Every Official 'Kotaku Review' Of 2024

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Every Official 'Kotaku Review' Of 2024

by Ειδήσεις

Writing a review is a tall order. Especially at a place like Kotaku, where we have a whole headline format meant to declare our “definitive” word on a game, movie, or show. It can come off as if we’re putting an authoritative stamp of approval or disapproval on whatever we’re critiquing, which can be pretty daunting. But, despite that gravitas, each review is really just one critic’s overarching impression of something after having spent meaningful time with it, and they can take on different forms depending on whose time that is.

We published 53 Kotaku reviews in 2024, premised on 53 unique opinions and perspectives, and now that the year has come to an end, we’ve put them all in one spot for you.

The Last of Us Part II came out at the worst possible time. In June 2020, the pandemic was steadily becoming more terrifying, New York was under a curfew, and almost everything was closed or boarded up. The streets were all but empty despite the summer sunshine. I didn’t realize how good a job I’d done of forgetting that time, but as I made my way through Seattle again, it all came roaring back. That gnawing feeling of desperately wanting to catch a plane home, balanced against what then seemed like a pretty significant chance of Catching It and killing my parents. Rueing and lamenting every cigarette and joint I’d ever smoked. Drinking fancy wine alone—when would there ever be anything to celebrate again?—and staring out the window at the dying city below. — Jen Glennon

I hit a roadblock about three-fourths of the way through Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. There was a frustrating platforming section that required I dash and jump through hazardous obstacles: thorny spinning wheels, spiked pits and walls, falling platforms, and invisible auras that shot out magenta arrows. I can’t tell you how many times I died here. But in a moment of exasperation, I flipped through the settings menu to find an accessibility feature that let me skip some of the more punishing platforming areas, and let me tell you, it was so damn helpful. — Levi Winslow

I’m soaking up the sun as I stroll along the beautiful beaches of Hawaii when suddenly a group of suspicious-looking characters take notice. As they approach, threatening me, I’m transported from the reality of Hawaii around me to some kind of alternate dimension where I’m expected to pull off some thrilling heroics. My enemies no longer look like your average tough guys on the street—their eyes glow red, they’re able to spew toxic fumes at me. But their new monstrous appearance is no match for my sweet selection of skills, my trusty baseball bat, and a crew of comrades who are ready to dive in with their own eccentric combat skills. But before they throw down, they’ll have to wait their turn, of course. — Claire Jackson

Persona 3 was always the best one. Persona 3 Reload, the from-the-ground-up remake of the 2006 supernatural, social sim-driven RPG, just eliminates any doubt. A complete visual overhaul, new mechanics, and new music all reinforce what made the original a stellar, poignant, and radical game for its time. However, Reload is more than just a prettier version of an old game; It’s the best-realized version of an iconic story that spotlights some of the magic that Atlus hasn’t quite lived up to since. — Kenneth Shepard

“That seems familiar.” It’s a phrase I said to myself a dozen times or more in the first two hours of Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy Relink. When a giant monster attacked my boat during the prologue. When I realized my sidekick was a tiny, flying mascot with a high-pitched voice and room for approximately one emotion at any given time. When a seemingly benign cult revealed its malignant intentions. And especially when the hero called on the power of friendship to save the magical girl that first saved his life in his rural hometown after an evil empire invaded. — Josh Broadwell

After years of trailers, delays, controversy, and leaks, Rocksteady’s big, live-service, open-world, villain-themed, DC third-person looter shooter—Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League—is finally out (for real). The narrative that has formed around this game over the last few years has grown as large and epic as a superhero movie. Some folks want Suicide Squad to crash and burn. Others want it to succeed, hoping Rocksteady has built something amazing, a game worth their money and time. Sadly, as with many modern superhero films, the ending to this saga is anticlimactic and won’t appease either folks hungry for blood or hopeful for fun. Instead, what we have here is something decidedly middle-of-the-road. — Zack Zwiezen

How you define “remastered” means will certainly color your experience of playing Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft—the full, extraordinarily silly title of this collection. It’s an ambiguous word, and one that in gaming can mean anything from new packaging to remade from scratch. In the case of Ms. Croft and her first three adventures, the term should be defined as, “updated graphics, new controls,” and absolutely nothing else. And it doesn’t do either of those very well. — John Walker

