Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i PLAY

Whatever happened to Splitgate? The free-to-play portal-hopping FPS blew up in early access, where it flourished on PlayStation for about a year before its full release (we gave it 9/10 back in PLAY #6), at which point developer 1047 Games announced it was ending further work on the game in order to start anew, creating a sequel in Unreal Engine 5. Now, several years later, Splitgate 2 is finally emerging. While the game engine may have changed, fast-paced, breezy, and satisfying shooting is still at the core. Yet where the first game was all about the play, Splitgate 2 is set apart by the amount of detail in its world and characters. It’s still multiplayer-only, but 1047 Games is promising us “rich lore”, in which Splitgate is a futuristic sport…

“SOLID GUNPLAY HELPS US SQUEEZE SOME FUN OUT OF THESE FACE-OFFS.” FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB NETEASE GAMES, SHATTERSHOCK LIMITED DEV NETEASE GAMES, MARVEL GAMES / PLAYERS 12 Overwatch… but with Marvel superheroes!’ A few years ago, that pitch would have sounded like a licence to print money. Now, after Marvel’s Avengers flopped, and Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy flopped, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns flopped, it increasingly seems like players aren’t interested in a non-Spider-Man Marvel game. Marvel Rivals finds itself in the bizarre position of being almost an underdog. An underdog with access to the entire Marvel universe IP and a massive budget, mind. No expense seems to have been spared on this lavish production, with its beautiful cel-shaded graphics, luscious animated cutscenes, and – best of…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 27 SEP / PUB NIS AMERICA / DEV FURYU CORPORATION / PLAYERS 1 Magical teens tearing up Tokyo – you may be thinking ‘Well, I’ve heard that before,’ but hear us out. For a start, do you ever wonder what the scenario writer of Final Fantasy VII, Kazushige Nojima, is up to these days, apart from also bringing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s story to life? The short answer is this. Speaking of legendary talent, Nojima is joined by composer Yoko Shimomura, whose work you’ll have heard in many Square Enix RPGs including Kingdom Hearts and Parasite Eve, as well as Capcom fighters such as Street Fighter II. “AN URBAN FANTASY TAKE ON JAPAN WHERE WIZARDS ARE PERSECUTED.” URBAN BRAWL Reynatis is in the same vein…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 11 OCT / PUB KNIGHTS PEAK / DEV OFFWORLD INDUSTRIES / PLAYERS 1-16 Considering some of us at PLAY hadn’t been born when Starship Troopers came out in 1997, it’s incredible to think this satire on the military-industrial complex, which was something of a box-office flop, has had this much staying power. Although, on the other hand, that probably speaks to how incisive its cultural critique was that it is still as (if not more) relevant today. Starship Troopers’ recent resurgence owes as much to the success of contemporaries like Helldivers 2 as it does to a young generation drawn to its satire of a world stage in increasing turmoil. Which means a new licensed game capitalising on the series’ dispassionate militarism makes sense. We can…

FORMAT PS5 ETA 8 OCT PUB KONAMI DEV BLOOBER TEAM, KONAMI PLAYERS 1 Mary waits for James in their ‘special place,’ the town of her restless dreams, Silent Hill. An odd choice considering it’s a resort spot foggier and drearier than a British summer, not to mention a mite more dangerous. Odder still is the fact that dear old Mary is supposed to be dead. So, what does this letter to James truly say? For many horror fans, Silent Hill 2 itself is a special place of sorts. Released on PS2 in 2001, its mature story sees James struggling with his own inner demons as much as the town’s fleshy horrors in ways far ahead of its time. Like in the very first series entry on PS1 before it, waves…

After saving the planet in previous expansion Endwalker, your Warrior Of Light is in need of a break and a lower-stakes adventure. Enter Wuk Lamat with an invitation to join her crew and help her win the throne and title of Dawnservant over in her home nation of Tural. It’s a relatively unexplored continent by Eorzean standards; few have travelled across the ‘Salt’ to get there so there’s a lot of potential for new experiences and a palpable sense of somewhere unknown that’s ripe for exploring. The smooth sailing ends once you arrive, as you become embroiled in a complicated family matter. Current Dawnservant Gulool Ja Ja wants to retire and leave the throne either to one of his three kids (two of whom are adopted), or to a fourth…

