Once again, the central character here is our physically and mentally scarred young heroine, Senua. She struggles with the constant whispering voices of her schizophrenia-like psychosis.

Of course, in Senua’s time, the swirling voices in her head are thought to be spirits that whisper doubts and encouragements; they open paths and give insights as Senua pushes toward her hallucination-laced goals. (The game is designed to be played with headphones in place. And that binaural immersion intensifies the disturbing and disorienting aspects of Senua’s ongoing inner torments.)

Senua’s Saga picks up where the first game left off. The embattled protagonist has allowed herself to be captured by Northmen who keep raiding her lands and enslaving her people. That may seem to be a self-destructive choice, but Senua and her voices know that she is a battle-hardened and raging fighter. And her goal is to allow the slavers to draw her into their fold where she can then gut them from within. She’ll have the chance to find justice for the innocent while also, she believes, atone for her own past sins.

However, Senua’s vengeance-soaked mission isn’t as simple as she hopes. Through the struggles of an Icelandic shipwreck, encounters with mystical hazards of the lands, torrents of bloodthirsty and cannibalistic monsters, and battles with enormous giants, she finds that blood-boiling rage doesn’t solve every problem.

As Senua slashes her way toward a cathartic solution, it becomes clear that monsters are made, not born.

Gameplay is focused on melee combat involving attacks, parries and dodges; exploration through large, graphically defined landscapes; some character interactions; and solving environmental puzzles. This third-person action-adventure game is single-player and it does not require an online connection after the game is installed. There are four levels of difficulty to choose from.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is photo-realistic in its movement capture and graphic presentation. And between those highly detailed images and the binaural sound immersion (featuring always moving, breathe-in-your-ear voices), the gameplay is incredibly impressive.

In the game’s opening screen, we’re told that psychiatric professionals assisted in its realistic depiction of psychosis. The game therefore gives players insight into how schizophrenia can torment people who suffer from it. And the ongoing story also points to how extreme feelings of grief, loss, rage and guilt can reshape people into monsters they never wanted to be.

“Darkness outside makes darkness inside,” the game tells us.

On the other hand, Senua’s Saga also suggests that people always have choices. Even when dealing with uncommon struggles, you can choose better paths; you can reach for help.

CONTENT CONCERNS

All of the above positives noted, however, potential gamers should also take note that this is an intense and very M-rated game. The incredible graphics can showcase a radiant sunset, but they also make this game’s entrail-spilling gore all that more realistic. Blood spews and spatters at every turn.

Scenes focus on cannibalistic savagery; people are hacked apart and left in piles of dismembered limbs and fly-speckled gunk. Bloody body parts are recrafted into suspended, dripping displays. And feral men gobble the contents of cracked-open skulls. You face screeching, sinewy killers who swing swords, throw axes and spew flames. The game certainly leans into its barbarically gruesome elements with glee.

And this title’s incredible immersion qualities also drag gamers into a very dark and creepy domain of growling, unseen tormentors with a corrupting demonic feel about them. In fact, Senua’s entire Icelandic world feels nightmarish, ready to rip and tear into anything and everyone unfortunate enough to exist there.

GAME SUMMARY

This sequel lives up to the graphics and gameplay expectations of its predecessor. But it also drags gamers through gruesome gore while baring gristle filled teeth.

The post Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II appeared first on Plugged In.

The action gets up and running in 1853, near the end of Japan’s Edo period—when the power of the fearful Shogunate is beginning to wane. And with that gap, Western influence is slipping into the feudal Japanese way of life. But in spite of the benefits of inflowing trade and advanced weaponry, some factions—such as the Veiled Edge assassin clan—that are pushing back against the Black Ship Westerners.

Gamers play as a male or female samurai-like assassin. This skilled sword-handler initially works with a “Blade Twin” partner until a horrible event appears to kill that trusted comrade. The player’s initial quest is to leave the clan and seek revenge, or at least discover if there’s any chance of their friend’s survival. And as the game proceeds, the assassin comes to realize that his or her choices may actually impact this changing world. 

