Gamereactor UK

Samson

claus@gamereactor.eu (Claus Larsen) — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0200

It's sometimes hard not to have expectations for games you're keen to try. Even though the alarm bells are ringing and everything suggests this game has the odds stacked against it, you still hold out hope. You cross your fingers, avoid walking under ladders, and all that, in the hope that the game might just blow you away after all. That's how I felt about Samson, which I'd seen several exciting previews of, sending my expectations skyrocketing. Not only that, but everything suggested that developer Liquid Swords, consisting of a number of veterans from Avalanche, had understood not to bite off more than they could chew, and had created a game narrow enough to make it across the finish line.

When I first saw Samson, subtitled "A Tyndalston Story", I thought it resembled the semi-linear missions of the GTA series, just without firearms, and that is actually a fairly accurate description. In many ways, the team here has clearly drawn heavy inspiration from Grand Theft Auto, where missions involve driving around an open city and completing various tasks. The only difference is that all combat uses only fists. Otherwise, the structure is very familiar if you've played open-world games before. It's not the first GTA spin-off set up this way; think of Sleeping Dogs, for example.

You play as Samson McCray, who returns to his hometown with a massive debt to various criminal gangs in St. Louis. His sister has been taken hostage to ensure he pays the $100,000 he owes. Consequently, Samson must throw himself into criminal activities in Tyndalston to earn the money. The story, however, is rather thin and mostly an excuse to send the player out on missions. Samson isn't a particularly exciting character, and his friends are exactly the stereotypical figures you'd expect in this type of game. It all feels like something you've seen before, and I found it hard to really engage with either Samson, his sister, or the people he surrounds himself with. There's a slightly over-the-top quality to the story, as if it tries to adopt a bit of self-awareness, but it just doesn't work when the characters aren't any more dynamic than they are.

To earn money, Samson can throw himself into various activities. He can take part in races, deliver drugs, and beat up other criminals who get in his way. The only thing the game really does differently is remove firearms, and as we mentioned before, the focus on close combat isn't even entirely original. The rest feels borrowed directly from GTA, and perhaps even Mafia. It's frankly disappointing. The game uses a system of so-called Action Points, where each mission costs points, and you can typically manage three missions a day. At the same time, you have to keep paying off your debt, otherwise you'll be hunted down. Good idea, isn't it? Well, yes, it might sound fine on paper, but in practice it's extremely punishing. If you fail a mission, you lose almost all your money. You can later unlock abilities that reduce the loss, but you still lose around 90%. It's incredibly frustrating. It's fine to feel the pressure of debt in a more system-driven and mechanical way, but it's just poorly implemented.

You can really feel how the game constantly pushes you to play perfectly and it just doesn't work very well. It feels more like an exercise in avoiding frustration than having fun. If only the missions were entertaining, but unfortunately they aren't. Broadly speaking, they fall into two categories.

The first type are car missions, where you drive around, take part in races, or stop other criminals by smashing their cars. You have your own car, which breaks down quite quickly, and when that happens, you have to pay to repair it or find a new one. The problem is that you can't steal cars from traffic, so if your car breaks down, you might end up running several kilometres to find a new one. It's not particularly well designed. It all quickly becomes stressful, especially because the game also penalises you financially. When you have to worry about your car, your money, and the difficulty of the missions, it starts to feel like work rather than entertainment.

And I know there are those who want a challenge more than anything else, but try to imagine Celeste, where your hard-earned strawberries drain away over time, and every time you fail. Samson isn't challenging, it's just maliciously designed and not in a clever way. You gain experience points along the way, but even when I reached the game's final section, I was knocked down by enemies who were just giving me a dirty look, and at that point, I was right at the bottom of the aforementioned skill tree. It didn't feel any different and I didn't feel any stronger than when I started the game and that's not a good thing. You don't feel any sense of progression and that made the game quite boring.

The other type of mission takes place on foot, where you have to find packages and beat up enemies. This is where the game really falls apart. The controls are imprecise and feel "floaty" and there are so many technical glitches that it made me rage-quit several times. You often get stuck in the environment, and when that happens, your character can start flying around in strange ways. It can take several minutes to free yourself and you don't feel like restarting because the game hasn't necessarily saved.

The combat system isn't good either. You can get stun-locked by enemies who just keep hitting you without you being able to do anything, and suddenly you're lying dead on the ground and have lost your money... again. Enemies can also spawn behind you without warning, so you get hit with no chance to react. It feels unfair and frustrating. I must admit that I threw my keyboard onto the sofa several times in sheer frustration. That's not a good sign. This can be fixed, of course, but I'm forced to describe my experience as it was, not as it might potentially be for you.

If I'm to say something positive, the town of Tyndalston is actually quite nice. It has a gritty, raw atmosphere and the constantly wet roads give it a distinctive feel, even though it never actually rains. It's a bit odd, but also a bit charming in a quirky way. Unfortunately, this is quickly overshadowed by repetitive sounds and conversations that loop endlessly, and which eventually just become irritating. This game feels like a collection of good ideas that never quite come together. You can see what the developers have tried to do, but it seems as though they haven't had the resources to bring it to life properly.

So, would I recommend Samson? No, not in the state the game is in right now. And I struggle to see how it could be salvaged without significant changes to some absolutely central systems.

Life is Strange: Reunion

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0200

When it comes to a Life is Strange game, there are a handful of areas where you expect excellence. This series has been built on a collection of pillars, be this diverse and authentic-feeling characters, an emotional and conflicting narrative, or huge and story-defining choices and twists. These are elements that we expect from a Life is Strange game, elements that can often outclass the competition at the cost of more middling gameplay features and creative decisions elsewhere. I bring this up because Life is Strange: Reunion is another case of precisely this structuring.

Regarded as the final chapter in the saga of Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, Reunion explores how Max's actions from Life is Strange: Double Exposure inadvertently brought Chloe back into Max's life (in a way dependant on how you experienced prior instalments) and how her meddling with timelines has set her friends and her current home of Caledon University on a path to oblivion. Every choice has a consequence at the end of the day and this game is all about dealing with these consequences in a way that perhaps shows a complete disregard to learn from our cataclysmic mistakes. I say this as the aim of Reunion is to stop a devastating fire that will burn Caledon to ashes, all while attempting to save the lives of those who will be killed in the blaze. Despite all of this happening because of Max's actions, the immediate response is to meddle with time again and attempt to 'correct' the timeline and sculpt the perfect ending, a narrative premise shrouded in all manner of moral ambiguity.

Admittedly, it's an entertaining and interesting story that developer Deck Nine has cooked up, one that is better paced, has more memorable twists and reveals, a deeper layer of intrigue and mystery baked into the centre, and all while hitting that core Life is Strange tenet of choices and consequences. From a narrative perspective, it's another triumph from Deck Nine and another fine example that Life is Strange games can compete with the best when judging them from a pure story angle.

Similarly, the way the choices are utilised makes each and every one of them stand out and feel impactful and crucial to the wider narrative. It doesn't matter whether you're choosing to confess adoration for another character or actively accusing another of being a potential arsonist, each choice has its purpose and will lead you down a path to either getting a happy or absolutely ruthless ending. And it's this journey of seeing where your choices take you that makes Reunion such a fulfilling experience, a game that you can substitute for a movie or a couple of episodes of a TV series each night by kicking back and watching as the story unfolds thanks to your involvement. Again, it's one of the key strengths that this series has always delivered upon and it doesn't miss a beat this time.

What I will say, and this does somewhat contradict with the better pacing of the plot, is that Reunion doesn't quite deliver on the same level with its characters and your connection with them. Most of these individuals are people you already know through-and-through thanks to Double Exposure, so there's less of a necessity to get to know them better and see how their individual arcs fit into your wider tale. In fact, this seems to be a more conscious decision from Deck Nine, who has traded a collection of fresh wider characters for the return of Chloe and seeing how the two Life is Strange icons, of her and Max, navigate each other years and years after the events of the first game. There's plenty to unpack and appreciate here, but I do miss having a wider cast who feel completely alien to me and then getting to learn tiny details about them morsel-by-morsel.

Perhaps I'm being a tad picky but you do start to notice these more intricate elements when the wider gameplay experience is as rudimentary as it is in Reunion. Sure, Deck Nine made the excellent decision of letting Max use her Rewind power more freely, allowing for more creative solutions to get around narrative-geared problems and conversations, but most of these do feel highly motivated and plotted out, leaving the feature to feel less like a player tool and more so just the next step in reaching the credits. Similarly, when Deck Nine removes the barriers and opens Reunion up to more gameplay-focused moments, you do find that this is where it struggles the most. On one hand, Caledon is a stunning setting, but we've navigated most of these areas and locations before, meaning the wonder isn't the same as it was when playing Double Exposure the first time. Also, slowly jogging around a courtyard or walking around the Snapping Turtle to simply interact with items and get a pre-programmed dialogue line or to find a handful of collectibles is simply a tad boring. At times, you can't help but feel as though Reunion would be better without having these infrequent open gameplay sections, instead offering a more focussed and sculpted linear tale from start-to-finish, like a Telltale story.

Again, Reunion is a truly beautiful game where you can take advantage of the Resolution-centric mode due to a simple lack-of-necessity to have tight and fluid 60 FPS action. The art direction, the environment design, the use of colour, it all comes together to make this game stand out like an artist's dream. But when we're talking about interactive video games, there needs to be better substance to the actual gameplay, and adding Chloe as a second protagonist isn't enough on this front. For the most part, she plays exactly the same as Max, and her signature Backtalk ability is barely used and has very little place in the wider whole. It feels like an oversight at times.

Life is Strange: Reunion stands out as a game that you will look more or less favourably on depending on how much time and energy you are willing to give it. Do you have the commitment to replay the story several times, re-experiencing certain moments and chapters under the caveat that it will eventually lead to a different scene or ending? If that's your jam, then you will likely connect with Reunion much better than those who are happy to conclude Max and Chloe's journey after one attempt. I stand somewhere in the middle. There's quality and genuine brilliance in this game, but at the same time I can't help but feel as though it'd benefit from either having more interactivity and player-geared gameplay or rather a complete focus on narrative and letting a hand-crafted and highly refined story flow of its own accord. Perhaps we'll see a change in the future of the series, but whatever ends up happening, one thing is clear and that is Reunion once again nails the core elements of what makes a Life is Strange game special, so credit to Deck Nine on that front once more.

People of Note

palle@gamereactor.eu (Palle Havshøi-Jensen) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0200

There is now a growing number of games in which music plays a central role without being strictly rhythm-based titles like Guitar Hero and the like. Examples include Unbeatable, The Artful Escape, No Straight Roads, Stray Gods and, of course, the truly brilliant Hi-Fi Rush and Sayonara Wildhearts.

Now there's a new game on the horizon: People of Note, which blends various musical genres with a light-hearted turn-based role-playing game, almost a 'role-playing game light'. If you can accept the simple role-playing mechanics, it actually works quite well.

You take on the role of Cadence, a young woman who dreams of winning a major music competition in her hometown, but after performing her own pop song at an open audition, she is sent home as one of the judges simply doesn't think she's good enough. It turns out, however, that this judge is also the manager of Smolder, the most popular boy band of all time, who are set to win the same music competition for the eighth time in a row, so there may be foul play involved here.

Cadence, however, decides that this is simply not going to happen. She now sets out to assemble a band that can give her a broader musical range, and she does so across various small worlds, each inspired by different musical genres, including Durandis (rock, punk, grunge and metal) and Lumina (electronic music). But as always, unexpected things happen; amongst other things, four magical 'Keys of Note' statuettes come into play right in the middle of it all, and naturally, everything ends up becoming more complicated than Cadence had hoped.

So you set off to explore these small, semi-linear and semi-open themed worlds, where you encounter various (rather good) puzzles to solve, chests to loot and, of course, plenty of turn-based battles against various musical foes. Basically, the battles work just as we're used to in the genre, where you can perform different types of attacks, use various abilities, and heal and boost your party members when it's your turn. When attacking, much like in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you must press a series of buttons at the right moment to get the most out of your attack.

In keeping with the game's musical theme, the battles also feature several musical twists along the way. Among other things, each party member has their own musical genre, and when the music playing during battles shifts to one of the genres associated with a party member, that member's stats will be boosted for as long as the music continues in that genre. Another feature is that all members of your party have a mashup gauge, and once this is full, you can perform a mashup attack by combining the different music genres into a single, very powerful musical attack.

It is also worth mentioning that along the way you may encounter so-called "puzzle battles", where, using a set of predefined attributes and weapons, you must defeat enemies in specific ways and within a set number of rounds. There aren't particularly many of them, but they are quite interesting and help you get to know your weapons and abilities really well in this way.

As I said at the start, I'd categorise People of Note as a light role-playing game. In this case, that basically just means it functions like a full-blown RPG, but it's simply not nearly as deep, and there aren't a huge number of stats, attacks or ability upgrades and the like to keep track of but the ones that are there work really well. It is strange, however, that there are virtually no defensive options in the combat system, so you just have to grit your teeth when it's the enemy's turn and they decide to smash you in the head with a guitar.

The story is driven forward through a lot of dialogue between Cadence and the people she meets along the way, and the voice acting is quite good, especially the old rock musician Fret, who is really well cast. Aside from these dialogues, the story is also occasionally told through some rather well-choreographed musical numbers/performances, and these actually give the game an almost musical-like feel at times and they're really good. You can see an example of one of these right here below.

This brings us to the soundtrack, which, along with the combat system, is the very heart of this game. People of Note features a truly excellent soundtrack and, unlike other similar games where music also takes centre stage, there is a wide variety of genres on offer here. The music is of a very high standard, whether it's pop, rock, electronic, rap or country and western. Parts of the soundtrack are, incidentally, already available on Spotify at the time of writing.

Finally, there is the visual aspect, which is colourful and quite attractive, and everything is designed with a musical angle. A good example is that on the outside of a lift there is a large slider, like on a mixing desk, which moves up and down along with the lift. This is just a single example of how well-executed the visual aspect is, and the same can be said of the attractive menus.

People of Note is a well-crafted little role-playing game. Yes, it may seem superficial, and you need to be prepared for that, but the musical theme, which is more than just window dressing, blends seamlessly into the combat system, and that's what makes People of Note interesting. Whilst the regular battles can become a bit monotonous over time, the boss battles are both challenging and exciting, as each boss has different musical abilities.

If you're not exactly a die-hard RPG fan, People of Note can be a nice, accessible and cosy little RPG that tries to do things a bit differently by adding musical abilities to a traditional RPG, and if you buy into the slightly simple premise, it actually works.

The Division Resurgence

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:01:00 +0200

While I wouldn't class myself as much of a mobile gamer, it has been fascinating to witness as the platform and its software has evolved particularly in the past few years. We've gone from seeing mobile games that wholeheartedly buy into the almost dismal landscape of timed-activities, a tsunami of cheap and basic life-simulation options, and an extreme array of trivia and puzzle projects all to alternatives like Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile, and even excellent ports including Fortnite, Minecraft, Balatro, the list goes on. While there may be a stigma among the PC and console audience that mobile is somewhat inferior, it's a far more impressive and admirable landscape than it used to be.

I bring this up because the next major expansion into the world of mobile gaming comes from Ubisoft, who after delivering Rainbow Six Mobile is now ready to offer up The Division Resurgence, a mobile-only take on the popular series that attempts to preserve the authenticity of the franchise without the platform advantages PC and console provides. And do you know what? This isn't a poor effort to achieve such lofty ambitions.

For one, if you look at The Division Resurgence from a macro level it offers up the core pillars of what constitutes a The Division experience. There's tight and thrilling third-person action-oriented gunplay that allows the player to approach a combat situation in their own way. There's a big focus on looting and becoming more powerful by acquiring better gear and improving what you have in your inventory, which is tied to a coloured-tier system. There's an open-world to explore where you can run into enemies on the streets while navigating to and from key and thematic story missions. There's still an extraction-like element tied to the Dark Zone where you can win big or leave empty-handed. There's a focus on social gameplay where you can take on different missions alone or in a squad with friends. The point is there's a lot here that makes you immediately notice this is a The Division game without any doubt or question in your mind, even despite the platform limitations of going mobile.

The development team at Ubisoft has done an excellent job at delivering a game that plays smoothly (even if it is far from visually stunning...) and that offers up challenging yet rewarding gameplay. Regardless of whether you are playing with the touch controls, which reflect most mobile shooters by seeing the left side of the screen reserved mostly for moving while the right is how you aim and select key inputs like reloading and ability usage, or using a connected controller, the action is thrilling and explosive, with a clear focus on offering gameplay that is not a walk in the park. The enemy AI is smart and will test you, with flanking targets and armoured or shield-using threats rushing you so you can't hide behind cover safe from danger. You have to be on your toes in this game, using the level design and your abilities and resources to full effect to survive some of the encounters, which is more than many mobile games can say. Likewise, while I won't tell you that I adore touchscreen aiming controls, they do work quite well here even if controller-based action is noticeably better.

When you take core gameplay that works effectively, matched up with the freedom of an open-world, which for mobile standards is quite impressive, add a complete story, detailed looter-shooter systems, progression, and buildcrafting, and offer this all up for free, it's hard not to see the brilliance of The Division Resurgence from a consumer perspective. This isn't to say there's no room for improvement as there is, including slightly less aggressive enemies, as the combat (as much as I love a challenge) is currently rather demanding, as just one example. But in a similar vein to Diablo Immortal, if we can't persuade established PC and console developers to use resources on the more-gamer centric platforms, then getting a project like The Division Resurgence is pretty much the next best thing, as without needing to spend a dime you can access what's effectively a rudimentary version of the main series. That's not a bad trade off for a game that you can play on a seven-inch device on the train.

However, this does bring me to some of the more serious issues with the game, namely that The Division is a complex affair both in presentation and gameplay structure. Wandering around New York and being locked in combat loses much of its brilliance on a smartphone screen, especially if you're not using an 'Ultra' or 'Max' model device. My experience on an iPhone 16 Pro is that the game ran wonderfully but I couldn't exactly see everything that was going on due to the small screen that was also being clogged by two thumbs attempting to intricately aim and snipe enemies 30+ metres away. There's just a lot going on to be crammed into such a small display.

Likewise, touching on the gameplay structure, this hasn't been quite incorporated in a way that those familiar with the series will appreciate. New York is an open-world and that's impressive for mobile gadgets, but we're not talking about an engaging open-world here, rather it's a series of lifeless blocks and streets that you wander down on the way to the next mission, occasionally stopping to deal with some enemies that have popped in 20 metres in from of you. The missions then require you to load into separate areas where batches of enemies are thrown at you as you move through unique 'arenas'. The best way I can describe the gameplay is that it almost reflects 2000s action games, where everything was very methodical and formulaic. It works and credit to mobile for already reaching this point in its evolution, but it's a far-cry from modern gaming standards elsewhere.

Finally, we have my biggest gripe, which is that The Division is already a complex series requiring a lot of effort, time, and thought to get the best out of your builds and to learn about where to get the right items and how to 'abuse' the gameplay systems. Now imagine this is combined with a flurry of features found in free-to-play mobile titles, be this tons of menus dedicated to daily and weekly quests, stores with soul-crushing monetisation, battle passes, way too many currencies and resources that simply clog the experience, you get the gist. The point is there's always a catch and a game like The Division Resurgence with all of its gameplay variation and reflections of The Division formula cannot be offered for free without systems like these that are simply anti-player.

Ultimately what we get with The Division Resurgence is very similar to Diablo Immortal. At its core, this is a very ambitious and impressive video game that's a massive improvement on much of what the mobile platform offers, but it's weighed down and held back by the inclusion of the intrusive and demoralising mobile elements that continue to give the platform a bad rap. Does it work as a game to log into for 20 minutes a time while commuting to work? Without question. But could you sit down and play The Division Resurgence for hours, eventually clocking hundreds of hours into the gameplay as is easily the case with its console and PC counterpart projects? No, it does not have the structure or legs to be such a title. So, we're talking about a better than average mobile game but also another clear example that mobile is still inferior to the other platforms.

Super Meat Boy 3D

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0200

If I had to pick out one game to describe as 'devilishly fun', it would be Super Meat Boy. There's something so wickedly delightful and cruel, yet fantastic, about the platforming gameplay, level design, and philosophy on difficulty. It's not quite as rage-inducing as what the sadist Bennett Foddy cooks up, but it's also far from what you'd regard as an accessible platformer too. Super Meat Boy has always existed in a Goldilocks zone of being just hard enough to get you worked up while still having levels that after a reasonable amount of practice and trial and error are conquerable.

I bring this up as Super Meat Boy has operated as such for a long while because of its 2D gameplay design. The developers can dedicate all of their time to ensuring that the game retains that Goldilocks approach as they only need to worry about two dimensions. This is no longer the case. Super Meat Boy 3D is now here and it's changing things up by quite a significant amount, but does it work in the series favour?

In answer to that question, all I can say is that I'm not quite convinced but I'll get to that in a moment. For now, let me highlight what Super Meat Boy 3D does right, as there are quite a few different things. There's the overall feel, the art direction, the brutality, the basic but motivationally-clear narrative, the simplicity of the gameplay. All of this is Super Meat Boy through-and-through and you will not doubt for one minute what game you are playing with this new chapter. There's still separately-styled worlds with an accompanying Dark World, there's still additional characters to unlock if you have the guts to try and claim every single collectible, and an emphasis on speedrunning and completing each level as quickly and faultlessly as possible. The Super Meat Boy formula has been preserved and built upon to great effect and yet, something just doesn't feel right to me when playing Super Meat Boy 3D...

Jumping from 2D to 3D is a massive undertaking as it requires a complete design overhaul in ways that perhaps are lacking a final degree of refinement and precision in this game. The Super Meat Boy formula is too fast and brutal for a player to be concerned about your character's exact positioning, and yet in this game, this consumes most of your thoughts. It may sound trivial, but instead of focussing on attempting to squeeze through buzzsaws and meat grinders, you'll be focussed on simply keeping Meat Boy on a 'safe' platform, because the movement is so fast and snappy that it's incredibly easy to make basic movement mistakes.

Adding to this is the fact that the 3D nature of the game doesn't work like an over-the-shoulder camera, meaning you don't get a soul-crushingly hard 3D Prince of Persia-like platformer. Rather the camera is a fixed position as it follows you through the level, meaning the 3D nature mostly revolves around how Meat Boy now has a few extra movement options when working through a level, something you don't really need.

Essentially, the point I'm trying to make is Super Meat Boy 3D's 3D element doesn't actually feel like a gameplay evolution but more of a design gimmick that fails to improve the experience. There's no argument it's different, but there haven't been many Super Meat Boy games so there's not necessarily a desperation for overhauled options, especially if they don't generate an experience that feels like the next great step forward for the series. This game isn't that. It's not a detraction or a step back either, it's simply a side-step taking Super Meat Boy on a path it doesn't need to go down. It's a bit like Sonic the Hedgehog in 2D and 3D. There is a world where the character can exist in both dimensions, but there's no denying that the lightning-fast and fluid platforming gameplay works best in a 2D format. That's the exact same way that Super Meat Boy 3D makes me feel about this franchise. It's not a disaster nor even a poor incorporation, it just doesn't feel like the Meat Boy formula really fits 3D in a gameplay manner.

Perhaps there is some room for refinement to make this new marriage of traditional gameplay and an additional dimension work, be that having a closer camera so that it's easier to keep tabs on the rather tiny protagonist, or even slowing everything down just a tad to improve the flow. Either way, as it stands, I'm not entirely convinced by Super Meat Boy 3D in its current form as it simply feels too imprecise for a series of such brutality.

So long story short, Super Meat Boy 3D comes across as a game that doesn't evolve the series but rather takes it down a different path it doesn't need to explore. The theme, the tone, the style, it all still comes across as authentically Super Meat Boy, but the gameplay has a slightly uncomfortable edge where it doesn't quite feel right for one reason or another. Super Meat Boy may be back but this isn't the character in top form.

Darwin's Paradox!

alex@gamereactor.eu (Alex Hopley) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:01:00 +0200

Within a game, within almost any form of media, there's an intangible, almost indescribable element we can only call "sauce." It doesn't matter the budget, nor the concept, nor the gameplay, if it has some semblance of sauce, it's going to draw the eye. It's an X factor that makes your eyes pop even as they grow weary watching the 51st announcement in a two-hour show. Safe to say, Darwin's Paradox! has plenty of sauce.

ZDT Studio's adventure platformer about an octopus trying to find his way back to the ocean after being kidnapped to be made into soup is just the right combination of zany, charming, and heartfelt. Its premise as well as its cheeky and quite joyful outlook feels like it doesn't come around too often. At least, not without jumping far over the cliff of quirkiness to the point it becomes eye-rolling. Darwin's Paradox! walks that balance with ease. Or should I say slithers? Should I? How to octopuses actually move?

According to this game, they move incredibly well. Darwin leaps, crawls, and swims with great manoeuvrability. In the dark depths of the ocean to the frantic escape from an exploding factory, the controls are responsive and smooth, but they also adapt to the needs of a level. Darwin doesn't move as fast as he does in water as he does on dry land, as you'd expect, but he does have tools at his disposal to keep you feeling just as much the superhero octopus you were born to be, like sticking to any surface, for example. There's also camouflage and shooting ink, as well as a few other level specific mechanics I won't spoil, but all do a brilliant job at keeping a smile on your face and you engaged in different aspects of Darwin's gameplay.

This really is Darwin's game. You couldn't throw Spyro or Crash Bandicoot into this world, as even though Darwin's Paradox! immediately restores the nostalgia of old-school platformers once you pick it up, the entire creative core of the game revolves around this octopus. It's a little obvious, perhaps, considering the title, but Darwin serves as more than just a cute mascot. ZDT Studio has centred the game's mechanics around what an octopus can do and elevated those abilities by a hundred, creating for logical, progressive gameplay throughout the brief but effective narrative that makes the whole experience click over and over. The communication between developer and player is like a conversation with an old friend; you're never left wondering what to do or where to go for more than a few seconds throughout the puzzle and stealth aspects of the game. Its level design is super engaging, bolstered by background visuals that create the sense you're playing through a modern DreamWorks classic.

