thecou..toolkit

Being a fan of Kingdom Hearts is both the most frustrating and wondrous thing in the world.

Since its inception in 2002, the series has spanned multiple entries, platforms and mediums – all while expecting players to follow an increasingly convoluted plot. It’s the most ostentatious brand of anime nonsense imaginable, revelling in every absurd, unexpected development in a way no other franchise has the bravery to do so. And, despite my reservations, I adore every minute of it. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 was over a decade in the making, teasing conclusions that its audience had been waiting years for. It was meant to be the climactic showdown between good and evil, bringing a sprawling cast of characters together for one final confrontation. But here we are, a year after its release, with an expansion which doesn’t bring things to a close – it does quite the opposite. 

Square Enix has crafted a compelling yet ultimately uneven conclusion to Kingdom Hearts 3 with Re:Mind. It feel like something crafted for hardcore fans, so dedicated in its service to those who’ve kept up with Sora’s adventures that it fumbles at times. This isn’t one for newcomers, especially at a rather steep asking price. That being said, it’s still a frequent delight. 

Related: Upcoming PS4 Games

It’s hard to talk about Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind without delving into spoiler territory, and I imagine anyone searching for a review will be fully aware of that. So, consider this a warning that I’ll be spoiling certain plot elements for the base game going forward.

This expansion is essentially an extended epilogue, picking up from the end of for Kingdom Hearts 3. The world is saved, but Kairi has been lost in the process, and Sora is determined to bring his best friend back, no matter the cost. Our hero is thrust into a wonderfully absurd adventure involving time travel, alternative dimensions and a whole lot of love for everyone around him. 

It’s soppy, self-indulgent brilliance of the highest regard, seldom taking time to explain its litany of unexpected twists and turns. While I felt that hardly mattered, it retreads enough familiar ground from the original ending that some might feel short changed.

Each new extended cutscene was a joy, providing added development to each major character alongside improved animations and abridged sequences. It’s completely nonsensical to the unversed, but fans will eat up every passing second.

Related: Everything we know about Starfield

You’ll repeat the same boss battles from the perspective of different characters each with their own move-sets, but you’re pulled away so quickly it’s little more than a novelty. It’s almost a shame that Sora sits at the centre of Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind as the protagonist when far more interesting stories are happening around him. We could have played as Kairi, fighting her way through the darkness with a real sense of agency. Infamously framed as a damsel in distress, Tetsuya Nomura and company had a perfect opportunity to redeem her. 

Instead, this feels like Avengers Endgame: Anime Edition, although that’s selling short some of the unabashed creativity on display here. Each major boss battle is a phenomenal set piece, transforming me into a tearful, excitable fan girl desperate to see these characters succeed.

So, it’s a crying shame many of these battles are a breeze until the very end. Sitting at Level 59, I hacked through each of the expansion’s encounters without dying once, rarely making me feel like I was conquering a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

The real meat of Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind surfaces after the main credits have rolled. After this, you’ll be introduced to Data Analysis. This involves taking on Organisation XIII in a gauntlet of increasingly challenging boss battles, putting to shame everything that came before it in terms of difficulty. They demand a high level and utmost mastery of Kingdom Hearts 3’s movement and combat mechanics, otherwise you’ll be dead within seconds.

Related: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Preview

All of the encounters are genuinely thrilling. They’re admittedly an exercise of trial and error as I died over and over, but each death was a step forward in uncovering enemy patterns. Once you emerge victorious it imbues an unrivalled feeling of satisfaction. Getting through every single battle to uncover the secret ending isn’t easy, and you’ll honestly be tempted just to look it up on YouTube.

Meanwhile, Data Greeting is a photo mode with a twist, providing players with a way to spawn characters and pose them however they like in myriad of different settings. Heroes, villains, props and more can be arranged together for the ultimate family portrait, or you could choose to recreate iconic memes purely for sharing with friends on Twitter. It’s a quirky treat, if a little niche in the percentage of fans who will take full advantage of it.

Verdict

Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind is an excellent expansion on the existing RPG, building upon the original ending in some fascinatingly unexpected ways. However, it’s one that only hardcore fans will truly benefit from, otherwise you’ll be lost in an endless deluge of complicated character motivations and frankly silly plot developments.

But it’s told with such earnest conviction that it works, with themes of love and friendship shining through above all else. The desperate fanvgirl in me would’ve loved an adventure that focused more on Kairi and other playable Keyblade wielders, but Sora carries Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind right through to its otherworldly conclusion, which shakes the series’ foundations in ways that will change it forever. Where Kingdom Hearts goes from here is anyone’s guess, and I can’t wait to see it unfold.

The post Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Journey to the Savage Planet understands the joy of scanning things. It’s made me wonder why every game doesn’t have some sort of similar system – discovering the habits of unpredictable creatures in a brave new world is always exciting.

This first revealed itself in the starting area, where I’m introduced to a species of puffy owls. I thought they were cute but a complete pushover – my leading thought process until I slapped an alpha and it combusted right in front of me, stripping me from my meat sack and scattering my collected resources to the wind. There were plenty of accidental discoveries like that during my seven hour playthrough.

The animation team deserve a lot of credit for bringing the world to life. The tiny owlish dino-beasties that roam between food piles titter and roost in packs – I swear I wouldn’t have killed any of them if I hadn’t realised the haptic joy of the power slap, the first means by which Savage Planet allows you to interact with the world. 