Through a long-running series of side quests, dialogue choices and sword battles, gamers have the option of supporting the Shogunate or bolstering the efforts of the rebellious opposition. The historically based core story asks players to make decisions that affect the overall timeline and outcome.

For all of that background story, however, it’s the swordfights that keep gamers invested in Rise of the Ronin. Those clashing battles require skill and patience.

Players progressively gain different weapons and combat techniques, and they must switch among those varied elements to best matchup against the skillsets of their foes. Switching combat styles; incorporating items such as throwing stars and a grapple hook; and mastering the games combos in the midst of frantic fights are a must.

Rise of the Ronin lets gamers team up with AI companions in-game and offers multiplayer co-op play with up to two friends. There are no player-versus-player battle options at this point.

POSITIVE CONTENT

This is an open-world game that immerses players in an expansive rendition of feudal Japan and its political struggles. So gamers can glean a bit of history (seen through the lens of a fictional story) and info about real historical figures.

Though Rise of the Ronin’s hero starts as a revenge-seeking assassin, he can choose to help others during the journey. The game also offers easy, normal and difficult settings in case players want to tweak the rather tough combat one way or the other. In-game training is offered (though, frankly, some of the gaming aspects aren’t always well explained).

CONTENT CONCERNS

Gamers do quite a bit of adventuring here, but this is primarily a very violent combat game. Players use swords, spears, knives, grapplehooks, throwing stars, pistols, and flamethrowers to battle their enemies in abundantly bloody fights. They can also slip silently behind a foe to knife them in the back. Gory gushing, decapitations and dismemberments are all common.   

In-game characters drink saké, and some get drunk. The dialogue contains uses of the s-word and “b–tard.” And while there’s nothing overtly sexual in the story—other than some lustful gazing at a pretty geisha—players can adjust the underwear-clad breast size of their avatars in the initial character-customization menu.

GAME SUMMARY

Hacking and slashing is the major, uh, point of this actioner. And it’s an exceedingly gushing point indeed.

The post Rise of the Ronin appeared first on Plugged In.

But while gamers may rave about its innovations, Stellar Blade tells a fairly well-worn future sci-fi story.

When the game starts out, our Earth is something of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Mankind hasn’t totally disappeared from the planet’s surface, but most humans have long-since zipped off to a colony in space. And the remnants left behind are dealing with horrible, mutated monstrosities, called Naytiba, that generally look like mixed masses of limbs, muscle, sharp extremities, and grotesquely bulbous flesh. 

Gamers play as Eve, a member of the 7^th Airborne Squad that’s sent down to take action against that Naytiba scourge. Most of Eve’s female warrior companions were killed during the explosive space drop, so she teams up with a tech-focused male pilot named Adam and an Airborne engineer named Lily to fulfill the planet’s needs and battle its dangers.

Along with a wide variety of quests that benefit the last human city of Xion, Eve also sets off to seek out four massive Alpha Naytibas and slash out their heart-like hypercores. These combined cores could well open the door to a resolution of the Neytiba problem. Along the way, Eve also finds out what really happened to Earth and its inhabitants: She uncovers a secret, long-ago war that no one remembers, and she discovers what created those dreadful monsters to begin with. 

There’s platforming action here combined with exploration, but Stellar Blade’s fast, dynamic, Soulslike combat is what fills up most of this 20- to 30-hour game’s playtime. And that brutal battling is pretty complicated.

This is a very defense-driven battler. Massive enemies launch long, powerful, combo-peppered attacks that can only be dealt with through perfectly timed parries and dodges. Every parry you land deducts a point from the enemy’s “balance” number. And once that balance is broken, then Eve can deliver some killing blows.

Attacks that can’t be parried come fast and furious, too. And that’s where gamers must quickly note the game’s flashes of color that telegraph which kind of unblockable attack is aimed at them, before making the proper dodge move to expose an enemy’s weak points. Then there are special attacks that Eve can layer on from there. So, the whole combat process becomes a complex series of split-second, button-mashing choices and bombastic, dance-like moves.

