Sony and game developer Santa Monica Studio have revealed the Dark Odyssey collection, a God of War Ragnarök update coming to players next week that features in-game equipment themed after one of the franchise’s most iconic outfits.
Sony detailed all of the goodies included in its God of War 20th anniversary plans in a PlayStation.Blog post. Dark Odyssey is the real headline here, as it includes a war chest of cosmetic treats for all God of War Ragnarök owners across PlayStation 5 and PC. It’ll arrive as a free update March 20.
Everything included in Dark Odyssey features a clean, black-and-gold look that will no doubt have Kratos and co looking better than ever as they tear their way through Norse mythology. Atreus and Freya both receive their own cosmetic sets as part of the patch, too, as do a variety of the player’s shields and weapons.
The show-stealer, though, is a Dark Odyssey appearance and armor set for Kratos that hearkens back to a skin originally only rewarded to players who managed to beat God of War 2 on God Mode difficulty. Players can claim the content in any Lost Items chest in the base game or immediately in God of War Ragnarök’s roguelike Valhalla mode after the update drops. The patch will also finally introduce the option to customize the appearance of Kratos’ weapons without sacrificing each weapon’s respective ability.
Dark Odyssey Armor & Appearance for Kratos
Dark Odyssey Kratos Appearance
Dark Odyssey Armor Set for Kratos (Dark Odyssey Breastplate, Dark Odyssey Bracers, Dark Odyssey Belt)
Dark Odyssey Companion Armor
Dark Odyssey Vestment for Atreus
Dark Odyssey Witch Frock for Freya
Dark Odyssey Weapon Appearances & Attachments
Dark Odyssey Leviathan Axe [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Knob [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Blades of Chaos [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Handles [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Draupnir Spear [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Hind [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Shield Appearances & Rönd
Dark Odyssey Guardian Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Dauntless Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Stone Wall Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Shatter Start Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Onslaught Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Spartan Aspis Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Rönd
God of War Ragnarök released in late 2022, so one simple update was never going to do the series’ 20-year history justice. Also included in Sony’s plans to celebrate God of War is a long list of other activities and offers for those who have stuck with Kratos’ story since the beginning. Highlights include a collection of some snazzy social media assets (that you can download here), an art showcase coming as part of a collaboration with Los Angeles’ Gallery Nucleus, new merch, sales, multiple vinyl releases covering the franchise’s history, and more.
“On behalf of everyone at Santa Monica Studio, we are immeasurably grateful to have had the chance to build the legacy of this series with and for you, the fans of God of War,” the studio said.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Easter eggs and secret messages are old hat for many ongoing games, and Helldivers 2 is no stranger to them either. So it’s little surprise that amid an ongoing, calamitous conflict with the Illuminate, players are poring over the messages for hidden details.
If you’re not caught up with the running narrative in Helldivers 2, here’s a quick catch-up: developer Arrowhead has the Illuminate back and pushing the lines of galactic warfare as the latest threat to Super Earth. The eerie foe is using a massive black hole to slowly consume entire planets, pushing it to Angel’s Venture and, now, Moradesh.
Ironically, the black hole was initially created on Meridian by Super Earth, in an effort to wipe out a Terminid Super Colony. Arrowhead’s got a particular penchant for “yes, and”-ing the outcomes of the galactic campaigns. The slow build to right now, with the Illuminate pretty much pushing a black hole slowly towards Super Earth, is the latest in a long line of dominoes.
So, now we’re here: Moradesh is evacuating, and Helldivers are anticipating the next step of this cataclysmic campaign. Yet some are digging into the evacuation orders, trying to suss out a hidden meaning from the messages Arrowhead is broadcasting.
Reddit user Pinglyadya shared an image of what looks like an egg, hidden in the Moradesh videos. In the comments, they go further, breaking down the potential morse code strings into dots and dashes, surmising that it all results in a few different codes: “045a5, 06efbc, e1b5f0 then 21232. We don’t know what this is the code to but have fun.”
The “06EFBC” code caught attention in another thread, as it could correspond with the hex code for a shade of teal called Last Straw. Sounds ominous! Nothing concrete has surfaced beyond that, but at least a few fans are convinced there’s something hidden in these messages.
It wouldn’t be the first time players have gone diving for secrets in Arrowhead’s updates. With the Meridian Singularity slowly approaching Super Earth, though, I do wonder whether Helldivers have time to spare for this.
Arrowhead has, since the destruction of Moradesh, issued a new Major Order for players, tasking them with defending planets so Super Earth can construct a Penrose Energy Siphon and effect a “one-time reduction” in Dark Energy Accumulation.
MAJOR ORDER: Following days of diligent resource collection and repurposing of enemy combatants, the Helldivers have enabled the construction of a partial blockade of the Meridian Singularity. The blockade is porous, but still moderately effective, and has slightly reduced the… pic.twitter.com/ye33V6VKa6
Hopefully, this can put a stop to the giant tear in space that’s slowly encroaching on everything the Helldivers hold dear. And, possibly, put a few more secret messages out into the ether.
This is all part of Helldivers 2’s ongoing, community driven Galactic War, which has captured the attention of the game’s community for over a year now. The Illuminate invaded in December with an initial alien force that added new enemies to fight against as well as brand new Super Earth colonies to fight on. These colonies introduced Helldivers 2’s first urban environments, with city streets packed with innocent civilians mind-controlled by the Illuminate. The Voteless, as they’re called by Super Earth, are little more than zombies who want nothing more than to team players limb from limb.
