HIGH It’s basically Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with guns.

LOW I couldn’t keep myself from playing it. 

WTF I wish we were getting a new Pro Skater.  

It’s rare to pick up a game and immediately think “oh hell yeah!” after only a few minutes of play. That moment where things click is magical, and I’m happy to report that Rollerdrome is that kind of game. 

Developed by Roll7 (creators of the OlliOlli series), Rollerdrome is lethal on-wheels action set in the year 2030. Corporations have taken over life as we know it and the world’s most famous sport is the eponymous Rollerdrome, a deadly game in which combatants must kill opponents in an arena while riding on rollerskates.

Taking clear inspiration from films like Norman Jewison’s Rollerball, the story deals with the rampant dystopia and obvious outcry a sport like this has caused. Rather than watching cutscenes full of exposition, players are instead fed bits of story between gameplay segments. Here, they can explore rooms that clue them in on what’s going on in the world. It’s an interesting and refreshing way to give context while also providing a good break from the combat — although I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting a break from the gameplay here. 

Played from a third-person perspective, players are introduced to the mechanics of Rollerdrome via a quick tutorial. Here they learn the basics of moving around arenas on rollerskates and how to pull off tricks. The easiest point of comparison here is the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, which this work borrows heavily from. Not only is the button layout similar, even the mission structure feels exactly like classic Hawk — not that that it’s a bad thing.

THPS is a classic series that understood how important it was to make the simple act of moving within a game world enjoyable. Rollerdrome uses that template to deliver movement mechanics that are just as satisfying. Pulling off tricks, chaining combos, and just moving around each area is intuitive, which is something that other skating (or adjacent) titles struggle to emulate correctly. 

Now, skating is only half of the gameplay here, as each level acts as a small arena. Players have to kill every enemy present while also completing a certain number of challenges before moving on to the next area, such as collecting tokens scattered across the map, or killing a certain enemy while performing a trick. Structured like a tournament, players have to work their way up all the way to the finals, and every few levels introduce new weapon types and new enemies. 

Gunplay is as satisfying as the movement, and I was surprised by how well the camera was able to keep up with the action. The default, dual-wielding pistols pack a surprising punch in short bursts, while the unlockable grenade launcher is great for taking out giant mechs. This is paired well with the skating aspect, as performing tricks is the only way to refill ammo (which is shared among every gun), and killing enemies fills health. 

Since combat and movement coexist perfectly, Rollerdrome provides a high-octane arcade experience that feels fresh and over-the-top, complemented by a strong sense of style thanks to a gorgeous cel-shaded look that seems inspired by Moebius or ripped from comics like Heavy Metal. The bright colors and retrofuturistic aesthetic give it a unique texture, and the bold titles that appear on the screen before each arena are such a nice touch. The musical score by Electric Dragon also kicks major ass. Seriously, it’s so good that I’m listening to it while writing this review. 

Another cool feature included are the assists. Aside from accessibility options like button mapping and subtitle adjustment, there are a few options that let players tweak things like difficulty to their liking. There’s even an option to disable the challenge requirements, allowing players to breeze through the game without having to worry about completing a specific milestone before moving on. The only penalty for using these is that players won’t appear on the leaderboards, though I think it’s a fair trade-off. There are some levels that got tough, and while I didn’t mind the challenge, I did like having the option to make it easier on myself if I chose. 

I love Rollerdrome. That “hell yeah” factor hit me early, especially once I saw how it utilized the foundation built by one of my favorite franchises, yet still managed to create its own experience. Its satisfying gunplay and sense of momentum make it one of the finest sports games available, while its art style makes it stand out from the crowd. Roll7’s winning streak of incredible skating games continues.

Disclosures: This game is published by Private Divison and developed by Roll7. It is available on PS4/5 and PC. This copy was obtained via publisher for review and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 15 hours were spent playing and the game was completed. 

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Violence, Blood, and Strong Language. The game is extremely violent, as characters get shot at with different types of guns and blood is constantly being drawn. Definitely not for kids. 

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles and visual cues are present. Both subtle size and color can be adjusted, as well as the option for certain important sounds to be accentuated. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls can be remapped.

HIGH Finding out how the combat was supposed to work.

LOW The melee combat.

WTF Dolmen is a crystal, by the way.

I wonder how tired every developer is of guys like me sitting down and starting a review of their work by going “Ah yes, I can put a nice little moment here about the first time I played Dark Souls” but the comparisons are inevitable. So, before I get into trouble with my editor, let me tell you about how the new game Dolmen, by Massive Work Studio, made me think back to my first time playing Dark…

Sorry about that.

Dolmen is a third-person action game set on a mysterious planet. The task is to retrieve crystals while fighting off grotesque creatures. The player is required to master melee and ranged attacks, blocking and parries. There are only a limited number of ways to heal, with one source of health also being the source of power for their gun. In typical Souls fashion, health vials can be replenished at specific points in the world, but doing that will respawn all enemies that have been killed.

There’s an elaborate crafting system that allows for creating new weapons and armor. The twist is that each item can be fused with gear collected from dead enemies that imbue it with different stats.

There’s a multiplayer element too, one that I was unable to experiment with due to low player count.

All in all, Dolmen stays pretty close to the formula established within the soulslike genre. The melee, especially, is very much the usual standard attack, hard attack, circling enemies and looking for openings.

Unfortunately, this combat feels undercooked. I struggled to figure out where my attack openings were, and this was not helped by the awkward camera lock-on and the fact that a large number of the enemies will be blocked from sight by the main character, who takes up enough space on screen to obscure them.

The combat is made worse by unpredictability — one enemy will go down in two hits, while an identical foe will shrug off five hits and then drain half my health with a single swipe. If there is a proper pattern to the enemies I fought (beside a glowing symbol above their heads signaling an incoming unblockable attack) then I never figured it out.

The good news is that Dolmen is a sci-fi soulslike, so although there is a whole raft of bladed weapons, there is also an arsenal of very competent guns. Once I had upgraded from a flimsy pistol to a machinegun/shotgun hybrid, combat vastly improved. While ranged options are normally a clumsy afterthought in soulslikes, shooting became Dolmen‘s main event.

After that, I then figured out how to inflict elemental damage, and how to capitalize on it. It was at that point that Dolmen became thoroughly entertaining. Boss fights became games of cat and mouse where I tried to keep my distance and plug them full of shots.

Unfortunately, despite the ranged combat perking the experience up, Dolmen‘s general design feels like it is too indebted to soulslikes and ultimately suffers for it. The melee is not consistent, enemy AI is weak, the exploration is not deep, and the level design is just passable. What Dolmen does well is sci-fi flavored third-person shooting with a good level of challenge that isn’t a cakewalk.

I hope the developers get the chance to take a look at what worked in Dolmen and try again… as it stands, it’s too tempting to make comparisons to games like Dark Souls, and those comparisons aren’t favorable.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Massive Work Studio and published by Prime Matter. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Gore and Violence. The official ESRB description reads: This is an action role-playing game in which players search an alien world for samples of a unique crystal. From a third-person perspective, players search various facilities while looking for clues and battling hostile aliens in frenetic combat. Players use swords, axes, and pistols to kill insect-like enemies. Combat is highlighted by gunfire, impact sounds, and blood-splatter effects. Cutscenes occasionally depict characters stabbed through the chest, and some environments depict mutilated/disemboweled alien corpses. Alien limbs can also be seen on the floors of some environments.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. The game is fully accessible without sound, as I found that no audio cues were needed for successful play.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

HIGH When the highest location on the map is also a climactic story beat.

LOW Scarlet Rot, this game’s version of the “toxic” ailment.

WTF That thing under Stormveil Castle.

