Additional Updates and Fixes

The PS5 version brings some cool new features which will be available to all platforms. Most notably, whips get two new abilities: ‘Open Season’ and ‘Sleight of Hand’. Open Season causes a kind of debuff which renders foes more susceptible to attacks, while Sleight of Hand conveniently disarms opponents, flinging their weapon right to Indy. And since the game’s December release, there’s been three updates fixing up a long list of bugs and issues, ensuring a glitch-free experience for first-time PS5 players.

DualSense Functionality

One of the things that differentiates the PS5 from other consoles is the tactile feel of its DualSense controller. This is something Machine Games is making sure to harness with its upcoming port. Not much has been said regarding specifics, but the PlayStation Store page does indeed highlight that DualSense vibration effect and trigger function are supported. Going off of other games with DualSense support, we can expect haptic feedback that changes with terrain as well as dynamic resistance levels with the triggers when  shooting different guns and priming a well-aimed grenade.

PS5 Pro Enhancements

You’re especially happy if you’re an Indy fan with a PS5 Pro since some the great visual updates exclusive to high-end PCs will translate the advanced Sony console. While Bethesda has been rather hush-hush concerning specific PS5 Pro enhancements, we know via the PS Store that this Indy adventure has the ‘enhanced for PS5 Pro’ label and will most likely harness things like PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), advanced ray tracing, and (fingers crossed) a 120 FPS option.

PS5 Editions

There are three editions for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5. The standard edition comes in at the standardized $69.99 price and only includes the game. The $99.99 Premium Edition includes access to the future story DLC titled ‘The Order of Giants’ as well as a new Temple of Doom outfit and a digital artbook. The modern trend of including early access play in higher tiered editions continues here as Indy’s foray onto the PS5 allows access for premium edition buyers. But that’s not the cream of the edition crop. There’s also an expensive $189.99 Collector’s Bundle giving players a bevy of physical goodies. This bundle includes an 11 inch globe that hides a secretive storage compartment, in addition to a leather-bound adventure journal, and the all Premium Edition content.

Pre-order Bonuses

Regardless of edition, any PS5 version pre-order includes a new Traveling Suit outfit for Indy to wear and a whip. These two items are purely cosmetic and it’s unlikely they’ll become available through the store at a later date for those who didn’t pre-order.

Release Date and Early Access Times

And there’s not much time left to secure a pre-order since the game releases April 17^th which falls on a Thursday. Early access begins two days before the official release date, so Premium Edition players can look forward to playing it on April 15^th.

Is a Microsoft Account Needed to Play?

While it’s not confirmed whether or not PS5 users will need a Microsoft account to play Indy and the Great Circle, previous Xbox exclusive games as well as the upcoming Forza Horizon 5 indicate that it’s likely. That said, some of Microsoft’s single-player offerings didn’t require a Microsoft account sign-in (neither Hi-Fi Rush nor Pentiment required it), so we’ll have to wait and see if this particular single-player adventure does.

Disc Versions Require Internet Download

Unfortunately, we do have confirmations that disc versions of the game require an internet download in order to play the game. Bethesda’s images of the highest-priced Collector Bundle states in the fine print that a disc is still included, but “internet connection is required to download game and content”.

Voice Talent

As for the game itself, there’s quite a lot to love. Any Indiana Jones project has to have top-tier voice talent in order to succeed, and this game nails that aspect. Troy Baker surprisingly sold us on his Indy voice. It’s charming and personalized, yet still has that Harrison Ford identity. Indy’s partner in uncovering the Great Circle mystery happens to be a woman named Gina Lambardi, who is excellently portrayed by actress Alessandra Mastronardi. The main villain is my pick for best performance though. Emmerich Voss is the perfect Indiana Jones villain and actor Marios Gavrilis captures his creepy and deranged personality too well.

Exploration

One distinction this game has to other’s in the genre is the first-person perspective. This heightened immersion allows for more intricate exploration and problem solving. Indy uses a camera and journal to jot down hints and notes as he explores the game’s diverse environments. The diegetic UI with Indy looking at his journal maps and whatnot really add to the immersion of stepping into his shoes as an explorer. And the game is teeming with collectibles around well-hidden nooks and crannies, giving players a compelling reason to go off the beaten path.

Wide Environments

This emphasis on exploration is owed in large part to the game’s wide environments. Exploration is satisfying because there’s just a lot of open space to wander around through. That said, this is still a fairly linear adventure, at least in story terms. Plenty of set piece moments and cinematics dot the game’s progression, but its accompanied by a wealth of slower paced exploration in wide areas.

Stealth

The game’s more methodical pace exemplifies itself perhaps most of all in its stealth. A large portion of combat strategy revolves around sneaking up to enemies for a silent knock-out. Routing past patrols and sneaking around guarded zones is a big part of this Indy adventure and it’s done really well thanks to excellent level design and smooth controls.

Combat

But there is visceral combat in this game too, though it’s not your traditional Machine Games high-paced shooter. Instead, combat in The Great Circle revolves around found melee weapons, Indy’s whip, and a limited amount of small firearms. The famous whip is used to great effect here, being employed to stun and disarm foes.

Oodles of Melee Weapons

Since ammo is so scarce throughout the game, you’re often relegated to picking up random melee weapons through the environment. There’s a lot of wacky objects used for melee here: oversized flyswatters, pipes, pots and pans, and much more. But there’s one trusty melee weapon you always have access to: your fists. The game has a big emphasis on brawling, and while it can be somewhat sloppy, there’s something satisfying about KO’ing Nazis in the face.

Game Length

It’s good that the game has such variety in its gameplay because it has an average run time of around 25 hours. Howlongtobeat has an average completionist playthrough sitting around 38 hours and a rushed story run taking 15. This makes Indiana Jones and the Great Circle one of Machine Games’ most lengthy titles, giving PS5 players with an Indiana Jones craving plenty to dig into and explore.

"Far from just your Normandy trenches, Commandos Origins spans the globe."

Right off the bat, I was struck by how much biome diversity the team at Claymore managed to squeeze out of the tried and true World War II setting. Far from just your Normandy trenches, Commandos Origins spans the globe. The visual distinction from mission to mission is stark and appreciated.

And there’s a lot of missions to chew through here: 14 to be exact. This is a notable jump up in content from the 10 missions from Commandos 2 and 12 from Commandos 3. But it’s really the quality of said missions that really matters, and in this, Commandos Origins doesn’t disappoint. Each map provides numerous ways to accomplish your objectives. Want to go in guns blazing? Well, you can shoot up the place if you can manage to avoid alarms and reinforcements. It’s also possible to go the pacifist route and avoid conflict altogether, though this might be even more difficult than the Rambo method. Most players will find themselves somewhere in the middle between these two extremes, avoiding patrols that are out of the way and stealth killing soldiers one at a time to avoid setting off alarms.

The game’s wide map design accommodates either (and both) of these playstyles well, providing plenty of tools and equipment for commandos to take advantage of along the way. There’s even some incentive to explore and comb every inch of maps with the a handful of collectibles in each mission. Obtaining these collectibles provides a nice side challenge in itself due to their being tucked away in soldier’s bunkers and other heavily patrolled areas off-the-beaten-path. Managing to grab these secrets won’t grant any gameplay boons or anything, but they do provide some historic text and images of things like the Willy’s Jeep and its usage in WWII, for instance. Additionally, there’s side objectives which add even more replayability and challenge.

