Developed by Bithell Games (which recently released Tron: Catalyst to above-average reviews), Hex features an original story starring the infamous Baba Yaga himself. While Keanu Reeves doesn’t lend his voice, you can look forward to actors Lance Reddick and Ian McShane reprising their characters.

Though a reason for the game’s delisting wasn’t revealed, it could be due to licensing costs. John Wick Hex launched in 2019 for PC via the Epic Games Store and eventually released for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam. It garnered some positive reviews but ultimately achieved Metascores in the 70s. Check out our review for more details – we also gave it a seven out of ten.

Which is fine, if not a little constraining at times. Just like Identity, there is a core mystery that its protagonist, Exo, needs to solve. It all starts when the courier program is delivering packages, ignoring the steadily increasing glow of their final delivery. Common sense eventually prevails as they toss it into the intersection, triggering an explosion that knocks them unconscious. Next thing you know, Exo is in the Core’s detention facility, being interrogated by the antagonistic Conn and charged with an attack they had no idea about. One trip to the Disc Wars arena without any combat expertise, and it’s back to the past, courtesy of the Glitch Catalyst.

"Combat in TRON: Catalyst is fairly serviceable – you have the hacking and slashing, a parry button, and the ability to dodge roll. Throw your Identity Disc at enemies or ricochet it off walls."

Somehow, the explosion granted Exo the ability to loop back to previous moments in the story and potentially change the outcome. It’s similar to time travel in that other programs don’t retain their memories, and as such, conversations are like deja vu, which isn’t particularly new in the visual novel space. Where TRON: Catalyst differs is in the data that Exo can carry around in their Identity Disc and the shortcuts unlocked through exploration. For example, you might need to speak to a program named Vega, who watches from the stands in the Arena but who isn’t present after your fight is over. The only way to access the area which grants access to the stands is by participating in the fight.

By finding a shortcut, you can loop back to the beginning and go directly to the stands to speak to Vega and try to find a solution to your predicament. Upon escaping and exploring the larger Arq Grid, other shortcuts will provide more post-loop opportunities. There is some slight confusion with the formula, at least at one point. To infiltrate the Core and obtain some access codes, Exo joins as a recruit but must first complete four tasks. One of those tasks involves taking a glove as proof to the soldiers, which won’t carry over if you loop. This is obviously in place to prevent you from picking fights with Core members, triggering a citywide alert where they attack on sight.

However, one task pretty much forces you to goad the Core into a fight, or else you can’t access a mechanic’s garage and steal her blueprints. Once the task is complete, however, you can loop back and complete those tasks as if nothing happened. What happened to that glove? Is it now magically with the Core member in charge of your tasks? Is it just the record of you giving the glove that they’re interested in and not the actual piece? It continues to baffle me, but my only other problem with the looping is how limiting it feels in where you can go back to.

Catalyst’s dialogue briskly moves the plot along, though some jargon may be lost on the non-TRON fans. I actually quite enjoyed the voice-acting all around, particularly for Conn and Vega. The former delivers on the “corrupt cop” act without going overboard, while the latter is a surprising mix of cunning and calculating with understated charisma. Exo didn’t particularly strike me as a compelling protagonist, especially when interacting with other programs in the Grid, but they’re solid enough. I was particularly impressed with some of the NPCs encountered in the world – they can have extensive dialogue trees and interactions that shine more light on their backstories, motivations, and feelings, even if their overall roles are fairly diminished.

It almost makes me wish that Bithell Games went with another visual novel rather than the isometric action game route. Combat in TRON: Catalyst is fairly serviceable – you have the hacking and slashing, a parry button, and the ability to dodge roll. Throw your Identity Disc at enemies or ricochet it off walls. With upgrades, you can bounce the Disc off multiple enemies with a single throw and even kick it back with a well-timed parry, providing an entertaining impromptu game of Pong if you’re far enough away. It’s even more hilarious when dealing with enemies who can’t move past a certain point, unintentional as it may be.

"As it stands, Catalyst may warrant playing if you’re a fan of the universe. Those seeking a more well-rounded experience or even a compelling time-looping mechanic may want to try the demo first before jumping in."

Unfortunately, melee attacks don’t feel as impactful as I would like, and once you’re in the middle of a combo, it’s almost impossible to cancel it for a parry. Some enemies also have very odd parry windows, which activate as soon as the attack begins and feel awkward to react to. It doesn’t make combat difficult by any means, but it made me wonder why I’m bothering to parry at all when a three-hit combo can capably stun smaller foes, and the dodge roll is great for avoiding damage. The game mixes things up with other types of enemies, but they’re not really enough to encourage a wider array of tactics. Combat quickly became tedious and repetitive as I wished for more punch and pizzazz to the encounters.

