The Spirit Lift , a roguelike deckbulder by prettysmart games that came out earlier this year, has been updated to include an ascending difficulty setting called "Lift Levels". Similar to the Ascension Levels or Covenant Levels of many other games in the genre, Lift Levels serve as difficulty modifiers to alter the experience of a run. Each new lift level even comes with its own achievement! The game's default difficulty was one of the criticisms we had in our review , and this update addresses that and more, as the update also includes "13+ Mode", an infinitely scaling difficulty mode that gets harder each time you win. The Spirit Lift was warmly received upon its release, with players making note of the nostalgic aesthetic and card choices as major factors in their enjoyment. While not the most mechanically complex game around, The Spirit Lift is notable for its marriage of dungeon-crawling and deckbuilding mechanics, with a current user rating 94%. The Lift Level update is out now.

The Spirit Lift is set in a haunted hotel in the 1990s and follows a group of newly graduated teens as they attempt to make their way to the top. Packaged in a high-school thriller casing, it   combines dungeon-crawling mechanics (similar to titles like Etrian Odyssey) with roguelite deckbuilding trappings, delivering an interesting take on the deckbuilding genre, as the dungeon-crawling aspects necessitate a shift in your typical approach.  To start, the player chooses three teens to take into the party. The base number of available characters is three, but more are unlocked as you play. Each character has their own starting cards and gear that gives each of them a unique playstyle and identity, often reinforcing the type of person they are. The jock, Tobias, has cards for a baseball bat and a basketball, for instance. After choosing your team, you’ll make your way into the manor proper. Developer:  prettysmart games Publisher:  prettysmartgames Platform:  Played PC Availability:  Released January 27, 2026  on PC (Steam). As you explore each of the 13 hotel floors, you may find yourself fighting enemies to earn gold coins and cards, upgrading cards upon leveling up, or taking part in randomized events. The events are a particular delight, as they often contain the game’s most interesting decisions. Do you risk some health for a chance to gain experience? Perhaps you’d rather search for evidence that provides some interesting narrative information over obtaining some gold. Beyond the choice dynamic, the events offer a glimpse into the oddities of the hotel. Why is there a bathtub of acid? Where did all of these party favors come from? Who is that wolf guy? There’s always something new to encounter on every floor. In many roguelite deckbuilders, such as Slay the Spire or GWENT: Rogue Mage , your navigation decisions are typically based upon an assessment of what the chosen path looks like; what enemies are there, whether there are any shops, and so on. While your primary decision-making relies on risk vs. reward calculations, you can devise a plan and choose an optimized route for what you intend to do.  Risk assessment is similarly important here in The Spirit Lift , but without a clear choice in pathways or enemy selection, it becomes more vital to do those calculations on the fly. You can’t really plan for specific encounters, events, or rewards before finding your elevator up to the next floor — you simply deal with the trials as they come to you. Thankfully, the options available to the player are plentiful. Cards are your method of engaging in combat and represent mundane items that the characters have on hand. These cards are broken down into four types: Weapons, Tools, Aid, and Trauma. Weapons are your standard attacks, doing direct damage to an enemy. Tools provide passive bonuses that last throughout a fight, such as lowering the cost of specific card types or giving enemies a debuff when certain actions are performed. Aid cards are the most versatile type of all, having the ability to heal or add buffs to the player, inflict the enemy with various status effects, or even draw additional cards. Finally, Trauma cards are special cards that harm the player in some way when the card’s conditions are met. Some may have adverse effects when drawn, or even confer bonuses to enemies when left in your hand unplayed. These trauma cards are also unique in that they can’t be removed in the shop — they must be played a requisite number of times before disappearing. Gear pieces are an additional boon for the player, offering permanent boons without the use of cards. Each starting character has a gear piece tied to them, and you can only hold 8 pieces of gear at a time during a run — at least until you upgrade this through the spirit shop. I have found gear to be the single most important element of success in each run. Getting powerful pieces of gear and then planning your deck around that is absurdly more powerful than the inverse, and getting that extra gear slot (or more) from the spirit shop makes things even easier. However, the spirit shop is more than just a place to increase relic capacity. Available only from the main menu, it serves as the metaprogression hub, a place to spend earned “Spirit Points” to upgrade the baseline health, gold, gear, etc. of your starting party. These upgrades are completely linear. Spending points can only improve your chances of victory, as there are no drawbacks to any choice that I have unlocked. When you reach the end of a run, you’ll face one of four random bosses. When you defeat the boss, it becomes available within a pool of boss options for manual selection at the start of each run. This is nice if you’d like to fight a specific enemy for any reason, but doing so negates the chance of encountering a new boss that you could have faced. Winning this final fight also ends the run and grants the player some spirit points based on their performance. Scouring the hotel halls for clues about the ongoing events, your characters will also sometimes speak to each other. These exchanges are quite short, but do offer some insight into the interpersonal dynamics or personality quirks of each teen. However, each character is strictly one-note, and those interactions are limited in number, offering very little insight into the overarching narrative or the characters’ interpretation of ongoing events. Really, there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. There are even a few benefits to choosing the same character across multiple runs. First, you’ll unlock alternative starting cards and gear to choose from, and second, you may come across events that grant “keys” to a character’s story, opening up a little more of their world for you to see. Nearly everything about The Spirit Lift  is perfectly competent, with the exception of one nagging element: the UI. The UI itself during this navigation is certainly functional, but does not feel particularly cohesive. The experience meter is reminiscent of gauges you’d see on a car, such as for a gas meter or odometer, and the party menu includes simple portraits that show audio levels (like you’d see on a car radio or other audio device) when characters speak. However, the other on-screen elements don’t in any way evoke a similar car aesthetic. Gear is depicted in small, black and white images housed within tiny, square boxes and little else; information, such as the number of cards in your deck or your available funds, is communicated through numbers stationed next to simplistic-but-fully-colored iconography — neither of which shows a connection to the meters in the other elements of the UI, or to each other.  Inspecting the UI outside of navigation leads to a bit more confusion, as well. Menus have many recognizable elements, such as your run history records being shown through a CRT screen, scanlines and all, or fast forward and rewind buttons replacing elements normally reserved for “confirm” and “back” or equivalent selections, but fail to coalesce into something resembling a whole.  Taken individually, many visual elements of The Spirit Lift  are interesting. The color palette heavily features striking hues of green, red, and purple that make objects, rooms, and enemies pop when they are meant to be the focus; the dark, cramped corridors lend themselves to an eerie atmosphere, and so on. But the lack of consistency and cohesiveness between these elements leads to a confused image on screen. The character portraits are quite detailed, but enemy sprites are flat (dimensionally and aesthetically), and objects in the environment are three-dimensional, low-poly items. I struggle to wrap my head around the design decisions that lead to this artistic muddying, but it is ultimately a minor gripe. ...there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. That said, The Spirit Lift  has some significant bright spots. Having a large cast of playable characters leaves room for experimentation and strategizing in how you build out your deck and approach each fight. Leaning into each teen’s strengths is key to success, so forcing one particular card type or strategy is not advised in every situation. Each run is also quite short, with any excursion taking no longer than half an hour to fully complete. In terms of difficulty, this is probably on the lighter side of games within its genre. After six full runs through, I have yet to die a single time. I’ve never been close, really. I wonder how much of my success is owed to having played a large number of roguelite deckbuilders in the past, or just what the intended difficulty is meant to be, but the large number of upgrades and abundant gear choices in every ascent attempt never leave me wanting for power. * Editor's note: A score was erroneously added to the review in a revision. This review is meant to be unscored. Sorry! Verdict Overall, I am quite fond of The Spirit Lift . Its mix of horror elements, deckbuilding, and dungeon-crawling is immediately enticing, and the card battles are fun, albeit a bit safe. While I do have some issues with the UI and would prefer more difficulty options, the game is a solid recommendation for roguelite deckbuilder enjoyers, especially if they’re looking for a more casual offering. Image Credits: prettysmart games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

