Ten Great Games That Desperately Need Sequels

With so many popular video-game franchises receiving sequel upon sequel, it can sometimes be easy to forget that there are a whole bunch of really decent titles that never had a chance to finish their story, as it were. As such, here are ten great games that we feel are in desperate need of the sequel treatment. 

Alien: Isolation

Arguably one of the best games to ever be based on the Alien movie franchise, along with earning numerous awards as one of the very best survival horror efforts full stop, Alien: Isolation remains a masterclass in fostering a truly oppressive atmosphere where death can be waiting around the corner and effective stealth is paramount. More than that, however, Alien: Isolation excelled because it channelled the 80s aesthetic of the movies like nothing else before it, with all manner of faulty lighting, dark passageways filled with extensive dark piping, colourful old-fashioned keyboards and circular monitor displays to name just a few. In short, Alien: Isolation was fantastic and with the game celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, surely there’s no better time to announce a sequel. Right, SEGA?

Bloodborne

Widely acknowledged as one of the best games of the last decade, and a superlative entry in the Soulslike subgenre, Bloodborne’s delectable combination of Lovecraftian aesthetics, fiendish level design and superbly deep (yet unforgiving) combat ensured that From Software’s PlayStation exclusive effort would linger long in the hearts and minds of those who experienced it. Certainly up there with Elden Ring in terms of player affection – if not more so simply because of the sheer amount of time that has passed since Bloodborne’s 2015 release – a sequel to Bloodborne would set the industry alight and it’s a crying shame that it still hasn’t happened as I scribble this. One can hope, eh?

Bully

Representing something of a departure from all of the open world, ultraviolent crime capers that typified Rockstar Games output in the 2000s, Bully (or ‘Canis Canem Edit’ if you happen to live in the UK), instead shifted gears to the classroom, casting players as James “Jimmy” Hopkins, a troubled teen that looked to navigate the murky cliques and dysfunctional adults of his life in boarding school. With its much more linear trappings and a darkly funny, though still quite adult narrative that spanned across a full school year, Bully’s third-person action-adventure shenanigans felt like a breath of fresh air at its release in 2006, thanks in no small part to its refreshing setting that few games have attempted mimic since its release. With Bully’s twentieth anniversary fast approaching and constant rumours swirling about a potential sequel being locked in the bowels of development hell, it’s fair to say that a second Bully title is desperately needed.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

The most recent entry in a pioneering first-person cyberpunk action RPG that goes all the way back to the early 2000s, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, though not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, nonetheless crafted an immersive cyberpunk world filled with complex conspiracies, personal stories and philosophical musings about what it means to be human. Throw in some eye-popping visuals, an emphasis on non-linear storytelling and progression, together with the hybrid first-person shooter and stealth elements, and it’s clear that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and well the series at large, is crying out for a continuation. With the recent redemption and newfound success of Cyberpunk 2077, one would think that the market has never been more ripe for Deus Ex to continue but alas, a new entry in the beloved series does not seem to be in the cards.

Disco Elysium

Elevated to ludicrous heights on account of its peerless world-building, sardonic dialogue, brilliantly written characters and tabletop-esque RPG sensibilities, Disco Elysium is an outstanding, isometric RPG that puts players in the shoes of a detective who must solve a murder with far-reaching ramifications for society at large. The kicker, however, is that the player protagonist is a walking mess of a person who is constantly at war with himself, his vices and his inner voices. Stuffed to the gills with witty, incisive writing and filled with bizarre characters, Disco Elysium is one of the most entertaining yarns to come along in a long, long time and an effort that is utterly deserving of an encore. Sadly with the well-publicised turmoil at developer ZA/UM making the news rounds just a few months ago, a sequel to Disco Elysium seems further away than it ever has been. Sorry folks.

L.A. Noire

Coming from the now defunct Team Bondi, L.A. Noire deftly tapped into the detective noir genre that Hollywood works such as L.A. Confidential and The Blue Dahlia managed to exemplify so well on the big screen. Set in a beautifully realised post-war Los Angeles, L.A. Noire is a third-person detective adventure that has you solving crimes the old-fashioned way – by examining clues, interrogating suspects and engaging in raucous shootouts with bad folk who really don’t want to be taken alive. With Team Bondi no longer around and L.A. Noire sitting near the bottom of publisher Rockstar Games’ to-do list, it doesn’t seem likely that we will get the L.A. Noire sequel that many of us have been waiting for.

NieR:Automata

Yoko Taro’s NieR:Automata was that rare sequel that didn’t just surpass its predecessor, but entirely reinvigorated the series in utterly unexpected ways, bringing NieR to millions of new players and earning a decent share of Game of the Year nods into the bargain. NieR:Automata deserved all of that success and then some too, with its pixel-perfect third-person combat, riveting exploration of a genuinely fascinating dystopian machine world, esoteric characters and a range of very different and surprising endings that give the game legs far beyond its initial playthrough. Though there have been rumblings of a follow-up to NieR: Automata, the fact that it hasn’t yet happened in the seven years or so since 2B and friends stormed onto our screens back in 2017, is something of a travesty in and of itself.

Prey

Owing a debt to not just the Dishonored titles that came before it but also Looking Glass Technologies’ superb System Shock games, Arkane’s Prey whisked players off to the Talos I space station where a pioneering experiment has gone wrong, resulting in the breakout of a murderous alien menace that can co-opt the physical properties of other objects. Equal parts visceral and thoughtful with an atmosphere that can be cut with a knife, Prey is regarded by many as Arkane’s finest hour. The fact that it has yet to receive a full sugar sequel (Prey did receive some DLC, conversely) still doesn’t sit well with us more than six years since its original release.

Sleeping Dogs

With a market seemingly saturated by open-world extravaganzas such as Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, developer United Front Games needed to make Sleeping Dogs stand out from the crowd and boy-howdy did they ever succeed. Set in modern-day Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs puts players in the well-worn shoes of Wei Shen, an undercover police officer tasked with taking down the Triad gangs ruling the city. Where Sleeping Dogs separates itself from its peers, however, is in the bone-breakingly tremendous martial arts combat system, which feels at once an ode to the Hong Kong kung-fu films of old while also meaningfully iterating upon the satisfying environmental combat systems of contemporary action games. It’s great stuff, to say the least, and the fact that Sleeping Dogs also provides such an evocative take on Hong Kong further helps to elevate it in ways that its genre-stablemates cannot compete with. Honestly, not making a Sleeping Dogs sequel is leaving big fat and very tall stacks of money on the table and yet, here we are.

The Order: 1886

One of the PlayStation 4’s most opulent launch titles, The Order: 1886 was much more than just an exercise in hardware-taxing eye candy. A visually arresting third-person cover shooter set in an alternate Victorian London infested with werewolves and other such dark creatures, The Order: 1886 did a great job of building a world oozing with potential, fully enveloping players in its fantastical setting that had them using weapons created by Nikola Tesla(!) to take down the creatures of the night. Annoyingly, The Order: 1886 not only finished on something of a cliffhanger, but the quality of the world-building and lore hinted at a setting that expanded far beyond what players could see in the game, resulting in a double whammy of disappointment that nearly a decade later, we’re still without something resembling closure.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail – The Story So Far

With more than a decade on the books, FINAL FANTASY XIV certainly has a substantial amount of lore behind it. Though an impressive feat, having such a weighty chunk of lore embedded into FINAL FANTASY XIV can make acclimating to the latest expansions quite tricky for those who aren’t intimately familiar with the story. So with FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail now upon us, we’ve crafted this handy, albeit somewhat abridged primer to bring you up to date with the main narrative beats ahead of your adventures in the new lands of Tural.

NOTE: It goes without saying there are heavy spoilers for all the FINAL FANTASY XIV expansions below. If you aren’t fully up to date, we recommend bookmarking this page and coming back to it once you are ready.

FINAL FANTASY XIV – Pre-Realms Reborn Story Overview

Prior to the Realms Reborn story, which kicked off the current era of FINAL FANTASY XIV as we know it, the curtain rises on the fantasy realm of Eorzea, a land that was once ruled by the technologically advanced civilisation of Allagan, whose powerful creations include an enigmatic celestial body by the name of Dalamud. Craving all that power for their own ends, the ruthless Garlean Empire invades Eorzea and manages to take over Ala Mhigo, a key city state in far eastern Eorzea which it then uses as a temporary seat of power within the realm. Soon, however, the surrounding townships, enclaves and city-states join forces to begin to fight back in a bid to restore peace to Eorzea once more.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Realms Reborn Story Overview

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Realms Reborn ushered in a whole new era for the world of Eoreza and takes place some five years after the Galean invasion, casting players as the Warrior of Light, a holy champion of sorts that has been blessed by Hydaelyn, one of Eoreza’s most benevolent gods. After being awoken by a mysterious masked cultist and having carved a path through Eorzea with a group of companions, the Warrior of Light soon joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, a mysterious conclave of fighters whose sole goal is to vanquish the Primals, a horde of monsters that have found themselves manifested into existence by those with a heart of darkness.