Eventually you do get a gun, but it’s completely weightless and lacks any crunch – the simple, unabated power of Journey to the Savage Planet’s happy slap reigned supreme throughout the adventure as one of its finest features, letting me send blubbery aliens flying and turning their gooey remains into masses of helpful resources. 

Related: The Walking Dead – Saints and Sinners review

On the way back from my delightful dance with death I encountered one of the game’s finer details. You can scan your own corpse and bury it, turning it into a numbered monolith that reminds you of every time you made a grave mistake – it’s a brilliant turn. Similarly, the notice board in your busted spaceship fills up with postcards depending on where you’ve been, as you frantically search for a way back home from this unknown, hostile environment.

To give you the skinny, it’s an open-world adventure game with some metroidvania elements. The maps are relatively small but hide secrets that you’ll need to figure out later once you’ve earned and learned upgrades. You source these from side quests and materials that you’ll acquire by discombobulating the alien oddities hiding in caves, swamps and on sky mushrooms scattered throughout the world. 

Levelling up is achieved by finding and ingesting ‘Orange Goos’, one hundred of which are dotted around the game’s map. It’s not essential that you find them all to complete the game, you just need certain arbitrary upgrades to breach into new areas – one of the exploratory compromises made to push you through its hub worlds.

Each area has its own silly name and peculiar beasts to encounter as you doss around, upgrading equipment and cataloguing the flora and fauna. The creature and plant designs are often interesting – one of my favourites were the Bombodoros, looming plants that drop hulking tomatoes on your head if you don’t dash past. 

Related: Upcoming PS4 Games 

Lots of the same beasts are reused in different areas, but there can be different types of creatures depending on where you find them, like zombified or armoured versions of the puffy owls which ask you to throw acidic plants at them to make them vulnerable, amongst other things. This is tied to one of your main objectives – you’ll be tasked with stabilising some of the native fruits you find to turn them into pieces of equipment in order to proceed. 

It toys with the clever idea of letting you tinker with the limits of the world by giving you a throwable bouncy platform, but I don’t think Journey to the Savage Planet accounts for the fact that this all but breaks the game – with a bit of careful momentum there were many ways to get around some of the later puzzles, but when enemies stopped responding and I couldn’t advance quests, I realised the game couldn’t account for what I’d done – which was a shame.

A more holistic approach to the sandbox open world would have pushed this game to be less linear, more ambitious and worthy of your time. I’m sure the speedrunners will have fun getting this one done in under ten minutes, though.

Journey To the Savage Planet offers a feedback loop that we’ve seen many times before, but it certainly isn’t broken and does not need fixing. Darting around the map, unlocking new movement tech and scoffing goo to upgrade equipment is quite fun, even if the unimportance of the exploration I had committed to throughout the first half eventually ground me down and made me want to mainline the story.

Speaking of story, the humour in Journey to the Savage Planet is predicated on irreverence and boasts the same overbearing (often ironic) anti-corporate schtick pioneered and peddled by Borderlands – it pongs of some of the bum notes in The Outer Worlds’ late-capitalist joke glossary. It’s the kind of approach that was clever in Oddworld games in the late 90s but now provides the same feeling as sipping orange juice after you’ve just brushed your teeth. “Because Capitalism” is a genuine punchline, believe it or not. There are a few good laughs – the script can work when its not scraping laughs out of how arbitrary a lot of the game’s puzzles are, which just feels like a colossal self-own. 

Related: Ghosts of Tsushima 

Given that this is an open-world game and a co-op one at that, it makes the right decision by not laying it on thick with the story (looking at you, Anthem) but it certainly could have used a few moments of conversation. There’s no NPCs to talk to, so you’re left at the mercy of your hit or miss gag machine AI companion and the advertisements and transmissions from your ship’s computer – if you can bear to watch them.

Once you make your way through Savage Planet’s three hub worlds, the game flips the story switch back on for the last half hour and delivers a yawn-worthy ‘indictment’ of space colonisation and capitalism via a physical manifestation of greed – I don’t know why I’m refraining from spoiling it, but given what you’re asked to do throughout the game, it’s about as flat as a week-old glass of Coke. 

The spawning system is a bit odd – enemies return as long as you don’t look at them, and there’s an abundance of replenishable items to ensure the difficulty never spikes too high, which it probably should at some point.

Guns are pathetic, with no feedback or vibration and nimble enemies to shoot, it’s truly laborious to try and kill creatures like the floating jellyfish and the Pikamander, which has a tiny hit box on its exposed tail. I’m sure it might be easier with a mouse and keyboard but even with auto-aim on and a console controller in hand, you’ll wonder why somebody didn’t point out how dull the weapons feel.

Related: Yakuza 7

A lot of the platforming is satisfying but the upgrade-necessary puzzles can mostly be gamed if you know where to place the bouncy gel. After a few sections,  missions also become something of a blur – every unnecessarily large new area feels arduous to explore, a bullet sponge gauntlet to reach a new monolith with a crystal, where you’ll brandish either a syringe or a drill so you can sup the arbitrary upgrade juice. I explored a lot and completed plenty of the side quests, but even so, I had to fight against the instinct to just dash past all the enemies to get to the objectives as the game wore on.