A random player and I are surrounded by giant, alien bugs who want to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are trying to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of health items, and unsure of what to do next, it seems we are screwed. But this is Helldivers 2—we have powerful tools at our disposal, like a massive airstrike or auto-turret. My squadmate calls in his airstrike before I can, runs into the fray, drops it at his feet, and begins tossing grenades. “Get outta here! I’m taking ‘em with me!” he yells. I dive over an angry insect the size of a dog and skitter out of the crater, explosions and gunfire popping off behind me. Then there is one big boom. I turn around. He did it. He saved the day, killed two dozen bugs, and destroyed their vile nest. — Zack Zwiezen

Having fled a polluted city of unchecked corporate, militaristic oppression, I’m hit with the light of a bright blue, endless sky. Rich green grass extends endlessly before me; mountains tower in the distance. The world around me is a wellspring of life. Yet it’s haunted by a creeping shadow of harm. I see it in the people whose towns I visit, their lives marred by a history of a violence. I see it in the mindless, wandering robed remnants of a grotesque military campaign to scientifically produce a perfect soldier. This is a world of beauty and loss. And I fear it’s in its last days. — Claire Jackson

There are too many Dutch. Six warships are actively engaged with me, lobbing mortars, zipping torpedos, and peppering my vessel with all manner of cannon shot. Along the horizon I count 13 more ships, all hostile. I’ve already plundered a cache of documents from this innocuous seaside lumber camp, so my duty to the rebel cause has been fulfilled. But I got greedy. I wanted more. I’m a pirate dammit! Now it’s time to pay the price. My defenses are shot, the crew is exhausted, my ship is somehow burning down around me while also filling up with water. I called for help from other players, but no one came. A final, thunderous salvo sends me to a watery grave. — Mo Mozuch

There is a satisfaction that comes from being told you are too weak to face a challenge and then quickly handing your enemy their defeat on a silver platter regardless. Being the David to your enemy’s Goliath and leveraging not just physical but strategic power to overcome the odds is a thrill that never gets old. That’s why no matter how many times I finish a battle in Unicorn Overlord, I remain eager to find my next combatant and teach them not to underestimate me. — Willa Rowe

I can’t believe Dragon’s Dogma 2 exists. — Cole Kronman

Rise of the Ronin feels like a game that’s already one or two generations old. Developer Team Ninja has called it their “most ambitious” title to date, but that ambition is overshadowed by lackluster graphics, outdated design concepts, and performance issues that put the game more in line with the PS4 or even the PS3 libraries. Despite these shortcomings, Rise of the Ronin is still a commendable release for Team Ninja. It takes everything the studio does best and melds it with ideas from other games to create something that’s intriguing, albeit unoriginal. — Levi Winslow

Playing Open Roads constantly drags up old memories from my mind. A road trip with my mother along the Pacific Coast Highway, packing boxes and trash bags while clearing out my grandfather’s house after his death–it’s a game that feels primed to make you reminisce. Like the disparate memories the game makes me remember, however, the scenes it tells its story through feel disconnected and stitched together, a loose association of tableaux rather than a vivid, compelling narrative. — Willa Rowe

As I play through the sci-fi adventure that is Harold Halibut, I am often reminded of walking through an aquarium. It’s partially because the game’s gorgeous environments are submerged in, but it’s also because I feel a childlike frustration at the events unfolding in front of me. Like a kid tapping the glass in hopes of making the colorful fish break out of their mundane swimming pattern, I want to tap the glass of Harold Halibut in hopes that the characters within its world will finally do something of interest. But the game never fully breaks out of its mundanity. — Willa Rowe

“In loving memory of those who touched our lives. This game is a tribute to their enduring spirit,” reads the opening screen of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the new Metroidvania from EA Originals and Surgent Studios. My lip trembles. “Don’t start crying, you’ve barely started,” I chastise myself. — Alyssa Mercante