When the embargo for Elden Ring dropped a few weeks ago, the number-one thing we were all echoing was how unfathomably massive the game is. I correctly estimated at the time that with 40-50 hours clocked, I was only about a third of the way through it. However, From Software are masters of hiding their light under a bushel, and despite our warnings people are still being caught off guard by the sheer enormity of what this team has produced.

What’s more interesting, though, is that every time Elden Ring presents an Anor Londo-esque reveal – a moment when FromSoft raises the curtain just as players think they’re getting a handle on the game’s scale – it’s welcomed as a good thing. In an entertainment industry that’s grown increasingly focused on prolonged engagement where the average new triple-A release looks more like a list of chores than a relaxing way to unwind after a tough workday, it’s refreshing to see something that actually earns its status as the only videogame we’re expected to play for months at a time. It’s a game so good that it makes other games difficult to go back to.

I wrote up some impressions of Elden Ring back when the embargo dropped. I’ve since tripled my playtime and finished the game, and I’m pleased to report that nothing I’ve seen has dampened my initial enthusiasm. My opinion hasn’t changed – it’s a masterpiece. What has changed is that Elden Ring has since become a massive mainstream success. This may seem to be coming from out of nowhere to anyone who’s been scared off by the studio’s ‘hardcore’ label and dismissed their past work as niche. But to those who have been following FromSoft’s work since they launched Dark Souls, this particular entry feels like the natural conclusion to a years-long journey on the studio’s part.

While the term “soulslike” has been heavily misused in recent years – usually to simply describe any action-RPG that happens to be tough – it’s undeniable that director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team have essentially created an entire subgenre with its own cadence and vocabulary (souls, bonfires, flasks, etc.). We’re increasingly seeing other developers attempt to emulate the formula, and while there have been scattered successes, playing Elden Ring is like sipping my favorite craft beer again after years of nothing but domestic swill.

In fact, part of the reason that Elden Ring works so well is that FromSoft has the basics down for a while now. Most crucially, the combat is more-or-less perfect. The rapidly-recharging stamina meter has always been a particular stroke of genius in the way that it lends an element of decision-making to every offensive or defensive maneuver. Victory hinges not just on reflexes, but on the player’s understanding of the fundamental rules by which everything in this world abides. Downing a tough adversary under such conditions makes me feel both powerful and smart.

The most immediate upside of moving the FromSoft formula to a truly open world, then, is having a seemingly endless number of ways to engage with that satisfying combat loop. While there are some repeated fixtures throughout the Lands Between – the catacombs with their environmental puzzles, or the mines that yield upgrade materials – everything is individually authored and houses unique rewards. I can boot up Elden Ring, microdose on some of that Souls gameplay I know and love, and always end my session feeling productive.

Although Breath of the Wild isn’t a one-to-one comparison – players cannot literally go straight from the tutorial to the final boss, for example – the spirit of Nintendo’s benchmark is in full force here since the overwhelming majority of Elden Ring is optional. A player’s specific route to the endgame rests entirely on how much of the world they want to see and how easy they want to make future battles via doing more prep work. The game is almost like a FromSoft buffet table, allowing us to pick and choose the components of our perfect meal.

Bolstering that flexibility is a returning emphasis on character builds. While there’s an undeniable joy in games like Bloodborne and Sekiro forcing us to master new tricks, bringing shields and magic back into the fold goes a long way in making this hundred-plus-hour behemoth palatable. Those who like to study boss patterns and minimize the number of hits they take can do so, but tanking is viable again, as is slinging projectiles from across the room. Whatever type of action-RPG we want Elden Ring to be, it can be.

The wealth of options expands beyond how we build our protagonist. The ability to simply bypass entire groups of enemies has never been easier, thanks to both the openness of the world and the presence of a surprisingly reliable stealth system. Is it the silly variety of stealth that mainly involves crouching in bushes? Sure, but it’s amazing how much that doesn’t matter when developers stop striving for cinematic realism and treat these spaces as the abstractions that they are.

Elden Ring becomes more linear in its final hours, as objectives decrease in number and all paths begin funneling toward a conclusion. That’s where I finally started hitting walls, but by that point I’d collected so many tools and learned so much about the systems that I needed only switch up my strategy. I could experiment with new weapons or even respec if necessary. I could summon a Burger King cosplayer to fire lasers at it, or unleash an AI-controlled familiar as a distraction to buy some breathing room. Or, as ever, I could just find something else to do and come back once I had a bit more confidence.

The free-flowing structure of Elden Ring is made possible by a story that is, as always, happy to stay in the periphery. The lore is extensive and fascinating, with new details constantly being pieced together by the community, including further work on at least one genuinely unsolved mystery. However, it’s only there for people who care enough to go looking for it. Everyone else will be focused on the real story, which is the same story that all FromSoft games have – the epic tale of a shriveled-up little weirdo who slowly and steadily works up the power to topple gods, for no other reason than they wanted to.

The overwhelming mainstream success of Elden Ring has resurrected old questions about the approachability and user friendliness of FromSoft’s work that diehards have long stopped caring about. All I can say is that it never occurred to me not to jump down the deep, perilous hole in which the game hides its tutorial, nor does it strike me as bad design that Elden Ring is full of obscure secrets that no one player could ever hope to find on their own. These games simply have their own language. The darkly humorous trolls are part of that language, as is the steep learning curve and the communal experience of sharing notes.

That may sound like an excuse, but it’s hard to argue with the results – FromSoft has stuck rigidly to this formula, and their fanbase has exponentially grown. More and more people are learning the language.

Elden Ring has already become too big for rival developers to ignore, and I worry that many of them will seek to emulate its surface-level qualities while ignoring the real lesson here – that some of us want games made by artists, not algorithms. Chasing trends may lead to short-term gains, but it’s no substitute for a developer spending more than a decade fine-tuning a creative vision so singular that it defies our usual metrics for what can be considered “good” or “bad” design. Whether Elden Ring is perfect is beside the point. What matters is that it’s the ultimate expression of a blueprint first laid out in Dark Souls. It’s made my favorite game of all time feel like a practice run.

Disclosures: This game is developed by From Software and published by Bandai Namco. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 160 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. The entirety of play was spent with multiplayer features enabled.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. There are a couple of suggestive character designs throughout and a bit of mild profanity, but the violence is where Elden Ring earns its rating. This is arguably FromSoft’s most gruesome game to date, with severed parts and mutilated corpses littering the landscape. While it’s fitting with the tone of the world and tastefully portrayed, it’s not for children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Audio cues are frequently used to notify players of either points of interest or approaching enemies, and the game doesn’t offer any sort of visual representation of these cues. The lack of visual cues renders an already-obtuse game even more difficult, and forces players to be even more alert. As such, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

HIGH Great premise, great controls, great graphics.

LOW The difficulty is brutal and inflexible.

WTF Why in the world is there no save function?!?

As a reviewer, there are few things more disappointing than a game that’s almost amazing, and out of everything I’ve played this year, nothing’s had a closer brush with greatness than Housemarque’s Returnal.

My initial impressions of this PS5 exclusive were fantastic. It’s a third-person actioner that blends many different elements such as running and gunning, bullet-hell shoot-‘em-up patterns, sci-fi storytelling, roguelike structure and the most immediately obvious thing — eye-melting visuals. However, it wasn’t long before issues started cropping up, most of them related to absolutely baffling design choices. However, let’s start with the good.

The premise of Returnal is strong. A space explorer named Selene crash-lands on a mysterious planet while tracking down a strange signal. She’s forced to explore the area on foot, and it’s not long before the alien life she encounters will get the best of her. The twist is that when she dies, she wakes up at the crash site as if nothing happened. Her only choice is to get back up and go further than she did the last time, hoping to eventually find answers. It’s intriguing stuff, and I was in.