Without any semblance of difficulty, what’s the point of engaging? Fortunately, the boss fights split up each section of the game nicely, and ask you to consider what you’ve learned to defeat them, so there is a small chance of death. These were considered moments of production value in a mostly wishy-washy game. 

Given that it has a Dark Souls style retrieval system (that is often haywire and can spawn your kit out of bounds) I’m puzzled by why they didn’t go all the way and make the combat somewhat challenging. Perhaps it was so they could reach as wide an audience as possible without frustration, but I struggle to think of the unique selling point of a game so derisive and easy.

Related: Everything we know about the PS5 

Verdict

I don’t know what makes Journey to the Savage Planet stand out in a market saturated by open-world games. The setting isn’t anything new and feels like its been worn out over the course of the past year. The co-op itself is fairly easy to set up but is full of odd decisions. Your progression doesn’t track between games, even down to the side quests, but you can complete quests and craft equipment for your partner if you want to. It’s a strange setup that destroys potential replay value.

It would’ve been nice to jump into my friends game with a few more upgrades to help them with a boss or new area, but then again, when the difficulty is non-existent, my existence in their world feels pointless. The platforming is quite fun and the feedback loop works, so at the approachable price point, if you want something absent-minded to play as background noise for a catch-up conversation, then sure, but beyond that… it’s probably not worth the seven to ten hours of effort to complete it. 

The post Journey to the Savage Planet Review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

It’s always hard to express a form of meaningful weight in virtual reality. In the end, you’re doing nothing but swinging a pair of controllers through the air. The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners aims to change this perception, and is partly triumphant.

Its weighty combat system, freeform exploration and surprising dedication to narrative consequences helps set Skybound Games’ latest effort apart from the pack, even if at times it’s held back by archaic mechanical design and over-reliance on resource management. What you’re left with is an enjoyable spin on the zombie genre that puts virtual reality to phenomenal use at times.  

Related: Ghosts of Tsushima

Saints and Sinners transports you to New Orleans, which has been completely transformed by a mixture of flesh-eating zombies and natural disasters. Flooding has altered the city into a series of individual islands, encouraging the rise of hostile factions existing in isolationist states interested in only one thing – staying alive. The Big Easy this certainly isn’t, and you’ll need to learn how to navigate it by land, water and whatever other means necessary. 

The campaign begins with a tutorial guiding you through the acts of stabbing, hacking and shooting, all of which are accomplished with a multitude of grizzly tools. There’s a sense of brutality to the combat in Saints and Sinners that honestly feels morally reprehensible. You need to use one controller to physically hold a walker back, moving them into place before launching your weapon into their skull. Whether you’ve got a knife, axe or broken bottle, each attack connects with astonishing impact. 

You really need to put a substantial amount of weight into each strike, otherwise you’ll merely pierce the skin, failing to penetrate beyond that. It means that when you’re surrounded by walkers you can’t cower, instead needing to push forward with the utmost aggression. Obviously, this means you’re likely to become unaware of your surroundings and wail on a nearby table. Yes, my hand is still sore. 

Once out of the tutorial, you’re slowly ushered into the sunken metropolis of New Orleans, although it’s segregated in a way that each new area feels distinct. Early missions have you exploring streets littered with rusted husks of cars and sneaking into a creaky mansion to uncover radio components. It’s a surprisingly wide space with an apt aura of lifelessness, feral shrieks from nearby walkers instilling a constant feeling of paranoia that I adored. 

Related: Upcoming Xbox One Games

Your base of operations is an abandoned school bus in the middle of a zombie-infested graveyard. A home away from home if I ever saw one. Here, you can access a variety of crafting recipes for weapons and meals. Go too long without a protein bar or can of pop and you’ll soon lag behind, increasing your odds of being torn apart.

Otherwise, it’s a humble abode away from the chaos where many story beats are introduced, although it can be a drag standing on the spot listening to long dialogue sequences over the radio. Locations across the map are reached with a boat situated away from your base. All you do is select an icon before loading into a new area. This does ruin the cohesion of a living, breathing world, but each location is distinct and large enough that it seldom matters.

In the first few hours you’ll be contending primarily with the undead, before humans with their own firearms and sharp-witted survival strategies begin to surface. Belonging to two factions, known as The Tower and The Reclaimed, every living being in Saints and Sinners is driven by morally grey ideologies. As time went on, I established relations with each enclave, making my own decisions which inevitably had consequences on the unfolding story. Particular conclusions are genuinely harrowing, with the medium of virtual reality only intensifying the horrors.

Related: Best VR Games 

It’s easy to roam the landscape killing everyone in sight with the most diabolical means at your disposal. You could take a quest from a grieving widow or plant a propane canister at her feet before walking away and blowing her to smithereens.

The act of stealthily stabbing zombies in the head can grow tiresome overtime, spiced up by far more chaotic encounters with humans and bells situated throughout New Orleans. The Bells are essentially an alarm system which activate in the early hours of each evening, bringing hordes of undead onto the streets. Beeps from your wristwatch tease the oncoming swarm, putting timely pressure on finishing your mission and rushing home before things hit the fan.

I loved pushing my luck, floating the idea of exploring just one more abandoned houses before calling it a day. This greed came with punishment as I turned a corner on my way back to camp, greeted by an endless line of walkers. There was no escape, and I was forced to climb up a nearby pipe, jump through a window and find shelter until the sun rose once more.

