With Re:Mind, Kingdom Hearts is trying out DLC for the first time, offering new additional episodes and gameplay modifiers. But is this pack the thing that elevates Kingdom Hearts 3 into the same stratum where its console siblings reside?

Re:Mind is accessible only with a finished save file and with good reason. This DLC spends no time bringing players up to speed with the events at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, and since this entire DLC ties in so closely with the ending events of Kingdom Hearts 3, there will obviously be massive spoilers ahead.

Re:Mind begins directly after the climactic finale at the Keyblade Graveyard. After taking down the entire Organization along with Xehanort, Sora sets out to try and figure out how to bring Kairi back from the brink of death. After a little bit of thought, the answer that Sora lands on turns out to be time travel and body possession. His spirit goes back in time and hitches rides with other characters throughout the entire Keyblade Graveyard battle. While this is a kind of cool (if confusing) idea, it does lead to one of the biggest problems that Re:Mind has: recycling old content.

"While its setup is a kind of cool (if confusing) idea, it does lead to one of the biggest problems that Re:Mind has: recycling old content."

You essentially play the entire conclusion of the base game over again. Even though there are occasionally new cutscenes added as well, a majority of what you’ll be seeing throughout this story DLC will be old hat. You do eventually get to experience new events and even get to explore Scala ad Caelum from the base game. There are even treasure chests to find here and you spend a little bit of time solving puzzles scattered throughout. It’s such a striking location, but unfortunately, it comes far too late into the DLC and doesn’t stick around for long. Appropriately enough, considering the base game, Re:Mind doesn’t really get going until the last quarter of its runtime. And with a total runtime of about four hours, that’s not a good look for the package.

As a neat twist though, you can sometimes assume control of other characters throughout the story. During some paired battles, you will sometimes be given the option to switch control to another character and play the battle through their perspective. Although some characters feel somewhat clunky compared to Sora’s expanded mobility, it’s still pretty neat to just play as them, with Roxas and Kairi being standout examples. Oftentimes, playing as the other characters will be the best way forward in order to get any sort of challenge from the enemies. Sora’s stats and levels carry over from the base game, so you end up steam-rolling most fights, which sort of deflates the tension the game attempts to build. The guest characters, on the other hand, are set to a level that’s appropriate for the fight at hand, which lets you still enjoy some of the battles.

The story is pretty much what you’d expect as far as Kingdom Hearts standards go. There’s lots of talk about darkness and light, impressive abilities that characters seemingly pull out of nowhere, and plenty of scenes of people nodding their heads at one another.

Character interactions are still pretty stilted, just like in the main game, although there are some fun bits of banter between the Guardians of Light thrown in there. Fan favorite characters like the Final Fantasy gang get brought back, too, and even though they only have a handful of lines apiece, it’s still nice to see them. For those fans who were hoping that Re:Mind would answer some of the burning questions left behind by the base game though, you may want to temper your expectations. Instead of answering old questions, this DLC practically doubles down, adding even more questions to the pile. So while Re:Mind will undoubtedly be important in future titles in the series, there are no definitive revelations coming out of this package for the time being.

"For those fans who were hoping that Re:Mind would answer some of the burning questions left behind by the base game though, you may want to temper your expectations. Instead of answering old questions, this DLC practically doubles down, adding even more questions to the pile."

After completing the main story episode, the biggest drawing point that Re:Mind has is its Limitcut episode. For fans familiar with the data battles of old, this will be very familiar. The Limitcut episode offers players a chance to battle super-charged versions of the series’ main baddies. If you found yourself wanting more from the climatic battles during Kingdom Hearts 3’s Keyblade Graveyard, this is for you. Now you’ll get the chance to take on each member of the Organization individually. But the bosses on offer here aren’t just their base encounters with a bit more health. They’ve been completely reworked, not only to suit a one-on-one battle, but also to completely break any unaware players who thought that a level-99 Sora would be enough to stroll through this DLC.

Limitcut is hard. It’s really hard. The bosses are relentless, and you have to struggle to hold out against their onslaught long enough to retaliate. Coincidentally, Re:Mind released around the same time as a free update that gave Sora more combo options and mobility during battles. But looking at the battles this episode offers the player, that additional mobility is borderline mandatory. Kingdom Hearts 3 has built up a stellar combat system over time. And now, with these bosses, Re:Mind gives KH3 players an opportunity to actually use the combat system to the fullest.

Re:Mind also gives a massive boost to replayability by offering “Fast Pass” and “Black Code” options. During the initial tutorial of a new game, players will be prompted with the Premium Menu. From here, you’ll have the option to either opt into an easier version of the game, or to crank up the difficulty. The Fast Pass modifiers can give you things like auto-block and health regen, among other positive effects.

And on the flip side, the Black Code modifiers can do things like disable multiple battle abilities, constantly drain your health, or reduce your defense to zero. These modifiers are exactly what the game needed. Kingdom Hearts 3 was heavily criticized for its lacking difficulty at launch. While this issue was somewhat addressed with the addition of Critical Mode in a patch, the mode seemed like it went too far in some areas. By putting these difficulty options into the hands of the players, not only are more people likely to find something that suits their tolerance, but you also open up the possibility of creative challenge runs. Although it seems at first glance to be a small, forgettable addition, the Premium Menu will be a catalyst for added replayability and is a welcome addition.

"By putting new difficulty options into the hands of the players, not only are more people likely to find something that suits their tolerance, but you also open up the possibility of creative challenge runs. Although it seems at first glance to be a small, forgettable addition, the Premium Menu will be a catalyst for added replayability and is a welcome addition."

There’s also a Data Greeting mode available. What this is is essentially an expansive photo studio that you can fill with whatever characters you’d like in whatever pose you’d like. You plop characters down and then get to work, changing their expressions and spinning them around in all sorts of directions. There are plenty of characters, objects, filters, and locations that you can utilize to your heart’s content. This mode seems like a clear evolution from the photo mode included in the base game, but with far greater depth. You can even create individual points of colored light for some real mood setting. Although this type of mode may not be for everyone, its inclusion in this pack is bound to strike a chord with players with an eye for art and a penchant for photography.

So with all that’s been added, does Re:Mind make Kingdom Hearts 3 a better game? Does it shift it closer towards the lofty heights of the first two games? Well, yes and no. For many players, this pack will only offer a lopsided four-hour story mode. And while it may have cool ideas from time to time, this story DLC isn’t the amazing exclamation point that Kingdom Hearts 3 really could have used at its end.

But for players who are looking to dive into the mechanics of this game and really buckle down against some of the toughest fights that the series has seen yet, this DLC more than delivers. While the content on offer is certainly divisive, the amount of replayability offered by the Black Codes, paired with the grueling difficulty of the Limit Cut bosses, will be deeply satisfying for a very select group of fans, and will keep them playing until the next entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStaion 4.

Outward is an open-world RPG where you have to survive by any means available to you. There is a loose story along with some NPC dialogue peppered throughout, but this adventure will mostly be shaped by whatever you end up spending your time doing. Nothing is really explained to you, but through playing, you can learn more about the culture of Outward and what kind of a situation you find yourself in when you boot up the game. There’s plenty of examples of effective environmental storytelling and it really goes a long way to make the world of Outward more interesting than it appears at first.

"All in all, combat will most likely be familiar to people who have played an action-RPG in the past decade and the real challenge will come from the variety of enemies you’ll encounter."

