Indie game developers are having a tough time right now, with the postponement of GDC
and other big events that, in a normal year, can provide a big boost to
a game's marketing. It's even more challenging when you find out that
your intended release date is close to that of big-name AAA games in the
same genre, as Rockfish Games has.
An update on Everspace 2's Kickstarter
has outlined the game's bad luck around timing, and given a little
insight into how uncertainty around coronavirus has impacted their small
studio. “It sounds like right out of a sci-fi horror movie: An
aggressive virus is spreading around the globe, causing great
uncertainties, severe supply chain issues and cancellations of big
international events pretty much everywhere,” the studio said in the
Kickstarter update.
“Unsurprisingly, all our GDC meetings with major platform holders and
potential console co-publishing partners have been canceled, too. We
are now setting up conference calls or meetings at upcoming events.
Right now, we are prepared for everything and are hoping for the best.
In short: We have to deal with a lot of uncertainties regarding business
development, external game production as well as marketing and PR.“
The
developer ultimately made the decision to push back the Steam Early
Access release from its intended date in September to early December
this year, which is not easy for a game that has to answer to almost 8000 Kickstarter backers, but a better option than competing with industry giants.
"Some
AAA blockbuster titles will hit our initial Steam Early Access release
date," the Kickstarter update reads. "The hotly-anticipated open-world
sci-fi shooter RPG Cyberpunk 2077 was recently pushed back to September,
plus the brand new sci-fi looter shooter RPG Outriders from Square Enix
has just been announced to release the same month, too."
“Obviously,
there is quite an overlap between those audiences and ours, so we have
decided it wouldn't be wise to directly compete against two sci-fi
shooter RPG juggernauts, leaving not much room for any other sci-fi
shooter coming out at the same time.”
Originally slated for an April 16 release, CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 has been pushed back to September 17, 2020.
The
subsequent delay to Everspace 2's release will also impact its Alpha
and Beta releases, with the closed Alpha now scheduled for the end of
May, and the closed Beta for August.
Everspace 2 is a sequel to 2016 sci-fi roguelike Everspace,
and promises space exploration, RPG elements and plenty of loot in its
single-player adventure. The game will be available initially for PC,
with console releases on PS4 and Xbox One scheduled to drop six months
later.
Pokemon Sword and Shield's latest Max Raid event
is coming to an end this week. The newly introduced Gigantamax
Toxtricity will leave the games at 4:59 PM PT / 7:59 PM ET on Sunday,
March 8, making this your last chance to catch it.
Until that
time, Gigantamax Toxtricity will appear in Max Raid dens around the Wild
Area. The Gigantamax Pokemon is available in both Sword and Shield, but
which form it takes differs depending on which version you're playing.
Sword players will encounter Amped Form Toxtricity, while Shield players
will find Low Key Form. Both variants have the same base stats, but
each learns some different attacks.
When Gigantamaxed, Toxtricity's Electric attacks will become the
G-Max move Stun Shock. In addition to dealing damage, this attack will
also either paralyze or poison all Pokemon on the opponent's side of the
field.
Also leaving Max Raids on March 8 are Gigantamax versions
of Kingler, Grimmsnarl, Orbeetle, and Hatterene. These Gigantamax
Pokemon will remain in the game, but their spawn rates will return to
normal, which means they'll be significantly rarer to encounter. You can
see which Pokemon are available in each game in our Max Raid event roundup.
In other news, The Pokemon Company recently unveiled a new Mythical Pokemon for Sword and Shield: Zarude.
The monster will star in the upcoming film Pokemon the Movie: Coco,
which premieres in Japan this summer. You can also still grab a few freebies in Sword and Shield.
The second season of Fortnite Chapter 2 is officially underway on all platforms, and with it comes the first set of Season 2 challenges. This time around, Fortnite's weekly missions will be themed around the new agent character skins
you can unlock through the Season 2 Battle Pass. The first set of
challenges is called Brutus's Briefing, and one of its trickier tasks is
to land at Lockie's Lighthouse, Apres Ski, and Mount Kay. If you're not sure where any of those areas are located, we've put together this map and guide to help you out.
Where Are Lockie's Lighthouse, Apres Ski, And Mount Kay Locations?
You'll
need to land at three specific locations in order to complete these
challenges. While the challenge tells you the names of the locations,
they're not explicitly pointed out on the game's map, so you may have
some trouble tracking them down if you're not already familiar with the
layout of the island. Fortunately, all three are fairly easy to find.
Lockie's Lighthouse is found on the northernmost part of the map, in
grid C1. Apres Ski is on the opposite end of the island; you'll find it
atop a mountain southwest of Misty Meadow, in grid E8. Mount Kay is
relatively close by; it's located in grid G7. We've highlighted where
all three locations are on the map below. Lockie's Lighthouse, Apres Ski, and Mount Kay locations map
How To Complete The Challenge
Now
that we know where all three locations are, actually competing the
challenge will be fairly easy. All you need to do is land at one of the
areas after leaping out of the Battle Bus, then either finish the round
or get eliminated, jump into another match, and repeat the process until
you've landed at all three. Once that's done, the challenge will be
complete.
Challenges aren't the only things that have changed in Season 2 of Fortnite Chapter 2; Epic has also made a host of gameplay tweaks and introduced a variety of new areas to the map. You can catch up on everything new in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 in our roundup
.
Game of Thrones network HBO recently announced a partnership with Sony for a TV show based on The Last of Us, and now some new details about it have come to light. Or at least a new tease.
Neil
Druckmann, who wrote The Last of Us and is also writing the TV show
with Chernobyl's Craig Mazin, has teased that The Last of Us TV show may
feature characters from The Last of Us: Part II.
For International Women's Day, HBO released a reel of some of its
most iconic characters from across the network's programs, including
Game of Thrones, Big Little Lies, Westworld, and others. Druckmann
re-tweeted the tweet with a cryptic caption.
"And now you have Ellie, Riley, Tess, Marlene, Maria, X X X X, and a few others! ;)," Druckmann said.
Druckmann
left four blank spaces for one of the woman's names, so people are
speculating about who it might be. Some are suggesting Ellie's mother,
Anna, could appear. She was was spoken about but never seen in the first
game. She is dead, but that doesn't mean she couldn't appear in some
capacity in the TV show.
As for the "few others," this could be a
reference to characters from The Last of Us: Part II. As announced
previously, the HBO series will cover the events of the first game,
"with the possibility of additional content based on the forthcoming
game sequel."