March 6, 2026 — Today marks the full release of the Magic: The Gathering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards for tabletop. This latest Universes Beyond release sees the turtles Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello make their debut within the confines of the M:TG game. This collaboration includes a full standard-legal set release, commander decks, and even a Secret Lair drop. The full product listing can be found here , but we'd like to take the opportunity to lay out some of the things we're most excited to see at our local game store and online. Play Booster Packs and Boxes These include the standard-legal cards that make up the bulk of the release. Commander Decks If you're looking to get into the commander format, these preconstructed offerings are a great place to start — especially if you're a big fan of the TMNT specifically. Secret Lair Drops Secret Lairs are among some of my favorite versions of existing cards. They always bring a uniquely stunning style to the cards they represent, and this drop is no different. With multiple offerings available, you can select specific card sets to purchase, or get one of the larger bundles if you're looking to grab them all. Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also available on MTG Arena as of March 3, 2026.

Sports games are so rarely my purview. While I am a massive fan of basketball (professional and collegiate), most other sports are not on my radar in any way. That hasn't stopped me from picking up sports games in the past, though. Despite my distaste for hockey and the people I have known to play it, NHL 95  was a favorite of mine on the SNES and, like many, I played Madden games regularly on the PS2. While the sim aspects of the EA sports games could capture my attention for a time, I don't have many memories of actually playing the games with friends. Those are mostly reserved for more arcadey sports games, like Super Mario Strikers  or NBA Jam . Super Battle Golf  is a simplified take on golf, much in the same vein as the Mario sports games or titles like Hot Shot’s Golf , but mixed with a free-for-all battle arena structure to liven things up   — though even those comparisons may set simulation expectations that will not be met by Super Battle Golf . Truthfully, the golfing here is of secondary (or even tertiary) concern, with the spotlight being shone on the “battle” aspect of the gameplay and socialization portion of the experience.  Publisher:   Oro Interactive Developer: Brimstone Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released February 19, 2026 for PC (Steam). The basic concept of the game is simple: Play through nine holes of golf with up to eight people in real time, all while navigating in-course hazards and weaponry wielded by your opponents. The scoring is a bit less simple. Points are awarded based upon not just stroke count, but also what order you finish the hole in, and also how many times you land an attack on your foes. Incentivizing impeding your opponents can make for hilarious shenanigans, but it does make the golf take a backseat. Still, even just a few rounds of rocket launchers and landmines can be a good time with friends — should you actually get to play, that is. Unfortunately, the long recovery times and penalties incurred by players being hit or falling behind far outweigh the benefits of reaching a hole first. If, for instance, even just two players decide to stop you from advancing your ball, it would not be possible to continue play without their allowing you to do so.  Falling behind puts you in the position of being at the mercy of the players ahead of you, who can throw mines, block your ball, set traps, or camp at chokepoints needed to advance. The only way to circumvent this is to get the necessary items yourself to fight back, but it’s a losing game. Should even a small number of opponents wish it, you will face timing out of a round over and over without hope of recourse. This does mean that large groups are more advantageous, as players are less likely to be able to coordinate such attacks while still advancing their own ball, though the ability to farm points from this interference does still allow for the possibility. That balancing act being so skewed in favor of battles is both a gift and a curse. It means that very little attention has been given to the golfing aspect by the developers. It also means that little thought needs to be given to the golfing by players. So long as the ball gets in the hole at some point before time runs out, you’re just better off focusing on other aspects of the game. Perhaps the most surprising strength of Super Battle Golf  lies in its performance on PC. The large amount of independent multiplayer games I end up playing as part of this job has, in many ways, desensitized me to the types of performance or technical issues commonly found in low-to-modest budget titles. Framerate issues like stuttering or fluctuations, bugs that impede play, and connectivity issues — each of these is a common grievance when playing titles similar to Super Battle Golf . And none of them can be found here. My time with the game was extremely smooth. No matter how many people I was playing with, we never had any dropped connections, latency issues, graphical bugs, or any other technical issue that would otherwise impede our play or distract from our enjoyment of the game itself. I think that sort of polish deserves real praise. It’s not really possible to quantify the amount of time you’ll be able to play Super Battle Golf  before you “finish” it. With no set story or single-player objectives, it will all come down to how much fun you can have in an open environment with your friends. That said, there are a decent number of courses (27) to work your way through, so even playing through each a single time would lead to several hours of raucous fun. The current offerings of battle items are extremely limited, however, so even those new courses start to blend together in the grand scheme of things. Without any interesting stage gimmicks or varied item interactions, long-term enjoyment beyond hangouts with friends will come to rest on the enjoyment of the core mechanics. Unfortunately, the minimalist approach to the actual golfing in Super Battle Golf  does not lend itself well to deep examination. The dearth of golfing mechanics makes solo play extremely uninteresting as there are no other players to compete against or traps to avoid. Without any path to mastery, individual play quickly devolves into boredom The skill floor and ceiling being so close together isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, though. Much like the Nintendo sports games it emulates, the simplicity of control and format means that all age groups and skill levels are able to jump into any individual game and compete. In fact, the ways in which players mostly improve are through optimizing routes and utilizing positioning to take advantage of opponent ball placement and item spawn tendencies. In a similar vein to Mario Kart titles, the further back you are, the better your items will (generally) be. This can be advantageous in the current hole or even saved for the next course, as items carry over between rounds. Without any interesting stage gimmicks or varied item interactions, long-term enjoyment beyond hangouts with friends will come to rest on the enjoyment of the core mechanics. The lack of depth is certainly one of my own major pain points. The randomness of group play, combined with the limited item pool (and its own power variances), lends itself to a chaotic environment, but offers little in the way of a controllable competitive field. I don't get the sense that Super Battle Golf is trying to be a realistic golf sim, and to hold it to that standard would feel nearly as absurd as the game itself. That said, even a way to reliably hook your shots or a few extra item varieties could liven up long-term play considerably. Verdict Super Battle Golf succeeds in being a good time among friends by forcing players to interact with each other, but doesn’t nearly every multiplayer game achieve the same purpose? Is Super Battle Golf fun, or do I just like my friends? It can sometimes be hard to discern the difference. The game could frankly use some adjustments to item variety, and would be well-served by implementing additional complexity to the golf mechanic. Perhaps most importantly, it needs some form of rebalancing so that preventing other players from playing is not the driving force of competitive victory. That said, Super Battle Golf  is at least good for a few laughs for short bursts of time. Image Credits: Oro Interactive Disclosure: We received a free copy of this game from the publisher.