To get one thing out of the way up front, Outward is a downright brutal game. You’ll die and struggle against smaller enemies for your first handful of hours. Immediately upon starting your game, you’re given a deadline of 5 in-game days to collect a relatively high amount of money or else you lose your house. I, of course, ended up dying a few times to chickens outside the village and failed to raise enough money, losing my home in the process. This just sets the tone for the rest of the game. Enemies hit hard, tangible progress is slow to come, and to top it all off, there’s no fast travel in this game. Outward strips away many of the niceties that open-world RPGs have come standard with for the past decade and gives you a distinctly “hardcore” experience, for better and for worse.

Controls are easy to get the hang of but they don’t push any boundaries. You have a health and stamina meter and combat should be familiar to anyone who’s tried a Dark Souls title. You have a variety of weapons at your disposal, from broadswords to spears. Managing meter and choosing your opportunities to attack is the name of the game and aside from a few tricks thrown in like deployable traps and spells, it never really deviates. A nice touch the game includes is the ability to instantly drop your backpack at the press of a key. Getting into combat, you’ll need every bit of mobility you can get, so dropping your pack once you find an enemy will become second nature. Combat is serviceable without ever being too exciting. The main issue comes from the lack of fluid motion.

Most of your attacks have heavy ending lag, leaving you unable to block a counterattack from an enemy that stopped being stunned by your hit ages ago. And although the stamina meter is important in balancing out offense and defence, once depleted, it takes far too long to fill back up, killing the pace of battles. All in all, combat will most likely be familiar to people who have played an action-RPG in the past decade and the real challenge will come from the variety of enemies you’ll encounter.

"Environments and character models all have a good amount of detail and creativity present in their designs."

You also have survival aspects to contend with, having to deal with hunger, thirst, sleep, and disease. You have to balance all of these needs if you want to survive in the world of Outward. When you sleep, you’ll have to devote some time to security in order to prevent bandit attacks. But if you spend too long sleeping and repairing weapons at your campsite, you’ll be hungrier and more thirsty when you wake up. If you’re not careful, you can leave yourself in a bad position. And even if you are careful, you can still fumble up and acquire acute indigestion from a raw egg with no real knowledge of how to cure it. Like I said before, Outward is brutal. The information that you need to survive in Outward is in the game but you have to sometimes travel far and wide to find it. Even with its lengthy tutorial that explains the basics, Outward is a beast that needs to be tamed over dozens of hours and countless deaths.

Appropriately, the defining feature of Outward comes from your many deaths. You can’t save your progress in Outward. Instead, every time you die, a scenario will play out and you’ll have to figure out how to progress from there. Sometimes you luck out and get dragged back to the starting village where you can safely resupply.

Other times you won’t be so lucky. One of my favorite moments with this game came from when I died against some bandits, whereupon I was dragged to their mines and forced to slave away. I had plenty of people to talk to, alliances I could have formed, and a few different methods of escape I could have pursued. Eventually, I worked up enough coin to bride a guard into sneaking me out in a bag. These moments really serve to give death some personality in this game. No longer can you just retry and scenario over and over until you win. Now, you’ll have to deal with whatever consequences your defeat brings.

"This game is a big mountain to climb and a lot of the footholds that line the path are loose."

The presentation in Outward is a mixed bag. Environments and character models all have a good amount of detail and creativity present in their designs. The soundtrack also helps set the tone, embracing the ambiance of the world. However, with all these positive aspects, Outward certainly isn’t perfect. Once you’re out in the field, you’ll run into framerate dips and graphical glitches that occasionally serve to take you out of the experience. If you’re unlucky, you might even have your Pearlbird quarry clip up the side of a mountain while you’re in the middle of a hunt.

Voice acting is all on-par for this type of game and does its job. Outward does have this strange habit of only voicing some of the written dialogue or in some cases completely different dialogue. Whether it’s because of budget restraints or time deadlines, it’s a distracting aspect of the game and instead of creating a half-hearted attempt, Outward may have been better off opting out of voice acting entirely.

It should be said that Outward is also playable split-screen with a friend. It’s staggering how performance doesn’t suffer much from this and the developers should be commended for putting this into the final product. Both players start together and can synergize abilities and weapons to progress through this harsh world side by side. A couple of adventurers may have to share the loot, but they can also revive each other when one gets knocked out which is more than worth the price of admission as far as I’m concerned. Playing with a pal is a great addition and should really help players ease into this type of game if they’re not used to it.

Outward is a game that is not for everyone. If the idea of dying over and over without much meaningful progression for hours at a time doesn’t appeal to you, this game may not be for you. But if you stick through the grind, you might be able to sift through the jank of this game and find something worthwhile. This game is a big mountain to climb and a lot of the footholds that line the path are loose. But at the end of your trek, you might find an experience that you can’t have anywhere else. Because after the hours of tears and frustration, Outward can end up giving you satisfaction in something as simple as finding a backpack.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

There’s not really any story to speak of in Generation Zero, though I think that’s the intention. The game takes place in 1980s Sweden. You star as a random teenager when robots suddenly attack. There’s some more layers to it and some bits of environmental storytelling scattered throughout, but that’s the gist. Aside from a few lines of text before you being a new game, there’s not much that’s explicitly told to you through the game. Generation Zero wastes no run time immediately shoving you into gameplay. Although a little more set-up would have helped establish the tone of the game, this is probably a welcome aspect for those players who just want to quickly get in and start shooting robots.

"There’s some more layers to it and some bits of environmental storytelling scattered throughout, but that’s the gist. Aside from a few lines of text before you being a new game, there’s not much that’s explicitly told to you through the game."

This is a pretty good-looking title. The wide open world you play in is beautifully realized and has plenty of variation in scenery. The weather changes from time to time and the rain effect coats your screen appropriately without becoming obnoxious. The presentation of the world is top notch and it should definitely be commended. If there was one nitpick that sprung up frequently throughout my playthrough, it would be with the house layouts. You’ll constantly be running through houses that look the exact same on the inside. Although it’s understandable, it does add to the tedious nature of playing this game, but we’ll get to that later.

Sound design is also on point in Generation Zero. Guns all give great feedback and running through foliage and over different textures sounds just like it should. Hearing the crack of far-off lightning or the rhythmic whirl of an approaching robo-dog is great and really helps immerse you into this situation. Presentation is top-notch here and it really helps sell this as a real, lived-in place.

Now, onto gameplay. Generation Zero is a survival looter shooter. To fight back against the tyrannical toasters, you’ll have a few tools at your disposal. Since you’re only a regular teenager, you’re not going to come into this adventure already decked out. You’ll scavenge through houses, barns, cars, and whatever other containers you can find in the countryside of Sweden. You can pick up guns, med-kits, noise-makers, and even little cosmetic accessories you can use to personalize your character. You can customize your weapons, change out their ammo types, and even select a few pieces of throwable equipment to have quick access to.

You’ll find that your enemies in Generation Zero can eat your health like no one’s business. Sometimes, a firefight isn’t always the best course of action. For these moments, you can use the game’s stealth mechanics. Although it’s not too in-depth, bars will pop up whenever an enemy’s around to let you know how aware they are of your presence. You can also use radios and flares to disorient your mechanical opponents and get the upper hand. Finally, there’s a leveling up system where you can improve your stats. All of this is fairly standard for the open-world shooter genre, but it is essential in order to stand a chance against some of the later machines.

"This is a pretty good-looking title. The wide open world you play in is beautifully realized and has plenty of variation in scenery. The weather changes from time to time and the rain effect coats your screen appropriately without becoming obnoxious. The presentation of the world is top notch and it should definitely be commended."

