Category: Video Games

As I am writing this, the wikipedia article “List of World War II video games” includes over 1000 entries. But the prequel to end all prequels, World War I, doesn’t even have 200 games to speak of. The Great War: Western Front might, in fact, be the first World War I RTS worth mentioning in the modern era. It’s not especially pretty, but neither was the Battle of the Somme. And the ways it models early 20th Century warfare feel surprisingly authentic without dragging everything down to a snail’s pace.

When I think about World War I, particularly the Western Front, I immediately think of trench warfare. And, indeed, that is a key component of how The Great War’s battles play out. Each engagement begins with a set-up phase where both sides can place and upgrade trenches, position artillery and machine gun nests, and deploy troops along the line. This draws from a common pool of supplies that are also used once the clock starts to order bombardments and call in reinforcements.

The interesting trade-off here is that troops are cheaper to deploy in the set-up phase, but placing them early means they might take damage from the enemy’s strategic-level siege artillery before battle is even joined. There’s also the important consideration of how many supplies to spend on set-up and how many to hold in reserve to use throughout the battle. When I tried to really turtle up as hard as I could from the start, I often found that I would run out of shells for my artillery long before I had achieved a convincing breakthrough and have no choice but to call a ceasefire.

And appropriately enough, that is how a lot of engagements will end – with the attacking side deciding they can’t make any more progress with the resources they have and settling for a stalemate. Each territory on The Great War’s strategic map has a certain number of stars that must be removed to capture it, and removing a star requires a decisive “Great Victory” from one side or the other. So you will most likely be fighting a lot of battles where the outcome is inconclusive. But every little win does sway the course of the campaign.

Play the Fife Lonely

Territory is important, and taking the enemy capital is one way to win as either the Allies or the Central Powers. But each side also has a resource called National Will that represents how willing the home countries are to keep up the fight. If you keep taking horrifying casualties in every battle, even if you’re gaining ground, you may bleed National Will faster than your opponents do. And if either side runs out, they lose the campaign. Thus, it might be wiser to wait for the enemy to come to you in most cases, since the attacking side will generally suffer heavier losses.

And make no mistake, a head-on assault with infantry is universally a bad idea. I watched entire regiments melt in the course of seconds, even up against conscripts manning a trench when we had vastly superior numbers. Thus, most battles (at least until you unlock tanks much further down the tech tree) will revolve around smart use of artillery. Smoke shells and rolling barrages can provide cover for advancing troops. Targeted bombardments and airburst shells can soften up a trench before you attack. Even light artillery can lay down suppressing fire to stop a trench from being able to effectively fire back as you approach.

And once you get a foothold in your opponent’s trench network, it’s a much more straightforward fight. Bloody, hand-to-hand combat will favor the side with better training or simply more numbers, wrapping up the final phase of the battle as you make your way through the maze of ditches and bunkers to capture victory points and, if you’re lucky, the enemy’s command staff. Even a partial victory or a stalemate can serve a larger, strategic objective, though. Attacking from multiple sides, for instance, will leave the enemy fatigued. So a smaller, probing attack followed up by a larger assault from the next province over can be quite effective.

Green Fields of France

I didn’t make it far enough in the campaign to really get a feel for how it all comes together in the long run. It seems like the supply system will be key, since simply being able to keep up artillery bombardment longer than the enemy was often the decisive factor in my handful of battles. I did get to check out a scenario set much later in the war, though, in the spring of 1918. And the advancements in technology make a big difference.

Fully upgraded trenches unlocked later in the war can’t simply be cleared out using standard artillery anymore. Dealing any significant damage at long range comes to rely on more expensive airburst shells and gas attacks. Observation balloons can grant vision over great swathes of the battlefield, but are vulnerable to aircraft attacks, meaning you’ll need to protect them with your own flying aces. And of course, once tanks come into play, everything changes. They can’t take ground on their own, and just parking them in front of a trench will leave them extremely vulnerable to grenades. But they serve as great cover for infantry and make frontal, combined arms assaults quite viable.

From what I’ve seen so far, The Great War: Western Front is shaping up to be a very competent World War I RTS with an eye toward authenticity and a campaign that revolves around making the most of even the smallest victories. You’ll be able to check out the demo I played as part of Steam Next Fest starting next week.