The nitty gritty of how you interact with these maps is quite another matter. As expected, the isometric camera from previous games returns, except it’s fully controllable this time around instead of the limited rotation controls from Commandos 3. You can zoom in and out and fully rotate the cam here. The UI on console is rather minimalistic. All your tools and weapons are found on a hotkey menu using RT, as are your units and orders using LT. The team did a fine job avoiding a clustered and overwhelming UI, just showing unit portraits and tool graphics in the upper corners, with a minimap chilling in the bottom right. Players will find console controls quite streamlined and intuitive for the most part, though toggling and interacting with viewcones is a tad bit clunky.

Since this is such a stealth-oriented game, knowing an enemy’s line of sight is crucial. That’s where viewcones come in. Unfortunately, you can’t just toggle all enemy viewcones in the immediate area on; you have to either set a viewcone marker or select enemy cones individually. I like the idea of setting a viewcone in a dedicated spot, but it’s too small to be useful. Also, enemies patrol and move in and out of zones often, invalidating the usefulness of most viewcone markers. Highlighting individual enemy viewcones isn’t much better since it can be finicky aiming at the individual you want when they’re in groups. The more imprecise nature of a control stick just doesn’t compare to the fine pinpoint accuracy of a mouse in this regard.

Another issue I had with viewcones is how inconsistent they are at times. There have been moments when I was clearly outside the viewcone when all a sudden the enemy starts gunning me down without warning. What’s the point of viewcones if they’re not 100% reliable? Yes, there are other variables at play that override viewcones. If you make noise or enemies see footprints, enemies will be alerted to your presence (and there’s even a visual indicator of noise made). As a result, I found myself mistrusting viewcones throughout my playthrough, which kinda defeats the purpose of such a mechanic.

"The meat and potatoes of the Commandos series lies in the tools each of your units wields."

Speaking of visual distinction, you can highlight interactable aspects of the environment and tell enemies from comrades with an ‘highlight mode’ toggle. I highly recommend turning manual toggle on, since the countdown duration options seems to be bugged at the moment, often leaving everything highlighted until a cutscene or combat occurs.

Of course, by now you may be asking yourselves why Commandos is labelled as a real-time-tactics game despite its actionable stealth gameplay. The answer lies with Command Mode. This tactical mode can be initiated at any time, and will pause all gameplay allowing you to set up movement and commands for your squad to perform. Command Mode isn’t forced upon the player, but it is often helpful when simultaneous control of units is needed. Another option is to play with another player via 2-player co-op. Co-op can be done online or split-screen.

The meat and potatoes of the Commandos series lies in the tools each of your units wields. You take control of six distinct commando units throughout the game, each with their own skillset and playstyle. While all commandos share certain abilities, like using medkits or knocking out opponents, certain abilities like setting bear traps are unique to a particular unit. I found the broad tookit to be satisfying and open-ended. Your Green Beret can set a sound decoy or you can just whistle with the Sapper to accomplish a similar, though slightly altered outcome.

What’s more impressive is how each mission has unique abilities for each of the commandos based on the distinct properties of the environment. For example, the mission in the Arctic Circle has some communication lines with poles between them. The Green Beret can shimmy up and climb across the various poles, allowing quicker access without being seen. Just because you’ve seen all of one unit’s abilities doesn’t mean a mission won’t introduce a new way to interact with the environment.

For longtime Commandos fans, it’s worth pointing out that enemies don’t have inventory here. They drop single items, like medkits, if anything at all. This makes Commandos Origins more streamlined, eliminating some of the inventory management the classic games had. Something this does share with those classics is difficulty. Even on the easiest of the three difficulty settings, Commandos Origins has a steep learning curve that brutally punishes mistakes. You’ll find yourself getting caught and dying often. This brings up load times. The load times may not be egregious on PS5, but they do take a while compared to similar games on the console. I wish the load times were shorter, if not instantaneous, since they occur quite often considering the difficulty of the game.

This leads to several technical issues that I continue to encounter in the game. Some of the more egregious glitches were corrected with a patch. Unfortunately, persistent screen tearing continues to plague Commandos Origins. Whether your playing on graphics or performance mode, rotating the camera up and down results in noticeable screen tearing. And I wouldn’t recommend playing on graphics mode, by the way, the framerate and screen tearing issues are too persistent. Another issue I had occurred within the save menus. For example, looking through autosaves scrolls up and down wildly, at times leading to a softlock situation.

On the gameplay side of things, I’ve encountered a couple of invisible walls preventing me from hiding in time, leading to an early death or two. These invisible walls could have something to do with the vertical terrain they tried to implement, but with no way to measure terrain height with the isometric view, it’s too hard to tell what might just be a slight hill preventing interactivity (and the highlight mode doesn’t show anything).

"By far my favorite aspect of the visuals are the variety of biomes and doodads populating each of the maps."

While Commandos 2 felt ahead of its time with its detailed isometric graphics, Origins is average when compared with its peers. The fidelity of textures is nice and detailed and the lighting is indicative of the Unreal Engine 5 lumen tech it’s using, but it doesn’t do anything other games in the genre aren’t doing better. By far my favorite aspect of the visuals are the variety of biomes and doodads populating each of the maps.

One area that is found particularly lacking graphics-wise are the animations. Vehicles move about with no subtlety or finesse, looking like loosely animated cartoons in spots. Then there’s the absence of proper transition animations with certain character actions. The lack of animation finesse coupled with all the glitches I experienced made Commandos Origins a rather lukewarm experience on the graphical and technical end.

The soundscape is hit or miss, much like the graphics. Commandos has taken a live orchestra approach with its soundtrack, but the compositions themselves lack the punchiness and melodic strength of the original games. The soundtrack comes off as your expected military background music; nothing bad but not memorable either. It would’ve been nice to have the original soundtrack option via toggle, but I didn’t expect that kind of thing. The voices of all six commandos are serviceable, but didn’t particularly wow me. This reboot brings back those delightfully charming sound effects, thankfully. When zoomed-in, buzzing of telephone polls or the engine of vehicles is heard, which makes for some good atmosphere.

Overall, Commandos Origins packs a lot of strategic fun into a modern nostalgic package. The six commando units offer a lot of gameplay variety and the missions vary with distinct biomes and multiple ways to complete them. The game still has some bugs to iron out, but Commandos Origins comes recommended if you’re a fan of methodical stealth and real-time-tactics games.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The most important thing to mention right out of the gate is how the bike feels to control. Supercross 25 is a neat mix of arcade and sim bike racing. You can’t just haphazardly careen into corners like this is Excitebike or Mario Kart or you’ll faceplant into the dirt. Like past Supercross games, there’s a dual stick approach to controlling your bike here. The left stick steers and tilts the bike backward or forward while the right stick adjusts the rider’s body weight, leaning in and out of turns. Managing the weight you put into turns is crucial in order to maintain traction and avoid slipping out. It’s worth pointing out that this is not a trick-heavy game. It’s encouraged that players perform whips and scrubs in order to angle oncoming turns better, but there’s little more extreme sports flair than that.

What I do find satisfying though is pulling the bike weight back through whoops, which are basically consecutive bumps. The added DualSense rumble enhances the viscerality of the different track conditions well. Managing flow through repeated jumps and corners is an aspect that can find you equally frustrated or satisfied, and it’s something Supercross 25 carries over from the real sport reasonably well.

"Managing the weight you put into turns is crucial in order to maintain traction and avoid slipping out."

One thing that enhances Supercross 25’s sense of realism are the ruts and deformation that change on the dirt terrain. I thought at first this marketed feature was a gimmick, but the evolving ruts around the tracks really do force the rider to pay attention to the ground every single lap. I bailed a number of times due to deep ruts sliding my bike off my line. This new terrain deformation feature further leans the series into a sim-like identity in a positive way.

