Or maybe it’s due to the wave of negativity that seems to accompany every major release today.

Regardless, I was completely unprepared for Infinity Nikki—not in the slightest.

Infinity Nikki Review – Infinitely Charming

In a very “old man shouts at clouds” kind of way, I went in with mixed expectations. The trailers building up to release promised a charming world of color and creativity, but all too often reality is very different.

Not with Infinity Nikki; you get exactly what you would expect from a world of beautifully designed dresses, fairies, wishes, and just about every creature you encounter hitting high scores on the “awww” charts.

It boasts a huge open game world, akin to The Legend of Zelda and Genshin Impact in terms of philosophy and design – although perhaps not in scope.

Featuring carefully designed puzzles, engaging side quests, secret caves and caverns to explore, and tons of collectibles, everything in Infinity Nikki is accompanied by rewarding mechanics and cutesy jingles sure to get the serotonin pumping.

Although clearly taking inspiration from the likes of The Legend of Zelda and Genshin Impact, Infinity Nikki stands alone in its accessibility and creative use of the dressing up style of play, as opposed to the traditionally combat-driven nature of these games.

Much of the progress surrounds unlocking new clothing items and outfits, improving their stats and abilities, and progressing through the story through Style Contest battles.

Infinity Nikki manages to toe a very fine line, broadening its appeal to new demographics beyond the usual gacha formula. It delivers the depth and complexity needed to engage experienced players, all while maintaining a level of familiarity and accessibility that makes it approachable for almost anyone.

Younger gamers might need to pass you the controller or phone during tougher platforming sections, boss encounters, or the occasional tricky puzzle. Still, this is an ideal game for budding players or family gaming sessions.

However, don’t let that fool you. This isn’t a game you’ll be forcing a smile on while playing with friends and family, like the countless of Minecraft I endured during my son’s younger years.

Rather, Infinity Nikki is a game all can enjoy.

I will admit, playing dress up is unlikely to appeal to everyone; it took a while for me to get into the swing of it myself.

My first Styling Challenge, a unique system in the game that requires the player to reach specific scores using certain types of clothing, was a very stand-off experience. Bit like a dance-off, but with clothes. I’ll slap this dress on, whatever shoes work, let me just get through this.

By the fifth contest, I was partaking in the trashiest of trash talk.

“I am going to destroy you with this cute black dress, adorable hat, and tidy little handbag number that I just spent an hour glowing up. You’re going down!”

This unconscious urge to refuse to enjoy myself was present throughout much of my early hours, but was quickly worn away by just how much fun I was having.

Infinity Nikki is so wholesome and comfortable; I never once felt frustrated with any specific elements, or grew tired of any parts of the game. Even with the more grind heavy aspects of locating materials to unlock new clothing items or upgrade existing outfits.

I spent several hours chasing down an Expedition, Infinity Nikki’s series of photography challenges tasking the player with finding locations in the game world with a single picture as a clue.

I farmed endlessly for new resources and materials to upgrade my clothing items to better prepare for future Styling Contests.

I explored every crook and cranny of the world I could find, and never once wanted to turn the game off.

Every corner I turned, every new field I discovered, it constantly felt as though an exciting new mini-game or dungeon was just minutes away.

Much of Infinity Nikki’s challenge – and that’s still a bit of a stretch – comes in the form of its puzzles and platforming.

The combat of this title is incredibly shallow, with a single attack option and enemies who pose little to no threat. It would not be unreasonable to expect some players to get through the entire game without dying or even taking damage.

However, even that level of simplicity has its benefits, a feeling of accomplishment as you wipe away a group of enemies guarding valuable resources without breaking much of a sweat.

Every aspect of Infinity Nikki works in perfect harmony. Wonderfully designed characters, a gorgeous game world, simple but effective game mechanics, a fantastic soundtrack.

Infnity Nikki is the total package.

Infinity Nikki radiates a charm that warms your heart, engages your mind, and sweeps you off your feet. It’s a refreshing and heartfelt take on the gacha formula, truly promising a little something for everyone.

As much as I loved my time with Infinity Nikki, I must take my leave—I’ve got a battle scheduled against a bear, naked, atop a volcano, in the middle of a storm.

The post Infinity Nikki Review – Infinitely Charming appeared first on GamersHeroes.

The development studio GSC endured several development delays, cyberattacks, a server fire that wiped out an entire floor, and evacuated nearly 200 families to continue development in a safer environment.

In today’s faceless, hyper-connected online world, it’s easy for people to forget that real people pour their lives into creating these games. However, not all games are created under equal circumstances, and not all studios face the same challenges. The fact that this game was released at all is deserving of high praise and a testament to the resilience of the development team.

The love and passion for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is evident throughout, but games can only be delayed for so long. A mix of brilliance, brutality, and a buggy mess, mar a game that may eventually define the genre…but not just yet.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl Review – A Brilliant, Brutal, Buggy Mess

Crouched in the corner of a dusty wooden cabin, I watch through the barely ajar door as the pulsing red glow of the Emission storm floods the night. The howling wind relentlessly pounding against the walls, making every creak and groan of the timber sound like the cabin’s about to collapse.

Crawling through rusted sewer tunnels, I keep to the shadows, avoiding the dangerous green glow of the radiated water below. The faint scratching of… something echoes through every passage. Unsure which path leads to safety, I pause in front of a grilled exit, offering the smallest comfort of protection—from one direction, at least. I’m out of ammo, out of medical supplies, and have no idea how deep this sewer goes.

These heart-pounding moments are S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at its very best. The attention to detail in both the audible and visual components of the environments is jaw-dropping, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is one of the most atmospheric games on the market today.

In one moment, I felt as though I was treading through the halls of a pure horror game, and minutes later I was ducking and diving between crates dodging enemy fire. It brings together a strong core of horror, survival, and action, but doesn’t really look to push to perfection in any discipline.

Exploring the world is equal parts brutal as it is fascinating. Avoiding mutants, taking out human patrols, watching in awe at some of the more spectacular anomalies that haunt the landscape.

Therein lies the downfall of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, I’m not sure the anomalies were designed to smash through the fourth wall and undo so much of the game’s brilliance.

I witnessed enemies spawning several feet in front of me, out of thin air, which is almost as impressive as seemingly duplicating themselves in the process. Taking down one with a well-placed headshot, I watch as the body falls, only to see another standing in the same location.

Quests remain unfinished due to missing objective items or AWOL NPC’s. The game gets to a state where attempting to open the map or inventory takes upwards of 40-50 seconds. These bugs in any other game would be enough to dismiss it entirely however, despite these issues, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl manages to be one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year.

Enjoyable is probably not the right word; S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an arduous journey.

It’s challenging, frustrating, and infuriating at times, but it’s this willingness to push the player through the negative emotions to adapt and evolve that hits so hard for me.

It reminds me a lot of the incredible Dragon’s Dogma 2 in the way it ignores the all too convenient design of modern games. It’s not going to hold your hand; you are going to fail, you are going to die, and you will either love the game more for it or hate it entirely.

However, even with the welcoming challenge of a game that pushes limits outside a simple test of reflexes, the challenge is often pushed to a point of failure as the game’s core design philosophy clashes with mechanical designs that just don’t make any sense.

Too often, the choice was clear but miserable: push forward to the next story location, driven by the intrigue of post-nuclear fallout, bizarre anomalies, and the fascinating characters populating the world, or spend 45 minutes trekking back to a camp to repair gear and restock on ammo.

Ammo is a big problem, especially during extended story sequences when you don’t have the time or desire to return to camp. Combat is already a challenge, mostly due to a mix of sometimes brilliant but oftentimes abysmal AI enemies, but to survive in these story sections is monotonous.