In many ways, Stellar Blade is awesome. The action is awesome, the soundtrack is awesome, the world is awesome. However, when you peel back the curtain just a bit and peer behind all the flash and style, you find that Shift Up’s character action game can also be quite tedious. It’s a game of dichotomies, one that’s beautiful yet flat, enjoyable yet frustrating, vast yet shallow. There’s a lot to love about Stellar Blade, but equally, there’s a lot to dislike, and after 30ish hours of slashing and dashing as Eve, I came away from the game wishing it were more refined in some regards and more challenging in others. — Levi Winslow

I think most of us are constantly trying our hardest to fill the Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice-shaped holes in our lives. They’re simply some of the greatest games ever, and no one can really be blamed for seeking more of them. Time and time again, studios have tried their hands at soulslikes, and time and time again, they have fallen short of the alchemical mix that makes FromSoft’s genre-defining efforts such an enthralling rush. Of late though, a crop of fresh and inventive games have appeared that seem to be challenging the status quo, and while Another Crab’s Treasure is ultimately a little on the safe side, it’s a brilliant attempt to breathe some life into a genre that often fails to stand on its own two legs. — Moises Taveras

Playing retro-inspired games is like returning to a beloved theme park as an adult. Instinctively knowing where to go first, remembering what it was like to be there as a child—it plays to a very specific kind of nostalgia. Retro-inspired games often include familiar mechanics, recognizable art styles, and tropes of a beloved genre or specific title, offering an almost identical experience to the nostalgia of a Disneyland visit. That’s the idea behind Crow Country, the PS1-inspired survival horror title from SFB Games that is aptly set inside of a theme park. — Willa Rowe

I can’t tell you about Animal Well’s best moments. That’s because doing so would spoil the magic of discovering them for yourself, and because I still haven’t uncovered all of them yet either. I went into Animal Well hoping for a fun, evocative trip through a beautiful, lo-fi underground labyrinth. What I got was so much more. It’ll blow your mind. You’ll obsess over it. And then it’ll blow your mind all over again. — Ethan Gach

You will never be able to stop thinking about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. The latest game from developer Simogo, the team behind 2019’s Sayonara Wild Hearts and 2013’s buzzy, puzzly adventure game Device 6, will burn itself into your mind. That remains true even when you aren’t actively playing it, and continues long after you’ve solved its final puzzle. — Willa Rowe

I’m on a path to find reprieve from the suffering around me. But as I turn the next corner of clouding darkness, a bright red light paralyzes me as the forceful and commanding voice of my father tells me that not only am I doomed to fail in my struggles, but that I am actively causing the very harm I am seeking to alleviate. Be it through failure or a curse that he expects me to believe I carry with me that will spread to others, he calls me his daughter with a possessiveness that rattles me. It inspires fear and rage. Yet I continue to move forward, to find a way through, to find spaces where his corruption hasn’t spread. And I do this not only for myself, but for others to whom I have promised aid. But in my quest to kill godlike forces that are causing misery, I am ever aware of a creeping darkness that threatens to consume me and others. What must I do to heal this world? Is that what I’m here to do? Can I do this? As I hear my father’s voice again, reminding me of his abuse, I realize I have no choice. I must survive and bring an end to the suffering of all those I encounter. — Claire Jackson

As I peer out from a ventilation shaft to catch sight of the unspeakable horror in search of me, I prepare to toss a wrench I lifted from the ground in the desperate hope of distracting it. I step out of the shaft, throw it, and then immediately dart for the door. But I get the angle wrong and catch the lip of a beam just overhead. The monster turns and roars out that it has seen me with the contorted voice of someone I once knew. I have no means of dealing with this horrific creature and so I race to the nearest door. I make it out and seal the door behind me. I take a moment to catch my breath as I look around at the collapsing wreckage of this oil rig, this place of labor. The endless gray of the horizon looms forever into the distance; the ocean waves perpetually lap against the oil rig’s legs. Monstrous howls and screams emanate from the walls. Am I doomed to die here? Will I return home? Was it a mistake to come here? — Claire Jackson

I play the original 2001 Super Monkey Ball almost every day, and if you’ll allow me one brag, I’m pretty good at it. Sometimes I play to jumpstart my brain in the morning, sometimes to unwind during my lunch break, sometimes to fill some time in the evening. Usually, I choose the fifty-stage-long Expert difficulty, and see how far I can make it without using a continue. There’s rarely an explicit goal here—I’m just hanging out in one of the best games ever made. — Cole Kronman