Gameplay in Generation Zero is competent. The guns feel nice to shoot and there’s always some treasure nearby or some mission to complete. The real issue comes from how dull the game feels to play. The gameplay loop of exploring, fighting, and looting is repeated over and over without any meaningful window dressing to hide the monotony. Even though it feels nice to stock up on hundreds of rounds for your pistol, it doesn’t feel nice to use those pistols rounds to shoot the same enemies for hours on end. And once you get burned finding a house or two filled exclusively with radios, even exploring can also lose its luster. While all the systems for a good game are here and work just fine, there’s a definite lack of personality that holds this game back from being a truly fun experience to play.

Although for many of us, the real appeal of this game comes from the enemies: the hordes of mechanized killer robots. Though these baddies can be terrifying if they corner you while you’re low on supplies, you may be wanting for variety after a while. For the first few hours with this title, you’ll be dealing almost exclusively with gatling gun-toting quadrupedal machines and some flying drone types. And although these are a good enemy type to get started with while your weapons are still weak, it won’t be long before you get tired of seeing the same enemies over and over. Later on, you’ll find more challenging opponents. Although aside from the bipedal walkers, the new enemies are simply bigger versions of what you’ve fought before. It’s too bad there aren’t more specialized designs but all the enemies does end up becoming intimidating, especially in packs.

What ends up letting the intimidation factor down somewhat comes from their AI. Enemy AI is a mixed bag in Generation Zero. While it can at some points show surprising amounts of wit, coordinating with other machines and listening for your footsteps, it can just as quickly break. Frequently, I would find that enemies who would approach a house that I’m holed up in would attempt to make a beeline straight for me, seemingly unaware of the walls they end up getting stuck on. They also like to bunch up in groups which, given their explosive nature, leads to most fights ending fairly quickly once you know where to shoot.

Generation Zero also has a multiplayer component that’s been pushed pretty hard in the marketing for this game. This game seems to be one that’s tailor-made for co-op fun. Although the AI isn’t so clever that you’ll have to coordinate tactics, it’s still a good time to blow things up with people you like. I wish I could tell you more about the multiplayer compartment but every time I tried to join a multiplayer game, the random matchmaking placed me with the same two players who kept kicking me over and over. Although I looked, I couldn’t find a multiplayer lobby list, so I was forced to give up my dreams of blasting robots with others.

"What ends up letting the intimidation factor down somewhat comes from their AI. Enemy AI is a mixed bag in Generation Zero. While it can at some points show surprising amounts of wit, coordinating with other machines and listening for your footsteps, it can just as quickly break."

Generation Zero is a competent product. The guns feel nice to shoot, the game is pretty to look at, and sound design is on point. But aside from technically performing as a video game, there’s just nothing that exciting about playing it. There’s nothing particularly interesting about what Generation Zero does or how it does it. Looking back at developer Avalanche’s previous efforts such as Mad Max and the Just Cause titles that just oozed with personality, it’s strange how vanilla Generation Zero is. Here’s hoping that Avalanche Studios can take this good idea and create something great out of it in the future.

This game was reviewed on PC.

"Gameplay in Left Alive is clunky in a way that hasn’t been seen much since the PlayStation 2 days."

Just like its Front Mission predecessors, Left Alive has a great narrative heart. The game’s story is decently compelling if you can let yourself get dragged into it. Left Alive tells the story of a bunch of people as they live through the battle happening in Novo Slava. Two nations are at war and the city along with its people are being crushed underneath the stress of battle. The narrative has you take control of various people in the city and even making choices that affect the story in small ways later on down the road. Since it’s in the Front Mission universe, expect to see some familiar sights like the hulking Wanzers. You end up seeing this conflict from multiple perspectives and it creates a pretty interesting narrative with lots of moral ambiguity.

If only the rest of the game were as polished as the story. Although you’ll probably be getting some Metal Gear Solid vibes from the character design and splash artwork, Left Alive is not so crisp a title. Gameplay in Left Alive is clunky in a way that hasn’t been seen much since the PlayStation 2 days. While the UI is acceptable and never obtrudes aside from toggleable tutorial prompts, the actual gameplay is pretty janky. The cover system is unreliable and does nothing to prevent you being spotted. The gunplay is serviceable but doesn’t engage the player much beyond just aiming at something and pulling the trigger five times until it’s dead. Stealth, a huge component of the title, is constantly undermined by the AI. Enemies in this game swing from blind stupidity to omnipotent awareness at the flip of a dime. Compounded with the enemies’ unclear range of vision, you have the recipe for a frustrating gaming experience.

For most of your playthrough, you won’t be heavily equipped. Although there are rare moments where you can find and commandeer mechs, you’ll mostly be scattering about picking up pieces of junk off the ground that you can then craft. You’ll be able to create various types of bombs, trip wires, smoke grenades, and a few other pieces of gear. You use these to set out traps for your hapless adversaries and this ends up being the main way that you’ll make your way through Left Alive. Although you have options when it comes to melee combat and firearms, traps are going to be your fall-back whenever stealth fails you. When it works well, you can feel like a mastermind, always one step ahead of your opponents. However, all of this relies on the AI. In order to set traps effectively, you must be able to predict your opponents to a certain degree. And when your enemies wig out and don’t approach you, all you can do is slink out of the situation with your head down.

"Ultimately, survivors end up being more trouble than they’re worth most of the time. What was a good idea is let down by its execution."

You also have other survivors to deal with. There are plenty of characters out there who are doing what they need to in order to survive in war-torn Novo Slava. You’ll run into them as you play through the game and will have to decide what to do with them. You’ll be able to immediately judge them on their actions and decide if you want to help them escape from danger or not. This is an interesting aspect of the game and it’s entirely optional as well. It weaves into the narrative of war-struck people and how their morals can change given the situation they’re in. In gameplay though, it amounts to escorting AI that is completely unaware of their surroundings to a safe zone. If you don’t manually stop them, survivors will run straight into an enemies’ face. This is made even more difficult do to needing to be right next to survivors in order to give them orders. Ultimately, survivors end up being more trouble than they’re worth most of the time. What was a good idea is let down by its execution.

With all that being said, Left Alive is a supremely punishing game. Though high difficulty is not a flaw in and of itself, when punishment is so heavily enforced in the face of small mistakes, it can feel frustrating. Whenever you are spotted, it’s almost impossible to escape detection, even with a few smoke grenades crafted up. You also can never effectively fight back due to your limited arsenal and you take a huge amount of damage even on normal difficulty. Left Alive’s checkpoint system is also tied to set save points that are laid out in the map, which are spaced way too far apart for such a punishing title. Sneaking through the same area over and over for fifteen minutes, hoping that the erratic AI doesn’t wig out and spot you again isn’t a rewarding experience once you finally get past it; it’s a chore.

Environments all take place within the ruined walls of Novo Slava. As such, a lot of environments have the same broken, flaming city aesthetic to them. This isn’t an issue so much as the level design is. Over the course of the 14 missions this game is comprised of, you never really get too far away from a sandbox area populated with buildings and with a few chest-high walls thrown in intermittently. While you may initially think that these open areas will allow for creative paths and playstyles, you’ll soon find that the game has not-so-subtle ways of herding you through the “correct” path. Drones and mechs will park themselves in one area, effectively cutting it off.  Enemies will constantly stare in one direction, leaving only one avenue behind their backs open to safely traverse. Level design is only as good as enemy placement allows it to be in Left Alive. And enemy placement here turns this into a truly linear title.

"Level design is only as good as enemy placement allows it to be in Left Alive. And enemy placement here turns this into a truly linear title."

Graphically, Left Alive does some things well while fumbling in other areas. Character models are rendered nicely and environments look pretty good when you’re outside. Cutscenes look nice as well, with facial emotions being rendered cleanly. Though animation is pretty inconsistent and there are some egregious examples, such as swinging through windows. Although nothing on screen will really push your console, it can still have trouble keeping up at times. When there is too much action on screen, the framerate of Left Alive chugs. Even when I switched the graphical settings into focusing on performance I didn’t see much improvement. Overall, the graphics of this title are nice and even have brief moments of excellence. But in motion, the quality of the visuals can’t keep up and goes down quite a bit.

