Konami is bringing back Metal Gear multiplayer with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, but don’t expect it to play like Metal Gear Online.
Metal Gear Online is the fondly remembered multiplayer spin-off bundled with 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Its servers shut down four years later, in 2012.
With this August’s release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3, Konami will rekindle Metal Gear multiplayer with Fox Hunt, although it said its gameplay is completely different than MGO’s.
In a new video, Konami revealed snippets of Fox Hunt gameplay, which show a soldier controlled from a third-person perspective using camo tech to blend in with their environment. For more, check out everything announced at Konami Press Start Live June 2025.
Our passionate team of developers take us on an extended look into the creation of METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER and its bonus content 🐍 ❗#KonamiPressStartpic.twitter.com/aIhW4HIAVM
Yu Sahara, director of Fox Hunt mode in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, said this new online multiplayer mode takes “camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level,” using the “back and forth tension of staying hidden or searching out the enemy” to create something unique.
“Fox Hunt is a completely original online multiplayer mode,” Sahara said. “Although it shares the same world with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the gameplay is completely different.
“When we say Metal Gear multiplayer, many fans will probably think of Metal Gear Online, but Fox Hunt will be its own new type of mode. We very much appreciate all the long-time fans of MGO who have always wanted to see it make a comeback, but the landscape of multiplayer games has changed a lot since MGO. It took a lot of careful consideration to think about what a new online mode should look like.
“Based on the iconic stealth and survival elements of the Metal Gear series, we are taking camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level. We challenged ourselves to make something unique that is more than just a shootout. We’ve used that back and forth tension of staying hidden or searching out the enemy to create an online experience unique to Metal Gear.”
Expect more information on Fox Hunt soon, Sahara added.
Meanwhile, the video showed off more of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, as well as its PC and PlayStation 5 Ape Escape crossover mode, Snake vs Monkey, and Xbox Bomberman crossover mode, Snake vs Bomberman.
Yuji Korekado, creative producer, said of the main game: “While the basic gameplay of the boss battles remains the same, we’ve made some updates to the AI and animations, and rebalanced some things.”
Secret Theater also returns, but in the remake, the original Secret Theater videos can now be found as collectibles in-game. There are new Secret Theater videos made for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, secretly carried by enemy soldiers.
In April, IGN reported on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater’s ESRB listing, which mentioned the game includes suggestive and sexual content such as the Peep Demo Theater unlockable extra feature found in the Subsistence and HD Collection versions of the original Metal Gear Solid 3.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater launches across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on August 28, 2025.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Nintendo has deployed an update for Splatoon 3, improving how it looks and runs on Nintendo Switch 2.
As well as increasing the resolution of images stored in the Switch 2 album, Update 10.0.0. brings smoother on-screen movement in Splatsville, Inkopolis, Inkopolis Square, and Grand Festival Grounds, as well as improved animations for certain characters like jellyfish, and the Salmonid when there’s a large number of them in the stage in Salmon Run.
In additional to these performance and visual improvements for Switch 2, you also get 30 new weapon kits from the Barazushi and Emberz brands (the Splatlands Collection), and the return of the Urchin Underpass stage from the original Splatoon game on Wii U.
Nintendo said its next update will “focus on multiplayer balance based on analysis of changes to the situation that come with these weapon additions.”
Splatoon 3 update: Ver. 10.0.0 (Released June 11, 2025)
Added Features and Game Content Changes
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2:
Made it so that the screen displays in more detail.
Made on-screen movement smoother in the following areas.
Splatsville
Inkopolis
Inkopolis Square
Grand Festival Grounds
In Salmon Run, smoothed Salmonid animations even when there’s a large number of Salmonids in the stage.
Smoothed animations for certain characters, such as jellyfish.
Changed the animation that displays in the bottom right of the screen when switching scenes.
Increased the resolution of images stored in the Nintendo Switch 2 Album when screens are captured using Photo Mode or the Capture Button on the controller.
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch:
Made it so that certain elements outside the stage and unrelated to battle do not display when battling in Splat Zones/Tower Control/Rainmaker/Clam Blitz modes.
This change is to reduce differences in game operation speed as much as possible when compared with Nintendo Switch 2.