Taking a break from unraveling the mysteries of the stars in my repeated trips across the Unity into parallel replications of the universe, I encounter a new group that promises credits in exchange for dangerous and hopefully exciting quests hunting down the galaxy’s most wanted. I take up the challenge and…I lose the thread. Rigid video game structures and absurd pricing models snap me out of it. I’m not in space. I’m playing a much-hyped yet poorly executed RPG that I just pumped seven bucks into for 20 minutes of immersion-breaking gameplay. I do love a big open world to explore. And I do love science fiction. But is this the future of this game? I certainly hope not. — Claire Jackson

Sometimes when I sit down to play MultiVersus, it kinda feels like I’m a child reaching into a cookie jar. Part of me knows, if I want to be a good boy, I shouldn’t be doing it. But cookies taste good as hell. That rush of mind-melting bliss when biting into a gooey, sugary treat easily overtakes the ethical considerations of disobeying my parents. Similarly, diving into MultiVersus’ colorful world of competitive chaos and cartoon charm is as novel and gratifying as ever. But all that joy is propped up by a dumpster fire full of free-to-play, service gaming tropes, some so poorly thought out or predatory that it’s shocking they made it out the gate at all. Having to qualify a good time with a bold asterisk of caveats is the MultiVersus experience. — Lucas White

The world has been plunged into darkness. The dead persist violently among the living. What remains of humanity following a cataclysm I helped trigger is now at each other’s throats. I carry my share of the blame, but it’s clear the gods must pay for what they’ve done to us. There’s a path to seeking justice, and it must be cut through legions of monsters, human and undead alike. I’m up to the task, equipped with strength, resolve, and help from an unlikely source. With each foe I strike down, I learn more about myself. I learn that I’m not powerless. States of failure and struggle aren’t permanent. Nothing will stand in my way. — Claire Jackson

Do you believe in magic? What do you think it looks and feels like? In Dungeons of Hinterberg, magic is uncomfortably real. In the places that it has sprung up, monsters inspired by local folklore have come to life, and otherworldly dungeons have appeared. Quiet mountain towns have become booming centers of industry, and every otherwise “normal” place reminds people of the magic they’re missing in their own lives. — Moises Taveras

Get a maiden to the shrine. Strike down all of the demons standing in her way. Purge defilement from a mountain and restore the land to its natural harmony and splendor. That’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess in a nutshell, and one of my favorite things about it is how little it strays from that humble, straightforward concept. In a sea of bloated sequels and creatively bankrupt knockoffs, Path of the Goddess is a fun, focused mashup of strategic planning and action gameplay that doesn’t get lost in the details. — Ethan Gach

An hour after leaving a screening of the new Borderlands movie, directed by Eli Roth (Hostel) and starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ariana Greenblatt, I’m staring at a blinking cursor in a blank Google Doc, urging inspiration to strike. — Alyssa Mercante

Good or bad taste is difficult to define, but easy to point out, and Alien: Romulus, from Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez (who famously delivered a fantastic Evil Dead flick over a decade ago), offers a bizarre mix of both. It’s clear that Álvarez wants to hearken back to the analog, tactile sci-fi vibes of the original Alien flicks, with plenty of satisfyingly twisty knobs and low-fi computer screens that will delight any old-school fan. And with a great, young cast that includes Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny and The Last of Us’ Isabela Merced, Romulus feels like it’s courting both the original Alien lovers and a younger, fresher group of potential fans. And it’s fast, too—the two-hour run-time flies by without any filler, and a perfectly paced build-up results in a third act that will have your heart pumping almost the entire time. — Alyssa Mercante

There’s a moment in Black Myth: Wukong that would be the perfect visual metaphor for the game’s hopeful, proud ascension as China’s big breakthrough into the Western AAA pantheon. Unfortunately, that moment is restricted, and we can’t talk about that. — Justin Clark

