Sorta.

There’s really no story to Hunters. But essentially you can step up as one of 12 (at this point) different character types from the Star Wars universe and battle in a team-play, blast-‘em-away competition. Two teams made up of five characters each are set loose to give battle.

Since this game was primarily designed for use on your Apple or Android smartphone, the game’s various maps aren’t huge like some battle royale team shooters. But the feel is similar, and it can be easily navigated with a touch screen. Characters have their own special abilities and weapons. You can use ziplines, grappling hooks and catapults to get from level to level. And when teamed up, your squad simply aims to take the foes down in a fast match that only lasts a couple of minutes.

In other words, Star Wars: Hunters is an easy-to-pick-up amusement that can be played while you’re standing in line or totally bored. You know, those instances when you could be looking at things or people around you but would rather fill those minutes pretending you’re a big ol’ Wookiee or a robot Jedi. 

On that character front, Hunters offers up some fun choices for fans of a certain galaxy far, far away. For instance, you can play as Rieve, a female Sith who’s agile and skilled; Aran Tal, a Mandalorian Vanguard; and Utooni, a pair of piggyback Jawa scavengers wrapped in a trench coat. Those are some of the damage-focused characters. And then you’ve got your tanks (such as the above-mentioned Wookiee juggernaught, Grozz) and support-class battlers such as the Rebel war hero, Zaina.

Each character has a main weapon in the form of a pistol, rifle, lightsaber or warclub; their own sense of speed and agility; and  specific skills such as the ability to drop a healing zone, deflect gun fire, throw up a personal shield, blast foes with a wrist rocket, draw an enemy closer and the like. You choose which character you prefer and go.

This is a multiplayer game that definitely requires an online connection. And there’s a microtransaction element ever present in the play. (Detailed below.)

POSITIVE CONTENT

As shooters go, this one is relatively mess free. There’s no blood or flesh rending, just zaps of light and color. Characters fall with a skull symbol above their head when bested.

The pace of the game is fast and fairly fluid. And while Hunters doesn’t offer much in the way of gaming complexity, there is a variety of classes, characters and abilities to choose from and build your teams with.

And, of course, it’s a light, action-packed title that’s designed to tickle Star Wars fan fancy. Characters sometimes talk in the midst of battle, but there’s nothing offensive or crude.

CONTENT CONCERNS

All of that said, this is a run-and-gun shooter and pretty much nothing else. So, if you’re averse to trigger-pulling, explosions and zapping foes, this isn’t the game for you.

Probably the biggest drawback is the fact that the gamemakers make their money on the microtransactions in the game. So, Star Wars: Hunters isn’t shy about offering players ways that they can make their play a little better with a bit of real-world cash.

Pop-ups regularly remind you that rather than deal with built-in timers and other elements that limit your play, you can purchase battlepasses, cosmetics and a variety of helpful things with real cash. And then there are the characters themselves. You start with a single character for simply playing the game tutorial, but you can only unlock the others through hours of matches. Unless … you get out your charge card.

GAME SUMMARY

Droids, Jedi, bounty hunters and Wookiees are at your beck and call. Star Wars: Hunters is a free game that’s easy to pick up and fun to play. (As long as you don’t mind a bunch of in-game buy me offers.)

The post Star Wars: Hunters appeared first on Plugged In.

So, what’s the draw? Well, this game features a combination of cinematic art design and an emphasis on tactical teamplay, paired with tongue-in-cheek satire and ticking-clock strategy.

First of all, there’s no solo story mode to play through here. Helldivers 2 is comprised of a series of increasingly difficult co-op missions on large expansive maps of alien worlds. That said, you are still making your way through a story together with others.  

The game ushers you into a satirical, sci-fi universe where a powerful empire, Super Earth, is sending out destructive armies and weaponry to spread “democracy” across the galaxy. (“You will meet and immediately kill all kinds of exotic life forms for the glory of mankind,” one spokesperson for the government announces proudly.)

Everything tends to lean very heavily into the jingoistic winking humor of director Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 cinematic satire, Starship Troopers. The game liberally sprinkles in tropes from other recognizable movies as well. And with its engaging art design, there are times when it feels like some of the game’s scenes were actually choreographed or lifted directly from one sci-fi pic or another.

In this setting, you aren’t a super soldier or Master Chief. Your role is that of a hapless young nobody who’s been handed a powerful weapon and then sent out to deal with swarming hordes of giant, alien bugs (Terminids) or various Terminator-like cyborgs (Automatons). Each mission against these two factions of baddies has several difficulty levels and various time limits in which it must be accomplished.

For example, you might choose to find and transmit research data, which carries a 40-minute timer for exploration and enemy battle. There’s a 12-minute mission that involves finding and defeating an Automaton fabricator. Or you could opt for a ten-minute mission focused on destroying a specific number of Terminids. (There are, of course, scores of others.)

