Cliffhanger’s Black Panther game reportedly would have built upon the famously patented Nemesis System

Earlier this week, EA did the thing they oh so frequently loves to do, which is making a bad decision. This time, it was cancelling Marvel’s Black Panther, alongside shutting down the two year old studio that was making it, Cliffhanger Games. As every single announcement like this over the past few years has been, it was an incredibly frustrating one that can’t be justified. Now, a new report from Bloomberg has shed a bit of light on why it was cancelled, as well as what the game might have been like.

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‘The Best Competitive Multiplayer Games’ Book Is Chock-Full Of Nintendo Titles

And it’s out now.

Last year, we were kindly sent a sample of ‘The Most Relaxing Video Games’ from Ryan Janes, a lovely book that delved into a collection of games handpicked to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Now, Janes is back with another book, this time looking at some of the best PvP games ever made – in fact, it’s straight up called ‘The Best Competitive Multiplayer Games’, how about that! Much like the first book, this one doesn’t merely list out a bunch of games and have done with it, but instead incorporates a lot of Janes’ own personal history and anecdotes, making for a pleasant read from start to finish.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

While you wait for an official update, Elden Ring Nightreign already has a two-player co-op mod

Elden Ring Nightreign is, to the surprise of no one, off to a bit of a flying start (even if not everyone is completely in love with it just yet). I have no intention of diving into it just yet, in part because the solo experience doesn’t interest me all that much, and I don’t really want to be matched up with two other randos that would surely abandon me the moment I forget what my character can do. There isn’t a duos option either, the thing I’m actually after, something that was a bit forgotten about during development, but might be coming further down the line. The power of modding always comes through however, as despite only launching yesterday, there’s already a seamless co-op mod that allows for duos.

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Asphalt Legends Unite Speeds Up On Switch With “Limited-Time” Sonic Event

Gotta go faster.

Sega launched a new brand campaign recently which plans to dedicate an entire year to Sonic the Hedgehog‘s trademark characteristics of “speed and attitude”. As part of this, there’ll be all sorts of racing-inspired partnerships and the latest one is now live.

Sonic has teamed up with Gameloft’s free-to-play racer Asphalt Legends Unite (formerly known as Asphalt 9: Legends), which is available on the Switch eShop as a free download.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Is Marathon the Best Chance Extraction Shooters Have To Break Into the Mainstream?

Late last month, mega publisher EA fired 300 workers, including around 100 at developer Respawn. The studio, founded by ex-Call of Duty developers, is responsible for Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi games, and was reportedly working on a third game in its beloved Titanfall series before its staff roster was cut. Now cancelled, the rumours suggest that this Titanfall project was an extraction shooter – a difficult-by-design PvPvE genre that currently only enjoys niche popularity. But an extraction shooter set in the world of Titanfall and Apex Legends could have been the genre’s ticket to the big leagues. So if not EA, who will take the “Tarkov-like” beyond its enthusiastic niche and into the mainstream? The answer may be just months away.

“As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we’ve made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth,” an EA spokesperson said of the layoffs that cut away at Respawn. It’s a sentiment EA employees have heard before. This move follows a rash of downsizing in other segments of EA’s portfolio, including at developers Codemasters and BioWare, and a more general 670 company-wide employees back in March of last year. This trend has many decrying the state of the games industry as unsustainable and calling for unionization.

But what of that rumored Titanfall extraction shooter? Naturally, its apparent cancellation has many fans disappointed; the existence (and lack of public appearance) of a new Titanfall game has become something of an in-joke in recent years. Further, rumors of a new extraction shooter from a triple-A studio has shone a spotlight on a style of game that has struggled to garner a significant audience thus far. And whether or not the cancelled Respawn title was indeed an extraction shooter, more people are discussing the potential of a genre that is in its infancy.

“This is an enthusiast genre which has, thus far, not significantly broken out to the mass market player,” Mat Piscatella, Video Games Industry Advisor at Circana, tells IGN.