An axe in one hand, a pistol in the other, a small furry god at heel who batters foes with sorcery – Flintlock’s Nor Vanek isn’t much of a believer in ‘character classes’. Open the upgrade menu with its three skill trees and you’ll notice their upper branches are entwined, with the most powerful abilities at their crossover points, encouraging you to spread your points around. Melee and magic and munitions? Go on, Nor, treat yourself to the lot. Refusing to lock off any abilities behind character customisation is a great way to ensure combat never gets old, across the dozen or so hours it’ll take you to chew through the undead hordes and reach their godly masters. One minute you’re lining up sun-bleached skulls in the scope of your…

Birds of a feather… well, you know the rest, though not quite like this. In this easygoing creature collector, you gather an airborne menagerie that looks like a crayon-crazed toddler’s scribbles have taken wing. But rather than relying on the bad-vibe genre mainstays of hunting and capturing, you employ a much more charming mechanic to coax critters under your wing. This indie collaboration is all about the simple pleasure of observing the natural environment around you. With an infectious excitement, your zoologist auntie sends you off across a cloud-covered island to identify every trilling blob you clap eyes upon. Identification involves a simple taxonomy, first asking you to suss out the fauna’s family and then the species based on behavioural and visual clues. There’s no penalty for getting it wrong,…

The world hasn’t ended yet – but what do we do now? In this PlayStation debut from Philippines-based developer Polychroma Games, the world is still recovering from a period of multiple, coinciding natural disasters called The Ruling. Towns were levelled, homes swallowed up, and families torn apart. All of that was a year ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s over for anyone. Teen protagonist Mark is left to reckon with the aftermath of The Ruling alone, as both his parents work abroad in order to give him the best life they possibly can – is it any wonder that he’s not really applying himself at school? As he sleepwalks through class projects and stumbles over piano practice, his day-to-day is invaded by an unsettling sense of déjà vu, like he’s…

What do you do when you’ve mastered the gacha live service genre? Compete with yourself. Zenless Zone Zero joins HoYoverse’s lineup alongside the wildly successful Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, both inescapable on the PS Store. While it has a lot of similarities with those other games, down to its microtransaction structure and even how the characters’ equipment and levelling up works, there’s a lot to set Zenless Zone Zero apart. For starters, its gorgeous art style, while still anime-inspired, feels unique. More characters, from the Agents you play as to friendly NPCs around town, have distinctive models that are packed with character. For example, Tin Master, who runs the energy-boosting coffee shop, has a coffee maker grafted onto his robot head. On the playable side, Billy Kidd, a…

01 Umurangi Generation VR They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this modern classic sees that aphorism and raises it with righteous, rebellious rage. Ostensibly an immersive photography game, you have a range of lenses, camera settings, and filters to play with but there’s a far bigger picture to be seen. Not only a master class in environmental storytelling, this is also testament to art as a powerful act of resistance. 02 Synapse This roguelite shooter offers satisfying, stylish action in a monochrome world punctuated by colourful violence. It puts power in the palm of your hand – and your eyes. Going one step beyond point and shoot, PSVR2’s eye-tracking tech allows you to glance and grab. 03 Horizon: Call Of The Mountain Manages to make level…

“It was the first chance for players to get their hands on some highly-anticipated titles.” Kyoto. A city known for its fusion of tradition and modernity, the old imperial capital of Japan is steeped in history and one of the most popular destinations for tourists visiting the country. It’s also home to Bitsummit, which in its 12th year once again welcomed indie developers from across Japan and around the world to Miyako Messe to showcase their work and celebrate the future of indie gaming. Held over three days, the show is a vital platform for indie games in a country where the sector, though growing in prominence and popularity following hits like Downwell and Omori, lags behind its international contemporaries in terms of homegrown success stories. Across the official selection…

