Sherlock Keeps the Lights On By Releasing DLC for Chapter One and a Switch Version of The Devil's Daughter

24 March 2022, Dublin, Ireland + Kyiv, Ukraine | Today Frogwares has announced the release of the final major paid DLC to Sherlock Holmes Chapter One and also that they will be able to release Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter on the Nintendo Switch on April 7^th, 2022.

Despite being embroiled in a horrendous war, the majority Ukrainian-based team managed this through external partners and a handful of remote-based staff. They are now aiming to adapt to the situation and do what they can to keep the studio semi-functioning and afloat.

Put simply, we need to keep the studio alive and functioning to the best of our abilities now more than ever. Nobody on the team is expected to work, only those who can and want to. Some on the team have become full-time volunteers in the humanitarian efforts around the country. Others have joined the defense forces. The rest are in various, safer locations abroad or around the country and have made themselves available to work remotely. And we continue to pay all of these people on the team. For those fighting or volunteering, each of their spots on the team will be waiting for them at the end of the war. But essentially it is through a collection of staff that either fled Ukraine to neighboring EU countries and those who have relocated to safer areas who are keeping Frogwares going right now. We are an independent studio with no external financing, investors, or parent company keeping us afloat. So it's up to us alone and through the support of our players wanting to play our games that will keep this studio alive. And as this war drags out more and more, we and people all around Ukraine are seeing that even if they are not involved in the fighting directly, they need to somehow keep things moving forward. So that when this is all over and it’s time to rebuild and restart, we are not starting from zero.” – Wael Amr, CEO, Frogwares.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One M For Mystery DLC  – Out Now

The final paid DLC for the studio’s latest game is now available on PC, PS5, and X Series X/S. In this 2+ hour mission, a cunning spy has outsmarted one of Mycroft's agents and managed to steal confidential documents. Sherlock must now step in to face a shadowy figure known only as “M” as he tries to unravel the work of a master spy and saboteur.

The M For Mystery DLC is free for all owners of the Deluxe Edition and the Season Pass or can be purchased separately.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devils’ Daughter on Switch - Coming April 7^th, 2022

Initially released in 2016, Frogwares partnered with Mataboo back in 2021 to bring the game to the Nintendo Switch. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is an investigative adventure with a flare of the supernatural. Something dark and sinister is gripping London and has come very close to Sherlock’s own personal life. But is it just smoke and mirrors from cunning crooks or is something truly supernatural at play here? Each case will require you to strike the right balance between logic, gut instinct, morality, and superstitious beliefs. Track down evil in the darkest corners of London and the human soul, be it from this world or possibly another.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devils’ Daughter will be priced at 29.99 USD / 29.99 EUR and is a digital-only release. Pre-orders will go live on March 24th on Nintendo eShop with a 15% off discount. Owners of Frogware’s The Sinking City or Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments on Switch will get an additional 10% off.

Article by:  Susan N.

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WWE 2K22 - XBSX Review

WWE 2K22 by developers Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Microsoft Xbox Series X|S review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes 

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WWE 2K22 is back after a bit of a break, and it appears to have been time well spent. WWE 2K22 is a successful return to form for the wrestling franchise, with a bevy of modes and content to keep fans coming back for more.

It’s no secret that WWE 2K20 was rough. A transition between development teams led to some cutting of teeth with this franchise that left the series heavily panned a couple of years ago. I for one appreciated that the developers recognized this and opted to spend some extra time on this new release. The marketing team has done an excellent job of branding this release with this tagline:

It hits different.

It’s bold, sure – but it’s accurate as well. This series has long been a mashup of arcade action and simulation, with WWE 2K22 feeling as though it is leaning just a tad towards the arcade side of things here. Which is fine, frankly. NBA 2K has long straddled that line as well, with equal parts strategic pacing and frantic action, and WWE 2K22 delivers a similar experience.

So what’s going on in this release? A lot of things. There’s quickplay, where you just get to set up your own ideal match with whomever you want from what is an impressively large roster of characters. MyFaction is akin to MyTeam in the NBA 2K games – it’s basically a collectible card game mixed with a sort of fantasy sports approach to wrestling. There are several different types of games and series of matches you can put your roster through, and as you earn currency (probably one of the things that is bound to irk people, as WWE 2K22 does continue the longstanding tradition of offering you virtual currency for real money) to purchase more packs of cards, leading to more wrestlers and ways to customize said wresters in hopes of improving your odds of success in the ring.

There are other options such as MyGM, which is more about running the show than just participating in it. On the other side of things, you have MyRise, which is a career mode. Instead here, the focus is on your character. Or characters. Why did I add a plural? Because the MyRise mode has a very cool branching storyline and it encourages you to play multiple times to experience how things can go differently. There’s even differentiation between a men’s and women’s division. With tons of customization options and a heavier roleplay-like feel to it? I was all-in on MyRise and I enjoyed the hell out of it. There’s a lot to chew on here, and like the NbA 2K games, this is where I spend the bulk of my time. If there’s a quibble I have, it’s that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of export / import where you can create a superstar outside of MyRise and bring them in, or any way to export your creation into the other modes. I sort of get it, given that your characters are always progressing and changing, but on the other hand? It seems a bit of a waste to not be able to use your creations in other spaces. Still, I sunk a lot of time into MyRise and kept coming back for more.