Last month, developer Bungie finally revealed gameplay footage for Marathon, the upcoming extraction shooter that some predict will launch the genre into the mainstream. It’s a game that’s already found itself in hot water, accused of plagarising art assets. But while there are ethical questions around Marathon’s production, the response to the game itself after press went hands-on with it seems largely positive. Perhaps this is to be expected from the studio with a reputation for stellar first-person shooter experiences like Halo and Destiny. But, come September, Marathon will be launching into a very different market, and the extraction shooter is a relatively untested genre. Will pedigree and tight FPS design be enough to carry the game to success? Analysts say: perhaps.

“If I were to bet on any developer being able to bring this genre to the mass market it would be Bungie,” Piscatella says.

For those unfamiliar, extraction shooters tend to be made up of a combination of player-versus-player and player-versus-environment gameplay loops. Small squads of players are dropped into a world, where they fight AI enemies and sometimes other player-controlled squads, to complete goals and gather resources, then escape the map. The genre was popularized by Escape From Tarkov, an incredibly unforgiving take on the formula characterized by its high-risk, high-reward firefights, which garnered a respectable audience during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

If I were to bet on any developer being able to bring this genre to the mass market it would be Bungie.

Since then, a number of other developers have tried their hand at the genre with varying degrees of success. One of the most prominent is last year’s Helldivers 2, developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony. It leans heavily on a campy schtick, community engagement, and in-game events, which has made it a standout among extraction shooters. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it’s a co-op only affair, with none of the tense PvP encounters that make games like Escape from Tarkov so challenging. According to Piscatella’s data, Helldivers 2 was the eighth most-played game on Steam in April, and ranked 34 on PlayStation.

“Helldivers 2 is the outlier success among this group,” Piscatella explains. “In April, approximately 9% of US active Steam users played Helldivers 2, while around 3% of PS5 players engaged with the game at least once. No other [extraction shooter] reached more than 2.3% of active players on any platform on which that particular game was played.”

It’s immediately obvious that these stats are small when compared to more popular genres like battle royale or multiplayer FPS games. As hugely popular as Helldivers 2 seems to dedicated PlayStation owners, the mainstream is Fortnite, Call of Duty, and EA’s FC – games that garner much, much larger audiences. But Piscatella is quick to point out that the extraction shooter is a burgeoning genre with a great deal of potential, and it faces the same challenges as any other genre does in its early days.

“Small or developing genres often only get big after one game makes it so,” he says. “The dance/music genre was a pretty small niche until Guitar Hero showed up. Console FPS games didn’t usually sell all that well at all until Halo. MMOs comprised a relatively small portion of the market until World of Warcraft became the biggest thing in the world. Maybe Marathon does that for extraction shooters. Maybe it doesn’t. Nothing is guaranteed for any new game in today’s market.”

Other popular games in the extraction shooter genre include Deep Rock Galactic, Hunt: Showdown 1896, and Delta Force. The latter is a free-to-play title launched late last year and has been enjoying a steady rise in popularity in recent months: as of this writing, it ranks 15th in daily players on Steam, with somewhere around 135,000 players at peak. This is a respectable number, but nowhere near the numbers consistently put up by the battle royale genre and its titans. And let’s face it: executives have exhibited a certain amount of tunnel vision chasing the high monetization bars set by the Fortnites, Warzones, and PUBGs of the world.

There’s an argument that this sort of fixation has led to a certain amount of creative stagnation in the development space, and studio heads are less willing to take a chance on an unproven genre such as extraction shooters (it’s perhaps telling that Call of Duty’s attempt at it was an under-supported, now abandoned mode added to Warzone, rather than its own flagship release). In that way, Marathon represents the first significant triple-A effort to bring the genre to the masses. And it’s going to need all the help it can get along the way.

“Bungie being the developer certainly does not guarantee Marathon success,” Piscatella says. “In order for [it] to break through it would certainly help if the game could win over dedicated fans of the genre so they could advocate for the game among family and friends.”

The biggest challenge facing Marathon is the untested nature of the extraction shooter genre as a whole.

Beyond word of mouth, Bungie will need to ensure smooth onboarding for prospective players. In particular, converting core players familiar with first-person shooters will likely figure into Bungie’s rollout strategy, but long-term retention will all boil down to the gameplay.

