Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Review in Progress

Note: This review specifically covers the multiplayer of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. For our thoughts on the other modes, see our single-player campaign review – and for Zombies, stand by!

Launch Update – October 25, 2024:

No surprise here, but I’m still having a blast with Black Ops 6 multiplayer now that it’s out properly. What is surprising to me, however, is how much more I’m enjoying it than I anticipated I would. I have around 220 hours into Modern Warfare III multiplayer, but so far BLOPS 6 just feels better in every way – from the maps to the movement to even the gunplay. Have you ever had a really fancy steak? It’s kind of like that. Steak rules, and you think “how could this get any better?” Then you have the fancy one and it’s a revelation. I still have plenty more to play before my final review next week, but I am already excited to eat more steak.

Movement on the battlefield feels excellent. It’s so smooth, and the new Omnimove system adds a dose of dramatic flair to the way you can flop around the map. I will say, I don’t use the Omnimove system much yet, just because I’m having a bit of a time learning a new way to run, slide, and dive across the maps, but it looks like I’m not the only one still trying to figure it out. That being said, there are already clips out there of people who’ve mastered it and are now pulling off sick Max Payne-style moves, which is what it’s really all about anyway.

I was a little bummed to discover my progress from the beta didn’t move over to the final game, because I worked really hard to cap out after a late start when the beta went live (and you can read my initial beta impressions further down). But that’s not too much of a big deal as the multiplayer progression is the hook that keeps me coming back to COD, and I love unlocking weapon camos.

Speaking of which, the requirements for unlocking weapon camo are hugely simplified from last year, and the previous years as well. There was always at least one unlock requirement I dreaded in my usual quest for camos, but this year (so far) it looks like it’s just getting more and more of the same challenge. Get 10 headshots with the XM4, unlock the first camo. Get 20 and unlock the second. You can see where it’s going here. The design of the skins, especially the Special and Mastery level camos, are sick as hell, too. I’m glad I won’t have to kill two opponents in a row 10 times without releasing the trigger or any of those other kind-of-crappy challenges from Modern Warfare 3.

The design of the Special and Mastery level camos are sick as hell.

Gunsmithing in the Beta was one of my biggest concerns, as it just felt clunky and unfriendly, but it’s rock-solid in the final game. Overall, that seems to be the theme of every part of BLOPS 6: it just feels awesome and works really well. Optimization is crazy, too, as I cranked the preset to Extreme and I’m using just under 7GB of VRAM.

I’ll have my final thoughts after the weekend, but so far I’m having a freaking awesome time. While none of the multiplayer modes are really jumping out at me yet, Gunfight’s super-small maps and 2v2 play is a blast if you’re playing with a friend, and Hardcore is open right off the rip.

Oh look, I just got a notification the playlist has updated. Time to get back to it.

Original Beta Impressions – September 9, 2024:

Summer is in the rear view, which means it’s once again Call of Duty beta time. This year Treyarch is in the driver’s seat with a follow-up to Black Ops Cold War set in the early 1990s – and friends, I am all-in on the setting. After spending the weekend grinding multiplayer matches to hit the beta’s level cap, I’m cautiously optimistic that this year’s entry could recapture everything I loved about 2020’s Cold War.

First off, some context: I have about 200 hours of multiplayer time in last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and found myself enjoying it quite a bit more than our reviewer (which is fine, reviews are opinions, and opinions differ). However, a lot of that has to do with the social aspect of it. I have a core group of friends, the Beeflords, with whom I’ve been playing every Call of Duty multiplayer annually since Black Ops IIII. Having a dedicated squad makes playing multiplayer way more fun, and with regular content additions and balancing updates, I feel like MW3 is now in a much more solid spot.