Marathon  — the latest title from the storied developer Bungie — began its open beta on Feb 26, with hundreds of thousands  playing the game across PC and PS5. Despite its imminent release on March 5, 2026, nary a peep has been made as of late about the art theft controversies Bungie has found itself in over the years.  While Bungie is not the only game-maker  to skate by relatively untouched by such accusations, this moment specifically feels odd to me.  Bungie’s Marathon -related art theft was first brought to light  in 2025 by artist Fern “Antireal” Hook on Twitter, calling out former Bungie employee  and then Marathon art director Joseph Cross by name. After this, Bungie issued an apology and confirmed  that the assets were stolen. As part of the fallout from this incident, as well as other development concerns , Bungie delayed the release of the game indefinitely (later updated to March 5, 2026). An image of the accusation and associated images by Antireal. Eventually, Bungie did clear things up with the artist they stole from, reaching an undisclosed agreement  with Antireal for the theft. While I am happy that Antireal was able to get what they believe to be adequate restitution for the offense, it feels imperative to remind people that this is not Bungie’s first plagiarism rodeo, as the developer has been credibly accused of — and even admitted to — similar offenses for assets related to its other title, Destiny 2 . In 2021, Twitter user Relay314 pointed out  that Bungie stole their fan art and used it as part of a trailer. Bungie community manager Cozmo apologized  for the incident, claimed it was accidental, and properly credited the artist for the work — only after being called out for the theft, of course. In June 2023, Bungie once again stole  an artist's work, making slight alterations and passing it off as their own in a cutscene in Destiny 2. The team behind Destiny 2  once again apologized, issuing the following statement :"We've discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie art. We have reached out to the artist to apologize for the mix-up and to credit and compensate them for their awesome work." This would not be the last Destiny-related accusation, either. On September 11, 2024, Twitter user and artist @Tofu_Rabbit noted  that Bungie directly lifted from a commission they did back in 2015. Bungie was once again forced to come to terms  with the artist for the theft, but was once again only willing to do so after being called out on Twitter. In that same thread, Reid Southern (@Rahil) also stated  their work was “ripped off”, though Bungie has thus far been silent on this one. Sift through these accusations and subsequent apologies, and a throughline quickly reveals itself — the plagiarism was someone else’s fault, and it was an accident. This line doesn't quite make sense to me, given the frequency and blatancy of the theft. One reference element accidentally making it into your product unchanged is bad enough, but the continued inclusion of lifted assets and lightly altered pieces finding their way into finished products speaks to more than just contractor negligence — it’s a pattern that shows a complete lack of care and respect from Bungie. Despite these frequent offenses, Bungie has largely been let off the hook. As long as the Destiny expansions are good and the new game is fun, many are quick to forgive the shady business. I made a Bluesky post  asking if people simply forgot about the plagiarism, and was quickly reminded by multiple people that, no, people did not forget — they just don't care. A few examples of the plagiarism accusations against Bungie. And while it is true that, in most of these known cases, Bungie has reached an agreement with the offended artists ex post facto, that is not the same thing as the plagiarism never having taken place at all. Hand-waving Bungie’s malice as having been “resolved” does not engender confidence in the company’s ability to produce works of art that are original, well-considered, or otherwise not stolen. It has led me to wonder — would these same people be so forgiving if this theft were done by an AI or smaller creator/creative team? Would those who are currently playing and praising Bungie for Marathon ’s art extend those same courtesies to nobodies who had been caught, time after time, of stealing the work of others in the making of their own? If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not. For all the (rightful) railing against the theft of creative works by Generative AI (and its now frequent commercial implementations), so little of that same energy is put toward the large conglomerates that do the same thing. Writers and other creatives are among the most vocal of all groups when it comes to advocacy against the use and inclusion of plagiarized AI works, but so many of my games writer peers can be found playing the Marathon  beta, praising its art specifically. Is that not hypocritical? Or does the personalized nature of said theft make it less meaningful? If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not. It has been said ad nauseam that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. It’s a nice little slogan that allows us to excuse our excesses, collapsing any distinctions one might make between ethical quandaries into a single bucket of “all bad.” But if it is true that all products are the direct result of worker exploitation, then doesn't that also mean the lines we draw are even more important? Surely we can come to understand the difference between a company like Constellis, a military contractor whose list of offenses includes murdering civilians, and another company like Arizona Beverages USA, whose most notable offense is falsely labeling their products as “all-natural”.  Yes, I am willing to concede that labor conditions both within the United States and abroad mean that most people are not fairly compensated for their work, and that most are significantly harmed by the economic systems and institutions that surround us all. What I am not willing to concede is that such a truth means we should not fight against such exploitation, or that all exploitative acts are equal. Throwing my hands up to say it's all bad and subsequently forgiving all injuries is a type of defeatist, loser-baby attitude that I will not personally abide. That said, Bungie is not Constellis, nor is it Shell or any other major company with a laundry list of horrific offenses. It is simply a company that continues to steal work from other artists to elevate its own products. I’m not even telling you that you must stop playing Bungie games (especially when your work relies upon it), or to stop appreciating the artistry behind the things they do  create — we all have our own lines in the sand. But don't tell me  not to care, and don’t imply that the plagiarism never happened just because Bungie was held to some account for it.