Saber Interactive has insisted all its previously announced games are still in development, despite the radio silence around high-profile titles such as the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake.
“Saber Interactive is one of the largest independent developers in the world,” Willits said. “We are working on numerous games across many different genres. Everything that we have talked about is still in development. We will share information on upcoming games when we have something cool to share.”
The most obvious subject of Willits’ statement is the KOTOR remake, which remains one of gaming’s most elusive projects. Announced in 2021, the long-awaited remake has changed hands multiple times, seemingly stopped development and restarted again, and after four years has failed to materialize.
“It’s clear and it’s obvious that we’re working on this,” he said at the time. “It’s been in the press numerous times. What I will say is that the game is alive and well, and we’re dedicated to making sure we exceed consumer expectations.”
Willits’ statement, which comes nearly 12 months later, reaffirms Karch’s quote. But still, even now, we have seen nothing of the KOTOR remake beyond its initial announcement video.
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.
We recently saw a good look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the next entry in Game Freak’s Legends series set to take place in X and Y’s Lumiose City. It’s also apparently garnered an E10+ rating from the ESRB, and fans are both curious and wildly, sometimes jokingly, speculating about what’s going to happen in this new entry.
Attentive fans noticed that on the Nintendo Switch store page, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has earned an E10+ age rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, listing ‘Fantasy Violence.’ While it might not normally draw feverish speculation for most other series, it’s an oddity for Pokémon, whose mainline games have consistently been ‘E for Everyone.’
The rating has, of course, drawn wild speculation, some serious and some less-than-serious. It is genuinely entertaining to think about what strange choices Game Freak could possibly have made to bump up the rating, whether that be dialogue about Pokémon killing people or trying to add a gunplay mechanic. As several Redditors (jokingly) suggest, maybe the hordes come back, but it involves a group of Scrafty jumping you in one of Lumiose’s alleys.
“Ohhhh boy, Game Freak is taking off the little kiddie gloves,” Reddit user RynnHamHam said. “This ain’t your kindergartener’s Pokémon game.”
Several gags have also been made about AZ, a character with quite a history set to appear in Pokémon Legends: Z-A and who plays a central role in some of the darker elements of Pokémon X and Y’s story and the history of the Kalos region.
As for more plausible speculation, there are a few theories, including a few more “craps” than usual, or the appearance of a Game Center-style minigame. Even the darker elements of Lumiose could be more front-and-center.
My personal take is that this probably lies in the ‘Fantasy Violence’ the ESRB highlighted. While the rating is an oddity for your typical Pokémon game, it does line up with the pocket monster fighting game Pokkén Tournament DX, which also received an E10+ and noted ‘Fantasy Violence.’ The real-time elements showcased for Pokémon Legends: Z-A could have elicited the slightly stronger rating, as the monsters more clearly make contact.
There’s no listing, as of this writing, for Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the ESRB site, so we can’t learn much more at this time. Still, it’s fun to speculate a bit, at least until we know more about Z-A’s ultimate plans and how it will earn that bump-up in the E range.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is slated for a late 2025 launch on Nintendo Switch.
The classic Commandos series was all about cleverly commanding a squad to pull off some daring operations aimed at crippling the Nazi war machine and putting a real stick in the eye of the empire. But it’s also a series that’s been in relative dormancy for some time, leaving other games like Shadow Tactics and Desperados to pick up the torch and offer a similar blend of real-time strategy and stealth gameplay that’s all about pulling off some slick, decisive strategies.
With the upcoming Commandos: Origins from developer Claymore Game Studios, the series finally gets its long overdue successor following the 2006 FPS spin-off, marking a return to the original’s old-school perspective and brutal difficulty. I recently got to play the opening missions of Commandos: Origins and came away appreciating this revival of an open-ended tactical stealth-action game – even if it took me some time to come to grips with it.
As a return to the classic gameplay and storytelling of the early PC games in the series, Commandos: Origins appropriately focuses on the founding of the elite squad. As green beret Jack O’Hara, he’s recruited by commando Sergeant Hancock with a mission to strike back against the growing Nazi empire. Following a daring escape through a North African allied base overrun by the Axis army, the duo soon expands their crew to engage in a larger campaign to destroy key targets across Europe and even the Arctic regions.
Origins taps into the style of pulpy, ensemble action films in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or The Dirty Dozen for its campaign.
Commandos: Origins works has both a modern update to the classic formula of the series, but also as a jumping on point for those who’ve never played the originals. Much like the previous games, Origins taps into the style of pulpy, ensemble action films in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or The Dirty Dozen for its campaign. The core gameplay is a blend of real-time strategy and a carefully paced tactics game, where you command a small squad to sneak through bases, take out targets, and make it out alive. Instead of moving turns like other tactics games, your squad and all enemies on the field will move and react in real-time, which pushes you to make your moves count – or else face the onslaught of enemies on the field.
Speaking to art director Thilo Gebhardt from Claymore Game Studios, he explained how the developer was specifically founded to help revive the Commandos series and how they approached modernizing it for Origins.
“The original owner of Kalypso Media, Simon Hellwig, who passed away, had the idea to bring back Commandos – he was a big fan of the original games,” Gebhardt said. “He had the opportunity to acquire it, and once he decided to make the next game an in-house production, he founded Claymore Studios specifically to revisit the brand. […] With other competitors in the genre recently they’ve shown that this type of game can still be updated to a more modern standard because it can be a hardcore experience. But we’ve also found ways to improve the interface and the pacing, and we hope to have made that experience more modern and less frustrating for new players.”
