Indiana Jones Looks Thrilling, Tactical Breach Wizards Is Brilliant, And More Of The Week's Opinions

Image: Tom Francis, Raccoon Logic, Marvel, Screenshot: Bethesda / Kotaku, Warhorse Studios, Don’t Nod Entertainment / Kotaku, Techland, Red Thread Games / Kotaku, Illustration: Lucasfilm

This week, Gamescom gave us fresh looks at Starfield’s upcoming Shattered Space DLC as well as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. We’ll tell you all about what we thought of those. We also have hands-on impressions for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, speak to the folks behind Dying Light: The Beast, get nostalgic with Don’t Nod’s upcoming game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, and more.

Image: Tom Francis

Tactical Breach Wizards, the next game from Tom Francis (Gunpoint, Heat Signature), has everything you could want out of a game with such a name. There are 1) wizards, 2) tons of tactical breaching, 3) a huge conspiracy to unravel and 4) so many windows to throw people out of. What might not be apparent at first glance is just how deeply funny the game is (beyond just the inherent humor of defenestration) and what a biting satire it turns out to be. - Moises Taveras Read More

Screenshot: Bethesda / Kotaku

Shattered Space, the upcoming first major expansion to Starfield, feels like Bethesda returning to an old, comfy chair. Albeit a horror-driven, combat-intensive chair set in a half-destroyed capital city that’s the victim of a tear in space-time. But rather than another galaxy-wide sprawling set of adventures like the base game, this is a tale told on one planet, a confined and controlled narrative that is far more reminiscent of the old Elder Scrolls approach. - John Walker Read More

Illustration: Lucasfilm

There’s a fairly good chance that you, like us, keep forgetting that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. Each time we see any footage, it’s a jarring moment to remember that this isn’t a reskinned Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but instead puts us directly inside Dr. Jones’ head. This is exacerbated by so much of the stuff we’ve seen in trailers constantly jumping to cinematic third-person views, given how odd of an angle it is when trying to show off the game. But now we’ve seen ten minutes of in-game footage, and it’s starting to make more sense. - John Walker Read More

Screenshot: Warhorse Studios

There’s a fine line between medieval gameplay that’s historically accurate and medieval gameplay that’s fun. The overall reception to Kingdom Come: Deliverance indicates Warhorse Studios struck that balance well in 2018, but as noted in Kotaku’s review, plenty could be improved. After playing (the recently delayed) Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for roughly three hours, it’s clear the team is aware of the first game’s misses, and its strengths, too. KCD2 is, on the surface, a classic video game sequel—bigger and better, with more to do. But I’m surprised by just how “immersive sim” it is, even if I get the sense Warhorse might shudder at that characterization. Though its introduction is slow and narrowly focused on familiarizing newcomers with the gameplay, what I play much later in the game feels like an exciting digital LARP session I can’t wait to experiment in further. - Wesley LeBlanc Read More

Image: Raccoon Logic

Journey to the Savage Planet is a 2020 first-person Metroidvania that sold pretty well and was absolutely fantastic if you played it, but strangely there’s a really high chance you’ve never heard of it. It’s a fate all too often reserved for bright, colorful, fun-first games that don’t obey the industry’s furrowed brow of grimdark severity. Well, apart from the ones with Pokémon in them. - John Walker Read More

Image: Marvel

I’ve enjoyed every game I’ve played in NetEase’s Marvel Rivals. The comic book take on the hero shooter genre is a lot of fun, even if it takes some blatant inspiration from Overwatch. It feels less sanded down and polished than its obvious competitor, but that opens it up to chaos and fun plays that are no longer possible in Blizzard’s game. However, I do think the game will have to carve out its own space to get a leg up on the competition, and after taking the newly-announced Captain America and Winter Soldier for a spin, both are a lot of fun, but only further cement the notion thatMarvel Rivals is riding Overwatch’s coattails. - Kenneth Shepard Read More

Screenshot: Don’t Nod Entertainment / Kotaku

Don’t Nod, the studio behind the original Life is Strange and its (stellar) numbered sequel, has an earnest quality to its writing that still gets me, almost 10 years after Max Caulfield first strode down the halls of Blackwell Academy. So even when Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, the next game from the studio set to launch next year, leans into some of the hokiest, most saccharine dialogue I’ve heard in a hot minute, that earnestness keeps me invested. I recently played about two hours of Lost Records, and though the build I got to mess around with was a little janky, especially as it oscillates between its ‘90s-era flashbacks and present-day framing device, I’m already even more intrigued than I was when I talked to the developers at Don’t Nod about the project earlier this year. - Kenneth Shepard Read More

Screenshot: Techland

How do you know when a DLC isn’t a DLC any more? That was the question that faced Dying Light developers Techland as they worked on the next entry for the long-running zombie-battling parkour franchise. Intended to be the second major piece of DLC for 2022’s Dying Light 2, what has now been announced as standalone release Dying Light: The Beast made this transition through a process of disaster and inspiration. - John Walker Read More

Screenshot: Red Thread Games / Kotaku

In its first few hours, Red Thread Games’ Dustborn flaunts so many of the qualities I look for in a story-driven adventure game. It’s full of relationship-building with complex characters, has stakes that are just high enough to draw me into the weight of each dialogue choice I make, and its supernatural elements don’t feel so overbearing that they detract from the humanity at its center. I’m hooked. I want to learn more about protagonist Pax and her group of nomadic, superpowered roadtrippers. But, my god, I haven’t hit a momentum killer like Dustborn’s action combat in a game I’m otherwise enthralled by in a hot minute. - Kenneth Shepard Read More