innumerable bugs into paste alongside up to fifteen other players.

A number of modes are available to select across a variety of maps on a rotating timer. Horde mode features waves of combat against the bugs with short breaks in between to repair and upgrade the base. Advance and Secure dish out various objectives such as transporting ore from refineries dotted around the map before hunkering down into a final base defense mission, or there’s a smaller scale Hive Mode where a group of four players infiltrate an enemy hive to drop small-scale nukes into their nest.

There are six classes for players to choose from before heading into battle, each of which has certain inherent advantages. Guardians, for example, are adept at holding the line with beefier armor and the ability to chuck down a fortified enclosure which helps stabilize their aim. Medics can send drones out into dangerous hotspots to revive downed troopers and supply the team with healing items, Engineers are able to create and repair strong structures even during phases where other classes have their build option disabled, and more.

These classes can be leveled up for players to earn swanky new guns and equipment, some of which can eventually be made available to other classes once mastered. It’s pretty standard fare involving shotguns, assault rifles, LMGs and a few exotic energy weapons, though the Engineer’s disappointingly weak flamethrower was a bit of a letdown. If I’m close enough to smell the bugs cooking, I want them charbroiled within moments.

The bug menace features a few classes of their own. There are melee attackers of various shapes and sizes, with the bigger bugs naturally tanking more damage and biting troopers in half more easily than their smaller brethren,  alongside ranged adversaries that either attack with linear projectiles or bombard the area with massive plasma explosions that can wreck a base in moments. It’s not a huge amount of enemy variety, but it does encourage team diversity when it comes to dealing with the threats players will encounter.

As a sixteen player game, the overall experience can vary wildly between matches. A poor or mismatched team will often struggle when things get hectic, clinging on for dear life as their base is blasted to bits from long range and the squad is downed one by one while nobody plays the objective. On the flip side, a well formed battalion can make newer recruits feel like a spare wheel, running around the map looking for ways to help out despite enemy threats being annihilated as soon as they appear.

One gripe is how building materials are shared between the whole team. I’d rarely ever find that I had enough time to build my own little corner of the base before others had used up all the resources, so I eventually just gave up on this aspect of the game entirely. With everybody ripping through resources as soon as they spawn in, it’s often a coin flip as to whether the team ends up with a sleekly efficient murder fortress to safely combat the bug menace, or an insanely constructed ass-backwards death pit for everyone to swiftly get overrun in.

Players who enjoy unlocking new skins and cosmetics so that their avatar stands out on the battlefield are going to be sorely disappointed. Don’t expect to be romping around the battlefield in a Michael Ironside or Casper Van Dien skin – a few almost-imperceptible color changes to the base uniform, helmet and gun are currently the extent of what’s on offer here.

In most aspects, Starship Troopers feels like it’s reaching for the heady heights of ‘good enough’. The shooting is good enough, the interface is good enough, the class and weapon selection is good enough… however, the final product falls short in one key area that clearly isn’t good enough, and that’s on a technical level.

Frankly, at the time of review, it was a mess. In the fifteen-plus hours I spent with the game, I’d wind up clipping through geometry, spawning with my gun obscuring my view at a weird angle whilst unable to fire it, witness companion AI in the singleplayer taking the scenic route straight into a lava pit, have annoyingly frequent hard crashes to the dashboard erasing all my hard earned XP during any given match, and more. It may have left early access, but Starship Troopers is definitely not ready for general release yet, at least on the Series X where I tested it.

Adding insult to all of this injury, it just lacks any flair that could set it apart from the competition. The combat is fine if somewhat uninspired, the writing and presentation frequently fall flat, and when it comes to chewing through hordes of enemies, there are plenty of competing titles on the market that offer a more compelling experience – the obvious comparisons are Earth Defense Force and Helldivers 2, and even something bug-adjacent like Exoprimal stands out more,

Sadly, as things stand I can’t recommend this to anyone except the most hardcore fans of the IP.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Offworld Industries Ltd. and published by Knight’s Peak. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 17 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 and Language. There’s no description, but It’s about what you’d expect from a game based on the Starship Troopers franchise. Players die relatively bloodlessly and hordes of enemies spew small amounts of ichor when shot.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. (See text examples above.) The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized, so good luck reading them — on a 77-inch screen they appeared to be about two pixels high and I couldn’t see a way to enlarge them. Also, not all dialogue is subtitled, but most of it doesn’t really matter too much. This game is not fully accessible.

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

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