Like ruts, weather also plays a part in managing bike stability. You can manually set weather conditions for outdoor tracks, though Career events have pre-established track conditions. I didn’t notice weather changing during races, but it’s nice that rainy conditions do cause notable slippage to not just the player but AI.

While I appreciate how ruts and weather add to a more in-depth racing experience, I can’t say the same for the turning and cornering physics. Whether you’re going through a tight hairpin or doing micro adjustments, turning just doesn’t feel intuitive or fun. Yes, turning the wheels on a bike going 45 MPH through heavy dirt in real life isn’t exactly the most intuitive thing in the world, but the game doesn’t replicate it well enough to justify how understeery turn-ins are. No matter the bike, it always feels like I’m fighting a battle of initial understeer and then snap oversteer to correct it. Just staying on track can be a difficult and frustrating ordeal for beginners. Players that didn’t care for the physics of Supercross 6 likely aren’t going to love this one either; the stiffness is largely the same as before.

"You can manually set weather conditions for outdoor tracks, though Career events have pre-established track conditions."

But while the understeer and oversteer of the bikes is a more subjective critique, the stiff animations are unquestionably average at best. In a lot of ways, the rider’s rigid movements look almost identical to past entries. I mean, just look mid-air body animations, there’s hardly any body movement at all, even when shifting weight. The team haven’t done much to improve animations in this title, which ends up taking away from the general graphical improvements. The game does look good, especially with the rain puddles and the changing dirt formations on the tracks. This is the first Unreal Engine 5 game in the series, after all. Though there’s still a lack of viscerality here. I’m disappointed by the lack of mud splashing and loose rider movement in particular, things that UE5 could’ve helped added.

Speaking of tracks, this game supplies a decent collection of them. Despite the same number as the last iteration (with 17), new tracks like Glendale Stadium are a welcome addition. And for outdoor fans, there’s a total of 13 tracks that allow weather customization. The number of riders has shrunk from the 80 of the previous game to just 65. A slight reduction of content is fine since this is something of a reboot, but there’s just not enough variety in bike/rider feel here to really offset that. Every rider feels the same to control, and the only difference in bikes is the sound and stats.

"The rider’s rigid movements look almost identical to past entries."

But let’s get into what we use these bikes for and check out the various game modes. First, the tutorials. This time around, instead of the tutorial being tacked onto the Career, it’s tucked away in a separate menu. Why they decided a reboot was the perfect time to hide away the Supercross Academy tutorial is beyond me. As a fairly new supercross player myself, I found the learning process of this mode lackluster. They did the bare minimum with tutorialization, just giving a checklist of stuff to accomplish without any explanation of concepts or advanced controls. If you want an actual explanation of what ‘whoops’ are, you have to go to a separate text menu for more in-depth explanations. I do not recommend this game for newcomers to the supercross racing game world. The onboarding is almost non-existent and the tutorialization is poor.

The Online Hub wasn’t available during the review phase, but from what we know, it’s similar how it was with Supercross 6. Thankfully, offline split-screen is available if you don’t have a PS Online or Xbox Live membership. Single Event, Rhythm Attack, Time Attack, and Championship make up the single-player modes. If you want to get your creative juices flowing, there’s the Workshop which allow custom suit graphics, bike liveries, and custom tracks with the track editor.

I’ve messed with plenty of track editors in my days, but this one is especially unintuitive and basic . First off, there’s just not that many fun options to experiment with. You have two outdoor and two indoor stadiums to select from and you cannot zoom in or out with the camera as you’re editing. While I’m okay with the variety of straights and jumps types, the size tool is pathetic. Jumps only have three size options to select from, all of which are laughably marginal. Want to make a 20 foot tall jump? Well, too bad; it’s either a tiny bump or a regular jump for you. And why can’t we alter the size of walls or step-up tables? I see little reason to bother with the track editor considering the scant amount of options it gives the player.

"There’s just not that many fun options to experiment with in this track editor."

No matter what mode you engage with, you’re always gaining some experience to progress bikes and riders further. Every level-up rewards a specific part or bike used. The reward progression structure is identical to most live service seasonal rotations, but without the ‘live service’ element. I just can’t help feeling like publishers are getting creatively complacent regarding progression systems, merely settling with copying the live service template even when the game isn’t a live service, but I digress.

Finally, there’s Career Mode. You won’t find anything groundbreaking here if you’ve played any sports game in the last decade as it mostly follows the same formula. You begin your supercross journey at the ‘Futures’ category with no reputation or following. Place within the top 15 of the following races and you’ll be catapulted into the ‘Rookie’ category with the choice to join a team within the 250 East or 250 West division. Opportunities will arise as you race to get other teams interested in partnering with you. The overdone social media aspect plays a role in Career too, with the number of followers affecting reputation. Complete objectives and finish well in races and your followers go up. Oh yeah, and you get DM’d by other riders and media with options to troll them or get in their good graces. I’m admittedly tired of the low effort recycling of career modes in sports games and, well, Supercross 25 isn’t giving me any optimism for the future in that regard. The social media Career stuff is rote and superficial at this point.

"A high team synergy pushes your Bike Development further, improving various stats."

Team synergy is at least somewhat interesting, though it’s been done in dozens of sports games for now. A high team synergy pushes your Bike Development further, improving various stats within the Speed, Acceleration, Handling, and Braking categories. Different teams emphasize certain stats more than others, and of course allow you to ride their particular bike brand.

You move up in Career through a series seasons composed of ‘Acts’. I like how there’s a rival for each act that berates you in DMs and performs aggressively during races. Oh yeah, and the AI in general is somewhat improved from the last game, but only slightly. Racers still brainlessly jump on your head and crash into you due to unintelligent pathing. Even on harder difficulties, they don’t move out of the way or alter their line, though they do flow much better and are hard to beat if you’re not experienced.

I wanted to love a bike game again and was hoping Supercross 25 would do it, but it has a physics model that isn’t fun or intuitive to engage with. I think there’s something to enjoy here if you’re a supercross fan and can get over the initial difficulty curve, but for everyone else, there’s not much here. The game leans in a more sim-like direction with the enhanced track deformation, but doesn’t manage to feel satisfying to master due to awkward physics and lackluster AI.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

It’s certainly an exciting time for racing fans on PS5, but there are a couple of caveats with Forza Horizon 5’s PS5 launch. First, there’s the kicker. Players have to link a Microsoft account upon starting up the game, a process that other Xbox-to-PlayStation games like Sea of Thieves has required. Unfortunately, there won’t be the added benefit of cross-progression from a PC or Xbox save to PS5. There is cross-play between PC, Xbox, and PS5 versions of the game, though, so that’s nice. On the PlayStation side of things, a PS Plus subscription is required to take part in any of the online features of FH5. When enabled, Forza Horizon 5 allows up to 16 online players at a time in the game world. The multiplayer offerings are rather extensive, ranging from a battle royale mode called The Eliminator to a large suite of mini game challenges from smashing pinatas to zipping around obstacle courses. Forza Horizon 5 has a single player offline mode too, of course, but you won’t be able to engage with the robust auction house or try out other players’ custom tracks, in addition to the aforementioned modes.

I don’t think there’s been a more ideal time to jump into Forza Horizon 5 than now. The game originally released back in 2021 and has benefited from a wealth of updates and fixes. I’m disappointed that the $59.99 base edition of the game on PS5 doesn’t go the distance with the inclusion of the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure DLCs – those have to be bought separately in addition to the numerous Car Packs. Still, the base package here is staggering. The game includes well over 700 cars and that number goes up past the 800 range when we include DLC, so you’ll not be wanting for variety.