Madden needs a year off. — Jason Fanelli

As a big Star Wars fan and video game lover, I’ve long dreamed of a game just like Star Wars Outlaws: a massive open-world action game set in the Star Wars universe that would let me rub shoulders with Jabba the Hutt while freely exploring every inch of a planet like Tatooine. It’s wild that it took this long to finally get a true open-world Star Wars game. And while it has some frustrating flaws, the experience Outlaws offers is worth it. — Zack Zwiezen

There’s no outfit in gaming with a stronger history of telling tales about picking fights with God than Square Enix. Literally or metaphorically, from Final Fantasy Legend/SaGa and Star Ocean to Xenogears and even some Final Fantasies, a foundational narrative in which our heroes push back against a cruel, manipulative creator is like a spinal cord holding up many a juggernaut of Japanese RPG canon. But another enduring Square Enix series, quietly running just as long as the others, takes the opposite approach, embracing the positive side of religion and mythology. These are games about unity, the healing powers of nature, and the virtuous pride brought from trusting in a benevolent higher power. No, not Dragon Quest; yes, you visit churches to save in those games, but then you go and hang out in pubs and gamble like an exhausted salaryman. No, I’m talking about Mana. — Lucas White

Dustborn is kind of like the people-pleasing friend you know means well but runs ragged trying to accommodate so many people’s needs. Red Thread Games’ adventure/rhythm/beat-em-up hybrid has its strengths, and when it’s functioning as a socially conscious, modern version of a Telltale Games adventure, the lives of its merry band of superpowered misfits are genuinely engrossing. When it tries to be a below-average beat-em-up that trades relationship-building for some of the flimsiest action combat I’ve experienced this side of the Wii era, however, I’m less enthralled. — Kenneth Shepard

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a sequel I never expected. The original Space Marine, developed by Relic and released in 2011, was a fun, action-focused shooter, with just enough story and good ideas to keep you around until the credits rolled. A sequel seemed like a long shot, even if I and other players wanted one. Now, in 2024, we have Space Marine 2, which includes a similar, linear campaign as found in the first game, as well as a more robust multiplayer mode that might be the real reason to play this belated sequel. — Zack Zwiezen

I cried at the end of Astro Bot. I recognize this isn’t indicative of much beyond my sentimentality, but I thought it was a crucial tidbit to underscore something else, something important about PlayStation’s excellent new platformer. It really is, more than anything else, a celebration of the consoles and games that shaped me, and likely many of you, too. It is so completely possessed with joy and teeming with the life of everything that PlayStation has meant to people over the years. It is also a brilliant platformer in its own right, stuffed full of ideas that make it seem like Asobi Team is just getting started in this utterly endearing franchise. For all its charms and wonders, however, there’s also a slightly melancholy feeling that Astro Bot, which secondarily serves as a kind of museum of PlayStation’s history, is putting that legacy and the spirit of innovation that defined it under glass to be gazed upon and appreciated as a relic of yesterday, rather than to infuse and electrify the games of today and tomorrow. — Moises Taveras

As a “definitive” edition of the phenomenal 2006 RPG, 2024’s Persona 3 Reload was lacking in a few key features like the 2009 PSP port’s female protagonist route. Still, perhaps the most egregious omission was the lack of The Answer, the meaty, playable epilogue that was included in the 2007 Persona 3 FES re-release. Though there’s been some controversy about Atlus making it a paid DLC as opposed to packaging it into the main game, I still find this approach to adding new characters, story, and dungeons at the end of a game I’ve already played preferable to how Atlus went about repackaging Persona 4 and 5. The sequels’ “definitive editions” were added new story and characters interwoven into the original plot, requiring you to rebuy and replay the game to see what was new. Back in the PS2 days, The Answer was a divisive addition to a stellar ending some still argue might not have needed an epilogue in the first place, and a lot of the misgivings I had with the original have been faithfully recreated in Reload. But as a coda to Persona 3, I’m still drawn in by how The Answer unpacks the less glamorous realities of what the original game had to say. Spoilers for the original game follow. — Kenneth Shepard