In Recon Mode, all elements will display as they have up to this point.
All other changes below apply to both Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.
Changes to Multiplayer
Added a new stage, Urchin Underpass.
Added 30 new weapons as part of the Splatlands Collection – Barazushi / Emberz.
These weapons will be available in the shops after applying the update. Splatlands Collection – Barazushi
Added a Series Weapon feature to Anarchy Battle (Series) for Rank S and higher.
In Anarchy Battle (Series) for Rank S or higher, Series Weapon Power will be measured for each weapon players equip. They will be matched with other players whose Series Weapon Power is similar to theirs for the currently equipped weapon.
Series Weapon Power is the same for all four modes.
Players can check their current Series Weapon Power for each weapon by pressing the ZL Button on the Equip screen to display the weapon’s details.
Series Weapon Power resets each time the season changes, but the highest value players have achieved will be recorded in SplatNet 3.
In Anarchy Battle (Open), increased the amount of change in Rank Points per battle by approximately 2.5x.
Made it so that call signs, which are automatically determined using factors such as equipped gear, will display in X Battles in place of nicknames.
After the battle ends, you can check players’ actual nicknames and IDs (the string of numbers and letters starting with #) on screens for checking results, such as the match menu and the lobby terminal.
For X Rankings, players’ actual nicknames and IDs will display.
Changes to SplatNet 3
Players’ Best Nine will now display.
“Best Nine” indicates the nine weapons with the highest Series Weapon Power out of all the weapons a player owns.
Best Nine rankings will now display.
Best Nine rankings are rankings where players compete for total Series Weapon Power for their Best Nine.
Notifications from SplatNet 3 will now display in the notifications box within the Nintendo Switch App.
Other Changes
Increased the maximum value for weapon Freshness to 10★.
Players can earn new badges for weapons by achieving Freshness 6★ to 10★.
Once the update has been applied, weapons that had received XP beyond the maximum value before applying the update will have their Freshness increase after one battle by an amount proportionate to the amount of XP received up to this point.
Added new badges players can acquire based on the number of weapons with Freshness ★★★★ or higher.
Made it so that other players a player has battled with in Anarchy Battle (Series) and Splatfest Battle (Pro) will not display in the Users You Have Played With system feature of Nintendo Switch/Nintendo Switch 2 consoles.
As a bonus update, in this update we added weapons and a stage, increased the maximum Freshness, implemented a Series Weapon feature for Anarchy Battle (Series), added a call sign feature to X Battles, and performed optimization of operations on Nintendo Switch 2.
For Anarchy Battle (Series), we implemented a new Series Weapon feature targeted toward players Rank S or higher.
With this feature, the Series Weapon Power will be measured for each weapon currently equipped, and players will be matched up against others with similar levels of power.
We implemented this feature in hopes that players will enjoy battling using a variety of weapons, including the Splatlands Collection – Barazushi / Emberz weapons added in this update.
Additionally, we made balance changes to multiplayer battles.
For S-BLAST ‘92 and S-BLAST ‘91, we have made adjustments to give players fighting against them more room to counter because, from the opponent’s point of view, there seemed to be no openings at any distance.
For the Crab Tank, we lowered the maximum damage of the cannon to decrease the frequency that the person being attacked is defeated without any opportunity to evade. We also made it easier for other special weapons to fight against the Crab Tank.
For Toxic Mist, we have reduced the amount of ink consumed to make it easier to fight in combination with main weapons. On the other hand, we have simultaneously extended the time before ink begins to recover so that this change does not lead to tactics where players simply continuously throw their sub weapons.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Right now, the concurrent player peak is almost 105,000, but that’s the seventh all-time peak the game has set since I started writing this story. There’s no doubt player numbers will continue to climb, especially as we move into the weekend.
PC-specific features include AI upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, an unlocked framerate, Japanese and Chinese voiceover, ultrawide display support, higher resolution environment textures, and DualSense support for haptic feedback and trigger effects.
Stellar Blade has done so well for developer Shift Up that a sequel is already confirmed. The Sony-published action game launched to a positive response back in April 2024, with players saying its gameplay mixed elements of NieR: Automata and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
The first part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy may have just been announced to be coming to Xbox, but for the time being, the second chapter, Rebirth, is one of the best games only available for PS5 and PC.
