If you subscribe to the digital edition of Game Informer, you can now learn all about our trip to Supergiant for Hades II! Following the cover reveal our digital issue is now live on web browsers, iPad/iPhone, and Android devices.
Alongside our 12-page Hades II cover story, you will also find big features on our trip to Wizards of the Coast to learn all about what is next for Dungeons & Dragons, how Digital Eclipse is conserving video game history with its documentary video games, details from our trip to South Korea to play The First Descendant, a feature about tracking down and playing a thought-lost Star Wars arcade cabinet, a piece on the history and current state of Final Fantasy XI, and lots more! We've also got previews for The Rogue Prince of Persia, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Monaci 2, Still Wakes the Deep, Tales of the Shire, and reviews for Stellar Blade, Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes, Sand Land, TopSpin 2K5, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Animal Well, and much more!
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Hades II, the much-anticipated sequel to Supergian's excellent roguelike, is entering Early Access today and is on the cover of Game InformerMagazine with incredible original art by acclaimed artist Jen Zee. Join Alex Van Aken – who visited Supergiant for the cover story and has played Hades II extensively – and myself for a look at the game's second area and boss fight. Spoilers ahead if you want to experience the locations and enemies for yourself, but otherwise, enjoy this New Gameplay Today episode!
This second area in Hades II is called Oceanus, an underwater realm Melinoë uses to bypass the armies of Chronos, the game's antagonist and Titan of Time. Oceanus is generally more difficult to navigate than Erebus, the first area, due to explosive hazards, more powerful ranged enemies, and darting schools of swordfish. The level culminates in a musical boss fight against a rock band of sirens led by Scylla, a well-known sea monster from Greek myth. Scylla sings while her keyboardist and drummer back her up. Despite sharing one health bar, the individual monsters can be stunned and knocked out of the fight, muting the appropriate instruments in the active music track.
See Oceanus And The Scylla Boss Fight In Action:
Head to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
The latest teaser for new Palworld content, shared during IGN's ID@Xbox presentation, shows four new Pals and a new location. There is a frog Pal, a mushroom Pal, a bipedal dog-like Pal, and a peacock Pal. The new location is also heavily inspired by Japan and is covered with cherry blossoms.
We've been making our way through The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask the past few weeks for our weekly Replay stream, but this week Marcus Stewart is busy on assignment, so Brian Shea joined me for a look at a different Zelda sequel. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass released in 2007 for DS and is controlled entirely by touchscreen. Back in 2017 while speaking with longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma for our Breath of the Wild cover story, he cited Phantom Hourglass as his personal favorite Zelda game saying that his wife is a fan of that entry, and it was the first time he was in the role of producer. "I have a lot of sentiment for it,"Aonuma said.
Check out the video below for an hour Phantom Hourglass gameplay below.
If you enjoy our livestreams but haven’t subscribed to our Twitch channel, know that doing so not only gives you notifications and access to special emotes. You’ll also be granted entry to the official Game Informer Discord channel, where our welcoming community members, moderators, and staff gather to talk games, entertainment, food, and organize hangouts! Be sure to also follow our second YouTube channel, Game Informer Shows, to watch other Replay episodes as well as Twitch archives of GI Live and more.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is the first brand new Monkey Ball game in years. Brian Shea recently got hands-on with the game, and you can watch his experience, and hear him talk about it, right here. You will see a few adventure mode levels, but we also show off a handful of the new multiplayer modes. You can also read Brian's written Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble impressions by following the link.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble released exclusively for Switch on June 25.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
This week on The Game Informer Show podcast, it's all about reviews. We had three big reviews drop this week (on the same day [around the same time]), as well as a TV show review. Join host Kyle Hilliard as Matt Miller discusses Stellar Blade, Wesley LeBlanc chats about Another Crab's Treasure, and Brian Shea tells us what he thinks of the Knuckles TV show. Kyle also talks about his time with Sand Land and Brian shares preview impressions of the first original Monkey Ball game in years as well as the new TopSpin tennis game.
The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Matt Storm, the freelance audio editor for The Game Informer Show, edited this episode. Matt is an experienced podcast host and producer who's been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt's shows like the "Fun" And Games Podcast and Reignite, a BioWare-focused podcast.
The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:57 - Stellar Blade Review
00:25:13 - Sand Land Review
00:38:59 - Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Preview
00:49:23 - Another Crab's Treasure Review
01:01:23 - Knuckles TV Series Review
01:21:43 - TopSpin 2K25
01:27:00 - Housekeeping
Stellar Blade is out this week and our review, which you can read right here, is positive. We liked the game and were impressed by the depth of its action and world-building. Ahead of its release, but after spending some time with the game, we had a chance to reconnect with Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim after speaking with him earlier this year. This time we spoke to him (through a translator) about inspirations for the game beyond Nier Automata (like the Bible and The Matrix), the approach to costumes and how they fit in the lore, and why having no minimaps in the game was a purposeful decision.