“It would…be helpful if Marathon were to have a ramping path for people that are more familiar with the big FPS titles like Call of Duty to help initiate trial and conversion,” Piscatella explains. “It would also have to nail the whole ‘easy to pick up, difficult to master’ trick that many mass market hits are able to pull off.”

The reality is that these are all the same problems faced by any new title, and the one true decider of success or failure is the market, which, as Piscatella points out, is extremely unwelcoming.

“It is a very fickle market at the moment. People have their favorite long-running games that are constantly being updated, are familiar, have significant social and monetary hooks, and many of these titles are free-to-play or easily accessible without an upfront purchase price. So, the challenges facing Bungie and Marathon are not dissimilar to those facing any new game.”

Fickle market notwithstanding, the biggest challenge facing Marathon is the untested nature of the extraction shooter genre as a whole. Escape From Tarkov has enjoyed its accolades, but that game benefitted from an audience inflated by pandemic lockdowns, as well as a gameplay loop that appealed to the core gamer segment. Subsequent titles have only seen middling performances (with Helldivers 2 being the outlier), so it’s easy to understand why studios have been reticent to devote significant resources to such a project, especially when the battle royale genre has proven its dominance.

In that way, Marathon should prove to be a useful litmus test for the rest of the industry. It’s surprising to see a studio like Bungie going all-in on an extraction shooter in this environment, and if it receives a strong reception you can expect other developers and publishers to take its lead. Of course there are dozens of factors to account for – things like monetization and market trends – and nobody can predict how things will unfold. But Bungie certainly has the clout and design chops to make something special. And it’s going to take something special to take the extraction shooter genre from niche to mainstream. You can be sure that, come September, the industry will be eagerly watching the launch of Marathon.

Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (31st May)

So long, Switch 1.

It’s finally upon us, the last weekend before Switch 2. We have one last chance to throw our backlogs a concerned look before a line-up of launch games gets added to the pile, so let’s go out with one last hurrah, shall we?

You’d think that this week would have been a little ‘quiet before the storm’ vibes, but there’s actually been quite a lot to keep up with. We got the official release date for Pokémon Legends: Z-A (16th October, if you missed it), saw its pre-order goodies and heard about the all-important price. As if that wasn’t enough, TPC confirmed that the next Pokémon Presents showcase will be coming our way in July.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Random: Xenoblade Chronicles X Pops Up On Microsoft PC Game Page

Something or nothing?

Well, here’s a weird listing – Monolith Soft’s Wii U epic Xenoblade Chronicles X has popped up on a Microsoft PC webpage covering “enhanced games for Microsoft Edge Game Assist”.

We’ve taken a look ourselves and can confirm it’s featured. It’s listed alongside PC releases like World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2. Here it is, along with the attached description:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Nintendo Appears To Have Updated Mario Kart World’s Switch 2 File Size

Some other file sizes have also changed.

We’re now less than a week out from the Switch 2 and it seems Nintendo has updated the estimated file size for Mario Kart World.

According to official online listings in the US and Japan, this new open-world entry has been reduced from 23.4GB to 21.9GB. Although the Switch 2 comes loaded with 256GB of internal storage, it’s nice to see Nintendo doing its best to keep file sizes down.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Infinity Nikki Codes (May 2025)

If you’re looking for Infinity Nikki codes, IGN has you covered! In this article, you’ll find a list of active and working Infinity Nikki codes that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses in May 2025, including Diamonds and Energy Crystals.