I’ve always enjoyed the WWE Showcase modes as well, and that holds true with this year’s iteration featuring Rey Mysterio Jr. As a wrestler, his flashy style is a great way to show off the engine and numerous gameplay options. I played the game’s tutorial when I first fired up WWE 2K22, but I think I learned more about the depths of the gameplay by spending the next few hours on the Showcase mode. Essentially this is a set of some of Mysterio’s most famous matches, with a list of objectives that chain together. Almost all of them start easily enough as you punch your opponent a few times or pull off a special type of grapple, but things certainly get complicated in a hurry. You can of course win the match at any time – but you miss out on rewards and seeing the match fully play out.

To make the most out of Showcase, you have to complete all of the objectives, which are challenging on multiple levels. Sometimes they leave your wrestling in a compromised state, or sometimes they are just plain hard to pull off because they require a specific move at a specific time with your opponent in a specific position. I get why the devs wanted to showcase some of these maneuvers that player might not otherwise ever see, let alone perform, but there were times these conditions were pretty frustrating as well. Thankfully though, with a bit of persistence, I was able to see all of the chained objectives through unlocking a bonus fight and some more unlockables.

There are a couple of aspects that made Showcase pretty memorable. For one, Rey Mysterio Jr. has long been one of the most colorful, flashy wrestlers in the business. As a result, these matches often have highlight worthy moments as the match blends video gaming with movies. Pull off the first three objectives, and the video game fades out to be replaced by actual video footage from the match. This might play out for a couple dozen seconds or even a couple of minutes, before it transitions back to the video game. It’s a really cool effect that I thought would get old after a bit, but I enjoyed it right through to the end. That’s how you wind up in rough spots however, as sometimes you are dominating your opponent, pulling off the desired sequence, and then taking Mysterio back over after he got smacked around a bit by his opponent.

The other nice touch on this mode is that they had Mysterio helping to narrate things. There is video of him being interviewed leading into and out of the matches, often explaining why that particular match was important to him and even how the match’s results impacted his career later. Mysterio also narrates the video sequences that are spliced in, and he’s simply enjoyable to listen to as he talks about some of these bigger moments in his career. It was a thoughtful, interesting mode that serves as a more advanced tutorial in the process.

Of course, all of the modes in the world don’t matter if the gameplay sucks. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. There are times that things feel a bit clunky. These are most evident when objects or multiple wrestlers are involved. Tag team matches – especially with three or four person teams – can be kind of annoying. I know some wrestling matches are long and meant to test the wrestlers’ endurance, but I found them occasionally testing my patience as well. I can dominate the crap out of my opponent, but not get them pinned because unless I do some shenanigans to the opposing person’s partners first, they just come in and break up the pin. Every. Single. Time.

This is especially annoying in a mixed tag match where you can’t strike the person of opposite gender, but they can run in and hit you to break up the pin. First time it happened, I was submitting my opponent to hammering away at the strike button when the female wrestler from the other team dove in to break up my submission attempt and my character immediately jabbed her in the face and got me disqualified. In these instances I just found it easier to take the match out of the ring and try to force a 10 count out. I would appreciate it if my partner AI was better at running interference, like getting into the ring sooner and actually engaging the other wrestler first. For me, this was probably the single biggest annoyance as matches I was dominating from the beginning and should have been over in a matter of a few minutes sometimes took 20-30 minutes unless I resorted to cheap tactics like the 10 second count out.

Additionally, targeting items / the right opponents can be a little dicey in the ring. Pressing the left button to pick up the item at your feet can be pretty hit and miss, and there were definitely times in free-for-all matches where I just couldn’t get the detection to focus on the right person. I might have dropped an opponent at my feet, but been unable to actually target the guy a half-inch further away from him, despite that person actually still being a threat. It certainly handles better than years past, but still feels like a weak spot in the gameplay.

Beyond those aforementioned concerns however, WWE 2K22 provides some pretty great action. Punches and kicks land with a weightiness to them, and splashy dives off of the top turnbuckle or finishers applied to a vulnerable opponent’s head still had a way of making me wince, despite this… you know, just being a video game. I appreciate the variety of different match types out there as well, from cell matches, to Money in the Bank, no disqualification and more – it helps to keep things fresh.

In terms of the overall production values, WWE 2K22 is pretty solid. Sure, there’s a bit of glitchiness around the ropes at times or character model collisions, but that’s to be expected. There is so much going on as characters not only strike and grab, but respond to being hit or pulled or pushed into ropes – the physics engine has its work cut out for it. Even now and again I would see something odd like a wrestler grabbing a bunch of air instead of their opponent’s leg, or ropes getting into weird spots – once my character got ‘stuck’ in the ropes and just could not get out. The ropes vibrated wildly, opponents moved around me but couldn’t engage, things like that. But these types of glitches were pretty rare and worlds better than the buggy release of WWE 2K20. Overall, the character models look good, the announcing is authentic and the music is pretty great. At one point my wife walked in and remarked how it was getting scary how blurred the line between game and reality was getting.

Summary

WWE 2K22 is a fantastic return to form for the series, and probably the best wrestling game I’ve played in several years. Admittedly there are some rough edges here and there, but the MyRise mode in particular was incredibly enjoyable and most importantly: the game was just fun to hit. WWE 2K22 does in fact hit different.