Your choices will be based on the number in your team; the types of weapons you currently can access; your current character level (which impacts your available weapons and armor); and just how swarmingly tough a battle you want to wade into.

Players can call in new weapons and ammo from their ship (including special tools such as an auto-turret) or order up a destructive airstrike on swarms of foes. The various assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, energy weapons and explosive guns that gamers can unlock all unleash their own unique destruction on the many armored bugs, tanks and thick-skinned creatures that players face.

Each mission ends with an “Evac” period in which players or teams must fend off a flood of remaining foes while awaiting extraction. And if their character is killed in battle, they have a limited number of respawns that will allow them to retrieve their weapons and continue on.

As noted, but worth saying again, this is online-only game. You can play solo or with up to three friends. Players can set up missions with their own group of friends or join in with random groups.

POSITIVE CONTENT

There is a leveling up aspect to Helldivers 2, but the game doesn’t feel “grinding” in its play. Instead, the weapons and armor available fit the challenges on hand. And the missions have a very quick, film scene-like quality about them. Teamplay feels fluid and fast without being overwhelming for new players.

Because of each mission’s ticking clock, gaming can be limited to shorter bite-sized chunks, if you choose. And every mission has its own adrenaline-pumping moments. The winking humor of the game works without being obnoxious or overstaying its welcome.

CONTENT CONCERNS

Frenetic, trigger-pulling combat is constant here. And that means messy, guts-spewing carnage is simply an unavoidable part of the play. Laser cannons, futuristic shotguns, flamethrowers, electric arc rifles, machine guns, antitank missiles and many other weapons are part of your arsenal.

Not only are gamers using myriad different weapons to goopily splatter and eviscerate enemies, but they themselves will get splattered repeatedly as well. The creatures you face can sometimes be an overwhelming flood of hacking, razor-sharp pincers and gun-blazing doom.

And then there’s the friendly fire. Rifle blasts from any direction, for instance, can bring a teammate down, as can detonated bombs and airstrikes. (During one mission I played, for instance, a team member was crushed by the incoming evacuation aircraft just seconds before the end of the mission.)

Let me also remind you of this: Even though Helldivers 2 is game you have to purchase, it still packs in microtransactions in the way that many “free” games do these days. Players can play on free battle passes, but paid passes offer perks. And real-world currency can also be used to unlock weapons and armor more quickly—which could be a temptation for undisciplined players who are looking for instant gratification.

Solo play is, theoretically, possible; but can be extremely difficult and generally more frantically panicked than fun. This is a game designed with co-op play in mind. And some swarming missions are quite literally impossible without someone at your back.

Finally, though Helldivers 2 has been out for more than a month, the game still has some glitches that some will deal with, from overtaxed servers to game dropouts.

GAME SUMMARY

It’s not hard to see why so many critics and fans have dubbed Helldivers 2 the next great online shooter. It definitely features some stand-and-salute charms. That said, this hit game remains drenched in visceral trigger-pulling brutality and bug-guts-oozing moments, too.

The post Helldivers 2 appeared first on Plugged In.

Fans of the very popular Batman: Arkham games—Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins andArkham Knight—have been eagerly awaiting Rocksteady Studios return to that particular gaming universe. But in the nine years since the last installment, the gamemakers have veered radically away from the typical Batman-versus-the-lethal-lunatics stratagem.

This time the lunatics are in charge. And the result is the very messy and at times incredibly disturbing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

This M-rated co-op adventure-shooter places gamers in the gore spattered togs of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark or the Flash-villain, Boomerang. Batman? Oh, he shows up too, but he’s a mercilessly deadly villain this go ‘round.

It seems that five years after the events of Arkham Knight, the maniacal supercomputer, Brainiac, has swooped in from space and figured out how to take over the minds of the world’s greatest heroes—making them death-dealing pawns who murder at their new master’s pleasure. In fact, as the groupthink goodies gleefully slaughter the human populace, Wonder Woman is the only real hero left.

So the remaining ordinary, resisting humans tap Amanda Waller to pull together a “super” team of Arkham Asylum’s incarcerated bad guys to deal with the problem. And after tricking Arkham’s worst to inject explosives into their own heads, she promises this Task Force X (aka: the Suicide Squad) freedom if it can simply kill each of the former heroes—including Superman, the Green Lantern, Batman and the Flash—and outfox the super intellect of Brainiac. No prob, right?

Gameplay wise, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a fast-paced looter-shooter. The anti-heroes are sent on missions all around the city of Metropolis (oddly enough) where they pick up weapons from the likes of the Hall of Justice and Lex Luther’s labs.

As they then proceed through the smoking city, players battle hordes of power-morphed humans and the big-boss supers—gaining combos and boosts from melee attacks, midair leaps and blasts and sliding maneuvers.