Several times throughout the game, I found myself resorting to knife attacks against heavily armored enemies. At other moments, I wiped out entire rooms, looting each body for ammo, and then scavenging their weapons to extract additional rounds from the clips. This created a repetitive loop of three to four minutes of ammo looting in nearly every room. The mundane repetition is a stark contrast to a game that is anything but mundane.

Sometimes this was due to my eagerness to follow the story, other times it was due to extended story sections that played out over many hours. I didn’t rush through, I farmed a few hundred thousand Coupons (the currency of the game), but it never felt enough.

This was more of a struggle toward the latter stages of the story. The early game narrative is rather disappointing, as you spend much of your time chasing down a single device and a group of people that attacked you.

Towards the end, however, the desire to reach the next chapter and learn of the next event was impossible to resist.

I really needed to see what was coming; instead, I was forced to walk 1.2km to a safe house to resupply, farm for resources, and repair.

During the review access period, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl welcomed numerous updates and patches, more than I can remember for most games this close to release. A day-one patch was also released, which addressed many of the more glaring issues. In addition, several thousand fixes have been applied.

While S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has vastly improved from its patches, it still suffers from technical issues. From flashing textures tp poor performance during cutscenes and dialog, it’s a long list.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was a hard game to score.

It’s not a typical 7/10 game, a game we’d usually consider a universal recommendation for any fans of the genre.

It’s not an 7/10 because we ignored the bugs and glaring technical issues.

It’s an 7/10 because, despite these problems, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is still an experience deserving of high praise.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a fantastic game that flirts with greatness but falls short of being truly incredible. Longtime fans of the franchise will relish the brutal challenge the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe is known for, while newcomers might find the bugs more horrifying than the world itself.

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On the surface, Planet Coaster 2 looks to be the perfect combination of simulation and creation. A robust suite of tools and social connectivity provide a backbone for a charming and colorful world, in which players can let their imaginations run wild. Wild is the word.

Let’s start with the campaign

Planet Coaster 2’s campaign is as frustrating as it is exhausting. Spending several minutes listening to floating heads discuss the historic nature of the parks, only to load in and be met with near identical mission objectives to the last, it starts every new adventure on poor footing.

Build a few flat rides. Build a coaster. Carefully curated steps that always lead to the same destination, breaking absolutely everything in the pursuit of constructing a pathway.

There are parts of Planet Coaster 2 that are incredible and unrivaled, serving as the very peak of creative construction in the video-game space. However, in delivering such, it completely fails to capture the very heart of what managing a successful theme park should feel like.

Planet Coaster 2 Review – Derailed

Those with an artistic eye and an interest in architecture will be able to create some truly jaw-dropping rides, attractions, and natural wonders of beauty. Having the option to download and share these is one of the franchise’s most impressive aspects, but none of it is any use if the park doesn’t actually function.

Whatever you do though, don’t you dare try to edit a path, or so help me god.

That’s exactly what happened here. I attempted to attach a single shop to a pathway and well, I can’t even begin to explain this monstrosity of Penrose stairs.

Unfortunately, this happened in nearly every single mission. A tiny adjustment, one that would take seconds in any other game in this genre, often derailed the entire campaign mission to the point of giving up. I’d just jump straight to the next career location.

That may sound hyperbolic, but that single pathway above was the backbone of my entire park. The solution? A Frankenstein’s Monster of a staircase.

In a game that looks so beautiful, where you can create truly inspiring attractions, it can be an arduous task to create something with a semblance of normalcy.

In addition, Planet Coaster 2’s impressive creation suite regularly feels completely detached from the world it populates. While players can create anything they can imagine, they can also throw it in the middle of a roller coaster. When this happens, it quickly puts the brakes on the entire park without consequence – so to speak.

The picture above shows a Tea Cup ride constructed within a swimming pool, completely engulfed by a roller coaster. It all functions perfectly well, as if a product of architectural genius.

The guests herd along, ignoring clipping through entire structures and deadly objects. They’ll be the first to complain if a neat and lovely path doesn’t reach the entrance of a ride, but they have no issues literally walking through a moving roller coaster cart.

Planet Coaster 2 tows a very thin line. It offers players the creative freedom to customize rides unlike any other game ever made, but in doing so sacrifices a level of authenticity and realism to just completely detach the player from the simulation elements of the game.

Much like Jurassic World Evolution 2, the simulation elements of the game feel fabricated, simulated to feel like a simulation.

Despite spending several hours attempting to fix a singular staircase in a later mission, my park flourished. Guests were pouring in, screams of joy and laughter from the one ride I had placed, the queues for sustenance fast-moving and profitable.

It didn’t matter what level I was on, or what my objectives were, a couple of rides and some shops were often all I needed to rake in profits.

In one park, I carefully crafted Staff Zones, a feature that lets you paint areas for specific members of staff to patrol, in another, I left them to roam. I didn’t notice any differences. Both parks had a constant spree of negative messages regarding ride health, generator power, and disgruntled employees.

That last part was on me, I lowered the wages to see how long it would take them to complain. Turns out, not long.

Nothing within the simulation aspects of the game ever felt challenging.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

Navigating through much of this process was challenging and complicated, but those aren’t typically the goals of a menu system.

Even now, this still confuses me. The controls of Planet Coaster 2 are very well done; after just a few brief tutorials, everything felt intuitive – no easy feat on a controller.

However, the layout of Planet Coaster 2’s menus is a Rubik’s Cube of puzzling.

I spent ages trying to locate benches and bins, tucked away behind custom construction options in the Scenery tab. I constructed a huge pool, complete with epic flumes and wave machines, but the filter and cleaning machines were not in the Pools menu, or the Pool Extra’s menu, or the Create Custom Pools menu. I had to find those in the Facilities menu.

Developing these kinds of games for consoles is a monumental undertaking. Planet Coaster 2 nails much of the controls, although tweaking rides and coasters is tedious at best, but really struggles with a streamlined UI that consistently fails to make sense.

This is the total opposite of the simulation elements, which has a streamlined UI that puts every stat and tidbit of information imaginable in an easy-to-follow and structured layout. It’s just a shame I was able to get by without really needing any of it.

Every park was going to be THE park. This was the one I was going to stick to, to beautify, to accrue so much money I’d never need work again. That mentality lasted all of 20 minutes, before trying to make yet another tiny change completely butchered things beyond all recognition.

I’m not sure if there is an undo button. I couldn’t find it, but it would make a world of difference.

It was at this point, I left the campaign behind.

I decided to jump into Franchise mode, which has an online component to it, but one I’ve not had much luck trying to explore. Initially, this felt infinitely better than the campaign experience.

A huge, open, and most importantly flat location, meant I was able to create without fear of constructing a staircase that led to the 9th circle of hell.

I built my trademark square design from the early Theme Park days, ensuring to funnel my guests through carefully crafted avenues of pure capitalistic opportunity. All I could see was a shade of greedy green.

I’m not completely heartless, so I wanted to create an epic attraction to send the gate tickets soaring. I mean, provide a unique experience for guests.

What better way to do so than to utilize Planet Coaster 2’s big appeal: Water.

On that note, I went to create a pool. I had grand designs of a lazy river, filled from shore to shore with beautiful scenery and captivating creations.

That went out the window fast.

I tried to make a big square pool, but that didn’t work. So I tried to create a pool, line by line, but that didn’t work. For some reason, I could impale a roller coaster with a giant swinging ship, but connecting two lines of water was beyond my creative talents.

