T H E

C A L L I S T O
P R O T O C O L
BE YOND DE AD SPACE: SURVIVAL HORROR
MUTATES INTO A TERRIF YING NEW FORM

#377
DECEMBER 2022
Thanks, but we want to
see the trailer, not the tools
One of the most irritating things about the GTAVI hack was the fact that no
one benefited. If these things have to happen, we should at least get
something worthwhile out of it, right? What we got instead felt a bit like
the videogame equivalent of the section of that work-in-progress trailer for
The Mummy in which Tom Cruise bounces around a plane interior with
odd placeholder audio – something difficult to get excited about because
it’s not ready to be consumed in the context of trying to make you excited.
Rockstar will be seething that its game broke cover this way and not via
the kind of pitch-perfect trailer that famously accompanied IV and V. It
must also be aggravating because of the stature of the project, which is
the only game officially in development across its many studios. In some
respects GTA has come to define the entire company nowadays, so the
stakes have never been higher. Knowing Rockstar, though, all of this will
have only inspired it to double down. Perhaps there is a positive, after all.
Rockstar’s narrow-focus approach is entirely alien to Embracer, whose Exclusive subscriber edition

vast umbrella encompasses over 120 studios, with more than 220 games
currently in production. The group’s appetite for acquisition has made a lot
of noise recently, but we haven’t known too much about what’s been
driving it. To remedy that, this month we meet with CEO Lars Wingefors to
discover how his early years collecting comics paved the way for a
collection on a considerably larger scale. Our interview begins on p80.
As well as discussing Embracer’s procurement spree, in this issue we
also check in with the company’s team of archivists, who’ve been tasked
with assembling the ultimate collection of physical games and hardware.
They’re joined by a league of fellow history enthusiasts from across the
world in our examination of the preservation scene on p70.
Ahead of all that is cover star The Callisto Protocol. Apologies if the
image on the front of our retail edition gives you the shivers, but, well, it
really is that kind of game. Director Glen Schofield explains all on p52.
 games 102

Hype Play

30 System Shock 102 Splatoon 3

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Switch

34 Pentiment 106 Roadwarden

PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series PC

38 Hubris 110 Steelrising

Index, PSVR2, Quest, Rift, Vive PC, PS5, Xbox Series
40 The Dark Pictures 112 Metal: Hellsinger
Anthology: PC, PS5, Xbox Series
34 The Devil In Me
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series 114 Return To Monkey Island
PC, Switch
42 Deliver Us Mars
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series 116 The Case Of The
Golden Idol
44 Mars First Logistics PC
PC
118 Sunday Gold
46 Dragon Quest PC
Treasures
Switch 120 The Excavation Of
Hob’s Barrow
48 Hype roundup PC
121 Tinykin
PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
122 Wayward Strand
PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series

123 Riley & Rochelle

PC

Explore the iPad Follow these links

edition of Edge for throughout the magazine
additional content for more content online

4
 88

sections
#377

80

D EC EMB ER 2022

Knowledge Dispatches 88 The Making Of...

Why Arkane’s Deathloop had
8 Tokyo rising 22 Dialogue to prove its worth, to players
The biggest noises at the in-person Edge readers share their opinions; and development team alike
return of the Tokyo Game Show one wins an exclusive new T-shirt
96 Studio Profile
12 Physical contact 24 Trigger Happy How the motorcycle-loving
How Newvu is joining the Steven Poole ponders the possible Milestone adapted its approach
resurgence of UK social gaming consequences of the Metaverse to secure its dream licence

14 Staying Humble 26 Alternate Reality 124 Time Extend

What’s next for the industry’s best- Adrian Hon on the benefits of an Reflecting on FromSoftware’s first
known charity game bundler? inadvertently multicultural medium step towards defining its own
distinctive flavour with King’s Field
16 Mixup
Combining cards with polygonal Features 129 The Long Game
pixel art in Friends Vs Friends Q-Games’ captivating curio rises
52 Blood Moon from the ashes in The Tomorrow
18 Soundbytes How Striking Distance Studios is Children: Phoenix Edition
106 commentary in snack-sized
Game venturing beyond Dead Space in
mouthfuls, featuring Brad Smith sci-fi horror The Callisto Protocol

20 This Month On Edge 70 The Preservationists 52

The things that caught our eye Taking stock with the archivist
during the production of E377 groups seeking to safeguard
videogaming’s history

80 An Audience With...
We catch up with Embracer CEO
Lars Wingefors to discuss the
group’s high-profile expansion

70

5
 EDITORIAL
Tony Mott body horror counsellor Chris Schilling deputy editor
Alex Spencer features editor Miriam McDonald operations editor
Andrew P Hind art editor

CONTRIBUTORS
Jon Bailes, Katharine Davies, Caelyn Ellis, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, Malindy Hetfeld, Adrian Hon,
Phil Iwaniuk, Andy McGregor, Lewis Packwood, Emmanuel Pajon, Simon Parkin, Steven Poole, Alan Wen

SPECIAL THANKS
Bryce Baer, Mark MacDonald

ADVERTISING
Clare Dove commercial sales director
Kevin Stoddart account manager (+44 (0) 1225 687455 kevin.stoddart@futurenet.com)

CONTACT US
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MANAGEMENT
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Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand

6
 Tokyo rising
Japan’s long-running expo returns with
a renewed, outward-facing urgency

A fter a two-year, pandemic-induced

hiatus, the 2022 Tokyo Game
Show’s tagline – ‘Nothing stops gaming’
138,000 visitors making the pilgrimage
to Makuhari Messe’s halls, this year’s TGS
finds itself in the improbable position of
Nordic’s vast booth built around a full-size
wrestling ring. For Valve, the appeal is
obvious. In Japan, Nintendo’s Switch
– is as debatable as it is defiant. It seeming, for the first time in a while, makes up 85 per cent of all console
reflects, however, a broader eagerness in something approaching notable. sales; if the Bellevue company can enjoy
Japan to return, finally, to the way things It’s certainly a more international affair a fraction of that success with its handheld
were. The country has been slower than than in previous years. Of the 600-odd (and at more than double the Switch’s
most to ease its lockdown policies. companies represented at the event, only cost), it will be considered a major
Everyone is still expected to wear a mask, a little more than half are Japanese. success in a market that has been
even outdoors, and the country remains Facebook – sorry, Meta – is ubiquitous, historically cool on PC gaming.
closed to tourism, while demanding thanks to panoramic billboards around In the main halls, there are Japanese-
business visitors complete a quest of the exhibition centre that promote the language seminars from game-adjacent
Miyazaki-esque opaqueness to unlock a next iteration of its virtual reality headset, foreign companies such as Discord and
travel visa. This conservatism is proving Meta Quest 2; in Japan at least, the VR TikTok, while Minecraft and Roblox both
increasingly costly: the yen is currently dream remains strong. Among Us maintain a significant presence. And the
at a 24-year low against the US dollar, characters painted on the sides of show’s prestigious indie-game award
and hundreds of businesses that rely buses run loops around the Makuhari goes to a Dutch game – the exquisitely
on foreign visitors, including many of Messe’s hangar-like halls. Once inside, drawn platformer Schim, in which
Tokyo’s last bastion of arcades, have it is impossible to miss Valve’s stand, players dart between shadows.
been forced to close during the past 24 complete with a gigantic Steam Deck On the home front, meanwhile,
months. Against this backdrop, with over dangling from the rafters, and THQ 90 per cent of the Japanese companies

8
 KNOWLEDGE
TGS 2022

that attended the show in 2019 – the last dreams and excitement which have never Reborn is a 2022 update to the 2010 While publishers are
out in force, public
time TGS met in person – have returned, before been experienced”. A laudable PSP remake of the 1995 Super Nintendo attendance at TGS is
even though, according to the event’s goal, if not one quite matched by the Yasumi Matsuno original (a true classic down significantly
from its previous
organisers, the physical space occupied games it has on show: eFootball 2023, of the strategy-RPG canon, admittedly). in-person outing in
by those stands has shrunk by more than Super Bomberman R 2, Shine Post: Be Appetite for these matryoshka dolls of 2019, and less than
half. While Sony and Your Idol, an HD remaster nostalgia has not waned yet, apparently. half of its 2018 peak

Nintendo are once again for the classic (and now A lengthy demo for Crisis Core: Final
conspicuously absent – Of the 600-odd prohibitively) expensive Fantasy VII Reunion, a complete graphical
always, somehow, a sad RPGs Suikoden I and II, overhaul of the well-regarded 2007 PSP
companies
surprise over here – and no fewer than four original, has queues wending far across
Japan’s big-hitting represented at the Yu-Gi-Oh! titles. the show floor.
software publishers The offering from Fresher fare comes in the form of
event, only a little
are out in full force. Square Enix, always an Valkyrie Elysium, a free-roaming new entry
more than half industry leader in both to the cult-classic series themed around
Among them is a are Japanese celebrating and capitalising Norse myth and riddled with melancholy.
phoenix-rising stand for upon past successes, is Harvestella turns heads with its novel
Konami, a company that, heavy on remasters and blend of crop-tending and monster-
in previous years, seemed to be winding updated editions. Romancing Saga smashing, as does Various Daylife (yet
down its videogame operations. Its Minstrel Song Remastered, for example, another game named, seemingly, by
promise, spelt out in scrolling, six-foot is a 2022 remaster of a 2005 remake an idle spin of the Square Enix word
letters, is to “provide our customers with of a 1992 debut. Likewise, Tactics Ogre tombola). This ‘life simulator’ comes from

9
KNOWLEDGE
TGS 2022

INDIE GHETTO team members who worked on Octopath

Japan’s independent
game scene continues
Traveller and Bravely Default. While there
to gather strength and are no playable versions of the company’s
momentum, but you current great white hopes, Final Fantasy
wouldn’t really know
it from the TGS show XVI and Forspoken, both games receive
floor. Cloistered in an trailers, along with confirmed release
‘Indie Game Area’,
next to the university dates of summer 2023 and January
students on the 2023 respectively.
periphery of the hall,
more than 50 indie
studios and single- Capcom’s showing is bullish, with
person outfits are plenty of setups where visitors can play
crammed together in
regimented rows of a fresh build of Street Fighter 6, enabling
tiny booths. There’s us to sample the moves of newcomer
none of the easy-going
charm of, say, GDC’s
Kimberly, an African-American ninja who
equivalent area, hurls bright, explosive canisters of powder
where visitors are to punctuate her specials. With no current
encouraged to lounge
on sofas and chat with plans for a version in arcades, where
game-makers while players traditionally would encounter
enjoying their work. Crisis Core’s original PSP version marked its 15th anniversary on the week of the show – Reunion is making
Rather, the TGS these games, a representative for the the leap to Unreal Engine 4, along with an updated battle system and a new arrangement of the soundtrack
format feels a little company said events such as TGS are
awkward for both the
creators and visitors.
crucial for attracting interest from new with special rules. The company also befuddling oversight.) Finally, Capcom
Hopefully next year players – a clear focus, given SF6’s presents a new trailer and screenshots for fleshes out its release plans for Exoprimal,
the organisers can optional simplified control scheme and Resident Evil Village’s imminent new a game in which players are tasked with
reinvent their
approach to show instructional nature of its chapter, titled Winters’ clearing the streets of an infestation of
off the country’s commentator feature. Expansion, while a parade dinosaurs, Earth Defense Force style.
underground game
scene in a more Perhaps most exciting, for While mobile of novel megafauna Tecmo Koei manages to soothe
some of the pain of overseas players
favourable light. veterans of the series and
games continue to provide a glimpse of what
those who feared the awaits in the forthcoming frustrated at not being able to attend the
game might launch in a be a major force, update, Monster Hunter show with a download demo of its
similarly undernourished Rise: Sunbreak, and promising FromSoftware-inspired brawler,
their diminished
state to that of its Masakazu Eguchi reveals Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. For fighting
predecessor, is the reveal presence gives an that Capcom’s tribute to the game aficionados, meanwhile, there’s a
fresh look at Dragon Ball: The Breakers,
of World Tour mode, an
almost vintage feel Mega Man series, Mega
homage to the exuberant, Man Battle Network the next iteration in the vastly popular
playful invention last seen Legacy Collection, will series built by Dimps, the studio arguably
in 1998’s Street Fighter Alpha 3, seeing feature online battling and item trading. responsible for the fighting game
you battling multiple opponents at once, (Alas, nobody has thought to teach renaissance with its work on Street
learning new moves and playing rounds Mega Man how to crouch yet, ever a Fighter IV. Happy news, too, with the
Capcom’s showcase
included new details
on Street Fighter 6,
Exoprimal and the
Winters’ Expansion
update for Resident
Evil Village, including
the Mercenaries
multiplayer mode, a
thirdperson option,
and the Shadows
Of Rose story DLC

10
 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
transports the formula
4 of Team Ninja’s Nioh
games to Three
Kingdoms-era China

announcement that BlazBlue: Cross

Tag Battle Special Edition and Guilty
Gear: Strive will both come to Xbox
platforms next year.
The shoot-’em-up, another vintage
genre that has enjoyed something of a
renaissance in recent years via a bevy
of Switch ports for classic titles, also
enjoys a strong showing at TGS 2022.
That list is further bolstered by a version
of Cave’s well-respected Akai Katana for
Nintendo’s console, playable at City
Connection’s delightful booth alongside
a sterling new twin-stick shooter, Never
Awake. There’s also the surprise
announcement of a sequel to the
eccentric Dreamcast shmup Radirgy.
While mobile games continue to be a
major force within the Japanese industry,
The strong presence of
their diminished presence on the show western companies at
floor gives TGS 2022 an almost vintage the show included Meta,
Valve and the Embracer-
feel, an event eager to address a owned THQ Nordic,
worldwide audience as much as a which dug into its
deep pockets to hire
domestic one. Promisingly, one bustling wrestlers for exhibition
corner of the exhibition hall is occupied matches at the centre
of its enormous booth
by a slew of universities and colleges,
with dozens of students showing off their
new and often inspiring projects, while in
the street outside members of a newly
founded union hand out flyers inviting
workers to join them in fighting for fairer
conditions in Japan’s game studios. Both
are signs of a healthy local industry that,
on this year’s evidence, TGS will be
ready to host for years to come.

11
KNOWLEDGE
GAMING SPACES

Physical contact
From esports arenas to arcade bars, gaming is
making a renewed push onto the UK high street

T he three-storey shell of a former

Burger King, around the back of a
Stevenage shopping centre, might not
offering, and seek investment to come
out the other side in a strong position to
keep growing.” He acknowledges that
SCHOOL’S IN
A few weeks after
opening, Newvu
explains, the town was chosen carefully.
“If we’d have launched in a really busy
part of London, there’s an argument that
is continuing to
be quite the spot you’d imagine for a NQ64 has been lucky in this respect – experiment. It’s [even if it goes well], you’ve not actually
introduced esports
reawakening. But it’s where Newvu has and while the expansion of Robson’s training software learned anything about your business.
chosen for the first of its planned chain business has been positively bullish, licensed from Swedish If you can prove it in a medium-sized
firm Gameplan, as
of social gaming spaces – a kind of others are more cautious. well as facilities for
town, you learn a lot more.” Bishop
small-scale answer to the Belong arenas teaching coding. has his eye on expansion, but he’s well
operated by Game across the UK. And, Loading founder and CCO With the younger
generation accounting
aware of the failures of the past – the
as the country’s leisure industry continues James Dance tells us that, after opening for most of its trade, Newvu concept sits somewhere between
to recover from the disastrous effects a second London venue, he has no this is a necessary step arcades and LAN centres, both of which
to make sure the place
of the pandemic, Newvu is just one intention of expanding further in the isn’t empty during have all but washed away from UK high
example of businesses embracing foreseeable future. After a decade of school hours, Bishop streets now. Even Belong, the nearest
explains – and this is
in-person game venues with fervour. doing this, he’s something of an elder just the beginning of
point of comparison, with much bigger
It’s also something of an unusual one, statesman, and knows all too well the its efforts on that backing, closed an Oxford Street
in that it doesn’t have an alcohol licence. consequences of overreach, having had front. “We’re working location earlier this year.
with the local college,
Having started to spring up in force to close two other London locations in North Hertfordshire, Newvu’s solution is to cover as many
before the pandemic, gaming bars are 2019. “Had we been a year in, maybe to build a proper bases as possible in a small footprint.
esports qualification,"
now coming back stronger we would have done what he says. That should The Stevenage venue is stacked like a
than ever. The past year the others have done – be in place from the miniature version of The Raid’s tower
has brought a new The Newvu ‘this is an opportunity, rent
start of next term.
block. While the ground floor offers a
Peckham location for long- is cheap, let’s gamble’,” variety of consoles, a multiplayer VR
Stevenage venue
time stalwart Loading; two he says. “But it’s the suite and the odd arcade machine
for arcade specialist Four is stacked like a benefit of hindsight. If aimed at more casual passing trade,
Quarters, in London and you get punched in the things get more serious as you climb,
miniature version
Bristol; and a second head enough times, with a rentable streaming studio and, on
venue, in Manchester, for of The Raid’s you’re like, OK, let’s the top floor, a bank of gaming PCs in a
relative newcomer Pixel. not do that again.” lockable room, intended as a training
tower block
These expansions are In Loading’s early camp for esports teams. “That’s ultimately
accompanied by the days, it had a Soho what we want to build,” Bishops says of
arrival of some serious investment location, but was pushed out by rapidly the latter. “We want it to be the gym
in the space. Shoreditch-based Platform rising rent; today, its locations in the membership of gaming.” But both
has landed £1.5 million to open four capital are out on the fringes. By aspects are vital, he says – “We need to
more of its gaming bars, while NQ64 – contrast, the new wave of gaming bars monetise the space as much as we can”
which has opened five locations in the tend to be clustered in the most populous – as Newvu tries to ensure it doesn’t
past 18 months, most recently in Soho – city centres, and Robson says of NQ64’s follow in its predecessors’ footsteps.
has received £2.5 million. locations, “We hope we can find a It’s more tentative than the rapid,
NQ64 had barely found its feet home in most major UK towns and big-money expansions that are going
before COVID hit, having opened its cities.” Of course, this will mean on elsewhere, certainly, but the two
very first arcade bar in Manchester in increased competition for attention – as approaches are not necessarily in
February 2019. “The pandemic was Dance says, “You’re not the only place conflict. In truth, they’re more likely
definitely a strange time for the sector,” [in town] showing Dota any more.” complementary, signs that – even with
NQ64 co-founder Matt Robson says. Which brings us back to Stevenage. another national crisis looming – the
“After working through the initial It might lack big-city glamour but, Newvu James Dance, Loading
return to social gaming spaces might
shitstorm, we used the time to refine the CEO and co-founder Andrew Bishop founder and CCO just stick around for good this time.

12
NQ64’s arcade bars are
designed to be “a sensory
overload, almost”, Matt
Robson says, with games that
lean on the nostalgia factor

RESETTING
THE BAR
How gaming punters’
habits have changed,
post-pandemic

NQ64 hasn’t seen

much of a change in its
customers, Robson says,
outside of an industry-
wide shift towards more
premium drinks. (Great
news, presumably, for
his bottom line.) With
its more pub-like
presentation, though,
Loading is a different
matter. “There’s infinitely
more families now,”
Dance says, and he’s
even started hosting
kids’ parties. Has that
changed the kinds of
games that get played?
“It’s not like kids will just
ask for Roblox – they’ll
still pick up stuff like
Nidhogg or Towerfall,
that they might not
The centrepiece of Newvu’s ground floor is a Hologate Arena setup, one of have seen before.”
two in the UK. It’s a fourplayer VR suite, complete with haptic vests, offering A promising sign for
games from lightgun shooting galleries to an Overcooked-like in firstperson the next generation.

13
KNOWLEDGE
HUMBLE BUNDLE

Staying Humble
The company known for its bundles has carved
out a niche in publishing. Where will it go next?

H umble Bundle’s executive vice Will you be publishing bigger-budget META NARRATIVE remember the others [laughs]. But it goes
The profile of Humble
president and general manager games in the future? Games releases has from top to bottom in the organisation,
Alan Patmore came to the company in We’ll have a number of games that are still changed a lot, Patmore from our corporate parent, to us, even to
believes, since the
2019, having previously founded Surreal squarely indie, single-developer products, label’s early days
the developers we’re working with.
Software and then taken senior roles at all the way up to double-A, tens-of-millions- focusing on
Double Fine, Zynga and Kixeye. As of-dollars products. But there’ll be fewer of “nostalgic” retro Does it get harder to remain humble
titles. As well as the
Humble’s growth in stature and fortunes those! There are a lot of developers now publisher’s improving if you keep growing?
continues apace, we ask him about what who have worked in triple-A development, average score rating It’s true. But we take being humble as one
on Metacritic, its
brought him here, how the company has have a lot of experience with mature games now are of our values. It’s humble how we work
changed, and its mission for the future. development methodology, and they want defined by “a unique with developers – oftentimes we could
voice”, he says. “That
to do something on their own. We’re the can be through the
improve our rates, but we want to treat our
What drew you to the role at Humble? perfect partners for those people. gameplay, the art partners well, and be humble in our
I’d heard of Humble Bundle, and really style, or from the approach with them. We’re humble in
developer and their
valued their purpose, which is being a How integral are the bundles to the story, if they’re coming how we present ourselves – we’re not
force for good in gaming. But then, I was business now? from a group that isn’t going to be the splashiest brand out there;
typically represented
in free-to-play for about seven years, and It’s been one of our fastest growers in the in gaming.” That we’re going to let the game speak for itself
was really getting burned out with it and last two to three years. There’s still a includes an increasing and the developer speak for itself. We
number of developers
wanted to get back to my roots of game tremendous amount of opportunity on the who share the
have values panels to make sure when
development. The publishing game bundle side, the company’s interest we’re hiring people they’re aligned with
side of the [Humble] book side, and on the in social impact. our values. And the good part is that it’s a
business really connected “We have the software side. It goes to virtuous cycle where, as the brand builds,
with me. I saw this nascent us being able to reach it attracts people who are interested and
opportunity to be
game publisher, and I was customers that other have those same values.
like, “Wow, there’s an the alternative platforms can’t. We can
opportunity to shape it from help benefit our partners Would you say there’s a clear political
platform that is
a developer perspective.” because we can bundle leaning in these values?
Also, there’s the ecommerce doing something this product together Yeah. We’ve made it very clear we’re for
women’s reproductive rights. Last month,
platform, which synced with
good for the world” and connect it with an
my free-to-play side, where audience that they wouldn’t we featured charities which supported
you’re doing a lot of product otherwise connect to. that. We’ve featured charities that support
optimisation and funnel conversion. education related to gun violence and the
The charity bundles promote good victims of gun violence. So, yeah, that’s all
How has the publishing side evolved in causes. How do company practices part of it. We do have a point of view
the past few years? align with those causes – in terms of and we don’t shy away from it.
We were releasing a handful of games a environmental impact, as an example?
year, three or four years ago; now we’re Even our parent company, one of the What’s your ultimate vision for Humble?
doing ten to 15. Now we’re also a full areas it’s focusing on is environment. I think we have the opportunity to be the
lifecycle publisher, where we do early-stage We’re one of 50-ish business units that alternative platform [to the likes of
investment, support developers on the are part of Ziff Davis, and the goal is to Microsoft and Epic] that has a point of
production side, the PR, the marketing, the be carbon neutral. Where we’re evolving, view, wants to have social impact and is
localisation, through launch, post-launch, I think, from a Humble standpoint, is doing something good for the world. So
everything. And we set up and changed getting alignment with developers that to give people that opportunity, and
the deal terms so that they’re effectively want to have a similar impact within our connect people through that ecosystem,
Alan Patmore,
50/50. We want our developers to be [charitable] areas – environment, executive VP and
that’s my ultimate vision. And the bigger
rewarded if they have a successful game. education, equity and inclusion. I can’t general manager we get, the more impact we can have.

14
 Mineko’s Night Market was
announced in 2015 but, after
multiple delays, finally looks
to be on its way to release
after signing with Humble

The Choice subscription service

gives members access to much
of Humble’s library. Moonscars
is the first game to be made SUPER
available upon release
MONACO IP
Going back to
the scene of
the crime

One avenue Patmore is

exploring is “dormant”
IP that Humble has
published before. In some
cases, it’s looking to
purchase titles from
developers that have
moved on to other
projects, then commission
new studios to create
sequels. “Just because we
have a customer base of
200,000 doesn’t mean
that [this IP] doesn’t
deserve to be continued,”
he says. One example is
Monaco 2, which is
currently in development
after Humble bought the
heist game IP from creator
Pocketwatch Games –
although here, in an
unusual twist, the sequel
has gone back to
As TemTem (above) and Midnight Fight Express (right) show, there’s Pocketwatch for
no single aesthetic or target audience that unites Humble’s lineup development after all.

15
KNOWLEDGE
FRIENDS VS FRIENDS

16
The game initially used
voxel art for its characters,
Brainwash Gang’s Edu Verz
tells us, since at the time the
studio had no experience
with 3D modelling

MIXUP
Blending combat with cards (and pixels with polys) in Friends Vs Friends
What’s a little killing between friends? The original As you level up, you can add new cards to your
Itch version of Brainwash Gang’s PVP shooter had hand or boost the power of your current favourites.
a more murderous title, one that’s been changed Building a new kind of shooter naturally led to
for its forthcoming Steam release via Raw Fury. But the Madrid studio experimenting with different
the concept is largely the same: it’s a 1v1 or 2v2 aesthetics. While it adopted a cartoon style for this
online shooter where playing your cards right is as key art, the game itself features a combination of
important as your aim. Friends Vs Friends’ deck- pixel art and 3D modelling. “The biggest challenge
building side grants you a variety of outlandish was to keep the square-ish look of pixel art in
abilities – letting you fire vampire bullets that heal shapes that are more organic and curvy,” artist
you, or increasing the size of your opponent’s Mohammed Bakir Khawam says. It shouldn’t be
noggin, making it easier to land headshots. long until you can judge the results for yourself.

17
KNOWLEDGE
TALK/ARCADE

Soundbytes ARCADE
WATCH
Keeping an eye on the
Game commentary in snack-sized mouthfuls coin-op gaming scene

“We are committed to

making the same game
available on the same
day on both Xbox and
PlayStation. We want
people to have more
access to games, not less.” Game Augmented Reality Darts
Manufacturer 501 Entertainment

As Sony contests the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft boss Out of all the attractions
Brad Smith assures us that all this really has nothing do with money offered by your local pub, darts
is perhaps the closest relative of
videogames, with play involving
simply pointing at a target and
unleashing a shot. That makes
”With the cheap ”I was sending it particularly appropriate for
labour of a developing messages to some some interactive gubbins on
top, as demonstrated by
country, you could of my teammates Augmented Reality Darts,
use people in the saying: ‘Oh god, which uses a projector to create
special targets depending
Philippines as real-life this will be the last on the chosen game mode,
as well as handling scoring
NPCs in your game.” game I ever do’.” automatically. Importantly, the
system uses normal steel-tipped
Crypto evangelist Mikhai Davide Soliani wasn’t always darts, ensuring that seasoned
Kossar just wants everyone certain that Mario + Rabbids players can get stuck in easily,
with a board provided by dart
to be able to take part, OK? Kingdom Battle would land
industry stalwart Unicorn.
Developed by UK company 501
Entertainment, ARD has already

“Think about the 100

been installed across a number
of venues in its homeland, but
a recently inked distribution

greatest moments of your deal with Sega is intended to

push the hardware into
worldwide markets. Whether

life. Do any of those or not a game variant featuring

beer-guzzling cartoon bull Bully

moments include
from Jim Bowen’s legendary
Bullseye will have much appeal
overseas remains to be seen.

videogames? Probably
not. And this comes
from a lifetime gamer.”
Playing games is “a form of depression”, says Vladimir Lyubovny,
AKA DJ Vlad, in an ambitious bid to enrage several billion people

18
KNOWLEDGE
THIS MONTH

BOOK GAME
Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, Rubik’s Dice
And Tomorrow bit.ly/rubiksdice
bit.ly/tomorrowxthree The theme of this year’s Game
It’s rare that we feature two Maker’s Toolkit 48-hour game
books in one month, but jam was ‘Roll of the dice’,
Gabrielle Zevin’s novel about and in this turn-based battler
a pair of game developers is VIDEO your attack and defence values
too good to exclude. It’s hard Sakurai On are decided by, well, just that.
to think of a work outside of Creating Games If you’re not happy with the
the medium that so clearly bit.ly/sakurai101 roll, each turn offers three
understands videogames. If you were going to pick a chances to fiddle with the
Pedants might quibble about tutor to teach the essentials result – either by rerolling or
some dates and details, but of game design, you could twisting the die’s sides like a
its saga is convincingly do far worse than Kirby and Rubik’s Cube. Rather than
interwoven with real history, Super Smash Bros director trying to line up six colours,
engaging with industry issues Masahiro Sakurai. On his though, here there are just
from sexism to auteurism and new YouTube channel, he two – orange and pink – with
the dangers of entitled ‘fans’. introduces a variety of your next action dictated by
Most important, though, is concepts, from hit stops to whichever’s in the majority.
the way it captures how a life risk and reward, and shows It’s possible to maximise
of gaming can reshape your the working behind design outcomes beyond what would
understanding of the world. decisions in Sakurai’s own be possible with a regular die,
The title is an allusion to games, all illustrated with but – with the state of the
Shakespeare, yes, but also to actual footage. With Nintendo cube persisting along each
the endless reliving enabled by having given approval to run – you risk thoroughly
save states, something we’ve show development builds snookering yourself on future
surely all hoped for in our own and design documents, this is turns. It didn’t win, but this
lives. At many points, we find the kind of peek behind the is quintessential game-jam
ourselves wishing the same curtain that’s been all too fare: a smart little idea
for the novel’s characters. rare since Iwata’s passing. explored as far as it’ll go.

