Category: IGN

State of Decay 3 will be one of the games shown off at tomorrow’s Xbox Showcase, according to a fresh leak today.

As spotted by @gematsu on X/Twitter, developer Undead Labs seemingly accidentally leaked the news itself with a link to a press kit on its jobs page. The link, per gematsu, leads to a press release which reads, in part, “Undead Labs revealed its new brand during the highly anticipated Xbox Showcase presentation on June 9th in the newest State of Decay 3 trailer.” Its new logo also appeared to leak.

A new State of Decay 3 trailer will appear at Xbox Game Showcase 2024 tomorrow.

The “Press Kit” link on the Undead Labs website leads to a ZIP with the press release confirming it: https://t.co/xHygAWNTuc (scroll down to find the link)

Studio is also rebranding with new logo. pic.twitter.com/clQWgtsJtv

— Gematsu (@gematsu) June 8, 2024

The Undead Labs jobs page, however, was swiftly taken down once the leak was spotted. The website’s homepage is still live, but the navigation bar at the top of the page, which includes “jobs,” no longer has any hyperlinks.

It’s big news for fans of the survival horror series, considering it’ll mark our first look in years at the long-awaited sequel. The last one we got was its cinematic announcement trailer all the way back at a July 2020 Xbox Showcase, where Undead Labs revealed it was in early development. Ever since then, there’s been few updates, and it was a no-show at last year’s Xbox summer showcase as well. We’re still awaiting a release window, but that could be revealed during the trailer debut tomorrow.

State of Decay 3 is only one of a number of titles that have leaked ahead of tomorrow’s Xbox Showcase. In the days and weeks leading up to the livestream, reports have cropped up about the announcement of a new Doom installment (which is reportedly called Doom: The Dark Ages, and will apparently also be announced for PS5) and Gears of War 6.

While we wait to see if there are other surprises left in store for the Xbox Showcase, check out our breakdown of everything we’re expecting there. Additionally, stay turned for our subsequent chat with Xbox head Phil Spencer at IGN Live.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

IGN’s Summer of Gaming is in full swing, and as part of the festivities, indie developer platform indie.io took the stage at IGN Live for a showcase of their upcoming slate of games. If you’re not familiar with indie.io, you might know them as Freedom Games, publisher of popular titles like Symphony of War, Coromon, and Dark Deity.

They recently unveiled their new name, and they began their new era with a showcase that gave us reveals, trailers, and info for lots of upcoming games. If you weren’t able to watch it live, no worries. We have details on all the games that were featured during the show.

Forgotten Seas

Early Access Available Now!

You are stranded in the Bermuda Void; ocean stretches as far as your eyes can see, and dry land scarce. You’ll craft a ship in a bottle, then toss it into the ocean and watch it expand, morphing into a new ship primed to sail the high seas. Search for new land, build camps, and hunt for treasures — just be ready to defend your ship from pirates!

Everholm

Coming Soon – Wishlist Now

Everholm is an open-ended minimalist RPG where you play as Lilly, a young girl transported to a cute and cozy island while on a quest to find her missing sister. You soon discover that it’s not all sunshine and daisies in Everholm; everyone on the island seems to be acquainted with Lilly and her quest, yet she cannot recall ever visiting before. You’ll establish a homestead and work to uncover the secrets of the villagers as you try to solve the mystery surrounding this enigmatic island. Get whisked away to Everholm by playing its demo on Steam.

Dark Deity 2

Wishlist Now

In 2021, Dark Deity introduced a new turn-based strategy RPG series inspired by past classics, and Dark Deity 2 looks to expand on the foundation set by its predecessor. You’ll command an army of heroes as you try to push back the advance of an invading empire, and your decisions will shape the world, from which characters live and die to the fates of whole nations. With 20 heroes who have access to 45 branching classes, no two playthroughs will be the same.

Immortal Hunters

Wishlist Now

People killed an underground god, stole his power, and built a civilization ruled by the Church, which is served by powerful Immortal Hunters. But now, creatures rise out of the depths of the earth, and it’s your job to stop them. Choose your hero and fight back against the apocalypse in this side-scrolling action RPG. Play as an Immortal Hunter today, with its demo now available on Steam.

The Haunting of Joni Evers

Wishlist Now

This first-person psychological thriller will bring you to the small town of Harvest, Oklahoma. You’ll confront Joni’s memories in an emotional story of an estranged family … but there’s something very creepy afoot. Joni is being haunted by something, but what is it? And what does it want? Get a sneak peek by playing the brand-new demo on Steam.