While Takashi Iizuka is the head of Sonic Team, the Blue Blur’s original creators left Sega long ago (though Sonic’s designer, Naoto Ohshima, returned for last year’s Sonic Superstars). Iizuka can, however, lay claim to being the creator of Shadow The Hedgehog, who made his debut in Sonic Adventure 2. Dark, angsty Shadow’s appearance in SA2 was intended to be a one-off, but he became such a favourite with fans that his original ending was retconned, and he’s continued to pop up in subsequent games. However, aside from the bizarre self-titled spinoff on PS2 almost 20 years ago he hasn’t been the centre of attention, so it’s about time he got to hog the limelight once more. And he’ll be doing just that in Shadow Generations, a new campaign that’s…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 27 SEP / PUB EA / DEV EA CANADA / PLAYERS 1-22 Everyone knows the theory surrounding an artist’s difficult second album. What about a studio’s challenging sophomore sim? After killing off the FIFA series last summer, EA Vancouver successfully revitalised its football offering with slower match speed, individual PlayStyles, and the addition of female players to Ultimate Team. You’re therefore justified in the wondering where it goes next. The short answer is: five-a-side. We’ve played FC 25, and our first port of call is its new Rush mode, which replaces the FIFA-Street-aping Volta. Rather than being set in walled patches on clay or concrete, Rush games utilise a smaller version of a conventional pitch. There are throws-in, corners, and it feels like a proper…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA TBC / PUB THQ NORDIC DEV WEAPPY STUDIO / PLAYERS 1 With age comes experience, and the protagonist of this lovingly hand-crafted 2D platformer is testament to that fact. The older gentleman in question proudly wears his kippah, and also wields a cane whose humble appearance belies the fleet-footedness it affords him. Arriving on a tropical island that’s revealed to be far from paradise, this elder quickly resolves to kill the ancient god wreaking havoc upon its shores. Well, someone’s got to be the responsible adult in this situation. As we merrily pogo-jump through the firestorm that devours the island in the opening level, our minds boggle at the heaps of hand-drawn frames bringing every background, every creature, every flourish of the cane to life. Years…

FORMAT PS5 ETA 15 NOV PUB UBISOFT DEV UBISOFT QUEBEC PLAYERS 1 The Assassin’s Creed series has covered a lot of known history, from AC Odyssey taking place in 431 BCE to AC Syndicate pushing up against modernity in 1860s England (and AC Unity featuring a flash-forward to Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944). However, across the 13 mainline titles, eight console spinoffs, several mobile games, countless graphic novels, an audio drama, and a better-forgotten movie, there is one setting the series has never properly delved into despite near-universal pleas from fans: Japan. Until now, that is. In some ways the timing couldn’t have been better. The world is primed for another Japan-set historical epic given the ongoing popularity of games like Ghost Of Tsushima, Rise Of The Ronin, and Nioh, and…

What do tower defence, hack-and-slash, and traditional Japanese dance theatre have in common? The answer: they’re all core to Kunitsu-Gami, one of the freshest games we’ve played since, well, all four of the Capcom Five [Don’t ask – ed]. It’s set entirely on a mountain that’s host to a spiritual invasion; you play as spirit warrior Soh who must protect barrier-maiden Yoshiro as she cleanses its torii gates. Almost round-like, each level starts during the day, giving you time to set things up and get Yoshiro moving. The yokai, or Seethe, come out at night, and you must defend her from assault until dawn – when it starts all over again. Soh’s handy with a blade, but you can enlist cleansed villagers for battle and command them to tackle tasks…

Oh no, not another game where you play as a tiny travelling salesman who defies the laws of physics. You know the drill: lots of slapping, a constant stream of jokes, talking animals, terrifyingly well-trained seagulls, a statue in the town square of somebody called ‘Dr Bumbum’, and so on. When will we get something original?! At least this one is hilarious. Many games are designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, meaning the level of Yorkshire pride on display here is both surprising and delightful. Most characters speak with a Yorkshire accent, and you even have the option of whether or not to embrace the dialect in the menus (it’s the difference between having ‘Options’ and ‘Faff’). The town of Barnsworth is fictional, but the intro…