Gamers can play with up to three friends in co-op mode or tackle the game solo. And solo players can also switch between any of four Squad characters when not in the midst of combat. Rocksteady Studios has promised to offer an offline story mode sometime in 2024, but at this juncture players must have an internet connection to play, whether gaming solo or co-op.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is undeniably creative in its story construct. The battling is fast paced and relatively smooth. And the actor voiceovers are very well performed.

The game also delivers a message praising the strength of teamwork and family connections. We see people freely giving their lives for the sake of others. And the villain protagonists take steps to save humanity, even when they’re free from Amanda Waller’s threats.

CONTENT CONCERNS

All of those positive things said, this is a very hard-edged game that earns its M-rating in spades. Since it focuses on Arkham inmates, the dialogue is replete with very crude sexualized humor. For instance, Boomerang makes a habit of urinating on fallen former heroes (his lower extremities just offscreen) and his teammates toss out quips about the ample size of his manhood.

In that same category is all of this game’s foul language. The dialogue is constantly peppered with f- and s-words and other crudities, such as the usage of “d–n,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “ba–ard,” “bloody,” and misuses of God’s and Jesus’ names.

Of course, as the title would suggest, Kill the Justice League doesn’t skimp on its blood and mess either. Characters use blades, pistols, machine guns, explosives and deadly superpowers to blow away and, at times, rip open others.

For instance, someone’s heart is torn out of their chest; people are decapitated and sliced down the middle; a person’s head is detonated (off screen); body parts are sliced off; and blood spatters people and scenery. And lots of that violence is delivered by the brainwashed heroes as well. We see the Green Lantern smashing people to pulp, Batman murdering cops with guns and blades, and Superman pounding, strangling and turning a fellow hero to ash with his heat vision.

It may be a small part of the whole, but most everyone here is also duplicitous and untrustworthy. Characters cheat, deceive and lie more often than not.

[Spoiler Warning] Perhaps the most disturbing part of the game’s bloody death-dealing is when the superheroes, who have historically survived the onslaught of villainous plots and schemes, are so easily brainwashed and then murdered, executed and cast aside as so much trash. Batman’s bullet-to-the-brain execution feels particularly unsettling in an Arkham Universe game. And fans will blanch at the fact that this was one of the last performances delivered by long-time Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy, who died in November of 2022.

GAME SUMMARY

Making villains into antihero protagonists is the latest DC superhero rage. And Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League does a creative job of it. But it’s ugly, foul and disturbing, too.

The post Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appeared first on Plugged In.

Isn’t it just Pokémon with guns? some have asked. Is it copyright infringement? Others have wondered, Is it cruel? Why is it becoming so popular and setting gameplay records?  

So, even though the game is still “officially” only in early access, we thought we ought to play it and address those questions along with the straight-forward query of: What exactly is this thing?

The fact is, Palworld seems to pull a lot of its mixed-breed inspirations from a whole bunch of popular titles. (Though its gamemakers have already declared there’s no IP infringement.) Some have suggested that it has DNA of titles such as Ark: Survival Evolved, Minecraft, Fortnite, Pokémon and even a dash of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running through it’s veins.

And they’re all, in a way, correct.

At its core though, Palworld is more of a base-building, survival/crafting game than anything else. At least, that’s where you throw most of your early gaming energy.

Palworld doesn’t really have much of a story to lean into. There are no quaint villages to visit or critter competitions to participate in. You’re simply plopped down in an open-world locale filled with trees, rocks and wandering “Pal” critters and asked to go fend for yourself. The one surefire story suggestion is that there are “ancient glowing towers” scattered about the land. And they seem important.

So, how do you survive? Well, you can initially pick up sticks and punch trees and rocks in an effort to gather basic resources. And with enough of those resources, you can unlock recipes for a rudimentary workbench; a campfire to keep you warm at night; a basic axe; a basic club. With the club you can go out and kill a Pal for meat and sustenance. (Yep, this game ain’t always so “Poké” friendly.) And with more resources and recipes, you’ll get around to building a Pal Sphere with which to catch a weakened Pal critter.

Those Pals can then hunt with you, they can go out and gather resources for you, they can maintain your camp. With them you can build houses, beds, storage facilities, and more. When you unlock the ability to ride the galloping or flying Pals, they can transport you all across the great big world. 

Hey, eventually you can even force your growing team of critters into an industrialized production line of conveyor belts and machines, if you’re so inclined. That will not only keep your camp humming but supply you with all the ammo and other elements you’d ever hope to own, use or sell. (There are also human merchants and black-market traders in the mix.)

Then there’s the battling side of the gaming equation. You may start out by thunking critters with a stick. But your crafted arsenal can grow into swords, bows and arrows, crossbows, shotguns and rifles. You can even pick up certain Pals and use them as a flamethrower against foes, for example, or assign them as guards with automatic weapons.

As you capture bigger, more destructively powerful Pals, you can then fend off other trainers who send their Pal armies to decimate your camp. You explore. You raid dungeons and discover treasure chests. And eventually you spread your influence to those glowing towers scattered about, and there you face off with big bosses in residence.