Darwin's Paradox! is a game that handles its fundamentals really, really well. It doesn't try and overload you with mechanic after mechanic, making you drop the thing you just learned for the shiny new ability that perfectly suits the challenges of the level ahead. Everything you can do in Darwin's Paradox! is useful for the entirety of the game, leading to plenty of moments where you combine ink-shooting, camouflage, and environmental tricks to avoid getting zapped. Darwin's Paradox! is a simple game, not one designed to keep you biting your lip and bobbing your knee as you try desperately not to throw your controller through the window. It's not going to be a challenge, at least not for significant portions of time, but it doesn't feel trivial either. It's easy in a way that never grows boring, clearly designed to lean towards a younger audience. If I was in my formative years and picked up Darwin's Paradox!, I'd surely be hailing it as an underrated classic many years down the line.

I found Darwin's Paradox! less audibly pleasing than it was visually, but the game's music and sound proved a lovely accompaniment to this adventure. Swishing from one end of the screen to the other, crawling up walls and listening to the sickly sweet sound effects of Darwin's suckers popping against metal. These aren't things you think about for days or weeks after the credits roll, but they drag you deeper into the game. I'm not sure I was feeling like an octopus while playing, but the overall sound helps keep the whimsy and sauce of Darwin's Paradox! alive.

In creating Darwin's Paradox! it's clear ZDT Studio wanted to leave the players wanting more, rather than having them rolling their eyes as the quality of the level design began to dwindle. However, I fear there's been a slight overcorrection on that front, as Darwin's Paradox! ends rather abruptly. As we find our way at the crescendo of the story, we're teased one more chapter perhaps, or an extra level, and then the credits roll. Now, this leaves space for a DLC or sequel down the road, but it also makes me wonder if we really did explore everything this debut had for Darwin. When you throw in some sections which really just have you drag the octopus from one end of the screen to the other, as well as some light backtracking, you can probably see that while Darwin's Paradox! remains incredibly fun, it's not quite perfect.

Darwin's Paradox! may be here for a good time, not a long time, but what a good time it is. Bringing classic platformers up to more modern standards, it proves a short, sweet, mechanically sound experience that I'll gladly take more of if ZDT Studio wants to bring this plucky octopus back to our screens.

Everwind (Early Access)

joel@gamereactor.eu (Joel Petterson) — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

{Minecraft} - the Swedish phenomenon. The game every developer wishes they had created, and the game which, despite its age and dated graphics (though distinctive style), continues to thrive with hordes upon hordes of players. It goes without saying - in a way that is beyond doubt - that developers and publishers want a slice of the cake that is Minecraft. But it has proved to be a tough nut to crack.

{Everwind} is the latest attempt in a line of games seeking to emulate the recipe for the aforementioned cake, and I've given it a go myself. But did I tuck in bit by bit and walk away satisfied, or were a few spoonfuls enough before I started feeling sick? Well, we end up somewhere in between.

Everwind hasn't been released in version 1.0 yet. It's been released via Early Access, so you can't expect a fully-fledged masterpiece just yet (though it does happen - just look at {Slay the Spire 2}), and it will be fleshed out with content and updates until it reaches its final form. That said, there is actually plenty of content to sink your teeth into, and you can clearly see that this is a game with its own concept and identity - but it still has some way to go if it is to survive and attract its own audience.

The game begins by generating a unique world and dropping you at the top of a tower. The tower serves as a tutorial, with each floor explaining how to use different game mechanics. It's a clever approach that makes the learning process itself feel like part of the adventure. It simply feels natural. In any case, you'll learn how combat works, how to craft your tools and how to cook your food. All perfectly reasonable things in a survival game, of course.

Armed with a sword and shield, I'm ready to take on a few capybaras.

Once out of the tower, the real adventure begins. "Build your airship" is the mission, and to do so I must first scan a wrecked airship that has crashed and rusted away on the island I'm on. Part by part, I scan it using a strange contraption I've been equipped with, and after that I break the parts down so I can craft my own - brand-new - engines, generators and air balloons for my very own ship. This involves quite a bit of resource gathering, and there are no major surprises on that front. Chop down trees, gather stones, scavenge for grass and make sure you find some copper to melt down in a smelter.

This is complicated slightly by the few enemies on the island - ragged skeletons that pose no real threat. The combat is, however, entertaining and well-crafted, featuring both parrying and additional functions locked behind a classic RPG tree packed with various upgrades. The enemy AI, however, isn't anything to write home about - it works but offers no surprises. It's not just skeletons that make up the island's population, though; the Everwind developers seem to have a soft spot for capybaras, especially those wearing little hats. Capybaras, yes - the cute little piggies of the 2020s. Wild boars and pheasants run about, offering the chance to hunt for a bit of meat and feathers as well.

Here's one of the first ships I built; I added a small ramp to it because I didn't know you could teleport back to the ship.

After killing a bunch of goblins, gathering resources and building everything needed to fly amongst the clouds in my very own airship, I set off out to sea. Using a small rowboat, I row out to a ship marked on the map, place what I've built on it and feed wood into the generator. But for it to work, I have to connect everything using pipes that transfer energy between the various engine parts. No sooner said than done - the world awaits and the sky is my playground. And it's a vast world at my disposal, and I wonder if there's an end to it out there... I didn't find it, anyway.

The world of Everwind isn't just horizontal, with several islands to explore. There are also islands up in the sky, and that's where I (naturally) intend to head first. But no such luck. To fly higher, I need to upgrade my ship. So I steer the vessel towards an island I've had my eye on since I started the game. On this island there is a strange building resembling a metal giraffe, and it's obviously something that needs a closer look. After a short flight, I park the ship on the roof of the odd building. I soon realise I'm not alone there; I'm accompanied by spiders that shoot venom and zombies that explode when they get too close. I also realise that my level is far too low and I don't stand much of a chance. Apparently, you don't get very far with armour and a sword made of wood.

So I die - a couple of times. At first I panic because I don't know how to get out of there, but I realise that the device you can scan with can also teleport me back to the ship and to safety. With that in mind, I dash off first - like a madman - and collect my stuff from where I died. When you die in Everwind, you don't lose everything, just some of what you've collected. This takes the form of an 'orb' that you have to pick up within ten minutes so as not to lose potential goodies.

There's no shortage of mishaps and mishaps.

Having learnt a few lessons, I chose a slightly less spectacular island next time round. But this is also where I start to wonder what my goal is - where am I actually heading? Is there a final destination? I suppose Enjoy Studio wants you to shape your own adventure - just as Mojang did with Minecraft. No clear pointers or quests, just a whole world at your disposal where you get to act as both director and actor. That's both good and bad.

Everwind is a more distinct RPG and I expect to be part of a story on some level. Why do I suddenly wake up in a tower? What has happened to all the airships? Who are the monsters? I feel like I'm missing an explanation there and would love to see that part given more depth. Until then, I'll simply have to focus on upgrading both myself and the ship. You can build the ship bigger and cram it full of everything you could possibly need. It doesn't look particularly stylish - but if it flies, it flies.

Everwind isn't particularly attractive, but since it's built in the same way as Minecraft (with square blocks), that probably wasn't the aim anyway. It does, however, offer a few more effects than its source of inspiration, in the form of reflections on the water, particle effects and other things that, on the whole, just contribute to the lag. Because it does lag, quite noticeably even, when you're travelling and new islands are generated. But as I said - it's Early Access, and with that come a few technical hiccups. Nothing unusual.

The great blue offers you your very own adventure. If you're ready to create it.

The design choices made, however, aren't quite so obvious. It's very brown and, aesthetically speaking, both dull and even ugly. My character looks like a cross between Minecraft Steve and Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and the enemies strutting about in Everwind's worlds look neither scary nor funny. I suspect it can be challenging to find a distinctive visual style and a design that works in a world built from blocks - and it doesn't quite work here.

It's definitely worth keeping an eye on and checking how Everwind's development progresses. I'd even say it's fun as it is right now - but the price feels a bit too high at the moment. But once Enjoy Studio has finished building it and the game is released "for real," it could very well become a game that can hold its own against Minecraft, as it actually offers something unique enough.

Elemental: Reforged

patrik@gamereactor.eu (Patrik Severin) — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0100

Titans, magic and the desire to plunder the world's resources have contributed to its collapse. In the aftermath of catastrophe, civilisations are attempting to rebuild. You can choose to play as one of several factions, each with different bonuses, access to magic and other advantages. You can create a character representing the ancient, malevolent empires or the younger, newer kingdoms. In this world, it is the strongest who survive, and through city-building, conquest, exploration and war, you can become the one who decides the world's future. With so many competitors, the question is whether this can stand out.

Elemental Reforged is Stardock Entertainment's answer to the question of what would happen if you were to mix Civilization with role-playing games. This is not a unique blend; we already have fairly established game series such as Age of Wonders 4, Sorcerer King: Rivals, Spellforce Conquest of Eo and Master of Magic. There are, of course, even more if we look back in time. The question I asked myself was whether this offered anything new and interesting. The answer to that is both yes and no at the same time. This is because Elemental Reforged is a fusion of their previous titles, Elemental: War of Magic and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, which in turn utilised the concepts found in this title.

The campaign features cutscenes and a more structured narrative.

Your story begins almost immediately by choosing whether you want to play the campaign, sandbox mode or one of the other game modes. There is also a tutorial mode to help new players get to grips with the concepts and how to play the game. I'll start by saying straight away that this is not an easy strategy game. That's because you have a vast array of options for customising, developing, shaping your civilisation and developing your hero characters. On the surface, it's a classic 4X game: you fight, gather resources, explore and expand. That core remains intact, but there are additional and interesting layers of gameplay elements. One example of this is how you can upgrade your troops.

When building your troops, you can swap weapons, armour, shields and much more. They function somewhat like a template you can alter, which in turn can make simpler troop types relevant later in the game. Your hero can be customised in the same way and becomes more powerful over time, just like in Heroes of Might and Magic, for example. Once you've fought or earned enough experience points, your character can be upgraded with new abilities. Combined with city-building, events in the campaign world, unique buildings to discover and missions to complete, there's quite a lot to do in the game. You're constantly kept busy with something, and I still think this is Stardock's best title in the Elemental series.

The worlds contain monsters and buildings you can interact with.

There are several differences compared to Fallen Enchantress and War of Magic. One example is how Champions work. They don't just appear as they did before; instead, if you become famous enough in the world, you can recruit characters. They have their own powerful abilities and can help you conquer the world. You also have a fairly advanced and interesting crafting system. When you're out in the world with your hero, conquering mines, completing quests and so on, you'll acquire recipes. Using these, you can then create items and other things you can use in battle.

I think the loop in this title, where you build up your cities, gather resources and manage crises and events, works well. It's thanks to the move to 64-bit that it doesn't break down in the same way as its predecessors. The very first Elemental: War of Magic had a tendency to crash and stop working. Master of Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic have always had a winning concept. A bit of trivia is that Stardock were asked by Atari to make a sequel to Master of Magic but turned it down, choosing instead to create something of their own based on the same DNA. This is what the Elemental series is today. Although I do miss a Master of Magic 2 today, it is the people behind series such as Elemental and Age of Wonders who, in various ways, are further developing the basic concept into something new and unique.

Du kan byta vapen och skräddarsy många saker.

If you've ever been looking for a 4X game steeped in fantasy, there are plenty of options. However, I think Elemental: Reforged offers a good enough mix of concepts and ideas we've seen before, with a few unique touches of its own. I'm particularly fond of the ability to customise almost everything down to the last detail. Many games of this type usually give you a foot soldier with pre-set equipment that is then never used. In this title, I found that I could continue to improve basic troop types and use them for quite a long time in my campaign. The more you played, the more weapons, armour and other items you unlocked to equip your troops.

The stories you can play outside of skirmish mode are based on the events of the previous games. They are named after their respective games and can now be played in addition to the standard mode. There's still quite a lot of content on offer, as you're presented with three major campaigns and a fully-fledged sandbox mode. I spend most of my time in the open-world mode as it allows you to create your own stories, characters, kingdoms and more. When you start the sandbox mode, you get to name your character, provide background information, choose a colour, weapon, abilities, what your kingdom should look like, which flag to use and much more. It can be customised in many ways, which I appreciate. One ability you can give your character is the ability to recruit spiders or create unique sets of armour. You have a limited number of points to use, but you can also choose negative abilities, which give you an extra point.

Where you place your cities matters just as much as in any other 4X game you can think of.

Once you've made all your decisions, chosen your world and so on, you'll be placed on the map. The first thing you need to do is create a city and start building. I usually start by reinforcing my hero with new troops and making sure I have enough money. Of course, this depends entirely on what kind of hero you have and what you want to do in the campaign. Freedom is its strength, and the possibilities are endless. As you construct buildings, your city grows, and over time you'll need to build more cities. You can research new technologies and other advancements through discoveries spread across quite extensive technology trees. This shouldn't be underestimated; you really do need upgrades, new unit types, better buildings and more so that you can compete against your opponents. You can ally with them if you wish to destroy their cities or undertake specific missions towards the end of the game to win.

The battles themselves are reminiscent of Age of Wonders 4; you have your hero and your troop types. You move these across the grid and attack the enemy. Depending on what you have access to, battles can unfold in different ways. If you have access to magic, your hero can either damage enemies from a distance or weaken them. You can also improve your troops' abilities. Depending on how you've specialised your hero, you'll have different abilities and options. It essentially comes down to which class your character should have, and you can choose between roles such as assassin, warrior and mage. You'll also tailor your equipment accordingly. It's a bit of a shame, though, that the environments you fight in sometimes look a bit low-resolution. Especially considering how much of the game is actually combat.

You can design your own characters, each with their own abilities and appearances. You're given a few points at the start of the creation process to make certain choices. It's a bit like Stellaris and Galactic Civilization when you're creating a faction.

It's a nice mix, and I also think the graphics are starting to come together. In their previous games, the design hasn't always worked. It's a semi-hand-drawn style that I found hard to get used to. In this game, I think there's better contrast, it looks better, and both the user interface and other elements work well together. There are plenty of settings so you can customise the user interface and other aspects to your liking. The music is pleasant and fits well. It's your typical fantasy music that you'll probably switch off and replace with your own music after a while (for a change). This title won't leave you speechless, but there is a pleasant atmosphere thanks to the visuals and the soundscape.

The game isn't flawless; it has technical bugs, and things don't always work as they should. Stardock Entertainment is, of course, working on improving the experience even further through updates, but there are still some technical issues in the 1.0 version. The game is also stuck in a grid system and hasn't switched to hexagons or similar layouts like more modern 4X games have, which means it suffers from similar problems to games of the past. One example of this is city building, which becomes more complicated as you expand their size. The graphics are also relatively dated compared to the competition. Age of Wonders 4 is an example of a game that looks noticeably better.

The technology tree is vast, so you'll need to think carefully before making any choices in this menu. Just like in Civilization, you might not want to research everything, but rather specialise your civilisation.

The AI opponents sometimes struggle to put up a fight towards the end of your campaign. It's not just a matter of passivity; above all, you're simply more powerful if you play your cards right. This is an area I hope they're working on, as the game is primarily played by a single player and lacks a multiplayer mode. The ability to play against computer opponents whose decisions are strategic and tactical is important. I hope this is something the developers are working to improve. At present, I feel that your opponent struggles to hold its own over time as you grow more powerful. It also struggles to make smart decisions in tactical battles. It often happened to me that I could use flanking manoeuvres to defeat significantly stronger enemies. Sometimes, however, it can run you over if you've given it bonuses. There's no middle ground at the moment.

If you choose to take on Elemental: Reforged, you'll get a competent 4X game with slightly dated graphics and not the most knowledgeable of AI opponents. Thanks to the fact that you do so much else during the course of the game, it rarely gets boring. Although this title is the best in its series, I think certain competitors like Age of Wonders 4 offer sharper experiences today. Total War: Warhammer is also making inroads into a similar genre. That doesn't mean you'll be bored with this, though. If you're feeling a bit nostalgic for how turn-based strategy games like Civilization 3 and 4 played, this might be of interest. I love the ability to customise virtually everything in the game. There's always something to keep you occupied, which is a positive. You can truly create your own story, kingdom and backstory. As you play, you can make it your own in a way that many other competitors fail to do. If you like role-playing games and 4X titles, this is worth checking out.

Unfortunately, the combat can look a bit dated. This is mainly down to the textures and the low-polygon environments.
You can decide which specialisation your character should have when you reach level 2. Each one has its pros and cons.

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection

jonas@gamereactor.eu (Jonas Mäki) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0100

For most people, Mega Man is synonymous with the main series that began on the NES and is set to get a new game next year in the form of {Mega Man: Dual Override}, or possibly {Mega Man X}. But in Japan, Mega Man is much bigger than that and there is a wealth of obscure games that in many cases have never even made it to the West, or at least haven't made much of a splash.

Among the bigger and more successful titles, we find the Nintendo DS series Mega Man Star Force, a sort of spiritual successor to {Mega Man Battle Network} (which was also released in the West, primarily on the Game Boy Advance). Star Force offered three adventures spread across a total of seven different versions, which can be compared to the setup in the Pokémon games, meaning you chose a version to get slight variations in your adventure. However, there is no major trading element, so I would argue that it was primarily a way to sell multiple versions to the same player.

Be that as it may, you don't have to choose in {Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection}, as it includes them all. If you want the aggressive Mega Man Star Force Leo, it's here, and if you prefer the connoisseur's edition, Mega Man Star Force Dragon, you can choose that too. What's more, Capcom has packed the project with all sorts of extras from the game's history, such as the ability to view all the cards, check out artwork, listen to music, and the like.

The design is consistently good and the graphics hold up surprisingly well.

In short, the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection offers a pretty comprehensive package. I only played the first one back in the day and got straight into it. Capcom has chosen to retain the graphical style, so it's a thoroughly pixelated game we're presented with, but immediately I think the isometric style has stood the test of time well and it's still admirably clear.

The story revolves around Geo Stellar, a young lad who has recently lost his father in space. It is essentially a rather dark story, but one that is dealt with very swiftly, as befits the era. There is no time to mourn; instead, characters and gameplay mechanics are introduced at a rapid pace. The first game has the most story as it introduces the world, and in addition to Geo Stellar, we also meet Omega-Xis. These two are the series' key characters, and together, can transform into Mega Man, who then uses cards to defeat all manner of enemies.

The graphics have been improved in several areas, such as higher-resolution artwork.

Games two and three are presented in the same light-hearted manner, with Geo Stellar and Omega-Xis still living at home with their mum, going to school, and living in a small town somewhere in the future, whereupon a troublemaker turns up and a new adventure can begin. There is a surprising amount of dialogue squeezed into what are almost role-playing-game-like premises, but as everything is so concise and to the point, it never becomes stiff or monotonous; nor does it ever feel engaging, but rather like an excuse for adventure. If I were to compare it to anything, think of the storytelling in the early Pokémon games.

The big draw of the Mega Man Star Force series was its card-based battles with a PlayStation-style presentation (with improved resolution) on a smaller grid. Unlike the Battle Network series, Star Force was a bit more action-oriented and it can actually get quite challenging. Fortunately, there's a whole host of aids, from being able to save regularly to giving yourself more time or making weapons stronger.

The battles stand out as the highlights.

Battles then take place on a small grid using both action and card-based mechanics. By optimising your cards effectively, you can combine them skilfully to deliver massive attacks, whilst also firing your arm cannon and ensuring you don't get in the way of enemy attacks. It thus becomes a kind of dance between timing, positioning, and card selection that I'm very fond of.

If I were to mention anything negative, it's that, as I said, this was a Nintendo DS game, which means the menus were originally designed for the stylus. I would imagine this isn't a problem on devices with touchscreens, but I've played it on the Xbox Series S/X (and effectively the PlayStation 5 as well), and here the menus feel a bit clunkier than they did back in the day.

The menus can be a bit fiddly to use with a controller.

All in all, it's still a very solid collection that's easy to recommend. These are games that stand the test of time, which wouldn't have benefited from more polygons, and which have been well revamped with higher resolution where appropriate (such as in battles and on the maps). If you're looking for classic Mega Man action, this is definitely not for you, but if you want a typically cosy Japanese "happy-go-lucky" adventure with a deep gameplay system, then it's really easy to recommend this lovely collection.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0100

On one hand, I appreciate that Nintendo is actively looking for ways to improve and enhance many of its existing Switch 1 titles for the Switch 2 system. Improved visuals and performance matched up with a few extra content additions are lovely ways to encourage a return to an already established title. However this doesn't change the fact that the new features and improvements need to actually feel worthy of your time and money, and largely speaking for the games that have received these upgrades, this hasn't been the case. Rather the upgrades have almost come and gone and left little impact behind them.

As much as I adore Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and I do adore it as my review can attest, it does feel as though the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and the Meetup in Bellabel Park expansion is another case of more mediocre content, extras that you don't really need to be able to experience the brilliance that is this colourful and charismatic platformer.

Long story short, Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the Nintendo Switch 2 is mostly the same game as it was on Switch 1. It feels a minor bit more detailed in its visual presentation but not exactly a whopping improvement, perhaps thanks to how well optimised the game was for Switch and how the OLED display model continues to thrive even compared to the Switch 2 alternative in a visual manner. Ultimately, if you were snagging the Switch 2 version expecting to be blown away by a performance and visual leap, this is simply not what it offers, as more so it targets the inclusion of the Switch 2-centric social features and such, to improve the gameplay experience. Is that a reason to buy the upgrade? In my eyes, not really, which ultimately puts a huge amount of pressure on the Meetup in Bellabel Park expansion to pick up the slack.

So what does this expansion add? There are basically four elements to this DLC, of varying levels of value. For example, Rosalina and Luma arrive as playable characters, which is a lovely and fun addition that adds an extra option to the game even if Rosalina plays exactly like every other available character. Similarly, the Assist Mode is here to make the game less challenging, a helpful accessibility addition that you can't help but wonder why it wasn't included in the base game...

Then there's the actual new gameplay elements that span a single-player and a multiplayer-geared section. The single-player element effectively totals one new world to conquer but it's arranged as such that each existing world gets one new level, plus a final conclusive one at the new Toad Brigade hub area to add to that, making for seven new levels to master. These are also all boss fight levels against the Koopalings and for what it's worth, they're a huge amount of fun, proving the creative potential that the development team has once again. These boss fights aren't necessarily hard but they aren't a breeze, even if they are made simpler through the inclusion of the new Super Flower Pot power-up that opens the way to new gameplay mechanics. It's fun and unique, but it doesn't steal the show in the same way as the Elephant power-up, as a point of comparison.

This then brings me to the multiplayer element in Bellabel Park, regarded as Attraction Central. This is where a decision as a player needs to be made, as if you simply play Super Mario Bros. Wonder as an individual and in offline action, then this portion of the expansion has zero value to you, as it's all exclusively served up in local or online multiplayer. Half of the Park is dedicated to local action and the other half to online gameplay, and admittedly the courses presented here are a good bit of fun, with 17 new 'attractions', as they are called, to visit. This is the main body of Meetup in Bellabel Park and the reason you should buy this expansion.

If you like playing Wonder online and against other players, or in couch co-op with friends and family, there's plenty of reasons to revisit the game thanks to this portion, with added collectible-like elements in the form of plants to water with fluids you get from spending time in the Park. There are typical levels where the aim is to simply reach the end, often by working as a cooperative team, alongside versus options where you need to collect and retain coins and battle it out for victory in entertaining multiplayer mania. It's fun, without a doubt, but if you don't tend to involve yourself in these areas or perhaps don't have a Switch Online subscription, you miss a lot from snagging this expansion and all of a sudden the £16.99 upgrade route starts to seem rather tough to stomach.

So ultimately, alike many of these Switch 2 upgrades and their accompanying DLC content packs, what Nintendo has presented for Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn't feel like a must-buy inclusion. If you routinely hop into the game and are searching for any way to expand the experience, you might find something of interest here, but if you are a solo player, for example, you'll be disappointed by the 60-90 minutes of gameplay from the extra seven levels and the Toad Brigade storyline.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is still one of the finest 2D platformers in recent memory, so there's still that going for this upgrade and pack, but at the same time, if you can save yourself close to £20 and simply buy the base game and leave it at that, I wouldn't discourage doing so, as Meetup in Bellabel Park and the Nintendo Switch 2 Upgrade is simply not must-have content.

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown

patrik@gamereactor.eu (Patrik Severin) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0100

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown is an unusual game that I didn't have high expectations for. It's not a game that will blow you away with big-budget graphics. Rather, it's a well-crafted indie game with heart and soul. Your mission is to find your way back to Earth after something has gone wrong and the U.S.S. Voyager has been transported far away into the galaxy. You and your crew end up in what is known as the Delta Quadrant. If you like the Star Trek universe and would have made different choices to those made by Commander Kathryn Janeway in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager, this is the game for you. The story is the same, and after you've been transported, you discover that it will take you and your crew 70-75 years to get home again. You and your crew must make good use of that time so that you can cope with all the challenges and dangers in this part of the galaxy.

The tutorial does a pretty decent job of explaining how to play.

At first, the adventure starts off fairly straightforward, with few decisions and choices to make. Over time, the number of choices you make in dialogue and the ways in which you can complete missions increase. You have a resource system that determines what you can do, and a construction system on your spaceship. To survive, you need to build up your spaceship using a system reminiscent of what we see in XCOM 2. In addition to this, you need to research new technologies, ensure the crew is well looked after, and develop new equipment. The whole thing reminds me quite a lot of the campaign aspect of Firaxis's XCOM series and also FTL. The difference here is that you also travel to various randomised solar systems, search for resources and transport your crew to planets for various missions. However, you cannot influence what your crew takes with them on the mission; instead, you select based on their rank and abilities. Your crew can also be linked to certain buildings to improve their functionality.