Active Infinity Nikki Codes (May 2025)

Below, you’ll find all the active and working Infinity Nikki codes in May 2025, the free rewards you get for redeeming them, and their expiry date (if known):

  • NIKKISFAVORITERICEDUMPLING – 200x Diamonds, 18.8k Bling, expires June 4, 2025 (NEW!)
  • AAp9Q8KWF8b – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApyBTE8RY9 – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AAp4BHuBhmC – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AAp7DKNerwR – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApt6d2sv89 – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApnynNUpc7 – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApE9cuaMxM – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApP4EqVj2a – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApHBskxdEh – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApscJCWy6w – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApAAnFjMpK – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApCapPmYvp – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApNj9MT2Uy – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • AApUBFedaQy – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • InfinityNikki429 – 75x Shiny Bubbles, 75x Threads of Purity, and 30k Bling
  • AApUB2cpQ6h – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 20k Bling
  • BUBBLESEASON0429 – 50x Thread of Purity, 15k Bling
  • POCKETMONEYFORNIKKI – 200x Diamonds, 18.8k Bling
  • Handinhand – 10x Revelation Crystal
  • DREAM&REBIRTH – 100x Diamonds, 100x Shiny Bubbles, 50x Thread of Purity
  • SEAOFSTARS – 100x Diamonds, 50x Shiny Bubbles, 30k Bling
  • BUBBLESEASON – 100x Diamonds, 50x Thread of Purity, 20k Bling
  • Sidebyside – 10x Revelation Crystals
  • INFINITYNIKKISteam – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • RevelrySeasonRe – 50x Thread of Purity, 30k Bling
  • RevelrySeasonGroup – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 30k Bling
  • 1.2VERDISCORD – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • 1.2VERREDDIT – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • 1.2VERGLOBALGROUP – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • ハイキングDISCORD – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • PEARFECTGUIDES – 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
  • NIKKIXWEBTOON – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • ニキプレゼント1205 – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • おめでとう – 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
  • リリース – 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
  • インフィニティニキ – 15x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • 無限暖暖公測開啟 – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling
  • 無限暖暖公測FB社團限定 – 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling
  • インフィニキDISCORD – 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
  • INGIFT1205 – 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling
  • GROUPSTYLIST – 50x Threads of Purity, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)
  • REDDITSTYLIST – 50x Shiny Bubbles, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)
  • DISCORDSTYLIST – 10x Shining Particles, 15k Bling (expires December 5, 2025)

Expired Infinity Nikki Codes

The Infinity Nikki codes listed below have expired and are no longer working as of May 2025:

  • NOSTRANGELINKS
  • WARMSPRINGBONUS
  • RevelrySeasonDC
  • GIRLPOWER25
  • 100THDAYCELEBRATION
  • MAYEVERYGIRLHAPPINESS
  • Newstoryawaits
  • Newyearbliss
  • NIKKIFIREWORKS
  • NIKKIEXCURSIONTIME
  • NIKKINEWBLOOM2025
  • HEARTFELTGIFTS
  • NIKKIBEWITHYOU
  • NIKKIRELEASE
  • dreamweavernikki
  • NIKKI20241022
  • infinitynikki1205
  • BDAYSURPRISE
  • GIFTFROMMOMO
  • GIFTTONIKKI
  • nikkihappybirthday2024
  • NIKKITHEBEST
  • QUACKQUACK
  • AAbNxRNMmSm
  • AAbQjjYKwbH
  • AAb7xf6hWuS
  • AAbtWkna3V7
  • AAbaEyDU4EX
  • AAbMNJX8hxF
  • AAb5S3RSK8M
  • AAbUfWnYUtd
  • AAbUa8e2U3a
  • AAbtk9jmpnV

How to Redeem Infinity Nikki Codes

To redeem Infinity Nikki codes, follow the steps below:

  1. Unlock your Pear-Pal during the Chapter 1: Wishes Without Wings – Land of Wishes main quest. It’s about 20 minutes into your Infinity Nikki adventure.
  2. Open the Pear-Pal menu by pressing ESC on PC (or the Menu button when using an Xbox controller on PC), the Menu button on PlayStation, or by tapping the Pear-Pal icon in the top-left corner on mobile.
  3. Click on the gear icon to open the Settings menu.
  4. Scroll over to the Other tab.
  5. You’ll see a “Redeem Code” option here. Click on “Apply” and a Redeem Rewards pop-up menu will appear.
  6. Input your code into the “Enter the redeem code” field and tap “Apply.”
  7. If successful, a pop-up will appear showing your free rewards.

Why Isn’t My Infinity Nikki Code Working?