I had to turn a Merge setting on and off, I had to mess around with enabling and disabling a Stamp grid. Even after all that, I managed to make an ugly pool.

That’s an issue that is very much going to vary from person to person. If you want to dedicate huge amounts of time, you will not find another game offers this level of creativity, but for more basic players, it needs work.

I wanted to test just how important and impactful the game’s management aspects are. I built a very basic part, a few rides, a line of shops, and just dropped staff into random location.

I left it overnight. When I returned, I had millions in the bank, I had enough Research Points to unlock everything in the catalog, and besides a few power issues, my park was much how I left it.

In its admirable attempt to offer a truly innovative and rewarding theme park construction experience, Planet Coaster 2 overwhelms even the most basic of levels. From creating paths to tweaking simple designs, it all required too many menus and too many buttons.

If you want to create epic-themed custom rides, Planet Coaster 2 is the perfect game. If you want to create a custom suite of shops and guest services in a huge and entertaining space, Planet Coaster 2 is the perfect game. If you want to create nearly anything to make a park look incredible, Planet Coaster 2 is the perfect game.

If you want to manage and run a theme park? Planet Coaster 2 is not the game.

There are moments of Planet Coaster 2 that are nothing short of astounding, completely engrossing the player with every slab and brick of construction, but it all too often takes a backseat to frustrating UI and design elements.

Planet Coaster 2 harbors a level of creativity unmatched in this space. Its attention to detail is so intense, that its biggest challenge is forming a straight path without destroying half the planet. A wonderfully creative playground is available for those with the patience to work through it, but it proves to be a frustratingly cumbersome journey for the rest of us.

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However, mere minutes into Amazon Games’ New World: Aeternum, I realized just how lucky gamers truly are today.

New World: Aeternum Review

First thing’s first: New World: Aeternum is another visually incredible game; arguably the best-looking MMO on the market today. While it lacks the jaw-dropping vistas of Throne & Liberty, the attention to detail, the lighting, and the atmospheric weather conditions all make it a complete package.

If it wasn’t an iron node, a tasty rabbit, or a hulking bear distracting me from my quests, it was getting lost in the pleasure of exploring one of the game’s many beautiful biomes.

Each area felt like its own world. Unique architecture filled the streets, new flora dotted the grounds…New World: Aeternum is a visually stunning game.

That same attention to detail, the undesirable urge to stop and just think “wow, that’s neat” continues throughout much of the title.

New World: Aeternum’s classless system allows for complete freedom in character progression and development. Weapon disciplines are spread across 15 unique weapon types, allowing players to explore any avenue of combat at any given time.

Different attributes affect specific weapons, so some combinations will be more synergistic than others, depending on your character’s build. No matter what players choose, exploration of New World: Aeternum’s combat is every bit as fun as it is diverse.

This is especially effective when attempting to utilize enemy weaknesses. For instance, one should use bludgeoning weapons against skeletons. Having an arsenal of options felt rewarding and worth the struggle to learn different weapon disciplines.

Even toward New World: Aeternum’s final moments, I was switching to weapons I had never used and still enjoying every swing, punch, or spell thrown.

Weapons in New World: Aeternum are improved through use, with combat providing experience points directly toward progressing with equipped weapons, so it’s not tied to character level. With enough patience and dedication, one can master it all.

New World: Aeternum pioneers in its attempt to revive the stagnant MMORPG combat formula, delivering a fluid, responsive, and more challenging combat system than the traditionally sluggish nature of tab-targeting alternatives.

As a result, this title shares more in common with action RPGs than it does with any MMO; New World: Aeternum is as rewarding as it is punishing. It requires a careful balance of offense and defense, with abilities requiring very precise timing between animations to truly excel in combat.

Despite this, combat does admittedly feel very limiting compared to other MMO games. Characters can only equip six abilities at once (three across both a primary and secondary weapon), but it’s the backbone of the combat philosophy.

Even basic combat against grunt enemies, which you dispose of freely while doing yet another fetch or kill quest, can be troublesome. It’s as if one sees every problem as a nail, and one only has a hammer.

Rather, New World: Aeternum is more about precision, timing, and the careful blocking of enemy attacks between swapping weapons.

Its constant balancing act may feel shallow and boring to some, but it’s very much the opposite.

Even after reaching max level and mastering my Great Axe, I was still finding ways of optimizing my approach to combat. Between improving the timing of weapon swaps to benefit from buffs and effects applied from previous abilities to learning the earliest opportunity animations allows for swapping weapons, it provided a steep learning curve that rewards dedication and skill.

New World: Aeternum’s combat system is the crown jewel of the entire experience, and one of the best combat systems the MMO genre has ever seen.

New World: Aeternum’s narrative is fantastic, with beautifully crafted new cutscenes and characters spicing up the earlier hours. However, I wish I could say the same thing about the quest design – levelling to max level has never felt such a chore.

New World: Aeternum takes the run-of-the-mill, uninspiring, and largely uneventful tropes of MMORPG quest design and turns them up to 11.

Every single quest has every objective marked on the map. You’re either killing something, fetching something, or delivering something, and no thought is required for any of it.

Despite many of the side quests offering promising story segments and opportunities to learn more about the breathtaking setting, everything becomes a blur as you plow through yet another quest.

Your brain moves into autopilot. You don’t need to focus or think. You simply open the map, run to the nearest quest objective, and finish it off.

Much of this is amplified by a quest flow which is completely contrary to every modern MMO I can think of. I lost count of the times I had completed an area and walked 200 yards up the road, only for another quest to take me back to the area I had just finished.

Once or twice, user error, something I missed, or perhaps I approached the town from an unintended direction, but it happened from start to finish. Many of these areas are complex dungeons or deep caverns, requiring a lot of time and effort to fight back through that was, more often than not, not rewarded enough.

That’s not all.

Many of New World: Aeternum’s quests fall victim to another MMO trope from yesteryear – including spawn times. I cannot believe in 2024 I am standing around waiting for a five-minute respawn timer on a boss with 15 other players.

I was caught napping on that one. It was on a beach, black as night, with fog filling the air and a brooding atmosphere, it was an immersive sight like few MMOs can deliver. I missed the boss spawn. It was killed within five seconds and I didn’t get a hit for the credit.

There are worse things in a game than being distracted by awe-inspiring environments, but this was one of countless quests that required far too much time due to archaic spawning mechanisms.

It’s a stark contrast to practically every aspect of the game’s design, with each element feeling fine-tuned to near perfection. I didn’t understand it then, and I still don’t now.

One such element approaching perfection is New World: Aeternum’s fantastic crafting system, one that has no modern contemporary that comes to mind.

Spread across 12 unique refining and seven production crafts, it’s an expansive system that coddles the rest of the game in a warm embrace.

Dedicating time to any of the crafts offers huge payouts, frequently. Providing expanded quest rewards through the skinning of enemies or gathering of rare resources, and rewarding exploration when mining high atop unexplored cliffs.

New World: Aeternum has everything a life skill addict would want.

I often found myself returning to trodden ground. Disappointed, I was unable to skin the hides of my latest questing victims through neglect of my Tracking & Skinning ability. Equally, I was elated when, even toward the mid-parts of the game, I was able to craft worthy weapons for my character.

I sunk a lot of time into the Trade Skills system of New World, but I don’t feel I have even scratched the surface. If you desire more than simple PvP or PvE end-game in an MMO, New World: Aeternum’s crafting system offers endless hours of rewarding venture.

Speaking of end-game content, New World: Aeternum’s is, well, confusing. It’s not the first MMO to focus on the economic and political intrigue of player-owned towns, cities, and locations, but much like every MMO before it, it makes no effort to entice players to its biggest draws.