I found the missions interesting as they require you to select personnel who complement one another. If the individuals you send down to the planet or other locations have the same abilities, you may sometimes find it difficult to find solutions in every situation. However, this does mean that both characters can resolve a situation simultaneously. The missions involve you being presented with four or more scenarios via text and images. To handle each situation, you need to choose the right person with abilities that offer a solution. A result is then generated at random. If their skill is too low, there is a risk that you will not be able to handle the situation. Even a character with significant bonuses can fail, meaning that every choice is important. You are often presented with several solutions for each situation, and these offer different rewards if your character succeeds. Depending on your choices, the final situation can also influence the story slightly. It's a system that works, even if it does become somewhat repetitive after a while. Heroes can also die in this game, which is worth bearing in mind.

Your abilities, skills and other factors are displayed on a gauge. The arrow then moves across the entire gauge, regardless of colour, and depending on where it lands, you either succeed or fail. There are also other colours that indicate whether you have exceeded expectations or fallen short.

I think the game as a whole offers a pretty good blend of storytelling, nostalgia and gameplay elements. Given that it's based on the TV series, you have the chance to make choices the original crew never did. It's very faithful to its source material, and there's often a reason why certain decisions you can make weren't made in the TV series. This is a game that asks you, 'What happens if I do this instead?' You can, of course, also relive the TV series and make the same choices. Even the epic space battles are interactive in this title. You choose a group of heroes who grant you abilities. You can then issue commands to your spaceship, even though you don't have direct control over it whilst the battles are taking place. You select targets, order your ship to defend itself, and decide which of the enemy's systems to fire upon. It's similar to the systems in FTL, but in full 3D, much like the battles in Galactic Civilization IV.

There is, of course, much to appreciate, but there are also aspects of somewhat lacking quality. The game has very little voice acting, and this is quite noticeable. If you haven't seen the TV series, you might not have their voices in your head whilst playing this. What is there consists of voice actors narrating the experiences during the journey when you visit a new group of star systems. I really like this and would have liked to see more of it throughout the adventure. Although the music is great, I do miss some dramatic voice acting. It's things like this that show this is an indie game. However, I want to emphasise that I still like what's on offer.

The star systems are beautiful and you can visit them all. You can scan all the celestial bodies to find out what you'll discover on each planet.

If you're a fan of Star Trek, you've probably already bought this by the time of this review, but if you haven't, I'd like to give it a shout-out. Despite clearly visible budget constraints, it's immersive, exciting and lets you relive that troubled journey with familiar and new characters. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I watched Voyager, but I still remember several situations where I wondered what would have happened if I'd done things differently. Although the choices aren't always radically different, they're different enough to create exciting situations. A typical example is if you choose to incorporate Borg technology into your starship. If you do choose to go down the scientific and technological route, it comes with both advantages and risks.

Graphically and technically, this game is perfectly acceptable. You won't be treated to the visual treats you're used to in big-budget titles. However, I feel that the design of the world, characters and other elements still sells the illusion of an interactive TV series. The music is also top-notch, with sweeping pieces, calm music and sequences where there is no music at all. It's nothing revolutionary, but it does the job. I haven't encountered any notable technical issues or bugs. The only thing I've experienced is that certain cutscenes load a bit slowly in isolated instances.

The bridge is usually shown during parts of the story. You can then ask questions, talk to your crewmates and try to make the right decisions.

The downloadable content is a bit of a mixed bag. It includes five really challenging missions, two characters you can recruit and three fairly powerful technologies. I was lucky enough to test the whole package, including this content. In my opinion, it's almost a must-have. Although it might not be particularly tempting to buy, I think it's good content. It actually adds more for you to interact with and do in the game. Aside from this, it's a fairly extensive game that took me roughly 15-20 hours to complete. I was quite satisfied but saw the replay value almost immediately. You might have missed out on recruiting heroes and doing things differently. It isn't entirely clear how to recruit all the heroes. So you can easily miss out on bringing them along on your journey.

If you like Star Trek, it's hard not to recommend this to you. It's a sharp game with issues that can often be attributed to the title's budget. It can become somewhat repetitive because the strategy aspect doesn't really offer much variety in its setup. What you do in the first solar system, you do - with few exceptions - in the later star systems as well. Despite this, I still think it's a competent product and perhaps one of the best games in the Star Trek universe I've had the pleasure of testing. However, I think it's difficult to recommend it to people who don't like the universe. A large part of the appeal relies on you having watched the TV series and being familiar with its characters, technology and much more. If you have no interest in Star Trek, I don't think you'll fully appreciate this; if, like me, you like the universe, there's quite a lot to appreciate about this title. If you love Star Trek, you can probably add another star to your rating.

Spacecraft battles are automatic, although you can issue commands to your spacecraft.
The building system is fairly simple, but it requires time, resources and planning if you want to make it work effectively. You can also upgrade buildings and station heroes in them to gain bonuses.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (PC)

claus@gamereactor.eu (Claus Larsen) — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0100

When is a game art? Is it when a game is so out there that everything going on is almost incomprehensible, yet still resonates with the player? Or is it a cohesive experience that can also be enjoyed by the more "casual gamer"? I'd say you rarely see the latter example, but if I had to define Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, that's the label I'd attach to Hideo Kojima's masterpiece. I've got Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on PC, and here you can really see this masterpiece shine.

Not much has been added to the PC version, but there is still quite a bit more than in many other PlayStation ports and that's absolutely brilliant. Kojima and his developers have added cutscenes that were originally cut, and these are being added to both the PC and PlayStation 5 versions. It's absolutely brilliant, as they give the game even more of that distinct Kojima vibe that's so uniquely his. If you've played his other games, you know exactly the madness and depth it brings to the game world, where you just think, "This is so fantastic, childish at times", but also just lovely to see more of these expressions from Kojima's twisted mind. It's like The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition, where the added cutscenes create a deeper world, making the experience even more exciting.

There's also a new difficulty level for those masochists who didn't think the original was hard enough. I've had plenty of trouble on the normal difficulty, so I didn't dig too deep, but what I did try quickly showed me that you need to know all the mechanics the game throws at you to survive. If you don't, you'll get a proper thrashing. I found that out the hard way. It's great that those who've mastered the game can now embark on an even more challenging adventure in this broken world. On top of that, you can replay the boss fights, which is brilliant as they're wonderfully designed and act as little puzzles in their own right, and the fact that Sam "Porter" Bridges can defend himself better than in the first game makes them even more fun.

Then we come to the features exclusive to the PC, and whilst they aren't necessarily the big-ticket items, this is where the experience starts to change. So let's take a look at what the PC can add to this fantastic game.

The first thing you notice is that there's a whole host of graphical bells and whistles you can switch on. There's frame generation and limited ray-tracing, for those with a graphics card that can handle it, and fortunately mine can, even though my cooler starts to whine when everything's maxed out. On the other hand, I've rarely experienced a game that looks as good as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The first game looked fantastic too, especially the landscapes, but in the sequel it feels almost photorealistic as you run through the barren areas, which give a sense of isolation, but also a strange calm amidst all the destruction. When you see the shadowy BTs, it's a pure particle spectacle, and it looks absolutely stunning. Even when I turned the settings down, the game maintained a high visual standard. It's a showcase of what you can get out of modern hardware when a developer has a clear vision.

Other things the PC version does better than any other platform are high resolutions, frame rates, and scaling. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach supports it all, so you can push the game quite far if you have the kit for it. Mouse and keyboard are also an option, but I'm not entirely sure if they're better than a controller. The port clearly feels designed for a controller, particularly because many actions require holding buttons down for extended periods, rather than utilising the keyboard's many capabilities. This made getting to grips with the controls on PC a bit of a struggle at first and in tense situations I often hit the wrong buttons. It got better over time, but I do think the menus could be better adapted for those of us playing with a mouse and keyboard.

This is also where the port falls short the most. There's what I'd call "button bloat", where the same buttons are used in different combinations depending on the situation. This means you sometimes have to make quite precise inputs at the most inopportune moments and that can lead to mistakes that feel unnecessary. That's why I'd definitely recommend playing with a controller, even on PC. It's a bit of a shame, as I'm sure it could have been made more intuitive.

But once everything is up and running and you've got the hang of the controls, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a delight on PC. Moving through an almost lifeless desert, which most of all resembles a lunar landscape, is an experience in itself. It was the same in the first game, but here it feels even more intense. When you sneak through areas with BTs, which leave handprints in the ground, and you hold your breath as they pass, there aren't many games that can create the same tension. Later, when the snow hits, the atmosphere changes completely, and the landscape suddenly feels alive and hostile in a whole new way. The snow looks fantastic, and the varying depths create new challenges that you constantly have to take into account.

The cutscenes are also in a league of their own on PC. You can really see the love that Kojima Productions has put into them. The characters look even sharper than on the PlayStation 5 and I've rarely experienced feeling so much for the many supporting characters you meet along the way. You can almost see every single pore in their skin and the facial expressions are impressive.

So if you're playing with a controller and have a reasonably good PC, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the ultimate version right now. If you want to experience this classic and have the opportunity, this is definitely the version I'd recommend. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a masterpiece and as close to art as a game can get. For me, it's one of those games where you sometimes forget you're sitting there playing and you're just in it. It's fantastic.

Screamer

palle@gamereactor.eu (Palle Havshøi-Jensen) — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0100

The 1990s were a golden age for arcade racing games. Just look at Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, and Virtua Racing, all arcade racing games released in the first half of the 1990s. It was a tough market, but that didn't stop the small, newly established Italian studio Graffiti from releasing their arcade racer Screamer for the PC. Although it was clearly inspired by Ridge Racer, it was still a game in its own right and could easily stand on its own two feet.

The following year, Graffiti changed its name to Milestone, as we know it today, and when you look back at the games for which they have become best known for over time - titles such as Ride, MotoGP, and Superbike World Championship - it's easy to forget that they actually have their roots in the arcade racing segment. In my view, Milestone is at its best when making arcade racers, and they proved this with Gravel from 2018 and most recently with Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged from 2023. Now Milestone is back and they're reviving the arcade racer that started it all for them: Screamer.

Screamer is something as rare as an arcade racer with a story. The game is set in the near future and the campaign is called The Tournament, which revolves around an illegal street race organised by the mysterious Mr A (Troy Baker). There are five very different teams taking part in this tournament; among them are Strike Force Romanda, a group of Japanese pop stars; Anaconda Corp., consisting of mysterious characters from the arms manufacturer and cyber-security firm of the same name; and Kagawa-Kai, a team made up of members of a criminal organisation. Incidentally, you get to play as all five teams during The Tournament.

The story is told through a combination of some truly stunning anime sequences created by the Japanese animation studio Polygon Pictures - best known for various anime and science-fiction series and films - and some rather static and dull conversations, familiar from classic JRPGs, where characters stand on opposite sides of the screen with a text box between them. Unfortunately, the latter predominates. The story isn't particularly gripping; it's divided into a long series of chapters, and serves mostly as an excuse to throw the player into a series of fast-paced races of various kinds, often with different objectives to be achieved along the way.

The campaign is quite long, and you spend a fair amount of time sitting and listening to dialogue between the game's rival characters. On top of this comes a rather uneven difficulty level, which makes the whole thing feel decidedly drawn-out. Screamer is, by its very nature, not an easy game, and the difficulty level is unfortunately somewhat uneven. I found that the difficulty level would suddenly drop at regular intervals, only to rise sharply again, which means you hit some pretty steep walls from time-to-time. I found myself easily winning one race, only for the next to require up to 20 attempts, after which the following one was again won with ease. It's uneven and that's a real shame.

In addition to The Tournament, Screamer also offers a wide range of other game modes. There's Standard Race, Team Race, Time Attack, Checkpoint, Score Challenge, Overdrive Challenge, and finally Multiplayer, where you can play in Mixtape (random game modes are selected by the game prior to each race), Ranked Team Race, and Local Splitscreen for up to four players. So there are certainly plenty of gameplay options here in Screamer, and it all takes place across 32 tracks spread across four areas: the neon-lit metropolis of Neo Rey, the scorching Sky Road Desert, the Forest #13 nature reserve, and a fourth secret area, which is only revealed later in the campaign. The tracks are a good mix of winding roads and long straights, but it's a bit surprising that the tracks don't contain hidden shortcuts and the like, which you otherwise often find in these arcade racers.

If you disregard the aforementioned imbalance in difficulty, the races themselves are quite interesting, as this isn't your standard arcade racer. Firstly, you use both joysticks on your controller to steer the cars; the left one is used to turn the car and the right one for drifting. The cars are very heavy and can barely turn, but combined with the ability to drift, they are quite agile. It does, however, take some practice to steer using both sticks, but you get the hang of it and there are a number of assists you can switch on. Some of these assists are so extreme, however, that it becomes difficult to win the races, but at least you don't crash. Again, it's all about balance here.

Screamer has quite a lot of systems, considering this is an arcade racer. All the cars are fitted with an "Echo System", which is absolutely crucial to your success in the races. Firstly, the cars' gearboxes are semi-automatic, which means you have to change gear at the right moment and if you don't, the car will do it itself after a while, but it costs valuable time on the track, time you don't have. If you manage to change gear at the right moment, a Boost meter fills up, and this Boost can be activated in two ways: either giving a standard short boost, or, if you boost at exactly the right moment, a longer and more powerful boost. You can compare it a bit to "Active Reload" in Gears of War, where you have to reload at the right moment to reload faster and get a small boost. In addition to this, there is both a shield and a "Strike" attack that you can activate using the same energy from your Echo System, with the latter causing opponents to explode if you drive into them whilst the Strike is active.

You MUST master the Echo System if you want any chance of winning. I think it's a bit of a shame that the system is essentially forced down your throat in this way, as there's no way around it. If you don't boost, you don't win, and you can practically only boost by making timed gear changes. It's also worth mentioning that the game suffers from severe "rubber banding". This means it feels as though there's a powerful elastic band between you and your opponents, preventing you from ever really pulling far ahead of them, as they're pulled back towards you by the elastic. This means that if you make a mistake, you can drop from first place to sixth place in a matter of seconds, and unfortunately the elastic isn't nearly as strong when your opponents are ahead of you. It's also typically the case that if you boost, your oncoming opponents boost too, and all these slightly "cheap tricks" used to keep the player on a tight leash can be frustrating. It must be said, however, that you CAN get away with pulling out in front and you CAN boost past your opponents, but the game does everything it can to keep you on a tight leash.

You are constantly rewarded with cosmetic upgrades for your cars after every race, ranging from new rims, doors, bonnets, lights, spoilers, and much more, so there are plenty of opportunities to pimp your cars however you like. Funnily enough, there are no performance upgrades of any kind, so if you're not bothered about how a car looks, this part of the game is completely irrelevant. The cars, just like in Ridge Racer, are fictional, but they're designed in such a way that you can still recognise them, as they roughly resemble real-world cars without actually being them.

The visual aspect of Screamer is quite polished; it's very upbeat and everything runs smoothly and fluidly. The game has an anime-inspired look, the cars look a bit cartoonish, and everything is full of moving typography and the like. This does suit the game's very arcade-like nature, but it isn't always the prettiest, and the image quality can sometimes take a hit when there's a lot happening on screen at once. The audio is quite good, with a hard-hitting soundtrack and some fine performances from the voice actors. For some reason, the various characters all speak different languages - there's English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, something that sounds like Dutch - and other languages I can't identify. Yet they all understand one another, and I'm not quite sure what Milestone had in mind here as it seems a bit silly.

Screamer is a strange beast. It's something as rare as an arcade racer (we don't see many of those anymore), combined with a story that almost takes up too much space, as, as mentioned earlier, you spend a lot of time sitting and clicking through conversations between the game's rival characters. The gameplay is packed with systems you can't ignore if you want any chance of winning, and I'm not quite sure what to make of that. It might work for some people, but I'd like the option to use Boost when I feel like it, not because I have to.

All in all, Screamer was a mild disappointment for me. The worst part is the sometimes wildly fluctuating difficulty level, which at the start of the game made me fear I'd simply missed something, so I tried various assists that actually didn't make winning any easier. On top of this comes the severe "rubber banding", meaning the slightest mistake can cost you dearly just before the finish line.

I'm left with the feeling that Screamer could have been so much more. If Milestone had just toned down the narrative a bit, added hidden shortcuts on the tracks, and scaled back the numerous systems to simply create a good old-school arcade racer where the pure joy of driving took centre stage, it would have been better.

As it stands, it's a slightly odd mix of fast-paced arcade racing, an unbalanced game, a story that takes up too much space, almost too many systems, and controls that demand a lot from the player. Screamer isn't a bad game, but it tries to do almost too much. I would have liked it to be more straightforward. More like Ridge Racer could have been in 2026.

Out of Sight: Stage Fright

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0100

It wasn't without its flaws, but the way The Gang's Out of Sight played with perspective and served up a rather unique recipe for puzzles was enough to keep me entertained for its short duration when I reviewed the base game 10 months ago. Similarly, hearing that the developer had a 'final act', if you will, in the pipeline, I naturally became intrigued as to what this expansion would serve up and how it would effectively serve as the curtain call on the second-person adventure.

Yes, yes, I'm using a lot of theatre jargon but for good reason. The Stage Fright DLC for Out of Sight is all about putting on a play that delves into the backstory of one of the spirit children trapped in this twisted manor. It's a short experience that you can roll credits on after just over an hour (making it anywhere between a third or a quarter of the length of the main game) and it offers up three chapters of action where you explore a new wing of the house as Sophie and Teddy, evading Clayton, and gathering the required items to complete the performance.

From a gameplay perspective, we're looking at a very similar setup to the base game, where you work through corridors avoiding mouse traps and other hazards that could alert Clayton to your presence, before then reaching wider rooms where you have to flick between first and second-person perspectives to progress onwards. The same logic applies in that the protagonist of Sophie is blind but she can see through the 'eyes' of her teddy bear, meaning you explore holding the bear close to Sophie's chest for first-person gameplay, before placing Teddy down in specific places to get a CCTV camera-like view that makes the gameplay almost resemble old-school horror projects like Resident Evil, where you see things from afar but can still move the character in three-dimensions while looking down at them.

This premise and the ability to interchange between perspectives is what makes Out of Sight special, as the puzzles and the gameplay is actually rather basic and straightforward, but the perspective changes gives it an extra dimension. Also, it should be said that Out of Sight and this Stage Fright expansion doesn't do a whole lot to challenge the player, as the solutions to puzzles are often quite easy to figure out, with the marginally more complex problems left to the handful of collectibles able to be discovered. Admittedly, this may be an impression from someone who has a wealth of experience in horror games and the kinds of puzzles they present, so less familiar fans may find the puzzles a tad more demanding, but regardless we're not talking about intricate escape room-level complexity here.

Stage Fright, like the main game, is also often at its best when we're left to simply appreciate the atmosphere and ambience of the creepy mansion, which never fails to send a shiver up your spine. However, I do think this expansion lacks the same bite that some parts of Out of Sight offers, as Clayton is a rather poor stalker in this DLC, barely ever posing a threat to the player, unlike his appearance in the core story or how Lady Janna constantly threatens your exploration. More fear, a greater focus on making the player feel unsettled would have gone a long way in Stage Fright, especially since the adventure is over quite quickly, meaning it doesn't have the same time to set up memorable and bigger moments where more is on the line.

Still, for a short adventure that you can experience without even needing to have played the main game and that you can snag for less than £5, the Stage Fright DLC for Out of Sight does enough to entertain. The way this game plays with perspective continues to engage and the atmosphere is suffocating enough to hold your attention, even if it would benefit from a more aggressive and proactive villain. Ultimately, it's a fitting curtain call for this interesting horror adventure.

Crimson Desert: A majestic giant with feet of clay

alberto@gamereactor.eu (Alberto Garrido) — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 23:00:00 +0100

When you have the chance to be one of the first people to experience a phenomenon, the best question to ask yourself once you've played it is whether you're truly looking at something that could change the medium, or at least its genre. Crimson Desert could be the first step towards the open worlds of tomorrow, the first of its generation. And although the light shines, and reflects (and bounces!) off most facets of the prism that is this single-player game from Pearl Abyss, sometimes that reflection reveals a flaw at its core. Don't panic, Crimson Desert is a great video game, but it has too many facets, and not all of them have been executed with the same mastery.

The world of Pywell, a rich land brimming with life and history, finds itself at a crossroads. Political tension is mounting amongst formerly allied nations, which now see peace crumbling. At the same time, hordes of bandits are harassing the citizens, whilst omens of the awakening of powers from an ancient civilisation begin to emerge. You are Kliff, leader of the Greymanes, a band of mercenaries defending the ancient nation of Pailune who, at the start of the game, are defeated by the Black Bears, a rival faction. Having survived certain death, Kliff awakens in a place outside of time and space known as the Abyss, where mystical powers awaken within him, which will later be revealed as the weapons that will enable him to become the saviour of this world. A task far more complex than it seems, and hardly one to be tackled alone, so the main priority for our protagonist is to reunite his scattered band of friends and begin to set things right.

To truly begin to understand what Crimson Desert is like and what you should expect from it, you must journey to another desert created by Pearl Abyss. Black Desert has been established for over a decade as one of the most prominent and challenging MMOs in history. Its deep worldbuilding is rivalled only by its exhaustive emergent gameplay and its elaborate combat system, which is as varied as it is demanding. It's important to understand this, because it's easy to sense that at one stage of development, Crimson Desert was conceived as a different kind of MMO, which later evolved into the single-player experience it is today. That means there are certain design choices inherited from a different approach to game-making—some successful, others less so. Fortunately, they're also designed so that everyone can find something in it that motivates them to explore this land.

Although it is an open-world experience, Crimson Desert more or less leads you by the hand to where you need to be at that moment. The quest tracking system is literally copied from Rockstar games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, where an X will always appear on the map that you must head towards, and once there, within a quest area, find the next milestone in the quest chain. When you arrive, the mission usually involves solving a puzzle, activating an object, or engaging in one or more combat encounters. The mission system, whether main or side quests, is fairly linear, and simply requires persistence in understanding what the task description is asking of you at that moment, or the puzzle you're facing.

Crimson Desert is a vast open world that lets you entertain yourself with almost anything, but it is not an RPG, rather an action-adventure. There is no level-based progression, nor are there decisions that alter the course of the adventure. Kliff's strength increases solely through upgrading his weapons and equipment, as well as via a three-branch progression tree unlocked by collecting Abyss Artifacts. These allow you to improve combat and exploration skills, your stamina and health, and so on. These artefacts also serve to upgrade weapons to higher tiers, so there comes a point in the adventure where you need to manage very carefully why you're collecting them. Although the game guides you from one place to another, that doesn't mean there isn't a small stumbling block in every location that you might not be able to get past. Crimson Desert relies not only on a combat system, but also on puzzle-solving, and many of these puzzles lack a clear clue, or it will be difficult to find a logical solution. This is a deliberate design choice, encouraging you to stop and think about what you really need, or whether you can utilise the game's systems to find a solution either in the intended way, or in a way you discover yourself.

Let me give you an example from my own experience: In one of my first main missions, I had to burn some vines blocking the entrance to a building, but at no point had I acquired anything like fire arrows. However, there was a torch nearby, which I could use to light the tips of my arrows. The problem was that I missed the shot. I ran out of arrows. My first thought was to reload the game or put that mission aside and come back later, but I found the solution by hitting and dropping the torch in the right direction onto some nearby branches, setting them alight and letting the fire spread far enough to clear the path. A solution worthy of Breath of the Wild that Crimson Desert has managed to include within its world.

Although ideally you should follow the story (which is what will unlock new areas and grant you access to more exploration tools) the game is designed so that this progression from point A to B can be as long and full of detours as you like, and that's because there are a thousand things (not literally, but almost) to do in Crimson Desert right from the start. Cooking, fishing, hunting, mining, taming horses, acting as a courier, a bounty hunter, taking part in mini-games, from underground fights to a simple game of rock-paper-scissors with some children in the square. Just to pass the time, just to let yourself be immersed in its world. And once you're there, it's easy to get carried away and then realise that, two hours later, you're still exactly at the same point in your progress as you were before.

These tasks, clearly inherited (given their exhaustive implementation in the game) from an MMO game concept, are justified here because they require you to move around the world and explore its nooks and crannies. And that is Crimson Desert's greatest strength. No one - not Rockstar, not Bethesda, nor any other AAA single-player adventure studios - has gone this far, or in the way that Pearl Abyss has achieved here. The studio's proprietary engine, BlackSpace, has been further optimised to deliver a resolution, sharpness and sense of the world that set a new benchmark for the industry, even surpassing the Decima engine that Kojima honed so well in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. You see the morning sun filtering through the trees, reflecting off a river ford and the trees nearby, and yourself riding across the riverbed on horseback, splashing beneath its hooves. I would go so far as to say that the sensation of exploring the world alone has only been this satisfying in Kojima's latest title, or in the most recent Zelda games. You'll spend a good part of your adventure simply wandering through meadows, forests and mountains, visiting points of interest and completing area-clearing missions, hunting animals, or simply adding entries to your world compendium, with nearly 3,000 entries. Blimey, there are about 30 mounts, or 70 different species of butterflies, and each one has a use in alchemy...

So is everything that glitters on the hills of Crimson Desert gold? Well, unfortunately, not quite. Even with the nearly 100 hours I've spent playing the game on PC at the time of writing this review, I haven't finished it yet, not by a long shot. And it's not that I've got lost in the side content, but rather that I've come up against poor game balance design. The puzzles may be more or less complicated, but what isn't is the balance of power among the enemies. Whilst you can face hordes of a hundred or two hundred rank-and-file enemies in an area before reaching the boss, the boss is always light years above anything you've faced before. And it's not that it's difficult due to a lack of skill (we've played plenty of Soulslikes by now), but rather that it's an artificial and unfair challenge. Upgrading your gear is the obvious choice, but even then, every encounter will be a struggle. You'll have to stockpile cooked food to heal yourself in the middle of combat, and you'll likely have to be 'farming' or scouring every vendor in the region to get enough uses to chip away at the boss enough to defeat him. This creates an artificially long gameplay experience, which also disrupts the organic development of the story. Speaking of the story, the game's main narrative falls short this time, in favour of minor side encounters and optional missions. The playable characters are rather one-dimensional, and apart from Kliff, who is the main character, the other two are utterly forgettable and unnecessary.