Echoes of the Plum Grove

Available Now

If you’re a fan of cozy farming sims, this one’s for you. Start a new life in Honeywood, where you can build a community that will last generations. Tend your farm, socialize with the townspeople, find your soulmate, and raise a family. Everything, from the gameplay to the art style to the soundtrack, is meant to be relaxing and enjoyable at whatever pace you want.

SoulQuest

Wishlist Now

SoulQuest is a side-scrolling action game that puts you in the shoes of a powerful warrior on a journey to seize the power of the Goddess of Death and retrieve the soul of her beloved. Build up combos to destroy hordes of enemies in fast-paced gameplay through a world inspired by Celtic mythology. There’s a free demo available on Steam now, so give it a try.

Chronomon

Wishlist Now

Part monster tamer, part farming sim, Chronomon has you combine your skills at both to rebuild a post-apocalyptic world. Catch Chronomon out in the world, train them, evolve them, and use them on your ranch to get materials. Gather other materials by fishing and foraging, and use them to craft items to keep building up your farm and make the world beautiful again. Discover Chronomon and play the new demo on Steam.

World of Football

Wishlist Now

Do you love soccer but feel like most soccer video games are determined too much by luck or randomness? Then check out World of Football, a physics-based soccer game where the results are based purely on skill. It’s fairly simple at first blush, but the mechanics are challenging to truly master. Bring up to 10 people together to really test your skills.

Pinball Spire

New Demo Available on Steam – Wishlist Now

This one-of-a-kind game is a unique mix of genres that basically make it a pinballvania. You’ll make your way through a mysterious spire, with each floor being a dungeon-like pinball level. You can use abilities to complete challenges as you bump, spin, shoot, and flip your way to the top of the spire.

HumanitZ

Available Now in Early Access

HumanitZ is an isometric shooter that drops you into an open world that has been destroyed by a zombie outbreak. You’re one of the last humans left, and your task is to survive as long as possible, either solo or in co-op. You can craft weapons and build a base, but to gather the necessary materials, you’ll need to venture out into the zombie-infested world. How long can you last? HumanitZ is planning the game’s biggest update since its release into Early Access, which players can expect to go live on Steam near the end of June.

Cursed Dawn

Wishlist Now

How about a different flavor of zombie action? Cursed Dawn is a survival FPS with fast-paced, intense action that has you mowing through zombies by the dozens. Each map is large and packed with secrets and dynamic spawns, so you never know where the next horde is coming from. You’ll constantly need to stay on the move as you try to master each map.

Get Your Tentacles Off My Waifu!

Wishlist Now

Giant tentacle monsters have taken pony waifus hostage, and it’s up to you to save them. Dodge tentacles and projectiles and keep your blasters firing to destroy a variety of different monsters piece by piece. The monsters will get bigger and more difficult as the game progresses, but can you take them all down and save all the waifus? Get Your Tentacles Off My Waifu! also has a free Steam demo, so experience the fun for yourself and then add it to your wishlist.

Hauntsville

Wishlist Now

You’re stranded in a cursed ghost town in the Old West, surrounded by frightening monsters, with nothing but a few weapons and your own resourcefulness to aid you. You’ll need to build a homestead and work the land to help you survive this Western horror game. There’s a free demo on Steam for you to try, if you dare.

SCP: Fragmented Minds

Wishlist Now

Humanity is on the verge of extinction. The last hope of survival relies on an abandoned facility on Mars, where you awaken. The facility is overrun with horrifying anomalies that have escaped and are hunting down any remaining humans. You’ll need to use every tool you can find to help you survive and find a way to save humanity. Will you use the stealth approach, or take the monsters head on? Either way, the odds are stacked against you.

Shoot on Sight

Coming Soon – Wishlist Now!

In this multiplayer isometric tactical shooter, you’ll have several characters to choose from, each with their own weapon loadouts and abilities. As you continue playing with a character, you’ll level up and unlock new abilities and gadgets to keep gameplay fresh. There are lots of different maps, each with destructible pieces of the environment to use to your advantage. Blow up vehicles or shoot through walls, anything it takes to come out on top.

AI.VI

New Reveal! Wishlist Now

This FPS/tower defense hybrid casts you as a mercenary robot that’s been forced out of retirement to fight back against an evil corporation that conquered the planet and is bleeding it dry. Use all the skills at your disposal to turn your corporate enemies into scrap, seize the means of production, and retake the planet for the worker bots.