THIS MONTH ON EDGE

Some of the other things on our minds when we weren’t missing typos and so on
BOOK
The History Of The Stealth Game
continue quit
bit.ly/asneakyread The far more Grand theft
Subtitled From Metal Gear To Splinter Cell And Everything In Jett’s 2023 arrival on Steam A particularly messy hack
Between, Kirk McKeand’s lively book is no dry history lesson.
will be accompanied by a uncovers GTAVI way
Instead, it flits between covering the genre’s progression with
industry input (MGS4 producer Ryan Payton confesses a preference whole extra campaign ahead of its due date
for Tenchu; Dishonored’s Harvey Smith waxes lyrical about Thief) to
insightful accounts from the making of influential sneak-’em-ups Love not war Dash cancelled
such as Hitman: Codename 47 and the original Assassin’s Creed,
One per cent of future Babylon’s Fall servers
with musings about the state of modern stealth and how the genre’s
future might look. It’s sharp, funny, and peppered with surprising Gears Of War revenue are switched off,
anecdotes (you’ll never look at Mike Bithell the same way again). will be donated to leaving its one player
suicide prevention utterly heartbroken

Never say never again Split ends

After many false starts, Halo Infinite’s long-
GoldenEye finally returns, awaited splitscreen co-op
on both Switch and Xbox is finally killed off by 343

Groundhog year Reality break

Deathloop celebrates its first Sony’s new headset
birthday with a move to won’t be able to play
Xbox and a huge update original PSVR games

20
DISPATCHES
DECEMBER
Creed is good Come on, surely 37 fruitless attempts at
Aren’t you tired of Elden Ring? Doesn’t it Malenia are precisely the tonic needed to
just remind you of being 18 again and doing keep tired dads awake beyond 9pm, no?
your Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award, stuck
on a Welsh hillside in January with a rickety Money for nothing
tent and a compass that you have no idea Robert Frazer recently shared their concern
how to read? Well, I might have just the about videogame preservation in E376.
game for you. Not only is it a breath of fresh Indeed, game companies have had a mixed
air, I think it could even be the future of track record in keeping historic games
open-world games after FromSoft nearly available for consumers. On the other hand,
ruined them. It’s by a little-known but the emulation scene has been a great boon
up-and-coming studio called Ubisoft (the to gamers and even companies.
better ‘soft’, in my opinion), and the game in One problem with emulation is that
question is called Assassin’s Creed. Instead it is in certain ways illegal. That doesn’t
of bizarre and oblique lore that sounds like necessarily make it wrong. It just means
the mad mutterings of an opium addict, you governments are allowed to penalise gamers
get a clear story, good voice who don’t stick to the rules.
acting, and a world that draws But those rules are determined
Issue 376
credibly on real historical “Take out a by elected representatives. In
sources. Instead of gloomy bunch of bandits other words, if enough folks
Dialogue rain-soaked landscapes, you
get sumptuous, inviting vistas and feel good,
want copyright laws to be
different, we have the ability
Send your views, using of lush oases and sprawling
for just 15 to change them.
‘Dialogue’ as the subject beautiful cities teeming with Now, those copyright laws

line, to edge@futurenet.com.
life. As you walk around, you minutes in your do have merit: it’s only fair for
are enveloped by the sights the producers of a game to reap
Our letter of the month wins and sounds of ancient Greece tired dad life” the benefits of their work.
an exclusive Edge T-shirt. or Egypt. Instead of an almost However, current laws keep
unusable UI, Byzantine levelling and a copyright intact for 70 years after the
baffling crafting system, you get clear, creator’s death. Most of the money therefore
user-friendly menus and well-thought-out ends up with the distributors. In that sense,
level progression. Elden Ring says, “You see the law is mostly on the side of those who
that mountain over there? You can climb it have but one goal in mind: to make as much
and then immediately get one-shot killed profit out of a work as possible. I

6
by an angry demon the size of a house 86 understand that distributors take care of
times until your thumbs bleed.” Assassin’s marketing, printing and many other
Creed says, “Hey, tired dads, we know you important facets. To be clear, I’m not
might no longer have the reactions of a arguing that they shouldn’t benefit either.
fighter pilot. Take a stroll up that mountain, Ultimately, I believe that the 70 years
watch the sun go down over olive groves, after the developer’s life is absurdly long.
take out a bunch of bandits and feel good, In my estimation, people working on games
for just 15 minutes in your tired dad life. should be paid for 20 to 3o years. That’s
You’ve earned it.” So, let me put a plenty of time to strike it rich. After that,
metaphorical, non-tentacled arm around it would be best for games to be owned
you, and let’s walk together into that bright, by everyone. Case in point: do you really
new 4K dawn. Here’s to the future. Here’s believe that whoever still works at Atari
to Assassin’s Creed. and Nintendo should still be the main
Joe Crook beneficiaries for 8bit games? And, of

22
 DISPATCHES
DIALOGUE

course, how many of you are glad they’re While I was reading that article, I could one who is truly playing has nothing to gain
still being stored on computers owned by think of only one group that I would trust other than experience of the game itself.
fans, like you, who will gladly take care of to build an actual metaverse, and that would Granted, the lines are somewhat blurred
their legacy? PS: Any chance you’ll review be the developers behind Matrix. This is a today. Publishers, in an effort to increase the
Automaton Lung? decentralised, end-to-end encrypted protocol relevance of their games, now often attempt
Robert August de Meijer that currently sees its main use as a chat to pack them with life skills on the side.
platform. That means you are not locked into Nevertheless, the game remains a game – and
Depends. If we promise to feature it in one company’s service, as you can just move if it were not a game, one would not play it
our year-end catchup, will you agree not to another (or even run your own server) and (similar to medicine that tastes good, but not
to mention it as often as Cruelty Squad? still be able to talk to everyone regardless of good enough to eat if it didn’t also have
Anyway, for your regular services to their server (as per email). It can also bridge medicinal properties).
Dispatches, have an Edge T-shirt on us. into other platforms such as WhatsApp etc, Mevin Yavin
so you don’t have to convince all your friends
Boom blocks to switch over immediately. And so this particular debate comes to a
I’d like to respond to the NFT coverage in So, a metaverse or similar that was built close. Ten points to anyone who can launch
E365 and the dispatches in E367 (yes, I’m on Matrix would be something that would a new one with the same kind of longevity.
running a little behind, so if you want to be open to all developers, and be secure
take a month off to fix those issue dates, I and privacy-respecting to users, with no Print the legend
won’t be complaining). I have been involved centralised company monopolising the As someone who has been reading Edge for
with Bitcoin and the blockchain for over a service. And today I just found out that as long as I can remember (25 years, more or
decade now and have a firm technical grasp such a service is already under development, less), I’ve never felt more strongly that the
of the subject. a project named Third Room. So, my hope is work you do is so important to the game
In reality, there probably aren’t many that neither Facebook or Epic will succeed, industry than I do today. When I find knee-
uses for NFTs (or coloured coins, as the and that we’ll see a push for this open service jerk YouTube reactions, influencers and ‘hot
original concept was called about ten years in the future. takes’ from less prestigious outlets than your
ago) in games that actually make sense. The Finally, I’m just hoping that when I catch good selves tiring, there’s no feeling like
curse idea mentioned in Dispatches sounds up, I’ll see some reviews for Playdate games I walking into the local newsagent and seeing
like a cool idea, but NFTs are not really should be checking out, as I’m expecting mine that familiar font and striking artwork,
suited to the concept. If I was to try to to arrive in just a couple of weeks. opening the pages knowing your access
implement such a feature, I almost certainly Bill Tyler and insight are second to none. A feature I
would not use NFTs as the foundation. particularly love is the Collected Works of
There are some legitimate, interesting Might it not be a hard sell to ask the world developers. Seeing the career journey they
ideas for NFTs, but it’s probably not any of to collectively plug into something called take is an inspiration. I’ll admit to not
the things you are seeing pushed around on Matrix? We have this niggling memory about agreeing with all the review scores you’ve ever
social media and in the news. It is also a some movie from a few years ago where that given, but far be it for me to indoctrinate
tiny, niche area of blockchains. It is just one didn’t end too well for most of humanity. these fabled pages with my scores to games
small feature of a much larger set of things A month off, though? Now you’re talking. you haven’t reviewed… Ahem. My last letter
that blockchains can do, so I still find it was critical of the direction the game industry
mind-boggling just how much this concept Medicinal purposes is heading, but the direction this magazine
has been blown out of proportion. Leo Tarasov (E374) raises some good points, has gone over the years has been counter to
Also, going back a bit further, I was a but fails to define ‘games’ to my liking. Allow that culture. You’re fighting the good fight –
little disappointed in your coverage of the me to posit the definition I have accepted, it’s an important one, preserving and
metaverse. The idea that a metaverse would gleaned from the writings of philosopher archiving what’s great about videogames
be better run by Epic than Facebook doesn’t Akiva Tatz. His definition of with integrity and respect. Thanks for that.
fill me with confidence. Even if you believe a game refers to an activity with no goals Nathan Brady-Eastham
Epic is more trustworthy today, if you give it other than the activity itself. In other words,
that much control in future, do you really one can make a game out of a chore, but it is Well, goodness. Is it just us, or did it get
think it won’t become the next Facebook? fundamentally a gamified chore. In contrast, a little dusty in here all of a sudden?

23
 DISPATCHES
PERSPECTIVE

STEVEN POOLE

Trigger Happy
Shoot first, ask questions later

S
o that you don’t have to, I recently read sits at home drinking while chatting in VR to
two books on the Metaverse in order to the friendly barman Roger, “the warmhearted,
report on what some self-appointed flannel-clad bartender who’s always quick
experts on the Metaverse think the Metaverse with a joke, a sympathetic ear, and a story
actually is, even though it literally does not about that one time he met Kurt Cobain”.
yet exist. The results were confusing when Roger, you see, is a real person, and running
not actually alarming, but for the benefit of this virtual bar is his real job, paid for by his
the Edge readership in particular I can happily appreciative customers.
report that one thing the Metaverse definitely You might very well ask: why attempt to
seems to be is a giant rebadging of gamify pubgoing in this way, absent the
gamification for the credulous 2020s. excuse of a global pandemic during which
As you know, gamification was once a hot these kinds of ad-hoc spaces did for a while
rhetorical trend according to which all manner spring up? What would be the effect on actual
of difficult social problems could be solved by bars and taverns if this kind of thing became
simply turning everything into a videogame, more popular? What kind of person thinks
with stars and points and leaderboards and this is a good idea?
whatnot, this process being sold by some It is, after all, a particular kind of person.
hucksters as a panacea for everything from There is an overlap between Metaverse
mental health to education. Now we are being enthusiasts and the kind of transhumanist
encouraged to believe that what we really who yearns to slough off his meatsuit and
want is to strap on some VR goggles and pilot exist only as pure thought. Narula foresees
an avatar around an imaginary bank branch that one day we will all be hooked up to
whenever we need to check our current “brain-computer interfaces” and, after
account. The shop-soiled term ‘gamification’ ditching the brainy offal completely, we will
won’t do, so let’s say this is the kind of voyage through the Metaverse as mere digital
exciting thing you’d do in the Metaverse! consciousnesses. For him, that is a
The rise of commerce in digital artefacts Somehow Heist World would consummation devoutly to be wished. We
such as NFTs, in particular, persuades some will, Narula promises, one day “have worlds
onlookers that ordinary people (and not just permit some players to work as where people can live out their lives as geese,
too-online fantasy videogamers) will be detectives, paid for by the fees or as gargoyles perched atop a Gothic
prepared to spend real dollars on virtual cathedral”, without mentioning why they
clothes. For some analysts, though, the of those enjoying life as thieves would want to.
Metaverse will not be just a massive theme- But perhaps we are all disembodied
park-cum-shopping mall but a way of life. anthropologist David Graeber’s sardonic consciousnesses already. The physicist Ludig
Perhaps, for example, you would enjoy a definition of “bullshit jobs”, while many Boltzmann once pointed out that, in an
‘virtual job’ in a persistent cops’n’robbers- videogame worlds at the same time exhibit infinite universe, we should expect particles
themed storyverse called Heist World? That many aspects of wage slavery, grinding for to randomly coalesce into temporary brain-
is one example from a book called Virtual tokens. His ingenious answer is not to make like structures. In which case, it might be that
Society: The Metaverse And The New games less depressing but to turn work-like you are a Boltzmann brain floating in space
Frontiers Of Human Experience, by Herman games into actual careers for the masses. That which contingently formed with all your
Narula, which is very interesting in some is certainly one way to gamify employment, memories intact just a few seconds ago, and
Illustration konsume.me

respects and extremely eccentric in others. even if one might reasonably wonder how nothing in your sensory realm is real. In this
Somehow the blockchain-fuelled economy many citizens would take up the challenge. context, at least you could take some comfort
of Heist World would permit some players to Another example, which I found even from the consequence that the Metaverse will
work as detectives, paid for by the fees of more melancholic, is a “virtual tavern” which, never be real either.
those enjoying life as thieves. Narula’s point according to Narula’s description, is Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy 2.o is now available from
is that many real-world occupations fit the essentially Cheers over Zoom VR: everyone Amazon. Visit him online at www.stevenpoole.net

24
 DISPATCHES
PERSPECTIVE

ADRIAN HON

Alternate Reality
Notes from videogaming’s borders

R
un down the list of last year’s top ten adventure games of recent years, was
bestselling books in the UK and you’ll originally written in French, despite being set
find ten books that were originally in the Pacific Northwest; or how The Longest
written in English. It’s the same for movies – Journey was written in Norwegian. Before
though in fairness Parasite, from South Korea, COVID tore up the plans for the Tokyo
just about squeaked into 2020’s top ten. Brits Olympics, Nintendo’s characters were set to
just don’t seem to be excited by fiction from be a major part of the opening ceremony, in
other countries – but the trend is very recognition of their worldwide fame.
different for games. For a while, it looked like games might
Out of the top ten games sold last year, become China’s main cultural export too,
franchise stalwarts such as FIFA and Call Of with the sensational international success of
Duty made up most of the list, but if you titles such as Genshin Impact, Dyson Sphere
included digital sales (which Nintendo Program and the beautiful retro-styled RPG
doesn’t report, annoyingly), Mario Kart 8 Eastward. The Chinese government’s freeze on
Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons new domestic game releases since the
almost certainly would’ve made it in, with summer of last year hasn’t helped the
Super Mario 3D World and Pokémon Brilliant industry, but it’s clearly as good as the best.
Diamond also in the running. Most developers don’t aim to be cultural
It’s strange to think of Mario Kart as a ambassadors, but even the most abstract and
‘foreign’ game in the same way that we think fantastical games tend to hint towards their
of Squid Game as a foreign TV show. If you origin; Tetris features St Basil’s Cathedral in
told a non-gamer it was made by an especially Moscow, and my own Zombies, Run!, recently
imaginative British developer, I doubt they’d translated into French, Spanish, Korean and
bat an eyelid, whereas there’s no mistaking Japanese, takes players through the London
Money Heist’s Spanish origins. This is partly Underground and into the Hebrides. Anyone
down to the fact that game translations are playing the Chinese Parents life simulator will
really good now; we’ve come a long way since It’s strange to think of Mario get a taste of what it’s like to prepare for the
“all your base are belong to us”, to the point gruelling ‘gaokao’ high-school exams, or what
where many may have no idea their favourite Kart as a ‘foreign’ game in the it means to receive ‘red envelope’ gifts.
game wasn’t originally made in English. During the pandemic, I started travelling
It’s certainly not because games have less
same way we think of Squid vicariously by reading translated novels. It
to translate. Sure, Mario Kart doesn’t have a Game as a foreign TV show shouldn’t surprise you that one of the best
hundred hours of audio, but Final Fantasy and French alternate-history thrillers in recent
Beyond Good & Evil have far more words This happy circumstance has made games years, Civilisations, is still an incredible page-
needing translation than the average movie or one of the most cosmopolitan forms of turner in English, or that the best Polish sci-fi
TV show. The difference is that developers entertainment in the past century. I don’t writer, Stanisław Lem, remains funnier and
are now willing to spend more for better think most players are intentionally seeking smarter in translation than practically every
quality translations, and the lack of visible out foreign games, though; they just want to native English author.
dubbing in any game that doesn’t use FMV or play good, original games, and the cost of We’d all gain, as individuals and as a
prerendered cutscenes – which is most of development and distribution has sunk so society, if we spent more time with media
them, these days – makes it easy to overlook low that you can find world-class studios in from other places. Sadly, there are countless
Illustration konsume.me

any minor issues. And though it pains me to practically any country. great books that have waited years or decades
say it as someone who cares about There are obvious standouts, such as before being made available in English. We’re
storytelling in games, a lot of players clearly France’s strength in story-driven adventures, fortunate we don’t have to wait anywhere
don’t care about a shaky narrative (whether or or Japan’s strength in practically every genre near as long for the best games to arrive.
not it was originally written in English) other than firstperson shooters. I still marvel Adrian Hon is CEO of Six To Start, lead designer of Zombies,
providing the mechanics are solid. at how Life Is Strange, one of the most beloved Run!, and author of the forthcoming book You’ve Been Played

26
 ON SALE NOW!

Available at WHSmith,
or simply search for ‘T3’ in your device’s App Store

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE!

www.magazinesdirect.com/t3-magazine
 #377

THE GAMES IN OUR SIGHTS THIS MONTH

30 System Shock 42 Deliver Us Mars 48 Gungrave GORE
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series

34 Pentiment 44 Mars First Logistics 48 Shadows Of Doubt

PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series PC PC

38 Hubris 46 Dragon Quest 48 Warhammer 40,000:

Index, PSVR2, Quest, Rift, Vive Treasures Rogue Trader
Switch PC, PS4, Xbox One
40 The Dark Pictures
Anthology: 48 The Legend Of Zelda: 48 Pikmin 4
The Devil In Me Tears Of The Kingdom Switch
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Switch

Explore the iPad

edition of Edge for
extra Hype content

28
 System refresh
Familiar, but new: that’s the mantra Nightdive Studio has adopted for its
remake of PC classic System Shock. The prospect of updating such a
seminal work must be a daunting one, but CEO Stephen Kick is making all
the right noises. Its concessions to modern design feel eminently sensible,
the original’s awkward user interface reworked to more closely resemble its
beloved 1999 successor. Yet Kick is also keen to preserve the original’s
feel, refusing to budge on its lurid palette while getting out of the player’s
way after early tooltips and control explanations so that we can figure out
the rest ourselves. And there are just enough changes to the original that
those who know it inside and out will find themselves wrong-footed from
time to time – you are, after all, being toyed with by a malevolent AI.
SHODAN, it understands, should still have the capacity to shock.
Those joining Keoken Interactive for its journey to the red planet,
meanwhile, may find a more challenging ride than their previous trip to the
Moon. Deliver Us Mars eschews the trend towards frictionless exploration
by giving protagonist Kathy Johanson a pair of pickaxes. As you drive them
in, you must clutch the triggers to sustain your grip,
MOST
WANTED releasing one and stretching an arm to find another spot
Like A Dragon: Ishin to dig into. Rather than leaping, Nathan Drake style,
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Be still our beating hearts. Even given
the series’ recent resurgence in the west,
between clearly marked handholds, the scrape of pick
we thought the day that RGG Studio
would bring a translated version of this
on rock (not to mention the vertiginous view) adds real
samurai spinoff to these shores would
never come. Roll on February.
tension and drama to these perilous climbs and descents.
Like A Dragon Gaiden: There’s more scratching at the surface in Pentiment,
The Man Who Erased His Name
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series built within Obsidian by a tiny team led by Josh Sawyer
Well, two-fifths of it, at least: now living a
monastic existence in rural Japan, Kiryu and Hannah Kennedy. As an artist investigating a murder
has become Joryu in a story that covers
events between Yakuza 6 and the game in 16th-century Bavaria, you’ll uncover plenty of secrets
below. Though we have great affection
for the man, it’s disappointing he’s been
brought out of retirement so soon after
and suspects, the game letting you choose who is
such a complete, satisfying ending.
punished without ever revealing whodunnit. It’s rich in the
Like A Dragon 8
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series kind of moral ambiguity that has become the studio’s
Kiryu + Ichiban in Kamurocho? Incredibly
safe, fan-pandering stuff, sure, but we’d stock-in-trade, yet in its unique setting and presentation it
be lying if we said we weren’t looking
forward to those karaoke duets. offers something delightfully different. Familiar, but new.
 Stephen Kick’s love of
System Shock started in his
school days, although it was
the sequel that really left
an impression. “I booted it
up and thought, ‘OK, this is
on another level’,” he says

30
 H Y
P E

SYSTEM
SHOCK
Rebooting the ’90s immersive sim
with some hi-tech augmentations

Developer Nightdive Studios

Publisher Prime Matter, Plaion
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin US
Release 2022

31
TOP Energy rechargers make an
early appearance, refilling any
depleted weapons or implants.
ABOVE The game’s development
began in Unity, but the team soon
decided it needed to switch to
Unreal to realise its ambitions

TOP There’s a certain

“graininess” in the look
of the original, Kick says,
that Nightdive is trying to
capture in the remake.
ABOVE Terminals on the
Citadel will send you into
cyberspace, rendered as a
neon-framed 3D maze.
LEFT Droids and cyborgs have
a more fearsome presence
now, their bulky bodies
filling the cramped corridors

32
 H Y
P E

SYSTEM
SHOCK

A
s if trying to comfort us with a away in a room we access by squatting into
recognisable dystopia, System Shock’s a ventilation shaft. Familiar, but new.
new intro bombards us with ’80s The same goes for the look of the
cyberpunk imagery. Observing through the Citadel. Naturally, it’s constructed with
windscreen of a flying car, we’re swept greater fidelity and in sharper detail than
around angular skyscrapers in the pounding before, yet the interior design is a flattering
rain, then spy a lone hacker hunched over a replica. As if obeying the old laws of screen
computer in an executive office and switch resolution, walls and doors are still
to his view. He’s attempting to steal a patterned with big square panels and
valuable neural implant, but triggers an buttons in brilliantly lurid colours. The
alarm, summoning armoured security who palette in particular is something Kick was Improving
rendition him to a space station. Here he’s keen to hold on to. “It’s unusual for a horror on perfection
offered an ultimatum: disable the station title,” he says. “We definitely wanted to keep
Few elements of
AI’s ethical restraints, or die. The hacker that aesthetic because it’s uniquely System System Shock are as
complies, then loses consciousness as a Shock and it helps it stand apart from crucial as the presence
guard injects him with anaesthetic. contemporary horror games.” of SHODAN, especially
There are differences from the 1994 What matters now is whether ’90s her domineering
rants. We don’t hear
intro here – that initial tour through the immersive-sim hands-off design principles
much from the god-
city, for example, and the now fully voiced can balance with the expectations of new complex-addled AI in
scene with Edward Diego in the Citadel recruits used to much smoother user our short session – she
station – but the display of retrofuturism experiences. On that note, Nightdive has doesn’t narrate the
underlines that the developer of this reboot intro this time – but
she’ll certainly lord
has no intention of updating everything.
Stephen Kick, CEO of developer Nightdive
“We definitely wanted to over you with
stuttering, maniacal
Studios, calls it “extremely familiar but also keep that aesthetic because interventions during
new”. The idea for the full remake, he your adventure, even
explains, came when the studio was making it’s uniquely System Shock” bringing some new
its enhanced edition of the original, and material. “We
rewrote all of her
decided the material deserved a larger-scale made changes where it felt was necessary, lines to some degree,”
reimagining. “If you ever ask anybody if the most obvious of which feels instantly Kick explains, “but all
they they’ve heard of System Shock, they sensible. “One of the most oppressive things the flavour and all the
usually mention the second game,” Kick about the original was the user interface,” villainous nature is
says. “We wanted to remedy that because of Kick says. “It kind of clobbered the player still there.” The crucial
factor, he adds, is that
how much we love the original, but we knew over the head.” An alternative resembling
the original voiceover
the enhanced edition could only go so far.” the grid inventory from System Shock 2 has artist, Terri Brosius, is
therefore been drafted in, and allows the reprising the role.
As the hacker wakes up in the med bay, player to manage items in their inventory “In early discussions,
then, under the watchful eye of murderous without fuss. “That really helped streamline we almost felt like,
‘Well, if we can’t get
AI SHODAN, we’re almost but not quite at the experience,” Kick says.
Terri then do we even
home. The storeroom containing essential Such concessions to authenticity don’t, bother making the
gear is present and correct (although we however, mean that players will be guided game?’ Fortunately,
somehow fail to spot the metal pipe at first through the game, aside from some early she was on board and
and leave unarmed), as is the healing tooltips and explanations of controls, while she’s been absolutely
wonderful.”
module we clamber inside to regenerate fresh twists in the tale should keep even
health. Next is the expected first scuffle veterans on their toes. And with such
with two corrupted med-bots – hovering assurances, plus our initial impressions of
chrome pedal-bins trying to kill us while SHODAN’s biomechanical nightmare, we
lying that “this won’t hurt a bit”, until we feel hopeful that the anxious thrill of the
finally locate that pipe and crudely first time has been successfully rebuilt.
deactivate them. We then find that the code “We wanted to leave it up to players to
to unlock the med bay (we’ll leave you to figure out on their own,” Kick says, “and get
guess whether it’s still 451) is now tucked the satisfaction that the original gave.”

33
 H Y
P E

PENTIMENT
Obsidian’s medieval mystery is
a trove of novel influences

Developer Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher Microsoft Game Studios
Format PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin US
Release November

P
entiment’s painted landscapes and The prospect of an Obsidian production
scribed dialogue evoke medieval tomes drawing on Eco’s work is enticing, promising a
blessed by fine calligraphy and marginalia. crime tale muddied by primitive forensics,
Its premise, however, brings to mind a book religious taboos, class distrust and authoritarian
from more recent history. Guiding journeyman overseers. Yet this is no mere homage, Sawyer
artist Andreas Maler to investigate the murder says, and the team has used the format to push
of a nobleman in his local abbey, we feel like into other subject areas. For starters, Pentiment
we’ve stepped into the sandals of William Of is set in Bavaria rather than Italy, and some 200
Baskerville in The Name Of The Rose. And years later than The Name Of The Rose, during
sure enough, Pentiment’s director Josh Sawyer the cultural and technological transitions of the
later confirms, that’s very much by intent. 16th century. Sawyer also wants to explore the
“My initial pitch of this was ‘Night In The period from a broader view than Eco’s focus on
Woods meets The Name Of The Rose’,” he tells male monastic life, with the secular Maler
us. “I have two tattoos from there. It’s my employed by the abbey but living in the
favourite novel and I love Umberto Eco.” neighbouring town, crossing between both
For Obsidian, a studio better known for worlds. The abbey itself, meanwhile, houses
creating world-spanning RPGs, a detective monks on one side and nuns on the other. A
game inspired by a literary novel feels rare arrangement historically, Sawyer says, but
uncharacteristic. Yet it was thanks to the an ideal canvas from which to explore a range
growing scope of the studio under Microsoft of social relationships.
that Sawyer felt able to dabble in more niche Also, while Pentiment won’t shy away from
ideas. The director of Fallout: New Vegas and the grim realities of the time, from infant
Pillars Of Eternity had always assumed he’d mortality to the German Peasants War, we can
make a full-size historical RPG someday, but expect to find some humour mixed in along
saw an alternative path open up thanks to the way. Art director Hannah Kennedy
Microsoft’s commitment to Game Pass. “I explains that in some ways the game has more
thought making a game like this focusing on in common with the film adaptation of The
Game Pass would be a really good experiment,” Name Of The Rose than the book. “The story is
he says, “to see whether working with a small successful in that context because it has this
team in a big company for a huge publisher is compelling ensemble cast,” she says. “They’re
viable. And it seems like it is.” dramatic and extreme in a way that makes it

34
As artful as the
calligraphic dialogue is, it
may be difficult for some
players to read, so there’s
an option to use plainer
fonts should you need it

35
 H Y
P E

PENTIMENT

kind of a campy experience.” Offsetting the background, lifestyle and interests – whether
heavier material and unfamiliar medieval he studied medicine or Latin at university, say,
culture in Pentiment with lively and relatable or is more of a hedonist than a bookworm.
personalities is key, she believes. “Having These decisions make themselves felt as
them be flawed and funny and vulnerable is unique dialogue options, which may help you
important to make players feel like they can better understand certain situations, although
experience the story alongside the characters.” it’s not always smart to select them. “Acting
like a know-it-all is not something that
In our short session, the game’s sharp yet endears you to people,” Sawyer says, “so it’s
considered script supports these assertions, kind of a read-the-room thing.” You may need
and we’re particularly struck by how much to watch your tongue in front of devoutly Card talk
character is conveyed through its pen-and-ink religious characters, or – in an early example – In another part of our
visual stylings. We note, for example, that the a peasant who disapproves of idle gossip. And, demo, we’re planted
speech of some individuals is written more as in any RPG, how you approach each problem into a card game that
slowly than others, or arrives with spelling should have varying narrative consequences. will appear in the
second act of Maler’s
mistakes that are quickly erased and corrected. Pentiment has some of the scale and
adventure. The rules
“It’s meant to capture the physical act of openness of an RPG too. There are around 200 are loosely based on
writing,” Sawyer says. “It’s an important way to characters to converse with, we’re told, all with the historical game
reflect how people thought and wrote things potentially useful contributions to make, and a Lansquenet, we’re
down.” With these and other techniques, runtime expected to weigh in at around 20 informed, and
although some
speech is thus filled with cultural markers, as hours. Our demo session branches out instantly,
elements are
as we’re supplied with three leads to follow, unfamiliar – the suits
before being set loose to wander the village, the
The speech of some individuals abbey, and a handful of connecting areas. We
differ from a modern
pack; eights, nines
is written more slowly, or stop to chat to a couple of villagers while getting and tens are removed;
and the queen has the
our bearings. One of them knows Maler well
arrives with spelling mistakes enough to cough up some information, while
highest value – it’s
effectively a medieval
the other remains suspicious and tight-lipped. variant of poker. In
scribes make fewer errors than uneducated Then we arrive at the abbey, where we help the the few rounds we
people, for instance, while printers will see doctor examine the body for a cause of death, play, success seems
their dialogue pressed onto the screen. and impress him with our medical knowledge. to rely purely on
chance, yet it may
This concept continues into the character How much difference such choices make not be the winning
designs, referencing their status and the shift will become clear in time, but certainly the but the taking part
from the thought of the Middle Ages to that point of Pentiment is not to follow a line of that counts. Between
of the Renaissance. “The monastics and the breadcrumbs to a single solution. “One of the hands, other players
older characters are done in a style that looks things I thought would be very Obsidian-ish is have a habit of
chatting about the
like they were painted,” Kennedy says, “and, as that this isn’t about finding a right or wrong
matters of the day,
these characters age, they’ll have paint chipping answer,” Sawyer says. You might learn about so, even if you exit
off them. The more modern characters within each person’s background and motives, but lighter on cash,
the game look more like a woodcut style.” The when it comes to delivering your verdict you you may pick up
aim was to make these styles authentic to the don’t have to provide a clear answer, or even an clues about a
potential murderer.
game’s setting, she adds, although in the case honest one. “You can turn in the person that
of the woodcuts some compromises were made you think is most likely to have done it, or the
because characters tended to be difficult to person that you don’t like, or that you think the
distinguish from one another. “We knew we community is going to miss the least.”
would need to do some experimentation to Roleplaying game or not, then, Pentiment may
make that fit the format.” ultimately be about your own ethical leanings,
Equally admirable is the breadth of choice and recounting history with a textured
in Pentiment, and here we come to realise that ambiguity that could well have entertained
it may be like an Obsidian RPG after all. Before Eco himself. “We don’t tell you what’s right or
taking control of Maler we’re effectively asked wrong,” Sawyer says. “We tell you, ‘This is what
to roll the character, selecting his educational you know. Decide, and then live with it’.”

36
 BELOW Choosing an
education in Latin or logic
for Maler has obvious
applications, but you never
know when expertise in
astronomy or the occult
may be more useful

TOP While characters are

two-dimensional, the
scenery around them has
depth and paths that take
you into the screen.
ABOVE Days are divided
into phases, and some
characters may be more
amenable to conversation
at different times, such as
when they’ve finished work.
RIGHT Respecting local
customs and culture is
probably a good idea if you
want to stay on friendly
terms with townsfolk

37
 Developer/
publisher Cyborn
Format Index,
PSVR2, Quest,
Rift, Vive
Origin Belgium
Release 2022 (Index,
Rift, Vive), 2023
(PSVR2, Quest)

HUBRIS
A VR space adventure that’s reaching for the stars

O
ur mission on Hubris’s alien planet OOO, for which our protagonist apparently
begins underwater. Fortunately, a works. In truth, it all feels a bit like walking
tutorial has already showed us how to into a Star Wars spinoff without knowing
swim, and when we exit our landing capsule your Wookiees from your Ewoks. But in the
semi-submerged in a tranquil lake it’s the water, such concerns quickly wash away.
first lesson we have to call upon. These
opening moments almost feel like a birth, as The VR, you see, is already doing its
we paddle up until our head breaks the job, placing us right inside this curious yet
surface, unveiling the big, wide world. And welcoming land. Swimming towards an
what a view we’re treated to: blue skies, the outcrop of hexagonal rocks is an intuitive
arc of a moon, a mysterious monolith. It’s not matter of spreading our palms in a
unlike when we first saw the curve of the ring breaststroke motion, while an extension of
in Halo, perhaps, yet now with the sense of
depth afforded by VR.
Such a cinematic reveal shouldn’t be
This may be the closest we get
surprising from Cyborn, a studio with origins to feeling like Nathan Drake
in animated film. Indeed, game director
Ives Agemans explains, Hubris is one slice or Lara Croft for some time
of a larger project that grew from these roots.
“We created Hubris a long time ago,” he says. the arms, a grab and a pull heaves us up onto
“We started to make a lot of concept designs dry land. Cyborn makes the most of this kind
for a film. We’ve also made a short miniseries of environmental navigation – in many ways
A fairly brisk playthrough
should take five to six hours, that tells about what happens before the Hubris is a hands-on firstperson platformer –
Agemans says, although he game.” Thus, there’s a grand backstory to and, as we discovered in the tutorial, the
hopes players will take a
little time to look around
events here involving warring empires, climbing aspect is especially striking.
and enjoy the scenery terraforming, and an organisation called the Stretching for ledges then levering yourself
higher feels believable without being fussy.
This may be the closest we get to feeling like
Nathan Drake or Lara Croft for some time.
And like those games, Hubris is designed
to deliver the full action-adventure
experience, complete with shooting and
puzzles. The former is introduced gently,
with a few-lake dwelling pests to disintegrate
(see ‘Fierce creatures’), but once you venture
farther you’ll encounter human characters
and engage them in more dynamic firefights.
Puzzles, meanwhile, will comprise a range
of tasks created by the environment, which
will tend to involve finding, crafting and
placing items to open paths. “When there’s a
puzzle, it’s never something that does not

38
 Fierce
creatures
The planet’s flora and
fauna will have a say
in your progress, with
plants that come in
handy and small but
hostile beasts getting
in your way from the
start. The first close
encounter is with
some squid/jellyfish
hybrids in the lake
that sucker onto you
if you don’t zap them.
They leave behind
TOP One instantly pleasing disembodied tentacles
action is reaching over your that you can pocket,
shoulder in order to drop to turn into a rubbery
items into a virtual rucksack. climbing rope later.
ABOVE You can then call up Another sequence
an inventory from your
wrist device and quickly
involves a machine
select items to remove. that lets you turn
RIGHT Cyborn’s services seeds into fruit,
include creating ‘digital which shows its value
humans’ for various when you catch the
applications, so expect
high-quality modelling
attention of a swarm
and animation on NPCs of bulb-headed crab
things. Like the jelly-
squids, they’re
desperate to latch on,
really fit in the universe,” Agemans says. drone is going to help you out,” Agemans says.
but they also stop to
“It’s not an escape room.” In our demo, that happens a little quickly, so nibble the fruit if you
The challenge for the developers, then, is we hope she takes a back seat later on. lob it towards them,
how to arrange these pillars of conventional Still, this initial foray suggests that Hubris buying you more time
gaming in VR without things feeling is fulfilling the requirements for an action to take them out.
overcomplicated. It’s a concern they’ve held adventure in VR – in particular, the prospect
in mind throughout. “We try to make it as of actively climbing across cliff faces or
easygoing as possible for people to do it cavern walls is, well, gripping. Whatever
without getting motion sick,” Agemans says. happens to the ambitions of the larger
And the game isn’t designed to place you project, this piece feels well measured, and
under constant pressure, which is a relief, Cyborn’s experience in crafting cinematic
although one concern we have is whether worlds should guarantee more exquisite
your partner, who outlines objectives through views. “Even the darker parts have to look
a hovering drone, might be too chatty. “If you beautiful,” Agemans says. “So it’s nice to be
need to find something, after a while the there even when you’re fighting.”