Despite my fondness for both MW3 and Cold War, I tried to dive into Black Ops 6 with an open mind, and I’m glad to say I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. As far as a beta goes, this is one of the better ones I can remember. For example, back when I did my first impressions of the Modern Warfare 2 beta, I was actually pretty concerned by what I saw, but almost all of the rough edges had been sanded off by release. With the Black Ops 6 beta, I actually find myself with very few concerns already. After 12+ hours of shooting, diving, sliding, and shooting again, I’m left really excited for the full game, because it feels pretty damn good right now.

Probably the biggest change from the old formula is the “Omnimove” system. It seems like Treyarch looked at all the dolphin diving in Call of Duty and said “let’s just lean into that.” You can now sprint, slide, and dive in all directions, including backwards. Diving backwards puts you in a supine position, where you’re laying on your back, with 360-degrees of movement. This is a feature I never knew I wanted. Diving prone in previous Call of Duty games restricts your aiming and movement pretty severely, but the supine position gives you a new tactical strategy to employ. In fact, if you lay prone and move backwards, you’ll switch to the supine position, so you don’t even really need to do the dramatic sprint-to-backwards-dive motion.

The Omnimove system feels amazing once you get the hang of it.

Which, if you’re on PC, is probably a good thing. As cool as the Omnimove system is, it definitely feels like it’s designed with a controller in mind. I don’t play Call of Duty with a controller because I am a man of taste and intellect, but I’m also old and my brain isn’t very elastic. Learning the key combinations in the training missions was a bit like learning to rub my head and pat my belly at the same time. To dive into the supine position, the key combination is S to move backwards plus the Shift key to sprint and then the Ctrl key to dive. It’s the same for any of the sprint-to-dive commands, with their respective keys replaced for S. It took me a few runs through training before I could master it, but the effect is quite awesome. Sliding and diving in every direction is fun, and it makes for an even more fluid and exciting time in multiplayer matches.

From an outside observer’s perspective, it’s pretty dramatic to see someone diving sideways, guns blazing as they dispatch an enemy. It’s awesome, actually, and getting the movement down, especially the slides, feels amazing once you get the hang of it. Again, it does feel specifically designed for use with controllers, but regardless how you play, sliding around and shooting in all directions is just good old fashioned fun.

One thing I do really hope they improve before the final release is the gunsmithing interface, because I don’t like it at all as it stands. Gunsmithing and chasing down weapon skins has always been one of the hooks that keeps me playing Call of Duty, but in the beta it’s kind of a pain (and since it’s a beta, there are no skin challenges to unlock). It resembles the interface when you edit your loadouts in a match in previous games, so you don’t get to see which attachments are still locked until you open up the category in the interface. There’s no “lock” icon on the option to show you the entire category is still unavailable, only locks on the icons for the attachments IN those categories.

I found that pretty frustrating when I was leveling up my weapons. It means I’d have to open up the gunsmithing interface and then open up every attachment category, occasionally having to scroll down the options, to find out “oh, I haven’t unlocked the option to swap out my grip yet.” I ended up backing out of lobbies several times rather than making quick adjustments between matches, because I wasted a lot of that precious time manually checking what categories were open.

The gunplay feels really good, but the guns aren’t as weighty as MW3.

As far as the gunplay, well… it’s Call of Duty, so it feels really good – though I don’t want to say “great” quite yet, because the guns don’t feel as weighty as in MW3 either. My general feel for almost all the guns is they take one or two shots too many to finish off an opponent. The notable exceptions to this are the two sniper rifles, which feel way overpowered as a result. Credit where credit is due, sniper rifles feel perfectly balanced in MW3, probably more so than in any other CoD I can remember. But in Black Ops 6 they currently feel too easy to use. The normal trade-off is still there, in that they’re slow to aim down sights with, but just aiming in the general vicinity of an opponent, particularly with the LR 7.62, often results in a one-shot kill. Of course, sniper rifles in multiplayer are baby guns for babies, except when I’m using them, in which case they’re good, actually. On a medium-sized map like Babylon, the SVD sniper rifle is one of the best choices if you want to rack up kills, and both it and the aforementioned LR 7.62 also make great choices for SCUD, the biggest map in the beta.