After laying waste to a fair share of Primals and uncovering a range of Garlean plans to take over the continent, it is discovered that the masked cultist who woke up our protagonist, in the beginning, goes by the name of Lahabrea and is an Ascian, the remnant of an ancient race. Worse still, it appears that not only has Lahabrea been pulling the strings behind the Garlean Empire to invade Eoreza, but he’s been doing so to weaken the realm so that Dalamud – which isn’t actually a moon but a massive suspended prison for the dragon deity Bahamut – can be broken open, allowing Bahamut to purge the entire world. As Realms Reborn heads into its endgame, the player and their group eventually defeat Lahabrea and the Ultima Weapon that he had at his disposal. Meanwhile, the Dalamud tumbles from the heavens, resulting in Bahamut freeing himself and preparing to unleash a devastating attack upon the realm. Luckily, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn intervene and together with the divine power of Hydaelyn, the group manages to protect Eoreza from most of the blast – though not quite all of it – resulting in an event known as the ‘Calamity’ and a realm that is now irrevocably changed.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward Story Overview

With the Calamity now in the history books, the people of Eorzea start to rebuild the land in earnest, though there is seemingly no part of the realm that does not tell the tale of the events chronicled in Realms Reborn. Amidst this, the player comes across the Holy See of Ishgard, a city-state that serves as the primary setting for FINAL FANTASY XIV’s Heavensward expansion. Soon enough, the player not only discovers that Ishgard has been locked in an ongoing conflict with a race of dragons, but within Ishgard itself a conspiracy has been forming to ensure that the war continues to endure indefinitely. After uncovering the conspiracy and ensuring the beginnings of a peaceful co-existence between Ishgard and the dragons, it becomes known that the Warriors of Darkness have entered Eoreza and mirror the skills, abilities and powers of the player character and their group.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood Story Overview

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood opens with the player and their group travelling to Doma, a nation composed of Ninja and Samurai that was invaded by the Garlean Empire twenty-five years prior. Forming the crux of the Stormblood expansion, the Warriors of Light side with resistance forces in Doma in order to overthrow their imperial oppressors, uncovering not just remarkable acts of cruelty by the brutal Garlean forces, but also a number of struggles within Doma itself which threaten the rebellion at large. Soon after the Doman rebellion casts out the Garlean regime, the Warriors of Light come into contact with the Warriors of Darkness, with the latter revealing that they come from a world that is threatened by an all-consuming evil and implores the player and their group to aid them in fighting back, thus taking us into the Shadowbringers era of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers Story Overview

In FINAL FANTASY XIV’s third expansion, the Warriors of Light embark on a journey to the First, a mirror-realm of Eoreza that is not only eternally shrouded in darkness, but is also a world where Light is an evil force that destroys everything in its path. On the First, the player and their group acquaint themselves with Ardbert, a former Warrior of Darkness who failed in his bid to prevent the Flood of Light and the devastation that followed in the First. Ardbert reveals that the reason for the light’s encroaching dominance in the First is due to the presence of the Lightwardens, once noble heroes who were manipulated by the Ascians. Forced to fight back, the player and their group ally with the Cystarium, a conclave constructed by rebellious elements on the First that do everything in their power to fight the Light. Chief among their responsibilities is to banish the Sin-Eaters, grotesque monsters that have come into existence as the result of individuals who suffer overexposure to the Light.

After battling through and reaching Vauthry, the leader of the Lightwardens, the player and their group defeat him, but realise that in doing so the additional Light from the conflict could transform the player into a supreme Lightwarden in the process. Struggling to fight the transformation, Graha Tia – a longtime ally of the group that is revealed to be the Crystal Exarch – sacrifices himself to stave off the Light’s influence, allowing the player and their group to devise a plan to nullify the Flood of Light and bring stability to the First. Though this results in the defeat of the final Lightwarden, it also leaves the realm’s fate unclear as the Light’s influence still remains.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker Story Overview

After the events chronicled in the Shadowbringers expansion, the Scions return from the First to continue their war against the Garlean Empire and reveal that the Final Days – an apocalyptic event that occurred in the past – is now set to repeat once more on Eoreza. Through the story of the Endwalker expansion it is revealed that the Ascians aren’t villains at all, but rather tragic beings that have been forced into a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth and look to the player and their group to finally break that cycle and end the Final Days once and for all.

Seeking to maintain this cycle is Zodiark, a physical manifestation of the Final Days whose sole cause is to ensure that the world is ended and once more born anew. As the player and the Scions fight Zodiark and grapple with the notion of defying destiny, Zodiark is eventually defeated, though many heroes fall in battle in the process. With both Eoreza and the First seemingly saved for now, the story which began with Realms Reborn is essentially concluded, though the scars of all the wars that have been fought upon the world remain and provide a haunting reminder of the sacrifices that were made.

Now you are all up to date on the decades worth of story underpinning FINAL FANTASY XIV, why not prepare for your adventure into the lands of Tural when you purchase FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail from the Green Man Gaming store.

The Best Games Like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

The best games like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will let you enjoy the wonders of anime-haired protagonists, teenage angst, an abundance of characters, even more abilities, and possibly a god battle or two. There are just an uncountable number of games out there nowadays, but thankfully one of the things that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes seems to be aiming for is a hit of nostalgia. 

With that in mind, we’ve made a list of the best games like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes to kill some time with until you can pick it up. As a nice little bonus, a lot of games on this list are also a little older, which means they tend to be a little cheaper, so it’s a win-win. Anyway, who likes lists?

Best Games Like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

It’s worth noting that the best games like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes are all in the Suikoden series. However, we have omitted them because it’s tough to play those games on modern-day hardware (even though Konami has announced they’re doing a remaster). With that in mind, here’s our list.

OCTOPATH TRAVELER II

Both OCTOPATH TRAVELER II and the original game are, like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, incredible RPGs that put you into a stunning world filled with fascinating characters, fantastical abilities, and some seriously frenetic battles. You get to choose which character you start as and then play through their story as you meet the other heroes and befriend them. It’s all about truly discovering new viewpoints and understandings of the world the game is set in. Plus, managing all of the heroes is a blast, and allows for some amazingly cool synergies too.

Chained Echoes

Chained Echoes was huge in 2023, primarily because it came out at the end of 2022 and everyone always sleeps on game releases that month. Chained Echoes is a nostalgia-filled 16-bit style RPG that’s filled with magic and mechs. Like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, you have to guide your party through a huge beautifully animated and orchestrated story. Just go and play it.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

Alright, technically speaking Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising isn’t all that much like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, but it is quite literally set in the same world, so we think it fits. Where Hundred Heroes is a turn-based affair, Rising is a far more action-focused outing. You’ll be wielding might and magic to take apart monsters and enemies while meeting a lot of the great characters the world has to offer. It’s smooth as butter, the art is great, and we like it a lot.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

The Legend of Heroes series is big. You might know a few other series that have numerous entries, but few come close to this behemoth. We’ve chosen The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie for this list because it’s a good representation of this immense RPG series, where, like in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, you follow along with amazing heroes as they become people worthy of legends, oh and also because it’s one of the newest entries in the series. The good news is that if you end up loving it – or any of the series – you’ve got roughly the rest of your life planned out when it comes to what to play next.

CHRONO TRIGGER

CHRONO TRIGGER is one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and despite being very nearly 30 years old, remains a testament to how good the genre can be. It not only tells an incredible time-twisting tale via some of the coolest characters you’re ever likely to meet but also features artwork from Akira Toriyama, making it innately cooler than most games can ever hope to be. The PC port is also very good, which always helps, but you can play this game in a myriad of ways given how long it’s been out.

What’s New In Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree

A full-fledged continuation to one of the best games of the current decade, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion looks set to broaden the horizons of From Software’s finest hour in ways that will surely delight players. From mystical new lands to new weapons, terrifying big bads and more, here’s what’s new in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

A New Narrative That Bridges From Elden Ring

Heavily hinted at during various points in the base Elden Ring game, Shadow of the Erdtree has players tracing the footsteps of the Empyrean demigod Miquella as he disappears into the Land of Shadow. Unfortunately for Miquella, who finds himself drawn into this realm by Queen Marika, the Land of Shadow finds itself presided over under the baleful gaze of Messmer the Impaler. An immensely powerful exiled demigod in his own right, he not only controls a massive serpent but can also manipulate fire and wields a gargantuan spear like no other. Though it hasn’t been quite confirmed yet, the focus that Messmer has been afforded in the latest trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree certainly suggests that he could be the big bad of this highly anticipated Elden Ring expansion.

Whether Messmer ends up being Shadow of the Erdtree’s apex baddie or not, it’s also clear that the role he plays in the Elden Ring expansion is central to the events that unfold. For a start, the description for the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer specifically mentions that the Land of Shadow was “set ablaze by Messmer’s flame’, while in that same trailer, we also hear a narrator say the words “those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer’s flame.” This all heavily suggests that Messmer is indeed a rather bad fella who not only wants to murder those who do not have the Grace of Gold, but likely the missing Miquella as well. Fun times are ahead for all, it would seem.

An All-New Land – The Land of Shadow 

As much as it is something of a shopworn cliche, the Lands Between, which served as the primary location for the events of Elden Ring, was as much a character as anything or anyone else in its narrative and that trend looks to continue in Shadow of the Erdtree. In Shadow of the Erdtree, wannabe Tarnished will find themselves whisked off to the Land of Shadow, an oddly incorporeal land that has been set apart from the Lands Between; think about the way that Atorias of the Abyss bolts onto Dark Souls and you’ll get a good idea of how the Land of Shadow exists atop the Lands Between.

In terms of sheer size, the Land of Shadow is at least the size of Limgrave – meaning that while Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t present a game world quite the same as the base Elden Ring game, it will nonetheless present a realm that is still of substantial size and filled with all of the nooks and crannies that will just beg to be explored. Indeed on that note, Miyazaki has recently confirmed to Eurogamer that that the Land of Shadow is From Software’s “largest expansion to date in terms of overall volume.”, so don’t expect to see everything that Shadow of the Erdtree has to offer in a single weekend.

When it comes to the structure of the Land of Shadow according to director Hidetaka Miyazaki, players should expect a sprawling landmass that is structured in a similar way to the Lands Between. This means that armchair adventurers should expect a familiar blend of open-world spaces and linear dungeons, albeit with a swathe of all-new monsters, traps and other fiendish elements that will only be revealed when players first sit down and play Shadow of the Erdtree. To reach the Land of Shadow, you must reach Mohgwyn Palace in the base Elden Ring game and approach Miquella’s withered arm, upon which a portal will appear, whisking you off to the Land of Shadow.

New Bosses, New Fighting Styles & Much More

Naturally being a somewhat sizable expansion to Elden Ring, it’s certainly fair to say that Shadow of the Erdtree will come packing a whole heap of additional bosses, gear and other such delights to keep even the most committed adventurer happy. Certainly, in terms of bosses, Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t look to disappoint as it’s set to boast no less than ten entirely, never-before-seen bosses for players to tangle with and, well, die in front of many, many times. Speaking of death, Shadow of the Erdtree also brings a wealth of new and especially nasty environmental hazards along for the ride, including a Death Blight swamp, because what would a From Software title be without a whopping great expanse of health-sapping, miasmic liquid, eh?

Luckily, while Shadow of the Erdtree certainly seems to be filled to the brim with all sorts of grotesque nastiness, Elden Ring’s only expansion will also give veteran players more than a few ways to deal with this fresh onslaught. Chief among these is the eight new weapon styles that Shadow of Erdtree packs in, including a distinctly flashy hand-to-hand combat technique that takes in all manner of backfists, spinning kicks and other such strikes that would make even Jet Li blush. 