So, as to the question of what this game is, it’s many things. It’s a survival game, a crafting game, a farming sim, a strategy game, a shooter, an open world adventure and, yes, something of a thinly veiled, Pokémon clone featuring oh-so recognizable critters. It can be played as a single-player or multiplayer co-op game as well.

POSITIVE CONTENT

There is a lot to do in this game. And it can be fun. There’s not much story or narrative to drive you forward, but the game does toss many environmental, resource-management, combat and exploration challenges your way. (Even simply surviving your first frigid night is pretty motivating.)

On top of that, the world map is huge, colorful and alive with variety, which prompts players to keep exploring. And the Pal management is interesting—if you can get past the more negative aspects. More below.

CONTENT CONCERNS

The Pokémon clone feel of this game can be unsettling for some players. Pals do look very Poké-like, right down to their colors, markings, shapes and sizes. And with that Poké-mindset, bashing or slashing them to death and then butchering them for their chunks of meat can be disturbing.

In addition, you can essentially use your captive Pals as slave labor and work them to the point of mental exhaustion. (I should also note that human NPCs can be captured and fall into that category as well.) That imposed stress is played as dark humor, to a certain degree, but it can also be seen as animal abuse.

Some have used the term “Pokémon with guns” as a game descriptor, and that’s applicable. Players can craft muskets and rifles and some larger weaponry that the Pals fire at foes with. Parents looking at the cuteness of the game may overlook its violence. That said, the blasting and butchering isn’t bloody, but accompanied by bright sparks of contact and groans of pain.

There’s also something of a sexual component in the Pal mix. I noted one particular Pal, called a Lovander, with a very full-figured feminine look about it that’s hard to miss. It carries a rather adult description, too: “Seeking a night of love, it’s always chasing someone around. At first it only showed interest in other Pals, but in recent years even humans have become targets of its debauchery.”

You can also breed Pals for interesting new Pal offspring with upgraded skills. (Though there’s no visual breeding shown.) In addition, players can find (or kill specific Pal types to acquire) Pal Souls, the cast-off soul of a dead critter. These can be used to magically upgrade Pal skills.

GAME SUMMARY

Mom and dad might think “cute” when they see Palworld’s colorful critters. But AK-47s and butchering cleavers have a way of draining away the sweet and cuddly side of this game.

The post Palworld appeared first on Plugged In.

The Finals, a team-based arena shooter,is the latest entry on that long gaming list.

Story wise, The Finals isn’t what you’d call a deep game. Gameplay centers on teams of three players who are named as contestants in a multiplayer televised game show event, complete with holographic onlookers and commentators describing the action. And the general objective is a co-op heist blended with scenery-destroying PVP (player versus player) shootouts.

The game offers three different modes: Quick Cash, Bank It, and Ranked and Unranked Tournament. But the one that players will most often turn to is Quick Cash, where three different teams each try to grab a small vault filled with money and transport that vault to a cashout point. The vault, however, can be stolen at any time by one of the opposing teams, so the result is a fevered and constant three-way struggle until the cashout point clock runs its course. The first team to cash out twice wins the day.

Bank It features a 12-player, four-team competition where your objective is to extract the maximum amount of cash within a 15-minute timer. And the Tournament mode features a total of 16 teams that battle it out with the goal of extracting more money than their opponents by the contest’s end. Ranked tournaments can land you on a national hierarchical leader board.

Gamers choose from three different avatar types (Light, Medium and Heavy) to flesh out their teams. Each has a distinct playstyle, weapons, gadgets and special abilities. Lights are athletically speedy and stealthy and use the likes of suppressed submachine guns, for example, but they’re more fragile overall. Mediums attack with assault rifles but tend toward healing and supporting roles in addition to laying down defensive items such as turrets. And Heavies are all about absorbing and dealing out tons of up-close damage.

But it’s not just players who take damage. A huge aspect of The Finals is the fact that, with the right sledgehammer smash or explosive blast, nearly every in-game structure can be crumbled and destroyed.

When players “die,” they explode in a shower of coins that an opponent can collect. Those deceased players then turn into a small statue that their teammates can carry away from danger and revive. Fallen players can revive themselves too, but this requires using a Respawn Coin from a limited team supply.

The Finals is an online only game, and players are most often randomly teamed up with other online players. Gamers can, however, add and play with friends through a fairly streamlined process. But to do so they must create and accept the terms of an Embark Studios account when they launch the game.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Players who enjoy speedy gameplay and tight teamwork will find a great deal of joy in this T-rated game. Bounce pads, ramps, grapple hooks and ropes allow teams to quickly traverse the various, intricately defined maps with incredible grace. The game also requires teamwork and awareness of other teammates to achieve any strategic success.

In addition, the destructibility of the surrounding buildings offers completely unexpected twists and turns as floors, walls and, sometimes, complete buildings can be crumbled with toddler-kicking-a-wood-block-tower glee.