39
 Developer
Supermassive Games
Publisher Bandai
Namco Entertainment
Format PC, PS4, PS5,
Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin UK
Release Nov 18
THE DARK PICTURES
A N T H O L O G Y:
THE DEVIL IN ME
Supermassive turns to a notorious serial killer for its season finale

A
t a time when the videogame time [because] they know they’re going to kill
industry is beset by delays, there’s you while you’re running down the corridor.”
something almost supernatural about
Supermassive’s ability to release a Dark Escaping death should be a more
Pictures game every year. And yet The Devil In hands-on affair than in previous games. Dan
Me has nothing to do with otherworldly forces, McDonald, studio director for Dark Pictures,
as this fourth entry in the horror anthology explains that the team has continually
(and ‘season finale’) places us in the hands of a evaluated how it can improve the formula, “and
sadistic but very human serial killer. “He’s got this being the season finale, it’s the biggest
hold of this idea that murder could be an art push, where we’ve put lots more features into
form,” game director Tom Heaton tells us, it”. Exploration systems have been overhauled, Device squad
“and he’s trying to create the perfect, most so characters can climb over furniture, jump, The scenario of five
appropriate death for each character.” crawl, shimmy across ledges, push objects and filmmakers stuck in
The pitch only grows more grisly as seek out hiding spots. “It makes exploration a house of horrors
is reminiscent of
details are revealed. The inspiration here is more intense,” Heaton says. “And allows us to
Capcom’s NES title
HH Holmes, nowadays known as America’s create levels that are more nonlinear, that have Sweet Home, and the
first serial killer, a charming conman who built surprises and secrets players can find.” The comparison stretches
his own hotel in Chicago in the late 19th focus on cinematic framing and branching to Supermassive’s
century. The building was reportedly full of choices, though, remains equally prominent. implementation of
character-specific
bizarre traps made to confuse and deceive “You’re still getting something that looks and
equipment. Alongside
victims, Heaton explains. Legends tell of feels a bit like a horror movie you can play a simple inventory
dead-end corridors, moving walls, sealed with your friends,” Heaton assures us. system, allowing you
windows, poison gas, and trapdoors to a The cast list should please those tuning in to pick up and carry
basement containing vats of acid. While the for the film experience, with lead protagonist objects around the
hotel, each member
true story of Holmes’ crimes isn’t so Kate played by Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley.
of the crew has a
“She’s an actress that always creates these tool that’s relevant
highly sympathetic characters that are often a
“I wanted to get that sense little bit prickly,” Heaton says, “but she makes
to their job and may
help them out of
of a remorseless killer that them very likeable, and that’s great for Kate.” a bind. “Erin has
this directional
McDonald adds that Supermassive’s track
pursues you at his own pace” record has enabled the studio to attract such
microphone,” Heaton
explains. “She can
talent, and with casting and performance use it to pick up
sensational, this so-called ‘murder castle’ does directors both coming from the theatre world, conversations or hear
sound like a perfect setting for a horror game. methods are evolving too. “[The actors] get to things through walls.
It won’t be Holmes himself stalking you, work almost like it’s a theatre the way that we Jamie the electrician
has a multimeter. She
but a present-day copycat. The protagonists shoot it,” he says. “They’re not in a sound
can plug it into fuse
in The Devil In Me are a documentary crew booth, they’re acting together.” boxes, fix the wiring
making a series about American serial killers As The Dark Pictures reaches season’s on them or blow
including Holmes. A man named Granthem end, then, the machine seems well-oiled for them and unlock
Du’Met invites the team to a remote island another. “From the start, we knew what the new paths.” The rest
remain to be seen,
where he claims to have inherited a replica of first eight games were going to be,” Heaton
but unlike in Sweet
the horrible hotel. When they arrive, they find says, and this half-time break is an Home, we doubt
exactly that, but the experience turns out to be opportunity to check things are going as anyone here will
all too real as Du’Met turns the documentary planned. With The Devil In Me, he seems be armed with a
into a slasher movie. “I wanted to get that confident they are. “I think we will freshen vacuum cleaner.
sense of a remorseless killer that pursues you things up for season two,” he says. “But we
at his own pace,” Heaton says, “that takes their won’t change the formula too much.”

40
 TOP The Devil In Me will be longer
than previous Dark Pictures games,
weighing in at around seven hours.
ABOVE Games have some advantages
over film horror, McDonald notes,
“because we can really scare
someone when they’re in control”

TOP Group play continues

to be a central feature, as
does the joy of ‘accidentally’
getting another player’s
character picked off.
ABOVE One other cast
member among the main
group that’s been announced
is Paul Kaye, once of Dennis
Pennis fame but nowadays
a versatile character actor.
MAIN Kubrick’s The Shining
was a considerable influence,
Heaton says, “for that sense
of how a building can be
malevolent and intimidating”

41
 Developer
Keoken Interactive
Publisher
Frontier Developments
Format PC, PS4, PS5,
Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin
The Netherlands
Release
February 2

DELIVER US MARS
A pair of pickaxes raises the stakes in this expanded sequel

G
ravity may be low on Mars, but a long there should be more interaction between
fall still hurts. So, as we stare across a characters this time.
deep quarry and realise we need to Then there’s the setting, which appears
get to the other side, a careful climb down is more colossal and foreboding than the Moon.
the only sensible option. Our astronaut is at “The environment had to stay our biggest
least equipped for the job, packing a pair of enemy,” Arkenbout says. “But we wanted to
lightweight pickaxes. We smash them into make it feel like this hostile place without it
a patch of soft rock, holding both triggers trying too hard, basically.” Other descriptors
to keep them embedded, then descend he uses are “desolate” and “ghostly”, and we
tentatively, releasing the right-hand axe, certainly experience a tinge of relief each time
stretching down, digging it in again, then we leave the russet dirt and pass through an Lightbulb
repeating the routine with the left. The airlock into an enclosed, oxygenated space. moment
control system is instantly logical, yet Not that this will be the only contrast you’ll Puzzles retain equal
demands method and concentration. Release see, Arkenbout adds, as Keoken has been keen billing with the
the triggers together at any time, and you to introduce more varied environments. “We action and narrative
drop, perhaps with a chance to replant both also go to the icy craters,” he says. “We have elements, and should
provoke moderate
axes while plummeting, but don’t bank on it. these gorgeous spaceship interiors to explore,
head-scratching.
Those familiar with Keoken Interactive’s and even go back to Earth a couple of times.” The first we have to
Deliver Us The Moon may be surprised to hear Again, continuing and building from the first deal with involves
about such dextrous demands in this follow- game, there will be changes of pace, such as powering up a lift
up on the red planet. But this is a considerably zero-g sequences, driving and scuba diving. mechanism by
pointing a tripod-
more expansive game than the original, in a But for now, after we succeed in crossing
mounted laser device
way that seems to befit the change in location. the quarry and explore some abandoned at an energy panel.
“We had ambitions to make it longer,” buildings, we return to climbing. Johanson’s Except the laser is
narrative director Raynor Arkenbout pickaxe crab-walk is a slow process, and while too powerful, so we
explains. “And even our ambitions grew out need to dampen it
of proportion, so it has become a full-length by placing a large
game almost.” Merging platforming challenges
“We wanted to make it portable bulb-like
contraption in the
into the flow has been one way of creating feel like this hostile place laser’s path, and that’s
something more substantial, and these stuck behind a locked
climbing mechanics will be their centrepiece. without it trying too hard” door. The solution
takes us perhaps a
little more time to
Another development has been to it can be frustrating when we fall and have to
click than it should,
replace the first game’s silent protagonist repeat a section, the deliberate rhythm makes and in the end is
with a character sporting a face, an identity it more dramatic. We come to appreciate how rather neat and
and personal stakes in the mission. The story these sections will evolve, too, as we leap and simple. Especially
here is set ten years after Deliver Us The latch on to moving panels, work across slim smart, though, is
the inclusion of
Moon, and follows an expedition from Earth patches of soft rock, and time an ascent
subtle clues for the
tasked with retrieving stolen vessels known between giant rotor blades. By the time we observant, in this case
as ARKs, the only hope for reversing Earth’s close in on the lip of the cliff at the far side, scratches on the floor
atmospheric decline, which are now in the we’re gripping those triggers tighter than ever, hinting at where the
hands of a rogue colony organisation. Our and looking forward to more challenges. “This bulb has been placed
before, which help us
charge, Kathy Johanson, is part of the team is not maybe what other action adventures
get it in position.
seeking the ARKs, but her father is one of the have done, with just a simple press of X and
colony leaders. “You can smell the conflict then thumb-stick it down,” Arkenbout says.
there already,” Arkenbout says. And while “It’s going to be an intense storm of trying
our demo level sees Johanson working alone, to stay alive on those pickaxes.”

42
 LEFT The first act of the
game focuses on the journey
to Mars, beginning with
the launch from Earth

RIGHT Despite the expansive

vistas, progress remains
linear in order to keep the
focus firmly on the story.
BELOW With the colony
seemingly abandoned, the
backstory is revealed
through a number of
holographic recordings.
BELOW RIGHT As in the first
game, you’re accompanied
by an ASE drone that is able
to scout ahead and also
scan points of interest

43
 Developer
Shape Shop
Publisher Outersloth
Format PC
Origin Australia
Release 2023

MARS FIRST LOGISTICS

From Deliver Us Mars to Deliver On Mars

P
laying Mars First Logistics, we quickly Your first goal is disarmingly simple: you
become aware that we’d never have made must deliver a large watering can from a base
it as a NASA engineer. Having been given habitat to a nearby greenhouse. The route is
a rough completion time for this handful of relatively straightforward, and you’re provided
early tasks, we find ourselves exceeding that a blueprint that turns your basic rover,
estimate on one mission alone, our various appropriately, into a ‘watering can lifter’. The
additions to the basic rover with which we’ve vehicle assembly screen looks like a Lego
been provided to fulfil a series of deliveries Technic instruction manual, where we see – The short sequences which
see buildings take shape
causing it to capsize at the slightest extending from the base at a 45-degree
after you’ve completed a
provocation: accelerating up a gentle slope, angle – an arrangement of pieces that forms a delivery are a charming
This steel girder must be say, or brushing the right rear wheel against a large, gripping claw, the bottom piece attached reward for your efforts
delivered upright. It’s only
after a major struggle that small rock. Sure, we can reset our haphazardly to a servo motor so it can be manually
we realise we could have constructed vehicle in a pinch, but doing so lowered and raised. As such, you merely need
transported it horizontally
and rebuilt our vehicle at our
means we have to pick our cargo up again – a to drive up, ensure the claws are either side of
destination to finish the job job that is a good deal trickier than it sounds. the handle, and then pinch them together to

44
 The default rover colour is
white but you can paint
individual parts in different
colours. It says a lot about
modern videogame design
that we’re surprised we’re
not asked to pony up for the
ability to deck out our rover
in the most garish of hues

lift the oversized container. Even with this to the greenhouse to transport a crate of
robust prebuilt template, you can feel the oranges, where we’re promptly handed a
effect of the load on your vehicle’s handling, blueprint for a crate carrier with a perfectly
but we make it to our destination with very symmetrical build featuring hydraulic Rover
little trouble. cylinders and two corrugated jaws that and out
The problems begin with our next effectively says: here’s how it should be done. The building process
objective, which on paper seems like a breeze: (Not that we were in a position to afford it, is, for the most part,
all we need to do is deliver a crate. But said though – you have to buy new parts with the straightforward. You
crate is perched atop a large cargo container. proceeds from previous quests, forcing you to have a default four-
wheeled rover base
get creative with the limited tools at your
(later blueprints
disposal.) Regardless, despite an ominous
The process of getting from pop-up message that tells us what happens
come with six) plus a
selection of pieces to
one place to another feels like when a delivery is beyond recovery – you can which you can add by
spending some of
reset it from the map, which returns the cargo
a vehicular Death Stranding to the pickup point so you can start afresh –
your hard-earned
credits. Each piece
the mission proves a doddle. Even with a more clicks neatly and
Clearly a watering can carrier was not treacherous journey that has us questioning satisfyingly into place,
designed for this particular task, but here the the wisdom of whoever decided on the though you need to
game offers no guidance whatsoever: we’re location of these facilities, we get there safely make sure it’s rotated
going to have to figure out a way to get it simply by taking it slowly. properly beforehand.
Indeed, you need to
down ourselves. Our first mistake is to try to If the construction reminds us of Banjo plan ahead, since
build something that can both retrieve the Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the process of getting anything you’ve
crate from its inconvenient pickup point and from one place to another feels more like a attached to a piece
ferry it to our destination. After vainly vehicular Death Stranding, albeit one where you’re planning to
attempting to jury-rig a forklift-like you can’t auto-arrange your load for easier remove will come
away with it and
appendage to gently lift it off, we opt instead balancing. In other words, a game of serene
Each cylinder and motor is disappear back into
controlled in the same way, to poke it down, before assembling an journeys across awkward terrain, punctuated the virtual box. It’s
requiring you to switch absolute monstrosity to carry it home. by amusing (and occasionally frustrating) a pity there’s no
‘channels’ before attempting
to move them. It’s one more
It’s here the game’s mischievous sense of physics-based accidents, but one where you ‘replace’ function
way things can go wrong humour emerges. Our next task sends us back gain similar satisfaction from contributing to or the ability to set
a wider effort. Yes, whoever determined that aside a cluster of
parts before
we needed to orient that steel beam vertically reattaching them;
to complete one delivery may now be our likewise, we can
sworn nemesis. But as we watch the foresee some being
observatory for which it provides the put off by the total
foundations take shape – presented in a way lack of assistance,
though studying
that’s like watching timelapse footage of an
existing blueprints
Lego build, the pieces slotting in with tactile proves useful in
clicks – we enjoy the feeling of a job well done. terms of learning
Let’s just ignore how long it took, hmm? best practices.

45
 Developer
In-house, Armor
Project, Bird Studio
Publisher
Square Enix
Format Switch
Origin Japan
Release December 9

DRAGON QUEST
TREASURES
Will this spinoff prove to be a hidden gem?

T
his spinoff and prequel to Dragon Quest
XI begins with a playful trick: the first
treasure chest you encounter can’t be
opened; instead, a text box teases that you
will soon discover plenty of treasures to claim
for yourself. The ‘you’ in this case is plural,
with the story focusing on blue-haired
siblings Erik and Mia during happier times –
well, relatively speaking, as we begin with the
two orphans enslaved aboard a Viking ship,
plotting their escape.
The Dragon Quest series has always
targeted a broad audience. In Japan, especially,
it’s loved by children and adults alike, but as
a Switch exclusive starring two younger
protagonists (as well as two talking fairies but also open a portal, spiriting the pair You will encounter
that have the appearance of a cat and piglet away to the land of Draconia. It’s a pity these rival gangs who can
summon their own
respectively), Treasures evidently skews daggers don’t seem to help out much in a monsters to ambush you
towards the former – even if we still spot one fight, our swipes dealing a single hit point’s and make off with the
treasure for themselves
bawdy reference near the beginning of our worth of damage. We soon discover that our
hands-on demo. There’s still the distinctive auto-aiming slingshot, which lets us squeeze
Akira Toriyama aesthetic and the use of an the trigger and release to fire pebbles at
English dub, albeit much of it limited to single targets, is capable of better results.
lines rather than fully voiced dialogue, but Yet those daggers contain one more
this has the more immediate pick-up-and- important power: enabling Erik and Mia to
play comfort of a light action RPG. Given how
ultra-traditional to a fault we found XI –
despite making occasional overtures towards
This has the more immediate
something more modern – it’s refreshing pick-up-and-play comfort
to roam around more freely. Our heroes are
able to jump and crouch, and automatically of a light action RPG
clamber up on to ledges, while enemy
encounters also take place in real time communicate with and recruit other monsters
within the same field, rather than the game to form a party, in the style of Pokémon. Per
whisking you away to a separate arena. series tradition, our first monster companion
is, of course, a Slime – although in this case
A little more concerning, at least in these it’s a pink variant named Oozabella. We’re not
early stages, is your feeble attack power. The only able to communicate with her but also
siblings quickly escape to a small island with access her memories to find treasure chests
an underground dungeon where they discover buried around the world. In practice, that
two magical daggers, which don’t merely allow means pulling up a picture of a nearby chest
them to understand their fairy companions (which can be viewed in full screen) and then

46
 LEFT What the siblings’
magical daggers lack in
power they make up in
their versatility; they can
be used to heal the pair
by holding the X button.
BELOW Recruitable monsters
are categorised by rarity
based on the colour around
their portrait; the rarest are
granted a rainbow frame

Brother half
From this heavily
scripted prologue,
it’s not entirely clear
whether or not
you’ll be able to
swap between Erik
and Mia on the fly.
For now, the game
simply designates us a
character, as we begin
with Erik making his
way out of the Viking
ship on its top deck
while his sister goes
on ahead. When the
two first arrive in
Draconia, they’re also
split up, and we take
over as Mia looks for
her brother. An early
puzzle has the siblings
working together to
open a gate, although
control automatically
changes from one
Fortes also include being finding the same location, the ground Oozabella bouncing us up to a platform that’s
able to use monsters as standing on a switch
emitting a golden glow once we reach the beyond jumping height. to the other. We’d be
mounts, either to ride on for
crossing terrain (as pictured) spot. Then it’s simply matter of holding the How to go about recruiting monsters is surprised if this
or even gliding in the air dig button to excavate our prize. unclear; the ones we’re given are all part of seemingly inseparable
Once we’ve gathered three other the story, which establishes that our sibling duo doesn’t end up
making a fearsome
monsters, our party makes quick work of heroes are journeying through Draconia to
team in a scrap.
other enemies, proving capable of getting the find seven Dragon Stones (naturally, they’re
job done without our input. Though that, in not the only ones trying to hunt them down).
truth, is limited – the direct orders we can But the rest is so effortlessly breezy that
issue are restricted to either having them we’re rather put out when our time-limited
return to us (to serve as a shield) or simply session comes to an end. We’d be surprised
telling them to “Go, go, go”. Instead, it’s if Treasures has the depth or longevity of a
during exploration where their varied skills Dragon Quest Builders, say, but otherwise this
prove more meaningful. Monsters have appears to be another robust spinoff: bright,
different fortes, an early example involving playful and with plenty of secrets to unlock.

47
 ROUNDUP

SHADOWS OF DOUBT
Developer ColePowered Games Publisher ColePowered Games,
Fireshine Games Format PC Origin UK Release 2023

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

Developer/Publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Origin Japan Release May 12

The nonlinear detective genre moves closer to its logical

conclusion in this alt-’80s voxel city, as you go anywhere and
investigate anyone, provided no one spots you. There’s a
murder to solve, but rifling through someone’s apartment
until you know everything about them is moreish in itself.

WARHAMMER 40,000:
ROGUE TRADER
Developer/Publisher Owlcat Games
Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Origin Cyprus Release TBA

Nintendo UK’s decision not to livestream its latest Direct presentation didn’t seem quite so unfathomable when the official
title of Breath Of The Wild’s successor was revealed. The name fits with the darker, more melancholic tone suggested by
previous trailers – though it could, perhaps, have a double meaning, referring to a rift. A crack in time, perhaps? Certainly, a
series of floating islands makes us wonder if a return to Skyloft is on the cards. Meanwhile, one of Link’s new temporal abilities
enables him to clamber on to chunks of fallen rock and rise up into the clouds, where a mysterious stone bird mount awaits.

GUNGRAVE GORE
Developer Iggymob Publisher Prime Matter, Plaion Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin South Korea Release November 22 Owlcat Games turns its CRPG-making hand to Games
Workshop’s sci-fi behemoth and is tucking in with relish. From
splendorous character portraits to XCOM-like skirmishes, this
feels dense with lore and reverence for its source. Intriguingly,
that means your crew of imperial privateers is above the law.

PIKMIN 4
Developer/Publisher Nintendo (EPD)
Format Switch Origin Japan Release 2023

Taking the reins for this revival, South Korean studio Iggymob has resisted the temptation to
treat it with ironic self-awareness. The result is an unreconstructed shooter with a death count
in the thousands, dancing to the hammering rhythm of Grave’s twin pistols, the swing of his
back-mounted coffin, and a grappling wire that reels in goons for use as human shields. Add Shigeru Miyamoto may have been keener to show off his new
in exploding scenery and there’s no doubt GORE is about nothing less than full-tilt carnage. T-shirt than reveal any gameplay, but this is finally nearing
release. With a Pikmin’s-eye-view perspective and simpler
controls, this time out it’ll be easier to focus on the series’
essence: “planning, deploying and commanding the Pikmin”.

48
 ON SALE
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50
#377
VIDEOGAME CULTURE, DEVELOPMENT, PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY

70

80 124
96

88
52

52 Blood Moon

70 The Preservationists

80 An Audience With…
Lars Wingefors

88 The Making Of…

Deathloop

96 Studio Profile:
Milestone Interactive

124 Time Extend:

King’s Field
 B L O O D

M O O N

Striking Distance goes beyond Dead

Space with the highly evolved survival
horror of The Callisto Protocol
By Chris sChilling

G
len Schofield sighs, and shifts in his seat. The Striking
Distance CEO is clearly excited to give us an exclusive
glimpse of the opening of his studio’s forthcoming
science-fiction horror The Callisto Protocol, as well as an
extended look at a later section of the game. But he’s aware he
has something else to address first. You wouldn’t exactly say he’s
happy to talk about it – “I want to put the attention back on the
game and not on this,” he says – but equally it’s clear he doesn’t
want to simply sweep it under the carpet.
“Well, you know…” he begins, and sighs again. “It was a thank-
you,” he says, finally. He’s talking, of course, about a tweet he
posted shortly after his return from a trip to promote The Callisto
Protocol at Gamescom. Quickly deleted, its message about life at
his studio – “working 6-7 days a week, nobody’s forcing us.
Exhaustion, tired, Covid but we’re working… 12-15 hour days.
This is gaming… U do it cause ya luv it” – created a firestorm
among fellow developers and media alike. As per Twitter
tradition, condemnation was fast and far-reaching, accusing
Schofield of promoting the kind of culture of overwork that has
become endemic in the videogame industry – a culture which,
fortunately, many of its leaders are working to address.

52
53
 “I ’VE BEEN TH RO U G H CRU N CH TI M E TH AT I N E VER
WA N T TO P U T A N Y B O DY T H R O U G H . I WA S O N R E T U R N
O F T H E K I N G – A R G U A B LY T H E W O R S T E V E R ”

This is very different from

making a Call Of Duty,
Schofield says: “In this
you’ve gotta make sure
that your mood is right –
that the mist and the
fire and all that are in
just the right place”

54
 BLOOD MOON

Game The Callisto Protocol

Developer Striking Distance Studios
Publisher Krafton
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One,
Xbox Series
Release December 2

That includes Schofield, who says he has

Break an opponent’s
read just about everything everyone has
structure and you can written about him since, and if there’s a hint of
trigger a takedown. sadness when he says “I’m the freakin’ devil to
Here, we learn these
can be countered by people… this is my first blip in 32 years [in the
foes, who grow more industry],” it doesn’t feel at all like self-pity.
powerful as a result.
It doesn’t end well He’s been around the block enough times to
know what overwork feels like at its worst, and
rejects the notion that his words had anything
to do with his ‘old-school’ approach to work.
“I may be old, but I’m not old school. I’ve been
through crunch time that I never want to put
anybody through. I was on Return Of The
King – arguably the worst ever,” he says. “Look,
I’ll be honest with you – for the last three
years, we’ve been really good. We talk about it
all the time. We have 120-something people
that work from home, we’re in 17 states, and
we pay California wages. We try to be fair.”
(In recognition of its track record, the studio
won a Best Places To Work award from
Gamesindustry.biz earlier this year.) “Look,” he
says firmly, “I do not believe in crunch, man. I
had three kids during it, and I took two days
off for each one, right? And nowadays, I’m so
happy that we can give six weeks off. And it’s
mandatory. You. Take. This. Time. Off.”
He concedes that time off has been at a
premium for “a small strike team” of staff in
recent weeks, who he says have simply been
tweaking and refining the game, trying to
make The Callisto Protocol better in its closing
weeks of development. “I was just thanking
’em,” he says of the tweet. “You know, when
people know that there was passion [invested]
and you’re just trying to let them know that
this was out of passion and just trying to get
things done. I mean, they’re artists and
engineers and sometimes it’s just hard to put
the pencil down, you know?”
It’s evident that Schofield is a hands-on
kind of boss, the type who likes to muck in
wherever possible rather than delegating;
indeed, he says “sometimes I think of myself
as just one of the guys” just as we’re about to
ask the same thing. But, he says, having gone
“really deep” into the various articles written
about him following his misstep, he’s acutely
aware that what he says carries weight. “So
when I say, ‘Hey, guys, I’ll be in Saturday’,
I started thinking: I bet people may be guilted
into coming in. And if I say something, how
does a manager below me say that to

55
BLOOD MOON

people? ‘Glen’s coming in so you’d better come for ice, so I was like, ‘Good! We can have mining
in’? So I can get better at this. I know I need to and all that’. And one thing led to another, and I
change all the time. You change with the times had a 40-page writeup for it.” But, as he says
or you’re not a good leader.” he’s mentioned before, “I’m not a writer, I’m a
storyteller. I need writers to come in and add
Fittingly, the theme of change, or more. And that’s the beauty of working with a
evolution, is at the heart of The Callisto team – your idea just expands and they make it
Protocol. It’s there in the way its story is told, better.” Schofield took a ten-page PowerPoint
it’s there in its systems, and it’s there, too, in version of that story and approached Korean
Striking Distance Studios
CEO Glen Schofield Schofield’s approach to game design. There is publisher Krafton (the label behind PUBG,
no escaping that this bears more than a slight whose universe The Callisto Protocol was
resemblance to Dead Space, from the copious initially set in, before the story headed in a
gore to the zombie-adjacent enemies, down to different direction). “I talked about setting up a
the tight framing of the action, the camera studio and said, ‘I’d really like to make this
hovering close to its protagonist’s shoulder as game’, and they were like, ‘We want to do both’.
he takes up a sizeable amount of screen real So I’m like, ‘Touchdown!’” Krafton has proved
estate. But, while the game’s director goes on to to be a “fantastic” partner since, he adds.
clarify the many ways in which it’s different, It’s not long before we find out what might
you also sense – certainly from a commercial scare a man like Jacob, a muscular specimen
perspective – that he’s not entirely unhappy who moves with confidence and purpose (and,
about the comparisons. In fact, in some cases dare we say, a similar weight to Isaac Clarke,
he has actively embraced the similarities, even without a protective suit), and who can
refusing to reject ideas purely because they clearly handle himself in a fight. He flinches
might bring The Callisto Protocol closer to its less than we do as steam suddenly hisses from
spiritual predecessor, from the forceful stomp a nearby pipe (a classic horror-movie fakeout
that yields credits and ammo from corpses and scare, deployed with precision timing) and isn’t
crates to the diegetic health gauge, which this remotely unsettled by the noisy whine and
time appears as a holographic projection on the clank of metal doors sliding open and shut, the
back of protagonist Jacob’s neck. kind of sounds designed to keep the player on
At this point in the game, Jacob is sporting a edge, if not the protagonist. But then we pass
shaved head and an orange jumpsuit: the through a door and see two humanoid mutants
uniform of those held within the Black Iron (collectively termed Biophage) in front of us,
prison colony on Callisto, the so-called “dead either side of a large computer console. Even
moon” of Jupiter (we get a brief glimpse of the from this distance they look repulsive – it’s
planet looming large in the background during apparent that they were once human, but now
an exterior view of the facility). Schofield began their fleshy, sinewy forms are covered in
plotting out the setup at Canyon Ranch, a well- bulbous growths. The kind of opponents, in
known health resort in Tucson; it’s fair to say other words, you don’t want getting too close.
what he came up with is the polar opposite of a Or maybe you do, in fact. In the first of two
wellness retreat. “I started thinking about mechanics that put clear water between The
prison,” he says, and, noting our eyes widen, Callisto Protocol and Dead Space, Jacob is
quickly adds with a throaty chuckle, “not equipped with a Gravity Restraint Projector –
because I wanted to go there! But it was like: GRP – with a chip slotted into a glove on his
‘OK, what could be scary in a prison?’ And then right arm allowing him to, well, keep his
it was, ‘OK, how about a prison on a planet – enemies closer. Within a second, the mutant is
you know, a prison where you can’t escape. hovering in stasis in front of him, ready to be
That’s gotta be really scary, right?’” thrown. “There’s not too many games – I can’t
Even before all hell breaks loose, it’s a pretty even think of one off-hand right now – where
forbidding place. So why Callisto? “Well, I you use a grav-gun to pick up the enemy,”
started researching different moons, and Schofield notes. “You’re usually picking up
scientists believe that it could be one place we things, right?” It’s an unsettling moment all the
could put a colony because it’s all water same, even more so when shortly afterwards
underneath. And they said people could mine Jacob faces off against a scuttling, four-legged

56
 “THERE’S NOT TOO MANY GAMES WHERE
Y O U U S E A G R AV - G U N T O P I C K U P T H E E N E M Y.
YO U ’R E U S UA L LY P I C K I N G U P TH I N G S, R I G H T ? ”

TOP We suspect that Black Iron’s

security bots might be a little too
heavy for even a fully maxed-out
GRP, but you never know. Either
way, they’re not friendly: their
mission is to take out all organic
life, with extreme prejudice.
ABOVE Jacob (Josh Duhamel)
before his rather severe trim.
LEFT Violent encounters – hardly in
short supply throughout – leave
our antihero covered in blood

57
 IT PROM P TS A N E W MU TATI O N TH AT G IVES TH E
BIOPHAGE EXTR A BULK, A PUSTULOUS SWELLING
AC T I N G L I K E A L AY E R O F O R G A N I C A R M O U R

Schofield says Karen

Fukuhara was brought
on board “just as The
Boys was starting to get
popular. And obviously
we’re happy that it’s
even more popular now”
 BLOOD MOON

variant; again, we instinctively lean away from Jacob to get up close and personal with it. SPLAT’S
the screen as the mutant writhes mere inches Once that one is dispatched (and finished off ENTERTAINMENT
from his face. Schofield laughs. “That’s the with a squelchy stomp that yields a handful of It’s no exaggeration to say
Rusher,” he says with a grin. “And, yeah, we Callisto credits), the jittery audio score’s refusal that The Callisto Protocol
is one of the goriest
really played with that distance a lot. Because to fade out makes it clear the fight isn’t over videogames we’ve ever
absolutely we want the first time you do that to just yet. As Jacob jogs onward, a third suddenly seen. Limbs and heads are
viciously stabbed or
get a scare – like, ‘Oh Jesus, it’s like a spider’s leaps onto him, pinning him down, prompting a removed with force, while
in my face’, you know? And, yeah, each time you QTE in order to kick it away. Then, after one character death seems
get a little more used to that, but that feeling of climbing a ladder and dropping through a hatch, to pay homage to Gus
Fring’s memorable demise
‘Hey, the monster’s a little too close to me’ Jacob spots a fourth as he prepares to close its in Breaking Bad (though
makes you feel uncomfortable.” Especially when heavy cover, managing to heave it shut just in Schofield says it was
intended as a nod to the
that monster’s face is an unholy amalgam of time to sever the mutant’s grasping claw. reveal of Harvey Dent as
four human heads with one enormous mouth That glove comes in handy once more in a Two Face in The Dark
Knight). Why so barbarous?
running across its accumulated jawline. third fight, where Jacob uses an enemy as a “Well, American horror –
Back in that earlier room, Jacob releases the meat shield, albeit one that steadily offers less and it’s definitely spreading
first mutant, shunting it backwards against the protection as one of its mutant brethren gobs to Europe more – is more
brutal now,” Schofield says.
computer terminal. The enemy is stunned projectiles that burn away its limbs. That one is “Like, you watch a movie
briefly, but then comes the second mechanical quickly cast into a machine that grinds it up, like Rob Zombie’s latest:
everyone dies! I see it in
twist as tentacles burst forth from its stomach. before Jacob allows another to get a little too Korean horror, too, and it’s
Jacob shoots these wriggling tendrils and the close, tentacles suctioning onto his face as he starting to get a little more
mainstream.” Part of it, he
monster dies instantly, but meanwhile the tries to wrench himself free, a sequence that says, is about “notching it up
other has stumbled within range. Jacob deftly briefly brings to mind the octopus scene from a level” from Dead Space.
dodges left and right, weaving like a champion Oldboy. When the virus takes hold of this So how does Duhamel feel
about the moments when
pugilist as the mutant takes a series of heavy particular beast, it regrows its head and two Jacob is cut in half or ground
swings, before responding in kind with a sturdy more limbs. But by then the GRP’s power has up into fleshy paste by
machinery? “Oh, he loves
baton. Each blow lands with a shuddering recharged, and this Biophage too becomes that stuff,” Schofield says. “I
impact, though even as it staggers backwards, fodder for the grinder, which – after a short mean, one time he called me
and he was up in Minnesota,
the monster doesn’t buckle. This time the beat for blackly comedic effect – prompts a saying, ‘We’re gonna cut a
swarm of tentacles emerges from where its left sprinkler to discharge a fine spray of blood. hole in the ice and go
arm once was, prompting a new mutation that Schofield explains that in other areas there will swimming’. Crazy. But
that’s just him. He loves it.”
gives the Biophage extra bulk, a pustulous be spiked walls at which to launch enemies,
swelling acting like a layer of organic armour. pinning them in place and prompting further
Only after another half-dozen melee hits have loss of limb. By now, we might be concerned
landed, with Jacob having emptied the rest of that Jacob’s gravity-manipulating toy has
his pistol’s clip into its fleshy torso, does the become too powerful had we not previously
mutant finally collapse to the floor. been told that for the purposes of our demo it’s
been fully upgraded to demonstrate its late-
Other encounters are similarly intense, game potential.
with enemy movements proving almost as Depending on you what you choose to do
unpredictable as those mutations. Our with the other weapons, you may not be able to
introduction to the Rushers begins with one power it up entirely in a single playthrough
dropping down close behind Jacob, but – in a anyway. All of Jacob’s kit is upgraded via 3D
moment of counterintuitive behaviour that printers located throughout the game, lasers
induces shivers precisely because it’s what dancing and sparks flying around the device as
we’re not expecting – it doesn’t attack straight Jacob places it into the hardware, before
away. Instead, it scampers over towards and retrieving it and shoving it back into his
then up a wall, before leaping off and scuttling holster, belt or glove. Spend your hard-stomped
forward. If they go down a little easier than the Callisto credits on your stun baton’s ‘riot
other Biophage, the four-legged variants control mode’ and ‘blocking attack’ – or
compensate by being trickier to get a bead on: decreasing recoil and boosting the clip size for
another smashes through a grate in the ceiling your hand cannon – and you may leave yourself
and after a couple of direct hits backs off, short of the funds needed to increase the GRP’s
mantling a low barrier before the GRP allows energy capacity.