The Last of Us TV show also features Games of
Thrones producer Carolyn Strauss, who has won five Emmys for Game of
Thrones and Chernobyl, as an executive producer. Naughty Dog's
president, Evan Wells, is an executive producer as well.
The Last of Us was first announced as a movie from Sony Pictures, but IGN reports that the new TV show will be made instead of a movie.
There
is no word yet on when HBO's Last of Us TV show will premiere or who
will star in it. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson performed the voices and
motion-capture for Joel and Ellie in the two main Last of Us games. The
Last of Us: Part II launches in May exclusively for PS4.
When a new Pixar
movie arrives in theaters, chances are you're going to see it expecting
to be devastated. Whether it's the life-long journey of a group of toys
in the Toy Story franchise, the decimation of Earth at the hands of
humans in Wall-E, or an old man finding new life in Up, Pixar tends to
find a way to entertain mass audiences with colorful and exciting
adventures, while also addressing emotionally complex issues that many
will face throughout their lifetime.
That's a trend that continues in the studio's newest release, Onward. The film stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt
as a pair of brothers on a magical quest through their fantasy-inspired
world. In this particular corner of the Pixar universe, magic once
existed but has been largely forgotten by most. Now, the world is
populated by elves, minotaurs, unicorns, and a long list of other
fantasy characters just trying to get by in a largely modern world.
That's just the place-setting for the film, though. At its core, Onward is about life after losing a parent.
In the film, Holland's Ian--a teen elf--has no memories of
his father, who died when he was a baby. Meanwhile, Pratt's
character--Ian’s older brother Barley--has a few fond memories of his
dad he hangs onto for dear life. Then, one day, they realize there's a
magical way to bring him back for a 24-hour period. It's this
possibility that drives their adventure, the opportunity to see their
dad once more--or for Ian, for the first time.
It's a
story that hits incredibly close to home for director Dan Scanlon, who
admitted the tale is inspired by his own life. "Much like the characters
in the movie, my father passed away when I was about a year old and my
brother was three," he explained during a press conference for the film.
"So as you can imagine, we don't remember him at all. But we always
wondered who he was and how we were like him. And I think that question
became the seed of Onward."
Speaking
briefly at a press screening of the movie, Scanlon revealed that he and
his brother didn't even have memories of what their dad's voice sounded
like. "We'd seen home movies but, for those of you my age, everything
wasn't constantly videotaped back in those days. So what we had didn't
have sound. So my brother and I didn't hear our father speak and didn't
think we ever would."
That all changed when Scanlon's
aunt and uncle sent them a cassette tape, recorded shortly before his
parents were married in 1970. "For my brother and I, who were teenagers
at the time, this was like magic. This was amazing for us," the director
said.
On the tape, their dad only utters the words "hi"
and "goodbye." However, as Scanlon noted, "It was a really wonderful
thing for us." What's more, it sparked the idea that led to Onward. In
the film, Ian and Barley also have a recording of their father’s voice.
It’s one Ian has memorized to the point of being able to pretend he’s
having a conversation with it. Going one step further, though, the
brothers also accidentally conjure up their dad’s legs, which sets them
on the adventure to figure out how to conjure the rest.
"We
needed a way in which this father could come back to life, you know?
That was really the reason behind the magic," Scanlon said during the
press conference. "We could have done a version where--and even
considered one where--the boys were scientists who build a machine that
brought dad back. Magic just felt more romanticized."
Ultimately,
it's a very human story set against a fantastic backdrop. When you lose
a parent, you'd do almost anything for one more day with them. For his
part, Scanlon would want nothing more than "spending a day just talking
and just walking around and also letting them know what a phenomenal job
my mother did raising us and how she gave us everything we could have
ever wanted."
While that's not a possibility, there is a
bigger message the director hopes viewers take away from Onward, and
it's told in the story between the two brothers. While they both long
for their dad, ultimately they have each other and their mother.
"I
think it's a film about support and the people that go above and beyond
in our lives to help us become the people we are today," he said. "And
so it's absolutely about walking out of that theater and thinking, 'Who
are those people in my life?' And they don't necessarily have to be
family members, a lot of times their friends or teachers. And I would go
one step further: How can you be that for someone else?"
Prepare to be scared just like you were in 1999--but this time in higher resolution. While we've already compared old and new in a side-by-side video, a new Resident Evil 3 remake video shows extended sections of gameplay against their retro counterparts.
After the success of the Resident Evil 2 remake,
we're all looking forward to seeing what will be done with the next
game in the series. This video gives a bit of insight into how 2020's
gaming technology can make the game (but mainly Nemesis) feel so much bigger, badder and scarier.
Like its predecessor, the Resident Evil 3 remake isn't a shot-for-shot remake of the original game, but will include changes that will keep you on your toes.
Seeing
the two games presented back-to-back really shows off some of the
remake's graphical strength, such as the intense firefight with Nemesis
at the end. Though we now know that Nemesis won't actually be able to break into safe rooms, his remake incarnation already looks terrifying enough as it is.
The Fallout 76
team has had a lot to do in the last year, working to flesh out a world
once populated only by players and monsters. It may come as no surprise
to find out that some of the game's upgrades came in over budget.
In an interview published by USgamer, Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines went into some detail about the process of developing Wastelanders, discussing both the project's goals and what went into achieving them.
With a world of new NPCs to be integrated into the game, Hines
reveals that the designers went a little ham with adding dialogue that
would then have to be delivered by voice actors. "They went much beyond
what they were budgeted to do because designers can't help themselves.
So they blew past their word count budgets," he said.
The design
on NPC interactions and quests has had a focus on replayability, as
Hines is realistic about not being able to produce content as fast as
players can play through it. "There's just no reasonable cadence that
you can put out large volumes of quest content, that will keep up with
the extent to which players burn through it, because it's gonna take you
six months, nine months, a year to make content that they're gonna burn
through in two weeks," Hines said.
He also discussed the
similarities in the Fallout 76 reworks to the post-release updates
Bethesda had to make to Elder Scrolls Online. The approaches are so
similar that Fallout 76 is even getting a One Wasteland initiative to
match ESO's One Tamriel--a
series of changes that will allow friends to play together even if they
are in different factions, or if they are vastly different levels.
If there's one thing the new update won't touch much, it's PVP. As we reported earlier,
the original release of Fallout 76 had more of a focus on PVP than the
majority of players were interested in, so the new update will balance
out that error.