With each mission giving you a list of objectives and a large map to explore, you’re tasked with completing them efficiently and carefully. By taking advantage of blindspots in enemy line of sight and patrol patterns and using gadgets from the key members of each squad, you’re given plenty of opportunities and a wide berth in how you clear a mission. In some ways, it felt like each stage was a puzzle box to solve – by way of a stealth-action tactics game, and I soon had to get comfortable with hiding guards after I had taken them out of commission.
The opening mission in North Africa served as a solid tutorial in showcasing just how versatile but still specialized the squad members were. For instance, Sergeant Hancock takes on the role of the combat sapper, a combat engineer who can cut through wire barricades and plant powerful explosives to blow up targets. I found a lot to appreciate with how each squad member can coordinate, particularly with pulling off O’Hara’s advanced traversal skills and quick stealth attacks to help clear the way for his allies to break the objectives.
The stealth mechanics are impressive and really show a level of depth with the enemy AI and level design – particularly with how guards will remember which allies are in the area and how snowprints are visible in places that shouldn’t be. While I mostly crawled through the stages to be on the safe side, I still appreciated the moments when I could get a solid jump on the enemy. One useful option is the command mode, which lets you plan out specific moves for multiple squad members to execute all at once. Following the opening mission, Commandos immediately put me to the test in the following mission, which chucked me into the deep end.
Simply put, the difficulty here is super challenging. If just one commando dies, it’s a loss. I ended up failing – a lot – and that meant reloading saves to try again. Much like early entries, Commandos: Origins sticks with a retro style of progression in each mission – and that means you’ll need to embrace the retro concept of manually saving often – as auto-saves are not present in missions. In one instance during the second operation, I reached an important section of the stage but was quickly gunned down by patrolling troops. Because I was so focused on maneuvering my crew, I had forgotten to save and lost close to 10 minutes of progress.
According to the developers, the classic approach to manual saving was intentional, as it sticks close to the experience of the original games and doesn’t seek to give players too many safety nets.
“We thought a lot about the fans of the original games, and for them, the aspect of how saving works was something you simply shouldn’t change, it really comes down to taking away the liberty to decide on your own how you want to save your progress and what risk you want to take,” the art director Gebhardt said. “Personally, I will save a lot, and there are some more daring and more experienced players who deliberately do not save. And they approach it like a little bit of a puzzle with a more creative way. So really for Commandos, it’s about creative freedom of selecting your own safe points for.”
These repeated mission attempts, in some cases, turned out to be a blessing…
My losses regularly felt crushing, especially considering just how lengthy missions can be. I often felt the need to take a break, but I still rallied and came through. These repeats, in some cases, turned out to be a blessing, as they allowed me to go through the trial-and-error process and pick up new strategies, sometimes allowing me to satisfyingly make the best of a clumsy situation.
In one mission, I had to destroy a guarded comms tower. I originally took out all guards in the area and then destroyed the tower, but upon a redo of the area, I simply destroyed the tower and watched it crash down on two guards, with me walking away feeling like I was Agent 47 in Hitman. In one satisfying instance, I used my sniper commando to pull off a Saving Private Ryan-style series of quick sniper shots on alerted guards, giving my team some breathing room to rally.
The raw satisfaction that comes from tactics games is seeing a plan come together after taking a risk, and Commandos: Origins certainly offered up plenty of those moments – even after my crushing defeats. So far, Claymore Game Studios’ revival of Commandos is offering a compelling case for its comeback, which can potentially put the series back on the map as an exciting and satisfying tactics game.
At first glance, you might mistake Atomfall for a Fallout-style game. Perhaps, even, an actual Fallout game set in a post-apocalyptic England rather than a post-apocalyptic America. Atomfall is first-person, it’s post-nuclear (it’s called Atomfall for a reason), and it has an alt-history design, as Fallout famously does.
Ryan Greene, art director at developer Rebellion, totally understands where the Fallout comparisons are coming from. Not only that, but the development team knew Atomfall would be compared to Fallout as soon as it was revealed.
“Once you play the game, you realize it’s not Fallout, but yes, we knew,” Greene told IGN.
“And one of our owners, Jason Kingsley, he’s a big Fallout fan, so inevitably there was going to be some parallels in that any kind of survival in the apocalypse, immediately Fallout’s going to come up as a thing. And those guys are great at what they do. And that’s cool.”
Indeed, Greene warned that the Fallout comparison is “misleading.”
“Once you play it for a bit, you’re like, oh, this is its own thing for sure,” Greene said. And, Greene pointed out, Rebellion isn’t Microsoft-owned Bethesda. The independently owned British studio behind the Sniper Elite franchise has created an ambitious game, relative to its other games, but we’re not talking about an Elder Scrolls or Fallout-sized experience here.
“The reality is, here’s this very successful franchise and we’re version 1.0,” Greene continued. “To be compared to those guys… thank you very much… Yes, we appreciate it because that’s a skillful team that’s making that stuff.”
An average Atomfall playthrough, Greene said, is “probably 25-ish hours.” However, completionists can stretch that “a long way.”
To find out how the game plays, be sure to check out IGN’s most recent Atomfall hands-on preview, in which our Simon Cardy went off the deep end and killed everyone during his playthrough.