And you’ll need all of that and then some too, since much like the base game that it sits atop, Shadow of the Erdtree looks to be rock hard, to say the least. As Miyazaki explains it in his interview with Eurogamer, however, Shadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty is only matched by the ingenuity that it encourages players to embrace in order to defeat its most difficult challenges: “We wanted to provide these challenging encounters and these menacing threats, and in order to do that, we wanted to give the player a lot of freedom of approach. We wanted them to feel free in how they choose and when they choose to approach and tackle these hardships.” he says.

So now you know exactly how Shadow of the Erdtree intersects with 2022’s Game of the Year, as well as what you should be prepared for in the Land of Shadow, why not secure your copy on the Green Man Gaming store.

Everything You Need To Know About No Rest For The Wicked

The latest offering from Moon Studios, the same talented group of folks that gave us the roundly superb Ori games, No Rest for the Wicked is a massive departure from the Metroidvania gameplay of those earlier efforts as it presents players with a sprawling and opulent action RPG that takes ample influences from the likes of Dark Souls and Game of Thrones.

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we cover everything you need to know about No Rest for the Wicked including the release date, early access details, gameplay details, latest trailer and more.

No Rest For The Wicked Release Date

No Rest for the Wicked is set to enter Steam Early Access on PC on April 18 2024, and will not be available on the Xbox Series S\X or PlayStation 5 consoles until the Early Access period concludes. When the Early Access period finishes, players who have bought No Rest for the Wicked during that time will get an upgrade to the full 1.0 version at no extra cost.

There is currently no fixed date for the full release of No Rest for the Wicked, instead, it will be released on PC via Steam, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 after the Early Access period has concluded. Though an eventual release of No Rest for the Wicked on the Epic Games Store seems likely, No Rest for the Wicked is currently not slated to release for the Xbox, PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch platforms.

No Rest For The Wicked Early Access Details

Like other Steam Early Access titles, No Rest for the Wicked will not only be available at a discount versus its eventual full release price point but so too will it also boast a constantly evolving set of features as development gathers pace towards that all-important 1.0 release milestone. On the first day of its Steam Early Access release, No Rest for the Wicked will boast the following features:

  • The entire first chapter of the narrative campaign
  • Additional quests that reveal more about the world and its inhabitants
  • Highly challenging boss battles against plague-ridden creatures
  • A large variety of weapons, armour, skills, and crafting options
  • Gear that can be upgraded, enchanted, runed and socketed with gems to create your optimal character build
  • Purchasing and furnishing of a modifiable home
  • Daily and Weekly bounties and challenges
  • Replayable Cerim Crucible dungeon

Looking beyond the initial features that will be available on the first day of Early Access, developer Moon Studios has also set out a high-level content roadmap. This roadmap gives players and potential buyers an idea of what will be coming to No Rest for the Wicked for the remainder of its stint in Steam Early Access. 

  • Multiplayer: 4-player Co-Op and PvP modes
  • Expanded story content and chapters
  • Additional map regions
  • Farming 
  • More weapons, armour, rare items, and gear
  • All-new enemies and bosses
  • Additional Crucible Floors, Bounties and Challenges

No Rest For The Wicked Story

Unfurling a dark fantasy narrative that will prove familiar to fans of George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones books and television show, No Rest for the Wicked takes place in the lands of Isola Sacra in the year 841. With the beloved King Harol now detached from his mortal coil it falls to his pompous and arrogant heir, Magnus, to rule the kingdom. Knowing that Magnus is an inexperienced and untested regent, word soon spreads around the kingdom that the throne is imperilled. So factions from both the political and religious arenas begin to marshal their forces to take the throne for themselves.

In addition to the murderous and scheming political games being played across the kingdom, a dormant plague known as the Pestilence has re-emerged after a thousand years, tearing its way across Isola Sacra and befouling anything it touches. Unfolding against this rich tapestry of political discontent and fantastical danger, No Rest for the Wicked casts players as a member of the Cerim, a sacred conclave of holy warriors who possess incredible powers to tackle the Pestilence. However, while the destruction of the Pestilence is a seemingly straightforward goal (at least in terms of having to deal with a single foe), navigating the various political factions and power players that are looking to shape Isola Sacra in their own image will prove to be anything but.

No Rest For The Wicked Gameplay

While the influence of the Dark Souls series can be seen in the grim, ruined beauty of No Rest for the Wicked’s game world, From Software’s seminal franchise also reaches into the gameplay of Moon Studio’s latest work. With the action viewed from an elevated third-person perspective, No Rest for the Wicked is an action RPG that places a keen premium on precision combat where parsing the attack patterns of your enemies and knowing when to strike back is key to not ending up six feet under. There’s ample nuance to the combat in No Rest for the Wicked too. Not only do players need to concern themselves with counterattacks, evasion and defence in a manner that will prove warmly familiar to those who have long been initiated in Soulslike games, but other aspects such as the weight of your weapon, the stance that you are using and more besides all play a part too.

Indeed, even the humble dodge – which the combat of Soulslike games has long embraced – has been retooled here with a level of granularity that is simultaneously unexpected and welcome. Though dodging in No Rest for the Wicked boasts those all-important invincibility frames as it does in other genre staples, the fashion in which the dodges are executed can vary depending on your playstyle. For quicker players, dodging will result in a swift sidestep, while balanced players will get the traditional tumble and roll that we’ve all seen in the Dark Souls games. Most intriguing however is how dodges are performed by the larger and more heavier warrior types. Because the dodge animation is a touch slower than the other combat styles, these more bulky warriors can instead use a shoulder bash to swat enemies away and provide much-needed distance in battle. 

Moon Studios’ experience in crafting the expertly designed environments that we saw in the Ori games isn’t left idle here either, as Isola Sacra is a fully realised three-dimensional world with all manner of crevices, cliffs, walkways and more that can be traversed. Essentially, if you can see it, you can probably traverse it, but you need to be aware of how to shift your weight and use natural aspects of the environment to conduct your exploration unscathed.

When you’re not tangling with the Pestilence, exploring the darkest corners of Isola Sacra or taking down towering bosses, you’ll be spending time in Sacrament, the capital of Isola Sacra. It’s here that No Rest for the Wicked opens up a surprising aspect of its design that is very much removed from its action RPG underpinnings. In Sacrament, you can make a slice of Isola Sacra uniquely yours by not just buying property, which can be jazzed up according to your own preferences, but by also gathering up resources from the local mines, lakes and forests to both craft new furnishings for your properties in Sacrament and shiny new gear for your adventures, should you so choose.

Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer?

The latest trailer for No Rest for the Wicked is available to watch right now and you can catch it above. A comprehensive showcase video which goes into an impressive amount of detail on the world design, combat and early access details, all the while providing an extended and tantalising look at No Rest for the Wicked in action, the Wicked Inside Showcase video is a fantastic way for players to acquaint themselves with Moon Studios latest and most promising offering.

No Rest for the Wicked on PC

Now you know everything you need to know about Moon Studio’s next great adventure, why not head over to the Green Man Gaming store and check out No Rest for the Wicked.

Ender Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist – A Very Good Metroidvania In The Making

A good Metroidvania, at least in our opinion, balances the joys of exploration and discovery with fun combat, challenging bosses, and ideally, the ability to gain new combat tricks. Ender Lilies did all of these things very well, and it looks like Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist is going to be more of the same, but just a little bit better.

Ender Magnolia is set after the first game, by a fair bit, and while the first game was more dark fantasy, Ender Magnolia has more dark sci-fi to it so far. Instead of finding spirits to help you, you’re recruiting homunculi into your ranks that you can use at will, which means that while Lilac, the character you control, can’t fight, she can enlist her allies to fight on her behalf.

The result is a very cool combat style where your Lilac performs gestures to summon weapon-wielding homunculi to take down the creepy enemies you come up against. It looks amazing, and it feels good as well, which always helps. The world you’re fighting in also looks incredible, with some truly stunning backdrops that help solidify the weird dystopia the game takes place in. Plus, there’s mystery around every corner, plenty of good fights to get your teeth into, and a lot of potential customization to be found in mixing and matching different homunculi.

Oh and if you need another reason to fall in love with it, the music also happens to be great. While that’s not an essential part of a game for a lot of people, we think it helps Ender Magnolia shine, and the fact it’s by the same composer from the first game is rather love too.

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist has only just hit Early Access, but is already a highly enjoyable game that has us looking forward to how it’ll evolve over the coming months. 

Battle Talent Lets You Yeet Enemies Into The Sky And Float As You Beat Them Up

In case you hadn’t noticed, there are a lot of good first-person sword-fighting games in VR. The medium just fits swordplay really well, because never have swords felt cooler than when you’re the person swinging them. If you don’t believe us, go ahead and try out fencing, then come back and tell us you didn’t feel at least five times cooler. Anyway, Battle Talent makes you feel like a badass.

Battle Talent is a roguelike game where you work through dungeons and arenas, sometimes by parkouring, but primarily by fighting through hordes of enemies. With a heavy focus on physics, paired with some rather gruesome actions and inspired weaponry, this leads to a pretty visceral gaming experience for VR fans. 

For example, one of the first skills you unlock allows you to strike an enemy upwards with your melee weapons. Once up there, you can jump up to meet them, and then, as long as you’re hitting them with a melee attack frequently, you’ll hover above the ground just laying into them. If you’ve ever wanted to be Dante from Devil May Cry, Battle Talent is the closest to that you can get in virtual reality. 

You can build on that feeling too, as you get new skills and weapons as you progress with weapons eventually unlocking amazing special abilities – oh, and you can unlock magic to obliterate foes with as well. Plus, the physics allows you to load anything into your crossbow, or nearly anything. This means you can load a sword an enemy dropped into your crossbow and fire it at something or someone – return to sender, anyone?

Battle Talent nails the rule-of-cool feeling that VR thrives on, and along with feeling good to play, is a nice little workout too. It’s just a very good game, and if you’re looking for something new, it won’t disappoint.

Last Epoch Is The Best Spreadsheet I’ve Ever Played

Last Epoch might have the coolest skill system of any game I’ve ever played but before then, let’s touch upon what the game is. Last Epoch is an action RPG in the same vein as Diablo or Path of Exile, whereby you choose your character class and then use a mixture of loot, skills, and passives to create your own little god-killing hero.