Free-to-play, team-based dodgeball game Knockout City is about to be, well, knocked out. According to an official post today, it’s shutting down in June.

We have an important announcement about the future of Knockout City.

Season 9 will be our final Season. All servers will be shut down on June 6th. We have more in store, so stay tuned!

Learn more about the upcoming sunset in our latest blog: https://t.co/15hTpzmSyq

— Knockout City (@knockoutcity) February 3, 2023

In the full blog post, developer and publisher Velan Studios says that Season 9 will be the final season for Knockout City, with the game shutting down on June 9, 2023 — over two years after launch. This means that all servers will shut down and Knockout City won’t be playable at all.

Beginning February 28 (the same day that Season 9 starts), all real-money transactions will be removed. However, Velan reassures that Season 9 will include copious rewards in the form of XP, style chips, and the currency holobux. Additionally, “almost every cosmetic we’ve ever sold” will end up in one of the upcoming event sale shops, and rewards for login bonuses, league play, and other elements will be increased.

A final, two-week-long event on May 23 will conclude Knockout City’s run with triple XP, “massive rewards,” and a community-favorite playlist.

In its FAQ on the shutdown, Velan did say that a private hosted server version would be released on PC, which should allow players in pre-formed groups to enjoy the game and keep it alive for posterity. However, the live version of the game will be gone.

Notably, game director Jeremy Russo wrote in the same blog post a very detailed explanation for why Velan Studios is opting to shut down Knockout City, saying that it had become extremely challenging for Velan to create a large, live service game with “no points of comparison,” noting that there were many aspects of the game that needed overhauls to become sustainable longterm.

Since we are a small, indie studio, it’s simply impossible for us to make those kinds of systemic changes in the live game while continuing to support it. So it became clear to us that we needed to take a step back and pave the way for Velan to do what we do best by innovating. Now we can take everything we learned, everything that succeeded and everything that needs improvement, and get to work on exploring new possible experiences for Knockout City and other games and products we are very excited about. We’re currently in the process of doing a comprehensive retrospective on every aspect of the game, all the community feedback and analytics data, and even our development processes. Our hope is that sometime in the not-too-distant future, all this information can be used to start work on what comes next in the Knockout City universe. While we can’t promise that Knockout City will be back, what we can promise is that you’ll continue to see new and innovative games from Velan Studios that will surprise and delight players around the world.

It’s been a week of live service game shutdowns, incidentally, with EA announcing Tuesday that Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile would be sunsetting soon, and Iron Galaxy almost simultaneously announcing that Rumbleverse would also be closing. Like both Rumbleverse and Apex Legends Mobile, Knockout City was critically praised, with our own reviewer calling it “one of the best team-based PvP games to come out in years.” Hopefully Velan’s able to bring the IP back for another round one of these days.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The last thing I expected from developer Tango Gameworks was a vibrant, fun-loving action game with the heart of a cartoon I would’ve absolutely loved. The studio’s primarily known for the dark and creepy likes of The Evil Within or Ghostwire: Tokyo, but Hi-Fi Rush is instead filled with a joyous, youthful personality seen in its stunning animation, art style, and characters. And while the surprising change of pace is already refreshing, Tango’s greatest accomplishment is how it expertly executes on the singular concept that permeates Hi-Fi Rush’s design — that rhythm is everything.

Right from the jump, Hi-Fi Rush establishes its reverence for modern garage and alt-rock, kicking things off by using The Black Keys’ “Lonely Boy” to introduce the cheesy but endearing protagonist Chai and the colorful, high-tech industrialized world he lives in. Labeled a “defect” by robotics megacorp Vandelay Industries after a surgical mishap leaves him with an iPod stuck in his chest, Chai can see and feel the pulse of his music coursing through the world around him. From that point on, nearly everything is impressively tied to the rhythm of Hi-Fi Rush’s soundtrack as this boyish goofball bashes Vandelay robots with a makeshift sword in the shape of a Gibson Flying V.