It turns out, you can go through the entire game killing everyone and it will cope with that. “You can kill anyone or everyone if you choose,” Greene confirmed. “That’s fine. We have multiple finishes to the game, so some of those would shut down if you were supposed to work with them throughout, but you’ll find multiple other routes to finish the game and achieve a result.”
Atomfall doesn’t have a main quest or a side quest in the traditional RPG sense. Rather, “it’s a spider web of connected story,” Greene explained.
“So even if you sever one thread, you can usually find another thread that leads you back to the overall mystery.”
Conversely, you can play through Atomfall without killing anyone. At least, Greene is “fairly certain” you can. “I’ve made it about nine hours in, probably close to halfway running at a pretty fast dev play speed and killed no one,” he said. “I’m fairly certain you can do it and there’s no gating of having to kill anyone ever.”
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.
Earlier this month Roblox announced that its The Hunt: Mega Edition Event would come with a $1 million grand prize for one super skilled gamer, and today the event officially started, revealing the 25 different Roblox experiences players will need to compete in to walk away a millionaire.
Roblox’s last event, The Hunt: First Edition, attracted 34 million users without promising enough money to buy 1,428 PlayStation 5 Pros and still have money left over for a decent library of games, so expect The Hunt: Mega Edition to be the focus of the Roblox community until the event hits its live-streamed final in April. For that final the top ten The Hunt: Mega Edition competitors will be invited to Roblox HQ for their shot at the jackpot.
The full list of 25 different Roblox experiences that make up The Hunt: Mega Edition Event are:
A Dusty Trip
Arsenal
Basketball Legends
Bayside High School
Blade League
Clip It
Car Crushers 2
Chained [2 Player Obby]
Drive World
Eat the World
Fisch
Hell’s Kitchen
Infection Gunfight
It Girl
Metro Life
Natural Disaster Survival
Pet Simulator 99
PRESSURE
Regretevator
RIVALS
SpongeBob Tower Defense
Tower Defense Simulator
Untitled Boxing Game
Untitled Tag Game
World Zero
That’s quite the variety, meaning to get to the big prize players will need to show their skills in games like life sim Bayside High School, cook up a storm as Gordon Ramsay’s next executive chef in Hell’s Kitchen and survive zombie FPS Infection Gunfight.
The only catch is to win the money you need to be 13 years-old or over, but even if you out of the running for the cash there are still special ultra-rare digital items created exclusively for The Hunt: Mega Edition to win. For all the terms and conditions head on over to the official The Hunt: Mega Edition site.
Few sports feel more primed for the whole “being a video game” thing than professional wrestling, but it’s also kind of a weird pairing when you stop to think about it: While undoubtedly a feat of athleticism, the WWE is more akin to an elaborately choreographed fight sequence in a movie than it is an actual competition, whereas the goal of the games based on it is to fight to win. But inherent contradictions aside, I can confidently say — thanks to its much-improved Showcase and MyRise modes, several smart additions like intergender matches, “they’re always good” modes like WWE Universe and MyGM, and generally great game feel — that WWE 2K25 is pretty grand. There is a new guy on the undercard called The Island, and he sucks, which kinda drags the whole thing down a little — but not enough to get me to stop watching.
Even though I’ve been playing wrestling games since the N64 days, my first stop in an annualized series like this is usually the tutorial because, unless things have gone very wrong, something is always a little different (this year, for instance, sees the long-requested return of Chain Wrestling). WWE games have had a good introduction for a while now, especially compared to other sports game franchises. (Hi, Madden! Your skills trainer is great, but it needs to be about three times its current size!). WWE 2K25 has an incredibly detailed tutorial that will walk you through everything you need to be a champ in the ring, with in-depth explanations of what moves do and how to execute them. The Performance Center is a great teaching tool whether you need a quick refresher or you’re learning to do an Irish Whip for the first time. This may seem like an odd thing to spill ink over, but every version of a game is someone’s first – or maybe their first in a while – and I’m glad developer Visual Concepts seems to remember those people.
Once I’d refreshed my memory, I spent a while just looking around. WWE 2K25’s got an absolutely stacked roster, whether you’re here for classics like Bret “Hit Man” Hart, wrestlers-turned-movie-stars like Dave Bautista and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, megastars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, or weirdos like Doink the Clown. I also appreciate that there are several versions of the same dudes from across their history in the WWE. Why yes, WWE 2K25, I do need a handful of Triple Hs, each with their own different stats, thank you! Did you know that, compared to the modern version of The Rock, the 1997 version is kind of a bum? Me neither, but that’s what the stats say! Remember what Rhea Ripley’s visual style was in 2020? Or 2017? When was the last time you thought about “Ravishing” Rick Rude? This granularity is great, and what’s better is you can edit just about every aspect of these wrestlers, from how the crowd reacts to them to tweaking individual stats and changing out moves if you don’t like Visual Concepts’ take on them. The ability to tweak individual wrestlers is not new, but as this roster gets bigger, it’s good to be reminded of how impressive all of it is.
WWE 2K25 has got an absolutely stacked roster.
That goes for the in-ring action, too. WWE 2K25 doesn’t deviate much from WWE 2K24, which is one of those “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” deals, but it does include the welcome return of Chain Wrestling. This is a minigame that mostly takes place early in the match, where you advance through (or fight to get out of) a series of increasingly impressive holds and maneuvers before landing a signature move or finisher to wrap things up. The system can be confusing initially as you have to move the analog stick around a circle to find a sweet spot before your opponent does, but once you learn it, it’s a neat addition that replicates some very cool, complex moments in pro wrestling. If anything, the only bummer here is that it’s generally relegated to the beginning of a match and extremely situational at any other time.