Controlling Selene is marvelous. Her movement has the proper weight and momentum, she’s got a speedy dash to get out of trouble, and using her pistol (or any of the weapons she’ll eventually unlock, like a homing rifle or an acid spitter) is effortless after tweaking a few settings. I found that turning off the haptics, assigning the adaptive trigger’s alt-fire to its own button, enlarging the crosshairs and boosting the aim assist made the hyperfast gunplay something that I didn’t have to think about doing – my hands just did it. The physical sensation of playing Returnal is excellent.

Unfortunately, after this impressive opening I started noticing things about Returnal that slowly chipped away at the goodwill it had instantly racked up.

The gameplay loop of Returnal is that Selene always starts a run at at her ship (remember, this is a roguelike) and she’ll scour the first biome for weapons and items to increase her chances of survival. Once she’s beaten the first boss, a shortcut will open to the second biome. When she’s beaten the second boss she’ll gain a shortcut to the third, and so on. Since bosses never need to be defeated again this is a clever system, but the balance is off.

Pickups in Returnal come in two flavors – normal items that can be used immediately and harmful, “corrupted” items which require scarce currency to be cleansed and used safely. Without this currency, the player risks negative status conditions called “malfunctions” such as reduced melee damage or increased cooldowns. Players can fix these malfunctions in a few different ways, but the effect is that many items can’t be used without making the already-challenging game that much harder.

The developers lean into this difficulty with another type of pickup called a “parasite”. These creatures can offer a small boost but they all come with a negative side. It’s clever, but like corrupted items, the consequences incurred mean that most of them aren’t worth using except for a rare one that revives the player after a death.

Good roguelikes know that items are key – finding the right pickup and using it effectively can mean the difference between a failed run and a successful one, but the vast majority in Returnal offer only minimal gains and extra problems to deal with. Players who have trouble coming to grips with the first three worlds will find that there isn’t much help available in this regard.

However, those that manage to tough it out and get to biomes 4, 5 and 6 will find that the balance swings wildly in the opposite direction. Harm-free pickups become notably more common, the currency needed to cleanse items is laying around in surprising amounts, and Selene gets a huge boost in attack power. It’s such a wild shift, it almost feels like a different game — it took me two weeks to get through the first three biomes, and I got through the last three in a single day.

Apart from this reverse difficulty curve, I found many of Returnal’s other decisions to be equally strange.

The first roguelikes in the genre were brutal affairs, resetting a player’s progress back to zero if they died. As such, this style of game didn’t gain popularity until developers started softening the sadism with things like unlockables to work towards, and persistent gains kept from run to run. Thanks to these shifts, roguelikes are bigger than they’ve ever been, but Returnal turns its nose up at these proven advancements and delivers something closer to the original, harsher style.

Between runs players will keep lore they find, the currency needed to cleanse items, new abilities (generally related to shortcuts), and guns (randomly found) will earn extra attributes with repeated use, but that’s about it. This meager amount of persistence emphasizes a player’s raw skill at running, gunning and dodging over all else, and there’s nothing to support those who might need it – no permanently-increased health, no ability to start with a preferred gun, or anything of the kind.   

Players can boost their chances of success by consistently combing the first biome for useful items before moving on, but this makes every run longer and Returnal has no save function — a ridiculous omission that makes absolutely no sense.

Nearly every roguelike has a save function, and this basic amenity has no effect on gameplay other than quality-of-life convenience. There were many times when I needed to step away from my PS5 in the middle of play, and my choice was to either abandon the run or put the console in sleep mode. The developers specifically call sleep mode out in a tooltip, but if the game hiccups or the PS5 updates (both of which happened to me) then the run is lost. This absence of a save is absurd and I don’t see the point, other than perhaps to separate the ‘serious’ players from the casuals who let real-life concerns interfere with their gaming.

Whether the story pays off is up to personal interpretation (for me, it did not) but putting that aside, Returnal’s general lack of persistence, enthusiasm for negative items, and heavy focus on twitch skill without options for self-regulating difficulty results in an experience that caters to a very, very specific type of player and coldly shrugs off the rest. With some rebalancing and a few tweaks, it’s not hard to imagine Returnal as one of the year’s best thanks to its fantastic controls, intuitive physics and beautiful graphics. But as it stands? My guess is that most people will abandon Selene to her inhospitable time loop long before the credits roll.   

Disclosures: This game is developed by Housemarque and published by PlayStation Studios.It is currently available on PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via retail purchase and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Mild Language and Violence. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the role of an astronaut reliving the same day after crash landing on an alien planet. As players traverse the alien landscape, they battle native creatures and mechanized sentries. Players use futuristic pistols, machine guns, and rocket launchers against enemies. Combat is frenetic, with realistic gunfire, explosions, and cries of pain. Some alien creatures emit splashes of blood when shot and killed. In one sequence, blood stains appear on an altar that players interact with. The word “bastard” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played several hours of the game on mute and found that the audio cues given by enemies were helpful. They’re not necessary since the game does offer a comprehensive minimap that gives all the info a player needs, but you’ll have to get in the habit of watching the minimap almost as often as the screen itself in order to avoid being ambushed. Once I started keeping a much closer eye on the info there, I found that the game became fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls and a wealth of other accessibility options.

Welcome to This Is Not A Review. In these articles we discuss general impressions, ideas and thoughts on any given game, but as the title implies, it’s not a review. Instead, it’s an exercise in offering a quick recommendation (or dismissal) after spending enough time to grasp the ideas and gameplay of a thing without necessarily playing it from A to Z.

The subject of this installment: Katana Kata available on PS4, PS5, XBX/S, XBO, Switch and PC. Developed and published by Stas Shostak, Stanislav Shostak and Samustai Limited.

Recently I was on social media complaining about the sinking feeling of receiving a review code only to find that the game is terrible. Someone responded, asking if that feeling came from the guilt of writing negatively about something I received for free. It’s a good question to reflect on.

Reviewing games is not a glamorous pursuit, and I see it as a symbiotic relationship of sorts. I give up my free time because I enjoy writing about games and hope to discover a gem, whilst developers give free codes in the hope for some free (and positive) advertising. When the game is good, everybody wins.

Unfortunately, while I recognize that every developer works hard on their game, not every game is good, and playing bad games is not a wise use of my limited free time. That said, I work hard to give every game a fair crack, and this is how I remain guilt-free in the cases where my evaluation of a title is that it’s poor.

Katana Kata was interesting because it made me reflect on these things. Sadly, that was about all it has going for it.

I was originally attracted to Katana Kata due to its self-given label of ‘soulslike’. I’m a big Souls fan, and was excited to play another interpretation of the formula. As its name suggests, Katana Kata has a Japanese setting with the player combating enemies while wielding a sword in third-person realtime action. Players are able to level up at Buddha statues and have a stamina bar to manage which governs dodging and attacking. If the player dies, they have to start from the beginning in roguelike fashion.

Despite obviously matching some soulslike genre conventions, I get the impression that the developers don’t understand the genre they’re trying to be a part of. 

Katana Kata does share the punishing difficulty common to these titles, but it lacks the satisfying combat system that is central to their enjoyment. It also lacks weight and precision — there is a lack of feedback from striking an enemy, some noticeable input lag, and a targeting system that is simply not fit for purpose that makes players choose between a small- and a large-radius circle for enemy targeting. Within that radius, the closest enemy will be targeted. However, this system was erratic at best as it didn’t always pick the closest enemy. Even when it did, it was still too easy to miss them.