Stellar Blade is a single player game.And while you can technically play the game without an internet connection (if you have the hardcopy disc version of the game), it will repeatedly ask that gamers connect online for downloads and updates.

POSITIVE CONTENT

If you’re drawn to the challenge of a game filled with well-designed but punishing combat and split-second timing, Stellar Blade offers a lot of tight, daunting conflicts.

As mentioned above, this game is also very appealing graphically. The visuals are detailed and present a very AI-like sense of polish.

CONTENT CONCERNS

That said, some of the third-person, flipping and jumping female characters are also designed to grab and hold the “male gaze” throughout the game. Eve, for instance has over 70 different generally sensual outfits that players can discover or create.

The outfits range from panty-peaking schoolgirl-like attire to mini-skirt-garter-stocking-and-crop-top getups to skintight, latex-like unisuits. One suit looks nearly transparent but for a few small patches of cover. And each outfit is designed to not only showcase each female character’s curves, but also spotlight the game’s very noticeable breast-and-backside jiggle physics.

On the other end of the spectrum, the polished graphics also highlight the horrific-looking Naytibas and the bloody gore that splatters throughout battle. Eve uses blades, a gun-like drone, a laser blaster and explosions to rip away at the beasties. And the sliced-open, artery-gushing, gutted and dismembered result is consistently messy.

Game dialogue also sports uses of the s-word and words such as “d–n,” “d–mit” and “h—.” God’s name is misused.

GAME SUMMARY

Stellar Blade offers challenging combat and impressive graphics. But those polished plusses come packing some not-so-stellar negatives, too.

The post Stellar Blade 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.

The Inquisitor could easily be labeled as a narrative-driven adventure mixed with a murder mystery. But there’s more going on here. Based on a book by Polish writer Jacek Piekara, The Inquisitor is driven by a dark, faith-focused fantasy.

Gamers play as Mordimer Madderin, a holy inquisitor from the Middle Ages. It’s his job to hunt down heretics, vampires and the like and enforce the Christian laws of the land. But this version of Christianity is very different from the one you know.

In this alternate fantasy reality, Jesus refused to sacrifice his life on the cross. Instead, he broke free and set off on a bloody rampage across the land, unleashing his vengeance on the Roman Empire and becoming something of a warrior god-king. So now, 1,500 years later, Mordimer and others like him work to ensure that the all-powerful Church’s oppressive will is obeyed without question.

As Mordimer, you enter the 16^th century city of Koenigstein in search of a rumored vampire. But soon after arriving, you discover clues that hint at a much more sinister plot in the making. It’s a plot that involves ritualistic murders, stolen relics connected to Jesus himself and the possibility of an unfolding apocalypse.

In the course of the Inquisitor’s investigations, gamers must traverse the expansive districts of Koenigstein; talk to and eavesdrop on citizens; interrogate wrongdoers; examine murder victims and crime scenes; solve puzzles and dig up clues; jump into sword-clashing conflicts; and weave together the potentially world-ending conspiracy that’s afoot.

When talking to merchants, nobles, officers and locals, gamers have dialogue choices. And though those choices don’t always seem to make a great difference in the action, your choices may trigger one of several different game endings. While using prayer—praying in what appears to be Latin—Mordimer can see glowing indicators of where to go next.

The Inquisitor is a single player, offline-only game.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Mordimer is an individual who stands by his convictions and strives to do what’s right. And even though he’s as dour and grim as the dark world around him, he makes choices to aid the innocent.

Gameplay—in particular the investigative, clue-piecing side—can be interesting and fun.

CONTENT CONCERNS

Despite its small positives, however, The Inquisitor is a very dark and often disturbing game.

The game regularly uses biblical scripture—such as Matthew 10:34, Nahum 1:2 and Exodus 22:18—and twists the meaning of those passages to attribute a sense of vengeance, hatred and deadliness to the Church.

