Call of the Sea Review - A Puzzling Island Escape

Publisher: Raw Fury

Developer: Out of the Blue

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PC

Norah knows something is amiss the moment she steps foot on the island. Despite its inviting beauty, an eerie vibe permeates the air. After all, this is the same place that may have claimed the life of her husband, Harry, who never returned from an expedition here to find a cure for Norah’s mysterious illness. This time, though, it’s up to Norah to rescue him. Call of the Sea is the wonderful debut title by Out of the Blue Games and blends a tantalizing mystery that’s matched by equally engaging puzzle-solving and exploration. 

Call of the Sea’s beautiful presentation lured me from the get-go. From the lush jungles to jaw-dropping shipwrecks, this is a beautiful game, and many scenes would look right at home on a postcard. The ancient ruins also wowed me in their haunting beauty and during moments when seemingly impossible machinery comes to life. 

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Norah is more Nancy Drew than Lara Croft, so puzzles take precedence over combat, and they succeed with clever design and strong variety. What I love most is how Call of the Sea makes you feel like both an observant detective and a problem-solving genius. It takes advantage of its alluring beauty by encouraging players to look at everything around them to spot clues and connect dots. An ancient mural or a hastily drawn sketch can often be the difference between a quick solution and more prolonged head-scratching. Inspecting curious objects and notes is part of the fun, and nothing is ever too hidden. I always found everything I needed if I was reasonably thorough in my searches. Furthermore, Norah jots down important info in her journal, which alleviates much of the pressure in terms of committing clues to memory.

Puzzles come in many cool shapes and sizes; they can be as simple as rotating totem poles to match a specific pattern, or as elaborate as deciphering a dead language. One of the largest and most impressive challenges tasked me with discovering the correct melody to play on a giant, ancient organ. Smaller puzzles often feed into larger ones to create a cohesive whole, and it’s fun to see how riddles thematically build upon each other. Call of the Sea regularly surprised me with its puzzle design, and I always looked forward to seeing what was next. 

The challenges grow more complicated the deeper Norah penetrates the island. Most puzzles are reasonably tough, but a couple feel too obtuse. One particularly maddening example involves using symbols to operate a series of locks to open a door. It's a clever idea on paper, but after exhausting the area of all of its notes and visual hints, it felt like the game still wasn’t clearly communicating a key step – like I was missing a crucial piece to a cool jigsaw puzzle. I eventually just resorted to a walkthrough, and I’m still not sure how the answer makes sense.

When the going got tough, however, the strong narrative propelled me forward. I loved picking up notes with more details about Harry’s expedition and further insight into Norah’s illness. The story takes some dark and surprising turns that culminate in a surprising and mostly satisfying conclusion. With all the focus on ancient tribes, mysticism, and death, the endearing bond between Norah and Harry manages to shine through even when Norah is the only one providing insight. 

Call of the Sea kept me hooked from beginning to end, making it a voyage worth embarking on. I could have gotten lost on that island and solved puzzles for double of its actual running time (about six hours), but the game spends as much time as it needs to spin its tale and test your noggin. This is one island worth getting marooned on. 

Score: 8.5

Summary: Call of the Sea's fascinating mystery is backed by clever puzzle-solving to make it an island worth exploring.

Concept: Travel to an exotic island during the 1930s to find your missing husband and uncover the cause of your mysterious disease

Graphics: The scenic island, from its lush jungles to its haunting ruins, evokes feelings of both awe and trepidation

Sound: Norah’s determination and fear comes through in Cissy Jones’ voice performance, and the soundtrack hits at the right moments to elicit feelings of success and suspense

Playability: The complex puzzle-solving makes the most of the game’s otherwise simple interactions to make sure your brain works hard, not your hands

Entertainment: Clever puzzles and an engaging narrative make Call of the Sea a voyage worth taking

Replay: Moderate

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Cyberpunk 2077 Last-Gen Review – A Tale Of Two Night Cities

Publisher: CD Projekt

Developer: CD Projekt Red

Release: April 16, 2020

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia, PC

Cyberpunk 2077 hosts a massive sandbox filled to the brim with politically charged conflicts catalyzed by powerful people. Protagonist V might grace the game’s box art, but the hero is overshadowed by Night City’s towering skyscrapers and intriguing citizens. From sunny beaches to gloomy landfills, Night City feels alive even when you’re not around to witness every shady transaction or police investigation. At least, it does when you’re not playing Cyberpunk 2077 on last-gen hardware.

On high-end PCs, the allure of interacting with VIPs and coasting down neon-bright boulevards is on full display, despite Cyberpunk 2077’s notorious glitches. Chromatic implants glisten in dark hotel rooms, flickering lightbars boast picture-perfect reflections in rain puddles, and character models are particularly striking. However, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Cyberpunk 2077 are marred by several additional bugs and ugly visuals. Overall, my extended stay in Night City was unpleasant, and a far cry from the experience PC players have described.

 

Even after I decluttered my screen by disabling film grain and many of Cyberpunk 2077’s other graphical features (these options don’t noticeably enhance the visuals when kept active), the look of the game remained the same: Drab and dreary. The colors are drained of vibrance – vehicle paint jobs, flashy jumbotrons, even the sun’s rays. NPCs are poorly rendered and appear as indiscernible shapes. And surfaces have flat textures that are obvious at most draw distances. It’s hard to enjoy the interactivity of Night City when quest givers or companions are polygonal blobs, and that sweet sportscar you spent a small fortune on is just a blurry object with pallid wheels. Eventually, these textures load, but by then, the damage to immersion has already been done.

Framerate drops are a common occurrence and tend to disrupt basic exploration and action sequences. In densely populated districts like Watson and Heywood, you’re often forced to stop as the hardware attempts to manage the myriad NPCs and traffic jams. I’ve also noticed that when driving at high speeds, the game freezes regularly, which can lead to crashes.

The spotty enemy A.I. from the PC version carries over here, but trying to fulfill objectives covertly or survive boss encounters can be frustratingly difficult when the frames start to randomly hiccup. On multiple occasions, I’d sneak behind an enemy to incapacitate them, the game would seemingly pause for loading purposes, and then suddenly the guard I was targeting would randomly respawn behind me. Smaller bugs (like T-posed NPCs) stopped happening on a regular basis after CD Projekt Red’s latest hotfix, but game-breaking issues – weapons not appearing, the scanner being unusable – forced me to reload saves or restart my console periodically.

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I can’t help but lament Cyberpunk 2077’s potential. Night City is an ambitious open world. Seaside carnivals give way to bustling marketplaces. Trailer park communities hide in the shadows of glass spires. Meeting new faces is exciting and selecting unique lines of dialogue can even change the outcome of a side quest or relationship. Your choices always feel meaningful. But appreciating all of that is practically impossible on these consoles; graphics aren’t necessarily the most important part of a game, but in the last-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077, the visuals and performance are so bad that they neutralize the game’s biggest strengths.

Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t optimized for last-gen consoles, and no amount of interesting side activities can remedy that. On PC, the world lives up to its title as the “City of Dreams.” For Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players, however, their time in Night City is likely a nightmare.

The upgraded difference

If you have the enhanced versions of last-gen consoles – PS4 Pro or Xbox One X – Cyberpunk 2077 is a smoother experience. At the very least, the NPCs look fine and textures are far more detailed, although I spotted occasional pop-in. Bugs and crashes might still plague your playthrough from time to time, but the experience feels more stable, and is definitely a step up from the base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions.

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Score: 5.5

Summary: Cyberpunk 2077 may shine on high-end PCs, but constant bugs and poorly rendered graphics make it a less-than-ideal experience on last-gen consoles.

Concept: Use your hacking and fighting skills to unearth the nefarious schemes of a tech megacorporation while becoming a living legend in Night City’s criminal underworld

Graphics: On the base versions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the visuals are grainy and washed out. Simply put, the game looks awful

Sound: Sometimes sound effects like explosions, gunshots, or footsteps are awkwardly inaudible, but the voice acting (especially Keanu Reeves’ performance) is solid

Playability: Framerate drops and glitches run rampant on this version, making Cyberpunk 2077 a true test of patience

Entertainment: Conversing with Night City’s ensemble cast is fun, but outdated combat mechanics and faulty enemy AI might convince you to play stealthily more than you’d like

Replay: Moderately Low

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Gears 5: Hivebusters Review – A Quick Blast Of Mayhem

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Developer: The Coalition

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: Xbox One, PC

Short and bloody sweet, Gears 5: Hivebusters pumps out excitement with the urgency of a rattling lancer, rarely slowing as it hits the mark with its cover-based firefights. The troubled open-world exploration that was introduced in Gears 5 is nowhere to be found, and neither are Kait Diaz or the Fenix Family. We instead see Gears doing what it does best: mulching Locus Horde flesh. Players experience this familiar action through the high-powered mayhem of Scorpio Squad, a band of misfits who have assembled for a suicide mission.

Scorpion Squad is the team that was introduced in Gears 5’s Escape mode, and Hivebusters tells their origin story. They must sacrifice themselves to take out a massive Swarm hive – a selfless act that could save all of Sera. This narrative moves along quickly, but isn’t short in vision. We get plenty of fun and over-the-top banter from the squad’s Leslie Macallister, Lahni Kaliso, and Jeremiah Keegan, who have traveled to the lava-rich and beautifully realized Galangi islands. They move through jungles and caverns as they track down the hive, as well as something else that is big, unexpected, and spewing a toxin. The story and narrative truck along nicely, making the three hours it lasts for fly by.

The squad is equipped with a familiar arsenal, but they are without Jack – a flying robotic helper that previously provided support functionality. To make up for Jack’s absence, each character has a different ultimate ability that runs on a cooldown and can be enhanced through upgrades. Mac deploys a useful energy shield, Keegan generates ammo, and Lahni gets to have some fun with an electrified knife, the best of the three. The ultimates are game-changers in how frequently they can be used and how much they aid the team.

Most of the firefights throw caution to the wind and bombard the player with all types of enemies attacking from every vector. Locust foot soldiers take cover behind barriers, howling juvies leap from the trees, and swarms dance overhead. The intensity achieved by some of these firefights is awesome, and developer The Coalition does a nice job of changing them up from moment to moment. One minute, you need to hunker down and hold the line as foes approach. The next minute, you can use the environment as a weapon to melt or crush foes. Many of the fights are decently long, and reach satisfying levels of chaos. The Coalition’s fingerprint is pushing the player to the point of feeling overwhelmed, then turning it up a notch by throwing in a boss-like encounter at the end.

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Given how quickly environments can be explored, the annoying transitions to other areas where the team needs to cut through vines, climb a cliff, or pry open a door are in great abundance and do slow the fervent pace down, but they are just small blemishes on an otherwise outstanding Gears of War experience.

Hivebusters doesn’t have the variety or world-building of the core Gears games, and doesn't take any chances along the way, but is a fun alternative that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. It’s nice to get to know more of the characters in this universe, one of whom flips double middle fingers in the face of danger, which may be the most Gears of War thing I’ve ever seen.

Score: 8

Summary: The cover-based firefights continue to satisfy in big ways.

Concept: The series’ long-running cover-based formula still packs a punch, and is the core focus of this entry. It has a retro feel and moves along nicely

Graphics: The protagonists’ bulky shoulder pads are barely noticeable given the immense level of detail in the environments. The backdrops and foliage in the jungles are a sight to behold

Sound: Great voice performances that meld with the terrifying shrieks of the monsters. The score pounds at the right times

Playability: The lancer’s chainsaw may have some rust on it, but it’s still fun to use, as are all of the familiar gameplay mechanics. The new ultimate abilities add a little strategizing to the gunplay

Entertainment: Hivebusters provides about three hours of excellently designed gunfights that are great solo or with friends

Replay: Moderately Low

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Cyberpunk 2077 Review – A Wild Time In Night City

Publisher: CD Projekt

Developer: CD Projekt Red

Release: April 16, 2020

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia

Cyberpunk 2077 is a work of awe-inspiring ambition, dazzling with its massive scale and creative vision. The world of Night City is a metropolis of futuristic art, stealing your eye with stunning neon-lit architecture and streets filled with citizens made of flesh and metal. Night City is an open world that immediately pulls you in and keeps you engaged with its dark narrative, meaningful player choice, and overwhelming amount of side content.

Your lens into this tech-obsessed society is the protagonist simply named V, a cyberpunk who you fully design, including their voice, backstory (which subtly alters the narrative), and even their genitals. I spent far too much time creating my look, even though I rarely saw it during play due to the mostly first-person perspective. V is fun to control thanks to immense amounts of cybertech, but is an unlikable lead, spouting off profanity and groan-inducing one-liners, and generally displaying a “scum of the earth” personality.

V, while making a mess of conversations, has an interesting story to tell. It goes places I didn’t expect and gets wild toward the end. The narrative hits its stride when V meets Johnny Silverhand, a former terrorist who is now a digital construct that lives in V’s mind. Silverhand’s thoughts and dark ambitions are twisted and dangerous, leading to great conversational choices and decisions that allow players to shape the story and action. The biggest allure of Silverhand is how he’s brought to life by actor Keanu Reeves, who looks and sounds as awesome in the role as he does in any film on the silver screen. Given how wonderful some of the other characters are (with their own long and fantastic arcs), Reeves doesn’t steal the show – but Silverhand is a constant throughout most of the game and helps save V from being too overbearing.

Silverhand will bring a smile to your face, but Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t have many joyous bones in its body, and is often heavy in the delivery of its dark content. Night City may be vibrant, but it's home mostly to evil people doing terrible things. Some of the content made me uncomfortable, including story moments dealing with abuse and sexual assault. Even the average bystanders sometimes gave me pause, such as a drugged woman being held in place by a man, a setup seen all over the city. Developers should be free to explore all subject matter, but it sometimes feels careless in Cyberpunk 2077 – more like edgy set-dressing than meaningful commentary.