The waters of Mars are not welcoming. Mars is not a particularly appealing frontier, in my mind. Our current understanding of it (at least beyond the surface) is quite limited, and while our rapidly evolving knowledge can give us insight into its composition and history, little can be said of the benefits of colonizing or otherwise taking a trip to live on the red planet. This certainly hasn’t stopped some of the dumbest people on Earth from dreaming of doing so, however. Vile magnates like Elon Musk openly dream of starting colonies, floating ideas of practicing eugenics  and forcing those on the planet to engage in lifelong servitude so that their toilet thoughts can be fully realized. Of course, rarely are the human costs  of such an equation fully considered before such promises are made. Mars: War Logs  exists in world that I can only imagine as the optimal endpoint for such a colonization. The planet is controlled by factions of evil, corporate dictatorships (known as guilds), led and policed by drugged-up technocrats (technomancers). Slavery is big here, though they don’t outright name it — instead, people are thrown into prison work camps to do the dirty work needed by the guildfellows who have imprisoned them. From the buildings that stand on Mars to the very clothes people wear, everything is grimy, dusty, and run-down. When I say this is the “optimal” endpoint for such a dream, it is not to say that things are good — only that they technically function, at least for the time being. Publisher:   Focus Entertainment Developer:   Spiders Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released April 26, 2013, on Steam; Released July 26 on Xbox 360 and August 13, 2013 on PS3. A bleak colonial frontier is a great setting, but Mars’ implementation is clumsy. The narrative is defined by a strange, moralizing literalism; we see the world through a character named “Innocence,” who is surrounded by a choir of "virtues" like “Tenacity” and “Charity” — though such characters may or may not actually live up to those named ideals. After a whirlwind of background lore about the water wars, the story attempts to establish its "mature" credentials by immediately putting Innocence in the path of a prison-camp predator who threatens him with rape. After being saved by the main character Roy (who does so by just standing ominously about 15 feet away from the would-be assaulter), we are given our first dialogue choice that amounts to little more than a choice between nice answer, neutral answer, and evil answer. This strict “morality” of available options is poorly handled here in the moment and throughout the entirety of the game. I suppose in that sense, it is quite like the Mass Effect games that Mars  so clearly wishes to emulate. Every response can be broken down into which of these three paths you want to take, and doing so shapes the reputation of your character to other characters within the game. However, unlike the Mass Effect games, there is little difference in practice between being a mean guy or a nice fella. In gameplay, your reputation is shifted by those dialogue choices and by in-game actions. If you finish off your enemies and harvest their blood for serum after having defeated them, you get dinged as having done a bad thing. Obviously, there is no consideration for the fact that the cops keep showing up to kill you and will continue to do so even if you let them live. It does come up with each of your companions at least once, but generally manifests as a single throwaway line in larger sets of dialogue. This morality system feels incomplete — lacking, even — against the backdrop of the world being built around us. Surely there is more to this world than good and bad? One would assume context would be important, but each decision lies on this ternary.  Mars certainly is coarse. Nearly every other design decision feels similarly incomplete. You have interactive party members, but they are small in number and only have a few lines of conversation each. There is a crafting system, but the available recipes are exceedingly limited, with players really only able to craft a handful of items despite being given a veritable mountain of materials. The narrative is wholly disjointed, moving from point to point between acts in some of the most jarring transitions I’ve experienced in a video game. Each zone is full of people standing about, but only has 1-4 people you can actually speak to. It’s a grab-bag of all the typical 2010s RPG trappings, but none of the depth. Yet that haphazard implementation of gameplay systems pales in comparison to the writing. I suppose some of this is exacerbated by the fact that the voice work is atrocious, but much of the dialogue is quite painful to sit through. The biggest victim of this specific element is women. For some strange reason, every single woman you speak to in the game offers to have sex with the main character, Roy, implies an offer of sex, or can be “romanced” within three lines of dialogue. It is not a bad thing to allow characters to form relationships or have agency and preferences. It is a bad thing that every single speaking female character in the entire game specifically and explicitly desires to bed the player character. It reads like a teenage headcannon, one that only sees these women as prizes to be won or tossed aside.  Due diligence would have required that I get an exact number or percentage of dialogue between Roy and his companions that is romance or sex related, but I think that asking me to spend much more time with Mars  is a bit cruel. I would estimate that about half of all dialogue with women companions is about romance or sex, with a much smaller percentage for NPCs, who generally only have one or two lines about the proposition. Still, given the extremely limited dialogue available with each character, this ratio turns into a defining aspect of each entity. Which slab of meat looks most appealing to you, sir? The biggest victim of this specific element is women. For some strange reason, every single woman you speak to in the game offers to have sex with the main character, Roy, implies an offer of sex, or can be “romanced” within three lines of dialogue. If there is a highlight to Mars  (and I use highlight loosely, here), it would be the combat. It is a very active system, with players frantically rolling around to avoid insanely powerful enemies while taking chipshots with your weapons or technomancy. The “fun” of the roly-poly battles is further elevated by the frantic and incoherent meanderings of the camera. One moment, you are staring down a group of enemies, ready to dodge your way into advantageous positions, and the next, the camera has seemingly lost all sense of time and space, staring exactly into the opposite direction you need. Lock-on is of little help here, and even changing targets can be difficult to land on the enemy you want. Ultimately, Mars: War Logs is a fitting monument to the very colonization dreams it depicts. It is a collection of high-concept ideas that, when stripped of proper execution, collapse into a muddied mess. Half-baked napkin thoughts do not make a good space mission plan, nor do they make a decent video game. Inevitably, problems will arise. Whether it’s a life-support failure in a vacuum or a T-posing glitch in a digital work camp, something will go wrong in the use of technology. Is there a plan to address these concerns? Was there ever a real plan at all? All of this is to say: taking a trip to Mars (or Mars ) won’t do you any good, and will serve only to inflate the egos of the fools who put you there. I'm pretty sure they did not pay for this likeness. Verdict Don’t go to Mars. That would be a very stupid thing to do, voluntarily. Image Credits: Focus Entertainment

Why Kill the Past when you can just change it? There is a certain structured chaos to Romeo Is a Dead Man , the newest game from creator Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture — the development studio best known for titles like the Kill the Past and No More Heroes series. Grasshopper’s latest surreal third-person action game sticks with and smoothes out combat from the studio’s previous titles, while keeping the developer’s staple abstract storytelling. Publisher:   GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC. Developer:   GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC. Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released February 11, 2026, on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The main story has depth, although it can sometimes feel unintelligible. Despite this, Romeo’s motivations are easily understood and followed throughout. After almost being killed by a demon, Grandpa shows up and saves Romeo’s life by turning his mangled body into Dead Man. Somehow dying in the process of facilitating this transformation, Grandpa is now an animated patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket. Always animating without ever being too annoying or distracting, Grandpa helps guide Romeo to find Juliet, who might be at the center of some space-time anomalies. Oh, did I mention that after being saved by the Space Time FBI, Romeo is now drafted into their ranks to hunt down the disruptions and therefore correct the corresponding anomalies? Third-person action, although being the only method of combat, surprisingly takes up only half of the game. The other half being within a digital realm that vaguely mirrors the real-world zone in which the combat takes place. Combat feels responsive with multiple melee and ranged weapon choices available to pick from. Choosing to deviate from the default katana to a heavy two-handed sword, gauntlets, or a two-part spear does affect fights and how to approach hoards of smaller enemies. Having a light and strong attack option simplifies combat, requiring a stronger awareness of positioning and patience over a more complex system.  