Wastelanders will be available as a free update for all PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players on April 7, coinciding with Fallout 76's Steam launch.
Mario Kart Tour's
long-awaited multiplayer update has finally arrived. This is right on
schedule, as Nintendo previously announced that the multiplayer update
was coming on March 8.
All
you need to do is update Mario Kart Tour to unlock multiplayer, which
allows you to finally race against other human opponents. For "Standard
Races," the rulesets will change every day, which in theory should
encourage people to come back each day to see what's new. Players can
also invite specific players to custom races where they decide the rules
as it relates to items, laps, etc.
Another variant is called "Gold Races," and these are locked behind a
paywall. Players must buy the $5 USD/month Gold Pass to participate in
these races, which include faster speeds at 200cc. The Gold Pass also
comes with an allotment of in-game currency and badges.
Mario Kart Tour released in September 2019. The free-to-play game
makes money from the Gold Pass and its various other microtransactions,
which have brought in more than $85 million so far.
The latest Mario Kart game for console is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it is the most successful game for Nintendo Switch with some 22.96 million copies sold. The game originally released for the Wii U, and it sold 8.44 million copies on that system, bringing its total to 31.4 million.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
is under a month away from launchingon PS4, kicking off an episodic
approach to retelling the classic from the original PlayStation. In
order to segment the story some changes have been made, one of which
will prevent you from playing as Red XIII.
Red XIII has already
been revealed as a part of this initial release for Final Fantasy VII
Remake, featuring in previous trailers and even the upcoming PS4 theme
available for everyone who downloads the demo off PSN.
Although he appears right at the end of the Midgar chapter--the point
where this first episode wraps up--you won’t be able to directly control
him in battle, according to an interview with VG24/7.
Instead you'll fight alongside him, with all his actions controlled
by the game's AI. Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi,
who explained that Red XIII's first appearance is so late into the game
that it didn't make sense to introduce his mechanics to players at that
point.
"We felt the point at which Red XIII joins the party in the
story is very late on so we thought okay, if we're gonna [sic] have him
as a full character and try and get the player to enjoy his character
development arc and growth as a character through that, it's not really
enough time to do that," explained Hamaguchi.
Red XIII will fight
alongside you in the closing chapters of the game, showing off his
familiar attacks and special abilities as a taste of what's to come in
the next episode. Square Enix, however, haven't mentioned how long it
might be until Final Fantasy VII Remake's next instalment.
The newest expansion for Ubisoft's The Division 2, Warlords of New York, arrived earlier than expected
on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One. With the sudden launch of
the looter-shooter's first major piece of expansion DLC, Ubisoft has
shared a long list of changes coming to all platforms. You can check out
the full patch notes below, but the highlights include a revamp to gear and new skills that have been added, among other things. [Update: Ubisoft
intends to release another update on Friday, March 6, which is
primarily focused on bug fixes and a small number of balance
adjustments, particularly as it relates to the quality of loot found in
the Dark Zone. Check out the patch notes for more.]
Of
course, the main draw of the Warlords of New York expansion is the
return trip to the Big Apple. Warlords of New York opens up several
locations within the city for you to explore, including Battery Park and
the Financial District. As you're combing these added areas, you can
take on some new main missions that task you with hunting down rogue
Division agent and first wave responder Aaron Keener. There are also new
side missions to undertake, a level cap increase from 30 to 40, an
additional base of operations, and more.
The new locale and mission objectives aren't the only additions in
Warlords of New York. The new update also reworks all weapons in what
Ubisoft is calling "gear 2.0." There are only a handful of attributes
now, with all brand bonuses, talents, mods, gear sets, exotics, and
skills being overhauled. Also, loot drops have been reduced and will now
scale "more strongly with difficulty," according to the patch notes.
The
patch notes are quite lengthy and include a bunch of quality of life
tweaks as well, such as adjustments to crafting, non-player characters,
the Dark Zone, an added difficulty to the Operation Dark Hours raid, and
much more.
Full Division 2 Patch Notes
Warlords of New York Campaign
Travel
to New York City to hunt down Aaron Keener. To find him you will need
to investigate his Lieutenants activities, find clues and gain the trust
of the Peacekeepers, local militia defending the public.
Completely new Open World in lower Manhattan with random world activities, returning factions like the Rikers and Cleaners.
4
new Open World named zones under fog-of-war, with no level-gating,
giving you the freedom to tackle the investigation in any way you want.
Two Bridges
Battery Park
Civic Center
Financial District
5 new narrative Main Missions taking you through lower Manhattan in your hunt for Aaron Keener.
The Tombs
Pathway Park
Wall Street
Stranded Tanker
A Mystery Location
8
interlinked Side Missions to investigate clues that will help players
find out more about Keener's operation and his Lieutenants.
Police Headquarters
Hugh Carey Tunnel
Pier 26
JTF Shelter
City Hall
New York Federal Reserve
Castle Clinton
Doyers Street
New level progression from Level 30 to 40!
Find out more about your journey in New York from our dedicated article here.
A new Base of Operation: Haven
Haven
is a new Settlement led by Paul Rhodes. The inhabitants consist of
survivors from Lower Manhattan, former JTF soldiers, and former police
officers, with the latter two forming the Peacekeepers.
PUPPY!
Re-imagined New York factions
Rikers and Cleaners are back!
Both have received upgrades to their AI and are fiercer than ever.
New archetypes for both Rikers and Cleaners.
New, elite variant of the Black Tusk
Can be found in legendary difficulty Missions.
New archetypes, as the Black Tusk have assimilated parts of the LMB.
New Skills
Explosive Sticky Bomb
Incendiary Sticky Bomb
Trip-wire Tap
Decoy
New Gear
A wide array of new weapons, brand and gear sets, exotic and named items.
Gear "2.0"
All weapons, gear and mods have been reworked.
All existing items have been converted into the new system.
Gear has been converted to only contain the following attributes:
Weapon Damage
Skill Tier
Armor
Weapon Handling
Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage
Headshot Damage
Skill Damage
Skill Repair
Skill Haste
Armor Regeneration
Hazard Protection
Health
Explosive Resistance
All Brand Bonuses have been reworked
Talents
All talents have been reworked.
Talents will now only appear on Chest and Backpack gear, as well as Weapons.
All items can have a maximum of one Talent.
Backpack Talents
Skill DPS
Combined Arms
Shooting an enemy increases total skill damage by 25% for 3s.