Much like V’s inability to think clearly with Silverhand clouding the mind, Cyberpunk 2077’s story often has different tones, and is all over the place from mission to mission. In one side story, V may come across as likable and mature. In the next, V suddenly sounds like an angsty teenager again (the tone you hear most). It’s hit or miss, but most quests deliver awesome moments, particularly when new NPCs are introduced. Almost every mission-giver or notable character is vividly brought to life in voice, animation, and by the crazy amounts of detail on their body. The same can be said for many of the locations they inhabit; an outstanding level of detail in the world makes each unique area a sight to behold. I can’t stress this enough; exploring Night City is a huge hook that CD Projekt Red knocks out of the park.

Some of the more memorable characters and story arcs are tucked off to the side, and you may never see them if you don’t veer off of the critical path (which can be completed in roughly 15 to 20 hours). I don’t know how many dozens (or hundreds) of hours of side content are around it, but the mission log just keeps growing as you play. While the main story sequences often end with cliffhangers that demand resolution and the thought that you should continue on that path, the best way to experience Cyberpunk 2077 is to see what the city has to offer. Walk into a crowded market, explore a mysterious question mark on your map, and take on the side missions that the denizens are offering – just surrender yourself to moment-to-moment discovery.

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CD Projekt Red wants you to soak in the beauty of the world, but also demands you spend plenty of time in menus assigning new abilities, crafting, and sorting through heaps of loot. That isn’t a knock against the game. It’s all handled quite well. Any room you enter could have numerous items to pick up, as well as world-building text you can read. The amount of leveling you can do is immense, which is reflected on sprawling ability charts that take considerable amounts of time to fill out. If you only focus on the critical path, you barely scratch the surface of the abilities, which carry significant advantages to combat, stealth, hacking, and dialogue. It’s amazing how much you can improve and expand upon V’s standard attributes. I also love how doing various things helps improve V in those fields.

Using cyberware and abilities to mess with enemies is good fun, such as cooking a grenade in an enemy's pocket. Hacking cameras and activating devices from afar to distract foes makes stealth satisfying. I enjoyed creeping through environments, hacking the cameras and turrets as I went. I leaned more on stealth than expected, partially because I didn’t find the gunplay enthralling. The weapons you obtain feel awesome (and give good reason to track down the legendary and iconic versions), but the enemy A.I. isn’t great, leading to headshots being delivered like they are going out of style. Some enemies think they are hidden behind thin railings, others charge foolishly toward you and then stop without any cover around them. Harder missions (which are nicely indicated on the log) are a little more intense given the spike in difficulty, but the adversaries are still easy to manipulate, unless they are an aggressive boss or cyber ninja that crowds you quickly.

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Johnny Silverhand sadly isn’t the only glitch in Cyberpunk 2077. Not since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim have I played a game that is riddled with so many graphical bugs at launch. The danger of entering a seedy bar loses its bite when one of its patrons stands motionless in a T-pose. A high-speed motorcycle chase down a highway is far less intense than it should be when an NPC biker shakes so much he looks like a blur. Little visual hitches in the environment and characters occur frequently, and they’re jarring, but I rarely ran into anything that affected gameplay. The only major issues I experienced were I could no longer look down the sight of my guns during one mission – reloading my save fixed the issue. I also had a digitized visual effect remain after a cutscene. Again, I had to reload and replay a sequence to get the proper outcome. Regardless, the frequency of the odd visual moments hurts immersion, and can outright ruin a suspenseful moment.

Cyberpunk 2077 is dark and disturbing at times (frighteningly so), but the majority of its content is fascinating, and loaded with depth through the various RPG systems and lore. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Night City, and Johnny Silverhand is a great partner to see the sights with. Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t overstay its welcome with its critical-path story, and invites players to jack in and stay for hundreds of hours of unique content should they want to. It didn't blow me away like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but is still a hell of an opening to what will hopefully be a new series.

Score: 9

Summary: The wait is worth it for CD Projekt Red's next open-world RPG, but it's an uneven playthrough that shines in particular areas and struggles in others.

Concept: A deep RPG experience that struggles with gunplay and glitches, but excels with its world, characters, and wealth of loot

Graphics: The level of detail is staggering. Every street corner and interior is worth examining. However, visual glitches occur frequently in the animations and environments

Sound: The electronic and synth-heavy score is fantastic. The radio stations also have a unique mix of songs that fit Night City’s vibe. Keanu Reeves is every bit as good as you would hope he is, and helps overcome some of the protagonist’s cringey banter

Playability: Cybernetic upgrades make stealth incredibly fun, but problematic enemy A.I. steals the fun out of the gunplay

Entertainment: An open world you can get lost in and continue finding new things to do

Replay: High

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Haven Review – Love Conquers Some

Publisher: The Game Bakers

Developer: The Game Bakers

Release: 2020

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Yu and Kay are two people stuck on an isolated planet together. The good news is they’re in love, so they already enjoy each other’s company. The bad news is parts of the planet are covered with an unstable substance they call rust, which makes the surrounding areas (and the animals that inhabit them) dangerous. Haven bounces between these two driving concepts, emphasizing Yu and Kay’s relationship at home in their spaceship, then following them as they explore the planet’s mysterious frontiers. The result is a low-impact fusion between visual novel and RPG, but it fails to fully harness the best of both worlds.  Even so, Haven gets the fundamental elements right.

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The bond between Yu and Kay is the most important part of the story, and I appreciate how developer The Game Bakers commits to making players view their interactions through the lens of mundane activities. During their time at home, they cook and eat together, have conversations on the couch, and argue about hair in the shower drain. Most relationships aren’t forged in the fires of world-ending threats and high-stakes adventure, after all. They are built in casual and comfortable spaces, and Haven largely feels authentic in its portrayal of an established (but still young) love. Physically intimacy is naturally a part of that, but Haven often uses it as a crutch instead of developing the characters in other ways; by the end of the game, the number of innocuous situations that ended in implied sex had me rolling my eyes.

The story surrounding Source (the planet Yu and Kay have settled on) is less compelling than the characters’ romantic arc. You learn why they fled their homes, and uncover some sinister facts about Source, but the threads never come together in a satisfying way. The developers clearly have an elaborate vision for this fictional sci-fi universe and its history, but the portions that find their way into the Haven’s narrative are peripheral and incomplete. I didn’t feel like I was getting a tantalizing glimpse of a bigger picture; I felt like a much larger and clearer story once existed, but important parts were gradually trimmed away until these abbreviated pieces were all that remained. Yu and Kay are ultimately still the focus, but my lack of investment in the events around them made the grand finale fall flat.