If the Infinity Nikki code that you’re trying to redeem isn’t working, it’s likely due to one of the following reasons:

  • There’s a typo in the code.
  • The Infinity Nikki code is expired.

When inputting a code into Infinity Nikki, make sure there are no typos (Os instead of zeroes, capital Is instead of lowercase Ls, etc.) and that there are no accidental spaces before or after the code. If your Infinity Nikki code still doesn’t work, it’s probably expired and can no longer be redeemed. You’ll get a message informing you that the code is wrong if it’s expired.

How to Get More Infinity Nikki Codes

The best way to get more Infinity Nikki codes is to join the official Infinity Nikki Discord server. Once you’re in, head to the #self-assign-roles channel and opt-in for the Redeem Code role. You’ll receive a notification when a new code is released so you can receive your free rewards ASAP!

Alternatively, bookmark this Infinity Nikki Codes article, as we update it each time a new code comes out. The Discord server has missed a couple of codes posted to other channels, so we’d recommend checking our article every so often.

What is Infinity Nikki?

Developed by Infold Games, Infinity Nikki is a cozy, open-world RPG. You play as Nikki, as she’s whisked away to the world of Miraland, a place where people make Wishes with the help of Stylists. You’ll find and create a plethora of outfits and accessories, take on quests, and gather many types of collectibles with the help of Momo, Nikki’s adorable feline companion. As you play, you earn Diamonds, which can be spent on Revelation and Resonite Crystals, which are used to pull on the limited time and permanent outfit banners for 5-star and 4-star clothing.

Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she’s not working, you can find her playing an RPG or spending time with her corgi.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review

When George R.R. Martin crafted the world of Westeros back in the 90s, he probably didn’t think his words would go on to spawn graphic novels, TV shows, action figures, video games, and more. Moreover, I doubt the author expected his works to be adapted into a mobile-friendly action-RPG built to prioritize predatory microtransactions over the rich lore he’d spent decades perfecting. Yet in 2025, we have Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, a visually striking open-world exploration game that looks compelling in motion, but hones in more on menus and currency than fantasy adventure. And, as you push deeper into its sizable campaign to uncover a plethora of in-game currencies and progress-halting hurdles, the neo-medieval jaunt starts to feel more like a lesson in asset management than a thoughtful RPG.

Kingsroad takes place during season four of the HBO TV series, putting you in the fur-lined boots of a northern-born bastard of House Tyre. With your father sickly and your inheritance caught up in the strict succession rules of the realm, the only hope for the safety of your people is to borrow, beg, and steal your way into the hearts of the lords and ladies of Westeros. Naturally, things aren’t as simple as just asking, and you’ll have to go round the houses (literally) to solve land disputes, find missing soldiers, and knock together the heads of vassal-house warriors on your way to earning your flowers. Alongside a cavalcade of curious NPCs, there are also White Walkers, mythical beasts, and traitorous Boltons to butt heads with. Thankfully, Westeros’ misfortune makes for an enticing landing pad for you to start from.

Before you dive into the cobbled streets and open roads of Westeros, though, you’ll first need to pick a combat archetype to play as: a brutish Sellsword, a skilful Knight, or a nimble Assassin. Fuelled by my love of Brienne of Tarth and Dungeons & Dragons’ Barbarian class, I opted for the axe-wielding Sellsword, whose heavy strikes can easily wind gaggles of enemy forces. Indecisive? Good news: Kingsroad does allow you to switch between archetypes at any time, and your inventory is shared across your three possible characters, so you can boost your alts with your main’s hard-earned loot. That said, I was disappointed to find that once you finalise a character, you can’t delete them and start that class over, or change their name, a feature that bit me in the butt when testing how unsightly I could make my Knight.

With your combat destiny chosen, Kingsroad’s decently impressive character creator lets you use a mixture of face-contorting sliders and colour-pickers to specialise your plucky hero. It doesn’t have the depth of something like Dragon’s Dogma 2 (although that’s an admittedly high bar), but I am glad I was able to bestow my characters with an identity that felt personal to me – which is to say moody, and tastefully adorned with smudgy eyeliner and edgy facial scars.