Repetition is remedied by an intuitive control system that only fumbles occasionally. Movement is smooth and satisfying, as is traversal which implements the same feeling of weighty responsiveness as combat. Virtual reality is surprisingly good at making me feel a sense of vertigo as I peer down from a ledge, knowing that letting go of the trigger will result in a catastrophic fall. One of my only qualms is the act of pulling yourself up onto ledges, which just feels clumsy.

Related: Doom Eternal preview

It isn’t all action and traversal. You’ll often stumble upon other survivors to converse with. Dialogue options are available, but they often veer from neutral to outright diabolical. One early example involved me laughing in a woman’s face after killing her zombie husband, revealing that he murdered their children to spare them a similar fate. She wasn’t happy about that.

This analysis of fractured morality runs through the bloodstream of Saints and Sinners, but it’s never explored to its maximum effect. The hit-and-miss dialogue system doesn’t help, with the slightest movements from my avatar seen as a threat, causing characters to restart entire conversations where decisions had already been made.

Verdict

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is a fully-fledged VR experience well worth experiencing, especially if you’ve got the technological prowess to make the most of its gritty, realistic world. While its gameplay loop can sometimes grow tiresome, having such a range of systems to experiment with amidst a tense and involving story more than makes up for its shortcomings.

Combat is marvellously brutal, possessing a sense of feedback I’ve not really seen the medium tackle before. It feels real in a way that’s almost uncomfortable when faced with fellow humans to dispatch. Gamers always say they’re waiting for the zombie apocalypse to come, but this is a reality I never, ever want to be facing.

The post The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Building on the solid, often ridiculous foundation of its 2016 predecessor, Doom Eternal is a rip-roaring sequel with ammo to spare. This time around its hellish vision is more ambitious, visually enhanced and “twice as big” according to director, Marty Stratton.  

At its heart, Doom Eternal is a power fantasy. Starting out with basic weapons, armour and abilities, each of the campaign’s upgrades comes with real weight and heft, taking the player a step closer to being an unstoppable killing machine who will wade through demonic foes with gruesome ease. 

For the uninitiated, Eternal has players take on the role of the tough-as-nails Doom Slayer, aka ‘the Marine’. He does battle, in increasingly gory detail, with hordes of demons released from hell to overrun earth. At one point these demons are described brilliantly as “mortally-challenged personnel” by a demonic PA system.  

At a recent preview event, I played through some of the campaign’s early missions but sadly didn’t have a chance to try out Doom Eternal’s promising asymmetrical Demons vs Slayer online mode. That was discussed at QuakeCon back in July, and we think it could definitely add something to the game’s overall offering. 

Related: Best FPS Games

Developer id Software has polished up the classic Doom formula impressively. Players get to run, gun, dash, leap and brutally chainsaw their way through a wide variety of settings and enemies, with Eternal taking you to the Earth’s surface, outer space and beyond as demons escape the confines of hell following the last game’s conclusion.   

Stratton, one of the directors on Doom Eternal, was keen to point out that the game is more than an arcade-style point-and-shoot romp. Before our hands-on session, he said: “There’s kind of a misconception about Doom that it is kind of a mindless corridor shooter. Really great guns, great gore, lots of blood and always triple-A quality, but mindless sometimes, and I want to make it clear that is not the game we have made.” 

This could boggle the mind of even the biggest Doom fan, at least for a second, because the series’ well-loved style is, well… a little bit mindless. Stratton conceded “Doom has never been about the story,” before explaining that the devs started spinning some yarn of narrative into the 2016 reboot and that, in the latest title, it’s more present than ever.  

That said, it doesn’t get in the way of your urge to chainsaw everything in sight, but as Stratton put it, “for those who want the story, it’s there.” 

Related: Cyberpunk 2077 preview 

Collecting codex entries and sitting through cutscenes will give some overarching context to Doom Eternal’s vicious engagements, but knowing what’s going on in the grander scheme of things is pretty much optional. What isn’t optional though, is getting down and dirty at the heart of Doom’s combat system. 

Damage a foe enough and they will ‘stagger’. This causes them to stop and, for a set time, glow to indicate that you can move in for a “Glory Kill”. These glory kills are up-close and personal finishing moves, which also bag you some health refills in the heat of the action. Meanwhile, chainsaw kills result in enemies dropping ammo, and flamethrower kills see deceased demons drop armour refills.  

Notably, the chainsaw has been revamped. You no longer have to switch to the chainsaw as a separate weapon, instead, it’s there at the press of a button. You will love the chainsaw if you enjoy gory violence enough to like Doom in the first place. If not, this really isn’t the game for you.  

In the hands-on experience I had, which included the first two-and-a-bit campaign missions, as well as some bridging sections in the Doom Marine’s fortress, the game left you pining for more chainsaw fuel. The weapon could get you out of tight spots and always comes with a satisfyingly over-the-top animation.  

Related: Alienware Concept UFO preview

Everything looks great too, our hands-on was on a high-end gaming PC, but id Software were keen to say that the game runs consistently at 60fps on consoles, and at 30fps on Switch.  

The first level, ‘Hell on Earth’, does what it says on the tin. The denizens of hell have descended onto our planet and you’re tasked with finding one of their leaders and eliminating him.  