When they aren’t spending time in their ship (which is broken and can’t fly), Yu and Kay strap on hover-boots and go soaring across the colorful floating islands of Source. This is another core component that Haven gets right; simply moving around the planet is exhilarating. You glide above open plains and ride energy currents around rocky terrain, cleansing the rust of the ground as you pass over it. This is satisfying whether you’re playing solo or co-op, but even with a partner, the two characters need to stick close together. With the stylish visuals and chill soundtrack, exploration can have a pleasant and meditative quality – assuming you aren’t trying to anything specific. Any precise navigation is incredibly finnicky, even with the ability to drift for sharper turns. This makes it easy to get caught on the environment and inadvertently fall from high places, but apart from occasional enemy encounters, getting where you need to go isn’t too much of a hassle.

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In addition to the vast expanses to explore, the combat is the most RPG-like part of Haven. It involves charging and releasing attacks in real time, coordinating Yu and Kay’s actions to clear the field. The focus on timing and cooperation is interesting, but after a few basic upgrades, the battle system doesn’t evolve in meaningful ways. As you progress, you don’t learn many abilities that open up new tactics; the challenge comes mostly from different enemy types restricting your available strategies from an already-limited selection, so your combat options are shrinking over time rather than expanding. However, Haven also isn’t a demanding game, so the blunt repetition of these fights is a bigger disappointment than their difficulty.

Even when I was frustrated, I was impressed by the touching and thrilling moments Haven creates. I enjoyed the genuine connection between Yu and Kay, and jetting off into the unknown with a pair of hover-boots is a blast. But this otherworldly adventure extends itself too far beyond its strengths. Sometimes the rough patches are worth working through, but like any relationship, sometimes you’re just giving more than you’re getting.

Score: 7.75

Summary: Sometimes Haven's rough patches are worth working through, but like any relationship, sometimes you’re just giving more than you’re getting.

Concept: See the blossoming love of two young heroes as they fly across the surface of a strange planet and search for parts to repair their ship

Graphics: Colorful and stylized visuals are a good fit for the sci-fi landscape. The static portraits convey the necessary reactions, but don’t exactly bring the characters to life

Sound: The two leads put in good voice performances, and the pop-synth soundtrack makes it easy to relax while playing

Playability: Navigation is too imprecise for fine maneuvering, but the controls work great if you’re just cutting across open fields

Entertainment: Haven finds a groove in its exploration and character-building, but the combat and big narrative beats throw it off

Replay: Moderate

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World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands Review – Old Ghosts And Bold Beginnings

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Reviewed on: PC

Compared to the lifespan of most games, World of Warcraft is ancient - but it’s hardly a relic. Even today, Blizzard’s MMORPG continues to keep the content flowing for players old and new. Shadowlands is the eighth expansion, and this journey through the afterlife comes with fresh features alongside systems that will be extremely familiar to veterans of the game. At the core, Shadowlands succeeds with powerful world-building fantasy, player identity, and bold gameplay elements.

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Shadowlands’ premise is simple and straightforward. You invade the many realms of the afterlife to foil the plans of a mysterious arch-enemy called the Jailer. He is exceptionally boring as a villain right now, and takes a backseat to the true all-stars of the afterlife: the four distinct factions that the player explores and eventually aligns with as they reach the level cap. Making the choice to side with one of the realms comes with a ton of flavor and personality. 

I aligned myself with the crushed-velvet, soul-sucking, vampiric aristocracy of Revendreth. Its gothic horror trappings, magic mirrors, and giant bats gave me a different perspective of the world than players who sided with other factions. I even got to host VIP parties to try sucking up to nobles to get big payoffs. However, my nature-loving friend sided with the gorgeous ethereal forests of Ardenweald, where they put on plays in the woods and tend gardens. Whatever your decision, it feels more like you’re becoming part of these soul societies and not just jumping on an endgame progression treadmill. There’s flavor behind the functionality, and it counts for a lot, even if you are still roaming from zone to zone completing world quests. Each dungeon has elements that can be interacted with from a faction standpoint as well; discovering I could tame the gargoyles in a Venthyr dungeon to help defeat enemies was a nice surprise.

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Each zone in the afterlife is beautifully constructed and sells the fantasy well. While the sacred fields of Bastion and its angelic warriors bored me, it’s a necessary realm to serve as a foil to the darkness of Revendreth. All of the zones are impressive to view from above, and they look incredible considering how old the core of World of Warcraft is. Each zone is markedly different from the others in terms of aesthetics, personality, and feel. Blizzard takes advantage of being able to tap into heroes and villains of ages past; as this is the afterlife, it’s a great chance to bring the greatest hits from across WoW history into the spotlight. Great attention has been paid to bring forth major characters, obscure single-quest references from a decade ago, and popular newcomers like Battle for Azeroth’s Bwonsamdi.

Shadowlands serves up many staples of what is now understood to be the norm. While world quests, dungeons, war tables, and other endgame progression features are all still around with a sparkling coat of faction flavor, they don’t really alter anything in a fundamental way. Many of the quests on the way to level cap feel like stale and tired filler fare, like collecting acorns or killing fifteen cultists, with some interesting larger scale beats scattered in. However, new systems within an incredibly dangerous zone the Maw (It’s supposed to be hell) and a roguelike run experience known as Torghast make Shadowlands stand out. 

The Maw is an incredibly hazardous realm that offers risk-reward balance as you hang out in the Jailer’s backyard, battling lethal monsters without any real safety net to speak of. You may even have to run back to where you die to recover some lost resources. The Maw adds some pressure and challenge to an open-zone environment, which is absolutely refreshing in a game in which it’s all too easy to end up on autopilot world quest mode while watching Netflix. Participating in Maw activities raises the ire of the Jailer, who focuses on you like the Eye of Sauron in Mordor as you slay his fiends. While it’s functionally just another way to gate how much you can do in The Maw every day, it’s again the colorful packaging that makes the difference here.

The pinnacle of Shadowlands content is Torghast. Take the variance and unpredictability of roguelike runs and do them on your WoW character, alone or with friends, in a damned dungeon tower that’s different every time. After doing a decade of dungeon runs that never change, Torghast is a beyond welcome addition. Even the greatest curated dungeons lose their luster after completing them a dozen times, so the prospect of something new each dive is tantalizing. Each run is another opportunity to try out different builds and strategies as your powerups and situations change constantly. One run may turn you into an overpowered god stacking multiple scaling sources of damage to annihilate everything in sight or accumulating enough regeneration to handle anything. Complete puzzles to open caches, rescue some companions you can take back to your hideout, run into a mimic, or slay a rare miniboss that confers special powers. The Torghast climb is great fun and quite replayable – I found myself going back in even after I had capped my rewards for the week just to explore, experiment, and enjoy.

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It’s worth mentioning that the new leveling experience that rolled out with Shadowlands is excellent, allowing you to get a character leveled, geared, and into the new content in a fraction of the time it would have taken before, so you have time to learn your class easily before hitting the Shadowlands. This allows players to level up through any of WoW’s old expansions at a rapid pace, tempting adventurers to enjoy the old content whilst keeping it relevant in a new era. I leveled several characters for fun just to explore the old expansions, and it felt great to have a few more options in my stable to explore Shadowlands with.