59
BLOOD MOON
Not every enemy type
will mutate, but they’re
all repulsive to look at.
Each has a basis in the
real world: one is based
on the ribbon worm,
which spits out a sticky
proboscis to snare prey

60
JACO B U S E S A N E N E MY A S A M E AT S H I E L D, W H I C H
OFFERS LESS PROTECTION AS ONE OF ITS BRETHREN
G O B S P R OJ E C T I L E S T H AT B U R N AWAY I T S L I M B S

61
BLOOD MOON

U N S U I TA B L E Still, while Striking Distance wants to first three, four or five of them. And then at
While Jacob can upgrade make encounters feel fraught – occasionally some point they’re gonna hear you and, you
his growing arsenal, his draining, even – this isn’t the type of game know, all hell breaks loose.” Schofield admits
own abilities will remain
the same from start to where you need to constantly worry about he’s “not a giant stealth guy” himself, but
finish; it’s the player who conserving resources. If you grow particularly enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction in silently
learns how to better
withstand the threats he’ll
fond of a weapon, Schofield says, the game is taking down dangerous enemies in The Last
face. He will, at some stage, going to let you make the most of it. This is, Of Us. “It just gave another opportunity for
don a suit that affords him he says, in keeping with his own ideas for choosing your own way to play.”
a little more protection
than his prison garb, but what a survival horror game should be. “I Again, we’re moved to wonder a little
that can’t be improved any think some of that started with Dead Space, to about Canyon Ranch when Schofield says
further. “Sometimes it just
feels like, ‘OK, we’re going be honest with you, because before that a lot that’s when he started thinking about these
to upgrade the suit, but of games, especially the Resident Evils, rooted memorably grotesque enemies. For an artist
we’re also going to give
more hit points to the
you – you know, if you want to shoot, you’ve at heart, you might think form would come
enemies’ – you know, got to stop and shoot. And with Dead Space, I first when it comes to conceiving Biophage
where’s the sense in that?” was like: ‘No, no, no, we’ve got to figure out variants, but surely as a designer he primarily
Schofield says. “But in a
weapon, you really feel how I can still walk and shoot, and keep the thinks about function? “Well, it’s both. So,
that difference – in the pace going’.” with the Bigmouth, I kept thinking about [the
sound, in the VFX, in the
damage it does. And so for He likens his approach to survival horror zombies] in I Am Legend. Remember that?
some of the enemies we (“and this isn’t a direct correlation”, he Their mouths are just…” – he pulls his hands
deliberately didn’t give
more hit points as you
qualifies) to zombie movies, in the sense that apart as if mimicking a jaw unhinging – “just
went, so that you felt more “they usually have a lot more ammo, but they weird, you know?” For another enemy, he
powerful. But what we do have a bigger threat with it”. That’s largely wanted something with two heads, “and I
is we throw more at you.”
down to personal experience of the genre, he want to be able to rip off one head and the
explains. “I’ve liked plenty of survival horrors, guy keeps going – though I didn’t know
but sometimes I get frustrated that, later in exactly what he was going to look like until
the game, I’m like, ‘I’ve still only got two we got great monster guys in”. Others were
bullets, man’. I like this gun, and I just want to introduced to fulfil a specific purpose – the
shoot it a little bit, you know? And having a Bloodworm, for example, which spits out a
bit of a shooter background with all the Call prehensile tongue to attack you from range.
Of Dutys, we spend a lot of time on the And one Schofield simply calls the Exploder,
weapons, so let’s give the player a chance to which feels self-explanatory. “So you’ve got to
use them. But at some point I still want the worry about, ‘OK, I’ve got a tall guy and I’ve
player to go, ‘Oh, man, I’ve only got a clip’. It’s got a short guy – who do I take out first?’
just because I would like to have a slight bit And we worked on the different speeds to
more action than running around on my create weird but very cool combinations.
tiptoes, hiding.” That’s what I really get into – I love putting
Which isn’t to say that stealth won’t be an different combinations together like that.”
option – though Schofield admits it was only Not all of The Callisto Protocol’s enemies
introduced after about 18 months of have the ability to transform, but with a range
development. Jacob comes equipped with a of classes, each with different mutations,
shiv, which is deployed in the time-honoured maintaining a robust but reasonable level of
fashion: crouch-walk up to an unwitting challenge has been something of a balancing
enemy and you’ll be able to take them down. act. “Let’s say there’s four or five enemies,
And since the Biophage are no longer human, and you didn’t quite get the guys in the
Jacob has no qualms about jamming a blade back, and they all come in. All of a sudden,
directly into their skulls. It’s a particularly you’ve got five enemies on you and they all
useful technique, Schofield says, for a late- mutate. And then you’re like, ‘OK, dude is
game enemy known as the Blind: mutants gonna die five times’. So, you don’t want
that are often stuck to walls, but capable of those hard stops.” Schofield catches himself.
peeling themselves away to attack. “You want “Here and there you do. But you have to make
to use stealth as much as possible on these sure that the play space is created for that.”
guys, because we throw more hordes at you,” It’s clearly a test that Schofield relished.
he says. “You’re gonna want to stealth the “Even to us, it’s unpredictable [in terms of]

62
F O R A N O T H E R E N E M Y, H E WA N T E D S O M E T H I N G
W I T H T W O H E A D S , “A N D I WA N T T O B E A B L E T O
RIP OFF ONE HEAD AND THE GUY KEEPS GOING”

Schofield says the studio

plans to make the game
even more challenging.
“We may not get it in
the first patch, but we
have a couple of ideas,
like a pistol-only mode”
BLOOD MOON

how they come out. That’s why we don’t

introduce the tentacles for a little bit, so that
you get used to the weapons and you can
upgrade a little bit before we introduce one or
two. And then, by the end?” He laughs. “It’s…
you know, it’s tough.”
The virus adds a dash of unpredictability
to a game that has otherwise been very
carefully tuned, its beats measured out with
care. In some ways, it’s something of a
throwback to blockbuster campaigns of old –
Schofield estimates the game’s runtime is
“trending towards 12 to 14 hours”, but that
there are “beta paths” that are well hidden,
adding replay value beyond the ability to max
out more weapons and tackle encounters that
won’t play out exactly the same way twice.
“They came later in the game, but some of
them are so freaking cool. And we don’t tell
you where they are or how many they are. But
if you really explore, it may be longer.” He’s
hoping it will encourage conversations
between players who took different routes to
the finish, and that those who keep playing
after the credits have rolled will discover it’s
“an even bigger game” than they first thought.

If these elements mark a notable

evolution from Dead Space, the game’s intro
sequence seems to consciously nod towards
it, albeit in a way designed to highlight the
leap in quality in the 14 years since. It’s
effectively an extremely well-disguised
control tutorial, as Jacob and co-pilot Max
head towards the titular moon aboard their
cargo ship, the former leaving the bridge to
investigate mysterious anomalies on the port
and starboard sensors. It’s one of several
ominous portents, alongside a news report
warning of local terrorist activity from
resistance group Outer Way and Jacob’s
insistence to his colleague that “after this job,
we’re never gonna have to work another day
in our lives”. When Jacob discovers the ship
has been boarded, events quickly take a turn
for the worse: one character ends up being
sucked out into space via the airlock, while a
single bullet creates a burst of pressure
within the hull that forces Jacob to crawl back
to his seat as the ship’s interior starts to fall
apart around him. A bumpy landing among
5
Callisto’s icy peaks follows before a security
droid cuts a hole in the hull and drags Jacob

64
 TH E VIRUS A D DS A DASH O F U N PRED IC TA BILIT Y TO A
G A M E T H AT H A S OT H E R W I S E B E E N V E R Y C A R E F U L LY
T U N E D, I T S B E AT S M E A S U R E D O U T W I T H C A R E

A selection of exploratory
concept art for the Biophage,
testing out different looks for
the mutants and how the virus
might affect them. The idea
from the start was to make
them a shifting, evolving threat

65
 T H O S E W H O P L AY E D A N D L O V E D D E A D S PAC E W I L L
F I N D T H E M S E LV E S AT H O M E H E R E – I F S U C H A P H R A S E
C A N A P P LY T O A P R I S O N O V E R R U N BY M U TA N T S

LEFT The odd human feature makes

the enemy all the more disturbing.
ABOVE It looks like Jacob and Dani
will eventually become allies.
MAIN The Callisto Protocol will
likely have gone gold by the time
you read this. As we meet with
Schofield, bug testing is under
way. “Then a couple of us are
going through it with a fine-tooth
comb,” he says. “Heck, I was
looking at fonts last night”

66
 BLOOD MOON

out, escorting him to the prison despite his reading ‘It’s a lie, help me’, to the delightfully L O N E S TA R
understandable protestations that he hasn’t sinister sight of a pair of human legs Given the glut of science-
done anything wrong. disappearing down a passageway ahead, fiction chillers being
announced lately, with
It’s a short but exhilarating show of dragged by some unseen force, as Jacob several at Summer Games
blockbuster-style muscle from a team much advances through a narrow crawlspace. “What Fest alone, we ask Schofield
what makes space such a
smaller than your average triple-A studio, happened to the original colony?” asks a voice good setting for horror. He
though Krafton’s financial input has allowed as we see a large number of missing-persons chews it over for a moment.
Striking Distance to invest in both high-end posters and discover that Black Iron was built “I think it’s the isolation,”
he says. “Like, if I even get
performance-capture tech and the actors to on top of an existing station. Well, we’re not out of this prison, where
do it justice. While the studio went through a sure precisely how, but we can probably take a the heck do I go? I need
some way to get out of
number of options while casting around for guess at what happened to its former here. So it’s desperation
someone to play Jacob, Schofield had the inhabitants. That said, Schofield is promising and isolation. And those
things for me make up
number of his lead in his phone all along: Call a “very nuanced” tale with “plenty of details”, some of the main points
Of Duty: WWII’s Josh Duhamel. The two, he many hidden within audio logs and the like, of horror. And I just love
says, hit it off instantly while working to fully understand what went on here. sci-fi, so putting them
together was natural.”
together on Sledgehammer Games’ 2017 “I know everybody says, ‘You’re gonna He suggests the game
shooter – to the point where Duhamel now make Dead Space 4’,” Schofield says. “No, I’m industry is picking up the
slack from cinema, too.
has a Schofield original hanging on the walls not.” There is enough evidence here to back “They’re not making so
of his home. “It’s a giant hamburger,” up his claim. Equally, those who played and many of them these days,
because the movies are so
Schofield laughs. “And he loved it.” loved Dead Space will find themselves right at damn expensive to make.
The director was briefly concerned about home here – if such a phrase can apply to a Well, games are, too, but
casting the same man as lead in two of his prison overrun by mutants that can shrug off people are usually willing
to back a game more than
games. “They don’t do this in videogames, losing limbs and even heads. As messy as the they are a movie [in this
where a director will use the same actor; action gets, there is a meticulousness to it, genre] nowadays.”
really, you don’t see that. Whereas in movies, too: if Schofield insists there are “sandbox-y”
they do it a lot, right? You know, Tom Hanks elements to combat (not forgetting those
and Spielberg, they work together a lot. So I hidden routes), this is no procedurally
thought, ‘OK, do I do that? What will the generated open world, but something more
critics say? What will people say?’ And in the controlled. It feels handcrafted. “That’s exactly
end I said, ‘Let’s go to Josh’. And he was the word we use,” Schofield interjects. “It’s
thrilled to do it.” Duhamel takes his job every inch of the game: I just spent the last
seriously: he would suggest script alterations five, six days in the audio booths, changing up
and ad-lib lines. “And I absolutely love both some of the music a little and amping up a
of those,” Schofield says. “It’s gonna help us stinger, and a couple of weeks before, we had
make the character better and the dialogue done the same thing with lighting – just gone
better.” Duhamel is joined by The Boys’ Karen through it and made sure it was perfect.”
Fukuhara as rebel leader Dani (who we later There is, of course, a bigger discussion to
see joining forces with Jacob), who Schofield be had about the cost of such perfectionism,
describes as “tough as crap – she makes sure and it’s one of which Schofield is now more
Jacob knows he’s met his match”, and Sam keenly aware. Returning from Gamescom, he
Witwer (“a true pro; I’d work with him again in says, he was simply trying to express his
a heartbeat”) as antagonist Leon, captain of the appreciation for his team’s efforts. “I’ve gotta
prison guard and “a tough guy in a weird way”. be a little more self-aware of how loud my
The Callisto Protocol’s story is, Schofield voice is, you know? But I just wanted to say
admits, “backloaded a lot”, the idea being to I’m proud of ’em, and I’m proud of the game.”
acclimatise players to the game’s various Indeed, we almost wonder if the closing lines
systems before the narrative elements really of The Callisto Protocol’s final pre-release
kick in. But he can’t resist giving us another trailer, as much as a nod to this being a
exclusive, this time with a trailer that teases thrilling mutation of survival horror, are
the “really deep, big mystery” to come – as something of a mea culpa. “You must decide,”
well as some familiar science-fiction horror says a voice. “Will you remain as you are, or
tropes, from warnings to ‘shoot the tentacles’ choose to become something greater? Change
written in blood (and all caps) and a note can be hard. But it is necessary.”

67
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 T H E P R E S E R

“It’s like a religious feeling,

walking into the archive,”
says David Boström, CEO of
the Embracer Game Archive.
“Every day just entering I get
goosebumps. It’s an amazing
feeling to be surrounded
by so many games”

70
V A T I O N I S T S
Digging through the
archives with the people
striving to safeguard
videogame history
By Lewis Packwood

71
 LEFT Christian Bartsch of the Software Preservation Society. TOP LEFT David Boström and Natalia Kovalainen are part of the five-person team at
the Embracer Games Archive which has spent the past eight months sorting games and hardware onto custom-designed, movable shelving units

T
he good news is that all is not lost. Far from it. Thanks to Finland, Hungary, France and the United States. “So that means
dedicated enthusiasts, collectors and professionals all over the clock is ticking.”
the world, the vast majority of works from the first few Magnetic media is prone to bit rot, which sees the magnetically
decades of videogaming history still exist in some form. stored data lose charge over time, effectively erasing parts of the
It’s a marked contrast to the parlous state of film preservation, for disk or tape. Contrary to expectation, Bartsch says that more
which a 2013 study found that 75 per cent of American movies advanced high-density floppy disks from the 1990s are more
made before 1929 are lost or survive only in part. prone to bit rot than earlier, low-density disks, seemingly because
But there’s little room for complacency. Unlike with books, say, the densely clustered magnetic charges repel each other. “A lot of
there are no national institutions or libraries dutifully collecting a PC games made in the 1990s are already broken or generate read
copy of every single published game, so it’s up to museums, errors,” he says, “whereas many of the C64 and Apple II games
societies, companies and individuals to preserve videogaming’s from a decade earlier still work fine.”
early history. Faced with constraints involving storage space and Importantly, the likelihood of a decades-old disk functioning
funding, it’s impossible for them to collect everything (although today is largely down to how it has been stored. Excessive
that hasn’t stopped some from trying, as we’ll see later). Instead, humidity, fluctuations between high and low temperatures, and
they tend to focus on specific niches of gaming, such as certain exposure to direct sunlight or magnetic sources can all spell doom
platforms, eras or themes. The result is a hotchpotch of for a floppy. A common problem is that mould can form on the
collections scattered across the world, each maintained by groups disk or tape, gradually eating away at the surface. The coating can
with differing priorities and philosophies regarding how even loosen and become detached, scraped off in gradual amounts
videogame history should be preserved. by the retrieval hardware’s read/write head. In that case, Bartsch
In talking to a number of groups representing preservation says a last-ditch attempt can be made by baking the disk or tape in
efforts in the US, Europe and Japan, we can take a snapshot of the an oven at a certain temperature to fix the coating in place before
scene as it exists today, and survey the range of approaches being risking a final, one-off read of the data, but the chances of success
used to safeguard the legacy of gaming’s earliest pioneers. are extremely low when a disk has decayed to such an extent.
The SPS was formed by István Fábián, a principal engineer at
The most urgent issue facing preservationists is the rapidly Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe in London. Back in the
decaying media used to store early games, particularly magnetic early 1990s, Fábián worked on a number of Amiga games at
tapes and floppy disks. “At some point, the data is going to fall Hungarian studio ArtGame, but when he tried to replay them via
over the digital cliff, when the data degrades beyond the point emulation in the early 2000s he was shocked at the state of the
where we can read it properly,” says Christian Bartsch of the available software. “I saw that everything that was left were
Software Preservation Society (SPS), which is headquartered in basically cracks,” he says. “Nothing much original remained.
Twickenham in the UK but has principal members in Germany, And that included, unfortunately, my very own games.”

72
 THE PRESERVATIONISTS

UNEXPECTED
VA R I A N T S
Rainbow Arts’ The
Great Giana Sisters was
withdrawn from sale
not long after release
when Nintendo took
exception to the game’s
obvious similarities to
Super Mario Bros, but
even though it was
available for just a
short period, the work
of the SPS has revealed
that two versions of the
game were rushed out
in that time. The
original has a bug that
causes the game to
crash when you save a
high score to the disk,
but there’s also a
second version of the
game in which the bug
has been fixed. It’s one
of several Amiga games
that exist in different
variations, and Christian
Bartsch says he’s
“pretty sure” that there Although the SPS focuses on storing digital backups of old computer
are more to find. games, it does have a collection of around 600 rare physical editions

T H E R E M A I N I N G 3 0 P E R C E N T O F G A M E S M AY
N O T H AV E S U R V I V E D . “ N O T S O B A D C O M P A R E D
T O T H E R A T I O O F L O S T S I L E N T M O V I E S ”
Cracked games often have alterations beyond simply bypassing editions of Japanese games from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s,
copy protection, usually to introduce cheat modes, along with particularly PC-88 computer games. The group’s HQ is home to
intros showcasing the cracking group responsible. “You don’t want around 15,000 games, of which 9,000 are unique titles, in addition
[to preserve] something that has digital graffiti on it,” Fábián says. to several collections owned by society members that haven’t yet
He uses paintings as a metaphor: “When you’re storing the Mona been migrated to the central archive. The society’s president,
Lisa for future generations, you want to store everything you have Joseph Redon, reckons that the group has access to around 70
– even the grain of the canvas, even the smallest inaccuracies, per cent of Japanese home computer games from the era. The
damage, tears, whatever.” remaining 30 per cent are mostly games that were released in
With this in mind, Fábián founded the Classic Amiga small batches on magnetic tape, and may not have survived. “Not
Preservation Society in 2005, with the aim of storing exact digital so bad compared to the ratio of lost silent movies,” he says.
copies of every Amiga release. The name subsequently changed to Redon hails from France, but he moved to Japan in 2000 to
the SPS as the group’s remit expanded to preserving games on pursue his fascination with Japanese videogames. Over the years
other vintage platforms such as the C64 and Atari ST. Bartsch – he built a large personal collection of Japanese releases, and began
who in the 1990s worked at Cachet Software, creator of the to research ways of preserving them for posterity, leading to the
infamous Amiga disk-duplication program X-Copy – joined in formation of the GPS in 2011. Nowadays it is one of only a few
2008, and the society is affiliated with a large number of collectors institutions actively pursuing game preservation in Japan.
who loan their games in order for the SPS to create backups. “Each game is processed at various levels,” Redon says. When
The SPS has developed a system called KryoFlux, a USB-based a new title is added to the archive, it goes through an exacting
‘forensic floppy controller’ that can make exact copies of the entire inventory process where it’s given a unique number and its parts
contents of a floppy disk, along with a special format, IPF are registered into the database. Paper, plastic and magnetic parts
(interchangeable preservation format). “The IPF format allows for are all stored separately to prevent them reacting with each other,
storing the copy protection data, which means you’re able to take and each part is given a QR code providing all the information
the original disk, creative a forensic image digitally, and then store about the object and its physical location in the archive. The box is
it in a container,” Bartsch explains. The society sells licences for scanned at high resolution, and a high-fidelity digital backup of
the use of KryoFlux and invests those revenues into its digital the disk is made using a system called Pauline, which is similar to
archiving work. To date, the group has preserved over 10,000 the SPS’s KryoFlux technology. “I would say that 70 per cent of
classic computer games, including more than 3,000 Amiga titles. our disks have mould and need specific care before they are
migrated into the archive,” Redon says. “But with proper care
One thing the SPS doesn’t do is store physical versions of the and proper tools, the failure rate is around eight per cent.”
original game releases. In contrast, the Game Preservation Society The ultimate aim is to build a digital archive that will allow
(GPS) in Tokyo is dedicated to collecting and preserving boxed games to be studied without the need to access the physical

73
THE PRESERVATIONISTS

CULTURAL

Tommi Lempinen
DIFFERENCES
“Preservation as we know
it in the west has always
been weak in Japan,”
Joseph Redon says.
“Everything is built for a
very short cycle of life.
Japanese people are very
resilient and adapt to
situations in a very short
amount of time. So it’s
not only games, but
everything, including
buildings and culture in
general, that evolves over
time without keeping
traces of its original form.
The DNA of the culture
strongly persists, but the
roots are often lost. The
best example of what is
happening with games
is ukiyo-e [woodblock
paintings]. They were
largely preserved thanks
FROM TOP GPS president to people who started to
Joseph Redon, and Frank collect them out of Japan.
Cifaldi, founder of the I often refer to the ukiyo-e
Video Game History ABOVE The SPS has spent several years developing technology that can duplicate the contents of a floppy disk perfectly. syndrome when talking
Foundation in the US FACING PAGE Alongside videogames, the Strong National Museum Of Play’s pinball tables demand regular maintenance about preservation.”

“ O K , W E ’ V E M A N A G E D T O M I G R A T E I T F R O M
A F L O P P Y D I S K T O A H A R D D R I V E – N O W
W E H AV E T O K E E P T H I S H A R D D R I V E G O I N G ”
object, but the society is hampered by limited financial resources process is an arduous task. “We’ve had a stop on collecting for
and also a lack of storage space, which comes at a premium in about a year, as we’ve been trying to go through the backlog of all
Tokyo. The GPS is entirely funded by its 400 or so members and the things that we have,” Pennington says. Limits on time, finances
supporters across the world, and Redon thinks that at the current and space mean the museum has to be careful in selecting which
pace of digitalisation it would take more than 30 years to process items it acquires. “The remit has become a bit more focused on a
the 30,000 or so items owned by the society and its core members UK experience – we’re trying to really push the national angle of
– by which point some of the magnetic media could have become the National Videogame Museum,” Pennington says, noting that
irretrievably decayed. “We would require at least 2,000 supporters the facility has an extensive collection of material relating to the
to work at a realistic pace that would allow us to achieve the UK home computer scene of the 1980s. “We don’t have the
migration in time,” he says. capacity to collect everything, even though we wish we could.”
Across the pond, American preservationists are doing things
The struggle to secure funding is a common topic across a whole lot bigger. The Strong National Museum Of Play in
game preservation projects worldwide. For example, the National Rochester, New York, began adding videogames to its collection in
Videogame Museum (NVM) in Sheffield survives on a mixture of 2006, and today it has more than 60,000 games and related
visitor receipts and grants from bodies such as Art Fund – but, as artefacts. “We have a $16 million annual budget, and we’re the
anyone who has ever applied for an arts grant knows, success is far beneficiary of a trust established by Margaret Strong,” explains
from guaranteed. “It’s a super-competitive environment,” says Jon-Paul Dyson, director of the International Center For The
NVM curator Michael Pennington, who adds that other cultural History Of Electronic Games at the museum. That financial
institutions are increasingly interested in featuring videogames security is important, he says, because when The Strong talks to
in some capacity, and are applying for the same pots of funding. people in the industry about donating objects, “we can reassure
The NVM flirted with disaster in 2020, when the rise of them that the museum will be here 100 years from now”.
COVID-19 forced it to close its doors, and it was only saved after Like the GPS, The Strong makes digital backups of its most
an emergency appeal for funds ended up raising more than precious games. “There’s this misconception that, when
£200,000. “One of the unintended consequences of the something’s been backed up, it’s preserved, that the work is done,”
pandemic,” Pennington explains, “was that we were really able to says Andrew Borman, a curator at the museum. “But one of the
focus on getting our digital procedures more in order, so that we things that we’ve really been stressing is that’s really the start of
were able to, like a library, have a really comprehensive metadata the process. OK, we’ve managed to migrate it from a floppy disk to
set of all these different objects.” a hard drive – now we have to keep this hard drive going from now
Even for the NVM’s relatively modest collection of around until essentially the end of time.”
2,000 objects – which are split between the exhibition space in The Strong’s vast collection encompasses not just games but
Sheffield and a repository in Nottingham – the cataloguing also related objects, such as corporate catalogues from Atari and

74
THE PRESERVATIONISTS

FROM LEFT Strong staff Andrew Borman (curator), Julia Novakovic (senior archivist) and
Jon-Paul Dyson (director of the International Center For The History Of Electronic Games)

ABOVE The Strong’s collection includes many rare artefacts, such as design documents
from the early days of Atari and notebooks owned by Sim City designer Will Wright.
RIGHT Computer Space, the first commercial arcade videogame, running at The Strong

game-design documents from developers such as Ken and Roberta might want to borrow games or consoles for exhibitions. “There
Williams. Naturally, it takes an enormous amount of time and are not many places in the world where you can find a complete
effort to provide sufficient attention to these thousands of set of all the games released for the Nintendo Entertainment
artefacts. “A question we get from a lot of people is, ‘Why isn’t System in Europe, for example,” he says. “And right now, we hope
everything digitised? Why isn’t everything online?’” says Julia we have a complete collection.”
Novakovic, senior archivist at The Strong. “So we’ve come up Note the use of ‘hope’; for now, no one is 100 per cent sure
with a system with our criteria for digitisation. We call it RAVE, exactly what’s in the archive. “We don’t have [all the items]
which stands for Rare, At-risk, Valuable and Engaging.” Objects are catalogued,” chief archivist Natalia Kovalainen explains, “which is
accordingly shuffled to the top or the bottom of the queue for the big work we have right now in front of us: to actually know
digitisation based on how well they meet these four criteria. exactly what we have and where we have it, because those are two
Curation is a never-ending job. very important questions to be able to always answer.” The efforts
of the past eight months have mostly been devoted to emptying
Even the mighty collection of the Strong Museum pales crates of games and placing them on newly designed archival
in comparison with the ambitions of Embracer. The Swedish shelves; only now has attention turned to setting up a database to
company raised eyebrows earlier this year when it declared a log it all. Kovalainen, who previously worked with municipal
mission to collect “a copy of each physical game ever released”. archives, is consulting with other institutions on the best way to
David Boström, CEO of the Embracer Games Archive, says that catalogue the Embracer collection. It’s a massive task for a team of
the team have since had second thoughts. “We’ve kind of toned it just five people – one of whom, Thomas Sunhede, acts as a scout
down a little bit,” he admits. “Now we say we want to have an and buyer, purchasing games to add to the collection – but
archive that is as extensive as possible. Getting all the games is… Boström says there are plans to expand the team to help with
I wouldn’t say impossible, but almost impossible.” cataloguing once the framework for the database has been
Even with this reined-in remit, the Embracer Games Archive finalised. Any kind of forensic preservation work, such as that
still holds one of the largest gaming collections in the world after undertaken by the SPS and GPS, will come later, Kovalainen says,
just one year of operation. It currently consists of more than hopefully in collaboration with other preservation groups. “We
50,000 videogames, consoles and other gaming-related items, a want to be part of this big overall joint effort to preserve as much
big chunk of which originated from the private collection of as possible of gaming history,” she says, “because that’s an
Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors. The archive includes important mantra for us.”
complete Japanese game collections for formats including Neo Embracer’s efforts have attracted scepticism in certain
Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Mega Drive, Nintendo 64DD and Game quarters. In a Waypoint article in July, Professor Darren Wershler,
Gear, and Boström hopes that the repository will be useful for who oversees a console collection at Concordia University in
visiting researchers and journalists, as well as institutions that Montreal, dismissed the archive as a PR exercise, adding that it

76
PRIDE OF
PLACE
“My personal favourite
in the collection is our
Magnavox Odyssey,”
Michael Pennington says.
“Just having that out in
the gallery so people can
see it with all its glorious
fake-wood panelling.” The
50-year-old machine is
too fragile for visitors to
the NVM to play, however,
and even cleaning or
moving the historic
console requires putting
“fancy gloves on”,
Pennington says. The aged
machine (right) also has
plastic screen overlays
that are particularly
delicate. “These things
are so fragile: such thin
material [was used] for
those screen sheets. And
it came with loads of
paper as well.” Preserving
the items requires keeping
them at a constant
temperature in a low-
humidity environment.