Game Informer: There are multiple endings?
Hyung-Tae Kim: There are multiple endings and actually, if you complete certain quests, there is a post-credits clip, as well.
Is there an ending you prefer?
This all depends on what choices and decisions the player makes throughout the game. There is no particular ending that I prefer. But then there is this hidden stage so I hope that players discover this and play that. If you want, I guess, a little happier ending then you will have to discover that post-credits clip.
There's no gameplay reward for unlocking costumes, but they are an important incentive for the player. Why are the costumes so important?
I do definitely believe that it is very charming for an iconic character to have this one iconic costume. But my strength is in character concept design. There was so much that I wanted to show to the world and to be able to convey that to the players. I decided that it would be a good idea to include different costumes, that was a good way to show what I wanted to show. And I also wanted the players to be able to go on a journey with the character in a style that they prefer. That's why.
What is the process of choosing and creating a costume?
It's not one method that is decided when creating the costumes. For example, the body suit – I designed it myself and then the 3D modeler; when they are done with the modeling of the costume, I will come back to it and then add more details and texture and typography and finish it for the game. Or for other costumes, we buy the actual clothes in real life, and then scan them, take the scan data, modify it so it looks more futuristic, and then complete it that way. So, it's very different. This way, you get to meet very diverse costumes in the game.
And on top of that, sometimes, when you play the game, you will see some costumes that look like swimming suits. And for those costumes, it's very important to depict the skin texture like how it changes because of pressure and how it's pushed up, or how it folds, how it bends like the body and the flesh and the skin. That's very important when we're trying to detail. So, for this, we actually cast a real-life model and then had the model wear the costumes and scan the model to use the data.
Is there a lore reason why Eve wears so many costumes? Is she interested in fashion?
There was some kind of lore behind Eve showing a lot of interest in the costumes that were left behind on the surface of Earth. We did have that concept, and it was part of her character, but then we later decided that this doesn't really have to be shown in the game. We don't have to really make it known in the game, so that got taken out, but that lore still exists.
Did you ever consider tying costumes to character upgrades?
When making games in the past, I took it very seriously that I didn't connect the stats of the character and the costumes. It was important to me not to make it like that because if that happens, then only certain costumes will be picked by the users because they have better stats than the other outfits. I didn't want that to happen. I just wanted everyone to enjoy all kinds of different costumes that are provided in the game, regardless of the stats.
But of course, if you don't wear anything at all, then it would be dangerous on the surface of a desolate Earth. So we did put a little bit of a disadvantage there if you're not wearing anything.
Does the team see Eve as a Bayonetta-type figure who embraces her sexuality and uses it as a weapon?
I don't think Eve is aware of those charms that she possesses, so she's not that kind of character. So, she won't be able to combine that central attractiveness that the Bayonetta character has and to be able to combine that with their battles. But then it's not fully decided how Eve will evolve in the future, and what kind of realization she'll be met with in the future, so I guess it would depend on the users and what they like and what kind of interest they show towards the game. Maybe Eve will go through some kind of… being more socialized and adjusted, and maybe she will get to have new realizations and become someone different.
Cans are an important collectible. Why cans?
That may be a personal taste. I personally like different can designs. And also, I thought it'd be more realistic to use cans where the Earth is ruined. As one of the preserved goods, cans would make more sense than other elements.
Are they based on real Korean brands?
We tried to, but no can brands would partner with us to have a collaboration, so we had to create them all originally in-house. We also consulted someone who is an expert in designing can packaging. We hired that person to come up with designs that would make them look real. In the future, hopefully we'll be able to have a collaboration with a real-life brand. Especially Pepsi, which we are very interested in.
Was a minimap ever considered? I would really like one in Xion.
If you slide up on the touchpad, you have access to the map in Xion.
Oh, but I want a little map that’s always available on the bottom corner of the screen.
I wanted to show as little UI design on the screen as possible. That's why I didn't include the minimap on the screen. But then yes, it is pretty necessary in an open-world area. When it's a linear area, of course, there are other hidden paths, but if you use the map, then maybe it'll become too easy in this linear part of the game. That's why I wanted to avoid having the map there for the players to constantly use. But then yes, of course, in Xion, you will want to consult the map more because as things constantly change, you'll be given new quests constantly, so the map does become handy. I do actually recommend using the map there.
In the movie The Matrix, there is the haven city of Zion. In Stellar Blade there is the haven city of Xion. In Stellar Blade there is a location called Matrix 11. The Matrix was co-directed by Lilly Wachowski. In Stellar Blade there is a character named Lily. Are these all coincidences, or is The Matrix a big inspiration for Stellar Blade?