If you’ve not yet picked it up, however, you can save 50% on the ambitious open world entry in the saga thanks to Amazon-owned retailer Woot.
Save 50% on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Woot has slashed the price of the title from its MSRP of $69.99 down to $34.99 as part of its ongoing video game sale (which notably ends in just a few days time).
That’s not all, either. Because Woot is part of the Amazon family, the game includes the Amazon exclusive pre-order bonus from 2024: a nifty controller skin. You’ll find it in the box.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s huge world is made up of a series of hubs, allowing for a whole host of side objectives that players can find, including the legendary Golden Saucer amusement park.
For $35, you’re getting an unbelievable amount of additional content that could have you playing right through to Part 3.
In our review, we said, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long,” awarding it a 9/10.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay. He’s also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
Ever looked at the bulky helmets and garb of Elden Ring Nightreign‘s Nightfarers? Well, wonder no more, as one YouTuber has taken the mask off and shown the little details hiding underneath the coverings of Elden Ring Nightreign’s cast.
YouTuber Zullie the Witch posted a behind-the-mask look at Nightreign’s cast on June 5. All of them have distinct models, with some surprising details under the hood.
Some are just little curiosities, like Ironeye’s face being fully modeled from the front. Zullie also notes that the Nightfarers’ eye colors change depending on their skin. Other characters have some fun ties to other FromSoftware games, like the Duchess’ similarity to Dark Souls 3’s Firekeeper.
Revealing the face of characters like Ironeye or Executor is neat, but the real question I’m sure you’re asking is whether the avian Guardian is truly a bird, or if he has a human face underneath? Well, the answer is that yes, he is truly a bird. The Revenant also hides a skull beneath her porcelain facade, though, so there are still some surprises in store for those who haven’t seen them in-game yet.
While there aren’t any profound lore discoveries to be made here, they do add a little extra character to each of the Nightfarers, and show off FromSoft’s attention to detail, even down to the tiny things that would probably go unnoticed in most players’ runs of the game.
The one strange note is Wylder, who does not seem to have a face model at all. This might just be a design quirk, but it’s interesting to imagine there might be some deeper lore reason for his under-armor presence remaining a mystery.
Want codes for Flashpoint: Worlds Collide? In this article, you’ll find the latest active codes so you can earn cash, experience, suits, and more fast. IGN has you covered for when new ones are released and updates when they expire. This article also explains how to redeem codes if you’re not sure!
Working Flashpoint: Worlds Collide Codes (June 2025)
Here are all the current active codes for Flashpoint: Worlds Collide and the rewards you’ll get for redeeming them:
Unfortunately, these codes have expired and will no longer work:
UnderneathTheTree
walnut
sub2varisyt
How to Redeem Flashpoint: Worlds Collide Codes
Before you can redeem codes for Flashpoint: Worlds Collide you’ll need to follow a few simple steps. Make sure you do these before trying to claim any in-game:
First, join the Varis Studios Roblox group.
Launch Flashpoint: Worlds
Press the “CODES” button on the left side of your screen.
Enter your code here and press the Redeem button to get your rewards.
Why Isn’t My Flashpoint: Worlds Collide Code Working?
There are two main reasons why a code usually doesn’t work in any Roblox game and the same goes for this experience:
The code is expired
The code has been entered incorrectly
If a code has been entered incorrectly or has expired, you’ll see a message that says, “Not an active code!” To stop this from happening, we recommend copying and pasting the code directly from this article. We check and test each code before we add them to our article. However, when copying them, you can sometimes accidentally include an extra space somewhere. This is why you should always double-check that there aren’t any additional spaces!
Where to Find More Flashpoint: Worlds Collide Codes
We’ll update this article when new codes are added so you can always check back here and keep up-to-date with the latest codes. Flashpoint: Worlds Collide has its own dedicated Discord server where codes are announced, as well as game updates. Certain codes may require going to specific YouTuber channels to find them as well.
What is Flashpoint: Worlds Collide in Roblox?
Flashpoint: Worlds Collide is a Roblox experience that revolves around Flash from the DC Universe. Players can speed through the city as their own avatar or wear one of many outfits as they fight criminals and earn money doing it.