“ W E ’ V E C O M E U P W I T H A S Y S T E M W I T H
O U R C R I T E R I A , R A V E , W H I C H S T A N D S F O R
R A R E , A T - R I S K , V A L U A B L E A N D E N G A G I N G ”
was a way for Embracer to research historical game IP “in order to Embracer about how their goal is to make these items loanable,
acquire and control potentially valuable but forgotten titles”. even by mail, to those who need it.”
Boström is quick to dismiss this accusation, noting that if
Embracer wanted to research historical IP, the archive “would be a Cifaldi explains that he became involved in game
very expensive way of doing it” – although he concedes that the preservation in the late 1990s, when he started uploading ROMs
archive can “give us good PR, but that’s not the main reason for it”. of rare games to the Internet. “We kind of take it for granted now
Instead he sees the collection as being helpful to the videogame that every old videogame is just out there,” he says. “But at the
industry as a whole, and Kovalainen adds that it’s available to time, that wasn’t true yet.” It’s a reminder that the worlds of
everyone. “If another company wants to come here and look at an piracy and preservation often go hand in hand.
old game,” she says, “they’re super welcome. We’re very eager to Cifaldi realised that simply saving the code alone wasn’t
get more visitors.” enough. “No one really bothered to talk about who made these
A different concern levelled against Embracer is that, games,” he says. “These games would be put on the Internet with
whereas other game preservation groups operate as non-profit no context at all, and that kind of frustrated me.” This led him to
organisations, the Swedish publisher is a publicly listed company. start the website Lost Levels, which sought to detail unreleased
“I’m very happy that real funding is being put into a videogame videogames and provide the full story around them, which in
archive that could be used to benefit videogame history,” says turn led Cifaldi into a career as a freelance journalist. Later, he
Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation in moved into game development at Digital Eclipse, where he worked
Oakland, California. “That said, I don’t personally consider a on compilations of classic games including the celebrated Mega
private archive at a for-profit company to be something that I feel Man Legacy Collection. Then, around five years ago, after hitting a
confident in the longevity of. I’d love to be proven wrong, and I point in his life where he ”could afford to not make money for a
know the passion’s there, but I just have a hard time trusting that while”, he started the Video Game History Foundation, which
a for-profit company will maintain an interest in a segment of has a somewhat different remit from other preservation groups
their business that loses money forever.” He points out that if around the world.
Wingefors retires and Embracer undergoes a change in “We don’t collect games, we collect information,” Cifaldi
management, there’s no guarantee that the company will maintain declares. Reasoning that there were already plenty of groups out
its interest in videogame preservation. Boström agrees that for there preserving the videogames themselves, Cifaldi instead
“every company there is a risk that something could happen”, but sought to preserve the context of these games. As such, the
for now, he adds, “the future looks good for Embracer”. And foundation’s collection includes a large number of books and
Cifaldi, for his part, is content to benefit from Embracer’s largesse magazines about videogames, as well as source code, development
while it lasts. “I’m glad that the work is being done,” he says, “and notes, press kits, marketing materials and various other items that
I feel very good about the conversations that we’ve had with provide a glimpse into how a game was conceived, promoted and

77
 As a cultural institution, the NVM has
some leeway under UK copyright laws.
“It’s fair use for us to display these
objects inside the gallery, and display
them in different ways,” Michael
Pennington explains, which is why
the NVM could use emulation in order
to create this Donkey Kong exhibit

ABOVE The Game Preservation Society in Tokyo uses a device named Pauline,
co-developed with La Ludothèque in France, to create perfect copies of each game

In the commercial realm, preserving old games is increasingly about more than just the
code itself: the Strictly Limited Game Center Blue Edition of Taito’s Egret II Mini (above)
includes soundtrack CDs, a book and even reproduction flyers, while Digital Eclipse’s
forthcoming Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration (left) is stuffed with dev interviews

78
 THE PRESERVATIONISTS

P L AY I N G
P I R AT E
“We believe that game
preservation is built on
the backbone of software
piracy, frankly,” says
Frank Cifaldi, adding that
his foundation’s job is to
“fill in the gaps” left by
pirates. He says that
although the foundation
cannot upload and
distribute copyrighted
code, they do bend the
rules on occasion: “I think
something that sets us
apart from a lot of
institutions is that we are
willing to take some risk
in distributing content
online without copyright-
holder permission, in
that we will occasionally
take a common-sense
approach if we just
can’t find the copyright
holder or it doesn’t FROM TOP Michael
seem like what we’re Pennington of the NVM,
doing is actually going and István Fábián,
to hurt anyone, or get Rather than focusing on collecting the videogames themselves, the Video Game History Foundation puts a lot of its founder of the Software
us in trouble.” efforts into objects that can provide the context for a game, such as these late-’80s design notes for EA’s Starflight 2 Preservation Society

“ T H E R E A R E C O M P A N I E S R E A C H I N G O U T T O
U S S A Y I N G , ‘ L O O K , D O Y O U H AV E A C O P Y O F
O U R G A M E T H A T W E C O U L D G E T F R O M Y O U ? ’ ”
received by the press and public. He cites 1985’s Super Mario Bros labour of preservationists over the past few decades,” Cifaldi
as an example, arguing that the game wouldn’t necessarily be notes. “A really good example that we like to talk about is that we
“interesting or compelling” to someone who played it now for the were privately donated source code material for, among other
first time. “But if you understand the context of what games were things, Disney’s Aladdin on the Mega Drive. We can’t distribute
like at the time of that game’s release, if you understand the that source code – it’s copyrighted by Disney, and I’m not going
context of the hardware limitations that were overcome to make a to poke that bear – but we did analyse that source code, we wrote
game as elaborate and epic as that one, if you understand how bad up a big article, we showed some cut content, and we helped
jumping was in games before Super Mario Bros finally nailed it, if contextualise how this game was made through its source code.”
you understand the context of its creators and the games that That article got people talking about the game again, which led to
came before it that set the tone for Super Mario Bros, then you a conversation with Disney, which led to the release of the Digital
start to understand and appreciate it properly.” Eclipse-developed Disney Classic Games: Aladdin And The Lion
King in 2019. “And not only did our preservation of that source
With different groups driven by different ideas and code start that conversation that led to a product, they also
faced with different concerns, the world of game preservation literally used the source code from our archive, which as far as I
can feel fragmented, but the reality is that they’re united by know they don’t have.”
underlying networks and a shared ambition to safeguard a unique It’s far from the first time that a videogame publisher has
aspect of modern history. The NVM, for example, founded the relied on preservationists to look after its own products, and it
Videogame Heritage Society in 2020 to share expertise and won’t be the last. “There are companies reaching out to us saying,
support with members such as the BFI and the Centre For ‘Look, do you have a copy of our game that we could get from
Computing History. The museum is also a member of the you?’” Bartsch says. Meanwhile, the SPS is hamstrung by
European Federation Of Video Game Archives, Museums And copyright laws that prevent it from legally distributing any of the
Preservation projects (EFGAMP), alongside the SPS, the German games in its digital archive. “This is not about making money,”
Computerspielemuseum and many others. The Strong, Bartsch says. “I’d like to see them out there for people to enjoy
meanwhile, is a member of the Software Preservation Network, them, because this is why we thought it’s worth preserving them.
and maintains formal partnerships with institutions such as It’s part of our heritage.”
Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. “But there’s also a lot of Ultimately, Bartsch believes, games need to be preserved by
informal things,” Dyson says. “There’s a quarterly Zoom call national archives that are legally entitled to lend and display
for people from around the world doing game preservation. videogames in the same way that their parallel equivalents have
There is a lot of collaboration that goes on.” lent and displayed books for so many years. “But until they do,”
And all of this work doesn’t go unnoticed by videogame he says, “there is a group of independent people that is helping
companies. “A lot of the industry has benefited from the free to archive these things.”

79
 AN AUDIENCE WITH…

L ARS
WINGEFORS
Embracer’s CEO explains the
story behind the company’s
explosive expansion
By Alex Spencer

80
O
nly a year or two ago, Embracer wasn’t I got my hands on one of those catalogues where you
a name familiar to many videogame can see details of the most valuable comic books, and
followers – most likely because the that’s kind of how it all started.
company’s only gone by that name Growing up in the countryside, my mother and father
since 2019, when it rebranded from had been divorced for many years, so we didn’t really
THQ Nordic – but it’s long been one have a lot of money. So money meant freedom –
of the biggest, if quietest, players in the industry. At freedom to buy clothes, to do the things you’d like to do.
latest count, it has 222 games in development across 127
internal studios, and a headcount of 14,800 employees. And are we essentially talking about pocket money,
But if once we could have characterised Embracer as or something more significant? How much did it
a hidden leviathan, the past year has put an end to that, change over time?
thanks to a series of high-profile acquisitions. In that I contacted one of the main mail-order companies
time, it’s bought up the western operations of Square and was able to acquire 2,000 names of customers, so
Enix, along with the rights to Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and I got quite a good customer base early. I got a business
Thief, alongside a host of smaller developers, from partner after a year, because I was visiting comic
Killing Floor creator Tripwire to Teardown micro-dev book shops every weekend, and after a year, he asked
Tuxedo Labs. That’s been bolstered with a number of me: ‘Who are you? Why are you buying all these comics?’
acquisitions outside of videogames, beginning with He proposed to me: why don’t we do this together? And
boardgaming giant Asmodee for a sum of €2.75bn, and by doing that, I could expand my inventory. This was
the following week Dark Horse, publisher of Hellboy, 30 years ago – ’91, ’92, ’93. I think we were quite well
Sin City, Umbrella Academy and many other well- recognised by year three, and our turnover was perhaps
known comics. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all 30, 40, 50,000 dollars.
was saved for this August, as it scooped up Middle- And then I started experimenting with things other
Earth Enterprises, the rights holder for Lord Of The than comic books: movie posters, vinyl records, products
Rings and The Hobbit, as part of a £500m bundle of for school classes – and videogames. I started to
acquisitions announced all at once. advertise in newly printed comic books that were on sale,
While this all-you-can-eat approach to M&A has and the publisher of those comics started a videogame
been discussed at length in the usual industry hangouts, magazine called Super Power in the summer of ’93. They
Embracer itself remains somewhat enigmatic. Here, CEO contacted me: ‘OK, do you want to put some adverts in
Lars Wingefors digs into some of the thinking behind here?’ And, rather than comic books, I took my business
those acquisitions, as well as the 50,000-strong partner’s inventory of used NES games and advertised
videogame archive the company has been building at its that. I was just amazed by the feedback – we had
headquarters in Karlstad, Sweden. It’s a perhaps thousands of orders coming in, and I just thought, wow,
appropriately off-the-beaten-track location for the this is a great market.
business, and Wingefors’ home since he moved there as a I decided that videogames was a much better
young businessman in the early ’90s. By which point, as industry, so I sold my whole inventory of comic books. It
he explains here, he was already a good few years into his was a truck full of… I can’t remember exactly but
life as an entrepreneur. perhaps 50,000 comic books. You know, I was just
turning 16, and I was supposed to move from my
You founded your first videogame company as a mother’s house to Karlstad, where I’m living now, to
teenager, but that wasn’t your first business, right? start high school. I decided to quit school, because the
Where did everything actually begin? business just took too much time. I was thinking that I
Well, I printed my first mail-order catalogue at age 13, so might come back in a year if it didn’t work out.
I guess that’s when I started doing business. Obviously, it worked out. And since then, I’ve been
I started out collecting comics. I went to flea markets, working in games. Deep Rock Galactic
I went to auctions, with a neighbour where I grew up, was something of a
surprise hit for Coffee
an older man, and he just got me into this idea that Was the beginning of it all just a case of Stain, which Embracer
you can find things cheap and there is value in them. So spotting the business opportunity that games acquired in 2018

81
AN AUDIENCE WITH…

represented, rather than any particular love for the the administrator called. And he told me, ‘Hey, Lars, so
games themselves? you are the only one that has been bidding on basically
Well, I grew up playing C64. I spent who knows how everything in this auction. We got so much interest –
many hours playing River Raid and Pitfall, and tons of there are over 60 bidders, but none has provided us with
other games. And then the NES came out, and became the solution. So if you’re able to increase your total
really big in Sweden. You know, I had a passion for bid’ – I think it was from $3.5m to $4.5m – ‘you will
playing it, but I wouldn’t say a lot more than others. The have it all’. Except Homeworld, which Gearbox acquired,
gaming part, since then, it’s been more about the and another IP [Drawn To Life] that 505 acquired. Except
industry and the people and the business side of things. those two, we could have it all.

CV
Lars Wingefors’ entry
When you say your videogame business was more
successful than the comics one, what kind of scale
This was a lot of money for me, you know. It was my
earnings from Game Outlet [the retail business
Wingefors founded after his first went bankrupt]. But I
to the videogame are we talking about? realised that if I tell him, ‘Oh, I need to make a few phone
industry came when
The first year of trading used games, I think our turnover calls’, he’ll start calling the other bidders and the
he was aged just 16,
with the foundation of was, like, $500,000 with a ten per cent margin. Second situation will get out of my hands. So in this phone call,
Nordic Games, a year was a million dollars. And then third year, when we which was like five minutes long, I decided to go for it.
mail-order-turned- started importing, our revenue grew to $5 million, again And so, when we closed on that transaction in June 2014,
bricks-and-mortar
with about a ten per cent margin. we got all these IPs: Darksiders, Titan Quest, MX Vs ATV
retail business that
Wingefors would and a good number of others. I remember the first
eventually sell to And you were still in your teens at this point. What summer sale we did that July – Steam was really growing
Gameplay.com in the was it like to be making that kind of money? at the time – it pretty much paid for half of it. And I just
UK for almost £6m,
Obviously, people were amazed by it. Already, when realised, wow, this is a fantastic business.
before buying it back
the next year for 1 I did the comic book business, I was in magazines and
Swedish Krona, national TV made a programme and so on, so I got used Looking across just the past year’s worth of deals
equivalent to around to that part. But for me it was more about the fact that I that you’ve made, from Square Enix to Lord Of The
seven pence at the
really enjoyed building and experimenting, building the Rings, it can be difficult to spot a clear kind of
time. After declaring
bankruptcy with that business. The mail-order grew, the catalogue grew, we pattern. What are you looking for when you make
business in 2004, he started opening shops… these acquisitions?
founded another, For me, it’s about people and entrepreneurship, rather
Game Outlet, which
Jumping ahead, you eventually moved on to game than the products they make. You know, a business is
through a decade-
long string of development and publishing, initially with Nordic people, and a successful business is all about having the
acquisitions – Games Publishing, which was best known for the We people able to make the right daily decisions, whether
including THQ, Koch Sing karaoke games before it closed in the early that is creating a game or having a mindset about what I
Media, Gearbox,
2010s. But the biggest turning point in terms of the want to create for tomorrow. And that has been the
Saber Interactive –
would evolve into Embracer story so far seems to be your acquisition absolute most important point for me – to find those
what’s now known of THQ’s assets in 2014. How did that come about? leaders or entrepreneurs, and to back them.
as the Embracer Again, we started, well, not small, but we started with Also, I’m running a public-listed company. There are
Group. This, as
the [bankrupt Austrian publisher] JoWood IPs, then a many challenges to that. But one of them is, we’re in the
it turned out, was
just the beginning of few weeks later the acquisition of Dreamcatcher, the games industry, and you could think you know the
Wingefors’ costly Canadian publisher of Painkiller and a number of other outcomes of your future releases, but in reality you can
shopping spree. IPs. That was followed by a number of other IP never know fully. You need to be diversified in order to
acquisitions, mainly across Europe – and then by the have predictable revenues, earnings, cash flows.
situation at THQ. I still have that email somewhere – I
think it was Gamesindustry.biz that had this article Is that the thinking behind having so many games in
about THQ filing for administration, and I was reaching development under the Embracer umbrella? A case of
out to a few guys in the management: ‘OK, should we do making many smaller bets, not knowing which ones
something?’ ‘Oh, they’re too big – we could never afford will come off, rather than wagering it all on a small
this.’ But then we got in contact with the administrator, handful of extremely focused projects?
and the rest is history. Obviously you need to have a diverse stream of revenues,
They had two auctions. One for the big guys – and you need to have a diverse set of management teams,
Ubisoft, TakeTwo, Koch Media and a few others – to in order not to be too dependent on one thing, which
acquire the major IPs and licences, and then the second would increase the business risk. Having more than
auction in May, where we were the only one bidding for 10,000 game developers working on producing all these
everything. I remember being at home with my son when new games, obviously we have one of the widest

82
“WHY SHOULD I SPEND
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
ACQUIRING LEADING
CREATORS AND THEN
TAKE THE DECISIONS
AWAY FROM THEM?”
pipelines in the industry over the coming years. And my feels like a considerable amount, until you consider Embracer’s Q1 earnings
hope is… how shall I say this? I’m running a business that it’s spread across 200+ projects. How much report called out Evil
Dead: The Game as
and I hope that those platforms appreciate our content does the spending vary across the range of projects “the only new release
pipeline. We believe in Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, in production? that had a notable
financial contribution”
Steam, Epic and all the others, that they are the absolute The most sizeable game development projects are
best guys to be able to run these end-consumer upwards of 300 developers, in one project. But obviously
businesses and to invest in marketing, and our role is to for the average game, I don’t have the KPIs for you, but
be a content provider. But I believe there are some it’s much smaller.
excessive profits within the industry, on the distribution
side, and that’s why we’ve been a great supporter, for Even 300 development staff, by triple-A standards,
example, of Epic trying to be a competitor. Because isn’t an enormous amount. Is Embracer consciously
obviously it’s in our interest to keep as much of the less focused on those individual tentpole releases
revenue streams as possible. than other similarly sized publishing groups?
It goes back to our strategy of being diverse in terms of
On that revenue-share point, presumably the revenues and business risks. Not a single IP or project
growing size of Embracer changes the conversations represents more than five per cent of our revenues in a
you’re able to have with those platforms when it single year. Because of this diversification, we are able to
comes to negotiating rates? take more business risk in game development today than
That’s a very delicate question, as I’m sure you we were a few years ago.
understand. I think we are a well-respected business
partner to these platforms. And it’s really hard for me to What kind of risk do you mean?
comment on the details. Obviously I want our games to In general, you get a good return on investment by
reach as many new consumers as possible, and I want to increasing the barriers or the ambitions of each game –
be able to keep as much of the profit or revenues as trying to make it a bit better or more polished, or to
possible so that we are able to make even better games. expand it, or whatever you’re trying to do. If you
And, at the same time, I’m respectful of the cost of just have a handful of games, the business risk of each
operating these platforms and providing payment and is too high. But if you have 200 games, you’re able to
server infrastructures. put that message to your game developers. You know:
Obviously it’s a balance, but there are a lot of try to put some more time, effort and money into
industry rules – you know, the 30/70 rule, for example, making the game even better.
in terms of profit sharing of a new game. And I put some
numbers into the market a year ago saying that, on When you’re operating at this kind of scale, how do
average, we are actually paying more to platforms than manage the functionality of such a large number of
we are investing in the game’s development for many disparate companies and studios?
titles. And I think that gives you an idea of how much is I don’t believe in centralising the commercial decisions
being paid in platform fees. across the group, as other peers have done historically. It
doesn’t make sense for me. Why should I spend all these
In terms of how much is going into development, you hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring the absolute
put a hard number on that in your Q1 earnings leading creators and companies in the world, and then
report, announcing that you’d invested 1.1bn krona take the decisions away from them? So the structure of
(£89m) in game development over the quarter. That Embracer now is that there’s 12 operating groups

83
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 AN AUDIENCE WITH…

[including Gearbox, Coffee Stain and Plaion, formerly

Koch Media] which all have successful management “THE REASON TO
teams and entrepreneurs that have proven themselves
over a number of years. JOIN EMBRACER IS
And those groups function more or less MUCH GREATER THAN
independently of one another.
We are a public company, so we have a financial IT WAS, BECAUSE
integration, legal integration, we have a compliance
code and guidelines and policies. But basically, THERE’S JUST SO MANY
commercial operations, the decisions in their daily
operations, are within the management teams. Now, MORE OPPORTUNITIES”
those groups are quite sizeable, so they also have
a structure of sub-groups, almost. But the mindset acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, with the
and the business models of the groups are a bit different. trademark and business of Lord Of The Rings.
The culture of how you do business and how you think
about business is, I would say, quite different between To clarify, is the ultimate intent to adapt these
the 12 groups. Everyone realises there are tons of properties into videogames – for example, to pick
opportunities for collaboration and synergies that could from Dark Horse’s library, an Umbrella Academy
benefit companies across the group – so there is always game or whatever?
an agenda to do more collaborations there, but there is Obviously it’s hard to say that the rule applies to
no forced policy. everything, but when I looked at the business of Lord Of
The Rings, for example, in terms of the current business
Is there no temptation to apply a unified Embracer of that licensing company, the most significant royalty
culture, or to create a shared identity of what ‘an streams were already from gaming. But I don’t think
Embracer game’ might look like? people think about Lord Of The Rings as primarily a
I think culture is always local. The culture is the people. gaming property.
I believe in empowering the local cultures of each
company and country they are in. But the size of the One decision that has been widely questioned is
whole ecosystem of Embracer has empowered a greater the billion-dollar investment Embracer took from
amount of collaboration synergies and opportunities Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Given
within the group. So the reason to join Embracer is that Embracer has committed publicly to equality
much greater today than it was a few years ago, because and high ethical standards, how do you square that
there’s just so many more opportunities in terms of with the country’s human rights record and
support, or opportunities to work on iconic IPs, or to criminalisation of homosexuality?
work with other people within the industry you believe It was a decision that didn’t come lightly, and it’s hard to
in, as a part of the group. give a very short answer to that question. For me, it was
a process, to understand and to learn, and to weigh up
And what about all the IPs you’ve picked up over the pros and cons, including what difference it makes for us
years – are those tied to a single operating group, or and the positive things that Embracer are able to do
is there an opportunity for them to be picked up by because of that investment. I put out a letter a few days
others? And is that different for the properties you after that announcement that tried to answer a lot of the
now own outside of videogames? questions that had arisen. So in the respect of us being a
It’s a step-by-step approach. In the updated strategy we public company, and what I say being of great interest to
put to the AGM last September, we didn’t make any big many, I would prefer to just refer back to that letter.
news around it but we said that we are a gaming
company, but we believe in transmedia. And we believe A recent EA earnings report illustrated that the
that IPs are not necessarily always created within gaming, company’s revenues from in-game transactions
but that gaming, in general, is the best way to monetise outweigh those from standalone game sales by an
an IP. And that’s that set us on a roadmap to expand the enormous margin, and it increasingly feels that this
universe or the ecosystem of Embracer. To the is the goal that every big publisher is shooting for. Embracer acquired
acquisition of Asmodee last December, followed by the Looking across the Embracer library, though, there Gearbox Entertainment,
creator of the
acquisition of Dark Horse Comics, the number three aren’t many examples of that business model. Is that Borderlands series,
comic-book publisher in America, and most recently the an intentional management decision, or is it just for $1.3bn in 2021

85
 “IN ORDER TO BE
SUCCESSFUL, YOU
NEED TO LEARN FROM
HISTORY. WHICH IS
VERY EASY TO SAY, BUT
VERY HARD TO DO”
The recently released the result of the nature of the studios that exist You can still think of yourself as an underdog, even
Destroy All Humans! 2 within the group? with close to 15,000 employees?
Reprobed is the latest
example of Embracer I think historically we have primarily been more I do. If you compare us to the big dragons, we’re a very
capitalising on its vast traditional PC game developers and publishers in general. small underdog. Financially, but also with the resources.
back catalogue of IP
We do now have more and more games that are And I think it’s also a mindset. Personally, I believe
becoming more live-service operated, where you bring in you’re in danger if you believe you’re better and greater
more content, but it’s not necessarily [relying on than others. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to
in-game transactions]. You can be monetising that game believe in yourself. But it’s a business risk of its own, if
by either selling more units or by selling that content or you’re not humble. The day you start not caring about
just engaging players. I think Coffee Stain has a few great other people, it’s dangerous. So I think the greater you
examples in their games, like Deep Rock and Satisfactory become, the more sizeable you become, you have an even
and Valheim, but also there are games like Borderlands greater responsibility to be thoughtful and humble about
from Gearbox or World War Z and Snowrunner from who you are.
Saber. There’s quite a few examples across the group. But
I would say we have a fairly limited number of games In talking about what makes Embracer unique, the
that are very monetised within the game – like being a videogame archive comes to mind. You’ve spent an
free-to-play game, for example. And we don’t have any estimated $2m buying up collections of games and
game, obviously, like Call Of Duty or FIFA. hardware to date, and there are currently around
When I’ve been looking at the free-to-play market, 50,000 items in the archive, with more arriving.
first of all, it’s a very limited number of game developers That’s certainly not something any of your
that have a track record of successes, especially in the competitors are doing, but where did the initiative
west – so many of them are developed in Asia, in China. come from?
Secondly, it’s often a $100m+ investment, with very high Well, I started collecting games myself, privately, like a
business risks. So I think, looking at the growth of decade ago. I regretted not putting one copy aside of all
Embracer, we are able to take on more business risk, but the games I’ve been trading all my life – and I’m just
would I like to take on several hundreds of millions of very interested in the history of the business, and of all
dollars on free-to-play games? Hmm. the various old formats. I think physical copies of the
hardware and software tells you a lot.
And when we’re looking at other big videogame And then I decided a few years ago: OK, why do I do
publishers – the likes of EA, Activision Blizzard, this privately? It doesn’t make sense. One, I don’t have
Ubisoft, which all have similar numbers of the time to even look at the things. Two, this makes
employees to Embracer – is that the sort of company sense for the whole group. Because if you look at
you want to put yourself alongside? Embracer, what is Embracer? Well, we are a holding
I look at Embracer differently than I look at any of company, we do quite boring stuff like financial and
the big guys. I’ve always been an underdog, in a group accounting, but we engage with people all
way, being from the countryside in Sweden. I don’t like across the world, and I’d like to find a kind of campfire
to compare… you know, Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft] has that those people could gather around. Almost
built a fantastic company, in many ways, from every week I get people reaching out to me – quite
his background also being in mail-order, in Paris. You senior businesspeople across the industry – saying,
know, I think every company has its own DNA and ‘I want to visit the archive, and we can talk around
culture and uniqueness. some business while we’re there’.

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 AN AUDIENCE WITH…

Do you see this as a continuation of your earliest missing. And, you know, we’re building the
days in business, when you went from being a infrastructure around it, hiring people and so on. For
collector yourself to making money out of other me, this is a very long-term thing. I’m thinking a decade,
people’s collections? Is that something that informs or decades, ahead.
your approach at Embracer overall?
I don’t necessarily like to say that Embracer is about Does that apply to your general outlook? Do you
collecting. I think it’s two different things. Personally, I have a very long-term plan for Embracer’s future?
just enjoy having a deep conversation around an old I do. You know, life is short. I’m 45 now, and for how
format or publisher that has been around [for a long many more years do I have the ability to actually make a
time] and what could we learn from it. You know, one of difference? That’s kind of my horizon. At the same time,
the formats I was betting early on was 3DO. And the you need to execute here and now, but it helps you if you
crazy stories you hear about 3DO, it just amazes me. In have a long-term mindset. And obviously I have various
order to be successful, you need to learn from history. ideas, but you also need to be adaptive to changes – you
Which is very easy to say, but very hard to actually do. know, geopolitical changes, financial market changes,
And the other thing I would like to highlight is that technical changes, changes in consumer behaviour… This
it’s not a collection. Because the downside of collecting is a very complex thing. And if you try to nail down too
is that it’s always been about the grades and the many things exactly in terms of how you approach the
condition of the boxes, and the value of things. What coming years, you run the risk of ending up like one of
Embracer has is an archive, and the ambition is just to those dead formats we’ve seen in this industry. So I’m
put one sample of each in there. Not like a mint copy trying not to end up like 3DO.
that is worth something – I couldn’t care less about that,
in the archive part of it. It’s quite the opposite, you know As you look to the future, do you anticipate
– I’d like people to actually use these games as well as continuing the same pace of acquisitions that have
experience the old boxes and cartridges. characterised the past couple of years?
Most of our acquisitions are done under each operating
If that’s the difference between collecting and unit – they are acquiring one of their external game
preservation, then the latter seems to be something developers. [As an example, Tripwire was acquired this
Embracer is interested in more generally, right? August by Saber Interactive, one of Embracer’s 12
Exactly. We’re handling a number of retro consoles operating groups.] Those kinds of acquisitions will
across the group; we have various retro initiatives and always be there. It’s part of the business plans and
businesses. [Embracer’s most recent set of acquisitions, strategy of many of the operating groups. But I think
in August, included Limited Run Games, Clear River these more sizeable, transformative acquisitions, you
Games and Tatsujin, which owns the IP of defunct arcade don’t have to do them. But we’re always talking to a
developer Toaplan.] And, to be fair, if I wanted to make number of players within the industry. And I think when
big money in this industry, I wouldn’t go for retro the time is right, we might add something more that
gaming. It’s a niche business – you don’t make a huge adds to the overall [Embracer] ecosystem.
amount of money. But for us it’s not all about making
money, it’s also about making things you are passionate So you can’t foresee a point when you’re done with
about, and I think that is one part – of many, hopefully – making acquisitions?
that makes Embracer Group different from others. No, not really. If you think about Embracer, the wider we
become, the greater the overall ecosystem, the more
What’s the plan for the archive’s future? opportunities and abilities we have, the more
I don’t want to make too many promises. I think there is diversification we have. So, for us, it just makes sense to
a great ambition from my side, and from Embracer as add more companies to strengthen the overall ecosystem.
well, for what this could become. Will it become a I really like to focus on acquisitions where there is strong
museum, will it become exhibitions? We could hopefully collaboration or synergy potential within the group that
in future support institutions or schools, or hold really adds value to the overall group. Unlike other, more
workshops. Just imagine a workshop, for example, if private-equity-funded structures, we are not a financial
you’re doing a music or singing game. Just look at the rollup, as such. We have firm long-term thinking about
history of all music or singing games – it’s hundreds – all our companies.
Crystal Dynamics was
and put all those products into the same room to try and We wouldn’t acquire the brand of Lord Of The Rings one of the studios
learn from them. But right now we’re focused around if we were just thinking to maximise that potential over acquired in Embracer’s
Square Enix deal, along
building the actual archive and gathering collections. the coming year. You need to think decades ahead. And with the rights to the
We’re actually cataloguing what we have and what’s that’s how we will continue to think about this. Tomb Raider franchise

87
 T H E
M A K I N G
O F. . .

D E AT H L O O P
How the time-loop shooter won over
Bethesda, players – and its own developers
By Alex Spencer

Format PC, PS5

Developer Arkane Lyon
Publisher Bethesda Softworks
Origin France
Release 2021

88
E
verything started with a party. Before Colt present. This leaves the player to instead gather
and Julianna, before multiplayer, before information for future loops, or else set in motion
even the concept of a time loop, game some domino effect that will pay off later in the
director Dinga Bakaba tells us, the initial day. Here, the domino was a workshop that
seed of Deathloop was simply this: “The northern produces helpfully lethal fireworks – as long as
setting – you know, this small, isolated island, you can stop it from burning down first. In the
with harsh nature – and the contrast with this final game, it’s a substantial subquest; in this
big, lawless party. That was there from the start. early draft, it was simply a case of nabbing a
This big, lawless party, everyone’s wearing bottle of whisky off the owner’s desk,
masks, and it’s sinister. Everyone’s having fun, Deathloop’s selection of powers are clearly rooted in the
circumventing a later drunken accident.
but you’re not. You’re the butt of the joke.” It Dishonored games – Shift is the natural successor to Blink It’s at night, though, that Updaam really
sounds like the stuff of nightmares from which comes alive. The streets are crowded with
you can’t wait to awaken, and it doesn’t exactly these ideas had knotted together in ways that Eternalist goons, while the mansion of local
suggest the game Deathloop would become. made it difficult to carve out an isolated chunk egomaniac Aleksis Dorsey opens its doors for –
Things start to become a little clearer, though, as of game that would represent the whole what else? – a great big party. This is the other
Bakaba recalls other aspects that arrived in time experience. They chose one of the game’s four reason it was chosen for the vertical slice. “It
for the initial proposal. “Making it somehow districts, Updaam, but in two versions: one at was this huge stress test,” Nightingale says. “It’s
connected to Dishonored – that was already part morning, one at evening. If the starting points of the most extreme AI density that we’re going to
of it,” he says – a connection that is buried deep Deathloop’s development – isolated island, wild have anywhere in the game, with this crowded
in the final release, requiring some excavation party, familiar setting, novel structure – seem party. So it was like: let’s do the most difficult
by players. While Arkane didn’t want to entirely thing that we can do as a prototype.”
abandon the world it had spent the best part of Having set this challenge for itself, Arkane
a decade building, though, it was keen to chart “THE PUBLISHER managed to produce something close to the
new territory in other ways.
“Exploring different ways to play an BASICALLY TOLD US, finished product. “Honestly, the version of Aleksis
Dorsey’s mansion we shipped, it was already
immersive sim was part of that pitch as well,”
Bakaba says. Following the departure of studio
‘IF THERE IS EVER A like 90 per cent there in the vertical slice,” says
Nightingale, who before stepping into her
founder and president Raphaël Colantonio in
2017, this was a transitional time for Arkane.
TIME TO EXPERIMENT eventual role was responsible for the mansion’s
level design. There was one key difference from
“And the good thing is, we had our publisher AND TO TRY the final game – you couldn’t lure other

THINGS, IT’S NOW’”

Bethesda – and especially Todd Vaughn, VP of Visionaries to the party for a three-in-one kill – but
publishing – who basically told us, ‘If there is Nightingale was careful to leave room for their
ever a time to experiment and to try things, to arrival. “I actually had to have several fights with
make the right decision about where you want disparate, then there couldn’t be a more perfect my leadership at the time to remind them,
to go as a studio, it’s now. This doesn’t happen meeting point than Updaam. because they were trying to cut it down,” she
often. So let’s use this time and think’.” Its faded sandstone brick and craggy says. An attic was added to the mansion later,
During that thinking time – some of Hebridean terrain provide the first big hint that but otherwise the blueprint was adhered to
which was spent helping out sister studio Arkane might not have strayed too far from its throughout development. “First-iteration art pass,
MachineGames with its Wolfenstein games, previously established universe. “In some ways, of course – a lot of grey box and a lot of
which might explain the Lyon studio’s newfound Updaam was chosen because it’s our most unfinished assets – but yeah, the Updaam that
taste for guns – ideas began to accumulate Dishonored-y location, so it was the thing we we made then is the one in the finished game.”
quickly. “The moment where it takes shape, it were most prepared to do immediately,” In fact, many elements of the final game
seems like a lot of things arrive in a burst,” campaign designer Dana Nightingale explains. were present. Multiplayer was a relatively new
Bakaba says. “The thing that was actually “We hadn’t really invented, like, what is the addition at this point, but the vertical slice
eventually greenlit, the second proposal, a lot of science layer? What is the military layer? already allowed for invasions by a second
the things that you might think of now as the core What is the pop layer?” player. A version of the game’s loadout screen
of Deathloop were there. The ’60s were in there. By showing this location at two times of day, was included, too, although Bakaba admits to a
The time loop was there – so now it’s not only a meanwhile, the vertical slice could hint at the little cheating here – the selection of weapons
crazy party, it is a crazy party that doesn’t end.” various ways a player might approach a level and abilities was actually fixed to show off the
on each visit. Your primary goal in Deathloop is parts of the arsenal the developers had ready.
By the time the growing team of developers the assassination of eight targets, the Visionaries, Including, vitally, a shotgun. “You know, we
had to start work on a vertical slice of the in the space a single day – but in Updaam, in have Id Software and Wolfenstein in the
game they could show to Bethesda, all of the morning, none of those Visionaries are company,” Bakaba says. “So if you’re going

89
THE MAKING OF...

to say, ‘Hey, it will feel like Dishonored with guns’,

you’d better have a good shotgun to prove it.” 1
It worked. “People loved the vertical slice,”
Bakaba says, recalling one reaction with
particular fondness. “I won’t say who it was, but
someone said, ‘I had absolutely no idea that I
would like what I played. This is the most
surprising I like it in my career’.” The positive
reaction, he adds, bought Arkane “a lot of slack”,
something it would need to call upon later. Not
least because one apparently minor decision
made during the creation of this early prototype
would prove to have major consequences for the
rest of development.