In fact, in this alternate reality, nearly everything people of faith would avow as true is twisted backward. For instance, Mordimer can stop and kneel to pray at altars for improved abilities. And while seeking the bloody death of foes he regularly prays for things such as “ruthlessness in fighting my enemies,” and that God would “bereave us of weakness, lest we forgive those who trespass against us.” He seeks to “cast the first stone” and praises God’s “bloody works.” There are references to faith and the beliefs of “good Christians” here, but anyone taking their cue of what constitutes faith in Christ from this game will be sorely drawn astray.

Even putting that concept of faith aside, other dark spiritual elements infect the grimy gaming mix. For instance, Mordimer must repeatedly enter into a corrupt “Unworld” populated by a Cthulhu-like deadly abomination. He has twisted spiritual visions, must deal with demonic entities and even fight a fallen angel.

Then there’s the violence of this game. Characters are murdered in foul rituals. We see torn-open bodies and a severed head on display. One insane individual tortures others ruthlessly, rips corpses open gleefully and tosses their organs here and there. Mordimer must closely examine some of those naked and gashed open bodies, both male and female. And Mordimer is called upon to kill attackers as well.

Foul language is an integral part of the dialogue here. We hear f- and s-words and uses of “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “a–” and the c-word.

GAME SUMMARY

Some people seek games that focus on faith. And The Inquisitor could be said to fit that bill … but in all the wrong ways. It’s grim and despairing, and it generally paints faith in Jesus with a blasphemous brush.

The post The Inquisitor 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.

Now, 13 years later, Alan Wake 2 hits the latest consoles dressed in even darker M-rated garb.

This is a survival horror game. And like many games of that genre, it does everything it can to make sure that gamers never feel quite comfortable or safe.

The first game focused on the titular Alan Wake, a bestselling crime novelist drawn into the weird town of Bright Falls after losing his wife to something called the Dark Presence. Alan fought to bring her back but ended up trapped in a Dark Place, where he realizes that his typed-out fiction could actually shape reality.

Alan Wake 2 kicks off when a young female FBI agent named Saga Anderson takes lead on a case in Bright Falls that somehow seems connected to the long-missing author—and perhaps a series of bloody murders that come with a cult-like vibe. (The opening scene depicts a large naked man being strapped to something like an altar and having his heart gruesomely carved from his chest.)

Then things go from gory to preternaturally creepy as Saga and her gruff, whisky-voiced partner, Alex Casey, must wade their way through cultists and deadly supernatural entities in pursuit of answers.

Alan, meanwhile, is living in a nightmarish version of New York City. And a nightmare it is as he lives scenes over and over and must figure out how to write himself out of this haunted otherworld prison. Shadowy figures hound and attack him and constantly whisper his name. (Oh, and his bestselling crime detective novels feature a cop named … Alex Casey.)

Gamers switch back and forth between Saga and Alan as both characters’ situations and experiences gradually bleed into one other in increasingly paranormal and unpredictable ways.

Players battle with ghoulish bullet-sponge foes and must use a combination of a light source—to burn away that deadly foe’s dark protections—and a limited supply of bullets, crossbow bolts and explosives.

There are environmental puzzles to solve. And both Alan and Saga have special “mind rooms” where players can work through problems. In Saga’s case, it’s a room with a clue-gathering caseboard. For Alan it’s a writing space where players restructure his hardboiled story scenes.

This is a single-player third-person game.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Alan Wake 2 gives gamers a well-thought-through concept that folds in on itself over and over, creating a story that feels like an enigma within a jigsaw within a conundrum. It’s hard to pull apart the tangled threads, but ultimately it’s rewarding, if you enjoy such things. And Saga and Alan’s two different worlds are compelling in their creepy detail.

This game contains amazingly seamless transitions between its CGI graphics and live-action segments, creating a sense that the game is nearly photorealistic. Gamers also find some unexpected creative twists in the game, such as a surprising late-night talk show-themed musical section that is, frankly, a crazy-but-refreshing break from its generally dark elements.