The combat is good, there are cooldowns to manage, the story is fun, there’s a time travel mechanic, and there’s co-op too. Basically, it ticks a lot of boxes, but the main thing that makes it stand out is how the skill system works. Each class has a mastery (subclass) that you can unlock, and each of those has its own passive skill tree you can explore. Putting points into that skill tree allows you to unlock skills from that subclass, and you can actually venture into other subclasses, but only halfway. That’s just the overview of it, though, and you can see already that there are lots of ways you can build out your class.

It’s fun, and you can respec your passive points whenever, however, things really get wild when you dive into each skills individual skill tree. Each skill gains levels as you’re using it, and the passives in these skills can change the elemental damage type they deal, give buffs, give debuffs, allow them to cast other skills, or even completely change how they work.

When you combine all of that with loot that can also influence the way different skills and builds work, you’ve got a game that desperately wants you to play around and figure out what to build, but also one that’s happy to let you turn into something else with ease. It’s a glorious way of doing things, and it’s endlessly entertaining. If Last Epoch ever adds more classes, it’ll basically become eternal.

Everything You Need To Know About SAND LAND

SAND LAND is coming up, and if you’re a fan of anime games, then 1) it’s probably already on your radar and 2) you’ll likely want to know as much as you can. That’s especially true given the recently released anime series, and it comes from the late great Akira Toriyama, the father of Dragon Ball, and many of our childhoods. So, if you’re looking to know everything there is to know about the SAND LAND (the game), then we’ve got you covered.

SAND LAND Release Date

Anime aficionados don’t have long to wait as SAND LAND Land is releasing on April 26th. It’ll be launching on PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X and S. There’s no Nintendo Switch version announced as of yet. Along with the Standard Edition, there’s a Deluxe Edition that grants a few in-game items and a notably more expensive Collectors Edition, which comes with a statue of Beelzebub.

SAND LAND Pre-order Bonuses

Pre-ordering SAND LAND on PC will nab you three types of custom vehicle colours so you and your heroic misfits can travel through the world of SAND LAND in style.

Does SAND LAND Have A Demo On PC?

Yes, yes it does! You can currently try out a small slice of the game ahead of release thanks to the SAND LAND demo over on Steam. Although slightly limited in scope, it’s a nice little taste of what you can expect and is sure to whet your appetite ahead of the full release.

SAND LAND Story

Before we get into the gameplay, let’s quickly discuss SAND LAND. Based on the Manga created by Akira Toriyama back in 2000, the story follows a demon prince called Beelzebub as he journeys across the endless deserts of this post-apocalyptic world that is suffering from a chronic water shortage.

In the shoes of Beelzebub, and supported by a wide cast of misfits including his chaperone Thief and the fearless Sheriff Rao, you embark on this extraordinary adventure in search of the Legendary Spring hidden in the desert. This is not only a grand adventure, the type of which only the creator of Dragon Ball could conjure, but is at its heart it’s also a tale about climate change that packs plenty of other moral lessons along the way too.

SAND LAND Gameplay

An action RPG, with a heavy focus on vehicles and vehicle customisation, exploration is the name of the game when it comes to your time in SAND LAND. You’ll need to master Beelzebub’s own powers, sure, but you also need to make sure you master the technology of SAND LAND if you want to survive. For example, you can scavenge for new parts for your vehicles on your journey and if you want to stand a chance against the boss battles, you best make sure you upgrade as you go and are using the right vehicle for the right situation (don’t worry, you can swap them out on the fly). 

It’s not all about riding around in tanks, however, as SAND LAND also puts you in the shoes of Beelzebub for a range of platforming, stealth and hand-to-hand combat. Whilst a secondary part to the vehicle combat, how you master and improve his skills is going to be key to your success and enjoyment outside your vehicles. Alongside discovering new powers and abilities during your journey, there will also be combos to master and a comprehensive special moves skill tree for fans to sink their teeth into.

Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer?

There are a whole bunch of SAND LAND trailers available in a handy YouTube Playlist. If you like going into games without too many spoilers, however, we recommend sticking with the release date trailer above. It does a great job of going into the gameplay a bit without giving too much away.

SAND LAND on PC

Now you know everything you need to know about this upcoming adaptation of the cult classic manga, why not pick up your copy of SAND LAND on the Green Man Gaming store.

Indie Game Round-Up – April 2024

The best April indie games include some serious heavy-hitters, so if you’ve been waiting for a good time to get stuck into some new games, it seems like you’d be a fool to miss April’s offerings. There are action games, story games, an incredibly cool VR title, and also a game about crabs. 

It’s worth noting that alongside these indie games, there are also games like Sea of Thieves on PlayStation 5, and also the brand-new game from Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball Z, called Sand Land. But back to indies… whether you want something serious or sweet, there are plenty of options to check out this month. To ensure you know which ones to keep an eye on, we’ve made a little list of the most promising among them. Let’s get stuck into it, shall we?

Minishoot’ Adventures – 2

Sometimes a game just looks cute, and that’s very much the case with Minishoot’ Adventures. But while it does undoubtedly look adorable, that’s not the only appealing thing about it, as the gameplay is actually shaping up to be pretty intense and action-packed too. You play as a little spaceship who has to explore a big beautiful world filled with monsters, all to try and save your friends. It even has a demo you can play right now.

Beat Slayer – 4

Good news, Beat Slayer is another game with a demo you can play right now. A roguelite hack-n-slash game where action is at the forefront, staying on the beat is integral to success in Beat Slayer. It’s a nice mix of genres, we’ve seen before with a few other games, and as long as it delivers on its idea, it’ll be a lot of fun to play too.

Turbo Golf Racing – 4

In Early Access at the moment, and fully releasing on April 4th, Turbo Golf Racing is worth your attention and if you’re looking for a game that’s an enjoyable change of pace. As implied by the name, you’re playing golf here, but you’re in a car, and rather than all taking turns, you and your competitors all get to try and play simultaneously. It’s hectic, it’s frantic, and it’s an immense amount of fun.

Yet Another Fantasy Title – 10

Sometimes you just want to get stuck into a classic fantasy game, and that’s what Yet Another Fantasy Title is offering (with yet another demo available now). An action-adventure game where you can do just about anything; there’s magic, monsters, and probably a few too many side quests, all in a world filled with humour. What’s not to like?

Harold Halibut – 16

Sure to top everyone’s list for the most unique game of 2024, Harold Halibut is a handmade stop-motion adventure about friendship and discovery. You play as the synonymous Harold as you search for a ‘home’ in a gorgeous claymation-style retro-future spaceship that just happens to be at the bottom of an alien ocean.

Umurangi Generation VR – 18

Umurangi Generation is one of the most interesting games released in the last few years. It’s a game where you explore a dystopia, take pictures and slowly uncover different mysteries and information about the world you find yourself in. It’s fascinating, and the new idea of putting it into virtual reality is pure genius. It’s hard to talk about much else without spoiling things, so we’re just going to say that you should play it (whether in VR or not).

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – 23

If you’re looking for an RPG with a huge cast of characters, a gripping storyline, incredible graphics, and good gameplay, then you should be looking no further than Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. Cited as a spiritual successor to director Yoshitaka Murayama’s Suikoden series, we’re expecting this to be massive (both literally and commercially) and keep JRPG fans, and you, entertained for dozens of hours.

Another Crab’s Treasure – 25

If you’ve ever wanted to play a souls-like where you get to be a crab, then it turns out that very specific desire is going to be answered by Another Crab’s Treasure. Made by the team that created the incredible Going Under, Another Crab’s Treasure is an underwater soulslike where you can steal other crab’s homes, hermit crab-style, and then use those in battle to aid you. It looks amazing, and we’re pinchin’ ourselves with excitement!

Far Cry At 20 – How Ubisoft’s Open World Shooter Evolved And Transformed An Entire Genre

With Ubisoft’s long-running, open-world shooter celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, it can perhaps be a little too easy to assume that Far Cry has always existed in the form that it does now – a massive, content-stuffed first-person shooter that is emblematic of the studio’s broader approach to open world game design. However, it wasn’t always this way and it’s certainly the case that the latest entry in the series, Far Cry 6, is profoundly different from the very first instalment in ways that folks who are new to the franchise might not readily appreciate.

Releasing back in 2004, the same year as such genre giants as Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and Halo 2, it’s fair to posit that the original Far Cry had its work cut out for it. A first-person shooter, it puts players in the blood-stained boots of Jack Carver, an ex-special forces operative who is tasked with rescuing an investigative journalist by the name of Valerine Constantine, who it transpires became shipwrecked on a mysterious tropical island after investigating some dodgy goings on there. Well, as it turns out not only are there hostile mercenaries aplenty, but also all manner of terrible monsters and a nuttier-than-squirrel-poop scientist that has been experimenting on the fauna to create said terrible monsters. The Island of Dr. Moreau you say? Never heard of it. 

Anyway, though the later Far Cry titles would all be these massive, open-world extravaganzas (except for the fairly risible Far Cry: Instincts which itself was a somewhat misguided remake of Far Cry for the original Xbox console), the very first Far Cry would instead be a much more narrowly focused first-person shooter with levels that boasted open-ended design, allowing players to wander around a much broader environment and tackle objectives however they saw fit. Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of the original Far Cry’s creation was that it was developed by Crysis and Hunt: Showdown studio Crytek, rather than Ubisoft, which would take over the IP just one year later. Crytek meanwhile, would take its CryEngine technology that debuted with Far Cry and would instead focus on creating the Crysis games – sci-fi first-person shooter games which also boasted similarly open-ended gameplay. 

As it turns out, it was when Far Cry 2 was released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms in 2008 that we were treated to the first real glimpse of the direction that Ubisoft was determined to take the franchise. A true open-world effort that would take the baton from Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed series which had kicked off just the year before, Far Cry 2 shifted the action to the rather fresh stomping grounds of a fictional African country and had players tracking down an enigmatic weapons dealer who was seemingly funding two major factions to wage war on each other with scores of civilians stuck in the middle. 

Beyond its rather refreshing (though ultimately terrifyingly grim) setting, Far Cry 2 also innovated in several surprising ways. For a start, Far Cry 2 marked a shift to Ubisoft’s in-house Dunia engine, itself an offshoot of Crytek’s now absent CryEngine technology; the difference being that Dunia was specifically equipped to deal with the sprawling open-world expanses that the series would soon become famous for. Beyond placing a premium on freewheeling open-world design that allowed the player to wander the region and tackle a range of primary and secondary objectives, Far Cry 2 also pressed upon players the need to take malaria pills to stave off disease, while a new fire physics system allowed wayward flames to catch onto brush, grass and other parts of the environment in often spectacular fashion.