Some small parts of this opening level could look like other shooters, a half-destroyed multi-storey building and adjoining demon-filled car park, but don’t expect to be peering down your iron sights, picking enemies off from cover. Doom is more of a shoot from the hip, chainsaw to the head, type affair. There isn’t even a zoom functionality for most weapon types, which could momentarily puzzle FPS players who are new to the series. 

Instead, Doom wants players to keep moving, constantly. So much so a reminder often pops up on loading screens, telling you to do just that… or die. The best tactics seem to be staying constantly on the move while harvesting resources with the right kill types. 

The second level, Fortress of Doom, goes deeper into platforming mechanics, with the unlock of the ‘dash’ being a key part of this. It’s in a less familiar, more hellish setting, too. Basically, your jump and double jump are used to move vertically, alongside swinging and climbing mechanics, and the dash and double dash allows you to move horizontally, at great speed. The dash and jump can be combined in order to cross huge chasms, too.   

Related: Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games 

At first, these platforming mechanics seemed odd and, when the really huge gaps were introduced to showcase more challenging platforming, I fell to my death several times.  Nailing the rhythm jumping and dashing together means that crossing these huge cliffs can be quite satisfying once mastered. They’re frustrating at times, but platforming sections definitely help the overall pacing, breaking up the otherwise frenetic action.   

Alongside their use in platforming sections, the jump and dash features are absolutely central to combat. Using the elevation within each level is important, as is changing between melee and ranged combat on the fly.  

If you get into a scrape, jump and dash mechanics are equally important as your arsenal of weapons. The game’s biggest showdowns take place in environments which lock as you enter and stay locked until you defeat every enemy. Stratton argues that it’s Eternal’s tweaks to combat that will really set it apart from its predecessor. He said: “The big thing we focused on with this game is player engagement. 

“We have done everything to basically elevate every piece of the game, to not be repetitive. A big place we’ve done that is in the combat, we like to call it combat chess because you constantly make decisions. The speed of those decisions and the quality of those decisions is what’s going to make you a master.” 

Related: Best PS4 Games 

When it comes to your arsenal of weapons, Eternal pulls one of its trump cards. An expansive upgrade system sees players collect upgrade points during missions, which are spent on unlocking, and improving, the secondary fire modes of the central weapons.  

For example, the heavy cannon, which is basically an automatic rifle, can be equipped with a rack of small heat-seeking missiles. Meanwhile, the combat shotgun gets sticky grenades, or a rapid-fire mode.  

Stratton said that, “one of the biggest goals for this game is to make this a power fantasy that you earn.” As a result there are plenty of upgrade trees, but it’s the weapon upgrades that feel the most meaningful and the most fun. Acquiring a weapon upgrade point was actually exciting, where finding armour upgrades and unlocking perks just felt useful. 

 Over a short hands-on playthrough the upgrade system had a lot of appeal but also seemed convoluted. Stratton explained the idea behind the levelling system’s complexity, saying: “We use a martial arts analogy a lot of the time. It’s kind of like you start out as a white belt and then as you run through the different mechanics you kind of graduate and get good as you go, until you become a badass blackbelt. That’s what it feels like if you play Doom from beginning to end.”  

Related: Half Life: Alyx – Everything we know about the VR exclusive prequel

Clearly a lot of effort has gone into levelling and upgrade systems, but initially it seems a bit like there are five or six menus where there could be two or three. At the same time, it’s easy to see them becoming a crowning achievement for players who dig further and deeper into the game. Tweaking the load-out of your demon-killing machine going into a particularly high-stakes firefight could ultimately be the difference. We’ll have to wait until full review to decide.  

Latest Impressions

Overall, Doom Eternal has the potential to massively outperform its predecessor. Whether or not it shakes off the badge of being a simplistic “mindless corridor shooter”, or not, will depend on how the game plays as a whole. 

Our initial hands-on suggests it will be more than that, if only a little more. It’s so polished and frenetic that Doom Eternal seems, potentially, to have cornered the market in providing its own, quite unique combat experience. We’ll need to play further to say that with any certainty though.  

The post Hands on: Doom Eternal appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

The Wii U was an under-appreciated console. It was certainly flawed in a number of ways, but remained home to some truly fantastic, oftentimes experimental exclusives that you couldn’t find elsewhere. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was one such experience.

Silly name aside, it was a fabulously ambitious crossover between Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei and Nintendo’s Fire Emblem franchises.

It offered the best of both worlds, with a helpful sprinkling of anime-infused absurdity that embraced Japan’s idol culture in a way we’ve seldom seen in the West. There was a lot to love, so it’s a crying shame so few played Tokyo Mirage Sessions when it first launched. This could change with the release of Encore on Nintendo Switch, an enhanced version of the JRPG that includes previously released downloadable content with a handful of new goodies. 

While it doesn’t utilise either of its respective influences to the fullest when it comes to mechanical complexity, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is undeniably unique and surprisingly old-school outing that’s well worth checking out, even if at times its archaic approach can at times outstay its welcome. 

See also: The best PS4 games coming our way in 2020

You play as Itsuki Aoi, a high-schooler who finds himself wound up in a talent agency known as Fortuna Entertainment alongside his childhood friends Tsubasa Oribe and Touma Akagi. Starting off as simple entertainers, they soon stumble upon mysterious dimensions known as Idolaspheres. Here, dangerous creatures roam, intent on harvesting the world’s inhabitants of a strange life force known as Perfoma. Obviously, this is bad news – and it’s your job to stop them. 