Even at the end, as I finished the story and hit max level, I did not understand how any of those complex mechanics worked. Was it worth diving into high-end Company play? Did I want to commit to investing a lot of time into controlling areas of the map?

It’s like having a shop with no sign or opening hours, just hoping to fuel business through passerby curiosity alone. Obviously, it’s something the community nurtures, but when asked, nearly everyone will tell you to run endlessly through areas doing chest runs – which is about as exciting as it sounds.

New World: Aeternum’s dungeons offer a worthwhile alternative, with complex puzzles and challenging boss battles. However, to truly appreciate the game’s array of end-game systems, high-level Company play is a must.

Ultimately, New World: Aeternum is a fantastic MMO, building on the foundations of the greatest games of yesteryear. However, after 60 hours, I’m just not sure if I’ll be returning to the shores of Aeternum anytime soon.

New World’s rocky PC launch laid the groundwork for it to become one of the most impressive MMOs on the market today, offering one of the best MMO experiences available on consoles.

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It felt like everything I was dreading from a new free-to-play MMORPG was presented front and center. From being inundated with currencies and item exchanges to irritating tiny red dots informing me of new information across 20 different menus and options screens, it was such an assault on organization it was physically painful.

If I wasn’t playing to review the game, I would have stopped after four to five hours. However, after suffering through those initial hours, I couldn’t help but be impressed by what I saw in Throne & Liberty.

Throne & Liberty Review

First and foremost, Throne & Liberty looks incredible for a free-to-play game. The characters and animations are surprisingly detailed, but even those pale in comparison to the environments.

Rolling open fields, barren deserts, complicated underground caverns – Every area of Throne & Liberty is beautifully crafted, with each corner of the world begging for players to stop and take in the sights. It was the attention to detail in the world-building that put me off balance.

This wasn’t what I thought it would be; this wasn’t simply another cookie-cutter MMO clone looking to cash in on a few months of success and then ride out on a dwindling player base.

Throne & Liberty is a real attempt at making something new, something exciting. I worked with MMOs for a very long time – it’s a genre I have a lot of love for – but I’m also very pessimistic all the same.

I initially approached the game as I would any MMORPG. Plowing through the side quests, skipping and ignoring the endlessly pointless dialogue, I’ll listen through some of the more interesting cutscenes. However, for the most part, I’m not stopping to smell the roses.

Throne & Liberty’s story, while nothing groundbreaking, is surprisingly good, and it’s not just the main story either.

Whether I was slaying demons, digging into a dangerous conspiracy, or chasing massive underground sandworms like Kevin Bacon, the quality of quest design in Throne & Liberty worked flawlessly in hand with a well-structured and impressively engaging narrative.

I legitimately cared about the side content. Admittedly, not all of it, this is still an MMO, but I was constantly impressed by the depth of the stories and characters in content players could otherwise completely ignore.

There are times when the game falls at the feet of its ambition, turning otherwise intriguing quest design into a frustrating slog. Attempting perfectly timed platforming sequences in an environment not designed for perfectly timed platforming sequences is not fun, but these are few and far between.

Thankfully, other areas of innovation don’t struggle to the same degree. Exploring what feels like the most open-world MMO I’ve played in years, Thone & Liberty is thrilling and rewarding from start to finish.

Soaring through the skies, running along the planes, and swimming to distant islands, Throne & Liberty’s in-game morphing system gives players complete freedom to explore nearly anything they can see with mounts for land, sea, and air.

It’s not quite to the level of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but it’s the only MMORPG I’ve played where I felt like an explorer. I wasn’t just walking through carefully disguised corridors of progression, I was actively engaged in just exploring for the sake of exploring, an art almost lost to modern game design.

Throughout Throne & Liberty I was constantly saying to myself: this feels similar, just better, and that’s never more true than in the combat. Yes, it’s a traditional tab-target style MMO combat system, but the inclusion of active defensive abilities makes it a real game changer.

Opting for a two-handed weapon and sword & board as secondary, I was built to tank, and it’s the most fun I’ve had tanking since The Lord of the Rings Online.

Players are constantly tested in difficult battles. Dodging familiar red areas of death on the floor as enemies launch powerful abilities, but the opportunity to engage defensively with other abilities, makes every fight feel infinitely more fun than regular MMORPG combat.

Carefully parrying or dodging enemy abilities provides additional effects, such as a quick burst of healing or a cooldown reduction on abilities. It’s minor on paper, but in practice, this system delivers a more immersive and impactful combat experience – two words I rarely associate with MMO combat design.

The skill to time and perfect the defensive abilities makes such a huge difference. Doing it properly, I could easily fight off seven to eight enemies at a time.

Doing it wrong? I’d be dead in 30 seconds.

The progression systems boast much of the same, that niggling feeling of familiarity with just the right dose of “Oh, cool.” Using old or crafted gear as a resource for newer, more powerful gear, keeps even the early-stage dungeons relevant and worthwhile.

Farming different books for active and passive skill leveling, completing contracts for Weapon Experience points, further customizing skills and abilities with additional effects and bonuses…it never ends.

I’m already at maximum level, and I feel I’ve barely touched the surface of building the ultimate tank… once that’s done? I can simply change weapons and start building pretty much any combination of typical MMORPG class archetypes I can imagine. All the while benefiting from the resources, materials, and farming capabilities of having a max-level character.

If I were to pick a singular area of development that MMORPG’s have been struggling with, especially on console, it’s the social elements. Sadly, Throne & Liberty makes minimal effort in addressing this.

Voice communication is off by default, and no system that I could find exists to make communication any easier. Trying to explain even a basic tank and spank boss battle with a singular mechanic is nigh on impossible using an on-screen keyboard.

I spent several hours on the brink of a boss battle arena, constantly filtering through party members as they abandoned the mission after several wipes.

Just to be clear, these were not complicated boss battles for even the most casual of MMO players, but the console audience isn’t there yet. More effort is needed with communication tools for this kind of content to truly flourish.

Despite its communication shortcomings, most areas of PvP and social questing in Throne & Liberty can be entertaining with minimal communication. Watching as dozens of players descend on a field of wolves to see who can claim the most pelts was incredible. Floods of spells, explosions, and swinging swords… Throne & Liberty’s large-scale cooperative and competitive quests represent some of the very best content it has to offer.

Sadly, communication isn’t the only issue plaguing consoles. The controls are clumsy and frustrating; there are instances where navigation buttons randomly stop working. In addition, some screens allow for d-pad navigation use, while others force stick navigation. The play-by-play controls in combat work fine but navigating one of the game’s many intricate menus feels like playing Jenga with a blindfold.

And good luck trying to navigate targeting in large-scale PvP.

That said, plenty of fantastic co-op content is available, even if you don’t want to dabble in PvP. The Guild system of Throne & Liberty is one of the most rewarding I’ve experienced.

Guild Contracts reward regular, directed cooperative play with minor rewards for killing regular creatures. Working together to achieve Milestones unlocks new content, such as dungeons and boss battles, for the entire guild. Players can donate supplies to purchase guild upgrades. It’s a great system and one I very much look forward to exploring as more content is available.

One final area that was impressive was the day, night, and weather cycles, each intricately connected to various aspects of gameplay. Exploring certain regions, such as the Lycan-infested Gray Claw Forest, sees more wolves spawn at night.

While gathering specific resource nodes promises greater yield if it rains. These are all things we’ve seen before, but it works brilliantly to help direct content and avenues of progression depending on the world around the player.