World of Warcraft: The War Within has a lot to live up to. The first in a trilogy of expansions Blizzard has dubbed The Worldsoul Saga and the followup to the stellar previous expansion in Dragonflight, it’s easy to imagine it crumbling under lofty expectations. Luckily, however, The War Within builds wonderfully on the best aspects of its predecessors while adding worthwhile new ways to play, even if it plays it a bit safe while building the foundation of what is billed as the biggest story in the game’s twenty-year history. — John Carson

Maybe ten minutes into Transformers One, the computer-animated prequel to the entire existing saga of Hasbro’s robots in disguise, Scarlett Johansson’s focused mining manager Elita says to Chris Hemsworth’s idealistic worker Orion Pax, “You don’t have the touch or the power.” It’s a clunky, forced reference to a cheesy power ballad from the original 1986 animated Transformers movie, and it seemed like a bad sign that Transformers One was going to be the kind of film more concerned with winking bits of fan service than with telling a compelling story of its own. Thankfully, however, while it’s ultimately uneven and lacking the inventiveness or visual splendor it would have needed to be truly great, T1 manages to have more smarts and depth than it first lets on. It could serve as a setup for better films to follow, now that all the “origin story” table setting is out of the way. — Carolyn Petit

How do you follow up on some of the most critically acclaimed games of the past decade? Many thought that Nintendo couldn’t surpass the sheer open-world wonder and physics toy-box creativity that made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild such a revelation. However, Nintendo seemed to do just that with Tears of the Kingdom, introducing a host of new ways for players to interact with the world and expanding the already vast realm of Hyrule both into the skies above and into the depths below, arguably improving so much on its extraordinary predecessor as to make it obsolete. — George Yang

It’s been five years since Todd Phillips’ Joker gave us a bleak, ultra-realistic take on the iconic comic book villain. Set in a seedy 1980s version of Gotham, Joker’s nihilism touched on contemporary issues such as political divides, wealth disparity, and social isolation, which only intensified after the covid pandemic. There was (and still is) a lot of critical debate about whether or not the film glorified the clown’s violent actions or served as a cautionary tale about the community’s neglect of marginalized individuals. Joker: Folie à Deux, sadly, has an even more muddled point of view—and it’s also just a worse movie. — Caroline Madden

Throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio’s roughly 80 hours, the RPG’s protagonist carries a novel with him as he travels through the fantastical world of the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The book depicts an idealized metropolis of skyscrapers where equality is written into law. It’s clear this story envisions a pristine vision of our own world, and as our hero reads through its pages, he’s filled with a drive to try and make his world a place that mirrors the fantasy the author created. I’m no stranger to throwing my heart and soul into the stories I devour in fiction, so Metaphor: ReFantazio had me by the throat in mere minutes. — Kenneth Shepard

The wolf does in fact die in Neva, the new platform-adventure game from Nomada Studio. That’s not really a spoiler, as the game’s reveal trailer showed this very moment off and it’s the very first thing you’ll experience when you start playing. What you’ll be wondering for the next five hours, however, is if the game’s titular wolf pup will suffer the same fate as their dearly departed parent. — Willa Rowe

People will no doubt call Sonic X Shadow Generations a “love letter” or “tribute” to Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic’s brooding rival who debuted back in 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2. But as a person who grew up seeing the black-and-red hedgehog as the emotional center of the franchise, it feels more like an apology. Sega has not been kind to Shadow over the years. Where once he was a complex, playable mainstay in the series, the Ultimate Lifeform has become a flanderized background character defined almost entirely by not liking other people and wanting to beat the blue blur in any competition that will have him. Shadow Generations, a hefty pack-in alongside a full remaster of 2011’s Sonic Generations, delivers a wonderful course-correction for Sega’s mistreatment of Shadow over the years, reminding fans that he was once the deepest well of emotional storytelling the series has to draw from. The best part is that it’s also a thrill to play, feeling better than maybe any Sonic game has in, well, generations. That’s right, Sega is releasing one of the best Sonic games it’s ever made as a pack-in for a remaster. — Kenneth Shepard