I also had a lot of fun with the Jackal PWD submachine gun, which is tied with the XMG light machine gun for my favorite option in the beta. I actually don’t have any real complaints with any of the guns, although as I mentioned before, there is a bit of weight missing from them compared with what I’ve grown accustomed to with MW3. The only two categories I didn’t really like too much were the marksman rifles and the shotguns, as I didn’t find a good map where either one of those choices felt appropriate. The marksman rifles didn’t suit me well for the medium and large maps, and the shotgun didn’t feel like a great choice in the small maps, either, so I rarely used them.

The Black Ops 6 beta has six maps split across two different play modes: Core Moshpit and Faceoff. Core has four larger maps with different game modes, while Faceoff takes those same modes and squishes them down into smaller maps. I didn’t love any of the maps, to be honest, especially the smaller ones. My favorites are probably SCUD, a sprawling former SCUD missile site set in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and Rewind, another larger map set in a suburban strip mall complete with video rental store.

I didn’t like either of the small maps available in the Faceoff modes. Gala, which is set in what appears to be a Washington D.C. ballroom, is just a little too big for a “small” map, and its multi-level layout makes it feel both crowded and yet somehow still not quite small enough. Modern Warfare 3’s Stash House and Meat, along with the classic Shipment, are good examples of tight layouts that are among my favorites of all time when it comes to Call of Duty’s small map matches. They encourage strategic movement and require you to keep your head on a swivel, whereas Pit in particular has a central hub connecting with tunnels that just doesn’t feel as fluid or fun to move around in. Meanwhile, Gala’s relatively wide-open spaces meant running up the middle to claim an objective in Hardpoint was a death sentence, and a few well-placed snipers on each end of the map dictate the tempo of the entire match.

I loved using the Sleeper Agent Field Upgrade to “switch” teams.

I would rather have maps with lots of corners to peek around than ones with lots of obstacles to hide behind, which is how the beta maps feel for the most part. SCUD might be one of my favorite maps, but even that has several camping spots for snipers to hole up in and there’s no clear path to flank them without a little bit of luck or a well-placed spawn. However, SCUD otherwise does have a great overall layout that invites the use of pretty much any class of gun. There are tight interiors for shotguns and SMGs, medium-length corridors for LMGs and assault rifles, and of course the map-spanning hidey-holes for snipers to infuriate you with their repeated headshots.

Rewind similarly enjoys a layout well-suited to a variety of weapon types, and if you’re good with any single class of weapon you’ll find your rhythm. One of the new Field Upgrades I absolutely love using is Sleeper Agent, which makes you “switch” teams for its duration. To the enemy, you look like one of their own, and you extend the length of this charade every time you get a kill. During a match on Rewind, I activated this upgrade and repeatedly caught my opponents completely unaware, letting them run past before quickly turning on them with an easy shot to the back. I got a triple kill using Sleeper Agent in the beta, all while cackling maniacally. You still show up on the radar as an enemy, but in the heat of the moment, no one notices and it’s a lot of fun to use.

Oh, and the tactical nuke is back. In the entire time I’ve been playing CoD I only met the conditions to trigger it during a multiplayer match once. That was way back in Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360, and it required 25 unanswered kills. Black Ops 6 asks for a whopping 30 unanswered kills and, needless to say, I have not triggered it (yet). But the good news is no one else did either! So that’s nice.

As far as scorestreaks go, there’s nothing here that is functionally different from what we’ve seen before. There’s a UAV, a counter-UAV, an RC car with explosives strapped to it – it’s all very familiar. The watchdog helo, which you can call in when your score hits 1,100 points, feels a little too accessible, as almost every match I played on an outdoor map had multiple helo calls. On the flipside, though, if you have an LMG with a big enough magazine, you can shoot them down without needing to reload.