Blood Reaver

Wishlist Now

Use a combination of melee weapons, ranged weapons, and blood magic to take on hordes of enemies in this dark fantasy FPS. In wave-based combat, four heroes will team up to restore an ancient order and stop a demonic invasion. It’s a classic battle of good versus evil, with the fate of the world on the line.

A Death in the Red Light

Wishlist Now

It’s 1988 in Amsterdam, and a dead body has just been discovered in the Red Light District. A washed up detective takes on the case looking for redemption, but you’ll need to collect clues, connect the dots, and chase down leads. Can you solve this real-life mystery in time?

Shrine’s Legacy

Wishlist Now

Inspired by the 16-bit RPGs of the Super Nintendo era, Shrine’s Legacy is set in a fantasy world and tells a classic tale of two heroes who need to unite the elements and save the land. If you’re itching for some nostalgia and want to feel like a kid again, this is the game for you.

Adventurer’s Gambit: Dungeons of Fortune

Wishlist Now

Create your hero and enter endlessly varied dungeons as you try to ascend the Tower. You can test yourself solo or team up with up to three friends, and you’ll use deck-based character building to battle 18 foes and contend with traps and other obstacles. You can choose to use a blade, magic, or curses, but be prepared for a challenge.

Dwellink

New Reveal! Wishlist Now

Dwellink is a dark fantasy creature-collecting RPG where the nine worlds are holding out against an assault by beings known as Dwellers. You’ll capture them, harness their powers, and use them in turn-based combat to defeat your enemies as you try to solve the mystery of the Great Link before it’s too late.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra

Wishlist Now

The retro, side-scrolling, arcade-style beat ’em up is alive and thriving, and G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is proof. The villainous Cobra is back and hatching up another one of their evil plots, but thankfully G.I. Joe is here to stop them. You’ll pick your hero, jump into the fight, and spoil Cobra’s plans once again. There’s a brand-new demo available now, so get in there and send Cobra packing.

It’s been another rough year for the games industry, with seemingly constant layoffs taking place and studios being shuttered. However, a new publishing label announced today hopes to help curb this trend by uplifting developers.

Today, European publisher MY.GAMES announced Knights Peak, its new publishing division “dedicated to supporting both emerging and established studios.” Knights Peak also revealed its diverse initial roster of upcoming games and re-releases.

Among Knights Peak’s announcements was the world premiere of Nikoderiko, a colorful platformer in the style of Banjo-Kazooie that’s in development at VEA Games. It’s headed to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC later this summer with music by Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise.

The previously announced dark fantasy Soulslike side-scroller Mandragora is also headed to Knights Peak. During a new trailer for the game, developer Primal Game Studio showed off the game’s massive skill trees and hinted at its story about lost humanity, with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines writer Brian Mitsoda working as the game’s narrative lead. Mandragora is slated for release in late 2024 on PC, PS5, and Xbox X|S.

A Destiny 2 clan has completed The Final Shape expansion’s raid, unlocking a final mission for all players that brings to an end the series’ decade-long story that began back in 2014.

This article does not include any spoilers for Destiny 2 The Final Shape.

PC Gamer has a great rundown of events up to and including this moment, but for our purposes, we’ll just say that clan Parabellum completed The Final Shape raid before any other and in the process unlocked a 12-person final mission called Excision that acts as a fitting end to everything that has proceeded it over the last 10 years.

The Witness has retreated from the monolith – but, an important battle awaits.

We’ll need all Guardians available to help us defeat the Witness, once and for all.

Rally with us and launch into Excision, a newly unlocked 12-player activity. pic.twitter.com/HhIky06Vpc

— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) June 8, 2024

But it looks like there is an issue with Excision that is causing players in fireteams to be unable to view all cutscenes upon completion of the Excision activity. In a post on X/Twitter, Bungie recommended players complete the activity solo to ensure they experience all the cutscenes.

At this time, we recommend playing the Excision activity solo to experience all the cutscenes. Players who missed the cutscenes can select the Narrative version of Excision to replay them. https://t.co/lM40N6O4yC

— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) June 8, 2024

Now that The Final Shape’s main story has come to an end, Destiny 2 players are wondering what’s next. Excision leaves a number of story threads hanging out there in the galaxy, threads Bungie will probably pull at over the coming months. The developer has already announced a showcase set for June 10 at 8am PT in which it will reveal the next year of Destiny 2. That could mean it will touch on The Final Shape’s upcoming three episodes, the first of which kicks off next week. But perhaps Bungie will also hint at bigger things to come.