Score: 8.25 / 10

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Shadow Warrior 3 - XBSX Review

Shadow Warrior 3 by developer Flying Wild Hog and publisher Devolver Digital—Microsoft Xbox Series S|X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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At its heart, Shadow Warrior 3 keeps most of what fans of the series enjoy. It’s a gory, first-person shooter with a highly sarcastic lead character and plenty of enjoyable action to go around. That being said, Shadow Warrior 3 does take some departures from the prior game in the series, eschewing its more roleplay like elements for streamlined action.

One of the first things that stood out to me when first firing up Shadow Warrior 3 is the effort to actually tell a bit more of a cinematic story. Not that anyone is going to confuse Shadow Warrior 3 with a narrative masterpiece, but the opening scene with returning protagonist Lo Wang in his undies basically playacting the foundation of this story is delightfully unhinged, and throughout the game I found myself appreciating these cutscenes quite a bit.

If you are new to the series – the premise is pretty straightforward. Lo Wang is a one-time assassin who is now living out his days as the world is about to be devoured by an ancient dragon that he failed to kill previously. He is at a low point in his life where he feels he has no friends left when one-time enemy Zilla returns to suggest a plan of action to get rid of the dragon and to encourage Wang to get off of his ass and do something about it. The action is presented in first-person perspective, providing both melee and ranged combat as you tear through hordes of creative-looking if somewhat low variety demons.

If you are returning to the series, well – you generally know what to expect. Wang is as ridiculous as ever, cussing up a storm and making sarcastic remarks at every turn. This is no Like, the silent protagonist. In fact, I have no doubt Wang drives some gamers a bit nuts because he almost never seems to shut up. The character throws as much verbal content at the wall as possible, but by and large most of it sticks for me. Is every joke funny to me? Nah, of course not – but I certainly chuckled and even outright laughed an awful lot. I’m sure that says plenty about me, but I’m not apologetic about it.

However, if you played Shadow Warrior 2, you will see quite a few changes here. There was a strong action-RPG vibe to Shadow Warrior 2 that has largely been trimmed of that fat to make a more streamlined Doom-like action shooter. There’s still some character progression to be had as you find orbs and have a dozen or so objectives to complete (like collect 5,000 health or get 25 headshots with a specific weapon) that also yield these orbs that you can use then to give Wang some upgrades. As someone who enjoyed the loot-dropping, item customizing aspects of Shadow Warrior 2 however, the lack of these elements was a bit of a bummer.

The actual traversal is different as well. There is almost no focus on exploration and secrets, unlike Shadow Warrior 2, as the stages here are more tightly structured. The good news is, traveling is less confusing and I didn’t need to keep checking a map to figure out what was next. Level designs are usually quite good, and where to go next is generally pretty obvious. Instead of exploring, it is more like working your way through some platforming elements and then stopping to hit an arena-like section where waves of enemies come at you.

Kill all of the enemies, and then start platforming again. There is a grappling hook, double-jump and mid-air dash that put an emphasis on the platforming elements of stages, to somewhat mixed results. I definitely found one of the stages, where you are on a platform that is moving through a river in an on-rails segment to be very annoying. Platforming is not my strongest suit in gaming and it took me well over a dozen tries to get through it. There are difficulty modifiers here, but they seem to just pertain to damage taken / damage dealt and do nothing for these platforming sections.

If the platforming was super clean, it might not be as annoying, but it’s an area with some rough edges in the game. For example, in one underground cavern, there was a section where I was supposed to jump from a platform to a section to a wall run, but for whatever reason if you did not land exactly where they wanted you to – you just fell over dead like you had fallen into a pit. In another instance I was trying to grapple onto that floating disc in the aforementioned river stage and multiple times the grappling hook pulled me up short and dunked me in the water for an instant death.

There were a few other checkpoint-inducing bugs such as in the first stage an enemy spawned into a solid wall and I couldn’t hit him, and I couldn’t kill him to advance without reloading. I had one battle where I won with 1 hp left and suddenly died for no reason. I respawned with the enemies defeated but the ability to move into the next stage not having triggered, again forcing checkpoint restore. None of these were deal breakers and I was able to move past them relatively quickly, but added up they did irk me at times – especially during that stupid river section.

However, with those quibbles aside – there is a ton to like about the action in Shadow Warrior 3. Combat is satisfying, whether you are hacking someone with your katana or blasting them with a variety of different firearms. Enemy AI isn’t terribly smart, but they can do a lot of damage quickly if you aren’t careful. Again, level design during these arena-like stages is often pretty inspired. With the grappling hook, there is a verticality to the fighting that sees you hoisting yours out of (or sometimes into) trouble, looking for a vantage point, a health item or even just a moment’s peace before you have to take on the enemies again.

Some of the stages also have some clever environmental traps, such as exploding barrels, switches that open up trapdoors, buzzsaw boobytraps and more. There are also some ridiculously over the top finishers that can grant you bonus life or powerful ‘gore’ weapons that range from massive swords or bone clubs to vortexes that suck enemies into them and so much more.

For better or for worse, the playtime here is about a dozen hours – so it certainly felt shorter than Shadow Warrior 2 did, but that is probably a product of being a more on-rails type of game versus one with a semi-open world to explore. Shadow Warrior 3 sets a brisk pace as it follows Wang through his adventures.

