"The setting does complement the experience, for sure, but our writing always puts the characters first so we think more of that coming-of-age side will seep through the stories of and interactions between characters."

Until Then’s part-retro, part-modern aesthetic is an instantly striking one, and it’s definitely looking like one of the game’s bigger highlights. How did you land on this look for the game?

Before development began, I was very inspired by pixel art in general as a medium. When I saw The Last Night with its innovative use of pixel art in 3D space and gorgeous graphics, it pretty much set into stone the unique look I was looking for.

Until Then is promising some very interesting things with its setting, from how the world is reeling from a recent catastrophe to its Philippine-inspired locations and culture. What inspired the game’s setting, and how will those unique elements come together in service of the story?

Besides wanting to make a game that represents our country, having a core team of all Filipinos, our youth and our own experiences growing up here shaped the environments in the game. Though honestly, the story, generally speaking, is one that can take place anywhere, which is by intention since we want to tell a story that will strike a chord with everyone. However, we do have specific elements sprinkled in like Filipino pop references, cultural and local stuff, and we think this adds a unique charm and personality to the story and the game as a whole.

A coming-of-age high school story always seems rife for great emotional, narrative depth, and that seems to be at the core of the story that Until Then is telling. How much of that will be through the setting, and how much will be done through more personal and intimate stories between characters?

In our writing, it’s definitely more character-driven than, say, setting-driven. The setting does complement the experience, for sure, but our writing always puts the characters first so we think more of that coming-of-age side will seep through the stories of and interactions between characters.

How much of an emphasis will the game place on choice-and-consequence mechanics? How will the story be impacted by players’ actions?

Actually, not much, and that’s by design. Some choices may have some sort of effect that’s just plain fun or just to make the world feel a little more alive, but in the end, it’s the sort of story that puts the authors’ intentions first so we can better represent the themes we’re going for.

"Some choices may have some sort of effect that’s just plain fun or just to make the world feel a little more alive, but in the end, it’s the sort of story that puts the authors’ intentions first so we can better represent the themes we’re going for."

It also looks like social media in particular will be an important element of the game. Can you tell us how it’s implemented mechanically speaking, and how it ties into the storytelling?

Mechanically, it’s simple. The phone and social media show up when we feel like it will do service to the story. Without spoiling anything, one of my favorite uses of the phone is where it makes you (and the protagonist) feel infinitely more lonely despite living in an increasingly connected world. Another favorite use of mine is how we tell more about the characters, more than dialogue alone can, through what they post online and their typing mannerisms.

What can you tell us about Until Then’s minigames? How varied will the game’s collection of minigames be, and what has your overall approach been while designing them?

Pretty varied, ranging from our own mundane experiences (like buying a train ticket) to gamified cultural things (like videoke machines, which Filipinos are obsessed with). As a story-rich game, these minigames start their life in our screenplay drafts when we think they service that part of the story in some meaningful (or in a just-for-fun) way.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Until Then be?

Around 15-20 hours.

The launch trailer for Hammerwatch 2 revolves around showcasing the varied setting of the game, which players will end up exploring and fighting their way through in their efforts to help King Roland’s resistance against Blight the Horrible and his dragon army.

Hammerwatch 2 was announced back in April. Crackshell has promised improved gameplay over its predecessor. Players will be able to pick from five character classes: Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard, and Warlock. Players can also team up with three other players to play the game in co-op.

While Hammerwatch 2 is out now on PC, the game is also slated to make its way on to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch at a later date.

Double Dragon Gaiden’s primary objective is to honor the tradition of classic arcade-style beat ‘em ups. With that said, Gaiden has a distinctly different aesthetic from its predecessors opting for a far more exaggeratively cartoony approach with character heads that are nearly the same size as their bodies. The pixelated design is fun but hardly distinguishable from other modern pixelated side-scrollers. Truthfully, fans may feel that this is visually all too familiar with games like Scott Pilgrim and River City Girls that actually do it much better. As a result, Gaiden’s art-style feels remarkably bland. It’s not horrible, but it certainly isn’t memorable.

"Gaiden’s art-style feels remarkably bland. It’s not horrible, but it certainly isn’t memorable."

