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The extraction shooter genre is analogous to itself. Many extraction shooter games enter the fray, attempt to scoop up as much loot (players) as possible and survive long enough to be successful (extract). It’s certainly not often a new one comes along and even when it does, much like the genre, they arrive and get domed by something that’s existed for a long, long time that is simply better. And yet here comes Embark Studios with ARC Raiders. It’s got Older Brother Video Game energy. It’s got that spicy zing to the gameplay loop that will have you laughing until 2:00 AM in the morning or going to bed with hatred burning in your heart. I’m not getting enough sleep because of ARC Raiders, and I love it.
Borderlands 4 is the best the series has been in decades and a testament to Gearbox’s ability to absolutely cook
Elden Ring Nightreign is a bizarre game. It’s the Majora’s Mask of the Soulsborne family, with a mix-up of locations and bosses from Elden Ring with some Dark Souls trilogy foes sprinkled in. It’s got battle royale elements and roguelite features. It’s fast paced and as brutally difficult as it gets. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite entries in FromSoftware’s pantheon of titles.
Back before the new millennium, a brand new type of strategy game crawled onto the scene in the form of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. It had players control a handful of commandos across a series of missions, completing objectives and taking down Nazis along the way. The game had a few sequels, and although they were well received, the series ultimately went dormant. That is, until now. Like one of the game’s titular commandos, Claymore Game Studios has popped up out of the shadows and delivered Commandos: Origins. It offers up the same intense, real-time stealth strategy of the originals, a rich sandbox of tools, and smooths out the rough edges while maintaining that iconic devilish difficulty.
When it comes down to it, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a brilliant and astounding experience by a developer that has shown itself to be a leader in the open-world genre. Henry makes for such a pleasant protagonist that you can’t help but love him, and the journey you go on across medieval Bohemia is equal parts complex and deeply absorbing. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 shines bright among its peers, even with its dints and dents.
Honestly, if I wasn’t so enamoured with this gorgeous world, I’d be scoring this lower. Similarly, if there was just more to do and richer systems in place to engage with, it’d be higher. I think that those out there who love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise will feel at home in this game, as the world is stunning, the sense of loneliness and isolation permeates everything, and the combat against the human factions is intense.
Every single decision you make in Frostpunk 2 is like taking a step out onto a frozen lake. You might shift your weight onto a foot, only to see a tiny crack race out ahead of you. Is this the decision that will lead to your downfall? Even something as benign as placing down buildings comes with the weight of resource management, societal impact, and just a little bit more strain on the delicate system you’ve tried to establish. It’s a brilliant sequel that will leave you frozen with indecision as the icy disposition of the factions rivals the chill from a whiteout.
Spectre Divide’s main selling point, the Spectre mechanic, is admittedly rather cool. It’s great to get a second chance at a tactical shooter mid-round. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like a strong enough hook to draw players across from the other games that have solidified themselves as the leaders in the genre. Add to this the problems with match pacing, bland weapons, and laughable microtransaction prices and you’ve got a game that is unlikely to convince hardcore fans to dive in, let alone keep players around for the long run.
Deathbound, like many other Soulslike games before it, brings a few neat ideas to the table. While they are certainly nice to sample and play around with, a lot of the surrounding elements are sluggish and bland. It’s still great to see developers have a go at joining the pantheon of games in the genre, but Deathbound didn’t leave me wanting to come back for more.
South Park: Snow Day! does a great job at delivering a new type of genre in the South Park setting while nailing everything we’ve come to love about the franchise. As vulgar and hilariously uncouth as it can be, there’s a charm to it that takes me back to my childhood, enjoying a day off and playing with friends, even if I’ve never had a snow day. If you’re looking for a roguelike you can play with a few pals, South Park: Snow Day! will have you laughing and yelling as you hack, slash, and cast spells at kids, and of course, fart on Cartman whenever possible.