Summary

Shadow Warrior 3 presents more streamlined action than its predecessor, and revels in his glorious gory shooting and potty-mouthed protagonist. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss some of the RPG elements from Shadow Warrior 2, and there are some rough edges to be found in this latest iteration of the series – but it’s a bloody good time all the same.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Pinball FX3 - Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure - XB1 Review

Pinball FX3 - Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure by developer and publisher Zen Studios—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes 

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It’s been a while since we had a new Pinball FX3 table, and this latest release was certainly worth the wait. Pinball FX3 - Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a digital reimagining of the classic Williams pinball, with all of the bells and whistles you would expect from a Zen Studios offering.

That is the good news, and it’s ample. Visually, this table is a feast. The basic table design is a lot of browns and oranges at first glance, but there is no shortage of bright, colorful lighting on the table itself. Having been a fan of the actual table for many years now (I used to play it in my early college years), seeing it brought back to life in this fashion. Obviously it’s been a long time since I played it, but the sound design sure feels like what I remember, right down to the music and dialog recreated on this table.

While I love the overall presentation, I do appreciate that there is an option to turn off what I think of as the ‘Pinball FXtras’. These are the 3D effects on and around the table that don’t occur with a real pinball machine. I like them myself, but I know some purists prefer to turn those off, either because they find the animations distracting or just takes away from the nostalgia. That is probably especially true of a table such as this, which is based on a real-world pinball machine. If those extras don’t appeal? You can turn them off.

Thematically, this game is based on the original three movies. As such, there are quests sprinkled throughout that harken back to those movies. Like other tables, completing these objectives can lead to big points. Each table has its own scoring system, but this one certainly feels like it has more zeros than many of the others. That being said, it feels great when you complete one of those objectives and you see the points just rolling in. On my very first play I came pretty close to the default table high score and earned at least one extra ball and pulled down a multiball. I seemed to have had pretty good luck though, as I’ve only exceeded that score once since.

As for the table play itself? It’s a fast, fun table with lots of missions, plenty of narrow passages to shoot the ball through and more. This is a very vertical table with only two flippers, but the ball moves with plenty of speed and I seldom felt like there were lulls in the action.

So for as good as the table plays, there is a single point of contention that needs to be brought up. The table is fantastic – but it’s also a single table instead of the usual packs of three. Also, it’s more expensive than any of the standalone tables that can be bought. Maybe this was a licensing issue that caused Zen Studios to pay more, but they just feel this table’s worth it, but from a value standpoint, Pinball FX3 - Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure takes a bit of a hit compared to some of the prior packages released. To me, it’s worth it to get to relive this table, but your mileage my vary.

Summary

Pinball FX3 - Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a fantastic table that filled me with nostalgia as soon as I fired it up and heard the familiar music. The presentation is top-notch across the board, and it is a fast-paced, entertaining table. The value proposition might not be for everyone however, as it is a single table at a premium price.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - PC (Steam) Review

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen by developer and publisher Bungie—PC (Steam) review written by Susan N. with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes 

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Introduction

Destiny 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter that was originally released in 2017. At launch, it was on a high with 92 million units sold within the first week, generating a ton of revenue. Bungie release a couple of DLCs which were met with mixed reviews by fans. The DLC Curse of Osiris was arguably the worst expansion released while Forsaken revitalized the game for Bungie. Yet, with each expansion following the Forsaken (Shadowkeep and Beyond Light), the bar continually elevated. Many of us hoped that the Witch Queen expansion would change everything. 

The reason is that the Witch Queen had to deliver an unforgettable experience since Destiny 2 had a storied past. Fans left the game due to an undesired direction, sunsetting of weapons, difficult partnerships, and most importantly, the removal of content. Storywise, Destiny 2 was difficult to wrap one's head around. And I personally had no concept of the lore or the prominent characters within the universe, which left me feeling behind. Up until the Witch Queen, the story was littered throughout lore books, cutscenes, and activities. These things had to be earned in order to fully understand the universe. Once Beyond Light hit, new players floundered like fish out of water. There was simply too little content to hook players. Thus, the Witch Queen had giant shoes to fill.

Story (Regular and Legendary)

One of the first beneficial features of the Witch Queen expansion is the story itself. Players now have the ability to progress through the campaign on normal or legendary difficulty. Prior to this expansion, players experienced the story at one difficulty level which upset players who wanted a challenge. Players who chose the legendary campaign were experienced enough to handle the difficulty level or they were preparing for the raid race. Players did this because the legendary version would reward them with a full set of gear at 1520 light level allowing them to easily reach contest mode’s cap at 1530. Even though the story itself didn’t change, players faced more enemies (based on the fireteam size - also a new feature) and beefier opponents. Overall, having beat the campaign on legendary difficulty, I am a fan of this new direction. I’ll leave the story beats for players to experience themselves.

After playing a ton of Destiny 2 and participating in the day one raid race, I have a lot to talk about in terms of the greatest features and elements. For example, the Witch Queen had a brilliant setup from the previous season. In fact, the story built up over the course of a couple of years. Our great reveal occurred during the Season of the Splicer when we finally realized what was right under our noses. What I mean is, My Name is Byf released a video that not only shows how Savathun would become the big bad in the Witch Queen, but it showcases why many of us didn’t see her coming. In other words, Bungie’s brilliant storytelling has finally come to fruition.