And there’s even more new content to look forward to. The PS5 release of Forza Horizon 5 coincides with a new free content update across the game’s various platforms. Horizon Realms has been positioned as the big central addition with the update. Realms features 11 of the most beloved environments from Forza’s Evolving Worlds seasonal rotation. A new permanent Horizon Stadium Circuit is also coming to the game in addition to the 11 seasonal returning Realms locations.

And for gearheads, there’s a total of eight new vehicles added to the game via update, though four of them (including the exhilarating Lamborghini Revuolto) are rewards for clearing Horizon Realms achievements. The other four cars are from the new Nissan Retro Rides car pack. As with all car packs, there’s a dlc sticker price of $4.99 attached to it.

For PS5 players, the most exciting ‘update’ comes in the form of DualSense support. Turn 10 has confirmed full DualSense and DualSense Edge functionality, with adaptive trigger feel for threshold braking and surface conditions. If it performs like Gran Turismo 7 or The Crew Motorfest, heavy dirt roads will amp up the vibration intensity tenfold and the accelerator and brake pedals will have a realistic tension translating to the triggers.

Luckily for PS5 players, Forza Horizon 5 isn’t the only racing game getting new updates. Gran Turismo 7 is a PlayStation exclusive well and truly anchored to the PS5 and it’s still receiving new updates three years after release. GT7 is currently on its 28th free update. Since its launch back in 2022, hundreds of additional cars and a handful of circuits have been added. The game currently features 532 vehicles and 39 tracks (not counting different configurations).

All of GT7’s content (including all updates) is available free of charge once you’ve bought the game. PlayStation racing fans suddenly find themselves with a nice advantage: access to Sony’s premier exclusive with Gran Turismo 7, as well as the recent Forza Horizon 5 port. It’s wild that in 2025 Sony players have access to one of Xbox’s flagship exclusive racers in addition to Sony’s Gran Turismo juggernaut, but here we are.

Sim racing fans have GT7 and Assetto Corsa to play on PS5, but what about the open world crowd? Well, there’s actually been quite a handful of quality open world racers within the PlayStation ecosystem even before Forza Horizon 5 joined. The Crew Motorfest, while featuring a far smaller map than the The Crew 2‘s vast United States, features the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui. What’s impressive is the recently released free Maui update, which adds the new island as well as a range of new Playlist challenges and new vehicles.

Another fun open world racer is Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, a game struggling with its online offerings despite a rich and varied Hong Kong Island map. Despite being hot off the heels of its initial release last year, TDU: SC already has a significant update which includes the Ibiza island map, smaller in scale though it may be from TDU 2‘s Ibiza. Now with Forza Horizon 5, PlayStation racing fans have three marquee open world experiences to test out the world’s fastest and most desirable cars around in.

Kart racing fans have their share of quality games to choose from too, even if Mario Kart isn’t one of them. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a frenetic and fun Mario Kart alternative that uses its PlayStation branded IP to great effect. Team Sonic Racing and the upcoming Sonic Racing Crossworlds provide that same flavor of kart racing fun that the very best in the genre are known for. And then there’s the plethora of third-party arcade racers on PS5. Need for Speed has been oddly silent about a new entry, but NFS Unbound comes highly recommended if you’re into cop chases and real-life car brands with some of the most impressive exhaust sounds in gaming. Hot Wheels Unleashed 1 and 2 are also a ton of fun with the custom track creation and satisfying physics (which even let you fly off the track).

PlayStation’s racing ecosystem is perhaps the strongest in gaming at the moment. The prospect of other Microsoft exclusive racers like Forza Motorsport coming to PlayStation is now highly likely. Sony racing fans now have their pick of Xbox and PS games racing titles to choose from. And what’s more, there’s not a single racing genre underrepresented on PS5. I just wish there would be less of an emphasis on microtransactions and season passes with today’s racing games, but that is an industry-wide issue that exists regardless of console ecosystem. Between their pick of GT7, Assetto Corsa, Forza Horizon 5, The Crew Motorfest, TDU Solar Crown and a wide array of arcade racers, PlayStation players have a veritable buffet of fun driving games to enjoy.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Burning Sword Death Sun

I always appreciate a game that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t shy away from it. That’s Burning Sword Death Sun, a game about a leader of a martial sect emerging from hell itself to assert dominance across a fictional China through the use of his flaming sword and lighting-fast fist strikes. I’m not exaggerating in the least either. And then there’s the unapologetic soulslike gameplay with a hack and slash spin to make things quick and frenetic. Unreal Engine 5 is used to good effect when it comes to the gorgeous vistas, swaying grass, and rich color usage, though the facial textures still need some time in the oven. Burning Sword Death Sun has a release window of Q2 2025 and the demo is currently playable on Steam right now, so check it out if you enjoy challenging action combat.

But first, does the game control well? It absolutely does. I don’t know if it ranks among my favorite controlling soulslikes, but it’s certainly up there among the most elastic and intuitive ones to play regarding movement. The turning radius of Arrisa’s movement is very tight and snappy and she’s a quick runner with lightning-fast attacks. There’s hardly any ‘clunk’ at all to speak of here. The camera is very well behaved during fights, though it does require manual adjustments here and there.

There are a lot of things to discuss about AI Limit, but one particular element of combat deserves frontloaded attention. That system is the Sync bar, which effectively replaces the stamina found in other titles. Unlike any other Soulslikes that I’ve encountered, AI Limit doesn’t actually have any stamina. Instead of patiently waiting for a green meter to fill back up again before sprinting, you can just sprint eternally without a care.

"AI Limit doesn’t actually have any stamina. Instead of patiently waiting for a green meter to fill back up again before sprinting, you can just sprint eternally without a care."

You can also attack and dodge without a single thought paid to stamina. This is because AI Limit doesn’t burden basic actions behind any energy requirements; instead, advanced actions like magic and special attacks consume stamina… I mean Sync energy. I cannot emphasize enough how freeing it is just running around swinging without a single thought paid to stamina, but let’s continue.

The Sync bar itself is rather ingenious. It’s divided into tiered sections which affect your combat prowess based on what tier the bar is at. The game has nuanced terms for all these mechanics, but in general, sync rate is how fast or slow the sync energy accumulates or depletes when fighting. This kind of system encourages either type of approach: an aggressive offensive approach where you’re continually boosting sync rate akin, or a defensive one that stabilizes sync rate by avoiding hits.

There’s more packed into AI Limit’s combat that we’ll get into shortly, but let’s take a breath of fresh air and explore the multi-layered world of Havenswell. First off, no, AI Limit is not open world in any way. It’s not strictly on-rails either. The game map is structured based on district zones containing a dozen or so ‘levels’.

Each level has a handful of shortcuts that loop back to the starting Branch (your typical ‘bonfire’ in souls parlance). The map design manages to guide the player from branch to branch with a urgency while allowing some exploration with the branching paths and optional dead end areas. The level pacing hits a nice sweet spot. And those optional diversions are worthwhile most of the time, containing hidden items or quests occasionally.

Overall, the map structure is somewhat similar to Dark Souls 2, except with no dedicated hub area. Instead of a hub, the game has multiple vendors and NPCs scattered about the different districts. Thankfully, fast travel between Branches is available as soon as you reach your second Branch. Load times between warps aren’t long either, so if you find yourself returning to a grind spot to sell materials to a trader halfway across Havenswell, the process isn’t too bothersome.

The branch system is more forgiving than other soulslikes due to your currency not being lost upon death. Not all of it anyway. Only a marginal number of Crystals (your currency and experience) is lost upon death, and that amount can be adjusted based on equipment. There’s also no retrieving of lost Crystals, so that cuts down on all the backtracking to our last death that so many similar games have, and I’m thankful for that.