CONTENT CONCERNS

All of the above said, however, each of those elements might also be concerning for some.

This game is solely focused on death-dealing, theft and destruction, and that could be a concern for parents of young players. (The one advantage being that there’s no blood or mess in the T-rated mix.)

And this is definitely no game for those out for a casual gaming stroll. The speed and reaction time required for play is lightning fast. Frenetic attacks come from all sides at, seemingly, all times. And the 16-team Ranked Tournament action is so punishingly difficult as to be nearly impossible to enjoy for the average gamer not amped up on Red Bull and sugar.

There’s also the above alluded to in-game monetization. You can certainly play this game for free, but the pushed microtransactions—which offer access to battle passes, higher levels,  bigger rewards, outfits, store items and the like—make trading real cash for in-game money appealing.     

GAME SUMMARY

The Finals offers lots of high-action bang for lovers of online shooters. And it’s a gore-free shooter to boot. But this is no easy gaming stroll. And it might cost more than its free-to-play label will suggest.

The post The Finals appeared first on Plugged In.

You can call it an action/adventure, an open-world shooter, a gathering and crafting title, or maybe even an environmental activist’s dream game. But whatever else it is, the new Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is definitely a movie tie-in game. And it’s flat-out the best way to swoop through James Cameron’s beautiful world of Pandora with a game controller in your mitt.

Fans of the movie franchise should note that this game’s story runs concurrently with what’s been on the big screen. We never meet the hero, Jake Sully, but we do see how his choices impact the human’s Resource Development Administration and the Na’vi tribes of Pandora.  

Gamers play as a male or female Na’vi, and are part of a small group captured as children and forced into a reeducation program. The goal of the program was to raise up human-friendly natives that could be used to either persuade or fight against the indigenous residents of Pandora. But that program is shut down when things go sideways (thanks to Jake Sully’s in-movie actions).

The surviving kids are hidden away in hibernation pods by a caring human and then, 16 years later, escape to rediscover their heritage and their people’s connection to nature.

Gameplay focuses on climbing, running and leaping through the dense and beautiful open world of Pandora—a sprawling vista of jungles, plains, mountains and caves. The goal initially is to meet and interact with Na’vi tribe members; reconnect with the enviro-spiritual world at large; and explore and craft weapons, tools, food and protective clothing from the incredibly expansive biome around you.

In fact, Frontiers of Pandora pretty much demands that players engage with the game’s hunting, gathering, crafting and cooking mechanics to move forward in the story.

The other side of play is the shooter/combat interaction. Your Na’vi may be experimenting with this new world, but you’re constantly reminded that those evil humans are still polluting and corrupting the environmental goodness of the land. So along with hunting meat, you’re using bows, assault rifles, swooping in with winged mountain banshees called ikran and applying a massive amount of melee strength to destroy the RDA and its evildoers.

You’ll need to go online to set up the game, but after that, players can game offline. After completing an early quest, gamers can also play co-op with a friend, which does require an internet connection.

POSITIVE CONTENT

The biggest positive for Frontiers of Pandora is its beautiful and majestic world, and the joy of climbing, leaping and flying through it. The traversal system is fluid and smooth and a number of bouncing and swinging plants and trees aid your parkour-like progress.  

The Na’vi characters and interactions are well-designed and crafted. The story is immersive and focused on valuing and maintaining the lush beauty of our environment and its animal inhabitants. …

CONTENT CONCERNS

… That said, the game can sometimes feel militantly focused on the environmental ills and misdeeds of humanity. As with the movies, humans are definitely vile villains here, except for a few who side with the Na’vis’ environmental cause. And even the good humans repeatedly complain about how humanity let the Earth die away.

It can feel strange to be so fervently focused on impaling, shooting, pounding and burning humans. The battles with those human foes are intense and lethal, though generally bloodless.

And this is definitely a one-sided tale. The humans of the RDA are seemingly focused solely on decimating the indigenous population and raping the mineral-rich world at large. Gamers play and see things through the Na’vi, portrayed as completely innocent, pure and spiritually in tune.

The spiritual beliefs of the Na’vi’s often seem to echo those of Native American religions as well. The Na’vi worship a goddess known as Eywa, the Great Mother, a deity that seems both personal (the Na’vi pray to her) as well as encompassing the collective energy of Pandora’s living creatures. The Na’vi also lift up a prayer of thanks to an animal they kill.

As mentioned above, it should also be repeated that the crafting and hunting side of play is central to this game. Those who aren’t so excited about the gathering of a wide variety of tree bark, mosses and animal hides will find some of the game to be rather grinding.

We hear uses of the s-word, “a–hole,” “d–mit” and some misuses of God’s name in the dialogue.

GAME SUMMARY

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a fun, questing romp through a beautiful world. But it also has a lot to say about how terrible we humans are.

The post Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora appeared first on Plugged In.