Left Alive is squarely set as a lower-budget title from a big studio. This isn’t a bad thing, but when Left Alive brings so little new to the table, it’s disappointing to see. From its gameplay to its presentation, there is not only a lack of polish but a lack of innovation that fails to grab the player’s attention. For those of you hungry for anything new from the Front Mission universe, I’m sorry to report that this title won’t fill you. Hopefully this spin-off means that other, more promising titles are in development, but for now, Left Alive does the Front Mission franchise a disservice.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

"For those of you with experience with the series, Trials Rising’s gameplay should be more than familiar."

For those of you with experience with the series, the gameplay should be more than familiar. In Trials Rising, you have to guide your rider through 2.5D courses of increasing difficulty. The challenge in this game is carefully applying the gas, brakes, and managing the angle your rider is pointed at. Though the game initially starts out pretty simply, the complexity ramps up over the course of your playthrough.

Most missions are standard rushes to the end of the track. You’ll be given objectives like placing high enough or not wiping out a set number of times, but as long as you focus on getting to the end of the level as quickly and cleanly as you can, you’ll complete these objectives easily. Each level introduces interesting set-pieces, like catapults that launch you or explosions that break up the track you ride on. So even though you’ll be doing pretty much the same thing track after track, it doesn’t feel too dull.

You’ll also open up Skill Games, where you’ll play missions based around a central gimmick. These games will see you launching your rag-dolled body as far as you can, or staying on top of a rotating platform as long as you possibly can. They’re fun diversions and break up the regular missions pretty well. All of these missions you complete level you up, and after enough time played, you’ll be able to try out some of the other bikes in the game, like the powerful Rhino or the technical Mantis. Unlocking these bikes can take a little while though, so for the most part, your motivation to keep progressing in Trials will have to come from the desire to see what the next track looks like.

"Trials suffers from long load times that can really end up killing the pace of the game. With tracks that can sometimes be as short as thirty seconds in length, spending twenty seconds loading into matches becomes tedious."

Trials Rising does introduce a few new aspects into the tried-and-true formula. New players will be able to learn the ropes in the University of Trials. This is a great addition in order to help prepare players for the tasks ahead of them, though it is strange how the lessons aren’t all unlocked at first. You have to play up to a certain level requirement in order to unlock some of the more intricate tutorials, like the one that teaches you bunny hopping. There are also Stadium races, where you have to race against seven other riders at the same time in order to finish a League. Overall, these are both good additions to the Trials formula, and the University especially should return in the next iteration.

Not all is well, however. There are quite a few technical problems in this title. Trials suffers from long load times that can really end up killing the pace of the game. With tracks that can sometimes be as short as thirty seconds in length, spending twenty seconds loading into matches becomes tedious. On top of that, the game can suffer from noticeable pop-up once a tracks has finally loaded in as well. There are also other issues, like loading screens not disappearing when gameplay begins, or the multiplayer camera getting stuck staring at nothing while your rider zips on by. Most of these are issues that can be fixed over time with patches- my fear is that the loading times – by far the worst issue faced by the game – may just be here to stay.

Trials wouldn’t be the force it is today without its track editor. You can create your own runs through set locales and share them online. The editor is stupidly in-depth, and comes with so many options that it’s pretty imposing for newcomers. Although there is no in-game tutorial for coming to terms with the monstrous UI, you will be able to view video tutorials on RedLynx’s YouTube account. The lack of an in-game editor tutorial is a disappointment, and it could turn off potential creators from ever trying the system, unless you have prior experience with Trials’ creation tools. Those who can wrap their heads around the system will be able to create impressive things though. Although I didn’t get far into making my own stages, I was able to play some online tracks easily, and eagerly await more tracks to come. The online levels were always my favorite parts of past Trials games and I think that trend is pretty likely to continue here.

"The presentation of Trials Rising is on point as long as you’re in the mood for it."

From a visuals standpoint, Trails looks pretty much how you remember it. Simple colors and sharp contrast present the game in a fun and poppy way. The attitude of the game is also a throwback to years gone by. The soundtrack is a return to the pop-punk, electronic, and hip-hop-infused extreme sports that have long since gone out of fashion. Artists like Jurassic 5, Bouncing Souls, and Airbourne take you back to the heyday of titles like Tony Hawk and Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX. The presentation of Trials Rising is on point as long as you’re in the mood for it.

You can also customize your rider, as well as your bikes, in this game. Though your options are pretty sparse at first, you’ll eventually uncover more and more of them. Trials rewards you with loot boxes whenever you level up, which is fairly often for your first couple of hours. In typical loot box fashion, expect a lot of low-value stickers and duplicates. In order to get most of what you’ll want, you’ll have to go into the store page and spend some Trials Coins that you’ve accumulated over the course of the game. While many customizations can be purchased with your Coins, most of the really good stuff is only available through in-game currency known as Acorns. You’ll have to grind a long while to afford anything worthwhile. Even though it’s not for me, it may just give long-time players something to strive for.

Multiplayer is still a great time with others. There’s online as well as couch multiplayer, and both are a blast. You can set up a whole plethora of tracks to run through with up to eight people online and four people on the same screen. After enough time played, you can even unlock Challenger Mode, which will see you racing through a gauntlet against three other online players in a row for supremacy and loot. Even though it’s true for almost every game, Trials really is a game that’s better enjoyed with friends. The competition can push you to really learn tracks better than before. This is a title that comes highly recommended if you’ve got a good couple of friends nearby to enjoy it with.

"Trials Rising is more or less the same game you’ve been playing since the series’ debut in 2009 on the Xbox 360, but it’s still fun."

Trials Rising is more or less the same game you’ve been playing since the series’ debut in 2009 on the Xbox 360, but it’s still fun. If you’re looking for more of the series’ physics-based biking action with a new online community, then this title is for you. If the series never really grabbed you before, this entry won’t change your mind. Though it doesn’t add much to the formula, Trials Rising is still an enjoyable time.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

"Set seventeen years after the explosive events of Far Cry 5, the story of New Dawn focuses on survivors trying to scrape out a living in Hope County, Montana after nuclear fallout."

Set seventeen years after the explosive events of Far Cry 5, the story of New Dawn focuses on survivors trying to scrape out a living in Hope County, Montana after nuclear fallout. In the wake of such destruction, communities have popped up to bring back something close to civilization. However, a group known as the Highwaymen have also popped up, and are looking to prey on the weak in post-nuked Montana. You play as “Captain,” who gets ambushed on their way to bring supplies to Prosperity, a safe haven for the resident survivors. After escaping that sticky situation, you’re pretty much free to explore however you see fit.

Far Cry has always placed heavy emphasis on the villains, and New Dawn doesn’t disappoint. The twins Mickey and Lou serve as your antagonists for this outing. In classic Far Cry tradition, you’ll only be introduced long enough to see them posture about and kill someone briefly before you’re off figuring out how to thwart their plans. You don’t interact with them much through the story, but it’s interesting to see how their ideologies really come into their own over the course of the game. The two’s manic yet serene nature also reminded me a lot of past baddie Vaas. Mickey and Lou also seem to have gotten most of the effort put into their characters. Compared to them, the rest of the game’s entourage comes off pretty standard, or even flat out annoying. This doesn’t detract from the game much though, since story really isn’t the reason you’re playing New Dawn for.