I don’t know if they pulled down some of the Black Ops 6 multiplayer modes before I got to them, but in my time grinding to the level 30 beta cap, I played Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Faceoff Kill Order, and Kill Order. There are supposedly two other modes available, Faceoff Kill Confirmed and Gunfight, but I never saw a single match of them, which is fine since neither is new. In fact, of all the available modes, the only one not in last year’s Call of Duty is Kill Order, which is basically team deathmatch with a High Value Target (HVT). The HVT for both teams appears on the map and radar and is randomly assigned to members of the team after the current HVT is downed. When you’re the HVT, you are completely unable to hide, but you do have three armor plates a la Warzone, as well as the ability to be revived by your teammates when downed, so long as they get to you in time.

As far as betas go, Black Ops 6 already seems to be in a great place.

When I’m playing online without my group, I generally stick to Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, usually in hardcore mode. When my friends log on, we open the pool up to any game mode. That’s mostly because objective-based modes are most fun when everyone is, you know, actually trying to complete the objective. The entire weekend, in every Kill Order match I played, I was never once revived or even protected as the HVT. That sucks, but it’s also just the nature of the beast when you play with random people. Unfortunately none of my friends and I were able to link up our schedules to play together during the beta weekend, but I’m really looking forward to trying Kill Order with a full team. Even one extra person at your side when you’re the HVT would be hugely helpful, because otherwise people treat it (and pretty much all the objective-based modes) as team deathmatch.

I still have a lot more to play once Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 comes out next month, but as far as betas go, it already seems to be in a great place. A few adjustments to weapon balance, some more UI tweaks, and the larger selection of maps at launch would fix most of the complaints I have with it right now. The gunplay is, as always, rock-solid, I never ran into a single bug, and graphically it’s really sharp. I’m feeling really good about this year’s installment… I just hope my operator skins from MW3 transfer over. That llama suit wasn’t free, you know.

Survival Horror Gets Crafty in Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split

Summary

  • Outbreak Shades of Horror Chromatic Split launches on Xbox Series X|S today.
  • Compelling and twisted narrative, devious puzzles, thoughtful inventory management, and endless dark secrets.
  • Special bonus modes include action-packed scenarios for a more arcade-style experience.

Happy Halloween, Survivors! My name is Julia Wolbach, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Dead Drop Studios.  Today we are launching our next-generation survival horror bloodbath, Outbreak Shades of Horror Chromatic Split, on Xbox Series X|S. As Detective Lydia Daniels, players will begin in a sprawling sewer system beneath the city of Cypress Ridge on the eve of a massive zombie apocalypse.  Players must explore, solve puzzles, and take advantage of their limited resources to survive in an ever-changing world filled with dangerous enemy zombies and a recurring, massive monster.

Outbreak screenshot

Dare to Explore an Underground Labyrinth Alone and Afraid.

Initially, players will be unarmed and at the mercy of the environment before discovering a repertoire of melee weapons and firearms such as the lead pipe and the shotgun.  These and other key items will give players a fighting chance and also open up new and secret areas to explore in the game’s colossal maps.  Resourceful players can find crafting items to create healing items, ammunition, and even precious ink for saving their game.  For example, players can use unique types of gunpowder and shell casings to fabricate different types of ammo, or in a pinch, players can combine gunpowder with a virus kit to produce antiviral items.  Explore a multitude of different crafting combos to manufacture the valuable supplies needed to ride out the zombie storm!

Outbreak screenshot

Play in Third Person or Through Lydia’s Eyes.

Players can switch between first person and third person perspectives at any time as they fight to survive in a ruthless world.  If you’re looking to fully immerse yourself in Lydia’s journey, first person view may be your cup of tea, while if you enjoy more of a traditional survival horror experience, third person view will provide you with a full look at your character.  Utilize melee combat to try and stagger foes and sneak by, or use your limited bullets to carefully place shots that can dismember and severely cripple zombies’ offensive options.  Be warned, as enemy zombies can stun you or even knock you over, leaving you vulnerable to an unholy beating!   Explore and carefully take advantage of your tools to open new pathways and discover a bevy of secrets, such as bonus crafting items and more.