Schim Jumping at shadows Ever feel like part of you has gone missing without you realising? Well, that missing piece may just be your schim, a playful little creature that lives in your shadow. As a schim separated from your human when life drags them down, you must hop from shadow to shadow as you attempt to reconnect with them.1 A wonderful, striking visual style emphasises the shadows you leap between. There’s puzzling to be had, often revolving around pushing to interact with an object you’re within – pinging yourself off a sandwich board, raising a forklift, and so on – but not actually that much. It’s generally so frictionless that you don’t need to think about it too much, and can enjoy the vibes.2 Each level is short, sometimes…

Two former Pixar VFX artists got a grant from Unreal and spent it making the most lavish and glossy vertically-scrolling shooter they could. Rather than redefining the genre, Cygni amplifies the action to alarming levels. This is a seriously slick experience that blends mid-’90s design philosophy with cutting-edge visuals, while sounding like a fireworks box mishap at The Proms. You won’t dare to blink as enemies fly down the screen, mesmerising you with geometric bullet patterns before the massive bosses appear. The game is compact without feeling too small, spanning seven levels that take between ten and 20 minutes each. The first is arguably the best because it demands phenomenal concentration yet rarely descends into chaos like later levels can. STOP THE MADNESS! It’s a good idea to play through…

The Outlast Trials – Project Lupara In his own Barbi world Turns out stress isn’t bad for the baby after all. At least, not for unhinged manchild Franco ‘Il Bambino’ Barbi, the latest boss you face in an update that just came to The Outlast Trials. Bambino is the son of a mafia don with a taste for bloodshed and an absolutely inappropriate relationship with his sawn-off shotgun. This implement makes him Outlast’s first ranged enemy, which presents a whole new kind of danger. He might not run very fast, but he can and will shoot at you across large expanses of the docks map – and being under fire is quite a hindrance to sneaking around undertaking Murkoff’s reprehensible tasks of the hour. Speaking of which, Bambino’s trial introduces…

01 Red Dead Redemption 2 You won’t find another open world quite like this, the streets of Los Santos paling in comparison to this gorgeous, realistic western sprawl. Arthur Morgan’s wild west adventure is epic, emotional, and has enough teasing mysteries on every horizon for no two cowboys’ journeys to feel the same. With train robberies, tootin’ headshots, and racists to kill, there’s never a dull moment in Rockstar’s greatest. 02 Grand Theft Auto V Laughing in the face of other cross-gen ports, GTA V on PS4 is more than a mere HD remaster. Upped to a glorious 1080p, it weaves together everything that made the PS3 original great, with new music, more dynamic weather, and a game-changing FPS mode. 03 God Of War A departure in some ways but…

You’re in the belly of the beast, trapped in a Giger-esque alien hatchery. Toe-curling crackling sounds and murmurs emphasise the unsettling atmosphere. Ecco’s oxygen is low, but you’ve become discombobulated and can’t find a source to replenish it. Suddenly, Echo emits the most devastating, gut-wrenching cry in gaming history as he dies slowly, gasping for air. If you’ve ever looked at Ecco The Dolphin: Defender Of The Future in passing and thought, ‘That looks like a light-hearted, stress-free experience’, then that agonising death may come as a surprise. It’s stressful in the extreme, while being a masterstroke in building atmosphere and environmental design. Previously released on Dreamcast and following on from its tough as nails Mega Drive heritage, this game plops Ecco into a 3D environment for the first (and…

FORMAT PS2 / PUB EA / DEV EA REDWOOD SHORES / RELEASED 2004 The iconography of James Bond is so ingrained in pop culture that there are things you assume will feature in any Bond story: gadgets, guns, supercars, and Bond girls, to name a few. Everything Or Nothing takes its title literally, going all-in and leaving you with little breathing room between action sequences. To ensure you’re aware that this is definitely James Bond, the first post-tutorial mission, A Long Way Down, pulls out all the stops and never pushes them back in. Bond has infiltrated a weapon research facility in Egypt; it’s developing nanotechnology and he needs to destroy it. He pulls out an explosive that looks like an oversized Tamagotchi and puts in the super-secret passcode: 007.…