There isn’t much margin for error in Katana Kata, and most deaths felt unfair. Soulslikes live or die on that feeling of fairness — that a loss is the player’s fault, not the game’s — and without a satisfying or a fair combat system, Katana Kata is punishing without the feeling of skill-based wins to offset the frustration.

Elsewhere, there was little in Katana Kata to keep me coming back.

It has a simple (but ugly) visual style awash with drab colors and a poor environmental fading effect whenever the camera gets caught behind a wall. I honestly thought this was a bug until I realized it happened every time the environment blocked the view of the character. The story is minimal to a fault, and also includes notable spelling mistakes. There was nothing here to be drawn into.

I wanted to quit early but I kept coming back to Katana Kata out of a sense of integrity as a reviewer and my base tendency to want to give developers a fair crack. Unfortunately, Katana Kata was the game that broke me, and I was both unable and unwilling to finish it.

HIGH Hitting an enemy sniper halfway across the map.

LOW Up-close combat not involving sniper rifles.

WTF The x-ray testicle shot. Ouch.

Sniper Elite 4 originally came out in 2017, and like many other previously-released efforts, it’s getting a Switch port. I can’t offer any comparison to the original release or the previous entries in the series, but overall this (wait for it…) hits the mark.

Sniper Elite 4 takes place in Italy during World War II. Players control a U.S. sniper making his way across enormous levels, with such locales as rural villages, coastal urban centers, and military bases. Gameplay is mostly third person, with a scope-centric, first-person view when needing to snipe a distant target.

Most missions are rather linear but the vastness of each stage, plus the addition of multiple sidequests, helps to make things feel more open-ended. Goals usually revolve around killing a certain person, but also things like sabotaging military equipment and intel reconnaissance. Add in dozens of stage-specific collectibles like journal entries and letters home, and players can spend hours in just a single map.

A good chunk of that time will be spent as a sniper, which is a good thing as sniping is the highlight of combat here. Precise controls mean successfully lining up a shot that hits a moving target halfway across the map is quite satisfying. I would have been perfectly content spending the entire game in sniper mode – it’s that good.

Players earn experience for well-placed shots, like the eye, heart, or even the testicles! Many of these hits are shown up close and personal with x-ray vision that appears as the bullet zooms towards the unfortunate recipient – bones shattering and organs being punctured are displayed in gory slow motion. This occasionally feels like overkill, but squeamish players can turn this option off if they so choose.

Unfortunately, combat when not sniping isn’t as gratifying. The third-person aiming is clunky and I found myself preferring to hide, rather than taking on soldiers face-to-face. Much of the campaign can be completed solely by sniping enemies from afar, but there are a few parts where close combat becomes a necessity. I was always pleased when these sections were over quickly.

My only other complaint about Sniper Elite 4 is that it’s not a complete package. Three years after initial release, the Switch version arrives with numerous DLC options that require additional purchase – none of which appear to be new content. I’m not completely against DLC, but it feels like players are being nickel-and-dimed here.

Fortunately, the core experience is enjoyable enough to look past these minor shortcomings, and more often than not, Sniper Elite 4 hits the bullseye.

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by Rebellion. It is currently available on PS4, XBO, Switch, PC, and Stadia. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. No time was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Language. A well-placed shot often results in an x-ray vision of splattered brains, ruptured intestines, punctured lungs, and shattered bones. Even with the option to turn off, the game can be overly violent. This game is definitely not for little kids.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are on by default, but text size cannot be changed. The game appears to be fully captioned, as I noticed numerous dialogue additions (laughs, scoffs, etc.) allowing players to know what game characters are doing besides talking. In-game audio cues, like planes and tanks moving nearby, are shown on screen with a flashing icon. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. However, players can invert the Y axis and there are optional motion controls for aiming weapons.

HIGH A colorful, hilarious roguelike parody of startup culture.

LOW  The framerate can be rough, especially in later dungeons.

WTF I really need a job.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself increasingly anxious over the thought of finding a job in games media. Those anxieties have not gone away, as I tirelessly toil with the fear of not “making it” in an industry that doesn’t seem to want me. As silly as it sounds, I used to think that no one understood what the hell I was going through. Thankfully Going Under, an isometric third-person roguelike from Aggro Crab, managed to perfectly capture these feelings in their work.

Players control Jackie Fiasco, a bright-eyed and eager unpaid intern starting her very first day at Fizzle Beverages. This parody of modern start-ups that makes and distributes strange soda flavors. The Fizzle offices act as a hub that players navigate before going into one of three main dungeons where Jackie will be killing hordes of monsters. Each dungeon is themed around different apps. For example, Joblin is a parody of something like Indeed or LinkedIn run by over-caffeinated goblins.

Gameplay is a combination of beat-’em-up and a roguelike dungeon crawler. On a basic level, will players traverse randomly generated levels and try to get to the boss at the end, picking up different weapons and skills along the way. If they die, they’re kicked out and have to try the run again.

When in a dungeon, Jackie can carry three items and switch between them at will. Almost any item — from staplers to pencils, laptops to swords — can be picked up and used as a weapon, and most of the environments are destructible, so I learned how to make the most of anything I was given. I enjoyed seeing how well I could improvise in any situation, whether it was using a t-shirt cannon to take down brutish enemies or throwing office furniture at creatures flying around me.

Jackie also has skills that are unlocked in the hub and found in the dungeons, and like most good roguelikes, their effects stack as she collects more of them on a run. Effects range from having a slight chance of healing after defeating an enemy, or enlarging weapons to a ridiculous size. Once Jackie uses a skill enough, she’s able to equip one in the hub, prior to a run.

Aside from these skills, Jackie can also choose a “mentor”. Mentors are members of the Fizzle office, and they’ll lend Jackie certain effects after she’s completed sidequests for them. For example, Kara is a tech wizard who develops apps. Once I did some tasks for her (electrocute 5 enemies, kill 5 enemies with laptops, etc.) she enhanced Jackie’s abilities and an app store started showing up in dungeons.

In terms of difficulty, Going Under is hard but never truly frustrating. As someone who’s new to roguelikes, the idea of being forced to start a game over used to intimidate me. In Going Under, there have been plenty of times where I lost half an hour’s worth of progress and it was a little annoying, but I also used these as learning moments — sure, I got my ass handed to me, but I improved on every subsequent run.

While the gameplay is good, what makes Going Under special is the quality of the writing and characters. The story of an unpaid intern, hopeful in their chances to make it is both funny and something that hits close to home. Seeing Jackie deal with bullshit from higher-ups for the sake of possibly securing a job she might never get is all too relatable, and I can’t believe more games haven’t attempted to tackle these issues.

jackie’s coworkers are also delightful, with my favorite being Tappi, an accountant for Fizzle. Hearing her complain about her ex-girlfriend or give (awful) advice on saving money had me laughing out loud. The writing is exceptional and never gets too dark, but I appreciated how real it all felt.

Now, I know this is a game review but I need to get real for a second. Like I mentioned earlier, my anxieties surrounding finding work have been through the roof during the past few months. However, as I spent time at this fictional startup slaying monsters as Jackie, I saw myself working through hordes of my own fears. I saw someone else who was trying to succeed as they drowned in a sea of “just put out some more effort” and “someday you’ll make it” and I didn’t feel so alone.

Going Under  is one of the most important games I’ve played in 2020 and one I’ll keep playing for months on end, thanks to the meaningful writing and enjoyable dungeon crawling. For those looking for an accessible starting point in roguelikes, or those who just need some delightful takedowns of late-stage capitalism, this is it.