This playful setup sets a strong tone, and things only get better from there as Hi-Fi Rush layers on a fantastic crew of allies, charismatic villains, and bombastic fights — and often wrapped in a poignant satire of our tech dystopia. It’s done with effortless humor and some genuinely warm moments. From so many angles, Hi-Fi Rush is able to showcase its uniquely charming spirit.

It Takes You to Tango

At its best, Hi-Fi Rush’s combat creates a unique harmonious flow where music is your guide every step of the way. Chai always executes his attacks on the beat regardless of your own input timing, but keeping in rhythm with the BGM’s BPM rewards you with extra damage rather than punishing any missed notes. Using a similar foundation as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, each combat encounter across the roughly 10-12 hour campaign is graded on completion speed, elegance, and the ability to stay on beat with combos, but that constant tie to the music results in a type of satisfaction I just don’t get from other stylish-action games.

This rhythmic system leaves no ambiguity in combo timing and paces itself in a way that allows for room to consider each follow-up move. Deciding whether I should use a light or heavy attack to mix up my combo string, a dodge or parry in anticipation of incoming hits, the grappling hook to close the gap on targets, or a summon to have a companion break shields or stun enemies never felt overwhelming since I could just pace myself to the music. It doesn’t linger on any one concept or gimmick for too long either, steadily throwing in new ideas to toy with before bringing them all together to test my mastery, which meant I never felt like I was simply hammering away to a basic 4/4 time signature.

Every enemy’s attack pattern also plays by the same rules. Whether it be charge-ups, AoEs, sword slashes, or projectiles, the rhythm let me confidently avoid telegraphed attacks and approach them like a dancing rhythm game. Sometimes that inspiration even becomes more explicit – tougher foes and some bosses break into brief standalone rhythmic quick time event minigames that require a sequence of parries to counter their last-ditch efforts and deliver a final blow. The rhythm game die-hard in me got hyped every single time I had to do this, and getting perfect strings of parries left me nodding in satisfaction. In fact, one boss fight solely based on this concept is still my favorite encounter, even after some bombastic battles with dazzling spectacles in the late-game.

My natural ability to clap on two and four wasn’t enough to get past Hi-Fi Rush’s tougher battles. Enemies gradually evolve in complexity with different offensive styles, and things can get chaotic in encounters that mix and match enemy types. The targeting system did leave me in precarious positions on occasion – since there’s no manual lock-on, I’d sometimes hook onto or gravitate towards enemies I didn’t intend to target, leaving me vulnerable or swinging at the wrong foe. That can become a problem when Hi-Fi Rush layers on flame-wielding robots and electrified floors, for example, but it works well-enough for most fights. Thankfully, with all the tools at my disposal, I could overcome any moments of frustration by changing my approach or at least playing it safer.

Seeing Sounds

Because music is the driving force behind Hi-Fi Rush’s design, anything that syncs to the beat through audio cues is also represented with distinct visual cues. For example, powerful combo finishers called Beat Hits use colored circles to show their proper timing, while big incoming attacks leave AoE markers on the ground that change color to the beat to indicate when they’ll land. Additionally, you can activate an on-screen metronome at any point to help keep time more explicitly. I can’t be the judge of whether or not it’s enough from an accessibility standpoint, but those who may struggle with rhythm games or need assistance with the audio do have some options here, and it’s worth acknowledging the importance of including them and the effort put forth to level the playing field.

The closer you look at Hi-Fi Rush’s world, the more you see how deep the rhythmic ethos runs. Chai’s footsteps, his snapping idle animation, the pulsing light rings on his robotic cat companion 808, the trees and rocks bouncing in the environment, and even building infrastructure all move to the groove – this level of meticulous detail shows the whole world is in on the action. No matter where you turn, someone or something is jamming out to the same song as you. That attention to detail is still one of the most impressive parts of Hi-Fi Rush, and it gives a sense of momentum into an already vivid world.

Platforming and puzzle sections between the staged combat encounters operate on the same principles, with platforms and key objects retracting and moving to the same beat. There’s no mistake when it comes to timing – Hi-Fi Rush can’t pull any cheap tricks or hit you with inexplicable difficulty spikes when it always plays by the same rules. The beat establishes a ruleset and dance you understand, nailing the timing is about seeing the environment as an extension of the music. That said, for as slick as it is on a conceptual level, movement during platforming isn’t quite as fluid as it is during combat. The consequences aren’t dire for misjudging a jump, but the fact that you can do so fairly easily is still a minor but noticeable inconvenience.