It doesn't help that the game has a menu that's so complicated to understand, with so many systems to keep track of, and what may be the worst inventory system in the history of video games. Even in its moderately patched state (it was one of the final pre-launch fixes), you'll find that the poor organisation of items in your bag, and the limited space available, will take its toll. At the time of writing, there is still no item storage system, which means that you will sometimes have to throw away or sell very valuable items that you've worked hard to obtain, and which you can't carry because you have nowhere to put them.

And while we're on the subject of management, the camp section feels like another system tacked on early in development and then somewhat neglected, so neither the camp-building nor the management of the Greybeards' tasks is particularly well executed. I also have issues with how certain investigation-focused quests are resolved, and often solving puzzles is almost pure luck rather than down to any mistake on your part. After spending some time in the game, even moving around won't always be that much fun, because after taking the same route 30 times towards the city or your base camp, you'll miss the fast travel options. They do exist here, but they aren't as common or convenient as you'd like, and sometimes you need to progress through the story or overcome an unclear challenge to activate them. This even happens with the game's most important fast-travel point, one I haven't unlocked yet and which leads to your home...

Too many loose ends that don't ruin the experience or make me want to stop playing, but they certainly don't elevate it to a contender for Game of the Year. Crimson Desert can be a place where you can lose yourself for months as a player, but don't expect all those hours to be spent on an enriching adventure in a world that, I repeat, is wonderful. I can overlook certain technical issues given the scale of the project and because they may be fixed with a patch, but there are simply too many design conflicts across all the systems operating simultaneously for me to call it a 'masterpiece'. If you can simply live with that and enjoy the journey, even without necessarily understanding where it leads, then this open world is worth a try.

I don't feel entirely comfortable giving Crimson Desert a final score. There may well be parts where I'd have wanted to lower this rating, and moments where I'd have raised it significantly. Simply take this as an indication of the current state of a game so vast that it's bound to offer something for you, just not to the extent you might have hoped.

Marathon

magnus@gamereactor.eu (Magnus Groth-Andersen) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

It has been nearly two weeks since Marathon was launched, and at the time of writing, Bungie has not yet released the planned "endgame map", Cryo Archive, despite this being a fairly crucial part of the game's overall content framework. It seems to be on the cards, but it hasn't happened yet. This is despite the fact that, at the time of launch, Bungie asked the media to hold back on final reviews of the game, precisely because, although it has officially launched at full price, it's considered to be incomplete in its current form.

These are two somewhat paradoxical statements, to put it mildly; why sell it if you are just a few weeks away from adding the piece of content that completes the game? It's not certain that Bungie has slightly cynical motives behind its request to the media, but it has broadly worked, for right now there are very few reviews out there, even though the game has been on sale for two weeks.

So, let's instead find the happy medium here, for I feel compelled to set out the framework for my critical stance on Marathon, even though the Cryo Archive hasn't opened yet. This means that I will go back and update this review of the game should that piece of content prove to be as transformative as I hope, but I am also open to the possibility that Marathon, as it stands right now, is just as it is.

And I actually think Marathon is, broadly speaking, a rock-solid extraction shooter, built on the solid foundation Bungie laid and reinforced through Destiny over 12 years, even though there are several issues to address, some of which can be fixed with relative ease, whilst others will plague the game either for a long-time, or perhaps forever.

Okay, so what is Marathon really? Well, it's an extraction shooter, plain and simple. That means you have a set of menus that let you customise your specific character class, or "Shell", take on new contracts, and organise your gear vault, and when you're ready, you're dropped into one of three maps (soon to be four with Cryo Archive), where you run around between specific landmarks and topographical features to find loot, either randomly or from other teams you encounter, before escaping again... or not. That's essentially the gist of it and Marathon doesn't do much more than this rather simplistic description suggests and offers. In that sense, Marathon is also a fairly straightforward extraction shooter, without versatile "world events", without large, imposing bosses wandering restlessly around the map, and without events that drastically alter the strategic approach for each team. When you load in, you search for loot, shoot at other teams, and make a getaway.

Naturally, this is a somewhat simplified summary of the gameplay loop, but Marathon thrives through this more skill-based, simple setup because it allows players to focus so directly on the best the game has to offer. You see, Marathon is impeccably constructed in its very basic elements. Weapon physics, reload animations, movement, class design, yes, even the really short TTK (time-to-kill), Marathon is finely tuned, and after 35 hours of playtime, I'm ready to say that Bungie's expertise as leaders in this field is only cemented once again. Whether it's landing a headshot with a BR33 Volley Rifle or engaging in an intense firefight with a V66 Lookout, Marathon features some of the best moments the genre has to offer; there's simply no doubt about that.

Added to this is the game's absolutely stunning art design, which Bungie themselves apparently call "graphical realism". It doesn't sound particularly apt, but whatever we're to call this web-based explosion of colour, I love every bit of it. It looks great throughout, in all three maps, in the menus, everywhere. And thanks to Son Lux's, to put it mildly, fantastic soundtrack, Marathon sounds great too, always. We've already discussed and reviewed Marathon's visual and auditory presentation in our Server Slam impressions, but that impression hasn't faded over time, quite the opposite in fact.

It's with this in mind that I reiterate that Marathon's "bones", its technical and mechanical foundation, are so solid that, over time, you can build nothing less than a fabulous extraction shooter here, provided the players are willing to stick with it, for what I'm praising here is the important part, broadly speaking. But that doesn't mean Marathon doesn't have deep-rooted challenges ahead, which will rear their heads no matter how transformative Cryo Archive proves to be, or not.

Marathon's weapons are brilliant, but the way these, and loot in general, are placed, positioned, and signalled is downright awful. In Marathon, all the exciting loot is, first and foremost, largely disconnected from its surrounding environment. A fantastic shield, crucial ammo, a new weapon; they're all found in these anonymous containers, and these containers are both hard to spot and even harder to gauge the value of from a distance. Furthermore, these containers seem to have only a partial connection to their location on the game's map. There are many Weapon Lockers in one spot that might always offer a weapon, but the game's architectural layout doesn't really give you any obvious or subtle hints about where things are and therefore where you should look.

Consequently, searching for loot in Marathon becomes a rather confusing mess most of the time, and whilst one could argue that the game's more puritanical approach to the genre means you can "simply" hunt down other players and take their gear, Bungie really ought to work on making loot hunting more interesting. There are a whole host of ways to do this, but right now, for the most part, it's not really entertaining to drop in and to look for something specific.

But this could be fixed relatively easily through small tweaks to the visibility of the containers, a rearrangement of their placement and possibly adjustments to what kinds of items can be found where; however, this leads us quite naturally to the game's biggest problem and that is these maps. As mentioned, there are three of them, and although all three offer this incredibly beautiful "graphical realism" - which I haven't grown tired of yet - they all have fundamental structural and topographical issues. All three of them. For although these maps are beautiful, and offer striking art direction and visual coherence, Bungie has clearly failed to turn them into interesting "playspaces". By that I mean that in Marathon's three maps, there isn't a single exciting landmark you can see from a distance that naturally draws you in; there are no elevations or changes in the topography that give a team "high ground". There are no positions that are easy to defend, or correspondingly difficult to attack. It's always research laboratories, warehouses, and offices. Visibility is at times ridiculously low, making it harder to observe other teams in the midst of shooting each other, or the otherwise quite entertaining AI enemies, and the whole thing is, almost always, flat.

It's not that these maps don't allow for fun, entertaining, and intense exchanges between teams, and these AI enemies work quite well as challenging foes, and at times simply as "sound traps", but facilitating and enhancing are two very different things, and I never felt that these maps made these duels better through interesting layouts.

A tall tower on the horizon, a deep moat with exciting loot, a dangerous research facility on the edge of the map visible from a distance, a floating spaceship you can teleport into after a certain amount of time has passed, Bungie needs to work on the verticality here, and the result is that you quite quickly stop engaging with the map's structure, instead just looking for the shortest route to a randomly selected destination, often dictated by the active contract. This cannot be fixed straight away; it requires Bungie to rethink their strategy and I don't think they can do that quickly. But I can already feel it now. These maps simply aren't fun enough, plain and simple. Furthermore, these contracts are also a bit "hit or miss" in many respects, because the interactions you have with these Faction AI characters are actually exciting and a good way to add a bit of narrative spice to the game, but these objectives are almost laughable in their ambiguity, and because the game only gives you the name of the section of the map where your objective is, you quickly end up running around aimlessly looking for a very specific data terminal in a huge warehouse, which isn't fun, by the way.

As I said; Marathon's foundations are solid, strong, and well-functioning, and although the game might lack a hook, or simply maps that build on this solid foundation, I feel confident enough, even without Cryo Archive, to recommend Marathon solely on the basis of this rather fantastic loop. That doesn't mean Marathon is a fantastic game in itself, but it could very well turn out to be one, and that's more positive than for a great many other live-service games. As I said, I'll update this review with my impressions of this latest map, regardless of whether it has a drastic impact on my overall impression.

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

patrik@gamereactor.eu (Patrik Severin) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0100

Starship Troopers has always been a great film, even though it was created as a satire of how easily people get swept up in authoritarianism and dehumanise their enemies. This is also a staple of the new game Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! When I sat down with the title, I realised that this was not at all what I had expected. I thought beforehand that this might be a highly mediocre game, but I was completely wrong, as what I encountered was a fairly intense Doom-inspired action game that captures the satire of the film adaptation, offers awesome cutscenes, and even lets us play as the insects.

The star of this game is probably the cutscenes with Rico and Dietz, where the former is portrayed by his original actor, Casper Van Dien, who also plays Starship Troopers: Extermination and Starship Troopers: Continuum with his fans, so he is no stranger to the medium. We also meet a hard-nosed war veteran named Samantha Dietz, played by Charlotta Mohlin. Both of them are featured in some of the most satirical and entertaining cutscenes I've seen in a while and it's very reminiscent of the slightly nerdy cutscenes in Command & Conquer that I love. In this title, they are made with humour to entertain, and that is clear. The story revolves around Samantha Dietz's role during the conflict, and she is also the character you play as, and although the storytelling plays a big part, I rarely care much about these characters. There is no real seriousness in the storytelling, but I like that it's a bit frivolous since it complements the gameplay.

The menu is quite entertaining and reminiscent of older games. You click on a room and it takes you to another room to start a mission or something else.

The game itself is divided into levels that you can complete. The structure is reminiscent of games you played in the 1990s, where you find large environments filled with secrets and carry out missions in them. There are many enemies, and your tools are powerful weapons, air strikes, vehicles, and grenades, plus you can also call in reinforcements, which work in the same way as the weapon capsules that humans send to Master Chief when he is on the ring world in Halo 2. It's a delightful mix of mechanics, action, and gameplay elements, and even though it has been a while since I reviewed a "boomer shooter", I think this one is good. You have your classic medkits, armour, weapons, and other items to pick up regularly. The enemies aren't very smart, but they don't need to be in this context, as you play this to crush enemies with machine guns and blow things up to majestic music and iconic voice acting.

Another entertaining feature is not only the single-player campaign as a human, but also the missions where you get to control the insects, which I found more fun to play as. The missions are not the focus and are significantly fewer than those for humans. You get to play as an Assassin bug, which has three forms it can activate and this shapes what it can do and how it works. In its Warrior Form, you can attack better and recover health regularly, in Hopper Form, you can fly over long distances and use it to see buildings, allied nests, and other things, and in its final form, Tanker Form, you can use a flamethrower and withstand more damage, however, you have to build up the meter for this final form. You can also use abilities to recruit enemies and direct attacks against humans, making for an exciting side mode that I had quite a bit of fun with.

Famous characters make their return.

The visuals are a bit strange, as you as the player have a character in full 3D and all enemies are in 2D, and this stands out especially in the insect missions, where you see it in third-person and then attack 2D enemies. It's a minor complaint, as I think the distinctive design works. It's not a particularly beautiful game to look at, but it works. It's mainly the music, voice acting, and branding that add value to this title, but the charm of first-person shooters from the 1990s can be found here too, even if the effects and visuals are somewhat dated. However, the music is brilliant, and Auroch Digital has taken inspiration from the films, even though it was created by the developers. The effects also sound decent, even though the developers designed it to be a retro shooter. Beyond that, it's not demanding and runs like butter and I've seen almost zero bugs (technical, not enemies, as there are tons of the latter...) and haven't faced any crashes.

Although the core experience is significantly better than I expected, there are a few things to criticise. One is that your allies often get in the way, standing in places that cause you to hit them instead of the enemy. The mission variety is somewhat limited, and the setup tends to become a bit repetitive. The number of levels is also limited, so you may not spend an eternity with this game, but rather around 10 hours. Even though the levels are large, they can be completed fairly quickly, however, I think the level design is quite varied, even if the missions are often repetitive.

Even though there is little to criticise, it feels good to use shotguns, automatic carbines, grenades, nuclear-armed rocket launchers, and robot suits. The insects also feel really oppressive with their close-combat attacks that literally decapitate and smear the ground with blood, and where their flamethrowers are another favourite, as is the ability to send allied insects into enemy bases. This probably won't challenge you as a player, but rather it's clichéd, old-fashioned, and quite fun. It's clear that it doesn't take itself too seriously, given the cutscenes and the fact that you get points and stars after each mission.

There is a good variety of environments, and it's just as entertaining to blast insects in tropical paradises as it's on desert planets.

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a good game that will entertain you for a dozen hours and it's probably the best game in the franchise, along with Starship Troopers: Terran Command. If you have a few hours to spend on a retro game, this might be for you. It's very reminiscent of Boltgun, as Auroch Digital also created that title, although it doesn't quite capture the feeling of insects climbing on top of each other like Starship Troopers: Extermination or Starship Troopers from 2005, this is a really good action game. If you can put up with the graphics and 2D models, you'll be treated to a story that takes place after the 1997 film that offers intense action, good music, an entertaining setup, and a retro style that works. If you like Starship Troopers and classic Doom or Boltgun, you should check this out, as it's simply really entertaining.

The experience is rarely serious.

The insects are entertaining and provide a different perspective on the conflict that we rarely see in Starship Trooper titles.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

marcus@gamereactor.eu (Marcus Persson) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0100

Here we truly have a game where it's hard to dodge the humor, and right from the start, this charming little adventure sets the tone as you step into the role of Eugene McQuacklin, a cynical and somewhat confused private detective—who also just happens to be a duck. But in true noir spirit, it's not his feathers that define him, but his weariness with life. The bitter comments, the snide jabs, not to mention a world and daily life that seem to do everything in their power to thwart him. Life as a duck isn't easy, and life in the pond isn't what it should be.

For those of you who've played the first adventure, The Mystery of the Missing Sausage, a lot will feel familiar in The Ghost of Glamping. Although this time, the story takes a slightly more supernatural turn (at least on paper). Because what could possibly go wrong when a bunch of overly comfortable camping enthusiasts set up camp right next to an abandoned old sanatorium?

When it comes to gameplay, Duck Detective is just as streamlined as the story. This is an adventure game that knows exactly how much complexity it needs, and you'll mainly gather clues through conversations and observations, then use them in Eugene McQuacklin's notebook, where you fill in conclusions by placing the right words in the right spots. Or as the game calls it, drawing conclusions—de-duck-tions.

It's a mechanic that's as simple as it is brilliant, and just as entertaining as it is engaging. Because you can't just click your way through completely at random; here, you need a bit of brainpower and the ability to read between the lines, as well as a willingness to actually reevaluate your assumptions. Ghost of Glamping also does a brilliant job of presenting the puzzles at a pace that never feels overwhelming or frustrating. No, the game wants you to feel smart and have those "aha" moments—solutions you're elegantly guided toward as if an invisible ghost were guiding your every move.

It's also worth noting that *Duck Detective* is incredibly tight, clocking in at just a few hours, which means every scene actually serves a clear purpose and drives the fast-paced story forward. The creators have deliberately chosen to fill this duck with just the right amount of content, and there's no unnecessary fluff here. In all honesty, the tight narrative feels more like a well-edited short film, and when all is said and done, you feel pleasantly satisfied and content once the credits start rolling.

Then, of course, we have to mention the presentation. The cartoonish and slightly exaggerated style really is the perfect setting, and it even feels a notch sharper than in the first game in the series. The environments are charming and crammed with little details, featuring characters that almost resemble little stickers—or paper cutouts, for those of you old enough to remember. To top it all off, we also have the delightful, jazzy soundtrack, which, with its distinct noir style, ties the whole package together in a tasteful way.

The voice acting is another feather in the game's cap, with Eugene himself particularly standing out thanks to his dry, cynical dialogue. It never feels cold or detached from the drama, but leaves just the right amount of room for you to sense that this duck actually harbors a great deal of love and empathy within him. But more than anything else, it's the game's self-confidence that really shines through. It embraces the silly detective humor and never feels ashamed of it for a second, and the setting, in all honesty, could hardly be much better.

Sure, there are a few minor things that rub you the wrong way—after all, you can always wish for more, wish for a few more scenes and even more time with Eugene. But as I mentioned earlier, the game leaves you with a rare sense of satisfaction and is proof of just how far you can actually go with a tight vision, smart design, and genuine passion. Because The Ghost of Glamping is brilliant through and through—fun without being superficial, lighthearted without feeling silly, and with a narrative thread and coherence that many other games can only dream of. Quack-tacularly entertaining.

Docked

conny@gamereactor.eu (Conny Andersson) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0100

When foreman and fellow Gamereactor writer Joel Petterson called from the harbour and asked me to come in for a few days of honest work, I was hesitant. Like, moving containers? My expertise is venturing out into the wide world on adventures, rescuing princesses and all that. But at the same time, I'm not one to shy away from a new kind of challenge. Besides, as foreman Joel was quick to point out, I've enjoyed the challenges in Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game, and I actually still play last year's fantastic Roadcraft to this day. So, despite some reservations, I pulled on my best overalls and trudged down to the harbour.

I'm actually grateful that I did. Sitting in big cranes turned out to suit me perfectly. It awakens a kind of "just a little more" addiction in me that keeps me sitting there for hours. So even though you're really just moving containers from one place to another, Docked manages this task very well.

As if my clever Bon Jovi introduction wasn't funny enough, the character in this game is actually called Tommy. When a storm hits Port Wake, he's the one who has to roll up his sleeves and help his father and colleagues make sure business flourishes again. It all starts with making your way to the cab of a giant STS crane to begin loading, and it quickly becomes clear that it takes quite a bit of skill and finesse to do the job as well as possible. To secure a container, you need to position the crane with pinpoint precision over it. Thankfully, a large part of the screen is filled with a quick reference guide to all the machine's controls, and once you start to feel comfortable, this is easy to click away, or bring back up again to refresh your memory.

The controls take up a large part of the screen but can easily be hidden or displayed with a click.

Alongside the massive cranes used to load and unload cargo from ships, there's also plenty of work to be done in the port itself. Here, you get to take the wheel of other types of vehicles - though they're often some version of a crane. It doesn't take long before you realise that the work itself can become quite repetitive. But that's how challenges work in a game, after all. In truth, the only major drawback here is that Roadcraft made it far more varied and better. Sure, the theme here is working in the port, specifically crane work, while Roadcraft offers lots of different tasks. But it's also the fact that you're forced to do fairly similar jobs, and sometimes even repeat ones you've already done, that makes it a bit difficult to maintain interest at times. Even though there were times when I sat for a long time driving, I needed a few breaks to avoid getting tired. In the game, you can do two jobs per day - perhaps to simulate the character's working days, but more likely so that the management part that is also present here has space to function.

Missions where you get to do something "different" add a bit of variety to the game. For example, here I would have to lift Editor-in-Chief Marcus's newly purchased boat so it could be transported.

In addition to the jobs you do yourself, there are also various contracts you can take on to earn some extra cash. The money is used to upgrade the harbour and purchase new vehicles, which in turn allows you to progress so that you can take on new and bigger jobs. Quite simply, it allows the story to progress. Unfortunately, this part of managing finances and contracts is very sparse and could have been developed much further. It would also have been nice to see the contracts you sign create a bit of life and movement in the harbour, but I suppose that might have something to do with keeping the visuals more stable.

Because even though the machines and surroundings are detailed and impressive, Docked struggles a bit with image updates at times. It also feels, as mentioned, a bit of a shame that more cranes and workers don't take care of the contracts you've signed. All of that is just numbers on a screen. It would have been fun to have a bit of automation and other vehicles in motion to bring it all to life. Fortunately, there's some excellent attention to detail regarding the machines you operate yourself, and when you get to play one of those clever little mini-games to repair a machine, you really notice the meticulous care that's gone into the finer details. I think Docked does well graphically, even if it is a shame that the frame rate dips now and then.

It's also quite nice that Docked breaks up the working days with a bit of radio chatter between the characters, and that there are a variety of challenging and varied tasks. But above all, it's really fun to control the machines. I find myself sitting there completely focused when I'm attaching winches to something that needs moving from one side of the port to the other. And when I get to switch between different types of vehicles, I still think the variety is quite good. However, I would have liked to see more of this - loading something onto a lorry that you then drive away to unload. I know I've already made a number of comparisons with Roadcraft, but there I got exactly that variety of different tasks and machines. Here, it's a bit too much of the same.

Overall, the game looks visually impressive, even though the frame rate isn't always consistent.

Although it's fairly forgiving when it comes to controls and precision, it also does a great job of making everything feel really entertaining. You have to handle the load with care. You fail if you cause too much damage to it and then have to start the task over. It's never particularly stressful, yet it's challenging in terms of precision, and as you become a better driver, it also becomes more entertaining. There are clear visual aids throughout; you always know what needs to be done, and you can also switch between several different perspectives.

In first person, everything becomes much more challenging, but also more realistic, of course, but I must admit that I prefer to see the machines from different perspectives from the outside. Above all, it's the feeling of having fun when I sit in the cab of a machine that is the most important thing here. Docked may essentially be all about moving heavy things, but it does so brilliantly, and sitting behind a joystick on any of the machines is, as we know from an old internet legend, what gives you power. So, I find it difficult to see how this type of simulator could be made in a more entertaining way than Docked actually manages to do. Despite the fact that there are some undeveloped parts and that it suffers somewhat from the fact that their previous title, Roadcraft, is better in almost every respect. If you liked previous games from the developer, this is definitely something you should check out.

1348 Ex Voto

claus@gamereactor.eu (Claus Larsen) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

The Middle Ages in Europe were a brutal time for most people. Unless you were at the very top of the social hierarchy, among the nobility, kings or the Pope, life was generally short, hard and often quite unpleasant. It didn't exactly get any better with the plague regularly sweeping across the continent in waves, leaving entire villages deserted. The most famous of these, the Black Death, arrived in 1347 in the Sicilian port city of Messina, after which the disease spread like wildfire through Italy and later the rest of Europe. In many Italian cities, between 40 and 80 per cent of the population died, and when the epidemic finally subsided, historians estimate that around a third of Europe's population had died.

So it's not exactly a pleasant period in history, but that's precisely why it's actually quite obvious to use it as the setting for a game. And that's exactly what developer Sedleo has done with 1348: Ex Voto, published by Dear Villagers and released today, 12 March, for PC and PlayStation 5.

In 1348: Ex Voto, you play as the female knight Aeta, whom we meet in the game's first scene together with her friend Bianca. Bianca is actually a nun, but despite her vows, she teaches Aeta sword fighting. Already here, the game begins to establish its theme, as the dialogue revolves around how difficult it is to be a woman in this period and how few opportunities women had in practice to make their own decisions about their lives. As a history teacher, I can't help but think that this is actually a rather interesting angle, because it's not something you see every day in history books. Whether it is gender-based, hierarchical or through another narrative angle, it is always welcome to see games trying to tell stories from other angles, and Sedleo has found one here that really works.

Shortly after this introduction, the town where the two are staying is attacked. Church bells ring, smoke rises above the rooftops, and amid the chaos, Bianca is kidnapped by a group of thugs. Aeta then makes a vow, a so-called "ex voto", to find their friend again. This is where the game's title comes from, and it is also the starting point for the rest of the story. From here, Aeta embarks on a journey through the Italian countryside in search of Bianca. The game has a very linear structure, so you move through levels where the structure is almost always the same. You run a short distance, encounter a small group of enemies, defeat them, and continue on to the next area. If you lose, you are sent back to a checkpoint, which is sometimes quite far back in the level.

I don't mind linearity - it can be a useful tool for delimiting, but elements such as pacing and set design must be able to compensate for the lack of freedom. Unfortunately, this is not always the case here. The game quickly starts to feel a bit monotonous. Not least because the variation among the enemies is quite limited. In a given chapter, which may take half an hour to complete if you fight all enemies, you often end up fighting only about ten to twelve opponents in total. That's not very many, and when they behave quite similarly, the fights quickly start to resemble each other.

The combat system is simple in principle. You have to time your attacks correctly, parry your enemy's blows and strike when an opening arises. This means that you quickly learn your enemies' patterns, which is also the intention. For example, a peasant with a pitchfork will almost always stab twice and then make a longer forward attack, and that's when you have to strike back. The problem is that when enemies only have two or three variations in their attacks, the fights quickly start to feel like something you have to memorise rather than something you react to.

The boss fights are some of the places where the game's design really starts to feel frustrating. They work in the same way as the regular fights, just with longer patterns and harsher penalties if you make mistakes. You have to constantly wait for the right timing, parry at exactly the right moment and strike again in a short window. This means that you are never really allowed to just fight freely or use more creative attacks. Instead, it becomes an exercise in memorising the boss's patterns, and when you finally win, it feels more like something you have figured out than something you have fought for.

The game also doesn't explain its systems very well. One example is the game's skill system, which I only discovered by accident when I was in the menu adjusting some graphics settings. Here, it suddenly became apparent that you could upgrade your sword and unlock various abilities, but the game had never indicated that the system existed at all. It's not a dealbreaker, but it is a slightly annoying sign that Sedleo may have bitten off more than it can chew at times.