You’ll explore an impressively recreated map of Westeros.

Kingsroad wastes no time teaching you the basics of its combat and platforming with a tight but comprehensive tutorial, which takes you beyond the wall and back again. That’s where you’ll meet the first of many familiar faces for any fans of the show, as Jon Snow and Samwell Tarley do a decent job of filling in the narrative gaps for those in need of a season four recap. While the digital renditions of these well-known characters aren’t the most flattering, their conversations felt thoughtfully written and helped to establish my lowborn place within the setting.

Soon enough, though, Kingsroad lets go of your hand and allows you to roam free across the countryside, providing a choice of campaign quests and side missions to follow, as well as plenty of points of interest to chase on your map. The open world of Kingsroad gave me the freedom to explore this (mostly) faithfully reimagined Westeros, and I enjoyed riding across snowy plateaus and uncovering the secrets of curious stone architecture nestled on the horizon. But the initial exhilaration of high fantasy galavanting wore off quickly as the edges of developer Netmarble’s fantasy panopticon started to show.

For every delicate snowflake at Castle Black or butterfly dancing in Winterfell, there were plenty more low-poly fruit trees, bouncy grass patches, and possessed weapons to pick at the sheen. I admire the sheer scale of the open world Kingsroad is offering, but it’s lacking the visual consistency to make it realistic and immersive. As I soon noticed those cracks in the facade, Kingsroad started to feel like a game full of pulled punches, despite how promising it seemed at a distance.

This lack of polish extends to your movement on both foot and horseback – ice skating would be the most fitting comparison. When exploring the frosty reaches of the North, this sensation is strangely fitting. However, it became wholly frustrating when it persisted while charting the sunny coastal areas near Highgarden, especially when attempting to complete the occasional platforming puzzles dotted around the icon-covered map. Typically, I was only one slip away from falling down an unscalable hillside, or worse, into a camp of fierce opponents with no way out. Up close, the animations also err on the eerie side in cutscenes. My character would often deliver a wide-eyed death stare, and I couldn’t take them seriously as they’d burn holes in the townsfolk’s skulls as they explained their heart wrenching tragedies.

Memorable characters surface as uncanny valley clones of themselves.

Speaking of the citizens of Westeros, their heads and eyes wobble around like strange marionettes during conversations, which dampens the atmosphere considerably. It’s a shame, because their dialogue does a great job of affirming the grim, corrupt cloud that hangs over the continent as winter approaches. I felt particularly bad laughing when an old lady thanked me for saving her daughter from being eaten by Ramsay Bolton’s dogs. Unfortunately, the most egregious offenders are often Kingsroad’s recreations of characters from the show. Memorable players, like Nymeria Sand and Varys, surface as uncanny valley clones of their likenesses. I’ll be seeing yassifed Cersei in my nightmares for many moons to come…

Beyond exploration, the bulk of your time in Kingsroad is split between investing in complex resource management systems at your homestead and completing multi-stage quests and battles out in the world. As such, you can find a plethora of challenges that boost both of these areas, like dungeon crawls, bandit camps, occupied villages, and giant mythical beasts, all of which reward you handsomely for spilling blood by the gallon. How efficiently you blend your time between these two aspects is integral to maintaining a solid pace within the grind-heavy progression system – alas, a lack of technical balance makes succeeding in this endeavour profoundly painful.

The trouble begins with the combat, which is a total mixed bag. While your actions feel pleasantly grounded, and rugged blows always arrive with flashy particle-heavy animations, the process begins to feel overfamiliar fast. Despite the solid variety of moves available – light, heavy, and special attacks, as well as decent dodge and parry options – inaccurate hit boxes consistently hampered my attempts at strategy. Occasionally, I would need to use my head a little and skulk around an area to remove edge threats, though those tactical moments arrived few and far between. It says something unflattering that Kingsroad feels almost identical at 60 hours as it did at 20.