CONTENT CONCERNS

All of the above said, Alan Wake 2 still earns its M-rating in spades. That mentioned realism also results in more believable gore as characters are shot and hacked, resulting in large wounds, dripping blood-spatter and dangling entrails.

The general atmosphere here is dark and oppressive and, yes, at times bleakly convoluted and nightmarish. The zombie-ghoul foes can be unnerving. There are bloody headshots at close range. One particular character is fully naked with exposed genitals and backside. And the language is often very harsh—featuring f- and s-words and misuses of God’s and Jesus’ names.

GAME SUMMARY

There’s no mistaking the creative survival horror detail behind Alan Wake 2. But it parades its grisly, clotted and darkly foul M-rating like a badge of honor.

The post Alan Wake 2 appeared first on Plugged In.

But the big question is: Is this even a game? And the answer is: sorta, but not really.

Silent Hill: Ascension is likely best categorized as an interactive, choose-your-adventure streaming show. Viewers can join in on PC or download an app for their iPhone or Android device. The episodes began streaming on Halloween, and new 5- to 15-minute episodes are broadcast daily at 9 p.m. (Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific), and all past episodes can be watched. The series is said to continue running for some four months. And it’s free. (Again, sorta.)

So, what is Ascension about and how do you “play”?

This particular Silent Hill follows a cast of characters in different countries who are being tormented by otherworldly grotesqueries, the murder of loved ones, and the endangering of themselves and the children near them.

One storyline focuses on a cult of people who worship dark spiritual creatures, for instance. Another features a clan who lost a family member to murder—or perhaps something much, much more horrible.

Those descriptions may seem awfully vague, but in a sense, that’s the point. The “game’s” creators say that  the online community shapes where the story will go and who lives or dies. And then those decisions become part of the Silent Hill canon going forward.

Participants who play free, earn IP (the game currency) by solving puzzles (rhythm games, classic tile puzzle, etc.) and navigating a character through some short, threat-filled side scenes. And then they can throw those earned points toward the vital decisions that the community of thousands of viewers make.

Every scene is livestreamed and concludes with a quick-time event in which participants are prompted to register their votes within a limited timeframe. The outcome generally pivots the current episode’s story action. (The scenes of each episode are pre-produced with a variety of potential outcomes, including character relationships and fates.)

Of course, the more IP you have, the more power you wield. And that’s where in-game currency options come into play.

While you can “play” for free, Konami offers paid season passes to players. They afford the full range of puzzle access, in-game cosmetics and stickers, and character customizing bonuses.

Why do you need to customize your avatar? Because the player who has the biggest influence on a given outcome earns a chance at a “Gold moment,” and their avatar can make a cameo appearance in the next episode. Oh, and to that throw-your-financial-weight-on-the-scales end, players can also buy IP in exchange for real-world currency.

Where this dark and ghoulish tale eventually goes is anybody’s guess. But it will probably be a bloody (and potentially expensive) trip. Gamers must be online to play.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Some characters do strive to protect the innocent. And the interactive nature of communicating with online participants, in an attempt to push the storyline in one direction or another, can be enjoyable. (But potentially problematic, too. More below.)

Fan choices here may impact future games.

CONTENT CONCERNS

Game or not, Silent Hill: Ascension is, like its namesake, regularly ghoulish and spiritually very dark. Ghastly and gruesome things abound. You see armless shambling corpses; large lumpy and fleshy behemoths; tormented things wrapped in barbed wire; skinless fanged hounds; multi-limbed, clutching torsos impaled on meat hooks; flying creatures made of flayed skin; and much more emerging from dark shadows. They’re all aimed at ripping, gouging and snapping nearby humans.

Characters get staggeringly drunk. It’s implied that someone is killed by an overdose of morphine. Someone’s neck is snapped. Creatures are shot and burned. Cult members hope for a foul, beastly “purifier” to materialize from the spiritual world and justify their devout faith. Members participate in a spiritual ceremony featuring slashed palm and wrist and spilled blood. Etc.

Language in the dialogue includes blasphemes of God’s name, uses of f- and s-words, and a variety of other profanities.