Perfect Combined Arms: 30% skill damage.
Energize
Using an armor kit grants +1 skill tier for 15s. If already at skill tier 6, grants overcharge.
Tech support
Skill kills increase total skill damage by 25% for 20s.
Perfect Tech Support: 27s.
Calculated
Kills from cover reduce skill cooldowns by 10%.
Shock and Awe
Applying a status effect to an enemy increases total skill damage and repair by 20% for 20s.
Perfect Shock and Awe: 27s.
Heal and Support
Safeguard
While at full armor, increases total skill repair by 100%.
Overclock
You and allies within 7m of your deployed skills, gain +25% reload speed and reduces active cooldowns by 0.2s each second.
Tank and Bruiser
Bloodsucker
Killing an enemy adds and refreshes a stack of +10% bonus armor for 10s. Max stack is 10.
Leadership
Performing a cover to cover grants 12% of your armor as bonus armor to you and all allies for 10s.
This is doubled if you end within 10m of an enemy.
Cooldown: 10s.
PVP: 8% of your armor.
Protector
When your shield is damaged, you gain +5% and all other allies gain +15% of your armor as bonus armor for 3s.
Cooldown: 3s.
Weapon DPS
Vigilance
Increases total weapon damage by 25%. Taking damage disables this buff for 4s.
Perfect Vigilance: 3s.
Versatile
Amplifies total weapon damage for 10s when swapping between your primary and secondary weapons if they are different.
35% to enemies within 15m for Shotguns and SMGs.
35% to enemies further than 25m for Rifles and Marksman Rifles.
10% to enemies between 15-25m for LMGs and Assault Rifles.
At most once per 5s per weapon type.
Opportunistic
Enemies you hit with shotguns and marksman rifles amplifies the damage they take by 10% from all sources for 5s.
Unstoppable Force
Killing an enemy increases total weapon damage by 5% for 15s. Stacks up to 5 times.
Companion
While you are within 5m of an ally or skill, total weapon damage is increased by 15%.
Composure
While in cover, increases total weapon damage by 15%.
Concussion
Headshots increase total weapon damage by 10% for 1.5s. 5s with marksman rifles.
Headshot kills additionally increase total weapon damage by 15% for 10s.
Status Effect
Creeping Death
When you apply a status effect, it is also applied to all enemies within 5m of your target.
Cooldown: 20s
Wicked
Applying a status effect increases total weapon damage by 18% for 20s.
Perfect Wicked: 27s
Galvanize
Applying
a Blind, Ensnare, Confuse, or Shock to an enemy grants 40% of your
armor as bonus armor to you and all allies within 20m of that enemy for
10s.
PvP: 20%
Sustain
Clutch
If you are below 15% armor, critical hits repair 3% missing armor.
Kills allow you to repair up to 100% armor for 4-10s, based on your [Weapon] core attribute.
Perfect Clutch: If you are below 20% armor.
Chest Talents
Skill DPS
Tag Team
The last enemy you have damaged with a skill is marked.
Dealing weapon damage to that enemy consumes the mark to reduce active cooldowns by 4s.
Cooldown: 4s
Kinetic Momentum
When in combat, each skill generates a stack while active or not on cooldown.
Stacks increase your total skill damage by 1% and total skill repair by 2%. Up to 15 stacks per skill. Lost when on cooldown.
Skilled
Skill kills have a 25% chance to reset skill cooldowns.
If
no skills were on cooldown, you instead gain one-time buff that
immediately refreshes a skill's cooldown when it goes on cooldown.
Spotter
Amplifies total weapon and skill damage by 15% to pulsed enemies.
Explosive Delivery
Whenever you throw a skill, 1.5 seconds after landing, it creates an explosion damaging enemies within 5m.
Damage scales with skill tier dealing 25-100% damage of a concussion grenade.
At most once per skill.
Remote Pulse, All Turrets, All Hives, Explosive Seeker, Cluster Seeker, Mender Seeker, Decoy, All Traps.
Heal and Support
Empathic Resolve
Repairing an ally, increases their total weapon and skill damage by 3-15% for 10s. 1-7% if self.
Effectiveness increased by your skill tier.
Overwatch
After
staying in cover for 10s, increase your and all allies' total weapon
and skill damage by 12% as long as you remain in cover or in a
cover-to-cover move.
Perfect Overwatch: 8s.
Tank and Bruiser
Intimidate
While you have bonus armor, amplifies total weapon damage by 35% to enemies within 10m.
Perfect Intimidate: 40%.
Unbreakable
When your armor is depleted, repair 95% of your armor.
Cooldown: 60s.
Perfect Unbreakable: 100%, 55s.
PvP: 50%, 60s.
Perfect Unbreakable PvP: 55%, 55s.
Vanguard
Deploying a shield makes it invulnerable for 5s and grants 45% of your armor as bonus armor to all other allies for 20s.
Cooldown: 25s
Perfect Vanguard: 50%
PvP: 20%
Perfect Vanguard PvP: 25%
Protected Reload
Grants +20% bonus armor while reloading.
Grants 0-18% of your armor as bonus armor to all other allies when they are reloading, based on your [defense] core attribute.
PvP: 15%, 0-12%
Weapon DPS
Glass Cannon
All damage you deal is amplified by 25%. All damage you take is amplified by 50%.
Perfect Glass Cannon: 30%/60%.
Gunslinger
Weapon swapping increases total weapon damage by 20% for 5s. This buff is lost for 5s if you weapon swap while it is active.
Focus
Increases total weapon damage by 5% every second you are aiming while scoped 8x or higher, up to 50%.
Perfect Focus: 6%/60%.
Braced
While in cover weapon handling is increased by +45%.
Perfect Braced: 50%
Spark
Damaging an enemy with a skill increases total weapon damage by 15% for 15s.
Perfect Spark: 20s.
Obliterate
Critical hits increase total weapon damage by 1% for 5s. Stacks up to 15 times.
Mods
All Mods have been reworked.
Gear Mods now provide one attribute.
Mask, Chest and Backpack items can contain one mod slot.
Generic Gear Mods have been removed from the game.
Gear Sets
All Gear Sets have been reworked.
Exotics
All Exotic items and weapons have been reworked.
Skills
All Skills have been re-balanced.
Skill Power has been removed.
Skills now automatically scale with the Skill Tier attribute.
Skill Mods now have no requirement to equip.