The Matrix is, of course, one of the movies that I love, but then rather than any direct inspiration or references that we got from the movie, you should see the Bible as more of a source of those inspirations. But then that doesn't mean this whole story was based on the Bible, heavily. It is more like they share similar lores.
That makes sense because The Matrix looks to the Christian Bible, as well. And of course, Adam and Eve are both characters in in Stellar Blade. Is the Bible a primary source of inspiration?
In terms of materials that we got for the plot, yes, the Bible, and yes it does have to do with the themes of the plot as well, but then ultimately, at the end of the day, this is an action-adventure game so when the players play this game, they can just take this lightly and just enjoy the game.
When people think, “Oh, this was based on the Bible,” then they tend to take it more seriously and expect maybe a heavier, more serious story there. And of course, we're very thankful for that interpretation, but what we wanted to focus on was more the gameplay itself.
Why is there a setting to change the length of Eve’s ponytail?
I actually personally like the long ponytail that Eve has because it adds more to the movement and the action and I see that as an important element, but then I also realized that this wouldn't be for everyone. Some people might find it annoying, or maybe it obstructs a certain outfit or the screen when moving around, and I thought that could be interrupting or disturbing to some people, so I also wanted to include the shorter ponytail. But then after that, there have been demands about middle-length ponytails or the option to be able to control the length of the ponytail and so on.
Stellar Blade is out this year. There's another big game from a South Korean developer, The First Descendent coming out later this year. Does Shift Up feel it is a big year for Korean representation in video games?
We do have a hope that, starting with Stellar Blade this year, it will be an outbreak year for South Korean developers. In the past, up until recently, actually, Korean games have been rather isolated from the world because the gaming market in Korea is mostly mobile-centric. For console games, it was hard for them to gain any attention and there wasn't that much of a point where other global users were getting to access these games. There haven't been that many overlapping elements there.
But then, starting with Stellar Blade, hopefully, many global users will get to discover more Korean games and actually realize, “Oh, these are actually really good games!” And I'm starting with that; hopefully, other Korean developers will be more well-known. This year will be that year. And in that way, we even have a certain sense of duty there.
Are you hoping to make a Stellar Blade sequel next, or does Shift Up want to do something different next?
Right now, we’re focusing more on Stellar Blade – the game itself. We're focusing more on what the users will like, what they'll want to see more of, and what kind of additional content we'll be coming up. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the game that's coming out soon.
Reviewed on:
Xbox Series X/S
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PC
Publisher:
Bandai Namco
Developer:
Ilca
Release: Rating:
Teen
Sand Land is experiencing an oddly timed resurgence. Its creator, Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), recently passed away unexpectedly, effectively pointing a spotlight on his 24-year-old creation just as it was being adapted to film, anime, and video game. The video game has been my entry point into this world with characters, vehicles, and architecture that all resemble Dragon Ball beyond even just an art style, and I enjoyed the opportunity to live in a brand new Toriyama world and story. Other elements of the game, like its animation and performances, vacillate between high and low quality, but ultimately, Sand Land is the kind of experience I want from adaptation – the opportunity to spend time in a big, realized world with a story that pulls you all the way through.
The Sand Land video game functions as both a retelling and a sequel to the 2000 manga. For franchise newcomers like myself, this is a fantastic entry point, but there is a jarring line in the narrative between old and wholly new. Moving beyond the borders of the Sand Land region, on a basic level, doesn’t make sense considering the world built up to that point. But, overall, I like the plot and was locked in to see where it was going early on, even if the characters lack depth. Outside of the overt bad guys, no one learns much in Sand Land, and its characters are basically fully defined from their first line of dialogue. Rao, however, stands out as a smart and committed do-gooder who is quickly accepting of everyone despite their differences – a rare character trait for someone whose accurate, uncreative nickname is “old man.”
As Beelzebub, son of the demon king Lucifer, you decide to assist a human in bringing water back to a dehydrated world. This entails exploring large, open worlds with a collection of vehicles that you can call at any time. Swapping between a tank for skirmishes and a motorcycle to speed across the dunes is a quick process, but you do it so often that I admit getting frustrated with the slightly cumbersome swapping system. I also didn’t love that swapping between vehicles basically requires a full stop. It may sound like nitpicking, but every encounter in the game requires frequent vehicle swapping.
Fighting enemies using your collection of vehicles is a highlight and, understandably, the focus of the game. Despite the focus on vehicle combat, the action feels closer to a third-person shooter and does a good job passing control styles between disparate vehicles. I favored the tank with its powerful guns and strong armor, but the jumping tank used to leap up mountains and the mech used to punch other robots are fun in their own way. Upgrading and customizing them is a slow process, and I rarely felt I was making big, impactful improvements by leveling up or swapping out vehicle parts, but I was always eager to check the garage and see what I could do to inch up my stats.