The fairly heavy-handed monetization of play is a, uh, game killer for most. And for all of the gamemaker’s attempts to make online participation a part of the gameplay, the choices that win out rarely make the story better. In fact, the choices tend to reflect darkly on online participants themselves. And the online chat can be even more twisted, asinine, and profane than the streaming horror show itself. (It’s so profane, in fact, that I can’t post any examples here.)

GAME SUMMARY

Not every good idea can ascend into the pantheon of great games. Frankly, Silent Hill: Ascension barely makes it off the bloody ground.

The post Silent Hill: Ascension appeared first on Plugged In.

Over the next 15 years and more than a dozen games, the franchise has spiraled out in different historical directions and swelled its entries into massive 100-hour titles bloated with all sorts of recognizable historical figures, gaming extras, exotic weapons and extravagant backstories. And in a large sense, Assassin’s Creed went from being a small-scale sneaking around title to being more of a large-scale action-adventure battler.

The new Assassin’s Creed Mirage is gamemaker Ubisoft’s attempt at trimming everything back to a semblance of where the series began: with a sword, a knife and a whole bunch of slip-through-the-shadows-to-steal-and-kill quests. A game where stealth is key.

The story revolves around a Baghdad pickpocket named Basim ibn Is’haq. After a bold palace burglary goes sideways and the local Caliph ends up dead, Basim must hightail it out of town. But he happens to also cross paths with a member of a group of assassins called the Hidden Ones.

And Basim comes to realize that a huge plot is unfolding, led by another group called the Order, a secret society that’s worming its way into Baghdad’s upper echelons of power. Those who know anything about Assassin’s Creed games, recognize those two groups as the predecessors of the ever-battling Assassin’s Creed and Templars. 

Before you can say, what’s that blade up your sleeve?, Basim is now a hitman-in-training. And he’s preparing to take on quests and “honorably” serve everything good by uncovering and murdering everything bad. Oh, and yes, there’s a major twist that’s revealed by the game’s end.

As mentioned, everything in Mirage feels a bit scaled back compared to some recent entries. And some gamers will appreciate that. The map, for example, is centered only on the ancient city of Baghdad—but that smaller region is fleshed out with more details and quests. Parkour, close-quarter combat, and stealth are core elements of play.

The pace of combat is slower this time around as well. The weapons are fewer and upgradable. The character skill trees are smaller, more defined and flexible. And many of the quests are, in a way, set up more like a Hitman game. Players are given open objectives with a variety of ways to explore, slip in and out of crowds or behind the scenes, and figure out how to use the environment and other characters to eliminate the target before them.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is strictly a single-player game.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Mirage’s gameplay is focused and its world is detailed and inviting. And the story has an interesting (if well-worn) twist by game’s end.

CONTENT CONCERNS

This is an M-rated action-adventure title with lots and lots of bloodletting in its mix. The gamemakers go to great lengths to drive home that our secretive murderer is the good guy while the opposing secretive murderers are the really bad ones, but the game’s frankly all about people being impaled through the throat, temple, chest and back in a variety of gory ways.

Swords, daggers, arrows and a concealed wrist blade are the common weapons of choice. And they can be upgraded to increase their deadly potency. You can, for instance, obtain a blade ability that dissolves a body after a kill and melts away any fleshy evidence.   

This game also introduces a sneaky new multi-foe murdering technique called Assassin Focus. If the protagonist is perfectly hidden, he can mark up to five enemies whom he kills in rapid succession as time slows. This ability is recharged by then performing more stealthy kills.

All of that is to say that even though Mirage rewards sneaky choices, it’s still plenty bloody. And the combat can become very frenetic at times with painful screams and gushing goo. There are also some dark cutscenes, including: Basim’s dreams of desiccated corpses; a scene where he chops off his own finger; children being hung up on posts; a prisoner being slowly killed with a blade sinking into his chest.

You also encounter sporadic uses of the f-word, s-word and other lighter profanity.