Stronger attacks can have purposefully longer uninterruptible animations, encouraging the optimization of combos mixing lighter and stronger attacks to stay mobile and evasive, or opt for heavy, immobile high-damage options during a stun or opening. Almost all larger enemies have weak points that are only breakable with ranged weapons, necessitating the use of one of four ranged weapons: a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, or rocket launcher. Having a diverse set of eight weapons that can be swapped at any time— even during combat — is great and can make encounters feel fresh again. Although a lack of findable upgrade materials forces committing to two or three weapons to avoid becoming underpowered and needing to grind for materials to buy more upgrades. Romeo has an eclectic variety of styles to showcase. Breaking up the combat, Subspace is a digital area used to find portals that lead to new, previously unreachable areas in the real world. No combat happens here, making early instances feel like an interesting break to open doors and solve puzzles in a more laid-back area. Later on, Subspace fills with uninteresting and frustrating tedium. All areas look the same, made with simple colored cubes that make it difficult to discern your position. Later, more complex levels become hard to reliably traverse, leading to accidentally retreading areas and often trying to remember which path has not been checked. Additionally, levels that have many portals make remembering which line up with what area in the real world much more difficult. With subspace increasing in size and complexity, the last level consists of slogging through an hour or more in subspace, mixed with short bursts of combat in between real-world portals. Upgrading and customizing a build in the home base — visitable between and during missions — is a standout departure from other games in the best way. Quicktime minigames to cook buff-producing katsu curry, a retro game to upgrade stats, and growing your own allies from seeds are fun changes of pace that feel unique and fit the overall grab-bag style this game has to offer. While having several currencies that can be used multiple ways was initially confusing, stat increases are easily noticeable in gameplay and keep the upgrade loop rewarding. Overall, style is the main standout of Romeo Is a Dead Man  from beginning to end. Using avant-garde approaches to cutscenes, whether it's told in the game’s normal 3d style, 8-bit, comic panels, or hand-drawn animation, nothing feels cheap or phoned in, and that includes the soundtrack. These changes in style feel intentional and always keep scenes interesting. Unfortunately, this artful shift in tone and style makes the much less unique designs of combat and puzzle areas feel generic in comparison. While not perfect, this unique approach to storytelling and systems is a statement that deviating from standard practice can make a large impression without completely leaving convention behind. Verdict Romeo Is a Dead Man  is a stylized, third-person action joyride with fun, albeit repetitive, combat. Boss fights are diverse, with a great soundtrack and interesting designs. Cutscenes and upgrading both diverge from standard practice in the best way, oozing with style to stand apart from other offerings. Pacing suffers with the diverse approach to mechanics and forcing frequent puzzle sections later into the game; however, the main story’s relatively shorter twenty-hour playtime with refreshingly little padding keeps the overall experience short and sweet. Image Credits: Grasshopper Manufacture Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

In Ys X: Proud Nordics , Adol can increase affinity with companions that have joined the crew along the journey. While this can be done through Companion Quests and special events, another way is to give your comrades a gift. Each companion only has a single gift to obtain, so once you have it, there's no need to search for additional items for that character. For all Gifts and their corresponding locations within Proud Nordics , please see below. Ys X: Proud Nordics Gift Locations Grenn Rune Sword : Available from the Baudin & Co merchant ship starting in Chapter 3. The ship can be found near Termina Island. Cruz Dvergr’s Hammer : It can be found within a chest on Breezy Isle, which is first accessible in chapter 4. Dogi Foreign Gauntlet: On the open sea (Sea Chart), head North of Kalon Island to find a ship housing the Gregorio's Curios shop. You'll need to buy the Hidden Treasure Chart B from him. Then, head over to Ozmid Expanse where you can salvage the gift item. Rosalind Green Turban Ear Clips : As part of the main story in Chapter 5, you'll land on Falun Island, where this gift can be found near the exit to Ilmer Village (on the east side of the map). Rafe Oku-Thor Amulet : Recapture Flumen Straight - Abandoned Mine. The A rank reward for completion is this gift for Rafe. Karja Peculiar Harr Woodcarving : Found on Raufos Island in Chapter 5. This is found within the fort, near a Rosmarion. Mirabel Pink Pearl Ring : Found in the Ruined Capital of Ribe during Chapter 6 in the southwestern part of the island. You'll need to use Mana Ride to reach the chest. Ezer White Lion Crest : Anika's Goods merchant ship can be found North of Eversummer Isle in Chapter 6. This shop sells the gift item for Ezer. Hopefully, this guide will help you finish up your journal, raise your companion's affinity, and unlock those achievements!

Cultural touchstones are a bit hard to nail down in the internet era. The fast-paced nature of online communication — and almost the ephemeral nature of the attention economy that drives much of it — leaves us with few shared experiences, even among peers. In decades past, a movie or show would be seen and talked about for weeks or months beyond release, but this is truly rare in the modern context. Websites and influencers are always looking for the next big thing, and so too are the audiences that engage with them. Often, when a new work drops, the conversation surrounding it dies as quickly as it had arisen. Die On This Hill  certainly won’t solve this problem, but it can help alleviate it. Product:   Die On This Hill Designer: Sam Greszes Publisher:   Sam Greszes Price: $30 Age:  N/A The developer of Die On This Hill , Sam Greszes, describes the game as “a party game about making, refuting, and reacting to the hottest takes anybody has ever seen.” Once you play it or see it in action, you can understand this to be a perfect distillation of the experience. To start, each player is dealt a hand of “debate” cards with ideas or phrases. The player whose turn it is chooses debate cards, which are then connected to “Hill” cards that contain phrases like “Is”, "Is Not", or "Is Unable To Stop The Crushing Tide Of", in order to make an argument. For example, one might form the phrase “Society should ban monogamy”, at which point the active player must then make the argument to the other players. Once the active player creates the phrase, the other players may play their “Let Me Cook” card to argue against the phrase the active player created. Both sides have 45 seconds to argue their chosen hill, and the other players react to the debate by tossing emoji tokens at the active players based on how the argument makes them feel. At the end of both debates, the person with the most emoji tokens in their tray wins and takes the hill card for the round. For the purposes of scoring, positive and negative emojis carry the same value. There are some further interactions you can make, such as sabotaging an argument or wagering hill cards that allow you to change the tenor of the conversation on the fly. It creates this really exciting and dynamic flow to each round of a game that I find is hard to come by in the party game space.  The card selection lends itself exceedingly well to this format, containing cards that range from universal ideas to hyper-specific references. In this way, you’ll never feel like you’re left out of a conversation or an opportunity to engage with the game. Instead, those hyper-specific selections feel a bit like prized cards that you love to get if they fit within your wheelhouse. A real chance to let loose about something on your mind.  While I said earlier that there are few true cultural touchstones in the internet age, I think Die On This Hill ’s mix of universal and specific topics allows players to connect across generations and in-groups, which is truly ideal for the party setting it has been designed for.  Speaking of cultural touchstones, the obvious comparison that comes to mind is Cards Against Humanity . Both games have a similar aesthetic and revolve around appeasing other players in an effort to earn points. Cards Against Humanity ’s ubiquitous presence at parties for the last 15 years probably isn’t doing Die On This Hill  any favors, as general sentiment has soured on it, but I ask you to consider this: what if Cards Against Humanity  was good and fun and not racist?  I don't think the games are the same, and in some ways it feels like I’m trying to combat an invisible argument, but I think the comparisons will be inevitable for some at first glance. That said, Die On This Hill is certainly a “safer” game to play. It’s really only as vulgar or obscene as you make it to be in your arguments. The cards themselves are not one-liners to score points, meaning there are no true “dead” cards to play — they’re just prompts to get you to talk to your friends. All of the game pieces are sturdy — there's no threat of them disintegrating as you play. I do think that Sam’s experience as a PR professional has helped in this regard. That lengthy exposure to the internet and community discourse has surely helped shape both the format and the content of the game. Hard to imagine coming up with a game like this without having first-hand experience with the types of unhinged arguments people make in online spaces on every topic. All things considered, I find the game to be extremely versatile in terms of what types of audiences you can bring into playing it, as well as how you play within those groups. It’s social media improv of the highest order. So yeah, I’ll say it outright — Die On   This Hill is an amazing party game. That’s one hill I’m willing to die on, at least.