Arguably it was when Far Cry 3 was released in 2012 that Ubisoft’s stewardship of the Far Cry IP hit its stride. With its series threequel, Ubisoft would begin to include many elements that would become staples in the series and have continued to this day. From the use of radio towers that when liberated would unlock new points of interest and objectives to accomplish, to the leveraging of a crafting system, a range of collectables and a swathe of skill trees to invest progression points into, Far Cry 3 was at the time the refinement of an entirely new subgenre – the open world first-person shooter.

Far Cry 3 would also properly kick off a longstanding series habit of having a strong, almost omnipresent villain that would allow players to anchor themselves to a constant, singular struggle rather than just bumping about an open world completing objectives and killing dudes en route to an unsatisfying final act. Indeed, Better Call Saul actor Michael Mando’s standout performance as the unhinged pirate lord Vaas did a fantastic job of focusing the ire of players against a single, charismatic threat and as I’ve alluded, it would be a trick that Ubisoft would repeat for all its mainline franchise entries from then on. 

Believe it or not, amongst all of that free-range slaughter there’s also a degree of levity to be found in the Far Cry series, too. Though the mainline entries are largely po-faced and sobering affairs, Ubisoft would change things up somewhat with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon just one year after the release of Far Cry 3. A genuine surprise when it was released in 2013, though Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was largely identical to Far Cry 3 in terms of mission structure and overall game design, it was a completely different beast in terms of tone and story. 

With tongue planted firmly in cheek and embracing the sort of narrative that Duke Nukem would readily find himself in, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was a neon-tinged, 80’s synth-wave throwback to the sci-fi B movies of more than three decades ago. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon even went the extra mile of casting 1980s action actor Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens) as the main protagonist, Sergeant Rex “Power” Colt, with his not-so-dulcet tones kicking in every so often while the player wreaks havoc across a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with cyborgs, mutants and a massive cybernetic dinosaur with laser eyes. Yep, laser eyes. 

The next mainline series entry, the release of Far Cry 4 marked something of a shift in the series. No longer were you trying to escape psychopathic killers or trying to off corrupt weapon dealers but rather you were tasked with toppling sprawlingly hostile and oppressive regimes headed by, well, psychopathic dictators who have a bit of a thing for power and control. Though Far Cry 4 was essentially more of what we had already seen in Far Cry 3, it again nonetheless succeeded because it presented Pagan Min as a central antagonist, who, thanks to Troy Baker’s wonderfully effervescent performance, became an easy villain to root against and thus keep the proceedings trucking along. 

2016’s Far Cry Primal showed that Ubisoft’s dalliance with spin-offs in the series wasn’t a one-time thing, either. By throwing the setting back a good 100,000 years and switching out rifles, pistols and shotguns for bows, spears and clubs, Far Cry Primal immediately felt quite fresh – even when compared to other titles in the series. More than that, Far Cry Primal also brought a more keenly felt element of survival into the proceedings, as you found yourself not only worrying about warring tribes but also a variety of savage creatures to boot. 

With Far Cry 5, Ubisoft would relocate the franchise into the fictional Hope County, envisaged to be part of the state of Montana. Leaning into the notion of cults, the socio-economic turmoil brought on by a lack of investment and breathtaking rural expanses that are synonymous with that region, Far Cry 5 remains to this day one of the better titles in the Far Cry franchise. It’s also worth noting at this point that Far Cry 5 also didn’t seek to rock the boat much from a design perspective, as it once again included the familiar crafting systems, an open world that is gradually unlocked, vehicles to aid in traversal, progression trees and just about everything that had been seen in the series up until then. That said, one new mechanic that Far Cry 5 did bring to the table was a ‘Fangs for Hire’ system, whereby players could hire NPCs to help them in battle. 

Following on the heels of Far Cry 5 sequentially and canonically, Ubisoft once again dipped their toes into the slightly absurd for their next entry in the series. Far Cry New Dawn picked the story up seventeen years after one of the Far Cry 5 endings and saw players attempting to rebuild Hope County in the wake of a nuclear exchange known ominously as ‘the Collapse’. Boasting a vibrant colour palette – and more than a few homages to Mad Max – it contained many of the open-world staples that had become the series mainstay but also introduced a few RPG-inspired elements, including an upgradeable home base and an increased focus on crafting.

The most recent entry in the series, 2021’s Far Cry 6 takes the franchise’s penchant for dictators, regimes and bloody regional conflicts to Yara, a fictional Caribbean island nation that definitely wasn’t inspired by Cuba. Nonetheless, Far Cry 6 still managed to enthral thanks to the acting chops of Giancarlo Esposito lending the game a charismatic villain to rail against, while the setting of Yara itself provided players with yet another exotic playground with which to exercise their particular brand of open-world violence.  

Ultimately, though the Far Cry franchise as we currently know it is as separated from its original outing as it possibly could be, it’s also true that Ubisoft has carved out a niche for itself. With the Far Cry franchise, its creators have allowed players to not just employ a mixture of confrontational and stealth gameplay styles that fall in line with the player’s own preferences but have also provided them with a wealth of means to traverse these massively sprawling and compelling environments. Though there’s certainly ample room to suggest that Ubisoft could do more to innovate within this subgenre that it has created, it has nonetheless fostered an evolutionary offshoot of the first-person shooter into a full open-world design that no other outfit outside of the French mega-publisher seems willing to match.

What Millennia Brings To The 4X Strategy Genre

A cursory look at the landscape of the 4X strategy genre on PC will inform you that tactically-minded gamers have never had it better. The latest entry in what appears to be a genre in danger of overcrowding, Millennia from publisher Paradox Interactive and developer C Prompt Games nonetheless looks set to carve its niche with a variety of fresh mechanics and features that will entertain even the most stalwart of armchair generals.

On the face of it, Millennia would appear to be a loving ode to the sort of sophisticated and long-form strategy beats that Sid Meier’s massively popular Civilisation games have long pioneered. Scrape the surface, however, and it’s clear that the title is also quite able to provide something unique to help elevate beyond it just a skilful take on what we’ve seen already. With that in mind, here is what Millenia brings to the 4X strategy genre.

Much More Nuanced Combat

One of the more noticeable aspects of Millennia’s design that feels a touch fresher than some of its genre stablemates is how combat is handled. Chiefly, Millennia allows wannabe generals to combine multiple unit types on a single hex, creating some neat offensive and defensive synergies as a result. A good example of this would be meshing together long-range units, such as musket units or archers, with a sturdier defensive unit to ensure that in the event those long-range units are rushed, they can soak up the abuse and retreat. Brilliantly, after each skirmish, Millennia also provides a real-time action report which not only provides a broader view of the scrap but also provides a deeper and more granular level of insight into the effectiveness of your tactics thanks to a precise readout of damage, casualties and more.

The National Spirits System Provides Additional Replayability

Beyond the innovations that Millennia brings to the fold in terms of combat, developer C Prompt Games has also implemented a neat little mechanic known as National Spirits which adds yet further value and replayability to the overall package. Though each civilisation that you can choose comes with the sort of preset attributes, strengths, weaknesses and quirks that you might expect, National Spirits provides you with sufficient creative latitude to introduce new inventions, unit types, diplomatic behaviours and more. In essence, this means that by leveraging the National Spirits in varying ways, you can play the same civilisation multiple times and yet have a different experience on subsequent playthroughs. Neat stuff indeed.

The Undo Button Lets You Correct Mistakes

For anybody who has played the likes of Civilisation VI or Humankind, saving every two minutes to protect yourself from a potentially catastrophic blunder in tactical decision-making is pretty much par for the course. Millennia, however, takes a slightly different approach to this situation. If you happen to have made a diplomatic tie where you shouldn’t have or sent an expeditionary force somewhere only for them to find themselves extremely dead, a handy undo button lets you rewind time and correct your mistake. Though the system could potentially be abused by the less scrupulous, the undo button earns its keep for allowing honest players to correct legitimate mistakes due to accidental button presses or other such unintentional blunders.

Alternate Ages Are Millennia’s Ace In The Hole

By far one of the most distinctive features that Millennia brings to the 4X strategy genre is its Ages system and how it affects how each playthrough unfolds. Like any genre effort worth its salt, Millennia has you moving from one Age to the next owing to the amount of research that you undertake within your current Age – a mechanic that will prove familiar to anybody who has played similar games. Where Millennia changes things up however, is that as soon as a civilisation breaks into a new Age, so too does every other civilisation at the same time, regardless of their circumstances. This also feeds into the superb alternate ages mechanic that C Prompt Games has brought to bear here.

Though Millennia’s Ages are themed according to history – with the Iron Age, Renaissance Age and others all featuring prominently, you can also go somewhat off-piste in terms of history, causing the timeline to splinter and one of these alternate Ages to trigger. They are a hypothetical take on what would happen if, at certain key points, an outcome other than that established by history occurs. For example, if the internal combustion engine was not created you could find yourself being thrust into the Age of Aether where steam technology is revivified and becomes the de-facto technology of the era.

Whether you’re in the Age of Aether, Age of Blood (where the world is consumed entirely by war) or the Age of Plague (you can guess what this one involves), these alternate Ages provide unique challenges as they all include their own unit types, buildings, bonuses, penalties and bespoke hazards that you wouldn’t encounter normally.

City Building That Doesn’t Use Worker Units

One particularly deft idea that Millennia brings to the genre is the notion that city building can be achieved without the need for separate worker units. Representing a significant shift from other genre efforts, where the creation of buildings and structures is exclusively facilitated by separate worker units, Millennia instead simply asks you to build new structures and improve them by allocating construction points to whatever it is that you want to do. And that’s it. The upshot of this is that the only visible units you have are your military units so the map becomes a lot less cluttered and thus much clearer to parse.

Millennia’s city-building nuance also extends past just its jettisoning of traditional worker units, too. Though you can build resource-giving structures on single tiles, such as bakeries, farms and so on, you can exponentially increase the productive output of those structures by linking them up with similar structures on other tiles. An example of this would be to build a mill and bakery, with the former to output grain which is then turned into flour so that the latter can bake bread that provides a greater food resource output than either of those two structures could achieve separately.