It all begins with a single step.

Join us on June 10 at 8AM PT to learn about the next year of Destiny 2.

🎦 https://t.co/st5fsMFHyA pic.twitter.com/MIx8JQOnJi

— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) June 8, 2024

In previous videos, Bungie developers have teased that The Final Shape is not the end of Destiny 2 or even the series, with the developer — now owned by Sony — also working on multiplayer game Marathon. This week, in a series of X/Twitter posts marking the release of The Final Shape, Bungie executive creative director Luke Smith discussed the road to The Final Shape’s release and the effort its developers put in to make it happen. In one of the posts, Smith mentioned the word Hope three times, each capitalized, which was enough to spark Destiny 3 theories within the community.

Our Hope is always the same with Destiny games, expansions, seasons, DLCs, exotic missions, secret missions, in-game events, merchandise, et cetera – we genuinely Hope you enjoy the time you spend with it. Anything we’ve made or will make, that’s the Hope.

Make your own fate.

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) June 3, 2024

For now, The Final Shape is going down well with fans, despite initial server problems Bungie ended up apologizing for. Check out IGN’s The FInal Shape review in progress to find out what we think.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Showing off over 70 indie games with positivity and compassion at their core, today’s Wholesome Direct had quite a few neat games to keep an eye on, whether today marked their world premiere or just the debut of a brand new trailer. A handful of games even received surprise releases, and there are quite a few more demos out right now!

From a cheese-filled decorating simulator for mice to an exploration game where you play as a house on a date (and an impressive number of games with “lands” somewhere in their titles), here are 15 of our favorite games from this year’s Wholesome Direct.

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home

Receiving a world premiere at today’s Wholesome Direct, Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is an adorably named combination between a puzzle game and a decorating simulator. Players will solve furniture-shaped puzzles made of cheese, watch as the cheese turns into furniture, and then use it to decorate rooms for their mice. With hundreds of furniture items, stickers, and accessories available, I’m already determined to collect everything and be the best mouse parent I can be.

Squeakross doesn’t have a release window yet, but it’s headed to Steam (and will run on Steam Deck).

Fruitbus

In the upcoming adventure game Fruitbus, players will get to customize their own food truck, drive around and gather ingredients from an open world, and help adorable customers through cooking. While the core game loop is focused around cooking and experimenting with recipes, there’s also a narrative about the previous owner’s past to uncover, stirring up what looks to be a tasty balance between open-ended gameplay and story.

Fruitbus is headed to Steam and consoles this October, and it also has a demo out now.

Helldivers 2’s next patch is a big one — developer Arrowhead has promised it will make over 100 changes and fixes to the game.

In a post on the Helldivers Discord, community manager Twinbeard gave fans a tease for what to expect from the update, which all being well should be released next week.

As well as the over 100 changes and fixes, the patch will revert patrols and spawn rate after feedback from the community to changes made in previous patches.

There’s also the promise of invite-only lobbies, a fix for the unlimited grenade issue, and making super samples available at level six difficulty, which should make them easier to obtain by more players. Currently, super samples are locked to Helldivers 2 difficulties seven to nine (Suicide Mission, Impossible, and Helldive), making them out of reach to many. Super samples are used to unlock the final ship module in each section.

And here’s a really welcome change: visible supply lines and attack origins. Currently, planets viewable on the galaxy map have invisible lines between them that determine the path to liberation. To access a planet, Super Earth must have full control of a planet with a supply line connecting to it. But because Helldivers 2 does not surface this mechanic, the wider player base is most often oblivious to the focus of attention when new Major Orders come around. Hardcore Helldivers 2 players who enjoy playing the meta narrative that is the Galactic War believe this lack of information in the user interface has caused some Major Orders to fail.

The early patch news is going down well within the Helldivers community, which had called on Arrowhead to take more time with updates and Premium Warbonds after previous efforts fell flat. “It was frankly about time we offered you something,” Twinbeard said in a post on the Helldivers subreddit. “We know you’ve been waiting a long time. Hopefully the patch and new warbond are two steps in the right direction.”

Speaking of warbonds, Helldivers 2 gets the new jungle-themed Viper Commandos warbond on June 13. In a recent post on the PlayStation Blog, Katherine Baskin, social media and community manager at Arrowhead, said the studio had responded to feedback on Helldivers 2’s warbonds and had changed its approach as a result. For a start, Arrowhead has slowed down the pace at which it releases warbonds “to give us a little bit more time to polish these designs before they’re released.” Baskin continued: “We don’t want to rush anything out of the oven before it’s fully baked.”