Looking to fill out your fishing journal in Ys x: Proud Nordics ? Look no further! We've got you covered. Fishing is a mini-game in Ys X: Proud Nordics that sees you collecting various fish species throughout the world. First available on Termina Island in chapter 3, various locations reveal themselves throughout the game, opening up as new dungeons and locales are discovered. Aside from your rod, Adol will also need bait in order to fish, which can be purchased from general stores in towns.                                                                                           See the tables below for fish locations and associated rewards. To obtain rewards from fishing, you may report your results in the ship's common room by interacting with the table. Small, medium, and large fish may also be delivered to the Reticent Penguin in the Ozmid Expanse, while Ancient Fish may be presented to the Rambunctious Penguin residing in the Raoul Darksea for unique rewards. Please note that this is a list in progress for the Proud Nordics fishing minigame, and is not fully comprehensive in its current state. Some or many of these fish may be present at other locations not listed here. All fish locations in Proud Nordics can be viewed in the journal once collected. Ys X: Proud Nordics Fish Locations Small Fish Name Location Item Drops Sadina Termina Island Falun Island Viewpoint Isle Plump Fish Meat Basic Ingredients Plump Fish Meat Soldier Crab Termina Island Viewpoint Isle Balta Island Seabed Temple of Ægir Haze Island Yellow Drop Basic Craft Stock Yellow Lump Marine Amana Viewpoint Isle Inlet Isle Falun Island Kalon Island Blue Drop Basic Ingredients Blue Lump Obelia Herring Carnac Harbor Inlet Isle Anchor Island Breezy Isle Plump Fish Meat Basic Ingredients Plump Fish Meat Boleh Great Tidal Reef Anchor Island Haze Island Munir Clam Basic Ingredients Munir Clam Robushu Great Tidal Reef Dvergr Coast Ruined Capital of Ribe Basic Beast Parts Dark Drop Dark Lump Blue Saddie Falun Island Viewpoint Isle Soleil Island Blue Drop Blue Lump Blue Lump Medium Fish Name Locations Item Drops Saman Termina Island Viewpoint Isle Breezy Isle Balta Island Anchor Island Orlen Island Eversummer Isle Red Drop Plump Fish Meat Red Lump Ryunga Grugal Fortress Kalon Island Haze Island Rich Game Meat Basic Beast Parts Rich Game Meat Purch Haze Island Strangely Shaped Island Falun Island Basic Beast Parts Xiphoid Bone Steely Bone Rowana Viewpoint Isle Haze Island Dvergr Coast Ruined Capital of Ribe Red Drop Red Lump Red Lump Glass Corp Seabed Temple of Ægir Grugal Fortress Falun Island Basic Reagents Cure Leaf Melg Flower Mercenary Crab Fling Island Kalon Island Viewpoint Isle Celadon Clay Aged Wood Shell Rock Queen Boleh Grugal Fortress Dvergr Coast Ruined Capital of Ribe Sun Nectar Melg Flower Red Herb Ponffer Crescent Moons Isle Dvergr Coast Grugal Fortress Soleli Island Giant's Hand Isle Basic Beast Parts Supple Leather Tough Leather Calamitis Serenes Island Crescent Moons Isle Seabed Temple of Ægir Dark Lump Dark Seastone Ultimate Beast Meat Large Fish Name Locations Item Drops North Tuna Kalon Island Soleil Island Falun Island Breezy Isle Plump Fish Meat Munir Clam Eryn Mushroom Mud Wells Haze Island Dvergr Coast Grotto Isle Basic Beast Parts Supple Leather Tough Leather Sunny Saman Sprout Atoll Odd Rock Isle Viewpoint Isle Ruined Capital of Ribe Soleil Island Yellow Drop Yellow Lump Yellow Lump Aqua Marina Crescent Moons Isle Soleil Island Jötunn Island Plump Fish Meat Plump Fish Meat Dryad Tear General Crab Seabed Temple of Ægir Redsand Isle Viewpoint Isle Shell Rock Blacksilver Sand Soul Timber Empress Saman Giant's Hand Island Seabed Temple of Ægir Crescent Moons Isle Red Seastone Red Seastone Supreme Fish Meat Onyx Tuna (These are in the open world sailing / Sea Chart) Ozmid Expanse Sonnelia Basin Specular Bay Rogue Sea Basic Ingredients x50 Rainbow Drop Rainbow Lump Ancient Fish Name Location Item Drops Jumpi Haze Island Serenes Island Ruined Capital of Ribe Rainbow Drop Rainbow Drop Rainbow Lump Hineria Haze Island Orlen Islands Ruined Capital of Ribe Dvergr Coast Serenes Island Basic Beast Parts Rich Game Meat Munir Clam Gold Borsas Seabed Temple of Ægir Redsand Isle Viewpoint Isle Yellow Seastone Yellow Seastone 1000 Gold Cobalt Corp Viewpoint Isle Seabed Temple of Ægir Blue Seastone Blue Seastone Schneeblauchen Murgleys Crescent Moons Isle Giant's Hand Island Viewpoint Isle Steely Bone Everlasting Leather Vajra Bone Wishstar Viewpoint Isle - Forbidden Lands Aurora Berries Rainbow Lump Rainbow Seastone Megalofang Viewpoint Isle - Forbidden Lands Sin Soul+ We'll look to add more locations and information as we play more, but this should get you started and will help you fill out that journal and earn your trophies!