The real attraction here is in the gameplay, and what’s here is pretty fun for a Far Cry title. New Dawn reuses a lot of assets and animations from Far Cry 5, and although it doesn’t push many boundaries, it’s still serviceable enough to be engaging. You’ll still be spending most of your time shooting, driving, and climbing all over irradiated Montana. Gunplay feels good, and you can access anything in your arsenal at a moment’s notice from a quick weapon wheel. You have a bunch of throwable weapons, like knives and molotovs, that you can craft on the fly as well. Do you approach a situation with some stealth, sneaking through tall grass and taking out guards quietly with throwable knives? Or do you barge in, guns blazing with a saw blade launcher and molotovs at the ready? The choice is yours: New Dawn is more than happy to give you options.

"The real attraction here is in the gameplay, and what’s here is pretty fun for a Far Cry title. New Dawn reuses a lot of assets and animations from Far Cry 5, and although it doesn’t push many boundaries, it’s still serviceable enough to be engaging."

Most of the gameplay in New Dawn is in the pursuit of materials. Whether this be from plants, wildlife, or just random junk lying around, all of the objects you pick up serve an important purpose. Materials can be used at workbenches to craft new and more powerful weapons. These weapons come in different tiers, with the higher tiers requiring more materials, which will be required to take down some of the higher tiered enemies later in the game.

If you explore the world, pick up the resources, and complete side missions, you’ll have more materials than you know what to do with. You essentially scavenge for materials, in order to make better weapons, in order to make finding materials easier. The gameplay loop is very clearly a grind, but it’s an enjoyable one at least.

Most of the missions you’ll be playing through will involve liberating an area from hostiles or retrieving an item for an NPC, although you’ll occasionally also be treated to a turret section or Exhibition missions where you have to grab a package and hold out against enemies. Additionally, emergent scenarios will always spring up while you’re exploring Montana. You can barely go five minutes without seeing a tanker of supplies barreling down the road, or a group of survivors fighting around a supply drop. The world of New Dawn feels alive with all the NPCs and wildlife around. And even though these random events repeat themselves far too often, there’s always something to do if you look for it.

You’ll be in charge of growing Prosperity throughout your time in Montana. Upgrading your home base can unlock things like more fast travel locations, increased health, and tougher vehicles. You can find companions in the game who will be happy to accompany you, and these companions can be made stronger at base as well. As you improve life at Prosperity, you’ll notice the residents also becoming more satisfied with their lives. Children will play around and people will start to paint your home base. Although it’s purely cosmetic, it really helps make it feel like you’re making a difference in the lives of these survivors.

"Small decisions make the world of New Dawn seem real, and the attention to detail on display is one of the game’s biggest strengths."

Another thing that New Dawn gets right is the way its look. Montana looks really beautiful, considering it’s a post-nuclear area. Instead of going for a gritty, washed-out apocalyptic vibe, New Dawn paints all the landscapes in neon colors, from the rolling hillsides to the man-made structures. Even the wildlife is affected, tinting the fur of wolves and mutating the whole look of cougars. It’s a pleasant shift, and it demonstrates that things are a lot different from the last time you were here in Montana. There are also other touches that bring the world to life- weapons look like they’re cobbled together and held together with duct tape. The Highwaymen aren’t decked out in military-grade body armor; they’re using beat-up motocross gear. Small decisions like these make the world of New Dawn seem real, and the attention to detail on display is one of the game’s biggest strengths.

If there’s one flaw that holds New Dawn back from being a truly great game, it’s the braindead AI. Although they can hold their own in a firefight, your companions have a lot of pathfinding issues. This can lead to frustrating issues where you get separated from a friendly and have to watch helplessly as they get gunned down from behind a wall. Enemies don’t fare much better. Your foes will constantly get stuck on geometry and will often disregard their own wellbeing in the middle of a firefight just to run out and revive a downed comrade. There was a turret section early on in the game, where I had to hold off enemies closing in on my vehicle. But once I saw my supposed assailants continue to crash into one another, I stopped shooting for the rest of the mission and emerged unscathed from the mission. It’s too bad, because otherwise great set-pieces can be ruined just by incompetent AI.

New Dawn also lets you play through the entire game in online co-op. Although I was not able to try this out, if any of the past games are anything to go by, this game will also be a blast to play with a friend. All of New Dawn’s content seems open enough for another player to fit in just as easily as your computer-controlled helpers do. The thought of running from irradiated bears together with a friend seems too good to pass up.

"Even though it doesn’t radically change the formula from Far Cry 5, New Dawn is still an enjoyable time."

Far Cry New Dawn is a fun time. It’s an enjoyable romp through a beautiful world filled with destruction. Even though it doesn’t radically change the formula from Far Cry 5, it’s still an enjoyable time. While some fans may be disappointed that there wasn’t more of a departure like in previous spin-offs Blood Dragon and Primal, it’s hard to be disappointed with the overall package when the gameplay that is here is so good.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

"You have to offer a really high quality product if you even want to get noticed by the mainstream populous. So how does the most recent outing by Titanfall powerhouse Respawn Entertainment fare?"

Apex Legends is Respawn’s crack at the battle royale genre. You probably know the deal by now: you group up with two other players and drop from a ship onto a large map in order to search for guns and survive until the end of the round. This game takes place in the Titanfall universe, and it’s pretty apparent once you get into the game. You’ll have access to much of the weaponry you became used to in the Titanfall games, and a lot of animations look taken right out of the beloved shooter. You’ll even be able to play as one of those robots you would always see running around in the background.

Which brings us to the characters. One of Apex Legends’ biggest twists to the battle royale formula is the introduction of hero characters. Starting up a game, you pick from a selection of six characters, with two more available for you to unlock. These characters all have their own quirks, from access to a grappling hook to a deployable healing station. While giving players abilities that not all other players don’t have might sound counterintuitive to the whole concept of battle royale, it actually works out really well. No character is given such a powerful tool that they outdo another class outright. Through smart utilization, every class can be a useful asset to a team. Team composition isn’t something that a lot of battle royale games have players manage, and that makes Apex Legends stick out from the pack.

Using abilities is just flat-out fun, and actually did a lot to engage me. No longer would I just be out of luck if someone got to a great gun before me. I could either grapple hook out of there and live to fight another day, or scout the enemies out and sneak around them. Learning to use these abilities in creative ways is when Apex Legends is at its best. While you can easily use a teleportation warp to create a quick escape from trouble, you can also use it to disorient enemies that try to follow you through. These addition wrinkles make it fun to keep playing and experiment with all the different characters.

"While giving players abilities that not all other players don’t have might sound counterintuitive to the whole concept of battle royale, it actually works out really well."

Let’s talk about the gameplay. To those of you familiar with Titanfall, you’ll probably have to adapt to some things you took for granted before. For one, there’s no wall running. Apex Legends is a much more grounded game. You won’t be summoning giant mechs in this title either. You’re still able to scale low walls and slide around down hills or in the midst of combat though. Overall, the game feels as tight as you would expect from a game coming from Respawn. Apex Legends does end up sort of feeling like Titanfall-lite, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun time- it’s just a different set of skills to adapt to.

Shooting in this game feels great as well. All the weapons feel just as good as they did in Titanfall, with tons of feedback with each pull of the trigger. You have tons of options if you can find them, and there’s plenty of gear to pick up around the map as well. Picking up items and sorting through your menus has always been the bane of battle royale titles, especially on consoles, but thankfully, Apex Legends mostly avoids this pitfall. The UI is streamlined and easy to use once you get the hang of it. You can quickly equip items and armor as you find them in the wild without having to manually swap out gear. You always have easy access to your healing equipment, and can open up a quick radial menu in order to select what item you want to use. This system keeps the gameplay from getting bogged down in menus, and does a lot to improve the pacing of a match.