The Throne World

One of my favorite features of the Witch Queen are the different puzzles in the Throne World. Many of the puzzles require a deepsight resonance that reveals new platforms or objects. Sometimes this causes the Witch Queen logo to appear in the area. Eventually, a portal to a new location will materialize. There are other puzzles that are found within specific missions. It gives players more context into Savathun’s thoughts. While these puzzles don’t take long to figure out, I hate that Destiny assumes we are stuck. The game would give us a hint without any sort of prompt. That said, Bungie fixed this issue after the community complained, so yay! (I like to figure things out on my own, just as an FYI.)

The Throne World brings a new public event and Guardians are introduced to light-wielding opponents - a new type of foe. These creatures are more intelligent than the average opponent. Plus, Lightbearers can use titan shields, throw solar blades, and dodge out of the way of your attacks.

The Throne World also has cleverly disguised lore. Players get to hunt for little collectible moths which will give players more lore entries and a triumph.

Another favorite aspect of the Throne World that I enjoy is its breathtaking landscape. Despite the fact that the Hive live here and is at war with the Scorn, the world doesn’t look like a normal Hive location. Personally, I found the beauty in the Florescent Canals. The area feels regal with its tall white buildings and archways attached by bridges that span over surprisingly clean rivers. In fact, the Hive aesthetic that we are accustomed to is only present in the depths of the Throne World. But there is plenty more to look at in the Throne World that players can explore.

Void 3.0 and Weapon Crafting

Ever since the Beyond Light DLC, players received a new subclass known as Stasis. Not only did Guardians wield darkness for the first time, but the subclass separated its abilities into aspects and fragments. As a result, players have a new level of character customization. Once the Witch Queen launched, players received an updated version of the void subclass that would break up its abilities into fragments and aspects as well. I quite like the new direction of the subclasses because the changes pair nicely with the weapon crafting in terms of player autonomy.

So let’s talk about weapon crafting then. While I never played Destiny 1 and therefore was not familiar with the fact that weapon crafting used to exist, I found this introduction adds to our ability to customize our Guardians. Not only are we able to add mods to our armor to create character builds, but now we can craft weapons instead of endlessly grinding for god rolls. To boost this concept, Destiny 2 introduced a new weapon called the Glaive which can be customized and leveled to a players’ liking. This weapon serves multiple functions in combat as it has a melee attack, ranged attack, and shielding ability all in one! To sweeten the deal, there are exotic weapons that are specific to your class allowing for its viability in gameplay. While I haven’t unlocked the full potential of weapon crafting, this is clearly a feature that I enjoy.

There is a bit of a drawback. Players found that resonant weapons that give you the materials used to craft and customize weapons take up too much space. This is partly due to the material caps that Bungie has continually been criticized for. Players who have a ton of god rolls or armor sets now have to make tough decisions about their gear. Also, weapons not in the crafting list can drop as resonant weapons. Thus, the gear/inventory economy is still a large point of contention in the community. Give us more space or boost the cap. We beg you. I refuse to dismantle some of my favorite weapons that aren’t in the game anymore. (Also Bungie, please let us see how many of these materials are on our character. Players don’t want to waste their time only to learn that they are short on materials!)

Gambit

I can’t talk about the Witch Queen expansion without talking about the changes to Gambit. Before readers bring out their pitchforks, know that I actually enjoy the mode. In fact, I’ve always liked it more than crucible because there is a PvE and PvP component in Gambit. Right before the Witch Queen launched, Bungie released an official ‘This Week at Bungie’, colloquially known as the ‘TWAB’, which detailed a number of changes. In short, Bungie focused on adding a freelance mode (similar to crucible), ammo economy, Primeval changes, invasions, and rewards. This included adding different respawn locations, shield resistances to non-matching damage types, augmented blocker health and abilities, heavy ammo for all players, and a health gated primeval.

For the most part, I feel that the changes to Gambit are fantastic. It now places the emphasis on the PvE components of the mode as opposed to the PvP elements. One cracked invader used to destroy entire teams with ease in the old version of Gambit. Since Witch Queen dropped, invaders now have to consider whether they want to get destroyed by an entire team loaded with heavy ammo or not. And as a person who is not fantastic at PvP, I appreciate having a chance at taking an invader out. I mean, I can still miss the shot!

That said, while I like most of the changes, there is a two-fold point of contention. First, even with the health gating of the Primeval, there were teams that managed to kill theirs as though health gating didn’t exist. This is frustrating because it seemed like the changes were on the right track. However, my main gripe with the rework of Gambit was regarding the matches where the opposing teams were down in players. After banking and draining motes, we were up 70 - 0. Players joined the match and not only did they catch up, but they managed to win. I’m all for fairness, but not only did they get to their Primeval, they were able to obliterate it. While I don’t know what kind of change needs to happen, I know that removing heavy ammo from the mode (like Twitter like to spout), would not be the solution. Unfortunately, the competitive community wanted Gambit to continue to be easy mode even though Destiny 2 isn’t a competitive esport. (It’s not. Stop pretending that it is and get over it. I said what I said.) In short, Gambit still needs work. Huge swaths of the community have abandoned the mode when it isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. I hope that in the future, players will learn to be more adaptable to changes especially when many of those are massive improvements to the game as a whole.

