This arena shooter subgenre (more commonly known as boomer shooters) is once again starting to garner mainstream popularity with the likes of Shadow Warrior and Wolfenstein modernizing the genre while returning to their roots. On the other hand, indies such as the likes of Dusk have continually strived to retain the purity of these original experiences to varying degrees of critical and commercial success.

Developer Dirigo Games’ Kingdom of the Dead fits somewhere in between, retaining some of the defining elements of the games that inspired it all while incorporating a few neat touches of its own. It might not always stick the landing due to poor presentation and other technical inefficiencies, but it might still be worth experiencing for those who generally have an interest in the genre.

"It might not always stick the landing due to poor presentation and other technical inefficiencies, but it might still be worth experiencing for those who generally have an interest in the genre."

Kingdom of the Dead sees players controlling Agent Chamberlain, a former professor who has now taken up a job in a top-secret government organization fighting otherworldly creatures. You see, there’s been a long-standing secret fight between the living and the dead – and as the army general of the Gatekeepers, it’s your job to fight these beasts and destroy the Gates of the Dead. The story is pretty threadbare and never evolves throughout the course of the game, and it’s great that the game never takes itself seriously. Of course, Kingdom of the Dead doesn’t exactly need to deliver in the narrative department – since most players will likely be in it for the action.

Unsurprisingly, gameplay is king, and this is where the game delivers for the most part. Chamberlain’s office acts as a base of operations for the campaign, allowing you to select missions from a file on your table. Each mission involves arriving at the location, killing dozens of undead, defeating the level boss, striking the Undead Gate with your talking sword, and making an escape on your trusty horse. The game design rarely veers away from this blueprint for the entirety of its runtime.

"Unsurprisingly, gameplay is king, and this is where the game delivers for the most part."

The game is extremely fast-paced and will require you to constantly be making tons of micro-decisions in a moment’s notice and quickly act upon them. Dirigo Games has nailed the game feel in the movement department, and as a result – Chamberlain feels extremely responsive and nimble to control. The gunplay also feels top-notch in a similar vein, though the sound design leaves a lot to be desired as weapon sounds lack the oomph that’s needed to make them feel powerful.

That said, each weapon plays a distinct role in the gameplay proceedings. For instance, the starting revolver is great for popping Undead heads from medium distances while the machine gun is great for crowd control whereas the hunting rifle is great for sniping airborne enemies. The combat loop isn’t as thoughtful as say, Wolfenstein, but Kingdom of the Dead does a great job mixing different kinds of enemies pretty well with each encounter to keep the gameplay from getting stale. As such, players will need to play to each weapons’ strengths and be tactical about which enemies to dispatch first in order to survive the game’s toughest encounters.

Bosses, on the other hand, remain serviceable at best and disappointing at worst. While one or two of the bosses can offer a decent challenge, even that challenge mostly arises from juggling your attention between regular enemies and the arena boss. Other times, they can be easily defeated by just pumping red hot lead into their cranium until they fall down (and trust me, it’s just as easy as it sounds).

"Bosses, on the other hand, remain serviceable at best and disappointing at worst"

Kingdom of the Dead features a total of 10 distinct locales, ranging from a haunted house to a rusty railyard to a spooky forest and many more. Level variety is decent across the board, with some even having their level-specific traversal challenges to shake things up. Much like the games that inspired it, most of the game’s encounters take place in large open arenas featuring multiple levels of elevation and requiring players to constantly keep moving and shooting at all times to make it out alive.

That said, progression through these levels remains a linear affair with one strict path and an objective marker clearly indicating where you need to go so you don’t get lost running in circles looking for keycards to progress – which is a positive in my book. Well-placed checkpoints do a great job of ensuring that you are not repeating huge chunks of the level on every playthrough.

One weird inconsistency that I found with regards to the progression is how health upgrades work. If you play through multiple levels in one sitting, all the health upgrades collected during one level (which maxes out at 5 hearts) will carry on forward to the next level. However, if you reload your save from a cold boot of the game – you lose all of that health and have to start searching every nook and cranny in search of extra health all over again. Weapons, on the other hand, have a consistent progression loop wherein you essentially start a level with just the revolver – and you have to collect additional weapons over the course of the level only to lose it all when it ends. This isn’t a criticism of the system by any means but remains a point that’s worth mentioning nevertheless.