And then there are all the mistakes.

One of the first things I noticed was how limited the game's settings menu is. I played with a mouse and keyboard, and the mouse sensitivity was extremely high. Even the slightest movements felt like the camera was turning halfway around. My mouse is already set to the lowest sensitivity I normally use, so there wasn't much I could do about it. The game simply does not offer any option to adjust the mouse sensitivity, so you have to live with it.

In addition, there is no option to change the font size in the game's menus or text boxes. This means that if you are sitting a distance away from the screen or playing on a larger, high-resolution screen, it can actually be quite difficult to read some of the text.
The graphics settings are also not very extensive. You can adjust the most common things like bloom and anti-aliasing, but there are no frame generation or ray tracing options. That in itself would not be a big problem if the game looked fantastic, but unfortunately it does not.

The landscapes can actually be quite beautiful, but the character models often look strange. Many of them have a yellowish skin tone and a sickly appearance, which almost makes it seem as if they are all suffering from jaundice. This could be a deliberate style choice to emphasise the presence of the plague, but I'm not entirely convinced that this is the intention. It's clear that the developers have used motion capture for some of the cutscenes, as the facial expressions are actually quite good. However, the textures are often rough, which makes the overall impression rather uneven.

All in all, I must admit that I didn't really enjoy 1348: Ex Voto. The game often feels as if it is actively working against the player, rather than inviting them into the experience. The lack of settings, the uneven sound balance and the rather monotonous gameplay make it all feel more frustrating than engaging.

It's a shame, really, because the period is interesting, and the idea of following a female knight through plague-ridden Italy could easily have been the starting point for something really exciting. But in its current form, 1348: Ex Voto is difficult to recommend. Perhaps some patches could improve the experience in the long run, but as the game stands right now, I simply didn't have much fun with it.

Tales of Berseria Remastered

conny@gamereactor.eu (Conny Andersson) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0100

Taking on a classic Japanese role-playing game is definitely one of my favourite things to do when it comes to throwing myself into a new gaming experience. Having between 40 and 100 hours ahead of me, getting to know a bunch of colourful characters and travelling around a magnificent world is simply wonderful, and all 17 parts of the Tales series basically always offer what I want from this genre. There are several highlights (for me personally, these are Symphonia, Vesperia and also the latest instalment, Arise), but most games in this 30-year-long series have offered countless fantastic hours of everything you'd expect from the role-playing genre.

Bandai Namco has kept up a fast pace in polishing up most of these titles. If you haven't played some of them before or perhaps been keen to play them again, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Some titles, including this one, are also available in a certain format for the first time. When Tales of Berseria was released just under ten years ago, you had to have a PlayStation 3, 4 or PC to enjoy the adventure. But with this remaster, Xbox and Switch owners now also have the opportunity to enjoy this instalment.

The game has significantly higher resolution, but there is often a lot of fog, which sometimes detracts from the grandeur.

When the game was first released, it was reviewed by one of the editorial team's other role-playing experts, and his excellent review can be read here. As this is a remaster, and a fairly "cautious" one at that, the game itself has not changed particularly drastically in any respects. It is the Western release that has been used as the basis for the revamp - we get an upgraded version with faster character movements, some classic Quality of Life changes such as clearer markers and a few other minor things, as well as all the released DLC in the form of costumes and other items. However, it is still noticeable in several areas that this is a ten-year-old game with very foggy views in certain environments and caves that are lacking in detail. In addition, the frame rate drops quite significantly when the battles become a little too flashy, so it is simply not a perfect remaster, suffering from the ravages of time and not being fully optimised for today's consoles.

The story of how our main character Velvet witnesses something tragic - and is transformed into a rather unsympathetic and heartless heroine - is, at least by Japanese role-playing game standards, quite refreshing. Sure, it's still basically a story of revenge, and all the clichés of the genre follow one after another throughout the adventure. But the way Velvet is portrayed still feels a little original and different. During her journey, she naturally meets a number of more or less crazy characters, and even if the gallery of these characters isn't the most exciting I've come across, Japanese role-playing games have the advantage that everything grows on you over time. When we spend so many hours with the gang, they still grow on us.

Some environments are really nice.

I usually enjoy reading and following a story, but ended up sighing quite often at the massive amount of exposition that washes over you here. There is constant chatter, and I wish the dialogue could have been more fluid as you progress. Now it is interrupted too often by either small comic book-like dialogue boxes or excessive cutscenes. However, the game does have very nicely drawn anime sequences during major story-related events, and these are a joy to experience. But the game itself is far too watered down with lots of dialogue, and I often find my patience wearing thin. As a result, Velvet's entire story - as fun as it is that it dares to be a little different in terms of its antagonist - becomes very drawn out and at times tedious.

When it comes to role-playing games, I personally prefer turn-based combat. Here, however, it's real-time action, and even though you can easily peek past enemies on the map and only get drawn into combat if you touch them, you still have to fight a lot. The combat mostly consists of endlessly pressing buttons to put together different combos. There is definitely some finesse involved in figuring out your enemies' weaknesses to more easily knock down their health meters, but unfortunately, it also quickly becomes quite repetitive.

The battles are rather monotonous, and the frame rate also stutters considerably at times.

Tales of Berseria Remastered looks pretty good visually overall. Sure, it's noticeable, especially in indoor environments and caves, that time has been a little harsh on the visuals. Or rather, that time has made progress that isn't noticeable here. The higher resolution definitely does its part to make it feel crisp. But there is also a fog covering the horizon. Corridors and caves are sparse in decoration and grey. But the worst, as mentioned earlier, is in the battles, where the game stutters quite badly. Today's consoles should be able to handle this, so it feels like a problem with optimisation that has simply not been overcome. However, many outdoor environments are very nice, cities feel pleasant to arrive in, and higher resolution makes it work well on modern screens in terms of text and images. In addition, the music should definitely be highlighted as it is often very grand with several tracks that, although perhaps not immediately memorable, contribute to the atmosphere in a very good way.

As I wrote in the introduction, I really love embarking on grand and long adventures. Therefore, considering what kind of game this is, it fits very well. The original review was scored a seven, and I give the remaster the same. Ultimately, it is simply a good Japanese role-playing game without belonging to the greats of either the genre or the series.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando

marcus@gamereactor.eu (Marcus Persson) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 18:00:00 +0100

There are few filmmakers who have influenced me as much as John Carpenter. I grew up with his films, and cult classics such as Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, and Big Trouble in Little China had a profound impact on me as a curious young boy in the 1980s and early 1990s. Whether it was through late-night TV broadcasts or worn-out videotapes rented from the local store, there was something very special about his creations, that unique blend of ice-cold atmosphere, pulsating synth music, and a passion for craftsmanship, plus the unforgettable characters.

The films were wonderfully cynical, punk, and uncompromising, a big middle finger to the establishment. Carpenter was a person who seemingly always did what he wanted and never sold out or bowed to those in power with their fat wallets. In his later years, his interests have naturally shifted somewhat, with more focus on music and fewer passion projects. So when Toxic Commando was announced, with his name attached to it, it was hardly surprising that I became a little curious.

Carpenter in digital form, or at least his essence, could certainly be something. But the more time I spent with Toxic Commando, the clearer it became that Carpenter's name mostly serves as a draw on the cover, which in this context, feels about as natural as sticking The Thing logo on a can of energy drink and selling it over the counter. It's dirty and dishonest.

And that's a little disappointing because Saber Interactive (the team that graced us with the eminent World War Z in collaboration with the master of horror himself) and Carpenter should sound like a recipe for a pretty nice cocktail, offering grotesque monsters, multiplayer, pulsating synth music, and a little 80s aesthetic sprinkled on top. Blood and apocalypse cast in neon, quite simply.

The premise really feels like material from any B-movie and is actually quite charming. An energy company drills down into the earth's core in search of unlimited power, which ends in disaster. Instead of clean energy, they find something completely different, a mysterious and evil substance - a form of supernatural sludge, if you will - which begins to transform people into grotesque monsters. The world is heading for total collapse and the only thing standing between humanity and complete destruction is a bunch of semi-competent soldiers sent in to clean up the mess.

The tone is clearly pulp - moderately self-deprecating and pretty damn silly - but also the game's strongest suit. It's not a story that engages, but it entertains and is conveyed with a delightful gusto mixed with a good dose of exaggerated acting. There is undeniably something liberating when a game of this calibre actually chooses to skip the serious and overly dramatic. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando shamelessly wallows in its B-movie aesthetic, and for that I give them a thumbs up. You can tell that Saber has really tried to capture some kind of godforsaken 80s energy here.

But a fun (silly) story and pumping soundtrack are hardly enough to carry the game and the problems quickly become apparent as soon as you spend more than an hour with Toxic Commando, which underneath that crisp 80s surface layer, is honestly just another hoard shooter among many. It's the same old co-op experience we've played a hundred times before, but now with John Carpenter's name plastered on the cover. The whole thing is almost painfully familiar and the feeling of déjà vu is almost overwhelming. Four players work together in various missions where you drive between checkpoints, defend positions, and shoot your way through massive hordes of enemies.

The structure is so soporifically familiar that you fall into what can almost be described as a trance, where everything just goes on autopilot and completely fails to engage on an emotional level. The class system is also exactly what you'd expect; a medic who (surprise) patches up the team, a defender who can tank damage, and two other roles that focus on a mix of explosive weapons, damage output, and gadgets. Everything works fine technically, but it also feels like you've seen the exact same setup in a dozen other shooters over the past ten years.

In all honesty, the most unique feature of the game is the incredible number of enemies that attack, and this is where Saber's game engine really flexes its muscles. Technically speaking, it's hard to complain. No, it's not something that will blow you away visually, but everything flows at a breakneck pace without a hiccup. Another minor bright spot worth mentioning is the vehicles, which add some variety and create genuinely fun moments, where ploughing through hordes of enemies in a big jeep never gets boring.

But at the same time, this is also part of the problem because what does Toxic Commando actually want to be? There's a very "everything at once" feel to it, where they seem to have thrown everything at the wall and hoped it would stick. Is it a tactical co-op shooter? An arcade game about slaughtering zombies? Or some kind of off-road action game where you drive through mud while monsters jump on the bonnet? Everything is so wildly scattered and it becomes unfocussed, where systems are never really integrated into the larger structure and mostly feel silly.

When it comes to shooting, at least it's competent and the battles can sometimes be quite spectacular with almost impossibly large hordes of enemies rushing at you from all directions, mixed with bosses of varying sizes and calibres. And if you've played Space Marine II, much of this will feel familiar, albeit this time with zombies rather than xenos and heretics. When everything clicks, the blood splatters, the enemies pour forth like an unholy flood, and the screen is filled with explosions and it's actually quite fun.

But those peaks are few and far between and are almost always followed by long transport distances that quickly become very boring. The structure of the missions doesn't help the situation, which time and again boils down to: Drive to a location, shoot enemies, defend an object, drive on, rinse and repeat. It works in short doses, but after a few hours, the feeling of being on a hamster wheel starts to take its toll. Then you also start to notice how thin the content actually is. You do your missions, gather resources, upgrade your equipment, and level up. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's definitely not particularly memorable.

Perhaps the most ironic thing is how much the game leans on Carpenter's name. His musical fingerprint is definitely there and the soundtrack is actually one of the best parts of the game. But at the same time, it almost feels like the marketing promises more than the game actually delivers. When I hear the name Carpenter, I expect a lot more than this. Where is the mood, the atmosphere, the slowly creeping horror? Instead, Toxic Commando is loud, chaotic, and relentlessly generic. Its big saving grace is (unsurprisingly) the multiplayer. Playing with three other friends really elevates the experience and trying to rescue a stuck vehicle while ammunition is running low and zombies are climbing onto the roof can be hysterically fun. In those moments, the game works exactly as it should.

But that also says a lot about the game as a whole. When playing alone, it quickly becomes clear how repetitive everything is, as the battles feel longer, the missions more mechanical, and the game's charm disappears quite quickly when you're no longer laughing along with three friends on Discord. That is perhaps the game's biggest problem. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is not a disastrous game. It's not even bad. It's just... very, very mediocre. A competent piece of craftsmanship that delivers a few hours of fun but lacks that spark that could have made it memorable.

Is there an audience for Toxic Commando? Yes, absolutely. For (approximately) £35, you get a lot of action and entertainment, provided you have three other friends to share the experience and who are on board with what you're getting into. It's yet another shooter in an already overcrowded genre and despite Carpenter's name and the (at times) beautiful aesthetics, there's nothing here that stands out or makes you react. Fun in small doses? Absolutely. But something you'll be talking about in a year's time? Hardly.

Sora Winds of the Jungle

marie@gamereactor.eu (Marie Liljegren) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

Whenever I receive a code to review a game I've never heard of before, Google is my best friend. Google is the friend who informs me and quickly gives me an idea of what I'm about to experience, explaining whether I should be prepared for zombies, racing cars or mushroom-eating plumbers. This time, it was clear that I was going to embark on a thrilling journey through the jungle sky, and that didn't sound too bad. The game itself is a flight simulator, and you play as the colourful parrot Sora, who has to make his way through the levels with his flock of flying friends. After about five minutes of playing, however, I realise that Google has been talking nonsense, because "breath-taking" is not a word I would use to describe the gameplay. Hmmm, what word am I looking for? How about "understimulation"?

It's not often that I'm at a loss for words, but for the first time in a very long time, I'm really having to think about what to write as I sit down to review this game. Unfortunately, my lack of words isn't due to being surprised by a surprisingly good game, but rather because I don't have much to write about now that I've finished playing {Sora Winds of the Jungle}. To be honest, not much happens. From what I understand, the game developer EpiXR Games wanted to make a game that would be relaxed and calming, but for me, the game's slow pace becomes a sleeping pill after the first level is completed. It feels a bit lacking in action to make a flying game where the only point is to get to the finish line without any points or timers. It doesn't matter if you come in first or last, a bit like today's children's competitions where you get a medal and a certificate just for participating, which I've always thought creates kids who don't learn to work hard for a goal.

The flying itself is reminiscent of the mini-games in the old Spyro the Dragon, where you had to fly through rings, and the comparison doesn't stop there, because even the graphics look like they belong on an old console, so it's not something you'd do somersaults for. Each flight path has between 40 and 60 rings and wind boost rings that you have to get through, and there is no indication of how many rings you have left to get through, which made many of the paths feel endless. You fly over everything from oceans with large ships, jungles and caves with lava, but you miss a lot of the views as you're mostly focused on the rings in front of you and the graphics don't provide any kind of wow effect. You can set three different speeds for the game: relaxed, normal and fast, but I think all three were a bit of a sleeping pill, and I sometimes had to spur myself on to stay awake.

As I mentioned before, not much happens. Sometimes you might fly into another bird in the flock and veer off course a little, but you quickly get back on track. During my game, I never had to use a checkpoint or replay a course, as the game is very simple after all. You have to complete eleven tracks, and if you happen to fly a little too slowly, you will receive a warning when your flock has reached the finish line, and a clock will start counting down from eight seconds, which is the time you have to flap your wings into the last ring and reach the finish line. The music in the game feels very out of place and is actually more suited as background music for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and being forced to listen to the same tunes for the nearly two hours it took to play through the game actually made me turn off the sound completely in order to avoid dying a little inside and contemplating sticking my head in the toaster. There is a saying that "it's the journey and not the destination that counts," and those are words I have always lived by. But what do you do when the journey is sadly boring and all you want is to reach the destination? I'm not really sure which target audience will appreciate this game. It's for ages three and up, and maybe a very small child would enjoy flying a parrot on an uneventful adventure with no point whatsoever, but what do I know? But I need something more and, above all, something meaningful.

World of Warcraft: Midnight

kim@gamereactor.eu (Kim Olsen) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0100

The start of every new expansion is close to magical. It somehow recreates your first experience with WoW, as while there is no raiding yet, as it's simply not an option, you are once again a low level and constantly searching for new gear. At the same time, you're looking forward to exploring new areas and themes and I adore that part.

However, I did run into some starting issues... One quest in the intro area kept crashing the game for several days, before a quick update eventually fixed it, somewhat voiding my 'Early Access'. I will also admit that I cheated a little. I had tried some of the player housing systems beforehand and already loved them, so I rushed to get myself a quaint abode. To my surprise, the homes are defined and placed in very small clusters, making it easy to get the placement you want. I managed to get a tranquil location by the beach, but I'm not sure if I will get a house in the woods next, as that part looks brilliant. The only drawback is that you need to unlock most furniture items, which almost feels like a faction grind on its own, a decision I somewhat understand after speaking with the developers ahead of launch.

The building system itself is extremely easy to use and there are also an incredible number of call-backs and references to earlier versions and periods of WoW's long history, which I really appreciate. I would perhaps enjoy a few more premade large structures to use as a foundation for a player home, but overall the system works very well. I do hope players will eventually be allowed more than one home in the future, as my warlock and my mage definitely do not share the same taste in interior décor.

Moving onto mainline Midnight, the story somehow manages to feel more localised even though the stakes are once again world-ending. I have grown weary of stories that constantly revolve around semi-permanent death, with villains who simply appear to taunt a large cast of new or forgotten characters before launching their attack. Many of these villains lack clear motivations for their hatred and I tend to prefer more nuanced antagonists and more complex narratives. Windrunner and the Lich King remain some of my favourites because of this while many of the newer villains often feel like they are simply one-dimensional. That being said, this expansion is a continuation of The War Within.

I am not sure that new players who have missed the last few expansions will understand what is happening. While I enjoy the direct and abrupt "come help us" style of the opening quest it must be confusing for newcomers. Blizzard has however included some well made catch up cinematics that summarise the narrative in a good way. I would still recommend that players either complete or at least explore some of the existing areas before heading to the Blood Elf lands.

The main narrative quests will take you far but not all the way. I personally try to clear every zone in each expansion and that often means I reach max level long before I finish the final zone. Dungeon runs therefore become optional and the experience feels less focused on farming. This is especially true if you play delves, as these are now slightly different since there is only one per zone. Perhaps there were too many before, but personally I would have preferred two, since I still enjoy these mini dungeons that can be played solo thanks to the companion system.

New players may also be excited about the Prey system. It works much like bounty contracts that gradually build up with a twist that you always risk being ambushed by the NPC you are hunting. If you do not enjoy that type of surprise encounter you can simply ignore the system, but it's a fun addition that's not essential.

To cater to long-time players the story also pairs you with a character named Arathor. Through him you revisit older locations and connect many of the larger narrative threads, where this is done in a way that ties things together well without letting the religious themes become too dominant. As a result, the expansion feels less like an isolated event and more like a continuation of the existing world. It's solid storytelling.

I also enjoyed the restored Silvermoon and Eversong Woods. These areas have changed from starting zones into areas clearly designed for high-end players. The level of detail is impressive and combined with the new underground zone, it's clear that a great deal of care has gone into their design. After more than two decades, WoW still sets the standard.

Perhaps unlike many players I have always had a fascination with places like Voidstorm and Zul'Aman. I enjoy anything related to trolls and I also appreciate the strange semi-ethereal environments of Voidstorm. Some quests even include the "stay a while and listen" feature and I find this to be a wonderful tool for world building and a welcome extra detail for lore enthusiasts.

This expansion also introduces a new playable race called the Haranir, but more importantly it adds another underground zone called Harandar. I have grown quite fond of these underground environments as they create a stronger sense of three dimensional space than areas with an open sky. Personally, I feel the game already has enough playable races, perhaps even too many, yet still I understand why players enjoy having something new.

The Haranir come with new druid shapeshifting forms that are unusual but interesting, and unless I am mistaken their Shaman class also uses unique totems. The customisation options for this race are impressive and feel more thoroughly developed than some earlier expansion races. I suspect we will see many Haranir characters in the near future and I will probably create one myself. They are one of the better additions among the neutral races and their abilities feel genuinely different.

I do worry that new or returning players might find the overall complexity overwhelming. The number of currencies and the interactions between spells and abilities can make the game feel cluttered compared with the early years. The skill tree rework also requires players to manage three different categories. That said it allows for far more flexible builds and I appreciate that freedom. The crafting and gathering systems still feel somewhat overcomplicated to me as well. I understand the need for more depth compared with the original system that lasted many years, but a more streamlined middle-ground might have been ideal.

WoW also needs to compete with other modern games in order to retain high-end players. At the same time the growing number of playable races means some of them now have less developed lore. In that context, Midnight stands out as one of the stronger recent expansions.
One of the areas where Midnight truly shines is in its many small improvements, be that side quests that feel more polished making daily play easier. Travel and access has improved significantly too and it's almost like a wave of small quality of life updates have crashed onto the metaphorical shores. It's all much smoother than it was five years ago.

Building on The War Within was the right decision as Midnight doesn't attempt to reinvent the game. Instead it refines what already works and while that may not sound revolutionary, the core experience is already extremely strong. Grinding is still part of the game but it no longer feels like the exhausting gold farming that once dominated the experience.

So overall, Midnight is a very solid expansion. Levelling remains exciting, gear acquisition feels less tedious, and Blizzard clearly understands what makes the game work. It's World of Warcraft at near its finest once again.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake

ketil@gamereactor.eu (Ketil Skotte) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0100

I must admit that I was a little apprehensive the first time I sat down to play the remake of Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly. The original, which I never got to play, has an almost mythical status as one of the scariest games ever made. Neil Druckmann told MCV in 2015 that he considered it "the scariest experience in any medium," and the previews that came out a month ago strongly suggested that the remake is just as terrifying.

But fear is a funny thing. Like humour, it's incredibly subjective, and compared to last year's Silent Hill f, which really got under my skin, I never found the village of Minakami and its ghosts particularly terrifying. Partly because transparent spirits are not one of my sensitive points, but also because the game's central mechanic, where you use a mysterious camera to exorcise the spirits, hardened me by literally forcing me to face my fears.

But let's rewind a little. The comparison with Silent Hill f is obvious to me. When the Fatal Frame series debuted in 2001, its more famous relatives, Resident Evil and Silent Hill, had long since settled in larger and smaller American cities and drawn inspiration from Western horror in the form of Romero and Lynch. Fatal Frame, on the other hand, is pure J-horror from start to finish, with its focus on Japanese folklore and small village communities, an approach that Silent Hill f, as the first in the series, also had great success with.

Therefore, it's difficult not to have Konami's brilliant game in mind, and initially, it's not a comparison that works out well for Koei Tecmo's remake. Where Silent Hill f effectively set the scene and elegantly established Hinako's situation, the way the twins Mio and Mayu are brought into the haunted village of Minakami feels confusing because we are not really introduced to them before they suddenly find themselves in the middle of a conflict involving secret rituals and classic virgin sacrifices.

But even though the opening didn't grab me, the story slowly but surely managed to pull me deeper and deeper beneath the surface of the village to uncover the fascinating secrets Minakami holds. The game's cutscenes are admittedly too stiffly put together to really serve as dramatic highlights, but nonetheless, the story still works.

We learn relatively quickly what is going on, after which the layers are peeled away at a reasonable pace. It works because you know your purpose and the overall context, but at the same time you are curious to get more into the details and get concrete answers to the things that are initially only vaguely alluded to.

Why is Mayu almost dragged from the small stream where we meet her to the ghost town? Is she possessed by a spirit? What is the ritual performed in the town? What is it supposed to protect it from? And finally, what has gone wrong since Minakami's population now consists almost exclusively of ghosts?

There is plenty of captivating mysticism and frightening occultism, but also a recurring thematic line where duality takes centre stage. In this respect, the mythology and storytelling lean heavily on Silent Hill, and the general tone is also quite similar to Silent Hill. Traumas are dug up and dealt with, and don't expect any humour to lighten the mood. It's meant to hurt.

As a setting, Minakami reflects this in an exemplary way. Dilapidated and shrouded in darkness, it seems designed to suck the happiness out of anyone who visits it, but when the moon peeks out and illuminates the reeds in a field, you get small glimpses of the beauty that the town once possessed. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in rich detail, especially when you step inside buildings that range from small huts to enormous mansions. The Kurosawa House is particularly impressive with its equally intricate and believable architecture, where shortcuts open up while overly elaborate mechanisms set up puzzles of the kind you would expect from Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

I have mentioned the two series several times, and Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake fits in well with the classic survival horror tradition that the two more famous series are synonymous with. The path to the truth is paved with a mixture of exploration, puzzle solving, and combat, but while the first two elements function as the genre dictates, it's the latter where Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake goes its own way.

Early in the game, Mio finds a strange camera, Camera Obscura, which turns out to be able to dispel ghosts by taking their picture. Out-of-focus pictures of the ghost's backside do not do much damage, while a sharp close-up of the face quickly sends the evil spectre on to the next life. This forces you to get up close and personal with your fears, which can seem scary, but for me it quickly resulted in desensitisation due to frequent exposure. As we all know, the scariest things are the ones you can't see, and even though the ghosts are transparent, it's not enough to keep them scary. One exception is the invulnerable Kusabi, a creature born of intense suffering that chases you from time-to-time in classic fashion. As always, introducing an enemy you can't get rid of works well, but I wish the escape sequences weren't as basic as they are.

In essence, the camera-based combat system is actually less esoteric than one might be led to believe, because it's still about pointing and shooting and preferably hitting the head. And the different types of films and filters are basically like different weapons. That said, it's still a fresh way to construct a combat system, and there are actually many elements to consider. For example, certain types of film reload faster than others, and if you have the nerve to take a picture at the last moment, it deals extra damage. Although I think the fights tend to drag on a bit too long, I was surprised at how satisfying it can feel to open up a ghost for a series of "free" attacks that require neither film roll nor reloading, and the camera is a thematic stroke of genius, as ghosts cannot, of course, be damaged in the normal way.

Camera Obscura is also useful outside of combat, since the aforementioned filters all have a special function. One, for example, can open secret passages if you recreate a specific image, while another can see through walls and reveal ghosts before they see you. In this way, the camera is woven into almost everything you do - combat, puzzle solving, and exploration - and establishes itself as a cornerstone rather than the gimmick it could have been in less skilled hands.