Loot
Reduced overall loot drop quantity.
Item power, quality, and quantity now scales more strongly with difficulty.
Developer
comment: This change is intended to make loot feel more meaningful.
While you will see less loot drops overall the quality of items you
acquire will be higher and you have the option to increase the quality
by tackling harder challenges.
Vendors
The Clan
Vendor and Cassie Mendoza no longer sell items at maximum power and
instead sell items within a high-power range above other Vendors.
Crafting
Items from the Crafting Bench now have a minimum and maximum power range.
For players that stay at Level 30:
Crafting bench scales with player level and requires World Tier upgrades to increase Gear Score.
The 500 Gear Score upgrade now raises the minimum Gear Score of the crafting power range.
For players that own Warlords of New York and are above Level 30:
Crafting bench scales with player Level.
Crafting
bench is reset to Specialized quality upon arrival in New York and will
automatically increase back to High-End while levelling up to Level 40.
Crafted Exotics are no longer crafted at maximum item power and now roll at a higher range than the bench's default range.
Exotic Upgrade Blueprints are temporarily capped at Level 30, Gear Score 515.
All other Blueprints can be used to craft items up to level 40, scaling with the player level.
AUX Batteries can no longer be crafted.
These previously provided the Skill Power attribute which has been removed.
The missing Gear Score Upgrade Blueprint for the Chameleon has been added.
NPCs
Players now receive an off-screen warning for incoming grenades.
Elites are more adept at targeting player Skills.
Signature Weapons now deal reduced damage against Named enemies.
Cleaners'=; Rushers now move slower (Coney Island took a lot out of them).
EMP emitted on death from Black Tusk's Warhounds has been decreased in radius.
Black Tusk – Adjustments to Hostile Factions:
Renamed existing Rusher archetype (the one that deploys the Suicide Drones) to the Drone Operator. Big promotion for those guys!
Added two new archetypes which have been recruited from the LMB:
Rusher – Uses an Assault Rifle at range then switches to a Shotgun up close.
Support – Deploys a Support Station which heals nearby friendlies.
Added two new Warhound archetypes:
Warhound
Grenadier – Fires a volley of three grenades while stationary, then
moves to a new position do it again. And again, and again, and again.
Warhound Minigun – Frequently repositions while unloading a powerful minigun.
Increased Health gain per player.
Slightly increased armor gain per role, per player.
Slightly increasesd damage per role, per player.
Infinite Progression
SHD
Levels – an infinite progression system granting you perk points at
regular intervals used to improve selected stats and bonuses of your
agent.
New attribute system
Streamlined RPG
system, with a focus on increasing build diversity, improved
accessibility and making the RPG systems more intuitive.
"God rolled" items are back and easily identified in the new UI.
Skill Power now uses a Tier system to allow a clear progression and benefits to each skill, shown in the UI.
Recalibration
Recalibration has received a large overhaul and players can now store attributes extracted from gear and weapons.
Once extracted, players can use the stored attribute to recalibrate gear.
Achievements and Commendations
New Achievements and Commendations have been added for Warlords of New York.
Hunter Puzzles
8 new Hunter encounters.
4 encounters in New York.
4 encounters in Washington D.C.
Operation Dark Hours
A Normal Difficulty Operation Dark Hours Raid is now available for Level 40 players.
Signature Weapons
All Signature Weapon Pistols now have a Level 40 version.
Increased the Gunner's Minigun damage to make it more effective, it will still require sustained fire to maximize effectivity.
The Technician Skill Power Talent has been reduced to a Single Talent which grants Skill Tier.
Dark Zone
Additional extraction points are now available in every Dark Zone.
Experience in the DZ will now only be earned from player to player interactions, Extractions and Supply Drops.
All items are now contaminated and show attribute rolls to give players more agency on which items they want to extract.
VOIP is now active on default, with options to set it to Team only or turn it off entirely.
You can now see players in the Social Menu that are within 100ms of your agent.
Signature
Weapon Ammunition is now longer granted inside the Dark Zone and
already acquired ammunition is removed when entering a Checkpoint.
Grey Rogue Status and the Thieves Den Vendor have been removed. There are still Vendors available near the DZ gates.
Removed the securing loot option on dead agent's loot piles.
Added new, intense extraction music for non-invaded Dark Zones.
Extraction Timer is now 90 seconds in all Dark Zones.
Surviving Manhunt rewards are not contaminated.
Dark Zone Intro Missions have been shortened and streamlined.
Death Timer for dying as Rogue agent or Manhunt is now 15 seconds.
Reduced the loss of DZ XP when dying by 50%.
You now lose DZ XP when dying as non-rogue.
Killing NPCs inside the DZ no longer grants DZ XP.
Added ammunition creates near every extraction site.
Clearing a Landmark no longer grants DZ XP.
Loot quality in the Dark Zones has been increased.
Toggling speed to gain Rogue status has been increased, it now takes less time to go Rogue.
Players are now able to move while toggling Rogue status.
Added Heroic Landmarks.
Added Project Objectives for the Dark Zone.
Deconstructing contaminated items will now provide contaminated DZ resources.
Entering Dark Zone effect has been added. You know which one.
Reduced UI clutter.
Dark Zone Perks have been reset as some perks and the order of perks have changed.
Invaded Dark Zones are now normalized.
Normalization has been changed and now only affects Base Amor and Weapon Damage.
DZ Vendor prices now slightly scale with item level and quality.
Progression
Reduce the maximum number of armor kits that can be carried from 6 to 4.
Target Intel has been removed.
Loot containers that previously provided Target Intel will now provide Crafting Materials.
Targeted Loot areas have been updated to include new gear, weapons and equipment.
The E-Credit reward for replaying a mission now scales with player level.
Bounties
Daily Bounties no longer require collection from the Bounty Boards or Officers.
Bounties no longer require Target Intel, once a Bounty has been accepted it can be completed.
Bounty location selection has been updated, some rare Bounty locations will now activate more frequently.
Invasions
Invasions no longer automatically select a "suggested" mission every time you enter Washington D.C.
Agents may now fast travel to most invaded missions.
Invaded Strongholds no longer have a Gear Score requirement during the World Tier progression.
Offsite Locations and the Pilot
Many Offsite Missions have been moved on the map for easier navigation.
Missions, Control Points and Bounty Difficulty
All difficulty modifiers have been updated to account for the removal of Damage to Elites.
All missions now have Heroic Difficulty available once you finish the Warlords of New York campaign.