"Apex Legends does end up sort of feeling like Titanfall-lite, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun time- it’s just a different set of skills to adapt to."

However, there are issues present. The map in Apex Legends is also a mixed bag. Starting off with the things the map does right, you’ll be able to engage your opponents in a wide variety of biomes and locales. There’s also a great emphasis on verticality, which sets it apart from other battle royale titles. Like any good battle royale game, you’ll have your choice of where to scavenge. Players can drop into more secluded areas, like the barren and dusty Thunderdome, to start the match slowly without too much fear of other players. Or they can try bum rushing the floating Supply Ship, potentially grabbing killer weapons right at the start of the round, but most likely having to put up with other players along the way.

However, these areas aren’t always the most inspired locations. Too many spots on the map look like little bits and pieces from Titanfall maps that have been ripped out and loosely connected by grassy plains and muddy slopes. Without much to differentiate locales, you’ll be looking at a lot of repetition over your time with the game. While the map does serve its purpose, the lack of identity is really a shame.

Very quickly, I’ll go over the progression system that Apex Legends has in place. After matches, you get points for performing well and and after enough time you can spend them to grab some cosmetic items. As a free-to-play battle royale title, most of your points are going to be going towards these cosmetic items and loot boxes. You’ll be given these loot boxes when you level up, and they’ll include gun skins, winning poses, quips for you character to say, and more. For players who are hooked on this game, the grind to earn another change at a shiny new item will be enough to keep them going. But for most folk, they’ll probably just open up a free loot box or two and get on with their lives.

"The map in Apex Legends is a mixed bag."

Ultimately, Apex Legends is a pretty fun game. While it probably won’t topple the battle royale juggernauts, it’s a fun time to dive into if you’re tired of Fortnite and PUBG. The issues that the game has with its lack of map variety and game modes hold it back from being a truly competitive force in the genre. But there’s enough quality content here for players to dig into if they feel so inclined. If you’re just looking for solid fun and some cool toys to play around with, then Apex Legends will give you what you want.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Kingdom Hearts 3 takes place right after the events of Dream Drop Distance. Having previously failed to prove yourself as a Keyblade Master, you play as Sora as you travel around attempting to get stronger. Along the way, you’ll also try to bring some old friends back into the fight against Xehanort and Organization XIII. In standard Kingdom Hearts fashion, you’ll be exploring a good handful of Disney worlds, like Tangled’s Kingdom of Corona and Hercules’ Olympus, to try and find the answers you seek. While you’re there, you usually end up wrapped in whatever storyline is going on, and help the local Disney heroes solve their problems.

"With the last numbered entry being released at the tail-end of 2005, the topic of Kingdom Hearts 3 has always been on the lips of fans. And now, after delays and developmental woes, Kingdom Hearts 3 is here. So can it even hope to live up to the hype that’s surrounded it?"

The story goes the typical route of front-loading Disney shenanigans at the start before really getting into heavy story stuff at the end of the game. Although your adversaries will show up while you explore the handful of Disney worlds presented to you, they don’t have a huge impact on the story until after all the Disney worlds have been completed. This isn’t a bad way of going about it, since it gives casual fans the Disney action they’ve been promised, and the events at the end of the game are more than enough to satisfy dedicated fans. Kingdom Hearts has a reputation for convoluted storylines, but the developers should be commended for creating a narrative in Kingdom Hearts 3 that can easily be understood by newcomers, but also throws in multiple bones for diehard fans to chew on. For those of you who have been waiting all these years for this game, the entire last five hours of the game are incredibly impactful and should give a lot of closure.

Kingdom Hearts has been contained to portable systems for the past ten-odd years, so we never really got to see the series evolve much in terms of graphical fidelity. And that’s what makes Kingdom Hearts 3 so impressive-looking. The graphics and animations on display here are gorgeous. There’s lots of attention paid to the smallest details of characters, and it does a lot to bring the worlds and characters to life in a way that we haven’t seen before. There are even a few cases where worlds have their own rendering style, from pastel and heavy outlines to near-photorealism.

The worlds in this game are also much different from what we’ve been used to. While in earlier titles, worlds would largely be comprised of segmented rooms connected by loading screens, Kingdom Hearts 3 forgoes that for far more open environments. Right from the outset, worlds are huge. Sprawling locales cover areas that take a sizeable amount of time to traverse, and these worlds are hardly ever interrupted by loading or screen transitions. There are even a few worlds toward the end of the game that wouldn’t feel out of place in an open-world sandbox title.

"While in earlier titles, worlds would largely be comprised of segmented rooms connected by loading screens, Kingdom Hearts 3 forgoes that for far more open environments."

But even with the scope increased, there is still a great amount of detail paid to each world. NPC’s now litter worlds and chatter away in the background. You can now have Donald, Goofy, and the world’s heroes in your party who chat amongst themselves every so often. Your party members will comment on your surroundings, and there are even a few environmental interactables to play around with.

Kingdom Hearts 3’s music is also a standout achievement. You’ll be treated to new and old material everywhere you turn. Each world has its own unique themes, and Yoko Shimomura shows off a wide variety with the instrumentation and styles present here. Hearing old tunes and themes brought back using this title’s soundscape is incredible, and should be quite a treat for older fans. The Skrillex and Hikaru Utada theme also fits in nicely with the electronic opener precedent the series has set. Ultimately, the music of Kingdom Hearts is just as iconic as its characters, and it’s a great benefit that it’s represented here in strong form.

But how is the gameplay in this title? Given the series’ recent obsession with gimmicks in place of refined combat, there has been much talk about how this title would fare. Well, the good news is that Kingdom Hearts 3 harkens back to the style of the past console games, with plenty of twists thrown in. Your strikes are meaty and you can seamlessly combo into powerful magic spells that explode with great spectacle. You start the game out with a pretty basic pool of abilities, but soon enough you’ll get access to combo modifiers and mobility options.

"Given the series’ recent obsession with gimmicks in place of refined combat, there has been much talk about how this title would fare. Well, the good news is that Kingdom Hearts 3 harkens back to the style of the past console games, with plenty of twists thrown in."

Sora has access to tools from almost every single one of his past adventures in Kingdom Hearts 3. You’ll summon friends to your aid just like in the first two games. You’ll cast out Shotlocks and transform weapons like in Birth By Sleep. You’ll Flowmotion all over the place like in Dream Drop Distance. All of the older moves have been balanced for this title too, so they don’t end up breaking the game, with Flowmotion especially receiving a significant re-tweaking.

There are plenty of new toys to mess around with here as well. Amusement attacks will pop up and let you ride Disney attractions to defeat your enemies. You also have grand magic, which are souped-up versions of your basic spells that prompt whenever you combo enough with a certain magic spell. There are tons of other mechanics to engage with as well, like stat-boosting culinary dishes, quick stepping, and rideable mechs in the Toy Story world, so it’s safe to say that you won’t be lacking for variety in your playthrough.

Gummi ships return for this entry as well. You need to traverse space with your ship in order to get from world to world. However, instead of being locked onto a set path, you now choose how you’ll get to your destination. You have an open space to explore for treasures and fight other ships in. Once you enter combat, you’re taken to a separate screen where gameplay plays more like the older titles. Space is an interesting place, and it has enough hidden goodies and crafting material strewn throughout it that it feels like an adventure to traverse.