As you stop crimes, you’ll gain experience so you can upgrade your skills and become faster. Which you’ll need to do if you want to beat other players in races where speed is all that matters. Or you can put more of your skill points into stats like health and damage so you’re an even stronger crime fighter. Become the super hero that you want to be.
Jeffrey Lerman is a freelance game journalist for IGN who has been covering games for over a decade. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Star Wars fans, don’t miss out on this incredible video game deal. Walmart is currently offering Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws game for Xbox Series X for just $20. This game normally retails for $59.99 and the lowest price I’ve ever seen for it was $39.99 during last year’s Cyber Monday sale. The game is a physical copy that’s sold and shipped by Walmart itself, not a marketplace vendor. You’ll need to get your order total to $35 in order to get free shipping, or choose free in-store pickup where available.
Star Wars Outlaws (Xbox) for $20
Star Wars Outlaws latest update – dubbed 1.6 – was rolled out earlier in May. The new update arrives alongside the new A Pirate’s Fortune DLC and includes various quality of life improvements, bug fixes, and some freebies like a new Star Wars: Skeleton Crew cosmetic pack.
New Xbox Gaming Handheld Unveiled
In other Xbox news, Microsoft officially announced its plans to release two Xbox gaming handhelds during its Xbox Games Showcase 2025 on June 8. The two new handhelds – the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X – are part of a collaboration with Asus and based on the existing Asus ROG Ally platform. You’ll be able to play Xbox games including Gears of War: Reloaded and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Launch is expected to be sometime during holiday 2025.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Elden Ring ran extremely well on the Asus ROG Ally X, but with the release of Nightreign, handheld gaming PC nerds (like me) are desperate to know if it continues the trend. After all, Shadow of the Erdtree was more demanding than the original, and that was an expansion built into it. Considering Nightreign is a standalone title, it has the potential to take things up a notch. But I have great news: It runs even better than Elden Ring.
That seems surprising, but it shouldn’t be: Elden Ring Nightreign is limited to a small map called Limveld, meaning there’s far less on the screen at any time. It helps that the environment is based on Limgrave rather than anything from Shadow of the Erdtree, which came out two years later and had more complex visual effects that gave my Ally a run for its money.
Can the Asus ROG Ally X Handle Elden Ring Nightreign?
I tested the game primarily in the castle at the center of Limveld. It’s the largest set piece on the unaltered base map, where giants can throw enormous pots of magic at the player. This is where my framerate consistently dips to its lowest points, so I’m using it as a baseline for performance. I also started a new match between each graphics preset (as recommended by the game).
I set my ROG Ally X’s Operating Mode to Turbo (30W) and plugged it into an outlet, allowing it to output the maximum amount of watts into performance. I also allocated 16GB of RAM to the GPU to get the most of its hardware, which is a unique advantage of the Ally X, as it’s built with 24GB of RAM. Most other handheld gaming PCs feature 16GB of RAM and can only allocate 8GB to the GPU. These settings allow the Asus ROG Ally X to run at its best.
The game runs well on the handheld, but Elden Ring Nightreign can struggle when there are a lot of enemies and visual effects at the same time, especially in more open areas. So, if you’re being ganked by several blood-infused enemies set to self-destruct on your position, all while overlooking Limveld from the top of ruins, the frame rate will take a massive hit. However, in enclosed spaces, like a dense forest, the game fares much better, particularly if you strategically point the camera towards the ground.
My ROG Ally X maintained an average of 30 fps at 1080p on the Maximum preset, with occasional drops down to 27 fps (usually after being bombarded by magic pots). The only other preset that dipped below 30 fps was 1080p on High. It hit an average of 35 fps, but dropped to 28 fps a few times when battling atop the castle. Otherwise, no other graphics preset dipped below 30 fps once. 1080p at Medium settings came in at an average of 39 fps. Low averaged at 43 fps, with a low of 39 fps.
The game runs much better at 720p, even reaching 60 fps occasionally. Maximum at 720p averaged 41 fps, with a 1% low of 38 fps. High came in with an average of 44 fps, with 40 fps at the worst. Medium and low look crunchy, but yield excellent performance.