"Level variety is decent across the board, with some even having their level-specific traversal challenges to shake things up."

Kingdom of the Dead features a distinct monochrome art style that looks like a pen-and-ink painting alongside a synth-heavy soundtrack. Despite this novelty, Kingdom of the Dead‘s presentation doesn’t stand out in any particular way, rather giving way to another frequent annoyance of inconsistent enemy visibility as dark-colored goons will keep shooting from dimly-lit environments making it pretty hard to spot them. This is further accentuated by a frequently occurring bug where enemies can clip into walls but still be able to hurl projectiles at you while you can’t obviously damage them. Players can change the color-palette to suit their liking, but it doesn’t do much to alleviate these issues in a tangible manner either.

Kingdom of the Dead isn’t the most technically sound of games, despite its limited scope. In addition to the enemy clipping issue, I encountered constant frame drops even after playing on a PC well above recommended specs. I tried switching on V-Sync to help with these issues, but more often than not the game wouldn’t apply those settings. Additionally, I also encountered two game-breaking bugs (without going into spoiler territory) that required me to complete an entire late-game level without hitting any checkpoints. I encountered another bug in the game’s final boss fight, where I would instantly die after draining the boss’ health for seemingly no reason; making it impossible to witness the game’s ending. 

"I encountered constant frame drops even after playing on a PC well above recommended specs."

Getting through the entirety of Kingdom of the Dead‘s levels took me just under 5 hours. Those wanting to get more out of the game could replay levels on higher difficulties, which increases the enemy presence and puts additional objectives such as obtaining a hidden collectible (which are optional in easier difficulties). All in all, it’s a pretty short experience – which might be a factor that interested folks should consider before making a purchase. The lack of any multiplayer game modes also feels like a major missed opportunity, given its inspirations and otherwise solid mechanics.

Kingdom of the Dead’s poor visual presentation coupled with lackluster bosses and game-breaking bugs mars down the game’s many strengths by a significant margin. Kingdom of the Dead might end up appealing to fans wanting to relive the glory days of Quake, but even so – it isn’t anything particularly exceptional.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Weird West

Weird West is WolfEye Studios’ first title but its creators – Raphaël Colantonio and Julien Roby of Dishonored fame – are no stranger to the immersive sim genre. Set in the American Frontier where the Wild West meets the supernatural, it tells the stories of five different characters, each with their own goals, from bounty hunter Jane Bell who seeks her husband to Nell Bitterleaf, a future-seer who wants to change “what’s coming.” Along with having the freedom to play how one chooses – either honorably or killing everyone they see – the choices made will ripple through future playthroughs since each character is played one after the other. Another twist is that death is permanent – you may encounter a zombified version of a character while playing as another. Weird West is out on January 11th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and is shaping up rather well.

Monster Hunter Rise (PC)

Monster Hunter Rise is finally releasing for Steam after almost a year on the Nintendo Switch. Despite the new setting of Kamura Village, new NPCs and new mechanics like the Wirebug, it features many of the same essentials that fans have come to love. The 14 weapon trees are here, this time with new Wirebug moves and skills. Along with various returning monsters like Anjanath, Rathian, and Tobi-Kadachi, it features lots of cool newcomers like Magnamalo, Goss Harag, Somnacanth and many more.

On PC, Monster Hunter Rise supports resolutions up to 4K, an unlocked frame rate and HDR along with ultrawide monitor support. All of the post-launch updates, from new monsters like Crimson Glow Valstrax to collaborations with Sonic the Hedgehog and Street Fighter, will also be available on day one. The jury’s still out on multiplayer but if you enjoyed Monster Hunter World and want something new, then Monster Hunter Rise should be perfect when it launches on January 12th for PC.