As far as I can tell, the camera's function is very similar to that of the original, but Koei Tecmo has moved away from static angles to a more modern "over-the-shoulder" perspective, and they have implemented the ability to hold Mayu's hand. This should have been included in the original, but the developers couldn't get it to work properly at the time. To be really harsh, I would say that they still can't really do it. I love the idea, which is reminiscent of ICO, but I'm less enthusiastic about the execution. Let me give you an example. When Mayu crawls out of a hiding place, she turns out to be the calmer of the two, resulting in a considerable wait, and when you finally take her hand, the pair often has to be turned around in a clumsy manner. Overall, the controls are clunky, perhaps because there are simply too many animations, which makes the game less responsive than one might hope.

If I may bring Silent Hill f into the discussion again, Hinako lacked weight, but I never struggled to control her. I do at times here, even though the actions I perform are quite basic. In Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake's defence, it's almost never the clunky controls that lead to the game over screen, but it would have been nice if exploring Minakami had felt a little better. It would also have been nice if the technical state had been a little more solid. The frame rate is somewhat inconsistent, and even though I was playing on PlayStation 5, the game was surprisingly slow to load my saved game at startup and after a death.

I started out with a nerdy kind of humble brag that Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake scared me less than I had feared (hoped?), but let me state for the record that it still has a few good tricks up its sleeve. When you slowly (here the slow pace works) open a door and are met by a woman with her head half cut off, it makes your body shudder, and then the damned town in all its desolation is a chilling place to be.

I wish Koei Tecmo had tightened up the controls and pace a bit, because it gets a bit annoying to wait 10 seconds for Mayu to slowly run through her routine of animations or be forced into a five-minute camera duel because you didn't have enough of the good film reels. In such moments, Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake is more boring than it is scary. That said, it does offer a captivating world, atmosphere, and story. The fate of Minakami and its inhabitants is tragic but fascinating, which is elaborated on in the new side stories that only reinforce the narrative. Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly Remake certainly has its flaws, but it also manages to show an uninitiated player like myself why the series has earned its place in horror history, even if it can't quite measure up to the latest offerings from its famous relatives.

Greedfall: The Dying World

palle@gamereactor.eu (Palle Havshøi-Jensen) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100

In December 2025, developer Spiders announced that they were changing the name of Greedfall 2: The Dying World to Greedfall: The Dying World (the number 2 was removed), as they felt that the game was not a direct sequel. At first, this seemed like a somewhat mysterious decision, but after playing Greedfall: The Dying World, it makes perfect sense, as it is a different game in several ways compared to the original from 2019.

Narratively, Greedfall: The Dying World is a prequel to the first game. It takes place three years earlier, and you take on the role of a native of the Teer Fradee tribe, a tribe that lives peacefully in harmony with nature. Without giving too much away, I can say that you take on the role of a "Doneigad", which is a kind of spiritual leader or spiritual protector. Your small village is dangerously close to where colonists from another world (our world) have settled, and their gold mine is polluting the waterways, making the villagers sick from eating the fish, and the colonists are practically emptying the forests of animals with their disgusting traps, meaning confrontation is almost inevitable.

Greedfall: The Dying World is structured like an old-school role-playing game and clearly draws inspiration from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins, which is certainly not a bad thing. It all takes place in a fantastic and adventurous world based on something reminiscent of Europe and the Spanish Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is not strictly an open world game, but is divided into large open zones where you can explore and discover your surroundings, collect weapons, clothing, potions, money, and lots of resources, and there is a relatively high degree of freedom to tackle the game's tasks as you wish.

It doesn't take long before you become acquainted with the brand new combat system, which has been completely redesigned compared to the first game. But before you get there, you must first create your character in a highly detailed character editor and then choose between 12 different character types/classes. There is everything from a Warlord, Healer, and Scout to an Elite Shooter, Hunter, and Protector, all of which, quite traditionally, have their own strengths and weaknesses and their own upgrade tree, where you can shape your character as you wish.

As mentioned, the combat system is very different from the first game, which was more action-oriented, while here in The Dying World it's much more tactical. It simply gives you more control over your party members, as it's built around the "pause-and-play" or "tactical pause" mechanic, which means that we are dealing with a real-time combat system, but which you can pause at any time to get an overview of the battlefield, issue orders to your party members, move them around, use potions, abilities, and other things, all of which are executed the moment you restart the game.

It's a slightly different, and also a little old-fashioned, way of approaching combat in a role-playing game in 2026, but old-school RPG fans will probably welcome it, as it's not something we see very often anymore. If you can't quite come to terms with this old-school mechanic, you can actually choose how tactical it all should be, based on three profiles: Tactical, Hybrid, and Focused. Tactical is, of course, the most tactical of them all and is the game's default setting, where you have full control over your party members, while Focused plays a bit more like the first game did, but you can still pause the game and then you have a few tactical options. Hybrid lies somewhere in between the two extremes.

I tried all three tactical profiles and found Tactical to be the most effective, but that's mainly because the real-time part of the combat system doesn't work nearly as well. The real-time battles are messy, clumsy, and imprecise, with the different characters standing on top of each other and striking left and right, and you lack feedback from your own character (you can switch between all your characters during battles), as it's difficult to tell if you are actually hitting anyone or anything in all the chaos. I'm not at all sold on this part of the combat system, and it's a shame that more or less half of the combat system doesn't really work.

Greedfall: The Dying World is a typical AA game, as it's sometimes obvious that it was made by a slightly smaller team. In addition to subtitles that don't always match what is being said and a few spelling mistakes in the help texts, I also experienced NPCs moonwalking when they got stuck in the environment and fading away before your eyes if you move at a normal walking pace. The artificial intelligence of the NPCs is flawed, as a guard can stand on top of one of his dead colleagues without reacting to it, which completely waters down the game's stealth sequences. At one point I suddenly found myself missing a party member, who turned out to be stuck on a ladder that he couldn't figure out how to climb. There are several examples of these little things that may not directly ruin the game, but they are irritating.

The visual aspect of Greedfall: The Dying World is very divided, in the sense that the aesthetic part is really well done. This applies to everything from the truly beautiful and well-designed costumes worn by the natives to a truly atmospheric, exciting, and well-designed game world. There is everything from lush forests and ruins in the desert to large, bustling fishing villages by the sea and veritable metropolises. It's a real pleasure to explore this exciting world, as long as you can avoid too many battles.

The technical aspect is somewhat different. Here, you have two different graphics settings to choose from: "Favour graphic quality" and "Favour frame rate" and unlike many other games, there is a surprisingly big difference between the two. We tested the game on PlayStation 5 Pro, and it was very clear that the surroundings in particular took a big visual hit when we ran the game in "Favour frame rate" mode. Everything simply became blurry to look at, details in the surroundings disappeared, the leaves on the trees clumped together into small blobs, and it was as if you were seeing everything through a pair of greasy glasses. In "Favour graphic quality", everything was much sharper, but the frame rate was lower and, from what I could see with the naked eye, was around 30 fps and sometimes lower. I ended up playing in "Favour graphic quality" because I found it difficult to live with the grainy look now that I had seen how sharp it could look, so I had to live with 30 fps.

The sound is quite excellent, with lovely sound effects, voice actors who do a good job, and both English and the natives' own language are spoken throughout, which helps to enhance the authenticity. The in-game soundtrack is really well put together, and the game has one of the most beautiful title melodies we've heard in a long time. You can hear it in the trailer at the bottom of this review.

I don't want to reveal too much, so this review only scratches the surface of Greedfall: The Dying World, as this is a big game we're dealing with here, and you know that when the tutorial/prologue alone takes 3-4 hours to complete. This game is aimed at the more old-school role-players out there, and if you remember and loved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins, then you'll probably like Greedfall: The Dying World. However, the game never really grabbed me. I really loved the beautiful world, which drew me in time-and-time-again, but it was difficult to get started (a boring tutorial of 3+ hours is simply too much) and, basically, only half of the combat system really works.

If you've been looking forward to Greedfall: The Dying World, then I think you should give it a shot. I'm annoyed that the real-time part of the combat system is as clunky as it is, because it's really the only thing that really holds the game back, but unfortunately, that's a big part of an action role-playing game.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

javier@gamereactor.eu (Javier Escribano) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Monster Hunter Stories started as a spin-off for Nintendo 3DS, and continued in HD form with Monster Hunter Stories 2, originally a Switch console exclusive. But that title was later launched for PS4 and Xbox One, and now Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection releases at the same time on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 (not on the original Switch), consolidating it as a regular subseries to alternate with the mainline games. And one would say that {Stories 3} is now even more important for Capcom, given the poor fan reception of Monster Hunter Wilds last year.

While far from catastrophic, the current perception of the Monster Hunter franchise is not where it should be, and a successful Monster Hunter Stories 3 will calm the waters before the already confirmed Monster Hunter Wilds expansion is announced later this year. In this Monster Hunter Stories 3 review we can confirm that this sequel lives up to the expectations, although fans of the main Monster Hunter games must still remember that these are very different games, with no real-time fights, no multiplayer, and a greater focus on story and exploration with a very different tone and visual identity.

If you have played previous games in the series, you won't be too surprised by this entry. Most of what's new comes from the new visual design and story, which makes good use of the current hardware (no Switch 1, PS4, or Xbox One versions) to show a very detailed cel-shaded world (with looks similar to titles like Dragon Quest XI) with many creatures roaming around and fairly large areas, even if it's not open-world. All main zones are usually made of a big area where you can fly around on your Rathalos, attack monsters and explore for resources and side quests, and other smaller, linear (nearly corridors) areas divided by load times. I don't think that's a problem, as it has been proved that open-worlds are not always what best suits a JRPG game (something that the main games in the Monster Hunter series also understand).

In Monster Hunter Stories, instead of hunting monsters just because you can, the goal is to tame monsters that you can use in battle (and ride outside of the turn-based combat). Just like Pokémon, you can take with you up to six monsters at any time, choosing between them at any point in a battle. Each monster has different strengths and weaknesses (fire, ice, poison...), and naturally picking the most efficient monster is the best strategy to win. Seeing them (there are dozens and dozens from all "generations" of Monster Hunter) perform spectacular attacks is a joy to watch, and the game frequently plays mini-movies of special and tandem attacks that add visual flair to the combat (although you will, sooner or later, end up pressing Start to speed up the animations).

The combat system has nothing to do with the main games. At first, it can feel overwhelming with its many types of attacks, several charged movement skills, and a rock-paper-scissor system for every attack that forces you to be vigilant and guess which type of movement the monster will use. It doesn't take long to click, however, and it's a joy to experiment with the different types of monsters, see all of their attacks, and of course, try different weapons and armour for your own hunter (or rider). Crafting is a bit simplified from the mainline games, but that is to be expected: with your weapons (you can take three weapons at the same time in battle), armour and decorations, as well as the {monsties} personalisation, there is a lot of depth and experimentation to find your ideal build for you and your monster.

The way you obtain those monsters, however, is not as fun as in Pokémon, where you catch Pokémon in the wild. Here, the monsters you fight are gone, and instead you steal eggs from the monsters' nests, which are always located in super small areas separated from the main world with load screens. You find a cave icon, you enter with a load time in between, farm some resources, take the egg, and then leave. This is a change compared to previous games, in which these caves were mini-dungeons, which make for a more streamlined experience but ends up being rather weird (couldn't the nests already be located in the main world?).

The eggs are sent to your base, where you can later see them hatch and then add them to your party if you want, or release them. In my opinion, it's not the most entertaining "monster hunting" process (it's always cool in Pokémon to team up with the creatures you've fought) but comes with a lot of depth, as you don't really know which monster is going to hatch from the egg, and each comes with series of genes that you can alter later to boost up your monster, and it's more justifiable from a narrative point of view.

The point of this spin-off is that, instead of hunters, we play as riders, in a world where everyone is used to taming and riding even the larger and most fearsome monsters... which go by "{monsties}", actually. The story - completely unrelated to other games in the franchise - goes for an animalistic and environmentalist message, to the point that it features an option to release the monsters you have previously raised, to increase the population of the species in nature and restore the environment. This has benefits, of course: improving the ecosystem means you can get better monsters that are useful in facing the more difficult optional monsters and the many side quests and sub-stories.

Sadly, the main plot of the game is not very interesting. It's the archetypical JRPG premise of two kingdoms at war, two opposing siblings, a mysterious magical menace pulling every string, and a lot of clichés. For fans of the genre, it will probably work just fine, but if you are looking for something more mature, or fell in love with Monster Hunter because of their minimalistic approach to story and intriguing worldbuilding, or the - now practically extinct after {Wilds} - survival elements, you won't find any of that here, and you may find the very long dialogue boring and the characters irritating.

If you don't connect to the characters and the story, the repetitive and linear structure of the game (set up in a move to the next exclamation mark, see the cutscene, move to the next mark, be wrecked by a boss, farm a little, wreck the boss, move to the next mark setup...), and the lack of gameplay surprises, the changes along the way will become more noticeably. Some of the systems to level up your {monsties}, the aforementioned genes system, are also quite obtuse, and there aren't really many incentives to engage with it because the writing in the side quests and sub-stories (each character has one with several chapters) is also very bland.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 has a very strong combat system, a visually appealing world, and the huge amount of monsters you can find and command in battle make up for some of its more uninspired elements and a rather dull story. Hardcore Monster Hunter fans, displeased by the "casualification" of the series in {Wilds}, may find a good excuse to return to the Monster Hunter universe here, but that will depend on how much they enjoy the turn-based JRPG genre, with all of its quirks and clichés.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road

jonathan@gamereactor.eu (Jonathan Sørensen) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0100

In 2025, Level5 revived two of their most beloved series from Nintendo 3DS, Fantasy Life and Inazuma Eleven. Fifteen years after Inazuma Eleven 3, we are finally being served the next title in the imaginative JRPG series about primary school pupils who dream big and want to take over the world with their magical football game, and it hits hard right in the middle of the net. Level5 manages once again, perhaps better than ever before, to capture the drama and adventure of football and turn it up to eleven, but in a package that is safe, colourful and full of joy. It's just fantastic.

There has been a generational change in the Inazuma Eleven universe. Mark Evans, who was the main character in the original titles, no longer plays football. Now it is his son, Harper, who runs on the pitch. He is a true prodigy. No one comes close to his talent. In fact, he is bored and takes the game for granted. Opposite him is Destin Billows. Destin is our main character, and his health prevents him from living out his dream of playing football. He has to start at a new school where kicking balls has been banned. Therefore, Destin believes that here he can escape his dream. He believes he can escape his fate, but before long he encounters the problem child and troublemaker Briar. He finds an outlet for his frustration by starting fights with bullies around town. Destin's sharp football mind sees how Briar wins these street fights with his superior leg strength and realises that a great football talent is being wasted here, which reignites his passion. He may no longer be able to play football himself, but he can be a coach. Before long, he starts a football team, but as mentioned, playing football is forbidden at the school. A scandal years ago forced the school to ban the sport to save its reputation. The first 10 hours or so of the game are therefore spent navigating a political game at the school rather than playing football. The school is rife with corruption and conspiracies. We have seen this before in Japanese role-playing games such as Persona 5, but here these issues are not really commented on. They are really only used as a kind of political labyrinth to be navigated by Destin and the rest of the football-loving students. It's not that the game needs to delve into this heavy subject matter, but one can't help but say that it's a deeply problematic school system that can be a bit distracting at the beginning of the story, precisely because it's not a system that needs to be defeated and dismantled, but simply navigated diplomatically, and then we just shrug our shoulders when football is allowed again - because of course it will be allowed again. We kind of have to accept the premise that this game is about a bunch of seventh graders with virtually no parents or other responsible adults for miles around.

When the story works well, it is because it is wrapped up in all the virtues and sins of anime. Everything is extra dramatic. It is over-told, everything must be emphasised and spelled out. The characters talk loudly about themselves as if they were presenting a short story analysis in a Danish class, and strangely enough, it works. It works as only it can in an anime. You end up caring about all the crazy characters you meet throughout the game, even though they are sometimes exhausting in a way that characters can only be in anime, and when they are on the football pitch, it could just as well be a cosmic battle against evil rather than a minor tournament in a sport.

Perhaps my frame of reference when it comes to Japanese role-playing games is too narrow, but I can't help seeing Inazuma Eleven as Persona with football. If you go in thinking that you're just going to play football, you'll be surprised. A large part of the time is spent getting to know the town's residents: helping a lady find her lost cat, eating noodles or "fighting" the school's security guards. These interactions take place in turn-based battles based on a rock-paper-scissors system. Helping an old lady cross the street is a turn-based battle where your helpful comments and encouraging remarks are the attacks you choose. It's quite amusing, but the system quickly becomes monotonous and can sometimes be a little too cumbersome. On the other hand, all these battles give rewards and equipment that can be used on the pitch. In addition, there are also side activities such as training and friendly matches that are important for upgrading your team, and when you finally get to play football, all these activities start to make sense. All in all, the game's story mode is a success. It really feels like playing through an entire season of a cool sports anime.

However, it is the football matches that are the game's central gameplay, but we are far from EA Sports FC. Realism is not the main focus. The matches take place in real time, but when two players collide, there is a showdown where each player is allowed to choose an ability or an attack. These are calculated in a pool of defence points and attack points, and the player with the highest score wins the match. The same applies when scoring. It is not enough to make the perfect pass and place the ball correctly. The goalkeeper has a pool of points. When a shot is taken against them, the shot's attack points are deducted from that pool, and if it reaches zero, the ball lands in the goal. Therefore, you should pass the ball around as much as possible and use special moves to optimise a shot on goal. It sounds complicated, and I must admit that I found it a bit confusing. I still don't fully understand how all these things are calculated, but if you find this gameplay fun, there are plenty of opportunities to delve deeper into it. All the players' special moves are the visual highlights of the football matches. Every time you perform one, it flies around with fire and lightning and strange creatures. It's a joy to watch. The only downside here is that it also constantly interrupts the gameplay, and once you've seen a particular move many times, it starts to get a bit tedious.

The amount of content in a game is not necessarily an indicator of quality, that goes without saying, but nevertheless, it's great when a game comes along that is packed with content, and that's Inazuma Eleven, and luckily you don't have to pay extra for any of it. Level5 deserves praise for not overdoing it with microtransactions and extra packs, even though they could easily have done so here. In addition to the game's main stories, there is another completely different story mode. Yes, there are two story modes. The second is called Chronicle Mode, and it has an extra dose of anime. As the intro sequence rolls in this mode, you start to wonder if you've accidentally started an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion. To save the world from destruction, you must travel back in time and find the secret behind Keshi, a kind of spirit that certain football players have the ability to summon. This is done by playing matches from the highlights of the entire Inazuma Eleven series. In addition to the two story modes, you can also create your own team to play online matches with, and you can even build your own city where your team can train.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has its problems: certain aspects are too repetitive and monotonous, and all the many point systems can be difficult to understand, but overall it is a really good game. You don't necessarily have to be a football fan to enjoy it. On the contrary, you might find it too strange if you're only interested in football. If you're into Japanese role-playing games like Persona or love the over-the-top and dramatic effects that only sports anime can offer, Inazuma Eleven is a complete Golden Goal.

WWE 2K26

johan@gamereactor.eu (Johan Vahlström) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

It's been a while since the debacle known as {WWE 2K20} unfolded. It may be one of the worst games I've ever played, but 2K didn't give up. Instead, they took a year's break, and the series has now made a remarkable recovery. Sure, there are a few minor graphical issues that have been around since the dawn of time, but overall, it's now approaching some of the best games in the genre.

This year's cover boy.

The best thing is that the game is now packed with content. There are game modes left and right and a collection of over 400 wrestlers, although many of these are different versions of the same person and/or fictional characters from the game's Career Mode. But considering that we were once ecstatic about being able to choose between ten or twelve in the old WCW games, it's silly to complain.

This year's cover boy is CM Punk, who returned to WWE a couple of years ago after a colourful spell in AEW. He is also the one we get to follow in this year's Showcase mode, which follows his career. We have previously seen John Cena, Rey Mysterio, and last year's Bloodline Dynasty. This time, they have mixed some of the previous concepts, as not only do we get to play real matches from his career, such as classics against JBL, Undertaker, and Randy Orton, but also dream matches against his idols, be that Stone Cold Steve Austin or Eddie Guerrero. In addition, we get to experience some "what if" scenarios such as "what would have happened if he hadn't left WWE in 2014?". This is the game mode for anyone who likes to be nostalgic and play through things they've seen themselves and 2K has done a good job with all of these in recent years. New for this year is the ability to unlock all rewards from the game mode without having to sit through all the backstories and the like. Instead, you can play a Gauntlet as CM Punk or AJ Lee against 20 opponents, one after the other. If you succeed, you unlock all the rewards.

So, what do we find among the other seven game modes? Nothing new really, just old game modes that have been given some new material. The most classic, and the one that usually gets the least love in sports games, is what WWE 2K calls Universe Mode. It's a sandbox mode, similar to Franchise in other sports games, where you can play God. You decide on the shows, who will be the champion, who will face who in matches, and so on. New for this year is that WWE Draft is now included, which is said to have been requested by fans. It's exactly as it sounds; during the draft, you will be able to steal one of the other shows' wrestlers, and they can do the same to you. In addition, there has been an update to how the Money in the Bank winner can redeem their contract. Instead of having a title predetermined before the show starts, it's now possible to redeem it for any eligible title during a show. As you can see in the image below, it's also possible to choose to redeem the contracts during an ongoing match or after it has ended to take advantage of the fact that the champion is likely to be completely exhausted.

New opportunities for Money in the Bank have been introduced.

The second game mode that falls under the same category is GM Mode. Just like in Universe Mode, you are responsible for your show, but here you are no longer god. Here, you compete against up to three other players, who can be real or AI, where the goal is to book the best shows possible. As before, you book four matches per week, where the goal is to find the perfect mix of who faces whom and in what type of match. To help provide greater variety, lots of new match types have now been added, where it's also possible to book intergender matches, i.e. men against women. A major improvement is that it's now possible to double-book a wrestler so that they can both do a promo and have a match, something that was not available before, as you had to choose one or the other.

Something I wasn't a big fan of last year was the new mode, The Island. It was basically WWE 2K's equivalent of what NBA 2K had had for many years with The City (and similar names). That is, an online hub with a variety of shops to buy cosmetic items in for real money, and opportunities to play against others online with a small offline story as well. It's back again this year with the big difference that you now have to choose to join one of three "teams". CM Punk's Order of Anarchy, Rhea Ripley's Order of Shadows, or Cody Rhodes' Order of Tradition. This is really to divide all players into teams to compete against each other, something WWE 2K has had for a long time. Each "order" has its own PvP arena to explore, among other things.

And if there's one online mode you can bet money on returning in every sports game, it's Ultimate Team, with different names depending on the game. MyFaction is what 2K has named it in WWE 2K. You know how it works now: open card packs, unlock new wrestlers that you can use to fight others who have done exactly the same thing. Unfortunately, the updates are very poor here. There are really only two that have any major impact on things. Chemistry has been introduced, where your team reacts well or poorly to the others on the team. This can lead to a boost or negative impact on various things. The second is the new Quick Swap match type. In this mode, you can switch from one wrestler to another out of your four selected wrestlers in the middle of the match. This is something you may have seen in other fighting games, with a tag-like setup.

It's now also possible to play intergender matches, i.e. men against women.

The game mode I personally find most interesting every year is the Career Mode. Here, you create a wrestler and go through a story. This year, it's about what's called "The Comeback". You've been away from WWE for a couple of years and your return isn't quite what you had in mind. Therefore, you get to decide how you're going to get back to the top. Be kind and work hard, or completely change direction and become a villain who wants to destroy everything and everyone. It's still quite menu-based, with many conversations taking place on social media or by choosing one of X number of people to talk to who are standing right in front of you. They still haven't chosen to bring back the ability to walk around backstage a little more freely. Here, it's one conversation after another that takes you to different matches, be these matches that take you further in the story or side quests that can unlock other things, or give you points to make your wrestler better. While the story isn't something that will turn this whole genre upside down, it's still entertaining to play through.

So, how is the gameplay in the ring? The most important aspect of them all. Good, is really the word I want to use. It's not hugely different from what we saw last year, but there are quite a few new features. Right when the match starts, you can now choose from a few different options, such as whether you want to entertain the crowd, go and shake hands (and maybe give a little dirty look), go for a surprise attack, or start wrestling. The idea is that you should try to gain the upper hand over your opponents and start the match in the best possible way. Another thing they seem to have thought about is the reactions when someone lands on an object that is not currently in active use. For example, there might be a chair or a ladder in the ring that you could land on. Previously, this didn't lead to anything, it was like landing on the floor, but now it will more often lead to what I would call "ouch reactions" and blood. I would say that the game is better than it has ever been in the ring, with a few minor issues in some animations, but nothing that is distracting. In addition, they never seem to be able to fix the visual issue of the championship belts floating a few centimetres above the shoulders of those wearing them.

Who wants a hug?

Now for the biggest reason why it's hard to justify buying it at launch: {WWE 2K26} comes with a season pass. So, in addition to buying the game at full price and spending money on various DLC packs, you now need to spend more for each of the six different season passes, where there is a lot of content that is only unlocked in them... The worst part is that this has replaced the previous DLC setup. Before, you bought a pack and got all the content in it at once. Now, instead, the content you've spent your hard-earned money on is locked (in the premium version of the pass) until you reach a specific level. The first pass, which is available from the start, is about Mexican wrestlers, but there are four to unlock, the first of which can be unlocked immediately. However, the last one doesn't come until level 20. And it takes a long time to get from one level to another. If you want to play in the Mexican arena where TripleMania XXXIII was held, you need to reach the last level (40). This will require a considerable amount of playing time to unlock something you have already paid for. This is really not the right way to go, as buying DLC and then not having access to everything until you have played X number of hours is not okay. The solution? Buy level skips for real money. Pay to unlock what you have paid for faster...