It would be irresponsible to not mention the technical woes surrounding the release, although I’m very confident these will be addressed in the coming days. Throne & Liberty launched a premium early access version that turned out to be a glorified beta testing window, with the game regularly offline for six hours or more a day.

That was frustrating enough, but the full free-to-play release was a complete mess. Missing currencies, a broken auction house, players unable to log in for days at a time, and the cherry on top? My character was missing for several days.

If you’re looking to dive into Throne & Liberty in the immediate future, expect a bit of a bumpy ride.

Throne & Liberty is one of the most impressive and refreshing MMORPG’s in years. While it’s easy to initially dismiss it as “just another one of those MMOs,” those that dig deeper may come to realize Throne & Liberty is the perfect MMO to bring them back into the fray. If you have the choice, play it on PC.

The post Throne & Liberty Review (PlayStation 5) appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Even a week after I finished the story, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it. There are moments I loved, story memories I will cherish, but I don’t think I’ve ever sworn at my TV as much as I did playing this game.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a heavily narrative-driven RPG experience with traditionally bizarre JRPG pacing that is as exhausting as it is impressive.

You could spend several hours in many of the dungeons if you go in unprepared, slogging through enemy after enemy as your supplies and patience slowly dwindles. Exploring repetitive dungeon design one nearly identical corridor after another is tiring, and thrilling?

It’s that constant desire, the relentless urge to get this bit done and move on to the next. Sure, the end of a three-hour dungeon run sucked, but after 45 minutes of cutscenes and dialogue, the beginning was bliss.

It’s a strange combination of highs and lows, one many JRPG players will be familiar with, but it’s ultimately what will decide whether this is a game for you.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a marathon and not a sprint. The story builds slowly but the pay-off is pure Persona. It’s an incredible adventure, one filled with surprisingly deep companions, and a twisting and intriguing political narrative. A reflection on what our society has become, and what it could be.

I don’t think it’s going to make any great strides in introducing the JRPG style to those yet to brave the waters, but for the fans, it’s everything it needs to be.

Rarely is my first thought in approaching a new game the visual style. It’s important, a defining feature for many of today’s biggest releases, but nobody does it quite like Atlus, the Quentin Tarantino’s of the video-game space.

Metaphor: ReFantazio drips with style and class. Every element of the user-interface, every carefully constructed loading screen, every bizarre or outright hideous monster design.

Everything in Metaphor: ReFantazio is done with a level of flair and creativity almost unrivalled in this industry.

It helped define Persona as one of the most iconic and successful JRPG franchises of all time, and Studio Zero have not missed a beat with Metaphor. While the environmental graphics suffer with the inclusion of a last-generation release, the overall style, characters, and animation design are flawless.

Studio Zero continues to show a willingness and ability to innovate the turn-based genre, when it feels as though most of the industry has turned its back.

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s combat is some of the most intense and strategically layered the genre has seen for years.

There are two main elements to the combat system: Action and Squad. Action is a real-time combat lite, allowing players to move around and slash at enemies with a primary weapon. It’s never primarily used as a means to defeat most enemies, more so as a method of engaging in combat with the upper hand.

It’s not as simple as running around mindlessly slashing at anything moving. Using different weapons and different styles of approach maximizes the chance of avoiding damage and beginning combat with stunned enemies.

This is simply the first couple of layers of the innovative combat system. Once the Squad combat starts, the turn-based element, it continues to evolve. It features the traditional tactically driven decision-making of the turn-based genre. Choosing the best time to attack, buff, heal, or defend, but with a level of consequence seldom seen.

Every enemy has its own arsenal of abilities, a list of elements and attack types it’s either weak or strong against, but this is much more than simply increasing or reducing damage.

Hit an enemy with an attack they are strong against, and you may miss a turn. Hit an enemy with an attack they can repel, your entire team loses its turn.

This is huge, both offensively and defensively. It greatly increases the value of characters built to dodge or sustain damage, allowing them to double up as action economy sinks for your opponents. Metaphor: ReFantazio rewards understanding and investigation of each enemy type unlike any other.

A carefully constructed symphony of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei’s best combat elements sees Metaphor: ReFantazio deliver one of the most innovative turn-based entries in years.

I should probably mention just how brutally difficult this game can be. I messed around across most of the difficulty settings, but even on Easy, my lack of preparation and intel caused me to wipe during several battles, and then there was the final battle…

It took me two days to defeat the boss at the end of the story, and I had to drop the difficulty to Storyteller mode to get the job done. Metaphor: ReFantazio is punishing, and frustrating as all hell, but about as satisfying as a turn-based RPG is ever going to be.

This was after spending nearly 70 hours maxing out the best Archetypes and gathering the best gear. No substitution for skill, I guess.

The Archetypes, the game’s class system, brings with it a blend of the familiar with a dash of the surprising. Watching as characters tear out their heart and transform into strangely armored thingies, seriously, I have no idea what they are, is glorious.

Carefully planning progression routes, so each character has the requirements to unlock the next tier of their preferred Archetype, is the sort of micromanagement RPG players dream of. Decisions made in the early hours of the game, choosing what direction to take characters, pays off nearly 60-70 hours later.

It’s a robust, powerful set of systems that truly give players the freedom to create, manage, and evolve a cast of characters. Despite my struggles with the latter stages of the game, I had characters that were nigh on invincible, my favorites, characters whose stories I loved and enjoyed.

I also had characters I didn’t really like, and they typically died after a couple of slaps. For players with the time, ability, and understanding, Archetypes are the pinnacle of an RPG class system.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a deep, stylish, and rewarding adventure, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

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I was initially quietly optimistic in the build up to the release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. It’s a franchise I’ve dabbled in over the years, but outside the heavy weights, I’ve often felt disappointed.

Total War: Warhammer stands as one of the greatest strategy games of all time. Fatshark’s Vermintide delivered a fantastic co-op experience, and the more recent release of Rogue Trader was a great take on the tactic’s genre.

I also really struggled through Underhive Wars, would rather forget my time in Chaosbane, and Darktide, well, you get the point. Couple this with World War Z, a part amazing part embarrassingly broken experience, I really wasn’t sure what to expect with Space Marine 2 and Saber Interactive.

The 10-15 hours that followed were bizarre. I cannot tell you how many times my comrades and I screamed “holy shit, that was awesome” over Discord, but for each of those insanely epic moments, there was an air of disappointment we just couldn’t shrug.

There’s A Story Here, Somewhere

If you’re stepping into Space Marine 2 as a relative newcomer to the Warhammer franchise, do not expect a warm welcome. It makes absolutely no effort in explaining the events of the original Space Marine game or the wider Warhammer universe as a whole.

No introductory cinematic, no compendium of events, texts, and characters in a pause menu, nothing. This makes it challenging to really dive into the quality and impact of the story, because I had no idea what was going on.

Sure, I understood the assignment. Land on a planet besieged by Tyranids, find a guy, rescue a guy, fix something, use more elevators and “loading screen” doors than I can count. However, without greater knowledge and understanding of the wider story, it feels simple and hollow.

The epitome of this came during a singular moment in the story, one that was clearly designed to shock and awe. Instead, our entire party, in unison, simply asked: “What was that?”

I will be the first to admit, it’s a little entitled and unrealistic to expect the full package. A sequel to a game in one of the biggest and most expansive fictional universes ever created, no developer in the world has the time to bring us all entirely up to speed.

But it has been nearly 13 years since the last game, a brief rundown would have been appreciated.

Courage & Honor

While the ever-expanding lore of the Warhammer universe is sure to appeal to a lot of folks, let’s be honest: That’s not the reason we’re here.