Elden Ring Nightreign Is Perfect on the Asus ROG Ally X
Nightreign looks great at 1080p with Maximum settings, and plays decently enough. I enjoyed sessions from start to finish on this preset, and while occasional stutters were bothersome, it’s pretty smooth otherwise and often hovered over 30 fps. 30 fps isn’t enough for everyone though, and those willing to take a hit to resolution will likely find a better balance playing at Maximum graphics and 720p, which hovers around 41 fps, hitting a midpoint between smoothness and quality.
Players clamoring for 60 fps on their Asus ROG Ally X will have the best luck at 720p, but you’ll have to reduce the graphics presets to Medium or Low. Even then, the machine cannot maintain an average of 60 fps, and only reaches that high during less demanding encounters, like in enclosed spaces. It doesn’t look great, though, as Limveld appears flat on Low especially. The island loses its complex shadows, and each structure is low-poly.
Claire finds joy in impassioned ramblings about her closeness to video games. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Media Studies from Brooklyn College and seven years of experience in entertainment journalism. Claire is a stalwart defender of games as an artform and spends most days overwhelmed with excitement for its past, present and future. When she isn’t writing or playing Dark Souls, she can be found eating chicken fettuccine alfredo and gushing about handheld gaming PCs.
Hasbro has revealed its exclusive Marvel Legends set for San Diego Comic-Con 2025, and ’90s X-Men fans will be pleased. The Marvel Legends Series: Gamerverse Marvel Snap Savage Land 3-Pack features brand new figures of iconic heroines Rogue and Shanna the She-Devil, as well as the fearsome mutant villain Sauron.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at this stunning new set:
This set gets the Gamerverse branding because it’s technically based on a series of unlockable cards in the mobile game Marvel Snap. But it also has plenty of nostalgia factor, hearkening back to artist Jim Lee’s run on Uncanny X-Men in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
The Savage Land 3-Pack includes 15 different accessories, such as spears, alternate heads and hands, and even a hypnosis effect for Sauron. All three figures are designed in the usual 6-inch Marvel Legends scale.
The Marvel Legends Series: Gamerverse Marvel Snap Savage Land 3-Pack is priced at $89.99 and will initially be sold only in person at Hasbro’s SDCC booth (#3213). Limited quantities will then be made available on the Hasbro Pulse website after SDCC ends.
Will you be adding this Marvel Legends set to your collection? Let us know in the comments below. And stay tuned for plenty more collectibles coverage as the build-up to Comic-Con continues.
If gaming has an equivalent to A-list celebrities, then the only person in the frame for that honor would be German designer Reiner Knizia. He made his name in the mid-late ’90s with a slew of brilliant games like Ra and Battle Line, which struck a beautiful balance between luck, strategy and player interaction, so much so that the latter still ranks among our picks for the best 2-player board games today. His games were so well received that they’d make a memorable legacy for any designer but, astonishingly, the hits just keep on coming. Last year saw him produce the brilliant Cascadero and now, age 67, he’s come out with the appropriately titled Rebirth.
What’s in the Box
Since this is a tile-laying game, there are a lot of tiles to punch: 144 of them to be exact, across four player colors. These are the most disappointing aspects of production, small, fiddly, slightly flimsy counters that are easily lost and feel like they will wear quickly with the frequent handling required. Each player also gets a little clan board to store spare counters, a score marker and a fun, if superfluous, balloon you flip over when you reach a hundred points.
Thereafter the component quality goes through the roof. The board is double-sided with a map of Scotland on one side and Ireland on the other. The art is lush and green, depicting the titular rebirth: the theme of this game is rebuilding civilization in harmony with nature after an apocalypse. That doesn’t really come through in the mechanics – as is often the case with Knizia – but it certainly does through the presentation.
Yet the board layout is clear and functional despite all the little artistic flourishes you can enjoy. The accompanying decks of cards don’t have any art but are still presented in a matching style and are equally clear and usable.
In keeping with the theme, each player also gets a set of 3D castle and cathedral pieces, intricately detailed sculptures of celtic-style buildings. They’re really delightful, not only for the visual aesthetics but because they’re not cold plastic but feel like pleasantly-textured resin. In fact, they’re RE-Wood, a new technology that allows recycled wood to be molded in great detail while still remaining recyclable. It’s lovely stuff, which we will hopefully see much more of in future releases.