Outbreak screenshot

Strategize and Think Quickly to Best Utilize Your Limited Items.

Lydia’s supplies will be limited, so she’ll need to find materials to give herself a fighting chance!  Combine gunpowder with other items to create ink for saving, items for healing, additional bullets, antiviral solutions, and more.  Lydia can’t afford to shoot first and think later, so think carefully about how you use your items!  Will you consume raw gunpowder in an act of desperation to bail yourself out in the moment, or will you wait to find an empty ink canister so you can save your progress?  Inventory space is also limited, so take time to optimize your pocket space and put excess items in linked item boxes occasionally found throughout the game for later use.  Remember that opening your inventory to combine components will pause the game, but to reload your weapon you must find a safe spot to hide in the cruel, chaotic underground of Cypress Ridge!

Outbreak screenshot

Satiating Side Content Expands the Breadth of Gameplay.

Once you’re done with Lydia’s campaign, there’s still more fun to be had!  Unlock an additional wild campaign for a more action-oriented game style. Try out the Onslaught and Besieged modes for arcade zombie-splatting fun against piles of enemies on unique maps.  Looming Dread Mode challenges you to survive and clear a unique scenario in as fast a time as possible.  You can also replay Lydia’s campaign in New Game Plus to keep all of your upgrades from the end of the story or enjoy built-in Developer Commentary!  Can you find all of Chromatic Split’s hidden achievements and cheat codes?

Outbreak screenshot

Will you Save Cypress Ridge or Die Trying?

With so much content and multiple replayable modes all horrifyingly crafted in Unreal Engine 5, the standalone Outbreak Shades of Horror Chromatic Split is the perfect way to prepare for the main Outbreak: Shades of Horror game releasing soon episodically.  On the eve of a massive zombie outbreak, can Lydia survive long enough to help her city in its time of need?

Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split

Dead Drop Studios LLC

$24.99

Cypress Ridge – September 28,1999

Go back to the beginning of the end in the prologue to Dead Drops’ Studios upcoming Outbreak: Shades of Horror. Play as both the heroes and the villains of the outbreak as you attempt both to avoid an outbreak of epic proportions and to stop word from getting out.

As Lydia, a veteran police officer, race against time through the Cypress Ridge sewers to spread the truth of the Outbreak before it’s too late but beware there is more than sludge and rats waiting for her.

As Hank, keep sight of your target while navigating rooftop of insanity as he tries to stop the truth from coming to the surface. But remember, the higher you are, the harder you fall when the zombies attack!

Leads into the upcoming Outbreak: Shades of Horror, a spiritual successor to online survival horror from the early 2000s.

The post Survival Horror Gets Crafty in Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 498: Voice of the Veilguard

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here


Hey folks! This week the team got to sit down with Bioware Game Director Corinne Busche and Creative Director John Epler to talk Dragon Age: The Veilguard. We also discuss the newly released Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and Fear the Spotlight.

Stuff We Talked About

  • Next week’s release highlights:
    • Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered | PS5
    • Dragon Age: The Veilguard | PS5
    • Life is Strange: Double Exposure | PS5
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 pre-launch overview
  • Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered first look at bosses and new map details
  • Monster Hunter Wilds Open Beta Test launches on PS5 next week
  • 10 great horror games available with PlayStation Plus
  • Interview with Corinne Busche and John Epler (begins at 12:59)
  • Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero
  • Fear the Spotlight
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

The Cast

Kristen Zitani –  Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Brett Elston – Content Communications Manager, SIE

O’Dell Harmon Jr. – Content Communications Specialist, SIE


Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Pyramid Head Creator Masahiro Ito Says He Was Too Busy Making Silent Hill to Get a Girlfriend

Original Silent Hill art director and Pyramid Head creator Masahiro Ito has said he was too busy making Silent Hill games to get a girlfriend.

PC Gamer spotted a handful of X/Twitter posts from Ito who made clear that his time as a game developer wasn’t all sunshine and daisies — and not just because he was working on the terrifying survival horror franchise.