Unfortunately, hormonal teenagers aren’t much use on their own, and this is where Mirages come into play. These ethereal beings take the form of beloved Fire Emblem and Persona characters, assisting you in battle with powerful weapons and abilities. They’re also fully fledged characters themselves, contributing to the narrative in some charming ways as you roam the bustling Tokyo districts of Shibuya and Harajuku. 

If you’ve never been to Japan, Mirage Sessions feels like a miniature tour through the capital’s biggest and brightest locations. You’ll walk across the Shibuya Crossing spellbound by its fluorescent lights and never-ending storefronts, occasionally stopping in a few to purchase essential items. It’s a shame the explorable areas outside of dungeons often feel restrictive, gating you with invisible walls that make the world feel like a collection of spaces as opposed to one cohesive whole. 

Related: PS5 vs Xbox Series X

This isn’t the detriment it could have been, largely thanks to how much personality is packed into each and every frame. Occasionally, rough textures are remedied by beautiful character designs and dungeon layouts that surprise at every turn, nailing a wonderful blend of innovation and originality. The Tokyo overworld is used for taking on quests and conversing with characters, whether you’re hitting up a coffee shop in Shibuya or chatting with fellow party members at Fortuna Entertainment. 

There’s always something to be doing, although the majority of your time will be spent in the game’s dungeons. Accessed across Tokyo through gargantuan portals, these are multi-layered labyrinths filled with intriguing puzzles you’ll need to navigate. Sometimes you’ll be adjusting the limbs of giant mannequins to reach hidden areas, while others might involve unrolling carpets to navigate precarious gaps in the floor. 

All of them challenge and surprise in equal measure, with the aesthetic themed around whatever task you are performing at the time. I won’t spoil any later examples, but one mission has you hunting down a corrupted photographer, the dungeon’s walls awash with lewd images of kidnapped models in desperate need of rescue. However, these are censored in the Western version, as are a number of other things we’ll touch on later. 

Related: Upcoming Nintendo Switch games

If you’ve played Persona, the turn-based battle system in Tokyo Mirage Sessions will immediately feel familiar; you’ll even recognise the names of certain spells and skills. It’s a crossover after all, so this bleeding effect of mechanics is a welcome sight. As Mirage Masters, you and your party member are capable of unleashing deadly attacks to combat enemies, and finding a weakness will result in Sessions – a sequence of attacks performed by you and your party members.

The majority of encounters turn into a rhythmic exercise of exploiting an opponent’s weakness, and watching as your team puts the smackdown on Mirages. It’s satisfying, yet can sometimes give way to repetition as you’re grinding through dungeons in search of side quests and other objectives. Combat encounters aren’t random, with enemies spawning on the map at a moment’s notice. You can pre-emptively engage with them yourself, or run away hoping Itsuki isn’t caught with his sword unsheathed.

Outside of engaging with spooky enemies, exploring dungeons rides on the laurels of renowned genre conventions, taking the greatest parts of Fire Emblem and Persona before combining them into something new. The narrative conceit of each labyrinth is normally defined by a lesson the characters need to learn, whether that’s learning to love yourself or realising a sacrifice sometimes must be made to care for the ones you love. They’re all beautifully presented, albeit tinged with an expectant amount of anime melodrama.

Related: Best RPGs

Persona’s mechanic of fusing together different creatures is replaced by the Unity System. Here, you can craft different weapons, which when levelled up, will grant you with new skills and abilities until mastered. It’s both satisfying and easy to understand, although will arguably be too simplistic for genre fans who want something robust to dig into. It’s often a case of revisting Tiki – an adorable young girl with the power of bestowing powers – and purchasing every upgrade before diving back into dungeons every couple of hours.

Fire Emblem and Persona’s love of delving into the lives of characters through bespoke side stories is alive and well in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. In between chapters you’ll be free to take on missions that revolve around party members. While not essential, it’s a brilliant way to learn more about each personality, and I found myself caring about them as a result. Finding a seemingly uptight singer’s torn-up stuffed animal is an early example, a quest filled with quirky dialogue and rewards that genuinely made a difference in battle once unlocked.

Related: Animal Crossing – New Horizons

Should you buy Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore?

It’s a delight to see one of the JRPG genre’s hidden gems find a second home on Nintendo Switch – and, hopefully, a much larger audience with it. While it doesn’t make perfect use of the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei franchises it blends together, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore remains a solid adventure with plenty going for it.

Players after an engaging battle system alongside cute and meaningful characters will find a lot to love here, especially if a sucker for exploring contemporary Japanese settings. Just prepare yourself for a healthy dose of eclectic imagery and an endless stream of J-Pop.

The post Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

What is the Sega Mega Drive Mini?

Ever since Nintendo dove into the plug-in-and-play market with the NES Mini, gamers of a certain age have been waiting with baited breath to see which other classic consoles could be given a new lease of life. After the unmitigated disaster that was the PlayStation Classic, Sega is the latest company to show its hand with the Mega Drive Mini (or the Genesis Mini if you’re living Stateside).