I’ve also really enjoyed the new match types. Intergender matches aren’t functionally different than any other kind of match beyond “you may have a dude and a lady in the ring at the same time,” but it’s cool that you can do that now – and I, for one, enjoyed having Rhea Ripley fight Kevin Nash. I can say similar things for the Underground matches, which are more like a traditional fighting game (there are no ropes on the ring, and you win by either KOing someone or depleting all their health), and the more chaotic Bloodline Rules bouts. These additions are fun in and of themselves, and match/mode variety can make or break a game like this, so more is good.
Speaking of good, let’s talk about this year’s Showcase mode, which follows the Bloodline and the Anoa’i, Fatu, and Maivia families. Paul “The Wiseman” Heyman hosts the thing this year, and he’s clearly having a very good time chewing the scenery and providing the backstory that explains who the players are and why these matches are significant. There’s a lot of archival footage here, as in years past, though the problem of awkwardly blurring out some folks’ faces (maybe due to rights issues?) persists.
Regardless, Showcase feels better than last year’s version, partially because we’ve got full ring entrances and the mid-match commentary is really excellent for every fight. A fun twist this time around is that you’re sometimes asked to change the outcomes of matches that members of these families lost in the real WWE storyline or create new “what if?” matches entirely. There are also no longer any cuts to match footage that interrupt your gameplay – big moments are instead recreated in-game, which means they play out more organically, even if you’re not following the checklist (though there’s something to be said for showing what happened through archival footage). That said, it’s a net positive overall, and I had a blast doing things like beating the ever-loving snot out of Hulk Hogan with Yokozuna or pitting “High Chief” Peter Maivia against George “The Animal” Steele in a steel cage match.
Showcase feels better than last year’s version.
The optional in-match objectives, especially timed ones, can be irritating. Yeah, I get that in the real match, X wrestler might’ve done Y thing so many times in Z seconds, but recreating that in-game means hoping that the computer doesn’t pull a reversal or we don’t get caught in the “you hit me and then I hit you and then you hit me until one of us screws up” mini-game. At that point, you’re better off restarting the match. It’s still worth doing these optional objectives because of the rewards like new wrestlers and arenas, but man, some matches are easier than others in ways you’ll feel.
The other problem with this year’s Showcase is how much of it boils down to “the Bloodline is great because they win all the time, but if they didn’t win, we have to correct that injustice because of how great they are.” That’s fine, but it’s thematically inconsistent in a weird way. Great wrestlers lose all the time and that doesn’t make them less great. I don’t know what the answer to this is since nobody likes playing a game where you’re forced to lose, but I think I would have rather had more real matches with real outcomes.
The other standout mode is MyRise, where your customized character (WWE 2K25 still has one of the best character creators in the world) battles an infiltration by NXT Superstars who are trying to take over the WWE and be the last brand standing. In my run, my “bold and brash” technical wrestler teamed up with his “comedic and fun” ex-girlfriend to fight back against the invasion. The voice acting is… questionable in MyRise, but the scenarios are goofy fun that alternate between “this is a business that combines soap operas and combat sports and we’re going to approach it like that” and “this is serious business” with alarming frequency. But it’s fun to make decisions that change the flow of what happens and it’s cool that you can re-import your characters to start again fresh and make different choices.
The MyGM and Universe modes also return, and they’re largely unchanged from last year, but there’s a couple of nice additions: MyGM is online now, which is great for those who wanna compete against their friends to book the best shows, and Universe finally gets the long-awaited return of promos. I prefer to run with a single wrestler (I have already made Randy Orton the WWE Undisputed Champion, because RKOing people even more fun when you have a big belt that says “look at me, I’m great”), so Universe is more my bag, but if you’re looking to book matches across the WWE, you can’t really go wrong with either option.
MyFaction is also back, and… look, man, it’s a card game, okay? You’ve seen this a million times before. You collect wrestlers and do challenges or take your faction online and compete against other players so you can get new cards and watch the shiny pack-opening animations designed to make your brain produce dopamine and…. Jesus Christ, I’m tired just describing it, please end my misery. It’s Ultimate Team but wrestling, and it’s designed to separate you from your hard-earned cash. The challenges can be fun, and I imagine if you’re really into this kind of thing you’ll enjoy WWE 2K25’s version of it, but I’m not, and the more I play modes like these, the dirtier I feel.
But wait, it gets worse! When I say that MyFaction makes me feel sparkling clean compared to when I played The Island… yeah, that should tell you something. There’s a cool idea here somewhere — WWE God-King Roman Reigns invites you to come to an island and compete for a WWE contract by earning his favor, because apparently That’s a Thing That Happens — but the actual execution made me want to walk straight into the sea. This is really, really bad, folks. Like NBA 2K25’s The City, The Island is a big, open PvPvE space, but it’s mostly quiet, empty, and boring, filled with single-player challenges that are book-ended by static JPGs and text-boxes that get old fast. Meanwhile, the multiplayer in this mode exists to do one thing: Part people from their money, particularly whales who will spend inordinate amounts to make their customized wrestlers beasts off the bat. If you don’t do that, well… you’re gonna have a bad time. I didn’t want to spend long here, as it feels like it exists solely for 2K’s shareholders. It also makes me worry WWE 2K as a series might incorporate more of this in the future at the expense of everything else that makes these games great (hi, Ultimate Team!) as publishers continue to nakedly chase the almighty dollar.