GAME SUMMARY

Assassin’s Creed Mirage attempts to harken back to a time when the kills were more hidden from view. But there’s still lots of gushing jugular slashing here, and you see it all.

The post Assassin’s Creed Mirage appeared first on Plugged In.

Lies of P is the latest in that Soulslike lineage, but it takes the concept in new directions by positioning the story of Pinocchio as its battling centerpiece.

Now, granted, Carlo Collodi’s fantasy novel about a magically enlivened, lie-telling puppet has its own dark, perilous moments. But Lies of P weaves together a much gorier and more depressing fairytale.

Things begin without much exposition. Your protagonist, P, is touched by a blue, glowing butterfly and brought to life in an abandoned train car in the city of Krat. In time, you piece together that this is a world filled with robotic puppets and animated by a revolutionary power source called Ergo.

The puppets were meant to serve mankind through menial tasks. And each was inscribed with a Grand Covenant of four laws: All puppets must obey their creator’s commands. A puppet may not harm a human. A puppet must protect and serve humans and the city of Krat. A puppet cannot lie.

However, that covenant has been broken and the puppets have slaughtered much of Krat’s human population.

You eventually make your way to Hotel Krat, where some human survivors have taken shelter. And a mysterious woman named Sophia—who sent the blue butterfly—informs you that you must find and rescue Geppetto, the puppets’ original creator and the only person who knows how to stop the revolt.

There are many references to characters and concepts plucked from the Pinocchio story—including the Puppet Master, Fox and Rabbit and a sidekick cricket named Gemini. And P has the option of telling lies or the truth with characters he meets and in quests he takes.

For instance, he meets a mother who’s dying from a spreading disease and losing her sight. P sets off to rescue her kidnapped child, but he discovers the child has been killed. He can either tell her the truth, or he can lie and give her a doll that she can embrace in her dying moments. Those lies or truths shape the end of the tale.

For all of the game’s dark and stylish imagery and its story-focused elements, however, it’s the merciless combat and boss battles that are at the core of play. The combat is a precise dance of attacks and parries designed with difficulty in mind. Melee weapons are assigned to a player’s right hand, while their mechanical left arm can be transformed to incorporate shields, a grappling hook, a cannon and the like.

Lies of P is a single-player game.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Lies of P has a very stylish and appealing look to it. The game takes advantage of the latest-gen consoles’ graphic horsepower and creates some very immersive visuals.

Because P’s opponents are often machines and not flesh and blood, he can be more oil-smeared than gore covered at times. And ultimately P is fighting to save humanity. There are lots of mysterious questlines to pursue.

Throughout the game, P has multiple chances to make choices. By doing so he helps or hurts others. And those choices potentially lead P closer to becoming human and thereby alter the game’s ending.

CONTENT CONCERNS

The above-mentioned gaming graphics also make this moody hack-and-slash fantasy world all the creepier to wade through. And though robotic characters don’t bleed, others do—and players must still contend with goopy mess and blood. Some environments depict realistic bloody corpses and large blood stains or pools on the ground.

This is a game that focuses on murderous mechanical marionettes and macabre monsters. And while some foes you can lop through without a great deal of difficulty, other huge battlers are soul-crushingly difficult. P uses everything from fiery daggers and rapiers to hammers, greatswords, axes, pipe wrenches and enormous saw blades in his smashing, slashing battles.

The opponents in the game range from enormous robotics with huge and deadly blades and hammers (such as a large furnace robot that also spews waves of flames) to body-horror malformed creatures (such as a disfigured fallen human Archbishop). Some of the foes attack in groups, creating frenetic and difficult battles.

That Archbishop character mentioned above is part of a small element in this game that injects a twisted, unexplained spirituality in the mix. The Archbishop is a creature with one wing and he insists that “I am the one-winged angel. I can sense the presence of God! … It’s proof that God chose me.”

GAME SUMMARY

There is a stylish appeal to Lies of P. But this dark, moody, funeral of a fairytale is also a difficult hack-and-slash nightmare.

The post Lies of P appeared first on Plugged In.