Given that Sega has been re-releasing its Mega Drive library on other consoles for years now, the question isn’t only whether or not the Mega Drive Mini is a worthy purchase against other plug-in-and-play systems, but is it worth getting over say, the more affordable Sega Mega Drive Classics bundle on consoles?

Sega Mega Drive Mini – Hardware, design and games

There’s a grand total of 42 games on-board the Mega Drive Mini, eclipsing a whole range of genres, although given the limitations of the 16-bit era, there’s a hefty dose of platforming to go around. You’ve got undeniable classics like Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin and Virtua Fighter II, but there’s also a handful of licensed games that have not seen the light of day since the 90s.

Titles like Earthworm Jim, Castle of Illusion and my personal favourite, World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (yes, that is its full title). World of Illusion remains one of the best co-op platformers from the Mega-Drive era, so it’s amazing to know that a whole new generation of gamers will get to experience its charm.

Plus there’s the fact that also comes with Dynamite Headdy which, to me, remains one of the most criminally under appreciated titles from the original system. Just imagine a better version of Rayman with the self-aware comedy of Undertale and you’ve got a pretty solid image of the game.

If you find yourself feeling like this all has a sense of déjà vu, let me reassure you – you’re not alone. The Mega Drive Mini is the first physical (and official) emulator from Sega itself, but there have been several unofficial Mega Drives released over the last few years, some with the ability to also play original Mega Drive cartridges.

While I’m glad that Sega finally took a stand and funded an official device, I am slightly dismayed that the company didn’t elect to also implement a fully-functioning cartridge slot. For collectors or previous Mega Drive owners (such as myself), this could be a killer feature, especially in the face of Nintendo’s miniature consoles.

Just as with the PlayStation Classic before it, the Sega Mega Drive Mini also falls victim to having some notable omissions from its mostly fantastic library of games, the most obvious of which being Disney’s Aladdin and Mortal Kombat.

Due to its industry leading animation (at the time), Aladdin went on to be the third best selling game on the system, while Mortal Kombat’s now infamous ‘blood code’ became the stuff of playground legend, cementing the Mega Drive’s badass attitude in the face of Nintendo’s family-friendly approach.

If you can overlook those issues however, there’s a lot to love about the Mega Drive Mini. For anyone who grew up with Sega’s historic console, simply laying your eyes on that familiar design can feel like an emotional event. There’s an unquantifiable amount of nostalgia in seeing the Mega Drive brought back to life, and Sega has absolutely nailed the look and feel of this thing. It still boasts the now laughable claim of having ‘High Definition Graphics’ by the faux cartridge slot.

That goes for the controller as well, which, whether you love it or hate it, is back in all its three-button glory. As you might expect, there’s a second controller included to have a friend join in on the fun, and given that a fair amount of the games here offer multiplayer, you’ll be in for a great time. In fact, playing with a friend might be a necessity due to the unwavering difficult of some of these titles (Altered Beast, I’m looking at you).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware that the ‘challenge’ was selling a crucial selling point of almost all 16-bit titles, ensuring replayability and value for money. Even the though the Mega Drive was my very first console, this fact showed little evidence upon booting up the Mega Drive Mini.

Tried as I might, I could not get to the end of the first level in Strider. Even worse, upon my first playthrough of Alisia Dragoon, I lasted a grand total of 20 seconds before I was hit with a game over screen. The whole affair seemed so distant to the comparatively relaxed nature of modern gaming that it had me wondering if today’s young gamers might be put off. The jury’s still out, but I wouldn’t recommend buying the Mega Drive Mini for anyone under the age of five.

Still, there’s one crucial addition to the Mega Drive Mini that feels like an absolute gift from the gaming gods: the ability to save your progress at a moment’s notice. 90s kids will remember that, unless a game had a dedicated password system, a ‘game over’ meant going straight back to the title screen, and thus, felt like a digital slap in the face. Being able to forgo that same misery is almost worth the price of admission alone.

It’s also worth mentioning that the wire connecting the controller to the console is a little on the short side. It’s an issue we also had with the NES Mini and it’s a shame to see that Sega didn’t feel the need to take note. Then again, I haven’t had to play sitting on the floor since the Mega Drive days, so maybe it’s all intentional.

Should you buy the Mega Drive Mini?

As a love letter Sega’s most prolific gaming console, the Mega Drive Mini hits all the right beats and will feel right at home with those who grew up with the blue blur, but with a few notable titles missing and the lack of a dedicated cartridge slot – previously found on unoffical yet commercially available replicas of the console – prevent it from being an absolute home-run.

Still, the inclusion of a smooth widescreen mode and the ability to save your progress at any time makes ensures that the Mega Drive Mini is best way to relive one of video game history’s most important and influential consoles.

The post Sega Mega Drive Mini appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Zombie Army began life as little more than an ambitious side project, developed alongside Rebellion’s Sniper Elite series as a way to experiment with more playful, outlandish ideas. But after making its budget back in under 24 hours, it was clear something far greater sat amongst the hordes of undead fascists that players adored blowing to pieces again and again. 

From this spawned a franchise which is bigger and better than ever, abandoning the Sniper Elite name in favour of its own lineage – one that’s delightfully wacky and revels in its own gruesome campiness. While its execution is undeniably generic, the mechanical workings of Zombie Army 4: Dead War are compelling enough that it’s easy to look past such shortcomings. 