Vow of the Disciple (the Raid)

The new raid, Vow of the Disciple, released two weeks after the Witch Queen expansion. While the raid was much more accessible for players in terms of gear requirements, the raid itself was quite challenging. First, it was plagued with several error codes that kicked players out of the raid. Secondly, contest mode made the encounters harder because it required coordination and skill. Finally, if players didn’t get stuck on Caretaker, they were destroyed in the final fight. Overall, it was fun and it was brutal.

Anyways, Vow of the Disciple marks the second time I’ve participated in a Day One raid, and for the second time, I’ve not successfully cleared it. Even with the extension for the exclusive emblem, exhaustion took over. But, don’t just take my word for it, the numbers don’t lie. If it wasn’t for that extension, there would be a lot fewer clears. And due to the difficulty of the raid, players who wanted more challenging gameplay found this raid to be representative of a higher difficulty. Basically, Vow of the Disciple hammered home the idea that Destiny 2 is now on a whole new level. Knowing that I quite enjoy the new raid overall. It forced players to be more cooperative and skilled instead of being carried through end-game content. (Although, that is still possible.)

Final Thoughts

Overall, I have just as much high praise for the Witch Queen as everyone else. Not only did the pre-order sales smash the numbers out of the park, but Bungie delivered on an unforgettable experience with weapon customization, gameplay difficulty, a spectacular story, interesting challenges, subclass and Gambit changes, and plenty of spicy lore to feast upon. Also, the Witch Queen has had one of the smoothest launches to date which adds to the appeal - despite some of the curious issues that plagued the raid race. Overall, I feel as though new and former Destiny 2 players would enjoy the Witch Queen expansion and should jump back into the fray. We may very well need every Guardian we can get. Trust me. 

Summary and Rating

The Witch Queen is the best expansion I’ve experienced in Destiny 2. And even though I began my adventures in the revival of the franchise in Forsaken, I concur with the rest of the community in that this one tops everything Bungie has done by far. The story is spectacular, the customization capabilities elevate the enjoyment, and the difficulty of the content is in line with the community’s skill progression.

Fans of the first-person shooter genre should give the Witch Queen a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Score: 9 / 10

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Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - Switch Review

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax by developers Atlus, Arc System Works and publishers Atlus USA and SEGA—Nintendo Switch review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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Having originally been released back in 2014, Atlus and Arc System Works' Persona 4 Arena Ultimax has re-entered the ring. Featuring characters both new and old, new adventures and mysteries once again arise in the small town of Inaba over the course of Golden Week.

While Persona 4 is currently my favorite in the series, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax wasn't on my list as much as I love both Atlas and the work that Arc System Works does. While I enjoy a good 2D anime versus fighter, at the time that it was released it wasn't something that I was currently up for losing repeatedly which I see now was a giant mistake. Not only is the system actually friendly enough to come into, it's the sequel I never realized I could have already had. 

Taking it from the top, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is a direct sequel to Persona 4 / Persona 4 Golden taking place a few months after the end of the original events. Having formed an investigative team to solve murders involving a world that existed inside of televisions, the now named protagonist Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi (my favorite P4 character), Teddie, Rise Kujikawa and Naoto Shirogane are back for another round of Midnight Channel Madness with something called the P1 Grand Prix being hosted by none other than the adorable Teddie!?

Having originally thought that this would be nothing more than a brilliant 2D anime versus fighter by Arc System Works with a skinning of Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei Persona series, I had passed. It’s not “just” that instead hosting in its final version several different stories with different points of view from both the Persona 3 and Persona 4 casts as they get wrapped up in the latest of the world’s crazy events involving the realm of shadows and egos of the mind.

These stories are also not only very well presented, but you’ll be spending at least an hour to an hour and a half per character just to see a “To be continued…” notice throwing you into a cliffhanger as to what comes next. Having no other choice, you’ll have to pick another point of view and see how events play out from that perspective before it as well hits that dreaded cliffhanger. The approach works very well for the story being told as while it’s done away with large scaled dungeon crawling and JRPG grinding on time limits, it’s instead replaced with quick fighting matches before moving on to the next part of the story.

Having started the various Persona 4 related stories with the protagonist however I think may have been the biggest treat to the experience. Persona 3 (Org / FES / Portable), Persona 4 (Org / Golden) and the latest Persona 5 (Org / Royal) have all had silent protagonists who other than maybe saying “Persona” only “say something” through your dialog choices. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax however has given the Persona 4 protagonist a whole personality, voice acting and, also applying to every point of view, an internal monologue. It felt weird at first but it was so nice to see them have life other than one or two options on a menu.

The addition of internal monologues to every character only enriched the stories being told as you were really seeing events from their point of view externally and internally. While some characters may not have been at the top of my go to list in the original titles of both Persona 3 and Persona 4, this approach made me care a bit more for them. Seeing a character from the point of view of a protagonist on an 80 hour adventure is one thing, but seeing a character’s inner thoughts? That’s something else and oftentimes felt like they were pouring their hearts out both in the story and in the ring of battle.