On the graphical front, AI Limit isn’t overtly impressive. The graphics are clearly budgeted, which shows when viewing far distant areas or objects up close – the draw distance and texture detail just aren’t that great here. There’s also not a ton of environmental props or ornamental stuff to examine, but it’s serviceable and more than makes up for it in its level design. The modest graphics don’t really translate into amazing performance either. Framerate can dip when many enemies are on screen. Turning vsync off can help with stutter and occasional input lag, but results in consistent screen tearing. It’s not a very well optimized game, but I found it perfectly manageable, but maybe that’s because I gleefully went through Blighttown on the Xbox 360 and thought that was acceptable.

"AI Limit has its fair share of bugs."

My bigger problems had to do with some of the glitches and bugs throughout the experience. The most persistent bug I encountered made enemies invisible except the weapon they were holding. Desperately running through a street filled with floating guns to reach the next Branch wasn’t exactly a highlight of the game for me, but my bug woes don’t end there. Elements of clothing or body parts would disappear from enemies, to the point where Rayman-like heads and legs with no torso star swinging at me as if from a low budget horror game. This wasn’t game-breaking for me, but the invisible enemies did make it difficult and annoying to trudge through, despite the game’s excellent controls and combat.

Despite the lower graphical detail of AI Limit, what is graphically presented is varied. Each level is distinct, looking and feeling different from the last. The districts within Havenswell have their own challenges, giving the world an interconnection that feels lived-in.

The plot itself will be hit or miss, and it certainly isn’t cinematic in the slightest. Oh yeah, and NPCs have their own set arcs and quests. These inhabitants show up in different locations throughout your adventure and the voice acting behind most of them is surprisingly impressive. What’s more, how you interact with these characters, along with certain key decisions you make, determine one of a couple different endings.

Now let’s return to the bread and butter of AI Limit: combat. Each weapon type has a unique normal attack pattern, light Special Attack, Heavy Special Attack, and Weapon Skill. That kind of toolkit is nothing to sneeze at and it allows for some nice build variety and experimentation. But there’s something especially satisfying about the Special Attacks in particular. Special Attacks are performed with the shoulder buttons with the heavy ones requiring a windup hold. I’ve never felt as swift and ninja-like in a Soulslike quite like I do with the Dashing Slash Special Attack on the Blader Swords here. Dashing Slash performs a breezy pop-in/pop-out stab which positions your character just perfectly out of range of the enemy’s close attacks. Spamming this special attack with carefree aggression is just something you can’t do in other games, thanks to the unlimited stamina.

There’s also a ton of really cool weapon items in AI Limit. Weapon items consume a portion of the Sync Bar, dealing significant damage, occasionally with flames or poison applied. Further opening up your combat arsenal are spells. Spells really diversify the offensive toolkit with everything from a railgun projectile to homing missiles and more. But what about your defensive options? Well, defensive tactics are open to you within the Frame Abilities. Frame Abilities determine whether you want to emphasize blocking, parrying, a risk/reward berserker mode, and more. Switching between Frame modes is rather intuitive with its hotkey activation and it even shows visually with Arrisa’s arm activating.

Seals add even more tools to your arsenal with Sync bar customization. Want an ‘all or nothing’ approach to Sync Rate? Well, there’s Seals that allow that. And then there’s other ones that chop up the Sync Bar into many small energy levels to create a far more fluid and linear sync rate. Weapons and Seals can be enhanced to further their output, so it’s entirely possible to beat the game with the first seal and weapon you obtain.

The enemies you use your weapons on are no less impressive than the toolkit afforded to you. Enemies are spaced out and paced in a satisfying way. You never feel too overwhelmed by large mobs and yet always have enough stuff to fight around every corner. Early on, I got the impression that enemy variety would be lacking. I mean, how many varieties of the ghoul-like enemies can the game have? Turns out a decent amount. The game’s different factions have good variety and you’ll even stumble upon them fighting each other. Some of these faction battles allowed me to run past them on my way to the next Branch. You’ll fight poisoned flying bugs and robot drones, among many other abominations throughout the duration of the game.

"Each boss has unique attack patterns and AI behavior, as expected, but some encounters feel like a genuine test of the game’s systems."

Oh, and the boss fights. I didn’t think I would get impressed by more soulslike boss fights, but the game even managed to surprise me there. Each boss has unique attack patterns and AI behavior, as expected, but some encounters feel like a genuine test of the game’s systems. I won’t spoil it, but a certain encounter finally made me cave in and explore a side area in hopes of obtaining better gear. After exploring multiple zones and defeating a side boss, I returned and found myself in lock-step with this tank of a robot with a giant grin on my face with tons of confidence. AI Limit’s bosses are up to the genre’s lofty standards, and I’m looking forward to fighting them with all the weapons I ignored on my first playthrough.

So is AI Limit a traditional soulslike? Yes. It’s got your post-apocalyptic setting and of course, the bonfire system is an almost 1-to-1 adaptation here. If there was any debate if this was really a soulslike, there’s even the same exact run jump from Dark Souls 1 (with no dedicated jump button, or course). But there’s a special ingredient here that makes it feel so much more fluid and freeing than all the other soulslikes, and that’s the unrestricted stamina. Having basic actions not being burdened by an energy resource is wonderful, and the game’s difficulty curve isn’t too badly affected by it, all things considered. Whether you’re a soulslike action newcomer looking for something with less friction, or are a longtime fan seeking out the next great challenge, AI Limit comes highly recommended despite its modest budget.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

New Snowboard/Mountainboard Controls

The biggest departure is by far the omission of mountain bikes in favor of snowboards and mountain boards. Yes, that’s right. Our beloved bike controls from Descenders are gone, forcing us to learn completely new board physics. The board physics aren’t too simlike to feel overwhelming though, feeling more like Rider’s Republic than a snow version of Session where every limb is independently controlled. Mountainboarding is similar to snowboarding, except you fit some oversized wheels on a smaller board and trust that you won’t die going down rugged dirt terrain. Riding down on these wheeled boards makes it more difficult to find momentum, providing a skillful challenge where gaining speed and timing jumps is crucial to basic success. Both of the boarding styles feel more loose than the bikes of the previous games, accommodating for the wider range of tricks and larger surface area of boards.

Wide Array of Board Tricks

Perhaps the most excited aspect of the new extreme sports included here are the slew of tricks that come with them. Snowboarding has some of the most varied tricks out of any extreme sport, and Descenders Next incorporates a wide array of that toolkit. Grinding rails and fallen trees is now possible, opening up the kind of functional obstacles on trails tenfold. And then there’s all the well known grab tricks, from melons to rocket airs and everything in between; it’ll be fun to see the top player combos and what crazy lines people come up with.

New Biomes

One of the things that made the first Descenders so special was the infinite replayability thanks to proceduaral generation. No two runs felt the same. Descenders Next opens up the floodgates to what’s possible with the addition of snowy mountain passes. The inclusion of rails is just one exciting new obstacle to do tricks on, but the snowy mountain biome also includes halfpipes and breathtaking ramps. Meanwhile, on the mountainboard side of things, trails feel almost like a dirt bike obstacle course, more in line with the first Descenders game. If you feel the need to switch up the scenery, the two styles, snowboarding and mountain, can be played at any time via the main menu.

Branching Node Structure Combining Career and Bike Park from the First Game

Descenders Next streamlines the modes of the first game, incorporating Career mode and Bike Parks into one seamless experience. Instead of selecting bike parks individually or just free roaming around in the lobby park, parks now function as checkpoints; a kind of safe zone reward after completing a harrowing series of uncharted randomly generated trails. The main thing you’re progressing towards are the boss levels in each area. These bosses require a multitude of uncharted trails, parks, and nodes to reach. Oh, and they’re basically boss in name only, there’s no actual opponent to fight, it’s just a way of saying the level is more challenging than what came before.