But even The Island, as terrible and money-grubbing as it is, wasn’t enough to ruin my fun with WWE 2K25 because everything else about it is great. Visual Concepts deserves their flowers for proving that an annual sports (sports entertainment?) game can feel excellent to play and look good year over year. The WWE series has always been a looker, but this iteration has managed to make things noticeably prettier than ever. Bruises, blood, and sweat are more realistic, and you can tell how long a match has been going, who is winning, and where the guys in the ring are taking the most punishment at a glance. It’s really impressive.
One of the original dungeon-crawling board games that sought to recreate the excitement and danger of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, HeroQuest was first released more than 30 years ago. Putting players into roles like the mighty Barbarian and spell-slinging Elf, HeroQuest let a group of friends play out their heroic fantasies right at the kitchen table in a matter of only a couple hours compared to the afternoon-long sessions a traditional TTRPG may take. With its massive amounts of plastic miniatures that came packed in its iconic box and multi-quest long story, HeroQuest established a passionate fan base that would continue to sing its praises decades later and rally behind it when Hasbro asked if folks wanted it to return through its HasLab crowdfunding platform.
And here we sit, several years after the campaign, and new and old fans alike have plenty of HeroQuest to enjoy in the form of the new release and all of its expansions! To help folks who may be interested in working together to slay the evil Zargon and stop his machinations in their tracks, this buyer’s guide will help you plan adventures!
HeroQuest Game System
MSRP: $134.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Before anything else, you must secure yourself a copy of the main game, the HeroQuest Game System. Every additional piece of content released so far requires you to have this first – no stand-alone expansions here!
HeroQuest First Light
MSRP: $49.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Ages 14+
Contents
Quest book w/ 10 unique quests
Game system rulebook
Double-sided gameboard
Game Master’s screen
5 miniatures
1 pad of character sheets
6 combat dice
2 movement dice
39 cardboard pieces
102 cards
52 plastic movers
31 monster tokens
15 furniture tokens
41 cardboard tiles
21 dungeon door tokens
As much fun as HeroQuest is, for new players who are interested in checking the game out, the hefty price tag can be a big deterrent. But now with HeroQuest: First Light, that bar to get into the system is easier than ever. First Light provides fresh faces with a perfect chance to try out the core game system of HeroQuest while slimming things down a bit on the production side of things to cut the cost.
Outside of the core cast of hero characters for players to pick from and the impressive dragon miniature, much of the game that had previously been represented as plastic minis are now cardboard tokens instead. For fans who already own the core box of HeroQuest, there isn’t much of a reason to pick up First Light unless you’re a completionist, you’re desperate to check out the unique quests, or want more hero figures to paint.
To sweeten the deal even more, First Light is fully compatible with all other HeroQuest content that has been released in the past few years, making this smaller box the recommended jumping in point unless you already know you love HeroQuest.
The App
MSRP: Free
For player groups that can’t decide/ don’t want to have a game master or adventurers that enjoy dungeon-diving solo, the official HeroQuest companion app for phones automates that roll of Zargon. With fully voiced descriptions, the app is a great way to experience the game and all of its expansion modules, too. The best part is that it’s free, so no harm in checking it out.
The Online Quests
MSRP: Free
Avalon Hill has released online a number of free to download special quests that add the lore and backstory on the world of HeroQuest and your heroes such as the prequel quest, “A New Beginning.” These special one-off quests are fun little bonuses that utilize the resources from different HeroQuest products and are great ways to get a little extra HeroQuest goodness.
As the first of the expansions for HeroQuest, Kellar’s Keep is one of the lighter offerings among the options available today and its a faithful rerelease of the Kellar’s Keep expansion for the original HeroQuest from the 90s. Kellar’s Keep feels very much like a continuation and extension of the base HeroQuest, thanks in part to a lot of similar monster minis being included. It’s still a fun time and an easy way to understand how expansions work. Kellar’s Keep is the perfect offering for anyone who isn’t necessarily looking for a spike in difficulty but just more HeroQuest.
Return of the Witch Lord
MSRP: $33.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
That dastardly Witch Lord you dealt with in the base Game System is back with his armies of the undead! Return of the Witch Lord is very similar to the Kellar’s Keep expansion, giving players more miniatures from found in the base game, but this pack also includes some pretty cool looking new tiles that are used in over the course of its 10 quests – including the menacing skull on the ground! Return of the Witch Lord is a classic quest that longtime players of the game will recognize and brings about a nice feeling of conclusion carried over from the Game System an Kellar’s Keep storylines. The three together really feel like the beginning trilogy of the HeroQuest series.
Prophecy of Telor
MSRP: $33.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Previously one of the two expansions exclusive to the Mythic tier during its crowdfunding phase on Haslab, Prophecy of Telor is now available to everyone in this new premium release. With a menacing set of translucent orange monsters, dice and a brand new character class in the Warlock to play as, the Prophecy of Telor expansion give all players a chance to experience this story. The new Warlock class is particularly fun, being able to change into a demonic form to do battle, making for some wonderful new party composition options for all of your HeroQuest adventures.