“It had a lot of things [in place],” Bakaba says

of the vertical slice. “But I will tell you what it did
not have, which might surprise you. And actually
this is one of the fails of this project, in my
opinion. What it did not have is a save system.”
Having decided to leave the save system out
at this pivotal point, Arkane kept pushing back
work on the feature. “‘Let’s wait until more and
more things are ready before we make the save
system, because then we won’t have to redo it as
we add things’,” Bakaba recalls thinking at the
time. “And that was a false economy. Yeah, sure, 1 This map of Blackreef

we didn’t have to make two save systems, but 3 namechecks ‘Berezin’, a character
often referenced but never actually
because of that, the time loop only existed in seen in the game. Berezin was also
[the development team’s] heads for too long.” the name originally given to the
player-character, before Arkane
To understand why this would be such a settled on the snappier ‘Colt’.
problem, consider the unique way Deathloop 2 The towering Stabiliser Antenna
is Blackreef’s most prominent
tangles impermanence and persistence. On one landmark. It’s a remnant of the
hand you have those toppled dominoes, such as island’s previous occupants, the
the burned-down workshop, the consequences of members of the Operation Horizon
research expedition, who arrived
which can ripple from morning to evening but decades earlier, playing a similar
reset at the day’s end. On the other, there are role to the Dharma Initiative in Lost
– a major influence on Deathloop.
opportunities at the day’s end to add equipment to 3 A map of Updaam – Aleksis
your arsenal permanently, and Outer Wilds-style Dorsey’s party-hosting mansion
is over on the rightmost tip.
‘leads’, a bundle of questlines that can be nudged 4 Blackreef creates a striking
along from loop to loop as the player accumulates silhouette, with the sun casting
knowledge. For a long stretch of development, deep, dramatic shadows as it passes
overhead, something that’s used in
and through early playtesting, Bakaba explains, the game’s menu screens to
none of this was possible. “We couldn’t have illustrate the passing of time
consequences that stick.”
As a result, the developers couldn’t get a real
sense for how this structure they were inventing
would actually feel to play. “On the Dishonoreds,
very early on, you could play the entire game from
start to finish,” Nightingale says. For parts of the
game that weren’t ready yet, players could simply
be dropped into a grey room with a sign, its text
explaining what would happen at this point, and

90
2

91
THE MAKING OF...

1 The posters found around

Blackreef are used to establish
2
narrative elements, hint at potential
quests, and have some fun with
the graphic design of the period.
2 The various in-universe beer
brands aren’t just a charming
worldbuilding touch – they can also
be used to disrupt Aleksis’s party
and set him up for assassination.
3 The logo of Aeon, the Visionary-
led organisation that triggered
the island’s time loop, and which
Colt is trying to take down.
4 Julianna began life as simply ‘the
Hunter’. One of the factors in her
promotion to playable antagonist
was the work of Arkane’s character
artists, Bakaba says: “They came
up with one of the coolest-looking
characters I’ve ever seen”

92
 Q&A
can’t just teleport the player into a box with a
lever to get that experience. It doesn’t work.”
In Arkane’s team meetings, many staffers
Dinga Bakaba reported that they weren’t having fun testing their
Game director
own game. Worse still, many of them couldn’t
How strict were you imagine where the fun would ever come from.
about sticking to the
Since Bakaba was still trying to pin down the
original conception
of what Deathloop exact shape of the game, he takes some
would be? responsibility for failing to communicate the vision
There were a lot of things that changed, but to the entire team. At the centre, though, it all
there are a few that we circled around and
hinged on that one missing system. “If you have a
said, ‘Tentpole – if we change that, we will
never finish. Even if it will be challenging at key centrepiece for your game that comes online
some point, that’s a tentpole’. And there is one that late,” he says, “you cannot blame people for
tentpole that we broke. Only one. I will not not understanding what you’re making.”
explain it today, sorry. Eventually, the team managed to implement
3
So how early in development did you make Deathloop’s save system. “And lo and behold,
the decision to scrap this mystery aspect? nothing worked,” Nightingale recalls. The leads
Not that early, I guess. Midway towards that would guide players towards the solution of
alpha. Actually, I do have a frame of reference the game’s ‘murder puzzle’ had been designed
for time – we took the decision right after
announcing the game at E3. I can tell you, I felt
and implemented, but they were impossible to test.
very relieved that it wasn’t a part of the trailer. At this point, she says, it became clear that
“nothing was connecting”. It took a month of hard
And in terms of things that were added to work to pull the campaign into working order.
the initial concept, how did you decide that
“And then the challenge went out: ‘Play through
this would be a multiplayer game?
As we were coming up with archetypes for the entire game, please’.”
the ensemble cast, we had the idea: what if
there was a hunter, and instead of being in one The first time the loop was broken is a
of those time periods, and you know where
moment that Nightingale and Bakaba remember
they are, they can be here or there or here?
So then the gameplay programmers and clearly. It was shortly before the COVID-19
designers were wondering how we could pandemic took hold, meaning the team were all
make her that interesting and unique compared still working together in Arkane’s Lyon office. As
to all the others. How could we make her not level designer Sylvain Menguy approached his
just a bit stronger because she has a couple of
skills that are unique to her, but how could we
final targets, a cry went out around the office.
make her inherently an entirely different type Bakaba describes someone running up to him
of actor in the game? And someone at some and pulling him over to Menguy’s desk, where
point says, ’Well, what about if it’s another everyone was gathered around to cheer him on.
player?’ And we laugh. And someone says,
As he lined up these assassinations one by one,
’But it would be a bit like [cancelled Arkane
game] The Crossing?’ Oh, yeah, the thing all the parts of the murder puzzle finally falling
we didn’t do. And then: well, maybe. into lethal place, Nightingale had to walk away.
“I was just in tears, because we had worked so
a lever. “You pull the lever and we move you on to hard to make that possible.”
the next part. So, very early, someone could play From there, as more and more of the team
that very broken, incomplete version of the game followed in Menguy’s footsteps and broke the
and they would get it. They would know what the loop, the mood in the studio began to shift.
game was. They could have the satisfaction of Bakaba remembers an email he received from
saving the Empire, rescuing Emily, all that stuff.” one colleague: “‘I’m surprised – I actually played
For Deathloop, where the gathering of both until the end! It’s fun, I like it. I can’t believe it!’”
knowledge and gear was key, this simply wasn’t It’s not too different from the reaction to
the case. “You could go to every single map, play Deathloop’s vertical slice, except this time it came
every single target mission, and still have no idea from someone who wasn’t seeing the game for
what the game was and why it was cool and the first time but had worked on it for years.
interesting, without the save game. Without using “It felt good,” Bakaba says, demonstrating a
the time loop, without following the leads. You hitherto-unrevealed talent for understatement.

93
THE MAKING OF...

Now, having finally convinced themselves that

this game was worth pursuing, the team at Arkane 1
had to do the same thing for their players. Once
the campaign was up and running, the whole
thing could be sent to its user research panel to
be playtested. “We sent it to UR,” Nightingale
recalls, “and it was just… bleurghhh.” Reports
showed widespread confusion about the time
loop – not just how it worked mechanically and
how players could break it, but in some cases the
fact that they were in a time loop at all – and a
lack of interest in continuing past the tutorial.
Arkane’s solution was to extend the tutorial further.
Initially, players were run through a short
prologue based around Julianna’s stronghold, a 2
map that they would never revisit, introducing the
essentials of Deathloop’s story alongside all of its
mechanics, and then more or less cut loose in the
wider world. The solution to the confusion was to
space out these introductions over the course of
what Arkane calls the ‘Guided Tour’, which walks
the player beyond Julianna’s stronghold and
through a few days of the loop.
Getting this Guided Tour right would take
numerous loops of iteration, taking Arkane right up
to the final weeks of development, but one thing
was known straight away: which region would be
used to introduce players to Deathloop’s world.
The developers would go back, naturally, to
where it all began, among the sandstone and
crags of Updaam. “That turned out to be the
correct choice for introducing the player to the
world,” Nightingale says. “Just like we had used it
to introduce the game to the team at Bethesda.” 4
It’s easy, perhaps inevitable, to view the
game’s development as yet another loop. But is it
one that Arkane feels like it’s stuck in? Bakaba
remembers the parting words of former studio
director Romuald Capron, who left the company
as Deathloop was released: “Look, this is
happening over and over. We get worried.
We are concerned. And each time we actually
stick the landing. You guys need to trust in yourself
and trust each other.” The studio hasn’t found its
solution yet, but Bakaba is glad to have identified
at least the shape of the problem: “I call it the
valley of despair. Because it’s not a cliff. You
slowly roll down into the valley of despair. And
then, slowly, you go back up. One team at a
time. One playtest at a time. One marketing
demo at a time.” That’s the benefit of being
inside a loop, of course – you’re never too far
from the next curve upwards.

94
 3

1 Extra outfits for Colt and

Julianna can only be unlocked by 5
playing as the latter character
online, partly to encourage
invasions of other player’s games.
2 The nail gun is a stealthy player’s
dream, and makes incredible use of
the DualSense hardware’s haptic
feedback, rattling in the hand as
you crank up the next shot.
3 All the ‘Eternalist’ goons on the
island wear stylised masks inspired
by ’60s fashion. By hiding their
faces, they also make it a little
easier not to feel too bad while
you’re putting a nail through their
skull or booting them off a cliff.
4 One of Arkane’s hallmarks is the
thought put into designing in-world
objects. This might be fantastical
tech from an alternate timeline,
with a real spy-fi feel, but care is
taken to ensure that the items
could feasibly exist in our own.
5 While Updaam’s foundations
are reminiscent of Dishonored’s
setting, Dunwall, like much of
Blackreef it has been coated in
a vivid layer of pop-art graffiti

95
 STUDIO PROFILE

MILESTONE
INTER ACTIVE
How Italy’s long-running studio
moved from arcade racer to
sim specialist and back again
By Phil iwaniuk

96
M
ichele Caletti, executive producer Founded 1994
at Milestone, has been at the Employees 280
Milanese studio “forever”. At least, Key staff Michele Caletti (executive producer),
Andrea Basilio (game design manager),
that’s according to the estimations
Federico Spada (lead game designer)
of game design manager Andrea Basilio and URL milestone.it
lead game designer Federico Spada. In Selected softography MotoGP series, Super-
actuality, Caletti joined in 2003, seven years bikes Riding Challenge, Hot Wheels Unleashed
into the studio’s life. Over the course of our Current projects SBK 22
conversations, though, it becomes clear that in
some fundamental way, Caletti is Milestone. Tourist Trophy by Polyphony,” Caletti says. “It
Asked about the studio’s formation, he speaks was basically a game built undercover from
for 30 unbroken minutes. Every word of that Exec producer Michele Caletti has been with Milestone for 19
Polyphony and it’d been lingering around for
monologue radiates passion, but Caletti might years, while design manager Andrea Basilio is a recent hire years in the studio, but nothing was announced.
have found himself with less to talk about had And when they announced it, it was pretty much
Milestone not so dramatically transformed itself Evoluzione’s mixed reception and poor ready. So, again, our destinies somehow were
in the years immediately after he joined. commercial performance prompted something bound to meet.”
2003 was a pivotal year for the studio, of an exodus, with key figures at the company Super-bikes Riding Challenge didn’t propel
which began in 1994 as Graffiti and under departing. And that, Caletti says, gave a new the developer to Polyphony-like heights, then,
founder Antonio Farina’s leadership made a generation of developers a chance to reshape but it did provide Milestone with that clear
name for itself with PC driving game Screamer. the studio’s vision. This new Milestone of the identity it had been seeking. This was a studio
Two years later, the studio rebranded as mid-’00s focused on multiformat console that understood how to translate the vagaries of
Milestone and took the momentum Screamer releases, developed using middleware instead motorcycle handling into a convincing,
had generated to set up publishing deals with of exclusively proprietary tools. As it looked for a engaging videogame. It also knew how to take
both Virgin and Electronic Arts, the former new identity, for a while it settled into the role of a motorsport licence and not only replicate the
publishing Screamer 2 and Screamer Rally,
the latter facilitating three licensed Superbike
World Championship titles. Those games, 2006’S SUPER-BIKES RIDING CHALLENGE
released between 1996 and 2000, earned
Milestone both visibility and credibility in the WA S MILESTONE’S ATTEMPT TO MAKE A
wider industry. At the heart of its games were
meaty, well-constructed physics models, along
KIND OF GRAN TURISMO ON TWO WHEELS
with – particularly in Superbike 2000 and
2001 – visual approaches that made significant David to Polyphony Digital’s Goliath. “At that names, faces and liveries but also the underlying
strides towards photorealism. age, we were very young and very pumped to passion. And here, being an Italian studio,
By contrast, Milestone’s next move seemed be making games that at their core had the Milestone had a unique advantage.
to have everything going against it. “It was same technical values as Gran Turismo,” Caletti
conceived with Atari,” Caletti begins. “Usually, says. “The same number of cars on screen, the “In Italy, motorcycle racing is a kind of
we would make the games and then try to sell very same resolution and framerate; graphics religion for some people,” Basilio says.
them to a publisher; instead, this was the other and physics you could put side by side and we “Because we have Tavullia, that is the hometown
way around. And it looked like a good wouldn’t be blown away”. of Valentino [Rossi], and the people go there like
opportunity, but in fact it was really a turning Even so, Milestone knew it couldn’t topple it’s a sanctuary to visit the birthplace of the
point, and not a good one for Milestone, Gran Turismo on its own terms. Where Sony’s champion.” As interested as British fans may be,
because it was a moment where Atari was in series had well over 400 licensed cars, they don’t grow up surrounded by national
a complex situation.” Milestone’s Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo and heroes such as Rossi, Max Biaggi and Giacomo
The culmination of this partnership with Atari, Corvette Evolution GT had significantly narrower Agostini in their media landscapes, granted
in 2003, was a game that bore two different scopes dictated by their licensed nature. The legendary status for their achievements. And
names – Racing Evoluzione in Europe and Apex studio did feel it had an ace up its sleeve, while a dedicated UK MotoGP viewer might
in North America – and was reliant on publicity though, with 2006’s Super-bikes Riding recognize Italy’s new class of talent by name –
put out by a publisher in dire financial straits. Challenge, Milestone’s attempt to make a kind Bagnaia, Bastianini, DiGiannantonio,
“We had little marketing support, with deliveries of Gran Turismo on two wheels. It was a fine Bezzecchi – they’re not invested in those riders’
slipping and slipping,” Caletti recalls. “It was plan, but one that was headed off by sheer careers the same way Italian fans are.
coming out in a moment where the first simcade unfortunate coincidence. Naturally, then, when Milestone was finally
games like Project Gotham Racing arrived, “I still remember that we were astonished handed the reins of the official MotoGP game
so we were going head-to-head against some when we were finishing development, and it series in 2013, it managed to convey the
big guys, with little marketing support.” was announced, completely out of the blue: drama and personality of the sport better than

97
STUDIO PROFILE

Within the walls of the

Milanese studio lies an
unrivalled level of motorcycle
sim development experience

any of its predecessors. The road there was long, as the series progressed, demanded ever more work on our engine, which simulates realistic
lined with a succession of licensed SBK games subtle inputs to settle the bike going into and out physics, made for realistic games, and we
and dev support on Capcom’s own MotoGP of preposterous mid-corner lean angles. remodelled it for toy cars. This idea is strange,
titles, but in retrospect the studio’s recognition by The success of Milestone’s MotoGP series led but when you play, the feeling is right.” And
sport governing body Dorna seems inevitable. to the production of other licensed games in a right it proved. Hot Wheels Unleashed sold
After all, if you want to make a game about similar vein, including FIM Motocross, WRC and more than a million copies in 2021 alone,
motorcycle racing, it makes sense to take it to Monster Energy Supercross. For the past decade, making it the fastest-selling title in Milestone’s
the studio whose office is just a few hours’ drive Milestone has been releasing annualised titles 28-year history.
from the birthplace of Valentino Rossi, and for these licences that incrementally ratchet the You might imagine that this project would
whose car park is full of bikes. “When I arrived handling towards outright simulation, even at feel like open road, after so long making
this morning,” Caletti says, “I said, I think, yes, the expense of approachability. Its next move, annualised titles. But Spada, a veteran of both
well, it’s not Wednesday because there are just then, might seem at odds with what the studio Monster Energy Supercross and MXGP, sees it
20 or 30 motorcycles. A hundred motorcycles is had become so well-known for. A Hot Wheels differently. These annual release schedules
usual. But today is a quiet day.” racing game? It’s hard not to see that as provide constraints, he says. And constraints
For all involved, this was the fruition of something of a handbrake turn. are good. “They’re always cool because they
everything they’d been working towards.
“Imagine that you’re a motorsport fan, and one
day a guy’s asking you to become the lead HIS TEAM APPLIED THE SAME TECHNIQUES
game designer on the reboot of the MotoGP
series,” Basilio says. “A few months later, I went TO BUILD HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED AS
to Mugello with one of the other directors of the
game and they bring me on the track, near
THEY WOULD ANY OTHER SIMULATION
where the marshals are, with Valentino and
[Jorge] Lorenzo going really close to me, really “I don’t want to lie,” says Basilio, who make your brain go in different directions, trying
dangerous. That was a dream come true.” worked as game design manager on Hot to find new ways. A lot of times we actually
As game director on the initial release, Wheels Unleashed. “At the beginning, when we found it easier to work with constraints. Every
MotoGP 2013, Caletti pitched the challenge start thinking about how we were going to apply year, it’s cool to find an area in which the game
and the level of realism higher than Capcom’s our method on Hot Wheels, I was thinking, ‘OK, can be boosted, and say, ‘What can we do in
releases had ever attained: “When we did it, this sounds really weird’.” The entire team was terms of design to make that area better?’ So
it was a technical game. It was a realistic game. clear about one thing, though: nobody wanted maybe we focus on that, go forward, find the
It was a challenging game. And it was to use the licence to make a Mario Kart clone. best way to do it.”
something that was really a cornerstone in the Milestone makes realistic games, so this would It’s as well that Spada and his team feel this
way we were thinking about games.” The series be realistic. It’s just that, this time, there was no way. Milestone has just picked up the World
performed well with critics and players alike, real-world sport to simulate. Superbikes licence again, alongside its active
thanks in no small part to that level of challenge Nevertheless, Federico Spada and his team roster of MotoGP, MXGP and Monster Energy
and detail. Here was a licensed racing game applied exactly the same techniques to build Hot Supercross. Its team of 280 will be hunkered
that asked you to control the front and rear Wheels Unleashed as they would any other down in northern Italy, finding new ways to push
brakes independently, and to correct high-sides licensed simulation. “We take the cars, the 3D four series forward within a yearly deadline,
when you got on the throttle too early out of a models from Mattel, as 3D scans just like the leveraging almost three decades of specialist
corner. A game that offered the depth of Moto3 real bikes from Ride. We use exactly the same dev experience. For the next year, you imagine,
and Moto2 categories in its career model. And, method, even for the physics. We wanted to there’ll be a lot of motorcycles sitting outside.

98
1

2 3

1 In toy car racer Hot Wheels

Unleashed, the studio’s
meticulous simulation-based
approach delivers the kind of
attention to detail uncommon
in kid-friendly licensed fare.
2 Nearly a decade into its
annualised MotoGP series, the
team manages an impressive
amount of iteration between
releases, including a recent
engine swap to Unreal, plus
the inclusion of an interactive
documentary, titled ‘Nine’.
3 Once the young pretender
to Gran Turismo developer
Polyphony’s racing simulation
throne, Milestone found its
true identity by focusing
on two-wheeled racing

99
 REVIEWS. PERSPECTIVES. INTERVIEWS. AND SOME NUMBERS

STILL REVIEWED
PLAYING THIS ISSUE
Nobody Saves The World PC
The Frozen Hearth DLC gives us reason to 102 Splatoon 3
revisit Drinkbox’s action-RPG, offering two Switch
new unlockable forms. Getting your hands
on them involves first earning medals across 106 Roadwarden
various challenges in a colosseum, the golds PC
requiring plenty of experimentation to find the
right ability combinations. After the first set 110 Steelrising
you’ll gain the Mechanic, who has a four-hit
wrench combo and a deployable turret, while
PC, PS5, Xbox Series
the fast-moving Killer Bee’s stinger produces
health-giving honey – a necessity given its
112 Metal: Hellsinger
crit-guaranteeing sting hurts to use. All in all, PC, PS5, Xbox Series
it’s a short, sweet but inessential expansion.
114 Return To Monkey Island
Immortality PC PC, Switch
One minor irritation about playing a game
before anyone else – particularly the kind of 116 The Case Of The Golden Idol
game that might, for example, convince you PC
that inserting word-based match-cuts in a
review is a good idea – is having no one to 118 Sunday Gold
discuss it with when we’re desperate to do so. PC
It is a particular relief, then, when friends of
the show slide into our DMs and Hangouts,
positively champing at the bit to talk about it
120 The Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow
with us. Suffice it to say that the conversations PC
we have had about Immortality in recent
weeks have been almost as enjoyable as 121 Tinykin
playing it. Should it be an Edge 10? We have PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
even fewer doubts than we did at the time.
122 Wayward Strand
Blasphemous PC PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
As the wait for Silksong continues – and
continues – we once again turn to the deep 123 Riley & Rochelle
back catalogue of Switch Metroidvanias in PC
order to scratch the itch. Although no doubt
that would constitute a sin of some manner in
the world of Cvstodia, a dark-fantasy twist on
Roman Catholic iconography – mainly the
bits involving guilt and self-flagellation. It
remains a unique setting that helps offset the
game’s failings, chiefly controls that lack the
dexterity to match the game’s steep challenge.
It’s no Hollow Knight, then, but what is?

Explore the iPad

edition of Edge for
extra Play content

100
How appropriate
It’s perhaps fitting that, as we celebrate a trip back to Monkey Island, there’s a
distinctly point-and-click flavour to this issue’s Play section. No fewer than seven
games are at the very least adjacent to the genre, if not quite belonging to it – a
happy accident of scheduling, we’re sure, as opposed to a weary craving for
something that taxes our brains rather than our (slightly) waning reflexes.
Or is it? Perhaps this is, in fact, a wider trend towards more cerebral fare, at least
within the indie space. Either way, we’re feasting: joining Ron Gilbert’s bright,
nostalgia-soaked return is a point-and-click adventure of a much darker hue in The
Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow. Neither of those games, in truth, is likely to have
you stuck on its puzzles for too long, so if you’re seeking something that demands
you keep a notepad handy, we can point you in the direction of Riley & Rochelle,
where you must figure out the chronology of a romance between two star-crossed
celebs while nodding along to a convincingly ’90s-themed soundtrack. The Case
Of The Golden Idol, meanwhile, presents you with a succession of murders to
solve, and would really rather you didn’t rely on its in-built
hint system, thank you very much. Wayward Strand, which
casts you as a young girl spending her school holidays at a
nursing home, is thoughtful in a different way, inviting us to
ruminate on how we use the time we have left in a story that
targets the heart more than the head.
But fear not, action fans: there’s some handy
counterprogramming in the form of Metal: Hellsinger, a
rhythm-shooter that (temporarily at least) makes us see the
appeal of the moshpit. And to bring us full circle to the
subject of colourful, slightly safe sequels, there’s Splatoon 3,
in which you fight not like a cow but a human-cephalopod
hybrid. As some of our colleagues in the gaming press may
attest, our reflexes haven’t entirely atrophied yet.

101
 PLAY

Splatoon 3

W
e open on a clear, blue sky – as vivid a hue as Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) more to get earlier access to weapons, such as our
Format Switch
any with which you’ll ink your environment beloved .52 Gal, before you’ve reached the level at which
Release Out now
and opponents in Splatoon 3. In the wastes they unlock. Given such a generous selection, it’s no
below, an Inkling shelters from the baking sun, shawled great surprise that a mere two new variants are added to
in a threadbare cloak, sporting mirrored shades and what the mix: the Stringer (an ink bow; one variant fires a trio
appears to be some kind of breathing apparatus. Once of explosive shots, while another can store a charge) and
you’ve chosen their look and that of their diminutive the Splatana (the first of these is a windscreen wiper
salmonid ally, you’re thrust into a brisk control tutorial. repurposed as a sword, which can be swiped horizontally
Then it’s a short journey aboard a train to Splatsville, a or charged for a more powerful vertical strike). Yet, as if
new city hub. It’s only then that we remember Nintendo’s keen not to overpower the new weapons, Nintendo has
promise that the result of Splatoon 2’s final Splatfest come close to nerfing them. The Splatana Wiper can be
would be honoured by the third game. Chaos reigned, deadly at close quarters but in our experience it’s
though you’d be hard-pushed to tell: the new hosts’ outmatched by a brush, while the Tri-Stringer is feeble
broadcasts and the ranked modes might have ‘anarchy’ as a damage-dealer without first being charged, which
in their names, but there’s little sign of revolution here. You would takes a shade too long compared to its ranged brethren.
That goes for Splatoon 3 as a whole. Sure, there are The only new sub-weapon is the Angle Shooter, which
small changes all over the place – judicious nips and struggle to marks enemies that come into contact with the ink line
tucks of the kind we’re now expected to refer to as argue against it creates for easier targeting. A fine idea, but a little too
‘quality-of-life improvements’ (is anyone’s life really situational: a lone spotter might use it to pinpoint
being improved by this stuff, or have we been collectively the assertion enemies for their allies in ranked modes, but in practice
suckered into adopting a marketer’s term for the kind of
refinements and additions you’d ordinarily expect of a
that this is we find ourselves wishing for something more explosive.
The specials – triggered, as ever, once you’ve inked
sequel?), as well as a more expansive selection of stages, Nintendo’s enough turf – are a different story. There is a thrilling
weapons and modes from day one. There’s no denying new variant on the first game’s Killer Wail, which fires
that Splatoon 3 feels a more generous package at launch safest sequel in laser-guided beams of ink that can converge on a single
than its two predecessors. Equally, you would struggle recent memory player or spread out, dealing less damage but forcing
to argue against the assertion that this is Nintendo’s entrenched rivals to take evasive action. Equally delightful
safest, most conservative sequel in recent memory. is the Tacticooler, a vending machine (with accompanying
Perhaps that was inevitable. With Splatoon, Nintendo jingle) that can be plopped down, dispensing cans of
pulled off the kind of trick it has on many occasions, liquid energy to teammates to boost walking speed or cut
getting so much right with the first game in a series that down respawn time to a single second if you’re splatted
any followup is destined to find itself gilding the lily. It post-swig. The Crab Tank is a versatile offensive option,
remains a thrillingly fast-paced, gleefully messy take on capable of rolling up into a ball and unleashing rapid-fire
the online squad-based shooter, one where ink acts as ink volleys, albeit slow to turn to protect its vulnerable
your source of ammo, your main means of traversal, and rear. It’s also outstripped by, of all things, an inflatable
the way to mark your team’s territory. The four-on-four, shark: the Reefslider hurtles along a straight line,
three-minute Turf Wars to which you’re limited until mowing down everything in its path (including metallic
you reach level ten now begin in more dynamic fashion, crustaceans) before exploding, the only downside being
as you launch into the fray from floating platforms, able that you’re exposed for a second after activating it.
to determine your landing position and thus to spread The promising-sounding Ink Vac, in contrast, fails to
your team a little wider for faster coverage (potentially fulfil its potential, only sucking in enemy ink sprayed
letting you unleash your special a little earlier, even if towards it rather than picking up anything from the floor,
splitting up is never as smart an idea as you might think meaning you can avoid powering it up by effecting a
for a game that’s all about covering more ground than localised ceasefire. Then there’s the Zipcaster, an inky
your opponent). It’s been bolstered by two new moves. grapple that proves one of the most valuable assets in the
A vertical surge, letting you zip up walls more quickly – singleplayer campaign (see Post Script), but which takes
potentially giving you the jump on a rival occupying the some getting used to. Granted, it can be used to quickly
high ground – is joined by an evasive spin-jump where extricate yourself from a sticky situation, or to fling
jamming the stick in the opposite direction while leaping yourself towards enemy territory to ink some turf or
lets you beat a hurried retreat in a pinch, the mid-air splat a rival before being launched back out. But the fact
twist repelling some of that incoming ink. that your landing spot is marked means you’re as likely
to fall into the jaws of death as be snatched out of them.
All the weapons from the first two games are here, Elsewhere, the Wave Breaker (which sends out concentric
paid for through a new in-game currency earned by circles of ink that must be hopped over, though you can
levelling up and winning matches, though you can spend comfortably tank a single hit) underwhelms, but the Big

102
 ABOVE The standard of online play has clearly risen since the early days of
Splatoon 2, which was many players’ entry point to the series. With fewer
newcomers this time, don’t expect a gentle introduction to Turf War

MAIN In layout terms, Scorch Gorge

is a fairly archetypal Splatoon map,
with a central tower surrounded by
open space and metal walkways.
ABOVE The singleplayer stages
designed around the special
weapons are slightly gimmicky, but
it’s thrilling to make the most of
them without worrying about when
they’re going to run out of juice.
RIGHT The Tri-Stringer is an unusual
weapon, its charged shots freezing
before exploding – though they
rarely deal enough damage to take
out a rival. A lightweight variant,
the Reef-Lux 450, is hopeless in
close-quarters exchanges, but if
you’re more concerned about
coverage it proves almost as
effective as an Aerospray

103
 Post-battle medals can soothe some of the sting of defeat. Learning you
Bubbler (a domed protective barrier that takes quite were the most popular target makes you feel better for getting splatted
some punishment before dissipating) feels remarkably so often; ‘#2 Home Base Inker’ feels a bit like a participation award, mind
valuable given that it’s paired with the Splattershot Jr,
the very first weapon you’re given and now an even the handful of new Boss Salmonids, while the tall pillar
better all-rounder than it was before. around which a group of small salmonids swings like a
There are just five new maps upon which to test all of CRAMPED STYLE fairground ride remains, too, giving charger players a
these, though they’re mostly robust additions, if largely Two unrelated additions are useful perch. And occasionally – rare enough to make it
differentiated by their surroundings rather than any oddly of a piece, both centred feel like an event – a King Salmonid will arrive after the
on trying to cram as much as
distinctive topography or features. Scorch Gorge takes you can into a limited space.
third wave, providing a climactic capper to your shift as
place within the Splatlands you see at the start, the Card battler Tableturf Battle is you battle a Cohock of kaiju proportions, pelting it with
beating sun leaving you wondering if these squid-kids essentially an abstract version of golden eggs gathered from other bosses to hasten its end.
sweat ink. The sunny coastal bustle of Hagglefish Market Turf War, inviting you to place Otherwise, any unwitting onlookers would have a
weapon cards to control territory.
makes for a pleasant environment for an inkfight, while it Yet it proves disappointingly
hard time differentiating this from Splatoon 2. Other
never gets old to launch yourself into the stack of boxes limited: more often than not, changes, though welcome, often come with caveats: a new
within range of the start point, causing them to spill into whoever gets dealt an opening physical lobby might let you test your loadout but there’s
the arena. Situated between brutalist tower blocks, the hand that allows them to push no way to interact with the spectral forms of other
into their opponent’s half
graffiti-strewn Eeltail Alley is another handsomely quicker is all but guaranteed to
players, and you’re only able to back out of matchmaking
realised urban space – and thus rather familiar – while win. Elsewhere, battle rewards if no one else is present. And if the ability to watch
Undertow Spillway and scrapyard Mincemeat Metalworks can be spent on stickers and replays of your last 50 matches sounds extraordinary, it
tilt towards the bleak industrial heart that occasionally items to decorate (and stuff offers frequent reminders that Nintendo has done nothing
inside) a locker adjacent to the
pokes through the cracks of this world’s colourful veneer. lobby area. It might be in
about the low tick rate: we have already lost count of the
To bulk out the roster, Nintendo has provided four maps keeping with Splatoon’s theme number of Splat Rollers that have apparently crushed us,
from Splatoon 2 and three from the original: a smartly of personal expression, but even as the footage shows our opponent strolling past.
tweaked Hammerhead Bridge (no longer under trying to make room is a The cumulative effect of all these features makes this
time-consuming and oddly
construction but fully finished) and Mahi-Mahi Resort, clunky process for something
the most complete-feeling Splatoon to date. But for the
with its shifting water levels, are the standouts. only a small percentage of most part it feels like we’re chasing the giddy sugar high
Talking of changing tides, the co-operative Salmon players will ever see. the original gave us, without ever quite getting there:
Run has also undergone a minor overhaul. Shifts are now the returning Squid Sisters only highlight Splatoon 3’s
available around the clock, while the ability to throw struggles to live up to their “stay fresh!” catchphrase. For
golden eggs lends an extra dynamism to the retrieval its many qualities – this is a game into which we fully
process – not least since it consumes a good chunk of expect to sink hundreds of hours – when it comes to big
your ink gauge, leaving you at risk from enemies that can new ideas, the kind of killer hook with which any sequel
seemingly take you down a little more easily this time. earns its stripes, there are precisely as many here
They can also be loaded into a cannon supplied by one of as there are clouds in that beautiful blue sky.
7

104
 PLAY

Post Script
Why Splatoon 3’s singleplayer is a missed opportunity

A
nyone who played the original Splatoon on Wii U much better use than we ever manage in multiplayer
will recognise the change in one of its returning combat. And there are boss battles besides, including one
maps. Indeed, had it not been one of the first nod to Super Mario Sunshine that doesn’t so much feel
game’s finest multiplayer stages, you could be forgiven like an affectionate tribute as a shameless lift.
for thinking Hammerhead Bridge had been brought back That, indeed, is one of the biggest problems with
purely for narrative purposes. Back in 2015, it was still in Splatoon 3’s campaign: especially if you played Splatoon 2
the process of being built, with several elevated grated and Octo Expansion, you have seen just about all of this
sections. Now it’s all solid ground. Its purpose in the before. These obstacle courses might be entertaining, but
Splatoon universe is to connect Inklandia – where you’ll while the enemies may now boast a furry exterior, there
find Inkopolis Plaza and Square – to the Splatlands are few new additions, and barely any mechanical twists:
where the new city hub, Splatsville, is situated. This the Soaker Blocks, which form pathways when inked and
thriving Kowloon-inspired metropolis is larger and more disappear after a while, hardly feel any different in practice
diverse than its predecessors and offers more reminders to the Inkfurlers. Does this suggest there’s a limit to how
that time passes in the Splatoon universe as it does in the much you can do with Splatoon’s central motif? Was
real world. That’s most obvious when you encounter inking exhausted as a mechanic before the development
ability-chunk dealer Murch – a literal street urchin – The world has team started work on 3’s singleplayer mode? A dazzling
who has grown significantly in stature in the five years endgame suggests otherwise, an assembly of segmented
since Splatoon 2. The world has evolved. So why does evolved. So why stages that collectively form an extended set-piece, tied
Splatoon’s singleplayer component refuse to follow suit?
It begins, as ever, with the theft of the Great Zapfish
does Splatoon’s together with cutscenes and culminating in an encounter
that has ramifications for the wider Splatoon universe.
(which we’ll accept as a wink to Splatoon tradition), and singleplayer Indeed, the collectable scrolls and logs yielded by
once again hived off from the rest of the game, accessed
as before via a manhole close to the battle lobby, which
component removing the ooze demonstrate a clear passion among
the development team for fleshing out this world and the
takes you beneath the crater adjacent to Splatsville to a refuse to story of how it came to be (which makes you wonder why
place called Alterna. After spending some time simply all of this is reserved for text files and what looks almost
mooching around such a well-realised urban space, with follow suit? like a digital manual). Perhaps because of this – and the
its towering buildings, alleys, parks, screens, apartment effort that has evidently gone into the more expansive
complexes and functioning monorail, this icy archipelago hub area – it’s never been more clear that Splatoon 3’s
is underwhelming. Housed within a colossal Octarian singleplayer game is not, in fact, a world, but a series of
dome, it comprises six islands, all partially covered in a tangibly videogame-y levels, ones where the tools used to
fuzzy ooze which must be removed with the aid of power create it have never been more apparent. You can picture
eggs collected from the stages scattered across them. As level designers placing down blocks, adjusting the position
before, you access them through kettles, descending into of features and then dropping in enemies, the striking
a succession of abstract obstacle courses, which – as in backdrops never quite enough of a distraction from that.
the brilliant Splatoon 2 DLC Octo Expansion – offer you a It’s all the more surprising given the effort invested in
selection of three weapons with which to complete them. situating all the stages within Splatoon’s wider universe.
These arenas are convincing as virtual spaces: designed
Borrowing from that challenging add-on might with function at top of mind, but with form not far
seem smart. And, in fairness, there are several courses behind. You see it in glimpses of the world beyond the
that match up to the series’ finest singleplayer campaign, stage boundaries; these are not merely arrangements of
particularly on the later islands. There are challenges that tiles and blocks floating in a metaphysical space, but a
limit your ink supply, forcing you to sneak by patrolling convincing approximation of a postapocalyptic settlement
enemies. On another you’ll blast clusters of balloons to populated by humanoid-cephalopod hybrids. We can only
make ink rails appear. Another course becomes a race in assume Nintendo must have experimented with the idea
squid form, where you leap between platforms coated in of an open-world Splatoon, before reverting to a variation
ink, zipping along boost pads to gain momentum. You on Super Mario’s ‘void’ stages. Perhaps using weapons
will solve puzzles by shooting Inkfurlers in the right outside the arenas would break an unwritten rule of
order, and sculpt arrangements of boxes into familiar Splatoon lore. But Nintendo has proved, here and with the
shapes. You will ride colossal missiles, blast oversized likes of New Donk City, that it can create urban spaces
bowling balls, beat hasty retreats from explosive enemies, that are enjoyable to traverse. There is a chasm between
and tackle a horde of Octolings in traditional Splatoon Splatoon’s multiplayer and singleplayer elements. It is
combat. Several stages effectively act as tutorials for past time, surely, for Nintendo to find a way – other
special weapons: the Zipcaster in particular is put to than Hammerhead Bridge – to connect the two.