Directives
Directives
are additional difficulty modifiers that players can activate manually
after having finished the Warlords of New York campaign, both for
Missions and the Open World. The more Directives you activate the harder
the challenge and the greater the end-of-activity XP reward! Five
Directives will be available once you reach the Level 40 endgame:
Ammo Hoarders
Reduced starting ammo & excess ammo is lost on reload. Enemies don't drop ammo & ammo is not shown on the mini-map.
Cool Skills
When one Skill is activated the other is put on cooldown.
Fog Of War Revisited
Mini Map and directional threat indicators are removed.
No Regen
Armor never regenerates after an encounter. It can be manually healed.
Special Ammo
Enemy bullets may be of special types. What type depends on the enemy faction.
Global Difficulty
Players
that have finished the Warlords of New York campaign can now choose to
select a Global Difficulty. This will affect all gameplay, including
Open World activities. Higher difficulty enemies and activities drop
better-quality loot. There are 4 difficulties that can be selected:
Normal
Hard
Small Enemy Damage increase.
Small Enemy Armor increase.
Small Enemy Veterancy increase.
Challenging
Medium Enemy Damage increase.
Medium Enemy Armor increase.
Medium Enemy Veterancy increase.
Heroic
Heavy Enemy Damage increase.
Heavy Enemy Armor increase.
Heavy Enemy Veterancy increase.
Respawn Restricted.
Changing
Global Difficulty will respawn and re-activate activities in the Open
World. This will allow players to freely reset their activities.
Seasons
Seasons
will bring a cohesive experience end-game experience using Seasonal
Manhunt, Leagues, Global Events, Bounties and Apparel Events across both
New York City and Washington D.C. You can find a first overview on
Seasons in our dedicated article here.
Participating in the activities above will earn players Season experience contributing to their Season level.
Season One will feature 100 levels.
Seasons have a free track and a premium track, which is available to be purchased via the Season Pass.
The Season Pass for the first Season will be free for all players.
Playing Conflict will contribute XP by gaining Conflict Levels beyond 30.
Playing in the Dark Zone will contribute XP by gaining DZ Levels beyond 30.
Bug fixes
Fixed an issue causing Dead Man’s Hand talent to not trigger properly after several activations and respawning.
Fixed an issue that caused the Lullaby Upgrade Blueprint to not be available.
Fixed an issue that caused the Stats menu to not correctly close when clicking the "Toggle View Stats" button with a mouse.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to receive a Server transfer message when accepting a Dark Zone group invite.
Fixed
an issue that could cause players to become stuck in a loading screen
when accepting an invite for The Pentagon mission while not having
unlocked the Safe House Off-Site.
Fixed several issues with props and covers not working properly with player interactions.
Fixed an issue that could cause DZ server transfers to not work properly under certain circumstances.
Fixed some weird walls.
Fixed an issue that caused the Food Aid Operation Campus Project to no longer reward the Compensator 5.56 Blueprint.
Fixed an issue that caused the Salvager Crew Theatre Project to no longer reward the Vertical Grip Blueprint.
A big Destiny 2 patch is on its way when the Season of the Worthy
launches on March 10, and it'll extend beyond adding new content to the
game. Bungie shared early details about what's coming with Update
2.8.0, which includes a bunch of changes to various Exotics and how they
work in both PvE and PvP activities--some of which we'd heard about,
and some that are new.
You can check out the full list of changes in the update in Bungie's latest weekly blog post.
If you've spent time in the Crucible in the last two seasons, either as
a Warlock or playing against them, you'll be interested in the change
to Contraverse Hold. The Warlock Exotic gives you a powered-up Handheld
Supernova grenade, while also reducing incoming damage. The result in
the Crucible has made Handheld Supernova a very powerful move that
almost always guarantees a kill, while making Warlocks very tough to
take down. Bungie is shifting the Exotic to reduce its damage reduction
from 40% to 20%, which will make Warlocks easier to kill when using
it--bad news for fans of the Exotic, but good news for everybody else.
Another Exotic that gets heavy use in the Crucible is Titans'
One-Eyed Mask, which allows you to track opponents who damage you and
encourages you to chase them down and kill them. Bungie is changing that
tracking so you won't be able to see enemies through walls anymore, and
you won't get a damage boost when fighting your marked targets anymore.
One-Eyed Mask also provides an overshield if you kill a marked enemy,
but the update reduces its duration from eight seconds to six seconds.
On
the PvE side, a favorite Hunter Exotic, Orpheus Rig, is also getting
nerfed. The Exotic gives its users Super and ability energy back when
using the Shadowshot Super. The update reduces how much Super energy you
can get back when you use the Exotic, capping it at 50% from a single
Super--which means Orpheus Rig is going to be less effective for crowd
control.
You can check out the rest of the patch notes below, which include the addition of Faction Rally armor sets
to world drops and more changes to Exotics. Bungie says we'll get full
patch notes, with more changes, with the launch of the Season of the
Worthy on March 10.
Season Of The Worthy Patch Notes
Exotic Armor
Hunter
Assassin's Cowl
The invisibility and healing effect now triggers on powered melee (both against combatants and Guardians) and finishers.
The duration of the invisibility granted by this Exotic increases based on the tier of the enemy defeated.
Arc Staff kills no longer activate this perk.
FROST-EE5
Changed the ability regeneration so that it no longer stacks multiplicatively with other class ability energy-generating perks.
Khepri's Sting
All smoke bombs deal 150% damage while wearing this Exotic.
Orpheus Rig
The maximum amount of Super you can regain from this Exotic with a single use of Shadowshot is 50%.
Young Ahamkara's Spine
Increases the explosion radius for Tripmines by 14%.
Titan
Ashen Wake
Killing
an enemy with a Fusion Grenade while wearing this Exotic now refunds
grenade energy. The amount of grenade energy refunded scales based on
the tier of enemy killed.
Anteus Wards
The shield created during a slide no longer allows chip damage through.
Doomfang Pauldrons
Fixed a bug where Doomfang Pauldrons would sometimes grant Super energy from melee kills while in your Super.
Dunemarchers
Increase the radius of the static charge to 20 meters, up from 12.
Mk. 44 Stand Asides
Reduced the delay from the start of sprinting until the overshield comes in to 0.5 seconds, down from 1.25.
One-Eyed Mask
The
target marking from this Exotic has been replaced with target
highlighting, eliminating the ability to detect targets through walls.