The process of upgrading the town of Spino is similarly rewarding as completing sidequests (many featuring genuinely interesting little stories and characters) brings new people to the growing town. Saving a painter in the middle of the desert, for example, opens up a shop where you can paint and decal your vehicles. You can even decorate the town with furniture, but I admit little interest in that aspect since all of my resources went into improving my vehicles.
Sometimes, Beelzebub progresses without a vehicle, and these sections are generally annoying without ever being too difficult, thankfully. Beelzebub is a powerful demon with a literal garage of armored weapons in his back pocket but insists on occasionally sneaking around for interminable stealth sections. These parts of the game feel like they're from a different era of video games that we have left behind. The hand-to-hand combat scenarios aren’t as bad, but I was always eager to be back in a tank.
Sand Land has its shortcomings and feels a little overlong despite seeing credits around the reasonable 20-hour mark, but it maintains a charm throughout. Toriyama’s fun sense of humor is front and center with Beelzebub taking on the adventure primarily so his dad will give him an extra hour of video game time every day. I may not have had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I liked spending time in Sand Land (and beyond) and seeing my garage upgrade and grow.
The rogue-lite and roguelike genres have been growing in popularity over the years They’re challenging games where players attempt runs with different abilities and random elements that generally force the player to restart from zero or near-zero for each attempt. They are born from the 1980 game Rogue which established many of the mechanics now considered staples of the genre.
But the difference between rogue-lite and -like has always been confusing, so we asked an expert from Evil Empire, the co-developer of Dead Cells, to explain it to us. Lucie Dewagnier is the game director of the upcoming The Rogue: Prince of Persia (a rogue-lite) and defines the subgenres like this.
Dead Cells (2018)
“Roguelike is – like the game Rogue – a game where you play, you die, you hit replay, but nothing is kept between your attempts. You will always replay the game from a blank slate.
Rogue-lite may add some things like permanent upgrades and enhancements that make your future runs – your future tries – easier and has progression systems that do not exist in roguelikes.”
Returnal (2021)
My hope, and I presented this plan to Dewagnier, is we drop the -lite and -like suffixes from the genre name and just refer to all games as existing within the Rogue genre. Dead Cells, Hades, Undermine, Returnal, etc. are no longer variations of rogue-lites and roguelikes – they’re all Rogue games.
“Yeah, even now there are games like Spelunky that are part of Rogulikes, but they have progression systems with new content you can get, so maybe it’s rogue-lite? Maybe it’s Roguelike? They’re Rogues.”
To read more about Evil Empire and Dewagnier’s next game, The Rogue: Prince of Persia (which is a rogue-lite, “With a ‘T’,” Dewagnier says), head here.
Platform:
PC
Publisher:
Ubisoft
Developer:
Evil Empire
When I had the chance to go hands-on with The Rogue: Prince of Persia, I had only watched the credits roll on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown a few nights ago. Before that, the last time I watched credits roll on a new Prince of Persia game was in 2010 with The Forgotten Sands. I was surprised and happy to play a new excellent Prince of Persia game this year, but considering how long I had to wait for that one, I was not holding my breath for another – not even the Sands of Time remake I have been patiently waiting for.
Which is to say it was incredibly surprising when Ubisoft reached out about its new Prince of Persia rogue-lite. It’s not a mode in Lost Crown or a spinoff, as I initially assumed, but rather a whole new game from Evil Empire, the co-developer of Dead Cells. “It's actually a totally new story and new universe, so it's not connected to the previous games,” Evil Empire art director Dylan Eurlings tells me when I ask about the game’s canon and relationship to the Princes that came before it.
But that isn’t to say The Rogue does not have at least some kind of relationship with Lost Crown. “We sold [The Rogue] during [Lost Crown’s] alpha stage,” Evil Empire game director Lucie Dewagnier says. “Since the beginning, we were in communication. They played our game, we played theirs.” Dewagnier follows up with compliments about Lost Crown. “Since we were working on the same franchise, we sometimes had the same ideas, and the same solutions to issues,” Dewagnier says. “We needed to communicate to avoid making the same decision and making the same game.”
When asked if we are getting too much Prince of Persia, Dewagnier laughs and says, “No, I think there is no such thing as too much Prince of Persia.”
While it may not be canonically connected to past Prince of Persias, I asked if we can expect unlockable costumes and comparable items referencing previous games. “It’s not in the game right now. I cannot say we won’t do it, but I cannot say we will,” Dewagnier says with a chuckle. At this point, the team seems focused on just getting the early access version into the hands of players on May 15.