105
 PLAY

Roadwarden

T
his engrossing fantasy RPG may be predominantly Developer Moral Anxiety Studio and if you don’t spend your earnings on a bed and
Publisher Assemble Entertainment
text-based, but one of its finest tricks is entirely rations, the next day you set out with an empty
Format PC
visual. A large window dominates the centre of Release Out now stomach and bleary eyes, and are easier pickings for
the screen, containing flavourful descriptions of the the monsters that sporadically obstruct your path.
place you’re visiting or the people you’re conversing Still, the freedom is intoxicating. Before long, you
with, above the available actions or answers. To the have a lengthy to-do list, but you can simply follow
right is a sidebar noting key stats, as well as options to your own nose, a journal full of second-hand
wait, travel or check your inventory. On the left, your information and observations serving as your guide.
location is illustrated in isometric pixel art, using an Scenarios change depending on your status and
eight-colour palette of yellows and browns. In key background: as a scholar, we can decipher texts, using
locations, these images come together piece by piece our insight to weasel out of combat, or our knowledge
as you explore them, adding to the thrill of discovery. of alchemy to blind an opponent and make good our
One delightful early twist on this sees a settlement It’s the gaps escape where a warrior might have waded in with their
instantly fill the window as you clamber up to a high battle axe. Sometimes you’re invited to enter text
vantage point. But it’s often what you can’t see that
that most manually, making use of a particular magical object to
fascinates you most: when you explore the area around intrigue, as you stir a statue, recalling how to address an ancient druid
a locked building, leaving a blank space at the heart of or an exchange that alerted you to something hidden
the image, or when you arrive at the gates of a plague- wonder about within an ancient dolmen. Your appearance seems to
ridden village and can’t see beyond its boundaries, the
text withholding enough to encourage you to imagine
the mysteries make less difference than the game initially suggests;
maybe it’s because we adopt a cheerful tone for most
the horrors for yourself. That extends to the map of the that lie within of our answers, but we hold several conversations while
peninsula you’ve been charged with exploring; it’s the bloodied and muddied, clothing in tatters, presumably
gaps that most intrigue, as you wonder about the
them, waiting stinking to high heaven. (Perhaps, now we’ve done the
mysteries that lie within them, waiting to be found. to be found rounds a few times, they’ve simply got used to the
That’s fitting for a game whose greatest triumph, smell.) Yet some do notice a necklace that proves we’re
perhaps, is that – for all the scrapes, near-misses and a devout soul; by the same token, it’s best tucked away
discoveries – you spend as long thinking about the path inside your gambeson when talking to non-believers.
not taken, the choice ignored, the quest begun but never
completed. Because you quickly learn that, as you map Roadwarden understands, then, that words
out this loop of road, you will not be able to fulfil every and actions have meaning, and strives to make yours
goal, solve every problem, uncover every secret, or chart have an impact. But you already know that from your
this place in its entirety. It’s not simply that there isn’t predecessor, Asterion – a man who is not held in high
enough time, though your 40-day limit on the default esteem by most, and whose wellbeing and whereabouts
difficulty setting adds extra pressure, but that making PERISH THE THOUGHT provide one of the most absorbing questlines. You
one person happy may disappoint another; you might As shudderingly horrible as resent him at first; his own failings are partly why
plan to connect the settlements here, but there is often descriptions of the various ways you’re viewed with suspicion, but his apparent desire
you can meet your end may be,
enmity between them, schisms that cannot be spanned. to leave this all behind grows more understandable by
death is not the worst fate you
While you can choose your character’s purpose – can face in Roadwarden. Die in the hour. There is, too, a moment of horror as it dawns
you may decide they’re here to earn enough to help a combat and you’re given the that the impossible nature of your job means your own
loved one or to retire early, to strive to bring peace to opportunity to replay the standing in the eyes of many is likely to end up like his.
encounter, almost as if you’ve
the region, to escape a troubled past or simply to help And yet despite all the trials and tribulations, the
placed your finger between
those in need – your presence is at the behest of a the pages of an adventure game embarrassment of being spurned, the shame of letting
merchant guild that plots to expand into this unfamiliar book, with a chance to make someone down, the humiliation of being deceived
territory. It’s an ingenious device that leaves you with another choice – although some (though you lie plenty in return), the setbacks and
are determined by a dice roll
gnawing doubts; you might glean vital information heartbreaks mean the rare triumphs feel all the more
and certain events appear
from locals for altruistic ends, but you’re keenly aware randomised. A small number joyous. True, while your reputation may outlast you, it’s
that this will all go in the report you hand to your of sequences demand a very more likely you’re just one in a long line of roadwardens.
paymasters on your return, and their plans might specific order of actions to get But Roadwarden finds beauty in that struggle, in its
through alive, but sometimes it’s
come at the cost of those you’ve come to know. moments of unlikely connection. The sense that,
not worth brute-forcing given
Either way, it can seem a thankless task. This is a the alternative might leave you though your motives aren’t pure, you are bringing light
dangerous job, and whether you’re gathering supplies, wounded and weakened. It into hardscrabble lives – even when it means delivering
delivering messages, clearing rubble, fishing, foraging, might take a couple of days’ bad news. And when your time is up, the picture you
hard toil to earn back what
investigating a potential crime or playing matchmaker, come away with, however fragmented or incomplete, is
you spent on rest and repairs
it often pays poorly. The road is long and the days get as vivid and memorable an evocation of a place as
shorter; you need to find a place to rest before nightfall,
– valuable time you could
have spent chasing leads. any hyper-detailed triple-A fantasy universe.
9

106
 LEFT An overabundance of
scruffily attired men with beards
means that a few characters
blend into one, but you won’t soon
forget the likes of Foggy here.
MAIN Alongside its expressive
descriptions, Roadwarden makes
particularly good use of
environmental sounds – noisy
squawks, distant roars, the
intermittent buzz of flies, insistent
crickets and birdsong – to create a
powerful sense of place. The music,
too, is effective: the soundtrack to
one location sounds a little like
Jonny Greenwood’s work.
BOTTOM We’ve rarely agonised
over every purchase quite so much

ABOVE It’s thrilling to see the map fill out. Not every place is accessible at
all times: a thick knot of creepers prevents you from returning to one key
location, while rest stops are greyed out if you can’t make it by nightfall

107
You tend to have plenty of options
available during combat, though the
outcomes aren’t always wildly different

Post Script
Why Roadwarden’s default difficulty is the best way to play

J
ust after starting Roadwarden, you’re region’s mysteries on a single playthrough, credits roll is a bad idea. The notion that
asked to choose between three difficulty ticking off every objective on your quest list a returning roadwarden would take more
settings, and must commit to that choice, before triumphantly returning home. damage at night feels arbitrary – why would
since it can’t be altered later on. Standard Granted, that means you get to see every someone with experience suffer more from
mode, it says, is for those familiar with RPGs, storyline and subplot through to the finish. enemies that are known quantities? Besides,
setting a 40-day limit to explore this perilous But here, we’d argue, the struggle is the story. assuming you’re planning as carefully as you
wilderness. There is a Casual option instead, Anyone who has ever freelanced will find should be with such a stringent time limit,
“for those focused on the story” (more on themselves empathising with their character. it’s a rule of which you rarely fall afoul. And
which later), while Restrictive has been One of Roadwarden’s great triumphs is how while the abundance of variables here makes
designed “for the returning roadwardens”, successfully it kindles that familiar sensation a replay tempting, your knowledge of the
reducing the limit by ten days while raising of being spread too thinly, of taking on more region gives the player an advantage that their
the damage you take at nighttime (likewise). work than one person can comfortably handle avatar should not possess. They are, after all,
By then, you have already been told that – if only because you are profoundly aware of an interloper.
this will be a lonely journey, and that taking the potential consequences of saying no. So, yes, this is the kind of game where
the job of roadwarden is not only to accept Yet in the second half of the game, you your second journey will doubtless be
that struggle, but to embrace it. Yes, will almost certainly (as we did) find your markedly different from your first. Certainly,
occasionally we feel our character’s lack of approach changes. Knowing time is against there are skirmishes where we naturally
progress all too keenly. But we can’t say we you, that you can’t do it all, and that – like wonder how we would be getting on with the
weren’t forewarned, and the knowledge that your immediate predecessor – you will leave fighter’s fine gambeson (as opposed to our
this is supposed to be a hostile place helps; the peninsula with several people cursing (or worn one), steel axe (when ours is made of
setbacks are less frustrating when they’re rolling their eyes at) your name enforces a iron) and crossbow (persistently out of our
expected. Besides, you rarely seem to be narrower focus. That pressure feels essential price range). And yet it’s not a criticism of
having quite such a tough time as many of to everything Roadwarden is trying to do with Roadwarden that we feel so strongly that our
the other settlers there. its fiction. This is a grim fantasy world where first visit to this peninsula will be our last, at
But the main reason we’re glad we opted you are eking out a living, doing what you can least for a while. Rather, it’s a tribute to how
for the default difficulty is that the Casual within your limited means to make it a better deeply immersed we are in the role that the
setting not only makes quests more forgiving place. It shouldn’t feel like a power fantasy story of our roadwarden’s journey – mistakes,
and gives you more cash in your pockets at where you can achieve all your goals. mishaps, disappointments and all – feels like
the start, but also removes the time limit. In We would go even further and add that the one that should be passed down by those
theory, you could solve just about all the starting a Restrictive playthrough after the we leave behind on the peninsula.

108
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 PLAY

Steelrising

D
eveloping a Soulslike poses a very particular Developer Spiders different sets of clothing throughout the game, each
Publisher Nacon
challenge. FromSoftware’s output is the yardstick tailored to show off her frame – all contoured ceramic
Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series
by which all others are measured, and the studio Release Out now panels and gilded metal joints. Exposed clockwork
has a habit of putting greater distance between it and sections fuse form and function, the weapons and tools
its peers. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring all at your disposal presented as integrated, custom-built
have a certain je ne sais quoi, something beyond the devices that spring from Aegis’s arms and legs when in
features they all share with pretenders to their throne. use, before folding neatly away again afterwards. Her
Steelrising, a Soulslike that wears its influences proudly, movements are precise and graceful, in contrast to the
is a daring move from Spiders – a developer known for rest of the automats, not to mention the stodgy NPCs.
creating characterful but unspectacular RPGs. Since its Weapons come in an imaginative array of forms,
previous title, Greedfall, was a major step in a positive ranging from simple sword and dagger pairings to fans
direction, returning to the Soulslike – given the critical and chains. Even the starting options are exquisite.
response to its previous attempt, the underwhelming Checking a weapon’s details in the inventory zooms in
Bound By Flame – is a courageous move. on Aegis posing with it; Spiders is clearly aware that it
In keeping with the studio’s work to date, the setting The elegance has a striking protagonist on its hands and takes every
at least is enough to grab attention. Steelrising takes
place in revolutionary France, but with the alt-history
and finesse in opportunity to let you take a closer look at its creation.
Sadly, the elegance and finesse in the design of
twist of the king having an army of robotic soldiers – the design of both Aegis and her arsenal fail to extend any further.
automats – at his disposal, enabling him to behave in
even more despotic fashion. The player is dropped into
both Aegis and Beyond its looks, this is little more than a by-the-
numbers Soulslike. As Aegis navigates these sprawling
the stylish shoes of Aegis, an automat in service to the her arsenal levels, fighting automata, activating checkpoints and
queen, who is unique in her ability to reason, speak and unlocking shortcuts, we experience a sensation of
act independently. Tasked by her mistress with finding fail to extend weary familiarity. The combat might strive to adopt the
the royal children, as well as discovering exactly what
her husband has unleashed upon Paris, Aegis charges
any further rhythms of the genre, but it lacks weight and precision.
And with abilities such as blocking, parrying and
off into the city to destroy this robotic army and elemental infusion locked to weapons as special moves,
become an unlikely revolutionary hero in the process. their exclusivity limits your options in combat. Nor
is there is much variation in weapons within a given
It is hard to fault Spiders in the presentation of its category. As such, it feels as if you’re being encouraged
world. This version of Paris has been captivatingly to stick to a single weapon rather than experiment or
rendered, with gilded palaces and decrepit slums alike seek out variations that might suit you better.
torn apart by the horrors of a monarch waging war on A surprisingly gentle difficulty curve compounds
his people. Bodies of civilians and soldiers are piled in the problem. Even during boss fights, attack patterns
the streets as rampaging automats slaughter any that aren’t varied or tricky enough, such that avoiding them
cross their path. Conveniently, this reduces the cast of PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS? is straightforward, and it quickly becomes routine. That
the once-bustling capital to a dozen or so historical Steelrising’s only available audio may, admittedly, prove appealing to those who have
language is English, and most,
figures who drive the plot and a handful of terrified if not all, characters speak with
bounced off previous Soulslikes; suffice it to say that
citizens barricaded in their homes, who speak to you English accents. It’s not the first Steelrising isn’t a game that genre veterans should come
through closed doors like the residents of Yharnam. time a game with a historically to seeking a challenge. The rest could reasonably be
Those automats come in a variety of shapes and inspired setting has defaulted to described as adequate, but little more. The level design
English accents, but it seems
sizes, from smaller arachnid or feline forms to brutal, keeps you observant, but never feels particularly clever.
particularly odd since Spiders is
ogre-like humanoids and everything in between. There’s a French studio. While recording The platforming is perfunctory. The story is fine, but
a jerky, almost stop-motion quality to their animations, in multiple languages may have the big mysteries are telegraphed from an early stage,
while their designs suggest a variety of functions – we been impossible for budgetary ensuring that the revelations end up simply confirming
reasons, even English-speaking
find ourselves assaulted by serpentine gardeners with what you’d already suspected.
French actors would have been
hedge-trimming blades and marauding miners as often an improvement. Worse, the The result is not a bad game, but Steelrising’s
as dedicated soldiers, and their benign original purpose dialogue is peppered with beautiful and imaginative shell is wrapped around a
doesn’t make them any less deadly. Boss fights see you random French words and workmanlike interior. Unlike Greedfall, it pitches its
phrases to remind the player
face off against Titans – massive, singular automats tent within a fast-expanding genre and doesn’t do
that the characters are
that are ornate and terrifying, embodying the game’s supposedly speaking the nearly enough to stand out, with devoted disciples of
neo-classical clockwork aesthetic. language. It takes an irksome the Soulslike likely to find its combat shallow and
Aegis is undoubtedly the star of the show. Though incongruity and renders it repetitive. Still, there is enough evidence that Spiders
patronising, compounded when
a fixed character, she has some limited but welcome may yet realise its significant potential; if this feels like
the subtitles are on, with each
customisation options, with a variety of wigs, porcelain the equivalent of another King’s Field, perhaps its
faces and body materials to choose from. She can obtain
snippet of French followed
by an English translation. own Demon’s Souls is just around the corner.
5

110
ABOVE Conversations provide
opportunities to get a closer look
at Aegis’s intricate design.
RIGHT The Selenite has the
most conventional appearance
out of all of the bosses and yet
is still magnificent to behold

BELOW Steelrising’s Paris feels

so much like Bloodborne’s Yharnam
in places that you can almost
hear the beast-hunting locals

ABOVE Body Of Work is one of the game’s more unusual weapons. It

functions as a slow, powerful two-handed hammer, while Aegis can
take hold of its scrolls and extend them into a protective shield

111
 PLAY

Metal: Hellsinger

T
he rhythm shooter was, perhaps, inevitable. After Developer The Outsiders at odds with the rest of the presentation. More
Publisher Funcom
all, a sense of timing and the ability to predict importantly, though, Paz is your sidearm-slash-rhythm
Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series
what’s coming next serve you equally well whether Release Out now section. Blasts from his eye sockets can be fired on every
you’re lining up a head in your crosshairs or strutting single beat, with no need to reload, and while they don’t
your stuff on a Dance Dance Revolution machine. While do much damage, unlike other weapons they needn’t
Metal: Hellsinger is far from the first entry in this hybrid connect with demonic flesh to keep the combo going.
genre – recent years have brought us BPM, Audica and As you settle into Hellsinger’s rhythm, Paz is the
Pistol Whip – it might be the most high profile. This clear MVP. He provides a reason to keep tapping your
is in part due to the pedigree of Swedish developer The finger, moving to the beat until it becomes second
Outsiders, formed by Battlefield and Payday 2 veteran nature. Before long, we find other parts of our body
David Goldfarb, but also as a result of its musical genre. moving along unbidden. A foot stamping, a head
Because if the rhythm shooter was inevitable, one set to nodding – dare we say banging? Metal has never been
metal was surely a foregone conclusion. our musical area of expertise, so it’s tricky to comment
There’s a lot of shared history, of course, stretching on the quality of the soundtrack from Swedish duo Two
back to the formative years of the firstperson shooter at By providing Feathers, with featured vocals on each level provided by
id Software, with a shared love of the iconography of
skulls and demons, and anything of an infernal nature.
an incentive to apparent luminaries in the field of strained vocal cords.
But, by providing an incentive to engage with it on a
That legacy is evident as you’re led through the circles engage with it physical basis, Hellsinger helps you understand the
of this Hell, which after beginning in the land of the
ice and snow, take in medieval structures and ruined
on a physical appeal of metal, the way it gets into your bones.
This can, however, be somewhat exhausting. With
industrial facilities that could pass for Mars, the colour basis, Hellsinger one part of your brain dedicated to simply keeping time,
palette cycling between Quake browns and Doom reds. the rest of your attention has to juggle an arsenal of
Even more keenly felt, though, is the influence the latter helps you weapons with individual rhythms and dedicated
series’ revival has had on the ebb and flow of combat.
With a density of incoming bullets that befits the
understand the ultimate charge meters, and fast-moving enemies that
come at you from all angles, the signal for offscreen
setting, constant strafing is a necessity, with a dash and appeal of metal attacks frequently obscured by a UI that’s busy shouting
double-jump (afforded by the wings of your demonic about your performance. We’re reminded of the brain-
avatar) ensuring you’re always in motion. Lost health, maxed action in Neon White, but where that game was
meanwhile, can be recouped through Slaughters – delivered in short, sharp bursts, it often feels that the
messy finishing moves that can be triggered on songs in Hellsinger go on for too long.
wounded enemies, sending you rushing in close to rip The campaign is broken into eight levels, each with
and tear until green orbs tumble out. So far, so Eternal. an accompanying track, which must be completed in a
The difference is that all this must be done to the beat. single sitting of 20 minutes or so. You’re presented with
two chances to resurrect, in exchange for a dent in your
Your crosshairs are bracketed by streams of final score, but once those are spent, you’re kicked
notes, closing in like arrows of a traditional rhythm- unceremoniously to the menu screen. Starting over,
action game. Pull the trigger at the right time and your there’s no variation to be found; these levels are as
WORTH CROWING ABOUT
attack does more damage; dash on the beat and you Your arsenal in Hellsinger hits carefully choreographed as a rock show’s pyrotechnics,
can chain them together seamlessly, without end. For the classic beats – shotgun, twin and their challenge only really ramps up at the very end,
each Good or Perfect you score with these actions, a pistols, sword, rocket launcher – in a closing boss fight that can often wipe all three lives.
but each is given an added
multiplier grows, boosting both damage and score, This shape feels like one Hellsinger has been forced
musical spin. The shotgun is
while also layering on extra parts of the track: at 2x, it slow enough that it can only be into by shooter tradition. It certainly seems more
consists of a basic drumline, with instruments gradually fired on every second beat, but comfortable in its Torment challenge arenas, which
joining in until, maxed out at 16x, the vocals kick in. land a ‘perfect’ and the spread introduce a countdown timer and a twist (your weapon
of that shot is wider. Land three
This is a smart way of making you feel like an active switches with each kill; there’s no healing but you
well-timed hits with the sword
collaborator in building the music, but the underlying and its basic strike is replaced by become more powerful as death nears). Once completed,
score system isn’t too dissimilar from the one featured a powerful overhead smash. they unlock perks to take back into the campaign to aid
in Rollerdrome. Where that could often leave the player The very best of the bunch, performance, but their greatest value lies in the respite
though, doesn’t have such a
hanging with the distribution of enemies, though, here that – ironically – these Torments provide from the
clear analogue. The Hellcrow
the problem is neatly solved by Paz. is essentially a pair of curved campaign’s drawn-out levels. But even when those
Paz is an animate skull who accompanies your knives that boomerang back lead to the occasional rage-quit, Hellsinger isn’t done
character, The Unknown, throughout her journey into when thrown – and waiting working its dark magic. Hours after closing the game,
for them to return to your
the underworld. He’s also the game’s narrator, voiced we often find ourselves absent-mindedly drumming a
hands is almost like catching
by Troy Baker in a folksy cowboy style (akin to Logan table or walking in step to a song we’d never pick
Cunningham’s performance in Bastion) that is strangely
a pair of tossed drumsticks
before laying into a solo. out normally. It’s in our bones now.
7

112
 LEFT As well as everything else, the
levels move in time with the music,
belching out flames on the beat.
BELOW Each level is a streamlined
funnel, always pushing you
onwards towards the next fight,
without any extraneous collectibles
or exploration to worry about.
MAIN Despite the name, Slaughters
aren’t particularly bloody, certainly
not in comparison to their Doom
equivalents – these demons shatter
rather than burst into messy gibs

ABOVE Cutscenes consist of painted stills with a minimum of animation.

There’s nothing wrong with the visual style, but unfortunately the story
told here, of a war against the ruler of Hell, isn’t particularly inspiring

113
 PLAY

Return To Monkey Island

T
here is a COVID joke in Return To Monkey Island. Developer Terrible Toybox Monkey Island’s whimsical tone. The adaptive score
Publisher Devolver Digital
This shouldn’t be surprising, given that the series features all the classic themes, striking the right balance
Format PC (tested), Switch
has always given its pirates distinctly modern Release Out now between relaxing tropical beats to puzzle to and
concerns – retirement, health inspections, adequately attention-grabbing support where necessary. More
expressing the power of Loom’s 3D engine. The gag, importantly, Monkey Island’s dry wit is intact. While it’s
involving two pirates vehemently denying any of the rarely laugh-out-loud funny, there is a satisfying sense
so-called ‘science’ on scurvy, shows that designer Ron of returning home to these acerbic characters.
Gilbert wants his game to fit in the present day. This Although Gilbert has stressed that Return To Monkey
is a Monkey Island that has a hint system. A Monkey Island isn’t merely a nostalgia play, this can be a little
Island with a controller setup that won’t break your difficult to believe at times, given the zeal at which the
fingers. But it’s also very much a game that tries to game throws itself at any opportunity to mention three-
capture the essence of a journey that started all the headed monkeys and the amount of time Threepwood
way back in 1990, a story it’s now set to finish. While it’s rarely can hold his breath. So, yes, you will navigate the forest
Return To Monkey Island begins with a tutorial that of Mêlée Island and, yes, you will break a certain
runs through the game’s rather simple systems. You laugh-out-loud character out of jail. This isn’t really a game for
have one button for talking and one for interacting with funny, there newcomers, then; this is a Monkey Island that revels in
items – the game decides automatically whether you self-referential humour. Not that we’re complaining
can look at, use or take the item in question. Thanks to is a satisfying when its old material is its best – the new characters
a visual aid, you also immediately know when you can’t
use an item with something, and all usable items in an
sense of and locations it offers, by contrast, are slightly
disappointing. Nothing we weren’t already familiar with
environment are marked clearly. If you’re accustomed returning home manages to stand out enough that we’d expect to see it
to an older generation of point-and-click games, it can make a comeback should Gilbert – or anyone else –
almost seem a little too obvious to know everything to these acerbic decide to resurrect the series once more.
that’s available to you straight away, but it also removes characters Regardless of what the title suggests, returning to
the frustration of randomly clicking around a screen Monkey Island isn’t actually your main goal, which
in the hope of coming across something important. factors into Return’s biggest downfall: its uneven pacing.
This time around, Guybrush Threepwood is This is a story whose best moments come at a time
narrating his story to someone else. We’ll avoid spoiling when the credits could already have rolled twice over.
who it is, but throughout the telling, Threepwood’s During the early stages, Threepwood is restricted to a
methods are repeatedly called into question – not by few modestly sized locations, which has an immediate
himself, but by the person to whom he is relaying his effect on the challenge of the puzzles: when you’re
tale. It’s an idea that works well most of the time, but it seeking something specific and there are relatively few
can (often intentionally) lapse into monotony: you want places to look, you’re naturally going to find it much
ART, ATTACKED
to get to the adventure part, but first there are multiple Gilbert has often remarked sooner. Characters are clearer about what they need
favours to take care of and forms to fill out (Return To on how different game from you, which is a double-edged sword: you get stuck
Monkey Island has an obsession with forms we haven’t development is now compared less frequently, but everything feels more obvious, so
to the point-and-click heyday,
seen since Asterix). It’s set in what Gilbert has called an puzzles often feel more like straightforward fetch
and nowhere is this more
“amorphous” timeline, following the events of Monkey apparent than in the immediate quests. Part three, meanwhile, has the opposite problem.
Island II: LeChuck’s Revenge, but also picking and and outsized reaction to the Here, you have more locations to visit – such as the
choosing elements from subsequent entries whenever new art style by Tearaway and Nordic island of Brr Muda – which naturally means
Knights And Bikes creative
it sees fit. What this means is that long-time fans can, the solutions to puzzles are better hidden. That extra
director Rex Crowle. A long-
for example, look forward to a return of Murray the time Monkey Island fan, Crowle complexity is welcome, although the amount of
demonic skull, even though he didn’t appear until created a piece of fan art in backtracking that ensues is rather less so.
1997’s The Curse Of Monkey Island. All of this is baked 2009 that eventually led to him The result doesn’t feel like a triumphant conclusion
bagging the job as art director
into a plot that follows a familiar path: Threepwood is to a 32-year-old tale; rather, its value lies in giving its
on Return To Monkey Island.
once again searching for the secret of Monkey Island, Even though this story is likely original creator an opportunity to play in his beloved
and must make his way there – once he has assembled the epitome of ‘letting the fans sandbox one more time. In both its puzzle design and
a crew and a ship, of course. do it’, people who didn’t its storytelling, Return To Monkey Island plays it safe –
immediately take to the reveal
The art style is immediately appealing, the picture- and for long-time fans, the cosy comforts it delivers
of Crowle’s involvement weren’t
book aesthetic askew in the best of ways. Buildings jut shy about sharing that opinion. will likely be enough of a reason to join Threepwood
into the landscape in architecturally impossible ways, Once the comments got for one more adventure. After more than three decades,
while animals crawl around in the background, and there personal, Gilbert did what we leave Monkey Island with not only the knowledge
anyone would do with a bunch
is always a torch flame dancing in the breeze. This is a of what the secret truly is, but also convincing
of unruly kids and refused to
game many fans will have played as children, and now evidence that even Ron Gilbert may not be able
the presentation feels like an even closer match for
share further behind-the-scenes
insights from development. to surpass Ron Gilbert.
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RIGHT While still immediately
recognisable, Mêlée Island has
definitely seen better days.
MAIN Visually, Brr Muda is an
absolute highlight, though its
inhabitants mostly say “Brr”.
BOTTOM LeChuck’s original actor
Earl Boen retired in 2017 and gave
his blessing to cast Jess Harnell

ABOVE The Ikea-inspired way in which Guybrush Threepwood acquires

a new vessel – an idea that he quite frankly could have easily worked
out a lot sooner – features a terrific joke about game development