Some of the story objectives could also use some work. I’m fine with punching my way through Core soldiers to try and extract a data broker (less so when they tell me that they don’t need an extraction, thanks). But the whole deal about completing tasks to join the Core offers little more than backtracking through the Grid and engaging in tedious combat (for the most part). At least Exo has a Lightcycle to make things faster. You can even deploy Light Walls and run over enemies.

Beyond the voice acting and writing, TRON: Catalyst’s other strength is nailing the aesthetic of its world. The sleek lighting and reflective roads, especially during the rain, look great, even if the animations and character models aren’t super-impressive. The character portraits in conversations are 2D, and while they look fine on their own, TRON: Identity’s models look more vibrant and alive. As for the music, there was only one track that really stuck out while escaping from the Core during a citywide alert, mostly because it reminded me of Daft Punk’s Derezzed. Much of the rest didn’t resonate.

I liked many of the ideas that TRON: Catalyst had to offer, and even if it’s not the best, the story made me want to keep going if only to learn more about the Glitch and the world as a whole. However, the gameplay didn’t serve as the strongest motivator, whether it was the repetitive combat or many of the main story tasks. Bithell Games has delivered some pretty compelling sci-fi stories thus far (Subsurface Circular is well worth the look), and I can’t help but wonder if sticking to that formula would have been more beneficial. As it stands, Catalyst may warrant playing if you’re a fan of the universe. Those seeking a more well-rounded experience or even a compelling time-looping mechanic may want to try the demo first before jumping in.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The new campaign offers fresh locations, from a Hive City to the jungle, with the option for branching paths. Various factions will field new enemies, but you get new weapons to even the odds. Enemies become stronger as the campaign progresses, so you must keep your wits about you.

Also, unlike the first game, a Navigation Guide is now available from launch, making it easier to progress through levels and find the action. Unfortunately, it will be somewhat of a wait, as Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 launches in 2026 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Stay tuned for more details and updates.

In the meantime, check out Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition, launching on June 10th for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It’s a remaster of the first title with visual improvements and all previously released content.

Aside from the new additions like new enemies and modes, how will Monster Train 2 up the ante from its predecessor?

Monster Train 2 (MT2) is all about improving on every aspect of the first game. In addition to five new clans – each with new gameplay mechanics and strategic possibilities – one of our major new features is customizable Pyre Hearts. The heart of the Pyre powers your train and is what you must keep safe to survive to the end of a run. In MT2, there are over 10 different Pyre Hearts to unlock, each with different stats and gameplay mechanics to add more strategic depth to runs.

"Monster Train 2 is all about improving on every aspect of the first game."

What are some examples of how the new card types will interact with each other?

MT2 adds two new card types: Equipment and Room cards. Equipment cards are applied directly to your units and empowers them with various abilities. Room cards enhance a specific room in the train for the duration of the current battle. Both types of cards can be used in parallel because they affect different parts of game – units and rooms – but only one Equipment card can be equipped on a unit and only one Room card can be installed in a room.

How exactly will Endless Mode work in Monster Train 2? What kind of difficulty scaling can we expect to see?

We see Endless Mode as a dessert on top of the main course (runs). The player can enter Endless Mode if they win the run, continuing into a series of infinite battles, creating an opportunity to see just how far your deck can go. Enemies start at a challenge level around matching the end of a run and scale up from there as you make forward progress. Between each battle the player must pick a positive boon and a negative one to keep things interesting. We keep track of your best Endless Mode statistics in our Logbook so you can continue to try to improve on your records!

How have other similar card games affected the design process for Monster Train 2?

The development team are big fans of non-digital CCGs like Magic: The Gathering, which obviously uses a mix of spells and units as its core combat mechanics, as well as Hearthstone‘s PvE draft modes which feature a rapid rate of deck drafting. Of course, there’s also Slay the Spire which demonstrated that there was an audience for this sort of game and has the idea of passive items that give bonuses, as well the first breakout digital drafting roguelike, Dream Quest – which had our lead designer hooked over a long Christmas break.

"Of course, there’s also Slay the Spire which demonstrated that there was an audience for this sort of game"

How will the new clans in Monster Train 2 differentiate themselves from what we saw in the original Monster Train?