Starfield is a highly anticipated game by Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of the über-popular games Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In fact, Starfield’s director went so far as to describe this new title as “Skyrim in space.”

That assessment is debatable, but this is unquestionably an immense, action-adventure examination of humanity’s potential future. It features a sprawling digital universe filled with detailed lore. 

Gamers start their journey by creating a male, female or nonbinary character (complete with corresponding pronouns) that comes with a background story and a small set of skills and traits. Those initial choices matter because your capabilities going forward rely on exploiting small advantages your character can develop. You can guide your character through some 80 potential skill upgrades in Physical, Science, Social, Combat and Tech categories. Of course, you can’t do them all, but the choices you make will impact your gameplay in dramatic ways.

From there you start your tale in a space mining camp. You lay hands on an exotic alien artifact which sends your mind spiraling through a 2001: A Space Odyssey-like vision and which sets you up as a “Chosen One” who must seek out more of these scattered artifacts. Soon after, you get the keys to your first spaceship and membership to a club of explorers called the Constellation.

Then it’s off for an adventure filled with ship-to-ship battles as well as extensive planet exploration that feels like a blending of games such as Outer Wilds and The Outer Worlds. On those planets you have interactions (and potential romance) with companion characters; gun-blazing fights with deadly creatures and space pirates; scores and scores of linked-mission side quests; battles with an advanced (alien?) group; and a whole raft of crafting and resource management responsibilities.

This is a vast game that encourages replaying it. And it can last for hundreds of hours through all the quests. Gamers also have the option of switching between first-person and third person play, further diversifying the potential experience here.  

POSITIVE CONTENT

The character writing and story interactions in Starfield are both immersive and entertaining. And the surrounding world and its characters are appealing to the eye. You can obtain or build a wide variety of spaceships as well.

The skill system shapes the gameplay quite a bit, which gives more depth to your choices and enhances future play. So, for example, deciding things such as whether to upgrade your sneaking skills or increasing your persuasion abilities (and other such upgrades) will compel you to take completely different story tacks.

The central storyline is fairly linear, but players do have the option to help others and give of themselves in humanitarian ways. The game, in turn, rewards players for doing so …

CONTENT CONCERNS

… on the other hand, players do have the option of playing things deceptively and hurting others for their own gain. You can, for instance, disable another ship, kill its crew and steal the ship and/or its contents. You can also choose to be out-and-out evil. For instance, players will at one point come upon a ship full of colonists; and at the behest of a greedy corporate third party, your character can choose to destroy their ship rather than help them find a new home.

Whatever your choices, however, the violence-focused side of gameplay is inescapable. A large part of the game’s reward system centers around obtaining new futuristic weapons—lasers, pistols, shotguns, axes, explosives, missile launchers, etc.—and upgrading your destructive capabilities.

Combat with creatures and people is often frenetic and explosive. The resulting bloodiness ranges from scenery spattering to gory pools. Explosions rip up the environment and characters cry out in pain. (And one central character whom you may have developed a close relationship with will die in one such bloody scene.)

Relationships with companion characters (other members of Constellation) can become romantic and eventually lead to marriage. We don’t see any physical interaction, but the (same-sex or opposite-sex) characters do sleep with each other, while clothed. And when arising, the companion will make joking and borderline crude comments about the sexual interactions that weren’t on display. You can also strip your character to his or her underwear as well. And one main character tells us that he was once married to another man.

Language can be messy from time to time, too.  It’s not frequent, but there are exclamations of the s-word, “bulls–t,” “d–mit,” “h—” and “a–hole” in the mix. I also heard one f-word and several blendings of God’s name with “d–n.”

Religion plays a part in this sprawling interstellar world, with three main religious factions in play. One of those factions is a cult that worships a snake god. There’s also an illegal drug in the Starfield world called Aurora. And players can obtain, sell and use the narcotic. Using the drug results in a blurred screen and limited perception. Other medical drugs can also be ingested. Some alter your perception and physical reaction time. And some of those drugs can be addictive.

It should also be noted that the game has a very slow start, and the beginning hours can make you feel like your character is markedly underpowered in an overpowered world. And since much of the action is aimed at gathering resources and weapons, the fairly clunky resource management system can frustrate players.

GAME SUMMARY

After a decade-long wait, Bethesda’s next big game delivers much of what its developers have been promising. Gameplay can, and often does, however, wander down some darker space-going paths. Suffice it to say, Starfield’s M-rating doesn’t stand for Milky Way.

The post Starfield appeared first on Plugged In.

Atomic Heart deposits gamers in an alternate reality 1955. In this colorful existence filled with vintage aesthetics and futuristic robots, the Soviet Union (fresh off a World War II victory) is dominating the world and developing incredible technology.

Thanks to the brilliance of Dr. Dimitry Sechenov, advanced robotics has lifted the Soviets to a bright new tomorrow and created an industry of metal servants that America and the rest of the world is eagerly paying big money for.