With that said, the onus is on the gameplay to truly elevate this title in the eyes of genre fans. Gaiden focuses on a more youthful version of the franchise duo, Billy and Jimmy Lee. These two fighters alongside their law enforcement friend Marian, their mentor Uncle Matin, and a host of unlockable characters are tasked by the Mayor with quelling the threat of four deadly gangs on the streets of a post-apocalyptic 1990s version of New York City. You can tackle any of these four missions in whichever order you choose. You are able to select two characters that you can switch out via a tag-team system during your adventures. This tag-team operation enables you to manage your health. While your life bar depletes, there is a blue shade within the life bar that shows you how much life your character can recover if he (or she) is tagged out of the fight and rests. This is a pretty neat mechanic that encourages you to switch between two characters. Each character has their own distinctive move sets, stats, and special abilities. So, this method of play encourages players to shake things up as they move through each mission.

The combat is the button-mashing extravaganza that you’d expect from a beat ‘em up. However, with an incredible showing from modern beat ‘em ups like Streets of Rage 4, game development has improved on this classic mode of play by offering each fighter in these games more options than a simple single or dual button smash. However, in this regard, Gaiden feels hollow, not fully embracing this expansion as seen by its siblings within the genre. You can grapple enemies with one button while punching and kicking with another. A third button performs special moves with a few variations depending on which direction you’re using during the action. But this seems to be the extent of the combat aside from picking up weapons.

Playing as Uncle Matin or Marian act as an “easy mode” of sorts as Matin delivers heavy damage with each punch and Marian’s primary action is a firearm enabling her to attack most enemies from a distance without getting in harm’s way. When you create your tag-team partnership, you can mix and match between the martial arts, brawler, and shooter play types. But seriously, Marin really makes things dull and rather breezy with her overpowered attack situation. Her big special maneuver is a rocket launcher which has a wide splash damage spread and instantly knocks out casual enemies. This makes it supremely easy for her to obtain “crowd control” bonuses which we’ll get to in a minute. All of this is to say that the fighters themselves aren’t balanced which very well may be an intentional move on the developer’s part for the sake of added difficulty options.

"You can grapple enemies with one button while punching and kicking with another. A third button performs special moves with a few variations depending on which direction you’re using during the action. But this seems to be the extent of the combat aside from picking up weapons."

The highlight of Gaiden is playing co-op with a friend. I played the entirety of the campaign with my son and often, we found opportunities for our attack strategies to complement one another. For instance, I previously discussed the “crowd control” boost. You receive a bonus health item every time you take out 3 or more enemies with one special attack. The more enemies you take out, the better the health item is. When we were in need of health, one of us could switch to Marin and blast a group of enemies with the rocket launcher to obtain the health boosts we needed. As you progress through levels, you earn money that you can either spend on stat or attack boosts at the end of a mission or save to buy a revive if you die. Here there are opportunities for you to pool the money together and buy the boosts your co-op team needs the most.

For every bright spot in Gaiden, however, a misstep exists. Often I found the characters’ movement speed slow and clunky. Of course, genre fans might argue that this is the case with many beat ‘em ups. However, it felt like a true hindrance here. Sometimes, I’d miss a jump and fall off a ledge losing precious health thanks to an awkward movement speed or what felt like a disconnect between my visual judgment of where the edge of a platform is versus where the ledge would actually end underneath my feet. Additionally, some common enemy combos felt entirely unfair. For instance, if you get caught in a hail of bullets by one enemy that carries a pistol, the final shot could knock you back off a cliff if you’re next to one. That entire string of damage would take more than half of your life if you find yourself in that unlucky position.

"The highlight of Gaiden is playing co-op with a friend."

At the end of the day, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons does what it sets out to do – provide a capable couch co-op beat ‘em up for fans of the classic NES and SNES titles within the franchise. Unfortunately for Gaiden, it exists in a world where we have Fight ‘N Rage, River City Girls, and Streets of Rage 4. And while most beat ‘em ups are rather short, Gaiden manages to be the shortest one yet. However, there is a certain replay appeal available here as the boss characters and difficulty circumstances in each of the four gangs’ territories change depending on the order in which you tackle them. While there is certainly fun to be had here, especially if you have a friend to enjoy co-op with, Gaiden is neither the best nor the worst experience you can find in the genre.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Alongside revealing the release date, the new trailer for Hammerwatch 2 also showcases the upcoming title’s gameplay. Featuring co-op for up to four players, Hammerwatch 2 will have its adventurers explore its world, come across settlements, accept quests, and fight off various enemies to aid the local populace.

Players will be able to pick from five distinct classes for their characters—Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard, and Warlock. Players will also be able to customise their characters’ appearances. Progression exists in the form of being able to level up characters to unlock new, more powerful abilities.