For a four-year period between 1999 and 2003, Konami released Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3, and Ito was heavily involved in their creation.

“All the time I was attending my art university or was developing Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, and a cancelled title, I never had any girlfriends cause I had no time for it,” Ito said. “I never thought I was a genius, but I was terribly competitive. The only way to beat geniuses is to give yourself up entirely to what you wanna accomplish.”

Though Ito didn’t say he regrets his time working on the series, which is currently enjoying a resurgence thanks to the criticially and commercially acclaimed Silent Hill 2 remake, Ito has been blunt about the series in the past.

“I wish I hadn’t designed f**kin Pyramid Head,” he said in a 2022 post. This comes alongside criticism of publisher Konami too. “To use [Pyramid Head] in so many titles makes [Pyramid Head] cheaper,” Ito said in a now deleted post.

Konami partnered with developer Bloober Team to recreate the game where Pyramid Head debuted. It arrived October 8 to glowing critical reception and strong sales too, leaving many fans of the previously dormant horror franchise eager for more.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “Silent Hill 2 is a great way to visit – or revisit – one of the most dread-inducing destinations in the history of survival horror.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Sonic x Shadow Generations Sells 1 Million Units on Launch Day, Sega Reveals

Sonic x Shadow Generations has already sold one million units, Sega has announced, despite only coming out today, October 25.

Being a souped up remake of 2011’s Sonic Generations didn’t slow down the Blue Blur on the sales front, with the figure covering worldwide sales on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Alongside the remake portion comes Shadow Generations, a brand new chunk of gameplay similar to how Super Mario 3D World was enhanced by Bowser’s Fury in the Nintendo Switch remake.

“Sonic x Shadow Generations is a title that combines two games: Sonic Generations, where players can enjoy speedrunning various stages with Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic, enhanced with new elements, and Shadow Generations, a completely new game featuring the dark hero Shadow racing through dynamic environments,” the official synopsis reads.

“The story begins as a mysterious creature called the Time Eater creates distortions in time and space, setting off separate adventures for Sonic and Shadow. Players can look forward to a high-speed action-adventure with distinct gameplay experiences and narratives.”

The game has reviewed well critically too. “Sonic x Shadow Generations takes an already excellent game and spring jumps it to new heights with a creative Shadow campaign and an appreciable graphical upgrade,” IGN said in our 9/10 review.

Sonic x Shadow Generations is the latest hit for Sega; the Atlus-developed RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio also sold one million copies on launch day.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Poll: What’s The Best Ys Game? Rate Your Favourites For Our Upcoming Ranking

An Ys-y vote?

Ready to set sail with Adol? Ys: X Nordics is out today on Switch and all platforms in the West, and we thought it was about time we looked back at Ys’ history on Nintendo platforms. And what better way than a ranked list, hey?

Falcom’s long-running action RPG series started waaaay back in 1987 on the PC-8800 series with Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, making it older than Final Fantasy. It’s a bit of a trailblazer, and the franchise is beloved for its incredible music and fast-paced combat.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Share of the Week: Costumes

Last week, we asked you to share gaming characters you’d like to dress up as for Halloween using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

ForgottenJasmin shares a katana-riddled samurai with a basket for a helmet from Ghost of Tsushima: Legends.

sorathluna shares a red-headed witch wearing an owl mask from Hogwarts Legacy.

AkiraAoyama_VP shares the quirky janitor Ahti from Control.

BitarHector shares Aloy striking a pose in one of the Oseram blue and red beaded armors from Horizon Forbidden West.

juniaxe shares Claire Redfield in her classic red leather jacket in Resident Evil 2.

Kirill_Skulkin shares a hulking blue Space Marine armor set from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?