It quickly takes a backseat to running around as a superhuman, genetically modified killing machine in mechanized armor swinging a sword with a chainsaw.

And, by god, is it glorious.

Gears of War has long been the pinnacle of the third-person shooter, but nothing has come as close to that mantle as Space Marine 2.

The slow, clunky, pounding footstep movement, slogging through with enough momentum to disintegrate targets on contact. Glorious models of chaos foot soldiers replaced by a misty haze of blood and body matter.

If you have ever sat at the head of a Warhammer table and wondered just how those models would interact in real combat, dial that up to 11, and you’re at Space Marine 2’s level of bloody and messy.

Every dodge, every swing of the blade, every carefully timed counter – all of it is rewarded with the dismemberment of your enemies in the most glorious fashion imaginable.

Even toward the end of the story, nearly 12 hours of main campaign and optional Operation missions, the combat is nearly identical. Except for a couple of insanely action-packed missions, it doesn’t evolve or change throughout the story, but it didn’t matter.

Slicing through near endless waves of xeno’s in that iconic bulky blue armor, sharing that relief of respite with friends after an intense 5-10 minute battle, it’s everything I want as a Space Marine. Pain is temporary, honor is eternal.

Did You F**king See That?

Despite the near flawless execution of Space Marine combat, the game’s real gem is in the environment. It’s all a carefully constructed illusion. Linear paths, small areas split between poorly disguised loading screens, but if you can suspend belief for just a moment, it’s magical.

Seeing thousands of Tyranid’s swarming a fortified position in the distance. Watching the iconic tanks of the Astra Militarum stand toe-to-toe with a relentless force. Fighting off Tyranids as they form World War Z style pyramids to climb the battlements. It creates a feeling and scope of a universe at war unlike any other, arguably the most faithful adaptation Warhammer has seen in video-game form.

My entire journey through Space Marine 2 was all much of that.

“This is amazing, but…”

That was great, but…”

It’s a game that is so incredibly good, but it’s just not quite great.

Watching the credits roll, celebrating the triumphant combat while commiserating a complete lack of understanding of the story, I wasn’t sure how much more time I wanted to invest in Space Marine 2

If you’ve played World War Z, Space Marine 2 is very much of the same ilk. It’s a similar package, but fine-tuned and executed to an infinitely higher degree. Technically, near flawless, suffering only the expected matchmaking and lobby forming bugs common in today’s gaming launch space, but much like its post-apocalyptic brethren, some may find the content a bit lacking.

The main campaign is probably five to eight hours long, depending on difficulty and play style. A further six Operations are available at about 30–40 minutes a piece. That’s it, without stepping into the PvP arena.

This sours the experience further when you consider the price of the Gold and Ultra Editions. I don’t recall a game offering these $80-$100 early access editions when the entire game can be easily completed before official release.

It’s likely to offer greater value for those that are happy to grind through the multiple classes, perks, and weapon upgrades, through both co-op Operations and PvP. It just feels as though it’s content to justify a Season Pass.

Hardened Warhammer fans finally have the ultimate Space Marine experience with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Gory, bloody, and brutally entertaining combat stands at the forefront of Space Marine 2, delivering one of the most immersive Warhammer worlds to date. However, after 14 years between releases, a refresher on the events of the original wouldn’t have gone amiss.

The post Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Review – On the Cusp of Greatness appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Full disclosure. I have spent the last year playing Star Wars Legion, Star Wars Armada, Star Wars X-Wing, and Star Wars Unlimited, I’m ready for this.

Star Wars Outlaws follows the adventures of Kay Vess and her cute and furry companion Nix. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, Kay struggles to survive on the syndicate dominated worlds of the Outer Rim, always looking for that next big score to buy her freedom.

A Star Wars Game Has Never Felt So Authentic

Betrayed by the Rebel Alliance during a heist on the Zerek Besh crime syndicate, Kay is approached by Jaylen, a charming and charismatic smuggler with an offer impossible to refuse. That one final score, a heist to end all heists.

Kay and her trusted companion Nix set across the galaxy, tracking down and recruiting her crew for the big score.

The narrative takes place between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, delivering both familiar faces and locales, while keeping things fresh with fantastic new characters and planets to explore.

It’s a story that, for much of the game, just felt good. Each of the planets is home to one of the characters Kay recruits, and a boiling pot of syndicate betrayal and political turmoil that’s just begging for a chaotic smuggler to stir the pot.

Aiding Jabba and the Hutt Cartel to maintain control of Tatooine, choosing sides between the Crimson Dawn and Pyke Syndicate on Toshara, exploring the Separatist history of Akiva, meeting a cast of truly memorable characters, it was good.

And then I hit the ending. I have issues with endings. I got to the end of the original Final Fantasy VII probably 15 times, and didn’t actually watch the ending until 15 years later. If it wasn’t for the fact I’m required to finish a game before reviewing it, I’d probably skip the ending in 95% of games.

The culmination of events in Star Wars Outlaws is the most rewarding and satisfying conclusion to a video-game that I can remember. It elevates the entire story, turns something good fantastic, ties into the wider galaxy of Star Wars effortlessly, and it doesn’t rely on countless cameos to do it.

A Star Wars video-game has never felt this authentic.

That Star Wars Feeling

That authenticity, that Star Wars feeling, spreads and infects every single aspect of the game. This is all without a single Jedi or lightsaber. Ubisoft’s game worlds have long been some of the most visually impressive offerings in the video-game space, Avatar was visually outstanding, but Massive could have developed the best we’ve seen to date.

Everything looks and feels as though it was filmed in the 80s. The lighting, the screen filters, the simplicity of the Speeder and Trailblazer design, nearly everything is a visual package perfectly befitting the original movies.

Blasting across the open sands of Tatooine on a Speeder, looking for a random innocent and unknown child to run over, was a blast. Navigating the back alleys of Mos Eisley, avoiding the gaze of the Empire, fantastic. Leaping over cliffs in the windy canyons of Tashora, glorious.

I’ve finished the game and still find myself drawn to fighting stuff in space, for no other reason than it just looks amazing.

Star Wars potential will always be best delivered in an open-world experience, and Massive has created one of the most visually breathtaking galaxies I’ve ever seen.

I did say nearly everything. Unfortunately, the characters are struggling to keep up. The animations are clean and crisp, the voice-over work stellar, but highlighting characters during dialogue often presents dead expressions and strangely wandering eyes. It’s a minor discrepancy, one only really noticeable because of how high the bar is in the rest of the game.

A Very Ubisoft Open World

The open-world elements of the game are very Ubisofted? Ubisoftfied? It’s very Ubisoft. Clear similarities with Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, it’s a recipe they have used for many years, and it’s one that works.

Star Wars Outlaws does follow the more recent evolutions of the open-world formula. Many of the aspects of exploration are objective marked and intel based, creating sequences of eavesdropping on conversations and stealing datapads to reveal locations of interest.

That said, I never once felt bored exploring the open-world areas of the game, I enjoyed every minute. The stealth and combat system made approaching syndicate strongholds an intriguing playground of ideas and approaches, and while the constant reward of Speeder and ship skins grew tiresome toward the end, I near enough 100% completed every POI before that happened.

More Challenging Than I Expected

The game is a lot more stealth based than I was expecting. I spent more time analyzing patrol patterns, sneaking through vents, and quietly punching Stormtroopers in the face than I did in open blaster fire, but the combat and stealth systems complement each other perfectly, eventually.