The PC version of Hammerwatch 2 will also be fully moddable, with support for mods being available right at launch. Using the game’s modding tools, players will be able to edit levels, create new stories, and go much deeper into customising the game’s experience.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons was originally announced early in May. The newest addition to the Double Dragon franchise is a co-op beat ’em up in the vein of the originals. The title is also slated to feature unique roguelite elements, as well as 13 playable characters, each sporting their own offensive and defensive movesets.

The game revolves around players taking down the city’s four deadly gangs. When it comes to gameplay, this means that players can select missions in whatever order they might want. This choice affects how long the mission will be, how dangerous the enemies will be, and the overall difficulty of the game.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons will also feature unlockable bonuses, infinite modes, difficulty levels, and the option for permadeath. The game is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons will feature roguelite elements alongside its classic beat ’em up co-op action. The game will feature 13 unique playable characters, each with their own combos, and defensive and offensive moves.

For replayability, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons will allow players to select missions in their order of choice. The choice will affect mission length, number of enemies, and overall difficulty, with the ultimate goal being to take down the city’s four deadly gangs by finding and fighting their leaders.

The game will feature pixel art visuals, harkening back to the franchise’s roots. The game will also feature unlockable bonuses, adjustable difficulty levels, infinite modes, and optional permadeath.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons will be coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch this summer.

Teslagrad 2 features a new protagonist—Lumina—who is trying to make her way home after crash landing in the world of Wyrmheim. The game features hand-drawn visuals for its environments, which range from grand steampunk buildings to somber caverns. Teslagrad 2 features environments inspired by Nordic folklore.

Lumina has access to new powers based around electricity, which will be used to solve the game’s various puzzles, which have been described by developer Rain Games as “true-to-physics”.

Alongside the release of Teslagrad 2, publisher Modus Games has also announced the release of Teslagrad Remastered. The remastered release features overhauled visuals, various improvements, and 10 new puzzle challenges that players can solve. Check out the launch trailer below.

According to the developers, Hammerwatch 2 will feature an improved gameplay experience over its predecessor, allowing players to explore and fight their way across new environments and go up against new types of enemies and bosses. Hammerwatch 2 also supports co-op play for up to four players.

Players will be able to choose from five distinct character classes: Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard, and Warlock. Players can also customise their hero’s appearance, and their gameplay can be further customised by leveling up and unlocking new abilities and skills.

The story in Hammerwatch 2 revolves around Blight the Horrible and his dragon army having overthrown King Roland and bringing destruction across the Kingdom of Herian.

Hammerwatch 2 will be coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch some time this summer.

As part of the Order of the Ashen Blade, sisters Briar and Lute arrive in the city to try and quell the disaster. They’re Chimera, a single being that houses two souls. Players control Briar, who wields a massive blade, while Lute assists in spirit form. As players discover new weapons and upgrades for Briar, they can also upgrade Lute to unlock new abilities.

What drove the sisters to become Chimera? You’ll have to play and find out. There’s a fair bit of puzzle-solving and platforming involved, not to mention boss fights against some brutal foes. For more details, check out our review for Soulstice here.

Soulstice tells the somewhat tragic tale of two sisters, Briar and Lute, fighting to close a tear in the veil; the cosmic membrane separating their world from a much more ferocious and sinister one. It’s a situation our main characters aren’t particularly surprised by, as the dastardly wraiths from the other side are known to attempt such things, but this time it’s on a much larger scale and presents an apocalyptic threat. Briar and Lute benefit from being “chimera” as in, a fusion of two souls. In their case, sisters. Lute is now a powerful ghost or “shade” that can wield all sorts of magical abilities while Briar has achieved supernatural levels of endurance and strength. Together they are quite the interdimensional force to be reckoned with, but so too is the army of monsters that await them.

"There’s just something about having a supernaturally powerful main character with a giant sword on their back that upgrades their abilities from currency earned from fighting as spectacularly as possible that just continues to endure. While Soulstice is without a doubt one of these sorts of games, I’d be lying to your face if I said it didn’t ultimately win me over with its often-superb mix of evolving old ideas and reinforcing them."

It’s a good albeit predictable tale that has our heroine duo coming across several other characters and tightly-designed areas in this gloomy, gothic world. Sometimes even coming across echoes of the past that provide some context for the story by giving you short glimpses into things that happened in any given area. These little scenes aren’t particularly expressive, but they are sufficiently harrowing, and more than get the job done of fleshing out the game’s world and breaking up the standard action game loop of tearing through enemies and exploring on your way to the next battle, and kind of remind me of talking to fallen warriors in the hall of heroes from MediEvil. I do wish that Briar and Lute were a bit more interesting themselves, especially Briar, who despite being unrelentingly cool and well designed, never really compelled me one way or another as a character.

