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ReviewsMultiplatformMonster Hunter World: Iceborne: The Kotaku Review
2018’s Monster Hunter: World was a successful update to the long-running beast-slaying series. Fully functioning ecosystems and updated combat crafted an experience where each battle was a unique challenge even after hundreds of hours. World’s latest expansion, Iceborne, is massive. Building up a solid framework, it brings dozens of new monsters and ups the difficulty…
By Heather Alexandra Published September 6, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformMan Of Medan: The Kotaku Review
Man Of Medan is a perfect game to play while huddled around with friends during Halloween, but pacing issues and technical problems keep it from being truly great. Man of Medan is a horror game about a group of rich idiots going somewhere they’re not supposed to go. Alex and his nerdy brother Brad are…
By Gita Jackson Published August 28, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformAncestors: The Humankind Odyssey: The Kotaku Review
If this is where humanity came from, no wonder we’re so messed up. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is designer and director Patrice Désilet’s first published game since he left the Assassin’s Creed series—which he played a massive role in creating—almost a decade ago. It is also one of the most ambitious games I’ve ever played,…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 27, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformKnights And Bikes: The Kotaku Review
Knights and Bikes follows two young girls growing up in the ’80s, but it’s not about a specific generation’s childhood as much as childhood in general. Its two young characters aren’t immune to the grim reality that swirls around their fantasy of heroes and monsters. It celebrates childhood without stumbling into nostalgia, and it’s earnestly…
By Riley MacLeod Published August 27, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformControl: The Kotaku Review
Control is the latest game from the makers of Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break. It’s a twisted, haunting odyssey through an old post-WWII office building under siege by parasitic beings from another dimension. Control has all the standard elements of a regular third-person shooter, but its exhaustive world building and all-consuming eeriness make…
By Ethan Gach Published August 26, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformOninaki: The Kotaku Review
When I first played the demo for Oninaki, an action role-playing game out tomorrow from Lost Sphear and I Am Setsuna creators Tokyo RPG Factory, I was optimistic. The gameplay wasn’t particularly captivating, but the story seemed unique and dark enough for me to push through the repetitive combat. Unfortunately, by the time I finished…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published August 21, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformMetal Wolf Chaos XD: The Kotaku Review
I hesitate to call any review of Metal Wolf Chaos XD complete if it does not include a long-winded anecdote about how I personally got rich in 2007 by selling off a stack of mint-condition copies of the Japanese Xbox original which I’d bought for less than $3 each. Therefore, barring any other review’s paraphrasing…
By Tim Rogers Published August 7, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformWolfenstein: Youngblood: The Kotaku Review
I am generally suspicious of games that people say are “better with friends,” simply because most things are. Manual labor, paying taxes, repeatedly hitting your thumb with a hammer—these are all things that are “better with friends.” Humans are social creatures, and company can make both miserable and pleasant things a whole lot better. “Better…
By Joshua Rivera Published August 1, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformWILL: A Wonderful World: The Kotaku Review
When I booted up the Switch port of WILL: A Wonderful World, the game told me about its autosave function. Then I saw this, set next to a red megaphone icon: “This game includes occasional **** plots. When shocked or surprised please scream loudly and disturb your neighbors.” The stars could refer to anything—botched assassinations,…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published July 2, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformBloodstained: Ritual of the Night: The Kotaku Review
Genre is mostly bullshit. It’s useful for discussion and for imagining where a certain game exists on the continuum of innovation and progress. These discussions are important, and for them, we need genre. But genre doesn’t do a lot for games, especially once they start to borrow from each other, forcing us to come up…
By Joshua Rivera Published June 28, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformTeam Sonic Racing: The Kotaku Review
While it’s true that kart racing clashes with the idea of a character who runs super-fast, Sonic the Hedgehog is less likely to trip up when he’s driving a vehicle. Developer Sumo Digital proves that statement true a third time with Team Sonic Racing, a very good kart racer with a game-changing co-op twist. This…
By Mike Fahey Published May 21, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformRage 2: The Kotaku Review
Rage 2 is caught between Good Stupid and Bad Stupid. In the end, Bad Stupid wins out. Rage 2 takes place on a dystopian, desert Earth that was struck by a meteor over a century ago. Much of the population has been wiped out, and civilization is a shadow of its former self. In the…
By Gita Jackson Published May 17, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformSteamWorld Quest: The Kotaku Review
I never know exactly how I’m going to approach each new battle in SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech. No matter how much I plan and prepare ahead of time, I can’t control the cards that end up in my hand in this turn-based role-playing card game. Perfect optimization is always a few steps out of…
By Ethan Gach Published April 25, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformMortal Kombat 11: The Kotaku Review
2015’s Mortal Kombat X signaled the beginning of an evolutionary turn for Netherrealm Studios’ storied fighting game series, featuring fresh new characters, a compelling story and the ability to select different fighting styles for every combatant. Mortal Kombat 11 continues this evolution, but not every aspect of the game is moving in the right direction.…
By Mike Fahey Published April 24, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformCuphead: The Kotaku Review
Cuphead turns players into perfectionists. The long-awaited hand-drawn action game is full of cartoony boss battles that demand enough precision and focus that even a single hit of damage feels unacceptable. Playing Cuphead is like a stage performance; every mistake is embarrassing, but the curtain call of each defeated boss is like nothing else. This…
By Heather Alexandra Published April 18, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformHeaven’s Vault: The Kotaku Review
“Stories don’t have tidy beginnings,” says the main character of Heaven’s Vault, outer space archaeologist Aliya Elasra, at the beginning of the game. “The past is always present.” I was immediately enthralled. I often see people hyper-simplifying history in bad faith and weaponizing it as propaganda, so I was excited to play a game that…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 16, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformThe Division 2: The Kotaku Review
A few days after The Division 2 first went on sale and after an initial wave of positive reactions, the game’s players discovered a big problem. Some of the gadgets in this giant Ubisoft game about shooting bad guys in a ravaged Washington DC weren’t working correctly. In battle, I could crouch my pseudo-soldier hero…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 16, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformFortnite Battle Royale: The Kotaku Review
It’s hard to say how Fortnite is turning out because it keeps turning into something else. Skins and storylines come and go. Landmarks appear and disappear. Weapons are added and removed. Recently, a mysterious excavation site appeared, but it was dug up and abandoned by the time I got there the next day. As I’m…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 8, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: The Kotaku Review
In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the thread between life and death is tenuous. As the One-Armed Wolf, a loyal shinobi seeking to save a young noble with a cursed bloodline, you traverse a feudal Japan so saturated with the remnants of war that the idea of mortality becomes fickle: dead bodies blending in with the…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published March 26, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Devil May Cry 5: The Kotaku Review
Devil May Cry 5 is a wild mess of demonic magic, blood, brooding twinks, butt rock music, kung-fu homage, and joyous gameplay. By the end of it, I had killed literally thousands of demons and watched struggles of Biblical proportions. The experience itself is a blur, but I know two things for certain. The first…
By Heather Alexandra Published March 8, 2019