Each of the new clans has new mechanics not seen in the first game, both in terms of the types of status effects they employ and their utilization of Equipment and Room cards. As an example, the Banished clan feature in our demo can grant units a way to fly to any position in the train. This works via another new feature, Unit Abilities, where individual units have activated abilities with a cooldown.

Are there any plans for post-launch content for Monster Train 2 in the form of expansions?

The honest answer is that it is going to depend on how well the game sells, but we have a lot of ideas and hope to be able to support the game post-launch with content updates.

Can you give us an example of what we can expect from the new random events in Monster Train 2?

MT2 features a wide variety of new random events that can occur at “Celestial Alcoves” during runs. Many of them have new mechanics and choices to consider in terms of positive benefits and periodic negative trade-offs. Some of our events include some surprise characters from other games that the dev team are fans of. While I can’t announce specifically what those are at this time, I think they are really cool additions to Monster Train.

Are there any plans to potentially bring some kind of multiplayer mode to Monster Train 2 down the line?

Monster Train 2 has asynchronous leaderboard based multiplayer modes, like the Daily Challenge, where you can try to score higher than other players. We have no plans for any synchronous multiplayer modes currently.

"Monster Train 2 has asynchronous leaderboard based multiplayer modes"

What kind of release window are you looking at for Monster Train 2?

Very soon! Monster Train 2 will release May 21, 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch, and Xbox Series S|X. We’re very excited for everyone to play it.

As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?

Overall, new tech is always interesting to me, so I think it’s great that Sony has brought new capabilities to developers and customers. Monster Train 2 isn’t a particularly graphics-intensive game in terms of compute demand (though it looks good I think!) so the PS5 Pro’s enhanced GPU capabilities don’t make a significant impact on this game. However, for games that can utilize it, I think it’s great.

What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?

It looks like an interesting technology to help improve framerates in games that are really pushing the GPU to the limits. It won’t benefit Monster Train 2, which is not a demanding game on the GPU.

What resolution and frame rates will the game target on the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PS5 Pro?

I may sound like a broken record here, but as a strategy game without significant demands on the GPU, we haven’t put a lot of time into thinking about this. The game runs at the native resolution of the device it is plugged into and aims to run at the refresh rate supported by the device.

Do you have any plans to launch the game on the Switch 2?

We have nothing to announce regarding Switch 2 currently.

Alongside the release date, the new trailer for TRON: Catalyst also gave us a look at some of its gameplay, which includes various aspects from exploring a digital town on a Light Cycle, to taking on enemies with the Identity Disc. The trailer also gave us a look at what appears to be a time rewinding ability that allows the player to take on enemies in a more strategic fashion.

Announced back in October, TRON: Legacy will put players in the shoes of Exo, who has to take on the Arq Grid’s overlords. Along the way, Exo will have to make use of their Identity Disc and a power called the Glitch to make progress.

TRON: Legacy will also make use of rogue-lite elements in its gameplay, along with metroidvania elements like alternate routes and hidden locations opening up as players explore more of the Arq Grid.

The title is a sequel of sorts to 2023’s TRON: Identity, which was also developed by Bithell Games. The title made use of a visual novel-styled format to tell its stories, while also having players look for clues in the environment. Most of the gameplay revolved around solving puzzles.

TRON: Identity is available on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Featuring five new clans, players embark on a journey to take back Heaven from the Titans and prevent the world’s destruction. Each has unique playstyles, and you’ll once again have to space out units across three train floors to succeed. There are new Room and Equipment Cards, with the former providing boosts and the latter granting bonuses to units.

A new hub, the Covenant Outpost, also awaits while players can equip Pyre Hearts to mix up the gameplay. Those hoping for more can complete challenges and activate Mutators to earn new cosmetics. If that wasn’t enough, there are Daily Challenges, the Celestial Alcoves with random events, and Endless Mode.

Monster Train 2 doesn’t have a release date, but you can try out the demo on PC via Steam.

The setting should be familiar to those who played last year’s TRON: Identity, though its gameplay focuses more on isometric combat. The Identity Disc is your weapon, which can be parried and ricocheted off enemies. However, you also fight on Light Cycles and unlock new abilities with Data Shards.

Based on the press release, TRON: Catalyst seems to employ rogue-lite elements with “glitches” causing time loops in the system. Alternate routes and hidden locations open up as you navigate the Arq Grid. If it’s anything like Hades, expect an evolving narrative based on the success of different runs.

TRON: Catalyst is out in 2025. Stay tuned for more details on its gameplay in the meantime.