Since it began in 2016, the China Hero Project has seen a selection of projects over the finish line, including cyberpunk action-adventure Anno: Mutationem and arcadey side-scroller FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch. The incubation initiative offers support to a limited selection of titles, and it’s been such a successful venture that it’s led to the establishment of the India Hero Project (which we covered in PLAY #39). Now three more titles from China-based developers will enjoy a boost from Sony as part of the scheme’s third phase. There’s no release window in sight for any of these freshly announced titles, but all three are coming to PS5. STAYING SHARP First up is CangMo Game Entertainment’s Project: Jinyiwei Dishing out considered swordplay à la Sekiro or Nioh, Project: Jinyiwei is a…

THE SHAPES COLLECTION – 6” DELUXE ALOY ACTION FIGURE PLAYSTATION £48 GEAR.PLAYSTATION.COM Horizon’s Aloy leads the charge for PlayStation’s new figure series, with accessories, five swappable faces, and six different hands. Non-deluxe options for Varl, Jin Sakai, Kratos, and Atreus come in at about £30 and are also six inches tall, they just don’t have swappable options. Pre-orders ship out in Nov. ARMORED CORE VI – ORBITER NIGHTFALL MODEL KIT BANDAI NAMCO £25 APPROX HOBBYLINKJAPAN.COM You can’t have awesome giant robots without the model kit fans getting eager to assemble models for themselves. The first wave from ACVI is now available to pre-order, including multiple Orbiter types, the tank-like Balam, and the wiry Schneider. Extra weapons are also up for grabs. ISAAC CLARKE FIGMA MAX FACTORY £65 APPROX GOODSMILEEUROPE.COM While…

MEDALLING KIDS Call me old if you must, but I really miss the days of multi-sports sims. The Olympics has really made me long for the days when you’d get shooting, swimming, running, the whole lot, in a single game. Kev Anderson While the younger members of Team PLAY agree with you – yes, it would have been nice to enact our own version of the Olympics after the event ended – Milf and Mim keep shaking their heads and muttering something about Daley Thompson killing joysticks. And frankly, DualSenses are too pricy to go waggling to destruction. So our dream of using all the buttons and triggers to pull off incredible combos as we pretend to be Simone Biles will have to remain just that. RPGZZZZZZZZ RPG this, RPG…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 2024 / PUB GRAVITY / DEV GRAVITY GAME ARISE / PLAYERS 1 The year is 2019, and a new infectious disease is first detected in Tokyo. It’s thought to be flu but soon discovered to incur a fatality rate of over 40%. A gruelling three-year lockdown follows, and just as the world returns to normal, paranormal serial murders and incidents occur city-wide. “INVESTIGATE VARIOUS INTERCONNECTED INCIDENTS.” Tokyo Psychodemic is grim, with a premise which might come too close to home for some, but if you’re able to withstand its deadly serious tone and approach to murder and bodily mutilation, you’re in for a fascinatingly realistic investigative mystery when the game finally escapes its Japan-only quarantine. UNCOVER EVERYTHING Working for a detective agency, you investigate various…

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 22 OCT / PUB AUROCH DIGITAL DEV WORLDWALKER GAMES / PLAYERS 1 Looking for fantasy that’s a real page-turner? How does a quest spent battling against mechanically augmented zombies sound? Or what about a Big Bad who’s actually an insectoid drake who can rootle around your thoughts? Already a beloved tome on other platforms, this procedurally-generated RPG attempts to put story first. For many tabletop adventurers, the thing that keeps them coming back is the story the party tells together. Wildermyth borrows heavily from this format, generating heroes with personalities that lead them to butt heads or even fall in love, and unique histories that’ll twist the knife when the time comes to make tough story choices. None of these characteristics are static, either, with…

FORMAT PS5 / ETA 23 AUG / PUB SONY / DEV FIREWALK STUDIOS / PLAYERS 10 We only review finished games, so in Viewpoint we go hands-on with near-final code of a game that just missed our review deadline. Several hours of pre-release play sees Luke Kemp pleasantly surprised so far. Naming your game has got to be a tricky job. It has to succinctly summarise the experience somehow, be memorable yet not needlessly complex or pretentious, and once you’ve revealed it to the world that’s it, it’s locked in. Bearing all that in mind, therefore, naming your live service game one letter away from an airliner that got mothballed after becoming too unpopular and too expensive to run is an… interesting move. The State Of Play trailer did the…