The ring of battle is exactly what I would have expected from Arc System Works. Quick paced and tight controls in a 2D fighting style. What did surprise me a bit is how newcomer friendly it felt as unlike Guilty Gear and BlazBlue I wasn’t eliminated in seconds before I could figure out the controls! Instead, every character has two buttons dedicated to their own fighting styles before having another two dedicated to using their Personas in creative manners. Add in the ability to dash, grab, go into a burst mode and while there is plenty to learn in order to wrap all of these elements in together, going through the story is a good place to slowly learn each character’s fighting style before moving over into the pure fighting modes.

To the side of all of the longer, more intricate stories being told between both the Persona 3 and Persona 4 cast, there are the side modes of Arcade, ScoreAttack, GoldenArena and Versus before taking your skills to fight against others online. Arcade mode takes the story events and trims them down into super bite sized before and after banter while actually making you need to win the best of three rounds before moving on with a character of your choice. ScoreAttack is more of a traditional fighting versus mode where you face off against a series of opponents while trying to get high scores.

Finally, GoldenArena is a more RPG based arcade mode where you’ll be able to level your chosen character up as you fight through “dungeons”. These won’t be your traditional Persona based dungeons but more a series of fights where you can allocate stats and gain new abilities like you would in a more tradisional Persona based experience. Each of these modes are nice to have if you need a break from the story or really came for the Arc System Works’ combat under a different banner than their flagship series.

Summary

If you’re a fan of the Persona series and have played both Persona 3 and Persona 4, then I can’t recommend Persona 4 Arena Ultimax enough. This visual novel-like sequel to both Persona titles was well worth sitting down to see where each cast has gone to after their respective events years and months later. While there is combat in a 2D anime versus arcade fighting style between these story segments, it’s smooth enough to both learn and get into without being defeated repeatedly on the first stage.

Score: 8 / 10

Note: If you haven’t played Persona 3 (PS2), Persona 3 FES (PS2), Persona 3 Portable (PSP) or Persona 4 (PS2), Persona 4 Golden (PsVita / PC), you may be in for a tons of spoilers that could ruin these original adventures if you were planning on diving into them at some point. While not saying not to jump into Persona 4 Arena Ultimax however, I would highly recommend playing through both of these epic adventures and hope that Atlus brings Persona 3 FES or Portable to Steam like they have Persona 4 Golden.

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Rune Factory 5 - Switch Review

Rune Factory 5 by developer Hakama Inc. and publishers XSEED Games and Marvelous Inc.—Nintendo Switch review or preview written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes 

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The latest in the Rune Factory series is finally here and it was worth the wait. Combining elements that would seemingly contradict one another, a casual farming experience alongside an action adventure RPG, that couldn't be further from the truth. Well married together in terms of style, it's up to you to figure out if you stay single or get married while taking care of this small town's problems while raising crops across the seasons.

The previous entry of Rune Factory 4 was a lesson to people outside of video game development that even if you do everything right, a studio may still have to close its doors. Acquired by XSEED Games sometime later, there would be a bit of a happy continuation as the Rune Factory series would see new life with Rune Factory 4 Special on the Nintendo Switch (Pierre-Yves’ Switch review and Nick's XB1 review). This was great for both longtime fans and a new generation of gamers growing up with the Switch and the story of the series now continues with a brand new entry.

Continuing on our history lesson for just a little longer, for those coming into the series now, Rune Factory is a spin off of the once Harvest Moon now Story of Seasons which itself continues to move forward with remakes of Friends of Mineral Town (Jim's review) and brand new entries like Pioneers of Olive Town (Pierre-Yves' review). While still having farming elements, Rune Factory is also an action adventure RPG with exploration, monsters and boss fights on top of the day to day chores.

Moving onto the reason that you’re here, Rune Factory 5 is both fun and relaxing which is funny when you consider the hard labor of farming and the perils of adventuring into the wilds. Starting off with a classic trope of an amnesiac protagonist, you can select their binary gender which, while not affecting much overall in the story, will affect your marriage candidates if you choose to pursue that path. If not, there’s nothing wrong with staying single as there’s still plenty to do both at home and out in the wild!

Starting off with your at home activities, while not remembering who you are may put a dent in remembering what you were up to in life, the town of Rigbarth that you find yourself in was more than hospitable in giving you the second floor of the local SEED headquarters. SEED are an organization that can be considered protectors of the people that patrol borders, towns, keep people safe and take care of more dangerous missions especially when dealing with monsters. It also just so happens that with this room and board, SEED is also your new employer.

While giving you a place to stay, a job which serves to move the main story along and a quest board to help out the local townspeople with small things, you are also given a plot of land in the back of the headquarters which has definitely seen better days. Once it’s been cleaned up however, it’s a fair sized plot of land in order to plant vegetables to sell for profit as long as you keep up with your daily duties of watering your crops and harvesting them once they are ready.

Now perhaps my favorite feature, and I hope to see this more down the line, were the more accessible options while farming. Instead of the usual, plow one square, move to the next, plow that one, move to the next, etc., etc., etc., you can plow, sow seeds or water a field by simply hitting the action buttons and your character will automatically move to the next square available for that action. While using the same amount of stamina to do it, it speeds up the process allowing you to get to everything else so much faster. The same can be said for your crops that you can pick up in batches and while targeting your bin, shoot for a three pointer and not even have to walk all the way over there. It sounds a bit “lazy” when saying it out loud but it was amazing to have and the time it saves can be spent doing whatever else inside or outside of town.