"Sora has access to tools from almost every single one of his past adventures in Kingdom Hearts 3. You’ll summon friends to your aid just like in the first two games. You’ll cast out Shotlocks and transform weapons like in Birth By Sleep. You’ll Flowmotion all over the place like in Dream Drop Distance. "

The greatest addition that Kingdom Hearts 3 brings to the table is in Keyblade-swapping. With this, you can change out your Keyblades seamlessly during combat and utilize all their different attributes. Each Keyblade has its own stats and transformation moves, and while some of them recycle moves from previous Keyblades, they all serve a unique function. This allows you so much creativity, letting you stock up transformations and cast more powerful magic with certain Keyblades. You also have access to an upgrading system, which helps keep all your Keyblades useful throughout your entire journey. Ultimately, Kingdom Hearts 3 does the seemingly impossible by retaining all of the mechanics of past titles, reining them all in to fit this game, and then adding more on top of it. And despite how that may sound, it ends up working incredibly well.

Although, with everything positive that I’ve said, the game isn’t perfect. Characters and dialogue can sometimes be pretty stilted, and in a game with this many cutscenes, that can end up becoming tedious. There’s also an issue with the storytelling in the Disney worlds. Trying to shove a movie’s plot alongside meaningful gameplay into the three or four hours you’ll spend in each world sometimes creates schizophrenic pacing. Some worlds end up cutting out large parts of the story or not giving seemingly plot-critical characters any relevance to the narrative. Though most worlds handle the split pretty well, there are a few standout examples where you would be completely lost without the backstory of the movie.

The bigger issue in Kingdom Hearts 3 is the lack of challenge throughout much of the game. Amusement attacks and team-up attacks pop up far too often, and usually end up dealing an absurd amount of damage at no cost to the player. That’s not to say that the game is a cakewalk, but you are given so many safety nets that it can be pretty difficult to die. Although you can easily ignore these options, there’s no option to turn off things like the amusement attacks, and they will end up cluttering your screen with their prompts. This is doubly a shame because the combat system here is so good, and there aren’t too many enemies that will really push you to learn the ins-and-outs of it. Hopefully, the harder Critical mode will be patched into the game in the coming months.

"Kingdom Hearts 3 feels like the end of an era."

Kingdom Hearts 3 feels like the end of an era. While it is the end of the Dark Seeker saga, it’s also the end of the long wait for another console Kingdom Hearts title. After so many years, the third numbered entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise is here. So much time has passed and so many new characters have been introduced. And at the end of it all, we got conclusions that we’ve been waiting for and even more questions for the future of the franchise.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Anno 1800 is styled after old-school 4X games, but it still contains modern additions that help reduce the tedium that these games sometimes fall victim to. With so many games in the 4X genre, Anno really needs to have a different flavor in order to stand out. Fortunately, it does just that, and while it’s not perfect yet, it’s definitely heading in the right direction.

"With so many games in the 4X genre, Anno really needs to have a different flavor in order to stand out. Fortunately, it does just that and while it’s not perfect yet, it’s definitely heading in the right direction."

When looking at Anno 1800’s gameplay, it’s pretty standard fare for 4X games. You land in a certain spot, then use the natural resources around you to start a community. You have tons of buildings and trades available to you, from lumber-cutting to sausage-crafting. You’ll have to settle farmers and give them tasks as well as diversions with buildings like pubs and churches. Your population’s happiness also has to be taken into account. You’re given options to reduce or increase the workload they have as well. The higher that goes, the more product you’ll have, but the less happy your townsfolk will be. When they’re the most satisfied they can be, you can upgrade them into workers, and that opens up new buildings you can make.

This is all what you would expect from a 4X game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. Anno 1800 has great presentation, and provides you with new things to learn at a pretty steady pace. I was never stuck in a certain section just waiting for enough money to accumulate or enough resources to get farmed. The initial couple hours I spent with Anno, learning the ins-and-outs of the world, were some of the most fun I had with the title.

There is a tutorial for newcomers, and it’s helpfully integrated into the experience. So instead of sitting you in a practice arena and having you jump through hoops for fifteen minutes, the tutorial prompts present themselves as quests that you need to accomplish while you’re actually creating your community. This allows players to use it for however long they need and then seamlessly turn the messages off with no loss in progress. This is a great addition, but in its current form, it’s pretty minimal. Though an effort to teach players the rules of the game is appreciated, I feel like the studio can go much further. An encyclopaedia of gameplay mechanics that the player can tab through menus to find would be much appreciated. Even with the tutorial, there are just too many buildings, trades, and gameplay mechanics to dip into that aren’t covered. Having all that information in one place for easy consumption would go a long way to giving players all the tools they need to have a fun time in Anno.

"The initial couple hours I spent with Anno, learning the ins-and-outs of the world, were some of the most fun I had with the title."

It wasn’t too long before I could start diving into the tasty new features this title has to offer. New to Anno 1800 are the Zoo and Museum buildings. These are just simple cultural diversions for your citizens, but they open up interesting expeditions where you venture out into the world in order to find new animals and artefacts for your buildings. Collecting as many things as you can is interesting- it ended up tapping into that completionist streak in me. It also adds a unique use for your ship.

Even more so than in other 4X games, the ship is an integral part of your experience. Not only will you find new islands and new resources all over the world, but you’ll also need to send your ship out in order to trade with other players.  The expeditions that I mentioned before are a great addition to Anno. You select your crew and supplies and send a ship out to explore. You’ll be given some text describing your crew’s situation, and you’ll be presented with choices based on the trouble your expedition team has found itself in. Sending a team out only to have members of the crew fall in love with an indigenous people puts you in a hard place; do you tear apart lovers and bring back the loot? Do you try and convince the tribe’s king that you should take the people back to your city? It’s really interesting seeing the turns these expeditions can take.

The ships also tie into Anno 1800 in one other way: combat. Naval combat is your only combat option in this title. This turns out to be a good decision for the game, since you don’t have to concern yourself with the tedium and distraction of training units that are only suitable for war. Aside from ships, you can build guns to protect your coastline and leave the fighting out on the seas. Fighting is not a huge focus in Anno 1800, with the majority of effort being focused on the community-building. As such, while combat is fine for what it is, it’s not going to be the thing that keeps you engaged in Anno. There are also some issues with the pathfinding of ships right now, with them sometimes being unable to decide where to go, but this happens pretty infrequently.

"Fighting is not a huge focus in Anno 1800, with the majority of effort being focused on the community-building. As such, while combat is fine for what it is, it’s not going to be the thing that keeps you engaged in Anno."

While you play, you’ll either run into other players, or they’ll stumble upon you. With the easy-to-use interface, you can interact with these folk, though your interactions are fairly limited. You can compliment them for a bit of a boost in your relationship, or you can lob an insult their way to intentionally sour relations. You can also offer gifts to people you’ve met or accept quests from them. The quest system is shaping up to be a fun one, giving you tasks you need to work at in order to improve relations, instead of solely relying on bribes to keep opponents appeased.

So far, Anno 1800 is shaping up to be a really a good-looking title too. Everything has a pleasant and warm color scheme. The details given to buildings are pretty impressive as well. Seeing people scurrying about your city and chattering amongst themselves makes your community really seem lived in. There’s also a beautiful soundtrack that plays in the background that thankfully doesn’t get on your nerves over long stretches of playing. UI and presentation is also pretty clean and streamlined. Many of your most valuable tools are easily accessible from the bar menu at the bottom of the screen, and it helps to not clutter up the beautiful vistas with pop-up menus.

Now, since this is a early version of the game, it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that there are a few technical issues present. One of the biggest problems that I constantly struggled with was with the overload mechanic. From the very beginning of my play sessions, carts that are supposed to take your goods from the farms and trade buildings wouldn’t ever arrive where they needed to. No matter where I moved the building, the cart just would not leave to bring goods to the warehouse. I also found myself saddled with the quick-menu prompt constantly on my screen. Even when I unlocked it and tried moving it somewhere else, I could never fully get rid of the icon. The team are aware of a few issues in the game, and did make a note to say that they were working on ironing out the kinks before the full release.