Playing The Rogue
The Rogue: Prince of Persia follows a Prince who has had time travel powers his whole life. He has always had a special item that returns him to the last place he was truly safe before he died, and it has filled him with hubris and a complete disregard for personal safety. Turns out when you can leap from any height and fight anyone without worrying about your mortality, it makes you a pretty formidable acrobat and combatant. Unfortunately, his rash personality with little skill for strategic foresight has attracted an invading Hun army and its magic-wielding king Nogai, which is where this Prince (simply called The Prince once again) begins the game.
I grasped The Rogue’s basic controls quickly, thanks to my history with Dead Cells. In a complementary way, the games feel similar. Pouncing on enemies from above and swinging swords all feel familiar, but The Prince is more acrobatic than The Prisoner (a similarly unnamed protagonist that shares the first three letters of their name). Swinging on bars and clambering up platforms feels like Dead Cells, but it’s running along the walls that feel new for the genre.
The Prince has been running along walls since 2003, but it feels different here. If there is a wall in the background, you can run up and across it to avoid obstacles and get to out-of-reach platforms. Functionally, it feels like a stand-in for a double jump, but it gives the Prince’s movement an individual identity. It’s the kind of mechanic I fear I will miss when playing follow-up 2D platformers in the future.
Evil Empire did experiment with another mechanical staple of Sands of Time – rewinding time to undo short-term mistakes – but made the difficult choice to cut it. “It broke everything – the rhythm, the combat – so we decided to get rid of it,” Dewagnier says. “And I was very sad because it was, for me, the most complex thing I did technically, as a programmer.” It didn’t serve the game, so it had to go. “Sometimes something works. Sometimes something doesn't work. And you don't want to land in the sunk cost fallacy and keep something just because.”
Combat overall is manageable. On an Xbox controller, I used the B button to dodge enemies, the Y button to kick them away, and the X button for a familiar standard attack. The Prince also has a ranged weapon with limited use. I didn’t lean on that mechanic too much, but I did find a boomerang-like item that was more satisfying to use than the starter bow and arrow.
Alongside enemy combat, I also found a few rooms that were purely platforming challenges, and those are highlights. Narrowly dodging spinning blades and spiked pits using the Prince’s wall-running ability felt great, and I am certain I will eagerly pursue these challenge rooms whenever they appear.
Perhaps expectedly, the final boss destroyed me. I only got a few hits in before it killed me and sent me back to what appeared to be the night before, where I was hanging out near a campfire with one of the villagers. I had been having a smooth time up until that point, but the boss was a stark reminder of the challenge I was familiar with from Dead Cells. Prince of Persia may be known and potentially appeal to a larger audience than Dead Cells, but Evil Empire is not pulling back on difficulty. “We don’t try to make the game easier. We try to make it accessible,” Dewagnier says. Challenge is necessary to encourage that feeling of consistent growth. When asked if permanent upgrades will be available, Dewagnier says, “It's something we are still working on. Something we want to work on with the community.”
On a subsequent run, I ran into another friendly townsperson who shared information with the Prince about a new location where the Huns were gathering. I was not able to dive too deeply into it, but finding people out in the world like this rewards new path options to attempt on follow-up runs.
I was eager to attempt another run at the end of my demo session before my online access to the build was callously revoked by the people in charge. I agreed to the timing of my access, but I was still sad to see it go, which bodes well for its upcoming initial release. I want to play more, which I was a little surprised by considering how recently I finished Lost Crown. I wasn’t sure I would be ready to jump into another 2D Prince of Persia game, but The Rogue has its own identity, genre, and style. We can all start attempting our own runs when the game enters Steam Early Access on May 15, which understandably (but somewhat disappointingly) will not represent the game’s full narrative. “You will see the first act of the story. We have planned for three acts,” Dewagnier says.
We went nearly 15 years without a wholly new Prince of Persia game after the release of The Forgotten Sands in 2010, but now, in 2024, we will play two brand new Prince of Persia games within six months of one another. The excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown released in January, and today we learn about The Rogue: Prince of Persia, which will be entering early access in May.
The game comes from developer Evil Empire, the co-developer of Dead Cells, and the lineage shows. The game is a 2D platformer roguelike that has a lot in common with Dead Cells, but after spending some hands-on time with the game, it also has its own identity. Join Marcus Stewart and me as I share details about my hands-on experience with the next Prince of Persia.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
I am not a Fallout fan. I’ve always admired the games and dabbled with them for a few hours here and there, but it was never a series that inspired excitement in me. I am, however, a fan of the Fallout series executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. The two worked together on Westworld and though my fandom faded over time, I will always hold up the first season as some of my favorite television ever. I went into Amazon’s Fallout adaptation with unsure expectations. Video game movies and TV shows have improved in recent years, but I will always be hesitant. And time has frequently proven that one successful project from a creator (or a pair in this case) does not automatically equal success in another. Thankfully, however, the Fallout show is scary, violent, funny, weird, intriguing, reverential, and somehow also optimistic – a feeling I have not received from apocalyptic fiction in some time.