You Know the Vibes

While the harmonious fusion of rhythm and action is an outstanding achievement, what makes Hi-Fi Rush truly memorable is seeing its charismatic crew and world come to life. Chai’s great as the goofy, irreverent everyman, but it’s the supporting cast that makes the journey feel whole.

Peppermint is the slick badass who’s the brains behind the operation to take down Vandelay’s band of comically evil executives. She steals every scene she’s in, and in many ways, this story is more about her. 808 acts as a vessel for the squad to communicate, but she’s also an adorable little baby tiger who’ll steal your heart simply doing cat things. Macaron is the big softie whose adorable demeanor contrasts with his brute force capabilities. It’s a strong dynamic in a crew of lovable personalities shining brighter than the protagonist himself – sorry Chai, you’re cool but I wish I could take control of your cooler friends on this journey!

Hi-Fi Rush breathes life into these characters with some of the best animation in games, period. Cutscenes let their personalities shine bright as they fight to the beat and express themselves in such charming fashion. They’re also critical to call in during battle, and I always loved seeing their partner attacks play out. The camera cuts for tandem special moves are sweet as hell, too. Juggling an air combo and finishing it off with Peppermint’s partner attack where she whips out a massive laser beam or Macaron’s ground pound never gets old. They’re also super effective against the toughest foes and it really sells the idea that taking down Vandelay is a team effort.

There are so many cute quirks that ensure they just don’t end up as supporting characters in the background and they naturally bounce off each other and the villains. Genuinely funny dialogue, impeccable comedic timing, and superb voice performances make warmhearted and laugh-out-loud moments possible. And that stayed consistent throughout the entire story, even bringing a tear to my eye as I marched towards the conclusion. There’s also an amalgamation of nerd culture references that surprisingly fit the tone and a bunch of clever little goofs and gags with some sobering satire of modern work culture and the tech industry within a capitalist dystopia. Hi-Fi Rush makes melding all these seemingly disparate elements look effortless.

The Sound of Rebels Fighting

While Hi-Fi Rush is filled with tons of original music, licensed tracks are interspersed to define key moments and make for some sick needle drops, like Number Girl’s “Inazawa Chainsaw” coming on during an exciting getaway. These aren’t just licensed songs for the sake of having them either, because they also play by the rules of Hi-Fi Rush’s universe, layering on instrumentation and matching the beat of the world – for example, Nine Inch Nails’ “1,000,000” and “The Perfect Drug” play for their respective bosses, only progressing through the whole song as you get deeper into the fight’s phases. Yet neither of those examples come close to the flawless implementation of The Prodigy’s electro-punk tune “Invaders Must Die”, genuinely invigorating me to tear through robotic hordes and barrel towards the end, or The Joy Formidable’s “Whirring” to really capture that bittersweet feeling.

Between those moments of licensed spectacle, Hi-Fi Rush bounces off the beat of original tracks from composers Shuichi Kobori and Reo Uratani, which replicate the modern garage rock sound nicely. These songs tend to blend into the background; catchy enough to get me to tap my foot as I’m playing but mostly serving their purpose as a guide for combat and puzzle timing rather than standout songs of their own. Outside of one, I’m not sure if I can hum a melody or recall a specific song off the in-house tracklist. It may also be a symptom of having every other aspect of Hi-Fi Rush be outstanding that anything that’s simply “good” gets lost in the shuffle.

However, that aforementioned stand out track comes from a late-game stage that, dare I say, gives me Persona vibes. Upbeat acid jazz with a Rhodes piano backed by sharp orchestral strings and funky guitars as I pull up to infiltrate a gaudy museum? Madarame, eat your heart out. I thought to myself, I’ve been waiting for this – an original, evocative song to perfectly frame the moment. Every layer of this intoxicating track blast in combat, but they revert nicely to a toned down version in exploration and build up additional elements the further you get in the stage; it’s a prime example of how Hi-Fi Rush wields its music, and the most memorable one at that.