WWE 2K26 is the best the series has to offer in the ring, and most game modes have been improved from last year, but the introduction of this new season pass may scare many away.

Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf

palle@gamereactor.eu (Palle Havshøi-Jensen) — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

Planet of Lana was a really positive surprise when it landed in spring 2023. It was a 2D puzzle platformer, a "Limbo/Inside/Little Nightmares/Unravel-like" if you will, but with a much lighter tone and fantastic visuals reminiscent of something Studio Ghibli might have created. However, it was the debut game from the small Swedish developer Wishfully Studios from Gothenburg and a truly successful debut at that.

Now the difficult second instalment, Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, is ready for release on most platforms as well as on Game Pass, and it follows in the footsteps of the first game, perhaps a little too much, but we'll get to that in a moment.

At the centre of it all is once again the girl Lana and her faithful companion, the adorable little cat-like wool ball Mui. It all still takes place in a colourful and beautiful world where machines and mechanical structures meet beautiful and lush nature, and beneath the surface there is still an inexplicable unease that you gradually become acquainted with.

Lana must save her sister Anua, who has fallen ill after coming into contact with a mysterious object. Therefore, Lana and Mui are sent out into the world to find three ingredients that can heal her sister: a rare mountain flower that grows in the cold and inaccessible mountains, a mussel shell found deep below the surface of the sea, and a sacred deer that lives deep in a dark forest.

The first thing you inevitably notice when playing Planet of Lana II is the truly beautiful visuals. The forest with its enormous tree trunks and lush green forest floor, the sea with its shiny surface and the almost unnatural blue sky, the small, cosy villages with wooden huts, where it's clear that a quiet life is lived, and the dark and cold metal structures and laboratory-like buildings, which stand in sharp contrast to the beautiful nature, but which emphasise a world where nature and metal structures coexist. It's truly beautiful and several times you stop just to take in the postcard image that appears on your screen.

Planet of Lana II takes place two years after the first game, and Lana still lives in the small idyllic fishing village on the edge of the forest. She has grown bigger and more agile than before, and she still has the ever-cute Mui by her side. Lana can still run, jump, climb ropes, pull herself up from ledges, and now she can also glide through low passages at high speed. Since Mui is a cat-like animal, it's much more agile, and you can use a point-and-click system to send Mui through narrow openings or up onto platforms that Lana herself has no chance of reaching. From there, Mui can, for example, activate an elevator, open a door, send a rope down to Lana, bite through wires so that machines and surveillance cameras go dark, and a lot of other things. It works really well and Mui is often used wisely in most of the game's puzzles.

A large part of the gameplay in Planet of Lana II is puzzle solving. Some of these puzzles are quite well thought out, and a few of them made me stop and scratch my head a bit, but the solution usually presented itself before it became frustrating. Several other puzzles are perhaps a little on the simple side, where Lana has to run between two hiding places to avoid being seen, hiding in tall grass, pushing boxes to the right places, and deactivating security systems. As mentioned, Mui is used quite well in most puzzles, but it feels like we've seen most of it before, while there are a few slightly larger puzzles that stand out. Overall, the puzzle gameplay works well and never becomes frustrating or confusing.

Mui is once again a central part of the game, and there are even smaller missions where you play exclusively as Mui, who has a bigger role in Planet of Lana II than in the first game. The little cat-like animal still doesn't like water, of course, so Lana often has to transport Mui across water on tree trunks or water lily-like plants, which also act as a kind of diving bell for Mui, as the water lily closes around the little animal when Lana pulls the plant under water.

Lana can also control other creatures and machines that she and Mui encounter along the way. A couple of examples are the small squids in the sea, which can create clouds of dark ink underwater in front of cameras placed in enemy buildings, so they cannot see Lana when she swims past them, or the cute black flying woolly balls that can suck water from the forest lakes and pour it over flowers, which in turn shoot a long stem out of the ground that Lana can climb.

If you have played the first Planet of Lana, you will recognise some of the above, and that is because, as mentioned at the beginning, Planet of Lana II follows in the footsteps of the first game very closely. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because the first game worked so well, but if you expect a big step forward in this sequel, you will be disappointed. Instead, this is a refinement of many of the mechanics and ideas from the first game, but with various new small additions that make the game an even more cohesive experience.

We have already mentioned the incredibly beautiful visuals, which are fortunately supported by an equally beautiful soundtrack. It's once again composed by Takeshi Furukawa, who was also behind the soundtrack for the first game and who has also composed music for The Last Guardian and the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There are long periods without any music, but suddenly the beautiful soundtrack emerges, for example when Lana comes to an opening in the forest and you can see out over the open plains and valleys, where the soundtrack is used really well and sounds excellent.

Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf is an excellent cinematic 2D puzzle-platformer that tells a simple but emotional story. It's told entirely without words and through a babbling language, combined with movements, music, tonality, and Muis's constant body language, where the little animal curls up when it feels unsafe, lays its ears back when it gets angry and twitches its legs a little when it feels uncertain. It's impressive that so much of the story can be conveyed without words, but in the places with text, the localisation could undoubtedly be improved.

Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf does not set any new standards for the genre and continues in the footsteps of the first game, so if you liked Wishfully's debut game from 2023, this sequel is a no-brainer. I would actually recommend it to anyone looking for a beautiful little story disguised as a puzzle game. I completed it in just under seven hours and they were seven really good hours. So once again, you can safely take a trip to Lana's planet, and you won't regret this second journey either.

Scott Pilgrim EX

alex@gamereactor.eu (Alex Hopley) — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Considering its distinctly retro vibe and arcade styling, Scott Pilgrim is an IP that is practically designed for a beat 'em up video game adaptation. We saw as much in 2010 when Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game graced our screens, and now - many years later - we again get to save Toronto with our favourite heroes and exes in Scott Pilgrim EX.

In a somewhat similar vein to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Scott Pilgrim EX takes us away from the story we know of the titular Scott taking down Ramona Flowers' evil exes, and instead has us join forces with some of them to take on a new foe. Three gangs in the demons, vegans, and robots are vying for control of Toronto, and it's up to Scott and friends to bring them down in time for Sex Bob-Omb's latest concert.

It's a fresh, fun story that comes from collaboration with Scott Pilgrim's creator Bryan Lee O'Malley, so it's got an important seal of approval there. The main quest takes you across a wonderfully pixelated recreation of many of the graphic novel's key locations, as well as some new ones. The art style here is vibrant, retro, and has such wonderful detail compared to the first game. It really pops, and feels uniquely Scott Pilgrim, giving this fairly small but very beloved franchise a fresh coat of paint, just like Netflix's animated show did a few years back.

As Scott and the gang try and save Sex Bob-Omb's bandmates (alongside Young Neil), you won't just be looking at the pretty, pixelated background. This is a beat 'em up game, after all, and there are plenty of enemies to beat up. If you've played an arcade action side-scroller before, you'll know what you're getting into here. Enemies spawn from either side of the screen, often in great numbers making you feel like a great big badass when you batter them all with slick, tight combos. The combat in Scott Pilgrim EX is fast-paced, reactive, and stylish. The game's characters each play a unique role, with their own moveset, assists, and more, allowing for some real varied play when you try out different characters. I played through most of my run as Lucas Lee, who is a slow but powerful grappler, before swapping out for Scott later on to experience more of an all-rounder style of play.

It is a blast to punch your way through the streets of Toronto, especially with the aforementioned visuals and banging soundtrack from Anamanaguchi. However, throughout my brief time with Scott Pilgrim EX I did run into a couple of snags in the gameplay. Moving up or down and jumping to hit enemies is very inconsistent, and while you're not moving on the Y-axis often in this side-scroller, you will notice when you struggle to connect a jumping punch with an enemy you're sure you're right next to. There's one flying boss in particular who proved to be quite an annoying fight, because they linger in the air so often it's nearly impossible to get a solid combo in. With the game's combos being so fun and visually charming, it's a shame that taking to the air deprives you of them.

Also, as you progress in Scott Pilgrim EX, you'll find the game not only overstimulating as it throws everything and the kitchen sink at you in the name of difficulty, but it also seems to discourage you from trying new characters. As mentioned, after a lot of fun with Lucas Lee, I swapped to Scott, only to realise changing character meant you're essentially nerfing yourself. You gain levels as you fight in Scott Pilgrim EX, but these are character specific. It's a bit odd that in a game boasting seven playable characters, each with their own unique style, that it almost feels taboo to swap in the middle of a campaign.

These aren't damning faults with the overall experience, but they are noticeable in a playthrough of Scott Pilgrim EX. Still, it's hard to dampen the excitement I experienced every time I picked this up to head back into Toronto. Sure, an adventure run won't take you longer than a few hours, and could be rushed through in an afternoon if you wished, but the game's core combat loop remains so fun that you could easily blast through it again, if only to replay a favourite boss or see what the other characters can do.

If, like me, you enjoyed Scott Pilgrim as a kid, and always wanted more of this unserious, nerdy franchise, then Scott Pilgrim EX is a perfect dose of pixel graphics, evil exes, and enemies that burst into coins when they're defeated. It's admittedly short, and has some odd choices in its design and gameplay, but shines so well stylistically that it's impossible not to appreciate for fans of the graphic novel series, whether you jumped in with the comics, movie, or even the Netflix series. Not the best brawler I've ever played, perhaps, but a lovely addition to Tribute Games' growing arsenal of beat 'em up gold.

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen (Nintendo Switch)

alfredo@gamereactor.eu (Alfredo Pavez) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:00:00 +0100

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are fantastic classic GBA games that arrived midway through the third generation of Pokémon, right after Ruby and Sapphire, but before Emerald. This new journey to Kanto features many improvements typical of the third generation of Pokémon, an expanded story, new encounters with Legendary Pokémon, and a new way to obtain classic Pokémon that weren't available in any other way on the GBA.

A nostalgic trip

To celebrate Pokémon's 30th anniversary these editions have returned as ports for Nintendo Switch and while the classic experience is intact and the gameplay remains the same, these ports lack accessibility improvements and display options. We thoroughly enjoyed our nostalgic trip through the Kanto region: everything is still there. We have to collect all eight Gym Badges, win the Pokémon League, thwart Team Rocket's plans, and catch 'em all, of course. After defeating the Pokémon League, we obtain the National Pokédex and have the option to try and catch all 386 Pokémon from the third generation (although without Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, this is currently impossible) and events that allow us to catch Ho-Oh and Lugia have even been activated for the first time ever.

However, as a Pokémon fan, this isn't enough. It feels like a "simple port" and some details don't make much sense. While everything we loved about these editions remains and we can even battle and trade Pokémon with a friend using the Nintendo Switch's wireless connection, playing in TV Mode results in a pixelated image that makes the text difficult to read; there are no display options or screen filters. Online play, unlike with other GBA games on the Nintendo Switch Online service, is also absent, and Pokémon Home compatibility is only for transferring Pokémon to Home, not for completing the Pokédex in FireRed/LeafGreen. Furthermore, the €20 price tag seems steep for a game with virtually no changes.

It pains me to have to give this review to a game that was a part of my childhood, one I have very fond memories of, and that I'm loving reliving on Nintendo Switch (in Handheld Mode). But I truly believe things could have been done much better, and aside from the price, including screen filters, full compatibility with Pokémon Home, and online features so you wouldn't have to meet up with friends in person to trade Pokémon and battle would have made these ports much more compelling. However, if you're like me and love Pokémon, grew up with them, and adore the original games with their beautiful pixel art, these games won't disappoint. You'll enjoy Kanto just like you did 20 years ago.

Esoteric Ebb

alex@gamereactor.eu (Alex Hopley) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0100

D&D is a grand old time, but to play it in real life you'll need friends to gather a party, a DM to sit through all your shenanigans, and an incredible ability to organise hours of playtime around busy lives. That can be tricky, which is why we've seen video games bringing you the D&D experience really take off in recent years. Baldur's Gate III gives us the experience of a sweeping campaign, while solo developer Christoffer Bodegård's Esoteric Ebb opts for an RP-filled, thoroughly engaging one-shot.

After getting unceremoniously chucked in the river of Tolstad on the night of our arrival, we (as Ragn or The Cleric), awake in a mysterious lich house, where we find ourselves having forgotten most of our spells, some of our past, and now loaded with a theoretically simple mission of investigating a tea shop that blew up. As you'd expect from any D&D one-shot, this quickly unravels into a conspiracy that encompasses the entire town.

Esoteric Ebb uses the foundations of D&D for much of its mechanics and gameplay. You'll use a D20 for the majority of your actions in the game, the spells you gather are the same as they are in the TTRPG for the most part, and you'll roll initiative whenever you get into combat. However, to allow the system of Esoteric Ebb to flow in the way Bodegård wants it to (and possibly to avoid Hasbro swinging any sort of legal hammer his way), the game takes a lot of liberties, too. You've probably seen it described as part D&D, part Disco Elysium, and while there are other games that sprang to mind through my run of Esoteric Ebb, the label of D&Disco Elysium is one that sticks pretty well.

As you'd expect in any fantasy tabletop world, the setting of Esoteric Ebb is filled with dwarves, humans, goblins, halflings the odd orc, as well as other fantasy creatures that you'll encounter on your search to find the culprit behind the tea shop explosion. What's really impressive is the level of detail put into making this charming world its own fantasy land. There must have been the temptation to just make a generic fantasy world. A backdrop we'll never explore, as we're only ever able to venture through the small but detailed town of Tolstad and the dangerous depths of the City Below. That temptation is thrown aside, and you'll end up spending hours reading through the dialogue explaining Bodegård's world. It's all brought up quite naturally, never really weighing you down with too much exposition but instead inviting you to dig through the centuries of history that make the world feel lived in, and show the greater context behind the political themes and ideas put forward by the story.

At its core, Esoteric Ebb is a balancing act. Just like any D&D session, it can be chaotic, funny, complete balls-to-the-wall fantasy. It can also be deep, interesting, and dark. As we peel back the curtain on the tea shop explosion, and find out that the story isn't as wacky as it first seems, the narrative does a brilliant job at making sure you don't experience any whiplash from the tonal shifts as they come and go. Some of the early dialogue does fall a bit too far on the quirk chungus spectrum, at least for my tastes. There's a tad too much chaos = funny in those early moments, but considering how much dialogue and text there is in this expansive RPG, it's hard to say that's anything more than a nitpick.

Esoteric Ebb is a deceptively big game. You can walk around the whole map in a few minutes, but as each in-game day passes, more secrets, characters, and quests reveal themselves to you. You're under a set amount of time pressure, as you've only got a few days to solve the tea shop mystery before election day rolls around. Time is advanced purely through dialogue, meaning you can explore as much as you like, but you're unlikely to be able to speak with everyone and learn everything, especially on a first run. That's what makes Esoteric Ebb so engaging, though. You know you can't do everything, and so you're left to pick and choose what you'll do now, and what you'll save for another playthrough.

Bodegård reckons it takes around 25 hours to beat the game normally, but does admit it can take an hour if you know what you're doing. Our run took around 12 hours, and it's hard to see where you could have put those extra hours in, considering the aforementioned time limit. Esoteric Ebb's main story might not take you more than a few evenings, but the game's key to making you come back for endless hours is its replayability. The player agency on offer with character builds, political leanings, solutions to quests, means that you're always thinking of other options you can take. I went for a charismatic, intelligent Cleric on my first run, but was already theory-crafting a strong, wiser player character for my next run. It brilliantly encapsulates that addictive D&D bug in making you already think of your next campaign just as you're running through your current one.

There are some gripes with Esoteric Ebb, although I'd hesitate to say any of them are really major. The world is beautiful, with an art style and compactness that oozes a welcoming, inviting atmosphere. Some of the pathing isn't great in that world, though, and at times I found myself caught on odd bits of what looked like an open road or footpath. There are some minor, lingering bugs, too, which at times required a restart like the occasion I managed to persuade a griffon to get out of my way, only for him to sit back down as soon as I exited the dialogue. Some of those have also stopped me getting achievements on Steam, it seems, so if you're a collector of gold medals you might want to keep an eye out for that. My lingering thought on Esoteric Ebb, as I sit with the wonderful, tight, and deep RPG that it is, was that I found The Cleric - our main character - a tad imbalanced at times.

As I said, Esoteric Ebb is a balancing act, but perhaps where it faults its plate-spinning most is with The Cleric, or Ragn, as is his proper name. At times, he is pure blank slate, a character we can put ourselves into and play with. Then, later in the game we get more details about him, his family, and his backstory, and it comes across a bit like Esoteric Ebb is trying to have its cake and eat it. There's a clear vision for who this Ragn is, and yet unlike other RPG protagonists with defined characters like Commander Shepard or Andreas Mahler, Ragn's helmeted anonymousness leaves him as a bit immemorable, as if he should be like a Tav or Durge, and yet he's not.

I still loved playing as The Cleric, and tearing through Tolstad with my favourite finely dressed goblin at my side. Esoteric Ebb is simply a lovely RPG that puts player agency front and centre. Its world is fantastically immersive, deep, and invites you to stay a while with charming visuals, characters, and lore so detailed I'd gladly take another game or two set in this world. If you're looking to roll some dice, fight some skeletons, and try to flirt with every creature with a heartbeat, then you'll have a grand time with Esoteric Ebb. A tabletop player's video game delight.

Pokémon Pokopia

johan@gamereactor.eu (Johan Mackegård Hansson) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0100

Many of us have probably lost ourselves in the wonderfully expansive world of Pokémon at some point in our lives and now that the series has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, it's only right that we players get the chance to design our own society of pocket monsters. That's basically what Pokopia is all about, now that Nintendo has finally opened its enormous treasure chest and unleashed its creativity.

I am a Ditto, a Pokémon whose speciality is copying the appearance and abilities of other monsters. For some reason, however, I have taken the form of a human, which makes me unique, both in terms of how Dittos usually behave, but also because the world, once populated by both people and their Pokémon companions, seems to be completely devoid of us two-legged creatures. Even pocket monsters seem to have disappeared from the world, at least initially, but together with my new friend Professor Tangrowth, I quickly learn how to change this and how we can transform the desolate landscape into a whole new vibrant community filled to the brim with Pokémon.

Welcome!

To succeed in this, I must create a variety of habitats that will attract more and more monsters to move in. The approach varies depending on the types of Pokémon I want to attract, where I often get quite far by planting grass under a tree or by a stream, but as I learn more about Pokopia's complexity, I discover that some individuals are much more discerning than that. To allow you to figure out for yourself which types of places attract which Pokémon, I'm leaving it here for the moment, but with that said, this element is something that persists throughout my journey as I constantly find clues about where I might encounter new friends.

The way I manipulate the world is reminiscent of a mixture between Minecraft and Animal Crossing, where the whole of Pokopia is made up of blocks that I am more or less free to break and reposition. At the same time, I can also turn to my workbench to construct various types of objects for either practical or decorative purposes. In short, I am free to design the world entirely according to my own preferences and those of my Pokémon friends, which quickly activates a creative streak in me as function must be mixed with aesthetics in my quest to build our own colourful utopia. However, Rome was not built in a day, and neither is a society in Pokopia, because as my own ambitions grow, I also gain access to more materials, new gadgets to tinker with, and a growing population of Pokémon with their own preferences for their ideal living situation. I feel like I always have half a dozen projects going on at the same time, and I only need to look up to find a few more tasks to tackle. This makes Pokopia feel like the kind of creative experience that you never really finish.

When we take photos with our Pokédex, the images are displayed on the home screen...
A Pokémon Center is going to be built here!

A key feature in managing all of this is my access to all the Pokémon powers in the world. Since every pocket monster has at least one useful trait, almost every individual in the world's growing population becomes an important resource when it comes to developing our shared place in the land. Fire types assist in melting down various types of materials, grass types accelerate the growth of crops, while some specialise in building larger structures and others in bartering. I'll be honest and say that some abilities are much more useful than others, and that a Pokémon that specialises in keeping the mood light, for example, has much more free time than one that can recycle scrap and rubbish into valuable metal.

At the centre of all these special abilities is my own peculiar skill of being able to copy the powers of other monsters, albeit with my own little twist. The character I play is a bit defective and can't quite transform into other Pokémon, but instead chooses to store selected characteristics in its memory, which can then be used when needed. These are used extensively throughout the game, and although I initially have to make do with a few manoeuvres such as watering grass and chopping down trees, my arsenal grows and develops steadily as the adventure progresses, which contributes to my desire to explore more and move forward in the story.

A shiny Snorlax? Or?

In addition to the creative freedom I am given in Pokopia, there is a narrative to discover which, in addition to serving as a driving force to introduce new places, Pokémon, and mechanics, actually delivers a compelling story. Where has everyone gone? Where are all the people? Why are Pokémon only now beginning to return to the world? This is the big question on everyone's lips, but no one has the whole answer. During the game, I find clues and fragments from the past that I slowly but surely manage to piece together into a convincing picture of the situation. It's a story that takes time to unravel, and while the big question hangs over Pokopia, there are smaller, more concrete narratives to follow up on, such as how I can restore electricity to my darkened port city. The next step in the story is always available, but at the same time, I never feel that the narrative is urgent or that it in any way detracts from the creative side of the experience.

As I constantly collect blocks of different colours and functionalities, as well as a variety of other items during the game, it sometimes becomes difficult to navigate among all the gadgets I have collected. My pockets are certainly large and can hold a lot, but they also get overloaded quite quickly. This is really a problem that is mainly due to my own lack of organisation, as I actually have good opportunities to create an unlimited amount of storage space, as well as to upgrade my own ability to carry items, but it still becomes a problem in some respects. I certainly appreciate that Pokopia has so many unique items to pick up, but at the same time, there are a lot of things that I simply never find any use for. It may well be me who is the problem here, but when my collection of washed-up seaweed starts to approach triple digits without me having been presented with a use for it, I start to wonder if it needed to be such a common part of the game from the start.

Sometimes we are sent on missions to find a specific Pokémon...
This is where I live!

On an aesthetic level, Nintendo has once again proven that they are masters at creating magic with limited hardware. Pokopia is first and foremost a beautiful place to be, with cosy, colourful elements everywhere, while the Minecraft-inspired blocky environments are unexpectedly charming. The design of the pocket monsters is familiar by now, and as far as I can tell, there are Pokémon represented from most of the series' many generations. As someone who considers myself something of an expert on Pokémon up to the third generation, I had the pleasure of getting to know a lot of new individuals, while also happily seeing how much love the older characters have received.

The music in Pokopia also contributes to a very pleasant atmosphere, delivering a series of reinterpretations of classic soundtracks from the series' roots. For example, I remember how I was struck by a pleasant sense of recognition when I noticed how the sound effect that plays when you restore your companions' health in the main games had been incorporated into one of the game's melodies. A little musical Easter egg that made me laugh with surprise.

The similarity to Minecraft is sometimes striking...

Technically, Pokopia runs flawlessly and without the slightest hint of graphical glitches or lost frame rates, despite the enormous freedom I have been given as a player. On the other hand, I find that the different zones, which I unlock as the story progresses, are a little small and a tad too easy to traverse once I have explored the entire map. This probably has a lot to do with the limited hardware Nintendo is working with, but I would have preferred a larger world with more places to visit, rather than a few smaller levels. This is a mild criticism, as Nintendo still manages to make the surroundings feel expansive, at least until I encounter a barrier that tells me I can't go any further.

The game controls are easy to understand, and even though after a while I have quite a few different abilities to keep track of at the same time, they are easy to switch between and it's always clear which power should be used at any given moment. As I mentioned earlier, Pokopia has a lot in common with Minecraft, but unlike its Swedish-developed block counterpart, I control my character in third-person, which sometimes compromises precision. I misplace things a little too often as a result, and digging my way underground, as the surroundings often invite me to do, means that the camera rarely keeps up when I crawl through narrow tunnels.

Unlocking new abilities is fun! Flying and surfing are among my favourites...
It's easy to end up playing Pokopia long after bedtime...

Overall, I have had a very pleasant time in Pokopia, which never ceases to feed me with new things to do. Pokémon's living conditions must be improved, items must be built, and properties must be planned. We've probably all experienced the kind of game where you repeat the mantra "I'll just do this too" over and over again until you finally look up and realise that it's five in the morning and you haven't slept a wink. That's my experience of Pokopia in a nutshell, and I already feel the urge to dive back in. If Nintendo continues to experiment with Pokémon in this way, the future of the brand looks very bright!

Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch 2

alberto@gamereactor.eu (Alberto Garrido) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0100

Bethesda is one of the longest-running companies in the video game industry, and Fallout has played a big part in elevating its team and leaving it in the prominent position it now occupies. Even so many years later, I still vividly remember that conference at E3 2015 where Todd Howard presented Fallout 4, which looked absolutely ground-breaking, and which arrived in November of that same year. However, upon its release, fans were divided between those who enjoyed the experience and those who complained about the low difficulty and bugs, a scourge that no release from the studio has been spared, even though the vast majority were later patched.

Fallout 4, and here I'm getting personal, was a fantastic game for me. I enjoyed the journey through the Commonwealth and the new features introduced in the V.A.T.S. system, although I found the settlement building and Minutemen aspects less impressive (perhaps due to the bugs on PS4 at the time). Despite everything, I have fond memories of it. I replayed the "third act" several times to see all the endings and devoured all the DLC that came out. But after that, I felt there was no need to replay it. All that was left was to wait for the next instalment.

Eleven years later, we are still waiting (and will continue to wait) for Fallout 5, but in recent times we have been able to quench our thirst for the radioactive post-apocalypse with the resurgence of Fallout 76 (if you like to play online) and, above all, with the magnificent television adaptation by Amazon Prime Video, which continues to expand the rich lore of the series. When it came to bringing Fallout 4 into the future, however, things didn't go so well. The Anniversary Edition that arrived a few months ago on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series was a monumental disaster that still hurts our colleague Kim, but now Bethesda has got its act together. I'm happy and relieved to say that if you were thinking of trying Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on any platform, the best option right now is Nintendo Switch 2.