Rules and How it Plays
Rebirth is actually two related games in one box. There’s a basic version, played on the Scotland side of the board and a more advanced version, played on the Ireland side. The rules for Scotland are incredibly straightforward. On your turn, you pick up a tile in your supply. If it shows a food or energy symbol, you can place it on any hex showing the same icon, and it will score you points equal to the number of continuous adjacent matching tokens. If it shows one or more house symbols you can place it in a town, a delineated area which isn’t scored until it’s full, at which time it scores points for the players with the most house symbols in the group.
Many hexes are also adjacent to castles or cathedrals. If you place in one of these, you can assign one of your delightful RE-wood pieces to the adjacent feature. Castles are worth a handy five points at the end of the game, but there’s a catch. If another player can get more adjacent hexes to a castle you own than you have, then they can remove your castle piece and replace it with theirs. Cathedrals, by contrast, can be shared. Each one you place allows you to draw a mission card, which you can fulfil for extra points.
That’s pretty much the whole deal. Yet in Knizia’s trademark near-magical style, these easy rules blossom into a whole set of madly competing priorities from the very first placement. Castles are worth immediate points, but they have to be defended, and the missions cathedrals grant can be worth more in the long run, so getting them early gives you more control into the endgame. Is it worth more to capture a castle or cathedral over extending a run of tiles and getting bigger points? Are any of these more valuable than blocking an opponent’s run of tiles, or progressing a mission card instead? And let’s not even start on the relative merits of when and if to finish filling out a town.
In Knizia’s trademark near-magical style, these easy rules blossom into a whole set of madly competing priorities from the very first placement.
All these competing priorities make the process of placing a single tile far more engaging and dynamic than it sounds. Most don’t have hard answers, and take experience and educated guesswork to muddle through, ensuring the game doesn’t get bogged down in analysis paralysis. And as things progress and placement options become more limited, the race for control of castles and to finish missions ensures that there’s no let-up in terms of tension as options dwindle. Well-timed and well-placed late tiles can be crucial in determining the overall victor.
At the same time, the fact you pull a random tile each turn gives more longevity than you might anticipate to playing over and over on the same map. Because of the chaotic tile order and the interactions between the players, no two games unfold in the same way. And, although the game does get more interesting – and slightly longer – as you add players, it’s still a lot of fun with two, though three players is a sweet spot. This is, however, where the simplicity of the base design begins to show some weakness. Once you’ve learned the ins and out of the Scotland map, the game does start to feel a little lightweight.
This, of course, is the ideal time to move to Ireland. The basic rules for castles and placement are the same, although there’s a bigger town and a lot of unmarked hexes where you can place either food or energy tiles as you prefer. Cathedrals have been replaced with towers, adjacency to which wins you a bonus depending on a random tile assigned to the tower such as a score bonus, or an immediate extra turn. The mission cards you earned from cathedrals are replaced with eight public cards which are all a race, giving top points to the first player to complete, and a more modest reward for those who manage it thereafter.
So: you still have all the same competing priorities you had to juggle when you were playing Scotland. But, on top of that, it dumps a whole load of additional stuff to consider from the very first turn: you’ve got an additional eight public missions, and six different tower effects. While it isn’t a big step up in terms of rules weight, it feels like a huge step up in terms of depth, especially for the first few games on the new board, when the sheer number of factors you need to consider when placing one tile can be almost crushing. It’s a very different kind of depth to the slowly snowballing web of actions and resources that characterize more complex strategy board games because it’s front-loaded, but it’s depth nevertheless.
It’s almost too much in terms of adding to the decision-making, especially for more casual players, but it’s inarguable that it’s an effective way to address concerns that the Scotland side of the board is too straightforward. However, it can weirdly reduce the sense of competition for board space that Scotland has. With so many other priorities, the uncertain rewards of blocking other players, or trying to steal their castles, tend to take a backseat. Over time, as you get used to all the competing demands, Ireland shows its own rewards as a slower, more reflective, but still very engaging version of the game.