In the beginning hours of the game, before Kay has learned many new abilities, it can be surprisingly difficult. Frequently I found being discovered was a death sentence, overwhelmed by Pyke Syndicate soldiers, Gamorrean guards, even angry bandits.

That was until I’d met a few Experts, unlocked some set item bonuses, and upgraded my Adrenaline Shot, the latter being the single best aspect of the entire combat system. Slowing down time, picking enemies one by one, and watching Kay’s Han Solo hip fire wipe them all out is satisfying from start to finish.

The Expert System Is Surprisingly Good

The Expert system is one that I initially presumed to be rather dull and unimaginative, a glorified interface for skills and abilities, just with a different paint job to what we’ve seen before. I was wrong.

Experts are characters dotted throughout the universe that Kay meets, either through story progression, side quests, or hidden tidbits of intel discovered here and there. Bram, the Zabrak Bartender, Sheriff Quint, the Weequay Gunslinger, these are characters that live and breathe in the world Kay explores.

It creates a meaningful connection and justification for the learning of new abilities, it’s not something Kay just pulled out of a hat because she killed enough Stormtroopers to figure out how to shoot her blaster a bit quicker.

The Unlock Conditions, challenges and requirements Kay must meet for the Experts to teach her the abilities, create another layer of rewarding exploration and challenge that the more objective-based open-world games can sometimes lack.

I Expected Someone With Your Reputation To Be A Little…Better

The Reputation system of Star Wars Outlaws was a prime target for much of the marketing in the build up to release, but it’s a system that doesn’t feel it lives up to its potential.

Many of the quests, contracts, and choices made throughout the story impact your relationship with the syndicates, but the consequence of these relationships is lacking.

With a Good rating, Kay can freely explore the syndicate controlled areas of each city, making other quests and objectives in these areas infinitely easier to achieve. Higher ranks reward Kay with rare and exclusive gear.

It works, managing the reputations can be fun during certain parts of the game, but the choices seldom seem to matter outside an immediate conversation or event. Even hated factions, those that send death squads out to hunt Kay, can be farmed back to loving status in an hour or two.

It’s Not Without Its Issues

Despite its brilliance across practically every area of the game, Star Wars Outlaws is not without it’s open-world woes. Several times I was forced to close the game or reload a previous save because an elevator wouldn’t work, or Nix was distracted by something and stopped functioning entirely.

Spending many hours at certain points of interest trying to locate a single treasure chest with the Nix Sense ability felt a real step-down from the aerial ease of the Assassin’s Creed games. Turning what should be a challenging but rewarding element of exploration into something more frustrating.

It’s a game of many tiny problems, problems unlikely to make an impact if I didn’t enjoy it so much to want to complete practically everything.

Final Thoughts

The history of Star Wars in video-games is one marked with brilliance and marred with mediocrity. Rogue Squadron, Knights of the old Republic, the original Battlefront games, there’s no shortage of old classics that stand today as some of the best games to come out of the Star Wars galaxy.

For each of those, however, there’s another that even seasoned fans would like to forget ever happened. Republic Heroes, the Battlefront remaster, The Force Unleashed 2, it’s an IP with near limitless potential but one, that until recently, had yet to hit its stride in the modern era.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is easily among the best games under the Star Wars umbrella, and LEGO Star Wars has been carrying the banner for years. Now, however, it all feels real as Star Wars Outlaws joins those illustrious ranks as one of the greatest Star Wars games of all time.

Massive Entertainment created breathtaking environments across the galaxy, delivered a fast-paced combat system true to the scoundrel style, and crafted a story that rivals the modern movies. Star Wars Outlaws is, simply put, the Star Wars game of a generation.

The post Star Wars Outlaws Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

That’s very much how I feel about Creatures of Ava. While the game is not without problems, the story reminded of me of why these games are so important.

Creatures of Ava Review

When developers aren’t pressured to chase AAA juggernaut success, and can instead just tell a passionate and meaningful story, that’s when video games stand apart as the greatest entertainment medium on the planet.

Following Vic’s adventures through the world of Ava as she fights to save its creatures and the natives from a planetwide infection called The Withering is an experience that will remain with you long after you finish the game.

It’s a story of human heart, passion, and our constant drive to fix our mistakes, to right our wrongs, even if we still don’t truly understand the world around us.

The world of Ava is beautiful, captivating in places, and filled with charm and character. Exploring across the different biomes, Jungle, Desert, Swamp, and Grasslands, is an enjoyable and worthwhile endeavor, hampered only by the bizarre decision to cut slices of the world away through story progress.

While each area is unique in the creatures and puzzles Vic faces, exploration incentives remain the same throughout. Permanent Upgrades in the form of increased health, stamina, and backpack capacity, and various collectibles and photography opportunities to learn more about the world of Ava and the creatures that call it home.

During the early hours of the game, I really enjoyed exploring the Grasslands region. Saving the creatures, finding the permanent upgrades and lore collectibles, taking snaps of the creatures to fill out my Avapedia. I felt like I was running around as Spyro in a world of Pokémon Snap.

All of which quickly became a chore when the game’s multiple pivotal story moments forced me to cut off parts of the world, never to return.

This point of no return conundrum is one faced in many games over the years, but typically in the final moments of the game. Having several, in a game that runs about 18 hours, felt very oppressive.

It all makes sense from a narrative perspective, and the story is easily the game’s most defining aspect. However, constantly being faced with the choice of finding items I’ll never have the opportunity to find again, or following the heart of the story, felt contradictory to the game’s empathic nature.

Part of that decision-making process was made easier by the rather disappointing impact of the upgrades. The increased health, stamina, and backpack capacity was nice, sure, but you can get through the entire game without much of it.

Couple that with the fact that you need to invest skill points, alongside finding the collectible items, and it became all too easy just to ignore them entirely.

Thankfully, the rest of the skill tree was more impactful, albeit difficult to complete if you don’t spend the time completing areas fully before progressing.

Various upgrades improve Vic’s ability to craft items, tame creatures, and solve puzzles, but much of it still felt unnecessary.

I couldn’t help but feel much of the time dedicated to these systems could have been better spent on the game’s namesake, the creatures of Ava.

Each region is home to a variety of unique, colorful, and gorgeous creatures that Ava can interact with. During my adventures, I encountered 21 unique species, each as mesmerizing and intriguing as the last.

Each creature makes sense, feels like it belongs, and has a real impact on Vic’s progression. Although, as the hours passed, the initial awe and that fuzzy feeling you get when you pet something cute, was replaced by mechanical understanding and expectation.

Once tamed, Ava is able to connect with these creatures, controlling them for a short time and gaining access to their Co-Op Ability.

These abilities are just additional skills to solve puzzles, making the creatures feel more like tools than living, breathing entities. Using creatures to navigate pathways Ava is unable to use, breaking down walls and pillars, moving heavy boulders, it synergizes perfectly with the environment, and learning how these skills behave early in the game was really rewarding.

The puzzles are all very simple, minimal stress, and almost calming and relaxing in places — and this is from someone that absolutely hates puzzles. That said, I would have enjoyed more complexity to some puzzle elements of the game. However, if you’re easily frustrated by puzzles but still enjoy the positive returns of solving one, this is the perfect adventure for you.

That is, sadly, the only purpose the creatures serve. You save enough to complete a region, use some to solve puzzles, and you move on.

At the beginning of my adventure, I was enamored with the opportunity to snap as many images of these gorgeous creatures as I could, only to ultimately leave somewhat disappointed at the lack of unique character and environmental interaction.

Take a snap of one infected with the Withering, take a snap of one not infected, and you’re done with the camera.

Although much of your time is dedicated to exploring and solving puzzles, Creatures of Ava does feature a combat system.