Hell has frozen over. After spending many hours with this deck builder on other platforms, Team PLAY are ready for this roguelike to pull into the Play-Station. The last pyre of Hell’s heart blazes still, and you’re tasked with ferrying it to safety across the now-frozen wastes to where it can reignite the realm. Naturally, the feather-brained no-fun squad wants to run that plan off the tracks. What follows are two main phases: first, trundling through an apocalyptic winter aboard the titular locomotive, tearing open booster packs, upgrading units at friendly moggy vendors, and scooping up artefacts to gain a double-edged, uh, edge in future sieges. Second, putting your cards on the foldout table for a turn-based take on tower defence. Card-based bouts against heaven’s hordes see you placing units…

Friendship established, our Leper tank is comforted when our Grave Robber does something to enemy corpses to slurp up HP, reducing his all-important stress meter. But as the flame on our stagecoach begins to peter out, our highly strung Plague Doctor squabbles with the Jester, after which we’re jumped by occultists and ultimately done in. You’ll be watching that stagecoach trundle along plenty in Darkest Dungeon II, which retools the first game’s dungeon delving into a more standard roguelike approach. Your party’s interactions, both positive and negative, are a bright spot – but cameraderie, like the fading flame in this Lovecraft-inspired nightmare world, struggles against the dark. Everything is out to get you on your quest to the Mountain across multiple routes that grow steadily tougher. Nodes on the road…

Headmaster Bo Ring is teaching her first class and, somehow, she inadvertently lets a panda and a cat loose. Children fawn over them while little Timmy flails about, stuck in a stool. As if nothing has happened, class resumes. “I see”, says Jane, as the panda obscures her poor, innocent face. We’re sorry Jane, but we don’t think you do. This would be charming if the game were intended to be an off-the-wall management sim, but Let’s School’s presentation is more uneven than it is off-kilter, and much of its humour comes from a series of buggy events. The tonal inconsistency also makes for some unintentionally questionable undertones. For example, you are immediately presented with a not-at-all-suspicious note from your former headmaster, who’s passing the mantle to you after royally…

Look, you can’t get around it – the virtual boardgame genre, where competing across squares is interspersed with going head-to-head in minigames, is dominated by the large shadow of a certain bedenimed Nintendo mascot’s own party series. While Demon Slayer’s take brings a welcome, if mild, refresh, it has its moustachioed rival beaten in one important area: it’s here on PlayStation! Otherwise, it’s hard to avoid drawing direct comparisons to its genre predecessors. While Demon Slayer is a heavyweight manga and anime property in its own right (and games based on it have been released in the past with varying success), this is still a game where you land on blue squares to accrue small sums of currency, avoid red ones lest you lose your loot, and finish each round…

Original Silent Hill is a classic, 2’s a masterpiece, 3 has its fans, but what about the divisive Silent Hill 4? “Didn’t deserve the hate it got,” argues reader Steven Bell. “Was up there with Silent Hill 2 as one of the best ones.” Ben Chodd agrees. “Underrated. I loved the idea of your apartment turning into a Silent Hill-type place.” You loved that idea…? If you’ve never had the, er, ‘pleasure’, the game follows Henry Townsend, who wakes up one day to find the only exit to his apartment sealed shut. “It’s kind of like how self-isolation went during covid,” says Oskar Fredriksson. “You couldn’t leave the apartment and had no communication with the outside world.” Sorry that you endured lockdown with no contact with the outside world, Oskar!…

Did you ever wonder what furry longboi Daxter got up to while Jak was locked up in prison between Jak And Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and Jak II? No, us neither, but here we are. This enjoyed rave reviews on release but, to be honest, upon playing it we’re struggling to understand why. His life was pretty dull while he was waiting to adventure with Jak again. For almost the entire game, we follow Daxter during his stint as an exterminator. We don’t mean he’s a hunter of legions of Helldiver-style bugs, in possession of a satisfying armoury of heavy weapons. We mean that one of the first things he does is clear out big-but-not-huge bugs from a hotel using what is in effect a fly swatter, a weapon that…