Following a few disparate characters and taking place along a few different timelines (in typical Nolan fashion), Fallout primarily follows Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), who exits her comfortable underground vault to enter a horrifying wasteland. Through her eyes, we learn how this world works and how absolutely terrible it can be, and I enjoyed watching her optimism crest and valley throughout the show.
Every other primary character is exciting to follow in different ways. Maximus (Aaron Moten) is a motivated apprentice in the Brotherhood of Steel, and learning how the powerful cult functions through his perspective is educational and often surprisingly funny. Lucy’s intimate knowledge of a nearly safe, functional underground world and Maximus’ education on how to survive in a hellscape lead to surprising overlap and unexpected comedy.
Beyond its overall tone – a world filled with violent delights in a science-fiction setting – Cooper Howard, played by Walton Goggins (Justified), is perhaps the most direct line to Westworld. He is reminiscent of the Man in Black in Nolan and Joy’s sci-fi western, a violent cowboy with intimate knowledge of the world that he puts to frequent, terrifying use. Goggins is the kind of actor who effortlessly stands out in any cast, and even behind Ghoul prosthetics, Fallout is no exception. Goggins has one of my favorite lines in the show, citing the danger of getting distracted by bulls*** when trying to complete a primary mission. It is effective as a standalone joke and a reference to the inspirational video game.
An unexpected highlight for me is Thaddeus, played by Johnny Pemberton (Superstore). Arguably the fourth lead, Pemberton is representative of my favorite thing about the Fallout show: the comedy. Pemberton is one of many comedic actors and outright comedians who appear in the show, but they are not overt punchline machines winking to the audience about the absurdity of the world. Instead, they play straight-ahead characters doing their best to survive who occasionally have lines that catch me off guard and make me laugh out loud. One of my favorite scenes in the show is later in the season when Pemberton’s Thaddeus is chatting about fiddle music with an actor whose appearance I won’t spoil. It’s a small, quiet moment that is hilarious, tense, and dangerous all at once. It’s the kind of moment and tone that lends Fallout a surprising amount of needed levity in a world filled with look-away-from-the-TV violence at nearly every new location.
And then, on top of all that good science fiction comedy and the time-jumping stories coalescing in an exciting finale, is the Fallout of it all. The Fallout wiki mods will make the call after the show has completed, but from my perspective, it feels like it could all be canon. Not a separate universe or a retelling of a known Fallout story, but rather a series of events that could conceivably take place before or after any of the games, which is what I want from a good adaptation. I like Fallout as an extension of the games rather than a retelling or something separate that happens to look familiar. The rewards for Fallout players are frequent (as my Fallout fan wife excitedly pointed out often), but for those like me with a passing interest in the franchise, what exists here is an excellent, original story in that established universe. Plus, some good jokes.
Additional thoughts:
Does the Dogmeat die? No. But she does get injured. A newborn puppy is also killed in the beginning of episode 2.
The jokes about the dangers of corporate structure hit especially hard in 2024
The violence is extreme, but is often so over the top, that you can’t take it seriously
The Brotherhood of Steel Power Armor actually looks cool!
It is fun to see Michael Emerson (Lost) play a character with opaque motivations again
Between Fallout and Oppenheimer, it is weird that brothers Jonathan and Christopher Nolan have taken different roads to discuss socialism and the dangers of nuclear disaster
I hope a potential season two focuses more on Thaddeus, my favorite character
If you subscribe to the digital edition of Game Informer, you can now learn all about our trip to Malmö, Sweden for Star Wars Outlaws! Following the cover reveal our digital issue is now live on web browsers, iPad/iPhone, and Android devices.
Alongside our 12-page Star Wars Outlaws cover story, you will also find big features on the influence of A.I. in video games and the ethics developers are grappling with, the future of Street Fighter 6, a retrospective on Sea of Thieves with Rare, exclusive details on Sand Land, a profile on Finji, the studio behind games like Chicory, and lots more! We've also got previews for Dune Awakening, TopSpin 2K25, Kingmakers, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Robots at Midnight, Unknown 9: Awakening, and reviews for Dragon’s Dogma 2, Unicorn Overlord, Rise of the Rōnin, Princess Peach: Showtime, Balatro, WWE 2K24, and much more!