No longer provides a damage bonus when defeating your marked target.
Restored the previous overshield granted by defeating your marked target, which now has a duration of 6 seconds, down from 8.
Severance Enclosure
The explosion now triggers on powered melee (both against combatants and Guardians) and finishers.
The radius and damage of the explosion created by this Exotic increases based on the tier of the enemy defeated.
Warlock
Apotheosis Veil
This Exotic is now guaranteed to drop with a minimum +16 to Intellect.
Contraverse Hold
Reduced the damage reduction granted by this Exotic to 20%, down from 40%.
Sanguine Alchemy
Sanguine
Alchemy has received a complete redesign. Its new perk, Blood Magic,
allows the wearer to pause the countdown timer of any Rift they are
standing in by getting weapon kills, extending the Rift's duration.
Ophidian Aspects
Now increases the lunge range of all Warlock melee attacks, even if the ability is on cooldown.
Verity's Brow
The buff provided by this Exotic now increases your grenade damage by 10% per stack.
The buff to allies' grenade recharge rates now kicks in when you cast your grenade.
This
Exotic now provides a buff text notification indicating how many allies
are currently benefiting from your increased grenade recharge.
Investment
Legendary Engrams
Increased the number of armor sets available from world drops to 11 sets, up from 3.
This will include Faction Rally armor. Players who own previous Faction Rally Ornaments may apply them to these sets.
Several sets that were previously unavailable or extremely difficult to acquire are now available as world drops.
Armor Stats
Prime Engrams will now more reliably drop armor with higher overall stat rolls and spikier distributions.
Exotic armor will now more reliably drop with higher overall stat rolls.
Legendary armor now has an improved chance of receiving higher overall stat rolls, though low rolls will still be present.
User Interface
The Settings screen UI layout on consoles has changed to match the experience on PC, allowing for future updates.
Added the ability to change the color of the reticle on consoles.
Players can choose from seven different colors, matching PC.
Added hint text during loading screens.
Added comma separators to the Glimmer count in the loot stream.
No longer keeps me awake at night.
Added categories to the Quests screen.
Quest items will now be automatically filtered to any of the seven categories:
New Light
Note: This category will hide if there are no active New Light quests in the character's inventory.
All Quests
Shadowkeep
Seasonal
Playlists
Exotics
The Past
Performance
Fixed UI stuttering and framerate drops when loading or applying mods.
Improved framerate in Gambit and Gambit Prime.
Fixed framerate issues during the Sanctified Mind encounter of the Garden of Salvation raid.
Fixed framerate issues in the Pit of Heresy dungeon, specifically in tunnel encounters.
Fixed stutter at high framerate on PC.
General improvements to performance on PC when a lot of debris is on the ground.
In the southwesternmost
corner of the overworld map sits a building that houses a slot machine.
You've seen this sort of mild gambling den in any Zelda game; pull the
lever, match three heart pieces and you win. Here, though, row upon row
of slots are being played, their skeletal victims under permanent house
arrest by the one-armed bandits. The building is, in fact, a bank.
Betting on the slots requires you to purchase shares in various
enterprises, all of which are owned by the bank that is manipulating the
odds; the financial system is a casino and the capitalist always wins.
This isn't your typical Zelda clone.
Lenna's Inception
is a top-down action-adventure that is--ahem--very heavily inspired by
the Legend of Zelda. Mechanically it is extremely similar to Link's
early adventures, but thematically and through a couple of mechanical
surprises it finds its own voice. The result is a playful and inventive
homage to a classic series of games that manages to distinguish itself
from its inspirations.
The setup immediately departs
from Zelda tradition, with schoolteacher Lenna roped into saving the
world after the prophesied hero--and clear Link analogue--succumbs to an
unexpected demise in the tutorial dungeon. Elsewhere, an evil banker
has imprisoned the prince of the land, archangels are signalling the end
times, glitched-out pixels are spreading across the world, and
somewhere a mysterious fridge is on the blink. This is weird Millennial
Zelda, touched by creepypasta yet restrained enough to not go full
internet meme.
My
opening paragraph was a little misleading. In my game the bank was to
be found in the southwest corner, but in your game--or indeed my
subsequent games--it may not be. Lenna's Inception generates its maps
procedurally, shuffling the contents of its world to ensure a new route
through the quest each time you start a new game and to allow players to
share "seeds" of maps they particularly enjoyed. There's a daily
challenge seed, too, further encouraging the sense of a shared
experience.
Experiments with the map generation revealed
that it's not just the overworld being reconfigured. All but one of the
dungeons you enter are unique to your playthrough, from the overall
layout to the design of individual rooms, from the critical-path boss
dungeons to the small secret lairs you might find hidden away behind a
bush or a rock. Further still, the key items you collect along the way
are shuffled to the extent that one playthrough might hand you the bomb
item immediately while the next might make you wait for it until near
the very end.
In itself this doesn't necessarily have
any bearing on the quality of the level design, though in general the
suspicion is always that a compromise must have been made somewhere,
that a procedural level could never be as good as one that was
hand-crafted. The trade-off seems acceptable here: We forgo one
painstakingly intricate design for the prospect of near-endless
hopefully good variations. Certainly the overworld I played through
(seed “ystreath” if you want to try it yourself) felt consistent and
well-designed--no jarring sections that felt obviously untouched by a
human hand. It had a mazelike quality that demanded exploration and was
crammed with teases of just-out-of-reach areas I'd have to note to
return to later and that in any other non-procedural game I'd credit to
smart design.
Dungeon design is mostly solid, with an
emphasis on having the right item to allow you to bypass obstacles and
finding the various coloured keys to open their respective doors. Save
for the final dungeon, they all lack the light puzzle elements you would
find in a typical Zelda dungeon, and are poorer for it. The last
dungeon, however, takes full advantage of the environment-altering
ability of a late-game item to push puzzle design to the fore. Perhaps
not coincidentally, it's the only hand-crafted dungeon in the game.
Where the procedural generation truly detracts is in the little side
dungeons that throw you into a handful of random rooms, lock the doors
until you've killed all the monsters, and then reward you with a health
or weapon upgrade. They're not terrible in isolation, but they are all
essentially the same and wear out their welcome long before you've
acquired all the pick-ups they house.