But this top-shelf technology hides a problem. It appears that even the lowliest servant robot may well have a secret battle mode woven within its circuitry, and an evil power grab could be afoot.

Gamers play as Major Sergey Necayev, otherwise known as Agent P3. He’s Dr. Sechenov’s loyal problem fixer; a seasoned soldier who’s more than happy to sort out any issues that might pop up. But at this moment, problems are popping up all over the place in scientific facility 3826, where many of the abundant robots are going wild and attacking the human residents.

P3 uses his fully sentient robotic glove to interact with electronic items along his path. His initial job is to find the rogue scientist who likely set this havoc in motion and find out how to solve what appears to be an ever-growing problem with Sechenov’s tech.

In the midst of that, however, P3 is also wrestling with missing chunks of his own memory. And he sometimes slips into an odd dream state that he can’t quite explain.

Gameplay amounts to a lot of first-person battling with various crazed robot creations and mutated part-human/part-plant zombies. In addition, you’re called upon to solve environmental puzzles and explore every nook and cranny for supplies. Those found bits and pieces let you craft new weapons and items, as well as upgrade your firearms. It’s a familiar form of gameplay that incentivizes exploration in Atomic Heart’s relatively open world. (There is also some rather weak platforming in the adventuring mix.)

Battles involve a combination of defensive dodge movements, opponent pattern-tracking and choosing the best weapon for the foe at hand.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Atomic Heart has a cool 1950s vibe about it, blended with a future tech panache which sports various levels of sophistication. And at times that well-defined world slips into a more dystopian setting with crumbling architecture, flying sparks and almost-horror movie-like lighting. That makes for an appealing visual mix.

CONTENT CONCERNS

That said, there are also plenty of far less appealing elements in Atomic Heart. For one, the language can be pretty raw throughout, with uses of f- and s-words, crude abuses of God’s name, and other scattered crudities (“d–n,” “h—” and “b–ch” among them). In fact, our profanity spewing protagonist is one of the most obnoxious “heroes” you’ll have the displeasure of spending long hours with.

The battles are often extremely bloody as well. Yes, you shred lots of sparking and flaming robots with your axes, pistols, shotguns and electric pulse zappers. But when the enemy is fleshy, the gore splashes liberally. Some characters you literally chop into bloody chunks. Heads are lopped off and used for other purposes. And dead bodies are dragged away and absorbed by a red goopy polymer that strips the flesh off the bones while storing the dying mind’s consciousness. 

Perhaps more disquieting than even the gory goop and crude expletives is this game’s sensual aspects. Dr. Sechenov, for example, uses the services of twin female robots that are very, uh, femininely sculpted. The pair move and battle with a dancer’s seductive grace and, while fully covered in gunmetal gray, they appear to be wearing something akin to a skimpy bathing suit.

There’s also an AI-enhanced weapon upgrade center that we must visit regularly. This device looks something like a Coke machine, but wraps its tentacles around us, spreads open its doors and talks like a dominatrix, fueled by double entendres.

In fact, much of the dialogue throughout this game’s story feels crafted by a teen boy with too much time on his hands. 

P3 smokes. We see bottles of vodka scattered about and hear comments about drug use.

GAME SUMMARY

Atomic Heart has grabbed a lot of attention. But not always for positive reasons. Along with some compelling visuals, there’s a lot of mess and sensuality here that you probably wouldn’t want spilling out into your living room.

The post Atomic Heart appeared first on Plugged In.

The game takes place in the world originally created for the very popular Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West games. But instead of simply watching those digital landscapes pass by on your gaming screen, this system’s headset and two hand controllers virtually immerse you in a 360-degree first-person world filled with soaring, leaping and attacking robotic dinosaurs.

Those who have played the earlier Horizon games will recognize their female protagonist, Aloy, when she shows up for a quick cameo early on. But Call of the Mountain’s hero is a guy named Ryas. He’s a former Shadow Carja who’s offered a pardon for his crimes if he’ll use his tracking and climbing skills on what could well be a suicide mission.

It seems that there has been a flood of aggressively attacking robo dinos in the kingdom of the Sun King as of late, along with other threats to humanity. Playing as Ryas, you must scale the treacherous mountainsides, somehow find your brother who set out on the same quest and resolve whatever mystery is taking place.

To fulfill this mission, Ryas uses his climbing and bow skills on a regular basis.

The former set of skills involves reaching with both controller-adorned hands for white highlighted ridges and crevasses on the steep cliffs and rocky walls and hoisting your virtual body up. (You can work through the game while either standing or seated.) You also climb ropes; leap to distant handholds; use pick axes; create ziplines and the like. Along the way you search for virtual keys, ropes, dino gears and other objects to solve environmental puzzles that bar your path.

Virtual combat is the other side of your adventuring coin. The game allows you to pull your bow from behind one shoulder, an endless supply of arrows from behind the other, and take it to roaring and laser-blasting robotic foes.