The gameplay immediately makes it pretty clear that those who’ve ever played an action game from the PS2 or Xbox 360 eras will be right at home. A control scheme centered around light attacks with the Ashen Vindicator – Briar’s standard sword, and heavier blows from the Ashen Enforcer – a massive scythe or other weapons make a familiar set up, and as Briar’s arsenal expands, you’ll have different ways of making shorter work of monsters, but Soulstice also throws in some passive and active abilities with Lute, who can block attacks, freeze enemies, and dish out some pain of her own. Kind of like how Atreus works in God of War 2018. This is where the blending of old and new starts to show, a trend you’ll notice often in Soulstice. For starters, the often-fixed camera does relinquish control to the player, usually for the bigger fights, and then it plays more like a modern action game, but then it’s back to panning and trucking around during the platforming and exploration sections and even some battles for a more cinematic flair. This dual system creates a situation where the camera type switches around fairly often. Both systems work well enough, but the fixed angles can make platforming a bit wonky, and I can see how switching back and forth might feel jarring to some players.

You’ll probably hear people compare Soulstice’s combat to action games from the early 2000s a lot, and that’s not wrong. With Briars cartoonishly oversized sword magically resting in her back when not in use, it’s a tempting comparison to make. but when you get down to it, the individual strikes have more weight to them than that. Where action games from the early 2000s enables you to unleash flurries of attacks and barrage enemies with hyperactive nonsense, Soulstice is a little more deliberate and precise than that. Each and every strike matters – not nearly as much as they would in a Soulslike, mind you – but it still does have a knack for punishing you for too much mindless button mashing, thus forcing you to learn the ins and outs of Briars many weapons, Lute’s plethora of passive and active abilities, as well as the all-important banishment and evocation fields.

"You’ll probably hear people compare Soulstice’s combat to action games from the early 2000s a lot, and that’s not wrong."

These fields are used to great effect and make Soulstice stand apart from the crowd of hack and slash games a good bit. Controlling the blue evocation and the red banishment fields is a special ability that Lute can use to make corresponding enemies vulnerable, barriers breakable, and even reveal platforms that lead to hidden areas and items. Using them too long will hurt Lute though, which will in turn make you less lethal without her abilities for a short time, so there’s some strategy involved here.

Ultimately, the two fields mechanic isn’t that different from the multi-colored attack system of Heavenly Sword, but it’s used much more holistically throughout other facets of the game here like in exploration and puzzle solving that it frankly feels like a more organic part of this game than it did in that game. Also, a unity meter that illustrates the connection between Briar and Lute can add to the efficiency of combat and even lead to a devastating rapture state where Briar can easily tear through all enemies, fields be damned. so that’s something to keep an eye on as well. All-in-all the combat is fun to master and expand upon as new weapons and skills are added to your repertoire. All the weapons are fun to use and just different enough to make them all worth tinkering around with, although I have to admit I ended up favoring the hand of retribution probably more than I was supposed to.

Defeating enemies with quickness and purpose leads to a better score and collecting more crimson tear residue, at the end of a fight, which you can then spend on upgrades for Briar’s weapons, same for Lute with the cobalt-colored residue. I’ve got to admit I was surprised to see just how deep Lute’s move set goes, and how she can be upgraded into quite a juggernaut of her own in several different ways. Spend wisely though, as you only have the ability to buy items and skills in between levels or while talking with Layton; a traveler and observer that helps flesh out the story a little bit and also acts as the quintessential “whaddya buyin’?” character.

"Admittedly, some enjoyment of Soulstice may be gained or lost immediately depending on your personal experience with classic 3D action games."

Admittedly, some enjoyment of Soulstice may be gained or lost immediately depending on your personal experience with classic 3D action games. Soulstice proudly lives and dies by the same sword. Somebody who just got into the action genre within the last ten years or so might feel very differently about the game’s often fixed camera and highly linear layout than somebody who has fond memories of God of War 2. It’s also not helped much by some average-to-okay voice acting and writing, and the generic early 2000’s video game music is a pretty big missed opportunity as well. Still, regardless of the type of action you’re most comfortable with, Soulstice gets more than enough right with modern and classic ideas to be worth pushing through its few hang-ups.

This game was reviewed on PC.