Procedurally Generated Uncharted Trails

The game calls these procedurally generated levels ‘offpiste trails’. This is where the roguelike challenge kicks in. You have a set amount of lives and If you bail too much or fail to clear a course within the time limit, you’re booted all the way back to the last safe zone losing valuable progress. What makes this gameplay loop so rewarding and smooth is the instantaneous respawning after a fail state. We’ve only seen the easiest offpiste trails so far in the demo, so it’ll be interesting to see how challenging it becomes to reach a safe zone in later stages of the game.

Race and Slopestyle Tracks

Of course, parks aren’t the only safe zone; Race and Slopestyle tracks also allow you to bank your progress, and better yet, fast travel between each safe zone node. Contrasting the offpiste trails, these challenge tracks are hand-made routes challenging players beat the bronze, silver, or gold medal times in Race or nail the specific tricks within Slopestyle.

New Hand-Made Parks

One of the most beloved aspects of the first Descenders were the creative parks filled with obstacles and stuff to do tricks off. The Descender’s Next demo allows players to explore the Rabbit Hill snowboard park and the Farmer’s Hill mountainboard park, but many more unique parks will become available as more safe zone nodes are unlocked through the full game. Parks act as a fun chill sandbox to brush up on skills alone or with friends. There’s also a bit of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater DNA here with the checklist of challenges to conquer in each park.

New Scavenger Hunt Challenges

Tapping into that THPS DNA even further are hidden collectables to find. Each park has a slew of secrets to locate if you are to 100% the objective checklist. So far, it seems like parks have a set of five Descent tokens and an ultra hidden object like the secret tapes in THPS demanding that players comb every inch of the environment.

Shops Replace Drops

Shop nodes replace the RNG item drops from the first game. Now, instead of having to wait all the way to the end of a boss track, you can just bank your earned rep on the gear of your choice at shops.

Additional Customization Options

The range of gear you purchase from shops has been expanded to include sets with new rarity bonuses. Additionally, the seven gear types from the first game have been expanded to 10 broad categories: headwear, shirts, outerwear, gloves, pants, footwear, accessories, snowboard/mountainboard, trucks, bindings, and tires. This is in addition to the absolutely wacky icons that you can apply to your character, which can range from whoopie cushions to, as bizarre as it sounds, trains.

Map Now Has Collection Tracking

In addition to the revamped UI, which I may add, looks like generic Ubisoft menus, the map has added icons to keep track of your progress. Trophies and medals have tracking icons and can be obtained by ranking in the various races and slopestyle tracks. The completionist in me likes the new map discovery tracker, which encourage likeminded players to unlock every node on a map. I genuinely favor the first game’s minimalistic UI, but that map didn’t have any of these progress indicators, so the addition is welcome.

Reputation System Rewards You For Everything You Do

Taking a cue out of Forza Horizon’s playbook, Descenders Next rewards you for just about every single action you do in the game. Fail to hold that rocket air? No problem, you get rep just for tapping it. Sloppy downhill boarding even rewards you with skid points for when you narrowly miss hitting trees. I kinda wish performing especially ludicrous bails rewarded some rep points as well, but there needs to be a limit somewhere, right?

Video Editing Tools to Showcase Stylish Runs

Thankfully, you can still record those crazy bails with the overhauled replay editor. A host of new camera angles and advanced editing options allow you to fine-tune legendary downhill sessions to you’re liking. Freecam returns with new features like auto focus and movement interpolation. My favorite new addition is the time of day customization. The position of the sun can be controlled and players can set the lighting to match morning, noon, evening, and night cycles.

Soundtrack by Electronic Label Monstercat

If you’ve played any live service games in the past decade, odds are high you’ve heard some of Monstercat’s music. Monstercat is a music aggregator, technically a record label, with artists like DJ Marshmallow and Pegboard Nerds under them. They’ve done soundtracks for Fortnite, Beat Saber, and Rocket League, so there’s no doubt Descenders Next will be filled to the brim with quality EDM.

Multiplayer

We have yet to test out the multiplayer offerings of Descenders Next, but the prospect of “multiplayer-huge biomes” has us excited. Like the first game, players can join up with a squad in multiplayer matchmaking or through a friend’s lobby and tackle the game’s challenges together. The parks act as free roam lobbies as well, providing opportunities to chat and join others’ sessions. We have yet to see if there’s going to be competitive modes or not. Unfortunately for PlayStation or Switch users, there’s a wait, as Descenders Next launches for PC and Xbox Series X/S exclusively on April 9^th.

Upgraded Character Models

Like its predecessor, Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive completely overhauls the character models of all the major cast members. Graphics comparisons between the Wii U and Switch versions of the game reveal brand new clothing for characters, such as Elma’s new crimson leg plates replacing the low resolution metal ones from the original. Faces also look less plasticy here, with Definitive sharpening the eyes while adding dimensionality to the skin through lighting and contour. As expected, the Definitive edition enhances visuals for HD, improving general textures and lighting across the board.

Doesn’t Include Japan-only Content

In case there was any doubt, yes, the definitive edition includes all of the DLC that the original Japanese version added to international markets. However, it has been confirmed that the Japanese-only outfits as well as the  customization features for Cross are omitted from Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive.

New Story Elements

Eagle-eyed fans of the game may have noticed some never-before-seen cinematics from the trailers. It has been confirmed that, indeed, Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition features new story content seamlessly woven through the game. It’s likely these new bits of story tie up loose ends of Lau’s story following the events of Chapter 12. As a delightful bonus for audiophiles, additional music has been composed to accompany the new story elements.

Party Swap Feature

It was truly a pain to recruit squad members to your party in the original. You had to travel all the way over to NLS and individually search them out to add these characters to your party. This was a colossal pain considering the dozen and a half recruitable characters in the game. Definitive thankfully eliminates all that busywork with an Active Party menu which can swap party members in and out wherever you are in Mira. The remaster even lets non-active party members in reserve gain XP, which is something else the original didn’t have.

2 New Characters and 2 Additional Skells

What makes the party swap feature even better are the two new recruitable party members. The only thing we know about the new NeilNail character is they’re a Qluarian who may have built or owned the two Neilnail Skells (the controllable mechs) from the original game. Leisel is the other squadmate, a test pilot in charge of the “Hraesvelg” Skell. Speaking of, this Hraesvelg Skell will be included in Definitive as well as a new Ares-type Skell.

New Floating Continent Zone

Continuing the streak of new content is a fully-blown floating continent to explore. Just about nobody knows what this area is or what it signifies, and if someone does have an idea, be sure to let us know in the comments. From the trailer, it looks to have lots of fragmented spires, adding a decent amount of verticality and depth to exploration.

BLADE Level and Field Skill Levels Are Gone

Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive trims some of the ‘fat’ that tended to bloat out the original experience. Some of the bloat in question was BLADE level, a tiered rank that unlocked certain Missions as well as improving Field Skills. This additional leveling system has been axed to let players access basic Missions based on story progress and obtain field treasures immediately upon discovery.

New Quick Cooldown Meter

Waiting to use abilities is a core part of Xenoblade Chronicles X’s gameplay identity, and X Definitive smooths this process with a backup ‘Quick’ Cooldown meter. Arts still have specific cooldown times, but the Quick Cooldown meter allows players to bypass Art cooldowns as long as the meter is not depleted. No doubt this reserve cooldown bank will make aspects of fights easier, but if it makes for a smoother and more engaging combat experience, it may be worth it.