I admit, I’d grown cynical. Dragon Age has a well-established penchant for swapping out protagonists with each new game, and for treating one entry’s be-all, end-all conflicts as little more than narrative springboards that can largely be cast aside in the next. However, with 2014’s Inquisition, it seemed more vital than ever that BioWare not do this, as the studio ended that game with a devastating cliffhanger that saw your hero, the Inquisitor, locked in a battle of ideals with Solas, the elven mage party member who, at the game’s conclusion, is revealed to be an elven god. Surely, I thought, switching to a new protagonist now and sidelining the hero through whom we’d become so engaged in this conflict would result in a failure to do right by this story I’d been waiting a decade to see conclude. I’m happy to say I was wrong. When I rolled credits on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I felt something I hadn’t felt for Dragon Age in a long time: hope. — Kenneth Shepard

2015’s Life Is Strange was about a high-schooler, the supernaturally gifted Max Caulfield, but its power resided in something deeper than its protagonist’s youth and the setting of Blackwell Academy. I think that, for many of the millions of players it resonated with, Life Is Strange spoke to those parts of us that are still as young as Max was, those parts of us that still remember the incredible intensity of teenage longing, and still know that the right wistful indie pop song in the golden hour of the evening can just about break your heart. Now, Max is back, a little older, a little different from the person she once was, in Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. While some fans of the original may be disappointed to see the way the intervening years have shaped Max, it’s a worthy sequel that gives her, and us, a thoughtful reckoning with the toll life takes on us and the pain that often goes hand-in-hand with growth. — Carolyn Petit

I really liked Lego Horizon Adventures, a game that’s exactly what it sounds like. It tells an embellished version of the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, the first game in Guerrilla’s series of post-apocalyptic open-world adventures, with colorful Lego bricks and the slapstick humor you’d expect from a lovingly made YouTube parody, all wrapped up in a simple but sometimes challenging platformer. But it’s also such a strange experiment by Sony and developer Guerrilla Games that I’m curious as to why Horizon was the series the PlayStation gods decreed should get a spin-off built in Legos. — Kenneth Shepard

Secret Level, Amazon’s stunningly animated video game anthology tribute, is either a gorgeous, impactful vehicle through which some short stories are told or a soulless piece of capital C Content, depending on which episode you’re watching. — Kenneth Shepard

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is not what I was expecting. My expectation and fear was that developer MachineGames’ AAA action-adventure adaptation of the popular franchise starring Harrison Ford would play mostly like Uncharted, but in the ‘30s and with more Nazis. Thankfully, Great Circle is nothing like Tomb Raider, Uncharted, or the countless other games that have been directly inspired by Spielberg’s iconic ‘80s adventure films. Instead, Great Circle mixes Hitman-like stealth, Dishonored-like first-person gameplay, and some escape room puzzle design to create a unique, open-ended experience that feels both fresh and yet distinctly like Indiana Jones. — Zack Zwiezen

Marvel Rivals, NetEase’s shameless Overwatch-like featuring the heroes and villains that have captivated comic book readers and moviegoers for decades, is already at a crossroads. It’s less than a week old, but it’s clear even now that the decisions NetEase makes in the coming months will determine if it stays a chaotic, unbalanced blast or if it joins the ranks of its hero shooter contemporaries as a polished, esports-ready sweatfest that only appeals to a fraction of its huge fanbase. I’ve spent years poring over Blizzard’s Overwatch patch notes, watching content creators nitpick every tiny tweak to damage output and suffering the loss of some of the most interesting shooter kits I’ve ever used because someone cried foul at abilities they believed “unfair.” I don’t know what Marvel Rivals will be in a year, so I recommend you play it now before the team behind it has a chance to sand down the things that make it fun. — Kenneth Shepard

With Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the live-action adaptation of Sega’s speedy platformer is entering a new era. With each subsequent movie, the Sonic films have sought to shed the generic “family” movie image for one that was more honest to the anime-inspired twists and turns of the long-running platformer series. And this latest film succeeds. Sonic 3 is a loose adaptation of one of the most beloved stories in all of the series’ 30 years. While the film does tweak some things along the way, it doesn’t shy away from the otherworldly, supercharged melodrama that differentiated Sonic from its contemporaries in the early 2000s. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 still falls into the occasional trap of talking down to the all-ages audience with low-hanging jokes and some frankly groan-worthy segments, but more than ever, the third film earns the right to delve into the video game excess that made these characters so beloved in the first place. — Kenneth Shepard