"Since this is a early version of the game, it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that there are a few technical issues present."

Anno 1800 is a great time so far. During my time with the game, I was having a lot of fun learning and functioning within the game’s world. Like I said before, building up at the beginning is the most exciting part so far, but Anno 1800 is doing a lot else to keep you invested following that as well. It also looks like it’ll have unique properties that help set it apart from the Civilization titles, the Endless games, and all the other 4X experiences out there- at least when the game works the way it’s supposed to. Personally, I’m hopeful that when Anno 1800 finally releases later on this year, the bugs and balance issues won’t be along for the ride.

The sequel to 2016’s space combat epic, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 has you piloting great warships through the stars and waging war against the forces of Chaos. You’ll be playing through the fall of Cadia in this journey. For fans of the Warhammer universe, you already know how important this moment is. For newcomers, just know that there were millions of warriors involved in this war and that means you’ll get to play as a lot of different races. Story is presented both through in-game cutscenes as well as through beautiful animated cutscenes. The story is pretty typical of the grimdark tone that Warhammer games go for, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less compelling. Seeing characters that you’ve grown attached to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their cause is affecting, if you’re willing to buy into the grandiose dialogue and writing of the story mode.

"The story is pretty typical of the grimdark tone that Warhammer games go for, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less compelling. Seeing characters that you’ve grown attached to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their cause is affecting, if you’re willing to buy into the grandiose dialogue and writing of the story mode."

Graphically, Battlefleet Gothic is pretty good. The ships are detailed and a lot of care was put into making sure the models in-game were consistent with the Warhammer lore. On the other hand, the Tyranid ships look appropriately organic and unsettling, their opens mouths hungering for other sentient life. This is all good stuff and aside from a few wonky particle effects here and there, the visuals are impressive.

Gameplay in Battlefleet Gothic consists of manoeuvring your ships around the play field while engaging in engaging with enemy ships. You can generally win in two ways: either through complete destruction of opposing forces or through capturing set points on the field and accumulating enough points. This opens itself up for multiple playstyles. You can bumrush the team as soon as the match starts and swarm over them, crushing them before they have the chance to get any points and potentially catching them far away from backup. But you also have the option of stalling the enemy with smaller attacks while you send other ships off to capture points. There’s a lot of creativity allowed by these win conditions and it really helps differentiate each battle.

Battles can also include more interesting twists, like meteor showers that will constantly have you relocating your fleet to avoid collision. You also have access to a stealth mechanic, letting you shut off your engines and lie in wait in a clouded area. There’s nothing more satisfying than hiding yourself right next to a point, waiting for your opponent to come by, then lunging out right as they start to make themselves comfortable.

"There’s nothing more satisfying than hiding yourself right next to a point, waiting for your opponent to come by, then lunging out right as they start to make themselves comfortable."

During the campaign mode, there will be three races you’ll play as that all fight for their own purposes and creeds: The Imperium, the Necron, and the Tyranid. These factions all have their own strengths and weaknesses and will force you to adapt to different playstyles. Although some are easier to get used to than others, they are all pretty fun in their own way.

In the campaign mode, you’ll be doing much of your tactical planning from the map screen. Here you’ll be in charge of a race as you set out to take over territory from adjacent races and build up an armada. You maneuver your ships around the map screen, launching into battle with other ships, creating more and laying down traps for invaders to fall into. This mode is really engaging and does a lot to highlight the differences between the races. While the Imperium follow the tried-and-true formula of expanding, building, and defending, the Necron use existing ships to explore enemy territory and unearth lost technology. And then there’s the Tyranid race, which opts out of strategy and instead chooses to consume conquered planets, grow more ships, then move onto the next conquest. All three races have their own flavor and it’s not a slog to go through each campaign due to their differences.

But let’s talk about the races really quick. First up is the Imperium. The Imperium is your standard class. They’re pretty well-rounded and it’s no surprise to know that they act as your introduction to space combat. Their ships are moderately fast, decently bulky, and have access to a good amount of artillery. Although they don’t specialize in anything, they’re an effective jack-of-all-trades race. You’ll have the skills to experiment with all kinds of play-styles with this race and see which one fits you. They act a good entry point into the combat of Battlefleet Gothic.

"During the campaign mode, there will be three races you’ll play as that all fight for their own purposes and creeds: The Imperium, the Necron, and the Tyranid. These factions all have their own strengths and weaknesses and will force you to adapt to different playstyles. Although some are easier to get used to than others, they are all pretty fun in their own way."

The Necron are a little bit different but still similar enough that the skills you learned as the Imperium won’t go to waste. You’ll have access to new abilities and although you can still deal good damage, they aren’t as offensively-focused as the Imperium. Necron ships are slow-moving but also have the ability to instantly teleport a short distance away. The cooldown on this teleportation ability is quicker than you would think, so any effective Necron force should be abusing it as much as possible. There’s also an ability to instantly recall any ships to the location of a central flagship which comes in incredibly handy.  Overall, the Necron are all about quick strikes and disorienting your opponent. Once you strike, your goal is to do good damage, then retreat somewhere else once your enemy gets their bearings.

And then we get to the Tyranid campaign. These organisms are the bane of the systems and you’ll come to understand why as you play through their campaign. Tyranids are all about overwhelming the opponents. These ships have the ability to quickly rush ahead and can lunge at any point. Tyranid ships always start out their turns in stealth mode and take no damage from flying right through asteroid belts or plasma storms. This means that there is almost no direction safe from a Tyranid attack. You’ll usually find yourself lying in wait for prey to happen by before you strike. You can send out a swarm to eat away at ships nearby or even launch your tongue out to catch opposing ships and bring them in closer to your forces. You’ll feel how gleeful it can be to have an opposing force on the ropes, trying to escape you. Tyranids are a lot of fun, is what I’m saying.

You won’t be limited to these three classes though. In the multiplayer aspect of the game, you can experiment with twelve races, each with their own sub-factions and perks. Each class brings something new to the table and it’s fun to experiment with the different playstyles they can provide. You can have a skirmish with another player or team up for some two-versus-two action. Multiplayer is set up like the campaign battles, with the win conditions either being through destruction or accumulation of points. This is where a lot of your playtime will be spent as you try out each race. Yet even this mode isn’t perfect as there are still balancing issues that were brought over from the first title. The Tau are still a force to be reckoned with in this game and Tyranids can easily overwhelm inexperienced players and steamroll through a fight. But aside from some wonky balancing, multiplayer is a worthwhile time and can easily suck you in for multiple hours.

"In the multiplayer aspect of the game, you can experiment with twelve races, each with their own sub-factions and perks. Each class brings something new to the table and it’s fun to experiment with the different playstyles they can provide."

As fun as the game is though, it’s not without its bugs. During my time, I ran into a few hiccups and a few crashes. There were a few points during play where my cursor would stop working, forcing me to toggle full-screen and windowed mode until it worked again. During the campaign, scripted events would also end up not loading, preventing me from progressing further and forcing me to quit to the main menu. There were also smaller issues, like sound clips not playing or ships refusing to move occasionally. The team at Tindalos Interactive are aware of a few issues and are working to fix them, but I can understand if the lack of polish is a turn-off for players.

Overall, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is a great game for fans of the franchise. And for those sitting on the fence, if the concept of guiding a fleet of warships across space, slowly taking out the opposition and building up stronger and stronger forces appeals to you, then this game may just be the one for you. Although the gameplay of Battlefleet Gothic won’t appeal to everyone, those that it does resonate with will find a unique experience from other space combat titles on the market.

This game was reviewed on PC.