Mission Item Location Markers

Definitive Edition goes further with its convenience features with new dedicated item location markers. The ‘Follow Ball’ item performs this helpful deed by clearly marking mission-specific items right on the map for you to locate.  I have to say, the more I learn about the quality of life additions, the more I want to dig into the intimidating mammoth of an RPG that I missed with Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Massive Open World Featuring 5 Explorable Continents

And mammoth it truly is with its five gigantic open-world continents and the large multi-district city of New Los Angeles. Size doesn’t necessarily promise a better game, quite the opposite in some cases, but Xenoblade Chronicles X boasts a whopping 154 square miles (Breath of the Wild has 140); a vast area made even more exhilarating through the seamless Skell traversal. There are a multitude of different Skell units for sale around Mira, all with upgradable components and, get this, insurance, which is used for repairs. And the five continents are varied in their biomes and wildlife too, which is appropriate given the hunting and gathering aspect of the game.

Character Creator

Aiding in the game’s vast sense of scale and immersion is the ability to craft your own unique character. The Definitive edition doesn’t add any additional customization elements in this regard, so you’re stuck choosing between some predefined faces and hair templates without the ability to shape a face from scratch. Still, the various accessories, outfits, and general improvement of faces help spruce up the character customization.

Battle System

For the uninitiated, combat within the Xenoblade Chronicles X  typically revolves around actions (Arts) set to a cooldown timer. You attack enemies in real-time, but must manage Arts cooldowns and buffing/healing the party through the QTE Soul Voice system. It’s an interesting blend of MMO design and active-time battles, and with the convenience features that Definitive adds, it’s more accessible than ever.

Story

The plot in the game goes in some wild directions, but the basics are pretty simple. You escape a destroyed earth aboard a space vessel and wind up an amnesiac on the mysterious planet of Mira. Joining the human defense force, BLADE, while exploring the untapped mysteries of Mira becomes a big part of the game’s initial plot.

Unreal Engine 5 Graphics in Classic PS1 Horror Style

A game using Unreal Engine 5 nowadays isn’t particularly unique in and of itself, but when it’s done in Post Trauma’s old school style, that’s different. Despite being made an indie developer, Post Trauma utilizes UE5 to good effect, portraying dynamic lighting and high quality textures through the dreamlike environments. On top of that, Post Trauma does a number of things to harken back to its PS1 survival horror inspiration. Most notable among its classical devices is Post Trauma’s fixed camera angle.

Fixed Camera Angles

Who doesn’t like a good Dutch angle in their horror game? Post Trauma ditches the modern over-the-shoulder camera featured in titles like Dead Space, and the like for a fixed camera angle that changes for every new room and environment. We’ve seen a host of interesting angles from trailers, so it’s evident that the team is injecting good variety to spice up Post Trauma’s presentation.

Cramped Inventory Management

Another hallmark of classic survival horror games is tight inventory management, which Post Trauma certainly has. In fact, you’ll be limited to a scant five item slots, not counting the 10 separate slots for key items in addition to the storage chest. By comparison, Resident Evil 1 had six item slots. Unlike RE1, items won’t take up more than one slot in Post Trauma, but you can still combine items.

Limited Save System

As expected, you cannot just save the game anywhere at any time. There are dedicated save rooms that you have to rely on to save your file, just like classic survival horror titles. We can only hope these save rooms are evenly spaced apart and don’t require a ton of backtracking.

Classic RE-Style Puzzles

But that’s still doesn’t cover the full pot of classic elements that Post Trauma is made of. A majority of the experience is spent exploring the mind-bending environments, and you know what that means: puzzles. Post Trauma emphasizes exploration through its puzzle design, as demonstrated by the number combination padlock in the train requiring the player to search for number clues along walls and windows. Another legacy puzzle type that Post Trauma features is the classic mannequin/statue positioning puzzle. This game seems to be ticking all the classic survival horror boxes, doesn’t it?

Debut Project For Red Soul Games

What’s impressive is that Post Trauma is the first title Red Soul Games has worked on as a company. Everything from the clever variety of fixed camera angles to the otherworldly tone and atmosphere seem derived from an industry veteran, but this is their first public game. Red Soul Games is a “super small” studio located in Spain, with Raw Fury (known for Sable, Cassette Beasts) acting as their publisher for this game.

Psychological Themes Revolving Around Main Character

You take the role of Roman, a middle-aged train conductor who finds himself engulfed in a bizarre nightmare after a panic attack. The story goes heavy into psychological themes, implying that some of the horrors within the shifting environment are manifestations of Roman’s tormented mind (Event Horizon, anyone?). The game features plenty of narration with Togo Igawa playing Roman along with Autumn Ivy and Hyoie O’Grady playing the rest of the fully voiced cast.

Monster Design Takes a Cue From Dead Space and The Thing

The main cast aren’t the only voices heard in Post Trauma though, since you’ll have plenty of monstrous abominations to contend with. The monster design grabbed my attention the most out of any single aspect. Pulsating tentacles adorn the ceilings while grafted heads on mutated enemy bodies comprise some of the enemies exemplifying Post Trauma‘s body horror. To compound the variety of monster designs are some interesting alien-looking monstrosities as well as a robotic antagonist that is seen strangling Roman in the teaser.

Doesn’t Shy Away From Blood and Gore, Very Much Earning Its M-Rating

Unsurprisingly, the combination of gruesome monster designs and unsettling environments warrants a strong M rating. Walls are commonly stained with blood and, as previously mentioned, monsters tend to be on the grotesque side with grafted body parts and gore covering their misshapen bodies. Those pining for a survival horror game that doesn’t play it safe will be delighted with Post Trauma’s gritty presentation.

Slow Paced and Light on Combat Like Classic Silent Hill Games

Facilitating all that blood and gore is the combat of Post Trauma. Don’t expect frequent fights like Dead Space here, though; fights are few and far between similar to Silent Hill. Most of your time is spent exploring the ever-shifting environments and solving puzzles to move forward.

Combat Is on the Simple Side, Consisting of Repetitive Attack and Dodge Mechanics

But when there is combat, it tends to be pretty basic. As seen from trailers, the character Roman just has one swing attack and a basic dodge when fighting melee. Swing, dodge, swing, dodge seems to be the winning strategy for basic fights, leading to a lot of repetition. By contrast, ranged gun combat was only briefly shown in the teaser, so we have little to speculate on in that regard. At any rate, we’re hoping the full release adds some more weight and variety to the game’s melee combat.

Some Combat Encounters Are Unavoidable

The biggest reason I’m nitpicking melee combat is because some encounters are required to advance past closed paths. The spider abomination fight in the trailer cut to a brief cutscene indicating the webs blocking the way forward were eliminated along with the spider. While it’s almost certain that a majority of encounters are avoidable, at least some are required to advance forward in Post Trauma.

Reality-Bending Environmental Design Reminiscent of The Evil Within

The instance with the spider web seemingly disappearing after emerging victorious isn’t a one-off. Many paths are blocked off by apparitions and otherworldly forces. The environments in Post Trauma shift like a surreal nightmare, so players can expect a good amount of variety and surprise within the locations of the game.

Clever Shifts in Camera Style, Shifting From Grainy CCTV Imaging to Clear 4K Depending on Context

Of course, framing all the distorted locations in Post Trauma are the fixed camera angles which vary in style. Some areas brim with clear 4K UE5 detail while others are overlaid with CCTV compression and resolution, as is the case with the spider mutant enemy encounter. It’ll be interesting to see all the ways the camera shifts and distorts throughout the game’s duration.