When looking at a game like Ys X: Proud Nordics , there exists some inclination to draw comparisons to stories of old, such as the Odyssey . Much like Odysseus himself, Adol has completed a great task and sets sail to reach a new destination. Also like Odysseus, he is waylaid by forces beyond his control that prevent him from reaching said destination and must overcome trials and tribulations in an effort to see himself back on track.  Despite more obvious inspiration from Norse tales (I mean, it’s in the name, really), Adol’s island-hopping adventure within Proud Nordics , is not unlike that of the King of Ithaca, with Adol sailing from place to place in an effort to free himself from the ties that bind him here to the Obelia Gulf — though Adol is not nearly so clever as the fabled King, and rarely uses more wit than is necessary to swing his sword about. We even get to experience our own sort of Scylla and Charybdis scenario, with Adol and his crew being torn between navigating a giant current and facing down a veritable monster of a foe. Adol is bound in more ways than one. While at first he simply needs funds to continue his journey, he soon finds himself magically cuffed to Proud Nordics ' main heroine, Karja Balta. Karja herself is also an unwilling participant in this union — she is no Calypso. Publisher:   NIS America, Inc. Developer:   Nihon Falcom, PH3 GmbH Platform:  Played on PS5 Availability: Released February 20, 2026,  on Steam, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2. And though many of these island encounters are sure to stir up memories or comparisons to this tale or that one, Ys as a whole draws one particular analogy from me: One Thousand and One Nights. I suppose which version of the fables I am referencing may be worth examining, but the framing of these fantastical stories is the same in all adaptations. In One Thousand and One Nights , the story begins with the ruler Shahryar taking a new wife each night and then murdering her the following morning. Eventually, a beautiful woman named Scheherazade (seeking to end the madness of the king) volunteers to become the king’s latest bride, but before she is killed, Scheherazade tells a fantastic tale that intrigues the king. And so, the king lets Scheherazade live another night to tell more of the tale. And then another. And another still, going on for 1001 nights. The stories Scheherazade tells are filled with magical beings like Genii, magic items, treasure beyond imagining, and other absurdities. Despite this, the most interesting aspect of the collection is the narrative structure. Each tale works as a sort of nested story (known as a frame story), with Scheherazade’s plot and marriage being the highest level, and the story she tells being the next. Within each of these stories, however, are more stories still. Scheherazade will tell a tale of a fisherman, who in turn speaks of a Vizier and a Sage, which holds another further story, and so on. It is this structure of nested stories that Ys as a series also employs, with Proud Nordics  serving as part of a larger whole. You see, Ys itself is a long-running series, with most of the titles being out of order from the previous entry chronologically. However, each game within the series is actually a recounting of events by Adol himself, in the future. Or rather, someone reading his journals of these adventures. So while Proud Nordics  may be the specific retelling of a journey in the Obelia Gulf, within the game, smaller stories still are being told.  Adol might be primarily concerned with breaking his binding to Karja and moving on to another adventure, but smaller-scale conflicts arise, such as in the town of Carnac, where the local militia is unable to protect people from monsters due to a combination of a lack of funding and a dearth of magical skill. Adol himself frequently drifts off into these dream-like states where he entreats an old man to learn more about his current circumstances, only to then be shunted back into the main scenario again on a whim.  Any collection of stories — such as those that the Ys series represents — will inevitably have various peaks and valleys. True in a literal sense that the islands and locales that Adol roams have such topography, and a metaphorical one (e.g., Ys VIII  is a game I like very much, but Ys II is not). In this regard, Proud Nordics  stands among the upper echelon of Adol’s adventures. Containing both a competent collection of narrative bits and an excellent action-based battle system, it is at times endearing and nearly always exciting. Proud Nordics may not be the highest fidelity game out there, but the environments and characters are well-designed. While narratives and stories have never necessarily been Ys’s strongest suit, Proud Nordics  carries itself well, primarily on the backs of its two leads, Adol and Karja, and their relationship. Despite Adol’s continued “silent protagonist” schtick, he does exhibit quite a bit of personality, especially as a foil to Karja’s more boisterous and brash demeanor. Indeed, Karja’s transformation in particular is worthy of note on its own. Seeing her evolve throughout the journey is really a testament to the long-form storytelling games can indulge in, even when the episodic, out-of-order nature of each entry necessitates these one-off characters.  Of course, Karja and Adol are not the only characters, nor are they the only highlights. Series regular Dogi brings his earnest nature and calm demeanor to the fold, while characters like Grenn are always good for a few laughs. These other side characters largely make up your ship’s crew as you sail the seas, but even town-specific NPCs are well-done enough to warrant attention. The game is also littered with sidequests that expand upon the world and its characters in a way that may feel compulsory. Without engaging in these side missions, I fear much of the charm of Proud Nordics  would be lost. Thankfully, they are not so obtuse as to be difficult to engage in or complete.  Where Proud Nordics really hangs its hat is in the combat. Adol is a magic swordsman through and through, utilizing his blade to deliver swift blows to any who might stand in his way. On PlayStation, the “X” button beckons forth his normal blows to foes, but he also has the ability to channel Mana (a magical force bestowed by the gods) into powerful abilities needed to defeat the Griegr (a mysterious, undying force that seeks to take over the area). Karja can similarly use Mana abilities, but her technique is that of a heavier hitter, swinging the axe around with force enough to crush the Griegr.  The game is also littered with sidequests that expand upon the world and its characters in a way that may feel compulsory. Without engaging in these side missions, I fear much of the charm of Proud Nordics would be lost. Aside from the individual abilities each character might use, they may also combine their efforts to unleash powerful Duo abilities. The particulars of combat are numerous, with each character having many skills to use alone or jointly, and strategies for engaging with enemies being equally as varied. In many instances, I was surprised at the outward difficulty of the enemies in Proud Nordics , as well as the depth of the combat system by which I was tasked to rout the bosses. Evasion, guarding, character switching — all of this is necessary and much more intricate than one might assume from first glance.  Proud Nordics is quite involved in many ways, really. Numerous systems by which you may upgrade your abilities or outfit your ship can be made use of, and minigames like fishing grant reprieve from the combat while still offering some reward for their engagement. It's charming how sure of itself Proud Nordics is in this regard. Not once does it ever feel like the developers wanted to walk something back to chase an audience they've never had. Never does it shy away from its genre trappings, opting instead to embrace its being as an RPG, flooding the zone with systems and terminology that would be indecipherable to passersby. I can't help but wonder if Adol, in his journal musings, was so inclined to recount these particulars to those who read the journal, or to any he told his tales. Did he regale listeners with breakdowns of how he used lightning crystals to empower his skills? Was he truly so meticulous as to note each fishing spot and its possible rewards? Or was he, like me, more inclined to leave that for readers to imagine, hoping they themselves would seek out adventure? In Proud Nordics , so much of the culture and particulars of the politics are laid bare to us in our journey. The world and its people are rich and deliberate in their presentation. It's not a shock that this is the case — Ys is a series going on for nearly 40 years at this point — but I am awed a bit by the scope of the tale the series is telling.  I keep coming back to One Thousand and One Nights  in my mind. Scheherazade has a knack for telling her stories while never fully getting lost within them. While readers may fall deeper and deeper into the stories as they are told, the ones recounting them are always able to keep track, steering us from story to story as needed. I wonder how long Ys will go before losing itself or its place. I’m astonished it hasn’t yet, really. And while 1001 Ys games seems an unlikely outcome, I do hope that each new vignette we are shown will continue to be delivered with such clarity and care as Proud Nordics  has been. Verdict Image Credits: NIS America, Inc. Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher. For changes made from the original Ys X: Nordics , you can check out the page on Steam .