Now you know just how Millennia differentiates itself from the 4X masses, why not pick it up with a discount over at the Green Man Gaming store. If you do so, you might just find yourself in the Age of Savings.

Best Games Like Outpost: Infinity Siege

The best games like Outpost: Infinity Siege should let you live out all your FPS, tower defence, and base-building dreams but there’s one small problem, Outpost: Infinity Siege is a game that’s fairly unique in its approach to things. That’s because it spans several genres in a very unique way and so you have to work pretty hard to find games that match it. 

We’ve got that covered though, and while not every single one of these games matches every part of the Outpost: Infinity Siege, we think they all do a good job of replicating the general vibe. So, without any further ado, let’s get stuck into our list of the best games like Outpost: Infinity Siege.

Best Games Like Outpost: Infinity Siege

We’ve gone for games here that aren’t free-to-play, because the chances are that if you are interested in Outpost: Infinity Siege, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, then the best answer is likely a game which isn’t built on microtransactions. So, now that we’re all clear about the plan of action, let’s go.

Sanctum 2

Sanctum 2 is nearly 11 years old, which means it’s pretty ancient for a video game. However, it is a tower defence game mixed with a first-person shooter, making it one of the few games around that hits the exact same niche as Outpost: Infinity Siege.

Sanctum 2 has four character classes to choose from, and you can mix and match them as you choose if you decide to play online with some friends. The aim of the game is to try and stop oxygen-producing cores from being destroyed by aliens. You get to not only pick the kinds of weapons you give your character but also sort out what towers and perks you’ll be using as well. It’s just an incredibly cool game; one of the first games made that fused these two genres, and it thus remains one of the best.

Orcs Must Die 3

Orcs Must Die 3 is, unsurprisingly, the third entry in the popular series. Much like Sanctum 2, it combines shooting and tower defence, but instead with a third-person perspective and more of a focus on placing traps. It’s also another game with co-op, which is always a win in our books because social games like this are far more enjoyable. 

Whilst we don’t think that Orcs Must Die 3 is quite as in-depth as Sanctum 2, it is still a lot of fun, tells a full-blown story, and puts you through the wringer constantly with an ever-evolving threat of yet more orcs. It also excels when it comes to sheer spectacle as you move into the later stages of the game.

Titanfall 2

Onto game number three and we are sort of already out of the tower defence hybrids. So, let’s focus on the FPS aspect of Outpost: Infinity Siege instead. Titanfall 2 is a first-person shooter with incredible graphics, a big old mech suit as a friend, an amazing multiplayer scene, and one of the best stories in FPS history. It also has incredible movement options and remains one of the best FPS games going. 

It’s just a truly exquisite game, and it still feels smoother than most current-gen FPS games despite being nearly eight years old. If you like mechs, running on walls, and amazing gunplay, then go play Titanfall 2 right now, or wait til it’s on sale. We’re not the boss of you, and we’re not trying to be.

M.A.S.S. Builder

This is the big old mech-building game on the list – M.A.S.S Builder. While still in Early Access, M.A.S.S. Builder is already one of the coolest mech games on the market and just edges out the amazing Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon for this list. The reason for that is simple, M.A.S.S. Builder lets you feel more like a badass.

It has an awesome array of customizations not just to the aesthetic style of your mech, but also to the weapons they use. The latter lets you twiddle and tweak your way to massive damage output, and the game has an almost Devil May Cry action quality to it, meaning you get to constantly style your way to victory in a big old suit of mechanical armour.

Meet Your Maker

Finally, we have Meet Your Maker, which is a game, not a threat, just so we’re all clear. Meet Your Maker is a fascinating game because it’s unique yet still manages to feel like Outpost: Infinity Siege, in no small part due to how intricate its building mechanics are, which is a massive accomplishment no matter how you look at it. 

Meet Your Maker has you building labyrinthine and deadly bases for other players to explore. You can set up traps, put down enemies, and all sorts of other things, all to protect your resources. Then, once you’ve done that, you can go out and raid other people’s bases to try and collect their resources. It’s an intensely cool concept, and it’s a huge amount of fun to play.

Twenty Top Tips To Help You Spread Democracy Effectively In Helldivers 2

Whether you’re being swarmed by flesh-rending bugs or knee-deep in murderous chrome within the hell that is Robot Vietnam, it’s certainly fair to say that Helldivers 2 can become overwhelming pretty quickly. Luckily for you, we’ve got no less than twenty stellar tips that will help to keep both you and your teammates alive as you bravely soar across the galaxy, spreading democracy to those who are starved of it the most.

1. Resources Are Shared – There’s No Need To Kill Your Teammates For Them

There’s no reason to kill your teammates for collecting samples, war bonds or any other resource. None at all. The reason for this is that every resource which is collected is pooled and then dispensed to every member of the team after the mission. So again, don’t kill your teammates just to get resources because, well, Helldivers 2 just doesn’t vibe that way and you shouldn’t either.

2. Share And Share Alike Your Stratagems 

Stratagems are for everybody. This means that if you happen to have a support weapon stratagem on cooldown that you don’t need and notice that one of your buddies is bereft of such an armament, feel free to call it down and make their day. Sharing is caring, after all.

3. Pinging Supplies And Enemies Helps Everyone

It’s always good to have more than one set of eyes in just about anything in life and that notion proves to be especially true in Helldivers 2. So if you happen to spot some supplies or a patrol of enemies that your mates may have missed, do them a solid and give those things a good pinging. Extra sight helps the fight. Or something.  

4. Communicate To Your Teammates Every Time You Deploy A Stratagem

When you’re casually about to drop an Orbital 380MM HE Barrage, you might want to inform your friends that exploding, hot death will be raining from the skies in the near term, lest you spend the next few minutes or so frantically fighting enemies as you scramble to bring your newly ruined comrades back from the dead. It’s just good manners.

5. Use Your Mission Time To Do As Much As Possible

Though you can pretty much make a beeline toward the main mission objective from the get-go, complete it and then leave whatever dustbowl you happen to be on, that would be a waste. This is because on just about every world there’s a veritable bounty of secondary objectives, resources to collect and additional missions to complete that can all help to bolster your loadout for future missions.

6. Always Bring A MG-43 Machine Gun (And Don’t Be Afraid To Refresh It)

Pretty much the first thing you should do after making landfall (other than checking your immediate vicinity for hostiles, of course) is to ensure that you’ve not only selected the MG-43 Machine Gun support stratagem but also that you summon it ASAP. Why? Well, because the MG-43 Machine Gun is an extremely powerful, high capacity, fully automatic chunk of sexy bang bang that tears apart Terminids and Automatons with equal ease.

7. Protect Your Teammates From Yourself

When you’re trying to fight off an invading horde of Terminids or Automations, the last thing you need is to be shot in the back by your ‘mates’. So, be the change you want to be in the world and make sure that you’re sparing a thought for your fellow Helldivers who might be criss-crossing in front of your line of fire.

8. If You’re Playing Solo Make Sure To Bring A Guard Dog

By the time you hit level 10 make sure that you’ve saved up enough credits to purchase the AX/LAS-5 “Guard Dog” Rover defence stratagem. This is because when twinned with either the Gatling or Machine Gun Sentry defensive stratagem, you end up with a solution that provides a solo player with sufficient support to not only take the fight to the much more numerous enemy forces but also provide something of a buffer to aid in escaping when things get too sticky.

9. Always Aim For The Weak Spot

The bigger Terminid and Automaton units, such as the Chargers and Devastators for example, have weak spots (denoted by exposed glowing flesh for the former and creepy red lights for the latter), that when focus-fired on can be taken down much quicker than just blindly shooting at any other part of their anatomy. Make sure to call these weak spots out to your teammates too – they’ll thank you for it.

10. Understand How To Fortify An Evacuation Zone

When you trigger the evacuation sequence you have two minutes to stay alive before salvation lands and whisks you to safety. However, it turns out that two minutes is a long time – especially on the higher difficulty levels – and so to make sure everyone gets home in one piece, be sure to proactively fortify your location with mines (don’t forget to let your teammates know where they are!), turrets and other such defensive stratagems.

11. Be Quick In Reinforcing Your Teammates

It’s generally good practice to reinforce your teammates as soon as you see one of them fall bravely in battle because not only does it get them back into the game sooner, but it also increases your chances of survival too.

12. Remaining Ammo Is Discarded When Reloading So Be Careful

While it can be a horrible habit to instinctively reload after just a few shots thanks to the conditioning of other shooters, you really shouldn’t be doing that in Helldivers 2, not least because each time you reload any remaining ammo is discarded.

13. Don’t Be Afraid To Dive Into Prone When The Going Gets Tough 

When there’s enemy fire everywhere and heavily-armoured foes are charging your position, one of the most useful things you can do is to put some distance between yourself and all that grief by performing a diving leap backwards into a prone position. Not only does this provide some initial relief from incoming damage for a couple of precious seconds, especially if you happen to dive behind some cover, but it also provides enough time to reload your weapon or top up your health with a stim to get you back into the fight.

14. Make Sure To Tweak Your Loadouts Depending On Your Enemy 

Terminids and Automatons are two very different enemies so it stands to reason that your loadouts should be as varied as your opposition. For the fleshy Terminids, you’ll want to prioritise incendiary and explosive weapons, while for the mechanical Automatons EMP and laser-focused armaments are much better suited to the task. Put simply, double-check your loadout before you hop into your hellpods, as it can make all the difference on the battlefield.

15. Synergise Your Stratagem Loadouts And Hellpod Boosters With Your Teammates 

With four Helldivers in a single group there will likely be significant overlap in the stratagems and Hellpod boosters that each player has at their disposal. So it stands to reason that to become the most agile and comprehensively capable fighting unit out there, everybody brings a unique set of stratagems and Hellpod boosters to the dance so that the group is then versatile enough to respond to any threat.

16. Don’t Fight Every Enemy Patrol 

There’s no need to fight every enemy patrol that you see – in fact, I would actively advise against it because very often such battles end up with the enemies calling reinforcements to these skirmishes, thus dragging out the whole affair even longer and sapping precious mission time into the bargain. Only fight when it becomes unavoidable.

17. Aim Area Of Effect Stratagems At Areas Rather Than Individual Enemies

Offensive area-of-effect stratagems such as the Orbital Walking Barrage and Orbital Gatling Barrage have been engineered to deal a substantial amount of damage to a large area. As a result, it makes sense to deploy these stratagems in a location rather than tagging an enemy directly – not least because if you happen to tag a particularly agile enemy (such as a leaping Terminid, for example), your stratagem can be hilariously returned to its sender, wiping out your entire group in the process. Fun but also not fun.