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Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, the popular free-to-play Star Wars collectible turn-based strategy RPG mobile game, is coming to PC with cross-save functionality and improved performance. Speaking with the developer over e-mail, the team says, "We have been able to double the frame rate to 60 fps, added anti-aliasing, and implemented higher resolution settings so that players can take advantage of the power of a high-end PC." The game's layout has also been adjusted for the PC version.
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes originally launched for mobile devices back in 2015, and has amassed a following over the years. In that time, players have figured out ways to emulate the game on PC, but this will be an official release. Along with improved visuals, the game will also support mouse and keyboard as well as keybinds (unfortunately "there is no controller support at this time"). Longtime players will also be able to bring all their progress over by linking their mobile account to their EA account when playing on PC for the first time, and all future updates will release on both mobile and PC platforms simultaneously. The teams says, "The PC and mobile version will always be in lockstep and release updates at the same time."
Beta access for the PC version will be available for current mobile players in May before expanding to a larger audience. From the developer: "For those interested, they can head to the Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes website, sign up for the EA App, link their account, and they are now ready to register. There’s a dedicated registration page that can be found on the website the day registration begins! For those selected, you will be receiving an invite via email for access to the Closed Beta." You can learn more here.
MechWarrior is a video game series that has been going strong since 1989, and was even a tabletop wargame before that. Clans, however, is the first time in a long time the video games have leaned into the universe's fiction in a big way. The single-player (or cooperative) campaign features a full narrative complete with cutscenes and characters, which is quite different from the recent entries which have primarily been focused on competitive online action.
Join Charles Harte and me as we take a look at gameplay for Clans, which is coming this year to consoles and PC.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
Harold Halibut has been in development for more than a decade. It has a fascinating and unique style set in a well-realized future where a portion of humanity has relocated to an underwater planet. It's a bit like Interstellar, but if things had gone how they were supposed to. Ahead of the game's release on April 16 (on Game Pass as well as other platforms), Charles Harte and I decided to take a look at an early portion of the game, discuss the developers' intentions for the narrative and gameplay, and detail how the game was made.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
Ahead of Stellar Blade's launch on PlayStation 5 on April 26, a demo for the game will be made available that lets players play through approximately the game's opening hour. And ahead of the demo's release on Friday, March 29, we got to go hands-on with it early. Join Marcus Stewart and me for a look at the game's combat, boss fights, traversal, visuals, and more.
And for a whole lot more on Stellar Blade, you can read this feature where I spoke with Stellar Blade’s game director, Hyung-Tae Kim, and its technical director, Dong-Gi Lee, about the game's development, how the team was inspired by Nier: Automata, and why it wanted to make a game with an ending.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Todayright here.
Stellar Blade’s development was announced in 2019 by Korean developer Shift Up Second EVE Studio for current-gen consoles, boasting talent from the popular MMO Blade & Soul. It wasn’t until 2021, however, that we got our first proper look at Stellar Blade during a PlayStation showcase, where it was shown with its former title, Project Eve.
For those not paying close attention to Korean video game news, it felt like it came out of nowhere. In the trailer, a beautiful woman is seen fighting a hybrid monster robot. She uses a sword to break off one of the cyborg creature’s arms to use as a weapon before being thrown through a wall, revealing the fight was happening on a space station all along. As she careens through space further and further away from the station, it is revealed that a much larger, much creepier creature with too many eyes has grafted itself onto the facility from the outside. It’s an attention-grabbing first look, and the trailer only gets more interesting from there as the woman (whose name is Eve) is seen pulling off more acrobatic combat moves on an Earth that has experienced some kind of apocalypse.
Considering Eve, her combat style, settings in both space and on a ravaged Earth, and a robot floating behind Eve offering help and advice, many were quick to compare the game to Nier: Automata. Speaking with Stellar Blade’s game director, Hyung-Tae Kim, and its technical director Dong-Gi Lee, through a translator, that is not entirely by accident, even if the final game will likely showcase plenty of differences between the two.
“You’re probably aware of this, but Yoko Taro’s Nier: Automata was the biggest inspiration for Stellar Blade,” Kim says. “That was even the starting point or motivation to make this game, so I’m very grateful for that.” Both Kim and Lee are quick to detail other points of inspiration. The two specifically call out anime and manga like Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita but add, “While Nier: Automata did give motive to the progression of the story, the combat itself is different. Of course, they share a common factor of being an action game, but we tried to make the combat flashier yet tense.”
A Game With An Ending
After playing Nier: Automata, but before Kim, Lee, and the Shift Up team were diving into the minutiae of making Stellar Blade, development began in 2018 with a much simpler desire: to make a video game with an ending. During that time, development in Korea was focused predominantly on the mobile market, with few focused on console development, which led to some barriers. “It was pretty tough to get all the developers of console games into one team [...] mobile games – they have their own, I guess, pros, because you get to enjoy the world that you love whenever you want, it continues on, and it’s maintained constantly, but then there is a market where only that kind of game exists,” Kim says. “That balance needed to be broken.”