So, next week is a big one for Helldivers 2, with the game-changing patch and warbond set to hit around the same time. It feels like the start of a new way of working for Arrowhead and cadence of updates for the game. Last month, Arrowhead revealed it was in the process of setting the studio up so it could “make more and better stuff” in the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, new CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced previous Arrowhead CEO and now current Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt, said the studio has had to adjust to the enormous success Helldivers 2 has brought to the company.

PlayStation 5 and PC co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, having shifted an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since going on sale earlier this year. Amid the huge revenue Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered a number of crises, including launch server problems and, most recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to account link to PlayStation Network.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

After weeks of internet rumours, Sony’s unusual new game was finally made official at Summer Game Fest 2024: LEGO Horizon Adventures. Built brick-by-brick by main Horizon developer Guerilla in collaboration with Studio Gobo, it looks to be exactly what you’d expect from a LEGO tie-in: bright, charming, goofy, and full of things to smash and studs to collect. That’s been a recipe for success multiple times over for LEGO, but this time around I’m not so sure. Who exactly is LEGO Horizon Adventures for?

This isn’t LEGO’s first foray into the Horizon universe. The Danish toy company’s fantastic Tallneck kit, based on Horizon’s giraffe-like walking towers, is an almost 14-inch tall behemoth made of 1,222 pieces. If the brick count didn’t give it away, the recommended age for this model is 18+. In the physical world, LEGO Horizon has been aimed at adults because it’s adults who play the video game series. But one look at LEGO Horizon Adventures and it’s clear this isn’t anywhere close to the type of experience we’ve had with the two mainline Horizon games so far. For existing fans who are already chomping at the brick for a new game, this likely isn’t what they were hoping for.

While I didn’t expect LEGO Horizon Adventures to simply be a full-fat Horizon game with a LEGO aesthetic, I am surprised that the trailer shows very little of what I’d consider to be the series’ core DNA. Horizon is all about tactically tearing apart robot dinosaurs and animals. Thunderjaw wrecking your day? Blast off its missile launchers. Struggling with a Snapmaw? Snipe its freeze sac. Each machine is built of components that can be broken and shattered, an idea that would surely translate beautifully into snapping and scattering Lego pieces. And yet the trailer suggests that combat in LEGO Horizon Adventures will be similar to prior LEGO games of the Star Wars and Marvel varieties – give something a good, simple boop on the head and they’ll break apart. I’m not sure how satisfying this is going to be for long-term fans.

And so the answer is obvious, isn’t it? LEGO Horizon Adventures is for children. This is a PlayStation Studios game being released for Nintendo Switch, afterall. But I’m not sure it’s that easy. LEGO games have been so successful with children because they’ve historically adapted licences that kids already love. As a pre-teen during the prequel era of Star Wars I loved the tie-in LEGO kits, and so the subsequent LEGO Star Wars video games were a no-brainer. But Horizon isn’t already beloved by kids in its original or LEGO form. And while my six-year-old nephew is as dinosaur obsessed as any kid his age, I don’t think an armour-plated t-rex is going to be a guaranteed magnet. He’d go wild for a new LEGO Jurassic World game, though, not least because there’s already age-appropriate LEGO kits he can play with.

So who is LEGO Horizon Adventures for? I think it’s for gamer families. It’s for parents who spend dozens and dozens of hours playing Horizon on PS5 after they’ve put their kids to bed, and who now want to introduce that world to their sons and daughters. The ingredients are all there: as detailed by the PlayStation Blog, LEGO Horizon Adventures is a light-hearted retelling of Aloy’s original story, playable completely in co-op. It’s a way for an older gamer to share something they love with a kid who’s not quite ready for something as intense and complex as the full-scale Horizon games.

That’s what I imagine the boardroom pitch was, anyway. And while I hope that LEGO Horizon Adventures finds its place, I think that place is going to be a much narrower niche than would be ideal for Sony. For the parent or older sibling in the co-op pairing, I wonder if LEGO Horizon Adventures will be able to translate all the things they love about the original games. Will the combat – the beating heart of Horizon – be good enough? Will turning the complex Aloy, with all her doubts and troubles and inner-fight, into a cartoon character be satisfying? And for the child with the other controller, will this bright new world of machines, hot dogs, and (presumably) a message of environmental protection prove alluring enough to pull them away from more established characters and the likes of Roblox? I fear that the sweet spot for both players will be slim.