18. Change Your Stance (And Perspective) To Improve Your Accuracy

Like just about any other shooter out there, you can improve your accuracy in Helldivers 2 by either crouching or lying prone. However, while Helldivers 2 is primarily a third-person affair, you can also snap into a first-person, scoped perspective which makes landing precise shots on medium to long-distance baddies a lot easier than it otherwise would be.

19. Running And Gunning Can Save You In A Pinch

One overlooked aspect of Helldivers 2 third-person shooter gameplay is that you can actively run and gun should you so choose. While I wouldn’t recommend it as an attacking strategy, running backwards and gunning can prove very useful in thinning an encroaching horde and provide some time to take a breather and assess your next move.

20. Completing Major And Personal Orders Is A Great Way To Earn Extra Medals

Before you launch off to spread democracy you might want to take a look at the existing major and personal orders that are active. While the major orders tend to concern liberating a particular planet and take much longer to achieve, personal orders are instead much more digestible bite-sized objectives, such as completing a certain number of secondary objectives, killing a set number of specific enemies and so on which reward handfuls of additional medals for doing stuff that you would probably be doing anyway.

Nock Is The Coolest VR Sport Imaginable

Virtual reality has a lot of cool sports that simply can’t exist in real life, but Nock is easily the coolest one out there. Nock is in its most simple sense a ball game, but thanks to a great update last year, you can now choose to play it in two ways: one that feels similar to football and another like volleyball. However, you’re not trying to punch or kick the ball, because that’s simply not enough to be worth writing about for us.

Instead, Nock gives you a bow and lets you collect arrows in order to shoot the ball in the direction you want it to go. This is the very core mechanic of the game, and it’s already an immensely cool one. The aim is to to move around the field, either on your own or as part of a team, and try and shoot a ball into a goal, or into the floor. That’s the power of VR, but it gets even better.

Movement isn’t a matter of just walking around. Instead, you drag yourself around with force, and can not only effectively skate without friction, but also fly into the air, change directions at will, and move like an overexcited bird. It’s awesome and somewhat stomach-turning to begin with, but once you master it, you can then play around with the final part of the puzzle. 

While you can just shoot arrows at the ball, you can also push a button to have your arrow transform into a block. Aside from being quite a handy defence mechanism for your own goal, you can also use this to redirect the ball before someone on the other team hits it, or just use it to keep the path of the ball unpredictable. 

As well as the fun gameplay mechanics, Nock also has a truly incredible visual style to boot – which is always a nice bonus. So if you’re looking for a workout, and a very cool new hobby, pick up Nock and get involved.

Everything You Need To Know About Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut On PC

Previously one of the most opulent jewels in a glittering crown of PlayStation exclusives, Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut finally slices its way to PC and brings with it a veritable bounty of improvements and bespoke features that only the PC platform can support. A stunning and mightily visceral open-world action adventure, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut looks set to scratch that itch for bloody samurai action and then some when it releases on PC later this year.

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we cover everything you need to know about Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC including the release date, gameplay details, latest trailer, PC features and more.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC Release Date

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut is set to release on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on May 16, 2024. Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut is already available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 platforms. Published by PlayStation Studios, Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut is not slated to arrive on Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X or Nintendo Switch platforms.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC Pre-order Bonuses

Pre-ordering Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC will nab you the following pre-order bonuses to aid you in your quest to drive away the Mongol horde:

  • New Game Plus Horse travel companion.
  • Traveller’s Attire – fit for a seasoned warrior.
  • Broken Armour dyes from Baku’s shop.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC Features

Akin to just about every other PlayStation Studios title that has made the leap from console, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut makes up for the delay by stuffing a whole host of PC-exclusive features into its final offering. To start with, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC provides a wealth of advanced graphical options and visual presets that allow players to scale and optimise Sucker Punch Productions’ samurai epic to the unique capabilities of their gaming rig.

Staying with the visual side of things, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC also brings support for wider-than-usual displays. This means that if you’re rocking an Ultrawide (21:9) display, a Super Ultrawide (32:9) display and even a Triple Monitor display setup (48:9), Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut has your back on PC when it comes to supporting hyper-cinematic display ratios.

When it comes to performance, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC isn’t a slouch here either thanks in no small part to how it leverages the latest upscaling and frame generation technologies. This means that if you’re rocking a 40 Series Nvidia GPU, you’ll be able to benefit from NVIDIA’s cutting-edge DLSS 3 upscaling technology, while AMD’s FSR 3 upscaling technology is also supported alongside Intel’s XeSS upscaling solution. The cherry on top of all this is that Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC also supports NVIDIA’s low latency Reflex technology and its image-sharpening DLAA solution. Put simply, Ghost of Tsushima has never looked as good as it does on PC.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC fully supports all of the capabilities of Sony’s PlayStation 5 DualSense controller. This means that PC players can enjoy the sword-swinging and arrow-firing escapades of Jin Sakai with palpable haptic feedback that registers every strike, while adaptive triggers replicate the tensile sensation of tightly pulling a bowstring before letting off a shaft into the skull of your nearest enemy.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC Story

Rather than focusing on the Edo period like a lot of other similar games, Ghost of Tsushima instead goes to an earlier time period. Unfolding in the late 13th century, the monstrous Mongol general, Khotun Khan, has set his sights on Tsushima Island as a potential gateway to a full-throated invasion of the Japanese mainland. Standing in his way is Jin Sakai and his clan who form the tip of the spear of resistance that the Tsushima Islands attempt to thrust into the chest of the Mongol invasion. 

Quickly overwhelmed in the first wave of attacks, and with all of his clan killed and left for dead by Khotun Khan himself, a resolute and vengeful Jin Sakai wages a one-man guerilla war against an irresistible tidal wave of Mongol aggression as he seeks to reclaim the lands of his people, restore the honour of his clan and slay Khotun Khan. A real love letter to the Japanese produced and directed samurai movies of the 1950s and 1960s, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut also provides a classic black and white style filter as well as fully synced Japanese voice acting.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut PC Gameplay

An open-world action-adventure which unfurls from a third-person perspective, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut allows wannabe samurai to directly tackle quests, which progress the story, or sidestep all of that and immerse themselves in a veritable range of additional activities and side quests. Much like the most recent Assassin’s Creed titles, Ghost of Tsushima not only allows players to explore its beautiful rural expanses with a full suite of UI waypoints and navigation systems engaged, but it also permits those braver souls to turn off the UI entirely and find their way around the Tsushima Islands by using the direction of the wind and nearby landmarks.

When you’re not exploring the Islands of Tsushima, liberating villages and completing quests you’ll be taking part in some horrendously satisfying and visceral combat; an area where Ghost of Tsushima strikes out on its own and separates itself from other open-world games in the process. Though players can stealthily assassinate enemies from the shadows and bow-snipe foes at range, it’s really in the melee combat side of things that Ghost of Tsushima excels with tactile, violent and surprisingly tactical scraps. These brutal battles not only demand quick reflexes and a keen eye for enemy movement but also a mastery of four different stances that each afford advantages and disadvantages against different types of opponents.

Including much more than just the base game and story campaign, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC also offers up the Legends cooperative multiplayer modes (which introduce a range of fresh missions and objectives) as well as a New Game Plus mode and an additional single-player campaign expansion which unfolds on the entirely new Iki Island landmass.

Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer?

The latest trailer for Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC is available to watch right now and you can catch it above. Entirely focused on the PC-exclusive features, this latest Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut trailer provides an eye-opening look at the visual fidelity that higher-end PC setups can achieve all the while providing a highly detailed look at Sucker Punch Productions’ realisation of Kamakura era Japan.

Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC

Now you know everything you need to know about this hotly anticipated port of a modern PlayStation Studios classic, prepare to live out the ultimate samurai fantasy by picking up Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut on the Green Man Gaming store.

Backpack Battles Turns Inventory Management Into A Moreish PvP Game

I’m not a big fan of inventory management as a general rule of thumb. It tends to be a needless hassle in most games because it doesn’t have a point beyond restricting you. However, when inventory management is the point of the game, instead of an inconvenience, it becomes a fair amount of fun. The first experience of this I had was with Backpack Hero, and I initially assumed Backpack Battles would be something very similar, but it turns out I was wrong – so let’s unpack it.

Backpack Battles is a PvP game, for starters, and also an auto-battler. Rather than worrying about what attacks you’re using though, you just have to collect items. You aim to stack up as many wins as possible, and as you do so you’ll get stronger and stronger. Before each match, you get the chance to buy new items from a shop and organize them in your backpack.

You can also fuse some items, so if you put some items together they’ll evolve into something stronger. It’s a cool system, and because each match is incredibly fast, and even each full run of matches doesn’t take much more than 15 minutes, it’s also a game that’s very easy to keep jumping back into.

Backpack Battles is a lot of fun, so if you’ve been looking for a game that gives you the joy of cleaning your home and suddenly ending up with an obsidian dragon to aid you in battle, then this is the game for you.

Inkbound: A Fascinating Roguelike With Depth

In the world of roguelikes, Inkbound is one you have probably not heard of and this wouldn’t have been helped with its Early Access teething issues. Despite this, however, it has since proven to be an exceptionally enjoyable game with plenty of both tactical and gameplay depth and it also happens to be lovely to look at too. It’s also from the developers behind Monster Train, which remains one of the best deckbuilding roguelikes around, so there’s that.

Rather than worrying about cards here though, Inkbound puts you in a world of books and magical stories. It’s set in the Atheneum, which is a magical thing that contains every story ever written, so it’s like the Internet, but infinitely better in most respects. You then go through portals to fight off evils, via an interesting mix of real-time and turn-based battles, and get stronger as you do so.

You move in real time to figure out how to use your attacks and what to do, and then end your turn to let everything else take effect. It’s fun, and it means that there’s always more you can do to get better at the game outside of just learning what all of the abilities are. There are multiple character types too, so you can mess around to find the one you like the most.

One of Inkbound‘s stand-out features though, is that it’s co-op. Co-op roguelikes are always a good time, but while many require you to pull in friends, through brainwashing or bribery, you can just party up with people you find in Inkbound’s little hub area. It’s a nice touch and helps make the game feel a bit more approachable for outsiders and first-timers. Plus, while it’s been in Early Access for a while now, the full release is coming in April, so now’s a great time to get started on it before the full release.