Combat For Everyone
Stellar Blade’s combat is flashy in all gameplay footage to date, with Eve pulling off pre-determined moves and throwing the titular Stellar Blade into the air while her long hair twirls around the action, but those impressive animations don’t explain what players are doing moment-to-moment. Eve can learn various combos, but it’s not the kind of action game where you are memorizing a series of useful inputs and trying to execute the right ones at the right moments. Every encounter begins with the decision of going in offensively or defensively. Enemies will not wait for Eve to make a move, and she can defend, parry, or use evasive maneuvers. Countering enemies will put them in a groggy state, which opens the window to use combos or “Beta Skills,” as Kim and Lee refer to them. “There is also what’s called the Balance Gauge, and if you succeed in consecutive parrying, you can deal a huge blow to the enemies,” Kim says. “Other combat options include assassination, ranged attacks, and more, depending on the situation.”
Boss battles carry a similar strategy. Kim refers to them as “the most important content in Stellar Blade” and adds that there will be a level of pattern recognition required to defeat them. Kim says combat is being designed in such a way that it will require proactive effort from the player, but it is not trying to make an overly challenging game like so many that are inspired by From Software titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Difficult modes will exist for players who want them, but so will story modes. “Another mode exists for someone who wants to focus more on the narrative part of the game,” Kim says, “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we got rid of the fun of the battle itself.”
Heaven And (Destroyed) Earth
In the world of Stellar Blade, Eve is an airborne squad member from space, but she is human. She has a secret that distinguishes her from her coworkers (that Kim and Lee were not ready to share), but otherwise, she is at the same level as the other members of her squad. “Humanity has been defeated by these enemies called Naytibas that appeared out of nowhere one day on Earth, and so humanity, they took this space elevator, and they escaped to an off-world colony,” Kim says. That’s where privileged humans live, but many have continued to survive on Earth and Eve and her peers have come back down to try and take the world back from the Naytibas. Of course, as is often the case in science fiction, not everything is as it seems. Eve is surprised to find humans living on Earth. Everyone had been told there were no survivors.
Many of the humans Eve meets on Earth call her an angel, considering where she came from, and welcome her assistance in the form of sidequests. “You can see it as an angel that descended from outer space with a sword,” Kim says. Defeating the Naytibas is the main mission, but many need help on an immediate and smaller scale. Kim does not intend for these sidequests to break the format. When asked what sidequests from other games have influenced the ones in Stellar Blade, he replied, “Let’s see… The side quests were not influenced by certain games specifically. I should say that they were influenced by all the games that I have played all this time.”
For example, there is one series of consecutive sidequests where Eve is trying to help a broken woman in an old pub in Xion, a location where humans have found refuge after the apocalypse. The woman used to be a singer, but now she is struggling to even stay alive. The missions Eve completes will help her recover mentally and physically, though Kim teases an unexpected ending. “There are some choices that alter the results,” Kim says when asked if the player will be making story decisions in these moments, “But honestly, I wouldn’t say you have much freedom. But there certainly are important decisions to be made.”
Costumes serve as one of the rewards for completing sidequests but don’t expect wearing different outfits to change Eve’s statistics. The goal is to make sure no singular clothing item is emphasized. They want players to choose the outfits based on personal preference rather than statistical significance. Approximately 30 costumes will be discoverable throughout the course of the game, whether by just stumbling across them, receiving them as rewards, or creating them through found recipes. The team also plans to add more after release.
Kim used the terms “ingredients” and “recipes” when describing creating certain costumes, but Stellar Blade won’t have players crafting new weapons – The Stellar Blade is Eve’s only weapon. It can be improved to swing faster or deliver more critical hits, but they want players to fully focus on the titular sword.
To The Future
Every new look at Stellar Blade showcases footage of a game that looks stunning in action. I also appreciate Kim’s candid appreciation for Nier: Automata and its storytelling. It’s rare developers are so straightforward about the games that inspired them, and it is refreshing to hear someone love a game so much that they wanted to make one like it. The feeling of combat remains Stellar Blade’s primary question mark as I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to go hands-on, but I am already invested in finding out Eve’s secret, what the Naytibas are, and what is happening on this version of Earth.
“When the world experiences an apocalypse, people develop these uncanny religious tendencies, and it will be interesting to see the changes in them,” Kim says, wrapping up our discussion. A compelling seed planted for a science fiction narrative.
This article originally appeared in Issue 364 of Game Informer
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Dead Cells (2018)
Returnal (2021)