As you find new
items--such as a spring that enables you to bounce over gaps or a
cigarette lighter that lets you melt ice--you can unlock new regions of
the map or return to previous areas to find secrets in classic Zelda
fashion, a facet of the genre that is as inherently compelling here as
it so often is, even if the execution is slightly off. The random order
in which items are acquired does have a tendency to flatten out the
experience. Some items have multiple uses, lending a degree of
redundancy that diminishes the impact of obtaining a new piece of gear.
Still, it's rewarding to nab a new ability and start mulling over all
the possibilities, the new places you can now explore. It's a high that
never diminishes.
Perhaps as a consequence of the
non-linear item progression, fighting regular enemies doesn't require
you to use items other than your sword. They can be damaged by several
of your items--the lighter sets things on fire and does useful damage
over time while the bow, hammer, axe and bombs can all be effective--but
there isn't a single enemy that, for example, must be staggered with
the hammer before taking damage from your sword. With little variation
it's sufficient to mash the attack button in order to survive any
non-boss encounter.
Bosses themselves are smartly
designed even if they hew closely to the Zelda archetype. The rule of
threes applies here, as each boss requires you to perform the same set
of steps three times in order to beat it. And each one demands the use
of a certain ability you've picked up, though the precise execution
tends to not be telegraphed. Quite a few of the bosses had me puzzling
things out for several attempts before the eureka moment hit and I knew
exactly what I had to do. Fortunately in such instances, death isn't a
hassle and you find yourself respawning in the chamber before the boss
room.
The
procedural aspects of Lenna's Inception lay a solid foundation upon
which to build. On top you'll find a handful of NPC quests to follow,
some of which test your lateral thinking as you chuckle along with the
mischievous sense of humour of the writing. Moments of oddness abound. I
found what the game described as a "urine potion" before cheerfully
informing me that I would have to drink it to discover what effect it
had. My first follower companion was a chicken that would relentlessly
peck enemies to death. My last was a librarian who could hurl books with
pinpoint accuracy. At one point I donned a growth tunic and ran around
as a giant Lenna until she couldn't fit through the door to escape the
dungeon. Surprises like these are scattered throughout the entire game
and are never less than a joy to discover. There's even an option to
play the entire game with either 8-bit or 32-bit graphics.
Lenna's
Inception is a lighthearted Zelda-style adventure fuelled by levity and
a taste for the bizarre. At its heart, though, it's a testament to the
powers of procedural generation. On balance it gains more than it loses,
delivering an endlessly rearrangeable, replayable quest that suffers
only slightly from the lack of a guiding human touch.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind's title doesn't lie. It's more of an addendum to Kingdom Hearts 3
than a meaningful addition. In some ways, it's fitting that a franchise
as labyrinthine as Kingdom Hearts received such a strange expansion.
Re:Mind is a brief but laborious retread of events we already
experienced last year, dressed up with new details that only make the
already maddeningly elaborate story all the more obtuse. The DLC also
brings back Replica Data bosses, which provide a ridiculous challenge
that requires inordinate level grinding. [Editor's note: This review contains spoilers for the ending boss and area in Kingdom Hearts 3.]
Kingdom
Hearts 3 ended with Sora going off on his own to search for Kairi.
Re:Mind takes you on that quest in typical Kingdom Hearts fashion:
neither simply nor cleanly. It runs synchronously with the events at the
Keyblade Graveyard, meaning you actually have to replay the climax
again from the Keyblade Graveyard maze all the way to the showdown with
Xehanort. Though the explanation for how this is possible is very silly,
Re:Mind is essentially a director's cut.
As a reminder,
the Keyblade Graveyard doesn't really feature any exploration. It's a
series of boss fights separated by lengthy cutscenes. Luxord still hides
behind a playing card taunting Sora, and cutscenes stop the action in
similar spots. Some of the dialogue and cutscenes are reworked while
others are new, but the biggest difference is the option to play as
Riku, Roxas, Kairi, or Aqua in several fights. Unfortunately, playing as
these characters actually makes the slick and stylish combat less fun.
All of them feel like weaker versions of Sora with limited movesets, and
it also doesn't help that the Keyblade Graveyard itself is the blandest
world in Kingdom Hearts 3, devoid of the colorful and pleasant
trappings of the Disney worlds that made the majority of original
campaign hum.
Even
the new content that's spliced into the repeated events largely fails
to make the journey worthwhile. Scala ad Caelum opens up to reveal a new
section before you square off against Xehanort. Though the area is
fairly big, it's desolate and exists only as a space to complete a
rather banal fetch quest. It's filler content in a story filled with
recycled fights. There's a fan service sequence that's actually pretty
enjoyable, however. Without spoiling it, it's the type of scene that
will make fans fondly remember the decades-long journey that brought us
to this point. It's a brief event that doesn't make up for five hours of
deja vu, but it still stands out.
For die-hard fans,
the Limit Cut Episode that unlocks after watching the same closing
cutscene from the base game is the meat of the package. Those who played
Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix will be familiar with the mode, which sees
Sora in a computer simulation fighting data versions of Organization
XIII members like Xigbar, Ansem, and Xehanort. It even features cameos
from the long-lost Final Fantasy characters.
Unfortunately,
the barrier for entry is extraordinarily high, because Limit Cut bosses
are exponentially more challenging than any of the fights in the base
game. If you didn't grind near or all the way to the level 99 cap in the
main campaign--and there was no need to--Limit Cut will probably feel
like an insurmountable challenge. I'm still working my way through the
bosses, and I seriously doubt that I'll ever actually beat them all. The
ocean that exists between the difficulty of the base game and the data
bosses is jarring.
It's of course impossible to separate
the DLC from the game it builds off of, and Kingdom Hearts 3's best
moments came in the Disney and Pixar worlds--the individual stories of
friendship and love and good conquering evil that could almost be
appreciated as self-contained short stories. Re:Mind seeks to tell a
very specific story, but along the way it becomes blindingly clear that
Kingdom Hearts' strengths lie in its pieces and parts, not its
convoluted sum that threads through and disrupts the franchise's magical
moments.
Even as a longtime fan of the series who
adored Kingdom Hearts 3, it's hard to muster up any sort of enthusiasm
for Re:Mind. What's more, Re:Mind made me understand Kingdom Hearts 3's
story even less, which is a testament to how bonkers it really is. It's
not all that surprising this happened; after all, it's Kingdom Hearts.
Nevertheless, Re:Mind is an incredibly peculiar expansion that
simultaneously falls flat and partially obscures the brilliance of
Kingdom Hearts 3.