The History Of Alone In The Dark

Essentially kicking off the whole third-person survival horror genre a good four years before Capcom stepped up to the plate with its now legendary Resident Evil franchise, Alone in the Dark did the whole shtick first back in 1992. Though you can certainly make the case that the series has been on something of an uneven trajectory since its first instalment, it’s also equally true that the resurgence of Alone in the Dark in 2024 promises a resurgence that is not only much more in line with its more than three-decade-old origins but which can also stand shoulder to shoulder with the survival horror efforts of today. As such, there is arguably no better time to plumb the history of this often overlooked series that in large part birthed the modern survival horror genre.

Alone in the Dark (1992)

Kicking the whole thing off roughly thirty-two years ago, the first Alone in the Dark was a trailblazer in more ways than one. Brought to grim, unholy life by director Frédérick Raynal and his extremely talented, though small development team at French studio Infogrames, Alone in the Dark resulted from the desire to create a video game inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft and hoo boy, did it nail that premise and then some. 

Not only was Alone in the Dark one of the first games ever to overlay fully three-dimensional characters over pre-rendered backgrounds (a trick that Resident Evil would repeat to greater success in 1996) but so too did it also craft a genuinely terrifying tale in which players took control of Edward Carnby. A private investigator, Carnby sought to delve into the depths of Derceto, a haunted Louisiana mansion in 1924 to unravel its secrets, solve puzzles and uncover the horrors that lay within. The new Alone in the Dark title which will reboot the story and events of this original entry in the series, essentially bringing everything full circle.

Jack in the Dark (1993)

A strange little entry in the Alone in the Dark franchise, Jack in the Dark was a much smaller game that was developed while production was concluding on Alone in the Dark 2. A bite-sized adventure in which players take control of youngster Grace Saunders, Jack in the Dark has Grace attempting to escape a toy store after she is locked inside during Halloween. Of course, with this being an entry in the Alone in the Dark franchise, the toys are very much alive and to make matters worse Grace is also tasked with rescuing Santa Claus from the titular and nefarious Jack-in-the-box, too. 

Aside from the oddly festive premise, what also separates Jack in the Dark from the other Alone in the Dark titles is the fact that there is no combat whatsoever, meaning that Grace must rely on her puzzle-solving acumen to get the job done. Interestingly, Grace Saunders would return thirty years later in a separately released Prologue to 2024’s Alone in the Dark reboot that embraces the same combat-free, puzzle-solving shenanigans as Jack in the Dark.

Alone in the Dark 2 (1993)

Representing a sizable shift from the more considered atmospheric beats of its predecessor, Alone in the Dark 2 not only veered away from the creepy cosmic horror of the first game in favour of a plot that had Edward Carnby rescuing Grace Saunders from voodoo zombies and immortal pirates, but it also brought a strong focus on gunplay rather than the sort of exploration and puzzle solving that defined the original. 

The downside to this, of course, was that combat was never really counted among Alone in the Dark’s strengths and so Alone in the Dark 2 felt a lot more clunky and far less atmospheric than the game that originally inspired it. To say that Alone in the Dark 2 was a missed opportunity to capitalise on the success of the first game in the series would be something of an understatement.

Alone in the Dark 3 (1995)

The third Alone in the Dark title released before Capcom even got out of the starting blocks with its Resident Evil franchise, Alone in the Dark 3 whisked Edward Carnby off to the not-so Wild West in 1925 as our beloved series protagonist finds himself drawn to a mysterious ghost town, searching for a film crew that has gone missing in the area. 

Clearly not learning the lessons from Alone in the Dark 2, the third instalment in the series would once more double down on combat as Edward Carnby found himself tackling all manner of undead cowboys, radioactive mutants and more besides. Needless to say, Alone in the Dark 3 lacked so much of what made Alone in the Dark so compelling in the first place that it ended up being a resolutely forgettable offering as a result.

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001)

With Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise being both three core entries deep and having gained millions of fans across the world by this point, it was clear that when Alone in the Dark did re-emerge it would have to be something different from what we saw previously, while also matching up with the redefined genre expectations. What we got was Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, which ditched the jarring pirates and cowboy enemies of the previous two games in favour of legitimately terrifying horrors that would emerge from the bowels of the earth. Though Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare doesn’t wholeheartedly leave the series’ prior and misguided obsession with combat entirely behind, it does reinvigorate the exploration and puzzle-solving side of things. 

The way this is achieved is that the player has a choice of two very different protagonists to take control of in the early going. Edward Carnby returns as one of these characters and somewhat predictably, is the one who takes part in all the gunplay, while Aline Cedrac, a university professor who accompanies him largely handles much of the puzzle solving and frequently the two individuals meet up, combining their narratives in the process. Though far from perfect and certainly not quite up to the lofty new standard for the survival horror genre that Resident Evil had established, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare nonetheless set down a promising blueprint for where the franchise could have gone next.

Alone in the Dark (2008)

Sadly, that blueprint was almost completely ignored when Alone in the Dark would re-emerge some seven years later. 2008’s series entry, which was just called ‘Alone in the Dark’, took a conceptual hard left in terms of what the previous games in the series had given players. Splitting up the story into a series of interconnected episodes allowed players to tackle a specific episode rather than having to go through the whole game from the beginning each time (triggering a neat “Previously on Alone in the Dark” cutscene to catch players up in the process), 2008’s Alone in the Dark would instead embrace a fully three-dimensional world in which players could switch between first and third person perspectives. 

While the updated technology was welcome, along with the move to a suitably spooky occult-style narrative, a baffling focus on combat, extinguishing fires, poor puzzles and a general lack of atmosphere, together a raft of sometimes game-breaking bugs would all conspire to condemn 2008’s Alone of the Dark to the nadir of the series and the bin of time.

Alone in the Dark: Illumination (2015)

Speaking of bins, the game that essentially forced the Alone in the Dark franchise into hibernation for the last nine years, Alone in the Dark: Illumination was an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter(!) that utterly missed the point of Alone in the Dark in ways that can only be described as utterly spectacular. A quarter-baked, fad-chasing take on the likes of Left 4 Dead masquerading as an Alone in the Dark title, Alone in the Dark: Illumination had up to four players playing as different characters from the Alone in the Dark mythos, all the while completely ignoring the atmosphere, puzzle solving and storytelling that had served as the original design bedrock for the series. 

Quite simply, every aspect of Alone in the Dark: Illumination’s design feels compromised. From the less-than-satisfying combat, poorly balanced classes, enough bugs to create a new Starship Troopers movie and a pointlessly grindy progression system that just made you want to shrink into the earth to never appear again, Alone in the Dark: Illumination was just awfulness incarnate.

The Best Games Like Dragon’s Dogma 2

The best games like Dragon’s Dogma 2 will have you clambering and climbing, fighting and flexing, and both magicking and mighting. Essentially, you can expect big games with beautiful worlds to explore, plenty of big enemies to fight, and an engrossing story. Ideally, they’ll also have some RPG systems to play with as well. Whilst we are a few weeks away from Dragon’s Dogma 2, and we don’t have a full grasp of what the game will be like, there are enough previews out there to help us figure a lot of it out.

Best Games Like Dragon’s Dogma 2

The easiest thing to do here would be to recommend Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, which we definitely do, but it’s not deserving of a spot on this list because, frankly, it’s a bit too obvious. With that in mind, let’s get our climbing gloves out and ascend this wonderful list to find you a new game to love.

Elden Ring

Ah Elden Ring, what a game. Aside from being quite possibly the most fascinating open-world game ever made, Elden Ring also feels as though it takes a lot from Dragon’s Dogma. It has the same exciting exploration where every stone that you unturn and every corner you creep around can contain some kind of secret or a horror you’ll have to beat.

It’s also got a deep fantasy setting and a world where nothing is clear-cut. Elden Ring is an extraordinary game in every right, and there are also mods out there to add even more spells, weapons, and bosses to the game and even a seamless co-op experience. The latter is a huge deal for this style of game, and something hard to replicate with anything else.

Monster Hunter: World

The Monster Hunter series is made by Capcom, the same people behind Dragon’s Dogma 2, so it’s not a huge surprise that it’s got some of the same spirit. While Monster Hunter Rise is also very good, and a little newer, it’s not quite as polished as Monster Hunter: World. World lets you and some friends explore an array of different biomes, each of which is filled with absurd and over-the-top monsters to hunt.

As you push through, you get to upgrade your equipment by farming materials from these enormous creatures, and then use that new equipment to kill even bigger things, and then farm materials from those as well. It’s a fun gameplay loop, and thanks to the substantial support it got after launch, as well as the amazing Iceborne DLC, there are hundreds of hours of hunts to enjoy.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

It’s absurd to think that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released all the way back in 2015, and that means it’s nearly 10 years old. That’s a very long time for a game that not only still looks amazing, but still pushes the meaning of what a fantasy open-world gamer could be in terms of both gameplay and narrative design. 

You play as Geralt, a Witcher who’s been chemically created to hunt down monsters, and then make some very morally grey decisions about whether or not to kill them or let them live. You also need to find your adopted daughter and figure out what’s going on with an ongoing war, and all of the strife that creates.

Shadow of the Colossus

If the thing that you love about Dragon’s Dogma is the ability to climb all over massive creatures, then you should play Shadow of the Colossus. The best way to play this is via the remaster on PS4, so if you can do that, do it. 

This game is about exploring a mostly empty world filled with a handful of incredible and majestic creatures, which you’re compelled to kill off. It’s a game that consistently makes you feel bad about what you’re doing. Killing in this game isn’t something you just do by accident, it’s something that takes careful planning and a huge amount of guilt. It’s a very special game, and it’ll stick with you for a long time.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Finally, we’ve got Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Assassin’s Creed has gone back to its roots a bit more with the latest game, but Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla are all incredible sprawling worlds filled with things to do, loot to find, and stories to discover. They’re very big games, which can be a little overwhelming, but we think that Odyssey does the best job here. 

Odyssey is set in ancient Greece, and aside from that meaning there’s lots of sun to soak up and a big old sea to explore, it also means you can come across Greek myths in the flesh. If you think that Dragon’s Dogma could do with more sailing, swearing, and Spartan kicking, then you’re going to absolutely love Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.