Historically, the LEGO pipeline has taken movies families love, turned them into physical LEGO kits they can build together, and then reimagined those kits as worlds that can be explored through video games. LEGO Horizon Adventures disrupts that pipeline by being a family game inspired by a LEGO kit for adults that was adapted from a video game for more advanced players. And so while I really do hope it’s a co-op delight, I can’t help but wonder if LEGO Horizon Adventures is built on shaky foundations.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Right from the start, Wuthering Waves’ odd mix of swords, guns, and spirits caught my eye, somehow combining disparate ideas into a combat spectacle. This story-driven gacha RPG will have you twirling like a ballerina to dodge attacks before passing the baton to a teammate that then slams the enemy with a fish-like dragon. Unfortunately, while those flashy, fast-paced fights and the exciting parkour-like movement quickly endeared Wuthering Waves to me, it also failed to impress in a few other key areas – including a lackluster story that sometimes tempted me to use the skip button.

Wuthering Waves is all about action. Every character has an element and weapon type associated with them, as well as individual skills that you can level up. However, how you use those characters isn’t quite a copy-paste of similar action-RPGs like Genshin Impact. That’s thanks in part to the intro and outro skills that can be used when you swap between each character in your three-person team, which activate cool special attacks like triggering a fire-infused shootout. You also charge up a separate skill gauge by dishing out damage or successfully dodging and parrying enemy attacks, and these systems add an appreciated layer of strategy to how you build your party and when exactly to change teammates.

Characters also have unique combos you can activate during combat, all of which you can practice in dedicated tutorials for each one. To use them, you might need to press the same button four times, press and hold a button after performing a different attack, or jump in the air for an aerial attack before activating an alternate combo. It can take a bit to memorize those inputs, but doing so for your favorite fighters makes using them even more satisfying. It’s nice that Wuthering Waves encourages you to try them all out at least once, too, even offering some small rewards for your trouble.

All that nuance makes combat a lot of fun, though it stumbles a bit with its element system, which doesn’t feel like it contributes anything significant. None of the six elemental types inflict status effects like you might expect – fire doesn’t deal damage over time and ice doesn’t immobilize enemies, for example – so it doesn’t really matter if your character is Fusion (Fire) or Glacio (Ice). It’s the variation in their actual movesets that matter, and their different elements are essentially just color-coding. Those movesets still differ enough that experimenting with team comps feels fun, but it’s a little disappointing that a character could be any element and they would play essentially exactly the same way.

They could hit just as hard as well, assuming you can equip them with the right gear to raise their damage. Rather than using traditional equipment like helmets and gloves, you strengthen your characters with Echoes: animal-like companions that increase your attack, elemental damage, and so on. The strength of those buffs depend on how many of the same type you equip at once, and each Echo takes up some of the limited space in your equipment slots. These restrictions encouraged me to strategize about how I could squeeze the most benefit out of the space I had, even if that meant temporarily using Echoes with suboptimal stats. Tuning, the process of unlocking additional stats for Echoes, unlocks those stats at random. This makes optimizing Echoes more difficult to achieve, but I didn’t feel like it hindered things too much – it was more of a bonus rather than a necessity.

The best part about Echoes is how they tie into the environment. As you fight enemies and bosses, they will sometimes leave behind ghost-like shells of themselves for you to absorb and convert into Echoes. I felt more compelled to explore because finding different types of monsters could mean getting access to Echoes with new effects. Not only does this system reward you with interesting gear for your characters, it encourages you to fill out your map as you go. Capturing Echoes even gets you points in a collection tracking guidebook, as well as a battle pass full of rewards, so there are reasons to hunt them beyond just upping your stats. Gotta catch ‘em all!

The hunt for Echoes also motivated me to keep fighting enemies in the overworld, even if I could blow through them with a high-level team. Clearing out smaller enemies like this was especially satisfying when every part of the map was shiny and new. However, after playing over 30 hours of Wuthering Waves, bulldozing through the same enemies over and over does start to feel repetitive, even as I continue to discover new parts of the map. On the bright side, at least you can farm for Echoes as often as you want – that’s much nicer than Genshin Impact’s artifact system, which is locked behind a daily currency.