Disclosures: This game is published by Team17 and developed by AggroCrab.  It is available on PS4, PC, Switch and XBO. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS4. Approximately 18 hours were spent in singleplayer and the game was not completed (still playing, dying and playing again). There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Sexual Themes and Violence. The game is very stylized, using simplistic and bright colors that make the violence safe for younger children. I will say that the themes of unpaid labor, unfulfilled love and how awful capitalism is will go through most kids’ heads. I feel like older teens and adults will get more out of this game.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is subtitled and told through text bubbles. text cannot be resized. There are no audio cues necessary for play. The game is fully accessible. (See examples above.)

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable. The y-axis cannot be changed. There are also plenty of assist options to make the game easier for newcomers.

HIGH The abstract stone level. Simply stunning.

LOW Being near death and failing to land a health-restoring parry.

WTF The underdeveloped concept and lack of amenities.

Ever since the blockbuster success of FromSoft’s Souls games, plenty of developers have been wanting a piece of their pie, but few have managed it. Most often, designers take the wrong lessons away from the work – they miss that the secret is not in following From’s footsteps so closely that the material is duplicated, but in taking the feelings and concepts generated by the work and then going in a new direction.

Mortal Shell is the debut from Cold Symmetry, a group of four industry vets starting out on their own. After completing the adventure I’d say that their work is only half-successful, but they’re clearly swinging for the fences.

Like most soulslikes, Mortal Shell offers third-person melee combat that employs a stamina bar to prevent spamming attacks or dodging. Also identical to others in the genre, it features a cryptic, impenetrable story heavy on text-based lore and mysterious characters. And of course, if a player dies they must run back to their corpse to claim the currency there, or else it’s lost forever. In many ways Shell is so similar to an actual Souls game that it could easily be mistaken for one. So where does Cold Symmetry deviate from the formula?

Let’s start with the premise – past the standard soulslike trappings, the player is an undead called the Foundling who’s so frail that any enemy can kill them in one hit. To survive, it must inhabit the dead bodies of fallen warriors it finds.

This is a fascinating concept in the context of an action game, and it was essentially all I knew about Mortal Shell for most of its pre-release period. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the biggest areas where Mortal Shell disappoints.

Rather than forcing the player to adopt new tactics by limiting them to certain bodies in different areas, or even designing scenarios where one body might be more advantageous than another, there are only four inhabitable corpses (total) and they function as builds – one is high HP/low stamina, one is high stamina/low HP, one is balanced, and the fourth… well, I honestly can’t recall what the last one does because not only are these options largely interchangeable, Cold Symmetry goes out of their way to discourage the player from experimenting with them.    

When the player is at Mortal Shell’s hub, they’re free to jump between any of the bodies they’ve found, along with any of the weapons offered – again, four. However, when away from the hub, players must use consumable items to change bodies or weapons. Knowing that a player has a limited number of times to swap equipment puts a huge damper on trying new things.

Another wet blanket on experimentation? Each of the bodies has its own skill tree, and none of the abilities carry over to the others. Earning enough resources to unlock skills (extra damage vs single opponents, no stamina depletion while running, etc.) takes a while, so there’s little incentive to switch to a body that’s got no perks. Of course, the player can grind out resources with a body they’ve upgraded and use those materials on one of the others, but by that point they’ve likely grown accustomed to the form they’ve been using and the only reason to change would be for the novelty of it, or for pure completionism.  

With these choices in place, the body-swapping ‘hook’ of Mortal Shell is nothing more than a standard character build/inventory system like any number of other games, but made prohibitively difficult to use thanks to draconian limitations.

There are other aspects of Mortal Shell that feel underdone at best, hostile towards players at worst. For example, Cold Symmetry has a serious aversion to save points – while the geography of each world is quite small, the slow pace of play means that it can take a fair amount of time for players to crawl their way forward. There were plenty of areas where a few more save points would have been welcome.

The starting hub area is a confusing mess. It’s a samey, green swamp where every part looks identical to the rest, and it’s tough to navigate. I had to consult friends and a YouTube video to locate new areas because I kept doubling back and missing new places to explore.

Other issues include a heavy reliance on group encounters with no way to kite enemies away from the crowd and no way for a player to handle large numbers until they’ve found special weapon upgrades. Also, it’s easy to miss the main hub (I did) and the item needed for the crucial parrying skill. Such a key thing should be given to the player right off the bat.  

Speaking of parrying, Mortal Shell only offers a small number of healing items, and none of them are very effective. Instead, the devs want players to use parrying to stun an enemy before draining life from them. It’s high risk/high reward which is fine in and of itself, but there are no options for players who struggle with the parry timing (me!) and there are no ways to mitigate it – no gear to increase the parry window, nor any way to reduce damage when a parry is missed and the Foundling eats a sword to the face. There is a distinct air of ‘git gud’ in this aspect of Mortal Shell and I didn’t care for it.  

So this is quite a laundry list of things that Mortal Shell doesn’t do well. Why did I bother to finish it, and ultimately, enjoy it? Mostly, it comes down to the parts that do pop.

While the parrying was problematic, the Foundling also has the ability to “harden”. While this is a great setup for a joke, it’s also a fantastic mechanic where the player can turn themselves to stone for a moment and tank through absolutely any incoming hit, small or large. It runs on a cooldown so it can’t be abused, but being able to shrug off one attack as part of a valid combat strategy feels different than standard blocking and also functions differently since it doesn’t use the stamina bar – it’s a power that exists outside of the normal souls repertoire, and it’s excellent.

Also appealing is that Mortal Shell focuses almost entirely on melee encounters with weapons that feel weighty and cumbersome, and animations that successfully communicate the inertia and heft that a real skirmish would have. Swinging a giant sword feels like it takes ages compared to other games, but it hits like a truck when the blade connects, and seeing a foe get blasted across a room by the kineticism of the blow communicates a quality that few action titles capture. Planning strikes requires extra thought, approaches must be deliberate, and mistakes are punished. But when the timing comes together and a sword hits exactly where and when it was meant to? It’s satisfyingly sublime.   

Also, while the swampy hub area was awful, Mortal Shell made up for it with other areas that look amazing. Of particular note was an area made out of massive cyclopean stones that begins in a wide-open space before transitioning into a chokingly narrow tower, and eventually into an abstract dreamscape suspended in the clouds. It was honestly breathtaking, and one of the best levels I’ve seen in any game this year.   

While there were many aspects of Mortal Shell that I didn’t care for, the bits that worked for me really worked. The final product is far from perfect and I’m not sure that I’d even recommend it to anyone except the hardest of soulslike hardcores, but beneath the underdeveloped ideas and questionable design choices is a pool of talent bound for bigger and better things — Cold Symmetry’s work shined brightest when it veered away from standard Souls, and I’m interested to see them take it further.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cold Symmetry and published by Playstack. It is currently available on PS4, XBO and PC.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Teen and contains Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Violence. Although it’s full of dark and sinister imagery, the actual violence isn’t terribly graphic as these things go, consisting of some occasional spurts of blood but no actual dismemberments or gore that I saw. Moonshine is a consumable item.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are available for all dialogue. They cannot be resized or altered. There’s one boss in the game who can briefly turn invisible, during which directional audio cues are used to help detect where he is. Aside from that, noises emitted by enemies frequently alerted the player to nearby danger — these cues are matched by a flash on the player’s parry weapon, but it’s easy to miss. Although playable without sound, players with hearing difficulty will be at a clear disadvantage.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped. The Y-axis can be inverted.

Heads up – this guide was written for PS4, but Warframe has JUST launched on Switch. A few things might be slightly different (like the controls) but 99% of this info still applies to the game regardless of what platform you’re on.  Have no fear, jump in and have fun, Tenno! 

So, you probably heard about Warframe a while ago or saw mention of it at some point, but you don’t know much about it. Honestly, you forgot it existed.