God of War (PC)

It’s taken a lot longer than Monster Hunter Rise but God of War is coming to PC on January 14th. Initially launched for PS4 in 2018, it sees Kratos undertaking a journey with his son Atreus, starting from Midgard. Along the way, they’ll battle numerous mythical foes, square up against the Valkyries, converse with the World Serpent, and run into figures like Baldur and Freya. Along with utilizing a more grounded combat system with new weapons like the Leviathan Axe, God of War also features larger environments teeming with secrets to discover. The PC version includes 4K resolution support, unlocked framerates, improved screen space reflections and higher resolution shadows, GTAO and SSDO, Nvidia DLSS and Reflex support and ultrawide monitor support. It also supports DualShock 4 and DualSense with fully customizable key bindings.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction

Following multiple delays over the years, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction releases on January 20^th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Google Stadia. As a member of REACT, players can choose from 18 different Operators – with pretty much everyone similar to their Rainbow Six Siege versions – and battle the Archaeans in four different regions across 12 maps. Each mission consists of three maps with each having a random objective (out of a pool of 13), whether it’s saving a hostage or defending against Archaeans. Upon completing the objective, the team can either extract or venture into the next map which will be more difficult. Along with the Archaeans, there’s also the deadly Sprawl which spreads indiscriminately and can spawn new foes if not destroyed. Beat the mission and reap the rewards, like upgrading your Operator’s various abilities and tools, and then take on even tougher challenges.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Game Freak’s next big Pokemon title is making a number of big changes to the standard formula. Set in the Hisui region, which is akin to 19^th century Japan, it’s composed of large 3D environments that can be freely explored (though not open world, its various zones are interconnected). You can now capture Pokemon by throwing PokeBalls at them while exploring, or seamlessly unleash your own Pokemon to do battle, which is still turn-based but allows for multiple actions in one turn. Pokemon can also utilize Agile and Strong Styles to prioritize speed and strength accordingly in battles (which the trainer themselves can now take damage in). On top of the new Alpha Pokemon, Wardens, expanded exploration and more, Pokemon Legends: Arceus looks to be the biggest game in the series yet. It’s out on January 28^th for the Nintendo Switch.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

The Uncharted series finally comes to PS5 on January 28^th (and later for PC) courtesy of Iron Galaxy Studios. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection includes Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in one package for $49.99 with three different modes – Fidelity which provides native 4K and targets 30 FPS; Performance for a 60 FPS frame rate; and Performance+ which offers 120 FPS at 1080p resolution. Spatial 3D audio, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are also supported along with fast load times. But best of all is that current owners of either game, whether physical or digital, can upgrade to the remastered collection for just $10.

Blackwind

If you can’t get enough of mech games, especially top-down isometric action titles, Blackwind may be worth a look. Releasing on January 20^th for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, it stars James Hawkins who’s trapped inside of a prototype Battle Frame. Exploring the surface of Medusa-42, he battles the bug-like Raknos in search of his father. In terms of play-styles, one can engage in long-range shooting or hack and slash melee combat while utilizing finishers to slay the Raknos. Various skills and skins can be equipped to customize one’s frame and there’s even support for local co-op.

Rugby 22

If Big Ant Studios could make a comeback with Cricket 22, then why not Eko Software’s Rugby? Announced this past July, Rugby 22 is slated to release in January for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Very little is currently known aside from having “stacked club rosters” and national teams but the developer promises improvements to the AI along with a new difficulty mode. If nothing else, it should be better than Rugby 20 (hopefully).

Ikai

There are a number of intriguing horror games that fly under the radar nowadays and Endflame’s Ikai is no exception. It’s a first person title based on Japanese folklore with various yokai out to make your life miserable. The story centers on Naoko, a priestess in the mountains who quickly comes face to face with all kinds of evil spirits. With no combat and relying on slow realistic movement, your choices are being stealthy or attempting to flee. Bits of puzzle solving and drawing seals arise but for the most part, you’re unraveling more about Naoko and the spirits while attempting to survive. Ikai releases in January for PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Kingdom of the Dead

Another relatively unknown horror title, Kingdom of the Dead is developed by Dirigo Games which contributed to the excellent Dread X Collection. Its newest title is a first person shooter but with a monochromatic pen and ink style while the gameplay is akin to a retro shooter. As Agent Chamberlain, your mission is to defeat Death, venturing across eight different missions and slaying over 22 different types of enemies to do so. Bosses, difficulty settings for each level (which each add unique goals), cheat codes, Endless mode – it’s all included and coming to Steam on January 26^th.