Spirit Queen’s Torment
MSRP: $33.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Spirit Queen’s torment is very much similar to the Prophecy of Telor – both being premium mass market releases of previously mythic tier exclusives, awesome translucent monsters and die (this time in an icy teal), and a brand new character class with the Bard. You will deal with dark magics and explore mysterious locations like the Wyvern Keep over the course of the 15 adventures included. And now, at long last, you can play out all your greatest bard fantasies in HeroQuest, singing your magical tunes that will put your enemies to sleep, heal your friends, and grant bonus attack dice to your friends. You will need to homebrew rules to try and seduce monsters though, so be sure to work with your Zargon for all your flirty needs.
Against the Ogre Horde
MSRP: $44.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Ages 14+
Contents
Quest book w/ 10 new quests
New Druids class
28 miniatures
2 sheets of cardboard tiles
29 cards
For the group that likes to fight and kill a lot of enemies, Against the Ogre Horde will be right up your alley. This latest expansion to release is also a remaster of one the classic modules released for the original HeroQuest back in the day. For fans of the original, much of it will feel incredibly familiar, but there have been slight tweaks and adjustments to account for modern tastes. The miniatures included are some of my favorite offerings so far, with the giant Ogres and massive throne that are included. The new enemies help make this a fun box to snag if you enjoy creating homebrew quests to send your friends on too.
The Mage in the Mirror
MSRP: $44.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Ages 14+
Contents
Quest book w/ 10 new quests
33 miniatures
Sheet of cardboard tiles
35 cards
With the Realm of Reflection to explore, the Mage in the Mirror expansions tasks your heroic group of heroes with saving a princess, finding a legendary sword, and contending with an evil archmage – basically some good ol’ classic high fantasy goodness. Mage in the Mirror includes a new body type and set of cards for the Elf class that comes with the base Game System in addition to a number of highly detailed environment objects, new tiles, and monster minis. This expansion tells the first part of a story that concludes in the Rise of the Dread Moon set, so it may be worthwhile to get both at once.
Rise of the Dread Moon
MSRP: $44.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Ages 14+
Contents
Quest book w/ 10 new quests
New Knight class
29 miniatures
Sheet of cardboard tiles
58 cards
Picking up where The Mage in the Mirror questline left off, Rise of the Dread Moon brings with it a number of brand new mechanics like the Elven mercenaries but also a new character class as well with the sword-and-board wielding Knight. With a bunch of cool new tiles, objects and monster minis, Rise of the Dread Moon is great for fans that like to make their own quests too. However, if you plan to play through the story and not just utilize the pieces the come in the box, be sure to get and playthrough the Mage in the Mirror expansion first to get the best experience!
The Frozen Horror
MSRP: $44.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Ages 14+
Contents
Quest book w/ 10 new quests
23 miniatures
Sheet of cardboard tiles
35 cards
6 combat dice
2 movement dice
1 pad of character sheets
Bundle up heroes as the Frozen Horror will send you into the Frozen Wastelands. For Barbarian fans, this expansion will be for you, being a very focused experience tailored to the class – even including a new barbarian miniature with a new body type. There are a bunch of really neat monster sculpts present too with icy blue war bears, and the incredibly imposing title monster, the Frozen Horror, along with a host of mercenaries too. One particularly interesting aspect to the Frozen Horror expansion is that the adventure starts with a series of solo character quests before the group quests resume. If smacking things really hard is your style (and you want a cool new set of blue dice to play with) then The Frozen Horror expansion may be for you.
Jungles of Delthrak
MSRP: $44.99 USD
1-5 players (solo play requires the free HeroQuest companion app)
Poisonous snakes, menacing spiders, and ruins aplenty await heroes that wish to journey into the Jungles of Delthrak. This quest pack takes players tasks players with retrieving a powerful artifact and get to the bottom of the Dread Blight that has seeped its way into the roots of the jungle. In addition to a bunch of brand new enemies to face and some pretty nifty new effect parts (the green fire a personal favorite), Jungles of Delthrak introduce the new Berserker and Explorer hero classes to pick from. With its 16 quests to check out, this quest pack offers a lot of value for those that want to take their Hero Quest game out of the dungeons and under canopies of trees instead.
Character Packs
Hero Collection: Rogue Heir of Elethorn
MSRP: $14.99 USD
Contents
New Rogue class
2 miniatures (2 different body sculpts for the Rogue)
13 cards (12 game cards, 1 story card)
Every good adventuring party needs the sneaky stabbing rouge character, and with the Rouge Heir of Elethorn character pack, that’s exactly what you get. This box comes complete with models and cards featuring two different body types and has skills that utilize throwing daggers, attacking multiple times, and dealing more damage when a foe is already engaged with a teammate. The only downside is the lack of any real story or quests that explore more of the character.
Hero Collection: Path of the Wandering Monk
MSRP: $14.99 USD
Contents
New Monk class
2 miniatures (2 different body sculpts for the Monk)
8 game cards
1 scroll prop
One with the elements and with fists as deadly as any blade, the Monk is one of the more unique classes you can pick from in HeroQuest. By utilizing the elements of wind, water, earth and fire – each with two special effects associated with each element – the monk has a lot of utility that can prove helpful in a pitch. From sailing over traps with the power of the wind to blasting an energy blast from their hands with the power of fire which can hit a large number of enemies at once, the Monk could fill that spot as a last-ditch trump card. In order to use those powerful Fire attacks though, will have required you to have the other three elements expended first. As a master of unarmed combat, the monk doesn’t come with starting armor or a weapon, but with three defend dice and getting two attack dice when attacking unarmed, doesn’t mean they are a pushover. Much like the the Rogue Heir, the main downside to this small character pack is that it doesn’t come with a quest or two that dives into their story.