I really enjoyed that the farming in Rune Factory 5 is integrated into the gameplay and more like what you could find within the Story of Seasons series. While not to that same level, as there are plenty of other elements like adventuring to do here, it felt part of the day to day activities and not simply some patch of land that I would often completely forget about because I was out questing. Here, I definitely cared for not only my plot of land behind headquarters, but of the various other farmlands that you can unlock over the course of the story off the backs of flying dragons. This is a fantasy setting afterall and why not have giant flying farm dragons?

Like your plot of land behind your headquarters, the land on the backs of the giant flying farm dragons also need to be cleaned and maintained if you’re going to see a proper yield of your crops. Cleaning out stumps and boulders while pulling out weeds and grass is a must otherwise it’ll get overrun in the matter of days. You really have to wonder where most of this stuff comes from at times! While this can sound like a lot to deal with, and it can be depending on your current in-game character skill levels of each task, you can get help from tamed monsters as long as you can truly befriend them after giving them a place to stay and food every day.

It may seem a bit odd to need to tame monsters in order to get farm hands, but it works and they do a good enough job once you’ve raised their friendship levels high enough to assign them chores. I mean who doesn’t want some help while needing to tend to multiple different fields? Otherwise, in order to get to that point, you’ll need to not only tame them while out adventuring, but you’ll also want to give them gifts, brush them and take them with you while out and about in order to strengthen your bonds.

This second half of the Rune Factory 5 experience is where I oftentimes found that the pacing was perfect. It would let me concentrate on my farming, on my fishing, or on my cooking. On the other hand though, for those tiny other times, I felt like the pacing could be a bit too slow as new main story events could take a while to come around and without them, you’ll be stuck to the area(s) that you’ve already unlocked as there’s no way to branch further without these stories.

These mini adventures help to kick things into gear and really get out of town and do what an adventurer does best. Adventure! Level up! Perfect existing skills! Acquire new skills! Survive boss fights! The list goes on and it’s a fun distraction from your day to day chores as the exploration and the combat is easy to adjust to. Exploring is rather simple with simply moving around a map and checking out what kinds of monsters are roaming about or what kinds of materials can be picked up.

When it comes to defending yourself while exploring however, you’ll have plenty of options from short shorts and long swords to axes, lances, staves or even your farming tools if you’re brave enough. The combat is never really complicated following some rather basic routines. To spice things up though there are new end pattern combos that can be learned by repeatedly using those weapons and multiple spells and special abilities to be cast. There’s nothing overly indepth to the system but it does change the pace up a bit while out and about after a few days of farming and checking out any events that could have popped up around town.

Otherwise, between the farming and the adventuring, you’ll have time that you’ll want to better your other skills. Cooking food, making potions or creating and strengthening gear. Some of these will need a license while others can be started on right away either through the use of some of the existing shops, or if you’ve made enough money, right from your very own second floor bedroom! This is really one of the reasons to get into farming early on as to do this from your own room you’ll need to buy “furniture” and it isn’t cheap. While not cheap however, working out of your second floor bedroom is pretty sweet and saves a lot of time especially when you can set up everything you need: fridges, stoves, knife blocks, alchemy sets and weapon avils.

What I didn’t quite like about this aspect is that you are very limited as to how you can place your furniture and in those limitations, it just doesn’t look right. Taking the space of about two floorboards is about as close as you can get from each piece as well as the back wall so a lot of these features just look like they are standing in the middle of the room instead of being neat and tidy like the first floor or anyone else’s house. Furthermore, there’s no locking grid and you have to fiddle around with how close you can get each piece to each other as you only have so much space before shelling out 10K per upstairs renovation.

Finally though, making a return for some fun and games is the ability to host festivals by the use of SEED points which are replacing Rune Factory 4’s Royalty Points. With these SEED points you can do a variety of things such as get licenses for cooking and mixing medicinal elements through a series of easy enough to answer questions. Otherwise, you can also throw festivals for fishing, be on the receiving end of some form of bullet hell berry throwing contest, these people are weird, and finally expand your inventory space of your main inventory, dresser and fridge spaces!

Getting these points is fairly easy as there are more than enough quests that will appear on the above mentioned quest board and finding other events will certainly help the process. Just make sure to save up and spend it on what you really want instead of creating a whoops-like scenario and host a festival instead of unlocking a license you need to finish a quest which would give you the points for the festival.

If I were to have perhaps one real complaint of my adventure with Rune Factory 5, it would be more mechanical in nature but one that I hope will be fixed in time. Rune Factory 5 runs rather well until you leave the inside of a building for outdoors. The first few seconds are stiff before everything smooths out and into place while in town. While not on the sale scale, there's also a bit of this when monsters load up once you leave town for a bit of exploration and combat. Is it enough to make it unplayable? Not at all, but until you get used to it and adjust as to when you can start moving around? It's a bit tedious for an otherwise wonderful experience.

Summary

Overall Rune Factory 5 was fantastic once you put the small issues like frame rates and furniture placement aside. Whether spending just a bit of time to clear a day out of your in-game calendar or sitting down and clearing out a day of your real world calendar, there’s just something magical about the farming simulation of both these and the Story of Seasons series. Want to do something more than farming? Rune Factory has you covered with plenty to explore and challenge yourself while out in the field against the local monsters and eventual boss fights!

Score: 7.75 / 10

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