You can specialise and upgrade your moveset in combat with traits and skill trees, too, but they do little to impact how the combat feels in motion. Kingsroad gives the impression of having useful Traits by putting options like learning to parry and crafting arrows up at the top of the trees, but as you work your way down, many of the lower options offer small percentage-based improvements to defense and attack that barely make a dent. So as your sparkly slashes lose their lustre, you’re often left cycling through the same few enemies and combos until the battle is won. It seems as though the architecture of a solid combat system is there, but much like the rest of Kingsroad, it’s all facade with no foundation.

What hampers the fun most are the frequent and appropriately-named Momentum roadblocks.

Still, what hampers the fun of Kingsroad most of all are the frequently appearing and appropriately-named Momentum roadblocks. Similar to Destiny’s Gear Score, Kingsroad tallies up the quality of all your equipment, accessories, and skills into one neat number called your Momentum Score. These pesky little digits are the cruel gatekeepers of story content, forcing you to scour the map for dull side objectives that can juice the numbers and shuffle you towards the next episode.

While I’m more than happy to invest in grind-heavy games like World of Warcraft Classic and no stranger to mobile-minded progress gating, the Momentum system in Kingsroad is a particularly brutish arbiter that doesn’t allow you to get crafty or punch above your weight by taking on more challenging enemies. Instead, imposing forces appear with a skull icon over their head, their damage and health ratings untouchably high. But as soon as you inch over the Momentum line, the fight shifts dramatically in your favour. This black and white process neutralises any sense of gamesmanship, and frequently forced me into hours of toil to get back to the story I was, for the most part, enjoying.

When you’re ready to take some time out from the combat, you can invest more in the slower-paced aspects of Kingsroad, namely the tedious Estate Management side game. As the last remaining heir to Lord Tyre, his homestead, Renan’s Rest, becomes your project. As is to be expected, helping this dilapidated village flourish rewards you with the tools necessary to beef up your arsenal, and gives you a place to spend all those resources you’ve been hoarding by completing missions – though the process of cleaning up this town is about as much fun as cleaning your actual room.

While the jeweller and the forge are convenient additions that allow you to craft wearable items, the most valuable activity is embarking on gacha-based Artefact Expeditions. You’ll spend resources to hire workers and send them into the wild to find more resources, as well as historical items called Relics you can then leverage to further bolster your Momentum. Similar to other gacha game systems, you’re guaranteed a high-quality item after a set amount of runs, but a standard expedition takes eight actual hours to complete, which is a frustrating turnaround when not every run guarantees a good haul. That is, unless you’re willing to pay real money to speed things up.

That brings us to the elephant in the room. Almost every activity in Kingsroad can be expedited with the use of cold hard cash, which translates to Iron Bank Marks in-game. Of course, you can pay to complete an aforementioned expedition early, or buy higher-rarity expedition wagons by the dozen that don’t take time to complete. Stuck behind a Momentum block? Just purchase Gold to speedrun your jewellery maker’s upgrades and smelt higher-rated necklaces and rings to jolt your score. Typically, you can only fast travel by making your way to a special signpost first, and there’s a copper fee for each warp – but you can fast travel from anywhere for free if you pay for the premium option. Behind nearly every aggravating system in Kingsroad is a far more user-friendly one, but only if you’re willing to cough up the dough. It seems intent to toe the line between being intentionally frustrating and passably functional, subtly egging you on to pay up rather than sit through the repetitive, time-consuming activities necessary to proceed.

While it’s to be expected that there will be premium aspects in a free-to-play game available on mobile devices (in addition to Steam), the overwhelming flood of paid subscriptions, resource packs, and confounding currencies feels like a heartbreaking affront to Game of Thrones fans, like myself, who have been begging for a fully-fledged Westeros RPG similar to this. Across the 60 hours I’ve played so far, I’ve felt guilty for slashing down innocent defectors and filled with joy for feeding the starving smallfolk. It’s clear Netmarble wants you to feel like you’re making a difference in this world, but it’s also just as keen to remind you that you can make a difference quicker if you’re willing to enter your credit card details first. It’s sad to see so much effort put into the underlying concept of a Game of Thrones adventure like this only for it to be tarnished by microtransactions and the repetitive gameplay loops that enable them.