Rebellion has crafted yet another solid third-person shooter that’s best played with friends as you tackle a series of increasingly difficult levels and modes each with something wonderfully unique at their core. A vast array of characters, weapons and locations combine to make an outing I’m very eager to slice into, even if at times it feels a little too familiar. 

Related: Xbox Series X

Zombie Army 4 uses Sniper Elite 4’s shooting mechanics as its blueprint, taking Rebellion’s latest refinements and pouring them over the zombie formula like a bloody syrup. It translates well, although largely abandons the slow, stealthy pace of its sibling in favour of a faster, more chaotic style of gunplay. 

The ultra-violent slow motion killcam of previous games return, but sadly doesn’t pack the same punch when things move a million miles a minute. Constantly diving between firefights across tight, claustrophobic environments doesn’t give this mechanic a chance to shine, oftentimes feeling like a needless distraction when every second is a fight for survival amidst endlessly shambling hordes. 

I played through a selection of modes during my brief time with Zombie Army 4: Dead War, including a handful of traditional missions and a large, objective-based horde mode set across an arena packed with disgusting trenches and rusting transmission towers. One stage saw us tasked with assembling and refueling a rocket, fending off hordes of advancing enemies as we completed each new task. 

Things began at the edge of the battlefield as a trio of identical soldiers and I marched towards certain oblivion. The atmosphere is palpable, spooky music and environmental shrieks indicating nearby threats, most of which we can choose to take out stealthily or begin a brazen approach of all-out war. I was playing with a bunch of other journalists, so my idea of taking out zombies like a systematic spy didn’t last long. 

Related: Upcoming PS4 Games

That, and stealth is only ever a temporary solution. The majority of missions will inevitably conclude with you defending a specific point on the map, with foes swarming in from every possible direction. In fact, this happened multiple times during this mission. Its opening moments saw me and my friends moving to different points across the map to refuel tankers to gain access to a facility hoping for temporary respite against the undead hordes.

After doing so, we had to hold off enemies before the agonizingly slow door crept open. It’s tense, but somewhat repetitive until new enemy types begin rearing their heads towards the end. After that, it’s both hugely satisfying and frustrating as you try and hold off an assortment of bullet-sponge creatures who will stop at nothing to put you in the ground. 

The cast of Zombie Army 4 is charmingly macabre, pulling liberally from years of horror films and literature, particularly the likes of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and similar stylings of low-budget horror cinema. Aside from the usual suspects of zombies clad in Nazi uniforms, you’ll stumble across towering behemoths covered in metal plates and razor-sharp spikes, impervious to normal bullets and requiring a specific strategy to take down.

Fat, lumbering creatures wielding chainsaws will sprint towards you alongside skinny spectres wired with dynamite. The range of variety is fairly staggering, reinforcing the foundation of Zombie Army 4’s otherwise passable gunplay. At times it becomes clear the stealthy nature of Sniper Elite 4 doesn’t always translate perfectly to quick, reflex-heavy situations, especially when you’re clambering across cover and up structures to escape hordes. It’s enjoyable at its core, but clumsy around the edges.

Related: Final Fantasy 7 Remake

You’ll come across a bunch of new and familiar weapons throughout your time in Zombie Army 4: Dead War. Classic military firearms are accompanied by melee weapons inspired by the occult, many of which can be made even more outlandish with the help of an extensive customisation system. For example, I turned a boring old bolt-action rifle into an automatic beast of a weapon with lightning-infused rounds, shocking zombies so hard they couldn’t even move.

It was badass, and only small sample of the wild combinations players will uncover across the game’s four characters. Boris, Shola, Jun and Karl Fishburne make up Zombie Army 4’s main cast, with more set to be introduced in the form of downloadable content going forward. Each of them has a distinct loadout of weapons, items and abilities you can alter to fit your playstyle, or make it so one is curated to each playable hero.

In terms of personality they’re all fairly stereotypical, drenched in archetypes we’ve seen the genre explore countless times before. But Zombie Army 4 isn’t about pristine character development and heart-wrenching narratives – its characters are little more than an aesthetic shell for the oncoming slaughter. Chances are much of the dialogue will be drowned out by your friend’s banter during co-op sessions anyway. However, if you’re a fan of kooky, tongue-in-cheek antics, there’s a lot to love about what’s being explored here.

Related: Best PS5 Games

While the third-person shooter mechanics don’t break any new ground, all of the aforementioned elements combine to create a genuinely compelling whole, especially in horde mode. You’ll start in a small arena with nothing but an ammunition box. Each wave will see you unlock new weapons and areas, widening the map until its overwhelming in scope.

Working with friends as you guard different directions with an increasing range of deadly weapons and traps is thrilling, each round forcing a distinct change in strategy to stay alive. If the full package can maintain this sense of addictive momentum and worthwhile teamwork, we’re in for a treat. Rebellion told me that all modes will be playable on your lonesome, although I can see certain parts being far more challenging and less fulfilling as a result.

First impressions

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is only a few weeks away, and feels like another solid outing from Rebellion. It takes the shooter blueprint of Sniper Elite 4 and applies it to a bloody, charming and firmly chaotic spin on the series’ formula. If you’re after a co-operative shooter to play with friends, this is the perfect way to kick off 2020.

The post Zombie Army 4: Dead War appeared first on Trusted Reviews.