Well, it’s sort of a combat system? You don’t really fight, but you do kinda fight? I’m not really sure what to call it. A pacifying system?

Many of the creatures that inhabit Ava are infected with The Withering, a deadly infection that causes creatures to become aggressive and attack Vic on sight.

In order to tame these creatures to solve puzzles or just get that warm feeling of helping innocent animals, Vic needs to “attack” them with the Nafitar, a ceremonial stick of sorts.

It’s an intriguing extension of the game’s puzzle system, one that works really well. The Nafitar can pacify multiple creatures at once, if you’re able to catch them in its beam. It definitely feels like Vic may have been a Ghostbuster in a previous life.

It’s a balance of trying to tame the creatures in the quickest way possible, while trying to use specific abilities to counter certain creature traits.

For example, certain creatures are infected with an advanced form of The Withering, requiring the use of the Krist ability to break through an additional shield before the Nafitar can begin the taming process.

Other creatures may be incredibly fast, requiring the use of the Ushun ability to briefly levitate them above ground, giving Vic a chance to tame them before the next attack.

While initially skeptical at how challenging or in-depth this system could be, by the end, it was one of the game’s features I enjoyed the most.

There is so much to love about Creatures of Ava. The 2D cinematic scenes are a work of art, the world of Ava beautiful from start to finish, and the puzzles a perfect balance of accessibility and challenge. I just can’t help but feel so much time was spent in areas of the game that really didn’t need it.

Creatures of Ava is a heartwarming love letter to the action adventure games of old. A captivating tale of empathy and reflection, its story will leave you pondering its teaching moments long after the credits roll. This title is pure charm, hampered only by a number of shallow features that feel like they don’t belong.

The post Creatures of Ava Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Typically, I would consider buying something as expensive as the Nacon Revolution 5 Pro an optional and very luxurious purchase that is in no way required to enjoy gaming on a casual level.

However, this is not your typical console generation, as I stare into the abyss of a graveyard full of Sony’s official DualSense controllers that are as about as reliable as a crocheted condom.

I guess it’s no real surprise that the DualSense performs so poorly. Sony’s patents monopolize the vibration and haptic trigger features on the PS5, forcing third-party developers to forgo support for one of the controller’s biggest selling points, and a feature expected as standard since the DualShock’s release in 1998.

So when the basic DualSense fails you, and it will, but you still want the very latest gaming controller technology, the only remaining option is the $200 DualSense Edge. I’m not even going to link to it, out of principle.

Call me crazy, but my willingness to invest $200 into a product manufactured by the same company that has failed to maintain any level of quality across a $60 product, sit’s at just above the no chance in hell level.

Why have I spent the last few minutes sharing my disdain for the PlayStation 5’s official controller? Because products like the Nacon Revolution 5 Pro are typically just optional, a nice custom touch to add to a collection. An ideal console companion. A high quality product aimed at a niche corner of the market.

However, from my experience at least, a third-party controller is not something I consider optional, it’s a must-have. If you’re going to go down that rabbit hole, backing Nacon is a solid play.

Not only have they been producing high-quality gaming peripherals for years, they published the likes of the fantastic RoboCop: Rogue City.

Beautiful, Right Out Of The Box

The Nacon 5 Pro wastes little time impressing, with its matte black finish standing out right from the box. A compact but sturdy carry case holds a bevy of accessories and knick-knacks, and an impressively lengthy and durable braided USB-C cable, which offers double the length of the basic PS5 alternative.

Reminds me of that first day of disappointment. Booting up my PlayStation 5 for the first time and realizing the cable wouldn’t reach the bloody couch…

It does lack an instruction manual, which is surprising considering the complexities of mechanical setup, but the physical customization options are straight forward and easy to figure out. Online instructions are readily available for the more intricate aspects of customization.

It features adjustable weights that can be quickly and easily socketed under panels on the rear of the controller, and a collection of switches, buttons, and gizmos offer further customization options to the d-pad and thumbsticks.

Despite offering 60 unique customization options, both physical and mechanical, the weight distribution stands out as my favorite aspect of the controller. The added weight sits the controller perfectly in the palm of my hands and just makes the traditional PS5 controller feel cheap and flimsy in comparison.

Both shoulder buttons, L2 & R2, can be adjusted on the fly, allowing for faster and better performance in games like Call of Duty, drastically reducing the time between pressing the button and actually firing a shot.

Each can be adjusted singularly, and I actually found that to be preferable. Using my ADS button as a full press while the trigger rested on the faster function.

One of the more intriguing physical changes utilizes small metallic rings that are placed underneath the left and right analog sticks. These minimize the space between the central area of the thumbstick and the outer rim, allowing for faster run and gun style gameplay, constantly switching directions and perspectives.

I struggled to find any great benefit to using these, but it’s just another weapon in an already impressive arsenal. I felt similarly toward the customizable thumbstick covers and d-pad options because the default worked perfectly fine, but that’s the beauty of this controller: the options.

Likewise, I do have to report that although I absolutely love the base physical customization options of the Nacon 5 Pro, I would not have been able to use it without connecting it to my PC and altering the setup mechanically.

This was due to two rear pedal buttons that sit perfectly aligned with where my ring finger and little finger would rest. I was constantly hitting the pedals by accident, either through minor repositioning of the pad during gameplay or as the weight shifted in my hands between different button presses.

Switching to the lighter weights did alleviate much of this issue, but when the choice was between additional buttons or a more natural feeling controller, I disabled the buttons very quickly. Which was simple and fast, thanks to a gorgeous UI and easily accessible software.

The Magic Is In The Software

The real magic of the Nacon 5 Pro is the customization suite available through the free to download software. While the base controller and its physical customization options represent the ultimate, if somewhat expensive, controller for the more dedicated casual gamer, the software represents the peak of professional and competitive play.

Every single button can be mapped and remapped, sticks can be inverted through the controller itself, the deadzone of each stick can be tweaked and optimized individually, making for the perfect- if somewhat unfair – ultimately straight golf swing.

The left and right trigger travel distance can be customized further in the software, lighting effects can be changed, added, and removed. Mess around to your hearts content and then throw it through its paces in the Test Area.

Each of these settings can then be saved to a profile that you can switch between freely, offering optimized setups across multiple genres of games.

This is largely where the real value of the Nacon 5 Pro comes into play. The fine-tuning options available truly offer the possibility of gaining a competitive edge, but it does come at a steep price.

Is It Worth $200?

That’s the ultimate question here, right? $200 is a lot of money. As you probably guessed from my introduction in this review, I’m slightly jaded with Sony’s PlayStation products of this generation. Not only have I had to replace my controller half a dozen times, I’m not even using the same PlayStation 5 I purchased at launch.

With that in mind, I would recommend anyone that plans to play for more than 5-10 hours a week to invest in a more reliable, higher quality controller, and the Nacon 5 Revolution Pro Wireless is a near flawless choice.

It’s clearly catered towards the more competitive gamer, with its impressive suite of customization options, and you don’t typically associate high-end products with the casual market. However, its durability and lifespan is likely to save most players cash in the long-run.

I have probably spent around $360 on replacing official DualSense controllers by this point. If I’d purchased the Nacon 5 Pro at $200 when I first started, I would have saved $180.

The only real dealbreaker is whether you can live without PlayStation 5’s official features, such as full vibration and haptic triggers, both of which appeal to me about as much as the Xbox Kinect.

If you’re suffering with stick drift and don’t want to throw more money at Sony, the Nacon Revolution 5 Pro is the perfect, luxurious addition to your peripheral collection.

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