Even when I am happily farming, one part of Wuthering Waves that totally falls flat is its story. Developer Kuro Games has openly spoken about how it had to revamp the entire story ahead of launch, and it pains me to say it that the version we ultimately got still falls short, with uneven pacing and too much exposition. The beginning is full of unnatural, lengthy conversations that use cryptic terminology you need to look up in encyclopedias and loading screens to actually understand, and it doesn’t get any more compelling once you do.

Your main character follows the classic trope of an amnesiac protagonist that seemingly appears out of nowhere, with a generic story that revolves around the secret of their past. That can work if done right, but this setup feels confusing and undeserved because of all the history and jargon thrown at you without any explanation as to how all of it connects. Things start to clear up in the later acts of the first chapter, only for it to introduce more characters that divide your attention before you can get to know them. It doesn’t help that the voice acting sounds borderline monotone across the board, even during intense cutscenes. When comparing it to contemporaries like Honkai: Star Rail, which flaunts expressive voice acting even in its side quests, it’s difficult to stay entertained throughout.

Most side quests I’ve seen haven’t done much to connect me to the other characters or the setting, either. You can witness the dangers of this apocalyptic environment, like dying NPCs and comrades that melodramatically tell you to go on without them, but there’s nothing that truly makes you think anyone important will get hurt. Small things, like the very few moments when your hero suddenly speaks despite otherwise being largely silent, are also jarring. At some points, I even preferred to mash buttons to quickly skip through a tedious conversation or leave a scene on autoplay so I could just listen without reading all that text.

Kuro Games occasionally attempts more meaningful side quests, like one about a monster mourning its mate and a researcher who similarly lost their partner, but not enough of them stand out. These memorable quests are more of a rarity than the norm. I still have a handful of big side quests waiting to be completed, but I’m already dreading the text blocks I’ve come to expect from them. At this point, I’m more compelled to play through these missions for their rewards alone rather than out of curiosity to see if they will somehow change my mind. Either way, I’m not perched on the edge of my seat, expecting some big surprise.

It took me about 20 hours to complete the main story that’s currently available, and I’ve played around 10 more in the endgame past that. Many free-to-play RPGs tend to slow down towards the end, leaving you to raise your level through farming the materials needed to level up characters and weapons or hunting down new Echoes. At level 32, I’ve reached a point where I spend most of my time either experimenting with team composition and finding new ways to earn rewards. Waveplates, the currency used to claim rewards like character-building materials from challenges, generate at a rate of 10 for every hour. It isn’t sinfully slow, but when the most satisfying parts of Wuthering Waves are its combat rewards and progression, it feels like a waiting game for new Waveplates.

That said, the rewards for climbing the ranks are tantalizing enough that they’ve also encouraged me to dig deeper on their own. Gacha games have fail-safes called “pity systems” to make sure players eventually get a high-quality reward for their banner pulls (the fairly standard system where you trade in-game currency for random characters and weapons). For what it’s worth, Wuthering Waves has been more generous with its pity system than many other games in this genre, only taking 80 gacha pulls to get to a guaranteed 5-star character or item versus the 90+ pulls I’m used to seeing. It also offers tons of resources during the initial honeymoon phase, handing out dozens of pulls whenever you climb 10 or so ranks, along with other systems that make them particularly easy to earn at the beginning.

You’re guaranteed to get at least one random 5-star character from the beginner’s banner, plus another banner that gives you a 5-star character of choice after 80 pulls. And on top of that, Wuthering Waves handed out a free pass (that will be available until next year) for another 5-star character, which means you could have at least two top-tier fighters in your party within the first few hours of playing and a third if you stick around for a couple more. You’re still at the luck of the draw beyond that, but it feels generous out of the gate, especially for any gacha game fans burnt out on bad pulls elsewhere.

Some of the characters I’ve seen do feel underpowered compared to others, which is sort of inevitable in games where the cast grows over time like this. However, Wuthering Waves does its best to offer “future-proof” free-to-play characters that make it easier to build optimized rotations without having to constantly keep up with new releases. You unlock six 4-star characters for free through the story and challenges that can charge your party’s energy, strengthen their attacks, and heal as needed. It’s great that this foundation plus the 5-stars mentioned earlier make it so that beginners can start building strong team comps that feel satisfying right away.