Shadowlands plays it safe with numerous takes on established systems and structures, but lets players enjoy those features with a plethora of personality via the covenant factions and themed zones. Shadowlands also takes chances with a deadly zone that promotes teamwork and careful play alongside a fantastic roguelike run tower that’s full of surprises. Shadowlands is a satisfying addition to the annals of World of Warcraft expansions, and with a robust and revamped leveling experience rolling out with it, it’s a great time to come back to the MMORPG that made the genre mainstream
 

Score: 8.75

Summary: Venture to the great beyond in World of Warcraft's latest adventure.

Concept: Save the world by entering various realms in the afterlife, meeting old friends and enemies along the way

Graphics: Breathtaking and striking environments make it hard to imagine that the game is 16 years old

Sound: The core sounds of World of Warcraft haven’t changed much, but there are always unit barks and meme-worthy boss quips to enjoy

Playability: A revamped and customizable levelling process makes Shadowlands a great time for new or returning players to join in

Entertainment: Shadowlands adds some daring elements into the mix while also retaining many of the same hooks that have kept the MMO going over the years

Replay: High

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Immortals Fenyx Rising Review – Divine Inspiration

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Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Quebec

Release: February 25, 2020

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Stadia, PC

When a powerful titan defeats the Greek gods and scatters them across the Golden Isle, an unproven shield-bearer named Fenyx washes up on shore. More of a storyteller than a soldier, Fenyx must now write a legend of their own, reuniting the gods and challenging the evil force known as Typhon in an ultimate underdog story. Much like its protagonist, Immortals Fenyx Rising strives to be more than a game that just repeats the glories of others; it adds its own mythical flair on top of developer Ubisoft Quebec’s previous work on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The result is an exciting and unique open-world adventure worthy of a place in the gaming pantheon.

Exploring the Golden Isle is a joyous experience. Rich visuals (inspired by Studio Ghibli’s films) create lush and diverse biomes, and your traversal abilities make it simple to navigate the world. Fenyx (who can be male or female) can climb nearly any surface as long as they have the stamina, or jump off a mountain or statue and glide across long distances with ease. Even when I had fast-travel options to reach my destination quicker, I typically opted to make the journey manually. Every corner I turned or nook I explored rewarded me with puzzles to solve or enemies to battle for gear, resources, and other rewards.

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As Fenyx progresses, Immortals fulfills a terrific power fantasy. At first, the combat system emphasizes basic attacks, parries, and dodges, but that run-of-the-mill repertoire quickly builds to one that allows you to chain together awesome, godlike powers. You can command your bird companion to rain death from above while you summon a cluster of spears from beneath the ground, then finish the combo with a devastating swing of a giant hammer. Immortals consistently delivers stylish action that encourages you to build your combos and optimize your gear to suit your playstyle. Unfortunately, the enemy types get repetitive; by the end of the journey, I was tired of battling the usual cyclopes and griffins, which is why I actively sought out the unique optional bosses.

When I wanted a tough fight, I took on the corrupted forms of legendary heroes like Achilles and Odysseus, or tracked down Mythical forms of monsters like Medusa or Ozomene. Though you grow rapidly in power as you continue Fenyx’s adventure, these optional fights provide distinct, edge-of-your-seat battles that test your skills and strategy – and reward you with unique gear.

Outside of the challenging fights, my favorite tasks to undertake in Immortals are the often-outstanding Vaults of Tartaros. Much like the Shrines in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, these large, themed rooms throw distinct puzzles your way, with a different tactic required for each one. I enjoyed the innovative ways Immortals forced me to wrack my brain. One tasked me with activating gusts of wind to blow over obstacles, while another had me figuring out how to move boxes to pressure switches without getting destroyed by lasers. These Vaults feature such careful and intentional design that I always appreciated how clever the solutions were when I finally saw the big picture. Standard Vaults are often short and sweet, but God Vaults, which usually take place at the end of main storylines, are long, involved rooms that can take up to an hour to complete. Not only did I love working through these longer Vaults, but they serve as the perfect way to put a bow on the story arcs featuring some of Greek mythology’s most iconic characters, as voice lines play as you progress through the Vault, giving additional insight into the true nature and motivations of that god.

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With a narrative that involves a world-reshaping beast alongside the mightiest warriors, gods, and monsters of Greek mythology, you may think Immortals Fenyx Rising takes itself seriously. However, its high stakes and dark premise are punctuated by comedy, providing a lighthearted tone full of endearing moments with many of its characters. While the jokes don’t always land, I appreciated the strong mix of sarcasm, self-deprecation, and fourth-wall breaking. While an out-of-nowhere joke has the potential to take you out of the action-packed story, the writing is done in a masterful way that keeps the tone consistent throughout, making neither the serious moments or the comedic ones feel out of place.

Immortals contains all the ingredients I want from an epic, open-world adventure steeped in mythology. With empowering combat, rewarding exploration, and a story that shines a spotlight on its characters through humor, Immortals Fenyx Rising leverages its myriad inspirations to discover its own identity and deliver an outstanding open-world experience.

Score: 9

Summary: Immortals Fenyx Rising draws inspiration from movies and other games to create a unique and exciting mythological journey worth embarking on.

Concept: A humorous, action-packed adventure in which players explore a massive island brimming with prominent figures and creatures of Greek mythology

Graphics: The characters may look like strange puppets, but the world they populate is utterly gorgeous

Sound: An appropriately heroic score accompanies your feats, and the funny narration (by Zeus and Prometheus) hits the mark more than it misses

Playability: Though some of the environmental puzzles are poorly executed, the challenge-room Vaults are often clever, creative, and fun

Entertainment: Rewarding exploration, satisfying combat, and imaginative puzzles converge with endearing storytelling and well-executed humor to provide an excellent open-world experience

Replay: Moderate

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Destiny 2: Beyond Light Review – Smaller World, New Trajectory

Publisher: Bungie

Developer: Bungie

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Stadia, PC

Beyond Light has the feel of a turning point. In a long-running living game with many expansions and seasons to its name, Destiny 2 is always changing, but this installment feels different. The past and future of the franchise rotate around this release, which clears away much of the old and sets the stage for new story and gameplay beats. Like a tree that needs to get pruned back to allow for healthy growth, it also means that Beyond Light’s release leaves the game looking especially barren. Even as I’m excited to discover new powers and activities, the breadth of the overall experience has been reduced.

Several separate storylines converge to kick things off, sending players to the frigid moon of Europa to meet a couple of long-missing allies and fight a surging army of ice-cold Fallen aliens. In a plot turn that doesn’t feel especially earned after years of fighting its encroachment, your Guardian is forced to take on the powers of Darkness itself to hold back the tide. The campaign features several fun missions, but I was surprised at the way it is balanced, demanding either significant grinding or several battles that are frustrating endurance chores to tackle solo.