Back to the old haunts. Longtime readers of mine will know this, but I was never a big Vampire: The Masquerade fan , and not for lack of trying. I’ve played some of the games and tried my hand at the TTRPG, but it never really stuck with me until this last year, when I gave the visual novel Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York another go. I am a little ashamed to admit that it sent me on a bit of a spiral. Lore breakdowns, actual plays, fan fiction — whatever I could get my hands on was lapped up quickly. I’m not really sure why Coteries  connected me to the world so thoroughly, but the impact was immediate. Publisher:  Dear Villagers Developer:  Draw Distance Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 10, 2024 on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. All of this is to say that I have been led to this moment by a burning desire to know more. I wanted to learn about the clans and the world, to learn about the characters, and to learn how the game is played. I wanted to know how this story, this trilogy, would end. As Reckoning is the final act of the series (preceded by Coteries of New York  and Shadows of New York ), surely everything from those games would come to a head. Our questions would be answered, or at the very least entertained, and the world of Vampire: The Masquerade would continue to inspire and evolve. Yet, I found very little of that here, in Vampire: The Masquerade  – Reckoning of New York .  On your first playthrough of the game, Reckoning  has you play a Ravnos clan fledgling named Kali. Kali is a born trouble-maker (much like many in clan Ravnos) who spends her nights as a smuggler for her sire, Reynard Cassel. We start off seeing Kali getting caught by enforcers for the Camarilla (the dominant vampire group in New York), and she is brought before the Court — a cadre of vampires who run the city — and Sheriff Qadir. Kali is then tasked with discovering more about the machinations of other vampires in the city, and taken under the wing of another vampire in the room, Padraic. This setup is all too familiar. In fact, it is eerily similar to the setup of the last two titles in the trilogy. As a sequel entry, it retreads plot points and setups that have been handled before, only now doing so through the lens of the new character Kali. Rather than move the overarching story of the world forward in any way, we spend most of our time apart from the developed cast of characters and storylines on a wild goose chase for unrelated matters. Smaller-scale stories can work well in the context of a larger world, but in Reckoning , there's no real impetus to see this story through.  Reckoning is almost impressively uninteresting. The main problems come from two places: The characterization of Kali, and the actual structure of the events that take place within the game. For Kali, much of my annoyance stems from her sarcastic personality and reference-laden dialogue. So much of the world in Vampire: The Masquerade relies on its dark, almost brooding atmosphere. Kali undercuts this vibe frequently with odd reminders of real-world TV shows and people, and never lets a moment sit without some quip or aside. The rare opportunities to make choices cement this by providing options that are either all sarcastic or otherwise end up with the same outcome.  This flattening is mirrored in the overarching narrative. There are two types of events you can witness in Reckoning : Main Quest and Detour. Main quest is exactly as it sounds — events that specifically move the story forward in one way or another. Generally speaking, Kali and Padraic go to a new location for information on Reynard Cassel's whereabouts, find nothing, and then move on to the next venue. Repeat for 4 chapters until some more major events happen to shake things up. Detours are similarly uninteresting, serving as stops to fill up on blood to keep your hunger at bay, or to force encounters with the bumbling, incompetent hunters who seek to destroy vampire kind. Most often, these detours are a mix of both. The lack of true choice was a decision I had defended in prior games in the series in part because it fit the world so well that your individual actions and word choice meant very little to those in deep-seated positions of power (though Shadows  in particular does allow for some major changes based on how you interact with the world). In Reckoning , it's taken to the extreme where even your individual word choices are similar. While having the Prince wave off your pleas is one thing, having such a limited effect on even the smallest characters in a scene is an odd decision. Why offer the choices at all? It does nothing to reinforce the themes of the world or story, and only serves as a minor annoyance that interrupts an already lacking narrative. While having the Prince wave off your pleas is one thing, having such a limited effect on even the smallest characters in a scene is an odd decision. Why offer the choices at all? We spent two games building up a specific story within a specific place, only to have that largely ignored for 90 percent of Reckoning ’s runtime. All we get in return is the inner thoughts of a teenager working through her feelings of betrayal and codependency — feelings that never fully get resolved before dumping us into a finale that I can only describe as haphazard at best.  If you’re wondering about Padraic’s side of the story, it is a little more tolerable. While the overall plot and aimlessness do remain the same on his side, he’s not quite as grating personality-wise. This comes at the cost of Padraic being quite boring on his own, but I suppose I would prefer the melancholy of a Malkavian over endless snide remarks. Reckoning also takes majors steps back in terms of its presentation. While the first two titles had these beautiful, stylized portraits and would often showcase mesmerizing painted vistas, Reckoning takes a more “realistic” approach to its imagery. The change in artstyle is an immediately noticeable downgrade, but the lack of variety in scenery is equally deflating. In the first two games, entire scenes would have bespoke artwork, and character portraits would evolve as the game progressed to signify changes to the characters themselves. This has all but been replaced by flat portraits that cycle as each character speaks. Little care is given to visually capture the environments or personalities of each cast member. All we get are blank stares straight into the camera. As a standalone visual novel, I find Reckoning does very little to draw players into its world or story. There are few immediate story hooks, and little intrigue or mystery in its characters to keep you on the line. As a sequel, it is an abject failure. It does not continue or resolve any hanging threads from prior titles (aside from canonizing the ending choice from Shadows ), does not fit thematically in the world or series, and is a visual and writing downgrade across the board from its predecessors. A sad end to an otherwise worthwhile set of visual novels set within the Vampire: The Masquerade universe. Verdict Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York  is a weak visual novel in almost every regard. Flat, lifeless artwork and an uninteresting main plot are chief among its problems, but its design as a sequel that ignores the plot and purpose of the first two entries is almost equally as disappointing. All of this is compounded by the fact that the choices you get to make as a player are so absurdly limited that they may as well not exist. This game is not worth the time it takes to read it, and I struggle to understand how this could have happened after such care was put into the first two entries in this visual novel trilogy. Image Credits: Draw Distance and Dear Villagers