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The Case Of The Golden Idol

A
ny detective story worth its salt needs a good Developer Color Gray Games in one case, several slots offer room for two different
Publisher Playstack
villain, and this clever, complex and exuberantly types of answer, requiring you to identify either a
Format PC
macabre tale from Latvian brothers Andrejs and Release October 13 character’s name or their role within a secret society.
Ernests delivers a veritable rogues’ gallery. From In some cases you may find an obvious guilty party
scheming aristocrats to their unscrupulous cohorts, but no clear motive, in which case you might wonder if
these are ugly people inside and out: jowly and bloated, your suspect has been framed. The Case Of The Golden
or pinched and sinister, they’re memorably drawn in Idol demonstrates that its makers recognise that the
every sense. There’s barely anyone who doesn’t look like finest detective stories feature misdirection and red
a potential suspect – another essential ingredient of a herrings. You are, from time to time, led up the garden
good detective story. It helps that they’re so memorable, path, only to spot a discrepancy late on that entirely
since several of them resurface – not always under the changes your understanding of a scene. In those
same name – throughout a tale that spans four decades instances, you may already be close to the solution; as
and over a dozen grisly murders, one that puts your you fill in those blanks, you’re informed when two or
ability to recognise faces and recall details to the test. fewer are incorrect. Which means, as the best detectives
It all begins, in the late 18th century, with a shove. You may find an sometimes do, you can occasionally stumble across the
A man, accusing his expedition partner of foul play,
sends him hurtling off a cliff, little knowing that this
obvious guilty right answer. But, just as any diligent investigator
would, you will be keen to dive back in to figure out
push will create a domino effect that will culminate party, but no how the various pieces slot into place.
in an attempted coup. It’s here that we first see the
eponymous and highly coveted statuette, an apparent
clear motive, in That’s partly because, while you can move on to
the next chapter once you’ve solved the central crime,
MacGuffin that becomes so much more as its supposed which case you there are ancillary questions to answer. In some cases,
supernatural powers are revealed. Yet if that sends alarm figuring these out might make identifying the murderer
bells ringing to fans of detective fiction, the also might wonder if more straightforward (such as determining seat
understand that the underlying logic of any mystery
must be sound, otherwise the solution is fundamentally
your suspect has placements and servants’ quarters at a dinner party),
though in others that’s the easy part (one chapter
unsatisfying. While there’s something inexplicable in been framed requires you to decipher runes to fully understand the
the idol’s capabilities, the deaths directly or indirectly idol’s functionality). As the bodies pile up, Color Gray
related to it all make some kind of sense – if not in the Games reminds us that a good detective story needs a
moment, then at least after the fact. twist or two. Sometimes the would-be killer has an
Indeed, you’re present either at the point of death or accomplice who actually did the deed. And, more than
the immediate aftermath. Each case takes the form of once, the assassination attempt doesn’t go according to
one or more lightly animated pixel-art tableaux. While plan. In one memorable moment, even the victim is not
the moving elements occasionally offer clues, more actually who you first assume; as you advance to the
often they’re a chance to show something horrible, TIPS OF THE TRADE next room, you’re treated to a prestige almost as
such as flames emerging from the eyes and mouth of While Color Gray Games would thrilling as Return Of The Obra Dinn’s kraken.
a horribly burnt stable boy, who may or may not have rather its players avoid pixel The Case Of The Golden Idol shares plenty of DNA
hunting (playing with clickable
spontaneously combusted. Flipping between ‘exploring’ with Lucas Pope’s game, not least its grisly mise en
objects highlighted is the
and ‘thinking’ windows (where you put forward your “recommended experience”), scène, and the intelligent way it seeds clues everywhere
hypothesis), you must pick your way around the scene, it’s otherwise keen to encourage – making oblique allusions to places and people, and
clicking on hotspots highlighted with a yellow twinkle. you to get stuck and figure out using initials instead of names, with false identities
the solution on your own. To
Sometimes these take you deeper, enabling you to further complicating matters. It, too, finds a way to
which end its hint system
forage through drawers and cupboards, or look inside encourages you to persevere, make these devious fellows appealing; while their
the pockets of onlookers for further clues as you try to asking you to double-check if Machiavellian machinations catch up with some,
determine whodunnit – and, just as importantly, why. you’ve inadvertently filled a we find ourselves growing attached to the ones that
blank with the wrong word or
manage to dodge death, by happy accident or design.
missed a vital piece of evidence.
In practice, that amounts to assembling a Then it makes you earn each And while a post-game epilogue perhaps fills in too
collection of nouns, names and verbs from quotes, hint, presenting a randomly many blanks – a reminder, perhaps, that it’s sometimes
notes and other documents squirrelled away in various selected combination of a better to leave one or two lingering mysteries to chew
dozen faces and items for you
locations. In the first case, it’s a matter of identifying over – its climactic case is a treat. Having spent ten
to identify (a splendid way to
the guilty party, the victim and the location of the drill home some valuable info). chapters inviting you to look closer, it zooms out for an
crime, by cross-referencing with their belongings, The help it then provides hardly expansive finale involving three crime scenes, inviting
either packed away in their tent or still on their person gives the game away either, you to pull together your accumulated knowledge from
but rather subtly nudges you in
at the time. Before long, however, the cases grow all the previous cases. Because a truly great detective
the right direction for one part
exponentially more complex, the number of the blanks story needs a satisfying conclusion – and here
on the ‘thinking’ screen looking ever more daunting –
of the solution. You have to
repeat the process for the rest. the deliver, and then some.
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ABOVE One death is the result of an astonishing act of hubris, one that
only grows more grimly amusing the more you discover. If you have a
dark sense of humour, this can be an extremely funny game at times

TOP A complex late case invites

you to dig into the workings of an
organisation that prizes virtue.
Solving the murder is one thing;
figuring out the merit cost of
various infractions quite another.
ABOVE Kyle Misko’s audio score
provides a fittingly melodramatic
accompaniment to these violent
deaths, while somehow avoiding
becoming a distraction as you
puzzle over the task at hand.
LEFT There are perhaps one or
two logical leaps, though we finish
the game having only resorted to
the hint menu once, on a stage
where we overlook an animation
that provides the crucial clue

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Sunday Gold

T
iming is everything during a heist, but seldom as Developer BKOM Studios series of CCTV feeds, blossoming with unpleasant
Publisher Team17
obviously as in Sunday Gold – a point-and-click colour combinations. The 3D character models in battle
Format PC
crime caper that is technically a single 15–20-hour Release Out now are relatively washed-out, with cursory animations, but
turn-based RPG encounter, played out in mansions, the ’70s-inflected soundtrack keeps things lively.
warehouses and laboratories across a near-future London.
Whether in combat or scouring 2D backdrops for clues It’s just a shame Sunday Gold’s feats of genre-splicing
and tools, the game’s cast of career criminals take turns to aren’t as assured, in the end, as its presentation. Partly,
spend points on actions such as rifling through lockers the problem is that the tension between these styles can
or pulling levers. While no enemies are visible during be awkward, not bracing: tackling item- or ability-based
exploration, ending the turn usually raises the local puzzles as a party means you have to keep switching
alertness level, sometimes triggering a scrap. It fills what characters and inventories. But the bigger issue is simply
might otherwise be laidback escape-room puzzles with that BKOM Studios doesn’t know what to do with its
urgency. Rather than fiddling at leisure, you try to crack You try to crack best idea. Beyond the basic interplay between turns, the
each riddle in one fell swoop, picking terrain interactions alertness level and Composure, there’s an apparent
as efficiently as you do special attacks in the fray. each riddle in struggle to fashion scenarios that show off the game’s
It’s an unlikely and initially exciting core concept, one fell swoop, premise. Staging battles in separately loading areas
particularly when the game plays up the antagonism means that they often feel much like random encounters
between its two halves. The sharing of action points aside, picking terrain in a JRPG. We’d have loved the fisticuffs to actually form
each party member has a Composure stat reminiscent of
Darkest Dungeon’s sanity mechanics. Lose Composure in
interactions as part of each room puzzle – Frank picking a lock while
Gavin paralyses the turrets defending it, for instance.
combat, and puzzles may be harder to solve. The first efficiently as Neither the point-and-click sections nor the battling
heist, for example, features a scenario in which your are exotic by themselves. The room puzzles hinge on
electronics whiz, Gavin, must shut down an alarm system you do attacks browsing for highlighted objects, scanning emails for
while the party fends off security guards and drones. in the fray clues and doing or combining things in the right order.
The trouble is that when Gavin’s Composure is low, he There are some fun setups, such as escaping an
starts to hallucinate, including while using his colour- incinerator before it powers up, but it’s largely genre-
coded hacking tool. It works the other way round, too: standard stuff. It’s also repetitive. Solutions often
elsewhere, the game asks you to search a corpse for a involve character-specific minigames – deducing a code
keycard, taking a Composure hit for every pocket you from false guesses, playing a QTE to move something
check. Having rummaged a bit too avidly, our characters heavy – that inevitably outstay their welcome.
had to deal with garbled menu options, misfiring special Battles, similarly, fall back on familiar JRPG tactics.
abilities and time-limited turns during the brawl. Mostly, you’ll use Sally as a meat shield while Frank and
Sunday Gold’s art and writing are as eye-catching as Gavin deal out damage and debuffs respectively, using the
the premise: it’s essentially a madcap cyberpunk comic turn-order gauge to counter the enemy’s biggest moves.
penned by Guy Ritchie. The story (which is bookended OFFICE POLITICS You can stagger foes for a turn or two by hitting them
by trips to the pub for debriefing) begins when Gavin As with most room-escape enough, creating breathing space to guard and recover
games, Sunday Gold’s puzzles
hires career criminals Frank and Sally to steal from his generally have one solution, but
action points, and there are delayed-execution special
employer, the gleefully villainous Hogan Corporation, every now and then it lets you moves that take more calculation. It’s a tidily made
whose products include nightmarish cyborg greyhounds. choose a path. One chapter combat system, with a spread of gear abilities and unlocks
On breaching the office, the plot thickens via a gives you the option of that allow you to skew character roles a fraction: Sally
disguising Sally as the boss,
gruesome murder scene, hints at secret experiments, can double down on healing and damage absorption, or
rather than storming in and
and a video that sends Gavin into meltdown. murdering everybody (though go on the offensive with an SMG and spiked knuckles.
Written in burlesque ‘oi oi’ Britslang, it’s far from a you’ll do that eventually). This But there aren’t enough enemy varieties, and they rarely
subtle portrayal, especially when it tries its hand at social allows you to chat with guards challenge you enough to make the system’s modest
both for clues about getting rid
commentary. References to climate change and human intricacies worth tinkering with. Even Sunday Gold
of them discreetly and to
trafficking are set dressing at best, while the attempts to discover views on the game’s itself, an overclocked robodog, is a pushover in practice.
weave jokes around real-life abuses are clumsy. But it’s dystopian Britain, including If a turn-based point-and-click game is a novelty,
saved – just about – by the pantomime energy of the some crammed-in, of-the- Sunday Gold does have precedents in terms of how it feels
moment asides about overwork
script and the bar-anecdote gusto of the voice acting. to play. There are set-pieces in Final Fantasy that lean on
and unionisation. We could
Frank is the cigar-chomping artful dodger with debts to have done without Sunday meddling with props while fighting enemies. The slowly
pay, Sally the long-suffering heavy-lifter, and Gavin a Gold’s attempts to be topical – climbing map alertness level recalls Klei’s heist-’em-up
twitchy bag of gadgets and withdrawal symptoms. In it’s too cynical to offer any Invisible, Inc, which very much leaves this game for dust.
useful perspectives on the issues
dialogue they’re rendered as wanted-poster-style Still, there’s enough vim and vinegar to Sunday Gold’s
it broaches – but we’d have
portraits, all bulging eyes and bared teeth: you can almost central gimmick that we wouldn’t mind playing a
smell their breath. The 2D level art is presented as a
liked to go undercover more
often, and more creatively. sequel. Here’s hoping this isn’t one last job.
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 ABOVE Opponents have a stagger
gauge: reduce it to zero (burst-fire
weapons are helpful) to cancel
their turns and strip their defences.
LEFT Bold interactive object
outlines stop the game being an
old-school pixel hunt. Frank also
has a skill that highlights every
interactable simultaneously

BELOW Combat loot tends to be

consumables (frequently hardcore
drugs), but there are optional
equipment pieces to find while
unravelling each chamber

ABOVE Comic-strip cutaways, complete with graphic text, lend snap to

the game’s economical combat visuals. There’s a touch of Arkane’s super-
stylish ’60s-influenced Deathloop to the character art and colours

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The Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow

T
he defining image of Cloak And Dagger Games’ Developer Cloak And Dagger Games mysterious young waif who plays a mean fiddle, stokes
Publisher Wadjet Eye Games
absorbing Victorian horror adventure is an extreme her curiosity still further.
Format PC
close-up of its protagonist’s eyes. It’s used as a Release Out now That early intrigue threatens to dissipate during a
device to herald a flashback to antiquarian Thomasina second act that hews closer to genre convention, as you
Bateman’s childhood, before the incident at the titular complete a series of puzzles that essentially amount to
burial mound that left her father bedridden and mute. a chain of fetch quests. Yet it proves a smart way to put
But late on, as her quest to discover what happened to you in touch with every character within Bewlay, while
him approaches its end, you’ll see that image recur, introducing a few unexpected encounters along the way.
those eyes staring either in awestruck wonder or abject Just as you’re lulled into a false sense of security, it hits
horror, occasionally blinking in disbelief. Each time you with a blood-freezing image on the village outskirts,
you’ll naturally steel yourself for what’s about to follow, one of a number of moments the classic side-on point-
but as with Bateman, your desire to know will always and-click viewpoint shifts to a firstperson perspective
trump your concern about what you might find out. on an unsettling sight. The drop in pace also ratchets up
And there’s no denying that Bateman is going into VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS the anticipation: by the time she’s recruited some locals
this with eyes wide open. As she arrives at the village of Situated next to a wild and to help out, we’re as eager as Bateman to get digging.
Bewlay – a world of bakewell puddings, blacksmiths and windy moor (here, anyone As she belatedly makes her descent, Hob’s Barrow
rolling and falling would do so
bigotry – she’s greeted with suspicion, if not outright suffers a touch from Metroid Prime 2 syndrome: every
not in green, but grey and
hostility. Even as she befriends a few townsfolk, the brown), Bewlay is evocatively environment is bathed in purple hues, which detracts a
baleful warnings that her mission will not end well realised, its murky palette little from the grim reality of Bateman’s situation,
keep coming, and it’s not long until you sense that contributing to the growing though the more elaborate puzzles within prove
sense of unease. Yet the whole
they’re borne not of malice but genuine concern. Of satisfying to work out. And here it becomes clear that
thing might fall apart without
course, this only encourages her to persevere, not least such consistently strong voice Cloak And Dagger is following in the British tradition
when a variety of strange occurrences, from a cat work: Samantha Béart keeps us of parochial folk-horror, from The Wicker Man to The
apparently capable of bypassing locked doors to a onside with Bateman even as Borderlands. This is a cautionary tale of what happens
her obsession seems increasingly
when our human need for answers overrides common
This bleak journey has its moments of levity. The vicar tests Bateman’s foolhardy, while the fine
sense – and its disturbing finale drives that home
knowledge of Shakespeare: there’s an achievement for getting the answers
right, and another as consolation if you’re less familiar with the Bard’s work
supporting cast gives each of the
villagers a distinct personality. with commendably blunt force.
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Tinykin

F
or a while there, it felt as if Nintendo was almost Developer Splashteam creatures, which emerge from slimy egg sacs and
Publisher TinyBuild
singlehandedly keeping the 3D platformer alive. dutifully follow him, ready to be pressed into service. The
Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Switch,
But, setting aside the returns of Sonic and Crash, Xbox One, Xbox Series standard purple variety are your workhorses, pushing
in recent years it’s been indies that have picked up the Release Out now obstacles aside and fetching and carrying key objects.
slack. With Tinykin, developer Splashteam liberally Reds blow up breakable objects (rather troublingly,
borrows from Kyoto’s finest, but rather than attempt a sacrificing themselves in the process) while blues carry
Mario-like, it nods towards a pair of less obvious an electrical charge, a chain of them linking plug sockets
sources. Its tale of an intrepid astronaut harnessing the with sparking wires to power up appliances. The greens
powers of indigenous creatures to navigate tricky terrain are the stars, however, piling on top of one another to
and carry everyday items to make his way home is clearly form ladders to make for more efficient traversal. One
indebted to Pikmin, while downsizing its lead to turn of the most purely enjoyable goals is to climb to the
household environments into sprawling expanses calls topmost part of the room, dropping ropes as shortcuts
back to Chibi-Robo. But this is a less fricative experience so you can get back more easily, and releasing silkworms
SQUAD GOALS
than either. There are few puzzles worthy of the name Each room sets you a themed to provide rails you can grind across using a handy bar of
and little strategy involved in marshalling your miniature task, which involves gathering soap. After gazing down to pinpoint an objective to head
allies; instead, this Rare-style collectathon focuses on a selection of objects: in the towards, you will invariably get distracted several times
kitchen you collect ingredients
the simple pleasure of navigating complex environments, along the way, as a curious sight catches your eye.
to mix and bake a cake for a
while nailing the fundamentals to a surprising degree. special ceremony, while in a From doughnut platforms to glockenspiel staircases
Its story follows archaeologist and researcher child’s bedroom you need to and vast structures built from cardboard boxes and
Milodane, who sets off from the planet Aegis convinced locate a missing piece of track, kitchen roll, the worlds are inventively conceived, if more
fix a broken car, and supply a
he can locate the origins of human life. He duly winds up contrived in their construction than Chibi-Robo’s. But
trophy for a Scalextric-style race.
within a recognisably earthbound household whose Side activities (from posting while the basic fetch-quest structure palls slightly as the
rooms have been repurposed into obstacle courses by its letters to retrieving rings) end nears, there is something to be said for a seven-hour
insectoid inhabitants. It’s here he meets the titular reward you with relics to take adventure where we encounter just one momentary
back to Aegis, while the main
camera issue; much more for a 3D platformer from a
If the narrative wrapper hardly registers while you’re playing, the collectable is pollen, used to
small, promising studio that doesn’t wilt too
incidental dialogue can be quite witty. And the cartoon cutscenes are
certainly well made for a relatively modest production such as this
power your bubble glider so
you can hover for longer. much under comparison with its inspirations.
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Wayward Strand

W
hen you’re a teenager, the school holidays can Developer/publisher Ghost Pattern (voiced, respectively, by Michael Caton and Anne
Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Switch,
fly by. Fourteen-year-old Casey Beaumaris Charleston), after a while you begin to wonder if your time
Xbox One, Xbox Series
isn’t exactly delighted, then, when her mother Release Out now might be better spent with those who aren’t doing quite
asks her to spend three of her days off aboard the so well, whether it’s nonverbal former film editor Tomi,
airborne hospice where she works – although the colourful but capricious Esther, or ailing Dr Bouchard.
would-be reporter senses an opportunity to write about While you can choose from a handful of conversation
it for her school newspaper. As an overworked nurse says, options – informed by prior dialogue or the odd bit of
“you’re going to have to choose how to spend your own eavesdropping – or study objects in a resident’s room to
time” in Ghost Pattern’s gentle adventure – and just as learn more about their past, Ghost Pattern demonstrates
the staff struggle to balance caring for the elderly the value of simply providing company. You’re rewarded
residents against preparation for an important visitor, it for having the compassion to just sit with someone for a
dawns upon you that you can’t be everywhere at once. while, as characters sporadically pipe up to fill silences,
In that sense, Wayward Strand has plenty in common sometimes yielding new gossip or anecdotes. But not
(NOT) JUST THE FACTS
with Inkle’s Overboard, although we’re also reminded of Befitting her clandestine goal as always: these people never feel like sentient vending
Dead Rising’s clock-watching conceit (and, given you’re a reporter, the entries in Casey’s machines, existing purely to satisfy the player’s needs.
dealing with ageing patients on an airship, that title isn’t notebook are often concise, Wayward Strand’s ambitions brush up against its
distilling conversations into key
a million miles away, not least given one resident’s evident budgetary constraints on occasion, and it’s hard
info. But over time you get a
shuffling gait). Granted, that’s taking the game’s streak strong sense that this has not wish the developer had the resources to do its
of gallows humour a little far: the elderly aren’t well become something more than a ambitions full justice: though characters react to the
represented in videogames, and this provides a corrective. fact-finding mission, drawings presence of others, they constantly clip through one
and offhand observations
A cast of experienced Antipodean thesps brings these another, while it’s jarring to see the lift abruptly flick
communicating her growing
sometimes cantankerous, often eccentric characters to affection for the residents. In between floors. But accept those technical shortcomings
life. And while you’re likely to be immediately drawn to that light, the arguments and it’s hard not to marvel at the way this feels like a
amusingly vainglorious writer Neil and warm-hearted Ida between Casey and her mother complete, self-contained world – one that would happily
between chapters feel a little
tick along without your presence but that also affords
We wonder if it’s deliberate that urgent announcements always seem to forced: it’s clear the girl is doing
you the rare opportunity to feel like you’re
arrive via the PA system when a conversation is in full flow, discouraging
– if not outright preventing – us from leaving to see what’s going on
what’s been asked of her, even
as she fulfils her original aims. enriching the lives of those within it.
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Riley & Rochelle

H
e was a boy, she was a girl. Riley was a punk, Developer/publisher clear picture of the story to come. Perhaps we’ve been
Sheinman Games
albeit one of the gentler variety – a sensitive boy spoiled by other recent titles that send us spooling
Format PC
with a guitar, a difficult relationship with his Release Out now through an artist’s back catalogue to piece together
father, and fears of selling out – and while it’s not their life, but here the only question mark is a pair of
exactly accurate to say Rochelle did ballet, she did spend records released on the eve of the millennium, bearing
her childhood in beauty pageants. Invoking the work of the names of unfamiliar artists.
Lavigne et al (2002) might be blasphemy, given this The bulk of your detective work, meanwhile, consists
game’s fixation on the ’90s, but we can’t help thinking: of putting dates to each of these diaries. There’s limited
could Riley & Rochelle make it a little less obvious? puzzle design space to be explored here – like an escape
The frame of the story is laid out in a prologue that room where every single solution must be in the form
casts you as a scriptwriter researching the lives of this of a four-digit code on a padlock – but Riley & Rochelle
’90s celebrity couple for a biopic. This is a love story, a tries its very hardest, frequently sending you outside
HEADLINE ACTS
producer tells you, about two people from very different the game and down a Wikipedia rabbit hole to check,
Compared to Sheinman’s earlier
backgrounds – and while your character scoffs at the work, Riley & Rochelle feels like say, a particular television broadcast date when its
clichéd nature of that story, what you go on to uncover it’s consciously playing on a events entwine with real history.
doesn’t stray too far from it. bigger stage, both in terms of This sense of verité is the game’s greatest strength.
the profile of its stars, who are
To aid in your research, Riley and Rochelle’s diaries Its stars’ lives are superimposed onto the real music
at the heart of this fictive pop-
are dumped onto your desk in chunks of a year or two at culture universe rather than cult industry – and later Hollywood – of the ’90s in
a time, along with a variety of interview recordings, acts playing at its fringes, and convincing fashion, helped by the soundtrack. Not a
voicemails and press clippings. More tantalising are the also in the game’s own huge surprise, given Sheinman’s previous games, but
ambitions. There’s a chunky
accompanying records, all of which can be listened to each song here manages to nail its reference points –
album’s worth of music here,
right from the beginning. Take a quick flick through and a hugely expanded amount whether mall-pop or trip-hop-infused indie – without
these and, as live recordings of early bands give way to of voice acting – including a few feeling like straight pastiche. Slipping a record onto the
solo singles and eventually duets, you’ll get a pretty duds that nearly pierce the in-game turntable never fails to enliven the task at hand
illusion, alas, but thankfully this
and, by making it feel like these are real people’s lives
Each record that Riley and Rochelle put out over the course of the doesn’t include the leads,
you’re investigating, adds depth to the rather
game is presented with its own sleeve art. They’re relatively simple,
but manage to evoke the era and genre just as well as the music itself
whose performances make it
easy to root for them. simple story that Riley & Rochelle has to tell.
6

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TIME EXTEND

King’s Field
How FromSoftware’s very first game
started a cycle that is still in motion
By Caelyn ellis

Developer/publisher FromSoftware Format PS1 Release 1994

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C
yclical mythology is the release of Dark Souls – and those
one of FromSoftware’s original complaints about apparent hostility
favourite things. Not towards the player aren’t the later games’
quite as high on the only inheritance.
list as poison swamps,
obviously, but it’s You’re dropped into the world of
certainly up there. King’s Field – a dark fantasy setting with a
Dark Souls, Bloodborne distinctly medieval European flavour – after
and, of course, Elden Ring all have themes of a brief introduction that provides a little
history repeating, tales beginning and context. The manual offers a few more hints
ending and beginning again with only minor about where to go and what to do, but
variations. Indeed, the ultimate decision otherwise you’re left to find your own way.
made by the player is usually whether to As you would expect given the age of
continue a stagnant cycle, transcend it, or the game, this world lacks the exquisitely
burn it all down. It’s a challenge: do you designed architectural landmarks of
trudge forward in familiar mediocrity, or FromSoftware’s most celebrated works.
take a gamble on the unknown? Instead, the way forward lies through
Elden Ring marks a significant point in twisting tunnels of pixelly grey and brown,
From’s own cycle, as a game developer. Not with the occasional change in texture
an end, you would hope, but a pinnacle, providing precious little sense of location.
certainly in terms of ambition and scope. You’re provided with a compass at the
And so we find ourselves drawn back to the outset, and a map is obtainable before
beginning of the tale that led here. For leaving the first of five dungeon levels, but
many, this would be Dark Souls, or maybe these tools are far from infallible, and many
Demon’s Souls – the label we apply to this tunnels and pathways lead outside the
particular flavour of action RPG, after all, is bounds of the map entirely.
‘Soulslikes’. But the reality of the matter is Hidden doors and illusory walls abound,
that this cycle began many years earlier, in leading to moments reminiscent of the
December 1994. game’s firstperson contemporary, Doom,
A firstperson RPG for the original inviting you to slide along walls, face
PlayStation, King’s Field was released less pressed against the stone, mashing the use
than a fortnight after the console’s Japanese button in an effort to find secrets.
launch. The first videogame from a Depending on the route you take in King’s
company originally known for making Field, it’s entirely possible that your first
productivity software, King’s Field was encounter with an enemy will take place
actually From’s second game development behind one of these disguised entryways,
project. The first, a 3D exploration game whereupon you will be swiftly dispatched
featuring robots in a subterranean maze, by an aggressive skeleton and deposited
was targeted for PCs but abandoned when back at the start of the game.
the team realised that the desktop While there’s no helpful ‘You Died’
computers of the time weren’t powerful message, it’s the first of many moments
enough to realise their vision. When Sony’s that evoke the modern Soulslike and lay
console was announced, From decided to bare the common threads that run through
pitch a new game made for it, and produced FromSoftware’s catalogue. Combat in King’s
King’s Field in just six months. Field is simple: one button is for melee
At the time of its release, King’s Field attacks, one for casting spells. Shields exist,
proved divisive, with criticisms levelled at but only as passive sources of defence stats.
slow movement and combat, frustrating There are no defensive moves to make,
difficulty, and general obtuseness. Despite a other than simply stepping out
mixed critical reception, however, the game of range – a difficult task, with the
did well enough to spawn three sequels, two player character’s tank-like movement
spinoffs and a commercially released further compounded by a control scheme
construction kit. It’s easy to draw a family designed for an age before dual analogue
line from here, through Shadow Tower, sticks. You turn using the D-pad, while
Eternal Ring and, vitally, Demon’s Souls, to one pair of shoulder buttons is used

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TIME EXTEND

for strafing and the other to look up and

down when necessary.
Weapon swings are achingly slow, and
the pace of melee is further impeded by two
power bars – one for weapons, one for
spells – that are depleted on use and then
quickly refill. Attacks made without a full
power bar are weakened, while spells are
restricted entirely. The result is combat that
favours timing and resource management
over raw speed: baiting attacks, darting ends with the protagonist – one Jean Alfred For an underground tomb
complex, a surprising
forward to deliver a blow, timing the swing Forester – becoming king after felling the
number of people can be
so that the weapon impact disrupts the monster the previous one became. Cycles found just hanging around
enemy’s own offensive, then retreating to a within cycles, history repeated.
safe distance; carefully circling to avoid There is one major FromSoftware
fangs and blades while waiting for the ingredient missing from King’s Field,
moment to deliver your own attack; using however – and one that isn’t necessarily
quick, weak ranged attacks to create obvious when actually playing the game. In
openings for decisive melee blows. Like so 1994, Hidetaka Miyazaki was still a decade
much of King’s Field, this combat is a clear away from joining the company. With so

THE POWER BAR IS A STAMINA BAR IN

ALL BUT NAME, AND EVEN STATS ON THE
WEAPONS AND ARMOUR FEEL FAMILIAR

blueprint for the Souls games to come. The much Soulslike DNA already in place here,
power bar is a stamina bar in all but name, it may seem strange that the man so
and even stats on the weapons and armour strongly associated with the genre had no
feel familiar, with physical damage being hand in making the game. Miyazaki’s
divided up into slash, chop and stab types. predilection for poison swamps is a long-
Pushing further into the game reveals running source of amusement, yet here they
more similarities. NPCs are scattered are, already present and correct, albeit in
throughout the world, acting as merchants prototypical form – pools of noxious green
and quest givers, or simply providing sludge are one of a number of often-
helpful clues to guide you on your journey. unavoidable traps and pitfalls that dot
They’re also the primary delivery King’s Field’s dungeon environs. None of
mechanism for plot, one small snippet of this diminishes Miyazaki’s achievements
monologue at a time. While nowhere near later, but it is a helpful reminder of the
as convoluted or cryptic as the stories of limits of auteur theory.
Dark Souls or Elden Ring, familiar themes are
present, with tales of corrupt kings and King’s Field established another
fallen dynasties. Ancient dragons may or cycle for FromSoftware. Thanks partly to
Perennial favourite lore may not also be involved. The opening crawl the studio’s low profile, the game did not
elements such as dragons
and magic trees are here,
describes a hero of ages past who is arrive to any great fanfare, a factor in
sometimes in the same item prophesied to come again, while the game initially poor sales. It took word of mouth

126
FOUNT OF ALL
KNOWLEDGE
One of King’s Field’s
more striking quirks is
that it starts you off with
the ability to use magic,
but no way of regaining
This fellow is the original
mana. You even have a
FromSoftware dodgy
useful ranged-attack
merchant. Fortunately,
spell at your disposal,
he doesn’t try to push
which is a weak but
you down any holes
effective way of creating
openings for attacks,
much like a throwing
knife in Dark Souls or
Elden Ring. Initially, you
can only top up health for the game to find its audience and in which it fails to cater for players in the
and mana by using eventually become commercially successful manner expected of modern triple-A titles.
items, though the first
level only contains enough to warrant a sequel. While it’s hard Design that is compellingly mysterious to
medicinal herbs for to imagine the same situation occurring one player can feel overtly hostile to
the former. To provide
a more reliable source again today, following the enormous success another. Should that, then, be the next
of recovery, you must of Elden Ring, there were echoes in the frontier for From to conquer? Is it finally
restore the dried-up
fountain in the Dragon
release of Demon’s Souls. The PS3 game’s time to smooth off those rough edges?
Temple to its former quality wasn’t universally acknowledged on Of course not. Of all the repeating
glory. Once achieved, its release, its reputation growing more threads of FromSoftware’s story, the most
health and mana can
be fully regenerated widely over time to the extent that the vital one is the rejection of industry trends
with a quick sip of its 2020 remake became a focal point for the in favour of making games the team is so
blessed waters.
launch of a new PlayStation era. evidently passionate about. Modern games
As FromSoftware has risen to become a have a tendency to be focus-group tested
superstar game studio, it would be natural and fiddled with to the point that their
to expect its games to become more character and charm is obliterated. At the
Going by the number of accommodating. Instead, its refusal to same time, there are many games that, while
his deceased colleagues
you discover, Basque please everyone has become a hallmark. falling short of the commercial expectations
definitely dodged a bullet Elden Ring has been criticised for the ways set out by their publishers, contain
innovative ideas that never get the
opportunity to be fully realised. Plans for
sequels are cancelled, teams disbanded,
studios shut down. And that’s all assuming
the game gets released in the first place.
King’s Field is not a good game by any
modern standard. In some ways it wasn’t at
the time of its release. However, the
ingredients for greatness were there – and,
though it took decades, FromSoftware was
allowed the time to refine the recipe. If
there’s a lesson here, it’s that while stagnant
cycles should be brought to an end, those
that can continue to evolve, growing from
the remains of their predecessors, need to
be nurtured. There is no guarantee of
excellence, but it is only through this
process that true legends can be forged.

127
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128
 T H E L O N G G A M E

A progress report on the games we just can’t quit

The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition

Developer/publisher Q-Games Format PS4, PS5 Release 2022

T
he Long Game was introduced as a way to talk and giant hands to make for easier traversal. The lack
about the games that aren’t simply one and done: of storage space still stings, resulting in a lot of toing
those that keep us on the hook with updates, and froing, though that is reduced significantly when
patches, expansions and more. We’ve deviated from other players arrive via the local subway station.
the original mandate to cover remakes, remasters and Technical improvements are minor: 60fps on PS5
downloadable addons, but this is different. The helps, while the DualSense issues a soft, rattling chime
Tomorrow Children, after all, was conceived as one of as you pocket a doll, the controller rumbling gently as if
the former: an online free-to-play game made to last they’re being jostled about inside your backpack. But
for years. As it turned out, it barely lasted 12 months – its distinctive aesthetic – evoking some forgotten
yet thanks to the combined efforts of director Dylan Eastern European stop-motion animation – needed no
Cuthbert and indefatigable support from its original makeover. Unforgettable sights arrive frequently, from
playerbase, it’s back in the form of Phoenix Edition, with a colossal cathode-ray set to a pillarbox-red head
peer-to-peer online play and an offline mode ensuring emerging from the Void like a swimmer in discomfort,
it will live on even when the servers are switched off. atomic bombs suspended above and around it. Not to
And what a fitting revival this is. After all, it takes mention the Izverg, from giant mosquitos to Gojira-like
place in a postapocalyptic future – itself the result of a beasts to flocks of shimmering manta rays. A cynic
failed experiment – where players toil for the greater might argue that there’s good reason there hasn’t been
good and are rewarded for their loyalty. Progress this anything like The Tomorrow Children since its initial
time is swifter, and mechanics feel less opaque: your release: occasionally it can seem like a second job,
main goal to excavate matryoshka dolls representing though its narrative wrapper lends meaning to the
human survivors preserved within megalithic ‘islands’ collective endeavour. Besides, it’s heartening to think
that rise up from the swampy expanse beyond your that a curio such as this can find an audience in a day
town’s boundaries. Pickaxes and spades are quickly of frictionless, focus-tested blockbusters; where ‘it’s
joined by dynamite and rocket launchers, also used to not for everyone’ is a compliment. A progress report on
take down the marauding Izverg that periodically attack the games we just can’t quit? What a pleasure to have
your home, while gems conjure cubes of dazzling light another opportunity to talk about a game that won’t.

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November 3

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