The Darkness-infused Stasis powers are mostly used against you by enemy bosses in the early hours, and it simply isn’t much fun to be frozen in place in a game all about speed and freedom of movement. Once the Stasis powers open up for regular use, the new subclasses add an interesting strategic tool to explore, and feature some gorgeous visual and sound effects that recall crystalline ice formations and shattering showers of sleet. The Hunter and Warlock powers are exciting and distinct, though I was disappointed by the Titan’s similarity to its own existing Arc powerset. No matter the class, I enjoyed using Stasis in PvE activities, but I’ve struggled to warm to its presence in PvP, where it feels like the barriers and freezing slow down the pace of play. I was also frustrated by the grindy nature of unlocking the subclasses for multiple characters; for the significant percentage of players who like to try out all three, it’s quite tedious.

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Huge swaths of old activities and destinations have been swept away in Beyond Light, and a design decision to “sunset” the majority of old weapons and armor combine to subtract a lot of beloved playstyles. Simply put, the absence is keenly felt. Europa is a beautiful new location to uncover, filled with vast snowy plains and mysterious underground facilities, but in a game about ever-expanding horizons, it’s strange to suddenly have fewer places to play out missions. Europa is forced to bear too much weight as a gameplay and mission destination, without the relief of more alternate locations. And as of now, there are too few new armaments to justify the obsolescence of so much of players’ existing collections.

I was pleased to see the return of the original Destiny’s Cosmodrome destination. The site is largely unchanged, but notable because it now houses the best onboarding for new players that the franchise has ever seen. The New Light mission thread echoes the opening steps players first encountered way back in 2014, but with several new twists that confront the challenging task of introducing the many interlocking systems that make up the game.

Bungie continues an admirable trend of introducing seasonal content that gradually evolves the state of the world’s story and activities, and these first couple of weeks in Beyond Light prove that effort is ongoing. The arrival of the Crow character is a clever plot twist that reintroduces an old foe in an intriguing new role, and his hunting missions are a good time, with some simple touches that give you the sense that you’re stalking a dangerous wounded animal. Meanwhile, the new Deep Stone Crypt raid once again proves Bungie’s flexibility and eye for balancing complex encounter design. Equally important, the raid’s initial completion also kicked off a whole new loop of missions and story for all players in the game. That sort of reactivity makes the universe dynamic and unpredictable, and I love it.

I respect the hard decisions that were involved in chopping the size of Destiny 2 down and consolidating the focus of play, and the similar moves that were involved in refocusing on gear acquisition rather than letting players continue to endlessly reuse old favorites. But it doesn’t change the reality that Destiny 2 feels greatly stripped back at the moment, even with the addition of several new ventures in these early weeks of Beyond Light. As an expansion, Beyond Light introduces some captivating narrative beats and missions, but it’s not enough all on its own to carry the load of the Destiny universe. I’m left ambivalent, with plenty of enthusiasm for the new content, and excitement about what comes next, but also the sense that for the first time, my longtime hobby game feels lesser than before.

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Score: 7.75

Summary: Beyond Light is a major turning point for the franchise in both story and gameplay, but the accompanying departure of older content diminishes the game in significant ways.

Concept: Rediscover the lost and frozen moon of Europa, and take steps along the dangerous path of wielding new powers of Darkness

Graphics: The new frozen locale emphasizes massive scale and boundless space, and the new shifting blizzard weather patterns deepen immersion and a sense of place

Sound: New music maintains Destiny’s reputation as one of the most compelling soundtracks in gaming, and the voice actors turn in strong performances

Playability: The initial campaign features a difficulty curve ill-suited to casual play. Significant grinding is necessary across this expansion to see the full scope of core missions and new abilities

Entertainment: An engaging story feels like a turning point in the canon, but the game feels diminished after stripping away roughly half of the locations, activities, and other core content

Replay: High

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NBA 2K21 Review – New Polish On The Court

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Visual Concepts

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: PlayStation 5

Any athlete will attest that you can do all the right things in the off-season and still come up short. Visual Concepts clearly worked to up its game with NBA 2K21 and deliver better results. However, this wasn’t a typical off-season for Visual Concepts; the team wasn’t just trying to take NBA 2K to the next level, it was trying to take it to the next generation, being the first sports game to go all-in on the new console power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The result is a valiant effort, full of great new features and impressive visual leaps, but it’s clear there’s still some seasoning and adjustments to the playbook that need to be done. 

Visual Concepts released a version of NBA 2K21 back in early September (for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia), but this next-gen edition was built from the ground up to harness the power of the new hardware. Some things from the earlier release carry over, like the bulk of Junior’s MyCareer story, but it also has new modes, as well as important tweaks such as smoother movement and more realistic contact. Most importantly, the long load times that have plagued the series are a thing of the past. Games load in seconds, getting you right into the action. The only hiccups I noticed were when my player went to the bench for a substitution and between periods; sometimes your player just stands stoically for a few moments during this transition. It breaks the immersion since everything else functions just like you’re at an actual arena, including a lively crowd and staff performing various tasks.

Minor issues aside, Visual Concepts continues to deliver stellar gameplay that looks and feels straight out of the NBA. The new-gen tech has only added more authenticity and variety to the on-court action. Being able to change up the speed of your dribble and size-up moves makes ball-handling feel great and gives you tons of options. I loved being able to use hesitations, escapes, stepbacks, and crosses to throw off defenders, and this new dribbling quickly became my favorite upgrade. Passes also look more realistic, especially alley-oops off the glass to teammates. A new lead-pass mechanic, alongside the addition of bounce-touch passes, makes it so you always have varied ways situations can play out. 

As with past entries, certain players have signature moves, and Visual Concepts has only added to the realism with new skills like LeBron James’ suspended dribble. It’s cool that players move or play differently depending on who they are, their position, and how they’re built. I was constantly wowed by the level of detail in every player model, from their likeness to their real-world counterparts right down to their facial expressions and dripping sweat in intense moments. NBA 2K21 is easily one of the best-looking games on the new consoles. 

Another high point is the addition of The W, which allows you to can create your own WNBA MyPlayer for the first time and build your own path to stardom by playing for one of the league’s 12 teams. The level of detail in this mode is great, as I loved learning more about the league and its players from the announcers and games feel different from the NBA with a more technical and team-centric style. The W doesn’t have a cinematic experience like the main MyPlayer mode, but you do get to build up your popularity, wealth, team chemistry, and progression by choosing between different things to do on your day off, like volunteering for a youth program or streaming NBA 2K21. 

You have to fill in the blanks to your own story through these small choices, interacting with other players via text messages, and your social-media feed, but the crux is focused on being a visible role model and bringing other young girls into the sport, which I think is fantastic. I just wish it had its own self-contained storyline, and I’m disappointed that your female MyPlayer cannot be brought into the main multiplayer space: The City. You can play with other players in The W Online, but playing in a small gym isn’t the same experience as having tons of shops and courts at your disposal. 