From what you recall, it’s some kind of weird free-to-play thing and you never bothered to give it a second look, but the other day one of your friends who got sick of Destiny 2 said it was great, and he’s been on it every night since. You’ve also seen it starting to pop up on Twitter out of nowhere, and a few of the game news sites you hit were saying something about a ‘big update’.

And now it’s on the Switch and people are… excited? About this old F2P game?

Since it’s free, you decide to download it and see what all the buzz is about, but once all the updates were applied and the game got underway, you had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. This is what people are talking about?? It doesn’t even make sense!

… Does this sound like you? Has this been your experience?

If so, you’re not alone. Warframe has been around for a while, but it’s been a quiet, stealthy success. After receiving some attention when it was a PS4 launch title, it disappeared off of the game-o-sphere’s radar, but it didn’t vanish. No, it’s been building an audience over the last four years, and now it’s bigger and better than ever.

It’s also stepping back into the spotlight on Nintendo’s handheld starting right now.

Now that it’s on every system, it’s a great time to jump into Warframe, but it can be a really, really overwhelming experience for newcomers. Without a helping hand to guide them through it, they might bail long before seeing what makes it great. As a recent convert who went through this experience myself, it’s my goal for this piece to be that helping hand.

Welcome to Warframe 101. It’s not a wiki and it won’t answer every possible question, but hopefully it will help clear up the fog that chokes the opening hours of play and will help get new players off to a good start!

What is Warframe?

Warframe is a real-time third-person free-to-play online action game that can be played alone, although it strongly encourages playing with others. Most of the systems in the game support cooperation by disabling friendly fire, making it effortless to group up with others, and sharing resources between all players.

Wait, this is free-to-play AND it’s online with others? I’ve had bad experiences online, I don’t need toxicity in my life, and I don’t want to be nickel-and-dimed.

Same! But, Warframe is highly cooperative – if the team doesn’t win, nobody wins. No loot is kept if a mission fails, so it’s in everybody’s interest to support each other. Also, voice and text chat can be disabled, and it’s easy to play without direct communication. This is the only online game I’ve ever played where I kept myself open to grouping with randos and never regretted it. As for the free-to-play aspect, just ignore it. Most of what the game sells are cosmetic items that look cool but have no effect, and there’s no paywall or timer limiting play.

Okay fine, I’ll try it. I’m in the tutorial, but I don’t know anything about this game and they want me to pick a character. Which one do I pick?

The current version of Warframe will ask you to pick between three characters:

-Excalibur (melee-focused)

-Mag (magnetic powers, area damage)

-Volt (electrical powers, speed)

Don’t stress out too much, you really can’t go wrong. Every character in the game has a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a melee weapon and four unique powers. Any one of the starting three can carry you through the beginning, so the only thing to consider is which one seems the coolest. Also, no matter which one you pick, you can choose a new character later on. You can unlock plenty of new characters through gameplay and you’re not locked into your starting choice forever, so pick one that looks like a winner and roll with it.

I’m on my ship and I don’t know what all this stuff is. Some of it works, some doesn’t, and one of these things takes me to the online store? What the hell?

Don’t worry about trying to figure it all out at once. Ignore the store, and the tutorial will activate parts of your ship as they become relevant. If something seems like it’s out of order, just ignore it. The most important thing in the beginning is the Navigation console at the front of the ship. Click on this and it will show you a map of the galaxy, which is where you choose the missions that you’ll be playing.

I’m looking at this map of the planets and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or how to advance the story. Wait, does this game even have a story?

It does have a story, and there are some great reveals that come later. Like, much later. It will unfold over time and it seems absent at first, but it’s there. So, putting narrative aside for now, when you’re looking at the galaxy map, hit R1 if you’re on PS4 and you’ll open a menu with a lot of stuff on it. The first tab lists the story-based missions. These will advance the campaign. Hit R1 again, and you’ll see Alert missions. These pop up and offer cash or rewards. Ignore the rest of the tabs for now. The primary goal at the beginning is to unlock planets. Follow the lines on the map, complete challenges, and keep moving forward. The story will reveal itself over time.

I’m running around and shooting stuff, but so what? What makes Warframe special?

You’ve got a lot of options, and the characters you play are sci-fi ninja badasses. We’re talking fast AF and more nimble than anything.

Push L2 to aim and R2 to shoot your main weapon.

Tap TRIANGLE to switch to your sidearm.

Tap CIRCLE to do a quick melee attack.

Hold TRIANGLE to put your guns away and use your melee weapon as your primary.

With melee as your primary, hold R2 to block bullets or deflect them back at enemies.

With melee as your primary, hold L2 to channel your energy and boost your attack power.

Tap X to jump, and tap X again to double-jump.

When running, hold L1 to slide. You can attack while sliding.

When sliding, push X to jump huge distances in any direction.

When in the air, hold L2 to glide. You can shoot while gliding.

Wallrun or wallclimb by holding X on a vertical surface.

Cling to walls by holding R2 on a vertical surface.

Anything else?

Yes, don’t forget that each character has their own set of four special abilities. Some are offensive, some are defensive, and some are just plain weird. These abilities define each character! To use them in battle, hold R1 and then press one of the four face buttons. You’ll only have access to one when you’re starting out, but the other three will unlock as you level up.

Wow, that’s a lot of moves. And these special moves are pretty great, but how do I refill my special ability meter once it’s empty?

Collect spiky blue orbs that are dropped by enemies.

Ok, I know how to move and attack and use my special abilities, but what’s the point of this? I don’t understand this mission or what my goal is.

Each mission type has a specific name, like Capture, Interception, Hijack, and so on. The Lotus (that cyborg lady with no eyes) will pop up and give you instructions. If your goal isn’t clear, you can usually run to the yellow ‘target’ mark on your mini-map and she’ll tell you what to do when you get there. Unfortunately, Warframe has the bad habit of giving important mission information and lore in the middle of a mission – it’s easy to miss. Do your best to catch the info but if you’re still lost, you can go to the Codex (it’s the machine to the left of Navigation on the bridge of your ship) and look up what to do in each mission type before your next attempt.

Should I group up with others immediately?

You might want to leave the game on Solo for now, and you can adjust your multiplayer preferences by hitting TRIANGLE when on your ship and choosing between the options. I suggest playing alone at first because people who know how to Warframe can finish missions in the blink of an eye, and you won’t learn much by being left in the dust and wondering what happened. Also, playing alone makes the game feel different – by being the only person moving forward, you’ll be able to focus on the instructions the Lotus is giving, you can manage how many enemies you’re taking on at a time, and you can retreat to a quiet area you’ve already cleared out when necessary. The only exception to this are the Interception missions where you need to control four points. Those are really, really hard to do alone, so put your game back on Public and get help.

Alright, I did a few missions and won! I saw some EXP meters fill up during the mission results screen, but I don’t seem stronger or tougher and I don’t know how to level up. What’s going on?

Leveling up in Warframe works a little differently than standard games. A character and all of its equipped gear (guns, melee weapons, etc.) can each be leveled up to a maximum of level 30. However, doing this doesn’t improve its stats or its power. The only thing that changes when gaining a level is that it gains more Mod capacity. Also, here’s an important fact – once an item or character hits level 30, you won’t get any more EXP from it. You should switch it out for something new and keep earning more EXP!

What is Mod capacity and why should I care?

Equipping Mods can make a gun deal more damage, hold more bullets, or gain an elemental effect, among other things. Equipping a character with Mods can grant more health, more shields, quicker recovery time, and a variety of different characteristics. So, the higher level something is, the more Mods it can have and the tougher and better it can become.

Where do you get Mods?