You gain a few new abilities as you progress, including the skill to create new tools and weapons, as well as the capacity to make electric- and fire-arrows.

Ryas’ basic skills let him to hide in tall grasses, dodge attacks and strafe in a circle around enemies. Battles sometimes involve knocking off armor plating or creating key explosions, much like the original games.

It should also be noted that the new PSVR2 headset has an updated eye-tracking technology that gives players enhanced ways to look at and interact with objects in their virtual environment. That eye-tracking also keeps much of (but unfortunately, not all of) the typical motion-sickness aspects of VR in check.

POSITIVE CONTENT

The Horizon game world, set in an overgrown land some thousand years in the future, has always been visually beautiful. But this experience of that digital realm is all the more spectacular thanks to the immersive PSVR. The first time a Stormbird robo flies close over head or a Tallneck thumps a gigantic hoof right next to you is a bit jaw dropping.

There are times when you’ll find yourself pausing on a high ridge to simply gaze at the mountain vista and impressive waterfalls. That alone makes this game more exhilarating that you might expect.

In that light, Call of the Mountain focuses more on spectacle than the kind of expansive storyline featured in past games. That approach helps younger players easily break playtime up into much more manageable chunks rather than long marathons if they choose.

The combat side of play is also very easy to slip into. The game offers an assist that makes aiming down an arrow easier in the heat of battle.

CONTENT CONCERNS

That battling, however, can get pretty frantic and intense at times. It takes a while to master character movements with your VR hand controllers while also choosing and pulling various types of arrows from behind your shoulder. Being in a fully surrounding virtual world quickly adds a heightened sense of peril, too. (No blood or mess in the robotic battles, though.) Players use bow and arrows, a slingshot and a bladed disc in their fights.

If you have a sense of vertigo while looking down from great heights, that can be easily triggered here. There is a lot of realistic and perilous climbing, hiding at heights and dangling in this game as you look up, down and all around you in active moments. (If you fall, you’re sent back to where you began a section or climb.)

There are uses of the words “d–n,” “b–tard” and “a–” in the dialogue mix.

GAME SUMMARY

Horizon: Call of the Mountain may not be a long or intricate game, but it sure is impressive to see.

The post Horizon: Call of the Mountain appeared first on Plugged In.

This looney, single-player shooter is stitched together by the creators of the animated show Rick and Morty. The setup, at least, is a bit creative in its craziness. You play as an average trigger-pulling gamer who loves himself some alien-blasting in video game form. But then, after your mom and dad take off for the weekend, leaving you and your teen sister on your own, actual aliens swoop in to take over the world.

Well, they actually don’t want the whole world. They’re simply seeking their favorite drug of choice: human beings. Mankind, it seems, has become the interstellar underworld’s big narcotic money maker. And humanity’s only hope is … you: a guy who’s been practicing in his parent’s basement for just such a first-person-shooter emergency.

Weapons are an important part of the gaming equation here in High on Life. Soon after being introduced to the bad human-puffing aliens, you come upon a sentient gun (one of an alien breed called gatlians), and the talkative little guy leads you on from there in an effort to destroy the G3 alien Cartel and free other of his kind. In that manner, players only have access to five total weapons, each with its own special strengths and talkative personality.

From there you set off on various “bounty hunter” quests on different planets. And those quests require you to solve environmental puzzles, blast away at foes and eventually eliminate the threat and save humanity.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Gameplay here is colorful and broad, if a bit weak. Some players will enjoy some of the game’s quirky humor.

But …

CONTENT CONCERNS

… much of the above-mentioned wacky humor is very hit-and-miss. A big part of the problem is the fact that the chattering attempts at giggles are literally non-stop. The gatlian weapons and other alien creatures prattle on and on and on in an adlib-sounding attempt to land some occasional jokey gold. You can dial back that dialogue ramble in the game’s menu, but it doesn’t curb the crudity.

And that crude side is the second negative aspect of this game’s attempted humor. The tale is incredibly coarse and spattered liberally with the foulest language (f-words, s-words, uses of “a–hole,” “d–n,” “h—” and “b–ch,” and many, many blasphemes of God’s and Jesus’ names) and lots of truly filthy bits of “wit” (including a running gag centered on alien ejaculation, an alien wetting himself and defecating on living room furniture, etc.).

The “high” part of the game title is always prominent. Aliens consume humans for a buzz and our “sister” smokes cigarettes and snorts cocaine. She offers us a line of coke early on. And along with sexually suggestive dialogue, a goofy TV show displays female rear nudity.

Then there’s also the trigger-pulling messiness. Granted, the shots and neck stabs are aimed at alien creatures filled with variously colored goo, but graphically spewing decapitation and dismemberment are constant.

GAME SUMMARY

The colorful action, silly splash and nasty humor of this game may grab gamers’ attentions. But that doesn’t, frankly, make it a laughing matter.

The post High on Life appeared first on Plugged In.