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The City is an evolution from The Neighborhood, where players come together in a multiplayer space with their created MyPlayers to play pick-up games and shop. The City is a big attraction, and exclusive for this next-gen version of the game. It’s clear Visual Concepts has some big ideas for it, as you get assigned an alliance and help build up its reputation by participating in events. I enjoy walking through this massive metropolis, stumbling upon special vendors selling unique apparel, and unlocking special challenges like teaming up with cover star Damian Lillard to take on legends Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter. You even get to spin a wheel for a daily log-in bonus that gives you cool freebies. Most recently, I scored a free tattoo, which made me happy because spending VC (which you can earn in-game or spend real money to acquire) isn’t my thing, especially for cosmetic items. Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you’re most likely going to be grinding to get anything cool or hoping your luck serves you well when you spin the wheel – though I have yet to get a high-tier item that way. Good items are very expensive, and grinding for them requires an unreasonable amount of patience; it feels like a blatant effort to drive players toward microtransactions, which feels gross. 

The City is a cool idea, but it is also where the biggest problems surface. To enter The City, you must first get your rank up by grinding out wins in Rookieville. This is miserable, as you’re in a sequestered area where you can’t access any part of The City and must just wait for games and play with others. Losses don’t do much for your rank, so every game feels like you’re fighting for entry to the show. I encountered many players who had clearly bought VC to boost their character’s stats and put themselves at the best advantage – which makes it even harder to win if you don’t pay real money yourself. 

As I walked around Rookieville, I rarely came across a player who wasn’t rated 86 or higher. Badges only further complicate this, because badges can let you make unrealistic shots or avoid easy steals. This has made me hate online play, because the games don’t unfold fairly or realistically. They’re just not fun. Visual Concepts needs to figure out a better way to reward teamwork, because players don’t want to pass the ball and just shoot all day long with these modifiers. It’s becoming more of a problem, especially as online play continues to be a focus. 

Outside of these frustrations, you can still expect the other basic modes and some tweaks. My NBA is now an all-encompassing franchise mode, combining MyGM, MyLeague, and MyLeague Online. It gives you more customization options than ever before, from toggling certain league rules to bypassing some of the annoying role-playing elements. MyGM is still in need of a complete overhaul, even if I do appreciate the revamped boom/bust system and more variation in player potentials. I also enjoyed that there are some little variations from the old-gen version, such as a new path in Junior’s MyPlayer story, where you can join the G-League and brush shoulders with some familiar players from the series’ fiction. 

NBA 2K21’s full-team on-court action plays the best it ever has, and the graphical leap is impressive to boot, but it still comes up short in some key areas. Visual Concepts still hasn’t figured out a great way to elevate its online play, and microtransactions continue to destroy what should be a fun part of the experience. I love creating specular plays and the thrill of sinking a buzzer-beating three, but the moment I walk into the online space, that feeling evaporates. It becomes about the money, not about the love of the game. 

Score: 8

Summary: The full-team on-court action plays the best it ever has, and the graphical leap is impressive to boot, but it still comes up short in some key areas.

Concept: Built from the ground up to leverage the new consoles’ power, this edition brings faster load times, better physics, and new features alongside gameplay improvements

Graphics: This is the best the series has ever looked, from the ultra-realistic player models and their on-court moves to the expanded crowd and their reactions to plays. Even with occasional graphical hiccups, the overall tech is at a new, impressive level

Sound: Excellent commentary not only responds appropriately to the play at hand but also educates you on the league and its history. New songs join the already-stellar soundtrack to give you great background beats

Playability: The mechanics are easy to learn, but putting it all together on the court takes time, patience, and high basketball IQ. Online features, like The City, are not newcomer-friendly

Entertainment: NBA 2K21 takes some great steps to bring the series into a new generation and impress on the court, but some parts of its game still need work

Replay: Moderately High

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Fuser Review – A Fresh Remix

Publisher: NCSoft

Developer: Harmonix Music Systems

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Developer Harmonix has made its mark on the video game industry with its unique integration of music and gameplay. While Guitar Hero might be the studio’s best-known outing, Fuser is an even more evolved manifestation of Harmonix’s vision; it’s a game that uses popular songs to deliver a musical experience that is as enjoyable to shape as it is to listen to.

Fuser puts you behind the turntables and mixers, giving you full command of a catalogue of hit songs spanning rap, R&B, dance, rock, and country music. Using four turntables (controlled with  your gamepad or mouse), you mix different elements of these songs to craft your own creations. I was often surprised by how well these songs melded together; I never could have guessed combining the beat of Childish Gambino’s "Summertime Magic" with the bassline of Donna Summer’s "Hot Stuff," the synth of Billie Eilish’s "Bad Guy," and the vocals of Smash Mouth’s "All Star" would work so well in concert. Discovering surprises such as this is often an organic process in Freestyle mode, where you have no limitations or focus on score, but Fuser does a terrific job of teaching you the gameplay through career mode.

You’re cast as an up-and-coming performer, working to gain the respect of the hottest DJs on the festival scene. While these personalities are often grating and cartoonish, the career mode is a thinly veiled (yet effective) tutorial set to a rise-from-obscurity narrative. In this mode, you learn the basics through objectives designed to please the crowd and boost your score, including changing the tempo or key, applying different effects to discs, or cuing up multiple discs to jump to simultaneously through the awesome riser function. Swapping out discs individually works well enough when trying to find what works with a certain sound, but the riser feature seamlessly transitions from your current creation to an all-new masterpiece.

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The library of songs available at launch is impressive and diverse, giving you ample tracks in each genre to choose from. Each song brings something unique, whether it’s the hot Latin beat of Bad Bunny’s "Yo Perreo Sola" or the heavy guitar riff of Rage Against the Machine’s "Killing in the Name." While certain combinations work better together than others, I rarely found any that sounded downright bad; a testament to the impressive technology Harmonix uses to blend sounds and songs together in organic ways. If you happen to find the perfect audio concoction, you can save a snapshot for easy access in the future.

Once you get the feel for marrying disparate songs into cohesive and infectious mixes, you can use other tools to take your creations to the next level. Adding effects like delays, filters, and tape stops add extra flourishes to help make your fusion your own, but nothing allows you to customize quite like performing on the several available instruments. You can’t play whatever note or pattern you’d like, but you can choose from various instruments including distorted vocals, a string section, and trap drums to create your own loops to drop into the soundscape. While I rarely preferred these custom-instrument tracks over the established songs that make up the core tracks, nothing made my songs standout more than adding my own custom piano loop.

Creative expression is obviously crucial to the core gameplay experience, but it carries over into how you present your set. You can customize your character’s appearance, including unlockable clothing and accessories, but I love tinkering with different stage setups and light shows. Going beyond how customized the song mechanics are, choosing the perfect pyrotechnics, fireworks, and laser shows to match the mood I’m setting in my performance is a lot of fun.

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Music can certainly be enjoyed alone, but the festival scene is a social experience, and Fuser allows you to go online for collaborative multiplayer. When you hop into a lobby, you take turns with up to three other people to perform your perfect production. It’s always fun to see what other people come up with, which is why I love this mode, as well as the social section, which holds themed events featuring songs from different genres and decades. You can submit your own creation to these events or listen to recordings from other players.