Kuro Games also offered heaps of rewards as an apology for bugs that were reported around the initial launch, though I didn’t see anything nearly as bad as some others did. I used Wuthering Waves’ cross-progression to try it on three different devices: a high-end gaming laptop, a Legion Go handheld PC, and an iPhone 12 Pro. Apparently some bugs have made Wuthering Waves essentially unplayable on certain devices for many people, but I haven’t experienced anything significant enough to make me stop playing. I’ve suffered from occasional lag when fighting bosses or after playing long amounts of time, but only small blips that were quickly forgotten across dozens of hours. That said, it was still nice that the apology rewards made the slower endgame progression move a little bit quicker.

Happy Volvy’s birthday, I guess? Devolver Digital just wrapped its annual Devolver Direct which, among plenty of weirdness, included a number of big game announcements. We got two new game reveals, including one from the devs of Hyper Light Drifter, new DLC for games like Cult of the Lamb, and release dates for The Crush House and Anger Foot.

A time was certainly had by all, but if you missed the show and don’t want to go back and watch a 30-minute video of a lonely man trying to prepare for a birthday party, here’s a quick recap of the announcements:

Tenjutsu

The first of two brand new games announced during the event, Tenjutsu comes from Dead Cells designer Sébastien Benard. It’s a “rogue-jutsu” game set in a crumbling city, where you play as a renegade yakuza taking down her former colleagues. Tenjutsu looks to be something like a combination of Dead Cells, Streets of Rage, and Sifu — your goal is to take down four crime syndicates, which you can tackle in any order as you slowly improve your skills at a complex brawler fighting system. You can also use resources you collect to build up the city with shops and restaurants, but spending too much time preparing will result in stronger enemies. Tenjutsu is coming to PC and consoles, but no release date just yet.

Possessor(s)

In Devolver’s second game announcement of the evening, we took a look at Possessor(s). Art style look familiar? Yup, this is from Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash developer Heart Machine. It’s a side-scroller action game with sci-fi horror elements where you play as Luca and her counterpart Rehm. The two explore a city wrecked by an interdimensional catastrophe. Possessor(s) has an open-ended world structure with multiple possible paths available at any given time, and focuses on tight combat, challenging bosses, and exploration. Possessor(s) is coming to PC and console in 2025.

The Crush House

I’ve been obsessed with The Crush House since it was first revealed earlier this year. It’s a novel premise for a game: you’re a producer on the titular reality TV show set at a Malibu mansion. Every week, you select a four-person cast from 12 total actors and let them loose in The Crush House, filming spicy moments over several days to satisfy your drama-loving audience. When you’re not filming, you’ll likely spend your time obsessing over details like decorations, props, or other ways you can capture different audience segments…though you’ll also quickly realize there’s a deeper mystery going on beneath the brightly color veneer of the house. During today’s Devolver Direct, we saw a new trailer for The Crush House capped with a release date: it’s coming out on August 9 on PC, with a Steam demo available now.

Anger Foot

Free Lives, developers of Broforce, Gorn, and Terra Nil, were also at the Devolver Direct with their upcoming game, Anger Foot. We actually went hands-on with Anger Foot not long ago, and really enjoyed its compelling take on the stylings of Hotline Miami, but with a lot more kicking. It’s a first-person…shooter? More like kicker. You kick your way through a place literally called Shit City, bringing down enemies, replaying levels with different types of kickers, and upgrading your weapons and sneakers as you go. Anger Foot is coming soon — it’ll be out on PC on July 11.

The Talos Principle 2 – Road to Elysium

The Talos Principle 2 came out late last year, and we praised its simultaneous exploration of both puzzling and philosophy in our 8/10 review. But Croteam showed up to the Devolver Direct to expand on what it established in the base game with the Road to Elysium DLC, now with a release date of June 14. Road to Elysium takes place after the events of The Talos Principle 2, bringing back familiar characters and expanding on certain major moments from the game. It takes place over three distinct chapters, each with a different vibe and a different character perspective.

Cult of the Lamb – Unholy Alliance

Finally, Cult of the Lamb stopped into the birthday party to share some news about an upcoming free update, Unholy Alliance. Unholy Alliance brings a new playable character, the Goat, to the game for the addition of local co-op. Local co-op brings with it certain new challenges, such as twists on existing minigames, the ability to swap weapons between the two characters, deal extra damage if fighting back to back, and plenty more. There are also new rewards being added to the game for solo players, so don’t worry if you don’t have a Goat buddy. Unholy Alliance will release on August 12 for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.

That’s it for Volvy’s Birthday the Devolver Direct! You can catch up on everything from Summer Game Fest and Day of the Devs earlier today with our round-ups here and here, and stick with IGN for everything else Summer of Gaming all month long.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.