THEME: Ghosts and Ghouls
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on October 30, 2024 

Next week, we’re ready to get haunted. Share ghastly ghosts and (non-gory) ghouls from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Axis & Allies 40th Anniversary Edition Board Game Review

War board games are one of, if not the, oldest genres of board games, with some of the earliest examples dating back to the days of the ancient Greeks. Fast forward a few thousand years, and you will find Axis & Allies, one of the modern era’s most prolific and well-regarded war games. Now, under the care of Renegade Studios, comes a re-release of the much sought-after Anniversary Edition of Axis & Allies with the Axis & Allies 40th Anniversary Edition, and at long last, fans and new players alike can once again find this elusive prize.

For those unfamiliar with the Axis & Allies franchise, the game places anywhere from two to six players in the roles of either the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) or the Allies (United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union) during various conflicts of World War II in the 1940s (with a few exceptions, such as A&A 1914, set in World War I, and G.I. Joe: Battle in the Arctic Circle).

While many modern games of its type may rely on intricate tech trees, special abilities, and other systems, Axis & Allies is one of the purest forms of war board games out there. It’s a game where you move your pieces around a large board, roll dice to win fights, and conquer cities to achieve victory—a game where solid strategy and planning matter most. This experience has helped the series survive for so long. Among the plethora of versions and multiple editions, this Anniversary Edition release is widely regarded by fans as the de facto version. It’s even featured as the game played in Renegade’s Axis & Allies World Championship Tournament at this year’s GenCon, thanks in part to a few unique aspects that make it stand out from its fellow A&A siblings, like A&A 1942, A&A Pacific 1940, or A&A Europe 1940.

Spread across three large boards, Axis & Allies includes both 1941 and 1942 scenarios to choose from, which dictate where players will place their starting units and the order in which each country takes its turn. From there, play alternates between countries placing new units, moving units, rolling dice to resolve attacks, and buying new units, with the end goal being to hold a certain number of special victory cities. Mix in some special rules for land, air, and sea units, and you have everything you need to enjoy one of the longest-running board game franchises of modern times – simple in concept, rich in depth.

For those fortunate enough to have snagged a copy of the 2009 Anniversary Edition release, aside from a few visual adjustments for historical accuracy on the map (Honolulu now points to the correct island, for example), a bigger board, and a new FAQ section in the rulebook, Renegade’s new version is the same. All 672 miniatures retain the same detailed designs and can be easily stored in the returning nation-specific storage boxes, which are adorned with artwork that creates a collage when stored securely in the game’s box. All of the cardboard tokens are thick and sturdy, and the IPCs (the currency used to purchase new units) are still that same Monopoly-style paper. Though I’m not much of a fan of that myself, I opt for just a trusty notepad to keep track.

The components all feel sturdy and honor the previous releases, but there are slight stumbles, and I wish Renegade had gone a bit further with their tweaks beyond just fixing grammatical hiccups. Of particular note, it is far too difficult to distinguish the various naval ships, especially the Destroyers, Transports, and Battleships. A subtle tweak to the sculpts or something similar would have been welcome (as a quick Google search shows, this complaint isn’t new).

Some issues, such as units feeling cramped on their respective spaces on the map, can be alleviated somewhat by the deluxe neoprene map that is 20% larger, though it comes at an additional cost. All in all, though, for its $100+ price tag, the base Anniversary Edition is still a wonderfully produced board game.

Playing through a game of the Anniversary Edition is an event unto itself that will easily take a day or more to complete, especially if you are a newcomer to the series. To put it into perspective, the games during the world tournament, featuring teams of some of the best players out there, were limited to six hours. While this may sound daunting, there is something truly magical about having a game that turns into a weekend-long event with your friends.

In terms of length, the 40th Anniversary Edition finds itself in the middle range of the pack, with options like 1941 offering much of the same mechanics in a game that will only last a couple of hours. Alternatively, you can combine Europe and Pacific to create the utterly epic Axis & Allies Global, which will take even the most experienced players months of weekends to complete (a dream of mine to do one day). Thanks to Renegade’s efforts in reprinting the series, it’s fairly easy to snag a copy of whichever version you prefer.

Where to Buy