Battle mode is a chaotic competitive multiplayer option where you take on other players using ever-evolving songs you come up with on the fly. Unfortunately, even more than a week after launch, battle mode does not work on Xbox. While you can undoubtedly have fun with Fuser’s other avenues of play, the fact that Harmonix released a non-functional mode as part of the package is disappointing. However, this is a comparatively small portion of Fuser as a whole, so those who can’t get into a match aren’t missing much.

By affording you such command of a terrific catalogue of diverse hits and certifiable classics, Fuser allows you to aptly fulfill the DJ fantasy better than ever before, without the need for clunky peripherals you’ll only use for one game. Though I poured hours into the experience, I still feel like I have so many corners and interactions to explore within the library of available tracks. Fuser transcends musical genres to deliver a magical and intuitive music creation toolset within the framework of a game.

The Edge

Fuser’s gameplay works well on controller, but if you want the easiest, most efficient experience, mouse and keyboard on the PC version is the way to go. The pointer-based controls work better when you have direct control of the reticle rather than pushing it around with an analog stick.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Fuser is a magical music experience that will have you dreaming up new ways to incorporate different songs and sounds into your next creation.

Concept: Step into the colorful shoes of a DJ, mixing components of various songs across myriad genres to please the crowd

Graphics: Cartoony, dated character models are overshadowed by the electric festival atmosphere, which includes your custom stage show

Sound: A diverse collection of hits from a wide spread of genres allows for eclectic creations that meld together in satisfying fashion

Playability: Even as you progress through your career and accumulate new abilities at a frantic pace, the skills at your disposal feel manageable and intuitive

Entertainment: Combining elements from multiple songs to spin your own creations delivers a special kind of magic

Replay: Moderately high

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Dirt 5 Review – An Approachable And Exciting Off-Road Racer

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Codemasters

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, PC

Muddy tires, breakneck speeds, and whiplash-inducing drifts are the name of the game with Dirt 5, the latest off-road racing title from rally veterans Codemasters. Dirt 5 embraces approachable, arcade-style gameplay, enabling more players to enter the race. With a variety of events to take on, you’re never at a shortage of routes to drive and donuts to do.

Dirt 5 continues the series’ hallmark of delivering terrific off-road racing. Thanks to the tight, precise controls, traveling the world and speeding past the beautiful sights feels awesome. I loved tearing through a muddy course under the shimmering Aurora Borealis in Norway and drifting around an icy corner with New York’s Roosevelt Island Bridge serving as the backdrop.

Performing well in Dirt 5’s races requires you to master the delicate balance of when to accelerate, brake, and throw the handbrake for harsh drifts. This light-speed calculus becomes even more complicated when you have to take into account other vehicles that can soften your cornering, or how the different surfaces feel when you’re going into a turn at 60 miles-per-hour; I can be more reckless on muddy surfaces than I can on ice, while the pavement is much less conducive to drifting. I love how you can truly feel the different surfaces in how your vehicle performs. On top of that, driving in the dark or inclement weather adds an additional layer of challenge, with lower visibility coming from heavy snow and the track being illuminated only by your headlamps. It’s unnerving and beautiful at the same time.

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While the main attraction is the racing (either lap-based or point-to-point), Dirt 5 also includes events like Path Finder and Gymkhana to change things up. Path Finder puts you on a hilly course full of narrow paths, rocky terrain, and near-vertical ascents and tasks you with carefully traversing it as quick as possible; I enjoyed each course, though the extremely uneven terrain sometimes caused my vehicle to bounce around or turn over, resulting in frustration as the clock keeps ticking. Gymkhana is a stunt mode where you’re tasked with completing drifts, donuts, and jumps on your way to (hopefully) a high score. I always looked forward to each Gymkhana event, but the short timer and limited set of obstacles make them fall flatter than a stunt-based mode should.

The various events come together in a meaningful way in career mode, which lets you plot your path through a branching tree of events on your way to becoming an off-road superstar. After completing a race in South Africa, I could opt to stay for a Gymkhana event rather than going to Greece for a difficult rally race. In addition to earning performance-based stamps that unlock new chapters, you also have optional objectives, which add a ton of flavor to events and get you noticed by other racers. Once you complete enough of these, you can challenge rivals to one-on-one Throwdown events.

Dirt 5’s career is fairly straightforward; there’s no vehicle customization outside of decals and paint jobs, but I loved replaying events to complete as many of the special objectives as possible. Most are actions I would probably do anyway, like trading paint with other racers, drifting a set number of times, or sustaining a minimum speed, but the “finish the race in reverse” objective always had me scratching my head.

Unfortunately, most modes outside of the career don’t give you enough incentive to stick around. Sure, I could try to post a better time-trial score on the leaderboard, but the feeling of repetition becomes unavoidable. The custom races let you adjust everything down to how quick the weather changes, but these settings don’t make up for the lack of optional objectives, making the races feel less eventful than their career counterparts.

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Because of this, I’ve found myself returning again and again to the community-driven custom course mode, Playgrounds. Here, I can use intuitive tools to build my own course for racing or Gymkhana, then share it online. While you can’t make a huge course like the ones in other modes, you use gates, barriers, platforms, and obstacles to deliver fun experiences completely distinct to this mode. I loved browsing the discover tab to find twisting Gate Crasher courses full of jumps and spirals. Even after I finished career mode, I regularly returned to Playgrounds’ community tab to check out the latest creations.

If you’d rather play with others, Dirt 5 supports local splitscreen with up to four players (even in career mode), as well as online play through traditional racing and party games like Vampire, a game of tag where you avoid the “infected” cars until the timer runs out, or King, an event where you try to capture a crown then hold onto it for as long as possible by avoiding others in the arena. Unfortunately, I struggled to find online competition through matchmaking; my most reliable method was to join up with friends, but even then, finding party games proved unfruitful. This is disappointing considering how new the game is.

Though some of the modes don’t provide the deepest experiences, I enjoyed my time racing around in Dirt 5 thanks to a fun career mode and a community section bustling with potential. Whether you’re earning your spot among the superstars or creating a vehicular obstacle course of your dreams, Dirt 5 is worthy of a spot on the podium.

Score: 8.5

Summary: Dirt 5 offers a fun career mode and exciting community features, but lacks depth in its peripheral modes.

Concept: Hop into the driver’s seat of a variety of vehicles and compete in events across pavement, dirt, mud, and ice

Graphics: Everything looks terrific. Sunlight hits your car, lightning strikes during storms, and your vehicle gathers dirt and dust over the course of a race

Sound: An appropriately amped-up soundtrack provides excellent accompaniment to the on-the-track action, but the roaring engines are the stars

Playability: Easy-to-understand controls allow for anyone to drive up to the starting line, but mastering the tight corners and the way the different surfaces behave is essential to grabbing a spot on the podium

Entertainment: With a fun choose-your-path career mode and community-driven custom courses, Dirt 5 provides a thrilling and approachable off-road experience

Replay: Moderate

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