Enemies will occasionally drop large, glowing objects when killed. Pick one up, and you’ll see a small picture pop up on-screen that looks a bit like a card with an image and some text on it. These are Mods, and you can equip them on your character when you’re standing in the Arsenal kiosk on the bottom floor of your ship, or you can manage them directly via the Mod machine near the Arsenal kiosk.

Oh my god, I went to the Mod machine and my head exploded from information overload. I can’t handle sci-fi spreadsheets, I’m out.

Hang on! I know it seems overwhelming, but when you’re just starting out don’t worry about diving into this. It’s actually super simple once you figure it out, but in the meantime the game can auto-equip Mods for you. Go to your Arsenal kiosk and click TRIANGLE to select Upgrade on your character. Then, on the next screen, click R3 for Actions. Then, click Auto-Install and you’re set.

That worked. Seems like I’m stronger already! But if I want to tweak these Mods on my character, do you have any good suggestions? There are so many to choose from!

No problem. For players starting out with a new character, I suggest:

– Vitality (more health)

– Redirection (more shield capacity)

– Fast Deflection (your shield recharges faster)

– Steel Fiber (more armor)

– Serration (increases rifle damage)

– Point Blank (increases shotgun damage)

– Pressure Point (increases melee damage)

You might not be able to equip all of these at first, and you might not even have them until you find some in battle, but they’re all super common. Once you level up a bit you’ll be able to fit all of these on your character, and more.

If I change characters at some point, do I have to take all of the Mods off the old one and then put them on the new one? That seems like a real hassle. Too much micromanagement.

No, you don’t need to constantly re-do your Mods if you change characters.  Once you have a character kitted out the way you want, the game keeps track of how they were set up, even if you swap back and forth between them. It’s a real timesaver!

How many copies of each Mod do I need? I seem to have racked up eighteen duplicates of the same one…

Some Mods are way more common than others and you’ll quickly earn a bunch of doubles. You only ever need one of each. When you’re checking out your Mods in the Mod machine, you can tab over to the Duplicates page with R1 and either sell all of your extras for cash, or you can turn them into resources you need to power up the Mods you’re keeping.

Now, about guns… None of the enemies in missions have dropped any new weapons, how do I get new gear?

You make it! Everything you’ll wear or use in Warframe can be made by you. New characters, gun, swords, and all the rest. If you go to the Arsenal kiosk, you’ll see categories for your character’s gear. If you hit X for Equip, you’ll be taken to a screen that lists weapons and assorted hardware. Don’t freak out and assume you need to pay real money! Check out each weapon, and on some there will be a cost for a Blueprint listed. Blueprints can be bought with in-game money, and used to make new gear. For folks who don’t want to work towards a new item, the game frequently offers 25%, 50% and 75% off coupons as daily rewards, so if you bide your time you can get a good item on the cheap.

So I bought a blueprint with in-game cash, but what do I do with it?

Go to the Foundry machine on the lower floor of your ship. It’s basically a 3D printer. You can tab through the various categories with R1 and L1. Find the thing you just got the Blueprint for and the machine will tell you how much it costs to make and what resources you need to craft it. Then, just keep playing until you have the requirements and start building it.

Wait a minute. I just got the 3D printer to make me a new gun and it’s saying it’ll be ready in 12 hours? What the f…

Yep, that’s correct. Making stuff takes time, so pop that sniper rifle in the oven and come back later. You can pay to rush the build, but why? Take the time to play more missions, earn more in-game cash, experiment with your character, and more. There’s really no reason at all to pay for a quick build. Just be patient!

All right, but in the meantime I still have the weapons the tutorial gave me. How do I know if they’re any good? I’m not sure what these stats mean. 

Like the Mod system, Warframe goes with a fairly unconventional design since there’s no STR, DMG or PWR stat. Instead, choose any weapon and look at its values. Near the bottom you’ll see Impact, Puncture and Slash. Damage in the game is basically broken up into these categories, so the numbers listed here tell you how strong something is. A sword with 24 Slash is a lot weaker than a machete with 72 Slash, for example.

So according to the stats that I now understand, this gun is weaksauce. Can I make it stronger with Mods just like my character? And if so, any suggestions?

Yep, the Mod system works on all of a player’s stuff in Warframe. It’s tough to recommend specific Mods in this case because each weapon type has its own Mods. Some go on rifles, some go on shotguns, some go on swords, and so on. You’ll generally want to equip anything that gives your weapon more damage, a faster firing rate, or more ammo. Each Mod has a brief description of its effects, so check ‘em out and use what seems right.

So I put some Mods on, but an extra 5% damage on my gun is hardly even a help. There’s got to be more to this, right?

Right. From the Upgrade screen in the Arsenal kiosk, push SQUARE for Mods. On this screen, you will see options to tweak the Mods your character currently has equipped. For the purposes of this Warframe 101 piece I’m going to refrain from getting into the details but it’s pretty self-explanatory once you’ve got some playtime under your belt. Don’t worry about doing this when you’re getting started but just remember that this is where you can upgrade your Mods – turn that extra 5% damage into an extra 120%!

Now, I think that just about covers the basics to get you started, but here’s a little more info that you might want to know after you’ve gotten a few hours under your belt.

What’s this tab for Ayatan Treasures in the Mod machine?

You’ll sometimes come across Ayatan Statues or Stars during missions. If you find some, they will be listed here, but you can safely ignore it for now.

How do I get a new character?

Almost all of the planets on your galaxy map have a boss – look for a mission with a little ‘crown’ icon. These bosses will drop the parts you need to make a bunch of new characters. You’ll usually need three pieces to build one (Systems, Neuroptics, Chassis) and once you have those, buy the Blueprint from your Arsenal kiosk with in-game cash. Pop all the parts in your 3D printer and bake!

My new character is sweet, but I was doing a mission and I saw that someone had a combat dog! At least, it was pretty close to being a dog. Mostly. I like dogs, how do I get one?

A story mission will unlock and introduce the dogs to you, and at the end of it you’ll be set up to get your own. There are also cats, and, uh, “other” things that can fight with you.

What’s all this about Prime gear? Those characters look different, and so do the guns. And they seem… Stronger?

Don’t worry about that for now. Prime items are basically prestige items that take a few extra steps to unlock. You can absolutely ignore all of it until you’re ready to start digging deeper into the game.

One of the missions I tried to start was locked and said I needed an Archwing. What gives?

As you progress the campaign, you’ll eventually unlock a jetpack that you can use to fly through space called an Archwing. Just ignore these locked missions for now and come back when you’ve got one. Also, JETPACK!!!

Should I check out the new expansion area that I heard about? Plains of such-and-such? Would that be a good place for beginners?

Give it a pass for now. The Plains of Eidolon are on Earth, and it’s an open-world zone with lots to do. However, beginners’ time is better spent focusing on the core content first. Think of it as getting a grasp on the fundamentals by going through the missions on each planet, unlocking even more planets, and progressing the story a bit.

Maroo’s Bazaar on Mars is reallllllly weird. What’s going on there?

It’s where you can trade in Ayatan items to get resources for powering up your Mods. Also, you can go there to trade with other players to get components you need for new characters or gear. You can also buy items from players here, but they usually ask for real money. It’s a neat and fun resource, but ignore it until you know what you’re doing.

The game uses a ton of jargon. Can you explain to me what some of this gobbledygook is?

You bet. I’ll list some of the common (and confusing) terms you’re likely to run into at the beginning of the game.

Affinity – Basically, it’s EXP.

Cephalon – An AI.

Dojo – A clan you can start or join to play with others and pool resources.

Ordis – The AI that runs your ship.

Prime – A descriptor for top-class characters and gear.

Relay – A space station. You can find them orbiting various planets.

Relic – An item that contains a Prime part. Complete a special mission to unlock it.