The secret lies precisely in the hardware features of Switch 2. There are now several performance modes, and they all work like a charm. In both portable mode and Docked mode, you can reach 60 fps, although the smoothest and best visual experience is in the 40 fps range. It's inevitable to notice some motion blur and static in certain dialogues, but nothing that a small patch won't fix soon. The best thing is that this is one of those cases where a Bethesda release arrives polished. That's right, after 10 hours of gameplay, not a single crash, not a single bug, not a single excessive loading block, nothing. And this, of course, completely changes my perception of this Anniversary Edition. Now it really is the best way to embody the Sole Survivor of Vault 111.

Once the technical hurdle is overcome, players new to Fallout 4 will find a fascinating narrative and an excellent combat system, as well as many, many hours of gameplay. The Far Harbour, Automatron, and Nuka-World expansions add new stories and places to visit, and the Workshop, Vault-Tec and Wasteland upgrades allow you to customise outfits, weapons and bases. And if that weren't enough, the real icing on the cake is the inclusion of 150 Creation Club mods, ranging from new outfits and weapons to new quests and characters to find in the Commonwealth Wasteland.

In short, Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 has not only avoided the serious problems that plagued the game on other platforms, but it is now positioned as the most interesting option for playing the title (whether again or for the first time), and I am sure that many viewers of the television series and Nintendo users will find it well worth the price. Now, Bethesda, well done.

Neva Prologue

ketil@gamereactor.eu (Ketil Skotte) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0100

In recent years, I have become increasingly fond of expansions for games that I really enjoy. This is probably because games now take so long to develop that creative visions come and go during the development period. Therefore, a solid expansion can serve as a tasty appetiser while the main course simmers in the kitchen. The Lake House for Alan Wake 2, Valhalla for God of War: Ragnarök, Burning Shores for Horizon Forbidden West, and Shadow of the Erdtree for Elden Ring have all brought new perspectives to the main game in an excellent way. So when Nomada announced Neva Prologue during last week's State of Play, I was pretty excited. Neva was among my personal favourites in 2024, but I hadn't expected to see more of the universe or play anything from Nomada for another 3-4 years.

But sometimes it's nice to be wrong, because even though Neva Prologue doesn't feel like an absolute necessity and could have used a little more meat on its bones, it's wonderful to be back with Neva and Alba, and one section stands out so strongly that it alone is worth the low price tag.

As the title suggests, Neva Prologue takes place before the main game, but since the difficulty level is higher than it was at any point in the main game, you should not start with it. If you haven't played Neva (the main game, that is), you might want to skip ahead and read our review here. But if you're in a hurry or feeling lazy, here's a quick introduction.

Neva is a 2D action-adventure game that combines platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving with an emotional story in one of the most beautiful packages you can imagine. Here we follow the woman Alba and her wolf friend Neva, who together try to free the land from a dark corruption that is very reminiscent of Kaonashi from Chihiro and the Witches.

In Neva Prologue, we get the story of how the two met. When Alba met Neva, if you will. It starts off a bit slow. Alba chooses to venture into a swamp, where she eventually finds Neva and decides to take care of the young cub. The first half is not quite on par with Neva's finest moments visually, and even though new elements are introduced, it never really becomes captivating to play.

We get a trio of new threats in the form of some arms that reach up from underground and can be avoided by timing your jump correctly; an enemy that must be attacked from behind; and some balloon enemies that detonate when you hit them, but in return give you a height boost if you manage to hit them before that.

About halfway through, the main threat is introduced, and then things suddenly fall into place. There is a visually stunning escape sequence, a challenging boss fight, and then a rather long section that rivals the best of the main game. Here you find yourself among vaults that bring to mind an enormous cathedral. The music rises in intensity and suddenly the hall is illuminated, revealing new platforms that can only be used in the few seconds when the light is strongest. Here, mechanics, visuals, and sound come together and merge into a higher unity. Suddenly, it becomes clear that the theme of Neva Prologue is rhythm. The timing of dodging the arms from below was the first step and the illuminated halls are the culmination. It demands precision in your timing and activates your brain cells as you try to find the right route, and it looks incredibly beautiful and sounds fantastic. And when Nomada puts the icing on the cake with a combat sequence where enemies only appear when the room is illuminated, it becomes clear that they have a very special talent for combining emotion with clever design.

In this way, Neva Prologue ends powerfully, going from great to excellent. That said, the expansion still feels a bit short. Not in relation to the price tag, which is very low, rather in relation to sucking you into the world and activating you emotionally. The story of how the wolf and the woman met lacks the surprise and power that would make it feel like a necessity rather than a good excuse to return to the universe. And then I have to admit that, in my opinion, the higher difficulty level doesn't really suit a game like Neva, which is meant to be experienced rather than conquered.

That said, Neva Prologue is a lovely way to spend an hour and a half, and the section with the illuminated vaults will stay with me for a long time to come.

War in Spain 1936-39

patrik@gamereactor.eu (Patrik Severin) — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0100

The Spanish Civil War is probably one of the least explored historical conflicts in the media. For this reason, I felt compelled to review War in Spain 1936-39. In typical Matrix Games spirit, this is complex, challenging and difficult to master. What stands out in this edition is that it includes a land/air and ground-based system for troops based on War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition. If you haven't played it, you are of course forgiven, as it is one of Gary Grigsby's advanced simulators in the war strategy game genre. War in Spain 1936-39 never gets quite that complex, even though it draws inspiration from both game systems and user interfaces. Another highlight is that each hexagon represents 5 nautical miles, so in terms of scale, it's quite extensive despite a narrow historical and land-based focus.

The first thing I wondered when I started playing was what War in Spain 1936-39 is. In addition to being a war simulation of the civil war, it is also an attempt to recreate the history of a conflict we rarely see in the media. Although the production values for this title are quite low in some respects, such as sound, music and user interface, it is still an exciting experience. However, you need to be somewhat familiar with the genre, as it is quite difficult to just jump into. The manual for this game comes as an e-book of about 440 pages. It is good to glance at it from time to time while playing, even if you are more experienced. There is a learning curve, and it becomes clear when you look under the hood. Just moving things around and figuring out what, why and how can take some time if you haven't tried anything like this before. Despite its complexity, there is a lot to like about this game.

The menus contain a lot of information.

I love all the little pictures of the troop types, the historical map you move the troops on top of. All the information about each vehicle or weapon system. It's clear that Joint Warfare Simulations has put a lot of time into simulating this as accurately as possible. No matter what I throw at the opponent, there is a certain logic to the outcome. It doesn't matter if you play as the Nationalist or Republican side of the conflict. Even later in the conflict, when other superpowers contribute in different ways. For example, Germany supports Nationalist Spain during the conflict with aircraft, tanks and other equipment. These are also modelled after their historical counterparts in an appropriate manner.

The conflict begins in 1936, as does the game, with militias and small-scale troops. During the campaign, you build up a much more extensive and organised military. Over time, you can structure these troops into brigades and divisions. If you have played Hearts of Iron, you probably have an idea of how important this is. In the beginning, however, you need to deal with smaller units and use them in the best way possible. Even though you are locked into spending the campaign in Spain, there are other nations and actors that become involved in the conflict over time. Therefore, I recommend that you learn a little about the conflict before you start. This will allow you to get a better grasp of what is happening and why, even though you can change and influence history.

You have many tools and options to choose how your troops will behave and what they will do.

Emulating history in your campaign can sometimes be valuable; obtaining resources via ships, using aerial reconnaissance correctly, and exploiting the terrain are aspects that will help you defeat your opponent. Just as the conflict developed in reality, you also need to adapt your fighting forces and make changes over time. I quickly discovered how important it was to have a functioning air force even later in the campaign. It is important to conduct reconnaissance, carry out bombing raids and attack vulnerable troops. I also realised quite quickly that if you knock out the enemy's fleets, you can gain a significant advantage on land. You almost always have the tools, and you do best by using them in smart, clever or appropriate ways. That is, of course, also the intention of the troop battles.

In addition to a grand campaign that lets you experience the entire conflict, there are smaller scenarios. These take place on islands or at important battles during the course of the conflict. They provide a more focused perspective on individual events. You also have access to a training mode that helps you navigate the relative complexity of the title. In addition to this, there is also a level editor that allows you to customise and create your own scenarios to share or play yourself. It's a pretty complete offering. However, I would have liked to see a few more scenarios. My suspicion is that this is future downloadable content for the title.

The level editor is excellent and offers many tools to tailor your own scenarios.

The game itself offers a multiplayer mode where you and a friend can battle each other as opposing sides. It is also possible to play via email if you wish, as titles offered in the past during the 90s. I am quite satisfied with this offering for what it is. However, I am not entirely satisfied with the user interface. It feels noticeably outdated in this title. I think it takes more clicks to do things than it should. In practice, this means that you spend a lot of time in the menus to do simple things. It reminds me a lot of what war strategy games looked like in the 2000s and 2010s. Although this is functional, it is sometimes difficult to navigate and you are presented with a lot of information in a way that sometimes makes it difficult to digest.

Terrain, troop types, weather - everything is simulated, and you can find information about everything in the game and its instruction manual.

Both the map on which the troops are deployed and the icons are, unlike the user interface, excellent. I like how accurate and detailed the map of Spain is. It's clear that a lot of time has been spent designing a good world. However, this contrast between the game level and the user interface is nothing new for products from Slitherine and Matrix Games, but I think they need to consider whether they can modernise it a little. What I mean is not a loss of complexity, but making it more readable, allowing you to do what you want to do with fewer clicks and find relevant information more quickly. I want to fight the battle on the battlefield, not with the user interface itself. If Paradox can do it, I believe that this publisher and their developers can do it in a way that does not reduce the complexity of the titles.

The title also performs quite well; it is a turn-based war strategy game with hexagons, and you don't need a powerful computer to play it. The size of the game is also quite small compared to modern games. It is a fairly compact package with a lot to offer. I also like that the rounds simulate one day at a time, which contributes to the length being relatively good. The replay value is also quite good thanks to two distinct sides with different driving characters and ideologies. Although the focus is on units and troop types, other countries will support you more depending on which side of the conflict you are on. For example, Hitler's Germany will not support the Republican side of the conflict. The reverse is true, of course, for the Soviet Union at this point in time. However, their entry into the conflict means that you gain access to unique troop types and vehicles for each faction.

Both boat battles and air battles have short visual sequences where you can see them in pictures and what they do.

As someone who appreciates history, I get to see things I didn't know about or aspects of the conflict that I want to read more about. The joy of exploring a period of time and wanting to find more information is here. Some of the developers behind the project had relatives who fought in the civil war, and it's clear that this is a labour of love. Although the production values are sometimes extremely low in terms of sound and music, the art is beautiful, the troop types are carefully researched, and the campaigns I have tested do not usually degenerate into strange scenarios. I also think that the computer opposition offers decent resistance, which is somewhat unique for the genre as it creates its own scripts depending on the needs. It adapts and adjusts its strategies depending on what you do. Of course, there is room for improvement in this area as well. I found that it sometimes did some crazy things, even though I like the idea behind this system. If you are a regular player of the genre and like historical variants, this is a good title and a recommendation. However, you will have to struggle a bit with an outdated and cumbersome user interface. On the other hand, it is not a game that I would recommend for those new to the genre.

I like the pictures of the troops and all the detailed information about ammunition, weapon types and other things.
Boats are more important than you initially think, and you need to take care of your fleet.

Reigns: The Witcher

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:00:00 +0100

You have to give credit to developer Nerial for coming up with a gameplay formula as simple and easy to understand as that of Reigns. This short-form adventure strategy game is essentially about making choice-after-choice in the hope of surviving as long as you possibly can and it's a formula that has been adapted from the original idea into branded collaborations like with Game of Thrones and also into other historical settings like the Three Kingdoms of China. Accessible on PC but also mobile, where in my eyes this series actually shines brightest, Nerial has managed to land another big fish and combined the basic brilliance of Reigns with the exceptional fantasy universe of The Witcher.

If you played the Game of Thrones edition and thought that was Reigns at its finest, you'll be similarly impressed with the structuring of Reigns: The Witcher. The premise hasn't changed at all. You stare at cards with short challenges to overcome and you must select one outcome or the other depending on how it fits where you want to lead the story. The caveat is that you have to survive as long as possible, but this is far from easy as the four key attributes change with every choice you make.

For example, a human lord might ask for help in dealing with a Scoia'tael agent, wherein your choices are to ignore their pleas and upset the human faction or accept their request and upset the non-human faction. There's rarely a choice that works well for all involved and even when you do come across unanimously positive options, it's never usually to the benefit of Geralt, as the aim isn't about pleasing everyone but keeping these attributes firmly centred. At the end of the day, a Witcher is no ally to humans, non-humans, or magic-users first and foremost, as rather a Witcher moves through the land drenched in impartiality. If you find yourself too kind to magic-wielders (at the end of the day, it's hard to say no to Yennefer and Triss), Geralt will ultimately find himself dying a hedonistic death, which one could argue is better than being lynched by an angry human mob but that at the end of the day has the same outcome in Geralt's adventures coming to an abrupt end.

As you can see, like past Reigns titles, this The Witcher edition is also about politics and balancing the expectations of all the three key parties. The main difference here when compared to prior instalments in the series is that the fourth and final attribute is Witcher-specific. Each decision you make that benefits or harms Witcher-kind will rise and lower this attribute, where seeing it hit rock bottom is a massive problem but seeing it cap out won't actually result in immediate death and instead will lead to an incoming fight, typically with a monster. This is an extremely basic encounter where you move Geralt's icon left and right across a grid to avoid incoming damage tiles all while attempting to land on attack tiles so you can strike back. Think on the lines of Guitar Hero, if it was scaled back to its very, very most rudimentary. It's a pleasant break from the card-swiping gameplay, but hardly a feature that will have you singing with glee.

But anyway, what's actually the narrative thread that ties this game together, you ask? It's The Witcher and as you may expect, any story worth a damn in this universe is performed by the legendary (and totally humble) bard Dandelion. You don't actually play as Geralt of Rivia in this game, as the plot is basically that Dandelion tells stories where Geralt is the main character, and these stories are what you experience, hence why events that otherwise have never happened happen and why the traditionally wise and wary Witcher dies a host of grisly deaths in this game. This idea is also how the different card modifiers are applied, as you will have to contort your approach to each story depending on the three cards laid out prior, with this being Tarot-like elements that depict a certain narrative premise. It could be Geralt the Eternal, Geralt the Comedian, Geralt the Lover, the list goes on, and the idea is that each card has a way to 'complete' it by exploring narrative elements that are only present when this card is used for a 'run'. And why would you complete a card? As you complete cards, you will earn experience to level up Dandelion and unlock new cards, and each completed card provides the bard with new inspirations for stories he tells to those that book him for jobs.

This brings me to the final layer worthy of note in Reigns: The Witcher. Dandelion's performances happen every so often and this is where you find yourself taking to different castles and towns to weave a tale based on what the organiser is searching for. One individual may want a tale about how nasty Witchers are, leading Dandelion to whip out stories based on Geralt's gullible nature, love of monsters, and hatred of humans, each being threads based on your completed cards. This is a mini narrative game where it's about selecting the right card based on the text-based dialogue laid out, which is ultimately similar to the main Reigns format but at the same time highly unique. Like the combat, it works fine but you also won't be crying in the town square about how revolutionary this feature is.

Nerial has done a wonderful job at bringing The Witcher into Reigns, with an effective use of the wider narrative, monsters, characters, political allegiances, and such, plus the music, sound effects, and visual direction all feel as though they could belong in one of CD Projekt Red's games. The best comparison I can think of about the way this game looks is if The Witcher had a Fort Condor-like mode from Final Fantasy VII. That's the vibe that this Reigns title gives off.

But all in all, Reigns: The Witcher is just more Reigns. If you still find this gameplay formula fun and entertaining, there's a lot to love, but if you think it could use a more significant overhaul, this instalment won't exactly impress you much more that the other highly similar chapters did. It's incredibly easy to pick up, doesn't demand much time at all to blast through a run, and it works like a charm on mobile devices. You could say that this is the ultimate commuting video game and if you're looking for something to fill such a void, you won't go too far wrong here. That being said, if you're desperate for anything more from The Witcher to tie you over until The Witcher 4 in a few years, you probably won't find all too many hours of entertainment here before deciding to move on.

Resident Evil Requiem for Nintendo Switch 2

david@gamereactor.eu (David Caballero) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:10:13 +0100

I'm not going to talk too much here about what a great game Resident Evil Requiem is, both as the ninth instalment in the quintessential survival horror series (and celebrating its 30th anniversary) and in terms of its quality as a modern zombie, scare and action game. For that, you're better off reading the full review of Resident Evil Requiem by Ben Lyons on Gamereactor.

I'll just say briefly that I agree with all the points, pros and cons highlighted by my colleagues, and that I also loved its balance between two styles (although I like to see it as three: Resident Evil 2, 4 and 7). One thing that fascinates me is how aware Capcom is of its own fiction and how it takes advantage of it. It's not just a very successful classic and modern game design; it's knowing how to put to good use the rules that it has been establishing for three decades.

We're not blind: Resident Evil Requiem looks great on Switch 2.

Back in 1996, the first Resident Evil delighted users of the first PlayStation (and later Saturn, both with their CD-ROMs), and despite the tremendous effort involved in releasing the second instalment on a Nintendo 64 cartridge, it was in the GameCube era that Capcom cultivated a fervent community of Nintendo fans. The brilliant and pioneering Resident Evil Remake, the exclusive Resident Evil Zero prequel, and above all the groundbreaking Resident Evil 4 made the genre a favourite for users of the Kyoto-based manufacturer. But at the turn of that generation, Nintendo decided to stop competing in the race for raw power and leave it to others, which, despite Capcom's constant adaptations (with a strong presence on Wii and 3DS), left its players without the newest entries, or having to deal with the cloud on the first Switch. Until today.

Don't miss: The 5 best Resident Evil games of all time

Resident Evil Re9uiem for Switch 2 marks the first time a Nintendo console has received a numbered main instalment since those days of RE4 at the beginning of the century, and once again features its most representative face (Leon S. Kennedy) on the cover. Best of all, it confirms what the more than worthy adaptations of Resident Evil: Biohazard (7) and Resident Evil: Village (8) on Nintendo Switch 2 had been suggesting: all three, the complete trilogy, are fully playable and thoroughly enjoyable on this compact and therefore limited hardware.

The character models are well done and detailed, but their hair looks technically outdated.

This is no longer the story of the past with Doom or The Witcher on Switch 1. There are compromises, of course, but they haven't stopped me from having a great time, feeling the tension and fear, or moving smoothly and accurately. Granted, those aliased green grasses (like many other items when you examine them) cut more than Leon's axe. Granted, there may be a slight hiccup when entering some areas. Granted, Grace and other characters haven't had their hair styled with a Dyson in this version, in the most glaring element of the whole. Granted, the backgrounds and props may look a tad blurry, or the DLSS tasks may give themselves away by trying to scale something more pixelated to keep everything running smoothly.

But really, if you like the Switch 2 experience (or its predecessor, or a Steam Machine-style handheld), believe me when I say that it's not disappointing at all. We'll soon be publishing our graphics and gameplay comparisons so you can see how you have to look at the finer details and more advanced effects to find the most glaring differences with the other consoles.

Although the collected objects have jagged edges, important documents with interesting details are perfectly visible.

The game loads at full speed on Switch 2 and includes all the HDR options, achievements, and surround sound with adjustable positions you'd expect from a modern title, even if these terms unfortunately sound a bit unheard of on Nintendo consoles. The subtle stereo vibrations when running with Grace are top-notch, and the motion aiming is satisfying and takes you back to the days of the Wii and 3DS (we don't understand why it's not enabled by default, even on PS5; in fact, it's quite hidden). And by the way, this version is also very, very polished and optimised, with no trace of the many bugs, glitches and other issues we found in RE4R at launch.

For all these reasons, I highly recommend Resident Evil Requiem for anyone who only has a Switch 2 or who particularly enjoys switching from TV to handheld mode (with headphones, of course). If you're not looking for maximum fidelity and visual luxuries above all else, this is a very serious port that knows where to make sacrifices and therefore retains the shock value and immersion of the lead version, a great job by Capcom and automatically one of the best games in the Nintendo Switch 2's young catalogue.

All screens have been captured with Switch 2's (compressed and just 1080p) built-in feature. The same applies to the video of three kills with a single shot from the Requiem, reduced to 30 fps.
Left: Is he completely dead? You never know...The settings and atmosphere (especially the lighting) are up to par on Nintendo Switch 2.

Resident Evil Requiem

ben@gamereactor.eu (Ben Lyons) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

What a ride. That's the best possible way that I can begin this review. Capcom has once again proved why Resident Evil continues to be a fan-favourite and acclaimed series, perhaps the video game horror series by which all others must be judged. For this sake of this review, I don't intend to beat around the bush; the latest and ninth mainline chapter, Resident Evil Requiem, is a fantastic example of why this series continues to thrive, it's a truly great experience that will have you smiling with glee, quivering with fear, and pumping a fist in the air out of thrill. But just because it hits all of these core tenets doesn't mean that Requiem is an unfaltering chapter, as it does have its vices and cracks. Yet, if fun is how you judge a video game, this game offers that in droves.

You see, I don't actually envy Capcom and the task they have of making new Resident Evil games. I say this because there are effectively two schools of thought for the series, with one revolving around fear and being at the mercy of deadly monsters often driven by a love of Resident Evil 2, and then the desire to kickass and fight these monsters as a fearless 80s-like action star, mostly driven by a love of Resident Evil 4. It's with this in mind that making a Resident Evil game is never a simple feat, as the series must continue to cater to these two audiences, something very, very apparent in Requiem too.

The opening phase of this game, the first couple of levels in the Wrenwood Hotel and the Clinic offer some of the finest horror-themed moments the series has ever delivered. Grace Ashcroft is a fine vessel of a protagonist, but it's the atmosphere, level design, tight ammo economy, enemy types, and overwhelming sense of danger that make these portions of the wider game stand out. During the first few hours, I started to develop an impression that Capcom had designed Requiem as more of a tribute to Resident Evil 2 (something that connects with me deeply), prioritising horror and fear above action, despite having Leon S. Kennedy as a playable protagonist too. This part of the wider game is exceptionally well put together, hitting all of the trademark series beats and elements, be that compact inventory and limited resource management, backtracking and Metroidvania-like progression, compelling but never overtly hard puzzles that offer worthwhile rewards, all while that niggling fear follows you around and makes you concerned about what every corner, crack, and crevice may hide. This part of Requiem is vintage Resident Evil at its finest, showing that when it's at its best, there are very few series that can match what this titan can achieve.

But then things change as the story progresses as Leon takes the wheel from Grace. Whether it's wandering the halls of the Clinic or even the dilapidated streets of Raccoon City, perhaps your favourite Resident Evil hero returns as fans of Resident Evil 4 know and love him, slaying zombies and monsters without remorse and roundhouse kicking anything that disagrees with him. It's a huge departure from the gut-wrenching horror stages as Grace, as Leon is actively encouraged to slay anything remotely villainous, serving up action scenes and set pieces that rival even what some of the more action-oriented chapters of the series offered. If you prefer the more horror-styled approach, this might rub you the wrong way, but it actually works really effectively, both as a reprieve from the crushing fear sections but also because Leon remains a timeless and excellent character all these years later. His action hero quips and jokes, his indomitable drive and fearless nature, his neverending battle to protect those who need his strength, Leon is a hugely admirable hero and one that you can't help but love being reunited with.

Granted, there are moments where I think Capcom goes a bit too far, in the same way that Resident Evil 4 has scenes that come across as too ridiculous for even Resident Evil. As much as I love fighting chainsaw zombies and mutated blobs of flesh as Leon, seeing our action hero engage in a high-speed motorcycle chase that most closely resembles Cloud's first battle with Roche in Final Fantasy VII, it comes across as a bit too polarising for what Requiem otherwise wants to be.

Likewise, from a gameplay perspective, there are always a few kinks that you'd like to see ironed out, be that certain puzzles that feel too obscure for even their own good, item economy that can sometimes make you wildly run through areas out of sheer desperation due to lack of tools, plus the boss fights in Requiem do leave a bit to be desired compared to former chapters. I know stalkers can be suffocating, but there were times where it felt like this game lacked that oppressive force making me rush and do things I otherwise would delicately plot out. Ultimately, a lot of these criticisms are fairly trivial, and I can appreciate what Capcom wanted to achieve with the action-horror split too, but I also can't help but think it should have been more of one or the other all the way through.

On a more positive note, time must be spent highlighting the RE Engine once again, as this continues to be one of the gaming world's most impressive pieces of tech. Capcom can make this engine work in all manner of different series and the end result is mostly always stunning and effective with Requiem being just the latest example. This game is astoundingly pretty and plays like a dream on PS5. The visuals and performance are top of the line and I only ever encountered one noticeable bug, with this being a very, very minor visual mishap where a shotgun sling effectively T-posed and stood erect. Otherwise, my experience with Requiem was flawless.

Long story short, Requiem is nothing but an excellent horror video game but just how much you love it may depend on what school of thought you fit into for Resident Evil games as a whole. I adore Leon as a hero, but I would have liked to see Grace get a bit more of the spotlight and for Capcom to give us a little extra of the vintage Metroidvania-like levels that require you to solve puzzles and find creative ways to progress. More of a 60-40 split between Grace and Leon would have suited me perfectly, but I do also understand that there will be many RE4 fans out there that appreciate exactly how Requiem is set up and how it caters to what they regard as the perfect way to put together a title in this series. Again, these are trivial criticisms in the grand scheme of things.

Regardless of where you stand on this spectrum, regardless of how picky you can be about the Resident Evil formula, it's very, very clear that Resident Evil Requiem is a brilliant and memorable horror game, a well put together latest chapter that will have fans eager for whatever Capcom has in store for the next adventure. It's only February and we already have a couple of excellent horror games to appreciate, and with Capcom's latest offering, there's a very high chance that we'll be talking about Grace and Leon's adventure once more later this year when the awards cycle begins, as this is a wonderful title and one that you shouldn't and cannot miss. Bravo, Capcom, bravo.