Creepy Sound Design Meant To Confound and Spook Players

Sound is paramount in any good survival horror game, and it seems Post Trauma is fulfilling on that front. You’re constantly hearing suspicious ambient noises as you explore the game’s environment. Distant echoes of objects dropping or footsteps can be heard as you explore, and there’s always some amount of white noise present in the ambient sound. Post Trauma’s soundtrack is done by popular music cover artist Nicolas Gasparini. It’s clear from trailers that the indie team making Post Trauma have a good sense of subtle and creepy audio design, taking a cue from classic survival horror titles. There’s a demo on Steam right now to try out the game for yourself ahead of Post Trauma’s March 31st release.

Stop-Motion Animation Toggle

South of Midnight immediately looks different from any other game just by the charming stop-motion animation alone. Of course, not everyone wants to play an high paced action game within this intentionally choppy styling. Compulsion has confirmed that the stop-motion effect can be turned off during gameplay only. This means that cinematics and story sequences have stop-motion baked in with no option to turn off, but at least it can be toggled off during combat and traversal.

Game Length

Compulsion has also confirmed roughly how long it takes to complete South of Midnight; a lean 12 hours or so. The game takes place within the span of a single day and has a total of 14 chapters to its story. What’s really cool is seeing the lighting change as morning gives way to mid-day and evening shifts to nighttime. As Compulsion has said, “There’s a kind of urgency to it that makes it feel like we do want you to explore, but it needs to support the momentum of Hazel’s journey”.

Graphics Engine

It seems like a majority of games today, big or small, are being made in Unreal Engine 5, so it comes as a surprise to see South of Midnight using the older Unreal Engine 4. The game has been worked on for five years, employing reverse-engineered 3D modelling and stop-motion make it visually pop despite the older tech. And besides, the folktale aesthetic isn’t meant to be realistic, so an older engine won’t harm the game’s visuals much.

Setting and Tone

The game begins in a fictional town somewhere in the bayou-infested deep south of the US. Eventually the main character, Hazel, gets transported into a mythical spirit realm of sorts where Southern American folktale legends spring to life. The game has a mix of authentic landscapes representative of the American south and surrealist elements ranging from giant peaches to talking catfish. The dark fantastical tone is not dissimilar to Pan’s Labyrinth, with films like Beasts of the Southern Wild being cited as a direct inspiration for the team.

Mo-capped Characters

Hazel finds herself transported to a twisted folktale version of her Southern home. She uses her newfound Weaver magic to mend lost spirits in her search for her missing mother. She’s a confident teenager on a journey of restoration as well as self realization. The talent behind the characters are noteworthy in themselves. Ahmed Best, known for his portrayel of Jar-Jar in the Star Wars prequels, is the game’s performance and voice director. Hazel is portrayed by not one, but two actors. She’s mo-capped by Brooklyn Majors and voiced by Adriyan Rae.

Story

I can’t help but be reminded of The Wizard of Oz when hearing descriptions of South of Midnight’s plot, and not just because a disaster befalls the heroine’s home. Hazel’s hometown gets wrecked by a devastating hurricane. Suddenly, she’s spirited away into a gothic southern fantasy land occupied by talking catfish and ghost-like Haint enemies. Quite a fitting allusion to the surreal, almost dream-like atmosphere that embodies South of Midnight‘s environs. Hazel’s objective involves finding her lost mom while cleansing the land and the ghosts that linger there.

Lore

Players aren’t merely defeating these ‘Haint’ enemies though, since noteworthy ghosts leave behind haunted memories illustrating the individual stories behind the various creatures you encounter. As we see in previews, these ‘Echoes’, as the haunted memories are called, recall the creatures’ past as humans that lived in the area and how they came to inhabit the the fantastical dreamscape they currently prowl.

How Linear is it?

South of Midnight is decidedly linear with some branching exploration sprinkled throughout. There are four confirmed biomes to explore: the swamps, a place called ‘the Delta’, the Appalachians, and a location inspired by downtown New Orleans. The way you get to and from these four distinct environments seems to be through the giant talking catfish that acts as Hazel’s guide. That said, this is not entirely on-rails or anything. There’s still plenty of secret passages off the beaten path.

Parkour-like Traversal

Thankfully, it looks very smooth to get around the swamplands of the in-game world. The wall-running parkour and double jumping doesn’t look janky in the slightest, and previews have stressed how snappy the controls are in this regard. Heck, you can even adjust verticality during a wall-run for extra precision. And in case of a miscalculated jump, there’s always the ability to glide to safety using the mystical weave glider. The game’s description lists platforming and puzzles as two key aspects of South of Midnight‘s gameplay, which will hopefully make good use of Hazel’s parkour skills.

Framed as a Narrated Storybook

Each of the 14 chapters are artfully framed in their presentation. As Compulsion puts it, the chapter-based narrative is, “Like opening a book and closing it when finished”. Aiding the guidance of this storybook presentation is the dynamic narrator, who in at least one chapter happens to be the giant talking catfish, but may change in different chapters.

Unique Boss Theme Songs

South of Midnight has a lot of dynamic audio design going on. Take the end-of-chapter mythical bosses. These large guardians are a spectacle that extend beyond just an arena battle. There’s usually a whole lead-up accompanied by a unique lyrical theme specially made for that particular boss. These bluesy songs intensify as Hazel approaches the boss, helping tell the backstory through lyrics and instrumentation. Crafting unique period piece lyrical songs to each boss further hones into that clever storybook theater presentation.

Combat

Combat mostly takes place within contained arenas cordoned off by vines at the edges. This is your typical third-person action combat with blocking, dodging, and carefully timed attacks. Besides the usual stuff, Hazel has four magical abilities: a freeze stun, enemy pull, telekinetic throw, and a locked move that hasn’t been revealed yet. The regular enemies (called Haints) come in multiple varieties with their own movesets, while the big bosses have multiple phases to their fights. It’s worth pointing out that even the most enthusiastic previews criticize aspects of gameplay. And boss fights have been described as repetitive or somewhat formulaic.

Locking On

Perhaps the weakest link of the combat is the targetting lock-on. You can lock on to different targets, something which is encouraged considering how many enemies can confront Hazel at once. Other third-person action games have executed multi-target lock-on clumsily despite their best efforts (the constricting over the shoulder view of modern God of War titles come to mind). The lock-on in South of Midnight has been described by many previewers as loose and disorienting due to to enemies attacking from off-screen and the rather clunky way the camera adjusts to this when switching targets. Here’s hoping the final release has a fix for this.

Skill Tree

Even though it looks like Hazel is limited to just four magical abilities and some basic action game functions, there’s still some room for combat variety and customization with the skill tree. Each of the four magic abilities can be upgraded two times, and a tree of general abilities can upgraded using ‘Floofs’, the game’s charmingly named currency. A majority of skill tree upgrades seem to be basic stat enhancements or outright additional abilities, such as a ground pound, for example. And from the developer showcase, it’s sounding like one playthrough won’t give you enough Floofs to purchase every upgrade, leaving players to strategize which ones they want to fit their playstyle.

System Requirements

As mentioned on our South of Midnight PC spec breakdown, the minimal settings on PC require either an i3-8100 or a Ryzen 3 1300X, and a GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 580, and 12 GB of RAM. Recommended settings are a bit more demanding, but nothing too crazy: i5-7600K or a Ryzen 5 1600X, along with either a GeForce RTX 2060, a Radeon RX 6600, or an Arc A580, and 16 GB of RAM. The game doesn’t take a huge amount of storage either, with 55GB necessary to install. On Xbox Series X/S, the game is targeting 60 FPS, though previews have noted some frame stuttering and drops here or there despite turning the stop motion effect off. We’ll have to wait and see if South of Midnight can deliver on its promises when it releases April 8^th on PC and Xbox Series X/S.