Syndana – A decorative cape or similar object worn on a character’s back because it looks cool.

Syndicates – Factions you can join to take on extra missions and get special rewards.

Tenno – A lore-based term for Warframes.

Warframe – The supercool space ninja character you’re using.

Ok, thanks for clearing those up. Can you give me a quick rundown on the currencies?

Sure thing.

Credits – The basic, in-game cash used to buy Blueprints and to pay for making items.

Ducats – Used to buy special time-sensitive items. Earned by selling Prime gear on a Relay.

Endo – Used to power up Mods. Earned in missions or by selling unwanted Mods.

Platinum – Can be used to buy new gear or speed up building gear. Bought with real money.

All right, I think I have a pretty good handle on the game now, thanks for the help! But now that I’ve been playing for a while there’s really only one big question left — when does the paywall come crashing down? Since Warframe is free-to-play, will I need to put in money to keep advancing?

Warframe is one of the rare games where it’s free-to-play done right. The majority of things to spend actual real-world money on are strictly cosmetic – swishy capes, decorative pieces of armor that don’t add any DEF, fancy skins or new color schemes, and all sorts of other doodads that have no effect on gameplay — they just look really cool. As far as things that do have an effect on gameplay like new characters, new weapons, and so on, all of it can be unlocked just by playing the game. Some things are rarer than others, but play long enough and you’ll get anything you need. One special thing to note? Some items are only available for free if you join an online clan called a Dojo. It doesn’t cost anything, but it needs players to work together to chip in resources earned in the game. Still free, but these high-end pieces require a little more work and some coordination to unlock. Of course, people who want to skip collecting resources or who don’t have that much time to play can pay for just about anything in Warframe – the option is there, but it’s definitely not necessary.

Any last words of wisdom?

This primer is just meant as a starting point, and most of it came from the questions I had when I started myself. I left out vast amounts of information, and you’ll likely have a ton of questions I haven’t answered here. In such case, don’t be afraid to wiki! But even better? Find a friend who’s playing and have them walk you through or lend a hand if you need help. It’s the best way to get up to speed!

Got it. Peace out, bro! Gonna go kill some evil space dudes now!

::fistbump::

***

Huge props and endless devotion to my wife @GinaGallaway for being my constant partner in spacecrime and the tenno who’s always got my back.

Thanks to everyone who chipped in and helped me create this primer, including @DavidDu84153893, @Nickorilla, @InaneDetails, @FeralKnights, @WidescreenJohn, @DrewBrew82, @BroodWars64, @Threndsa, @Mithaldu and @Jooji88

And of course, extra-special thanks to @CoffeeJezus and @PaddyStardust for getting me to give the game another shot. Also, to @Michael_Prehn, @Sentionaut_Plus, and @The_Patches for helping get me over my own Warframe learning curve!

Also, special apologies to @Coffeejezus whose advice for newcomers is…

Go in knowing nothing. Discover by instinct. If you need to look something up, by all means do, but go in with a group of friends who are equally as ravenous to explore the unknown and you will have The Best Time.

HIGH Constantly being reminded of Hotline Miami, and those memories of happier times.

LOW Fighting the abysmal controls at every moment of play.

WTF Too much to list.

Nostalgia only works if one is nostalgic for the same thing the developer is. For the folks at Italo games, they hope they’ll find an audience that appreciates 70’s era Italian crime cinema, which was extremely influential for modern filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. While I like their movies, I have zero knowledge or nostalgia for the films they are inspired by, leaving me in a confused position when playing Milanoir. I’m certainly down for a good gang warfare story and I had a whole lot of feelings after playing this game, but very few of them could be considered ‘good’.

Given the material, it probably won’t be surprising to hear that Milanoir is not a game for kids. There are buckets of blood, tons of deaths, swearing, and other instances of potentially-offensive content, but the thing about ‘controversial’ subject matter in any media is that when someone tackles the subject, they better be damn good at it.

A good recent example of this is Cuphead — a loving homage to a golden era of cartoons that, upon further review, had high amounts of horribly racist, xenophobic, and abhorrent content that no six-year-old should be consuming. The developers (smartly) avoided all of that and focused on the cool art style and music of the period, and while they could be criticized for letting the source material off the hook, they made something that honors the original artistry while making a viable product in 2018.

Milanoir does none of that.

While I’m no expert on the films that this work draws from, it is not okay in 2018 to name a character ‘Africana’ because she likes black girls. Was there ever a scene in one of these movies where a bunch of prostitutes ran at the hero screaming while wielding knives? I’m sure it happened, but I don’t want to play through it. Did we really have to stab the Chinese pimp with chopsticks while he gorges on white rice?

These scenes could easily be put into, say, the next Grand Theft Auto, but the people making those games wouldn’t go for such cheap gotchas without attempting to make some sort of point. If someone wants to tell me I don’t ‘get’ their sense of humor or calls me a snowflake, that’s fine. However, when themes like this are used so poorly and without any sort of consideration for whom they might be offending, than that’s when art ceases to be art and is reduced to being gross content.

By the way, those are three examples from the first level, and it only gets worse from there. There’s a scene in a prison (take a guess what happens) that’s only for shock value or sick laughs, and after seeing that, I officially put Milanoir permanently in the deplorable basket, never to return.

While the story and tone issues are apparent, they’d be easier to swallow if the act of playing Milanoir was more enjoyable than removing a hangnail. It’s an isometric 2D shooter that plays like a slowed-down version of Hotline Miami, but without any of the breakneck speed, precise controls, or visceral impact. Guns have zero oomph, both in audio and in practice, and the lock-on system makes shooting even worse.

Essentially, Milanoir only locks on once a shot has landed on an enemy, which consistently made me waste numerous shots trying to get a bead on one. In later levels, there’s simply too much action for the floaty cursor and slow character movement to keep up with, leading to extreme frustration. There is a cover mechanic that is surprisingly well-implemented, but I never felt the cover provided, well, cover, as I was still getting bombarded with gunfire that slowly whittled away at my slowly regenerating health until I was dead.

The biggest offender are the boss battles — they feature enemies with astounding levels of health, which leads these encounters to be trial-and-error affairs more focused on the error, as failure to do the same gameplay loop ten or twelve times without dying is astoundingly annoying.

The shame of Milanoir is that there are redeeming qualities, like a spot-on soundtrack that nails the feel they’re going for, and while I’m not exactly impressed with pixel art anymore, there’s some really excellent detail in the environments. I see what the developers were going for, I just wish the experience was better, especially since Italy doesn’t seem to be a hotbed of game creation. It would be cool if the country had a success story in the industry, but Milanoir is not it.

While I found the subject matter and the characters to be off-putting and offensive, the real killer here is the sloppy, cumbersome gameplay that, even if one thinks the poor attempts at humor come off as amusing, will render the drive to play it obsolete. The five hours I spent playing Milanoir was a miserable, groan inducing slog that I don’t wish upon anybody. It may be an homage to films of the past, but what it is for me was truly, truly awful. Rating: 2 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Italo Games and published by Good Shepard. The game is available on PC, PS4, and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4 with a HDR certified 4KTV. Approximately 5 hours were spent in the campaign, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood, Violence, Strong Language, Nudity, and Suggestive Themes. Given the subject matter, imagery, and the lack of tact on the developers when it comes to how they handle controversial subjects, under no circumstances would I advise a concerned parent to let their child play Milanoir. And don’t worry, they won’t want to.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game’s story is told entirely through text and is very readable, but there are no sizing or color options for it. There are also no noticeable audio cues

Remappable Controls: This game’s controls are not remappable and there is no control diagram. The character is controlled with the left stick while aiming is done with the right stick. R2 fires the guns, and X is used for taking cover.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.