The End
Hasbro and Avalon Hill show no signs of slowing down their support for the heroes and their questing anytime soon. A whole new generation of players are getting to dungeon dive and learn from the wise Mentor, creating memories they will cherish for the rest of their lives. While HeroQuest may be a bit light on mechanics for an older and more experienced crowd trying out this legacy for the first time, the community has created a wealth of custom rules and unique quests that may help with that.
HeroQuest remains a classic in the board gaming hobby, and its future looks bright.
When I was in high school, I would stay up ‘til all kinds of ungodly hours of the night playing PC games. I even stayed up five days straight once, just to get to the end of Baldur’s Gate II ‘Throne of Bhaal,’ but what fascinated me about PC games most was how inventive they could be.
One that struck my imagination powerfully was Red Faction, which caught my eye because it had some of the hallmarks of DOOM (a high-tech, first-person shooter set on Mars, you say?) yet it added an essential wrinkle; terrain deformation. Red Faction is set in the mines of Mars, and I could fire explosive weapons at walls, creating holes or destroying them, and even tunneling through rock to circumvent checkpoints. It was all about charting your own course and finding your own path to accomplish your goals. It was incredible.
Unfortunately, not a lot has been done with that idea in the intervening years, but when Rainbow Six Siege came out, the ability to freely climb and rappel up and down buildings, and shoot through or destroy walls and ceilings sent a delightful little tickle through my Red Faction-loving brain.
While Siege began as a far more focused (and less exploratory) affair than the old Volition shooter, that (and quite a bit more) is about to change with the arrival of the upcoming Siege X update. Apart from gameplay, graphical, auditory, and UI enhancements, it introduces what is shaping up to be a fantastic new permanent multiplayer mode: Dual Front.
In Dual Front, a predetermined seasonal Operator pool will dictate who you can play, and team sizes are bumped up to six per side. Instead of spawning directly inside (or outside) one target area, there are three large areas to choose from, each with its own objective, so your team of six will need to split up to focus on both defending and attacking different locations simultaneously.
While the scope has expanded, much of the great core gameplay remains the same. When a match starts, each team will spawn in their squad HQ and one of two locations in your team’s sector will start a countdown to a Defend mission. The is true for your opponents, so each team will need to defend one spot while attacking another. How you handle that, and where you decide to go, is up to you.
What’s more, there is a neutral zone in between the mirrored zones held by each team, and extra objectives will appear there. Completing those objectives, such as rescuing a hostage and getting them to an extraction point, will give your team a big boost in the back-and-forth struggle for supremacy, so even if you fail to defend your first location or attack the enemy base, victory is still possible.
Since Dual Front expands the contested space so significantly, I was moving between attacking and defending to suit the team’s needs, creating a more free flowing experience with way more variation between matches than your standard Siege match. What results is a fluid, chaotic mess I had a blast with.
Dual Front Mode is, so far, a fluid, chaotic mess I had a blast with.
The seasonal Operator pools will be updated every month, and because your squad will need to do a little bit of everything, you’ll have access to both Attacker and Defender Operators on the character select screen. When you die during a match, you’ll quickly respawn and re-select your Operator, so changing strategies on the fly to counter your enemies is a central (and delightfully fun) part of the game now.
Several times during my preview, it looked like my current (attacking) team was in a great spot, so I would rush across the map to help my other beleaguered comrades who were fighting for their lives to defend our own base objective. Sometimes, everything was as it seemed: I arrived in time, and our team brought home a victory. Other times, I got separated from my team only for them to be ambushed by reinforcements. Each match was tense, because in maps as large as Dual Front’s, it’s difficult to know where the enemy is until they become a capital “p” Problem.
Speaking of navigating larger areas, I should mention some of the new gameplay additions. You can now rappel around corners of buildings and even sprint while rappelling, so it’s easier to poke around and find ways to get inside structures. New fire extinguishers create concussive blasts and visual obfuscation when destroyed, gas pipes can be shot or damaged to create jets of fire before exploding and scattering fire around on the ground, and metal detectors can be disabled temporarily or permanently. Overall, it’s more fun to play in the space, and there is a lot more space to play in on Dual Front’s mirrored map.
Siege X also marks a shift in monetization. After the update, Siege will adopt a free-to-play model, and for casual versus competitive stuff, here’s the skinny: casual and onboarding playlists, unranked quickplay, and Dual Front are all free, and will grant access to up to 26 Operators and skins. Siege Cup and Ranked modes will be pay-to-unlock, and grant access to all 50 Operators. So if you are jumping in as a casual player, there are no barriers to entry, but new players who want to get more serious on the competitive side will need to fork over some cash. If you already have Siege, don’t worry; you will keep everything you have, and retain access to all modes (and as an added bonus, Siege players will get a badge showing off the year they started and a little bonus for each year of Siege they played).
Some other updates in the Siege X package include five modernized maps (Clubhouse, Chalet, Bank, Kafe, and Border), enhanced visuals, audio, first-person shadows, new menus, better player onboarding, the ability to inspect weapons, and a lot more. The dev team has also committed to introduce a new Operator (or remastering an existing one) each season, and a bunch more.
But all those enhancements pale in comparison to Dual Front, which is on track to become my favorite mode for Siege, and once Siege X launches, it’s likely to be the only mode I’ll play as Siege marks its upcoming tenth birthday in an incredibly fun way.
